Day 1, in which we do not run a marathon.

The big excitement today is my brother Ben running his first full ironman triathlon in Penticton BC. When I woke up at 8, he was already swimming, and I’ve spent much of my day checking facebook and the ironman webpage to see how he’s doing. His wife, my terrific sister-in-law Joan, is up there representing all of us as she drives from place to place and posts updates when she sees him. He was smiling at both the swim-to-bike and bike-to-run transitions, but his grin had faded by mile 4 of the race and we’re all anxiously awaiting the update that tells us he’s done. I’m trying to imagine doing 13 plus hours of Nia, and I think it’s not a possibility even at level one.

Meanwhile the packing and driving were both very easy. I started my day with a trip to the gym for my shoulder workout, then off to Safeway to buy the important items – oreos (buy one get one free – Tim says that’s one bag for him, one for me and Dave), peanuts, cacklin’ oat bran for breakfast. When I got home Tim and Dave were containerizing the pile of things that we’d gathered yesterday, and they’d both already gotten their clothes together. I bagged the last of the dried peaches and put away the fruit dryer, then took care of my stuff. It was all so relaxed and painless that we were completely packed at 2 without even using our polite (read: annoyed) voices.

I left about 2:40, and Dave and Tim left about half an hour later with Tim driving Dave’s car. We waffled about taking two cars, but convenience won out. That way Dave and I can stay in town after lunch for shopping, or we can do one way hikes or whatever. Also it makes packing easier because we can completely fill the passenger compartment of the van, which is, after all, the largest van of its size. Traffic wasn’t bad, so I got to ACPS about 4, and spent some time chatting with Debbie the owner, who will not be selling the business after all. This is very good news, because she makes the property owners keep their properties in nice shape and is very responsive to suggestions – hence the new dresser in the big bedroom. This is the first time we’ve ever had all our clothes in drawers, and it’s very exciting. Dave has the new dresser, and my stuff is all in Josh’s room.

Dave and Tim got to the house shortly after I did, and were just as amazed at the long-awaited new front door as I was. It is covered with a swirly blue-green colored formica, and is just as odd looking as it sounds from that description. Inside almost nothing has changed – two of the kitchen chairs have been replaced with padded chairs (nice!) and the ancient TV has been replaced with a 32” flat screen TV, which makes very little difference because we don’t use it much.

It had started raining about halfway here and was coming down pretty good, so we used our foul weather routine – Dave transporting from car to door, Tim distributing inside, and me unpacking. It took less than 20 minutes for us to get completely settled in, and then another 20 minutes to type the wireless key into all the new devices. Does it really have to alternate numbers and letters like that?

Then it was off to Mo’s for dinner, where I had the steamed clams and half of Dave’s Neptune plate, and Tim had the clam strip dinner.  They have a new menu (although it’s pretty much the same food as the old menu) and that’s about it. We all think that maybe we should substitute the Irish Table for Sunday night, which would be an awesome way to start the week. After dinner we drove through town to see what was what. At least two galleries have closed, but it was the restaurant scene that was shocking – Doogers has gone out of business, and the Bistro was completely gutted by a fire in July! We stopped at the Mariner to pick up firestarters, and also some cheese for fruit salad night and some Hogwash for Tim. Tonight’s flavor was Piggleberry Punch. Tim may have crossed some sort of taste line since we were last here though. He almost couldn’t get through it. Dave and I each had a sip and spent the rest of the drive home gagging.

Ben update: smile had returned at mile 23 and he completed the triathlon in 13:15.28. Woo hoo! Joan says he ran across the finish line.

After some blogging and relaxing, and Tim lighting a fire with the sissy firestarter, it was time for the first round of games. Dave chose pepper, possibly one of the simplest games ever.  We played 3 or 4 rounds, it’s all a blur. I lost all of them by doing something stupid, except for the last one which I lost from sheer bad luck (Dave beat my blue 4 with the blue 1). The only thing that made losing so much bearable was how hard Tim laughed when I said that pigs say “Nuk”.  We were reminded tonight that the fireplace is a bad idea when it’s windy out. If we had any pigs saying nuk, they’d be bacon by now. Also for some reason Tim and Dave’s helicopters couldn’t be flown at the same time, which is weird because they can fly at the same time at home. Now it is reading and relaxing time. The forecast says the rain should be over by tomorrow.

Things we forgot: watch and bedside clock for Rachel, bathrobe and slippers for Dave, firestarters at Safeway. The green plaid blanket has disappeared, so we should bring two throw blankets.