Cal's Journal

Today was the last day of August, the final day in the last full month of summer. A summer to remember, a season that will go down in history. It was a historic summer for many reasons. A summer of unprecedented heat. It was a summer we began with optimism and excitement. This month ended with a time of uncertainty and fear. The month also ended with something we drastically needed. Rain. Glorious, rejuvenating, energizing rain. Our drought-ridden soil soaked Read more…

Two weeks ago our fearless leader(?) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called an election. An election in the coronaverse that made little sense but will cost taxpayers a lot of dollars. A mere seventeen months ago the last election campaign resulted in a minority government for the Liberal Party of Canada. I am not sure what they think has changed to warrant a return to the polls. Canadians are in no mood for another batch of political posturing. We want the Read more…

Ben sniffed loudly, the invasive stench of smoke still filled the air. He could smell another odour in the evening breeze. There were so many strange smells Ben didn’t recognize. It made him shiver with a feeling he couldn’t quite identify. His momma would have told him. But his momma wasn’t there.  Was it fear?  Out of the corner of Ben’s eye, he saw movement. A white blur. Ben turned and ran toward the tree. Behind him Snowbee the cat Read more…

Black and silver ripples coated my view as I cruised the dark waters of Okanagan Lake. The sky overhead was filled with sparkling stars that lit the night. The shore in front of me was lined with the artificial lights of humanity. I felt freedom, and exhilaration as I powered my Biltmore over the rippled water.  It felt surreal, it felt free. I had a connection with the universe under the sparkling stars of the moonless night. Then I saw Read more…

Vaccine passports… The phrase has been bantered about for the last year or more. Some view them as a threat to their freedom. Others see them as a path to freedom.  I guess it all depends on what kind of freedom people are looking for.  There are those that want freedom from all restrictions and don’t want the vaccine, for whatever reason. Others view vaccines as a way forward and the best way to rid the world of our viral Read more…

Sima stood looking toward the airport in Kabul. All around the tarmac was a wall of bodies pushing forward. People pressed together in a crush of human anguish. Inside Sima, grief was raging. Her hands twitched, searching for something beyond her reach. She was in search of freedom, of something she knew was lost to her. Was it lost forever? The Taliban were back in control of her home. Soon they would try to control her life. Sima wasn’t ready Read more…

It was gone. All of it – gone. The fire left nothing but memories and rubble Dee’s stomach sank into the pit of her toes as she stood looking down upon what was left of her home. Her entire life was in wisps of ashes and dust. There were tiny pieces lying in the charred remains of what once was a beautiful log home overlooking Okanagan lake. The valley below was filled with smoke. Her soul was overwhelmed with emptiness. Read more…

I couldn’t believe my eyes. What I saw in front of me stunned me to the core. The mountain was lit up with an eerie red glow.  Over the hills in front of us, we could see raging fire fill the sky. It filled my stomach with a queasy feeling. An empty knot twisted inside.  Flames lept higher as I drove around the corner from Westlake road to Stevens road.  The fire was close. Too close. Krista got a text Read more…

Dan leaned on his shovel and watched the flames burn the slope on the other side of the highway.  The fire threatened everything Dan had, it scorched his world and all he knew. The massive forest fire raged toward the town of Monte Lake and the Paxton Valley nestled in the heartland of BC between Kamloops and Vernon. An evacuation order was in effect for all of the areas in the path of the raging disaster. An order that Dan Read more…

I awoke to the acrid smell of smoke-filled skies. The air was thicker with ashes and smoke from the forest fires than it has been all year. The Okanagan Valley looked as if it was filled with a fog that smelled like a campfire. Only this fog stung the eyes. I had to go to the top of the mountain. I sure hoped I could go above the smoke. I had a job at Big White Mountain Resort. What better Read more…