December 1, 2021 Flooded out PT2

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…

November 26-28, 2021

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…

Nov 23, 2021 Passport office

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…

November 22, 2021 Musical Therapy.

“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…

November 22, 2021

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…

November 17, 2021 Convoy Home

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…

November 16, 2021 Flooded Out

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…

November 14, 21, Cat’s Story

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…

November 12, 2021

Marijke and I went to our first significant event since the Before Times – before covid hijacked the world. My daughter was pretty stoked to attend the game in BC Place in Vancouver to watch the BC Lions host the Calgary Stampeders. It felt surreal getting on the Skytrain and riding with all the masked people in an enclosed tube. It was strange being out of our bubble and away from home.  The fear of the early days of the Read more…

November 11, 2021 Lest We Forget

John stood in the bow of the landing craft. His last two years of training had led him to this day. His nerves were raw and he could almost hear the beat of his own heart above the roar of the engines.  “Ready gents! We will be hitting the shore in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5…” His sargent’s voice was drowned out by the sudden barrage of gunfire that laced the air.  It felt so unreal.  But the reality Read more…

Connections