Eight days in October with the Van de Vyveres. Well, not fully 8 for me, but I had 2 dinners for seven here, more cooking than I’ve done in two years, went out to dinner twice at Bert and Peggy’s and enjoyed the company of Brian and Cathy at my house for two nights, lots of food, wine, talk, fun and even tequila. We tried it the MacMillan way, a Mexi-Caesar. It was good, but I still think I like tequila straight with salt first and lime after. I drank more than I have in months and spent today with my head feeling like an old sponge. I went from one household job to the next in a semi trance and then walked to the Town Cinema to see the bi-weekly Monday movie, “ The Guard’. It was ‘feckin’ great. For the first few minutes it seemed a bit clichéd, but it soon became an entertaining mix of profanity, brutality and humor which had me humming and smiling as I walked home.
The only other highlight of the week was buying a bike, which I finally did on Wed. After driving to Kelowna to have one last look at a Brodie, I came back to Vernon and bought a Trek. I had looked at one earlier, but on Wed., I was lucky because when I went back they had just put together a maroon Trek 7.2, 2012. That’s the model I wanted but in a better color than the 2011 one I had looked at. It was only ten dollars more, so I bought it. I spent a couple of hours on Thursday practicing working the gears and then rode up to the college to join some other bikers who were waiting there for Michael Schratter, a local man who has biked about 36,000 kilometers all over the world in the last year and a half trying to raise awareness and acceptance of the fact that about one in five Canadians suffers from some form of mental illness. He himself does. He hopes to raise money and fight the stigma that surrounds all mental and psychological disorders. He has a good blog called, ‘ridedon’thide.’ We had a police escort as we drove with him down to the Canadian Mental Health Association offices where the Vernon Vipers hockey team, the mayor and many others cheered him on. He made a very good speech and then there was a barbecue. By chance, I was in the background of the picture that made it into the local paper, so I’m a real Vernonite now and Brian Van de Vyvere has more to mock me with. He has always found the fact that I was a counselor at Sherwood Forest Girls’ Camp to be a source of hilarity and now my being a Vernon biker sends him into fits of laughter. I find it a bit funny myself, but as Jim used to say, “Go for it.”
Brian and Cathy at my house
Rob and his intended at my house after dinner. Because we won't be able to go to their wedding in England on Dec. 28, we celebrated with them this week.
The Trek
My friend Priscilla (in the blue jacket and bike helmet) approaching Michael Schratter who is her son's very good friend.
Nice bike!
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