Have you been scratching your head wondering "What the heck did I do with my aloe vera gel?" Ma found it on the floor in the porch over at South Forks (the big house where you stayed) so it is now here.

Since you left I have been thinking quite a bit about what it must be like to live "on the road." My days of doing that were back in the late '70s and early '80s, and while I wanted to be free to bugger around and see the country, I remember walking through residential neighbourhoods of towns or cities at night and looking through the occasional window to a warmly lit interior, and longing for what appeared to be a certain warmth, comfort and rootedness.

I have never really had that until moving back here in September, near to where I grew up. Except for when I lived in Saskatchewan, I never really felt "home." But of course, there is no such thing if your heart and soul is not settled and firmly rooted in yourself. Perhaps you have reached that place and feel at home wherever you are. I hope so.

For me, home is now where my children are, in many ways.

That said, I was not kidding about making a small teepee and getting poles and strapping them to the roof of your car! Quite a few years ago I got my hands on a book about sewing your own teepee, getting poles, etc.; making your own is the least expensive way to go, as opposed to buying one readymade. I have always meant to do it, and never had a perfect location to set it up -- that was my excuse for not getting around to it.

If you are at all interested, let me know and I will show the book to you when you come back through.

The short movies Loverboy took of the concert turned out on the dark side but we've kept them anyway because they contain a lot of laughing. I can email them to you one at a time if you like, but I imagine they will be long downloads. Let me know if you'd like me to try.

Well, time to get up from this chair. The kitchen is stacked to the ceiling with dishes, as usual. I look forward to the day when we build a larger kitchen and have space for a dishwasher again. Oy. They're neverending.

I hope your travels are going well, your muffler is back in place and didn't cost you too much to fix, and you are relieved to be getting somewhere closer to the mild BC winter.

Kate

The couch is here. The couch is here! And it looks great. It sat overnight in the back of Loverboy’s truck while we went to the travelling minstrel’s concert, and all day yesterday while he was at work. This morning when he said he wanted to haul it in I got dressed, moved some stuff out of the way in the living room to make space for it, and started to stuff down a banana because I hadn’t eaten anything yet and was feeling a bit queasy.

Soon there was an “Are you going to help me or do I need to get B?”

“I can help but come to think of it, if B is here maybe that would be better. I’m afraid of hurting my back or of dropping the couch and damaging it. It’s pretty heavy, I remember that from lifting it when you and your dad took it out.”

He went out to the barnyard and got his brother, and they came in and moved my two heavy trunks out of the porch.

Then they carried it down to the livingroom WITHOUT TAKING THE UGLY FLORAL ORANGE COUCH OUT.