Let's get happy!

On Saturday morning I got an SMS message from S. inviting me to join her for a tour of a gas-fired power plant near where we used to live. It was part of a weekend-long architecture and public-space appreciation event which happens once a year and which has buildings across the city which are normally off limits open to the public.
Our mood was ebullient and we ended up spending the entire day together. After the power plant tour we decided to go to a streetcar yard in the west end but first went to pick up her son V who was at a park planting trees with his Cub Scout troupe. He did not want to come with us so we dropped him at home and headed off, top down on my new Jeep and had a fantastic visit at the car barn. We made an impression on one of our hosts who singled us out and offered us a private tour of the control room and the software they use to track all the streetcars in the city.
After we left the barn we went to a pub and had a couple beers and chicken wings and then S. wanted to get groceries so we hopped back in the car and drove. I was playing the Cure on the stereo and Doing the Unstuck came on and I cranked it up and I looked over at S. whose hair was blowing back in the breeze of the topless Jeep and I saw tears streaming down her face. We both missed each other so badly then and we were thinking the same thing at that moment, how did we let it slip away? For that moment in the Jeep the years of fighting and tears and anger and frustration that was essentially our entire relationship melted away and disappeared, replaced by boundless love and joy.

It's a perfect day for doing the unstuck
For dancing like you can't hear the beat
And you don't give a further thought
To things like feet
Let's get happy!

Life Above the Clouds

Yesterday I went to my sister G.'s for her 40th birthday party. Her birthday is actually today, and she is actually 43, but she never had a 40th and she barely looks a day over 30 so she decided to call it 40 and she pulled it off without a hitch.
G. lives in this fabulous old house in the country, a place she only just recently moved to after a marriage flameout and subsequent boyfriend flameout in another city. She really lucked out with this place, it is a stunning property which she rents for a song from a city-dweller who otherwise does not seem to have much use for the place. Her landlady, MB, is a petite and gorgeous 50-something and who threw the party for her and invited some friends and neighbours as well.
It was a fantastic party and I was once again as I have been so many times recently almost overwhelmed with love for my family. At one point I laughed out loud at the sight of my parents together. I was sitting on a stone wall chatting with MB's friend S. when they approached and starting talking to me about arranging our trip to my nephew's wedding in August - I could not remember seeing them walk and talk together before. My father for some reason had not shaved in a week and looked very cute with his grey beard.
After most of the guests were gone G. broke out a bottle of rye and we sat up and talked late into the night. She was in a great mood all day and absolutely radiant. I was tremendously pleased to see her so happy. As she says herself, she is not out of the woods yet, but she has come a long way and like me I think she is poised to move into a wonderful new phase of her life.
As if the friends and family party was not enough, I met a gorgeous and exotic woman and came away with a phone number! G. warned me ahead of time that MB was going to try to set me up with S., and I was not disappointed when I met this beautiful woman. She was gorgeous, beautiful smile, half Danish and half British Columbian with arresting eyes and a haunting African accent. I have had a number of setups recently and have met some wonderful and beautiful women but that was the first time I have felt the kind of tug that I felt for her yesterday. We went for a lovely walk in the countryside and chatted for a long time. She is fairly reserved so I got no solid read on her reciprocation and I maintained my cool but inside I was bursting with desire for her.
And now I am on an airplane, en route to the west coast for a week long visit with my best friend J. whom I have not seen in maybe a year. I am excited about the trip and excited to see him as well. He moved a few years ago to another city about 5 hours from our home town to be nearer his ex-wife and daughter and I almost never see him anymore. And I have certainly not seen him since the tremendous transformation I have undergone in the past four months.

One of G's neighbours recently took up the bagpipes as a hobby and he piped in the birthday cake yesterday. G was beaming and I had to put my sunglasses on to hide the tears streaming down my face. As I sit here and gaze out over the clouds and the vast Midwest, I just think about how fantastic life is here on the other side - what on Earth was going on in my mind all those years I spent back there under the clouds? And just imagine how much better it is all going to get - I am just getting started!

Mother's Day

I went with my father to his cottage last weekend. It was not only the first time I had been this season, but it was the first time I had been there in 18 months as I had essentially boycotted the place last year. I had even gone so far as to sell the boat, which I had bought only the year before, in order either that I need not have to pay for it, or that he not be able to use it, or more likely both. In any case the taste in my mouth was bitter, and I can only assume his experience was similar.
Nonetheless I have come a long way, and last Friday we met and carpooled up to the cottage and it was collaboration all the way. Even the night before we were bickering and yammering on the phone but once we met up at the carpool parking lot north of the city, we were a team and we made it work and made it happen.
I had very tenuously arranged for a test drive of a boat we might like to buy from the same gentleman who had sold me my last boat and then brokered the sale of the same, and while it appeared that would fall through at first it worked out and we went for a nice drive on the bay. By that time we had realised that we would likely be able to take my sister G.'s boat and use it for the weekend so we were relieved of the need to find something right away in order to get to the island.