Christmas 2012

‘Tis the night before Christmas and mom’s in the shower, dad’s taking the recycle down to the basement with his walker and I’m sitting in the diminishing light of what was a beautiful cool day in Victoria.  Life always falls into a pleasant pattern when I’m here:  a slow morning; coffee and a chat with Barbara and Terry around 9; arrive at mom and dad’s around 10; do something and have lunch out; home for a rest for them and a walk somewhere along the ocean for me between about 2 and 4:30; a drink and snack with the news from 5 to 6; dinner, usually including a long discussion of matters we have talked of many times before and will never resolve; a look at one of my slide shows and then the drive back to Barbara and Terry’s in Vic. West for the night.  Today we are deviating a bit.  We stayed home this morning and did some preparations for tomorrow’s dinner.  We were going to go to B and T’s but B got a bad cold which she doesn’t want to share with the aged Ps, generous though she usually is, so we will have muted celebrations separately.  I went for a walk today and discovered what everyone knows; once you decide to collect something, you can’t stop.  Yesterday I had started a drift wood collection and today I couldn’t leave the beach without more wood.  I staggered back to the apartment, dripping in sweat and weighed down with unique bits of twisted flotsam.   It was almost 3:00.  I was supposed to Skype with the Pollocks and all the gang at their Christmas Eve dinner at 3:00pm my time, 6:00 theirs.  As mom and dad were still resting, I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and went out on the balcony.  The celebrations were hectic in Ottawa, so we just had a quick peek at each other and conveyed a few garbled wishes.   Mom woke up in time to see everyone on Skype and was amazed again.  Caroline’s hair looked really good, but she was wearing an apron.  Ella was wearing a dress her mother had bought her that I thought looked beautiful but she didn’t.  Next year she’ll choose her own dress.  I only saw part of Sadie.  Don looked great in his ‘iconic’ joker’s hat. Thomas was handsome beside him.  Mela looked festive and beautiful, as did Mara.  Albert as always kept the show on the road setting up the Skype.  I missed Gabe, but was happy to see the rest.

Now it’s 8:30 on Christmas night.  I slept last night on mom and dad’s couch.  Our day started at 8:00am with oranges and the opening of some gifts; then baked eggs and mini cinnamon buns and the opening of the big box from Jay.  That took ages as I read words out loud in Korean, much to mom and dad’s delight, but I didn’t understand any of them, so we had to open things and taste them to find out what they were.  There were some surprises, for mom and me.  Dad wouldn’t try those things on a bet.  Then we had small glasses of Korean/French instant, sweet and creamy coffee and talked about our gifts.  This was followed by a long phone call with Bill, Patrick and Marley.  Then we went for a drive by the water.  It was a warm but wild and windy day in Victoria.  I went out again for a walk while mom and dad had a rest.  It was invigorating walking along the beach in the blow.  I returned around 4 with another treasure of driftwood under my arm, my glasses so clouded with dried sea spray I could hardly see and my hair blown around in outrageous angles.  We were all starving, having eaten nothing since breakfast, so mom made a snack, for the second day in a row, of our favorite smoked oysters on soda crackers.  Dad and I opened a cold bottle of Okanagan white wine and mom had a Presbyterian beer.  This was followed by a left over Christmas dinner, Christmas cake and Stilton cheese and the usual chatter.  I am back in Vic. West where I am looking forward to having a read and an early night.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Ducks on the pond at Polson Park in Vernon, the day before I left for Vernon

Mom, Barbara, Terry, Dad and me after lunch at Kate's Place in the Oak Bay Beach Hotel 

Dad preparing to cut the Christmas beast.

Mom and dad behind a bewildering array of treats from Korea on Christmas morning

Matti and his son Burke, born Dec. 13, 2012

Dec. 15, 2012

I didn’t suffer from postpartum blues, but I think I have Jay to thank for that.  He was born after only 7 months, so I hardly experienced ‘prepartum’, and as he was in an incubator for the first 3 weeks after birth, I was too occupied going back and forth from Wakefield to the hospital in Ottawa to be aware of any let down.  But today I’m suffering from ‘post party’ blues.  I guess preparing for and throwing my 2^nd annual Christmas fete got me more wound up than I was aware of.  The evening was a success, and I was really happy to see so many of the people I’ve got to know and like in Vernon.  Everyone ate, drank and enjoyed each other’s company.  When there were only 4 good friends left, I finally sat down and started to eat, drink and be merry, a bit too much of all three, perhaps, but it was a good laugh.  The usual potion before bed, a pinch of salt, large glass of water and 2 ASAs, was less than effective.  When I awoke at 7:30 this morning, my head felt like a fog enveloped in an ache.  More ‘Life brand’ ASA and some nuked last night’s coffee finally ate through the ache, but the fog lingers. My hangover has manifested itself mostly in negativity.  Even though Mo and John helped me last night with many details, like coats, coffee, etc., I had myself close to tears remembering the pre and post party routines, chats and laughs that Jim and I used to have.  It was often my favorite part entertaining.  Living alone has many advantages, but I still miss Jim’s company, the comments he would have and his wording of them.  In the afternoon, I entertained myself for much longer than I usually do with my silent, one woman rant about how relentlessly pedantic and politically correct children’s t.v. is now.  This was sparked as it always is by the bit I watch on PBS as I program the PVR each day.  Today, in my delicate condition, I actually had to mute the sound as I did the programming.  I couldn’t bear the high-pitched righteous lessons being mouthed by the brightly colored creature on the screen.  I’m becoming dangerously intolerant. Imagine what I’d be like if I lived with kids who played ‘Angry Birds’ or listened to PSY Gangnam Style all day.  Actually, I might be better if that were the case.       

I’ve spent the entire day shuffling around doing clean up.  The house now looks pretty good, but I still feel muzzy.  Tonight I’m going to a local Glee Club production called ‘Across the Universe’.  I hope it’s as good as it’s supposed to be because the memory of pain is so fresh in my head it could be revived with one badly rendered Beatles’ song. 

Matti with his son, the newest member of the Boyce clan.  He still doesn't have a name.

Lindsay with her son.

Me skiing at Silver Star

with John and Mo

Dec. 5, 2012

Today I swam and had a sauna at the Vernon Rec. Centre where I met Lusia, my new Korean best friend.  This time I took her to the Bean Scene for coffee and our second lesson.  In spite of the fact that I couldn’t connect to the site that she had sent me for learning Korean, we had a good class and helped each other.  I am so far behind her that I’m sure she will benefit much more from the language exchange than I will, but I’ll be happy to learn ‘survival Korean.”  I got that expression from her; she says that her husband has, ‘survival English.’  I met their son Martin at 4:30 today for our first tutorial; he’s in grade 11 and seems to be a willing, if not overly eager student.  He told me that the move to Canada 4 years ago was based considerably on his desire to escape the stress of the Korean school system.  We worked on the basics of essay writing, and for our next class, he’s going to write a five, paragraph essay comparing Korean and Canadian societies and their educational systems as he has experienced them. 

All this working with Orientals has encouraged me to think about my stand on Canada’s position in relation to trade with China, Chinese takeovers of Canadian companies and the hiring of Chinese miners to work in BC mines.  It’s a complex issue, and I’ve been encouraged by Avaaz, of which I’m a member, and some of my friends to sign up against the takeover deals especially.  But I’m not sure.  Our economy needs the investment.  There is, of course, a difference between a take over by a private company and one by a state owned company.  It’s the latter that most people seem so worried about in the case of China, but we have eagerly accepted the same type of investment by Norwegian state owned companies.  It makes me wonder if we’re going back to the old days of William Randolf Hearst and the fear of the ‘yellow peril’.  I read a good article in the Globe a couple of Saturdays ago in which a book, China’s New Confucianism , by Daniel Bell was reviewed and the ideas in it discussed.   I don’t know enough about the subject to make any serious comment on it, but I was interested in the fact that he thinks that what is happening now in China presents the world with an alternative to Western Liberalism that is worth considering, given China’s vast population and consequent economic and political challenges.  Oh well, I’m not going to sign any ‘no truck or trade with the Chinese’ petitions yet. 

Now to the weather report.  I went cross- country skiing again on Monday at Silver Star.  It was sunny, and the downhill conditions even looked good.  There was a light layer of fresh white powder.  I talked with the Walkerton Van de Vyveres this week, and Cathy told me that Mark and David were both off hunting.  It’s black powder season there.  Yesterday, Jay sent me a photo taken with his iPhone of the snow in Incheon, and this afternoon I took a picture of a violet blooming in Vernon, a rather lonely little specimen, but none-the-less a violet in December.

Snow in Incheon

A violet in Vernon

Koreans

Today I met my new Korean friend, Lusia Choi, at the Rec. Centre.  She’s a very strong swimmer.  She lapped me many times before I finally dove under the buoys, out of the laps lane and into the open area where I could do my ‘aqualates’, unchallenged. I invented this when Jim and I were swimming at the condo.  Because my arms are so weak now, I can only swim a bit and then I work my flabby abs and arms in a combination of moves that makes me think of Pilates in water.  When I saw Lusia leaving, I joined her in the sauna, my favorite part of any visit to the Rec. Centre.  As I had walked there, we left in her car and drove to a Starbucks for our first session of Korean/English.  Lusia, like my last year’s friend, Misoon, drives a Mercedes.  Understandably, Koreans do not want to drive Japanese cars, but I haven’t yet figured out why they are so keen on, let alone how they can afford, Mercedes.  Misoon and her husband owned a car wash; they had owned a gas station before that, and Lusia and her husband also own a gas station.  Oh well, it’s none of my business, and I have enough to learn about the Korean language to keep me occupied without concerning myself with the question of whether or not owning car washes and gas stations is a way to get rich quickly.  It seems as if I will probably be tutoring her 2 children as well, which will bring my total to 5.  We are still working out a schedule that suits us all.  At $20.00 an hour, I certainly won’t get rich, but neither will I be bored, and I like the Koreans I’m meeting.  Wait until Jay finds out that Lusia has a 33 year old neice who has lived and worked in Canada for about a year but is now back in Seoul and would probably like to meet him and have a Korean/English exchange with him, similar to mine with her.  She mentioned it today, but I didn’t hold out too much hope that anything would come of it.  I laughed when I thought of a way to compare English Canadians and Koreans.  From reading books like David Copperfield, we have the understated attitude of, “Barkis is willin’,” while my limited experience with Koreans has led me to generalize that, ‘Koreans is keen.’  They are formal and polite when you meet them, but if they get an idea into their heads, they will pursue it.  And they know what they can do and have accomplished.  Even John, the little boy in grade 5 that I tutor, informed me in one of our first lessons that the Koreans have replaced the Scots as the premier ship builders in the world.  I actually spoke a bit of Korean with Lusia today and think we will enjoy our Wednesday meetings.

The second espresso machine works, and I have enjoyed many cappuccino mornings.  I haven’t been skiing again, but I’ve walked a lot.  There’s still no snow in town and the weather is perfect for fast walks, so I’m not tempted to ski, but downhill opens at Silver Star tomorrow, so I’m going to go on Friday.  I’ll probably cross country ski though because I only have one pair of downhill skis and it sounds as if there’s not quite enough snow yet to cover all the rocks on the downhill slopes.    

One of the older crosses in the Vernon Cemetery, where my dad's sister is buried.  It simply says that he was electrocuted in 1913

This boy died when the Okanagan Hotel burned in 1909

These men also died when the Okanagan Hotel burned in 1909.  I wonder if the reason why there are no women listed is that they didn't even have 'ladies and escorts' drinking areas in those days.

A view from the walk along the old Grey Canal.

The bleak good old days

Subject:  Trolley Buses

_

 

Click on the red dot Port Arthur, Fort William.   I recognized quite a few buildings that are no longer around.

This one will bring back memories for us who rode the buses on a daily basis. Note the buildings and cars from the era. 

Hi there, noticed on the TV news recently that the local city transit is thinking of taking the two local restored trolley buses out of their garage and storing them outside (protected in some fashion from the elements). Found this site: www.trolleybuses.net that has a collection of photos of the local buses of PA & FW in various locales throughout the two former cities. Loved to see the old buildings and the cars in the background.

Hi Marg,

How are you?  Where are you?  Thanks for sending me the video about the trolley buses in Fort William.  What a kick to scroll through them and see the old place.  It all looked so stark.  It reminded me of pictures you see about cities and towns in the old East Germany.  I had forgotten that we lived in that bleak place and time.  Our whole life seems to be so much more decorative now.  

I went cross-country skiing 2 days ago.  It was great, but about a day later I had an ache in the groin which I still feel a bit today.  I felt so full of energy when I was on the trail, congratulating myself on the good shape I was in, but each activity strains a new spot in an old body.  I hadn't known that the motto of Fort William was: 'a posse ad esse'.  I looked it up and discovered it more or less means: from possibility to reality.  I guess you could apply that to us.  Now we are in the stage of grim reality.

Thanks for keeping us all in touch.

Jan

New Tricks

It’s 1:00pm Monday, November 19, 2012, and it’s been raining steadily since early last night.  It’s warm, about 9c., but dreary.  I hope the cedars are happy.  When I talked with Jay last night it was raining there too.  The weather in Incheon isn’t too much different from that in Vernon at the moment, but we have snow in the hills. 

Yesterday I had a great cross-country ski with Mo.  We had talked about it on Saturday night but neither one of us was really keen on going by Sunday morning.  We didn’t even phone each other until after 9, and if it hadn’t been for the other, neither would have gone, but together we did go.  When I saw the snow getting thicker on the spruce trees as we approached Silver Star, I felt mildly excited, but as soon as I got out of the warm car in the parking lot, I wanted to get back in.  It felt cold, it was grey, I’d never cross-countried here before, and we had no idea where the trails were.  Why were we here?  But neither of us said a word.  We shouldered our skis and started to walk to the centre of the village.  There, we encountered about 5 of the people who form the heart of the Vernon Outdoors Club, just as I did last year when I went up alone for the first day of skiing.  I pushed myself harder last year; I had to if I wanted to make a life in Vernon.  Now that I have established myself a bit, I am tempted to settle into my default position, which can be pretty sedentary.  The encounter with these VOC keeners did what it always does, gave us a needed boost.  We saddled up and had a wonderful ski.  The snow was perfect.  It never got really sunny, but the clouds cleared a bit, the air was bracing and within 2 minutes I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.  We went to Paradise Cabin and back, only about 10k, but it felt great.  I had put on the right wax.  We had something to eat in the village and even did a bit of shopping up there.  As usual when I shop with a friend, I got more excited than I do alone and bought a pretty splashy top for the Christmas season and winter in general, not a bad day considering the little hope I had for it when I got up.

Today it was the necessity of domestic chores that got me up.  I stripped the bed and started a white wash.  Then I approached the espresso machine that I had finally bought on Saturday, after having wanted one since I moved to Vernon over 2 years ago.  I’ve always been short tempered with appliances and all purchases that require the reading of manuals to operate.  I usually run my eyes over the instructions, picking up the essentials, rush to get the thing operational and hope I haven’t done something irredeemably wrong.  If it doesn’t work right away, I feel like throwing it out and going back to whatever relic from the Ark I was using before I bought it.  Now that I’m old and retired, I am trying to take advantage of the fact that although I don’t have a lot of time left on the planet, I do daily have more of it in which to fiddle with things calmly.  It’s not easy to jettison the conditioned reflexes of a lifetime, but if Jim’s example of slowly learning to let go of the petty stresses of life and gracefully accept the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,’ didn’t teach me a lesson in patience, I really am incorrigible.  The mere unpacking of the Breville box taxed my new resolve.  Each of the many individual bits was bubble wrapped, taped and fitted into a specially molded space in a thick piece of white Styrofoam.  It was a masterpiece of waste, the non-recyclable foam, the packers’ time and mine.  But it was admirable how each piece fit so perfectly.  The designing and making of these packaging systems for shipping goods from China to the rest of the world must require entire departments and employ thousands.  I now had all the parts in front of me, the manual open and was ready to begin.  I read carefully for once.  I ground the newly purchased espresso beans as directed and tamped them into the filter using the cunningly sculpted end of the measuring spoon, heated the unit, filled the water reservoir,   plugged the machine in, waited for the orange light to go out to indicate that all was ready, turned the dial to the little cup that indicates the espresso position and waited.  There was a grumbling noise but no water flowed out.  None ever did and after many patient minutes and reworkings I gave up.  Still calm and this after no coffee and noting that it was almost 10:00am., I repacked everything.  I had a whole plastic bag full of molded pieces of Styrofoam that I couldn’t begin to put around the right parts.  After a bowl of cereal and a press-café made with my trusty old Canadian Tire Bodum knock off, I gathered everything up and went to London Drugs to return it.  The woman at the customer service desk was even calmer than I was.  She asked only a few questions about my efforts to make it work, but even these tested my resolve to remain in control of my temper.  However, I passed, and she told me to go get another.  My patience was rewarded because she didn’t write a note on my bill to the effect that I had returned the first, so I can, if necessary, return this one too.  What she doesn’t know is that last year I returned 2 push lawnmowers to Canadian Tire before I finally got one that I could use.  The new box is sitting on the kitchen counter.  I’m not going to tackle it until tomorrow.   

Remembrance Day

It’s four o’clock on Sunday, November 11, 2012; the sun’s going down on what was a mostly grey day.  I talked on the phone yesterday with mom and dad about the fact that if we wanted to watch the Remembrance Day Service live on CBC television, we would have to be up at 7:30 am this morning.  Mom, although this must have been the case ever since they moved to BC more than 30 years ago, seemed to take it as another unanticipated arrow from outrageous fortune’s quiver, aimed specifically at her.  She just couldn’t believe it was happening and couldn’t imagine getting up in time.  She was in a low ‘lorn’ mood, brought on by living so long either with or in dread of pain.  Her only other gear is full tilt enthusiasm, and she soon shifted to that when I mentioned I had made the Christmas cake and already given it the first sprinkling of brandy.  She and dad have always liked sweets, but lately they love them, in spite of the fact that mom always used to say, “You can’t love an inanimate object, Jan.”

I was awake around 7:30, so I turned on the tv and watched the ceremony in Ottawa as I prepared for the day.  I actually sat down just before eleven for the Last Post, gun salute, Lament, Rouse and fly past.  It was very moving; I thought of both dad and Jim, especially when the lone piper played.  After breakfast, I dressed warmly and walked to the Westbild Centre in Vernon where the service here was being held inside.  As I was unsure of where the place was and walking quickly because of the cold, I ended up blocks past my destination by the time I went into a gas station to ask where it was.  A young man who was filling up his car asked me if I wanted a ride there, but as I was still early, I thanked him and walked back.  At first the whole scene was a bit depressing, a hockey arena.  But there were lots of people there, a good band, a pipe band, and aside from a boring clergyman who was MC and a couple of awkward speakers, it was a moving ceremony.  There were many wreaths laid by people in a variety of uniforms.  Among them, the most exotic were the representative from the Knights of Columbus and the two Knights Templar.  When the latter were announced as they went to lay their wreath, I was stunned.  I had been watching them and wondering who they were.  There was nothing as extravagant as they were at the War Memorial in Ottawa.  Knights Templar!  The last time I had heard of them was in a documentary on the Knowledge Network a long time ago.  I associated them with the Crusades and the Island of Malta.  What were they doing in Vernon, BC.  I looked them up when I got home, and the Knights Templar have a Sovereign Great Priory of Canada branch here, Preceptory #72, Okanagan, Vernon.  I found it on Google maps.  It’s about six blocks from where I live, near the Phoenix Steak House, so I guess that it wasn’t just one bird that rose from the fire.  And judging by the hats these fellows were wearing, that bird is lucky if it has any feathers left at all.

On Saturday night I went with Mo and John to see the new Bond movie, ‘Skyfall’.  I hadn’t even thought about going, but I’m very glad that John suggested it and was able to get tickets on line.  It was sold out and well worth seeing.  I didn’t see ‘Dr No’ in 1962, but it eventually was the fist James Bond movie I ever saw.  I fell in love with Sean Connery.  Daniel Craig is grittier but equally attractive, and this time there is the added spice of Javier Bardem as the evil Raoul Silva.  They’re both good actors, and the make up work done on Javier Bardem is shocking, especially in one scene.  The opening action scene was even better than in ‘Casino Royal’ and ‘Quantum Solace’.  It was followed by a mix of the new, troubled, rugged, beer-drinking Bond and the classic, suave, shaken-not-stirred 007.   I can see why it’s making billions; the trailers we saw before it, and they were numerous as the theatre had a huge captive audience to pitch to, looked pretty unappealing to me.  Bond hits a wide market.

The only other news is that I’m having a crisis with my hair.  I put in an auburn shade of the non- permanent color that I often use, not realizing that I had had real dyed streaks put into my hair before going east in August.  Well, the dyed parts turned bright cellophane red and the rest stayed mousy brown and grey.  What a mess.  I thought of rubbing the left over walnut casings that I had used with such success on the floor into my hair, but Mo suggested what I had also thought of; it might go green like Anne Shirley’s.  Anyway, a day later I did try it on a strand, which didn’t go green, and then on the whole head.  I boiled the walnut leftovers with a bit of vinegar, and when this brew cooled, I held my head over the sink and poured it on.  What a mess of bits of walnut husk everywhere, and to little effect.  It took me ages to rinse it all out.  Then Mo let me try a dark dye/rinse that she uses.  It dulled the red a bit more.  I hope I’ve slaked my thirst for experimentation.  I’m going to stay as I am for a while.  At least I no longer look like a Christmas hamper at a rural bazaar.  I can live with this color, and as I’m living alone, I don’t have to worry about Jim telling me I look like a cashier at the IGA as he did after one of my earlier hair experiments. 

I awoke at 7:30 this morning, Monday, to a layer of snow on the ground that justified getting out and shoveling.  It was so quiet and warm that I went beyond my civic responsibility of the front sidewalk and cleaned off the car and parking area too.  It continued snowing, but because the parts I had shoveled were bare, the new stuff didn’t stick and now it has stopped and they’re still clear.  The temperature is supposed to rise to 4 today, so it is an easy adjustment to winter so far.

A Knight of Columbus and two Knights Templar at the Vernon Remembrance Day Service

An Oregon Grape with snow on it

Jay, Ginhee, May and Minhee at the latter's birthday lunch

Nov. 6, 2012 Finally, it's election night.

CBC radio has been bombarded this week by complaints, tweeted, e-mailed and phoned in about stores and advertisers pushing Christmas sales before the candles have been blown out in the Halloween Pumpkins.  One retailer was persuaded to turn off the carols until mid November.  I haven’t been too aware of it in Vernon, but I did see candy canes for sale at the corner store when I bought the ‘Globe’ on Sat.  I actually appreciated the nudge because I was putting off the annual baking of fruitcake and that finally made me accept the inevitable.  After an idle hour or so with coffee and the ‘Globe’ at The Bean Scene, I walked home, got into the car and drove to the Bulk Barn to buy the nuts and fruits for it.  I always take the Joy of Cooking that my mother gave me at my wedding shower when I go to buy the ingredients.  The woman at the cash saw it in all its stained and duct tapped glory and commented.  It turned out that I got it the year she was born.  Yikes!  And I’ve been making this dark fruit cake since about ten years after I got the book.  You’d think I’d have memorized the quantities, but I haven’t.  I alter them a bit each year and really have only to remember that I need one pound of nuts and seven of fruit, 15 eggs and a pound of butter.  Next year I won’t take it.  It’s too old to leave the house, and if I don’t remember what I need to make a cake that I’ve been baking for about 25 years, I’m too old to leave home too.

The other excitement last week was picking walnuts at Bert and Peggie’s.  I went on Friday afternoon and picked a big white pail full.  It was a warm day, and I enjoyed it as usual.  Bert picked the last of his beets, potatoes, and carrots and gave me a bag full, so it was a day of harvesting.  Jules and Carol and Peggie’s mom joined us for dinner.  The nuts are spread out on newspaper on the basement floor, drying.  I also brought home a small bag of the mushy dark coating that covers the nuts and that we try to get off before putting them in the pail.  I had heard that the dye in them is a wonderful stain for the kind of wood floors I have.  It’s true.  After being moved into and out of by 3 groups of people the wood floors in the house had some chips and scratches on them.  I have now rubbed these with walnut mush, and they are no longer visible.  Writing of floors reminds me that the back yard looks the best that it has all year, covered in a golden carpet of freshly fallen leaves.  

I will be in the library tutoring my Korean students from 4 to about 8 this afternoon and then home to turn on the tv and find out who won the US election.  I hope that there are no big problems, that we are finally liberated from the endless exposure to ads., anger and outright lies and that Obama wins.  Dick and Ellen have been on my mind lately because I thought they might be in the Chicago area prior to leaving for Mexico on the first of November.  I wondered if the winds from Hurricane Sandy would have altered their flight plans, but when I went on the blog this afternoon I saw that it had been picked up in Mexico this week, so I guess they made it there safely and will be watching the election results tonight from wonderful, warm PV.  Adios amigos. 

Yesterday's bike ride to Lavington

An Oregon Grape bedecked with maple leaves

Hallowe'en 2012

Happy Hallowe’en!!!!!  Nothing freaky has happened here yet, but the ghouls and zombies won’t come out until tonight.  I hope to pacify them with small chocolate bars that I bought a big box of at Canadian Tire.  I’m beginning to wonder what I would do without Canadian Tire and London Dugs.  I think I solved my ‘water feature’-for- eliminating-the-sounds-of-annoying-neighbors problem this week by buying an inexpensive c.d. player that was on sale at London Drugs.  Finding a c.d. of the sounds of water was not as easy as I had anticipated, however.  After visiting stores in Vernon and phoning HMV in Kelowna, with no success, I searched on line and discovered a site called ‘Partners in Rhyme’ that had a c.d. entitled, ‘Soothing Waters’.  It’s in the mail.  I can’t wait to try it.  The c.d. only cost $4.95 because what I actually bought, for $15.95, was a download for an mp3 or whatever, which I don’t have.  It was not possible to buy  the c.d. without the download, but the bonus is that it’s on my laptop now, so I can listen to a babbling brook whenever I want to.  In fact I think I’ll turn it on right now.  Just a minute.  Ahh, that’s lovely.  There’s a soft tinkle of bells behind the sound of water flowing over rocks, how soothing.  I think I remember seeing something about this tape being associated with a meditation group when I was looking at the many nature sound downloads that were available.  I don’t think I have enough patience to even think about meditating, but after living with this babbling brook for a while, who knows where my head will be.  As the cold approaches, the neighbors move indoors, but I’ll be ready for a serene spring.

I saw a really good movie last week, which many of you have probably seen already, ‘The Intouchables’.  My Mac wants to correct the spelling, but it’s a French film, and although they changed the title for distribution in the U.S., they didn’t in Canada, although they did replace the ‘les’ with ‘the’.  I think it was a good idea because this is a bilingual country, so it catches your attention and hints at the fact that these two men finally do get ‘in touch’, very touchingly.  Enough!  It’s the story of a rich French quadriplegic and a black man who becomes his care-giver, in spite of or perhaps because of the fact that at first he categorically refuses to have anything to do with touching intimate parts of his employer.  Speaking of bilingualism, Canada is becoming more and more multilingual.  I heard on the CBC this week that Tagalog, the language of the Philippines is now the most rapidly growing first language in households in Canada.  Continuing with the Vernon cultural scene, I went with Priscilla to see Verdi’s ‘Otello’ at the cinema last Saturday morning.  I was drawn to it by the fact that Renee Fleming was Desdemona.  She was wonderful, perhaps a bit old for the part, but beautiful and her voice is easy and soaring.  The surprise for me was Iago.  I know very little about opera, but the man who sang the role, Falk Struckmann, was the best Iago I’ve ever seen or heard.  He had a wonderful baritone voice and his presence on stage was evil incarnate.  The tenor who played Otello was less impressive in every way but girth.  He was huge, but even at that, he was destroyed in the battle between good and evil that enveloped him in the voices and actions of Desdemona and Iago.  Priscilla and I were so moved by the final act that we didn’t leave our seats for a while, and when we did we were alone in the theatre except for about six people who were about three rows behind us quietly trying to take the pulse of an older woman who was slumped in her seat.  She appeared to be dead.  The manager of the theatre was at the front on his cell phone to 911.  There was nothing for us to do so we left, speaking softly about how there are worse ways to go than sitting comfortably in a theatre listening to Renee Fleming sing Ave Maria just before her murder at the hands of Otello.

On that note of the victory of evil over good, I will wish you all a Happy Hallowe’en.  

Fields and hills as we began the last of the Sunday hikes in Kal Park last Sunday

Hikers holding hands around the biggest pine in Kal Park

Scratch marks left by a bear on the above tree

Jay as Harry Potter on Hallowe'en at his school in Incheon.  He thought it was a pretty feeble effort, but I didn't.

Inspired by the photo Jay sent me, I tried to carve a Harry Potter pumpkin for tonight.  The lightening bolt was beyond me.

Winter's near

I suited up and gathered the last of the horse chestnuts yesterday.  It’s too bad they’re not a cash crop.  I have boxes of them, which I will have to get rid of bit by bit in the garbage.  For now, they are stacked in the garage across from the summer tires.  I needed my neighbor’s help to get the winter tires on their cheap, heavy rims into the car last Sunday, but he’s young and strong and was willing to help.  I went to Kelowna last Monday to have the Mazda’s fall checkup; they changed the tires.  They said it was a free service, but I paid $110.00 for that, a free car wash, the few other things that they did and the peace of mind I get from meeting the requirements of the warranty.  Now my baby has her ugly, black winter rims, but she’ll get me to Victoria for Christmas, I hope.  This morning as I had breakfast I saw snow on the roof of a car that was parked at the shrinks’ clinic next door and in the hills beyond the church.  When Priscilla phoned, I discovered that it was snowing at her place, just a few hundred feet above me on East Hill, so I’m glad I did the things I did this week and gave the cedars a good watering too yesterday.  Some of them are having a very slow recovery from the drought they experienced when I was ‘back east’ for the three hottest weeks of the summer in August.  Winter is just a few hundred feet away.  And the US election is only 2 weeks off.  It’s been so long coming that I’ll be glad to see the end of it, unless Romney wins, unless Romney wins.  Another reason I’m glad I have a PVR is that I’ve been able to record and then flash through the debates.  Listening to the comments made after the fact by Shields and Brooks and a few other pundits on PBS and CBC is enough for me.  

I’m beginning to think of this blog, ‘The West Commences’ in a less literal, more metaphorical way.  I’m quite established in Vernon now and will stay as long as mom and dad are in Victoria and Jay is in Korea and for who knows how long after that.  My time in the West of Canada is no longer commencing, but I am moving toward the end of my days.  I’ve never liked the expression, ‘The Golden Years.’  And ‘The Gray Days’ is a bit too far the other way, so ‘The West Commences’ will continue as an account of my journey, more in time than space.  There’s a technological aspect to this decision too; it’s easier and less risky than going through the process of changing the title on Google, notifying my friends and relations of the fact and running the risk of losing their attention, which I appreciate very much.  This tendency to work in my mind with what I have and where I am before exerting the effort required to change the material world is not the attitude on an inventor.  In fact it can seem rather complacent and lazy, but it does give one time to look at what is and sometimes find the good and/or the beautiful there before rushing to alter externals.  It’s a bit of a mugs game, trying to place oneself in the perfect spot with the most desirable people.  Where is it?  Who are they?  What am I?

Here I am biking, hiking and keeping in touch with friends.

The last bike of the season to the House of Rose Winery, a rather wet one but fun.

The 2nd last hike, to the Adams River near Salmon Arm

Another shot of the Adams River 

The birds are finally coming to the red tree and feeder.  The car in the background has snow on the roof.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

I was wakened this morning by the thudding of horse chestnuts on the wooden deck outside my bedroom window.  A strong wind was whipping them all over the back yard.  I opened the blinds on a grey day and crawled back under the covers.  When I finally got out of bed and put on the coffee, it was without much enthusiasm. It seemed as if the only thing I’d be doing outside today was putting on the bike helmet and picking up horse chestnuts. I now wear armor for that job, after being struck on the head by a few of the spiky maces last year.  It’s not my favorite task.  Postponing the inevitable, I phoned Cathy Van to see how she’s recovering from knee surgery.  It seems as if all is healing as  well as can be hoped.  Then my phone rang.  It was Mo, wondering if I wanted to go for a bike ride with her and John.  Looking outside for the first time in a while, I discovered that the same wind that had shaken my horse chestnut tree had blown the clouds out of the sky and clear blue was approaching.  I got into my biking gear, helmet and all, and by the time they came to pick me up for the ride, I had most of the fallen nuts in a box.  We rode around Swan Lake and had lunch at a Thai restaurant downtown.  It was a wonderful fall ride and now the back yard is again littered with horse chestnuts.  It’s almost 3:30, so I’m going to dress and go to the library to tutor the 3 Korean students I have.  I’ll be back by 7:30 to finish this.  

Tutoring is getting organized.  I like the kids and am adjusting to the fact that from the point of view of English skills, the youngest, the boy, is the strongest and the oldest is the weakest.  She has a lot of trouble reading because she doesn’t understand complex verb tenses and her vocabulary is limited and yet she’s in grade 11 and has to do a book report.  I chose some books for her to try, and she’s going to see what her teacher thinks.  But no matter what, it’s going to be a struggle.  I can hardly believe she’s been here since January of her grade 9 year and has never had tutoring before.  Her mother should have done this earlier because she has learned a lot of bad habits from other kids and when you think of the sacrifice her parents are making with the dad working in Korea and the mom here with the two girls all that time, it’s a pity they didn’t start sooner to get more help in English for the oldest daughter.  The sister of the boy is in the middle as far as ability in English is concerned.  She speaks better than I thought she did when I first heard her.  She wears a device to straighten her teeth, which apparently makes her almost as unintelligible in Korean as she is in English, but her actual level of language and her vocabulary are good.  Unfortunately, however, she is studying French for the first time this year, and I’m trying to help her with that too.  It sounds as if all the teeth are going to tumble out of her mouth, along with some pebbles, when she tries to speak that language.  It’s going to be a challenge, but they like me and I like them, so half the battle is over.  I still enjoy working with kids and now that I am living alone I require the structure this teaching and the volunteering I do gives to my life.  It helps me to appreciate the hiking, biking and free time I have and gives me a sense of purpose.

The back yard littered with horse chestnuts again after the bike ride

Why I wear a bike helmet

Some of the last roses of summer

The best of the last roses of summer

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The glorious fall carries on.  I am spending a lot of the time in the garden.  The days are bright and sunny and the temperature rises to about 20 or 25celcius, but the nights are often near zero, so it’s impossible to ignore the fact that winter is approaching.  I also decided to have some repairs done to the stucco near the foundation of the house and was lucky to be able to contact the woman who had worked on the place about 5 years ago.  Houses in this area shift a bit because they are on clay, but there is a new caulking that she has just learned about that expands and is designed for this kind of problem.  She’s working on that while I get the garden ready for the cold.  I’m finally really trimming the roses.  This process revealed a tree peony that I hadn’t realized was as beautiful as it is.  It’s leaves last all season and turn from green to a dark burgundy red in the fall.

 The birds seem to be having trouble adjusting to the newly painted red tree at the side of the house from which their feeder now hangs, but I’m hoping that they will accept it as the cold forces them to find new sources of food.  A neighbor’s cat is not helping them make this transition.  It sits in a sunny spot near the red tree, in hope of their arrival.  I shoo it away whenever I see it.  So both enemies and friends eagerly await the return of the birds.

I think I’ve finally gone overboard with tutoring and volunteering.  I now have 3 Korean students as well as Jessica, the woman with whom I exchange English lessons for Korean lessons.  I have 2 evenings in October when I will be a volunteer usher at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre and I am going to volunteer again this winter with the Silver Star Adaptive Ski Program.   I don’t know what’s happening with my student at Immigrant Services. She has severe health problems and an abusive husband, so we have not had many classes lately, but I’m keeping that time open.  I had also attended a morning course on how to help elementary students with reading problems, but when they sent me the proposed schedule, I had to withdraw and ask to be placed on the supply list because I couldn’t go at the times they suggested.

I have hit another pothole on the road to surgery on my right shoulder.  The 11/2 year wait I was told I had in March has now been extended indefinitely as the surgeon is no longer doing surgery.  I may try to get a surgeon in Kamloops or just decide to live as I am.  I can do most of what I want to do and am in no pain.

There will be no pictures this week.  I had hoped to be able to include photos taken on Sunday, September 30 at the Vernon Cemetery where I met three cousins that I had never seen before.  They came here from the Vancouver area to celebrate the interring of their mom’s, my father’s oldest sister’s, ashes with those of her husband.  Dad had asked me to go, and I did so happily.  They welcomed me into the group.  We had Scotch and Champagne at the plot and went on to lunch at a local restaurant.  The pictures were taken by my cousin’s daughter.  She sent me some, but they are not in a format that I can put in the blog at the moment.  We were talking about how we had never got together before and how reclusive some members of our family are.  They said that their mom, ‘kept herself to herself,’ and dad is very much like that too.   He’s pleasant with any people he meets, but doesn’t seek their company.  Mom’s always been his social convener.