Relationships - The final frontier!!!

I started this blog with the idea in mind that it would hopefully make interesting reading for some of my friends and relatives, my kids, and of course any and all grandchildren that come along in the future. An opportunity to get to know who grandpa was and what his life was like. I can just see it - it's the year 2022 and 15 year old Shaya Latimer Eirikson has been reading grandpa's blog for a couple of hours - finally she walks up to her mom (who is frazzled and preparing meals for Wayne and their other seven kids) and says.. "Do I have to read any more of Grandpa's blog.. all he talks about is the women in his life and it's totally boring.. didn't he have any other interests???!!!

OK..This is my last post regarding my relationships but I had to get you through this part of my life because a person's soul mate is by far the most important part of our raison d'etre - it has just taken me a bit longer than most normal people to find mine. But, find her I have!

The Julie I have referred to several times now is Julie Peterson. *SIGH* Another of those wonderful blond Scandinavians from the great state of Minnesota. Julie and I met several years ago online when we were both playing a word game called Psychobabble. This game helped me pass many long hours in the evenings when I was alone in Yellowknife and tending to my hospital medivac contract. The game had a chat option and I had noticed Julie (One Wise Woman) several times as she was quite adept at the game and not shy about her wordly talents. I started to harass her - but in a nice way - and she put up with me and eventually we started to have some rather deep conversations at the expense of our concentration on the word game. As before, I'm not going to bore anyone with details but after a few months, Julie finally gave in and allowed me to phone her. Being the charming boy that I am, it only took another 3-5 months to convince Julie that we had to meet face to face and finally a rendez-vous was set up for Caddy Lake Resort in the Whiteshell Park. I have to tell you about our first meeting as it is probably the most frightened I have ever been in my life. Arriving at the resort in a steady rain, I pulled up to the office and noticed a purple Grand Prix with Minnesota plates parked nearby. It was so funny when I checked in as the old couple that ran the place were quite interested in the lady from Minnesota and me with my NWT plates. Anyways, I trudged apprehensively up to our cabin and was greeted at the door by an extremely striking blond woman who appeared to be nowhere as friendly as the one I had been talking with online and on the telephone. I think my first words as I stood on the steps as the rain ran down my nose were to the effect that I had left my suitcase in my vehicle (thinking that she would let me in and we could wait for the rain to stop before getting my stuff) but noooooo.. she said I had better go get in now and I honestly thought I would come back to a locked door with no options but to beat a hasty retreat and be forced to give up on Minnesota women forever! It turns out that she was as scared as I was and friendly Julie appeared once she realized I was safe.

Julie and I had a wonderful 4 days at Caddy Lake and it was the start of a relationship that has evolved into something that I often stop to consider how lucky I am to have found her... who would have thought that a simple online game would give us both the opportunity to discover each other and allow us the happiness that we have come to share. In order to reassure ourselves that we were compatible, one of the things we felt that we should do was to try to spend some time together over an extended period - just to see how we coped with each other on a daily basis. Julie actually moved up to the NWT and spent a year with me in the North and that period only solidified what we felt for each other. In addition to my health concerns, the main reason for my move back to Manitoba was the fact that it is much closer geographically to this woman that I love so dearly. It gives us the opportunity to see each other on a semi-regular basis and once I am settled and my business, my work schedule, and my finances are set, we intend to sit down and make some very serious plans for the rest of our lives... we have not talked about marriage yet, other than hypothetically, but I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we were meant to be and it just took a long long time to find each other.

There are so many things that we like to do together and we really do enjoy each other's company. Whether it's cycling, browsing through bookstores, shopping for shoes, snowshoeing, road trips, trying new restaurants, ice cream, kayaking, cross word puzzles (when she lets me help), music, cooking, golf, canoeing, quiet times, long walks, thunderstorms, our grandkids, a good book, attending concerts and sports events, the lake, ice cream (whoops, did I repeat myself), back roads, coffee shops, farmers markets, touristy stuff, finding the best price for gas, and on and on... and there are so many things we have yet to do... ah Jewels, I t'aime avec toute mon coeur.

OK.. lets focus on something new. After all, the title is life after 60 and it's been a history lesson so far. Although, history is required in order to explain how I got here.. oh well, lets see where it goes.