10:05 p.m. - 2003-05-19
Victoria Day
Stayed up late last night working. By 4 this morning, I felt I was freezing and I couldn't get warm, no matter what I did. Finally gave up and crawled into the shower for as long as there was hot water. Slept a couple of hours and then was up for the day.
It was Victoria Day here in Canada - as in Queen Victoria's birthday - so we had the day off. Did some ironing and was just about to go for a nap when my Dad called. Would I like to go for a ride in the country. I had planned to work, but I needed a break too, so I took the break first.
First up - go to the bank machine - it ate my bank card. Went back home and called the 1-800 trouble line for the atm in question. Andre said - nothing they could do, call your bank to cancel it immediately. Called my bank, my card is now cancelled, but I still can't get any cash out. I've never owned any credit cards so I can't use that strategy for tiding me over. I applied for one, but I was told that since I didn't have any credit history, they couldn't issue one to me. Now let me get this right? My sons, on reaching the ripe old age of majority, receive ones automatically in the mail, even when they are still in school - not working. However, me, raising six children on my own, faithfully paying a mortgage, utility bills, telephone, cable etc for a decade - I'm not eligible? Anyway, I guess the fact I never spend what I don't have isn't good for the credit companies - no interest for them to charge.
Out east of the city, on prairie land, it doesn't really matter anyway. Coyote chasing gophers. Geese and ducks foraging. We drove through the town of Vulcan. Home to Spock days (June 5 and 6) and the Star Trek convention (July 6 and 7) Vulcan. The tourist center is a replica of the USS Enterprise and their staff dress appropriately. Don't know if they speak a la Whorf or not. Murals and window art carry the theme down Main Street. The town's big project is to raise the funds for a world class observatory where they want to run their own astrophysics program. bigsky. Go Vulcan. The town was named for the Roman god, Vulcan, when the railroad first came through, but the populace, like the nature of the deity, transforms one substance into another with hard work.
Turned west and south toward my Dad's birthplace - Nanton. He wanted to visit the graveyard and the family farm. His Grandfather's farm was cool. The north-south railway line to Calgary was their eastern boundary. His Grandfather raised Black Angus cattle - 400 - 500 head - and "Tusker's" he had brought with him from Nebraska. My Dad said the hogs were big, mean brutes not far removed from wild boars. The foothills are a day's ride away to the west. Every spring they would drive the cattle up into the hills to one of the relative's homes there and then retrace their journey in reverse in the fall. His Dad's farm was just south and east a few miles, but they weren't there for that long after my Dad was born. Moved to a farm in the middle of the province where the soil is really rich - then my Grandfather sold that to start his trucking business and my Dad's whole lifestyle changed. That story another day.
Odd as it sounds, I enjoyed the visit to the graveyard too. We are related to about half the families interred there and it was interesting to review family history walking among the head stones and reading the inscriptions. My grandparents and an infant daughter, my Dad's grandparents, aunts, uncles, back a few generations. What was interesting, is that graves were grouped by country of origin rather than strictly by family affiliation. Over there - the Swedes and Danes, over there - the Scots, the Germans and English there, Americans and French there. An awful lot of WW I and II servicemen killed in action considering how small the town was at the time. A profound sense of peace.
My Mom is buried just east of the city and my Dad has space there too. The feeling is different - newer, not the connection to the land in the same way. There is a sense of community in a different sort of way though. On the headstone of the gentleman next to my Mom - Kentucky born - are words to the effect "Wait I think I smell Oil down here." Different attachment to the land, I guess you could say.
I bought a plot for myself in another setting, during some of the really bad, last years of my marriage. For a while it appeared that it was question of when, not if, and I didn't want my family to have to deal with that as well, so I made all the preliminary funeral and guardianship arrangements, using cash I earned with all the little side work I could pick up, without wanting anyone to find out.(So there credit card companies.) I've never been to see it. Thankfully, for me, a policeman and then a judge didn't buy my ex's defense of a devoted family man on a DUI charge and that's when he finally let go his hold on the boys and me. "He had his own life to think about - you know". In my "Inspiration" folder on my PC ther is a two frame photo essay. The first frame shows a wolf - its jaws just about to close on a cringeing rabbit. The second frame shows the rabbit calmly surveying the pile of bones that was the wolf moments earlier. The caption reads: "Always be ready for any surprises in life..." - it's good counsel.
Anyway, maybe I'll look into the possibility of exchanging the space I now have for space in the Nanton one - I like it there among family. No there's nothing morbid about it, it's just part of living. I've already had a decade more than I expected - big bonus and I'm grateful.
After about an hour of walking, we headed for a truck stop in town and had eggs and pancakes - farmer's fare. Headed home in the post holiday rush. Lots of tired looking campers probably still chilled from their weekend commune with nature. My number four son just emerging from his buddy's car with his camping gear as we arrived - cranky boy. Supper and then a nap. Now I guess there's no more excuses - back to work.
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