March 26, 2017

I have been experiencing the tribulations of a first world twenty first century mini Job lately. First a flood, then a series of technology gnats and bouts of breathlessness and now my right knee has betrayed me and I don't know why. About two weeks ago, I fell in the parking lot after skiing at Silver Star, but all I was aware of doing at the time was smashing one pole under and one over my left arm, as I fell on my side. I got a huge bruise on my left upper arm and I still have pain on my left side. Maybe I was so happy that I hadn't dislocated my shoulder that I was unaware of my knee until about a week later,but that's hard to believe. At any rate, the latter has hurt like mad for the last few days, not when I don't move it, but as soon as I walk I get a breathtaking pain if I put any weight on it, unless it's ramrod straight, in which case I can stand on it but not move at all. I've been trying to keep going on the flats in the faint hope that it will leave as mysteriously as it arrived, but no luck so far. Damn. Last week after going to Kelowna for a heart test that must have cost the health care plan a bundle and which showed that I actually can ride a bike quite well for a woman of my age, breathlessness goes with the territory, I swore I would not burden the taxpayers any more for a long time. Now another part is malfunctioning. I'm no grinder. I just like being outside and want to be able to walk. I'll give it a few more days. If it doesn't get better, I'll make an appointment with a physiotherapist; that's not covered by BC Health and I don't have health insurance beyond that so by paying for it myself I won't feel like one of the much despised boomers who are blamed by some millennials for putting a strain on the system that they will ultimately have to bear. Is that a general accusation or is it only the politically correct CBC that worries that bone?

I think I might have seen my last opera yesterday. I went to the Cineplex to watch Mozart's "Idomeneo" live from the Met. The music, the sets, everything was wonderful, and I was interested in the story of Cassandra's sister's fate after the Trojan War, but... I just can't appreciate the rendering of a story through song, the exaggeration, the repetition and in this opera, the fact that the romantic lead was played by an unattractive woman in what was called a 'trouser role, travesti or hosenrolle." I thought I'd be used to it from Shakespeare, but in this case it was no costume; it was the central love story. Maybe the mild ache in my knee made me irritable, but I don't think so. Give me dance, music, theatre but don't mix them up. I am the arts equivalent of a meat and potatoes person. I highly recommend 'Duo Rendevous', Jasper Wood, violinist and Daniel Bolshoy, guitar. I saw them last Sunday at the Performing Arts. They are wonderful musicians and funny and unique in their interpretations. 

The crocuses have finally arrived in the front yard 

All new tech gear

I didn't actually buy a new keyboard until today, Saturday, March 18. Now I'm happily typing on it. The keys feel like rubber\velvet.

The sun is streaming through the windows after about 24 hours of rain. The snow is almost gone in town and most of the bulbs are poking up through last year's leaves. The snow is still deep at Silver Star and Sovereign Lake but skiing and snow shoeing are losing their lure.

We had a wonderful family dinner for Jay's birthday on Wed. May made one of her usual great meals, except the main course was supposed to be the the traditional Filipino long spaghetti for long life but all she had was macaroni, so I hope Jay is not doomed to a short bent life. The girls wrote messages on his card that really moved him, Jin Hee pulled chocolate bars for him out of every sleeve and fold in her hoodie, Min Hee gave him an origami with another message, May gave him\them a night at Sparkling Hills and I made the cake and gave him money that may go toward new work boots. The only cloud at the moment is in the form of a tax bill from the Federal Govt that he received last week. He's getting advice from an accountant for that. This too will pass.

I saw the movie, "Julieta," by Pedro Almodovar at the Towne Cinema last Monday. It was very good. I've seen other movies by him that I have liked. I was particularly interested in this one because I had read that it was loosely based on three short stories from Alice Munro's book, "Runaway." Some things were changed, the movie was set in Spain not the west coast of Canada, for one thing, but the acting and sets were really good.

Here's hoping we are all beginning a warm spring.

Spring graffiti at the Black Rock

The view from the Black Rock today

Carrying on

I guess that what I bought was an app that enables me to write my blog now that the Blogger system is not working. I don't know what is happening, but I'm trying to work my way out of the dark. I thought I was going to have to start a new blog, but it appears that what I wrote on the new app was entered on my 'West Commences' site. It's all a mystery. I feel like one of the creatures in "2001 Space Odyssey," slowly and tentatively approaching the monolith.

My journey to enlightenment began about a week ago when the iPad May had given me when they first arrived in Canada died a slow and frustrating, for me, death. I went in search of help to the Best Buy where Jay had bought the iPhone he gave me for Christmas. The kids who work there are smart and helpful. They sold me an iPad Air that had been a display model for a really good price and then helped me set it up and showed me a lot of tricks. I felt empowered with technological know how, until my new iPhone lost its mind a few days later. As I was trying to order an app for it, the screen went black and a small grey circle began to rotate in the middle of it. In spite of all my new knowledge, I could do nothing. So I left it to see if time really can heal all wounds. It can't. I awoke the next morning to the same grey spinning, tried to ignore it, walked to Tai Chi seeking solace in Oriental exercise, returned home feeling moderately blissful, packed up the iPhone and drove to Best Buy where the excellent staff showed me the easy trick that cures Alzheimer's in iPhones. I felt buoyant again. I'd learned another techie trick. Now I would buy a keyboard for the new iPad and carry on up. Yesterday I sat down proudly to write a blog on the new keyboard and iPad. The first time I hit the comma key, the screen bounced back to the home page. When this happened a third time, I felt as flat as a Dali clock. It was all I could do to straighten myself up and take the keyboard back to the store, where I was only slightly inflated to discover that the same thing happened for the young and savvy clerk. He determined that the keyboard couldn't sync with my iPad and took the former back. This morning I was preparing to search for a compatible keyboard when the thought struck me that the fault might be with the iPad. Eurika!! I was right. So I went back to my new best friends at Best Buy to return the iPad. The girl there had one of her many brilliant ideas. What if the problem was with the Blogger site? So I tried to write a blog on my iPhone. Bang! As soon as I hit the comma key, I was bounced back to my home page. She helped me download a new app, and now I'm trying to figure out how it works.
Hurray! Jay just stopped by for a visit. I can stop writing about my tech school of hard knocks, all of which I've done using only my right thumb, which means that on top of it all I've become ambidextrous. Tomorrow I'll buy a keyboard and see if I can get even closer to touching the monolith.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Carrying on

This is an experiment. As I have had a string of irritating technical problems, the latest being the fact that Blogger seems to have developed a glitch in which pressing certain keys while writing a blog pops you back to your home page, I am making quite a few changes. One of them is the fact that I have bought a new blogging app. This is it. If it works, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, if I can get it to work, I will change my blog to "Carrying On". This will be the beginning.

Marie's birthday party at Black Prince cabin

March comes in

March has come in, grey and cool,wet snow and melting. Dreary. I've dropped shopping and am now seeking escape through books, specifically Annie Proulx's. She is one of the authors who will be at the writers' festival that we plan to attend in Newfoundland when we are there for the last two weeks of August.

As I couldn't convince Miriam to ski after Tai Chi this morning and as the weather report for Sovereign was gloomy, I went home, organized some stuff with the Okanagan Restoration guys and went to the library to pick up Brokeback Mountain. It was originally a short story and consequently is such a small book that I signed it out, took it upstairs and read it in about an hour.  I can't remember the details of the movie; I think many differ from the short story, but the earthy atmosphere and the intensity of passion are in both. I allowed my memory of Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger to override Annie Proulx's descriptions of the characters as I read because I'm a sucker for a handsome man. Annie Proulx doesn't write much about beautiful people and high times.  I've just finished Postcards and am now reading That Old Ace in the Hole.  I'm glad I haven't seen movies of them because I can let my imagination run with her words through landscapes that I've only driven by and into the lives of people who are as rugged and briefly beautiful and widely ranging as the land they are part of.  Her books don't cheer me up in this time of unsettled weather and house restoration, but while I'm reading one of them I am far from here in a strange land with people whose lives are very different from mine in all but the essential struggles, passions and unpredictability that make us all human.

Crocuses in the front yard, March 6, 2016

The same part of the front yard this year

An even bigger blaster

It's Monday, February 20 and the house is still hot and humming. It looks now as if the upstairs bathroom floor tile will have to be replaced and the hardwood in my bedroom sanded and rubbed again with whatever finish was used originally. I continue to couch surf around the house, choosing whatever location is the least hot and noisy.  For my third perch tonight,  I think I'll be on the closest thing to a real bed that I've slept on in almost two years, the memory foam from the basement futon that I recently bought for guests. It's is now on the floor in the spare room upstairs while the basement is being restored. Yesterday I resorted to some shop therapy to lift my spirits. I bought new winter boots at 50% off and two tops at Winners. If this job takes as long as Jay thinks it might, I could become the best dressed woman in Vernon.

It never rains,

but it pours.  
I'm drinking ginger and honey tea and trying to recover not only from my cold but also from the fact that when I walked in the door yesterday after being in Kelowna seeing a cardiologist, I heard such a loud rush of water that I ran downstairs; the floor was covered in water, but the sound had diminished, so I ran up to the main floor bathroom where a fountain gushed up under the pedestal sink. I ran back down to turn off the main water switch. Then I stood for a while in water over the souls of my boots, too stunned to do anything until I had a flash of clarity and realized that what I needed was exactly what Jay does, restoration. I phoned him, he called May, she came over and we got up most of the water using swimming noodles, mops and pails. Jay and his partner came right over when they had finished their job in Sicamous. They put in about four hour's work last night and came back around 8:30am today to continue all morning.  Jay, his partner and a plumber have done all the work so far. There was no damage upstairs; it's just being dried with heaters and dehumidifiers. It's the basement that is a mess, but not total. It's especially hard on Jay who built the room and is now partly pulling it apart. Much of the ceiling has to be replaced but first all must be dried, so they have removed bags of wet drywall and  set up heaters and humidifiers in the basement too. The house is much warmer than I like and noisy, but I slept here last night and probably will again tonight. It's a relief to have it worked on so quickly. I've contacted my insurance and all sounds fine there, but I'll be happy when the adjuster gets here and confirms that. The one for this area is on a big job at Silver Star. 
That's the spring news from Vernon. 
More anon,

Just some of the blowers and heaters that are drying the place out.