Identical Twin Cousins

For a trip down memory lane click here "The Patty Duke Show"  which was a popular TV program in the mid-60's , about "identical cousins"  and the mischief they got into.  

Who knew that there could really be "identical cousins" in real life !

Though I have quite a few cousins, my cousin Carol and I have a special bond.  We share a zany sense of humour, and a refusal not just to grow old, but to grow UP.  What's more, we look alike.  Case in point, while travelling around Saskatchewan with Carol's sister Barb, we dropped into a small-town restaurant where I was promptly mistaken for Carol who had been there recently. 

Thanks to the advent of the inter-web, though we live several provinces apart, Carol and I have developed a much closer relationship over the last few years.

Carol puts her nose to the grindstone.

At some point in our e-correspondences we started signing our messages, "Identical (Twin) Cousin", which due to shared laziness, we shortened to "ITC"   

Still, we had to differentiate our sign-offs.  Carol became "ITC-1" and I become "ITC-too", because "two" was far too obvious.

Carol, reflected in the mirror.

I'd been planning my Saskatoon trip with Carol for several months, when the issue of getting  tattoos while I was in town came up.  Was Carol interested ?   Was she ?   HELL YEAH !   As a graphic artist she even designed them.

So, on a drizzly Wednesday morning we went to "Half Evil - 333" tattoo parlour to get 'er done.

Carol went first.

She was cool as a cucumber while hers was getting done: while during my turn I sat with a carefully fixed smile with white-knuckled hands clenched tightly on my lap.

Afterward, we were directed to soak the "tatts" -- that's what us hip young folk call 'em -- for a bit and then oil them when they needed it.

Soaking in the tub.

And so ... the big reveal ...

Carol on the left, and me on the right. 

Waddayathink ?

Still, they're cousins,

Identical cousins and you'll find, 

They laugh alike, they walk alike, 

At times they even talk alike -- 

You can lose your mind, 

When cousins are two of a kind.

Saskatchewan.

I just got back from a trip to Saskatchewan to visit three of my cousins who live in, and near, Saskatoon.

Just as Nova Scotia has several "must-see" places, from the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, to the massive tides of the Bay of Fundy, this lovely Prairie province has its own iconic  images.

An abandoned grain elevator.

Snow Geese rising off a prairie pond.

Buffalo.

Big sky and golden fields.

And of course, I had to buy a souvenir T-shirt*.

* The joke goes that Saskatchewan is so flat that you can see your dog running away, for THREE days.    BTW the outline around the lettering is the shape of the province.  The other T-shirt I considered buying said: "Saskatchewan--easy to draw--hard to spell".

to be continued ...