Family emergency – back in Kelowna, BC
Like every other Yukon and Alaska blogger, I was going to tell you about the incredibly warm weather we were having last week. Although I missed that window, I do want to show those of you who live elsewhere a couple of photos.
This is not what shovelling snow in January normally looks like. The temperature was about +4°C (39°F) when I shot this on January 14th, and in Whitehorse it hit 11 that day, beating the all-time record for the day by about 4 degrees.
Our weather station shows how erratic the weather was overnight on the 14th-15th. The graph is in 1-degree, 1-hour increments – it hit a high of just over 7°C overnight.
At about 9:00 pm on Monday night, though, all my plans for the week got changed. I got a call that my 90-year-old father had been struck by a vehicle as he crossed the road, and was in the Kelowna hospital in serious condition. I booked the first reasonable flight out.
At 12:07 Tuesday we lined up on the runway at Whitehorse, bound for Vancouver.
A small meandering river just south of Whitehorse.
At Carcross, the water flowing in the Nares River is open again due to the warm weather.
The vast mountain ranges of central British Columbia stretch to the east at 1:05 pm.
I simply never get tired of studying the details of the earth as I fly over.
The coast of south BC was blanketed in a thick layer of low cloud.
Landing at YVR, Vancouver, at 2:01 pm.
A rescue-training aircraft and crash truck.
A fun sculpture in the domestic terminal.
At 4:32 we were climbing out for Kelowna in a Dash 8.
It was a lovely sunset – this was shot at 4:48 pm.
Looking down on Merritt at 5:05 pm.
Walking into the YLW Kelowna terminal at 5:27.
The doctors weren’t certain that Dad would survive the night, but he did, and when I got in to see him Wednesday morning he was stable but in bad shape with a fractured pelvis and other minor injuries. He has an excellent medical team helping him, but has a long, difficult road ahead. My days have been full of hospital visits, talking to medical and other people about the case, and working on getting Dad’s house useable for him and a caregiver. I have made a bit of time to relax and take photos of Kelowna, though.
This was shot just after 1:00 pm on Wednesday, with the temperature at about -4 with a strong south wind blowing up Okanagan Lake.
The downtown marina, the Delta Grand hotel, and Knox Mountain in the background.
Enjoying an Okanagan winter in the lakeshore park.
The new free skating rink has become very popular very quickly.
Yesterday, Friday, I went to the site of Dad’s accident again, trying unsuccessfully to understand exactly what happened. He was jaywalking from the casino, the large dark facade in the centre of this photo when he was hit, but I can’t figure out why the driver of the van headed in the direction this photo was shot didn’t see him. No charges are being considered against the driver, though.
As much time as I’m spending at the massive Kelowna hospital, I still get lost, partly due to the construction going on, I expect, and partly because my brain is overwhelmed.
Kelowna’s utility boxes have been beautifully decorated for many years, but many are now being redone with artwork from Beautiful British Columbia magazine going back into the early 1960s – I love it!
Back to the lakeshore just after noon yesterday.
A final shot of the new bridge from a rather unusual angle.
Time to get moving – get a pot of coffee into my system, and back to the hospital.
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