Bruce Toews

This is my second week visiting kittytech. To say that the week has been pure delight would be to put it mildly. Caroline has been so good to me, far more wonderful than I deserve. I'm touched, I'm blessed beyond measure, I'm grateful beyond words.

The food? You bet, the food's been wonderful. Caroline is a marvelous cook. The fun? You bet, just being together has been lots of good clean fun, and the comaraderie has been beyond measure. But far beyond any of these things is the knowledge of being loved. I am blessed most incredibly, and I know it.

I want to write it all up, but there aren't the words, it just goes so much deeper. If you follow brucetola (that's me) on Twitter, you'll see some of what this is all about in the up-to-the-minute banter that goes on between her and me.

God has blessed me so richly. May I always do what I can to be as worthy as possible of that blessing.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This message is written with tongue firmly
in cheek and is not to be taken seriously.

kittytech and I have reached a point in our relationship
where I am not sure if she can be forgiven. Just how does one forgive
the utterly, totally, and absolutely unforgivable?

For the last several weeks, she has been including links to the daily
trivia sampling from FunTrivia.com. If you haven't
checked this out, you may wish to add yourself to our little group and
have your daily scores compared withours. I've gotten two ten out of ten
scores, of which I am immensely proud. But I digress.

So one of the questions in today's quiz was as follows:

No, wait, on second thought, if you want to find out, you can check it
out for yourself. Go to kittytech's LJ and follow the trivia
link in the most recent entry. The question she actually got wrong,
horror of horrors, is #2. How could she? And after all we've been
through together? The pain is unbearable, to think that she would have
gotten that question, of all questions, wrong! It really hurts. Can I
forgive her? Is reconciliation possible? My heart aches with grief.

Yesterday, I took kittytech to church with me. It was the first time she'd been to my church, and it was terrific. We had a baptism and a communion yesterday. These are not every-week occurrences.

For lunch, my roommate made us pizza pops. We spent the afternoon listening to some old radio, some Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I'm sure there was something else which escapes me.

My roommate and I struck up a deal for dinner, and we went to the Elephant and Castle. I paid for the cab, and Rod (my roommate) paid for the meal. We headed out of the hotel in which the restaurant presides, and there was this limo parked outside. I decided to hire it. Turns out it was Rod's first limo ride, so he spent the time flirting with the driver and I spent the time flirting with kittytech. I got the better deal, though Rod doesn't think so. This is all as it should be, I daresay. We spent the evening listening to Treasure Island Oldies together. This has become sort of a Sunday night tradition for us.

How can one man be as blessed as I am?

Caroline's been talking recently about how the chair in her office is killing her back. So when I heard about this really cool chair that her company had sold to a client, I took note of it and contacted her boss. I arranged to buy the chair for her and have it delivered, which it was yesterday.

It's about time this lady got treated like a lady, and I'm only too happy to do it. I know how happy she is with this chair. It's not as sexy as her new phone, but I'm glad I've made a positive difference in the life of someone who's made such a positive difference in mine.

Apparently Caroline isn't happy with my "sleepy" and "somnolent" mood choices. "You're supposed to be moody, okay?" she said. So, I shall endeavor to please the lady I love. Thank you all for your understanding. Bruce toews, CJOB News, Winnipeg.

Hi everyone,

Caroline and I thought it might prove beneficial to start our own community on LJ. Its purpose is to give people the chance to follow our lives together as a couple. This way, people who want to follow our individual lives may easily do so, people who want to follow our lives together may do so, people who want to follow both may do that. Best of all three worlds, as it were. So in this community, Caroline and I will be posting about our trips to see each other, and other events which affect us jointly. So if you want to keep up to date on these things, just join the bt4cc community and go nuts. We both look forward to sharing our lives with those of you who'd like it.

Today, Friday, was a special day for a variety of reasons. It started off as usual, with me calling tazcat before I went to work, then continuing our conversation over my cellphone on my way into work.

Work itself was largely uneventful, I got about halfway through Cam Jansen and the Scary Snake Mystery, ah kids' books, before I left. While my appointment with the audiologist was at 4:00, Handi-Transit in its infinite wisdom got me there over an hour early. But I was able to reschedule my return for 5:00 instead of 5:25, which meant not having to stand out in the cold. More on that later.

Going to see the audiologist was not an easy task. It meant coming to terms again with my hearing loss. I was very afraid that they would tell me that I was beyond help. I really want to thank pawpower4me, who really provided me with a lot of encouragement in this regard. Even more, I want to thank Caroline for providing me with calm reassurance, a shoulder, and a sounding board before the appointment, and for being there waiting for me when the appointment was over. We both agree it would have been nice if she could have been there, but of course that wasn't possible ... but her moral support by phone was nothing short of incredible and wonderful.

the audiologist told me that I was not beyond help, to just dismiss that from my mind. He talked about options: what I wanted in hearing aids, what was important to me and what was not. He told me that for my type of hearing loss, the behind-the-ear models were better suited, which is fine because that's what I really wanted anyway. I go back on the 29th for my new hearing aids. Lisa Reid Audiology in general, and Jeff, the audiologist with whom I dealt in particular, are to be commended for their professional, polite, understanding and courteous handling of the whole thing.

The driver I had on the way home was not exactly on laughing gas. He was clarly grumpy about having me added to his schedule, and he made that clear. I was very glad to get away from him.

I spent the evenign talking with Caroline, listening to some OTR with her, and so on. This was a very special day for the two of us: on August 15 of last year, six months ago to the day, Caroline and I became a couple. What can I say, Caroline, but thank you - thank you so much for the happiness you've brought into my life.

I'm not going to say that everything went wrong, nobody can say
that, and some things did go right. But a lot of things did go wrong.

First of all I woke up just before two and couldn't fall back to sleep.
I finally got to bed just after four, and spent the rest of the night
dreaming that I couldn't fall asleep.

I woke up and, as per tradition, called Caroline and talked to her for a
few minutes. That was pleasant as always. Then I almost didn't find my
Coke money, but I did find it just in time. I got to work this morning,
got Coke from the pop machine upstairs, and proceeded to put it in my
little cooler. One of the cans fell out, and onto the floor, bursting.

So that's been my fun-filled morning. I could really do with something
very good happening today. I'm trying to ignore this monitor in front of
me and the dual slaps in the face it represents to me. I feel very
unloved at the moment. I know I'm not, I know that there are those worse
off than me, but this is how I'm feeling and that's all there is to it.

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd give you all a bit of an update so you know what's been happening in my life lately.

On Friday, Caroline finally arrived after a whole series of plane delays and mix-ups. The good thing was that I was able to meet her at the airport. Lynne, my former volunteer and current friend, very graciously took me to the airport and waited with me. It was so good to see Caroline again, tired as she was.

From the airport, we went to my friend Brianna's place. Caroline is staying with Brianna while she's in Winnipeg. Bri made this wonderful lasagna, and there was Coke (which I brought). Caroline and I basically spent the evening together hugging and talking. I now have, by the way, one of those nifty combination braille/talking watches. What a really neat concept!

On Saturday morning, Caroline took Handi-Transit to my building, where I met her downstairs. For lunch - well, brunch, really - Rod (my roommate) made us pancakes and turkey bacon. After brunch, Caroline participated in a weekly phone conversation I have with a couple of American friends of mine, something to which we affectionately refer as Battery Talk, because one of the guys in the group seems to be obsessed with batteries. In the middle of Battery Talk, my roommate took off for the weekend, which meant that Caroline and I had the place to ourselves. Wonderful!

The afternoon was spent just being together, holding each other, talking, drinking Coke/Sprite, that sort of thing. The downside to the afternoon was that my last remaining hearing aid got stepped on. This means I am now forced to confront my fears about getting new aids. I am so afraid of being told that my hearing is too far gone for any kind of help, that it's all hopeless, or that it's going to cost more money than I could ever put together to make what will only be a marginal difference. It's a huge fear of mine.

Saturday dinner consisted of KFC delivery. Caroline had the Chicken Bowl, I had a couple of Big Crunch Sandwiches. We spent Saturday evening talking, listening to some radio drama, and so on and so forth.

Caroline made breakfast for me on Sunday: sausage biscuits, yummy! I took a nap for part of Sunday afternoon, while Caroline was on the computer, and then we switched places and she took a nap while I computed. Sunday dinner was from a local place called Dianna's Gourmet Pizzaria. I didn't feel like eating pizza, so I had chicken fingers and fries, while Caroline went the pizza route. It took forever for the food to get here, so it wasn't exactly warm when we got to it. But it was still good stuff. Sunday evening was more talking, e-mail, holding each other, that good stuff.

On Monday morning we got ready to head out to Altona, where my mom lives. My brother Harv picked us up. For dinner, my mom made potatoes with Schmauntfatt (a Mennonite cream gravy) and Farmer's Sausage, something I don't know how to describe but which seems to be almost unheard of outside of this area. That evening we watched TV, read, and talked at my mom's place.

Christmas Day was wonderful. Of all the gifts I received, the chance to spend that special day with Caroline was the most wonderful, most precious gift of them all. On Christmas morning we basically ate breakfast and relaxed, watching those classic Christmas TV shows, The Price Is Right and Family Feud. Then the family started arriving, and we prepared for Christmas lunch, which was meatballs or chicken with potatoes. In the afternoon, we all trooped downstairs and did the Christmas carol thing, followed by the younger kids performing for Grandma (i.e. my mom). Then came the gifts. From the lovely Caroline I got a hand-knitted blanket and a cellphone earpiece. From me, she got the Little House on the Prairie pilot movie on DVD, as well as a season on DVD of The Red Green Show. My mom gave me a deep fryer, and I gave her a necklace with a timepiece on it. My brother Harv and his wife Sandra gave me a set of Fibber McGee and Molly CD's, and I gave Harv a book about Nascar. My brother Irv and his wife Yvonne gave me a box of chocolates, and from me got a collection of western movies on DVD. I gave my brother Brian a DVD set with a documentary about World War II, and his wife Leona gave me some delicious cream cheese cupcakes.

We spent the rest of Christmas playing games, doing word puzzles, eating, talking, watching TV, whatever. It was a good family time. Christmas dinner was the traditional, my mom's homemade chicken noodle soup, the Christmas dinner tradition that no one understands until they've tried it.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was Caroline's birthday. Wishing Caroline good morning on her birthday was a special treat for me. I gave her season 1 of Corner Gas on DVD. We spent the rest of the morning in the living room, watching TV, dozing, playing word puzzles. Lunch consisted of potatoes with Schmauntfatt and ham. In the afternoon, Harv drove Rod, Caroline and me back to the city. Caroline and I caught up on some much need holding-each-other time, which we hadn't been able to get enough of at my mom's. Then she cabbed it back to Brianna's at around 10:00.

The downside of yesterday was that I got a letter from my insurance company, happily reminding me that my premiums are due. There's another couple of hundred bucks I wasn't expecting to spend. Cash is going to be at a premium until after incom tax time. I'm also trying to save up for a trip to Milwaukee in April. Anyone wanting to contribute to this trip may paypal dogriver@ogts.net. *SMILE*

But that brings us to the present. It feels really, really odd to be here at work while Caroline's in Winnipeg. But what can you do? She's a couple of blocks away from me and I miss her. But the nice thing is she'll be joining me on my way home.

All in all, this has been a very, very special holiday for me. Caroline's presence has made it so. How wonderful can it get?

Hi everyone. I talked to tazcat a little while ago on the
phone. She called me from the gate at the airport, and things are going
well. She was scheduled to leave Milwaukee at 8:20. I have not been able
to get the flight status on this particular flight. The flight from
Minneapolis to Winnipeg is on Northwest, so I'll be able to track that
one. She left a voice post in her LJ from the gate as well, for anyone
who follows her LJ. I have transcribed it. So, in approximately six
hours, I will again be holding Caroline in my arms.