Stories, Excerpts, Backroads
Wind and rain signalling winter is officially over and spring is here. I feel colder in this weather than I do when it is minus thirty.
It will green things up. Some of the kids at work are wearing shorts while I still have on my long underwear.
Lisa asked today, do I wish we prayed. It is a good question.
Was up there hell and gone, cashing in on birdsong and edgy dogs. Looking for snags, firewood, fallen or standing, rocks that look like letters or shapes, like hearts, to bring home, and have someone say, I see it.
Willow sat on lookout, the young dog was more comfortable close. She is going to be a good one. Willow is good in the bush and bad everywhere else. She’ll bark at a crow at home through the window, but stay still for a Black Bear, in the bush, waiting for the right time to put it up a tree.
Together we are too much trouble for man or beast to take us on.
There is plenty of reason for the way things work out. For instance, we’re told, a person works hard and they prosper. However, the biggest reason that things work out is random. The universe is chaos. It doesn’t consider us or our feelings. It isn’t Jesus or Santa Claus or cares if we have been naughty or nice. If it was most people would live forever and a few would pay for the shit they caused.
Bad things happen to good people. Bad people prosper. Not always, like I said, it’s random.
My brother smoked and drank from the time he was 12. Instead of liver or lung cancer he died of a rare blood disease. He thought it was funny. It also killed his fear of dying. So many doing everything right and dying. He was lucky.
We’re all lucky in the end.
The stars keep time. They swarm over the mountains. Turn south and back. It takes more than a lifetime to know them, to become an expert.
Jimmy knocked himself out today. He struggled with a post of angle iron in the frozen ground. Finally it broke off and hit him in the head. He hit the ground, his radio on squelch. That’s Jimmy. If he does something he makes sure everyone notices.
Of course, once he came to, he wanted to keep working. He is small of stature, but strong as an army. That’s Jimmy.
A couple inches of wet snow overnight. It will be gone in a hurry. It seems winter is trying to hang on.
Lisa and I went for a short walk behind the mountain. We were hoping to see a few Meadowlarks. Lisa said she heard their distinct call the other day. We did see Chickadees, Siskins and Robins. Not many got close enough for a picture.
Back in the valley bottom I walked the road, but still no luck, instead I shot a few old fence-lines.
All and all a overcast black and white day. It was good to get out even if briefly.
The body has been aching. I have the job of taking out 80 old mattresses and replacing with new. Some are up three flights of stairs. Most are king size. My main job, I keep reminding myself, is not getting hurt.
I am about half way there. I counted 40 in the underground.
About the only thing I have to offer an employer is my strength. Of course getting old is going to limit my worth. I don’t blame them. No big defined government pension awaits to soften the blow. That’s my own fault too!
I’ll hang in there as long as I can.
In the meantime the first beer tasted good. Give me another.
***
I grew up with the sound of dogs barking and trains going by. It has been replaced with the rev of motor boats and car alarms. That does something to you.
***
People walk by with dogs on leashes. They never bark. Not the dogs, not the people. Willow hates the leash and barks plenty. I let her. I think all the silent dogs scare her.
Every season has its colours. The sky in spring is always interesting, where it can be minus twelve in the morning and plus twelve in the afternoon. That does things to the sky.
A brilliant full moon cutting through the clouds here and there. Big puffy orange clouds in the longer evenings.
This morning the moon went down later, a little more light, so I didn’t have to take the picture in the dark. The purple colour on the horizon drives me crazy with joy. Only in Spring.
Cold mornings. They can’t last into the afternoon, the sun is gaining power.
The District of Invermere bi-election is in the books. The results:
Took a couple good walks behind Swansea. Plenty of birds calling. Still they kept themselves hidden. They are wild after all. My camera could be a bazooka. The older I get the smarter I figure the animals are and the dumber the humans, mostly me, are.
A bit of sickness about. Scarlett, Cooper and Lisa are under the weather.
Lola joined Willow and I on our walks. She is a big puppy and minds Willow when she gets too close and gets the snarl.
Checked on the good neighbour. He is still hurting from the Polar Plunge. Drank too much, then cold and hot. It’s been two weeks. The older you get the longer it takes to recover. He perked up when he said, his body is probably protesting the lack of beer.
Got about four books on the go. Larry from
https://larrymuffinathome.wordpress.com
suggested Cicero’s, How to Grow Old. Dave picked it up for me, recently, in the City.
It is a good book. Not as long as it looks, because the left hand pages are in latin.
It suggests to accept diminished strength with grace and help youth whenever you can. I am only 70 pages in. Perhaps there will be a twist at the end.
To be on this earth comes down to luck. To live, watch birds, make love and scrub a dogs head is a gift.
The birds have been chattering. Going this way and that. It is nice to see.
Put in a good days work. Hoping for clear skies to see the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on Wednesday.
Palliser Pass 