Showing posts with label grandparents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandparents. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

The Wheels Are Coming Off


Today is not a good day. Bad things happened.

One of them, is the announcement that the Wheels Inn in Chatham will be closing and turning into a Holiday Inn.

So sad. As a child (and as a grown woman) I have spent may a wonderful day in Chatham and some of my best hotel memories have to do with stays at the Wheels Inn.

I remember staying there with my grandparents, turning off all the lights and in our room, announcing that it was bedtime (yes, my oldest child tendencies emerging) and promptly face planting into the carpet as I tried to make my way to the bed.

I remember watching a screaming Annie zooming down the water slide (the one on the left!) with a look of such terror it is ingrained in my brain forever.

I remember the Wild Zone, the ball room and the home made photo albums that Mags and I made after a birthday weekend stay at the Wheels Inn when we turned 8 and 6 (or 7 and 5).

So sad. I'll miss the mini putt complete with the gorilla you putted the ball into at the 18th hole. I'll miss the smell of chlorine and the wonderful Chatham memories.

Maybe we should all take vacations to Chatham until July 1st just to show them how cool that little place is.

Friday, October 17, 2008

New Blog To Read!

Alrighty, this campaign down South is sometimes annoying and "vicious circle" often comes to mind when I think about it, but-

I just found a really cool blog.

It's called "Margaret and Helen". They are two 82 year young women who are Obama supporters and have learned how to blog from one of their grandsons!

How awesome is that?

Their blog topics range from the overused "Bush-shit" to the clever "Maverick My Ass" to the very hilarious "The Straight Talk Express Just Drove Off the Bridge to Nowhere".

Enjoy this blog, it was sent to me from a friend- very cool :-)

And their photo of them in their scooters proves that age knows no limit- so Mary, get ready to blog!

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A Unique Experience?


Yes, last Sunday I entered my very first spa.

Not exactly something I saw myself doing- but kind of interesting.

Annie, Maggie, Gramma and I drove over the spa on Windermere.

It was very different stepping right in, and we started with colour selection for our PEDICURE. For me the selection was very easy. My favourite colour, the colour of my car and the colour of my political party was the first one I picked: orange.

For my family, it seemed more like a crisis. Choosing colours is not an easy thing for my sisters (or my gramma!) to do quickly. It was odd considering that most of the colours were just different shades of pink and red.

Before we knew it our spa people (what do you call someone who gives you a pedicure?) came up behind us. Each of them called out our name, and it was mildly reminisct of my childhood playground.

We were brought into the back and there were four seats that were very cushion-y. Strange...they were on a platform and this presented my first issue. How the hell do I get up there? First I had to take of my nasty flip flops...and I guess you'll first have to know about my philosophy about flip flops. I buy one pair a year (for about $20...the Airwalks are my favourite). And by the end of the summer (around this time) they are very odd looking and a bit rank. And considering that the ones I wore on this Sunday were the same ones I tromped around Australia with they are a bit weird looking. They have traveled over 30,000 kilometers, and they look it.

Anywho- I took those off (and praying that Yoanne didn't pick them up) and then had to figure out how to get up on the stair and in the comfy chair. After a little help, I got up there.

When we were all up, I had to test the water...and I did it with my hand. Big mistake. I guess you have to do this with your foot. Whatever. At least I didn't think the water was laced with Mr. Clean, as Annie thought.

So the pedicure started...and I'm realizing that someone is touching my FEET. It was bizarre.

And I had a lot of questions. Because as she started she opened up a sterile package of big metal tools. And those big metal tools were going straight for my size eleven wides...

My questions were along the lines of:

What is that?
What are you doing?
What's that for?
What am I smelling?

And my family was not kind.

Besides that, I had no idea what to do in the long silences. I would look over, and all three of them would be quiet or have eyes closed. How do you sleep when someone is messing with your feet? Anxiety begins for Jessie...

Meanwhile, my fear of kicking the poor woman because of my ticklish feet did not happen. Thank god. But when I did look over at Annie, she did have the jimmy legs...moving all over. Luckily, Marta (her pedicure-person) had a firm grip on her oddly shaped mini-feet (seriously, her toes are waaay stumpy).

About mid way through, Yoanne took a bag and put it on my foot. It was hot. I asked about 3 questions rapid fire. Turns out this was the wax I had heard about. Earlier that day Maggie and Annie had mentioned something about melted wax. And I was a touch concerned.

Me: They do what?!

I would love to know who thought of this little treatment with hot wax. How does that get discovered? Was it an accident? Who was the guinea pig for that? Someone still needs to explain the logic.

Well, this is what they do- they slip your foot into a bag filled with melted wax. An odd sensation really.

But when all was said and done, my feet were the cleanest they have been since grade 3.

And I think I actually might have liked it-just a little.

If anything, my toes are ready to vote NDP (that is if we get a candidate in this riding...).

Monday, October 08, 2007

I'm Melting

Well, I usually don't like talking about my elders behind their backs, but today it seems that the man is giving me no choice.

Now that you know it's a man, people would assume that it's one of two people.

My father or Andrew Johnson. They generally are the two guys who drive me crazy most of the time.

They are bugging me, but for separate reasons (Dad for being irritating last night with the damn wooden wind chime, and Andrew for disregarding the sanctity of Turkey weekend).

But that's not my main annoyance.

No, no. That goes to the patriarch of the Rodgers, Tim Rodger.

The man is trying to smoke me out of his bungalow.

It started yesterday with my grandmother's wise, wise decision not to roast the turkey in the house seeing as how we are experiencing global warming at it's best with record temperatures.

So hot.

But temperatures inside rival those outside. Now my grandparents do have air conditioning. It's installed and it does work. I sensed my grandfather's resistance immediately when I politely suggested that he may think about turning the air up a touch seeing as we were about to be 11 in the house.

He didn't change it.

After several attempts to convince him that 75 degrees is unacceptable I found that I was losing. Badly.

Even my grandma was on my side, but the stubborn man refused to touch the thermostat.

And living with my father has only taught me that touching the thermostat is like committing murder.

In short, last night was hell.

Worst sleep ever.

Then I find out this morning that my grandfather closed the vent in the guest room I was staying in.

CLOSED THE VENT.

GAH!

He's lucky I love him, or else we'd have a really big problem.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

The Best Travelling Companions!

They're great. I love 'em.
Lots 'o fun.