It’s been a while since I last wrote and I have good reasons!

1. The weather has been snowy, wet, foggy, snowy, wet; you get the idea. Lots of snow means that we can’t ride our bikes and snowstorms tend to reduce the enjoyment of paddling. We have done several walks but we have spent more time than usual indoors!
2. I was crazy/brave/stupid (your choice) and went to Utah for a couple days earlier this week. I just can’t seem to leave the events world behind, so I signed up with RainFocus to be an onsite contractor. I was in Utah to attend training. In the almost 24 months of the pandemic events evolved into very effective virtual ones, but slowly in-person events are coming back. With the surge of Omicron, however, which events will actually need onsite support is a very fluid notion.

So a catchup is in order

Back to Work?

Being back in Utah was a little like coming home. I do love Utah (almost as much as Vancouver Island). But I missed the energy of a full office. The company has adapted well to the new world of remote and work-at-home employees so there were very few others in the office, other than the 12 or so in the training. I did, however, enjoy the snowcapped mountains, and the crisp clear air, so different from the Atmospheric River that inundated BC once again. I was treated to a gorgeous sunset as the plane took off, and headed northwest towards Canada. Navigating the Covid testing was made easy with ‘do-it-yourself’ tests which provide results ion less than 30 minutes, and no longer having to quarantine upon arrival made the trip more achievable than before. Wearing masks for 4 days straight was probably the hardest part of the whole trip!

Birthday Hike

My birthday and Nicky’s birthday are only two days apart, so being together in BC we find ways to celebrate together. Last year we celebrated with bubbly on Stoney Hill under blue skies and sunshine. We reprised the walk this year, and even though it was not a sunny day (haven’t seen one of those in a long time), we enjoyed the fast-moving clouds and fog banks over the hills of Saltspring Island and along the water of Sansum Narrows. It’s a hike that is so enjoyable, in any weather!

Bubbly on the Beach

Today we continued the celebrations with a wonderful paddle on Shawnigan Lake. It was great to be back in our boats, and in fresh water (significant because it means we don’t have to rinse all our gear when we get home!). What made the day so special is sharing it with family and friends: Bill, Nicky, Derek, Heather, John, Kim and Brad. Thankfully the tsunami warning issued early in the day did not apply to our area. The forecast called for “cloudy with sunny breaks” and we figured without precipitation, it’s as good as it gets these days. Well, we didn’t see any clouds or sun because we were fogbound the whole day. But it made for a wonderful, peaceful and moody paddle on glass smooth waters. We were all just happy to be in our boats, and enjoying being outside. The only things we could really see were each other (we had to stay close), and the houses along the shoreline that we hugged so we would not get lost.

I had to wear the birthday hat that has now become a tradition :

And we celebrated both our birthdays with bubbly on the beach

So, even though the weather was not perfect, it was a perfect day to celebrate our birthdays and share it with special people. We still feel very fortunate we can enjoy days like this!