The West Commences: Vernon Spring

We sprang forward on Saturday night, and today I got to sleep until 7 before Skyping with Jay. Korea, like Saskatchewan and some parts of Alberta does not go on daylight saving time. The sun rose in a clear sky as we talked, and I was energized as I always am after seeing Jay. This morning, I was also motivated by the warm spring air to hang the laundry out on the line Caroline and Albert set up for me. That’s all done now; my smalls and other things are swaying in the backyard breeze. Micheline once entertained me with a tale about the rules the housewives of Hull when she was a girl had to follow when hanging out their laundry or risk being condemned by their neighbors as sluts. It involved rigid prescripts concerning the separation of articles by sex and size. I have no worries about the former, but as I look out the window now at the disorderly lengths of my laundry, long johns beside serviettes, I know I would not meet the standards of the good women of Hull in the 50s and 60s. Whatever! I still feel righteous looking at it. At least I’m out there.

I haven’t brought in the shovel yet, but signs of spring are everywhere. Skiing was wonderful on the weekend. I went by myself for the first time on Saturday because I was going to help with food preparation for the SSASS end-of-season lunch, but that wasn’t until 10:45 and I drove to the Star with Mo and John. She had a lesson at 8:30 and he didn’t want to ski. All went well; I didn’t get lost. Emboldened by this, I asked Jane to join me on Sunday. We didn’t get lost then either, although I almost repeated my fall and shoulder dislocation of last March 11. To get to the trails I wanted to take, we had to cross 2 downhill runs. Just before doing that, I heard my name called and turned to see my physiotherapist. He’s a great guy. He introduced me to his wife and 2 kids. Standing in the sun, we were all keen to get skiing. As we were talking, I put the sunshades on my glasses, and when we finished, Jane and I pushed off one way and they went the other. Conditions were fast, and I pulled ahead, flying across the bright downhill path into the shady patch just before the turn to the cross-country run. Blinded by the transition from light to dark, I flailed around and just managed to maintain my balance. Sobered by the near repetition of last spring’s excessive enthusiasm, I removed my sunshades and we carried on. The conditions were very good, and I look forward to more of the same this week.

I recently saw some good movies at the 20^th Vernon International Film Festival. Two of them were nominated for best foreign film at the Oscars and one of them, ‘The Great Beauty,’ won. It reminded me a bit of a Fellini film, the extremes and excesses of life in Rome and the circus-like extravaganza of characters. It was good, but I liked the other better. It was a Flemish production called, ‘The Broken Circle Breakdown.’ It was originally a play, and the playwright played the main role in the movie, a gorgeous banjo man in a country music band. His girlfriend was a tattoo artist. It was about a group of musicians and back-to-the-landers who lived just outside of Ghent in the 60s. The story was moving and the music was too. I also read a good book last week, Tiger, a True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Vaillant. I’m probably the last person on the planet to read it. I unpacked it at the fire hall on Wednesday. We just pay a dollar if we take a book, aside from the valuable ones, that we want as we’re separating the books into categories.