Mid Summer

It’s August 6, the heart of the summer holidays.  I had a good long chat with Jay this morning on Skype.  I heard about their trip to Jeju Island.  Jay was so excited about the wonderful pension they had by the ocean that he not only phoned me on the first morning but also texted a few people.  One of them was his good friend Frank who lives in Seoul.  Jay’s enthusiasm was so contagious that Frank got on a plane and joined them the next day.  Aside from a few line-up-and-look-at-the-site-with-a-lot-of-other-people experiences, it sounds as if they had a very good time.  As we talked, Jay had a towel in one hand and a cold drink in the other and was alternately wiping his dripping head or taking a drink.   Mom who follows the weather in Thunder Bay, Vernon and Seoul every day had told me Seoul had been hot lately.  Looking at Jay confirmed it.  He and May have bought a free-standing air conditioner which will sit in the living room and have a satellite unit in their bedroom.  It should be delivered tomorrow.  We talked a bit about what it takes to separate us from our savings.  It reminded me of the fable about the competition between the north wind and the sun to see who could make the traveler remove his cape.  The sun was the winner in the fable and it has proven to be so with us too.  Jay has parted with quite a few won in order to escape the heat, and I am presently sitting at my desk in air-conditioned comfort for the first time in two summers.  I like to experience the heat when we finally get it, and not having to pay Fortis for it is a bonus, but enough’s enough.  It’s been hot here too lately and last night it did not cool down as it usually does.

 The electricity has just gone off.  I had seen the trees in the back yard blowing in the wind and noticed that it was getting dark as I typed.  Suddenly there was a crack of thunder, the lights went out and I am now in the dark and it’s only 5:45pm.  It’s raining a bit but I wish it would pour.  If we’re without electricity, nature might as well at least take over the watering that I was going to do later. 

The electricity didn’t come on again until almost 10:00pm.  After sitting in a quandary for a while with my head racing around all the things I should but couldn’t do, I calmed down, made a salad with most of the vegetables left in the fridge plus some crushed tacos and cheese and ate.  A full stomach calms the mind.  I found candles, set them up in the sunroom because it was quite dark by then and stretched out on the futon to finish Anna Karenina, which I did.  The new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is very well done.  The first time I read the book, I was too young to really appreciate either the style or the content, but the combination of my age and an excellent translation made reading it a pleasure this time.  It’s long but Tolstoy’s writing is crystal clear.  He can describe physical, mental, emotional and spiritual states with intensity.  The chapters are short and each one grips you as you read it and encourages you to go on to the next.  I think that my background in the United Church of Canada, listening to the impassioned and eloquent sermons of the Rev. Stanley MacLeod prepared me for some of the long passages of inner turmoil.  

Now I’m looking forward to a trip back east to Ontario and Quebec as opposed to forward east to Korea.   Tomorrow at this time I will be at Bert and Peggy’s having dinner with the gang at their place, Tracey and her kids, Caroline and hers and Rob and Joanna.  My plane leaves at 8:30pm, and I arrive in London at 6:30 am local time.  Cathy will pick me up around 9:30 and the holiday begins.   

Wild flowers in a meadow on the way to Twin Lakes in the Monashees

Looking down on Twin Lakes where we had lunch on the Sunday hike.  I jumped into the nearest of the twins.  It was cold, but I've been in Lake Superior when it was colder.

The view from the top of the hill we climbed after lunch

The members of the VOC picking their way down a talus slope heading back