Day 37, Post-Op Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin Blues: Saturday, October 22nd!

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

Knowledge gained through experience is a posteriori knowledge, whereas knowledge gained through reasoning is a priori knowledge. In Latin the former means "from what comes after," and the latter means "from what is before."
These two terms along with others — such as a fortiori (even more so), reductio ad absurdum (reduction to absurdity), and ceteris paribus (other things being equal) — belong to the philosophical vocabulary invented by Cicero and led to Latin superseding Greek as the primary philosophical language in the West.

Up at 8:00 am to let the wild horses out as I couldn't fend off Duke any longer. He was so extremely aggressive about burrowing under the sheets and duvet that it was simply impossible to even lie abed and listen to the radio, let alone try to go back to sleep.  At any rate, once they'd been outside for half an hour or so they returned, ready to have me feed them breakfast. Afterwards, did my standing exercises and then sent a number of messages before having a quick shower. Needed to be ready by 10:30 am as Jake Snyder was collecting me then to take me to Kelowna with him to a Flin Flon reunion!

Bit of a "backstory" is required, Dear Reader! As many of you know, we moved to Penticton at the end of May, 2015 and the following July, Cora Lee flew off to New York, her dream of many, many years, and I was left to unpack all her boxes of books! At any rate, one day, during her absence, I went to the library, but a few  blocks from our place, and after I had checked out a number of books I poked my nose into the Museum and happened to chat with the volunteer on the Information Desk. One thing led to another and I discovered that her partner's parents had moved to Penticton from Flin Flon, a mining community, north of The Pas, in Manitoba. My parents closest friends, in Cyprus, Marge and Jim McDonald, [Their son, Billy, although a couple of years younger than me, was one of my best friends.], were from Flin Flon. I had lost touch with Billy around 2008 after Chloë, Cora Lee and I met with his wife, Maria, when we spent two weeks in Cyprus, in 2007.

At the time Billy was a senior pilot with Saudi Arabian Airlines and was away on a long flight to the Far East. Originally, he flew for Cyprus Air but was later recruited by Saudia and tehn flew out of Jeddah, commuting between  Riyadh and Nicosia where Maria and their two children, Stephanie and Marco, lived. The email address I obtained for him, from Maria, was either incorrect or changed shortly thereafter as I never heard back from Billy. Given that I knew him, from past experience, to be an extremely poor correspondent, a the best of times, I feared that our connection had been severed, given that I also received no reply from the couple of letters I'd mailed to what I understood was their latest street address in Nicosia.

And then I discovered a Flin Flon connection on my own back door, so to speak! I reasoned that since the community was quite a small place, relatively speaking, the likelihood that Vittoria's, (I learned her name when I introduced myself.], partner might know the McDonald family was a reasonable assumption. Jim McDonald's brother, Earl, worked for the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co., and I had stayed with the family, on two occasions, when I had joined Billy on holiday there when his parents were on leave from the mine in Cyprus. 
 

fVittoria mentioned that her husband would be outside The Book Shop, during the Farmers' Market this coming Saturday so we could meet then and there. Thanking her, I asked her to mention that I would like to meet him and to expect me to say hello, at some point, that day. Saturday rolled around and I made my way down Main Street, buying bread, fruit and vegetables for the night's dinner I was preparing for friends, en route to Christian Lake, arriving that evening from Vancouver. Eventually made my way to the Book Shop and saw a chap selling books in front of the entrance to the Book Shop. Assume tdhe was my man so went up to him and asked if he was the gentleman from Flin Flon and he admitted he was. We introduced ourselves and his name, David Synder, meant nothing to me, at the time, Dear Reader. Anyway, I told him much of the story outlined above, and he said that he did know the McDonald family, not well, but knew that Earl had worked for HBMS, as he himself had done so in the summers, during high school and university.

Furthermore, he also knew that Patti McDonald, Billy's cousin, now lived in Vernon. She was one of the current organizers for the annual Flin Flon get-together which had been happening since the '50's. Apparently there were a considerable number of ex-Flin Floners in the Okanagan. I couldn't believe my incredible luck as I knew Patti, not well, but we'd been teenagers when I'd visited in the early '60's. As all this was was rolling around in my head I began to have a vague impression that I knew David from somewhere. Since we were both from Manitoba I asked him if he had gone to university there and he replied that indeed he had, to United College.

I almost fell over as that is where I had gone after high-school. Pieces slowly started falling into place and I next asked if he had a son who attended UC and was his name "Jake Snyder?" He took a step back, pointed his finger at his chest and blurted: "I'm Jake Snyder!" [Subsequently, I have been severely chastised by Lady Dar and Chloë, in particular, for asking Jake if he had a son who was my age but in my discombobulation at seeing, in him, someone I thought I had been at school with 45 years ago, and had not seen or heard about since 1968, I wasn't really thinking rationally.] Of course, we had a great deal to talk about once we'd established our "real" identities. Although we were not close friends at UC, we knew each other by virtue of the fact that it was a very small campus and everyone knew everyone, certainly in the same year.

Hard enough to believe that my hunch was correct but that the "good news" should be delivered by a former university classmate was almost too much to assimilate. Furthermore, Jake, in addition to being my link to Billy, happened to mention that if I was interested in hiking, I was welcome to join the group that he belonged to. While I had thought about doing some hiking, now that we had moved to Penticton, at this point I was more interested in biking. Nevertheless, I thanked him for generous offer and, a month or so later, went on my first hike with the group. Have never looked back and this activity is one of the most enjoyable of the many that we have discovered here. In addition, the people that I have met have provided a wealth of simply wonderful, wonderful social connections so making new friends here has not been difficult, in the least.

Long "backstory" Dear Reader, but today was the day I was to finally meet Patti McDonald, after probably 48 years! As mentioned above, Jake collected me at 10:30 am and we drove over to near Cherry Lane where we picked up Jim Rheaum, another ex-Flin Floner coming to the reunion. Enjoyed chatting to Jim who had worked with Earl at HBMS before moving to Penticton in 1968 where he became the head of the Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen. The year before that he had been the Commodore of the winning canoe team, from Manitoba, [Made up, primarily of Flin Floners.], in the The Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant, "a canoe race started on May 24, 1967 in the Rocky Mountains by ten teams representing eight provinces and the two existing territories. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, the two remaining provinces were not entered. 3,283 miles (5,283 km) were paddled and portaged in 104 days by 100 men using six man shifts per team. They arrived in Montreal on September 4." [I subsequently learned that Blair Harvey was also a member of the 1967 Manitoba Centennial Voyageur Canoe Team.]

Jim had been born in Fort Norman, NWT, now Tulita, where his father, in the early '30's worked for the Hudson's Bay Company in the fur trade. When the HBC closed down the fur trade the family moved to God's Lake, in northern Manitoba. Interestingly enough, only about 125 miles almost due south of  Favourable Lake, Ontario, where my parents met and married in the early 1940's. Getting to know one another, time flew by and we were soon in Kelowna and a few minutes latter parked in front of the Mekong. Although there were quite a few people already there, I was able to pick out Patti almost immediately. She certainly still looked like a "McDonald" having both her father's and uncle's broad, friendly faces, sharing this visage with Billy.

She welcomed me warmly and we had a brief chat before she had to attend with many of the details of the reunion gathering. After finding a table and a corner chair where I could place my cushion, I visited with a number of people in the room. Patti and Jake were the only ones I knew, not coming from Flin Flon myself, but I had fun meeting folk who were from this obviously tightly knit community. While I didn't know anyone, I soon discovered that I often had something in common with most, coming as I did, from Manitoba, whether it was school or perogies or sub-zero temperatures. Was interesting to discover how many had ended up choosing to live in the Okanagan, often after first being in Vancouver or Victoria, not surprising given the unifying common denominator: -40º!

After about an hour, a delicious buffet lunch was served and visiting continued until Patti called out the table next up to enjoy the wonderful fare: huge trays of steamed rice; fried noodles; sweet and sour chicken; stir-fried broccoli, carrots and baby corn; spicy green beans and crispy breaded chicken. Pleasant time chatting with my table mates as we ate the tasty food. [I managed to return for a heaping second helping, Dear Reader!] Towards the end of the meal, Patti made a number of announcements about related coming events and others shared what they knew about those Flin Flon folk who had shuffled off their mortal coil since last year's reunion. Last order of business was to ask assembled company if this particular weekend was best date for next reunion gathering. Most seemed to think it was so Patti made a reservation for 2017.

Was about 2:30 pm by the time we'd paid our individual bills and taken a few last snapolas. Patti and I exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and made plans to see one another in early November when she was to visit her close friend, Wendy Ash, who lives in Penticton, off Lakeshore Drive, in a condo, not far from the SS Sicamous! Fond farewells with more hugs and kisses and then we were off. Lovely, sunny afternoon so drive back to Penticton was wonderful. I enjoyed listening to Jim and Jake talk about local politics, both municipal and school board related, and we were soon back at Cheery Lane. Dropped Jim off at his house and said how much I had enjoyed meeting him. On way back to Burns Jake stopped at the Museum to collect Vittoria as she had been volunteering there that afternoon. [How truly fitting that everything had come full circle!]

I invited them both in for a quick drink when we were back at our place and we spent an enjoyable half hour or so before they had to be off. Left kittens locked in Rumpus Room as Jake is slightly allergic to cats! They obviously didn't mind the confinement as they didn't even wake up when I opened the garage door to the patio and freedom! Afterwards, spent the rest of the afternoon doing my exercises and riding the stationary bike. Once my last stint in the saddle was finished, I made a salad for dinner but watched an episode or two of The Wire before I ate, around 9:00 am, as lunch was such a full, satisfying one. 

Finished watching Season Four, with two extremely sleepy cats sprawled across me, often inter-twined, until I had to disturb them to get up. By this time it was 2:30 am. I was glad that I had brushed and flossed earlier as I fell into bed and was sound asleep, almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, oblivious to Duke, noisily worrying his "octopus" toy in the living room!  

Thank you for sending us your Thanksgiving-themed Jacquie Lawson e-card.
I did love the music. Did I tell you that Kaitlyn is expecting a baby boy, scheduled to arrive in February? I hope all's well with you and Corinne.
You must be well-settled now in your new "Knock-a-Noggin" home.

Travis is back now after trekking for a month with his friend Geoff in Scotland and Northern England. While hiking the Isle of Skye, they needed to cross over a rancher's fence to get to their next destination. The local ranchers use wooden gate wickets, so that the many hikers can pass through, without their own animals escaping to the other side of the fence. Travis and Geoff were held up for a time by this bull who stood in their way, huffing and snuffing at their presence.

Hi Patrick, You are having a great old time. Bridge, films, Scotch ( which sounds fabulous) and hiking!! All here is much more mundane. I will pass on your amitiés to the bridge lads. My best to your good lady and say 'Hi' to Peter and Lynn when next you see them. All the best, Robert. Hi Robert! Might see Peter Tuesday evening as I've invited him to play bridge with gang in Summerland. If not, he and Lynne will join us at a fund-raising dinner for Grandmother For Africa on Wednesday. I'll be sure to pass along your hellos. Cheers, Patrizzio!