The smoke has lifted,

an election has been called in BC and it is now officially Fall. 

To celebrate the return of fresh air, four of us biked 80k on Monday, a bit of a stretch even with ebikes. It was a test run for Lynne Young's 80th birthday on October 18. She has invited quite a few friends to join her to celebrate the event and wanted to make sure that the route she had decided on was in fact 80k.  It was cool and clear and great to be moving again after more than a week of no real activity. On Tuesday, Mo led the Ramble up Bluenose. It's a short one but parts are quite steep. I had some trouble breathing but made it. Wednesday was a day of rest. 

I'm waiting for rain. I've planted so many things in the yard this season of Covid and smoke that I think I'd better implement a one plant policy next summer. I hope we get a long rainy fall to give the new things a good start, otherwise there will be a lot of watering in my near future. 

Ruth Bader Ginsberg was born, like Jay, on the Ides of March, March 15, 1933 and died last Friday, September 18, 2020. She was an intelligent, energetic and humane woman. She fought so many battles in her lifetime that it seems supremely unjust that the men with knives are still attacking her, even after her death. If Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump have an ounce of humanity between them, which I doubt they do, they will honour her last words to her granddaughter and leave the choice of her replacement on the Supreme Court of the United States to the winner of the November presidential election.

This is neither the best of times nor the worst of times, but it's another troubled time for humanity in more ways than one. It will take special people like RBG and ordinary people too voting and doing whatever they can to help each other and balance the scales of justice so everyone can live a descent life on a planet that remains livable. 

And for a humorous interlude: Lucy looks at 2020

Trying to find a balance

Schools have opened again in S. Korea!  I was happy to get a Seoul subway report last night as Jay headed back after two weeks off. That's good to hear; although, as is always the case in these uncertain Covid days, there might be another shut down if the government decides to take precautions in a couple of weeks during the Chuseok and Hangulnal holiday periods. Here in BC the main preoccupations are school openings, possible provincial elections and smoke from horrendous fires in Oregon, Washington State and California. Schools are open, but not without some snags, the New Democrats are high in the poles so may want to run for a majority and B.C. still isn't burning but is shrouded in smoke from the USA. 

The Monday bike, which was supposed to be an 80km rehearsal for Lynne's 80th birthday ride on October 18 was cancelled because of dense smoke in the air, so I am sitting in my sunless sunroom surrounded by haze. It is a fitting setting for these Covid days of uncertainty. A vague smell of smoke is entering the house and it's cool in here for the first time in months. Will I have to turn on the heat? Have I made it through another Okanagan summer without turning on the air conditioning? Is that really anything to celebrate? Perhaps, if you're desperate for an upside. 

The better news is that I had a wonderful kayak breakfast on Gardom Lake with Mo on Sunday and yesterday I picked all the Italian plums on my tree. They are delicious. I froze some in heavy freezer bags and boiled others into compote for winter. And I am reading a wonderful book, Utopia for Realists , by Rutger Bregman. He's a young Dutch writer I first heard of on PBS', 'Amanpour and Company', a programme I really like. He is well known for this book and for his TED Talk, ' Poverty isn't a Lack of Character, it's a Lack of Cash'. All is not lost. 

I thought this was a really small island on Gardom Lake but it turned out to be a very old raft with a diving board on it that probably hadn't been used in many years. 

This is a picture of Jay taken last week. He has been working out for years, sometimes at gyms but mostly at home doing weights, calisthenics and yoga with a minimum of equipment. It is paying off. 

Are we almost there yet?

In August, 1914, German Emperor Wilhelm 11 promised the departing soldiers that they would be home before the leaves fell. Many around the world, especially in the military, did not share his optimism, but lots of young men left enthusiastically for the front. 

It's now September, 2020; the leaves will soon change from green to their fall coat of many colours, so Covid 19 better get a move on if it's going to be gone before they fall. Of course, nobody said it would be; although, a couple of wanna be dictators swore it didn't even exist. 

That's enough of that comparison. Sitting in the house resting after a rewarding morning of working in the yard is far removed from huddling in a muddy trench as bullets whip overhead and mustard gas snakes toward you. But I am sick of Covid 19; just as the Monty Python gang was sick of the Swiss. I don't have it. I don't know anyone who does. All we have are statistics,  videos of crowded ICU wards, admonishments from scientific and medical experts and some very touching eulogies following the news. After six months of that, it takes some effort to make the imaginative leap into action required to enthusiastically follow preventative measures that just seem more tiresome than necessary. But then beneath the surface lurks the unknown, the fear of which is the worst and pushes us to worry, not so much me and my friends; although, we're the ones who seem to die from this virus, but younger people whose work and family life are threatened. Jay's school is closed again this week, and he worries that it might be extended as S. Korea, like many countries, is recording an increase in new cases of Covid. Parents in Canada are nervously having to decide whether or not to send their children to start classes in school again this week or next. The people and the economies of every country in the world are seriously threatened by this virus. After decades of thinking we were in control: eating right, exercising, getting educated, working, etc., etc., we lucky few in the first world are now being smacked by the fact that the unknown is unmanageable and unavoidable. 

As usual, I count on Jay to remind me of the lighter side, which is odd as he is the one who really suffers from anxiety and depression, but then maybe not. He has spent a lifetime battling those demons, and I just fall into their shallows once in a while. At any rate, he sent me a picture of May at the beauty parlour about a week ago. I couldn't believe it. She was under an octopus of a curling contraption the likes of which I hadn't seen since I went with mom to her hairdresser when I was very young. And even then it was not being used. The owner of the shop had bought it as an intriguing artifact to add interest to the place. 

May after the procedure. Beautiful. From the 1920s to the 2020s