The Tadoussac just went up and I am done for now
The Tadoussac is a great lakes freighter but Tadoussac is also a city in Quebec. One of the perks of telecommuting from the moominbeach is that I can walk down to the beach to watch freighters as they pass. The Marine Traffic iPhone app is of great help to this endeavor. I use this app to check out which lake boats (and salties) are in the area and when they are approaching, I can walk down to the beach to check them out. In a way it’s kind of a stupid activity since I have seen many of these botes a gazillion times before, even some of the salties.
When I was a teensy tinesy little girl, we would often drive from our shabby little South Side Superior St. house in Sault Ste. Siberia downtown to the waterfront to watch botes go through the Soo Locks. I learned early on to demand that we go “Down Boat”! It was okay. My parents loved to watch boats go through the locks too.
Some people think I wasn’t very nice to my mother as a young person (teenager, mostly). I don’t want to go in to that in any kind of detail tonight or maybe ever. My moom and I had a complicated relationship like most mothers have with their daughters but we got along better than a lot of people might realize.
A couple years after this loverly pic was taken, my baby brother was born. I was 3-and-a-half (demanding 4-year-old straight pickles for lunch) and I can still remember asking my mom where the baby was when I finally saw her again, a week after she went to the hospital. I had been staying with my grandma and aunts and cousins at the Old Cabin but I heard the news at my uncle Don and aunt Katie’s cabin.
Mom told me that my brother might not come home. As it turned out, my brother lived and thrived for 47 years and life went on for me. But there must have been some trauma for me as a young child. And since I am a “spirited” person, it must have been hard for my mom to deal with meeeee and a potentially fragile child. I feel very very lucky that both of my children were born without any problems and my mouse could come home after 24 hours and therefore begin bonding with the whole family including her older sister.
July 31st, 2019 at 8:17 pm
When there is a sick child in the family, as we have experienced in the last 18 months, it is hard to imagine how his older brother (age 3) felt about his baby brother being in the hospital for months and the fractured family life that he endured. We think about his well being daily as he helps his little bro tackle the obstacles of simple daily tasks.
August 1st, 2019 at 5:30 pm
My nephew was medically fragile for five years of his life, and it’s been very hard on the family, but especially on his parents and younger sister. Hard to maintain a “normal” life and make sure that each child gets enough attention. That’s tough enough as it is.
August 1st, 2019 at 5:31 pm
P.S. I used to love to go to the Ballard locks as a child. We didn’t go very frequently since it was about 45 minutes away from our house. (now even farther due to traffic!)