OUCH! Receiving your quarterly water bill, in the amount of $327.00, which was more than triple what it should be! That was thanks to the darn toilet that kept running one entire day in June, when I was working. The toilet has since been fixed. Seeing that amount was enough to give me a coronary on the spot.
AWE! The beautiful, captivating melody of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" coming from the back of the church, as our wonderful, singing Father sang this beautiful song (lyrics changed of course) during the processional to the altar, one Sunday morning recently. Chills ran up and down my spine, I swear to God.
OUCH! My phone charger wasn't working in my car. Thinking it just might be the receptacle I was plugging it into, I asked a friend of mine who is a mechanic, to check the fuse. Well, it turns out the fuse WASN'T the problem, because he BLEW the fuse, as he was checking it. Just my luck! There are no fuses for Jiminy Cricket at Crappy Tire, so I have to go to the dealership. That is what I was trying to avoid doing in the first place!
AWE! Hiking thirty four kilometres of the Fundy Trail and the Fundy Footpath, with my daughter and son-in-law, over three days. The wilderness at its w-i-l-d-e-s-t, VERY challenging, treacherous in places and absolutely exhilarating. I was very privileged to have been able to do what I did.
OUCH! Slipping on slimy rocks at low tide, on an isolated beach at sunrise. Consequence... badly spraining my little finger, and smashing my left knee with still twelve kilometres of hiking to do, carrying thirty plus pounds in my backpack. Made it!! Thank you Tylenol.
AWE! Seeing a big, fat, gorgeously quilled porcupine, waddle across a stream, early that same morning as the slip. Said porcupine was followed by three very curious, but SMART dogs, who kept their distance.
OUCH! Paying $6.50 for a single scoop of HOMEMADE ice cream, at McCabe's on our way out of Fundy National Park. Now bare in mind, it was delicious, but..... worth the price? It will be my one and only sampling. By the way, raspberry ice cream was $8.50 a scoop, and chocolate $9.50. I am just sayin'.
AWE! That my post on Facebook about buying French's ketchup, rather than Heinz, garnered over 18,000 shares! That is unbelievable. I am NOT about to do that again anytime soon. I did get all kinds of positive comments, and thoughtful discussion. An unexpected pleasure was hearing from a former night school student of mine, back in the Seventies, in Toronto, with whom I hadn't had contact in almost forty years. Great blast from the past!!
OUCH! Getting an offer on a piece of land I have been trying to sell for ages, provided the purchasers are able to put a mini-home on the lot. NO GO! Building codes in the village prohibit structures less than a certain number of metres, which effectively disallows ALL mini-homes. Advice? Check building codes before you purchase. I didn't do that THIRTY THREE years ago.
AWE! Que ma mère de 82 ans continue à me battre au Scrabble!! Puis je continue de jouer des parties avec elle. :)
Finally, somewhere in between OUCH AND AWE, there was THIS moment.
"Mom, we think you might have sleep apnea. You stopped breathing last night so many times, then you would make a noise, start snoring, then go quiet again. We didn't sleep a wink. We need to sleep, so we will sleep in the car." Now, WHAT do you think I said? Of course... I slept in the car. F-A-R better for one person to be put out, then TWO. I don't sleep well anyway, so what the heck? I can't remember the last time I slept in a car though. It's been QUITE a while....
