Back to reality…

By: James Burge

I wish I could turn back time and do it all over again, because it went by WAY too fast. But another summer is coming to a close, and I will have to wait until next year to see Shuswap again, I hope I can wait that long.

 

Highlights, well, to be honest Asher (Tracy’s 3-year-old Nephew) provided most of the comic relief for the trip. I know it is wrong for a toddler to be swearing, but when it is done so eloquently, is it really so terrible, I mean where is the victim.

 

The day after we arrived, Asher gave us our first, and if memory serves, most violent (is violent the right word, no vicious or ferocious maybe) most intense laughing fit of the trip when he exclaimed, at the top of his lungs no less “Fucking Bullshit” at least 3 times that I could hear from the kitchen.  Now, laughing at such a remark is likely not the best way to dispel this behaviour so we decided, from now on (yeah right!!), not to laugh when he swears but to try to ignore it, and of course watch our own mouths, which is easier said then done.

 

So we are getting ready to head to Lake Country, to see Tracy and Tammy’s Grandmother and Asher has decided to come up to the car with me, in the mean time twirling around, picking flowers and acting rather silly, to which I say, “Don’t be silly…” and the reply??? “You’re fucking silly!!”  OK, so once I recover from laughing (so much for not reacting) I relayed this pearl of wisdom to his mother who had a good laugh as well.  I think Tracy said it best when she said “At least he’s using it properly.”  Although I’m not sure his daycare workers and future Teachers would be in agreement.

 

The last significant swearing incident was one of our last days at the cabin, and proved to be the most restraint we’ve shown these sorts of outbursts when he started repeating “what the fuck” at least half a dozen times.  For what felt like eternity Tammy and I held our laughter, and attempted to make jokes or find other things amusing so we could allow ourselves to expel the laughter we’d been holding back, it was torturous; anyone who’s ever tired to stifle a giggle knows what I mean.

 

For the most part, the rest of the trip was uneventful. 

 

Unless, you count local authorities searching the beach for the body of a young man that apparently drowned near Sicamous.  Evidently, the bag of ice he went in the water with (along with beer and wine apparently) ended up on our beach. Let me first say that although I know some people who have trouble swimming in open water due to certain irrational fears, I have absolutely no reservations/fears of swimming in that lake, but knowing that a dead body could be floating somewhere close just below the surface is a bit unnerving to say the least.  But if you think that stopped us from swimming you’d be gravely mistaken, because I think we actually swam more after we had found out, then before (due only to weather conditions and scheduled trips into town for supplies, not some morbid curriosity).

 

What else can I say about the trip?  We watched most of the first 3 seasons of ‘How I Met Your Mother” on DVD, which is an awesome show (drink).  I have never seen the show on TV (I don’t really watch that much regular television) but I will watch any episode I catch from now on.  We of course had to make up a drinking game (I will post the rules in the forum when I get a chance). Asher on the other hand watched ‘The little Mermaid’ about 40+ times along with other Disney favorites such as Aladdin (15+ times) Beauty and the Beast (20+ times) and (not Disney) All Dogs Go To Heaven (10+ times). Let’s suffice it to say such a regimen would drive anyone to drink, hence the HIMYM drinking game.