Niagara Falls

Life never goes as you expect it. That may sound more than trite coming from me; my life certainly isn't going as I had expected it. Nor am I going from my life the way I expected. I was fairly sure I would die from some massive heart attack or stroke, hopefully in my sleep, hopefully not behind the wheel with a carload of passengers. Well that might still happen. ALS does not give you a free pass on anything else in life. It's just part of my life.

Yesterday my daughter Kate and I went to Niagara Falls. We took along a friend of hers, a new Canadian who had never been to the falls. Our 75 minute drive turned into a three hour marathon thanks to traffic. It seemed like everyone in Toronto decided to go out of town on Saturday morning, and everyone outside of Toronto decided to go into town at the same time. We made it, after an obligatory detour down to Fort Erie thanks to my inability to read exit signs while nattering at my daughter. That unplanned re-routing had us head downstream along the Niagara River, approaching the falls from the top, seeing the mist rising from the gorge long before we saw the river cascade over the edge, watching the water turn from blue to green to white, then disappearing over the precipice.

I've done this before; so has Kate. Her friend had not; she had a wonderful time, as did Kate and I. Seeing the falls for the first time is an impressive experience. Seeing them for the second or third is still pretty good. I've seen them a half a dozen times and it is still a fun thing to do. After the required pictures, we went for dinner in the restaurant in the Visitor Centre overlooking the falls. This is something I have wanted to do every time I've been to the falls, have dinner in that restaurant, and had yet to do. It was the kind of experience you don't get to have all that often.

Dinner in the restaurant is vastly overpriced; after all, someone has to pay for that amazing view. Some might chastise me for spending so much money on that dinner, money that might be needed in the future. Some might think going to the casino and dropping $100 just for fun is silly; that money might be needed in the future. I thought about it for roughly a millisecond and then decided to do it anyway. After all, what is the future? So far mine has not gone according to plan.

It's better to live for today, to live in the moment. It's better to enjoy the company of my daughter in a unique time and place, something I may never get to do again. Money comes and goes; experiences like this happen so rarely that you must grab them, seize them, take them up and cherish them. To hell with the money.