Autumn is a busy time, and yes, there are still things I've not covered in this admittedly long-winded series of entries here. So, let's get right down to it and finish the story, so that we can then move on into the holiday season.
When I started this series nearly a month ago now, we were at the time prepping for the wedding of one of Daisy's friends and co-workers. I begrudgingly agreed to attend this wedding (it is not a secret that I absolutely loathe the bride -- the only friend of Daisy's who I outright dislike), but I wasn't going to attend it for her, it was to spend the time with Daisy and enjoy a weekend getaway together. The wedding was at a resort in rural Missouri, roughly four hours away or so, and the room we'd booked for that night was not cheap (and, I believe, non-refundable) so once we'd booked it, we were locked in.
The wedding was scheduled for November 3 -- a Friday, at like 4pm. That meant Daisy would not only need to work less than a half-day, but I would need to take off the night beforehand so that I could sleep/change around my sleep schedule and be awake, packed with my overnight essentials and wedding outfit, and ready to hit the road no later than noon. We'd planned to arrive, check in (if there was time), immediately attend the wedding and reception, possibly do a ghost tour -- the resort has a reputation for being quite haunted -- and then sleep, turn around and come home on Saturday morning/afternoon. So, about a month in advance, I put in the PTO for the night off, and dreaded the upcoming trip.
I will say that when Daisy and I travel together and when we go on adventures of our own accord, it is almost always an absolute blast, and I look forward to it with excitement. When we're traveling on someone else's schedule for someone else's benefit, it's almost always maddening and/or excruciating because most of that travel and the timeframes involved are out of our control. Daisy being on the go from 7am to likely 11pm or midnight at the earliest -- with no real stopping whatsoever and a four-hour drive in the middle of that -- would be very hard on her. Likewise, for me to change around my sleeping schedule on a dime and attempt to make myself look and act presentable in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable situation would be hard on me as well. I told Daisy that I did not want to go, but I wanted to go at the same time so that she and I could get good quality time together and get out of Nebraska on an adventure for two days -- but it was clear that I was, shall we say, less than enthused overall.
Shortly before Halloween -- the week leading up to the wedding -- Daisy began getting sick. It had all the earmarks of Covid, which neither of us ever wanted to get again after how awful it was in February when we'd had it. Over the course of a few days, she got worse and worse; she was in and out of fevers, sore throat, couldn't breathe, headaches, etc. She then found out that one of the people she (and the bride of the wedding) works closely with in the office did test positive for Covid and had been at work, essentially spreading it around.
Daisy tested herself at least twice -- negative each time. I tested myself as well, because I also hadn't felt that great, and also tested negative. Daisy began feeling worse and worse as the week progressed. My own symptoms I chalked up to allergies or the equivalent of "sympathy pains," and I was overall fine.
By the time we'd reached the night I'd taken off work, Daisy was so ill that she wasn't sure we were going to be able to go to the wedding. She'd been working from home due to her off-and-on fever and was frankly miserable. I, meanwhile, had everything packed and ready to roll, and was just waiting for the yes or no from her -- I'd already taken the night off work anyway, so whether we went or not, I still had a free day there. I told her I'd do whatever she wanted to do -- if she wanted to try we could try, and if she wanted to see if the reservation could be canceled or essentially gifted to some of her other coworkers who were going so she could stay home and rest, I was okay with that too. By this point it really didn't matter to me because I was mainly focused on how Daisy felt -- my own thoughts were inconsequential to the overall situation. When we went to bed the night before the wedding day, it was all still up in the air.
Until 4am.
4am is when Daisy awoke so sick that she decided yes, she would cancel the reservations and that we would not go. What followed was an entire day of doctor's appointments to see if anyone could see what was wrong with her (results: inconclusive). During the first one, since I was there with her, I was able to successfully schedule my next blood draw appointment for January, so that was a small plus.
We spent the weekend letting her slowly recover. The wedding went on without us and her coworkers sent us videos of the ceremony, and it was nice. We went to the bride's apartment (because, of course, she and her new husband were out of town at the wedding) and made sure her two cats were fed and taken care of, even with Daisy being as sick as she was.
The happy ending to all of this? Daisy spoke with the resort management and they agreed to change the reservation date from the wedding day to our own anniversary in the spring -- our ten year anniversary -- so that we could have a nice little getaway then. It cost a bit of money to change it, but we also have those plans now fully locked in and ready to go.
Daisy eventually recovered, slowly -- it took close to two full weeks for her to feel really somewhat normal again. She did not apparently have Covid and it didn't appear to be the flu, but a really nasty cold or other nondescript virus of some sort that took her down. Throughout it all, I remained mostly okay and still am mostly okay. The night I took off before the wedding, giving me an extra day off for my weekend? It was spent in quiet leisure, giving me a bit of much-needed downtime after a horrific previous few weeks at work.
Anyway. moving onward.
With the wedding no longer something to worry about, we shifted our focus to the future and what was coming up for us both professionally and personally. Daisy has long been wanting to plan our next trip to Nova Scotia and to see if we could book plane tickets now as far in advance as possible while they are still affordable. I had no problem with this plan -- it seems that from now until her grandmother eventually dies, we're going to try to make a trip to Nova Scotia once a year -- and maybe/likely even after her passing as well.
It's not a secret that I too feel the pull of the sea, and that I at this point have a very strong connection to Nova Scotia and to Canada in general. It genuinely feels like my second home, the extended family there love and support us, and it is a magical place to me -- something that the locals in the area would probably be befuddled by as to them, the little towns of less than 500 people probably seem very ordinary and boring to the people who have lived there all their lives, and to them the big city of Omaha would be exciting. One of Daisy's uncles made a joke about gunfire and shootings in Omaha, and I was like "oh, it's only once every few weeks something like that happens there, it's not very often" -- which I said partially as a joke in return as well as...well, it's sort of the truth. This town can be, but isn't often, a rough and tumble place.
Dad had let us know in advance that he did not want to go to Nova Scotia this time around, but Mom did, so we began planning the trip with her (normally we just plan for ourselves, and they plan for their own trips when/if they want to go). Traveling with Mom is something I personally have only done once, but Daisy has done a number of times. Mom is almost 70, handicapped enough to have a windshield placard and needs extra assistance when traveling, and on top of it all, is a Canadian citizen -- not an American citizen, so she is frequently stopped/questioned/screened, etc on every trip. She has been married to an American for almost 50 years, and has lived here in the states as a permanent resident for almost as long, but it always plays hell with her travel crossing the border one way or the other.
Because of this -- and because it is the easiest/smoothest way to get in and out of the country with the least amount of bullshit involved -- I suggested to Daisy that we go the route that has been the easiest for us: flying into Bangor, Maine and then driving up to the border crossing at Houlton into New Brunswick and across into Nova Scotia. The border crossing there is quiet, generally not crazy busy, and once we're in, we're in. The app is no longer needed, you don't need your Covid cards anymore, you just show your passports and you're on your way.
We also did tracking of time spent compared to flying directly into Halifax -- it's about the same amount of time spent, generally a bit less expensive, and (the best part) there's no customs bullshit at the airports in Toronto or Montreal because we're not flying through them. The downside is it's a lot more time spent in a rental car -- but that's time we have control of, time we can stop for food or for the bathroom or what have you and enjoy. And, as long as the weather is nice, the drive is wonderful. It's peaceful and quiet for the most part, and aside from driving past Moncton there are no real cities to speak of or get in the way of enjoying the Canadian countryside.
We wanted to set a time of May/June or August/September -- around the holidays of Memorial Day or Labor Day as it gives both Daisy and myself an extra day of vacation that we don't have to put in PTO for. I told both of them that it didn't really matter to me either way, to be honest; either one was fine to me. I've been in Canada during both times of the year and because of their weather cycles those times of the year can either be pleasant and gorgeous or cold, wet, and miserable, and there's not usually an in-between. When we were there in May this year, every morning it was around freezing up until the last few days we were there. When we were there in August/September 2015 they experienced a heat wave where it was almost 90 degrees every day and poured rain and stormed all night every night. When we were there in August 2022 for the funeral of Daisy's grandfather (Mom's father), it was very pleasant most days, but others were cold and rainy/stormy -- including the day of the funeral itself. It's the maritimes, it's Atlantic Canada -- the weather/climate at any point between May and October is going to be a toss-up, basically. Pack accordingly.
Or, I guess you can do what we do and pack lightly because if the weather changes we can always hit up Giant Tiger or Walmart and get a new wardrobe anyway for pennies on the dollar.
Anyway.
Mom said she was leaning more towards August as the weather tends to still be cold/nasty in May, which I was fine with -- gives me more time to build up PTO, etc. When we go, it generally wipes out any and all PTO I have saved up, as we tend to stay more than a week (it's not worth it to make the trip otherwise, really). With our need to see my parents again sometime in the spring, hopefully, PTO in 2024 is going to be fairly tight for me, so here's hoping I don't get sick or anything like that which would wipe it out early. We'll figure it out as we go, I guess.
The last thing I wanted to mention here before we move on to the holidays this year is our youngest son, Hank -- also known as "the child," "the goblin," "orange lad" (like he's a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes or something) amongst many other names.
He is giant.
Well, I should say, he is becoming giant. Over the past few months he has rapidly grown in size and weight, and finally grew into his mammoth feet. He's probably (estimating here at best) at least eight pounds now and getting bigger. His goblin tendencies have greatly lessened as he's gotten older, though he is still very active and gets hyper sometimes (usually once a day or so) for a good stretch of time. He has fully integrated himself into the dynamic of the other cats in the house and all of them are comfortable with him. He hangs out with us, he sleeps with us, he...ahem...makes out with Daisy every day -- he loves licking her lips and face for long stretches of time -- and he is generally a very sweet, well-adjusted boy.
He is, however, still a little nut with a wild streak, and will go from purring and loving attention to attacking and biting your hands and/or feet. He does not understand how socks work or that feet are still feet when the nearest human is wearing them. He only barely understands what the word "no" means, he has zero concept at all of what the word "move" means, and is slowly getting used to the concept of "forced love" (which is where, whether he likes it or not or wants it or not, he will be picked up, kissed, and cuddled). He knows when the squirt gun comes out that he's being bad and needs to stop, and he about halfway knows his name. He likes to attack/chase/halfway bully Sadie because she's old and frail and won't fight him back or play with him like Pete will. Other than a sniff/lick or occasional "I'm going to sleep here next to you" interaction with Maggie, he leaves Maggie alone.
But he really is a sweet little bugger.
We now have hundreds of pictures and videos of him, and he's proving to be one of the best decisions we've ever made. I wouldn't trade that decision for anything. He even features on the backside of the Christmas card this year, a spot usually reserved for a cute photo of Sadie or Maggie. This year will be his first Christmas, as we calculated his birthday to be sometime around May 1st. To celebrate, I've already purchased a tiny Santa hat and scarf for him.
It's been a year of firsts for this little dude, and every day with him is an adventure.
He also frequently likes to sleep like this.
Orange cat behavior.
Anyway, that wraps up our series of posts for the fall. Onward we must go, into the holiday season...
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