Caitlyn arrived this morning with a big new truck and her same pink chipper. After waiting two Saturdays for her to settle various problems, snags in her schedule and hiring of a good helper, I was excited to see her finally drive her big rig into the parking place behind the house. She and the young woman working with her got right to work. Caitlyn was up in the bucket with a chain saw cutting huge branches off the horse chestnut and dropping them deftly to the ground while her helper, who is a forestry firefighter, was cutting about two feet off the tops of the Brandon Cedar hedge. And then they ran everything through the pink chipper. After about three hours of heavy work and loud noise, it was done. And I'd been fretting about it since I got back from  Victoria and met my new back neighbour who informed me that a pretty big branch had fallen from the horse chestnut into her back yard while I was away. A light rain began falling soon after Caitlyn pulled out and has continued off and on until now. Perfect. 

Caitlyn’s rig


Up the bucket cutting the horse chestnut

Trimming the Brandon Cedar

Today's news has two stories that are interestingly related. In one, David Suzuki referred to US President Kennedy's facing the 'Sputnik Crisis' with a vow to do whatever was necessary to surpass the USSR in the space race. The result was an exceptionally well funded effort in many areas of science which resulted in the US surpassing the USSR in space as well as other unexpected areas of scientific discovery. Suzuki was arguing the if Canada were to go all out to support and finance alternate energy ideas, we too might make positive discoveries that would go beyond anything we can now imagine. In the other, David Awschalom, in the University of Chicago's quantum science and engineering department suggested that the US had better put the same effort into the development of quantum science and engineering now as it did into the space race because China has just demonstrated its strength in this area. The race is never not on. 

Rain

Finally today it's raining. Unfortunately, unless it really starts to pour it will be just enough to cancel the bike ride but not nearly as much as the parched land needs. 

I'm spending, or perhaps wasting, the day by taking all the family photo albums out of the dusty corners they have been in since I moved here. I haven't looked at them since just after Jim died when I went through them choosing photos to put in the CD that played during his funeral. Looking back at life. I don't think it's quite what Socrates meant by, "The unexamined life is not worth living," but it is making me think about moments that at the time I just lived. And it does give a sense of intention and continuity to experiences that sometimes seemed to flow by one after the other as I tried with more or less success to keep my head above water. 

The card I made for Couch on one of his many birthdays. Of course I leaned heavily on Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago.”

The card Blake made for Jay for his going away party before he left for a year in Mexico in 1995. 

Jay and May leaving for the Philippines 

The gang in downtown Seoul the first year I visited them

It's June 18 and still hot and dry in the Okanagan. This morning I was awake at 5:30. I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep so packed a breakfast, put the kayak in the car and drove to Swan Lake. That is I got a few blocks down 27th Street when I remembered that I had left the muffins in the toaster. As breakfast was supposed to be coffee and muffins, I had to turn around and get them. Then I sped down Highway 97, missing the turn for the Swan Lake launch spot. Another turn around and I was finally where I wanted to be. I was a bit clumsy inflating the kayak and beginning to think I should have rolled over and got a bit more sleep. But by 6:45 I was paddling through the tall reeds near the shore and happy to be where I was. Although old age sometimes mutes pleasure with undeniable little physical irritations, in this case a worry about where I would pee if I had to. But most of the time if I know there's no place I somehow don't have to. And that was the case this morning. I paddled to the north end of the lake through tall reeds and groups of geese and ducks and even three loons. A few herons stretched overhead and even the sound of the traffic on 97 didn't detract much from the experience of being out on the lake in the early morning. When I got to the place where the lake narrows and flows to a small dam, I drifted and had breakfast. A muskrat swam out of the reeds and in front of me before dipping under and out of sight. Some mother ducks quacked and splashed ahead in an effort to distract my attention from their broods, but the best at avoiding my view was a duckling who flattened itself among a mass of drifting bits of reed and didn't move until l was well past it. Then it took off flapping at quite a speed. 

It's Wednesday, June 19, 2019, and as I sit in the car at 10:05 after waiting 25 minutes for friends I thought I was supposed to meet for a bike ride at 9:40 but just discovered by phoning Miriam I was actually supposed to meet at 10:40, 

I want to put this in writing, "I am an ass."

If there's a wrong way of doing something, I'll do it. I've lived alone long enough now to admit that my mother and Jim were not exaggerating when the former called me 'wrong way Corrigan' or 'the captain of the awkward squad,' and the latter either laughed or flew into a rage when I made one of my blunders. However I remember making my dad laugh when I just shrugged once and said, "Sometimes you're lucky."  And maybe this time I am because it's pouring rain now and I'm warm and dry in the car waiting. Maybe the ride will be cancelled; although, people in the Okanagan don't know much about all day downpours, so I'm expecting not. 

And it wasn't. I'm home now after a great bike ride along the Rail Trail to O'Rourke's Peak Cellars in Lake Country. It rained buckets while we had lunch but only a bit as we rode home. Mary was the only one to get really soaked as we biked on a path close to a road and a truck revved through a puddle just as she was passing and drenched her. 

13 women who rode evokes to a winery

Riding home wearing rain gear

The new bell Priscilla gave me and Priscilla herself on the ride home

The last days of my visit with Barbara and Terry carried on as they had begun with coffee together every morning and a few shared meals, some more successful than others. 

Actually, the only flop began as an effort on Barbara and Terry's part to support a local business that was suffering as a result of the Bay Street Bridge being closed in one direction for repairs. As I wanted to thank them for all they do for me, they suggested that I take them there for lunch. I was keen because I liked it when we last went there. As we arrived they said 'hi' to the owner who was outside casually chatting with a friend. We saw him next when he arrived at our table flushed, sweating from working in the kitchen and trying to explain why we had been waiting an hour for our food when people who had arrived after us had been served and were happily eating.

Explanation degenerated into feeble excuses and anger. We eventually ate. We were not charged for our drinks, but I don't think Barbara and Terry will go out of their way again to support his business. We had a good time that evening in their dining room eating a trouble free frozen pizza and talking about the waiting and confrontations of lunch, which as time lapses will become increasingly entertaining. 

I carried on with biking, kayaking and visits with Liz and Ross, including a dinner at their place with the Loon Lake gang. The food was delicious, and it's fun to get together once a year with old friends who know other old friends that I have lost contact with. 

I returned to find that my yard was a jungle. I've been working to tame it ever since. But the first thing I noticed was that the huge spruce that used to hang over the parking area was gone, leaving a wide open view of the back neighbour's yard and house. The new owner was there. To my relief she seems to be friendly, but that may be neither here nor there because she is doing extensive repairs to the place and plans to rent it. 

The new bridge that replaces the Blue Bridge, as seen from my kayak in the Inner Harbour

Barbara and Terry waving good bye to me 

Me just before driving back toVernon

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, as I have done every morning since I got home. I did my first laundry since before I left for Victoria and was in the yard by 6:00, cutting back any of the grape vines that show no signs of fruit. By 11:00 I had eaten breakfast and was resting on the couch. It's been so hot in Vernon that most of the people I know are doing what they want to do in the early morning and evening and staying inside in the middle of the day. And it's early June. What will August be like?