Hasta el proximo

The "Globe and Mail" didn't make it to Kelowna on Saturday.  The people at the Mac's where I get mine had no idea why.  Having missed my Sat. ritual of buying the 'Globe' and taking it to a coffee shop to enjoy with my one cup of caffeine for the week, I tried again on Sunday.  Imagine my joy when I reached for the "Globe", found it to be thick and discovered it was the Saturday one on Sunday.  Again, nobody could explain why. I'm still curious to find out what happened, but; whatever, I spent a good hour  at The Second Cup getting wired on news and real coffee.  The first section I open is 'Style', but only for the horoscope.  Jim always read the 'A' section first and then 'Style.'  He was the sartorial member of the marriage.  He read Beppi Crosariol and Leah McLaren; I think he was first attracted to her picture but then enjoyed her writing.  I left wine to him, and as Leah's picture didn't instantly get my attention and I often found her column a bit cloying, I left that to him too.  She's now in the Art's section, I think.  "The Globe" has gone glossy and changed a lot lately.  The part I like to read most and always have read first is 'Focus', Doug Saunders is my man, then the 'A' section and 'Arts' and 'Books.'  I go into this detail because it's part of a subject that fascinates me at the moment.  What things that Jim and I always did do I still do?  What do you do when you're on your own?  Of course, would I do even these things had I not spent years with him?  That, I will never know.  It's as futile as wondering if a falling tree makes a noise when it lands if nobody's there to hear it. Although I thought the Saturday 'Globe' tradition might fade away, it hasn't.  However, it used to involve some kind of sweet bun or muffin of my making, which it no longer does.  I'm not cooking as I used to and I never bake now.  Jim's favourite breakfast was always a sweet bun and I spent hours of my life baking such things.  Now I discover I prefer cereal with fruit and nuts, except on Saturday when I long for a cinnamon bun, which is very hard to find.  I have gone to three different coffee places in Kelowna and not found a good one yet.  I wonder if Gabe has them at Grounded?  If he does, I'm sure they're good; the lunch I had there before I left Ottawa certainly was.

I continue to enjoy a long walk every day.  Today the sun was bright, and I went along Mission Creek again.  As usual, the geese were in the air, honking between lake and orchard.  Peg says they spend the day at the dump, but I can't accept that.  It's bad enough that their sound is losing it's enchanting rarity, but to think that I might have to consider them along with rats in the dump is not bearable.

I talked with Jay of Skype this morning as we always do on Mondays, at about 6:30 a.m. my time and 11:30 p.m. his time.  I still am stunned by the fact that I have just been wakened by an alarm, thrown handfuls of cold water on my face to shrink the puffs around my eyes and opened the laptop to see Jay tired after a day's teaching and staying up watching some of his favourite downloaded shows as he waits for my call.  It takes us a while to get talking, which is uncharacteristic for both of us, but there's no rush on Skype.  We slowly adjust and bit by bit remember the things we want to say.  There are also usually moments spent playing with sound levels, pauses and pictures that go wonky.  In a few years or even months at the rate communications are improving, we will probably laugh at this system and remember it as the equivalent of the old ship to shore radios, but it's a wonderful miracle to me at the moment.  Imagine, he's in Korea, and I see and talk to him every week.  He says that Seoul is cold now although hardly below zero and with little snow.  They don't seem to have much in the way of snow removal equipment, and there's nowhere to put the snow anyway.  The streets are narrow and people park everywhere, even double park.  They leave their cellphone numbers clearly on the dashboard for people to phone if they need the car moved.  Jay was given a new smart phone by the school today; you can't leave home without them in Seoul.  Even the kids in grade 2 don't copy the homework from the board; they take a picture of it on their smartphone.   I was happy to hear that the tension between the 2 Koreas is still being taken in stride by most people on the streets of Seoul.

On Tuesday, Nov. 30 I fly to Calgary to spend the night with Jo and  then fly to the Mayan Riviera on Dec. 1.  I just found out that Ina and Ted will be in Playa del Carman for part of the time that I am at the Reef Playacar, which is supposed to be within walking distance of that town; we might get together.  I'm not going to take the laptop, I'm looking forward to a week unplugged.  I'll be back around Dec. 10.  Is that a threat or a promise?

Hasta el proximo, amigos.