Fragile Miracles

Yesterday was the last day of morning kayaking. The director of the program came out to the lake early to unlock the gate and give us Regulars an extra hour of paddling, she brought her son and a couple of his friends with her to play on the paddleboards while she oversaw the kayak registrations and sendoffs for the day, because the students who usually do that job ended their summer jobs the day before.

It was a gorgeous day for it. The latest heat wave ended yesterday so it was warm but not scorching. A few of us did not come because the early hour was just a bridge too far, but those of us who did come set out in search of the mythical Fish Ladder.

Word has it that there is a fish ladder on the lake, we kind of assumed it would be near the power dam. D and myself had already explored the environs of the dam but had not sighted the ladder, so the group set out for a wider search of the lake. However, after a two-hour paddle the mythical Fish Ladder remained mythical, a project for next summer. It was an exhilerating paddle, especially since we kind of lost track of the time and left ourselves only a half hour to get back to home base. We went straight down the middle of the lake, a flotilla of little kayaks paddled in unison.

Next week is a week of morning appointments, things I postponed until kayaking was done. The week following is the kayak-camping trip on Kejimkujik Lake. Last spring we had organized a four-day kayaking trip at a lodge (Milford House), but that was cancelled due to Third Wave lockdown. Here in Nova Scotia it was actually the second wave, but for the rest of the country it was the Third Wave. Anyway, we had so many people wanting to come on that trip that I was half-thankful that it was cancelled; it was going to be crowded. But now we are hard-pressed to get four people willing to go, perhaps because we are all of an age when sleeping on the ground and camping in the rain are less than pleasant prospects.

But for me, four days on the water sounds like heaven, rain or no rain. And I am ridiculously fit, I feel more up for this than I have in decades. One night this week, insomnia had me up in the wee hours and while failing to get back to sleep I was marvelling at how hard my stomach muscles are now. My thumbs were very sore for a while but they have recovered, paddling hard for an hour now hardly affects them. In spite of lack of sleep I am still up and ready for an active day first thing. It feels like some kind of miracle and I don't want to waste it, at this age one is keenly aware of how fragile such miracles are.

Last night I was watching TV with the back door still open, the last of the heat wave was dissipating and leaving windows and doors open was nice. At a certain point I had a very strong sense that Hapi had just come in through the back screen door to check on me, it was quite overwhelming. I had to turn off the TV and walk around the house for a bit to try to shake it off. In spite of having a very good day I went to bed sad. One of my appointments this week is an interview at a seniors housing co-op, and one of their rules is no pets. For the first time since Hapi died I wonder if that will work for me. In addition to missing Hapi, I miss my backyard cardinal and the chipmunk that lived for a while in my window well. One grows attached.

Birds and ballots

I noticed about a week ago that the little cardinal that flitted around my back yard and sang constantly all day long was absent. It took me a few days to notice his absence and I guess I just thought he was somewhere else for a few days. Then I nticed that there was a cat visiting my back yard; he would scamper away whenever he noticed me watching him. And finally, while mowing the lawn a few days ago, I found scattered blue jay feathers. I put it all together and cursed that damn cat.

I tolerate cats but am not a huge fan, mostly because I am allergic to them and they always like to rub up against me. But now I dislike them all and that orange-and-white cat in particular. I feel like a good friend was murdered. I don't know if the chipmunk has survived the carnage, haven't seen it around either, and the back yard is deathly silent these days.

Today I watched a young male cardinal checking out my back yard from a nearby tree and I hoped he was thinking of moving in. But he came with a companion, a much larger bird of another species (I am not sure what it is). I suspect the young cardinal is hanging out with the bigger bird for protection and I rather got the impression that the big bird was calling the shots. It will be up to him (or her) whether they move in or not. This new cardinal isn't a singer, or at least not today, but it would be nice if he moved in.

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Our provincial election was on Tuesday and I put in over 15 hours as "information officer". In fact, all I did was run around sanitizing after each voter. In my not-so-humble opinion our supervisor did a poor job of organizing our poll and as a result there were lengthy line-ups. There were no breaks, the voters showed up constantly and we had to keep our masks on whenever there was a voter on the premises. That meant no eating or drinking either. By the end of the day I was exhausted and in pain all over.

What makes it worse is that as "information officer" (the supervisor took over my job as information officer and relegated me to sanitizing) I was low man on the totem pole and my opinion did not count. The supervisor was not doing the job of information officer effectively and as a result too many people were waiting in line for half an hour only to be told that they either didn't have the right ID or they were at the wrong poll. He was supposed to catch those folks at the door and redirect them. So it wasted their time as well as the time of all the people lined up behind them. The tasks of registering and screening each voter fell to two people who processed things very slowly while two other people just handed out ballots and sat there doing nothing otherwise. They couldn't step in to help, the supervisor was too busy chatting with voters and doing my job, and I couldn't do anything about it except scurry around with the sanitizer.

After the poll closed we counted ballots and registration cards and the tabs ripped off the ballots. The numbers were all supposed to match up and of course they didn't. So we recounted and recounted and recounted until we finally got it all to match up. At least there was a clear winner. I spoke to one of the other candidates the next day and the scuttlebut is that the winner didn't even want to run but was cajoled into it. So now we have a reluctant MLA who wishes he had said no. The provincial election signs have all been switched to federal election signs and we have another month to go of election campaigning. Only the names of the candidates have changed. It seems the election issues are more or less the same, with similar promises being made.

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I went on a little road trip with a friend the day after the election and we discussed the election results. The Progressive Conservatives won by a landslide, apparently Nova Scotian voters are not happy with the Liberal party that was in power. They did a good job of handling the pandemic, but not much else. Anyway, the PCs focussed on a single issue, health care. My friend said she belonged to a Facebook group about saving provincial health care and after the election the group moderator said she was disbanding the group because the PCs were in power now and they were going to fix everything. We both guffawed. I bet that woman believes in Santa Claus too.

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Between my extreme annoyance at the poll work and losing my lovely singing cardinal to a crappy cat, I was more than ready for a hard paddle on the lake two days later. I visited the young eagle, who was crying plaintively that morning. She stopped when I paddled up to her tree but started in again when I left. Her head and shoulders appear a little greyer than before, I looked that up on the internet and it probably indicates her age as around two years. This is odd since juvenile bald eagles don't usually hang around the nest that long, they are usually off on their own by 6 months of age. Either premature aging or a very immature juvenile.

Election, election, election...

So, as I type, PM Trudeau is chatting with Gov-Gen Mary Simon about calling an election in the fall. Here in Nova Scotia we are set to vote on Tuesday, a provincial government election. Back-to-back elections just annoys me no end.

I was listening to a woman on the radio talking about the current promise of affordable childcare, which apparently is still in negotiation with the various provincial governments. This woman is tired of waiting (she has two daycare-age kids) and in any case finds daycare totally unaffordable. The waitlists for daycare spots were bad enough before the pandemic but now are so bad that it really doesn't matter how much it costs, she can't get it anyway. Which all reminded me of the promises made by politicians when my kids were preschoolers, and now they are in their 40s and 50s. I am so bloody tired of listening to it.

Childcare is important, so is climate change, affordable housing, social supports for the poor, the homeless, the disabled, the sick, the old, and of course how we manage the pandemic (fourth wave?!?). Then there's LGBTQ issues, policing problems, discrimination, indigenous issues, blah blah blah. Not to mention wars and earthquakes and all the rest of that 'End Times' stuff.

A short while ago I happened to run into an anti-vaxx anti-mask fanatic. We had a very polite friendly conversation about our positions on the Covid vaccine but I came away thinking O, M, G. And elections just accentuate all that, all the diverse opinions from compassionate and rational to the fanatical and insane are aired out and shouted out and I am so tired of it. I feel like it's useless to vote, it's useless to listen to all the promises being made because all it does is make me sad: a world we could have had but probably now never will.

On the radio Trudeau has emerged from his chat and is saying stuff about how we need to discuss all these issues and make up our minds. I didn't hear a date yet but I'm guessing middle to end of September.

O, M, G.

Today I was daydreaming about a good old fashioned tyrant, you know, kind of like what they have in China. Somebody who said, Enough talk, here's what's going to happen. I suppose I should keep quiet about that, be careful what you wish for you might just get it, and all that. But still...

Sigh.

Family Visit

Annapolis Basin from Fort Ste Anne

My eldest son was visiting this past week, he just returned to his home in Toronto this morning. We had to be up at 4.30am to get him to the airport on time, and it was a 2.5 hour round trip (he did half of the driving). So I am not much good for anything today. Fortunately there are leftovers to eat and nothing I need to go out for.

We had a great visit, lots of good conversation, visiting with friends (his, mine and shared friends), various outings and TV watching. I had Indian Summers (2015) so we watched one or two episodes each night. It was originally planned as a 5-season show, but only the first 2 seasons were made; just not popular enough. I got quite into the stories of some of the characters and wished they had finished it so I would know what happened to them.

We ate out a couple of times, went to Halifax to visit a friend of my son's who recently moved from Toronto to Nova Scotia, did a little road trip to Annapolis Royal, and went kayaking a couple of times. We also went swimming at the Reservoir of course. A PEI friend of my son's dropped by my place, he was on a business road trip selling cider from his cidery business on the island. He left us with ample samples of his wares which we drank every night and I think there is still a little bit left. 

The friend in Halifax is absolutely ecstatic about her move to the Maritimes, she loves the city. Her partner's mother lives nearby ("720 steps away!") and helped them find a lovely house rental in a great neighbourhood (the North End). I mentioned that I was considering an e-bike but was uncertain about price and quality. She recommended a bike that both her teenage daughter and her MIL love, so I actually ordered it the next day. It won't arrive till the end of the month or early September but I am looking forward to that.

We planned our road trip to Annapolis Royal to arrive in the middle of their Saturday Farmer's Market and while browsing through we ran into some old friends of mine who hadn't seen my son since he was a toddler. They made laughing comments about things he used to say (at age three) and he smiled through it gamely. 

After we parted company he asked me if he was supposed to know those people, because he had no recollection of them at all. I said he was only three then so no, I didn't expect him to remember them. At least they didn't say how much like his Dad he looked, which my son hates. Yes, he looks like his Dad but he doesn't consider that a compliment. It was Pride Day in Annapolis, we missed the parade but caught some of the musical entertainment. We walked along the waterfront boardwalk to Fort Ste Anne and took a couple of photos before going back to the truck.

On the ramparts of Fort Ste Anne

We took a slightly different route home just to make it a little more interesting. About halfway home I realized I was sinking into a kind of hypnotic trance so we stopped and traded places. My little truck is my baby and I am reluctant to hand over the wheel to someone else, but it was clearly necessary.

My son took a lot of photos and he said he'd send some to me, but I already have the photos he took while we were kayaking.  Another friend of mine came along on that trip too.

I'm in the red life jacket, my friend in the yellow one

He took a couple of photos of the juvenile eagle we visit regularly. It moves around but we can usually find it. 

We have to paddle hard to get across the lake, but once across we can meander around the little islands and coves.

Crossing the lake

Also this week I got a roof rack put on the new truck cap. I still need a couple of tie-downs on the bumpers before I can put my kayak on the rack but that is coming soon. 

This week I am doing some training to be an election information officer at a local poll, the election is the following week. We have four candidates in my riding, one of them is a friend and she asked if I would take one of her Party's signs on my lawn. I decided not to, since she's running for a Party I don't intend to vote for. Not that she wouldn't make a good MLA and she might very well win, but I'm done with strategic voting and I now only vote for what I believe in, even if it's a Party that has a snowball's chance in The Very Hot Place.