2017.01.01 Reflections
The last thing that happened in 2016 was that we drive the family up to Canada to visit my family. It was an incredibly meaningful trip for me - with two main aspects.
Holy Shit British Columbia Is Beautiful
Just crossing the border into British Columbia is drawing a breath of wonder. Nelson itself, nestled in the rugged Selkirk mountains, is a rare jewel of a town. My Grandparents property is perched at the top of the little city, overlooking all the splendour.
All of the gorgeous peaks and ridges soothe my under-nourished large-scale spatial sense, and help me feel fundamentally at home. There's no way to remember all the details of the fractal geography of my homeland, but it all feels so familiar. (And my Grandfather assures me that it's all now well-infested with mountain bike riding trails, so that's awesome.)
But all of this is embarrassingly secondary - to driving the twisty BC roads. They're just so... drivey. There isn't enough traffic to justify a whole lot of major terrain modifications to make them more efficient. So they do a lot of turning. And swooping. It all just naturally follows the flow of the land and feels so much more engaging the 99% of the driving I get to do in my regular life in PDX.
I made an extra side-trip to visit my mom who lives as a hermit in the middle of nowhere; just me, without the family because that's a lot of driving for little kids for no particularly good reason. The drive took me up through the Paulson pass on the Crowsnest highway, where the road wriggles up high enough that the pavement is pack ice all winter long. Driving through that takes extra attention, and balancing the car through corners is more like piloting or boating than what most people would understand as driving. Our little Subaru, with decent tires and AWD and modern stability/traction control let me claw safely along at a most pleasing pace. We broke up the drive from PDX to Nelson into two days of driving, 4.5 hours each day, and both days I was weary from the monotony of it. That day I drove 5 hours, almost all of it gleeful and happy, with brief periods of bursting out in joyous laughter.
Holy shit I miss driving in winter in a decent snow car.
Wow My Grandparents Are Inspiring
The whole reason for driving up was to visit my grandparents - Grandma and Grandpa Kosiancic. Grandma K's health has not been great for a while, and has taken a sudden downturn. They both have been iconic symbols of hard work and devotion my entire life. This visit, we talked even more about the details of their lives, and I realized how much my idolization of them had been well-founded.
They're both 88, soon to be 89. I really hope that I can toast them at their 60th wedding anniversary in a year-or-so. They've always looked old to me, but they never used to act old - hiking and skiing until their 80's. If they seem worn out, it is almost certainly because they wore themselves out living life. And it's been a life they definitely shared being at each others side.
My grandfather was a big part of my inspiration to become an engineer. His sheer mechanical capability made me want to nurture every iota of my mechanical aptitude, so that I could be as capable as he is. I've never really succeeded at that incredibly-high bar, but trying has made me feel successful. This trip, I saw how he has forsaken his magnificent shop to tend to the house work and cooking - to take care of his beloved Violet. I feel humbled, and inspired anew.