Surprise pictures

Wow, its amazing what you find when you finally download photos!

Here are my cuties!

Putting the father into father's day

How did we celebrate Father's day this year? Did we spoil Wes? Give him the day off to golf?

Well, he doesn't golf and ...

I spent the morning at an after hours clinic getting medicine for strep throat. Gavin had it earlier in the week and my thanks for nursing him back to health was to also get it. And I was very sick.

So Wes spent the day with the kids. Took them to a movie and then fed them and go them to bed. He was Dad-in-charge.

We are blessed to have such a great Daddy (and husband too).

A country mourns

It may seem that the world is going crazy. It may feel that our time is spinning out of control.

Today Canada mourned. Every Canadian I know is sad for our national police and the families of the victims. One bad worm can cause so much rot and destruction.

But... look at the crowds and the Internet response and remember this was one bad worm!

Look at the millions of caring and concerned people. It may not take away the hurt and it doesn't change the loss these families feel, but it can help restore some hope - a kernel.

All you need is faith the size of a mustard seed.

It sneaks up on you

Sometimes I visit and share with other parents who are going through a similar journey as we have with Bronwyn's heart issues. I often say to them, "Don't be surprised if much later on your emotions get the better of you, when you least expect it." I'm not sure why this happens, maybe because you have to deal with what is in front of you so you set aside your emotions for later... I'm not entirely sure... but it does happen.

It happened to me today.

The kids school does an activity with one of the local community associations. It is a duathalon, a bike and run, for a different charity every year.

It is a lovely idea, but one that worries me a bit with Bronwyn. There are a lot of parents at the event but very few of them know about Bronwyn and her heart history, so it freaks me out just a bit.

Last year I didn't send the consent forms in since I didn't really want her doing it, since it was on a day that I had an appointment scheduled. According to one of my friends who was at the school, Bronwyn participated anyhow, she just didn't do the bike portion! I felt OK since there were several moms I know and trust that were there, but still...

So this year I agreed they could participate. I went to watch her.

Bronwyn came in LAST. But she ran the whole way and biked as hard as she could. And I wanted to run and tell her to slow down and walk, but I didn't! I was so proud of her. One of the moms who knows about her heart came and gave her a special bike bell as a prize. She was so out of breath she couldn't even thank her.

They had a watermelon and popsicle station for the participants. So we got her a treat and I asked her to go sit down and rest. Another mom that we have know for a long time congratulated Bronwyn heartily and then said to me (as Bronwyn walked away), "This must be stressful for you."

I suddenly started to cry and said, "You have no idea!" I was so embarrassed to be crying in public like that. But, I had to admit I was barely holding it together.

The tears came because it is stressful not knowing how far she can safely push herself. The tears came from holding in years of anxiety about these situations. The tears came for the other kids with her condition who wouldn't have been able to bike or run. The tears came from pride of my tough girl who will give it her all and be proud of her last place.

It was a mixed bag of tears and I left as swiftly as I could!

What you do when you discover a friend is trying to kill you...

True story!!

So, it started fairly innocently. I bought a bike, in the hope that I could go on bike rides with my kids once Mari has mastered starting on her own. I was thinking of lovely flat country roads or parks with no people to see my mastery of the two wheeled contraption.

My good friend, who I know occasionally read this, so I won't give her a name, lets call her Maeve, oh wait, Marcy... better, well, this good friend Marcy was excited and said, "Lets go for a bike ride." I thought OK. How bad could it be? Of course the last time I road a bike was in Hinton and my parents lived there in the early 1990s. But that wasn't that long ago...

Then it started to snow and rain, but finally the weather improved and I reminded Marcy that we needed to go on that promised bike ride. I had visions of us tooling around residential streets sweeping by a corner of the reservoir and returning to the house refreshed and rejuvenated.

But here is what happened.

The roads around here may look flat but they are all subtle inclines. I discovered early in our ride that she was planning on doing the whole reservoir. HAVE YOU SEEN THE SIZE OF THE RESERVOIR?

I was proud of my nerves of steel as we took the walk way over Glenmore. The mere sound of the traffic freaks me out. We went up more hills and then we crossed back over Glenmore trail again. And then up some more hills. I now expected to reach the peak of a very large hill, I won't say Everest, but a sizable hill. And yet I still staring at a long steady incline that ran along Glenmore towards the Lakeview golf course.

It was then that I realized I was very close to death. Maeve, oops I mean Marcy had outstripped me and was waiting patiently. I think her plan was to get me to the golf course where she had hidden a shovel and there she could discretely do away with the evidence. I think that might be it, although her face betrayed none of her intentions. But one should never trust the people that look too innocent.

I caught up to her and deciding that I dare not go any further I said, "I have to go home NOW!" She showed great concern and even offered to turn back with me, she even showed me a shorter way home. Oh, and she called to make sure I got home alright. So maybe I was wrong about her plan, but you never know. And besides if she didn't have a shovel hidden I would have died anyhow and then she would have had to drag my body to the hospital without help and that wouldn't have been very nice of me.

So, I saved everyone a lot of grief when I wimped out.

I plan to be in traction for the next few days, so don't be surprised if I don't answer the phone or the door.

Rethinking my life

You know when you have one of those moments. Those moments that causes you to stop suddenly and take stock of your life. In a flash you question ever major decision you have ever made, you pause and wonder about the meaning. Well I had one last night.

Wes and I were watching TV and there was a news story about some European singing competition. At the end of the story they stated how some careers had been launched by this competition and they showed a clip of a very young 70s group singing Waterloo. WATERLOO.

Wes said, (and I'm not making this up) "Who is that?"

I gasped and stared and thought "who is this man sitting beside me?" How could I have not known that he didn't know this? How have we been married his long with out this fact surfacing?

Pause for thought...

The dress

We have a wedding reception to go to in a couple weeks. I have hardly any clothing. Since I have put on a few pounds - ahem, and had kids and live in an eensie wee house with no storage, clothing has been low on my priorities. I have 3 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of capris (one which somehow shrunk in my closet over the winter) and two skirts. None of my tops are good enough out anywhere were the lighting is strong enough to show the stains.

So... now what do I do?

In couple weeks I'll be celebrating a new couples love for each other in tight capris and a stained and frayed dress t-shirt??

Off to the mall to buy a new dress. A process that I find utterly demoralizing, since I have obtained the figure of a slug with large boobs.

I was able to find two dresses, one of which is pretty straight forward. The other is tricky. I seemed deceptively easy at the store, but this is one tough dress.

It has a full body slip thing since the outer fabric is fairy sheer. It is attached at the shoulders so it would seem it would be pretty straight forward.

It took me five tries to get it right. Some of the combinations included the dress on backwards, the slip twisted, the slip inside out inside the dress (right way on), and the dress around my shoulders but stuck behind my neck. At one point, I thought I would have to have help getting it off, but my kids had gone to the park at the end of the street.

I considered yelling, "Gavin, Bronwyn, Mari, come help your mom, she is stuck in a dress." But I thought twice about it.

I did finally get it on right and off again. Wow!

I hope I don't have to go shopping again for clothes for myself now for another 3 or 4 years!

Snowy weekend

It isn't really that big of a surprise that we should have snow in early May. That is pretty typical for Calgary. But... we had so much snow this year and winter was so long that it is just adding insult to injury.

We still managed to have a fair bit of fun. Well, the adults painted a lot but the kids managed to keep busy. Wes allowed Gavin to pick out his own paint for his room. I had selected a few options and wanted him to pick from those options and I thought he had chosen. But he went with his dad to the paint store and return with SUN yellow. Seriously the brightest paint you could ever imagine!! Honestly. So now I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the paint without blinding everyone in the family.

Bronwyn has been quite tired and I am just watching her. I'd love to see her perk up soon.

Mari is slightly more argumentative than normal. She really doesn't seem to understand that I am the Mom and that gives me a natural authority. To her I am just a person to be negotiated with and eventually overruled so she can get what she wants. Little tyrant!

The kids are anxious for "summer to come back" as they say it. Me too. They all have bikes, and in fact I bought myself a bike too. YEAH! So I have to get back in the swing so I can try and keep up with them. We also got them roller blades. They all did in-line skating classes at school and they loved it, so we got some skates so they could carry on learning.

Bronwyn was at the doctor the other day. I'm not sure he believed me when I said that she was out of her scooter and bike most evenings. Until he got a look at her shins and her knees, then he laughed and said, "I guess all the bruises and scrapes are from being on your bike and stuff?" Well, and who knows maybe her sister has kicked her in the shins a few times. Who knows!

We are looking forward to May long weekend. Yes we are that desperate right now!!

May starts tonight

May and June can be very busy months, if we let them... which this year we did. To explain, we let our kids join soccer this year, well two of them. Bronwyn can't because she has dance on the same night. So even though it is still April it all starts tonight.

5:30 - Bronwyn Ballet
6:30 - Mari Soccer
7:30 - Gavin Soccer

Not sure when we will eat or how we will get everyone where they need to go, but it will happen. It just requires two adults and flexible kids.

It is our only really busy night of the week, so I am not complaining. We just aren't rush around kind of people. We have done it by times, but it doesn't really suit us. We are ride your bike in front of the house, while mom putters around in the garden kind of people. So, I'll put on my efficient mommy hat and pretend that I enjoy this - which I don't!! And... we are off to the races.

Easter weekend

The kids have a couple days off here, which is lovely. They could all use the rest right now to be honest. They are all pretty tired.

It is snowing today so they are indoors and Wes is also working on the house - mudding etc. So I am trying to keep them downstairs. There is to be honest quite a bit of fighting and send to rooms etc. We've lost an ipod, OH HEAVENS WHAT SHALL WE EVER DO!!!

I'm thinking that today is one of those days we just have to live through. As my Grandma used to say, This too will pass. And so it shall, hopefully with minimal casualties.

Last weekend was not warm, but it wasn't snowing, so the kids were on their bikes. Bronwyn picked up from last summer and is doing great. Mari is also on a regular bike now. After a few pushes up the street by Dad she is riding on her own. She just struggles with getting started, figuring out how to push and get on the go. It will come. We are pretty impressed with how she is doing!

I'm hoping we can get the walls primed soon, so the lengthy process of mudding and sanding can be over! Its getting close... so close... and yet so far...

Spring break

We made it through spring break. It wasn't really "spring" break this year. Well, honestly it never is!

Gavin had a lacrosse camp most of the week, which he really enjoyed and he also took a couple ski lessons, which he loved. I'm so pleased that he is enjoying a couple sports, just don't know why he had to pick such an expensive one (skiing), maybe he could take up yachting next?? The girls do activities all winter, but Gavin has had nothing on this year. So he crammed everything into one week! Ha!

Wes and Gavin also took a snowboard lesson. I asked Gavin how Wes did and he said, "Well," big sigh, "he fell a LOT." I'm just so proud of Wes! So proud that he is willing to try new things and spend time with his boy!

The girls had a more relaxed week, we still did lots of fun stuff, just more casual fun stuff.

We were all a bit bummed to be back at school, but they love it and the routine is good for them. And, I finally got my laundry folded. It is amazing how my time gets sucked away when they are home. But, they are pretty good company!

Mari and I are off to Ikea with a friend. I'd say a friend of mine, but Mari loves her to bits, so she would take exception to that!!

Oh and I finally downloaded pictures and found some! Wow! I guess I do take pictures, I just forget.

 

Last of the deep thoughts

Does anyone else miss Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts. Sigh. They were awesome!

I promise my next post will be of children playing and being cute as buttons, but I haven't been taking pictures and the kids haven't been doing anything terribly cute, thanks to the super cold weather - that is unless you consider playing on their various tablets cute! Which I don't! But warmer weather is coming and so is the cuteness - I can just feel it.

Recently I saw on Facebook an initiative to encourage "random acts of kindness." I love this! Love it! The world can always use more random kindness - this is exciting.

But...

This got my mind whirling. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could start a campaign for "Consistent Consideration." Where we could bring consistent change to our daily lives in how we see others and our concern for their well being.

Take for an example a soar spot for most of us - driving.

Imagine how things would change is we (and I am including myself in this):

- left room between our car and the one in front of us, not only to have the room, but to allow for others to merge into the lane we are in. Positioning our car in a considerate way.

- or upon seeing someone signal that they want to enter the lane we are in, we slowed down and let them in rather than speeding up to get ahead of them.

- or really believed that people merging onto Deerfoot also have the right away as the sign says, and not treating a merge sign as a yield.

In short, what if we treated other drivers with a courteousness that they may or may not deserve. Because as in most things how we treat someone says less about them than it does about us.

If even a few drivers did this it would make life so much more bearable, as I discovered this morning when a driver allowed me to turn on to a very busy road and even smiled at me!

Will this prevent accidents and incidents - no. People are human and make mistakes, machines malfunction. But, wouldn't it be an encouragement.

This is just one example, imagine if everyone in the office put their own dishes in the dishwasher and didn't expect the receptionist to clean up after them. There are a million little things we can do.

I have to confess I am often thoughtless and self absorbed. But I have also discovered that making changes to other people and my surroundings can be quite difficult. Perhaps I could focus on changing myself and my own attitudes, what will be the outcome?

So here is my suggestion. For today lets try to see the world through the eyes of others and try to make the world better for them. It may do nothing to change the world, but I bet it will change us!

What do you think?

The modern mom

There is so much pressure in our world, our society to be a great Mom. Now while I think my mom was a great mom, I know she didn't spend a lot of time obsessing about how she was doing it or if she was making better choices than other moms. Maybe its the internet, blogs, pinterest or facebook, or maybe its older moms looking to find the same markers and job satisfaction they had before entering the world of snotty toddlers.

I'm not sure what is causing it, but it is undeniably - out there. I read blogs that refer to the "judgy-ness" of other Moms (Yes I did just make up that word - its my blog!). The stay at home Mom writes about the virtues of her role and defends her choices, rightfully so. The working Mom writes about the complexities and struggles of balancing all of her responsibilities, and rightfully so.

Being a mom, no matter how you do it is hard. But I think maybe we are making it harder. We parent like we are living in a mirror, watching our own movements, playing back the tape, reviewing our errors and vowing to make changes. Momming (yes I made up another word), has become "competitive," like Olympic figure skating, or bobsleigh.

In the face of that atmosphere, I have a confession. They say confession is good for the soul right? Well, by any standard set by any group or camp, I fail. I suck. You just need to come visit my house, after stepping on a few dozen fish crackers and cheerios (and no my kids aren't toddlers any more so there is no excuse for me), you will see that I am not a good house keeper. I'm not even a sort of good house keeper. Now in my defense, my house has and likely always will be in various states of renovation. A joy to try to work around I assure you. But, not even being to hard on myself, I quite happily admit that I do not like house work and I only do it when forced, or when the family members start making comments.

So, I must be good at something, at least you work right? No don't do that either. OK I try, and try is the operative word to do my husbands book keeping. I'm not a book keeper and frankly I suck at that too - just ask our tax accountant! Don't she might be too candid.

I occasionally pick up a few jobs here and there with the company I used to work with, but I fear I've lost my edge, I don't have the same "clued-in-ness" (yeah I know - I'm on a role) that I used to have.

It would seem the only thing I am still good at is making up words! I'm good at that you have to concur.

Having said all this, I don't mind one bit. I rather like being in this no-man's land of the mom world. You have no idea the respect I have for my working mom friends. How they manage it is beyond me. I know men mean well, but the decisions about the kids and the house and the cleaning and the laundry and the childcare, usually (not to lump all men together), usually fall at the feet of the mom, whether she works or not. So to you moms that work and make the worlds still turn for your families, kudos! You are my hero.

For the mom who stays at home and may even (horror of my personal horrors) home school their children. I don't know how you do it. To bring such meaning and earnestness to your work at home, to your children and their successes. You too are my hero!

Lets just remember that being a mom is just part of who we are. We are whole people and lets not judge ourselves solely on our success or failure in one area of our lives. Even if it is super important (I get that - don't worry).

Because, it is important, even for the more mediocre of mothers to have heroes! So press on and stop being so stinking critical of yourselves. No one else sees your mistakes and if they did, they should sympathize not judge. If you feel judged, sit down and ask yourself, am I actually being judged or am I doing this to myself. If you are being judged, brush it off (easily said I know). You are permitted mistakes, you are allowed to be imperfect.

If you are reading this and you feel judged - DONT! I love the many and wonderful ways we express ourselves as Moms. So go out today and express yourself as who you are and remember you are "fearfully and wonderfully made."

The problem with platitudes

Our world is full of them, platitudes. Sayings that typify or answer a great question. You've seen them - if you've ever been on Facebook. Usually written on some lovely picture, for added inspirational value.

Here are a few I have heard over the years:
 - God never gives you more than you can handle.
 - What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
 - Whenever one door closes another will open.

Here is a story about a platitude that I have more respect for than the above mentioned. "This too will pass." Let me talk about the last one, as an example of my issue with platitudes. When I was in University and I would be all bent out of shape about something, my Grandma used to say. "This too will pass." And I'd grind my teeth and huff under my breath. Because at the time I didn't understand. I was young and I had no idea that there would be a time in my life when I could care less what I got for a grade in eighteenth century restoration fiction.

Now! Now... I get it.. well, at least I understand more than I did at the time.

Some times we say things to help encourage others. We mean well, really we do. We often don't know what to say and we sure as heck don't know how to fix the problem so we start looking for silver linings, ways to encourage. And this my friends is beautiful in itself, the motivation is always good.

The problem is that sometimes these things can ring empty. But we still need to say them, because we care and we are helpless to do anything else.

I have had several conversations lately where I have been at a loss for words. Friends whose lives have taken such complicated turns that I wouldn't know where to start. So I default to platitudes. Ughhh!!! What the hell is wrong with me!

Perhaps the platitudes are better really because without them my usual repertoire includes things like:
 - Wow that sucks!
 - Go big or go home!

See, as I have said before, sympathy and understanding are not my strong suites.

The problem is that we can't answer the problems of life with a saying or a statement. Our worlds are messy, our worlds are complex. The answers can't be simple and pre-planned.

For me, I am discovering (too bad I'm a slow learner), that I am a better friend when I stop trying to help and just simply listen.

Postscript

So the inevitable and unenviable happened... I got sick Friday night and shortly after I started Bronwyn also began. So we all got it. Unfortunately the timing meant that Bronwyn couldn't go to her dance recital.

The good news is that I was sick enough that it prompted me to feel a bit more sympathetic to my wonderful children and husband who suffered it before me! I vow to be a better wife and mother. I promise!! (wink wink)

Sick week

About a week ago I was thinking about how healthy we have all been this winter, so far. I was surprised that other than the odd snotty nose we'd had a pretty great run. I should have known better...

Friday night Wes came home and announced he had the flu and went to bed. Which meant no furthering of the renovations for me!! See how sympathetic I am.

Sunday Gavin and Mari woke with bad coughs, so we all stayed home for morning, but it just seemed to be a head cold nothing more.

Monday Wes felt well enough to go to work so off he went - to work on other people's homes (not that I'm dwelling on that fact - ahem!). I kept Mari and Gavin home, not that I thought they were that sick, but their coughs sounded bad and I figured people wouldn't appreciate them coughing everywhere. My fear of what people think out weighs my concern for my children's health.

Late Monday night Mari obviously had the flu, and based on the frequent trips to the bathroom, so did Wes. GREAT!

Tuesday I kept Mari home but sent the other two to school as they were fine.

Mari seemed to rally, Wes had a very restful day.

Tuesday night, Mari wasn't over it.

Wednesday kept Mari home, Wes went off to work and I wondered what we were going to eat, since I had not had a chance to get to the grocery store. Not an issue for Mari, she wasn't hungry, but what about me, I asked, yes, what about me? So I found and ate chocolate - yes old Halloween chocolate, by the handful. By the evening Mari has rallied and is playing with her siblings.

Wednesday night Mari throws up again. REALLY!

Oh but wait, now its Gavin's turn. Unlike his little sister who is excellent at making her way to the toilet, Gavin has now puked everywhere in his room. With no warning, no calling for Mom and Dad, just there you are!!

The whole house is now awake as we clean up the mess and the kid and I try to be the sympathetic mom. I do not sleep for the rest of the night. I lay there half resting waiting for any sound that he might start up again. At the first sounds of rustling I run grab the bucket and try to chase his flailing head so we can minimize the clean up. This is fun for me. Sort of a game of catch in the middle of the night.

I call the school in the middle of the night and say that none of the Davis kids are coming. What about Bronwyn you ask? No, she is not sick, but I figure with the interruptions to her sleep she needs the rest. We all finally sleep. Until our lovely neighbor calls to offer the kids a lift to school. Such a kind offer.

Long story and yes, I realize this took as long to read as it did to live through. They are all on the mend now and its a PD day so they are resting and eating home made chicken soup - although I've been told that its a bit yucky and they would prefer Lipton's noodle soup. Thank you offspring! Thank you!

YEAH!

For Elaine & Gerald

Hey there Aunt Elaine and Uncle Gerald,

Click on this grey type - Our Other House Blog.

This is what your nephew has been up to!!

A new year a new page

It is January of 2014. Wow. I was pondering today how that this day 100 years ago the world had not seen the dawn of the new age of war. The world in 1914 was extremely different to what it is now. We are having a terrible winter for snow and yet we still haven't beat the record snow fall, that was in 1912. One hundred years ago life in Calgary would have looked very different. Hmmm. Just caused me pause today. I guess I had a couple minutes to think.

We have been very busy as usual. We spent the last couple weeks at my parents house. Lovely time. They could not have been more gracious. We truly feel so blessed to have them in our lives! The kids were super sad to not see them today.

While we were there Wes was at our house ripping out the kitchen and moving walls around. We are just rejigging our small space to allow for a bedroom for Gavin. We are kind of modern pioneers. We don't add on, we make due with what we have and find creative solutions. I'll post pictures soon, but I'll wait until we have some after shots. I'll try post the plans too - since it is hard to see what we have done from pictures.

The kids are back in school. We have two functioning bathrooms and the current bedrooms are all fine, but we have no kitchen. The good news is that we live very close to lots of places that do take out and our fridge is plugged in. So we are managing fairly nicely. We are living in the basement while and sleeping upstairs.

The only issue is Wes' time is now divided. Now that everyone is back from the Christmas break there is a great demand on his time so... we are hoping to get some of his time so we can get our lives back to normal. But we are managing either way.

I feel that 2014 will be a good year for our family. We have love, we have each other and we have hope for the future. All good things.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
            1 Corinthians 13:13

Annual Christmas card 2013

I am truly sorry for my absence from the blogging world. I have no excuse for myself - just that we have been very busy.

The kids have been doing well and are now happily on their Christmas break. They were getting very tired - so I am hoping they get some rest and maybe bored enough to be happy to go back to school!!

We'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas from our family. God bless you all in 2014!

Love to you all.

 

The mystery of the tracks in the snow

I was extremely impressed with myself for solving the mystery. So impressed, in fact, that I woke my sleeping husband to tell him. He was slightly less than impressed.

But I'm getting ahead of myself and this story will sound better if I tell it from the beginning, you know the background details.

We have a rather dilapidated fence. It looks rather like a toothless grin with several boards missing. There is a large gate which has been broken since we moved in. We are in a fairly central city location so we try to keep as many vagrants and thieves out (its the rabbits that kill me - seriously - how do I keep them out!). So we have a clever system. A board jammed up against the fence, which is intended to keep the gate from opening. It apparently doesn't work, but perhaps it may slow intruders down?

A couple weekends ago we had fresh snow. The following day I was gazing out my rather dirty kitchen window and saw tracks in the snow. There were lots of rabbit and cat tracks (little lizards!!). But there was one very distinct set of tracks. It came from the back fence, which sat slightly ajar, the board having been dislodged from its duty, right up to the kitchen window and back out the fence again.

I called Wes to see if he had come around the back of the house to grab a tool that may have been sitting by the back kitchen window. It didn't seem likely, since the only thing that is usually in that location is an old barbecue that we haven't got around to discarding yet. But it was worth a try.

Wes had not been in the back yard at all. So we puzzled over it and couldn't figure it out. But it was plain to see we had an intruder.

I tried to dismiss this from my mind but it puzzled me so much. Why would a potential burglar come in the yard and not search around for a point of entry? Like walking up on the deck or going around the side of the house to check basement windows? It was puzzling. Wes had suggested perhaps it was a peeping Tom, but really there isn't much you can see from that spot. You'd have better luck standing across the alley since its sits higher than our fence. So I didn't see the peeping Tom idea either.

But yet there were the tracks...

Several days later, I was laying in bed. Thinking of this and that, unable to sleep. I wasn't thinking about the mystery at all and yet all of a sudden it came to me! I knew who had come into our yard.

I woke Wes up as I turned and exclaimed. "I know who walked in our yard." Wes mumbled something like, "ohyeahh?" I excitedly added, "The ATCO guy." His reader thing must not have been working in the snow so he'd have to come close to read the meter. The meter sits just behind the ancient barbecue that is rusting beneath our kitchen window.

Of course, he just came in looked at the side of the house and left the way he came. Normally their little reader thing works from the alley, but the snow may have interfered. It all made perfect sense to me.

I was extremely proud of my Sherlock Holmes style deductions! All those hours watching mystery shows has finally paid off.

As I said, Wes celebrated  bit less in fact his only reply was a loud snore. Some people don't appreciate the real joys of life.