Wednesday, July 27, 2005

A day at the beach


Beautiful hot sunny weather here in BC right now. We've had some gorgeous days at work with a bit of a breeze and lots of sunshine. The eagles are back. They showed up the other day again sitting in the top of the Eagle Tree. I love to hear them up there. They are really beautiful birds seen up close.

We used to walk the dogs at a small local manmade lake with a walk around the top of it. This is a picture of the Lake and you can see it has some big trees. One day we pulled into the parking lot and we were just in time to see an eagle drop down onto the water. It seemed to be fluttering a bit there, long enough for me to wonder if there was something wrong with it when it lifted up with a duck dangling from it's talons. It was pretty amazing to see it close up. We took the dogs and continued on our walk and as we got to the other side of the lake the dogs were ahead of us a bit and as we got up to them the eagle that we hadn't even noticed lifted up out of the tree right in front of us still with long strands of meat hanging from it's feet.

Another time I saw an eagle in action was one of our girls days and we'd headed to the beach at White Rock and with the tide half way in we walked out into the water where it was warm coming in over the sand. We were just standing there enjoying the sun and the breeze and the saltwater smell when we saw an eagle go after a seagull that was floating in the water. A man and his dog were out there and the seagull was so desperate he was swimming towards them and trying to hide behind them but the eagle worked at it and got him and off he flew as everyone on the beach stood mesmerized by this whole thing. It was all over in a few minutes. It was kind of awful to watch but at the same time the eagle has to eat too. So do it's babies. Nature

And speaking of White Rock, tomorrow is girls night and this week and we going to head to the beach and bake for a few hours. We go every year at least once to just lay on the beach. This year we haven't managed to make it there yet and Lynnie goes back to work in August so we think tomorrow might be our only chance this year. We are getting off work at 2:30 these days cause the guys are starting really early to beat the heat. So Lynnie is meeting us at work and off we go. Half an hour to the beach! Then back to Jude's for dinner and then we are calling it an early night. Jude and her husband are heading out camping Friday and she needs to get the camper packed and everything ready. They have 4 grandchildren so they are picking them all up and heading out for the weekend. They are 10, 5, 5, and 3 so she will have her hands full.

It is a long weekend here to celebrate BC Day. And it's also right in the middle of the Celebration of Light fireworks competition here in Vancouver. We went last year and it was fun. There are hundreds of thousands of people that go and watch from all the waterfront around Vancouver's inner harbour. We go to a spot we picked out last year and pay for all day parking and park early in the day. We are going back to the same spot on Saturday. The fireworks that night are from Sweden. Where we park we will be within walking distance of Granville Island and we'll probably walk down there and get the makings of a picnic for dinner which we can stow in the cooler and leave in the car. They have a cool little ferry system that we bought tickets for last year and travelled on all of them and it was fun. This year we are thinking of getting all day ride passes for the regular transit system and that will allow us to travel all of the bus, sky train and sea bus routes around Vancouver all day. We can go where ever we end up and just make a day of it. Then back to the park and dinner and the fireworks. Then comes the 2 hour traffic jam to get out of there. This year we are just going to have a nap in the car for an hour or two and then when it thins out we'll head on home. Much easier on the nerves and the gas instead of idling in a huge lineup.

I'm tired but doing great. No pain in the liver area at all, no pressure or fullness in that area either right now. All seems to be going along quite well. When I am feeling good I start to second guess myself and think.......do I really want to start treatment again and know i'm probably going to feel crappy. Then I remember what Dr. Erb said and I think yes I do want to do this and see if I tolerate it better this time with only the short period of ribarviran. Six of one, half a dozen of another, back and forth I go. Easier to just forget about it for now and just enjoy my days.

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