A few years ago, when Kia was introducing the Sportage (compact SUV) they had these really annoying commercials that involved some idiot taking people on swamp rides "welcome to the swamp" - so when I bought my Sportage, it got nicknamed the swamp buggy (I named her Ophelia, yes I'm a geek).
There's been a long debate among canoers - is a moose cow a majestic animal or a swamp donkey?
Thdre's the pretext for the title of this blog... I was driving Wednesday, north of White River, when I saw a beautiful cow on the left hand sideof the road - and I was thinking to myself that it's abnormal to see such a gorgeous creature in the daylight so close to the road - and I had slowed down a bit. About a second later I had a baby moose run right in front of me - and then stop (she saw the car coming the other direction) - well, a THUD ensued. I braked hard, but still hit the poor beast - who then became airborne, and was flung across to the other side of the highway. Fortunately, given the circumstances, she was dead immediately - fortunately for me, I survived. (Ironically, all my other creatures lived through it also - a goldfish, 3 gerbils and a hedgehog lived but a moose died... sigh...) Some lovely people from Edmonton gave me a lift into town and were a HUGE help (people, angels, whichever). So, my car was towed into White River, where I spent the night (after having seen the doctor - sprained wrist, bruises, whiplash). Thursday was a fun day of organising repairs, insurance, police reports... we towed the car into Wawa (about 150km from the collision) where it looks like they're fixing it - because it's such a safe car, and slow impact of a baby moose, it's only about $7,000-$10,000 to repair it. For a moose collision, that's minimal! And it's VERY rare that someone can walk away from such a collision - so I am feeling VERY lucky.
It's amazing the way people all pull together in smaller towns - the folk in White River were really great, as were the people in Wawa - they all heard that I have a wedding to be in this weekend, and worked to make sure it could happen! So I have a rental now, and good pain meds - and am in Hamilton ready for whatever comes next - hopefully something boring!
07 July 2006
04 July 2006
Relaxing...
Most people find traveling to be a stressful experience... there have been times (like this year) when I have had the stress of racing to catch planes, getting stuck in the subway on the way to the airport, leaving Regina at 6am on a terrifyingly turbulant flight, discovering the joys of Brasil's internal transit systems... this voyage, however, is different. I have a definite end time - I am needed in Hamilton before Friday night, and I had to leave Winnipeg as I no longer have a house there... but in the in-between I've been taking some serious downtime. I'm hanging out with friends right now at the canoe base near Atikokan, ON, two hours west of Winnipeg. I've slept well, helped build a shower house (as such), and tonight went for a sunset paddle - watched Blake catch the mother of all Bass (fish for breakfast tomorrow!), watched some other wildlife (merganzers, loons, beavers). I've taken the opportunity to just BE. No deadlines, no worries, very few people able to reach me. It's a good feeling. Definitely needed after the past few weeks - between work, and packing, and writing the term papers, and then the emotional stuff of ordination, first Eucharist, and saying goodbyes... hard to do. I'm grateful for the rest right now! There's just no way to be stressed with the sun going down on a calm lake and the quietness of dipping your paddle in the water. I know my soul finds peace in this part of the world - it's getting that now.
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