Hot Tubs and Take-Out and Bears, Oh My!

Today was my first day on my own here in Rossland. Both Grammas have gone back home and Mike left early this morning to Vancouver for work. There are still boxes everywhere and one mess lends itself to another. This is amazing to me because we have had four adults working as many days reassigning doors and light fixtures and cleaning, organizing, feeding the kidlets and working hard so that it looks like this. Now it is just me. We have visitors coming in a week and I am having doubts about how much I'll have finished.

I am having a bit of a "first time home owner moment". Feeling a little panicky I must confess. This is our third purchase, but previously we have lived in Strata run properties, which is similar to when your parents start charging you rent. We paid a fee and some else painted, mowed and told us what was going on. I actually had to figure out how to fill, heat and mix the multi-chemical cocktail so that MANY HOURS later the kids and I could have a 15 minute soak in the hot tub. I spent the entire time praying our skin wouldn't melt off since I was pretty sure I poured too much Bromine in.

And there is still more unpacking. One of the boxes yet to be unpacked is the food stuffs. We are eating our way down main street one take away meal at a time. Cherry Hill coffee from Clansey's, brunch at the Sunshine Cafe, and dinner from Idgies or the Village Restaurant or the Colander in Trail.


Tonight I picked up a pizza from Misty Mountain (there is a sister store in Whistler).  As the poppets and I walked home, mouth watering savoury in tow, I noticed a shadow in the bushes that surround our yard. Standing no more than 10 feet from us was a bear.

He turned and disappeared back into the garden and there was really no where else for us to go but into the house. But that meant 200 more feet around the hedge to the back door. Eight years later when we hit the driveway and I rushed the clueless children into the house, locking the door, from the safety of the living room the kids finally saw what had mommy so uppity. Lumbering through our vegetable garden was Winnie - welcoming us to Rossland.