TRAVELLING BEAUTIFUL BRITISH COLUMBIA

            Did anyone else notice my mathematically challenged subtraction in last week’s column? If you didn’t, then shame on the both of us. It was not Canada’s 118^th birthday, like I stated it was; it was Canada’s 148^th birthday on July 1st, 2015. I’m sure she’d be flattered that I thought she looked a lot younger than she really is, though.

            As mentioned in last week’s column, as well, we did get to celebrate the country’s 148^th Birthday on the shores of Okanagan Lake watching the July 1^st fireworks at Peachland, BC. In a province surrounded by spectacular beauty the quaint community of Peachland is, as promised, a beautiful peach of a place. It turned out to be a great place to spend Canada Day watching a parade, going swimming, eating ice cream and ooooing and aahhing at the fireworks.

            Of course, as with all good things, they must come to an end so after an eventful, full and fun 10 days in West Kelowna we had to say goodbye to our youngest daughter Emily and the beautiful Okanagan valley and make our way back to Kipling.

            In a reversal of last year’s trip, this year we travelled out to British Columbia via Highway #3 through the Crowsnest Pass and made the return trip through the Kicking Horse Pass on the Trans-Canada Highway. I know it’s all mountains and rivers and forests and streams and winding roads but you wouldn’t believe the difference in the road views when you reverse the directions.

            The Crowsnest highway was built in 1932 as a Great Depression project and mainly follows a mid-19^th century gold rush trail that had originally been traced out by an engineer named Edgar Dewdney. Dewdney later served as Lieutenant-Governor of the North West Territories and he was also the fifth Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. The Crowsnest Pass’s highest elevation reaches 1358m (4455ft).

            The Kicking Horse Pass and the adjacent Kicking Horse River, were named after James Hector, a naturalist, geologist, surgeon, and a member of John Palliser’s 1858 Palliser Expedition, who was actually kicked by his horse while exploring the region. It seems the name stuck. The Trans-Canada Highway was constructed through the pass in 1962 following the original CPR rail route. The Kicking Horse Pass’s elevation is 1643m (5390ft).

             Driving the highways through either of these passes can give you the willies at times but one has to admire the sheer determination and mind-boggling feats of engineering that were employed to complete the roadways through the mountains. The drive along Highway #1 from Golden through the Kicking Horse Pass was especially nerve-racking for me and I’m driving it on a finished pristine highway. Can you imagine what the road builders would have seen while they were constructing this thing? Yowza!

            I don’t know how they did it and I don’t know why they did what they did when they did it but the construction of those highways through those mountains is an absolutely awesome great Canadian achievement. And this tourist is happier for it.

            “There is no substitute under the heavens for productive labor. It is the process by which dreams become realities. It is the process by which idle visions become dynamic achievements.”-Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!

            Happy Birthday Canada! Wow! 118 years young. How are you going to celebrate your country's birthday? In style I hope. Me? I'm going to indulge in the festivities on the shores of beautiful Okanagan Lake at Peachland, British Columbia, with my wife and our youngest daughter. It can't get much better than that!

            They're in the midst of a super heat wave here in the Okanagan Valley and even this heat lover is finding it a little extreme. The upside is that it is hot and sunny, not cold and rainy, and there are about a million ways to escape the heat. The lake water is cool and refreshing and there are no end to the beaches around the lake. Pick a spot and jump in!

            The speedy passing of time is always astounding to me as it seems that we were just moving Emily out to West Kelowna a short time ago. In reality it was ten months ago already and as we were leaving her to her new life out here last year we were already planning the return trip to see her during her summer school break this year.

            I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the good life in Canada than to drive 1000 miles/1600kms across three provinces viewing the variety of vegetation, topography and breathtaking scenery along the way.

            As anxious as we were to see Em as soon as possible we managed to take our time driving out stopping to smell the roses along the way, as it were. We pitched the tent at Fernie Provincial Park and were blown away by the serenity, the mountain view and the sounds of the  babbling brook meters away from our campsite. The experience is highly recommended.   

            For a prairie flatlander, like myself, the drive through the mountains wasn't as nerve racking as I had anticipated. Even though we'd done this drive merely a year ago it still takes more than a bit of cruising to get used to mountain driving. There isn't much time to "acclimatize" yourself  to the conditions, either, as it seems you go from driving in bald prairie to climbing mountains in a matter of minutes.

            The highways of BC are great but the drive wasn't totally without the odd belly flip as we bridged over sphincter tightening gorges at least a thousand feet deep and snaked our way up and down mountain sides, hair-pinning all the way.

            We drove the Kootenay Pass which is known locally as the "Salmo-Creston" route along the Crowsnest Highway in the Selkirk Mountains connecting the communities of Salmo and Creston. The elevation at Kootenay Pass is 5823ft (1775m) above sea level.

            Interestingly enough, Kelowna's elevation above sea level is 1588ft(484m) while Kipling's is 2170ft (661m). Who'd a thunk it? That information is hard to comprehend while sitting on Emily's patio looking around at the low-lying mountains in the background.

            While I am not a world traveller, or anything, there can be little doubt that BC, and in particular the Okanagan Valley, is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's not hard to believe that Kelowna and surrounding district is one of the most popular retirement destinations in Canada making it the third largest metropolitan area in British Columbia.

            It's actually hard to find someone who was born and raised here, though. I've met people from Saskatoon, Regina, Calgary, St. Alphonse, Manitoba and Dawson Creek, Yukon. You know, they say that there are six degrees of separation between every person on Earth. My thinking is that it's only three degrees for people from Saskatchewan. On our first day here I found one woman who is Bob and Kay McGaw's daughter Christy's best friend in Regina and another woman who is great friends with Lana Jones, formally from Kipling! Small world, eh?

            We'll be thinking of you back home while we watch the Canada Day fireworks over Okanagan Lake and we hope you'll be having as good a time celebrating as we will be. However and wherever you choose to celebrate Canada Day... I hope you did it in great Canadian style!

"It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw, not because she is Canada but because she's something sublime that you were born into, some great rugged power that you are a part of."-Emily Carr (1871-1945).

REPRISE........MARRIAGE ADVICE.

As we are entering Wedding Season I thought I would reprise an old column that I submitted in this space five years ago. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been submitting these columns for five years and it’s even harder to believe that five years have gone by since our daughter Meghan’s wedding. I wrote the following article during the lead-up to that grand event. I think the advice is still applicable. See if you’ll agree.   

           

With a success rate of somewhere between 45-55%, (the experts are all pretty vague), it’s good to know that there is still some faith in the institution of marriage. My wife and I have been invited to a number of weddings this summer and our eldest daughter is also getting married this year so marriage has been a running theme around our house for a while now.

So I thought that it would be apropos for me, a veteran of the institution of marriage for close to…what is it now?…hmm…twenty-nine years as of the 5^th of September, to offer up some advice to the couples taking the plunge this year. Of course, it will be the males that will be best served with this advice but you ladies might also learn a thing or two from this veteran’s experiences.

My first piece of advice…always remember the number of years that you have been married. Do not hesitate like I just did. They will remember. For a long time. Oh, and by the way, kudos for picking a year that ends in a zero. Good thinking. The addition is so much easier. We were married in 1981; try doing the math with that one!

Second piece of advice…now listen close now…this is very important. Listen. That’s the advice. Listen to them. I know, I know, sometimes they might sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher, “Wha, wha, wha” and all, but they’ll ask for a playback and you had better be prepared. And most of the time you can get away with 20-30% accuracy but you have to have some knowledge of the subject. A lot of the time you don’t even have to answer, just nod and stuff but above all…LISTEN!

Here’s another very important piece of advice. Just when they are at their most UN-huggable…give them a hug. Yes, I know, but it’s just like going back to school after the summer break; you’re not going to WANT to do it…but you HAVE to! I’m serious! You should even be doing it now. Just for the practice. I am sure you’ve probably had a few tense moments during the wedding planning and everything; when she’s all crying and incoherent about dresses and flowers and food and such. Go ahead. You can do it. You HAVE to do it.

Now, here’s the big, big one and it’s for both of you and it’s the toughest one to do. It’s even harder than hugging the unhuggable. You have to know when you are wrong, and trust me, you will be wrong, both of you, sometime. And you’ll have to be able to say “I’m SORRY” with meaning. Not the old school yard “I’m sorry” when, really, you’re not, and it’ll probably be the hardest thing for you to do, but it’s the game-saver. You may even have a little experience with this one already, but if you are going to be committed, (to each other not into an institution), you will have to be very good at this one to make the marriage last long enough for you to have difficulty doing the math when asked how long the two of you have been married.

“The ritual of marriage is not simply a social event; it is a crossing of threads in the fabric of fate. Many strands bring the couple and their families together and spin their lives into a fabric that is woven on their children.-“Portuguese-Jewish Wedding Ceremony.

JUNE 21ST...BIG DAY!

           This Sunday is the 21^st of June. It’s a big day. First off, it’s Father’s Day, so hooray for that, and, consequently, it is also the first day of summer, so, double hooray, I guess.
            I have probably told you this before, but I’m going to tell you again, that the first day of summer was always my Dad and Mom’s favourite day of the year. Also, in another huge coincidence or divine intervention, depending on your particular views on that type of thing, both Dad and Mom passed on to the afterlife on the 21^st of June. Yep, the exact same day of the year. Their favourite day of the year. Dad passed away in 1990 and Mom in 2013.  You know, those two were always in sync.

            Now, if you don’t believe in divinity or anything then the 21^st of June is also the day for you for it just happens to be Atheist Solidarity Day! There you go. There’s a day for everyone, I guess.

            It’s also, Baby Boomer Recognition Day, Family Awareness Day, Go Skateboarding Day (?), Husband Caregiver Day (??), National Peaches and Cream Day, World Handshake Day and World Music Day. So if you’re not a Father, or your Dad is gone, there are enough other “Days” you can take part in, if you want to.

            I remember when it used to just be Father’s Day. Wasn’t that enough? Sure, it’d coincide with the summer solstice the odd time but the 3^rd Sunday in June was always Father’s Day. When did we have to start crowding these important days with stuff like Go Skateboarding Day and Family Awareness Day? Shouldn’t you be aware of your family everyday…good, bad, absent or otherwise? Hmmm? Just saying.

            Anyway, I recall a good quote about fathers from Mark Twain. He said, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” Ha! I love that quote. Ain’t it the truth? As I recall Dad and I butted heads more than a time or two. I stubbornly held on to the belief that the old man was pretty stubborn when it came to having an open mind and seeing things my way. Oddly enough, I experienced the same thing in reverse with my own son. The good old right of passage, eh?

            Recently, I was reacquainted with a 1970 song by Cat Stevens, then, he’s Yusuf Islam now, called “Father and Son”. In the song the son is telling his father that it’s time for him to move on to bigger and better things in his life while his father is telling his son to take his time… “think a lot, why, think of everything you’ve got, for you will still be here tomorrow, but you dreams may not.” The song examines the relationship from both sides of the argument. In fact, when recently discussing the lyrics to this forty-five year old song Cat/Yusuf said that he realized that he was speaking of his father’s, father’s, father’s, father’s, father’s, father speaking. I know what he means.

                To me, Fatherhood is a gift. Not everyone gets the chance. Some fathers are with you for a long time while others are gone in a moment. I was lucky enough to have thirty-four years with my Dad. I don’t recall all of them and I wouldn’t have minded having him around for a few more.

Life is fleeting and one piece of advice that he told me over and over back in his “ignorant years” was exactly that, “Life is short, son, make the most of it. You’ll have a hard time believing me now, but in a few years you will know exactly what I mean.” And, boy, do I ever.

“A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he was meant to be.”-Frank A. Clark.

KIPLING AND KRECSYS

            I’ve got a couple of milestone anniversaries coming up in 2015. On July 1^st of this year it will have been 45 years since Mom and Dad and their three youngest children, Gordon, Perry and our little sister Michelle, (Shelly), moved to Kipling from Marquis, SK, where we had been residing since 1965. That move to Kipling was in 1970 and, as it turns out, it would have a large impact on my life.

            July 2015 also marks the 30^th year since my own little family moved back to Kipling after an eight year absence. I had kicked around Kipling for a few years after high school living with Mom and Dad and working in construction before heading to do the Alberta experience, or experiment, if you prefer, for a year or so. By 1979 I had returned to Saskatchewan, or more specifically, to Regina, sharing accommodations and a workplace with my good friend, Ron Balogh.

My wife Debbie is from Windthorst and in 1985 we decided we’d like to move “home” so we packed up our stuff, our first-born daughter, Meghan, and we took up residence in Kipling as I went to work for Larry Walker at his Quality Millwork and Building Supplies retail outlet.

            It would appear that having lived in six other communities over twenty-some years took the wandering out of me. Once we moved back to Kipling in 1985 we stayed. Between my birth and my thirty-seventh birthday I had lived at twenty-two, that’s 22, different residences during that time period. I was both really good at, as well as, sick and tired of packing and moving.      

            The move from Marquis to Kipling was a bit of an adjustment for us. Marquis had a population of less than 100 and Kipling was over 1000. Being awkward teenagers and having just recently settled into a different school in Moose Jaw, Gord, Shelly and I weren’t all that happy about the move. Moving to a bigger town was kind of exciting for us but going to another new school and finding new friends was getting a little old, too.

            During one of our early bike tours to get familiar with the town we noticed a sign in the back lane leaning up against the Co-op Grocery Store at 601 Main Street and it looked to us like the sign said “KRESGE’S”, a huge store chain, WOW, this place must be pretty big because it has a “KRESGE’S”, we said. We were close, but the sign actually said “KRECSY’S”. The Co-op had recently purchased the land and building from Gerry Krecsy whose family had run a general store business since 1909 and had built the “new” store building in 1949. Gerry recently had quite a milestone of his own, you see, on June 3^rd he celebrated his 90^th birthday. 90 years! WOW again.

            The Krecsy family, like the town of Kipling, would also impact large in my life over time. It turned out it wasn’t hard to make friends in Kipling after all. Max, Gerry’s son, and I became friends in 1970 and were business partners at one time and we remain best friends to this day. His older brother Ward and my brother Gord were best friends through high school and while their lives have taken each of them in different directions whenever they do get together the years fall back easily to their old high school days. I served on town council with Gerry in the late ‘90s and early 2000’s. When Gerry and his wife Maxine’s oldest son, Mark, married my sister Margo in 1976 it really cemented the family connection.

            Gerry and Maxine and my Mom and Dad, Lowell and Rose Hubbard, had a great relationship and they were great friends who had a lot of good times together. Gerry, as life would have it, is the only one of the four still celebrating birthdays.

            Gerry’s family put on a community tea for him this past weekend and they followed it up with a little shindig at Gerry’s house. He celebrated in style. A lot of stories were circulated about Gerry’s life and the Krecsy family history and their legacy in Kipling and area. Stories were told about the Krecsy family’s compassion for families suffering through hard times, their commitment to King and Country and about how Gerry’s father Louis had been a hard-working community builder and how he passed that down to his sons and grandsons with Louis, Gerry and Max all having served terms on town council. And, I must say, Kipling is all the better for it.

90 years and counting! Thanks for everything Gerry. Happy Birthday!

             “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one's life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”-Bill Graham (1918-).

$400 MILLION DOLLARS!!??

I guess you could classify me as a casual boxing fan. I'll watch some amateur boxing, PanAm games and Olympic Games' matches and I'll watch some of the big pro fights but that's about it. I did follow the lengthy storyline as the two best pound-for-pound fighters in recent boxing history, multi-weight division Champions Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, finally agreed to meet in the ring after squabbling for years over the terms of a fight to determine who the best really is or was or whatever. Mayweather's 38 years old and Pacquiao is 36.


Before trying to punch each other's lights out they, or their handlers, I should say, fought about the purse split, drug testing, location of the fight, gloves they were going to use etcetera, etcetera, before the negotiations were finalized and THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY was announced. I'm not so sure if "Fight of the Century" is such a big deal anyway as we're just fifteen years into this century but whatever it takes to sell tickets, I guess.

And they certainly did that. Sell the fight, that is. This fight is estimated to generate $400+ million dollars in revenue. That's right, $400 MILLION dollars!! Between the ticket sales to the 16,800 Rich and Famous people who could afford the ridiculous seat prices at the Las Vegas MGM Grand, the pay-per-view take, the merchandising, the sponsors and the international television rights the total revenue shattered all previous revenue levels in the sport.

Mayweather's nickname is, appropriately enough, "Money" and he is set to make...I don't even want to tell you...$180 million dollars. That figure, once again,$180 million dollars. For one fight. The match went the full twelve round distance so that's $83,333.33 per second of fighting. PER SECOND! Pacquiao's take is only $120 million dollars or a measly $55,555.55 per second.

In comparison, the boxer's single fight earnings is higher than the average professional sports teams, (National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League's), complete payrolls for the entire 2014-15 season. Every player for the whole year! Wow!

Here's some more perspective for you: Canada's average annual salary...that's average...mind you, is $48,600.00. For a whole year's work. We could pay the Prime Minister's salary, at today's level, for 916 years before we'd reach $180 million dollars. 916 YEARS! You could buy 6000, 2015 Cadillac CTS Sedans at the Manufactured Suggested Retail Price. You could pay 14,590 people a year's wages at Saskatchewan's minimum wage level of $10.20/hour. You could employ 3700 people for one year on Canada's average annual salary of $48,600.00..

You might also choose to buy 18,575,851 Fatburgers (Mayweather's favourite junk food), 10,588 Golden Apple Watches, 2-Goldstream G650 Private Jets, 450,000 magnums of Dom Perignon Champaign, or 1 Mars Megayacht (valued at 165M). You could also buy 3,600,000,000, (3 billion, 600 million), 5cent candies, too.

You can't really blame the combatants here, though, it's "Whatever the market will bear" as the free market lovers will tell you. If people are lining up to pay $100.00 per pay-per-view or a few hundred thousand dollars for a ring-side seat then what the heck? There's the justification.

But, along with the exorbitantly ridiculous gate split you throw in Mayweather's domestic violence record and, if it were up to me, he'd get maybe a year's wages at the minimum level and the rest of the proceeds would go to shelters for battered women. That's my two cents on that subject.

Then again, it's not really his fault either is it? Hitting women is his fault and he shouldn't have even been allowed to fight at all but he didn't let himself go with a slap on the wrist, did he? He's not the only high profile athlete to break the law and get away with it, either.

Personally, I don't think he should be living the high life that he is and nobody should be making a zillion dollars a fight while children are starving and hospitals and schools are underfunded and people are homeless and the list is endless but...that's just the messed up world we're living in, isn't it? Exasperating as it is.

"I know the world isn't fair, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?"-Bill Watterson, cartoonist (1958-).

WHAT DAY IS IT?

            I'm not sure if it's just a Facebook thing, or what, but apparently the 16th of every month is supposed to be "Short People Appreciation Day". My wife heard that on the radio last Thursday so it has to be true. And, there's a specific Facebook page dedicated to it as well.

            It seems that nowadays every day has to have a theme or two or three. For instance, I'm writing this on the 19th of April so that makes it...take your pick...National Bicycle Day, National Garlic Day, National Amaretto Day or National Hanging Out Day. All on the 19th of April. How did this happen? Who said? I guess one should celebrate the day by eating garlic while riding your bicycle on your way to hang out with friends drinking Amaretto? I could do that, I suppose.

            Checkiday.com is where I went to find out what we're celebrating on any given day of the year but it doesn't tell you who decided on the themes. I clicked on my birthday, December 12, and guess what I found? It's National Ding-a-Ling Day!! Never mind. Be nice. It's also National 12-hour Fresh Breath Day, and National Poinsettia Day as well as Ginger Bread House Day. Who woulda thought?

            I put the 10th of May into the "search" box and I found out that it is National Lupus Day, National Cleanup Your Room Day as well as National Shrimp Day. No mention that May 10th happens to be Mother's Day! At least, this year it is.

            April 21st is our Grandson's 6th birthday which he will be celebrating along with, appropriately enough, National Kindergarten Day, which he is attending this year, as well as- National Chocolate Covered Cashews Day, Bulldogs are Beautiful Day and Stay Off the Grass Day! Hmmm. Odd about that last one because April 20th is International Pot Smokers Day. Get it? Haw, haw! Pot Smokers Day followed by Stay Off the Grass Day...you know... ah, never mind.

            Anyway, it's obviously an American website but it is really quite interesting to plug in a date and see what weirdness comes up. Like one of the themes on January 2nd is that it is National Personal Trainer Awareness Day? Awareness of Personal Trainers? Huh? It's not like personal trainers are like rare skin diseases or unusual blood disorders or something. I think many people know what a personal trainer is and maybe they are avoiding them like the itch but calling it an "Awareness" Day wouldn't be the term I'd use. National Personal Trainer "Appreciation" Day sounds better to me but maybe I'm just splitting hairs now.

            So, if you want to have nothing to do we have a day for you there, too. January 16th is Do Nothing Day which is just impossible because even if you wake up and get out of bed you've done something...there I go splitting hairs again, anyway, if you want to do as little as possible on Do Nothing Day you could go to the Checkiday.com website and look up every day of the year just to find something to celebrate. I think that would be quite interesting.

            I'd just like to touch base on that Small Person Appreciation Day theme for a second again here, if you don't mind? My research states that males under 5'7" and females under 5'2" qualify as official Small People. Not my rules, people, and having a personal height of 6'3" I prefer to be politically correct and not mention anyone's height to anyone, but these height parameters would take in a large number of people, I would think, so good for you short people for having your own day and Facebook page.

            Pick a day! Any day! And you, too, may find something worthwhile to celebrate!

"Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words."-Plautus (255BC-185BC).