Conquering Fear

Here I am up in what my husband proudly refers to as "God's Country."
If you enjoy tall pines, a sparkling lake that rarely has boat traffic, long walks and a ton of mosquitoes, then you may agree with him. What's that saying - it's so quiet you can hear yourself think. Yup, that pretty much sums it up. I'm not sure this is always a good thing with me, but there you have it, I can actually hear myself think. I do love it here though. It's a great place to really kick back and do whatever, whenever, and get that 'thinking' out of the way.

The only downside to being in this Northern paradise is the lack of high speed internet. Thus the lack of blog posts this summer, as always. But here I am, making an effort! We do have dial-up, but it takes forever for some reason. This is actually a good thing, because I am less likely to sit online and far more likely to get some major writing time in while I'm here. I have been doing just that. Revisions are coming along and I'm hoping to have my new version ready to send out in a month or so. I'm not going to rush it though. The rest of my summer promises to be quite busy, so I'm not sure I'll get much more done at this point, we'll see.

Aside from my writing, I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for one major accomplishment this summer.
I drove.
Big deal, you say. Well, it is a big deal. I come from an island where the speed limit is 40K. Actually I believe it's more like 35, but anyway. Yes, people drive well over the speed limit in Bermuda, and we all know what happens when you do that - ahem, nods to son - but I actually don't speed. Not that I've never done it, but I don't make a habit of it. I've never been particularly comfortable behind the wheel and I drive because I have to. So no big shock to hear that I don't drive in Canada. Or anywhere else outside of Bermuda. Ever.
Well, this year we purchased a vehicle. We've always rented and it's been a pain, but since our lovely daughter is soon to be a licensed driver, we figured now was probably a good time to make the purchase. And I think she's pretty happy about that. So this means that for the six to eight weeks that I'm in Canada, some of those weeks on my own, I have a car to drive.
Ahem.
Let's just say I had to force myself behind the wheel. Which is on the wrong side by the way, and they drive on the wrong side over here. But I took a deep breath, or several, wiped my sweaty palms, and I did it.
I have driven around a bit, and believe me, driving at 80K does terrify me a bit, and no I don't want to ever get on a major highway and go 100K! Thankfully I don't need to around here.
But I'm glad I've done it. I've conquered that fear, not totally, but each time I go out it gets a little better. I hate giving in to fear. It's a habit a acquired at an early age and I've never really gotten over it. Perhaps it's just my nature. But this year is different.
I feel good about what I've done, even though it probably sounds quite silly to everyone else.
Stay tuned - I'm going sky diving next week.
Ha.

An aside, have any of you bloggers been bombarded with Chinese letters for comments? I've just rejected about ten of them. Not sure where they came from all of a sudden.
Another note - if we have ever exchanged links, can you please check that you have my correct website listed on your blog? I've just been told my old url is now being used as a porn chat room. Nice. Yep, please check your links!! I suppose I'm going to have to do this individually on each blog myself but, ugh. The joys of internet!!

I'll try to post again soon. Hope you are having an enjoyable summer!