#3 Sex Trafficking and other Events

 

We have had our first major snow storm. It came over night and was gone by noon. Oh, maybe you didn't want that piece of information.... As I look outside right now, our grass is green!!!

This was one of those crazy lake incidents. It was like a feeding frenzy of ducks of some kind diving, flapping wings, diving again. There must have been hundreds of them. Quite the site....

This week it dawned on me that we have gone from a small fishing village in Mexico to a small fishing village in Ontario. This is a fishing boat. Can't imagine why it was out there in this wild weather. He actually placed a marker in the water just off of our shore. No idea what that is about but I'll find out.

Wednesday afternoon found me at The Bank Theatre in Leamington. My first acting class for seniors. I walk in the door and this woman approaches me asking if my name is Valerie. She informs me that she is my partner and we will be performing later this afternoon with a script I haven't even seen yet. She keeps saying that the script is very dark and I'm thinking how dark is dark. When I get the script, all 10 pages of it, I realize what she meant. It is a short story of a sea captain, my partner, who is delivering women to be sold in the sex trade to myself the buyer. There is just one problem. All of the women are dead on arrival!!! I quickly skim through it not bothering to look at what I'm supposed to be doing, just rolling the words. Once I'm finished we start reading it together.

On page 5 my partner has the line "Hair of the motherfucking dog, baby." She reads it, stops dead and says, "I can't believe I've just said that word." I'm like, "It's fine. Just roll with it." Then she looks at me and says, "I'm so glad my kids aren't here." at which I burst out laughing. She is 83 years old. Not that much older than myself and all I can think is that my kids probably wouldn't blink at me saying that line......

We read through the script right through once and then when we are half way through again the first group is called up. There are 3 performances before we are due and then VOILA we are out of time. Saved by the bell literally!!! We will be first up in January at our next class. We intend on getting together before then to practice and I hope this isn't going to spoil my partner's Holiday Season!!!

Here we are at yet another laundromat. This one is in Leamington. Looks quite different that is for sure. I don't see any "Out of Order" signs anywhere.

You know this isn't going to go smoothly. I load two machines and start putting in my cash and it won't keep my money and keeps spitting it back out at me. In my teacher voice I ask if anyone knows why it won't take my money and a couple of people come to my aid including the man above. I think he has just wandered in off of the street. He doesn't look like an employee but after he teaches me the trick to get the machine to eat my money, he starts shining machines. 

It turns out that he is the laundromat employee every day from 8-2. We started chatting and heard all about his life including the fact that he has melanoma and going through his third bout with cancer. You just can't tell about people until you engage. We all need to engage with one another in this world....

The washer on the left is how it looks when you put the Tide pods in correctly and the one on the right demonstrates how not to put your pods in. 

I was amazed to see this sign in Spanish. There are two languages in this community - English and Spanish. Yesterday in Wheatley we went to the Wheatley Market for the first time and it had Feliz Navidad in the window. It is like being in Mexico in Canada!!!

The first time we shopped at the Real Canadian Grocery Store in Leamington our bill was about $592 and I was so disappointed that we didn't get a prize like you normally do when you shop there and spend lots. It was one of the rare days with no gifts. 

This time there were posters all over the store saying that if you spent $300 you would get a poinsettia. Our goal became to spend $301. When we went through the check out and discovered we had spent $465 I figured we should get one and a half poinsettias!!!

This plant is like a bush!!! Amazing and I'm loving it!!!

Sadly my neighbour Martina Dube moved last summer from across the road to down the road and around the corner. She was purging!!! One day she put on facebook that she had a decorated lighted tree to give away. It came with a stand and lights!!! I knew Christmas was going to be bleak here on our own so I got it. I waited until Dec.1 to put it up and I hadn't even looked at the decorations before so it was a really big deal. I just love it!!!Thanks Martina!!!

This is my reading corner. Good chair, good book and excellent tree!!!

We had the ducks in a feeding frenzy and now the birds are doing it. The ground here is covered with birds. Have a close look like "Where's Waldo?"

We brought half a bag of niger seed with us as our birds at home don't eat it and here....the same thing. Don't birds know that this is gourmet bird food? 

This is the cafe with the best ever soups. The place you can barely see in the left is an ice cream store. I think it is trying to close for the season. 

This is the four corners downtown Wheatley. Two years ago when we were here this was all blocked off due to the explosion that had happened to the block on the left. All of this block is still blocked off and waiting for demolition. I would really like to see that when it happens. There are still 10 families that can not move back into their homes.

I took this on the way home from church yesterday morning. When we went to church there was no fog but coming home it was thick. I'll still take this over snow...

I've heard that the bar at the end of the block still has food on the tables and drinks. No one has been inside in over two years. Spooky. Ghost townish.

And that's it for this week. See you next Monday!!!

Have a joy filled week!!!