A Happy Christmas 1997 from the Ryes to all our readers !
How beautiful Saskatchewan is in the Autumn. We haven't told you about the joy of Fall here because we haven't seen it before. The colours on the trees are all shades of orange, red and brown and the gentle breeze rustles the dry grasses. The wild rose hips are a brighter red than the flowers are in springtime and chickadees and squirrels eat sunflower seeds ad playfully go up and down the trees. The Little Red River and North Saskatchewan River flow clear though the clear patches between the ice on the edges.
Yes,this is December 17th . Due to an extremely busy Fall for us both at work and a postal strike which has resulted in delayed and damaged mail and removed incentive to write ,this is the latest we have ever written this letter.And with such warm ,mild conditions it hasn't felt like Christmas letter writing time.
At the powerhouse in Regina , one time generating station for the city but now the provincial science museum , the attendant demonstrating static electricity later carried around the snake. This came to the museum as a confiscation by the police-if the seems strange, a couple in the neighbouring province were fined $25,000 for the possession of two rats.This is illegel because the province is rat free and wheat export is vital .
The relay from space is at the top of the DNA staircase.
On the direct road once or twice a month to Nipawin, I have seen elk and buffalo.Whitetail deer as suicidal as lemmings often amble across the road but I haven't hit one yet.They treat the road as a salt lick and there is no hunting along the highways.
Usually, winter comes quickly and brutally some time in October burying with snow the soccer ball on the lawn and the snow clearing equipment in the garden shed. No,I don't know how it gets there either. But now it's December and the first cross country ski class was a nature hike and broomball as there is no natural snow. There is artificial snow on the ski hill.
Last winter, Michael's arm had to be reset under General Anesthetic (sevoflurane with preop meperidine-No,I didn't go into the OR) when a soft snow bank turned out to be hard ice . Michael has played volleyball for the school and we now have a street hockey goal and a basketball net.
This year Michael went to see the "Awful Dentist"-actually, the orthodontist but that's hard to say with braces. Some permanent teeth had come out in front of the rest so needed restraint. Each month the bands between the wire and the teeth are changed This morning he came home with red and green bands for Christmas.
This year, Desflurane a new, expensive anesthetic arrived in our hospital. What's the use of a gaseous anesthetic agent or two that will hardly dissolve at all ? Early June saw John go off to Vancouver to the Canadian/ British anaesthetics conference where it was good to renew friendships and to learn more. Despite rumours to the contrary,I did not doss down in Stanley Park in the tent. I stayed in the student residence at UBC and did visit Granville Island, lunchtime service in the Cathedral, the new Talgo and Pacific Coast express trains and the fire works on Jordan Beach.
Palliative care has been part of both of our lives .John went to the National conference in Saskatoon and Christine has been working on a distance delivery course from Edmonton, Alberta called Introduction to Palliative Care, completed today. This has been excellent and the questions very thought provoking. Our understanding of patient needs and what our community has available to help has really improved. And we've had real patients too!
Sadly, in September, the Holy Family Hospital closed. Christine's ward was moved to the top floor of the Victoria Hospital with the same staff and unit manager. The long stay ward moved to the new long term care facility in the park near our home. This is John's forth hospital closing .
This fall Deborah started kindergarten. Like the boys she is doing French immersion . Peter went to regional science fair having built an electric circuit from kitchen foil and all three children have played at music concerts.
The Christmas play this year for the 5-9 year olds at church is based on a visit by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to the Nativity . I fear that I have only touched on the dramatic potential of a modern doctor intervening in the perfect birth but it has been , shall we say, interesting.
Along the Continental Divide
This year in July, we followed the Continental Divide from Jasper National Park down to Pike's Peak in Colorado. Some nights we camped and others we stayed in hotels, travelling by minivan.
Unlike the line between the rivers which flow north into Hudson Bay and those that flow South into the mighty Mississippi, which is neither signed nor obvious the Continental Divide follows the front ridge of the Rockies and there is a clear line between the waters that flow into the Atlantic and Pacific.
The Columbia Icefield straddles the Great Divide and is big enough to look majestic from the mountain balcony of Wilcox Pass on the other side of the valley, with mountain goats and flowers.But glaciers are receding and time and again on our journey the glacier by the road in Edwardian photos is several miles hike away today.
Mountains look twice as good with a clear, cold lake in front of them.Narrow and imposing like Mt.Vimy towering over Waterton, distant and broad like Yellowstone or stunningly theatrical like Jackson Lake in the Tetons.
A park without wildlife is a stage without actors. There are ospreys and eagles, grizzly and black bears (many of which are brown) and buffalo. After the loss of forest in Yellowstone over half the buffalo died in the winter or migrated into Montana and were killed because of brucelosis laws. There are more on the Terry Bison ranch in Wyoming than in the Park.
The divide is not a constant wall of mountains. The South Pass in Southern Wyoming is a flat dry plain with pronghorn antelope. In the Uintah Basin of Utah there are drifting sanddunes and desert, with cactus and salamanders.
Without the bright lights of the city, the night is very dark so camping gave many opportunities to see the stars, mostly on the way to the ranger talk or the washrooms. Travelling south,the Great Bear was gradually lower and lower in the sky and gives the name to the route along these mountains-the way of the Great Bear.
In such grandeur,the works of man are but the sesame seed on the bagel . There are no castles or blockhouses, although the fort started at Cheyenne to fight the Indians is a missile base today and the Air Force Command at Colorado Springs is the most defended place on the planet. Mountains demand Swiss Chalets and they get them, none more massive than the hotel at Many Glacier or smaller than the Barbie size model at Tinytown just outside Denver.
Trains are alien to the Rockies, so it was no surprise to climb Pike's Peak (14'000 feet) in a Swiss train or to ride above the Coutney River in a British Railways alumni mark 1 coach. But railways do cross the Rockies, and the old may outlast the new. When we return we will be able again to ride the old Shay over the spiral of the Georgetown loop but not to stop and watch Southern Pacific SD-60's pull coal from Craig through Steamboat Springs.
Dramatic scenery demands drama. At Fort Steele, the Victorian Melodrama with the dastardly villain and brave heroine, and the pianist who never spoke.The Cheyenne Gunslinger's shoot out at high noon with real guns makes you want to quench your thirst with real Sasparilla (like ginger beer). "The mostly true story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" saw it all. Horses and gunfights and Can-can girls, and a sheriff who claimed to be the grandson of a real sheriff who knew theses events.
The West is big and wild, but fragile too. Standing by the front wheel of a 400 ton truck in Sparwood, or by the huge reservoir in Flaming gorge this vastness lives because people wish it so. With half the trees gone and half the buffalo too, Yellowstone still has the power to inspire and awe. As we watched cattle roping at the Cheyenne Rodeo "the Daddy of 'em all", I heard some of you ask,"Do the calves enjoy it? ""Sure do.They'd rather go to the rodeo than to MacDonalds."
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, son of our unique Creator and Lord God we pray that you and your families would have a wonderful Christmas and New Year 1998.
With our love,
John, Christine, Michael, Peter and Deborah Rye.