The exercise:
Ah, the final day of 2020, at long last. A lot could be said about the year that was. Significantly more positive things can be hoped for in the year ahead.
But, I mean, when it comes to the year that concludes today, good riddance covers most of it.
Anyway. Write about: the lay of the land.
The exercise:
Write about: tracks in the snow.
Had a big dumping of snow overnight, so I went for a walk in the orchard with the boys this morning. Well, Max got out snowshoes for him and Miles, and I walked. I did enough snowshoeing on Monday with Kat in the mountains that I'm still a bit sore from it.
Anyway. There were lots of quail tracks in the snow.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: the long, dark days of winter.
Why yes, it is a cloudy, grey day here today. What a coincidence.
The exercise:
Write about: limbo.
That's what the time between Christmas and New Year's Day always feels like to me. Trying to have a little more of a schedule and structure this year though.
The exercise:
On the last Saturday of 2020, write a four line poem about: coming full circle.
The exercise:
Merry Christmas! It's been a crazy year. I hope your holiday season has brought with it some peace and joy and a reminder that better days are coming.
Write four lines of prose about: there is a star that shines tonight.
The exercise:
Merry Christmas Eve! I finished work at 12:30 today and will be off until January 4th. Very much looking forward to this break.
Write about: we three kings.
The exercise:
Hmm. A prompt that is both Christmassy and is suitable for the penultimate entry in Greg's yearlong poem. Let's see...
How about this. Write a four line poem about: it was on a starry night.
The exercise:
Only one week until Christmas? Hmm.
Write four lines of prose about: the jingling bells.
The exercise:
Write about: keeping watch.
Fell asleep putting Max to bed tonight. Apparently.
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about: flight.
Hard to believe there are only three more Saturdays left in 2020. Speaking of the end of the year, I'm aiming for a return to Hindsight this week for its finale.
The exercise:
As November draws to a close and December comes knocking at the door, write about: connecting the dots.
The exercise:
Write about: shelter.
It's well beyond time that I fill you in on what's been happening behind the scenes.
Uh, fair warning: it got long. I guess that happens when you hold back like half a year's worth of news and try to fit it all into one post.
Mine:
It is not especially difficult to see that 2020 has been one hell of a year for all of us. We get hit over the head with it, seemingly no matter where we turn. Despite that, I'd like to toss another story onto the pile, if you care to read it.
As I mentioned almost a year ago, we moved half an hour up the road to Oliver because we were in desperate need of more space. Also a more central location was nice. So we found a place to rent and moved at the start of this year, before it became *this* year.
And then the pandemic arrived. I stayed away from work (and most everything and everybody else) from mid-March to mid-July, which I mentioned. What I didn't tell you at the time was that our house went up for sale in May.
The realtor told us they would advertise it as having good tenants who wanted to stay and that they would try to find a buyer who wanted to keep us on. Spoiler alert: they didn't.
The house sold in June, at which point we were given the choice to run out our lease and move in January, or leave by September 1st and get paid one month's rent to do so. I told them they could add in moving expenses as well and they agreed. We figured two and a half months to find another place was plenty.
Spoiler alert: nope.
We looked at two, maybe three places. None of them worked for us. So come September... we were back in Osoyoos. Except our cabin had been rented out. So we were actually back in Osoyoos, back in Kat's parents house.
So, like, all the way back to where we started when we first moved from Vancouver. Just, you know, with two kids and the vast majority of our stuff in a storage locker in Oliver. And we both had better jobs and had a bit of extra money from being paid to move out.
We decided pretty quick that we were done with the rental game and wanted to buy a house to call our own and give the boys some secure footing. So we pooled together money we'd earmarked for... like five different things, and started saving the money we'd have otherwise been putting toward rent and utilities and internet and... wherever else our money had been going.
In mid-October we got ourselves pre-approved for a mortgage so that we knew what our price range would be, then got ourselves a realtor. Our first day of actually looking at homes was the day before my birthday - spent mostly in Penticton as there wasn't much of anything that we could afford in Oliver - and we almost put in an offer that night on a townhouse... but then found out it was renters living there, not the owner. Which meant we couldn't move in until February 1st because they needed to be given notice - just like we were - and we wanted to move sooner than that (also didn't really want to do that to somebody else).
Spoiler alert: remember that home.
Over the next few weeks we looked at more places. A couple dumps, a few that just didn't work for us. We did actually put an offer in on one place but lost out to another buyer who went higher than we were willing to go. Then we ended up back in the same townhouse complex as the previously mentioned home, looking at a different unit that ended up not being what we wanted. Which was when Kat mentioned to our realtor that it was too bad the other unit hadn't worked out.
At which point our realtor mentioned that it hadn't sold yet. Which, by the way, was surprising because the housing market here has lost its god damned mind.
Anyway. We put an offer in that night. It was accepted the following afternoon. We spent the next two weeks or so jumping through all the hoops (mortgage going from pre-approval to approved, house inspection, etc). And we signed the papers that removed the subjects on the 21st of November.
So, we're officially home owners. We won't be living there until February - unless the tenant finds something sooner - but we own a home. In Penticton. It's a three bedroom, two bathroom townhouse in an older complex, which means there is a lot of green space for the boys to run around on - the requirement for green space in townhome developments was dropped at some point, sadly. We'll be a ten minute walk to the nearest beach.
And it's ours. Nobody can kick us out. We leave when we're ready to leave. A place for all four of us to call home, with confidence.
We can't wait.
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about something that is: tumultuous.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: the unicorn's vacation.
Just popped into my head. May or may not have something to do with end of work week tired brain.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: the signing.
Maybe feel free to work the number twenty in there as well, if you like.
The exercise:
I think it makes sense, timing wise, to return to Hindsight today.
Having just finally added to October's entry, I'll take second turn again this month and aim for mid-December for the finale. I'll see if it makes sense for me to go first or second at that point.
The exercise:
Write about: something in the way.
I managed to remind myself of this when coming up with the prompt.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about something that is revealed: upon closer inspection.
Now that I finally got around to adding to last month's edition, I expect we shall have to get to November's Hindsight at some point this week.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: a horror.
Happy to report we all made it through a Friday the 13th in 2020 without attracting any (further) catastrophes.
The exercise:
Write about: I've got a bad feeling about this.
Nothing like a mid-week holiday to make sure I have no idea what day it is all day long.
Is it Saturday?
No, it's still not Saturday...
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: transitions.
Of power, or other sorts...
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about: blending in.
Happy 8th birthday to Max. I thought we'd found him a pretty good present, but then we were rather soundly outdone.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: count 'em all.
Still not official. But so, so close. Right? Right...
The exercise:
Write about something that: rattles.
Things are looking positive south of the border tonight. But it's hard to avoid the thought that it shouldn't be this close.
It should have been a landslide.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: stress.
No, I'm not at all concerned about the election results south of the border. Why do you ask?
The exercise:
Write about: finding a fit.
I haven't forgotten about my part of last month's Hindsight, by the way. I'll get to it.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose which have something to do with: handle with care.
The exercise:
Let us get to the October edition of Hindsight before the month runs out.
And as a birthday present to myself, I'll let Greg go first this month, with a solemn promise that I will follow before the week is out.
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about something that is: for the birds.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: the chaos and the calm.
So much going on these days. It snowed today, for example. A lot. Pretty much all melted away already, but still.
Check the frickin' calendar, Mother Nature.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: the twenties.
Seemed appropriate today.
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about something that is: impenetrable.
The exercise:
Write about: thanks and giving. Or giving and thanks.
Either way, happy Thanksgiving! I am full of turkey and pumpkin pie and not at all ready to go back to work tomorrow after this long weekend.
The exercise:
Deadline day was surprisingly quiet. Perhaps... a little too quiet?
Anyway. Write about: ups and downs.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: deadlines.
Property taxes are due tomorrow. The town gave people three extra months to pay them. Judging by how busy we've been this week, far too many people took full advantage of that. I will be glad when 4:30 arrives tomorrow afternoon.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about things which are: in plain sight.
Smoke cleared over the weekend. Enjoying the blue skies, though they are calling for rain tomorrow.
The exercise:
Some September Hindsight is on the table today.
Along with lots of grumpy people in town, apparently.
I actually told someone to kiss my ass as they were storming out of town hall this morning, which I think sums up the day pretty well. I guess all this smoke is getting to people.
Mine:
"Blood?" I asked, an involuntary step back putting a bit of space between us. Georgina laughed and closed the distance smoothly. I was still feeling wary but relaxed at her touch - relaxed enough to remember that blood offerings at Shinto shrines were not out of the ordinary. "I mean, right, blood."
"Just a little bit," she said with another tension erasing laugh. "Come on."
Georgina led and I followed in a daze that I blamed on the concussion. Looking back now, I suppose I should have suspected something. But give me a break, okay? It's not like I'd ever even gone to see a hypnotist, much less met one. And Georgina wasn't exactly dangling a pocket watch in front of my face and telling me I was feeling sleepy, all right?
I mean, just go ahead and try to convince me that you've heard of someone being literally hypnotized by somebody's laugh. What's that? Yeah, that's what I thought. So put that judge's wig and robe back in your dress up closet or Tickle Trunk or whatever you keep your very grown up and not at all juvenile costumes in - I'm speaking from experience here, obviously - and let me get on with my story.
"Give me your hand," she said, producing a blade from somewhere on her person. Which, okay, more than a little suspicious. But then she laughed again, seemingly at the expression on my face, and I held out my hand to her. "There we go. It's too late to turn back now."
Even to my muddled mind that sounded anonymous.
No. Omnivore?
That isn't it either.
Ominous! Nailed it.
"What does that mean?" I asked as she laid the blade against my wrist. I didn't even blink as I watched her. "Too late to turn back from what?"
"When a sacrifice is demanded," Georgina said, all signs of laughter and innocent mischief having suddenly vanished, "a sacrifice is given."
The exercise:
Write about: a return to light.
Lingering migraine. Hopefully be all the way gone tomorrow. Along with all this frickin' wildfire smoke that has come up from the States.
The exercise:
Write about: doubts.
Was going to do Hindsight today, but I caught a migraine yesterday afternoon and it's still bugging me. So putting effort into writing will have to wait until at least tomorrow.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: the end of the road.
Vegas finally managed to eliminate the Canucks from the playoffs this evening. Disappointing, but I don't think too many people gave them much of a chance to get as far as they did this year.
Also: hurray, long weekend!
The exercise:
Write about: the watchers in the woods.
The Canucks did it again tonight. The deciding game 7 goes tomorrow night.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: survival.
Canucks managed to win game 5 of their second round series tonight, keeping their playoffs alive for at least another game against Vegas, as they are now down 3 games to 2.
The exercise:
Another late in the month edition of Hindsight, coming right up.
Mine:
I woke alone in a hospital room, though it took several minutes for me to figure that out. Sure, the IV drip and beeping machine to my left should have made my location pretty clear pretty quick but in my defence I wasn't even aware that I had already been diagnosed with yet another concussion.
It wasn't long after understanding dawned and a partial memory of the events that led me to my current situation returned that a young Japanese nurse entered the room. She smiled kindly as she checked my vitals and I watched her in silence until my eyes fell on her name badge.
"Georgina?" I rasped, then fell into a coughing fit. I clearly had not spoken or had anything to drink in a while. Once I'd regained some semblance of control she handed me a paper cup filled with water and watched me drink.
"My great-grandmother's name," she told me after I handed the cup back. Her English was flawless. My addled brain was having a lot of trouble processing this woman. "On my father's side - he's American."
"Oh," I said, not knowing what other response was appropriate. At least I didn't start coughing again.
"How's your head doing?"
"Slowly," I said and she laughed. I scowled. I wasn't trying to be funny, just accurate.
"Well, from what I understand, you did hit your head pretty hard," Georgina said, then added with a wink: "Chasing after girls, I hear."
"Just the one," I said, closing my eyes with a sigh. "Away from the other."
"Popular boy," she said with another laugh. I was beginning to like her laugh, for all that it hurt my brain to hear it at the time. "Will one of these girls be coming to take you home?"
I thought about that for a few seconds. "I doubt it."
"Well we can't let you leave the hospital unless you have someone to monitor you, to make sure your symptoms aren't getting worse."
"Well then," I said, the words inching their way out of my mouth as the waking world began to go dark, "I guess you're stuck with me."
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about: hindsight.
So, uh, Hindsight tomorrow or Monday, huh? Let's aim for tomorrow.
Edit: not sure what happened with original post. Computer crash in the middle of writing it up must have buggered something. Hopefully things show up properly now (though I did have a different prompt initially, but I guess I'll save that for next week).
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about: just like old times.
Oh hey, the Canucks defeated the defending Stanley Cup Champs last night to advance to the second round of the playoffs.
Wooooooo.
The exercise:
Write about: stoking the fire.
Pretty smoky day in Osoyoos. Kat said Oliver wasn't too bad for most of the day, but it reached here late afternoon and decided to settle in for a spell.
At least it kept Town Hall fairly quiet, as most people had enough sense to stay indoors.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: fighters.
There's a wildfire to the south of Osoyoos, on both sides of the border, and another to the north of Oliver. I think both started today. We'll see how they play out.
The exercise:
Write about: skipping.
In unrelated news, my right arm is hella sore today and it probably has something to do with how many stones I was skipping on the river this weekend.
The exercise:
Write about a: misadventure.
Because it's still an adventure!
(On the drive to the campsite we were briefly stuck in a ditch. I did a dumb, don't ask. Several kind passersby helped us get out of said ditch. I suspect it will be the main story of the trip for the boys for quite some time.)
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about: muscle memory.
Yesterday and today's posts were scheduled on Thursday night, as we're spending Friday and Saturday night camping. Assuming we've not been eaten by bears, I'll be back to do a new post tomorrow. Maybe even with a picture or two to share.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: back in.
The NHL resumed play last weekend (with no fans in attendance) after pausing the season on March 12th due to the global pandemic. They ended up cancelling the remainder of the regular season and have come back to the ice for the playoffs, with the top teams in the standings guaranteed a spot and the teams less certain of making the post season as of the pause playing each other in order to round things out.
The Canucks are one of those teams, and they were matched up against Minnesota in a best of five series.
And just a few minutes ago they won game four in overtime, clinching a 3-1 series win.
In the strangest of years, the Canucks are officially back in the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
