It’s been a busy week.
Last Friday the haggis and I drove the cats up to Grace and my father’s house. Apparently the cats were mightily traumatized by the Haggis and I abandoning them. Lily hid the entire time they were there, and Iris was aggressive and snarly.
Half way through the week, I phoned them to ask how the cats were doing. My father put the speaker phone on and let Iris hear my voice, apparently after that Iris calmed down and was a little more reasonable.
Last Saturday we went off to the medieval camping weekend, arriving just in time for the main feast. The two farms that the camping weekend was on are beautiful and huge. There was a main camping area, a fire pit, the “lists” (AKA fighting ring) and an archery range.
The mosquitoes were fierce, and the first night was clear and warm. But in the middle of the night it started to pour. The rain kept up until about 1:00 in the afternoon the next day and then it cleared up and dried out. We managed to do some shooting, but much to our chagrin there was no armored charge this year; so no shooting arrows at people.
That night was cool and clear, and the next day was sunny and clear enough for us to pack out with everything dry.
We came back to the city, cleaned up, dropped off the camping gear. The next morning we were on our way to Ipperwash.
GOOD DEEDS:Our very good friends Timothy and Shelly have decided to move out to Nova Scotia. I am so very saddened that they are leaving Ontario, but I know that the move will be very good for them, and they will have so much less stress in there lives.
This week they have been packing and getting ready for the move, they asked us to come and help them. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and plowed in to helping with the packing and shuffling of every thing. As we worked through the day Timothy realized that he had horribly under estimated the amount of work to be done, to make matters worse, one of the neighbors who came to help was a transport truck driver, who, upon hearing the size of the truck and trailer that Timothy had gotten, announced “there is no way you are going to be able to pack all of that stuff in there.”
We all racked our brains about how we were going to get Timothy and Shelley’s stuff to Nova Scotia. Timothy was sure that he was going to have to do yet another trip, Rent another truck and spend even more money to get everything out there. To make things worse their two very young girls were having a terrible time with the disruption. The older of the two just turned five and was quite chagrined that no one would play with her. The younger girl (just a babe in arms) could not stand to have her mother out of her sight for any length of time and would wail when Shelly was out of sight for more than a few moments. The family Dog was equally perturbed at the state of affairs, and whined non stop when he was chained out in the back yard.
In the midst of all this chaos all of us frantically packed. Timothy commented “You certainly know who your friends are at moments like these!”
Probably at about 9:00 pm or so Timothy announced that he had had enough, Shelly drove out and got a Pizza while the Haggis, Timothy and I drove to the beach to clean up.
The waves were unreal.
A nearly full moon lit our way, and the wind roared across the lake churning up huge powerful waves that we body surfed on. At one point Timothy decided to show me some more powerful waves and eagerly took my hand and hauled me in to deeper water, a huge wave plowed in to me and knocked me clean off my feet, Timothy charged after me to make sure I was OK.
“Oh my God!” Timothy yelled, “I killed Veronica!” I managed to come up sputtering and laughing and assured him that all was well.
We lurched out of the water and drove back to the house were Shelly had pizza waiting.
The next day we started again and Timothy went to a neighboring town to pick up the truck and trailer.
Timothy wisely decided that we should get some of the heaviest things into the trailer first, and we began to move the upright piano out of the house.
When the haggis and I worked at Harborfront we moved an upright piano, it was really no big deal. - But that was a modern piano. Timothy’s piano is an antique. Not only is this beast of an upright made out of solid wood but it also has a cast iron frame. The three of us sweating and straining managed to get the thing on to just in front of the door to the front porch, and then we were faced with the daunting task of trying to get over the threshold of the door and down the stairs of the porch. At this point Shelly was in a bit of a panic over us moving the piano and had visions of traumatic amputations of fingers and toes. Some one called some neighbors over and two men showed up with two thick sheets of plywood that we could use as a ramp to get the piano-beast down the stairs. Now five of us wrestled with the piano and managed to muscle it in to the van with no loss of toe or finger. –Or anything else for that matter.
Shelly and the girls were supposed to have left that night for Shelly’s sister’s house from where they would fly to Nova Scotia on Friday. But we were no where near done and at close to four o’clock not much else other than the piano had made it into the truck. Shelly’s sister called to check on the progress. Shelly told her that we were behind schedule and there was no way she would be able to leave that night.
“I’m on my way” Shelly’s sister announced. True to her word C (Shelly’s sister) arrived within hours with her own daughter. She took The older girl with her and they went to a hotel where the two girls got to play and enjoy a pool and get a good nights rest.
Once again Timothy, The Haggis and I drove to the beach to get cooled off. This time the water was calm, which, the Haggis and I reflected was probably a very good thing. We were all so dead tired on our feet that we likely would have drowned if we had to fight against another night of killer waves.
The sun was setting as we arrived and the western sky was a glowing brilliant red. To the east a full yellow moon rose in the sky and down the beach some one tended a huge bonfire. The wind carried the smell of crisp wood smoke to us in the water.
Timothy told us, perhaps for the tenth time since we arrived how very grateful he and Shelly were that we had come to help them.
When we went back to the house the four of us sat on the floor of the furnitureless living room ate snacks and drank wine and scotch. I pulled out a bottle of lotion gave Shelly and Timothy foot massages. One at a time they lay flat on there backs on the floor with there feet propped up on a milk-crate as I wrung noises out of each of them that sounded somewhere between pained and obscene. It was terribly satisfying to me.
GOOD BYES:The next morning Timothy took us all out for breakfast. Neighbors arrived out of the blue to assist with packing and loading and by two o’clock the truck and trailer were packed and Timothy was on his way to Ottawa to pick up his brother and continue on to Nova Scotia. Shelly, the girls and Shelly’s sister finished the final details of the clean up and we said our goodbyes in front of the empty house. With tears in her eyes Shelly thanked us yet again and asked “You’ll Visit?”
“You just try and keep us away” I told her.
I managed to keep my shit together until we pulled out of Timothy and Shelly’s (old) street and turned on to the road that lead to the highway before I started crying.
GOOD NEWS:The Hagis and I drove back to the big smoke, picked up the cats and got home. The next morning I opened the mailbox and got my “congratulations” letter from the Collage of Massage Therapists. I’ve passed all my exams. Now its only a matter of paperwork.
We went out to dinner on Saturday night with My sister in law and her boyfriend to celebrate my success, and regaled them with the tale of our week of adventures. Both of them commented on what good friends we were, and how far above and beyond the call of duty we went to help Timothy and Shelly.
I wondered out loud to my sister in law. “Was that really so unusual? Isn’t that just the kind of thing that friends do for each other?” We both realized that that was in fact not always the case. Perhaps what was worse than friends who don’t step up to the plate in a time of need are those who cant accept (or decline) offered assistance with grace.
Both Lana and I have been kicked in the teeth for the crime of offering to help. Perhaps then, that is the true test of a friendship. Not the offer of help, but the accepting if it.
One way or another this week seemed like the most profoundly right thing to do. And the greatest reward I could have received for my efforts was the heartfelt appreciation that Timothy and Shelly gave us.
For them, I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Labels: Friends, Vacation
