Goodbye Lisbeth, I'll miss you (no spoilers, I think)

Wow, I finally finished the "tattoo" trilogy. At the end I didn't want it to finish. I especially liked the end and the reunion. One very interesting ploy by the author was how he "nailed" the bad guy. Oops that is a bit of a spoiler, but you'll forgive me if you get that far.

I'll miss most of the characters. It got to a point that they seemed almost real. I was told about the books early in my recovery by a colleague(thanks Leaner). He stated that he was not a reader, but he couldn't put them down. I am a reader and could and did put them down, especially when things got a little dicey for one of the "nice" characters. But, I digress, as usual. I really "liked" Lisbeth. She's not the type of person who would hang out with me and chat about books, faith, the Leafs or anything like that, but I liked her, admired some things and felt sorry for her too. It kinda weird to be honest.

I miss some of the others too, but mostly Lisbeth. As a father I wanted to make things better and I couldn't. When she was "hurt" by people, I was hurt and wanted to care for her. I repeatedly had to remind myself that she is not real. But, for a while, she was to me, real that is.

And now, like so many other people and things in my life in 2010, she has gone too. I feel abandoned and alone. Just writing it makes me sound crazy, but I am not crazy, I am deep in thought about what is real and what is not and sometimes I think the lines get blurred.

So, as the heading says, goodbye Lisbeth. You already know that I have difficulty with saying and meaning goodbye and while there may be a smidgen of control here I have to say goodbye. I have to move on to other works to meet new "friends" and even to reacquaint myself with old friends. So long and hello all at the same time.

I will miss you, I will miss cheering for you, I will miss questioning your actions and motives, but I will not miss another racing heart beat as I worry for your safety. I am so glad it was just a story.

Well, it's back to Middle Earth, time to travel with Frodo, Sam and a few others including Gollum.......... wanna come along?

New Reading Material

As posted earlier, I am reading the original trilogy, The Lord of The Rings this summer. I am going through it pretty slowly for s few reasons, one; I can't sit that long, two; OI am still feeling the affects of pain killers and they are affecting my ability to comprehend, and three; I am enjoying the slow read and finding new (I think) details.

I received a get well call from a friend from the "Sault". He is aptly named "leaner" (in RTWM circles) due to his propensity to lean when he has had a few to many. The leaner suggested I read some books about some tattooed lady, or something like that. I referred to the original trilogy because this series is about the "girl with the dragon tattoo". Oh yeah, the first one is over 800 pages, should be fun.

So, wish me "happy reading" as I re-enter the world of crime, at least in fiction.

Sometimes when we touch

Anyone who grew up in the 70's has to know where that some lyric comes from. Actually it's the title of a song by Dan Hill. He the troubadour of many ballads where probably many children were conceived.

I returned home from a fabulous weekend away with some friends to be greeted by my loving wife. What a beautiful event, we chatted, had lunch and decided to point the car and see where it would take us. We advised our progeny that we would be home by dinner time (and we are) and climbed board SHADOEFX who quickly took us for a ride.

We headed south to the land of water and the loo for gas and decided that a visit to a local coffee establishment would be in order. Ever the gentleman, I joined my beloved in her search for her cold drink and queued with the other patrons of the barista establishment. I having already had my fill of expensive coffee, decided on even more expensive Italian water(what a rip off).

I completed the purchase(some would say participate in extortion) and waited for my beloveds drink. I listened carefully as I heard the plucking of strings and the strained sounds of a poorly executed sound system. In the midst of this cacophony came a voice from the past, trying to achieve victory over the miserable sound system. I moved closer to the sounds only to be struck by the visage of a gaunt but strangely familiar face. A person whose words have caused me to shed many tears over the years since the 70's. A man I have often wished to hear and see and even meet in person was sitting and strumming not 20 feet away from me. There he was, Dan Hill, the author of many soulful ballads including the one from the title of this post, sitting in Chapters.

We sat and listened, he talked about the relationship with his dad and I cried. I cried for him, I cried for myself and I cried for my beloved. I also smiled many smiles. I recalled many terrific memories from the 70's and 80's when his music was always on my turntable. What an amazing weekend I have just had, I spent numerous hours with work colleagues whom I love at a reunion in Collingwood. I returned home to the arms of my beloved and to her smiles. I met Dan Hill, one of my musical heroes and chatted with him. He signed the book I purchased and I learned once again that it's ok for a man to cry. I am 52 and I shamelessly allowed tears of sadness and joy to roll down my face in a Chapters store in Waterloo.

"the honesty's too much and I have to close my eyes and hide"

Not anymore!

My reading list

It's summer holidays and I get to do what I like to do (well most of the time). For me that means time alone with my beloved just hanging out, long chats over coffee (or you name the beverage), cooking favourite meals and even trying some new ones, washing the car, resting, reading, sipping, and even time alone. Now that's what I call a vacation. We will also spend 5 days next week sans enfants.

The rest of this week (and the majority of next week) will be comprised of a combination of resting and reading. I have continued to journey through the bible, in fact I am more than half way through the entire book and I plan on continuing my bible reading on a daily basis(can't quit now and don't want to).

In addition to this, I will be reading everything from the Sun (Toronto and Ottawa, to see what's up with the latest Heater saga) to simple reads like: "The Shack" (I have tried reading it at least five times), "tuesdays with Morrie", the latest Cussler (or some older ones), a biography on Churchill and some marriage related books. No we are not in trouble, we are doing well thank you very much and have been given the opportunity to mentor others in their marriages. We will ensure that we are not considered counsellors, because we are not. Our role is to walk beside people as they need someone to chat with as they navigate the roller coaster that marriage invariably is. We will also use the "Love and Respect" material, by Emmerson Eggerichs. We have used this material in a small group setting and will be presenting it to a larger group on Sunday mornings at our church in the fall. I am excited to go through this again, more opportunities to learn to be a better husband.

One marriage book is called: "How we Love" by Milan and Kay Yerkovich (great name eh?). They are a married couple who are trained marriage counsellors. I've been trying to read this book for some time and now have finally been able to crack the pages and have begun to delve deeper into the things that affect our current state. Interestingly, they point to childhood issues that now continue to affect our lives in the present. Those issues are comfort, touch and listening. They suggest that how we were comforted (or not at all), how we were touched (lots of issues for lots of people here) and how we were listened to (or not at all) have a significant affect on our adult to adult (married and other) and adult to child relationships.

I feel like I am back at school and studying and I am enjoying it. I want to take all of it in and then pass it on to as many people as I can. I love this stuff because it makes sense. I realize that I need to be in "the mood" to get this stuff. I need to be away from the daily demands of work and be able to focus my attention on the material at hand. Fortunately, this being vacation time I can take as much time as I want to read, take notes, commit it to memory and then continue to learn from it.

I am sure that there will be many blogs coming from my summer reading material, so be prepared to hear(read) some of my thoughts about the material.

Books I'm reading this week

I finished Cusslers, "The Chase" yesterday, it was a bit thin in the plot area. I think I figured it all out pretty early on. It certainly wasn't his best work. I prefer the Dirk Pitt, NUMA books.

I'm currently reading a few books concurrently: Love and Respect: The Love she most Desires, The Respect he desperately Needs, by E. Eggerichs (we will probably use this in a small group in the future), Making Music: Profiles from a Century of Canadian Music by A and T Barris(but no Chuck) and Midlife Manual for Men: Finding Significance in the Second Half, by S. Arterburn and J. Shore.

I'm going to try and fit in another Cussler book (thanks Bev) as well, just to keep the mix more eclectic. I'm planning on using the music book for some of my "obscure trivia" ideas for the next few weeks. I think I'll do a Canadian month of trivia for September.

I'm struggling to keep up with my daily read through the Bible and will have some catching up to do if I wish to successfully complete that challenge that I placed before myself.