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Holidays bring unexpected moments

Holiday journey full of bumps and detours

The day is new and fresh and full of promise, just the way a holiday day should be.

I haven’t been out of bed for too long, so haven’t yet managed to discover what I have forgotten to bring.

My lovely, beautiful holiday that has existed in my mind, even as I sat in my messy little newspaper office, has finally become a reality.

Yeah! Lucky me, I’m sure everyone is thinking.

And it is true, holidays are super, duper lovely things!

But as they (mysterious people who know everything) say, it’s the journey, not the destination that counts.

So it is with holidays!

We (my better half (according to him, anyway) decided to go to Penticton this year for no other reason than we always go to Penticton and bring back fruit and I can this fruit and consider myself to be quite clever, especially in February when I casually pull a jar of peaches out of the pantry. Hopefully we have company when I do the casual pulling out of the fruit thing. The move is quite lost on my husband.

The children warned us about the smoke in the air because of the wildfires.

We ignored them.

Sadly, the air is quite hazy from the smoke, here in Penticton, making me think how fortunate we are to only have to worry about the slight discomfort we are experiencing, compared to people who have suffered devastating losses because of the relentless, hungry flames.

We are now on day three of our holiday!

On Day one we planned to get away by 10 am, or maybe, worst case scenario, 11.

True to form we pulled out of the driveway at the crack of noon.

At least a portion of day two was spent tracking down a denturist of all things.

It all happened because of the trail mix I had tossed in the truck. Suddenly my husband, cheerfully crunching away, had two sets of bottom dentures, not one.

This was not good news, though he did turn into a cheap date thanks to a steady diet of soup and milkshakes until we found the nice lady who had in her possession whatever stuff it is denturists use instead of crazy glue.

So here we are on day three. We are sitting outside our motel room. And finally I have this holiday feeling, partially because I have turned the page of this day with a feeling of curiosity and optimism about the hours that lie ahead.

I have nothing planned, because I truly believe what Robbie Burns said about the best laid plans of mice and men and how they won’t work if fate should decide otherwise.

I do have to text the children, though!

“You text us every day,” they said.

And so it goes. Life, holidays or not, is certainly an interesting journey.

A very long time ago I had these three children that I worried and fretted about pretty much from the time they took their first breath.

It’s come full circle and I must admit I kind of like it.