Death and a dock party

We have been enjoying a thoroughly relaxing time at Plumper Cove on Keats Island.  This is one of those wonderful BC Marine Parks which we patronize regularly.  So far they aren’t charging to stay on the dock so we are soaking up all the free moorage we can get. 

I generally wake up around 5:00, check my email and then doze off again for a couple of hours.  When I did that Saturday morning I noticed that I had missed a call from Regina.  It didn’t take any great leap of genius to figure out what a call in the darkness from Regina meant.  When I got up around 7:00 I phoned Wascana Rehab and sure enough, father had moved on sometime in the early morning.  Its unfortunate that he is gone but I can’t honestly say I am sad to see it happen.  He really hasn’t been living for some time now.  Existing - yes but living - no.

So now we launch into the grim ritual that follows a death.  People, businesses, banks, lawyers, governments and church to notify.  Mercifully we have decided not to dash into some early memorial service.  We have set the afternoon of July 27 for whatever service we will hold and I have already booked Wesley United Church’s auditorium in Regina for that purpose.  Its hard to say how many people are likely to show up.  Father and mother were very active in that church so their names are well known but their peers are either old or dead, some both. 

Meanwhile back at the dock ……………

Bruce’s friend Nigel showed up on Saturday and again on Sunday.  Nigel is one of those larger than life characters that takes over any gathering and instantly becomes the focus of activity.  It is impossible not to have fun when you are anywhere near his orbit.  So despite the grim business of the morning, by Saturday evening we were wrapped up in an ongoing dock party.

And it wasn’t just Nigel that arrived.  We’re having a spell of absolutely glorious weather the arrival of which coincided with the weekend.  So there was a horde of local boaters descended on the cove for the weekend.  If you look close at the pictures you will see that we had so many they were rafted 2 deep along the T-head.

Yesterday morning most of the locals were gone by noon but then there was a whole second wave of locals that arrived for the afternoon and evening.  By early evening though we were back down to us, Bruce and a guy named Dave with his dog Kate.  She’s a very nice dog who seems to really like Jorgito.  And the attraction appears to be mutual.  At least once a day she hops up on Gray Hawk and at the very least touches noses with the idiot cat.  Sometimes she watches him while he ignores her but they always start out by touching noses.