The West Commences: Stability

It’s been a week like all weeks, filled with the mundane matters that have to be done to stay alive, but this one had more than its share of incidents that called into question my mental and physical stability. It began with a quiet Monday in which the highlight was a trip to Canadian Tire to buy ugly winter rims and have the tires changed in preparation for winter. Tuesday started off well, with a Ramble to a beautiful location above Lake Okanagan. For the first time, I felt confident enough to volunteer to be the ‘sweep’. This involves carrying a radio, staying at the back to make sure no one is left behind and counting the gang at 3 different spots. I volunteered before everyone arrived and found the counting part stretched my capacities to stay focused and count people as they passed me. There were 49 by the time we left. All went well, but when I got home things took a turn for the worse. I decided to go into the garage and continue my preparations for winter by bringing in the skis to see what work had to be done on them after over two years in a bag. I couldn’t see them in the spot where I was sure Bert had put them on the day I moved. I called him, hoping that I was wrong and they were in his garage. They weren’t. He and Peggy listened and calmed my nerves, especially concerning how deflated I felt about someone having got into the garage and stolen the skis. It shook my faith in what I had believed to be my safe neighborhood. They suggested that I tell the police, which I did on Wednesday after seeing the optometrist whose office is near the RCMP station. I also called a woman I know who got me interested in the handicapped ski program. She said she had a pair of skis I could use until I did whatever I was going to do. I decided to move things I didn’t want stolen out of the garage and into the basement. As I was doing that, I saw some boards left over from the renovations that looked all crooked, so I went to straighten them, and you guessed it. Behind them were the skis. Right where I had cunningly hidden them shortly after the move, too smart by half. I was really happy to have my faith in the neighborhood restored, but now my faith in my memory was in tatters. I talked with Ina on Skype shortly afterwards, and my admission of vapidity prompted her to tell me that for about 2 years now she has had a notebook in her desk which she has entitled, ‘Where did I hide that?’ into which she writes down where she has hidden some pieces of valuable jewelry and to whom she has lent what books. I felt a little less alone in my idiocy after our talk, but none-the-less concerned about my mental stability.

On Thursday I went to dinner with George and Marie, he’s a vet, and they rented our house while they built theirs. They are becoming good friends. I brought home their dog, Aussi tot, for the weekend while they went to see their daughter in Vancouver. I spell the dog’s name as I do because that’s how it sounds when Marie says it and as she’s originally from Quebec. I’m going to ask them about the name when they pick him up in about an hour. He’s a wonderful dog, and between him and the Sunday hike, I’ve walked my legs off this weekend. This brings me to the question of my physical stability, which was called into question this morning when I took Aussi tot for a walk before leaving for the hike. I thought he would need to have his morning turn out, but he didn’t. I however turned my ankle and fell flat on my face at the bottom of a few stairs on the walk. Fortunately I only bruised and bashed my nose and seem to have sprained a finger. So ends another week.