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
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