24 Hours With Bonnie

Photo by Rob Dirk
The Little Canadian Stream

Bonnie came to stay over on Friday night.

She and I tried to figure out what would be fun, really fun. 

Obligatory fun.

The question for us was, how to leave behind the work world worries and find pleasure.

She told me that she had been to a PartyLite event in the middle of the week—one where candles of every size, shape and fragrance are sold. The people at her house have fragrance allergies so there didn’t seem much point in exploring fragrance nor products for her. So there was a party that didn’t work for her.

That made me think that she and I could have our own candle party for the eveningI seem. to always be buying candles but never lighting them. We went around the house taking down candle candelabras, finding ruby red Christmas tea lights, exploring the beauty of tiny glass bunnies with smaller tapers coming out of their backs and commenting on the ugly design of a wooden candle. Wood is never ugly – except in this case.

We must have been in tune with the environment or at least somehow have known that a tree was about to fall on one of the electrical lines, for we had enough candles collected to light up the house by time the darkness fell.

Photo by Rob Dirk
The New Look of the Train Coming Down the Track

A magnificent storm was coming in. First there was the wind that blows the rust and brown crackled leaves of last year to the east side of the porch and the switches and blows them to the west side of the porch. Then the waves come along the lake from the west, first small whitecaps and then waves with large white ridges – big enough to ride. When the rain began to fall it was in sheets of water. We could see it against the light behind green trees and again as it hit the deck.

“This is like rain in Florida,” Bonnie said, “sheets of rain coming down”. And then there was the sound like the sound of a gunshot and out lights went out. That was the tree falling on the line and triggering the electrical breaker.

We hadn’t planned what to have for supper, so having no electricity didn’t interfere with out plans. We sliced a cucumber into large lengthwise fingers, called that our main course and we were both happy to have a meal plan like that executed – no pots and pans, no dishes, no clean-up.

Photo by Rob Dirk
The New Look of the Path to the Lake

David Wood and Glen were the investigators, trying to find out why we had no power.

Dave was the one who found the tree laying on the electrical line and Glen called in a help message to BC hydro who had someone out on the site within the hour to fix it.

With the electrical back, Bonnie and I finished out our candle party and we both needed a rest from all of that fun so we pulled out our electronics.

I told Bonnie that I have few regrets about my life – but this one. I wish I had studied more about Canadian history and about Canadian geography. That is why I sometimes go to the National Film Board site to watch something in the evenings. So that is what we did – the most spectacular film from the Five Feminist Minutes series. The 5 minute film was “New Shoes” – an intriguing title with a dark underside.

And that ended the first 5 hours of what truly became 24 hours of fun – about which I may type more, later.

Arta