Home Sweet Home, or not

I had a window seat on the Alaska Airlines flight from PV to LA and couldn’t take my eyes off the arid landscape we flew over for the last 20mins. before coming to the vast sprawl of LA.  There’s been a lot on the news lately about the drought in California and the fact that as almond trees suck up a lot of moisture we should boycott almonds from there.  This combined with the pictures we see on t.v. of desperate Mexicans trying to cross the desert wastes into Arizona and the fact that the heat of the day on the sands of the beach at Guayabitis the last days I was there took my breath away worked on my mind as I looked out the window.  I was filled with fear at the mere thought of being down there.  Crashing was the least of my worries.  The plane didn’t crash.  We landed in LA airport, hardly an oasis.  I can easily understand why Incheon Airport has been voted the best in the world for about 9 years.  It’s a model of cleanliness, efficiency and architectural beauty compared to LA and Mexico City. 

The rest of the flights were uneventful.  I left my declaration paper on my seat in Kelowna and consequently was at the back of a long line of sunburned holidayers, so Mo had to wait for me.  We had a good chat on the drive to Vernon.  It was about 1:00am when we arrived at my home sweet home.  I was so happy to walk in the door, but what followed was sobering.  It was cold, but I had expected that and confidently turned up the heat.  Only the fan came on.  No heat.  Then Mo pointed out something she had noticed when she came over earlier to leave me muffins, bananas and milk for my breakfast.  The guts of the toilet tank were sticking up and the lid was lying on an angle on top.  We tried to puzzle things out but at that hour and with no knowledge of what we were dealing with there was no hope.  Mo had to go home because John was back from his work north of Fort Mac. for only 3 days.  I took a gravol to calm my shattered nerves, put on warm things as I had for 3 nights in Guanajuato and crawled under my quilt to try to sleep.  Eventually I did.  I awoke the next morning and made a good cup of cappuccino, which I ate with Mo’s muffins and a banana.  I arose from the table determined to take on one task at a time, and together with the help of John and Mo and many pros., I now have all the problems fixed.  The real mystery was the toilet, but after talking tanks and fill valves in about 5 different plumbing stores and sitting in the hot tub discussing things with Mo, I’m finally convinced that, improbable as it seems, after the water’s being off for 4 weeks the pressure created by Taiyo’s turning on the water in the basement so he could water the cedars was probably sufficient to push the fill valve up, raising the porcelain tank top.

It’s 6:00pm Tuesday evening. I have cut the grass, weeded the flowerbeds, watered the cedars and vacuumed the house.  All is ready.  Micheline arrives in Kamloops on the VIA train at midnight.  Well, the time of arrival is uncertain.  The train was 5 hours late out of Edmonton.  I will call and try to find out if it made time between there and Jasper.  I’m going to take a blanket and book in case I have to wait. 

A bamboo bicycle built for two that we saw a few times in Guadalajara.  The couple made me think of Dervla Murphy.