Just checking in

It's been awhile since I last came on here, or sat down to do any of my writing of poetry or short stories on another site. I can't believe how quickly time seems to move on by. It's hard to keep up with all the various things going on in my life, and often feeling sick or dealing with the constant, never ending pain that I seem to suffer with.

My life seems to have taken on an endless schedule of running back and forth with my dad as I take him back and forth to dialysis three mornings a week, as well as take him out shopping, and to various appointmets. To add to that, my eldest daughter has taken on a job working for McDonalds. The hours are really crazy. I never know what time of day or night I'm going to be driving her there, or picking her up. So far her earliest shifts have been to start at 7:00am, while the latest shift was 11:15 pm. Then recently she did two overnight shifts, on a Friday and Saturday evening, working from 11pm to 7am. Not too bad if you managed to get some sleep prior to the first shift, but when you've attended school, and then been out with friends before you go into work. This coming weekend she's going to start an early shift and be there before 6am. Yuk....I really hate these varied hours. Then to add to this, my youngest was delivering newspapers twice a week, as well as doing a variety of babysitting. Spring came and went, and so did the summer. I never did get to go to our friends place to go swimming in their pool. We did finally get to go away on vacation time. This year we were blessed to have three weeks away at our favorite holiday place in Bancroft, Ontario. I really love it up there, and love being in the cottage looking out over the lake. When I'm there, I look forward to a swim in the lake, watching the sunsets, going fishing, listening to the call of the loons, and watching them swimming and diving down into the water. This year, J was allowed to have a friend come up and join her for the first week, and the second week my son and his family came up to stay in the cottage right next to us, so we were able to spend time with them and spend time with the grandchildren. During that week, we spend some time travelling to a few different places such as Algonquin Park. The kids seemed to enjoy stopping by at the various museums, and lakes etc.

Unfortunately the whole vacation was ruined by someone being most unpleasant with everyone there, and basically making it a very stressful time for us all. By the time I got home, I wished I had never gone away. I could have enjoyed myself better at home all by myself, or gone to spend time with some friends. Anyway, that never happened!! I'm really not sure I ever want to take another family vacation again. I came home feeling very low, and along with not feling very well, found myself fighting a number of emotions, and regretting some past decisions. Anyway, life moves on!

With Sept. came some changes, and the girls started back to school, and I returned to my busy, schedule of running both them and my father around.

Now we are officially into autumn, although it's pretty much over now and we are entering the winter season. This past weekend was our local Santa Clause Parade, and also the big one in Toronto. I missed them both unfortunately, and I have always loved watching the various parades. Oh well, there are always things on TV and often these events are much the same anyway. Just another year.....