CanCon

 The theme song segment on Daybreak South (my current favourite CBC radio program) is CanCon for this week.  I had to remind myself via google when CanCon became a "thing" on the radio and I do remember it.  I was a bit disgusted because at the time I was living in Nova Scotia and listening to a lot of American radio that played all the rock and roll hits.  It was 1971 when CBC was "ordered" to include 35% CanCon.  1971 was also the year that I rediscovered CBC radio.  I had been raised in a "CBC family" and as a teen I was genuinely annoyed that it didn't play any Beatles music, etc.  As a university student in 1971, I became aware of This Country in the Morning,  and in the evening,  As It Happens.  I felt that I had discovered the world. I remember arguing with one of my profs (later President of Acadia University) that I was learning more by listening to the CBC than I was attending classes.  He was taken aback!

I think that CanCon was an excellent decision in Canada.  Listeners were "forced" to listen to Canadian composers and singers and the system worked. The content had to be 35%  Canadian of all content played.  That rule remains in place, according to google (if we can believe any of what it tells us!).  We discovered the talent that we had (have)  in Canada.  It's never looked back.  Thank you, CBC.

I'm still an avid CBC listener (won't listen to anything else, really) and have been throughout my adult life.  One thing that I like about listening in the Kootenays is that there isn't a lot of radio competition so almost everyone in my age group is listening to CBC.  It provides plenty of discussion points.  Thank you, CBC.  I'm glad that my daughter listens to CBC but she is the only one of my parents' grandchildren who is a listener.  I do hope that the CBC can survive the next election because I'd like to remain a listener until the end of my time!

BC Highways: Changes Needed in Transportation

The Kootenay Lake Ferry strike is going into its FOURTH month and service has not been restored, except for 2 ferry crossings each day.  This is becoming a hardship as the snow falls on Kootenay Pass.  And I am positive that it is an absolute nightmare for the employees who are losing so much income.  

We experienced the hardship involved on Dec. 28th when we decided to travel from Trail to Cranbrook in mid-afternoon.  We did see the sign that indicated the pass was closed and we checked online and it was to open at 4 pm.  We decided to continue our travel.  We were stopped by the traffic about 1 km from the summit.  It was snowing heavily and the temperature was 0 degrees C.  We waited and 4 o'clock arrived.  The Pass did not open.  An hour later,  traffic travelling west was allowed to begin.  By this time we knew that we'd have difficulty with our camper van getting started on an icy hill with no momentum.  Dave shoveled beneath the wheels and asked the snow plow truck to leave us a bit of gravel.  The driver did do this but by the time we could begin, it was to no avail.  We simply could not get started on the incline under those icy conditions.  Our only option was to turn around, which we did and it was no problem to go downhill, although we travelled gingerly because of the icy roads.  At 7 pm we arrived at the Kootenay Lake ferry terminal.  I was able to talk with the strikers and a ferry was going to leave at 9:40 that night.  We took it.  We stayed in our camper van overnight near Creston and 17 hours after leaving Trail, we made it to Creston on Sunday morning.  The usual time is about 2 hours.  

Last Friday we had a major snowstorm in the Koots and once again, the Pass was closed and the ferry remains on strike.  I have written to my MLA in Nelson and negotiations, as far as I know,  have not recommenced.  This is a huge inconvenience and danger for  people  needing to travel to and avoid the Pass.  Winter conditions close Kootenay Pass regularly and the last thing we need is a ferry strike through this season.  At least the roads are somewhat safer in the summer!  I sincerely encourage the BC government to send these employees back to work for the many people affected by the strike and the dangerous driving conditions.  

Medical Care in Canada: A BC Perspective

I've spent the past week partially under the care of the BC medical system.  I felt my SVT return on a Thursday afternoon while sitting quietly with a book.  I had experienced a couple of earlier episodes in the morning  that had been easy to diminish.  In the afternoon, the usual "vagal" practices didn't seem to work.  Dave took me to the ER in Kaslo which operates from 9 - 5 pm daily, I believe.

There I was met by a nurse within 5 - 10 minutes and monitored by an ECG.  At the beginning, my heart was calm but it soon escalated.  Fairly quickly, I was met by the attending ER dr (who also has  patients that he/she needs to visit as a GP part-time in our town).  Within an hour he had administered a drug that was supposed to bring my heart back into regular rhythm, but did not.  After 2 doses of this unpleasant experience, he called the hospital in Nelson to consult with an internist there.   I was given 3 doses of a different beta blocker and it did reduce my heart rate but not below 120 bpm.  By this time it was approaching 5 pm and I was asked if I wanted to go home or check into Nelson hospital to be monitored over night and see the internist the next morning.  That was the route that I chose.

Nelson hospital was expecting me (although not at the registration desk) and I was put onto a Holter monitor and saw an attending dr to review the experience.  I actually slept in the very quiet ER where I was basically given a private room (no bathroom) with a very good internet connection.  My heart continued to go in and out of arrhythmia.   I was given breakfast and the internist was at my bedside by 9:30 am.  He did a very thorough "past experience" interview and told me that if I had SVT, the drugs I was given in hospital should have worked.  Because they didn't he felt that I should take a blood thinner because of either atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter.  I was given a new beta blocker and went home with prescriptions to deal with the issue.  It worked well through the weekend, I was booked into an echocardiogram on Monday morning and then went to revisit an ER in Trail on Tuesday morning because the arrhythmia began again.  After spending the morning there, I was sent home and continued to have an uneven heartbeat (that didn't happen in the hospital) but it was manageable and I had a good night.  We sent the internist an email about the latest episode. He did not call us back until the next day, but I was surprised that he did call.  I am now booked for a stress test in 2 weeks.  He has also made the cardio unit in Kelowna aware of my situation.  

Most everyone is complaining about the medical system in our country.  BC is no different.  I was extremely impressed with the care that I was given in an "emergency" situation.  I was given full attention, I felt.  Each dr that I saw (3 in total) wrote a very thorough and accurate report on the hospital experience that is now in my health portal.  I suspect that these reports, which I believe are dictated, still take a physician at least 10 - 15 minutes to complete.  I felt very CARED FOR with the staff that I met in this recent experience.  I don't have to undertake medical care very often (and perhaps that is about to change), but my situation assures me that I should be in good hands.  

 

Travels in America: Road Island

 I've always liked the name of this home in Bernardsville, entitled Road Island.  It's a triangular lot that is surrounded by 3 roads, and I do enjoy the name of it.  The picture doesn't really show what's involved with it, but it's a very nice piece of property in a small town in America.  I'm always amazed at the large, older homes on fairly big lots that dominate the eastern part of the States.  

Bernardsville is quite a lovely town if you enjoy looking at real estate.  Unfortunately, it's not a "walking" town.  I walk everywhere, but there is a very busy intersection that has to be navigated to go in almost any direction  and it is very unfriendly to pedestrians and bikers.  However, I don't think that I've ever seen a public bus that travels through the area (there's a train that goes from town to town into NYC) and as a consequence EVERYONE is driving EVERYWHERE!  

Travels in America: Up Close to the 1 Per Cent

We've spent the past week in the US, on the east coast, visiting our family in NJ.  It's a different lifestyle compared with Kaslo - we basically drive everywhere and almost every drive is 20 minutes.  Watching basketball games - which I prefer to soccer games - has taken us to a few new spots.   The skies are bright and with all the leaves off the hardwood trees it's easy to spot things in the distance.  The bird watching has actually been quite good.  There's been several very scenic walks.  And as we take that 20 minute drive, nearly all of the time we are driving amongst homes that belong to the 1 per cent.  This is one of my favourites, located on the outskirts of Bernardsville.  From the McCormick home, we get a 8.5 km walk partly through town and next to many homes that are similar to the one below.  

A Year in Review: 2024

This year I thought I'd try sending annual wishes via my blog.  The reason for this is twofold - I want to be inspired to write my blog more regularly AND some of the things I wanted to share with you can be found elsewhere in the blog.  

Christmas 2023:

We bought our most expensive gift to each other at Christmas 2023 when we purchased a 2018 Tesla on Christmas Day!  I'd been looking at purchasing an EV and had gone to the Toyota dealer in Castlegar with a request for information - I wanted a red,  full EV Toyota  in the spring of '24.  Could it arrive then?  Two days later we had a text from our daughter about someone selling a Tesla in Rossland.  We called and thought we'd take it out for a drive on Christmas Eve afternoon.  The owner, Cody, was moving to Iceland in January - the reason it was for sale.  We only mulled it over for a few hours and made him an offer on Christmas Day.  Voila! 

We took possession of it in mid-January and plated it at the beginning of Feb.  We have definitely experienced adventures in Teslaland but Dave has been figuring out how to do most of the required maintenance and repairs.  He successfully changed a wheel bearing and is about to tackle the heater in January - it quit a few days before THIS Christmas.

Gardening:

I enjoyed another year in the garden and I'm pleased that I can still do the work.  We have 3 gardens going - one in Kaslo, one in Trail and one at Kaslo Community Garden.  This year, I put our garden on the Edible Garden Tour in Kaslo and that was a very satisfying experience although BC was experiencing one of those "heat domes" on the weekend of the tours.  It was a hot summer and the garden produced very well, particularly tomatoes.

Reading:  

I still belong to two book clubs and enjoy each one.  Favourite books from this past year are The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams and Doppelganger by Naomi Klein.  I also read Walter Issacson's biography of Elon Musk and likely would never have bought a Tesla if I'd read it earlier.  I actually do really like the car when it communicates with me in a way that I can understand and it does seem to be a well-made product.  I need a bumper sticker that states:  I did not buy this car from Elon Musk; I bought it through the circular economy.

Bridge:  

I rarely play "live" bridge now and try to have a weekly online game with my brother-in-law, Phil, in Wetaskiwin, AB.  We rarely do well but we enjoy it and it's cheap.  I did play in a "live" tournament about a month ago - it was shocking to see how some of the players have aged.  But they still manage to play a mean game of bridge!

Exercise:

I'm still pretty dedicated to exercise but decided to give up running after a summer attempt at getting back into it.  My knees just DO NOT like it.  I'm still trying to get out for regular fast and slow walks and most of the time it works.  Cross-country skiing this fall is in full swing.  I usually ride an e-bike now and put on 3000 km between March and Nov simply riding to town on it, plus a few holiday excursions.  Definitely trying to follow the axiom "use it or lose it".

Travel:

We went to the Maritimes to visit with Dave's sister and one of his brothers.  It was a good time and we did a bit of hiking and also got over to PEI to see our friends near Montague.  The Island is just as beautiful as it was 40 years ago!  Actually, not much seemed all that different in NS and PEI - it's slow to travel through and totally scenic!

We took a trip to ID, OR and WA in the fall with our camper and bikes and discovered some new areas in Central OR that we had never visited.  That trip is somewhat covered elsewhere in the blog if anyone is interested.  

          

Family:

The NJ folks seem to be fine and we are heading there for a visit at the end of December.  Callie will turn 13 on January 8th. Both girls are into soccer and basketball and Callie plays tennis, while Abby is becoming quite the gymnast.  

Meanwhile, in Rossland, we don't see as much of the boys as we'd like to do but we do try to take them out for a monthly meal so that we can REALLY talk.  They do love to talk.  Atley is heavily into cross-country skiing as well as continuing with downhill.  Miro is completely a downhiller.  And they bike everywhere.  The entire family keeps very active all the time and I feel that we rarely see them.  This seems to be a bit of a thing with our generation.

Wishing you all the best for the next year.  It could be interesting.....and let's hope it is not too eventful.  

Travels in America: Back to John Day

 We left Deschutes State Park early one morning and had been advised by the camping attendant that the Cottonwood Canyon State Park was full to capacity.  We decided to head over there and take a look at the park anyway.  It wasn't too far out of our way and it would give us an opportunity to scout out the area.  We were glad that we visited.  Once again, we hiked along the John Day River which we had met earlier on our travels through eastern Oregon. 

The cliffs alongside were rugged and beautiful and we walked for a couple of miles as an out and back.  It was busy there (although not "full" at the time of our arrival) with lots of fisher folk, and I enjoyed the historical displays.  

On the route over to Cottonwood, we finally had an opportunity to get a good glimpse of Mt. Hood which had been shrouded in cloud for days, even though it was bright and sunny at Deschutes.  I was simply amazed at the huge network of wind generators located in this part of OR.  I'd always admired the commitment WA state seemed to have towards renewable energy, but it wasn't a patch on the state of Oregon!

After one more venture back to Biggs, OR and the great Indian food, we crossed the Columbia and headed north towards Canada.  Our last night in America took place at one of the Roosevelt Lake National campgrounds.  It was a lovely spot with lots of nice FLAT walking and the campground had few visitors.  No one monitored the place and there were no drop boxes for camping fees.  When the rain came we headed for Canada with a stop in Northport, WA to pick up an awning for the camper van.  It hadn't arrived, unfortunately, because now we'd have to make a return trip and pay duty on the product.  Glad that our dollar was slightly higher in those days of crossing the border!