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<John,
The first stop for my parents after they left the house yesterday was their lunch at the
Cactus Club. That’s not far from the McDonald's you and I were at yesterday afternoon. After
their lunch, they went next door to LensCrafters and my dad ordered his three pairs of glasses.
His sunglasses and his reading glasses are ready today and he will pick them up on his way home
from work today, his progressive glasses won’t be ready until at least five days after ordering
them. It could be at least four more days as of now before that pair’s ready. After LensCrafters, they then drove to North Surrey and stopped at that Highway 99 Nursery to order a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to the wife of my neighbour, Mike Cacic, who past away. I agree with you that age 71 is too young to die. And now his wife, Gay, will live by herself in their house in Whalley right across the street from the house we lived in. My mom thinks Gay should probably be okay on her own if their younger son, George, still lives in the house right next door to the one where we lived. I think that both of his sons, in my opinion, would be the right people to each have one of their dad’s two Grey Cup rings. He had probably been at Surrey Memorial Hospital for a while before passing away if
this story
says that he was in palliative care. The last time I saw him was almost six years ago...My mom
and me were eating lunch one day at the food court in Guildford Mall when Mike and Gay walk by
our table and then sit there for a few minutes to talk to us, Mike sat beside me. A few minutes
later when they were done talking to us and ready to go and buy their own lunch, Mike gave me
$10 before they left us. That was the last time he had given me money, you heard my dad say
yesterday that he always use to give me money when we lived across the street from them. I miss
having nice neighbours like them.
Yesterday when my parents ordered their flowers at the “Highway 99 Nursery,” the people there
recognized the name “Cacic” because Gay had already put their name in and ordered a flower
arrangement for Mike’s funeral. My parents aren’t gunna go to the funeral on Monday, my dad will
probably work that whole day. My mom figures that it will mostly be members of his former
football team, the B.C. Lions, and people who knew him from the New Westminster high school
where he worked as a janitor for many years after quitting football who will attend the service.
When my cousin, David, past away two Christmases ago, my parents also ordered the flower
arrangement for his funeral from the “Highway 99 Nursery” and my mom remembers them doing a good
job with that. She also says that the “Highway 99 Nursery” is a bit less expensive than a lot of
the other floral shops. They brought our flower arrangement all the way down to Victory Memorial
Park in South Surrey when we had David’s service. We drive by there on our way to McDonald's
every time we go there, I pointed it out to you on our way to McDonald's the day you and I went
there for lunch last week. And the “Highway 99 Nursery” is right across King George Highway from
the “Queen Elizabeth Secondary School,” there is a Dairy Queen next door to the “Highway 99
Nursery.”
My parents just came home after the “Highway 99 Nursery” because it was getting late, my mom
said they spent quite a long time at the LensCrafters store and I assume myself that’s probably
what took a good portion of their afternoon. The reason why they took my dad’s Subaru yesterday
instead of my mom’s Honda was because they had planned to stop at Costco after the “Highway 99
Nursery” where my dad would pick himself up a wine kit, but again they ran out of time. I
suggested to my mom after you left that they could have taken both vehicles so that my mom could
have come home and let you go while my dad would stay out longer so he could stop at Costco and
get his wine kit.
My parents said that the Cactus Club would probably not be my type of restaurant, but I
remember you saying yesterday that you know the “Black Forest Restaurant” right across the
street from McDonald's is dark. I didn’t like the idea of going to pubs when I first turned the
legal drinking age, but I kind of been thinking for the last while that it might be fun to go
check out all the pubs and see if any of them have natchos that are just as good as
Moxie's...not with you, I was hoping this might be something I could do with Carol if I get to
live with her. I’m not 100% sure yet about this thought though, reason why I didn’t like the
idea of going to pubs to start with is because pubs can sometimes get noisy. The “Black Forest”
does have a separate pub and family restaurant right next door to each other, I’d probably
prefer the family restaurant if I ever decide to try eating there. If they open another Moxie's
in South Surrey sometime, then I wouldn’t have to worry about this idea at all because I know
that Moxie's natchos are the best. I could go out more often for my natchos if they ever do open
another Moxie's in South Surrey because it would be a lot closer for me and I wouldn’t have to
drive out to Langley. I prefer the Langley Moxie's right now and don’t like that one at the
Sandman hotel in Guildford after the bad service I got there. My dad says that I probably got
bad service because they tend to hire cheaper workers for hotel restaurants while the location
in Langley is by itself and not in a hotel. If they open another Moxie's in South Surrey
sometime, hopefully that one won’t be in a hotel.
Here is something I said in one of the previous E-mails I sent you:
> ...That was a joke when my mom said to me a few days after what happened not long after
Christmas that her (my mom) and
> me should go to White Spot and then each of us could have a chocolate shake with a piece of
the “Chocolate Passion
> Cake” so that we could get big huge disaster stomach aches to take
our minds off of being stressed after what
happened...
Now as soon as I’m living with Carol, maybe her and me should go to Moxie's and each order
the full order of natchos even though I told you that my stomach felt really burpy after that
time I went to Moxie's with my dad just before Chrristmas and ate the full order. At least this
idea seems smarter than getting drunk in my opinion. I told you I had never drank before and
never plan to. If Carol finishes her’s first, maybe she’ll help me with some of my natchos so I
won’t have as many and won’t end up with an upset stomach.
Speaking about Carol and her “sweet tooth,” remember I said this in another one of the
previous E-mails I sent you:
> ...That’s another disappointing thing about not having Carol around
anymore, every time my mom made cookies or cupcakes
> while I knew Carol we would give Carol half the batch to take home so there wouldn’t be as
much for myself to eat and they
> would be gone sooner...
Well, I still have those Christmas-holiday shape sugar cookies with
red and green sprinkles leftover from the day we had
our pizza and Chinese supper with Mac and Kris. My mom noticed two broken
red cookies in the box of holiday shape sugar
cookies that have red sprinkles. My mom said that
neither she or my dad would eat those two broken ones because she says that they don’t need that
extra fat, so she just threw both of them away. It doesn’t matter to me whether they eat the
broken ones or if she just throws them away because either way I now have one less thing to eat
up and those sugar cookies will now be gone a day sooner.
I’m just as surprised to have learned from you that A&W was around before McDonald's as I was
when I learned from Carol that Dairy Queen was around before McD’s. I guess you were also just
as surprised to have learned from me that White Spot can only be found in Western Canada but not
in Eastern Canada or anywhere in the
States . I know that
McDonald's is a U.S. business and my mom’s pretty sure that DQ is too, so probably both those
places could be found in Western Canada, in Eastern Canada, or anywhere in the U.S.. Now I’m
pretty sure that A&W has to be U.S. too because I remember seeing one in Washington state one of
the times I was down there a few years ago. I do know one place however that’s confined to
only Western Canada (or confined to only South Surrey), or as far as we both know it’s
confined to only this area...Safeway Chinese food. That Safeway in Peninsula Village is the
only one as far as we know that’s got that Chinese food. I do wonder if there are any others and
if there are I wonder if we’ll ever find out which ones. We already know the following don’t
have it: the smaller Safeway in South Surrey (the one in Ocean Park), your Safeway in
Newton (the one at 138th Street and 72nd Avenue), the one in Oakridge Mall (Vancouver), the
one at 152nd Street and 88th Avenue in Fleetwood, and the one out at Fraser Highway and 208th
Street in Langley. Might be interesting to find out if there are any other Safeway locations
that have that Chinese food.
You said yesterday that you thought the reason A&W onion rings didn’t upset my stomach might
be bcause A&W might use less transfats than Dairy Queen. Again, I originally thought that DQ
might use less transfats than some of the other fast food
places...but again keep in mind that I could be
wrong. I also said to you in
the last E-mail I sent
you that I thought the DQ seemed a lot like the ones my mom sometimes buys at the “M&M Meat
Shop.” I don’t remember having any problems with the M&M onion rings bothering my stomach. I
also remember having onion rings at the China Kitchen in Langley the time that me, my dad, and
Carol took my mom there for her birthday dinner last year, that’s the same place I would like to
treat Carol to for her birthday coming up in May speaking about which. Anyway, I probably had an
upset stomach at some point after that dinner last year after having two plates of Chinese food,
two plates of fries and onion rings, and then having lots from the dessert bar, but I can’t
remember whether or not their onion rings alone bothered my stomach at all. The China Kitchen’s
Chinese food is good, but I’ll tell you that I still like Safeway’s the best. I can’t remember
if that Chinese buffet near Fort Casey that I told you I ate at that one time when I was in
Washington state years ago had better Chinese food than the China Kitchen. This would be the one
that use to be called the China King but is now called the “Mid-Eastern Buffet.”
My mom saw on yesterday’s weather that we could get either snow or just rain this coming
weekend and then after she saw the weather today she told me that the forecast changed and
they’re predicting snow for this weekend. They predict that the snow will start falling late
tomorrow morning and could stay around until Monday. Hopefully only higher elevations will get
this snow and you could hopefully still come on Monday. I guess it’s a good thing that my mom
decided for me to get my McDonald's milkshake yesterday instead of us going there on Monday
after I said in the last E-mail that I wasn’t sure which day we would go. It’s a good thing we
went yesterday incase we do get snowed in on Monday. I’m also hoping that South Surrey won’t get
any snow this time so that my dad can get out tomorrow afternoon and get me one of my Safeway
salads (the seafood one) for my supper tomorrow night. I’m hoping that you and I can go for
a walk on Monday if we don’t get any snow or rain that day.
On Tuesday earlier this week (the 22nd), my dad cashed in the $4 I told you I had won
and got me three more scratch tickets; a “GOLDRUSH,” a “BLACKJACK,” and he got me a new $2 one
to try called “HOT 25.” I didn’t win anything on any of those scratches, but I got two $1,000s
on the “GOLDRUSH” that day...I needed one more to win that amount. I got two $10,000s on the
“GOLDRUSH” he brought me home the next day (Wednesday). On their way home from the “Highway 99
Nursery” yesterday afternoon, my dad stopped at the corner store and got me two more scratches; a
“BLACKJACK” and another new one called “CAPTAIN CASH.” I hadn’t won anything on scratches since
winning that $4 at the beginning of the week.
-Neil
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