Tag: news

Weekend

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.

Black-Capped Chickadee

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.

The Word

A busy week leading up to the first long weekend of the year. We have been fortunate not to have had to clear snow.

***

Our son-in-law, Tom, broke his ankle. Lisa and I have been looking after Scarlett and Cooper while Tom and Kelsie waited in the city for surgery. After three days of waiting from 2pm to 10pm in the hospital, all gowned, prepped, fasting, no pain killers, not able to drink, spending the nights in a motel, Tom was called and had his surgery to pin his ankle back together. He is home resting.

Everyone says that’s the way our healthcare system works now. Wait and hope. Still better than most of the world.

I think we could do better. What Tom went through is bullshit. Because it is ‘the way it is now’ doesn’t make it better.  Six days after it was broken he had it fixed. It is lucky they didn’t have to rebreak it.

***

The kids have been great. It’s been a long time since we have had to get kids ready and get them off to school. It takes energy and time. My boss has been very understanding considering it is busy.

One of the things I like about being just a regular employee is management doesn’t expect you to be as committed to the ‘job’ as, they have to be.

***

Coming home after work. I was cut off by one of our neighbours/tourists from the next province, narrowly avoiding an accident. Later, I was tailgated by another, before they blew by me, a Mercedes SUV, one license plate, in a hurry to have fun.  

It is the first long weekend of the year and I’m already sick of them. 

Skating

A spectacular day, after so many with cloud cover. Lisa and I headed beyond the ruck to skate beyond Windermere.

Each year we get older and loose a little balance. Thats the way it works. We try harder to compensate, but are mindful not to bump our head.

Weekend

Enjoying every moment.

A fine week behind us. The skies finally cleared and it was nice to get to see some blue skies. Lisa and I had some nice fires in the fireplace and went on a couple nice walks. Weekends are always the highlight.

The weekdays are good, I look for anything to make me laugh. Luckily I work with people that feel the same. It passes the time and makes some of the more difficult or trying work easier.

***

Last Tuesday, on the way to work, I thought I would go through the drive through at Tim Hortons and get a coffee. Early in the morning, off season, it shouldn’t be much of a wait. There was only one car ahead of me. I was in luck, I thought. Usually the line can be out of the parking lot.

He took awhile to order. When he was done I pulled up and saw he had ordered $101.64 worth of stuff! Of course, he was even longer at the pick-up window. The line up behind me was out of the parking lot. There was only one person in the car ahead. They had BC plates. Usually it’s the red and white ones causing grief. I was late for work when I am usually 15 minutes early. Tim Horton’s staff got him through and apologized for his actions, saying, with such a big order he should go in the front. I paid my $2.15 for my dark roast, black. I envisioned a School Board Employee, someone in management, buying a round of coffee, bacon and egger sandwiches and doughnuts for the early morning meeting, thinking everyone else in the world is on their lazy ass schedule.

What can you do, but laugh.

***

A rotten tooth above the gum line of the valley bottom.

The mountains have light around them. The colours are gray with blues, days getting longer, not in the morning yet, but in the evening. In January you take what you can get.

Tomorrow is Monday, I’ll get up and do it again. And if I don’t feel like it, I’ll remember how many times I didn’t feel like it, but did it anyway.

Funny

My manager Brandon presenting the award, glass artwork from a local artist.

This happened before Christmas, I was voted by the people I work with as Employee of the Year. It was presented at the Christmas Party I didn’t go to.

The resort I work at is staffed by wonderful people. Any one of my co-workers would have been a good pick, so I am especially honoured and a little bit embarrassed.

It is nice to work at a place that everyone cares about the job they are doing. The job isn’t easy. That is a tip of the hat to management that instills pride into their workers. I am fortunate to work with a great group of people.

I used to work at the School District, great pay, unbelievable government union benefits, large defined pensions and the most lazy unhappy workers you could find anywhere in Canada. Promoting the worst of the worst into management has had a great deal to do with the apathy and incompetence found in these positions. It is sad, especially for the workers who strive to do their best.

Today, I got on the radio and asked for help carrying a hide-a-bed up a flight of stairs, four people answered offering help. If that was the School District it would have been crickets until they decided to contract it out to a moving company. My job is much simpler with everyone pulling in the same direction.

My co-workers are mostly young. They don’t have pensions in their future or high wages, they may never own a house, yet they are Johnny on the spot, doing their best. It is incredible to watch and they put me to shame.

Warm Spell

The colours of winter when it warms up.

It felt like spring today. The only thing cold was my feet from being damp. Cut and split firewood. Nothing makes a body feel better. Willow and Lola ran hither and yon. They both got wet and muddy.

The snow melted, got heavy and fell off the trees. For the first time in months, Lisa and I could see deep into the bush, past thousand branch trickery and white out simplicity. No sense, walking off trail, it’s still deep, the warmth making the going heavy. It wouldn’t be long my old legs would be stuck like a long legged moose after a week long mountain blizzard. My only advantage is there is no hungry wolves following close. Perhaps I’m just too blind to know. Regardless, at this stage of the game it’s best to stay on the beaten path.

A feather under runoff. The best of nature is never perfect, it is rugged, torn, chewed up, bloody, cold, wet and beautiful.

That doesn’t mean you can’t be cantankerous, obstinate, disagreeable and ornery. The only rule: as long as it’s not towards the ones you love.

Warm

Crazy dreams, cozy. People alive, that haven’t been seen for awhile and plenty of dead people too. All the people I love or did.

Had my head down today. In and out of a plow, shovelling snow. It was just a skiff. Winter eases us into its season. Sometimes it can be a bastard. Freezing beards, crawling up ankle socks, long underwear and Lullulemon britches, which are similar if not the same thing, when I wear them my ass looks anything but nice.

Wood heat, electric blankets. Putting your head under the covers and flexing. Whatever it takes to keep warm.

Shovelling, plowing, gathering around the fireplace. 

All those friends and family in the dreams working hard to keep warm.

Noctilucent

Probably should have spent more time figuring things out on earth instead of looking at clouds and stars. Rivers of fish hiding behind every rock. To see it on ground you have to see it above.

Plenty of folks say God is up there. Looking down. Religion, and lately, science casts judgement with offers of redemption.

The sky is full of giant birds spreading their wings, prehistoric animals, white water fast and falling, chimneys puffing and faces that can’t be quite made out. Ghosts maybe.

Perhaps God took off and who could blame him.

I said to my daughter, ‘Do you see that elephant?’

She looked up and said, ‘Yes, I do.’

It felt good, even if I should have taught her different.

dreams

It was a big dog, face twice the size of mine, docile. It would have been okay if it wasn’t for the two cougars following me. The older was injured the young one was following along. Dogs are smart, instinctual, they smell fear. I was the intermediate between both worlds, cougar and dog. Not understanding either.

The old cougar woke up, knocked out most likely, saw the young one. The big dog knew right away the game was on and started barking, slow and deep, its giant face, jowls and eyes jiggling.

The cougar reared back and made itself twice as big as the hound. There was no reason to step in.

***

The last dream. I was playing hockey and had to put the puck in an empty net and couldn’t do it.

***

Usually something goes wrong.

***

But sometimes I am swimming in the deep water out at the logs. Doing backflips into the lake when the sun goes down, while a girl in jean shorts straddles the log watching me. If the time is right I elevate into the sky. That’s better than anything conscious or dreaming.

***

Willow asks if we are going fishing tomorrow and I tell her, ya.