Bring me Sunshine

May, 2009 :

I have to tell a story...you may want to pass this around to a few people at the emporium who maybe are "holding the rope too tightly" and taking life too seriously.

According to the local stats, the percentage of retired people on the Sunshine Coast is around 25% of the population "the land of the newly wed and the almost dead" as the locals say and about two weeks ago, around the corner from where we live, there was another of the frequent house auctions that happen around here.

The back story of the auction was that an older couple had been moved from the house by their children, taken to residential care in North Vancouver, downsized from a three bedroom detached home with lovely garden into a couple of rooms, basically took their clothes and a few personal objects, already I was affected by some sadness about their situation.

The garage was a reflection of most of us, the hand made wooden bench, drawers full of widgets and dongles acquired over a lifetime, familiar wood and power tools and useful wood, stored in a corner, awaiting a project that never happened. On a shelf there, boxes of older Christmas decorations (just like my mums) awaiting a festivus somewhere else.

Items sell for very little at these auctions, I'd be surprised if a full house auction like this yields more than $10k and I'm always on the lookout for goodies, and although there was a lot of good furniture, kitchen stuff, bedroom suites etc, we are at an age where "we have all that" and focus tends to end up on smaller stuff. I was disinterested in the stuff and reflecting on the back story when I entered a smaller room.

A couple of large bookcases on either side, a classic oak office table and swivel chair, and a small couch. On the walls, a framed poster for the 20th anniversary of the Snowbirds at Abbotsford, a cartoon depiction of a DHC Otter 411 complete with floats, numerous framed pictures of maps, aircraft and books, all those books, which through a strange process, I bought.

From Tech Flash 1950 :

Daniel John McKinnon "Danny" was born at Long Beach, Cape Breton in 1923 and called Victoria Mines his home back in 1950 when he graduated as a Mechanical Engineer at the Nova Scotia Technical College. He completed his grade school in St. Agnes High in New Waterford. Danny joined the Air Force in 1941 and was discharged in 1945 but still had a powerful "yen" for anything that flies. He received his Pre-engineering diploma from St. F.X. in 1948 and proceeded to Tech to study Mechanical Engineering. Danny is a soft spoken and easy going type who has earned himself many friends in his stay at Tech. His future is undecided as yet but doubtlessly will be connected with aviation in some form, all the best Danny.

The books tell the tale of this man, he was a pilot and obviously a structural guy, worked at Canadair on the Challenger and out here on the coast. Structural books that we all know, thirty or so, Strength of Materials, Thermodynamics, Bruhn was there, along with a personal copy of Mil-Handbook 5, a couple of those loose leaf binders with those older articles about bolt strength and the like, and of course, the reason why I bid on the books in the first place, a pristine copy of the Machinery's Handbook, something I lacked in my career, a book constantly borrowed from someone else.

I think this reinforces the fact that, we're all just passing through, that we are no different than those that went before us and that one day, all our worldly goods will end up scattered about the planet, sold for pennies on the dollar. It seems that Mister McKinnon led an interesting, well travelled life and it is ending in a very familiar fashion, in a single room in faceless residential care somewhere.

This isn't a depressing story unless you want it to be, it's more a further reminder to live life now and not get stressed out about the little things like global recession, swine flu or the impending apocolypse. It's another wake up call to all of us to make hay while the sun is shining.