Wondering how to get what you want?
Identify what you want and keep it in your sights at all times.
Eventually, you’ll get closer and closer.
Finally, you’ll get there.
Once you get there, make sure to hang on tight.
Archives for the month of: June, 2009
I like simple things.
Like eating ice cream at dairy bars.
What is a dairy bar? It’s an ice cream stand.
You walk up to the counter, order your ice-cream based goody, plunk down your cash, and walk away with an ooey-gooey hard-ice cream cone, soft-serve sundae, blizzard, shake, float, frosty, smoothie, or deep-fried Mars bar.
Dairy bars mean Summer. Dairy bars mean weekend. I love dairy bars and everything they represent.
Dairy bars are reason #971 why Prince Edward Island is the place for me.
Frosty Treat, Kensington, PEI
Here I am poised at the precipice of my very first dairy bar experience.
I was a little overwhelmed with all the delicious choices… The deep-fried Mars bar called to me, but I opted for standard dairy bar fare: an ice cream sundae.
Like the thought of that dairy bar? Think it’s one of a kind?
Well, a few blocks further and across the street, there’s…
Johnny’s Dairy Bar, Kensington, PEI
I was stuffed from my ice cream sunday, so I didn’t order any ice cream at Johnny’s Dairy Bar. Because one delicious dairy bar treat on the weekend is understandable. But two dairy bar treats in one day is a bit much, wouldn’t you say?
I did walk up to the counter and order a smile, though. The cute dairy bar girl was happy to oblige.
Cute dairy bar girls make me feel old. I’m a 27 year old woman now, but I still feel like a dairy bar girl. (OK, maybe I never worked in a dairy bar per se, but I did scoop ice cream at a mini-golf one summer, and it still feels like yesterday.)
I guess when I was a cute ice cream scooper like this one, I thought that people grew up and became adults. I thought that adults were somehow different. I thought that I’d grow up, stop being myself, and somehow become one of them–an adult. But it doesn’t work that way.
I still feel like that dairy bar girl. I look at her and I see me! But the cute dairy bar girl looks at me and sees a 27-year-old woman who for some reason wants to take her picture, and could you hurry up already, lady?
Don’t get me wrong, she was cute and polite and everything a dairy bar girl should be. But to her, I was an adult.
Somehow, some time, I became one of them–the adults. But I’m still a seventeen-year old dairy bar girl at heart. Come to think of it, I’m still that eight-year-old free-spirited child that I used to be, I’m still that twelve-year old tom-boy that I used to be, and I’m still that 21-year old giggler that I used to be.
All this talk about growing up is making me depressed. Depressed enough to crave a treat at my local dairy bar, the one and only…
Gillis’ Drive In Restaurant, Montague, PEI
I know, I’m only 27. I’m still a spring chicken no matter how you look at it when it comes to age. But the principle remains: time keeps marching on and there’s nothing we can do about it.
To give old mother time a run for her money, I try to live life to the fullest as best as I can.
And I try to stop for deep fried Mars bars along the way. (But, you know, just in the Summer. And on the weekends.)
Lilacs in June are a beautiful thing.
Yesterday, I was doing work in my home office upstairs. Cameron was outside working on the tractor.
Suddenly, the screen door banged downstairs. Cameron yelled into the house at a high-decibel, “Laura-Jane, come here, quickly!!!!”
I hopped out of my chair and bounded down the stairs, picturing a severed finger or something equally egregious.
I got within eye-sight of Cameron, and his eyes were twinkling.
“Stand right here, just outside, on the steps,” he said. “Can you smell them?” Cameron asked.
“What am I supposed to be smelling..?” I asked, my hand still on the screen door.
But suddenly the smell hit me.
I was twenty-five feet away from the lilac bush, but there was no mistaking the smell.
Lilacs.
Lilacs in June are a beautiful thing. Soon enough they’ll be gone, and I wouldn’t even have known what I’d missed–had it not been for an unexpected yell in the middle of the day.
Having someone who knows when and where to rub your nose in the good stuff is one more reason why I bother.
Lilacs in June are a beautiful thing.
We just bought a Massey-Ferguson 135 diesel tractor.
Love them or hate them, we’ve now got one; a little 1972 Massey-Fergusun 135 tractor is sitting in our yard.
Night has almost fallen and it’s dark outside, but Cameron is still puttering around outside–battling the mosquitoes at dusk–tinkering with our tractor.
The tractor context
Buying a tractor has been a long time coming. Mostly because of the snow.
When we were budgeting for our journey east, we didn’t think a tractor was a necessity. Sure, it’d be fun to have one, but we figured a little hand-pushed snowblower would do just fine.
We don’t like to splurge on non-necessities. But over these past winters we realized that either we needed a tractor or we needed to hire someone to clear the snow from our long driveway. Quite honestly, some days Cameron spent three hours clearing the driveway with our push-blower just so we could get out. Early on we knew a tractor was in our future.
And so the research began. What type of tractor should we buy? What would suit our purposes? How much should we spend? Cue one year of research on tractors, tractors, tractors…
The importance of research and not settling
Without research we would never have been able to do any of this. Cameron feels passionately about research and planning. Sure, luck plays a part in our successes, but we’ve spent countless hours planning, working, sacrificing and researching to get where we are today.
Cameron and I were recently discussing life dreams through the lens of sacrifice. We are living the dream, but we’ve worked really hard to get here. Every step we’ve taken has been calculated–especially when it comes to finances.
We take big decisions seriously, and we are apt to wait even when we really want to plunge. (But we do plunge eventually!)
And so it was with the tractor.
Back to the tractor story
After hours of research, Cameron deduced that a top tractor contender was a diesel Massey-Ferguson.
“It fits our budget, and it’s got a great reputation,” he said. “Parts are easy to find and cheap to buy. Perkins AD3 152 diesel. ‘Nuff said.”
And so Cameron decided that the Massey-Ferguson 135 was a top choice on the list of tractor contenders.
Over the past few months we looked at a number of other tractors, but none of them felt quite right.
Finally, one morning, we found out about a Massey-Ferguson 135 for sale here on Prince Edward Island. Within minutes we were racing out the door. (You’ve got to be quick when you’re buying used, you know.)
We hopped in the car and drove for three hours to arrive at the seller’s house.
Here’s Cameron investigating what I can now call our tractor at the seller’s house.
The tractor passed Cameron’s detailed inspection, during which he got down on the ground, asked pointed questions, and drove the tractor back and forth and around in circles. The horse looked on as if to say, “Make up your mind already, silly Human.”
Finally, a deal was struck and the tractor was ours!
The first day at home with a tractor in our possession was a little nutty.
Cameron picked up silly things in the bucket and moved them around the yard.
I drove the tractor around and around the house.
We got bitten by a lot of mosquitoes, but we didn’t care.
I hope the Massey-Ferguson 135 serves us well. We’re putting our faith in it (him? her?), and I’m sure we won’t be disappointed.
Here’s to holding out for what you want!