I Met a Girl Who Sang the Blues, and I Asked Her for Some Happy News....She Just Smiled and Turned Away

I've had a lot of time to think the last couple of days as I drove to and from Kelowna. That's one thing you have to chalk up to long lonely drives, it sure tells you what's lurking in the back of your mind.

We have all seen what is happening in the south, and quickly migrating to our land. Even though the TSX has been rocked, most of out country and businesses are still on solid ground. British Columbia has been taking it pretty hard, but we always tend to look south before looking over the Rockies. My business especially has taken it on the chin this year.

I have watched my life savings dwindle as if Daniel Day Lewis were sucking them from a straw. I'm in for the long haul though, so like a James Bond Martini, I'm more shaken than stirred. The real estate market has stalled like some leviathan ship wedging into a sandbar. Hard good sales have also plummeted, whether it be appliances or televisions.

Many don't see it, but this is World War 3. Churchill said "We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills!!"

It is now "We shall fight in the banks, and in the exchanges, we shall fight in the economy's of the world!!"

It is almost an evolution, like some cheesy old Star Trek plot. We have shed our barbarianism to fight with ticker tape, and barrels of oil. Our guns have been replaced by pencils. Many said that future wars would take place in unseen rooms in front of endless computer monitors, what they didn't mention was what would be on the screens. It is not the contrails of missiles as they head downward toward Europe, it is the line graph burning its trial down the screen, a direct hit. The paratroopers now wear golden parachutes.

These are the seven deadly sins, see any relevance to what is happening? And no, I'm not a religious man.

Lust

Gluttony

Greed

Sloth

Wrath

Envy

Pride

Hell, that basically sums up Bush's agenda from the last 8 years.

Enough of that.

This morning I was driving back from Kelowna, I left early as always. As I was nearing the end of the connector, around Kentucky Allenye, dawn started to break. There was a light wispy fog as there always is this time of year. Lets just say visibility was okay, but not the greatest. As I descended into the valley towards Merritt, I pulled in line with a couple of semi's, I just wanted to cruise for a moment before jumping on the Coquihalla.

I heard a sudden noise in front of me as both semi's locked up their brakes, and I saw a shadow fly through the air. What happened next was one of most upsetting things that has ever happened to me. The trucks had freed up their brakes, and were slowing to the side. Suddenly a fine red mist was covering my windshield, a spray off of the tires of the truck in front of me. The first truck had hit a deer. We all pulled to the side of the road and got out. In the muted morning light my car appeared black, it was blood soaked. The driver was extremely upset, as were the other two of us. We walked back up the road, and all lit cigarettes with shaky hands. The deer never stood a chance, but more disturbing for me were the three other deer standing on the other side of the barrier a mere few feet away just staring. They were all female, and any doubt I had ever had (not that there was much) about the animal kingdom having feelings towards incidents such as this were soon erased. The six of us just stood there together, and whether human or animal our eyes welled.

After about ten minutes the deers dashed off toward the trees breaking the trance we seemed to be in. The driver that hit it said he would do what he could to clean it up, the other driver offered me some towels to try and deal with the car, it didn't work. I said my goodbyes and headed down the hill. It was too early for anything to be open in Merritt, I would have to drive to Hope. It was a horrible drive looking through that windshield. My shaky hands would try to make the wipers clean it repetitively, like an obsessive compulsive person washing their hands,it never came clean. I couldn't believe how upset I still was as I cleaned the car off in Hope. At the same time I couldn't help but to think if we are just like those three deer watching helpless as life lays out before us. I wouldn't mind running off into the woods myself.