wabigoon;
Good afternoon to you my friend, I hope the day in your part of the world is as bright and still as it is here in ours.
Our eldest daughter and I just now got back in from a quick morning hunt looking for a rare whitetail buck. There were unfortunately fresh tracks from two wolves in my boot tracks from yesterday, so once again while we saw no deer, we had a grand visit and sampled some of the "hunting snack stash" which resides in the back seat of the old Dodge diesel.
On a side note, I often wonder aloud to her how we used to get by with a regular cab Toyota 4x4, but that we did.
So actually since we brought it up wabigoon, that '80 Toyota was the second 4x4 Toyota in the south Okanagan valley here and when I moved back to Saskatchewan in early '82 it was rare enough that many people asked if it was a kit.
As I recall our first "official" meeting, a group of us were leaving an Easter supper at the church when someone mentioned that the new guy - who was known as X's brother as my brother was a well respected pillar of the community and the church - anyway somebody said that Dwayne was all by himself in that cute blue truck, so she volunteered to ride with me to someone's house to play board games and have coffee.
Interestingly, we've never been without a decent 4x4 pickup since - even though she maintains she doesn't care about vehicles. Still, a fellow can't be too careful, you know?
Our first date we sat and visited with her parents as there wasn't much else to do in the small town in Manitoba she's from. She liked her parents and as it turned out they all were impressed that I'd just sit and shoot the breeze with them all for an evening.
I want to say the second date was us going hill climbing on the banks of the Assiniboine River. As it was in spring and on the prairies, there's a fair bit of clay and when I spun the truck out it shifted precariously cross ways on the steep bank. I turned to her and said something like, "this may sound a bit odd, but I'm not sure we're going to get out of this one without rolling. If you want to get out - and I think maybe you should - please don't open the door and go out your side (the downhill side) but crawl out over me and I'll see if I can straighten this all out."
She just gave a shrug, put on her seat belt and replied, "No, I'm in this with you, let's see what happens" and so help me that was a harbinger for the next 37 years of being married to me. Better buckle up, you know?
Other dates that spring to mind were me taking her gopher shooting. We were sitting in the Toyota again, she was driving as I was teaching her how to drive a standard or giving a refresher - anyway we were sitting plinking away and had put a fair dent in the population. Presently, when a gopher popped up on her side and began chewing noisily on his deceased relative she quietly said something like, "They don't show that on Walt Disney now do they?" Followed by, "We can't have that sort of thing happening" as she shot the little cannibal.
Of course, to a Saskatchewan country boy who had a lifelong passion for things motorized and things that burned powder, I was by then hopelessly in love wabigoon.
All I knew for sure, was that if she wasn't "the one for me" then nobody was and I'd be a hermit - based upon doing a fair bit of dating previous to that.
We just got along really well from the get go, so by summer we were engaged and were married that fall. Last month was 37 years for us and honestly I can say she's among if not the smartest person I've met and I respect her immensely for so many reasons.
Anyway, as I've said so many times previous to this, I can only guess why the Good Lord has chosen to bless a rough edged little fellow like me far beyond anything I could have ever done to deserve it. I'm daily and eternally grateful for it however and do make a conscious effort to let her and the Lord know that daily.
Thanks for the thread wabigoon and for those who've responded as well. All the best to you all as we head into winter.
Dwayne
