Took Tom and Peggy to a restaurant last night (Santali, and it was excellent, thanks) to very imperfectly thank them for their abundance of loving hospitality over the last couple of years, also to talk about my current state of mental health, which is pretty much happy and sane, and the reasons therefor.
Then I asked them to drive us to Burnaby Mountain Park where we looked at the glories of Burnaby (the view over the city, the Burrard Inlet, the dancing cranes made out of plants, the rose garden, the SFU Pipe Band rehearsing, kids running around being kids, the Ainu Playground of the Gods sculpture and a fairly >meh< sunset). Then they drove me home and I even went to bed fairly early. To work now! Where a mountain of transactions awaits me. I am floating around though. There is nothing like intelligent attention from a worthy individual, after many months of rejection and being wilfully misunderstood, as balm for one's wounded nerves. Thank you Peggy and Tom for putting up with me as I babbled about it.
Sorry the sunset was – meh. On my one visit to that lovely place the sunset was world-class. Almost as good as a prairie sunset. And the prairies don’t have Ainu totems, or the story which goes with them. Well – beauties are not really comparable, are they. So much depends on mood and set, as well as setting (to paraphrase the impact of hallucinogens.) Probably THE best view I ever experienced was from the Wickaninish Inn restaurant, perched on the rocks overlooking an incredible beach with the next land beyond – Japan. I was there with a dear friend, now dead, and perhaps my memory of the view is colored by my loss. But no, even then with no grim reaper in view the sense of seeing over the curvature of the earth to Asia was spine-tingling. And the sunset matched.
I wish you the most delicious of happiness in your interactions with worthy individuals!