9/15/07: Winnipeg to Regina

September 15. I'm sitting in the Lorraine and Frank's "rec" room in Calgary writing this. I'll be off tomorrow headed for B.C. Sorry it's taken me so long to get to the keyboard, but my neck has been hurting, that unidentifiable kind of pain that feels like nails on chalkboard. So resting has been in order.

September 11

I did have a wonderful time in Winnipeg with Kate Byman, a new friend. She has a beautiful condo apartment in the artsy part of town (which I've now forgotten the name of). Very beautifully painted and decorated. Deep blue Prussian blue carpets lead up to the third story where her apartment is. She had me clear out my car of anything that looked steal-able or enticing. Kate's a teacher of 4th-5th graders in a very multi-cultural environment. She's the one who taught me that the plural of inuksuk is inuksuit.

Kate cooked a marvelous all-Manitoban dinner of lightly breaded pickerel, kale and beets and a mix of two kinds of potatoes with a wonderful light white wine. We ate at a table in a kind of sun room area overlooking a little park that somehow felt like being in what I imagine a Brownstone in Manhattan would be like, a light westering sunshine coming in through the paned windows on two walls. She's just had heating put into the tile floor, so it's warm to walk on in bare feet. Who could ask for more? She's the only "old" Shambhalian in town (at least that she knows of) and has a few people over once a week to her apartment for meditaiton practice.

I indulged myself in a bubble bath, which I never have, but this and a good neck rub really helped my neck feel much better all the next day as I drove through Manitoba to the middle of Saskatchewan, where I stayed at another Comfort Inn.

September 12-13

I only discovered, on the 12th in the evening while reading my email at the Comfort Inn in Regina, that Pam Johnson (aka Wimberley) had been living there with her partner Boo. I wasn't sure whether or not I would stay another day in Regina or head out for Medicine Hat, AB, and decided to leave it to "tendrel," or auspicious coincidence, and it certainly seemed to happen that way, with Pam and I meeting within a five-second window, where if I hadn't seen her, I would have driven on to Medicine Hat. So I stayed and had dinner with them, talking late into the evening. They're very obviously in love and seem quite happy together. Pam works as a branch librarian, but does have a few problems with subordinates, but I think it will all work out. They've tried to have a meditation evening, but it's been difficult as there are no other Shambhalians there.

I think I'd best stop now, so I won't keep the Johns' waiting on me for dinner.