Erin's Journals

Suddenly our winter home seems very still. And a little sad. After two straight weeks of company, it’s down to just us three: Molly, Rob and me. The laundry’s been caught up, the house put back as we found it when we arrived almost three weeks ago and things are as I expect they’ll be until our next guest arrives on Christmas Eve. (No, it’s not Santa – we don’t expect we’ll have much of a holiday except for a nice turkey dinner.)
 
I think, though, that when guests come, it’ll be a must that they bring a supply – for us and for them – of Cold FX. We can’t get it here and we find that, thanks to the long plane rides to Palm Springs (usually connecting in Calgary) and/or the dusty pollen-filled air, almost everyone has some kind of cold or allergy symptoms when they settle in.
 
Rob and I have managed to stay healthy for the most part, although when I arrived I stocked up on cold and allergy medications just to reduce the “swimmy” feeling in my head. We’re going through a lot of tissues here, for sure. But that’s just a tiny part of the past few weeks, and hopefully our guests’ memories will not include all of the sniffling, sneezing and coughing that’s been going on. Poor Anita! 
 
And so to reflect on more pleasant things….
 
One of the best parts of hosting guests is learning the lay of the land and finding out the places they – and you – need to see. With Lisa and Derek (Lisa’s my broadcasting sister who’s just left her job on a London AM news station with a fantastic recent morning ratings book to celebrate as she leaves) we saw Joshua Tree National Park. It was so moving that we took Ian and Anita there, too, one week later.
 

 

 
What’s a Joshua tree? Not actually a tree at all, this spiky and hardy member of the Yucca family, it grows in no place on earth other than this Mojave desert location. The vistas are stunning – bubbly rocks dot the landscape…
 

 
…and the views of Salton Sea as well as the San Andreas fault are magnificent, albeit hazy from the park’s designated viewing areas. That haze comes from the area lying in a dip that collects all of the bad air from around us, including Los Angeles, which is just a couple of hours away.
 

 
The Joshua tree itself is said to have been so named by Mormons who thought it looked liked the Biblical character Joshua with its arms reaching up towards the heavens.
 

 
Even fans of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and his fictional Truffula trees feel right at home amidst these unusual growths…but for many, if you say “Joshua Tree,” they think of U2 and the title of one of the Irish band’s albums. As one park official puts it, U2 did more to promote the park than anyone, ever. But the tree on the album cover was shot some 200 miles north of the park and died 15 years ago. You could say that fans of the band looking to replicate the LP back cover still haven’t, um, found what they’re looking for.
 

 
Already our annual park pass has paid for itself and I know we’ll be making the hourlong trek to the park again to share the experience with other guests before our return to BC in February. And with you, of course!
 
Talk to you here tomorrow.
 

Oh my – the last day of November. I think if you follow this journal (and thank you for that) you know what a whirlwind and an emotional rollercoaster this month has been. From saying goodbye to one of our very dearest friends, to travelling to Nova Scotia, then hosting two couples who are very close to our hearts in Palm Springs.
 
Yesterday I was flying so high that I can barely come down long enough to write the journal I was planning on, but I promise you, it can wait until next Friday. (So much for best-laid plans, and all of that). Please indulge me, if you will, until I come down from this cloud, somewhere up amidst the rainbows that surrounded us in a rare desert rain yesterday.
 

 
It started on Wednesday night when I got word that an extra show had been added to the Oakville Centre. I had a choice of doing a second, later show on Monday, February 25 but, concerned about the alarm clock the next morning for Toronto TV, I took their other offer of an “In Conversation With” for Sunday, February 24. I posted it to my journal here yesterday and then, once I hoped readers who come on at 8 am had seen the ticket sale opportunity (my algorithms show that to be the peak time for visitors), I posted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 
 
Then the messages started to come that the second event was also sold out. I didn’t believe and called the box office. A very nice young woman there told me that they were all gone; I asked her to suggest to any disappointed callers that they could keep coming to this website for updates on future venues/dates and so on. And I hope that’s what they did yesterday before the notice went up that tickets were sold out.
 
There are a few other venues being added. If it was up to me, I’d visit every area in and around the GTA; I’m being asked if I’ll come to Peterborough or the Niagara Region. At this point, I’m not at all sure of that, and don’t forget this all involves driving in February to get me from Point A to Point B. 
 
I’m not ruling out returning once the book launch in just three months has concluded. I’m new to the publishing business, but other authors (and Anita MacArthur who worked for a publishing house and knows her way around a launch) tell me that there’s a fast burst at the time the book drops and then I’m on my own. I get that. No one expects HarperCollins to keep flying me around to go to readings, meet-and-greets and signings. But I’m going to continue to do this on my own as long as I can. 
 
If it means buying a small theatre for an evening (which author/broadcaster/podcaster Terry O’Reilly has done) and selling tickets and books, then maybe I’ll do that. Perhaps someone will do it for me. Maybe I’ll be speaking on cruises (a dream of mine) or be part of a TED talk or a gathering on healing or authors or writing or…who knows? All I do know is that this is going to be a long and winding road and I can only hope that somehow it’s going to lead to your door, if that’s what you want.
 
Wherever I am, I’ll post it here first. Because of our years together, I feel that journal readers deserve a head start, if that’s possible, and when I have news, I’ll be sure to share it. 
 
Have a gentle weekend as we get set together for December. I’m going to end on a note of gratitude once more for all of the time we’ve spent together and hope that you know how sincerely humbled Rob and I both are by all of this. What a year 2019 promises to be!
 

***The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts added another “In Conversation With…” me. Unfortunately, that second show is sold out as well. If you were hoping to come, but were unable to get tickets, please check back here every day and I’ll keep you updated about any future events HarperCollins is scheduling.***
 
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Good day, my friend. I awoke to a little bit of a rainbow in my coffee cup yesterday morning, so I knew it was going to be a special one. And it was. 
 

 
How could it not be? We have friends here with us – our senior producer and longtime pal Ian MacArthur and his wife, the equally special Anita Reynolds MacArthur – and we had planned something quite unusual to do that day.
 

 
When I visited my sister and her husband, who used to spend winters here in the Palm Springs/Palm Desert area, we had hoped to get our spirits sparked with a visit to a place called the Integratron. Unfortunately for us, it was booked solid; this time, I took no chances and booked our visit months in advance. What, you ask, is an Integratron? Well, here’s what the web tells us. 

The Integratron is a 38 ft tall cupola structure with a diameter of 55 ft designed by Ufologist and Contactee George Van Tassel. Van Tassel claimed the Integratron was capable of rejuvenation, anti-gravity and time travel.

And here’s how it looked, set out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, tiny Landers, California, 75 minutes from our place in Palm Springs.
 

 
In this place, we were booked to attend a sound bath. What is that, exactly? It’s a collection of special crystal bowls made from quartz, precious metals, and other sonically splendid materials that are played by hand or with soft sticks. They make magical sounds that vibrate through our bodies and souls.
 
Rob has had experiences when meditating where he sees a variety of colours; Anita has connections to the other side that amaze me. She and I shared a psychic reading down here this week with a woman we’ve both talked with before and both Debbie Cooper and our Lauren were coming through loud and clear. So, let’s just say we were open to experiences going in. Ian went along too, to see what this massive structure and a 60 minute healing sound bath were all about. 
 
Before we even entered, we were inundated with nudges (or Godwinks) from Lauren. I went to play a song on my iPhone and instead, the Beatles channel on Sirius came on with one significant line from the song “She’s Leaving Home”: “…cried to her husband, ‘Daddy, our baby’s gone….'” We turned it off after those few words and said, “Okay, Lauren, we know you’re here.” And how about a sign, literally, with lyrics from “We Can Work It Out?”
 

 
When we entered the registration area and gift shop, John Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels” came on. Later, I re-entered to another song on the satellite station the man had playing: The Beatles’ “I Will.” And still later, we heard Lennon’s “Imagine.” And no, it wasn’t a Beatles channel, it was the Leonard Cohen channel. Okay…. If you know ours and Lauren’s story, you know how significant the Fab Four are in our family.
 
At 12:15 on a lovely blue sky Wednesday, it was time to take our places in the Integratron itself. The building was constructed by an aeronautical engineer who worked for Lockheed Douglas Aircraft and as a test pilot for Howard Hughes. George Van Tassel, who died in 1978, had strong beliefs in UFOs, but what we came for was the sonic purity of this yurt-like structure in the middle of the desert, set among myriad powerful energy vortexes. 
 
You can see pictures inside the Integratron at the link below; I didn’t feel comfortable shooting inside this place that’s listed as a must-see by travellers on Tripadvisor. There were 30 of us in the second storey room, all laid out on cushioned mats and covered in blankets, and were led through a short history of the space and then a sound bath, whose haunting chords and reverberations had some amazing effects on at least two in our party.
 
Anita and Rob both saw brilliant colours, Anita saw Debbie laughing and Rob saw a show of blackbirds as in a flipped-page book animation. We all came out feeling we’d felt something special and that made the journey, the $40USD per person and the entire outing an exceptionally memorable spiritual experience. Here’s a link if you’re interested and are planning a trip to the Palm Springs area.
 
After our visit, we drove the extra half hour to Joshua Tree National Park, which is worth a whole other journal. But here’s a special picture.
 

 
Thank you for coming along on our unusual spiritual journey – just a perfect extension of the wonderful moments we’ve already shared, the four of us. 
 
Tomorrow, continuing my “Friday Favourites” theme, a product that offers comfort in ways I couldn’t have imagined. And it’s so good, I have to share – in case you have an opening on your gift list this season.
 

Hey there – welcome to Wednesday. You know all of those fake or phishing emails you get, warning you that an account (with a bank you don’t do business with) is shutting down and that you’d better do something promptly to prevent the action? Oh, I’m sure you’ve gotten them; we even got an email last week from someone within our own banking system warning us of something dire. We contacted our bank and sure enough, someone had stolen this employee’s identity and was using their name and title to spread false information (or worse).
 
Rob and I feel like we have pretty good radar when it comes to this stuff. So when I saw this email come into my inbox from aws-verification@amazon.com I was pretty sure it was bogus. Except that it wasn’t. Here it is:

Hello,

We believe that an unauthorized party has registered an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account with your visa ending in 10. To protect your information, and to stop any potential service charges, we have closed this account and cancelled any pending services.

Please note that AWS is separate from Amazon.com. AWS is primarily used by website owners and developers. This notification is not related to a physical order on Amazon.com.

We recommend that you review all recent activity on this card and report any unauthorized charges to your financial institution.

We are unable to provide information about how your credit card was obtained, since it occurred outside of Amazon.com. Some techniques include: using malicious software to capture a user’s keystrokes, trying common passwords, and sending fraudulent emails that request account information (known as “phishing”).

If this account was closed in error, please let us know by replying to this message and we will reinstate the account for you.

For information about safe online shopping, visit the “Security & Privacy” section of our Help pages.

I was about to delete the email when I showed it to Rob. And just to be extra sure, he looked at our VISA statement. Sure enough, there it was: a purchase for about $1.50 on something called Amazon Web Services. We knew it was fake because we’d never buy something that small and we rarely use Amazon.com, never mind a so-called web service (except for the site you’re reading this journal on).
 
Just as the letter recommended, we contacted our bank. They shut down that VISA card immediately, an action that caused more than a little hassle, as we were on the road bouncing between Ottawa and Toronto during that time and I had to have them send my new card to a branch in Ottawa, crossing my fingers that it would arrive before I had to fly off to Halifax and then California.
 
It all worked out – except for the charities that automatically receive donations through that card, which we have to contact – and we were fortunate that Amazon caught and alerted us to the purchase and that we paid attention.
 
We’re told this is how it works: back in the day when a card number was stolen, thieves would make a credit card call via pay phone. If the card worked, they knew they could go ahead and use it on some big ticket items. Now, with the paucity of pay phones, they’ve moved on to other means. Thus the so-called web service purchase.
 
I’ll never stop purchasing online or using my card, period. I’m not afraid and I’m certainly not going to be cowed into changing my spending habits. I’ll just continue to be careful.
 
Kudos to Amazon for alerting us like this. We’re grateful to have paid attention and helped shut down this one attempt. We just all have to be in this together. And I hope if you see an email like the one we got, you won’t be as quick to blow it off as fake, as we initially were. Live and learn, right? Back with you here tomorrow.
 

Ah, Giving Tuesday. After the orgy of excess following US Thanksgiving (Black Friday and Cyber Monday, to name two of the red letter days on the spending calendar) this day is dedicated to thinking of others and maybe putting your money where their needs are.
 
For Rob and me, giving back has meant leaning in. I wrote here last year when he was officially made a member of Rotary International; I didn’t tell you that a few months ago, I joined, too. Here I am with our president Carolyn Morley, who also happens to be a neighbour of ours. 
 

 
I waited until the book was finished so that I could attend as many of the semi-monthly meetings as possible. Some Thursday nights (that’s when we meet; others get together at lunch or for pre-workday breakfasts) I took advantage of the few solo hours to dig deep.
 
So, what is Rotary exactly? You see those blue or gold wheel signs as you come into many towns or you may even spot one on a clock or as part of a special walkway in a place you’re visiting. Rotary is everywhere – that you know.
 

 
It’s a service club, meaning we’re all in the service of others. We’re located around the world in 200 countries with some 1.2 million members, all of whom pay to join and are expected to help raise funds and do good works.
 
In our nearby town of Sidney, BC for example, we’ve put up bus shelters. We ring the bells for the Salvation Army. We host coat checks at arts events to put more money in the coffers, so that projects like house builds (both locally and internationally) for Habitat for Humanity and polio vaccinations in poorer countries can continue. The ways we give to our communities, and to people we’ll never meet, are countless. So what’s in it for us?
 
Mostly, we enjoy the company of good, like-minded people who just want to help out in their community. When Rob and I arrived on the Saanich Peninsula nearly two years ago, we knew enough people to count on two hands. But joining Rotary gave us a new purpose: helping others, meeting people with diverse backgrounds (we all have our professions on our name tags) and getting together every few weeks and at community events to have a good time. It’s just so fulfilling.
 
Here’s what Rob and I are working on right now, even from this long distance: a radio campaign for the Rotary clubs in our district. 30 second public service announcements that are going to run on our favourite local FM station, trying to reach as many potential Rotary members as we can. So, in our way, we’re using our own abilities – writing, announcing, producing – to contribute to Rotary.
 
If you think this is a club you might want to look into, certainly there are 33,000 chapters worldwide. I’m going to guess there’s one near you that needs what you have to offer and you’re always welcome to go as a guest to a meeting near you.
 
In the meantime, to find out more, here’s a list of frequently asked questions. Maybe on this Giving Tuesday, giving of yourself could be the best way to mark the day this year.