Erin's Journals

Just a thought… Think positive, test negative. [Erin Davis]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Well, well. Guess who came to our house for a visit last week? I’ll give you a hint: there’s a beer by the same name and you could sing it to the tune of “My Sharona.“

It all began two weeks ago when Rob was invited to play in goal at a seniors’ hockey tournament. There were teams coming in from Saskatchewan and even Tokyo. And Rob will cringe to know I’m telling you he was voted by his teammates first star of each of the three games he played. There was no trophy, although upon undressing after one of the games, he did discover a puck that got lodged in his padding somewhere (which is weird). Oh, but he brought home more than some kudos and an errant puck.

By Saturday (over a week ago now), Rob felt something coming on. At first he thought it might be a dog hair lodged in his sinuses – he was sneezing that fiercely – or allergies because of all of the trees here in riotous bloom. But then Sunday, it seemed like a cold. Okay, so Tuesday the cold was mild enough that he played hockey on his birthday and all was right with the world. Except…that night he got an email from a fellow player in the tournament who had tested positive for Covid. Rob swore, took a test and there it was: positive.

Great. Not only was he going through Covid for the second time, but we’d all had dinner together, our family, for his birthday that night. He’d sat between three-year-old Jane and her mom Brooke. We’d been passing food at the Chinese restaurant, and we gathered for birthday cake later at home. Here Rob is with the kids, pretending to blow, not wanting to add extra spit to the cake when he’d had what he thought was a cold.

Now this is where pure luck and some precautions come in. When Rob first started sensing a cold, he moved into another bedroom for a few nights. We didn’t want me getting sick for our upcoming trip to Ontario. I tested negative. Then Brooke and Phil and the kids tested negative. Again and again we tested and took precautions like keeping Colin out of school, masking everywhere and so on.

And I’m relieved to tell you two things: we are all negative, including Rob, and yes, Rob and I are on our way to Ontario tomorrow for a few nights in Toronto so that I can be on CTV’s The Social this Thursday at 1 pm local time (set your PVR) and for a visit with my radio partner and best friend Mike Cooper. A lot was riding on us testing negative, including the main reason for our trip, which is an appearance for a live podcast recording on stage in Ottawa for the Canadian Real Estate Association a week today.

We are thanking our lucky stars. We’ll continue to be careful and mask on the plane trip tomorrow, pray that our luggage arrives this time (unlike the debacle last November) and hopefully have some fun stories to share with you. And speaking of stories, we go back to mythology for our newest Drift tomorrow: Narcissus and the Echo, a tale of nymphs, of vanity and love-caused insanity.

Take good care and we’ll talk to you then, and on Thursday this week for Gracefully and Frankly.

Just a thought… I have just three things to teach: Simplicity, Patience, Compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. [Lao Tzu]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Welcome in and sorry to have missed my usual Monday journal here. I appreciate your patience; to say that it’s been busy around here would be an understatement – and, of course, a lot of that is my own doing.

Last week I shared with you the news that we’re surrogate parents to a one-year-old Havanese named Dot Calm. We’ve gotten pretty good at calling her by her proper name; when it’s an urgent situation – like when she mistakes a mat for a pee pad – we call her Rosie, after the puppy who had a lot of, shall we say, emergencies…although sometimes we go back even further and call her Molly.

Truthfully, though, she more resembles Pepper, the black and white boy here, and if she turns out to be as sweet as he was, we’ll be lucky indeed.

Looks as if Dottie won’t be needed for making puppies for four months or so, so that’s a relief. We will find it hard to be without her while she’s back at the ranch, so to speak, but maybe we’ll make a point of going out more. She cries when I leave, but when we both go out, Dotty is put into her crate with no fuss at all.

But what to do at night? Last week I so proudly told you that she was out-sleeping us. I shouldn’t have said anything. Soon, she and I were getting up – and staying up – at 5:30 or 6:30 am. But we soon remedied that: pee pads in the house meant she could do her thing and then she and I could then climb into my nice warm bed together. I checked with her breeder and Bev gave us the okay to do that, so long as Dottie still likes her crate for when we’re out.

I’ll be honest: a lot of my stress is self-imposed, as I don’t want her to upset Rob or cause any friction between us, as Rosie did. But this is a different experience and Rob has said that he wants to make this work, because I want to make it work.

Now, I’m the one who gets up with her, and walks her before bed in this glamorous ensemble of bathrobe, runners and long coat…and laughingly remembers the days when I moved here and wouldn’t even walk Molly without making sure I had full makeup on! I mean, seriously, Davis. Time to get real.

And we have. And at this point, I want to thank Rob for his open heart, for his love and patience (oh, and with the dog, too!) and everything he brings to our lives.

It’s his birthday today and I hope he’ll enjoy a few surprises and a dinner with his grandkids. One day they’ll forgive him for making them Leafs fans, but for now, gathering to watch hockey and, of course, Blue Jays is just the icing on his birthday cake. Which reminds me…I still have to pick up a cake. I told you I had a lot to do!

Oh, and if you haven’t heard the latest Drift with Erin sleep story, I heard from Kim who said she’s listened four times to Beauty and the Beast and still hasn’t gotten to the end. So, yay!

And don’t miss this Thursday’s Gracefully & Frankly podcast with Lisa Brandt and me. In episode 14, we’re sharing the good, bad and downright gross of online dating, a story that will give you chills, and how I inadvertently drove right into the future this past weekend. It’s pretty amazing.

You take care, have a Happy Passover tomorrow night and a peaceful and joyful Easter. I’ll be back with you next week. Promise!

Today’s journal: a surprise for you (and my whole family) as we add a new love bug to our lives! Enjoy…Dot Calm. Dottie? Dolly? Oh, I don’t know…! I DO know you have to watch this one today – because there are too many pictures to be missed.

You can find it on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Just a thought… People with dementia may have a great deal to teach the rest of humankind. If we make the venture one of genuine and open engagement, we will learn a great deal about ourselves. [Professor Tom Kitwood]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

First off, happy Vernal Equinox! It’s the first day of spring and may it arrive for you, not just in name, sooner than later.

It’s been almost three months now since my trip to Kelowna in the BC interior, an hour’s flight from here on Vancouver Island, to move my soon-to-be 90-year-old dad from his longtime independent living seniors’ residence to one with more assistance. He stayed there all of two nights and we all found that he was just not mentally or physically equipped to live there without my sister sleeping on a nearby cot. So, despite their warmest welcome, we had to move Dad out again.

But this is where things got better: he moved into that same sister Leslie’s busy household, has his own room, thanks to Veterans’ Affairs is in the midst of getting everything he needs to live there and, of course, Leslie’s entire family – busy husband, equally busy teens, three dogs and, yes, even the cat – have all made him a part of the family. He’s gained weight and strength, and just having a Blue Jays game on repeat on the TV keeps him happy. Plus, it keeps Leslie from losing her mind when that all-too-tiny CTV News wheel re-peat-peat-peat-peat-peats.

To Dad, you see, every time he sees the game, it’s new to him. His short- and mid-term memory is almost completely gone. Although he remembers family, I had not even gotten off the plane coming home from that last trip when one sister told me he didn’t know I’d visited or helped him move. Leslie takes him to see his girlfriend and by the time he’s home he says she wasn’t there. By the end of the day, as well as being physically spent, Leslie is mentally exhausted from going along with his questions and stories.

And this former pilot is getting out of bed about three times nightly, asking what time he’s up in the morning for his flight, where his kit bag is, and so on. He asks for mom, who passed away 11 years ago. If we thought about it, it would break our hearts, but we’re pretty much ready for whatever comes.

At this point, thanks to the sisters, Dad is getting all the assistance the system allows. That’s almost half the job: the paperwork, the phone calls, the persistence and, of course, above all, the patience. He knows he’s surrounded by love, gets lots of his favourite food, frequent naps and, of course, the Blue Jays.

So today in my dad’s honour and for everyone who is or loves a senior, I’d like to share this wonderful sweet and funny story, author unknown. It goes like this:

The pilot of an Airbus A380 is on his way across the Atlantic. He’s flying consistently at 800 km/h at 30,000 feet when suddenly a Eurofighter with a Tempo Mach 2 appears.

The pilot of the fighter jet slows down, flies alongside the Airbus and greets the pilot of the passenger plane by radio: “Airbus! Boring flight, isn’t it? Now have a look here!”

With that he rolls his jet on its back, accelerates, breaks through the sound barrier, rises rapidly to a dizzying height, and then swoops down almost to sea level in a breathtaking dive. He loops back next to the Airbus and asks: “Well, how was that?”

The Airbus pilot answers: “Very impressive. But watch this.”

The jet pilot watches the Airbus…but…nothing happens. It continues to fly straight at the same speed. After 15 minutes, the Airbus pilot radios, “Well, how was that?”

Confused, the jet pilot responds, “What did you do?”

The Airbus pilot laughs and says, “I got up, stretched my legs, walked to the back of the aircraft to use the lavatory, then got a cup of coffee and a chocolate pastry.”

The moral of the story is this: When you’re young, speed and adrenalin seem to be great. But as you get older and wiser, you learn that comfort and peace are more important. This is called S.O.S.: Slower, Older and Smarter.

I love that. Sit back, relax and don’t forget to stretch your legs, enjoy the sweetness of life and be sure to take in that view.

Have a lovely week. Please let me bring peace to your nighttime with Drift Sleep stories, available for free wherever you download podcasts, and I’ll have a new Episode 12 podcast with Lisa Brandt on Gracefully and Frankly this week. We’re hearing it’s a new Thursday MUST for thousands of listeners. And we’re grateful to all.