Sunshine Valley RV Resort - Gratitude

Thank you God for this day. Thank you for my sobriety. I am so grateful to have celebrated 28 years with my cake at Burnaby Men’s Fellowship. Marty was so gracious and kind presenting it to be and handing on the 28 years medallion key chain that George passed on.  Manny was so inspiring too with his sharing on his taking 6 years.  It was a fabulous evening,  Fellowship. Camaraderie.  Celebration.  So many young guys from the local treatment centres beginning the journey of rccovery.  I’m so thankful I began and stayed the course.  Thanks to you God.  You are the first principle.  I am your imagination Thy will not my will be done.

I’m am your creation. You are the creator.  CS Lewis says ‘stop looking for God in the wall’.  I was looking down and seeking salvation, nirvana, Samadhi in the ‘spirits’.  Carl Jung said.  ‘Spiritus contra spiritus’

It was so exciting and challenging to pack up stow and get on the road.  The Thor Motorhome has a huge slide that opens the whole drive side of the home.  The first step is to take in the awning on the passenger side and the slide on the driver’s side,  I have to ensure there are no socks or shoes that impede the travel of the slide inward. Once that is done I have to retract the jacks with the automatic switch by the drivers window Madigan was disconcerted by the slide coming in , Then he was even more shocked by the rocking and groaning of the jacks coming down.  It felt like a camel settling to the ground.  

Laura arrived when I had the hose disconnected and was mostly stowed, I had to find room in the underneath bins or cupboards to stow all the daily ‘things’ of existence, I have too much clothing. I have too many pots. I have too many old bathrooms ‘stuff’. I have too many duplicates. But it all got done. All that was needed when Laura arrived was for the Star Link to be dismantled and electrical cord disconnected.  

With her managing Madigan and an extra co pilot eyes I pulled out of the Burnaby site and made it to the highway.  The bus is longer and huge,  I’m learning the experience of driving this machine and the sounds and feeling of it.  It’s all so challenging yet we kept going.  On the highway every bump seemed an event.  Changing lanes, slowing and stopping, all felt new and tense,  The false smoke alarm was a challenge indeed.  We pulled over at the RV rest site only to find it full of squatters and fearful we’d not have room to pass through but we did.

I was inwardly praying the whole way and more so here.  And then we were on the road again. It’s a clunky drive. It’s a big machine. I’m used to motorcycles and sports cars and remember the same experience when I bought the F350 truck.  Now this is that plus .  Yet we did it.

Laura was such a comfort.  Just the presence of another is reassuring.  We are not lone creatures. We thrive together.  I like company.  

Sunshine Valley RV Resort was such a welcoming site. The staff were wonderful. We now have this love flat space with lots of fellow RV folk about.  In minutes I was leveled and had the slide out and the water and electricity hooked up.  I unloaded the barbecue and propane tank. It turns out there’s a propane barbecue connector so Idon’t need to take an extra tank. More room I have an out door kitchen,  I had the lawn chair and canvas rocking chair out. Laura had brought the electric bike charger I ordered on Amazon.  I had the bike off the rack at the back and plugged in a charging.  

That was Friday.  We’d left at noon and were here at three taking an hour lonnger because of the traffic jam at Langley.  I was exhausted but loved the experience. Success after success.  And glory. What a glorious place outdoors,  Out of the city.  It was a cloudy day but we were in the country and it felt so good and my home with all my amenities were with me. I am so thankful.  Laura was as pleased and said show. Madigan was a little kangaroo jumping all over and enjoying being taken for walks and sniffs and piddles

Life is good

I love the Thor Hurricane.  I love the elegance and luxury and convenience.  

We watched Blue Bloods after heating beef pot pies.  There’s the dinette table for sit down meals Then there’s the couch.   I like lining down to watch tv. Laura likes sitting up.  Madigan likes going from one of us to the other to bug us.  We had cashews and wild cherries.

What a great Friday night

Saturday I had my international AA meeting at 8 am on zoom and so enjoyed seeing my fellow doctors with a new design for living.  I shared that I was 28 years and Terry put up his digital 28 year cake.  I’m really grateful.

I made Laura and me bacon sandwiches on toast,  I’ve a smaller coffee bean grinder so I’m still having Ethiopian coffee with honey and milk. Laura took Madigan for a walk and he pooped He always seems to poop on his morning walks with her.  Gifts for his momma love.   I went to the hotsprings and pool first thing in the morning. There were only a few people there.  I felt really good about showing self care to my back which has been so stiff recently. Since the jets on the hot tub in Burnaby died I’ve not been going to the pool so much.  Just and excuse.  I was swimming twice a week 10 laps but with summer the kids come.  So I swam here and felt the unused muscles and joints.  Creaking.  Aging.  It was good.  I’ve been walking more. In the afternoon the bike was charged and I was able to to ride about the nearby townsite for a half hour. It does 28 km an hour without pedaling but with pedaling I can go a bit faster. I enjoy the power assist and was again most impressed with the Motorino Folding 4electric bike.  What fun!  

Laura and I had a long walk with Madigan.  I showed her the Japanese museum for the WWII internment camp where they moved Japanese families inland away from the hundreds miles of coast.  It’s developing just fine there.  Tasteful and thoughtful.  Later I saw that they were set up by the big barn like structure with a band and food outlets. They’ve now got weekly music events.  Later we heard the sound of rock and roll in the evening.

I barbecued the most delicious New York Strip steaks which we all enjoyed.  Madigan is the most spoiled under the table dog.  He gets a third of Laura and my steaks. We had potatoes salad and garlic toast.  

Another couple of episodes of Blue Bloods with Tom Selleck.  The sun had come out and the sunset was lovely.  

I actually had another bout in the hot tubs and a shower and lay on the couch reading a western for an hour or so.

It was that kind of vacation day.  Idyllic, In this amazing machine with the most beautiful kind and intelligent companion and the crazy dog,  Another walk and tv and then bed,  The sky vent in the bed opens so we had fresh night air.  

I am so thankful God.  I really am thankful,  This is one of those truly blessed gifts that come from working and the contrast and the fulfillment of service and contribution and a touch of hedonist R&R.  Away from the wars with loved ones feeling that special break and sense of reward.  Rest.  Peace.  Comfort.  

I’m so thankful that Scotia Bank and Traveland helped arrange for me to have this wonderful machine , this possibility of home on wheels, I’ve been escaping to the country most every weekend or holiday I have had and since I had my sailboat I’m finally again in the right machine for being in town and getting away on the weekend.  I feel especially blessed.  This really is heaven on earth. BC is truly God’s country.  

Thank you Jesus. Thank you God.  Thank you Holy Spirit.

I’ve woken this morning from a great sleep.  There was a gorgeous angel in bed beside me protected by a crazy neurotic pups wagging his tail and growling, eyes all enthusiastic. I have sat and prayed and given thanks and even had my first coffee. It’s a sunny day. Bright and green and blue sky.  Heaven on earth.  Thank you God.  Thank you Omnipotent, Omniprsent , Omnipotential, Loving God.  

  

Sunshine Valley and Thor Hurricane Class A Motorhome

I am so grateful for this Thor Hurricane the Class A Motorhome I bought from Traveland RV Dealer with the help of Scotia Bank.  I have the money but if I take it out the government will take it and Scotia Bank would rather loan me some of the cost so we both benefit.  Everyone benefits and I benefit the most.  

I must confess I traded in my 40 foot fitth wheel Toyhauler, a truly fine machine. I had it for seven years but it was too big for me to tow.  I was quite terrified with it despite my comfort with my Ford F350 truck and Camper and towing the RV’s I’d had before. It was just too big for me and instead of being what I wanted it became a mobile home. When I went camping I took the truck and camper.  

Driving the Thor Hurricane home with Laura that first day was so exciting.  I could do it. It was a challenge but after getting a trial ride around from Traveland the drive home with Laura and Madigan, the cockapoo was thrilling.

Laura has been camping with me a quarter century.  I began camping with my Dad and Mom and Brother in an army surplus’s canvas wooden poled tent.  In my 20’s I’d tent bicycling across Europe or white water canoeing in northern Canada. I even camped with just a sleeping bag hiking the west coast trail and the sierra mountains under the glorious canopy of the Milky Way.  Laura joined me tenting. We rode on the back of my motorcycle all over British Columbia summer  sleeping out in a pup tent at night.  She’s been with me as we graduated from tent to truck tent to little RV, camper, and now the ultimate Thor Hurricane,  My parents did the same transition form tenting to Class A Motorhome and loved all the friends they made in the Good Sam Club.

Yesterday we drove out of Vancouver and through the construction and delays in Langley on through the heavy traffic that persisted till Abbostford.  After Abbotdford the smoke alarm sounded and I tried to stop in the RV rest area only to find it was overtaken with squatters.  With alarms screaming I threaded my way through what seemed more like the Downtown East Side than beautiful BC.  For a moment I was infuriated at the outrageous taxes we pay our government and their incompetence dealing with immigration, housing and homelessness.  Thankfully I got through the slum and parked on the side of the highway.  It was just the heat or dying battery in the alarm.  I pressed a button and on came the air conditioning.  There but for the grace of God go I I thought looking back at the RV stop, a resource developed for those of us who use the roads and pay the taxes and work.  I don’t begrudge the squatters so much as authorities for not maintaining law and order.  In the US there are magazines for those who want to boon dock,  Canada has similiar wilderness.  These people could be redirected to alternative places and those who stay over 24 hours in these services areas could be fined or moved along.  Of course this is wrong and the situations that cause this are wrong and the government is the problem but I’m growing spiritually.  

As a doctor, wise in acceptance  said, I can find a speck of dirt on a white canvas wall and think of nothing else and if you don’t see it as the problem then its an even bigger problems.  So there I was back on the road looking out the increasingly usage window at the glorious scenery thinking how silly I am.  The alarm was nothing.  Everything was okay and very quickly I was driving through Chilliwack and past Hope seating beside the most beautiful woman in the world with the greatest little crazy dog seeing the most incredible mountains on the way to Sunshine Valley.

It was raining but so what. I was in heaven and arriving here I was ecstatic. I’d not had an accident. We’d not broken down.  Everything had goon so well. 

Now we are parked in the pretties little civilized RV park with mountains and clouds hanging in the snow covered peaks.  It’s taken no time to pack up and we have our home with all the amenities here.  i made us Beef Pies heated in the microwave and we watched Blue Bloods on TV feeding the dog half a bin of Hagen Daz ice cream before we got his tick pill he kept spitting out into him..  

Then it was the sleep of saints,  Laura is the most incredible companion to sleep with despite the crazy dog bouncing about between us.  Now I’ve woken to a new day in the country.

Thank you Jesus.  God is good all of the time.  This is truly heaven on earth.  

28 years

I took my cake at the Burnaby Men’s Group last night..  George had cataracts surgery so couldn’t make it. Marty graciously agreed to give me my cake and medallion instead. It’s all a huge honor to me.  I really admire George and Marty.  Marty kindly referred to my being a respected doctor and spoke to that moment when I sought help as we all must do. I was reminded of the sign at the Toronto IDAA , ‘we are not alone’.  It was only months before I’d thought myself outside the love of God which is arrogance of a special kind.

Now thanks to this program I’ve known Hank, Art, Archie, Bernie, Terry, Dave, Graham, Don, George and a whole group of intelligent beautiful women and friends. It was fun, then fun and trouble and finally just trouble. Only looking back could I see how the disease permeated my life contributing to the choices of work and wives and friends.  There was such disorder and chaos back then ,  Yes I sought to know God and serve but in my recreational binges like a soldier on leave I was the ultimate narcissistic hedonist.  This progressed to dominate my life till one day I stopped.  

We joke and say you can get off the elevator anywhere. You don’t have to go to the sub basement.  Graham said, some people run with the cheetahs and some people rune with the turkeys. I’d certainly run with the turkeys. I had low friends in low and high places..  And then I was out 

I’m glad I survived the treatment. I’m glad I remained in medicine.  I’m very grateful for the journey that took off and contained after I cleaned up the wreckage of my past.  How hard to realize the ‘promises’ came true when I had thought they were beyond mine,  Luke 15.  And that great song I was lost and now I’m found.  

ODAAT

Now another year is past.

I’m very thankful.  Dean said I was inspiring and Neil was a delight. Mario and Jack and Tom and so many others were there sharing and smiling.  It was so good to be apart of.  I really liked Manny.  We’d shared this journey together taking our cakes at different years listening to each others stories. I liked especially that he said he was working on doing nothing. Turning our will and our lives over to God. Walking upright and hoping to soar on eagles angel wings rather than crawling on our bellies.  The caterpillar butterfly transformation, 

The realization that we are together Where two or more are gathered together there too am I.  

Thank you God.  Thank you for my sobriety.  Now this next week I’ll be at the WDIR meeting on line and the International AA meeting and then the Spokane IDAA meeting.  Such good to look forward too.

I succeeded this morning in getting Madigan to have his worm medicine by giving him half a bin of Hagen Daz Vanilla Ice Cream to entice him to stop spitting them out.  Thank you Jesus  Agreat start to the day!

Joule Electric Motorcycles

I am on my fourth generation of electric bicycle. I couldn’t find the charger form my folding Motorino so stopped at Joule Electric Motorcycle.  They didn’t have what I needed but looked at the battery and said it was a 32 volt and recommended a charger on Amazon. Voila’ I’m waiting now.

Since I was in their show room of street legal, off road and dual purpose electric motorcycles I checked them out.  What an advance in technology!  Shorter charging, longer batteries and more choice. I lived a little green number that reminded me of the early triumphs.  Pretty bikes.  Price tags about the same or less that gas vehicles.  Well built.  I loved the owners.  So knowledgeable and answered all my questions which come from years of cycleing and motorcycling. I road my Harley Electroglide to Sturges and back but now have a Harley Nightster Special bccause getting older I found I needed lighter weight to load and off load as well and move it round. My Electroglide was 1200 lbs and ideal for the American freeway but my Nightster special is only 450 lbs.   I carried it on my truck to Arizona quite easily.  An electric motorcycle would be even easier. 

I’ve just bought a Thor Class A Motorhome and the hitch is higher than my truck so to run the motorcycle onto a carrier will be more difficult . I spoke with the amazing E&H Hitch  father and son team recommended to me by Burnaby Hitch who have the best equipment, Thule, etc but don’t fabricate. .  The son was  concerned about tongue weight on the motorhome hitch.  The father had  reinforced the hitch on my Ford F350 years past. .  ‘It’s doable’he said ‘but it would be better if you had  lighter motorcycle’.   

Since the batteries come out of the electric bikes they can be loaded running then the batteries easily removed for transit, The frame for the dual purpose motorcycle which was just like my Honda dual purpose 250 , sweet machine, would only be 200 lbs.  Light enough even to lift. 

At Joule Electric they  have off road electric motorcycles and change out parts in the shop to create a machine could almost climb vertically.  I really like my off road fat tired electric bike.  I took it grouse hunting but couldn’t carry my cock a poo hunting companion on the back whereas there’s room on the dual sport and off road motorcycles.   My friend who I gave that bike  to la couple of years back oves it. I returned to the Honda 450 quad but need a trailer to tow that around . I don’t like that or that I have to stow the quad the rest of the year whereas motorcycles take up so little room especially these electric ones,   The quiet is a joy.  Doesn’t’ scare the game like motors do.  I saw a lot of wild life riding the trails on the electric bike and just carried an extra battery rather than a can of gas. 

So I’m impressed.  The Joule folk were just so knowledgeable and helpful and listened carefully to what I needed. No trying to sell me what they wanted to off load.  Just a wonderful experience with people who love their machines want to pass on the joy.  

The motor home has a generator and I plug into 30 amp and the electric motorcycle cycle charger only needs 15 amps.  Two to three hours to charge .  A lot better than the early electric bikes that took over night. I can attain roads speeds and travel for an hour or more on a charge, something like a 100 km range.  The early bikes only did 20 km and as many miles.    

The government also supports buying electric and that brings down the cost considerably. 

I confess I am impressed. I can see myself  returning to Joule to purchase that Inbot.   

Joule Electric Motorcycle

5491Regent St.  Unit 303

Burnaby BC V5C 4H4

604-294 3840

Another day calling out to God

I woke a little dispirited. I’d slept well enough.  My dreams has been neutral if not pleasant. I was again in heaven. My Thor Hurricane Class A Motorhome is truly elegant. If anything would uplift me it’s my immediate environment.  I went through the motions. Toilet, shaving, and then felt better when I showered.  The hot water felt good on my stiff and often painful back.  I dresssed in clean clothing and meditated on the prayer rug cross legged. Lord’s Prayer. Call for God.  Seeking awareness of his presence, more knowledge of God and questioning his will for me.  Thy will be done not my will.  Relieve me of the bondage of self that I might better do thy will

Next I walked my most enthusiastic dog who i disciplined yet again pointing his nose at the new marking.  He’s regressed in face of change.  I point it out to him holding his head then put him outside. I know . I know I should rub his nose in it. But I’m patience. He was a few years trained then marked when we stayed at my sisters in laws with the other dogs.  I have a spray that takes away his smell. I use. We’ve just driven across Canada and back with the camper and truck.  Laura was over on the weekend and has left. He’s a little darling and I adore him.  Suck a rascal.  I feel he must have been like me to my parents. Loveable and bright but breaking rules.  He growls at me wagging his tail,

I listened to Jordan Peterson’s We Who Wrestle With God audiobook as we walked twice around the park.  That was better. I realized that it rained in the night and the sky is covered with heavy cloud.  I joke that I have Neanderthal DNA but also flower DNA.  My mood always dips now when the sun is overcast,

My patient was telling me of a book about heat rising at the Equator and the migration due to Climate Change. I have read so many books doom zooming and weary of the hypothesis of global warming at desperate levels and the demonization of CO2.  Yes there is global warming. No it’s not catastrophic.  The arctic hasn’t disappeared.  The whole Al Gore crowd are scientifically bankrupt or liars.  The science crowd backed Einstein because his predictions were right.  This political Maoist Sharia Communist hodge podge is ridiculurs.  We had an idiot failed drama teacher mascot for PM who lined his own pockets and his cronies while depleting the wealth of the nation. Now we have another leader who seems scientifically in error but tied to WEF And the Maoist UN.  

Meanwhile I so enjoyed hearing President Trump criticize Germany and Europe for buying Russian oil to finance Russia’s war with Ukraine. Obviously Europe could have increased their nuclear power plants and energy as Netherlands is doing now rather than funding the Russians and relying on the US.  Zelensky has said only a third of the money from Canada and US is making it to the Ukraine confirming it’s a magnificent money laundering scheme and of course war is big business. I was pleased to hear that whereas Trudeau gave money to fight the war PM Carney has given money to rebuild.  That’s like the Marshall Plan.  There’s still the disappointing thought that the war mongers and builders are aligned. One destroys and the other rebuilds , both for profit. Still I’d rather be on the construction side though it may be naive.

Meanwhile the Iran and Israel war has heated up.  I confess the desire to have a Motorhome was tied to a fear of a need to escape the city and now I have that means.  In Tehran there was traffic jams and gas station congestion as Persians fled the city.  I didn’t like that my truck and camper were in storage and my RV didn’t have the capacity to be towed. Now I’m independent again. I’ve always the motorcycle.  I really must go to Burnaby Hitch to get the part that would allow me to load and carry my Motorcycle on the back of the motorhome,

Work is fine.  I look forward to Burnaby Men’s meeting tonight. 

Thank you God for this day. Thank you God for my dog. 

Please God watch over my family and friends and their pets.  Help me today to know thee and to serve thee more fully.  

Thank you for the fresh air clean water, plumbing, clothing, coffee and refridgeration.  Thank you God. 

We who wrestle with God, Jordan Peterson

I have been listening to this audio book by Dr. Jordan Peterson, We who wrestle with God.  The use of the English language is worth the read.  Jordan Peterson is the most erudite man imaginable. The book is quite extraordinary in this day and age. His references are mainly biblical.  I’ve listened to him discuss Genesis and the Apple, the Fall and Cain and Able and Ham.  All of these stories I’ve heard in passing in churches. I’ve read the Bible cover to cover several times. Yet he has insights as profound as C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther King. The book is a long sermon of sorts. We’d fire him as a preacher with the congregation half asleep while the rest were wrestlers. But it’s like the Netflix and Prime stories, Son of Anarchy and Landsman, stories which were made into a series for they’d be too long for a movie. This book has chapters, thankfully.

The central thesis so far is hubris and pride.  God and I.  He hasn’t mentioned Martin Buber, the other great philosopher who discussed the individual and existences like Descartes.  But while he touches on reality and perception he has to this point emphasized morality, right and wrong and ethics.  He’s confronted moral relativism. He has had the courage to describe Mao, Stalin and Hitler as the most evil men of the 20th century.  In Canada we are soft on communism and there are Jewish die hards who don’t want to criticize Marx, a Jew, just like their are Chinese die hards who want to protect Mao despite his death camps. When I visited Moscow I saw that the Russians , more than westerners had dethroned Lenin along with Stalin.  It had been the gaslighting of intellectuals to agree Stalin was a bit ‘much’ but protected Lenin nonetheless, Yet there in the Moscow museum was evidence of the millions Lenin murdered in his personal purges. Not quite the tens or hundreds million Stalin killed but a goodly number for a man who once played croquet in his back yard with Royalty.  

I had read an earlier book of Jordan Peterson because I’d found his interviews superb. The book was dense and intellectual summarizing history in a remarkable way.  It was like Nietze whereas I prefer something simpler and lighter like Thoreau. Mostly that is my age.  Younger I would have loved that book.  Today I prefer synopsis.  This book, We who wrestle with Gods is anything but. Yet it is compelling.  

I began to listen to the book on my return from driving Vancouver to Ottawa to visit my relatives and see the new nephews and say hello to the neice to be.  Jordan Peterson argues pretty much for spiritual laws and describes a creative unity at the centre and warns not against the fringe but rather what lies beyond the fringe.  I’ve agreed with him in support of social arrangements which put the family at the centre as the creative tradition versus the ravings of the single person who wishes to be God.  I like the Trinity. I like duality.  I accept that the one became many and I’m not that One. There is God and I but really God is all that is indivisible.  

I do not I think share Peterson’s sense of imperatives. I’m not morally relative but while I’ve watched with horror the ‘diversity is our strength’ absurdities and tyranny I believe in multiplicity and relish variety. I am interested in the hierarchal men and women who wish to be one.  I’ve not so much wanted to be one but rather to be left alone and to be able to assist and serve.  I have been captain and I have been the surgeon but rather prefer assisting another. I”m a second son.  Jordan Peterson speaks as a father and sounds more like a second son. I know some women who are threatened by him because I believe he so effectively exposes duplicity and dishonesty.  Some women will use every means to be ‘first lady’ but have no desire to be ‘first man’.  Their fight is with their sister and not with men. A man might engage in lone combat whereas such a woman is always political.

It’s a truly brilliant book. I’m now listening to it in the morning in half hour to and an hour bits while I walk the dog. I suspect it will make me a better person whatever that might be.  My God is a loving God and personally I’m certain of foregiveness and a special place in the centre.  God is good all of the time. I’m just not sure if my approach to life will get me a Lamborghini.  Obviously the world if we believe has spiritual and social laws and deference to the centre is part of that I’m not as wealthy as I might be because of choices I’ve made.  I don’t sense that Jordan Peterson is more fulfilled than I am but then I met the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu and thought there were very nice men too. My own narcissism or paranoia may limit my appreciate of the truly great .  Jordan Peterson is that as a professor.  I’m only early in his argument and I do hope that he touches me as C.S. Lewis touched me with his surprised by joy.  He may well be John who comes before but there is no doubt that Jordan Peterson is in the room of greatness’s and espousing profound insights into Biblical truth, civilization and the wisdom of the ages.  

At times I wrestle with God and was touched by the passage with Jacob.  That was then. Today I’m more likely to say I play peek a boo with Jesus.  Jordan Peterson has a great sense of humor but maybe he thinks too much. Who am I to judge. I love best his joining Fry in a tag team debate.  I am so grateful to live in a time when men like Jordan Peterson are still openly teaching. 

Monday Morning, Mid June

Laura told me she woke at 4 am.  We’d watched episodes of Rookie till 10:30 pm after the Barbecued pork chops, wild rice and corn I’d served for dinner.  

Yesterday was a good day. I attended St. Barnabus Church and enjoyed Martha’s sermon on the Trinity.  It was good to ride my Harley. I’d left Madigan home with Laura.  On the way back I’d stopped at Home Hardware to pick up 3M Command damage free hooks to hang pictures in the new Thor Hurricane motorhome.  Laura said she and Madigan has slept in.

After coffee we’d done the hour walk to the duck pond and back. I’d taken pictures of a heron and a red winged black bird.  It was a good hike.  Reading westerns and napping in the afternoon.  

The American Army 250 year anniversary coincided with President Trump’s 79 year birthday.  I thought him older but then I’ve become older. Mentally I don’t notice it but physically my back complains.  Apparently he’d watched France’s military parade with macron years past and wanted the same for America.  I enjoyed it.  Disappointingly the left Democrats tried to upstage the national event with protest riots claiming it a “no king’ day.  Ironically it appeared to be mostly retired white middle class people. ICE was rounding up and deporting illegal aliens.  I was shocked to see that in the past previous presidents had done this for 10s of millions. This is the back bone of the black market economy and obviously central to the criminal class. One notice said that $500 a day was being offerered for ‘protestors’ to march. I remember decades back when $50 was the going rate for the weekly DTES fashion march.  Soros is under investigation in Congress for funding these events that become riots.  BLM and Antifida the Marxist communist organizations have millions in funding from his ‘open borders’ , the migration movements that are providing ‘scab voters’.  

I enjoyed the military parade on uTube.  In the 60’s my attraction to Vietnam protests was principally the gorgeous women, great music and marijuana.  I suspect 90% of the crowds of the day were there for that.  We all wanted to ‘give peace a chance’ and ‘all we need is love’.  It was before the Beatles wrote ‘we don’t want a revolution’ and hypocrisy wasn’t in full swing.  Today it looked like the sort of crowd that came out for the fireworks  at the Military Parade and the Protests before the illegals and rioters took over.  I remember leaving a demonstration as it went off rail when I was younger and loved Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  This pro terrorist anti Israel Hamas backed crowd is a different kettle of fish.  

I remember Ganesh telling us that the jewel thrives that broke into his store and robbed it were a gang that travelled all over the US and Canada coinciding their one day in and out robberies on flights with riots.  Criminals are sophisticated.  I never got a 100 inch color tv at a peace rally in my day but that seems more the attraction now the only fans and legal pot have made that attraction less appealing. Certainly the lawless and illegal aliens had a major reason to want their ‘gravy train’ to continue.  Lots of motivation but not godly by any means. Peace and love had been spiritual but today it’s mostly like the Buffalo Springfield say, ‘people carrying signs, mostly say hooray for our side’.  Gordon Lightfoot’s Black Day in July is more like it but the participants seem more like ‘rebels without a cause’.  Putin described his days as a KGB agent in Europe promoting the anti war rallies to undermine the western world. I’m old enough to appreciate law and order today.

Today Laura accepted the coffee i made for her before we carried her stuff to her car.  She’s terrific coming mostly for weekends. I used to go to her place before Saipan when she lived in a suite that accepted dogs and parking downtown wasn’t such a challenge.  Now she’s been driving out to see us.  Madigan barks when she drives off waving in her red SMART car.  He really likes when we three are together, a bigger gang.  He and I are buds but Laura is his love.  He’s sleeping again.  At least we put up the picture Laura’s sister, Carolyn gave us.  It has Gilbert riding on the motorcycle with me. It personalizes the space just as the hanging of knots and nautical signs my brother Ron gave me does.

We walked around the park. I prayed.  In my mind I am asking God to help me know him and to show me the way he wishes for me today.  I felt lifted higher as I mentally expressed gratitude for Laura’s visit, the walk with Madigan, the greenery and tranquility of the park. I really like the elegance of the Thor.  I booked the long weekend in Sunshine Valley as a trial run. We plan a few weekend trips so that I’m ready for the snowbird drive south in winter to Long Beach, Fountain of Youth and Arizona.  I am really enjoying being a virtual doctor.  I like helping patients but I don’t like going into the city or even offices. For so many years I had offices in my home or on my property. Today I still see people at home but mostly work on video and phone with weekly trips for a half day to the clinic. Then when I go away to the woods or the sun I take my laptop top and ipad and iPhone with me and thanks to Starlink and cell coverage with the Oscar program I’m able to do psychopharmacology, assessment and therapy. 

The big event for me on the weekend was running out of propane so not having hot water to shower. Thanks to Propane Depot I bought the connector and was able to fill the Motorhome partially from the propane tank I have for barbecuing.  

I’m enjoying Russel Brand. I’ve followed his sobriety journey and enjoyed his Christian baptism.  He too thinks of reality as potentially a digital cyberspace product of the gaming universe of our present.  I feel the lighteners of being when I consider the space within atoms and that gravity remains controversial. Teletransportation and communication make enlightenment much more tangible.  

God is omniscient.  He’s everywhere, everything. I am God and God is all.  He’s omnipotent, all powerful.  I wake up each day with pleasure in the day.  It once was a struggle and I had horrible nightmares but today my dreams are commonly of journey and places. Increasingly I have memories of positive experiences, My perspective is lifting. I’m looking up to God.  I’m lifting my head and feeling lifted on eagle’s wings. I love that feeling and sense of expansiveness.  God is omnipresent. I meet him in the now I’d like a more articulate communication less mysterious, less the wee small voice but I know that all of my life is God’s communication and it’s good, I thought the other day that my mortgage was a partnership with the bank and rather than thinking negatively I saw this as a relationship and more evidence of positive participation.  

This week is the G7 and I’m looking forward to PM Carney making better financial decisions for Canadians so we can collectively benefit from the advances in AI and nano technology. I am thankful for the radical abundance available. I was really glad when both the US and UK back Israel attack on the terrorist regime of Iran. This is all just news.

In my personal world I felt the wind therapy that Dave and Rogina and Carolyn talk about when they get on the motorcycles and ride I do feel that on my Harley. My Vespa is so enjoyable like the best enhanced bicycle in the city but my Harley seems a country road machine and sings to me when I’m on it.  

I am grateful and so appreciate each day of sobriety and all the gifts of recovery and love of God.  Thank you Jesus.

Adventure - Golden to Hope

I’m in Telte-yet Camp Ground in Hope. I love it here. Sacred site.  Ancient meeting place of local natives.  When we are looking for a chinese restaurant we say go where there’s lots of Chinese eating.  Well, Telte-yet is that way with natives. Always some indigenous people with family camping here. I’ve come alone often using it as a stopping over coming back from hunting in the interior.  Laura has been with sometimes and she likes the serenity.  I slept well last night.  Back in the Lower Mainland.  Feeling relaxed in the bosom of the creator.

Golden was wonderful.  I did my virtual doctor clinic facilitated by Royal Columbia Medical Clinic where the staff and other doctors are the best. I also work virtual and in person out of Doc-Side Medical Clinic where staff and colleagues are the best too.  I know there are strictly virtual medical services now but I’ve worked with these clinics for years and years and simply enjoy the relationships and the care.  This trip has been a challenge because it really stretched my endurance.  I drove 3-4 days and worked 3-4 days but my schedule when I arrived was indeterminate. I was visitting with three different fully employed nephew with their kids and high ranking jobs and uncertainty about when I’d arrive. 

Now that my eyes are catching up with my ears as a problem I can’t drive at night too well.  I can see the road and centre signs but can’t read the signs to either side at speed.  Apparently the cataracts are affected by the refraction. Whatever!  I drove 6 to 12 hour days and understand truckers getting hooked on amphetamines.  Staying alert was truly a challenge in the prairies and driving north of Lake Superior.

It was all worth it to see my beautiful sister in law Adell, the great nephews Finn and Elliot and my nephews Alan, Andrew and Graeme. What great men they are. I’d not seen any of my family’s since before Covid when my sorely missed brother died and I felt bereft.  I’m impossible to think of me as the elder.  Psychologically I’m seventeen inside and yet increasingly invisible and irrelevant in a country that would vote for the Liberals yet again.

‘

I’m pleased to be back on time.  If I don’t drink by the grace of God I celebrate 28 years sober in a week or two.  This camper needs repair and when that’s done the truck oil change can happen.  The engine sign, engine oil change required came on last couple of days and each place I stopped told me they couldn’t handle the truck and camper but with the strut/happy jack needing repair I’ve not been able to take the camper off.  The insurance and repair folk looked at it all before and June was when the work could be done.  So many of my patients are waiting exams and procedures with their lives on hold whereas I’m blessed that personally physically I’ve not been limited as such but my vehicles have been the outer defensive shell and taken the ‘hits’ for me. 

I really enjoyed seeing and passing through Roger’s Pass. I’ve travelled that way since a child and been through there far more than the northern way I came.  I was a bit on a time clock wanting to get through Calgary and Banff because the G7 was meeting and I feared traffic delays. As it was even highway construction delay was minimal.

Honda Generator,  star link and Apple laptop and IPad  on side of mountain road to communicate with office. Space age. 

The scenery was maginficant.  Seeing ducks lifting en mass off the mashes in Saskatchewan, the antelope in Alberta and cowboys and cowgirls riding horses on the open range where cattle dotted the foothills was wonderful.  The lakes of Ontario and Manitoba had me always wanting to stop and spend weeks fishing.  Then I was in and through the magnificent Rockies and loving the Sorendo and Okanagan.  Fruit trees and farms in heaven.  I always imagine explorers coming first to these areas and being awed by the abundance. I think of my Grandad arriving from northern Scotland to farm northern Manitoba.  So many immigrants drawn by the ‘land’.  That’s such a difference to the modern immigrants coming to cities and money and hustle.  The agricultural folk made this country back then while so many today are merchants.  The first generatoon and second generations are so often all it takes.  I have such a mix of friends and enjoy them all from all over the world and we laugh about traditions and parents and age old struggles.

Now I’m back in the lower mainland which I’ve made home mostly since the 80’s with periods of time in the states and moves from island to mainland, and north to south.  I’ve always thought of Vancouver as merely an okay city, but British Columbia is God’s Country.  Canada is god’s country really. It’s just that the politics are 19th century while the science and technology are 22nd century.  I’ve been blessed to be here. I’m blessed to have been able to drive across this country and see it while my eyes still see.  I fear for my vision.  I have what my dad had and lived the isolation he experienced as my mother grew more deaf. We joke and say aging is not for the young.  

I pray.  I really pray.  I listen to suffering and talk with pain all day. My darling sister in law was kind enough to say ‘it must be difficult to listen and talk with people who are suffering hour after hour for 6 to 7 hours a day all day.”  I was thankful she understood.  I miss general medicine at times when one is in and out and orders are left.  As a general practitioner I was never more than minutes with patients and yet here I am with the so many of the most difficult people, addicts, alcoholic, chronic depressives, dying, chronic pain, head injured.  I watch them be stigmatized and sidelined.  A third of my patients are really personality disordered and are quite dangerous looking for fault and wanting to get under your skin with coping mechanisms that last worked as teen agers. These are loud people whose families have rejected them. The psychiatrist is stigmatized with them like the leper doctor.  Everyone wants me to ‘control’ and ‘smarten up’ these ‘incorrigible’ ‘complainers’.  The government and insiurance people blame me for the lifelong pouts and refusal to eat beans.  They do everything to have me treat them as they behave to have me reject them and prove that they are the beasts they see themselves as.  I muddle on.  Motivation therapy teaches me that there are those that are not ‘ready’ to change and I should triage my time to those who are in action phase.  Meanwhile the government is my bugbear as they give away health care to the world without paying or increasing resources for the millions of immigrants with sick families and all too often attitudes.

I don’t know who to talk to about the sense of hopelessness that comes over one addressing the constipation and diarrhea in the system. It’s all about my pay grade.  I’m in the trenches and always have been. I’ve been outed the cushiest jobs and couldn’t have gone far way from the maddening crowds but no I always chose what I thought was the greatest need.  A third of my patients are ‘normal’.  They are successful and issues of mental illness are acute and they have resources to get through the travesties of existence. This was the group I saw when I was a family physician , a nice slice of the world, a positive take on existence as compared to the mentally ill and addicted and psychopathic and psychotic.  I actually miss the asylum and jails at times most because the colleagues were all working on the same page.  The staff weren’t blamed for the disease or disorders but I feel I am.  Then I realize I’m the one that is supposed to be grateful and thank God for the opportunity of being of service.

And now I’ve seen my family.  I was so alone in Covid. It was such a global evil a war by the aetheists against the godly.  Now the Luddites are back. It’s good to have seen first hand the life and breadth of this country and realize so much more the lies of media and social media.  God is good all of the time. There is no catastrophic emergency except political and corruption. That’s the evil. War has always been  a problem .  It’s Martha and Mary and workers and slackers.  I don’t spend enough time in prayer and mediation and I let the evil and anxiety get to me. I’ve had a wonderful drive , the struggle to stay away, only a half dozen near death situations driving, the semi that nearly crushed me, the dozing and waking on the curb, the down hill speed increasing before the tight turn and the brakes screeching to make it. It’s life.  I had my puppy with me and I believe God saved us because I prayed for him to be safe every day and God could have let me suffer my stupidity but thought kindly of this glorious little companion with the wagging tail and growel. Such a character.  

I’m going to head in now. I’ll drop off camper and truck and pick up my car and get on with the next step. This journey is almost complete.  Please be with us this last little bit God . And thank you, thank you, thank you for being with us all the way.

Thank you Jesus. 

Adventure - Golden

This is the most idyllic setting. The Kicking Horse River flows through Golden. The Golden municipal campground is situated beside the dike that bounds the Kicking Horse River on the west side. Looking across the river I see the railway trains passing. There are seats along the dike walk facing east.  I’ve taken Madigan my cockapoo walking along the dike each morning I’ve been here.  

There are snow capped mountains all around the town.  I feel nestled in this special sacred place.  I am sleeping so well at night. I dreamed of being with a group of women , friends old and young.  One of those auspicious dreams of good boding.

I’ve enjoyed the stimulation of Jordan Peterson’s, We who wrestle with God.  Many times I’ve thought of Jacob wrestling with the angel.  Moses at the mountain of God, Horeb saw the burning bush that was not consumed.  God called to Moses saying he was on sacred ground.  God said his name is YHWH, “I am that is who I am”.  In English versions of the Bible this is commonly translated as Lord

I pray to Lord God or his son Jesus Christ and sometimes Holy Spirit for I have been taught that God is this trinity.

God the creator though seems supreme.  Jesus Christ, his son, only begotten son is described as advocate.  He says that he will send the Holy Spirit to his followers.  I experienced this as ‘conscience’ or the ‘wee small voice’. 

Thy will be done not my will.  Pride goest before the fall.  One’s own ‘righ size’ is a measure of good self esteem and gratitude for what one is and what one has with thanks to God the giver of all gifts.  There is destiny and free will.  I seek to know my purpose as that is the purpose of God.  

Here I feel God’s presence. In high places.   The ancestor worship which was prevalent in the earliest of humans I studied last year at Oxford, even Neanderthals, appears the earliest of worships.  Ancestor worship.  God the creator.  Respect for the old and those who have gone before.  

I am grateful for my parents, John and Jean, and my grandparents on both sides. I was blessed to meet three of them in my life and know two well.  Now I’m the old one and am listening to an audio book by Jordan Peterson, we who wrestle with God.

I would said I play “peek a boo’ with Jesus.  Peek a boo is possibly the earliest game a child plays with mother.  Pat a cake may be the second. I would have to be more advanced to wrestle with God. These days I’m working up to pat a cake.  I’m certainly playing with toys.  Interesting that showing the face with surprise is the beginning of relationship. I feel awe and wonder when I see the finger prints of God.

Here in Golden the beauty of creation is incredible.  I liked the mice in Hitchiker’s Guide to the Universe finding 42 was the answer.  The earth was made as a computer to help the process and the creator was rather pleased with the fjords he’d made.  I liked the Rocky Mountains myself.  Most appealing to the eye.  Frankly I enjoyed the flat of the prairies though it was hard to stay alert’

I’m looking forward to returning to my home in Burnaby/Vancouver.  Today I’ll begin the return journey and tomorrow the plan is to be in Chilliwack

Thank you God for this day. Thank you God for creation.  Guide me Lord. Watch over Madigan and me and keep us safe in the journey ahead. Help me serve today and do thy will.

Thank you Lord.

Adventure- Moose Jaw to Golden BC

Again the travel day is a blur.  I’m up at 6 am and get away at 7 but with stops and rests I drive all day.  The big event of the day was seeing the antelope.  They are really skittering and fast. They would have been miles away if I tried to stop and take a picture. That was my experience of them when I rode my Harley to Sturges and saw herds of the beautiful fleet footed creatures.

I listened to Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories.  It was reminiscent of the mini drama Babylon Berlin.  Nazi’s and communists fighting politically, poverty and the Weimar government. Rationing and corruption.  I found myself nostalgic for a time with less pressure and demands It reads like the Moveable Feast by Hemingway.  I remember writing poetry and stories in my youth and having that sense of timelessness. Now old I feel that time has caught up on me and I sense the future as limited. There’s a quality of youth in the Berlin stories with easy friendships and intrigue. I enjoyed it after We who wrestle with Gods.  

I imagine God as all loving with different pats having more fortune and less pain but not necessarily ‘better’  Jordan Peterson sounds a bit like a preacher, his voice strident at times.  I enjoyed Isherwoods observational quality with the major political events, deaths and Hitler happening beside and outside the personal relationships. There’s poetry there whereas Jordan Peterson is brilliant essay. 

I passed on to Lincoln’s Highway by Amor Towles.  I’m really enjoying it as it did his masterpiece , A Gentleman In Moscow.  Listening to such incredible storytellers helps pass the miles.  

The scenery is magnificent of course. I witnessed a storm coming across the prairies in the great sky. 

My favourite stop was a place where I walked Madigan in the grasslands.  I made a sandwich at one stop with pepperoni and fresh bread.  I enjoyed A&W burgers with onion rings. He enjoyed his burger too.

I would have like to have stopped in Calgary and other towns along the way.  I’m wanting to get home though and I’m hauling camper and boat and trailer so difficult maneuvering in towns and cities and difficulty finding parking.  

G7 is meeting between Banff and Calgary so I really wanted to be beyond any traffic or hassle that might cause.  

There’s a Watercraft inspection. I passed one at night with no one there but at Golden the young man ran out waving. They’re trying to stop invasive species but as my boat’s been out of water in storage these last 5 years there was no concern.  They did direct me to the Golden Municipal RV Park.  

What a find this was. The manager rode his bicycle after I passed and directed me to the office. I’ve this terrific place which only has electricity at the site but water and pump out and showers are at the office.  I’m just glad to be in heaven with two days of work to complete before I do the final leg of this journey to Vancouver. It’s 12 hour drive and I’d hoped to get back on Friday but it may be Saturday.

It’s a lovely sunny day in the mountains.  A river runs on the other side of the dike my truck faces.  Madigan and I walked along it first thing this morning. 

Now I’ve unloaded my Vespa so will be able to drive about the town at noon after seeing patients virtually with Starlink.  The time here is an hour ahead of Vancouver.  I’ve some catching up to do with work.  I really am looking forward to getting home and back to a manageable routine.  These expeditions are a challenge. I’m looking forward to the weekend with Laura. I like our walks, barbecue’s and television nights.  

Even now I enjoy being stationary.  I don’t know how truckers do it. So many jobs like that are under appreciated until you get an experience of it.  Staying alert is certainly a challenge

Thank you God for bringing Madigan and me thus far safe.  Help us today and bring us home on the weekend.  

Thank you Jesus

. 

Adventure - Buffalo Pound Campground near Moose Jaw

It’s all blurring together on me.  Long days driving.  

Saturday I left Lakeview Campground a little north of Deep River.  That day I made it all the way to the Sault Ste Marie KOA campground checking in around 730 pm. I did 580 km that day.  I finished Abraham Verghese’s brilliant audio book,  Covenant of Water.  What characters and what a plot covering several generations of families in Kerala, India where Laura and I stayed a few years ago.  I started listening to Jordan Peterson’s “We who wrestle with God’.  

Sunday I did a long day.  I drove from Sault Ste. Marie to Ignace , 980 km.  I boon docked at the scenic look out there.  I’d been looking for a campground but didn’t find one.  The sun was red with all the smoke from campfires in the air.  We had chickens sandwiches and ice cream.  I set up the Honda generator and Starlink so I could watch Rookie. Laura I woke at 5 am and carried on today. I thought I was tired bu the smoke in the air was thick between Kenora and Winnipeg./. Visibility was affected≥. Past Winnipeg it improved.  Lots of the forest fires have originated around reserves. 

Ignace to Moose Jaw 1,112 km.  

Jordan Peterson’s book discusses the biblical stories with the idea that there is a unity and hierarchy that are essential Otherwise the fringe and the fringe beyond try to be the centre and society fails.  He’s moving through Adam and Eve and Cain and Able.  It’s pedantic but he includes discussion of the 5 personality traits and the traits of psychopaths.  So there’s this religious scientific overlap.  I may have to find a novel to continue as it’s fascinating but I’m needing something more exciting later in the day. I have to pull over several times for naps in addition for gas stops and A&W stops.  

I really don’t have anything more to say except I like this Buffalo Pound Campground.  There’s a lake.  I imagine that one day I’ll have time to relax and will relax.  I’m looking forward to having the boat running again.  I don’t have life jackets with me either.

I’m glad to be settled in . I’ll make some more sandwiches and watch more Rookie.I got the espresso maker out for the morning.  

I really don’t have much to say but would like to load up the pictures.

Favourite river rest area we stopped on way out and way back

Ignace boon docking

Thunderbay

Leaving

Smokey air past Kenora


Tonight

Buffalo Pound with Madigan and my camper