Orcas!!!

I aced my monologue yesterday. Each day, as we move closer and closer to the festival, I am more confident, and my delivery is better.

The day was cloudy, but warm. I did little except errands, a little shopping and some reading. I basically wasted away the day awaiting going to Kris and Steve’s place for a cocktail party. Kris and Steve have become fast friends. I am one very lucky guy to have such a warm friendship with them.

The party was oodles of fun. Kris and Steve’s daughter, Carley, is a gorgeous and wonderful woman. She was a treat to meet and chat with. I have a wonderful memento of our visit; Carley’s voice is what you will here if you phone me. She recorded the speech alerts for my new device.

Monday began with another lovely late Summer morning, but it was only 11° when I woke up. Brrrr! Sheba was doing well enough for us to walk with Team Canine, and then I went into the village for some supplies before coming home for a nice slow day at Pinecone Park. I had watering to do before I got comfortable in the sunshine to read.

Finally. I finally did something to lessen the burden of watering. I bought some watering systems from Amazon, and I’ll ask Pete to help me set it up. It will make watering much, much easier. This action is long, long overdue.

In the evening, I went to The Surf for dinner with Jay, Eoin and François. It was another lovely evening with good friends. Poor Jay’s been diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. It’s a very nasty diagnosis and I feel very badly for him. There’s no cure, but there are various treatment options that could serve him well. He won’t know about treatment until he sees a specialist.

The incredible highlight of the day happened as we ate dinner. One of the servers spotted Orcas in the ocean just off the coast where we were. And voila, there they were!!!  And not just Orcas, but Transient Orcas. They are the most fun to see because they are HUGE! There were 2 of them and their dorsal fins were way, way larger than the fins of the Orcas that were kept in captivity by the Vancouver Aquarium.

I’m almost 76 years old. All my life, during countless of ferry trips and flights across Georgia Strait, I have searched for them, but never once have I seen one. Last night was positively thrilling and the occasion reminded me of my first sighting of the Aurora Borealis. There events bring people together. Last night I was chatting and being very excited with total strangers. What a great, great night.

A Spectacular Summer Day!

Saturday morning began slowly. I took a long leisurely spa at 7:00 am, thoroughly enjoying the quiet of the morning, the warm sun on my face and the gentle breeze scented with pine and sea. Then Her Highness and I went to our usual Saturday morning walk in the meadow behind the famers’ market. Then we walked through the market.

On the way back to the car, we happened on Kris and her daughter who’s visiting from Switzerland, Carley. Kris has lived here for 13 years but had never seen the meadow, so I walked them to see it and they loved it as I do. It’s only been publicly owned for a while, so most islanders and tourists haven’t seen it.

Then I came home to do errands (including doing laundry and hanging it on the line as these days may be numbered) and some planting of Virginia Creeper that I hope will soon cover the west wall of the house. Plus, I cut up several wire coat hangers. I wanted the base of the triangle; it yielded one long strait piece of thin metal. And to each one I attached a surveyor’s ribbon, and I numbered every flag.

I ill place these little flags in the garden. The numbers on the flags correspond with numbered notes that I’ve written for Bronwyn about what I want to do with the plant, or the location I want it moved to. Or whatever. This is my world without speech. Again, even if I had speech, I would keep doing what I do now: Writing out exactly what I want. It could be said that although I can’t speak very well, I am a better communicator now.

Last night while I was typing, it was 7:00 pm, Sheba started barking. When she does that, I rush to the door to get her and quiet her. But it was Deborah, with her dog, Stormy. I love Stormy, so Deborah and I often chat while I make a fuss over Stormy, and she makes a fuss over Sheba. As we were doing that last night, Isobel came by with her dog, Ellie, a stunning young Collie.

The three of us talked for about 15 minutes, and as I walked back into my private Ponderosa that feels like Versailles to me, I realized that I’d just had another Gabriola miracle moment. I’ve come to know a lot of people in my neighbourhood. We have a neighbourhood party, we have neighbourhood emergency meetings, we pass each other walking to the trails or walking pets on the street. My street is a long slow curve from Wild Cherry to Wild Cherry again, so people walk the circuit of our street and a bit of Wild Cherry.

We happened together and we talk neighbourhood issues. I love it. We act like the country folk portrayed in American westerns that I saw on television or in the movies. We even have a Fall Fair, dances, community barbeques, charity walks, fishing derby’s, etc. I haven’t lived like this since childhood. The Tyrell’s let me run free, so I got to know lots of people in the neighbourhood, both adult and fellow children, to be with. They liked my company. And it’s like that again. Pete and Ali, Shelly and Kevin, Dave and Ursula, they’re all frequent guests here. And then there are many others whom I am always delighted to see, but whom I know less well. Paradise.

I planted Virginia Creeper along the base of my west-facing exterior wall. I hope to cover my west wall with it over the years. I hope I get to see it grow high. It’s going to get expensive to maintain my garden, but I know I will recover it all when I sell. I’ve transformed a desert into a lush and tranquil garden. (The cheezy Buddha statue is due to arrive soon.)

I dug 5 shallow holes along the base of the wall, planted the VC in the hole, and filled the hole with rich new soil. Each one took 5 minutes to do. That’s all. And my leg got tingly, reminding me to be careful. Thank goodness for Bronwyn. Instead of doing work, I spend money.

Today has dawned partially cloudy. I’ll be walking with Sheba, but not for too far, rehearsing my monologue, reading and going to Kris and Steve’s for a cocktail party at 3:30. I’m really looking forward to going.

Tech Support and Amazing Monologue

In 1856, a 17-year-old girl named Adeline Harris started making a unique quilt. Over the next two decades, she sent pieces of silk to famous people from around the world and they signed them and sent them back to her. She assembled them into a quilt with a tumbling blocks pattern (aka, the Q*bert pattern).

The signatures that Harris was able to acquire are astounding: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Dickens, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel Morse, Alexandre Dumas, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alexander von Humboldt, Washington Irving, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Oh, and eight US Presidents: Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant.

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Friday was a glorious sunny and bright day. The afternoon temperature was 29°. Except for Sunday, we are expecting a brilliant week of weather. Yay!

The new iPad that is very small, is charging. It has an attached keyboard that makes using it for my speech generator is much, much easier than using the screen keypad. Jan was wonderful. She signs, she understands what it’s like to be severely speech disabled. It was a wonderful session that I had with her, and I’m excited about using my new devices—very excited. 

But my excitement waned when, last night, I discovered that charging the keyboard did not make it work. I have written for help to CAYA, but they will not get my email until Tuesday. So ... more waiting.

When she left, I started watering my gardens. It’s back to that again, but I get 2 days off on Sunday/Monday because it’s predicted to rain on Sunday. My gardens look much better now that Bronwyn and Amanda have weeded and topped all the beds with compost mixed with soil.

Bronwyn didn’t arrive until 1:30 and she didn’t stay long, but there has been a tremendous improvement in the gardens. I am very happy with her, and her work and I felt her bill was entirely reasonable. I wrote her a heartfelt thank you letter. It was sciatica—that and my friend Beth’s mantra—hire someone!—that got me to take action. Henceforth: I water, she plants and husbands the gardens. Hooray! She’s young and healthy and warm.

And Dave is going to get the splitter next week. His daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Gray, are here for two months. I’ve invited them all for dinner, and they’ve offered to help me split a lot of the big pieces of wood that I don’t want to wrangle alone. I am so fucking glad I moved here. It’s wonderful how much I get from this community. The renewed deck, plants, zero gravity chair, food, help when I was in hospital, my gay posse here, etc. etc. 

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Wow. Fuck. I wish I could do my monologue as well as I did last night. Wow. I was brilliant, and as the owner of a bulldog of an inferiority self-image, that’s saying something. I learned how to do it last night. I will try to do it again today, minus the marijuana. I pray that I can do it again. It would make me proud to do the shows like last night.

It was the slowest I have ever done it. I’m often shocked by dialogue in film. I find characters kind of speak in phrases, giving audiences time to absorb and understand each unit of information. But that’s what I was doing last night, and it works. Slowing down lets me add gestures that are phrase appropriate and with facial expression I can transmit a lot of emotion. I had an epiphany last night.

It was thrilling. But the test comes later today.

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Today, I am going to do some gardening—building on all that Bronwyn has done. And I will write a list of things that I want her to do when she next comes to Pinecone Park. Plus, I’ll read in the sunshine and snack on the fabulous cheese that Marleen and Julien brought.

I weighed myself this morning. I ate so much food when Steve was here, and when Marleen and Julien were here, but I only gained half a pound. That was a pleasant surprise. 

The Court

Wednesday began with Sheba and I taking a short walk. She did quite well and then, when we came home, she destroyed another foot. I just don’t get it, but I am a very attentive parent, so we will win this battle as we have with all the others.

She came with me when I went to GIRO to donate more things I don’t want, and we did some food shopping and then I came home to read and await a call from my HIV doctor. After that, just reading, eating and going to bed. A dull but happy day.

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When I was in my late thirties, I took my dogs, Bela and Spike, for a walk under the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver. It is First Nations land there, and there are no rules about leaches, and there was hardly ever anyone else there when I walked. But one day, there was a couple there who were older and very finely dressed.

Bela had dreadlocks and so when she got close to them, they freaked out and started shouting at me to get my dog away from their cherished miniature Poodle, that they held aloft to keep safe even though Bela had no interest in them. I responded to them assuring them that my dogs were safe, and then suddenly I saw poor blind Spikey flying through the air. The gentleman had booted him, so I let them know how inhumane and angry I was.

The gentleman demanded I leach Bela, and the woman said, “There’s always trouble with people like you.” I asked her what she meant, and she used the phrase again in her reply. I told them they were out of line, called my dogs, and headed off to lunch with my dogs in the car, and when I got back to work, there were 2 cops waiting for me and I was arrested and charged with assault. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. The woman told the cops that I forcibly grabbed her, spun her around and slapped her across the face. I had not even been close to her.

The point of this story is that when my day in court came, I went down to the courthouse and I did not know where to go, so I asked a volunteer in the lobby of the courthouse who manned a booth for people with questions. I asked her how to know where to go and she asked me why I was there. I told her and she then asked me if I had a lawyer. I said I didn’t, and she asked me why.

“Because I’m innocent,” I said, and she was instantly wonderfully kind and helpful. She quickly somehow found me a lawyer who was willing to speak for me when I was arraigned, and he led me thought the process, getting a delay after explaining my naivete. That eventually led me to getting myself a lawyer who succeeded in not only getting me found innocent, but the judge apologized to me for my suffering and shamed the elderly couple who did not even come to the hearing or trial.

I recalled all this as I watched a 2-hour documentary that was entirely made up of clips of actual footage from a courthouse that deals exclusively with families charged with offences against their own children. It was insightful about the process of law and very, very interesting. It was also often painful to watch, given that I was given up my birth mother and abandoned by my birth father. It was a great documentary about a process about which most of us have no knowledge or experience. 

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Bronwyn arrived at noon with Amanda, her helper and they began working on the garden. It feels very, very good to have them doing the work. I have confidence in them, and I love having two lovely young women here at Pinecone Park. I hate spending money, but I am very happy to have a professional managing my garden. I’ve basically given Bronwyn carte blanche. She can do whatever she wants, but I’ve kind of explained my ambition and I think she understands what I want done.

This week is ending with an exciting 2 days. Bronwyn and Amanda yesterday, and Jan today. Jan is coming to train me on my new communication devices, and the timing is perfect because speech is very challenging right now. And Bronwyn and Amanda are back again today, as well, carrying on with the mulching, transplanting and pruning.

When they left, I was quick to slip into the spa. It was a beautiful afternoon. It was 23° and bright and sunny, and this wonderful weather is due to last through today and tomorrow. Rain is predicted for Sunday, and I am very, very good with that. It’s been fabulous to not have to water the gardens for 2 hours every day.

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It’s another gorgeous day and I can hardly wait for Jan to arrive. I am very excited about learning how to use all my devices, and heaven knows that I need them.