Carpe Diem

When’s the last time you did something that scared you? The idea of my 60 at 60 list was to make sure I’m spending my time on earth wisely, but also to push myself out of my comfort zone. I’ve been reviewing my list to see whether I’m stretching myself, or mostly doing things I’d have done anyway.

A few items have taken me outside my comfort zone – going to a nude beach (which turned out to be not such a big deal); inviting someone I didn’t know for coffee (we ended up having weekly chats at the coffee shop and became good friends); and participating on a competitive sports team (I got to experience being on a gold-medal winning team).

Still, most of my activities have fallen into the categories of spending time with people I care about, trying new things, and having fun…not a lot of pushing the envelope. I’ve also been lax in the category of developing healthy habits.

There’s still time to balance things out, so I need to ask myself, What would I be doing if I was sure I’d succeed? Or, put another way, What am I not doing because I’m afraid I might fail?

Having said that, the three latest items on my list are in the fun with friends and trying new things categories.

# 32 River’s Edge Weekend

We spent a fabulous weekend at our friends’ place in Calabogie with some of our Ottawa friends. Great food and a lot of belly laughs, particularly during the charades portion of the game we played in the evenings.

#33 Alpaca Walk

For my birthday, Ray said we’d do an Alpaca Yoga class together, something I didn’t even know was a thing. When I saw an ad for a class on our Brighton Facebook group, I quickly booked it. Too quickly, as it turned out, because on the drive there I realized I had the wrong location in mind and it was too far away for us to get to in time.

I’d already paid for the class so I sent an email asking if we could reschedule. No response. I sent a second email, and again got no response. I could understand if they’d said, sorry you’re out of luck, but I was annoyed that they didn’t respond at all. Before I left a review, I gave it one more shot. It turned out that they hadn’t received the first two messages and they were super apologetic. Not only did they offer to reschedule our yoga session, but they offered us a free Meet the Alpacas session to ‘make up for it’.

I felt uncomfortable accepting their offer since I was the one who’d screwed up, but I’m not one to look a gift alpaca in the mouth…so yesterday Ray and I spent an hour and a half with the owners of Alpaca Lane Farm in Prince Edward County, hanging out with the alpacas, feeding them, and taking Nigel, Lincoln and Winston for a walk through the pastures. The owners are a delightful couple who have only been doing this for 18 months.

They were trying to decide what to do in retirement and joked that they could become alpaca farmers (they’d lived in suburbia prior to this). Somehow the joke took on a life of its own and transpired into reality. Talk about getting outside your comfort zone!

#34 Jewelry workshop

Ray’s other birthday gift was a pair of earrings made by a friend of ours in Brighton. He’d wanted to gift me a jewellery making workshop, but Audrey insisted that the workshop be her gift to me, so I spent a morning learning different techniques and making myself earrings.

You can check out Audrey’s online store here: https://www.littlemagpie.ca/online-store.html

Nick Update

Nick and Megan took a holiday out west, one week with friends and then a week on their own. They spent time in Banff, Canmore, Waterton and Calgary, sleeping in hostels, tents, the car (twice), and then a night with our Calgary relatives. As usual, Nick got some fantastic pics.

A couple days after getting back, Nick was in Ottawa presenting at the International Bridge Seismic Workshop at Carleton University. I read through the topics and can’t imagine how people can sit through this stuff and find it interesting, but perhaps that’s why I’m not an engineer.

Ray Update

Ray did another multi-day cycle trip, deciding to ride from here to our friends’ place in Calabogie, just for fun. It was very hot and humid so it didn’t sound like fun to me, but then I’ve never really bought into his whole character-building philosophy. He cycled to Kingston the first day and stayed overnight at Nick’s place, rode to Sharbot Lake the second day, and I picked him up in Lanark on day three so we could get to Calabogie in time to enjoy the afternoon by the water.

Juno Update

Nick and my sister both visited the same weekend and we were also dog-sitting Daisy. It was a confusing time for Juno – her favourite people here, but two other dogs were vying for their attention. Daisy would come to see me and Juno would budge her way in between us, but then she’d see Nick patting Harper and would race over to squish herself between them, but then Auntie Karen would be patting Daisy and she’d have to race back. Poor girl. She’s such an only child.

As I write this, Juno is out with Ray doing her volunteer cuddling. She’s at the point now where she understands what she’s there for and she enjoys having the undivided affection of the retirement home residents. She’s exhausted when she gets home. Being lovable is hard work.