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
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