The West Commences: Miche's Visit

Monday, May 4^th and I’m getting grounded. Talking with Jay this morning helped start the process. Seeing him and May and the girls and hearing about all the ups and downs of family life always injects a lively note of reality into my mollusk shell and makes me look forward to the vitality they will bring into this house. Talking with Jay about what we both are doing gives those events a meaning that I sometimes find is missing from my life as a widow, retired from a real job. I have enjoyed learning how to live alone in this wonderful house and to make a life for myself in Vernon, but I’m ready for some changes, whatever they might be. Today I’m not going to get beyond putting away winter clothes and bringing up the spring and summer stuff. This time, I’m determined to throw many of both into the bag for The Mission, but I always have that resolution until I actually am faced with realizing it, and then I think, ‘Well there aren’t any holes in this, it’s only about 10 years old, I like the color, etc., etc.’, and hang it up for another season.

This is something else that makes me look forward to the arrival of the gang. I’ll have to get rid of a bunch of old junk then. There just won’t be room for it. The only other thing that has ever made me throw out old stuff has been moving. Fortunately we’ve done quite a bit of that. I have been renewed by each move.

Miche is back on the VIA train enjoying the relaxing voyage from Kamloops to Toronto in her suite, with meals and the wonderful timelessness of train travel. The whole VIA passenger system is a timeless zone with cars sidelined for freight without a thought. It was futile trying to figure out the schedule when she arrived in Kamloops. I phoned VIA before leaving home naively hoping to get some idea of arrival time. The man who answered was very accommodating. He had me hold while he made a serious attempt to answer my question. When he returned, he said he was pretty sure the train would get in around 12:30am. After getting lost in Kamloops in the dark trying to find the tiny, well-hidden north station, I arrived at around midnight to find three workers standing around completely innocent of information, a tiny waiting room with one woman sitting cross legged on a wooden bench in a state of meditation, a bathroom (thank heaven) and an old couple awake and waiting in their car. I was prepared for this. I got out a pillow and blanket, kicked back the driver’s seat and fell asleep in spite of the noisy shunting of train cars. I awoke around 2:30am to silence; the old couple had left and the woman was now flaked out on the hard bench, covered in most of the clothes that had been in her suitcase. After another two hours Miche arrived, we drove home, ate cereal, closed all the blinds and slept until after noon. Then we slowly got back to normal and the visit began.

We had to make a few adjustments learning to live together, but nothing major, and we had some good times. Miche started by renting a bike and ended up buying it and having it shipped back home when she left, so we did a lot of biking. It was fun for me to actually be the one leading; I’m a follower with the VOC. We took a drive into the Kootenays to check out some hot springs. That is some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. We spent the night in Nakusp, found a wonderful coffee shop there, relaxed in the hot springs and walked around the area. I was happy that Miche was able to meet some of my friends. Mo had us for dinner and a hot tub on Sunday and Miche made crepe for lunch for me, Mo and Noreen on the day she left. I drove her to Kamloops on Friday afternoon to catch the train early Saturday morning. She had decided to stay the night in a hotel near the north station to save us both from having to drive from Vernon at about 4:00am. An excellent idea, but even it was not good enough to avoid all ‘issues’. We arrived at the hotel just after a gang of loud old bikers. They filled the hotel reception area with their physical size and the volume of their self-conscious comments and demands. The poor young East Indian woman at the desk had her considerable patience stretched. Miche and I went outside to wait in peace. Finally Miche was settled in a quiet part of the hotel and we went for a bowl of soup at a nearby restaurant. I left her preparing to introduce herself to two sisters who were also going to catch the train in the morning. She hoped that they could take a cab together. Having Miche stay in my house was fun. It makes what I’m doing here seem more real when someone I know from my other life shares this one with me for a while.