Gaining Insights
My right foot was painful to put weight on when I woke up Sunday morning. No doubt all that walking I did Saturday that wasn’t planned. I had tried to get back to the park to read and enjoy my wine and snack. I could see the edge of the park at the top of the embankment but could find no access to it except by retracing my steps. As it turned out, that’s what I should have done when I first thought of it instead of plowing onward, up hills, up stairs, to be deterred when I found they didn’t lead to where I wanted to go, until turning around was no longer feasible.
Anyway, the foot didn’t discourage me from spending Sunday around Dee’s pool with the family. I sat, I swam, I ate, I talked, I stayed off my foot, I enjoyed the family, I had a lovely time.
By Wednesday morning my foot still wasn’t much better. I began questioning if my decision to become a nomad was a mistake. When I reminded myself of the end goal – being able to afford to spend six months each winter in Mexico – that settled the question. I brightened up immediately.
Dee and I had tickets for a live performance of “Around the World in 80 Days” at the local theatre that evening. Although the acoustics aren’t great in that old building and we missed half of the dialogue, the acting was superb and we could follow along well enough. The cast got a well-earned standing ovation.
Spending time with Dee after so many years is another reason to toast my new lifestyle. She left home young and since then we have seen each no more than half a dozen times a year. Using our iPads the last few years, we’ve been able to see each other on video a couple of times a week. This certainly helped. It made us feel we were actually visiting in each other’s homes. However, now I’ve been living in Ottawa three months, the reverse has happened - I am very much missing my family I left behind when I left Collingwood. Nothing in life is perfect!
I got a surprise when I opened my emails this morning. There was one from WestJet. They changed my November 1st Ottawa to Toronto flight from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. What? They gave me three choices – accept the change, change the flight, or cancel the flight and get a refund. I checked Westjet’s schedule to find 6 a.m. is the only WestJet flight that day! It’s essential I be in Toronto November 1st because I’m traveling with friends the next morning on an early morning flight to Manzanillo. Fortunately, I was able to book a 10 a.m. Air Canada flight, which surprisingly turned out to be considerably cheaper than WestJet! Bonus! .
I remember the days when travelling by plane was exciting. You made your travel plans. You were treated like you were special, not just a faceless number as you are made to feel today. Flights were never cancelled back then. I’m sure those halcyon days will never return. I feel privileged to have experienced them.
Other than the foregoing, It has been a rather quiet week. I’m continuing to nurse my foot with ice and elevation as it slowly improves (I'm the eternal optimist.) While I’m pretty much limited to sitting with my leg up, I pulled out my memoirs to review and do some writing I haven't done in many months.
In my papers I found a note of things I feel I should include in my book for my family – things that everyone of my age experienced one way or another during World War II that will probably be lost if not recorded. Perhaps my family won’t be as interested as I believe they will – maybe it's more for myself. I find I'm reliving some of these flashes from my childhood as I write. It’s mysterious how I feel transported to that period and can actually remember some of my feelings as I relive that time.
At this moment I have no other plans for the upcoming week until Saturday, when I’ve been invited to a friend’s cottage in Quebec. Dee is on a trip so she won’t be dropping by during the week. I’m hoping I don’t need to make a trip to Emergency about my foot. There’s no pain anymore but the top of the foot is still swollen and pinkish over the 3rd and 4th metatarsal bones. (I’m really not as anatomically knowledgeable as that sounds but the Internet is.)
But even if the week is not as adventurous as usual for this nomad there’s a lot to keep me occupied in my aerie on the 12th floor.