The West Commences: Summer

Now it’s hot in the Okanagan. But as with the rain, not as catastrophic as in southern Alberta, so with the heat, not as fierce as in California. However, the humidity here on Canada Day was unusually high and made the 35 degrees feel drippingly hot. Around 10:30am, I walked over to Polson Park to listen to the music and wander among the food and entertainment stands. Fortunately, I ran into my friend Noreen who was there with her son and his family, sitting under a tree on a big blanket. I joined them and at least escaped the sun. There were lots of people there, almost all dressed in red and white. Even the mayor, a rather sober seeming man was wearing a floppy red and white Cat in the Hat thing on his head. As always, the ladies from the Philippines were, serving small spring rolls redolent of garlic and tender pork skewers, so lunch was no problem. Noreen came back to my place later in the afternoon, and then I drove her to her son’s. By the time I had dug a trench to keep the water around the cedars, watered them and had dinner, I didn’t have the energy to walk to the fireworks at the military camp, so I watched tennis at Wimbledon on tv and stood on the front porch talking with my neighbor Donna as the firecrackers boomed. We could see all the high ones very well.

This morning on the radio I heard one of the announcers admitting that she felt guilty about the fact that she and her husband didn’t like to turn on the air conditioning. She said that they used fans for as long as they could. The other announcer ridiculed her. I wanted to call her up and tell her that she should stop feeling guilty. I’m so brazen about it that I’ve elevated the not using of air conditioning to a virtue. However, when I tried this argument out in Korea last May, in a futile effort to convince Jay’s girls not to use the air in the place we stayed at near Seoraksan Nationl Park, Jay pulled me aside to reason with me. His argument was that the girls come from a blisteringly hot place where those who can use air conditioning do use it and would be institutionalized as mentally deficient if they didn’t. I had to accept this and shut up. Today I encountered a similar argument from my friend Miriam who comes from Ireland where they didn’t even have central heating in her youth. She firmly believes that if you can turn a switch and be comfortable, you should. I had the windows open all night last night and am carrying on without air. It’s still comfortably cool in the house, but if I can’t sleep tonight, maybe I will flip the switch. We cancelled our Tuesday morning hike today because of the heat. Miriam and I are going to go swimming at Jane’s on Lake Okanagan this afternoon. Jane says that most adults don’t seem to be going in beyond their knees, but I think I’ll be able to take it because the Gatineau River was considered too cold for swimming in by a lot of people and I liked it. It’s summer and the hills will soon be dry and camel colored again.