The West Commences: Winter's near

I suited up and gathered the last of the horse chestnuts yesterday. It’s too bad they’re not a cash crop. I have boxes of them, which I will have to get rid of bit by bit in the garbage. For now, they are stacked in the garage across from the summer tires. I needed my neighbor’s help to get the winter tires on their cheap, heavy rims into the car last Sunday, but he’s young and strong and was willing to help. I went to Kelowna last Monday to have the Mazda’s fall checkup; they changed the tires. They said it was a free service, but I paid $110.00 for that, a free car wash, the few other things that they did and the peace of mind I get from meeting the requirements of the warranty. Now my baby has her ugly, black winter rims, but she’ll get me to Victoria for Christmas, I hope. This morning as I had breakfast I saw snow on the roof of a car that was parked at the shrinks’ clinic next door and in the hills beyond the church. When Priscilla phoned, I discovered that it was snowing at her place, just a few hundred feet above me on East Hill, so I’m glad I did the things I did this week and gave the cedars a good watering too yesterday. Some of them are having a very slow recovery from the drought they experienced when I was ‘back east’ for the three hottest weeks of the summer in August. Winter is just a few hundred feet away. And the US election is only 2 weeks off. It’s been so long coming that I’ll be glad to see the end of it, unless Romney wins, unless Romney wins. Another reason I’m glad I have a PVR is that I’ve been able to record and then flash through the debates. Listening to the comments made after the fact by Shields and Brooks and a few other pundits on PBS and CBC is enough for me.

I’m beginning to think of this blog, ‘The West Commences’ in a less literal, more metaphorical way. I’m quite established in Vernon now and will stay as long as mom and dad are in Victoria and Jay is in Korea and for who knows how long after that. My time in the West of Canada is no longer commencing, but I am moving toward the end of my days. I’ve never liked the expression, ‘The Golden Years.’ And ‘The Gray Days’ is a bit too far the other way, so ‘The West Commences’ will continue as an account of my journey, more in time than space. There’s a technological aspect to this decision too; it’s easier and less risky than going through the process of changing the title on Google, notifying my friends and relations of the fact and running the risk of losing their attention, which I appreciate very much. This tendency to work in my mind with what I have and where I am before exerting the effort required to change the material world is not the attitude on an inventor. In fact it can seem rather complacent and lazy, but it does give one time to look at what is and sometimes find the good and/or the beautiful there before rushing to alter externals. It’s a bit of a mugs game, trying to place oneself in the perfect spot with the most desirable people. Where is it? Who are they? What am I?

Here I am biking, hiking and keeping in touch with friends.