Christmas Letter 2019

2019                     

Well Happy Boxing Day!  We hope you had a nice Christmas and are happy and healthy!  As I sit with my lap top this morning, Chris and I are nursing dreadful colds and sore throats.  It makes for good forced down time which is much needed, especially for me, as I seem to be on the go with busy things 24/7.   We are both thankful that you are (still) part of our lives, whether near or far, and though neither of us have been good (really bad actually) at keeping in touch, please know that you are in our thoughts and hearts more often than you know.    

The reality, for me at least, is this annual letter; just enough to keep you all current on what’s been happening, so that if you are ever traveling through Vancouver or near Bowen Island and need a cheap place to spend the night you'll stop by, and we can really catch up.

So we started our year with Ajax winning his Canadian Championship in Calgary with his handler Courtney.  He had taken a total of 7 points in BC in 2 previous shows the month before, and he finished up in Alberta with an additional 6 points, taking him over the required 10 points needed to be a champion.   He’s put that short-lived show life behind him and is back to being a rural dog who loves the trails.  He turned 3 in September and at 97lbs is more than a handful.  I do get him out early in the morning for a good long off leash hike and then again late afternoon for another hour hike.  If nothing else he gets me out and moving.   

 Almost no one gets through life without a few scars. You can probably trace some milestones with a tour of your own skin. If you’ve been diagnosed with a form of skin cancer and need to have it surgically removed, well you can count on another scar to add to the collection!   In the spring I had to go to the hospital for a basil cell carcinoma removal on my nose. The incision was not a straight line so while you can hardly see the scar, my nose is a odd now.  Better an odd looking nose than a spread of the skin cancer cells.

 As for Chris, well, Cancer changes your life.  It's that simple.  It changes the cancer patient's life and the lives of everyone in that patient’s life.  You learn what's important, you learn to prioritize, and you learn not to waste your time. You get on with life.   We spend a lot of time at the chemo clinic or at imaging clinics or just waiting someplace.  He takes 10 chemo pills a day for 14 days, then every 3 weeks he gets an infusion at the chemo clinic. Chris is taking everything in stride.  So far his regular blood work and regular CT scans show that the cancer is stable and not progressing.  That is the ultimate goal - remain stable.

This spring we had the pleasure of Aussie visitors!  My friend Katie from Sydney, and her partner Adrien, flew to Vancouver to do the Rocky Mountain rail trip and to see the eastern Canada and New York.  Flying in and out of Vancouver, they were able to visit us on Bowen twice.  I first met Katie, the niece of my cousin, on my first trip to Australia in ’87 and again in 1990.   20 years out of communication and it is still like yesterday!  I just love that!!  It’s such a memorable feeling reconnecting with someone who has known you in your younger days.  It’s like reliving the days gone by; the conversations; the capsule of time you shared.  I got every memory she talked about, recapitulated every instance she described about what we did or where we went, or what we chatted about.  It is just such a unique form of happiness.  

Well I guess the next big deal came at the end of June when I picked up and brought home our new female German Shepherd puppy, Venus!  As if we needed this added complication in our lives.  It was something we had planned to do before Chris was diagnosed and after Ajax became a champion – make puppies.   We cancelled getting one in 2018 and so it was now or never this year, and I chose now.   She is a lovely puppy, quiet and cuddly, everything that Ajax is not.  But its double trouble now and more of my time is consumed with animals.  She is 7.5 months now and 72.5lbs.  A bundle of energy and very mischievous! 

I am working everyday now at the Ruddy Potato Whole Foods Store on Bowen.  I am the Human Resources Manager and also look after the payroll.  It’s part time – 4 hours a day, 20 hrs a week.  I enjoy it, but it does eat into my day and other responsibilities but its better than commuting to work.  While I retired from TRIUMF last year and am now collecting the company pension, I did not really want to be working in my retirement.  As long as we are on Bowen though, with a mortgage, I’ll be working.  We will once again explore the idea of selling, paying of the mortgage and buying outright on Vancouver Island.  If we can do that, then I will be officially retired.  Until then, I’m still a working girl.   Between the job and the dogs, and Chris, and the property, it seems I rarely have time to relax, and this is in part why I may not be so good with my communications.  I am going to have to set some serious communication and down time goals for 2020.

We wish you all the best for 2020, another new year, another new decade, another new start and chance to get it right – whatever that might be! 

 Happy 2020,   with love from

 Chris, Josie …… Ajax, Venus and Gypsy