Rural Routes, Blog Version

I have been thinking about how the meaning of a word is a reflection of your perspective.  And how that perspective can change.
A golf ball is small until you compare it to a marble, for example.
The words I have been thinking about particularly are ‘early’ and ‘late’, as they relate to decorating a Christmas tree.
We have neighbours whose tree was up and decorated in late November. That, I thought, was early.
Years ago, an aunt used to make sure that their tree was decorated in time for their son’s birthday on December 11. A cousin did the same for her daughter’s birthday on December 8.
At the time, I thought that was early.
This year, I finished our tree on December 11.
“I’m late this year”, I told K.
“Hmmm,” he said.
EMPRESS
A month ago, although it hardly seems that long, we were in Edmonton. There was a fall reading week at university and we took advantage of it to drive to Alberta for an event K wanted to attend.
We ran into wintry weather along the way and the streets in Edmonton were horrific. But we got there safely, attended the event and then made a more leisurely trip east to Manitoba.
K wanted to take me to Empress, a town near the Saskatchewan border north of Medicine Hat. He had been there once before and had found a small tea house/gift shop owned and operated by a retired couple. He wanted to see if it was still there.
It was, although it took us a while to find it. Darkness had fallen, making it more difficult to see, and the building was on a different street than K remembered.
Within fifteen minutes of arriving in the town, we had been invited by four separate people to attend the senior’s potluck taking place that evening.
We decided that Empress deserves the name “Friendliest Town on the Prairies.”

DOG RIVER
We stopped in Moose Jaw where this photo was taken. It’s a mural painted on an indoor wall in a downtown building, depicting Dog River, the fictional town made famous by the Corner Gas TV series.
Shortly after taking this picture, K and I separated, he to go into one store, me to go into another… and then another.
K eventually went into the first store, but I wasn’t there.
“I have lost my wife,” he told the owner.
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” the man asked.
Good question.
ICELANDIC
I progress – slowly – in my study of the Icelandic language. Our dog continues to howl whenever I attempt a rolled ‘r’. I have learned to do my practicing when I am away from the dog.
It is a case of the dog training its mistress, not the other way around.
ACHOO
K has been sick for a week with a bad cold. I thought perhaps I was going to escape it. But this morning I woke with a fuzzy head, a runny nose and an extremely sore throat.
When K asked if I wanted to take a drive somewhere, I said no.
Today is a day for warm blankets, plenty of fluids, a book and a box of Kleenex
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