Saturday, December 27, 2008

Heading Back West

We had our big family get-together yesterday. Cousins and aunt came from "up west" (i.e. Alberton); sister and brother-out-law came over from Nova Scotia; my little brother and his family came over from Kelly's Cross. Big turkey feast of course and lots of admirers for Kaleb. Gifts were light. Pretty much everyone in my family's disenchanted with the conspicuous consumerism of xmas. It's been far more about family than obligatory gifts. Which hasn't been completely joyous, as my grandmother had to be hospitalized a few days ago and is likely bound for palliative care. I'm glad she got the chance to meet Kaleb, her first great-grandchild, before that.

We're getting ready, physically and mentally, to head back across the continent on Sunday. We're taking a bus to Moncton and from there the train to Montreal, where we'll be spending a night visiting with Stephanie Bolster and her family. From there, we're off to Toronto and a connection to Vancouver. Given all the shit that's happened recently with planes, I'm that much happier to be training it.

Looks like the weather's returning to normal (i.e. raining) in Vancouver in time for our return, but I'm looking forward to getting back. It's been a great holiday, but a long trip, especially with a little boy who needs a regular routine. As do I, disinclined as I typically am to adopt one. I've taken the perhaps drastic measure of cancelling home internet access, in the hopes that the reduced distraction will lead to greater productivity or, at the very least, more reading.

Today, I'm off to Charlottetown once more for a coffee and a few games of pool with John MacKenzie. I picked up his new collection the other day. As with the past two books he's published, there are some damn fine poems in it.

2 comments:

Brenda Schmidt said...

You canceled home internet access! Wow. Now that's impressive.

Zachariah Wells said...

Before Kaleb came along, I could fart around on the internet all day and still get the odd thing done. Not so much anymore. Getting rid of Kaleb's not an option...