Spring is on the way

The temperature was above freezing all day and the snow is melting! There's a brisk wind, too, which is helping the snow melt all the faster. It is such a relief to finally have some warmth out there and to see the ground.

So did I spend time outside today? Well, no. I sewed, a bit. I'm still working on that pattern, and the changes I made for the back are perfect. However, the front needs a few adjustments and I gave up before I could finish them. I'm very pleased with what I've done so far, but I want this to fit perfectly.

While I was sewing, of course I was remembering my dad... last year on the Saturday we visited him. He was awake and I think his breathing tube had come out or was just about to but he couldn't really talk so he write notes to us. They'd put some sort of pump-sleeve thing on his legs to help the circulation there and he wrote that it felt like the cat was kneading his legs. Well, he wrote the cat's name and my mom figured out what he meant. I told my dad that I loved him and we left.

I remember leaving that visit feeling so happy because my dad was doing ok - he had come through the surgery just fine and even though he'd had a heart attack, he seemed to be fine. Later that night everything changed. He went from being the sweet, docile patient (who might have flirted with the nurses a bit) to a monster. He threatened to kill them and told him that he had a gun. They ended up putting the breathing tube back in and when we came back, he was sleeping. That morning was the last time that he was awake and could communicate with us.

It's hard to sew when I'm crying but it's important to me to really remember what happened. Even though the memories are painful, confronting them head-on is easier than avoiding them (at least for long) and writing them out is cathartic for me.

This evening we went with some friends to see the Dance Party of Newfoundland perform. They're a sketch comedy troupe and they were sort of funny. We didn't love every sketch, of course, but there were some that were quite hilarious - like the romantic Spanish singer, the song about applying condoms, and the 20's-style guy. Oh, and Chinesus. And The Vegan. Those sketches were probably the funniest :)

Apparently this troupe played in a small town in Ontarioand bombed there. People left during intermission and many were offended by the condom song. The group that brought them in had to publish an apology [this is a google cache link as the actual link should be here but is broken right now] for having brought them to the town's playhouse. This troupe's humour is clearly not for everyone but they're still ok.