Driven to decorate

Still no snow in town, but the weather's been dreary. I'm on a bit of a mission to use my dual cross country pass because I'm planning to spend about a month in Mexico this winter, so I've been skiing at Sovereign and Silver Star, a total of 7 times so far. The conditions have been pretty good. Tomorrow I will meet Priscilla at the Schubert Centre at 10:00 am to join a group that gathers there to belt out popular songs whether they can sing or not. We went last Tuesday for the first time, and the woman sitting beside me changed seats at the break. It made me wonder about my voice, and my suspicions were confirmed on Wednesday when I tried singing alone in the car as I drove to organize books for the FOL. I sounded off tune and time. My sounds are to singing as a ducks waddle is to a gazelle's leap. But I'm going back hoping that I won't clear the room and that maybe with a bit of exercise my vocal chords will vibrate more tunefully. We'll go skiing again after singing. I'm marginally better at the former.

The last three books I've read have dealt with the state of the USA today and how it got there. I've found them all fascinating, but the one I'm reading now is the best.









Listening to the news and reading these books drove me to decorate for Christmas on Sunday just to lighten the tone. I discovered when I went to the storage space under the basement stairs to get the tree that it was too big and heavy for me to move alone, but fortunately Jay had organized the space before he left and their smaller tree was also there. So now it stands decorated but unlit beside the fireplace. I also put up the window lights and other festive stuff. I'm not going to turn anything on until December 1, but having the tinsel Christmas colour all around has raised my spirits.









Even the plants in the sun room look brighter








Jay and May with her brother's two boys at a wedding in Seoul. They have finally moved into their own apartment.







Jay hiking with Frank in the hills around Seoul

Lest we forget

I'm just back from a walk around town, stopping at the Cenotaph for the 11:00 am memorial service, perhaps maimed but moving rites. The town is so small and the ceremony was so brief that I got home before noon. Three old planes flew overhead, a young mother, with her small son standing beside her, stood in front of the memorial to read "In Flanders Fields", slowly so that those gathered could say it with her, another woman took it upon herself to inform us of when it was time to begin and end the moment of silence, after which those who had been wearing a poppy took it off, approached the monument and placed it at the base of the cenotaph.









A young boy places his poppy beside the most touching tribute at Vernon's Cenotaph today. The can of Spam reminded me of dad's memories of 'Quonset sandwiches'. He called them that because at some point when he was overseas with the RCAF as a navigator, they lived in Quonset huts and made these sandwiches he loved using Spam that they either got in their rations or were sent from home.



Earlier in the morning I had listened to Adam Gopnik in conversation with Michael Enright on CBC Radio. Their discussion was largely about gun violence in the USA and the fact that although the majority of Americans polled are in favour of gun control, the power of the gun lobbyists, the willful spreading of misinterpretations of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution and the current US political leadership that appeals to anything but the better angels of our nature conspire to do nothing about it.

Violence, whether in war or on the street in peacetime, is often either ignored, condoned or downright encouraged by governments whose concerns lie elsewhere or whose self interest is furthered by it. At times this may seem to be more justified than at others but no matter what, it's the young and less privileged among us who suffer, who make,
"The ultimate sacrifice."





Sections from a recent article by Adam Gopnik.






The last thing I did on Remembrance Day was attend this concert at the Performing Arts. It was wonderful, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, a choir of well over 100 voices and these excellent soloists. I am adding this photo of the program because I want to remember their names. Rosemary Thomson, the music director of the OSO is what Ellen would call a real spark plug. Her professional enthusiasm inspires the musicians and her comments before a performance inform the audience and prepare them for the best. Needless to say, there were more people here than at the Cenotaph in the morning. It was a full house.

Rains before winter

I'm back in the chair by the window working my iPhone with one thumb, my right one; although I'm left handed. It was only a few weeks ago that I realized I am a right thumb texter. I'm definitely a slow blogger but I enjoy sitting here rehashing my days and well worn ideas. It's no wonder that I keep being reminded of E.M. Forster's story, 'The Machine Stops', which I haven't read since high school. I'm becoming Vashti and Jay is my Kuno, out in the world. I googled the story just now and discovered that Forster wrote it in 1909. I must have read it in a collection of short stories that was published after that. A lot of stuff at FWCI looked pretty ancient to me at the time, but the book couldn't have been that old. We have not yet devolved into Forster's underground dwelling, machine-run blobs. In fact, if retired people's endless bucket lists and the masses of tourists crowding world sites are any indication, we still like to travel. But some of the favourite venues are either getting overcrowded with first world retirees and the newly 'middle class' citizens of erstwhile third world countries or being inundated by the rising waters of climate change and destroyed by war. Thousands of other people are moving around the globe out of desperation. Maybe it won't be long before basement rooms are again a feature of every house in Canada. We'll decorate them with bars, pool tables and TVs, as we did in the 50s and 60s. and sit in them watching old Rick Steve's travel series on tv. Eventually we'll merely be able to sit in them pushing buttons with our index fingers. That's also our trigger finger isn't it. We might have to fend off invaders. Enough.

The month of October was perfect for getting outside, but rain is forecast for the whole of this week, which will be good for the dry earth.



A windy hike near Kelowna. I've lived here long enough that I can say that the new bridge in the distance across Lake Okanagan was just being started when I was staying with Bert and Peg before I could get into our house.




This year's Hallowe'en pumpkin, the day after








The view from a window of the apartment Jay and May will move into next week








Jay








And his friend Frank on a ride in Seoul