Inversions

I received an email from Barb Steers yesterday telling me that Rod had died in the early   morning.  Although I knew he had declined recently, I was still struck by the news of his death.  The finality knocked the air out of me for a while.  Rod was such a good man, a genuine gentleman.  He helped Jim so much with tennis, and they had great laughs together.   As you get old, the loss of the people who lit up your life is harder to take than all the physical and mental diminishments that must be endured.   

This morning I got up at 6:30 to drive to the Kelowna airport to pick up Caroline and Albert.  They came back from Hawaii because Caroline is not feeling well.  Because it’s unclear what is wrong with her and given the cost of all things medical in the USA, they prefer to have the rest of the testing done in Canada.  I was happy to see that Caroline looks well.  Although she doesn’t feel perfect yet, she has stopped losing weight.  So the 3 of us are back rattling around the house, sleeping off and on, getting over jet lag, reorganizing and eating at odd hours.  The weather continues grey and cool.  I left early for the airport because there was talk on the radio of low cloud and mist along the lake.  I wanted to drive very carefully because I was using Al and Caroline’s car.   I seem to have been more concerned about damaging their car than injuring myself.   Tomorrow, we will find time to drive up to ‘the Star’ and catch a little sun, I hope.  Albert has to take their car into the Honda dealership to have new winter tires put on it, and they still have to repack for the drive back to Ottawa where they will experience part of the winter they had hoped to escape in Hawaii.  They will probably continue their winter in the islands in January, by which time all should be settled with Caroline.

Yesterday, I got back to swimming at the Rec. Center followed by coffee with Lusia.  As usual the sauna and steam bath were a highlight, but I missed Korea because the cold shower at the Vernon Rec. Center is not as exhilarating as the freezing waterfall and pool at the Blue Ocean jimjillbong.  I remained overheated until we walked outside into the bracing mists of October without our jackets on.  That felt good.  This season, I’m going back to studying Spanish; Korean has beaten me.  Instead of a language exchange, I’m going to help Lusia prepare for her citizenship test in the spring.

A view of the inversion below from the sunny lunch stop on Pincushion

Another inversion seen from the sunny side, this time on Tuesday's hike up Rose Swanson. 

Another shot of the inversion from Rose Swanson

Thanksgiving

It’s 11:10 am, Wed., Oct 16, and I’m sitting in the customer waiting room at Kelowna Mazda, waiting for the car to have its check up and tire change in preparation for winter.  I discovered when I returned to Vernon that cars must have winter tires on by Oct. 1 if they are going to go on the Coquihalla Highway or up to any of the ski areas, so I made the first appointment I could because I never know when I might have to drive to Victoria.  I certainly will be there for Christmas; I’ve already reserved accommodation at the best B&B in the city, actually the B&T in Vic. West.  Also, skiing might begin early in Nov.   Since I moved here, the earliest I’ve been cross-country skiing is Nov. 15, less than a month away.

Since I arrived home, we’ve had cool, cloudy weather, a bit of rain and some nights when the temperature has gone down to -1 or -2c, but the Thanksgiving long weekend was terrific, sunny and warm.  I went for 2 good hikes and ate 3 Thanksgiving dinners.  I could have had 4 but 2 of my friends lacked the foresight to coordinate their invitations and invited me for the same day.  Mo and Miriam’s dinners were both wonderful, especially because of their variety of vegetable mixtures.  My own Thanksgiving dinner for the Pollocks was the least well done of the 3.  I should have had more variety of veg. and the grain fed bird was tough.  Albert was kind enough to say that at least you knew you were chewing it, whereas the meat on most chickens and turkeys these days is too soft.  His comment reminded me of the cooking disaster I had had at Jay’s.  When we got back from Beijing, the girls were still away, so we bought 3 small chickens and everything needed to make rice-stuffed, slow cooker chicken.  I’d never tried such a thing, but with my usual unwarranted self-confidence, I roared right in.  The chickens were small, so I stuffed 2 of them with a dressing of raw rice, onion, garlic and thyme and then placed them in May’s big slow cooker with carrots, celery and water.  I let them cook for too many hours, and the result was a tasty mush.   I don’t know what the meat would have been like with less cooking, but by the time I took it out of the slow cooker, it was so soft you could have happily downed it without a tooth in your head.  The bones had some texture left, but even they were so soft you could easily have chewed them with loose dentures.  May, Min Hee and I liked the flavor and were able to eat it, but even we had had enough by the time Jay and May’s friend returned from his trip around Korea to spend a night with us before heading off again.  He’s a tall young man with an appetite like David Glovers’; they can eat mass quantities of almost any leftovers.  I offered the last of the mush to him, and he ate it all up.  May and I were happy to get rid of it so easily because wasting it would have upset us, but not as much as eating more of it would have.

Miriam and Bill posing in their kitchen for a 'Canadian Gothic'  Thanksgiving picture.  He's holding the gardening tool Jim fished out of the Gatineau River, and she's testing the turkey for doneness.  It's appropriate because she's a great cook and he loves gardening.

Me pointing at the fresh snow on the distant mountains just before sitting down for lunch on Bluenose, our Sunday hike.

Monday, October 6, 2013

The twice that I have gone to Korea, I have adjusted almost instantly to arriving there, but the return has not been so easy.  It has taken over a week to finally feel at home and in the right time zone.  But by now I’ve seen some good friends, had a bike ride, gone on a hike, worked in the yard, organized a tutoring schedule for my 3 students and tonight I will go to the film club to see a new version of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”  I’m back in the saddle again.  There’s a strong wind blowing leaves around and the sky is getting dark, so fall is here.

It was great to see Caroline and Albert at the Kelowna airport and drive home with them to a house that was in better shape than I had left it.  Caroline had done a lot of work in the yard, in the process of which she discovered how old and inefficient most of my tools are, so she had bought me many new things and a case to carry them in.  I have now experienced the joy of using these tools.  Albert repaired the back leg of the old leather couch that I had moved here more for sentimental reasons than anything else.  When the mover brought it into the house, I saw that the leg was missing but said nothing, as it was old.  I set it in its place under the living room window and put a fat paperback where the leg should have been.  There it was when Albert saw it; now it has a real leg, my dining room chairs have gliders that actually fit them and I finally have an outdoor clothesline.  Good friends are a blessing.

Inside the Blue Ocean Jjimjilbang in Song do, where I spent many a relaxing hour.

Caroline's niece Sharon, about to down her soju at the restaurant in Seoul where she and I enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Caroline and Albert at the Grey Monk Winery near Vernon

One of many teddy bears attached to trees on the trail we walked last Sunday in Myra Bellevue Park in Kelowna

I don't know which came first, the name of the junction or the teddy bears

This is my favourite.  If you push a button, he plays, "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head."