Procrastination

Dear Diary,

Sometimes life gets in the way of best intentions. Almost a year and a half have passed since I last blogged (whassup with that? you may ask - or maybe you haven't even noticed - is anyone reading this thing anyway? ;^) I do tweet on Facebook, and have kept up with documenting adventures on Awoosh, so I guess I have not been totally delinquent...

It's been a busy, purposeful, sad, and occasionally crazy year and a half.

A massive garden reno was started, and finally finished. I had intentions to blog that journey, but never got there. I did document with photographs, and maybe one day I will get around to telling the story. Enough to say for now that many dollars were spent, many hours of work were put in, bobcats and excavators littered the landscape for a very long time, thousands of pounds of rocks were pillaged and purchased and then installed, stairs and patios and walkways took shape, ponds were built and filled, and trees, shrubs and perennials were planted. We survived the worst Vancouver winter in memory - first monsoon rains that turned the clay fill into baby shit muck that mired the machines, and then feet of snow that prevented any work for over a month!

I designed this new garden, and planted every living thing myself. Mr G got his hands good and dirty as well, and was invaluable in the finishing work. We found some good framers to build a studio in the garden, which we finished ourselves, and we had a good landscaper and his helper who did the big work - moving large rocks, excavating for the ponds, building fence, pergola, stone patios and stairs. I am not sure he is yet recovered ;^)

In the end, despite a painful (fiscally and physically), muddy process, we are thrilled with the outcome.

Diving was a bit curtailed over the year or so it took to finish the garden, but we did manage to get to Indonesia twice - once on an incredible liveaboard trip with a large group of diving friends in March 2008 - we loved Indo so much that we took our kids with us and returned over Christmas 2008. Both of these trips were well-documented - links to multimedia slideshows, trip reports and galleries are here. I can't say enough good things about Indonesia - although a long way to travel, it is a different world there - many parts yet unspoiled (unfortunately I can't say that about southern Bali) and incredible diving.

I also snuck off to Grand Cayman for a week of diving with my friend Cindy last March. She and her husband escape their gruesome Michegan winters by staying down there for several months every year. Cayman is beautiful, but spendy. We were a bit unfortunate that big winds prevented us from partaking from some of the best diving there, but still managed to have a great time - two diveaholic chicks with big rigs perusing the reef for critters. I did document that trip as well, with a multimedia slideshow and an image gallery.

We lost Marco and Murf this year. Marco was Dave's dad - a wonderful, loving guy who battled prostate cancer for 15 years before it finally got him at age 85. Dave has lost both his parents to cancer (his mom died at age 54) - it is such a sad, difficult way to die. Personally, I want my black capsule. (I will blog about the black capsule concept one of these days). We celebrated his life at a memorable memorial gathering, where his children told chapters of his story, one of our daughters played guitar and sang a poignant song, many friends and family made impromptu, wonderful tributes, and a multimedia show of his life that I put together was shown.

Murf was our golden retriever. We adopted him at age 18 months, after he had been bounced through several homes. He was a bit of a headcase, but we loved him muchly, and losing him, and making the decision to put him down when it was clear he was suffering, broke my heart.

And then along came Harry. Harry is a golden retriever pup. After we lost Murf, my constant companion, our house felt very empty. Fairly soon after we put him down, I started to put feelers out for a pup - most of my sources told me it could be 6 months to a year before we would be able to secure one. Karma strikes again - a breeder I contacted put me on to the Golden Retriever Club of BC website. There, I contacted a breeder who was advertising excess male pups from a massive litter of twelve. I went out to meet Harry, fell in love, and the rest is history. He is now 7 months old, and is a loveable rogue who fills a big void in my heart.

So, those are the salient markers of a year and a half of a life.

I do intend to blog - if for no other reason that it stands as a sort of life diary. It does feel a little strange putting it out there, but this is how we do it in the 21st century, methinks. If you enjoy reading this thing, please let me know that my efforts are not in vain.