A Jamaican's Tale: 2015, Farewell

And just like that, another year is gone.

Something about December always makes me homesick. I don't think it's all the winter weather, although that may be part of it, more for the lack of sunshine than anything else. This December past, I had little time for the usual homesickness, as there was much to do at the beginning of the month.

My biggest challenge of the year came with the first weekend in December: G's sister was getting married, and I would have to drive us down to Toronto and beyond, to Brandtford and the town of Simcoe where we would stay, and beyond to Delhi (see Google Maps here) where the wedding would take place. I was, quite frankly, terrified. I fretted over the distance, I fretted over the route, I fretted over my inexperience driving on highways, I fretted over the weather, basically, by the time December rolled around, I was a welter of anxiety. I think I hid it well, no-one had me committed to medical care for my own good! (Although, some Valium would have helped.)

Looking back now on the experience, I am still in awe of the fact that not only did we get there and find our way about and do all the things we wanted to do, we also did it economically, which pleases that cheap/mean part of me my mother never fails to attribute to our Scottish roots. I call it frugal. G calls it not having a heavy foot, as our budget for fuel came in way under my calculations, which had been based on his usage some years earlier. Whatever it was, between my driving and his navigating, we went there, and back again, safely, and in good time.

Aside from my terror of being in charge of the vehicle whenever we had to move from Point A to Point B, a terror which stayed with me from Thursday morning around 8:30 a.m. when we left E.L. until we returned home around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday evening, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The wedding was beautiful, the couple was splendid and put on quite a party, and the venues were inspired.

In between activities, I had a chance to walk about Brantford and Simcoe a little, and see some of the rural areas of southern Ontario during our travels between venues. In both Brantford and Simcoe, I fed my stationery addiction, there was a Staples at each location, and we hit them both. Well, G was at the one in Brantford with me, I found the one in Simcoe on my own and "went to town" in that one on my own. Suffice it to say, I will not run out of pens any time soon.

December 2015 was not without its excitements once we returned from down south. It kept raining, and raining, and raining some more, and everyone started to wonder when winter would show. Environment Canada had predicted a "milder" winter, and it seemed they were quite right. We had a solid week of rain, followed by a mild dusting of snow on Dec 16 that then melted almost right away, and again on the 19th. The winter solstice happened over a quite "green" landscape, but was followed by atypically heavy winds before Christmas Eve that actually downed power lines, blew away unsecured sheds, and messed up roofs. Parts of town were out of power until Christmas Day!

We were fortunate enough not to lose power, and spent a quiet Christmas at home together with just the dogs for company, exactly as I hoped for. The hectic busyness of December was finally winding down now that the holidays were here, and I took full advantage to have some much-needed downtime. As the new year approached, I began looking back, so I could do my looking forward on New Year's Day, as I like to do. There were goals to be planned, and achievements to be acknowledged, and a way forward to be forged.

I have often been able to summarise many of the standout years of my life by one word or phrase. If 2015 will be remembered as anything, it will be as "the year of the drive". Originally, it was meant to be the year of mindfulness, and I did make my goal of meditating for 365 days straight, but I found myself having to polish a skill I expected not to use very often but saw the wisdom of having at least the basic level of instruction, never expecting to put it to quite so rigourous a test quite so soon. All in all, I think the year of the drive went well.