I think it may be safe to say that summer has arrived here. FINALLY! The past two days have been absolutely amazing and the temperature topped out today at 34 degrees which was definitely what we needed...especially our poor tomato plants which have been desperately waiting for some heat to perk them up.
Unfortunately I spent the first day off sick and actually had to call in sick to work! I was thinking back that day of the number of times that I have called in sick to work since I began working when I was 16, and I think the grand total is 3 times. The thing that killed me was that my current job is not the kind of job that you call in sick because...well..you just don't! It broke my heart to call and tell them to please find someone to take my shift that night. Grrrr. I actually take that back. I was more angry than anything. I really don't want to be thought of as "that person" who calls into sick all of time and is unreliable, because I'm so incredibly not that person. I'm the one who covers everyone else's shift when they call in sick. Frustrating situation, but I couldn't help it that day. Hopefully they understand.
The next day I was feeling much better so Chris and I drove up to Pam's house and grabbed Splash so that we could take her on a good walk. We did the walk from her house down to my parent's house in Rivervale. When we got there we once again somehow ended up hanging out and staying for dinner. How this always happens, I am not quite sure. My mom has a gift for throwing food into the direction of every guest that enters her house and somehow convincing them to eat it even if that person just consumed a five-course meal an hour earlier. Oh that mom of mine.
The following morning (yesterday) Chris and I got up rather early and did the near-hour drive to Nelson to spend the day over there. Nelson is definitely, by far, my "happy place". When I drive into the city I feel as though I am home and I just can't help but feel a sense of relief and satisfaction. We started off by me showing him the places that I used to live and some of the sights around the city. We walked around Baker Street for a good while and had a snack at the bakery where I used to work. Then we walked along the water front and down to Lakeside Park. For a pleasant surprise, we discovered that the city installed all of these really cool exercise machines down by the water where people can go down and get a bit of a work out while overlooking the lake (literally, the lake is 10 steps from all of the machines). Most of them used your own body weight as your resistance so of course we had to test out the equipment which were really rad! After spending a good amount of time in Lakeside Park we headed back up to town and walked around some more to check out some more shops and sights. Dinner was eaten at Max and Irma's which I am a huge fan of. That place never lets me down. Leaving Nelson after dinner was a bit sad, as it always is for me. I am excited for my next trip out there. I'm hoping that Chris will go to one of the Open Mike's that The Royal puts on every Wednesday night.
So today was a rather productive day...somewhat. A few days ago Pam informed me of these series of hikes that the Inspiring Wellness program through Teck plans out for anyone who wants to partake in. Her and Graham (and Splash) were going to go so Chris and I decided to tag along as well. We all met up in Rossland at around 10am where we grouped up with the rest of the Teck employees who wanted some exercise as well. The hike ended up being roughly and hour and a half and it as a really nice climb up the mountain; not too steep but not too easy either. Apparently the hikes that are planned out over the summer get harder and longer as the season progresses so I am really hoping that these hikes fall on my days off because I would really enjoy trying them all. Here's the view from the top of the hike, looking down onto Rossland.
After the hike we headed down to my parent's house where I needed to do some gardening. See, my mom and I made a deal when I got back to BC. She would only plant a vegetable garden this year if I promised to help take care of it (meaning doing the weeding since her knee is really bad and she can't bend over) and in return I can take as much veggies as I want. DEAL! So today I needed to get some weeding done. Between myself and Chris, we got that garden weeded out in no time. He decided to go help my dad out with putting down the tile floor that is going in the basement and I kept on weeding some flower beds and under the cedar trees as well. By the time I was done I was quite hot and sweaty...and the river was looking especially inviting.
The Columbia River flows directly behind my parent's house and we all spent many summers jumping in and out of the frigid water to cool off. I'll admit that I chickened out more than once today since the average temperature of the water of the Columbia River on June 13th is around 58 degrees (yes, I researched the average temperature of the river on today's date). After about 5 or 6 psych-outs I realized that I am not a wimpy person and I am clearly being a wimp; so I jumped. And yes. It was cold. But man did it feel amazing when I got out and got back into the hot air. Mmmmmmmm.
After arriving back home I realized that I got a horrible sunburn on my back. The ironic part of it is that for the past couple days I've been on Chris's case constantly about him putting on sunscreen since he's quite freckly and already got a mild burn on his shoulders a few days ago. So this morning, after some rolling of the eyes and pouting from him, he reluctantly slathered on the sunscreen to please me (bless him) meanwhile I forgot to do my back and ended up with a nasty burn. Stupid hypocritical girlfriends. They're such a pain in the ass.
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