Spring Surprises

On the Myers-Briggs personality scale, one of the criteria is intuitive vs sensing, which is basically whether you collect information through observation (the five senses), or through gut instinct. I score 100% on the Intuitive side. My observation skills are virtually non-existent. I don’t notice if Ray shaves his beard…or his moustache after decades of having one. I don’t remember what people look like. I can’t tell you what they were wearing, or if they had a new hair colour. I could, however, probably tell you what mood they were in, and I’m pretty good at detecting when someone is hiding something.

Despite knowing that about me, Karen decided she’d surprise me with a visit on my birthday. When you take in information intuitively, it can be hard to put your finger on what tips you off, but when Karen messaged to ask what I had planned for my birthday – a normal enough question – something set off my spidey senses. Maybe it was the tone, the timing, the phrasing, who knows. In any case, I knew immediately she was planning to surprise me with a visit.

A few days before my birthday, I asked her point blank if she was coming for my birthday, as otherwise I’d make plans for the day. I figured we might as well just get it out in the open. She said she had meetings, so couldn’t come. Okay, so now she’ll be texting Ray and telling him to make sure I don’t make plans.

Ray isn’t good with surprises. He’s not a good liar, and he finds it stressful to keep secrets (an excellent quality to have in a husband, I might add). He came home from the sugarbush that day and said we’d be going out for lunch on my birthday, so not to make plans. He was pretty vague about the details. That confirmed my suspicions, not that they needed confirming.

My sister shares her location with me, so it would be difficult for her to ‘sneak’ to Brighton for a visit. The day before my birthday, she mentioned that the location tracking on her phone had stopped working. Uh-huh. How dumb does she think I am?

Karen, confident that her plan was foolproof, drove to Brighton, probably chuckling to herself along the way about how sneaky she was. She stealthily pulled into our driveway, even switching her car into EV mode so Juno wouldn’t hear it. Then she messaged me, asking if it was raining hard in Brighton, because it was pouring in Mississauga. Okay, now she’s just embarrassing herself.

It wasn’t a surprise, much to Karen’s frustration, but it was a lovely visit. We went out to lunch, made bad food choices, and then Bill and Lorrie joined us for a sushi/Thai dinner and delicious birthday cake (made by Lorrie).

The weather was pretty bad for driving that day, foggy with heavy rain, so what would have been a surprise is if she’d decided to cancel and just not shown up. I’d have been sitting around all day, waiting to go “Aha!” and then been very sad all day. Fortunately, she was so excited about her subterfuge that that didn’t happen.

Nick called later that evening. After five weeks of full-time work, he’d decided it was time for a vacation and spent a few days skiing at Whistler with Megan and her parents (to be fair, the trip was booked before he received his job offer).

Speaking of surprise visits, the sun has made a few lately. I spent one of those days with Ray and Paavo collecting sap and bottling syrup at the sugarbush. Paavo’s wife, Jan, showed up with some pancakes so we could have a taste.

Another of those days, Ray and I watched the trout lift in Cobourg. It’s a tradition that’s taken place for over 50 years. When the golf course built a dam, they didn’t realize the impact it would have on trout migrating upstream to spawn. A fish ladder was never built because “politics” (according to the person I asked), so generations of volunteers have taken it upon themselves to lift the fish over the dam manually every spring.

Fun trout facts (as told to me by a fish guy who seemed to know what he was talking about):

Steelhead trout are essentially rainbow trout who make different lifestyle choices. Rainbows live their entire lives in freshwater, while steelheads live in the ocean and return to freshwater to spawn (therefore reaching a bigger size).

While salmon spawn once and die, steelhead trout can spawn four or five times.

In the sad news department, Dave and Lisa were heartbroken to say goodbye to their beloved Kallie. She was part of the family and was even the maid-of-honour at their wedding. She was a real sweetie and will be missed.