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John,
We now have a new relative in our family, my cousin had her second baby yesterday at sometime
around 2:40 AM. His name is Marshall and he weighs seven pounds four ounces. My dad made a joke
by saying that he could call Ben, Marshall’s older brother, “Deputy Ben.” Ben might be too young
to understand that. If only the baby had been born two days later (tomorrow on the 14th),
then he would have the same birthday as his grandma, my auntie Karen. I’ll have to go with my
mom one day and pick out a present for the new baby. And when my dad was talking to Karen on the
phone yesterday morning, she said she’ll E-mail us some pictures of the new baby.
Friday just two days ago wasn’t a good day for my stomach. I had one really big messy poop
just after lunch and another one after supper and before I went in to have my shower. And then
when I was in the middle of doing my teeth that evening before going to bed, I had a big messy
toot that I was not expecting. It made a big mess inside my pajama bottoms so I then had to put
on a clean pair for that night. I don’t want to have to move out right now and I especially
don’t want to live in my own suite inside someone else’s house. I should at least live with
someone if I keep having all of these stomach problems that I’ve been having lately, I
still think that Carol should reconsider her thoughts about me. I don’t want Carol to live the
rest of her life thinking about me the way she does, I have written to you many times that I had
never wanted Carol to think about me the same way her daughter, Krista, thinks about that boy,
Tyson, who I told you she (Krista) use to do respite for. And also keep in mind that as
long as the relationship between myself and Carol continues to stay where it’s at right now, it
will continue to have an affect on any connection that was between her and my friend, Kris,
seeing how it was through me that she got to see Kris again after the ten years that the two
of them didn’t get to see each other. It was in the message that I sent you on Wednesday
Apr.2,2008 when I first told you that Carol was also Kris’s TA in elementary school (in
Whalley). And Carol also hasn’t talked to Kris once since before what happened last August.
I had a conversation with my mom last Thursday after you left. It started out with her saying
to me that Carol was not someone who was a big part of my life and then she (my mom) went
on to say that there are more important people in my life such as she herself (again, my
mom), my dad, and my cats. I’ll say to you that Carol’s and my relationship ending feels the
same to me like if my mom did not let me see either my grandma or one of my aunts. I now get the
feeling that nobody supports the idea about Carol and me having another relationship, and
I don’t think that’s right seeing how I keep telling you that she always said to me that she’ll
always be doing respite for that girl, Jennifer, for as long as she’s able to. Now at another
point later on in the same conversation that I had with my mom last Thursday, she said that
Carol probably thinks about ways she could’ve handled the situation better last August so I then
told my mom what you said about she’s probably too afraid to be left alone with me again if she
hasn’t called us for almost a year. My mom answered that by saying “she (Carol) probably
doesn’t want to phone us because she’s moved on and knows we all could have handled things
differently,” I then said to her (my mom) that you didn’t think so and then she said that she
knew Carol better than you do. You don’t even know her at all, you never met her.
And at another point during the most recent conversation I had with my mom, I reminded her
that “I had never been in this type of situation before whereas Carol still wouldn’t let me
phone my parents even after my anger kept escalating more and more, so it got to the point where
I just didn’t know what else to do other than start to throw things.” And then my mom said
“maybe we should talk to some other people to see how they think it could have been dealt with
better” so that I’ll know how else to handle the situation if the same thing happens again in
the future when another worker is staying overnight with me. I then said to my mom that
“I don’t want another worker to stay overnight with me, I want it to be Carol.” My mom answered
that by saying “you never know, maybe we’ll see Carol again in a year or two,” my mom then went
on to say that if we do she’d probably be impressed to know if I’ve learned from what happened
and changed over the next few years. I then said to my mom that “I don’t want to see her (Carol)
once and hear her say that she’s impressed that I’ve changed and then not see her again. I then
went on to say that “I don’t want to have to wait another year or two before Carol works with me
again” and then she said that I’ll need time to make the changes first. Now as for
me changing, I think that Carol needs to work
from her end and I still wonder if that course you took at Capilano College many years ago
would’ve helped Carol when in the type of situation such as the one that occurred between myself
and her last August. And I know you told me, but I can’t remember
again whether you said it was the “Nonviolent Crisis Intervention”
course or the “Psychological Emergencies & Crisis Intervention” course.
I’ll also tell you for your information, John, that once I told Carol that I ran out of
sunscreen I didn’t know at first whether or not I should then bother asking her if it’s worth
phoning my parents. And I didn’t think that it would end with something bad happening until
after I went ahead and asked her anyway. I also didn’t expect that Carol would go on about not
phoning my parents. And I also didn’t like it, once I did ask her, when she said to me that
“we're not going to phone them about something like that” because the way she said it sounded
like she was saying it to a little kid.
And I remember last Thursday when you talked about contacting Carol, once my mom and dad came
home and just before you left, my mom said about how I don’t let things go. And then you said
that you thought I might move on if I get that closure from Carol though my parents didn’t think
so. Even if I do get that closure from Carol, I don’t want to just meet once and then her still
not see me.
Serena phoned my mom at home two days ago (on Friday) to let us know that she’s moving
to the “West Coast Mental Health” office out in Vancouver and the name of the behavioral
specialist who will be working with me now is Brendan. Though Serena didn’t know whether or not
Brendan will be at the meeting on Thursday, she thought if he could be there that might be a
good time for him to meet me. And Serena didn’t say whether or not she will be at the meeting
herself to introduce him.
I told you that I got the half order of natchos when I went with Mac to Moxie's for supper
last Wendesday (on the 9th) and even that was quite big for a “half order.” And a Really
crispy french frie got stuck in with my natchos. Mac had a “Cajun chicken ceasar salad” and my
dad had originally ordered a steak with crab legs, but when they brought the rest of our orders
they told us that they were out of crab legs. They were going to give my dad a salad seeing how
the rest of us had our orders but he didn’t end up having the salad because they had his second
order, which was just some prawns, ready sooner than they thought. Mac and my dad each had a
brownie for dessert, neither my mom or myself got dessert. And they didn’t charge my dad for his
dessert.
After we left Moxie's, we drove around the corner to the big Petland Superstore on Fraser
Highway (in Langley) but they didn’t have the big black mollies in that I’m looking for, the
only fish that I have left right now in my 38 gallon fish tank are just two small runty black
mollies (their parents had died and I’m looking for more bigger fish to replace them). And
speaking about the fish, my dad moved that sword back into my 32 gallon a few days ago after I
told you he put it in the breeding cage last weekend. She didn’t have any babies, my dad moved
her back because for some reason she didn’t look big anymore. Anyway, we also looked at the dogs
and cats when we had Mac with us in the pet store and we saw another one of those cat strollers
that I told you we saw on display in Scottsdale Mall outside the little pet store there when I
was out with my dad a few weeks ago. We also saw this small bird that had a long
tail when we were in the Langley “Petland” with Mac just last Wednesday, I could’ve taken a
picture of that bird if only we had my mom’s cell phone with us. And one of the small kittens
that we saw in the pet store last Wednesday licked my finger, I could never get either of our
cats to lick me and I wish I could tell Carol about the cat that licked
me. We passed a Doritos truck when we were on our way home after we
left the pet store. And earlier that same day I noticed when we were on our way to Moxie's that
they are currently constructing two lanes of highway where I told you they removed those
railroad tracks near 176th Street. Remember I drew a map of the area for you a while back.
Anyway, now we know that the reason why they permanently removed those tracks must’ve been so
that they could widen Highway 10.
And Mac agrees with your idea about having two separate highways run parallel to each other,
one carrying two northbound lanes and another carrying two south, on that deadly stretch of
Highway 97. And Mac thought he knew exactly where the accident took place, I’m not surprised
that he would say that seeing how he knows the area. Here is a section I clipped off the map I
sent you in the previous E-mail, the green dot on which indicates a portion of the highway where
Mac knows there is a sharp corner:
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Mac also told me when I saw him last week that
he finally rode on one of TransLink's new
Cummins buses for the first time, sometime not long ago. These are the big 40 foot buses, not
the small community shuttles. And these buses are from TransLink's 2007 bus order.Mac said about
how he didn’t find that the seats in these new buses were as comfy as the ones in the older
low-floor buses that Surrey garage got in “late 1999/early 2000.” I also remember Mac said
almost a year ago when he saw one of the new buses on the road that he noticed they are quieter
than the older 1999s/2000s. I wouldn’t know until after I ride one of the new buses myself for
the first time whether I could agree with Mac that they are more comfortable or I end up liking
the new buses better for my own reasons.
Points about meals and snacks:
• Last Thursday after you left, my mom opened that box of assorted Purdys
chocolates called “Smoothies” that my dad brought home on his first day back to work after his
time off between Christmas and New Years and I had one. The one that I had was a mix of milk and
dark chocolate on the outside with chocolate filling inside.
• Friday July 11,2008: I had the last chocolate Danish cookie and two of the white ones for
my dessert after lunch. There are now just three white ones left; two whole ones and one broken
one. I will let either my mom or my dad have the broken one.
All of the stories my mom has told me about that were on the TV news within the last few
days:
• This first point happened a while ago, but my mom started talking to me about
it last week thinking that I already knew about this story, she didn’t tell me about this one
before. This is the story about that guy in Austria who kept his daughter locked up and he had
kids with her. They had three kids altogether, the oldest of the three got sick and when she had
to go to hospital was when they found out the dad had kept them locked up.
• Last Thursday after you left, we saw at the top of the five o’clock news that the breeze we
had that day brought severe winds to the Okanogan and also caused damage in other areas
including; trees down, traffic lights not working, power outages, ferries either delayed or
cancelled, and other boats tossed from their moorings. This is a record windstorm for this time
of the year.
• The Merritt Mountain Music Festival is this weekend. Wesla was up in Merritt doing the
weather two days ago on Friday’s Noon News.
• And we saw the story at the top of the five o’clock news two days ago on Friday about that
bad accident on Highway 1 east of Chilliwack, they had to close the eastbound lanes on Highway 1
and only westbound traffic was getting through.
• They had breaking news at the end of today’s Noon News. They stopped a van in the West End
of Vancouver, they figure that there was about five guys in it and the van was full of weapons.
And points about stuff that my mom told me was in Friday’s edition of the Peace Arch local
newspaper:
• Save-On approved their new contract, it’s good to know that now they’ve decided
not to go on strike.
• Mark's Work Wearhouse will open their first regular size store in South Surrey next month,
at 160th Street and 24th Avenue. I didn’t even know that they were going to open a Mark's in
South Surrey until two days ago when my mom read me the story in the paper, their regular size
stores that are nearest to us as of now are; the one in Langley on 200th Street (not far from
Willowbrook Mall), the one in the Guildford area and on the West side of 152nd Street somewhere
around 102nd Avenue, and the one on Scott Road at 80th Avenue.
• My mom showed me a picture on the front page of the paper of two dogs swimming in the water
at Crescent Beach, and I was going to have her cut it our for us to scan tomorrow until I found
the same picture on the paper’s website and you can get them in the ZIP file at
http://www.stuntsillusion.com/download/tempfile1.zip
• I also found a picture on their website that my mom didn’t see yet. I also included this
image in the same ZIP file at the above address, and here’s the story:
Cat owner warns of city coyotes
Deborah Barnes considers her four cats members of her family, so the last thing she wants is to
see any of them eaten by roaming wildlife. But that fear – strengthened by the death of her
fifth cat three years ago – has her keeping an even closer eye on
her...Read the full story.
Now points after our visit last Thursday:
• I saw the movie
“Grease”
once and it’s not one that I care to see again.
• Remember when my dad said about how even if they book him for the first appointment at 9AM,
he still has to wait because his dermatologist doesn’t show up until 9:30. It was always the
same every time they booked me for their first appointment for the day when I use to see my
physiatrist on Scott Road. If the doctor isn’t gunna show up until 9:30, then why don’t they
just book the first appointment for 9:30 instead of at 9 o’clock!
That same guy who I told you asked me to scan pictures of Canadian dollars and cents for him
sent me another E-mail a few days ago with a website that you might find interesting. I’ll
forward the E-mail to
you after I send this message, his name is Rorie
Meade and his E-mail address which he sent me the message from is
rorboy1983@gmail.com
I will also forward you another E-mail
I got a few days ago, this one from my new host provider on which the Stunts Illusion site is
now hosted. This message came to me from the address
billing@iweb.com . Even though it says that
they encourage me to complete this update as soon as possible, my dad doesn’t think that I need
to do this until just before it’s time for me to make my next payment seeing how he knows that I
chose to make my payments annually (once every year) when I first signed up. Do you agree
with him?
One of the last times when my dad walked over to the corner store and got scratches, he also
picked up a small bag of dog buscuits. On his way home from the store that same day, he gave
some of the biscuits to the two dogs who live across our back lane. When my dad took my betas
out to the valley last weekend, he was going to take the rest of the biscuits with him to give
to my auntie Karen and uncle Robert’s dog, the Cocker, but he forgot and left the biscuits at
home so instead he walked across the back lane yesterday afternoon and gave some more biscuits
to the two dogs.
I also included in the above ZIP file, pictures of the one of your surprises that we last
discovered. My mom found it two mornings ago (on Friday morning) when she was sitting in the
family room, how long ago did you make this one?
And I have a new walk planned for us for tomorrow afternoon on which we head North on 142nd
Street from my street to 19A Avenue but instead of turning left and going around my big block,
this time we could turn right and then cut through an alley out to 20th Avenue. Come back in at
144th Street and then take 144th to 17A Avenue. I still have two bags of Oreo Thinsations "Thin
Crisps" left in the cupboard and I will have one of them for my snack once we get back from our
walk.
See you tomorrow at 1PM.
-Neil
P.S. Links for today:
Movie: Grease (1978)
Peace Arch News story: Cat owner warns of city coyotes
PS2. Remember when you were here last Thursday, I reminded you about how there are lots of
houses in my neighbourhood (especially ranchers) right now that are for sale and then I
said to you about how we noticed when we picked up my friend, Mac, on the day before that there
are also a good number of houses for sale in his neighbourhood too. One of the ones that we saw
for sale in his neighbourhood that day is this two-story. Here is a map that I drew, the orange
area on which indicates roughly where we saw the two-story house. I don’t know if that street
though (158A Street) would be as quiet as my current street, and I also wrote many times in
my E-mails to you about how Mac’s neighbourhood doesn’t have as big of a selection of trails to
go walking on as the amount that are in my neighbourhood but I’d rather live on that side of
South Surrey if I had too instead of any area in either Langley or North Surrey.
And here’s another map that I drew from the portion on our walk last Monday (on the
7th) where we came out of the schoolyard. The purple line denotes the trail into the schoolyard,
the red indicates the route we then followed after we left the trail, and the orange indicates
where we came from on all of our walks before last Monday when we came out of the schoolyard
into that area for the first time:
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