The last bit, and it's over.

We had a sudden downpour after supper which sucked a lot of the heat out of the air, which was a good thing, and it didn't last very long, which was an even better thing because I promised Little Princess I would take her and Ed to see fireworks. Every July there is an international fireworks festival and competition at Lac des Nati0ns, a park in Sh'brooke, a week-long affair with activities and rides for the kids during the day, a band in the evening (it was CCR without J0hn F0gerty last night) followed by 20 minutes of incandescent fireworks starting at 10 o'clock. The fireworks are the thing that draws people from all over to the river for a view. We had an adventure just finding a place to park, then a mad run downhill to King Street, and across into someone's backyard where a family of Spanish-speakers was already in attendance. The show did not disappoint. A tiny little girl was on her father's shoulders saying in Spanish, "Angels! Look, angels!" at the brilliant flashes and sparkles.

Afterwards we parked in the town centre and found a coffee shop that was still open. I had one of those Starbuck mocha-flavoured coffee beverages in the bottle with a piece of chocolate truffle cake, this at 11 p.m., so when I got home I was totally wired and couldn't sleep, chatting online until almost 3 a.m.

This promises to be the last installment of our trip. If you've missed the others, just flip back several days.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

I had to escape and I needed to get some exercise and I wanted to see my old friend Goldie the potter, so I bid a fond farewell to my family and, cell phone hanging from my waistband, walked into downtown GueIph at a brisk rate (Buddy Boy accompanied me for a short way as he was visiting a friend he met last summer), arriving at Goldie's shop where I spent a delightful hour and-a-half chatting with her about this, that, and the other. I even bought some stuff, a couple of necklaces made from porcelain in which she had embedded bits of glass which melted and fused in the kiln. Very pretty. Then the cell phone rang (I'm always surprised to hear it) and Hubby instructed me to return home as they were off to get grampa from the hospital and then we were headed east to see my mom. So I did that, and we did that.

My mom is doing well. She keeps getting smaller every time I see her, and I joke that soon we will have to put her in a leather bag like the Sibyl (as described in this minisaga). She served us a good meal, one of her homemade lasagnes, then Hubby rushed off for a rehearsal with the harpist who is premiering his new piece next week and I hung out with my son and his grandmother until my old boyfriend JC picked me up in his minivan with the kiddie seats. We met Hubby downtown at a bar called Hemingway's (unfortunately, they did not have that drink in their cocktail repertoire) where the boys drank beer and I had two seabreezes (that's vodka, grapefruit and cranberry juices) and a Perrier, and we caught up on the past and talked about the present.

JC drove us home, we went to bed, got up the next morning, and came home, and that's the end of the story.

Phew!

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