Make a Smilebox postcard

My thoughts are always of you three

I left half of my heart there with you when I left. This half is gaping and filled with sorrow. I miss you all so very much. I think about you all the time. I wonder what weird and wonderful clients Pam has. I wonder how Steph is finding her courses and how the saga of “How the Dorm Churns” is taking shape. I wonder if Jenn has started making her Christmas decorations yet? I am missing my weekend Wii-ing. Mathematically speaking you would think that half a heart would be lighter but it’s not. It’s like I tried to leave you as much love and happiness as I could and I brought with me all my sadness at leaving you all there. I am alone and missing you all terribly.

I hope you can find strength in each other and support one another. When you’re feeling edgy and short with each other remember that you’re all going through many emotions and take a deep breath and be kind to one another. Be patient and proud of each other for each of you is strong in your own way. Work together and you will all triumph over this hardship more quickly and with less pain. In the end you will be an even stronger family.

I love each of you so much.

Love,
Lynda AKA Ant

The Cross Country Trek Back

We made it unscathed and with most of our sanity intact. My little car did awesome as did the passengers! I think all of my car's little idiosyncrasies were probably making my poor co-pilot a little crazy toward the end but he never showed it!
My car has a few 'issues' I wouldn't call them flaws it just needs a little understanding in it's old age, like the rest of us really. The trunk can only be opened from the inside with the button, the panel on the passenger door falls partially off so that the passenger cannot get out until they lean forward and I lean across and lift it from the bottom and unhook it (of course this also means that you normally can't get in it on that side unless you first get in the drivers side and unhook the bottom of the door and then go around and get in - unless I actually remember to unhook it before I get out each time we stopped), the trunk has a leaky spot (so you put the dog dishes there and not a piece of luggage, the windows leak mass amounts of air which makes listening to the stereo a waste of time because you can't hear it. But I love my little car with all of it's 'issues'. They make me laugh because it has character - like me!

The dogs did great as usual. Really no issues with them, people are always amazed at how well they travel - which I don't really get because I just think to myself well if you train them 'how' to behave in the vehicle then it's really a non-issue. But I guess that's just me and my other dog training friends. We only had trouble trying to find a place to stay with them once and that was because there was two hockey tournaments on that weekend and everywhere was booked.

Dad and I ate absolute crap all the way along our journey, except for the apples that Pam had supplied and we ate at least one of those a day!! They were very yummy and I am sure our bodies appreciated something that was good for us!

I have to say to all YOU truckers out there - I get that you pee in a bottle so that you don't have to pull into a rest stop every time you need to pee but do you have to throw your 'PEE' bottles on the ground full at the edges of all the gas stations when you do stop? Could you not put them in a bag and throw them in the garbage can beside the diesel pump?? All I can say is GROSS !!! Some of the gas stations have an awfully big pee bottle graveyard and of course that's usually where the grass is that you are trying to toilet your dogs! Oh and by the way I pick up the dog poop and throw it in the garbage so why can't you throw your pee containers in the bin too!!!

The economy must be in a crisis because compared to July of 2007 when we drove out to Nova Scotia there were a lot less Tim Horton's cups along the road! Very few actually, which is a good thing. As with the trip East we saw very little wildlife except for the geese. Holy Hat! We saw literally thousands and thousands of Canada Geese and Snow Geese when we were coming through Saskatchewan. There were so many it was unreal. I've seen, what I thought, big flocks before but this was amazing! They literally went on for miles in the fields and in the sky. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. The sky was full of them both sides of the highway, over the highway and it was just like the sky was alive. Wing flapping masses and masses of them. Really an incredible thing to behold!

We are trying to settle in now and get into some kind of routine, which has been hard because I'm trying to get so many things sorted out and having to drive so far now to do that. But it's coming together bit by bit.

I miss the Maritime peoples friendliness and openness and the pace of life that I hope they never lose.