Hay Bay Family Visit

I love my family.  The problem is I don’t get to see them as much as I’d wish. There’s the issue of distance.  When we get together though it’s like we’ve never been apart.  My sister in law Adell phoned first then I was able to talk with their oldest song Graeme and then my brother Ron and the plan to visit was made. Patient cancellations and air flight bookings and Laura offering to look after Gilbert when I was away. The stop in Toronto after a long flight seemed too much to subject Gilbert to. He’s a great flier but I really think they need some doggie lawn inside airports. Least they can do since they have smoking rooms for smokers.
My nephew Allan met me in Kingston.  We drove out the suburban rural roads to their home. I’m always amazed at how civilized Ontario seems compared to the wild west.  There’s a gentleness to the terrain too.  Rolling hills compared to mountain peaks.  Lakes compared to ocean.  Great seeing my brother’s place.  I noticed the lawn wasn’t cut as it had been last time I’d been there.  I soon learned that Ron had developed pains in his hip so hadn’t completed that task.
I love to be useful. After greetings all round, warm hugs, and lots of laughter I got the tour of the place seeing the garden that Adell helped to plant at the last minute. The albacore sailboats were new. I’m looking forward to one day getting those out on the lake.
Adell and I went into town to get some medications.  I laughed when I walked quickly up to the pharmacist and asked for “Immodium’.  I couldn’t believe the speed at which she dashed around the counter and ran to the shelf showing me where it was located.  “It’s not for me,” I said, laughing.  She was visibly relieved.  I couldn’t help but think she’d had an emergency request in the past which made her move so quickly on this occasion.
I always enjoy talking with my sister in law, a retired school principal, about Canada and culture and the changing world. I also got updated on the activities of her incredible boys, Graeme the oldest, Andrew and his wife Tanya and Allan the youngest.  Graeme had a new girlfriend and I’d never heard about that before.  Allan’s master’s psychology research was doing well. I’d later learn from Andrew himself that he was making robot magnetic explorers at Carlton University.  My nephews are quite amazing people.
Allan and I drove into town so I could get the house a Cuisianart barbecue house gift. It was on sale at Canadian Tire and I could swear I read somewhere a sign saying ‘easy to assemble”.  That afternoon and evening, Allan a masters student, me with my MD FRCPC  and Adell with her PHD spent 2 1/2 hours assembling this piece de resistance.  True to form the mosquitoes attacked most the one with the tools.  So Allan who was doing the biggest lion’s share of screwing nuts and inserting bolts was their prime target. I was supervising with the blue prints while Adell was assembling parts. It was a lot of fun to work as a group assisting Allan hoping he’d be able to complete the task before the mosquitoes drunk on mosquito repellant drained his last drop of blood. Adell and I got a few bites by the time we finished at dusk having found that the electrical wire and harness for the ignition system wasn’t present in the box.  The barbecue looked great though.
When Graeme arrived the next day he barbecued us all pork loin perfectly.
I’d started to complete the lawn mowing only to have the mower mechanism crash.  My suggestion was to buy a new mower for a few thousand dollars. I felt badly for breaking the mower.  Ron would have nothing of that loving his Scotsman and insisting it could be repaired without too much difficulty.  Not wanting Ron to work at this time, he was only officially allowed to be a ‘consultant’ but nonetheless was soon lying on the garage floor looking at what I’d done to his beloved lawnmower.  Allan and Adell and I again as a technical team separated the mowing mechanism from the tractor.  This time Allan did one side of the disassembly while I lying on my back on the garage floor did the other. Adell was best at handing tools and holding bolts.  We’d used the internet to find a you tube video showing how the disassembly of a Scotsman mower was supposed to go..  Ron’s mower unfortunately was an older version than those on film but the video helped us get an idea of the process. We were as surprised to complete the task as we’d been putting together the barbecue. A wonderful feeling. It turned out that a plastic bag I’d not seen in the tall grass had been sucked into the mower and caused one of the blade assemblies to slow throwing the belt which caught on a guiding bar destroying another ‘thingamajig”.
Graeme, who in his work as a plasma chemical engineer deals with more complex assembly issues that lawnmowers would pull out the thingamajig the next day and with hammer and pliers and file restore this dead thing to life.  Then I’d help him reassemble the lawnmower tractor.  He got bit by the machine on his knuckles for putting in the cawder pins which had got my knuckles bitten pulling them out. Anyone who works on machinery knows it’s not inanimate and that it will do everything in it’s capacity to hurt you back for hurting it.  I had a bruised kuckle and Graeme had nicked fingers so we came off lucky.  Astonishingly Graeme drove the lawn mower and it didn’t explode and actually cut grass. Earlier in the process when the monster was in parts the next door neighbour Redge who has a similar machine had come by to watch with Ron and comment on how they apparently went back together. He’d had to take an older machine apart like we were doing but was thankful that he’d not yet had to disassemble his new John Deere.  It was still one of those neighbourly moments with men standing about looking on at a broken mechanical thing and discussing various solutions.  A real country male bonding moment.
I was glad to be apart of the resolution and obviously Graeme and Allan saved me spending a few thousand.  I got back on the restored lawnmower and headed up the hill back to the the front yard.  In the process of lawn mowing I chased up two moles and one very large and fast rabbit. I got a sun burnt, nearly rolled the machine in a ditch and almost took out one little tree. My brother came by to watch me and laugh as I rode about in circles trying to maintain some semblance of straight lines in the very unlevel terrain broken up by trees and shrubs with hidden rocks and logs threatening to hurt the now very precious machine.
I’d been able to buy a fishing license ironically from a man who works weekends as a pastor.  I chatted about Jesus and the bible with his friend who also attends the local church where a dozen people assemble most Sundays.  I missed that Sunday but certainly look forward to attending another visit as I love Christian worship and the welcome any visitors receive especially in smaller rural congregations.
Mornings I awoke early and walked Eva the cockapoo down to the lake where she and a Canada Goose had their well rehearsed confrontation over territory. One morning this brought three swans to visit. It was apparent from Eva's backward glances at me that with the odds now 4 to one she was counting on my back up.
Graeme who is also a movie maker was all over the property taking short clips he planned to incorporate in his films.  I’m amazed at the patience he has in the editing process.  For hours at a time he’d be off holed away with his computer and some dandelion fuzz blowing in the wind shot of a few minutes he was perfecting for later use in a longer film.
Andrew and Tanya had been to Niagara Falls to celebrate their one year anniversary so we’d been following their travel on Facebook. They arrived and Graeme was able to get us all together for a group photo. He left a space for Allan holding Eva the cockapoo to be photoshopped in because Allan had had to return to Ottawa just before Graeme arrived.
We drove into Kingston Hospital where I had a chance to meet with some doctors. I have a couple of colleagues who I worked with in the past and plan to meet them next time around when there will be more time.  The doctor’s I met were most impressive and I loved the whole professional state of the art atmosphere of the facilities and the helpful pleasant attitudes of staff.
As a family we drove out to a restaurant where I had fish and chips while others had liver and onions.  While I like liver and onions as an adult Ron reminded me of how I detested them as a child.  It’s silly fun reminiscing about childish things with one who shared those times.
Leaving Graeme and Adell to shop in town Ron drove me around Kingston on a tour showing me the harbour, the old jail,  the Royal Military College, and  Fort Henry built in the 1800’s to repulse the American attempts at conquering Canada. We drove about Queen’s University where Andrew had attended engineering before switching to geology at Carlton.  My sailing friend Tom is a Queen’s University engineer so it was interesting to see the campus. The whole town of Kingston is a lovely place which I’d love to tourist about on another occasion. I’ve only passed through it previously and appreciated my brother showing me the magic of the place.
At night we watched a couple of NHL Playoff hockey games, Rangers, Chicago, Annaheim, one night both Ron and I falling asleep in front of the tv so neither of us knew who won until the next morning.  I could have been back in our Fort Garry  home watching hockey as a child. All that was missing was my father’s snoring and the old dog we had back then farting.
Adell made an anorak chair staining the cut wood and assembling it when she wasn’t supervising barbecue assemblies or lawnmower disassemblies and making all kinds of snacks and meals for the family.
One afternoon Ron played guitar and I sang along with him dating ourselves with these 70’s Dylan, Eagles and  Beatles songs we sang as much laughed through.
All in all it was a great visit and too soon I was getting up at 4 in the morning to be driven to the airport by Graeme.  On the flight back I watched the amazing Clint Eastwood movie, American Sniper, a true hero. I cried at the sacrifice of family and the selflessness of soldiers defending each other from enemies they might otherwise befriend were it not for war.
Gilbert was ecstatic to see me even though he must have known I’d been with his friend Eva and he’d not been present. Laura spoils him with treats and walks so he hardly misses me when I’m gone but our reunions are no less ecstatic.

U2 Innoscence and Experience 2015 Tour, Vancouver , Canada

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.   The Band U2.  “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Roger’s Stadium full.  Crowds of all ages standing and dancing at their seats and in the aisle.  We were hit by the U2 famous ‘Wall of Sound’.  What incredible music of a lifetime. It was a spectacular show with the most amazing hanging video screen walkway half the length of the stadium. Sunday Bloody Sunday.  Songs of the Irish Troubles were accompanied by Bono’s thanks to all those who had the courage to compromise.  A tribute to the missing and a call for truth and reconciliation for everyone. A call to peace.  Bono sang Paul Simon’s Mother and Child Reunion for Red and an end to Aids.   With or Without You. The Streets with No Name.  This night in Vancouver opened their Innoscence and Experience 2015 Concert. What a privilege to be there.  What an overwhelming evening of love songs, rock and roll, spectacular rhythm, the most beautiful tenor voice, and what a circus light show extraordinaire!  Thank you U2!

Gratitude Monday

Thank you for this weekend Lord. I so enjoyed the ability to walk outside without an umbrella or heavy winter clothing. Thank you for the coming of summer and the glorious sunshine. Thank you for the opportunity to experience more of the wonderful cultural events Vancouver has to offer. BC Ballet was thoroughly avant garde and gave me a glimpse at a different world from my mundane pragmatic often trying day to day routine.  Thank you for another day of life. Thank you for breath and the scents of nature I experience getting out of the downtown and into the suburbs. Thank you for the pleasure of being on the water, having a fast little run about to enjoy Coal Harbour and take in the joys of one of the many great markets of Vancouver.  I so enjoyed the barbecued salmon. I loved barbecuing outside all weekend.  It was something I rarely did in the winter and certainly something I never did in winter when I worked near the arctic.  So much is taken for granted and I’d like to thank you Lord for reminding me of what miracles I experience in this sacred of worlds.
Thank you for the ability to change my perception. Thank you for teaching me the tools of rising above my circumstances and appreciating what I have rather than dwelling as so often I have on what I don’t. Help me better to celebrate the day. Help me to know less worry and fear about tomorrow. Thank you for the green grass and blue sky and the running stream near by.  I especially enjoyed the Mazda Miata and the Mazda Miata service folk.  Thank you too for the wonderful folk at Trev Deely and the dog palace and Laura’s mother’s day jeans and top.  Thank you for Honda Marine fixing my broken ignition which I now realize was because I was using the wrong key which makes no sense as it worked for a while and then hooped the system.  Thank you for these insights into my gross stupidity at times.  Help me to consider first that maybe I was the fool and not aliens or commies or fascists.  Thank you for the capacity and training to help me make personal improvement and not always expect the world around me to change to my mood.
Thank you for my teachers and thank you for the realization that life is a learning experience.  It’s a kindergarden and sometimes a university. I’m so thankful for all those who have taught me - reading, writing, arithmetic, and their advanced forms, geography, navigation; medicine, surgery, psychiatry, neurology; music, art, ; home, boat, car repairs; farming, animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, weapons and weapons care; diplomacy, writing, journalism, poetry; religion and spiritual practices; physical skills and sports, computers and chess -  - all of these arrays of learning that have helped me and guided me all my life extending my experience and deepening my appreciation for the divine.  All is amazing.  To the shallow mind little is valuable but with increasing depth of learning, experience and training there is an infinitude of more to marvel at. All my learning has simply taught me the limits of my own experience and expanded my appreciation of the infinite. I can only think that ignorance is protective of those who want to remain in the safety of their limiting ideas whereas my teachers over the years especially in the formal education spaces have helped me to expand my understanding. It’s been in learning a language that I’ve most appreciated the diversity of culture.  Just recently I had and extraordinary realization of how limiting my understanding of a topic was because of the fundamental failure of ‘translation’.  Knowing the history of my patients has been like learning the history of countries and understanding their peculiar viewpoint.  I’m thankful for this.
Thank you for mothers.  Especially thank you for my mother who I miss at times like Mother’s Day. Thank you for my father who loved her so.
I’m thankful for all the parts of my body where there is no pain.  I’m thankful for the movement I have.  I’m thankful for my heart beating.
I’m thankful for my friends. I loved being in church and visiting with Kevin and Anna and their children, seeing Alice once again.  I remember when going to church was as much an effort as going to evening courses at the university but today it’s paid off so much to get over that hump and establish a positive habit in my life that gives me so much joy.  I’m so thankful for all the friends that Gilbert has. Thank you for Gilbert too who is so amusing.
Thank you for my friend Laura and our time together.
Thank you for my family and my work.  Help me to serve others better and accept my imperfections and theirs and learn to love reality more than the mental constructs that I create.  Help me to see that my joy is related to my expectations and help me to alter my expectations when they interfere with my joy.  Help me to find more balance in my life.
Thank you, Lord for this day.  

BC Ballet - Rite

Laura cleans up very nicely.  I was rather proud having this  beautiful young woman riding next to me in my Miata Sportscar,  with the hood down. I’d had time to shower after work and wasn’t feeling too rough myself in a fresh shirt and black jacket. I figure when I’m sitting in the car no one can see the fat old guy belly.  They just see me looking not too shabby with the gorgeous babe beside me.    Blond hair, makeup, and this 30’s can can era short black evening dress.  We were going to the ballet.  It doesn’t get much better.  I later saw she was  wearing  gold shoes.
When we got to the ballet I ordered a double expresso  This is so I don’t snore.  I did that once at a symphony so ever since like a few shots of prevention.  While I’m having coffee Laura and I people watch. That’s when the shoes became apparent. The ladies were resplendent in haute couture spring evening frocks but it was the shoes that were the highest fashion.  Laura says her 4 inch heel days are behind her but there were a lot of 4 inch heels this night.  Ballet brings out a real spread in ages with a lot of lovely young people and enough of us grey hairs to appreciate them to the fullest.  Ballet crowds are almost sensual.  They have the most vitality and diversity of all the audiences I see.
Tonight BC Ballet outdid itself.  Rite was so utterly original I found myself thinking someone must the nuked Rothwell and this is what our neurons synapse like.  It was that weird. Futuristic and yet tribal. The dancing individually was utterly alien.  Arms moved like legs and legs like arms. I’ve never seen anything like it and that’s why it seem so weird.  Weird was the word that kept resounding in my mind.  It was like the first time I heard synthesizer music. There was no meme I could put it into. It was a thing of its own. That original. That unique. Emily Molnar is a  genius. Weird.  My very brain seemed be pulled like it was when I studied black hole physics for the first time.  The scenic design by Omar Arbel was sensational, futuristic, raw.  At times the dancers looked like they were on Crystal Meth while at other times I was reminded of choreas I’d seen in neurology wards yet there was a music and art to the whole and a transformative story. Weird.  I was glad to be there.  I loved that the audience seemed to get it too.  Elsewhere the police might be called to lock up the whole kit and caboodle.  But tonight we were blessed with something other and we loved it. Thank you BC Ballet.  Thank you Emily Molnar.  You challenge me.
In intermission I had the real joy of seeing my colleague Dr. John Christiansen. He was there with a young ballet dancer, Jesse.  John has always loved the ballet.
Consagracion with choreography by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, and scenic design by Luis Crespo, to the music of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was mostly a series of incredible contemporary pas de deux. I believe it’s the most sophisticated male pas de adieux I’ve ever seen.  Yet they all were extraordinary, man and woman, women together, males together and  the company as a whole, it all just worked. I love the Ballet BC company. The dancers have such energy and each one has their own interpretative style. It’s been a great season and I loved being a part of it.
The applause went on forever.
Then it was a lovely top down ride home through this great city of Vancouver.  Summer in the city in May and a night at the ballet. It doesn’t get much better.

St. James Anglican Church Sunday Service.

I’m more of a winter Christian church goer. When the summer comes I’m usually worshipping in the outdoors.  As I attended Christ Church Cathedral during the North Shore Round Up Easter Weekend I hadn’t been at St. James church for some weeks. I’m a member there and its where I see Kevin and Anna and the god children. There’s others there I enjoy too. I realized this acutely after a few week absence. Kind of like coming home.   Gilbert has his whole fan club there and everyone missed him this week. I’d had a sweet ride in on  my Harley.  I decided to leave him till I got more used to being back in the saddle.  I’ve really missed Father Mark but today enjoyed Father’s Mathew’s sermon. He’s definitely one of my favourite people and I love his street mission work.  It was good to be back at church.  The choir was in superb form. The sound system had been adjusted so I could hear the service better. I thought it was me but apparently others had been having difficulty. I really appreciated the improvement.  Made me feel young again.  Communion is always a special time.  That and confession and sharing the Lords Prayer.  This week our statue of Mary got a new wreath .I felt lighter leaving and enjoyed talking with others after church.  I even learned that Chris rode a Kawasaki. Thank you St. James Anglican Church. Thank you Jesus.

Honda Center, Vancouver, BC and the Honda 2.3 hp Outboard Motor

I love Honda Center, on first at boundary. My favourite person from the Kits Honda moved over to this Honda and by luck I found them.  I'd bought an incredible CRF 250 off road on road Honda Motorcycle.  It was a jewel of a machine.  When I needed to buy a 30 HP  Honda Outboard marine motor  I bought it here. I 've bought Honda Ruckuses and several generators over the years so really admire the Honda reliability, design, manufacture and service.
Now I’ve just bought my 2.3 Honda outboard.  The 30 hp honda goes on my AB 12 Profile hard bottom inflatable with centre console.  I have that for fishing and getting about in harbour.  Lots of trips to the Lonsdale Quay for weekend shopping.  Even some trips from Coal Harbour round to Granville Island to shop at West Marine over there.
 Now over the years I’ve had a lot of outboards. I have always had an inflatable dinghy on my sailboat with an outboard.  25 years ago I had a huge  zodiac and a 15 hp.  I was young and muscular. I could lift the motor from the dinghy up onto the sailboat deck, no sweat. I had winches too but sometimes didn’t bother.  Then I moved down to the 9.9 hp and after that the 6 hp and smaller lighter dinghies.  Age makes one more reasonable and my back began to rebel at lifting motors from bouncing dinghies up to sailboat decks. I just gave Tom my  almost new 4 hp outboard motor in exchange for boat work because the last time I sailed over to Nanaimo lifting even that little motor back onto my sailboat was dicey.   Hence the 2.3 hp portable Honda Outboad. I still have the choice to tow the big dinghy with the 30 hp.  I certainly couldn’t tow that off shore so the 2.5 hp is the ultimate motor to get me from boat to shore anywhere.
The Honda 2.3 4 stroke outboard motor weighs only 12 kg.  And it is a sweet machine. I am so looking forward to using it. It fit in the boot of my Miata sportscar it was that portable.  Excellent for my canoe on inland lakes too.
Normally I look at all the motorcycles but this time I couldn’t help but notice all the lawn mowers.  The guys gave me a real great demonstration of my engine in the service area with some great ideas for long term maintenance techniques.  You can easily drain the carburetor on this one for longer term safer storage.  Laura and Gilbert came along for the shopping adventure.  Thank you Honda Centre for all the great products and service.