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
A magical sound entered my slumber. Was I dreaming? Or was it the musical drumming of rain battering my roof and filling my eardrums with hope? It was a wonderful sound. Rain fell and soaked our drought-ridden valley. I had a sense of relief hearing the drumbeat of water falling. It was also the sound of hope. I thought about those poor unfortunate souls evacuated from their homes north of us. It is unbelievable how many people have been affected Read more
The fuel dock was in sight. I throttled up and steered Serendipity toward the boathouse at the Eldorado marina. I was coming in hot. The fuel gauge read 0 percent. Suddenly the motor sputtered and then quit and I was forced to drift in faster than I wanted to. I heard the gas jockeys yelling at me to slow down. I wish I could, but the motor was now out of fuel and not running. I turned the boat and Read more
I read it on facebook and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It’s facebook, so it couldn’t be real… could it? Cases have climbed in the Okanagan and the BC CDC announced new restrictions for the Central Okanagan. More cases of Covid 19 have infected our piece of paradise and in a seemingly knee-jerk reaction, health officials brought back restrictions on our lives. Restrictions I thought we were done with. Masks are now mandatory again indoors and there are limits Read more
Days have melted together in the summer heat. I have not had a day off in over a month. It’s like when I used to run my window cleaning business. I get hours off instead of days. I shouldn’t complain about the first-world problem of being busy on a boat. Still, my time is being drained away. I’m losing the time I had in covid, time to write, time to garden, time to live. I fear being sucked away into Read more
Fire burned the tinder-dry forests all around us. Ashes coated my car and I could see it falling like warm snowflakes in the sky. Smoke has descended back into the valley so thick I could taste it as I breathed in the air. The weather has remained hot and dry and our forests have had no relief. Much needed rain has eluded us for the past months and we are paying a heavy price. And the vast swaths of timber Read more
Sam swam lazily, his body pushing and turning. He glided at the edge of darkness between the depths and the light. Beneath him was a coldness that stretched hundreds of feet below. Above him was a warmth that sapped his body and slowed every motion. The water felt different, he could feel the thermal effects of the beaming sunshine from above. Sam was hungry, he was searching for a meal on the edge of the depths. The squawfish had been Read more
I met Eric Stemmer in January 2021. He was a friendly, conscientious man who wanted what was going to work safely and best for his job at Brooklyn Tower. I had a swing stage and he had concrete work to do. He seemed very sincere and honest and was concerned with the safety of his guys. We agreed to work together to get his job done. Now he will never get to do any job again. Ever. When I heard Read more
Barrman stood at the helm of his pontoon boat and soaked in the warm air of the Okanagan Valley. It has been a hectic couple of weeks touring people on the shimmering waters of paradise. He had mixed emotions about how so many others have discovered the Okanagan paradise. He grinned widely at his fortune, he hurt an ankle in the boat launch when he stepped into a gap in the concrete. Luckily it was only a flesh wound on Read more
Microscopic creatures swam in a flowing stream of yellow and red fluids. Erythrocytes rushed by in a hurry to spread nutrients to cells in the furthest parts of the system. The nanites darted throughout the pathways. In a sudden union, they joined with the leukocytes to seek and destroy any invading force. But they were getting weaker. The nanites were injected into the vascular system weeks before. They needed reinforcements. Like a military insurrection, the microscopic bots and white blood Read more