Hey all,
Another Saturday is upon us. I slept in a bit this morning and forewent(?)/skipped the farmers' market. It was good to sleep in my own bed again, after giving mine to my sister all week. Generally, I sleep on the 2nd floor and Brad sleeps on the 3rd floor (after many years together, we decided we both sleep better in separate beds). The bedroom on the top floor is huge, though, I think we may put in two three-quarter beds up there (we can manage to sleep in the same room), so that we will have a dedicated guest room when people stay over. Would definitely save a lot of hassles and avoid me having to sleep on the pull-out sofa in the living room!
Brad did a 2.5 hour bike trip this morning on his new bike, which he purchased in Halifax last weekend. He thinking of doing a week-long bike trip around the first of October. I ran errands and made pesto, probably for the last time this season. I can't decide whether to freeze this batch or gobble it up next week. Perhaps I'll have one meal with it and then freeze the rest. I like compromises!
Was sick yesterday with a stuffed up head and sore throat, so I stayed home and relaxed. Gave me a chance to say good-bye to my sister, who left yesterday morning for Nova Scotia. She will spend the week there with her family (husband and one son who lives on his own) before she heads back to Alberta. Her husband has landed a temporary job in Halifax and will be staying there for a while.
While at the cottage, I read
Family Matters, by Rohinton Mistery (and Indo-Canadian writer who came to Canada in the 1970s; he also wrote
A Fine Balance, which is also very good). The novels are set in India and he is a masterful writer. Do check him out if you have a chance. Here's a little blurb on Family Matters:
Set during the 1990s in an overcrowded and politically corrupt Bombay, Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters depicts a family being torn apart by lies, love, and its unresolved demons of the past. Nariman Vakeel is an aging patriarch whose advancing Parkinson's disease and its related complications threaten to destroy his large Parsi family. When Nariman breaks his ankle and becomes bedridden, his two stepchildren turn his care over to their half-sister, Roxanne, who lives in a two-room flat with her husband and two sons. What follows is each character's reaction to this situation, from Roxanne's husband's struggle to provide for his family without neglecting his conscience to their sons' coming of age in an era of uncertainty. Expertly interspersed between these dilemmas are Nariman's tortured remembrances of a forbidden love and its inescapable consequences ("no matter where you go in the world, there is only one story: of youth, and loss, and yearning for redemption. So we tell the same story, over and over. Just the details are different").
Family Matters is a compelling, emotional, and persuasive testimony to the importance of memories in every family's history. In a poetic style rich with detail, Mistry creates a world where fate dances with free will, and the results are often more familiar than anyone would ever care to admit.
It touched a few nerves with me when it came to the guilt trip we lay on ourselves when we despair while looking after an older relative. It can be a very fustrating and thankless job. While my situation pales in comparison to the one in the book, and I would never go to such lengths to get someone else to look after mom, some of the sentiments truly resonated! Definitely a good read!
With that, on to the boyz of Saturday!
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