Barrman could barely sleep, the night seemed to drag on. He was like a kid at Christmas, the morning couldn’t come soon enough. Barrman rolled over and looked at the glowing numbers beside his bed, “5:55 ” might as well get up. He felt the warmth of his cat as she snuggled in closer for a bit of loving. He sighed, kitty love was good, but fresh tracks on snow would be better. With a deep pull of breath, he Read more…
I awoke to a blanket of white coating the Okanagan valley. A deep blanket that embraced our world with a thick cover of snow. They didn’t call for this. The experts that are supposed to warn us of environmental storms missed the mark as winter decided to pay our beautiful valley a visit. Ten centimetres of light fluffy Okanagan Champagne Powder filled every crevasse and covered my boats. I do prefer it would stay at the tops of the mountain. Read more…
Dave looked out his window, what he saw was something he couldn’t quite believe. A wave was headed his way – on the wrong side of the dike. What the hell? Dave looked into the parking lot and saw his car. Water was beginning to lap around its wheels. He knew he had to move. At Eighty-eight years old he wasn’t moving near as quickly as he used to. The octogenarian walked through the lot and opened the car door. Read more…
Big White opened for the season on Friday, November 26, 2021. It opened with meagre coverage but a lot of anticipation. People were anxious to get outside and breathe the mountain air. No masks, singles allowed – please make fours. Skiing in the coronaverse was inching back to normal. If only Mother Nature would cooperate. I was not disappointed that I missed the opening day madness. Others lined up overnight. I wasn’t that excited to stretch my ski legs on Read more…
I sit here waiting… and waiting and waiting… Waiting for my meeting with a passport officer to make sure my daughter gets her passport in enough time before we go to Mexico. Waiting. Patience is my lesson of the day. Especially considering this is my second stint today waiting at the passport office. I was here all morning only to find out that even though the first screener looked at my application, he missed that I needed my daughter’s mom Read more…
“Oh, fingers and toes, fingers and toes Forty things we share Oh, forty-one if you include The fact that we don’t care See when it starts to fall apart Man, it really falls apart Like boots or hearts, oh, when they start They really fall apart, well, fall apart” * The energy of the song lifted the crowd. Two hundred people connected in a musical moment on a Sunday evening in the Kelowna Curling Club. The band The Hip Replacements Read more…
What a crazy month November has been. The world seems to have gone upside down. The crush of people at the concert in Houston at Astroworld where people were so excited to gather together they pushed and pushed. and didn’t stop until ten people died. Travis Scott was performing and never stopped it until it was too late. How clueless can you be to stand on a stage and watch the crowd crushing forward? Drake the Canadian Rapper was also Read more…
The BIg Boarder, Nurse R, Natalya, Kaydee, and Barrman stood in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express and discussed the journey ahead. All roads were closed out of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The only way home was to drive eight hours through the United States in order to get back home. The journey from Vancouver to West Kelowna was a daunting one. “What are the odds we would all be here on the same weekend?” The Read more…
Raging storms struck the BC coast this past weekend. An epic rainstorm dropped over 200 mm of water on an already drenched landscape. That’s almost eight inches of liquid in three days of continual downpour. Epic rains, followed by epic disaster. The experts predicted a heavy rainfall warning for the coast of BC. I don’t think anyone could have predicted the damage that the storm would inflict on the roads and lives of the lower mainland and much of BC Read more…
Cat had it all. It was a future bright with potential. She had her new condo at Big White, a season pass, and she looked forward to a winter full of adventure and fun on the snow. She had a life full of joy, winter on the mountain and summer at the cottage. Then in an instant, it was gone. She stumbled with the simplest tasks. Her left hand was now “the claw.” Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why, why, why? In less Read more…