May 9

I awoke in a strange bed this morning. I looked to my right and my wife lay there sleeping peacefully. I was thankful that my dreams were only echos of my imagination. I extracted myself from her embrace and went in search of coffee. We stayed at our other place at Big White last night after a nice bonfire with friends. It was the first time we had ever stayed in this condo and I felt slightly unnerved waking up in a new bed.

I thought I had it all planned out. My friend on the hill gave us enough coffee to make a pot and I prepared the coffee maker to brew a batch of magic wake up elixir. Disaster struck early, after waiting ten minutes and trying everything I could I realized the coffee maker did not work. I managed to figure out a way to get the coffee to drip into the pot. It was strong but I had my coffee fix satiated. 

Big White is a peaceful place in the offseason and it is usually quite barren of anyone in early May. Most people have left the mountain and the people that live at Big White usually chose this time of year to go away. In our new coronaverse, no one is traveling, most people at Big White have stayed. It was a bit busier this year for May but still very peaceful. We readied our place for the coming year, uncertain what will happen at our winter wonderland. Summer will open up we are told, they just need to figure out how to operate in the ski season with no young Australians able to travel. At least that is what is assumed. Things may change yet, but without a vaccine, no international travel will occur. In the moment, we appreciated the vast expanse of the Monashees and breathed in the quiet beauty of our surroundings.

Our place tidied and cleaned, we felt satisfaction at another job well done. My truck was fully loaded for another trip to the dump and we drove away from the village in the sky. The drive from the ski hill to town is an easy forty-five-minute jaunt and traffic was very light until we hit K-town. My wife was still surprised by the amount of cars on the road and reminded me that she doesn’t get out much. It is a different world 2000 metres below the ski resort. Windows rolled down we enjoyed the warm air that flowed inside the truck.

Mother’s day is tomorrow so my honey wanted to stop at the dollar store to pick up a card. With all the traffic on the road, we weren’t surprised to see the large line-up of people waiting to get into the store. Shoppers Drug Mart became a better option mainly because we have an aversion to standing in lines. Line-ups to get into stores may become part of our new normal as we adapt to the coronaverse. Card in hand we went next door to Save on Foods, mainly because the line at the liquor store was a lot longer. Stocked up with wine and ciders we arrived home to soak up the warm sun in our back yard.

We enjoyed our fire so much the night before, we decided a repeat performance with our neighbourhood friends was a good idea. We did our best to keep distanced around the fire. Yet these were our neighbours and friends and they don’t see many other people.  All of us on this dead-end street are careful.  With so few cases around and the odds in our favour we kept distanced, yet connected it felt like a win, win.

The embers of the fire glowed red hot as we wound down our evening with our friends. In the distance, a red glow dimly appeared behind the mountain. An image, an idea entered our minds eye. I knew what lay beyond the horizon. The red glow brightened, molted to yellows and whites, a light emanated from beyond the crest of the mountains. Tenderly caressed, the glow of the moon appeared, cradled like a newborn child in between the peaks of Okanagan Mountain. In a blink it arose; a sliver at first, growing, rising into the sky. In a cosmic blink, the moon erupted to its full glory. A ghostly white face stared down at us, laughing almost mocking us. We basked in the moment and connected in the shared experience when the moon greeted the night sky in all its shining glory.

I continue to be amazed at how everything feels more intense, more alive. We enjoy our shared moonrise, our shared fire, our continued connections.