cold water and house paint

before i get into my essay of the day (word today is: match), i need to brag a little about my badass accomplishments over the weekend.

first off – i finally got my kayaking basics course completed – after having it cancelled on me twice – the scrd went ahead with this weekend anyways despite the low number of participants (3). although i have paddled a little bit before, it has always been without any knowledge of different strokes or any safety procedures. this course gave a basic run-down and at the end we did two types of rescues – assisted and solo. for the assisted, we had to be rescued by someone else and then rescue another person, and of course solo, as it implies, consists of getting oneself back into the boat without outside help. luckily the weather wasn’t as bad as predicted – but ocean-swimming in late-october is not for the faint of heart! i was the only partipant to do both the assisted and solo rescue – the other two women were too cold/tired for the solo (though i found it much easier than the assisted). i feel a hell of a lot more confident now about kayaking on my own then i did before – and a lot more keen to get my own boat (something else to save up for).

then on sunday – along with two other people (jon and sean from the ffa), i helped to paint the whole interior of sean & michelle’s new house in sechelt (it was primed on the saturday) – which took all day and sure felt like a major accomplishment. i was beat by the end of it – but really happy to be able to help my friends to save some money on the building of their house by providing a little of the labour. it looks really great, and on its way to being finished for the end date of november 16th – i’m really excited for them as i think it’s going to be gorgeous when all finished.

besides that, i went to a party where i knew no one (except the hosts) and was the only person there without a partner or a child. it was a good test of my self-confidence, and i met a bunch of sunshine coast school teachers who had just come back from voting on the return to work decision which made for lots of good anti-government talk. sunday night i caught up with duane from the ffa since i am feeling like a bad friend – i haven’t even been to see him and his partner since they had their twins in the spring, and since that time both of his parents have passed away (which i just found out) as well – so we had a *long* catch-up conversation which was really past due, and i’ve arranged a day to go and visit the family in a couple of weeks.

and if you’re wondering (which you might be with all this talk of ffa hanging-out) – it looks like we might be playing a show december 2nd in vancouver. as you might recognize – we aren’t playing many shows these days – so you’ll want to come out for some crazy dancing if your jones tells you to. there’s no guarantee we’ll be playing again anytime soon. more details on that when i confirm them.