The West Commences: Home again

I made it over the Rogers Pass in summer tires. There was a skiff of snow on the sides of the road but nothing to compare with the slush storm west of Sault Sainte Marie. It's been a warm, bright fall between Quebec and BC. By driving west, I passed through about four different Falls, with colourfull leaves at both ends, even if West Quebec wasn't as brilliant as it sometimes is. The most extreme one-day change was between Calgary, where most of the leaves had fallen but it was still quite warm, over the Roger's Pass where some of the peaks and glaciers of the Rockies were puffy white with a seven minute frosting of fresh snow and then down into the valley of the North Okanagan where the temperature was cosiderably warmer and the trees were still brightly in leaf.

The warmest part of that day was the late afternoon when I walked in the door to see Jay, May and the girls. The house was steamy from May's "making food". The basement that I had left with bare beams and duct work in the ceiling, cobwebs everywhere and plumbing trenches in the floor was utterly transformed. It's not your father's fifties 'finished' basement, but a professionally built bathroom and bedroom that fits perfectly into the rest of the house. The girls are sleeping there now, and May spends happy hours there decorating it and transforming an 'L' shaped space under the stairs into her own hidaway. Jay even put a rug on its floor and painted one wall the same red as the doors. It's festooned with hooks from which hang all her favorite purses, dresses, hats and jewels.

Now we are preparing for the girls' first real Hallowe'en. May, Jin Hee and I went to Value Village to buy the costumes. They are going to be twin clowns. We went to the corn maze at the O Keefe Ranch the other night and screamed our throats sore. Min Hee was running so hard she tripped and lost her cell phone. That was really scary for her and aggravating for the adults who had told her to put it in a zippered pocket before we were let into the maze. We carried on running and screaming and being chased by aliens. I was terrified twice. Both times it was because I was at the back of our gang when an alien, one waving a chain saw, burst out of the corn stocks behind me and began chasing us. It took my breath away, my back withered and I screamed so loudly my throat hurt later. Min Hee was lucky. The people in charge found her phone; she got it back at the main gate. I think she thought she was going to take a selfie with an alien or something. She doesn't do much without her phone.

Today Jay and I drove Jin Hee to her basketball game at BX School. We stayed to watch them win. Jin scored 3 baskets. Tomorrow is her birthday; she will be 13.