Anchor Struck

So we did indeed survive January up here. Since my last post the snow and sub-freezing temperatures yielded to copious rain and temps near double digits C. (high 40’s F.). Jude and I were able to do some yardwork yesterday. Fortunately, while we were snowed in, there were ample distractions, the finest of which was the best Sunday in pro football I can remember. I lean eagerly toward the Super Bowl, when my two favourite teams clash.

The month ended with a significant disappointment, though. I was scheduled to have surgery yesterday on my bum lung, but since it’s elective and the Canadian health care system has some notable flaws, I got bumped. If the operation had been in nearby Campbell River, it wouldn’t have been of much concern, but the thoracic surgeon is in Victoria, 250 kilometers (150 miles) away. Jude went to great lengths to arrange lodging and dog care. Luckily, she was able to retrieve most of our cash outlay.

I’m still in queue for the surgery, but I want to talk to my primary care doctor before I commit to another scheduling. One of our friends knows someone who has been bumped three times for her elective surgery. I trust my primary explicitly. We have a mutual love of Doonesbury and a mutual contempt for Trump.

So as that plays out, let me remind you of the anniversaries of two historical events that will get little, if any, air or ink. Tomorrow is the 65th anniversary of the The Day the Music Died: the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and their pilot Roger Peterson. I remember it vividly because it was also the day my family moved from a small Missouri town to Shreveport, Louisiana, where I was shocked by the bald-faced racism.

February 4th is the 56th anniversary of the death of Neal Cassady, who was featured prominently in Jack Kerouac’s classic Beat Generation novel On the Road and Tom Wolfe’s hippie classic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Cassady died of exposure along a Mexican railroad track.

May they rest in peace in their various afterlives.