Stories and New Years

An Arctic front is on the way. Wind was cold blowing through my jacket on my walk to my Jeep in the mall parking lot yesterday.

I'm thinking of a walk in winter, beginning of 2020, when everything was on lockdown. 🔐 The airport was a ghost town. The condo where I lived,  and owned, was covered in snow ❄️ and weather so cold outside. I had to fix the Jeep due to a substantial leak. This leak was in the same place as once before  and I knew to put some of the pooled liquid on a paper towel and taste it before I called the mechanic. I'm a widow and I don't generally like asking any random men for favors.

I drove to the shop several miles down the highway 🛣. Diagnosis was a water pump, same as before, which was doubtful I thought, but I left the Jeep there, took a city bus 🚌 to the closest stop, a mile from home, and walked to the field on Indian land. Shops were all closed because of lockdown, so I couldn't go for a coffee anywhere.

Long story short, the Indians hadn't broken a path through the field for good reason. Snow was thigh high in drifts, and every few meters I had to stop and catch my breath. My heart was pounding from exertion. In one spot, I saw cougar tracks. I wished I hadn't taken the field route. 😕 I could have been very easy prey. Finally, after  mile, I saw the roofs of condos where I lived, down the hill. I was never so glad.

At home, I took off my boots 👢, full of snow. An hour later, the mechanic called to say the Jeep was fixed. The return trip was easier, as a bus stop was one way on the highway,  outside the complex, at the bottom of a hill.

Weeks later, the leak reappeared under my vehicle. I took the Jeep into a dealership a few miles, in Kelowna. Turns out thermostat housing was the problem, and they fixed it. Two sessions of water pumps replaced beforehand and one lifelong memory of my winter trek in the field. It was like Leo DiCaprio in the Revenant, only no Academy Award!

The moral of this story is listen to the stories of your elders, as I do. Kids now aren't even interested to ask questions. They think they could look up everything online. Not so. Life lessons are not like that. Tell your kids stories whether they want to listen or not. Listening is polite, builds character, and just may save their lives one day.

Happy 2024! ❣️