Geardoid at Large

  Saturday  Aug. 14  - memorial feast of St. Maximillian Kolbe, last day of our novena. Well, we made it !  After a memorable Thursday evening stay at a lovely house in Brandon Manitoba (where we were showered with love by a cat and a dog), we pressed on for Swift Current with a stop in Regina precisely the minute to attend Friday noon Mass at Sacred Heart church. There we met friend John and Sharon, who feted us for a fishy lunch and sent us packing with lots of goodies. Sunset over the prairies was a sight to behold, with the air bearing a hazy pastel patina, under winds from northern B.C. and Alberta, where wildfires are burning .. many of them out of control. Speaking of fires, as we approached Our Lady of the Rockies in Canmore, passing Dead Man's Flats a pesky wildfire on the south side, being battled by water-bombers, had the east-bound traffic backed up some five kilometres, virtually to the door of the shrine. We were perhaps too distracted to pull into the...