July 30th, 2017, Day 70, Sackville, New Brunswick. 0 kma

Lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…… Maybe not days, but day anyway.

We slept in. It was about 8am before I even moved. Charlie had already retreated to the living room and was lying on the couch, his 6′ 4″ frame jack-knifed trying to fit. He was listening to a Wolves podcast. “What is that?”, you ponder. Well, to be a part of this Hunter clan, it appears that you either have to be a mad Wolves fan or successfully feign to be one. “What are Wolves?”, you may ask. Wolves, officially known as Wolverhampton Wanderers, are currently playing soccer, or football as it is known there, in the Championship division. Their season officially kicks off next Saturday, August 5th.  Charlie has obsessively followed the Wolves team since his father took him to a game when he was about 8. In turn, this obsession has infiltrated every other Hunter and Hunter spouse for decades now. Generations even. “Charlie, come back to bed.” “Can I listen to this in bed?” ” Of course you can,” He was back to sleep in minutes.

Today, Sunday, we planned on attending the church Charlie attended 12 years ago before he was lured away to the Wild,Wild West by some woman with a nasty cat. Me, that is. (We met on E-Harmony, and for some reason the fact that I had a nasty cat and loved her anyway intrigued him. Thanks Chloe. The church was St Andrews Presbyterian , a small white wooden building.  We actually got married there over 10 years ago. Charlie and I attend Sunwest Christian Fellowship in Calgary weekly. It’s a come-as-you-are church that meets in the cheap movie theatres in Canyon Meadows. You stick to the floors. We attended for about 8 years or so before we realized it was Mennonite. It’s great church with good music and bible based messages/sermons that you can actually apply to your life. There’s a real cross section of people who attend and we have built very solid friendships and supports. This church in Sackville worships in a different manner. Their songs are more traditional. They are more reserved and everything follows procedure. But despite the differences, the message was very applicable and the people just as wonderful. God, I believe, knows our true hearts and loves every one of us.

Ali, a young man we met at the pub last night asked us to meet him for coffee today, so we made arrangements to meet at “The Black Duck” a local coffee house at 2 pm. He was there, reserving a seat at the window. Ali is a Shia Muslim from Saudi Arabia, but no one would ever guess. His blond hair is shaved and he has blue, blue eyes.   Today, as he was last night, he is wearing a backwards baseball cap, a muscle shirt and shiny tight pants. He is animated, loud and excitable and very, very glad to see us. He  says that ” if you are in Canada, it means God loves you.” He plans on becoming a doctor and as soon as he can legally do it, he plans to apply for his Canadian Citizenship. What is truly amazing though is that he came here without knowing any English, he studied the language for a year and a half and now he’s taking university classes. And doing well in them!

We puttered the rest of the day. Groceries. Laundry. Leftover spaghetti for dinner. No riding today. It was nice. I mommied the 3 cats, feeding them, changing their water, letting them in, letting them out, letting them in, letting……..   Reminds me of how much I miss having a little cuddle bunny at home.  Ah well…. it would be harder to have adventures like this one. And I’m glad we had the opportunity to do this.