I spoke too soon.

Yesterday I talked on the phone with Barbara and Terry, and this morning I Skyped with Jay.  They all asked about mom and dad at some point, and I was happy; although, as usual touching wood, to tell them that at least dad hadn’t fallen since before Christmas.  Mom on the other hand is a little more Job-like in being visited by strange and painful plagues.  Most recently it has been some inexplicable welts or hives that pop up and itch all over her body and disappear just as she gets to the doctor’s office.  She is treating them with an over-the-counter antihistamine, which seems to have calmed them, so maybe it’s an allergy.  But this morning I returned from the Rec. Centre, checked the phone as always and saw the red light blinking to warn me of a message.  It was mom.  Dad fell yesterday and is in the hospital.  He had to go there because he was in such pain he couldn’t stand, even when the ambulance men got him upright.  And dad would stand if he could.  Although he used to say, “Never stand when you can sit; never sit when you can lie.” as he settled flat on his back on the bed for his daily afternoon nap, he knows that if he can’t stand and dress himself he can’t go back with mom to Shannon Oaks, so he’d stand now, even if it were in front of a firing squad.  I had a long talk with mom.  We agreed there’s nothing we can do, so she went to visit him, and I will await her news.

I read my last blog just before starting this one and realized I sound like a weather reporter.  Well, the weather is weird this winter.  I had a great ski on Saturday with John.  It was all thanks to Mo, who had to be at SSASS by 8:30am, so John and I were on the trail by then.  We went to Alder Point and on to After Me After You, even though it had not been groomed.  Conditions were fine.  We had a great time, lunch in the new cabin.  On the last leg of the ski home there was a bit of mist in the air, so I stopped to put on my visor.  Within minutes it was pouring down.  We were drenched by the time we got to the village at 1:00pm.  Had we started later, it would have been horrible for a much longer time because once you’re up there, there’s only one way down.

I’ve bought my plane tickets to and from Mexico from mid March to mid April and made arrangements to study Spanish for the first 2 weeks at a school in Guanajuato and meet Barb Steers there afterward.  Who knows if it will all happen?????  I did buy cancellation insurance on the flights.  Lately I’ve often thought about John Cleese’s joke:

                                    “ How do you make god laugh?”

                                    “ Tell him your plans.”

A view of the inversion below and the Monashees in the distance on the way to Alder Point

A view back at the downhill runs at Silver Star

Jan., 18, 2015

Sunday, January 18 and all is well in the west.  The weather in Vernon remains less than ideal, warmer than in the east and Incheon, but not great.  Cross-country skiing has been good on the groomed trails, and there’s finally some snow back on the trees at Sovereign and Silver Star. 

Yesterday I saw a very entertaining version of “The Merry Widow” live from the Met at the local cinema.  Renee Fleming was great as the widow, and her man, Nathan Gunn, was a happy surprise.  They made an attractive couple.  Kelli O’Hara played the ‘respectable wife’ with real zest for all that was less than respectable.  I had never seen Sir Andrew Davis before.  He’s a sprightly conductor. The dancers were excellent, and the whole production lively.  It lifts your spirit to watch such wonderfully joyous entertainment when so much of the news lately, especially from Nigeria and Syria but also France, Belgium and Canada is awful.

It seems to me that the disparity between rich and poor, whether it be nations or individuals is at the heart of most of the violence.  So many young people have nothing to either gain or lose, and governments do little to encourage society and individuals to be more generous.  Troubled, jobless and hopeless youth who can’t afford the gear to take up an extreme sport look to drugs and fanatics for thrills. 

On Wednesday, I went to Kelowna to see my Korean friend Lusia become a Canadian citizen.  The ceremony was well done, and the new Canadians looked truly happy.  Lusia was too, in her shy way.  Her son, the dynamic one in the family, whose idea it was to come to Canada in the first place, had his picture taken flanked by a Mounty, a judge and a picture of the queen.  I enthusiastically snapped pictures of the family, but none of them was worth keeping.

Jay and his gang laughing it up before the serious picture was taken to celebrate Woo Jin's first birthday

Woo Jin's first birthday formal photo

Jay hiking last week on Bugaksan in Seoul

The big snows, 1937 and 2015

Vernon weather is starting to disappoint me but my friends and neighbors aren’t.  After actively shoveling around the house all Monday and getting help from Taiyo’s family, I spent Tuesday sedentarily worrying about the load of snow on the flat roof  and googling for answers about what to do.  In retrospect, shoveling seemed to have been wonderful, outdoor exercise that accomplished so much.  By late afternoon, I had concluded that I should buy a roof rake, clear off most of the snow on the small sloping roof at the back, get a ladder, climb up on that roof and throw magnesium chloride as far as I could all over the flat roof to encourage melting so that the snow would turn to water and flow down the drain.  Mo and John thought this sounded dangerous and futile.  John suggested I wait and collect from the insurance company if the roof collapsed.  I agreed to the extent that I went skiing with them on Wednesday morning.  The skiing was crap because Silver Star had had much more rain on Tues. than Vernon had and Monday’s wonderful white had wrinkled and hardened.  The skiing was OK where the groomer had been but difficult elsewhere.  That afternoon my troublesome thoughts returned and I went out and bought a snow rake and a bag of calcium magnesium acetate (the closest compound I could find to what was recommended).  Then I couldn’t assemble the rake.  John agreed reluctantly to help me and did.  I phoned Taiyo to ask him to help me do the job, and this morning he arrived at ten to get it done.  He pulled the snow off the sloping roof with the rake, held the ladder as I climbed up and passed me bowls of chemical, which I threw on the flat roof.  There already seemed to be faint runnels tending in the direction of where I think the drain is.  I made pathetic efforts to aim the mitts full of chemical crystals at these to encourage them but all I really accomplished, I think, was an easing of my mental anguish.  I’m no great thrower.  At any rate, I’ve made an effort and I won’t think about it again.  I read this morning in ‘The Morning Star’ that the only time Vernon experienced a dump of snow greater than this one was in 1937.  That relieved me a bit because this house was built in 1934, so it survived the big one early in its life; its beams should be even harder in its old age.

The wrinkled old snow at Silver Star on Wednesday

The big snow of 2015

The ‘dusting’ of snow has become a dump.  Vernon had its first snow day in 35 years today.  I woke at 5:45am to Skype with Jay.  That went well as usual, and at 7:15 I happily headed outside to shovel.  So much snow had fallen overnight that I had to divide the yard into 3 sections.  It took me one hour to finish the front; then I had breakfast and tackled the walks around the house.  That took about an hour, so I went in for another break.  I was still enjoying the day, not too cold and the birds were chirping.  Finally I tackled the car and parking area.  That finally took the fun out of it.  The snow was dry but really thick.  The birds were still chirping but I wasn’t.  The car was buried, and by the time I had pushed all the snow off the roof and windows, it was no fun shoveling the surrounding hills that were higher than the tires. I took another break and went out to start all over again about 3 hours later.  This time it was easier.  I started at the car park and by the time I got to the front, I was pleasantly surprised to find Taiyo, the boy who looks after the house whenever I’m away, and his sister, mother and father finishing up the whole front area, including the public sidewalk.  What a great family!  It’s almost 6:00pm now, and I’m going to go out again for a round of shoveling when I finish this.  It’s still dropping snow, so I might have to go again before I sleep.  Of all the horrors of climate change that the world has been experiencing lately, this is minor, but it’s tiring.  The banks are so high I can hardly throw the snow over them.

Beautiful hoar frost on trees beside the cross country trail on Saturday

Snow starting to pile up on Monday morning. The purple finches love it, to be continued.

Happy New Year

Christmas is over; I’m working to get trim.  The weather is helping by snowing, which forces me to shovel, which I did as soon as I got out of bed, before too many paper boys and dog walkers had brought their heavy boots down on the sidewalk and made the light snow hard to remove.  It was only a dusting by Wakefield standards, but the fresh air and mild exercise were invigorating.  I had to twist and bend my stiff body a bit.  For breakfast I had coffee and oatmeal, a Spartan start.  But beginning the day on a diet is much easier for me to do than ending it that way.  I look forward in the evening to a glass of wine and a good dinner, which rarely includes raw vegetables and small portions.  As the night wears on I become the willing victim of cravings for sweet and/or salty treats. But my weak resolve was encouraged this morning by something I read in “The Morning Star.”  It is a quotation from William James:

                       

                         To change one’s life:

                                    1. Start immediately.

                                    2. Do it flamboyantly.

                                    3. No exceptions.

This blog is about as ‘flamboyant’ as I get, so I’ve begun with 1 and 2.  Number 3 is where the rubber hits the road.  More anon, or not.

After reading the paper, I ‘googled’ a bit about William James and came upon another quotation from him that struck me as meaningful for a new year:

                       

                        Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out

                         they’ve got a second.  Give your dreams all you’ve got

                         and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.

With these borrowed, pragmatic thoughts, I begin 2015 on the road to verbal and physical ‘trimness.’  I wish you all health and peace to carry out whatever resolutions you have for the New Year. 

My friends Terry and Barbara who live in the house with the cats between the bucks and the gulls

The fire near the rink at Silver Star on New Year's Eve

Silver Star village on New Year's Eve