Life on the Edge

I ended my last post with Ray, Nick and I exploring Canmore. For our second day there, I told the guys they could climb a mountain together and I’d entertain myself in town. They decided on Mount Lady MacDonald. Canmore is grizzly country, so they rented bear spray, packed some snacks (for them, not the grizzlies), and headed out.

The first section of the climb is a steady incline through forest that leads to a false summit. Many hikers finish there. If you choose to continue, which Ray and Nick did of course, you scramble up a mostly-scree section until you reach a knife-edge ridge, with sheer drop-offs on both sides. I did not know about that part.

Meanwhile, blissfully unaware that my husband and son were standing precariously on a ridge 2,600 metres above me, I sipped tea latté in the village, sat by the water and read, then decided to go for a peaceful float down the Bow River.

I had to sign a liability waiver to float down the river, so Nick and Ray weren’t the only ones taking their life in their hands. The water might look calm and safe, but they had a whole list of bad things that could have happened to me. None did. It was very tame.

After about seven hours, the guys finished their hike. Neither of them seemed tired or sore afterwards, which is not so surprising for Nick, but pretty impressive for Ray at 68. I definitely need to up my game.

From Canmore, we drove to Calgary, checked into our AirBnB and picked Megan up from the airport. We were there to attend the wedding of my cousin’s youngest daughter. It was lovely to catch up with my dad’s brother’s family. It’s not often we have them all in one place.

Seeing my relatives made me very aware of the passage of time – how does my youngest cousin have five granddaughters running around?!? – but it was nice to see Nick’s generation getting to know each other better, so that hopefully those connections continue after the rest of us have…moved on.

Surprisingly (shockingly?), all three of our flights on this trip were on schedule. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a trip with no significant flight delays or cancellations.

When we got back to Toronto, Ray visited his mom while I went out for breakfast with my sister, and then we met up with friends visiting from England for lunch. The next day I came down with a cold, which always seems to happen after I fly, so I spent much of the week curled up with a good book.

Two books kept showing up in my online book recommendations: Theo of Golden and The Calamity Club. I ordered both. Ray raised his eyebrows when he saw me add The Calamity Club, at 656 pages, to my carry-on bag, but I love having a good read with me on vacation and I don’t do e-readers.

This will be an unpopular opinion, but Theo of Golden was a dnf for me. I couldn’t get through it. I know, I know, everyone loves this book. People keep recommending it to me. I even flipped through and read the ending, just to see. I think it was just too….schmaltzy…for me, like a Hallmark Movie. It also seemed over-written (show, don’t tell!).

I understand the appeal. People are thirsty for uplifting stories. We want more kindness, more Dolly Parton. I’m definitely in the minority on this, so read it for yourself and see what you think. Maybe the movie version – Tom Hanks is in talks to play the lead – will be more digestible for me.

The Calamity Club, on the other hand, was my first 5-star read this year. It’s set in the 1930s and it’s full of strong, funny, female characters who find ways to cope and support each other in desperate times. Kathryn Stockett, who also wrote The Help, is a master of dialogue and character development. As soon as I turned the last page, I wanted more.