Finding a conclusion

Just a short note. As a writer I really wanted some dramatic conclusion to my biography. The potential journey to Calgary with Shel for example, which never happened. Or her return to Summerside to make up and try and rebuild our lives. Never happened.

Now she is off to Char'town and I remain fishing mackerel and writing these snippets. Not so much drama. Perhaps my time with some of my new Arcadian friends will add spice. Then I am almost sure now that I return to home to assist my children and sister. What an experience! Almost 4 years retired at age 51-living here and the travels-not too shabby. Sorry, but I have had a blast.

Especially this summer in Banff, Lake Louise, and with my son at special family places herein written. Of course there have been some hard times being retired. Greatly reduced income. Avoidance of buying unnecessary material things. People looking askance at a 50 year old retiree who has really been retired much longer than 4 years. Go figure?

A good friend-actually someone I trained in the environmental field said that since I live on a remote island in a foreign country, write poetry, and go on about my love of Michelle, that I am now persona non grata in an industry I helped build. So be it. If that is the colourless case of my fellow engineers and scientists (which I do not fully buy) then I shall remain a retired writer and fisherman and let them all be envious.

Sunny day after 3 weeks of rain

Finally the sun appeared in Summerside today. I have been fishing for mackerel at the city pier. It was nice to sit out in the rain yesterday and fish. It reminded me of a cool spring day during Pennsylvania trout season on the Yellow Breeches long ago.

I had thought Shel would be moving back in after her job at Frenchy's in Borden ended in the fall. But she did get a job at the "Best of PEI" store in Char'Town starting September 8. She lost her purse and all of her ID during her move from Elayne Lord's place in Cape Traverse. I attempted to assist her in getting another drivers licence. but there are Arizona paperwork problems and I may have to take Shel to Halifax to resolve them.

Since nothing seems to be coming out of my Canadian job search, I am looking south again. I did enjoy my trip to Calgary and my short visit to Banff and Lake Louise. I am short listed on an Army job at the Red River Depot-but I am not sure about Texas.

In talking with the kids it may be time to bid goodbye to my place on PEI and go back to Pennsylvania. I know Joey would like that, and with no roommate again this winter, a long period of frozen ocean seems less appealing than ever.

It would be nice to go to Halifax with Shel. Maybe we can stop by our Port Dufferin house and share that moment one last time. I am sure the path will be shown to me, but it seems my time here with Shel is finally ending. It was my best effort in something I felt was most important for us both. Some battles cannot be won, no matter how true the intentions.

The weather looks good for a while now after 3 weeks of gloom and cool winds. The fish are in and the sun warm. If this is my last summer on the island, I want to make it as good as I can. The issues and realities of family down south are somewhat daunting after this idyll. But I have to do what is best now for Joey, Alexis, and my sister.

Overview

It had been my hope to eventually copy all of my diaries, going back to January 22, 1966 into this medium. Unfortunately, all but one journal (1978) were destroyed. So we are stuck with my memories as needed and the events of the day. This format places the most recent entry first, so the reader will again have to deal with my "non-temporal " writing style. I have been maligned by some for writing various stories in an "out of order" manner. Perhaps that's how my literary mind works, or maybe just how the past presents itself to my consciousness. Another problem is my slow typing speed and sometimes low back pain which would have made placing over 30 years worth of daily diaries entries here anyway. No doubt that the reader would probably had balked at having to read page after page of how many eggs the chickens laid that day, the weather report, or crude sketches of the position of the Galilean moons of Jupiter as seen by a 10 year old with a telescope.
Junior high school, high school and college might have been more entertaining. That original series of diaries, which had gone down to weekly entries at best, ended on November 4, 1989, when my son was born.

Michelle says there is at least one other 1980's journal in her stuff at her mother's home in Greeley, Colorado. So for these first few entries I will tell the tale of the day, and maybe add the entries from last year and 1978 on the same day, just to create a contrast.