Counting down

I do a lot math in my head. Not just the kilometer-to-mile and celsius-to-fahrenheit conversions, but balancing my bank accounts, planning expenses, and counting, counting, counting. I do a lot of counting down. Right now I'm counting down to a couple of things -- the arrival of my brother for the weekend, our next trip up north, and my spine surgery.

My brother arrives Saturday, just 3 days from now. He won't be here long -- just till Monday -- but we'll celebrate our folks anniversary at a dinner Saturday night, and we'll hang out before and after then. We'll have him alone; he's coming unaccompanied for the first time in a long time, so it should be quite a different visit from the norm. Nick's been sick all week so we're hoping he'll be better by the time Laur arrives. Signs point to yes; yesterday seems like it was the worst day and I think he's now on the mend. He takes such good care of me, and this was my turn to take care of him. I hope I was up to the task.

We head back up north on the 20th, 7 days from now. This will be a very different trip. We're taking Nick's girls, Olivia and her boyfriend Jon. We fly into Halifax this time (we're still exploring the different ways of getting there -- next stop, Moncton) and will do the very pretty 3-hour drive to PEI. We're hoping to get there in time to take the kids to see Highland Storm that night. There won't be much cycling that weekend; there's not a cyclist among the 4 of them. So we'll do different things, including a day in Cavendish at what's reputed to be a great amusement park called Sandspit (or Spitsand, I'm not sure.) Some exploring and shopping in Charlottetown, a quick taste of the Island and the too-short trip will be over. We're psyched and so are the kids.

My surgery is 9/2, 20 days from now. That's the big one, and it deserves its own post.