My Westy (aka Helmut)

Brooks Memorial State Park, WA, originally uploaded by pinkcanoe.

When I first moved to the west coast of Canada I had a lovely Subaru Impreza. But since I live close to work and shopping, it sat in the rain the first winter I lived here. I ended up selling and buying a 1984 Volkswagen Westfalia camper van.

It's a wonderful piece of design .. at least the camper part of it. There's a small refrigerator and propane stove as well as lots of storage. Plus an upper and a lower bed. I sleep like a log in the camper. I occasionally wonder if there's a carbon monoxide leak somewhere but since I never sleep with the engine running I'm probably safe.

Living with a 1984 piece automobile can be challenging. I've had a number of things repaired and one breakdown where the water pump died and the engine overheated quite quickly. Still, one is always left wondering what might happen next. Last week I tried to open the side door and nothing happened. The handle moved up and down but the door remained shut. It wouldn't open from the inside either. However, a little while later when I was driving through downtown the door opened and slid all the way back all on its own. Yesterday afternoon I decided it was time to take the thing apart and see if I could figure out what was wrong. When I tried to open the door, it opened easily as if nothing had ever been wrong. Another Westy mystery.

Matt Alber

Clearly I have been less than obsessive about posting to this 'blog'.

But yesterday I came across a video by a singer from California named Matt Alber. He used to sing with the all-men choir, Chanticleer but now appears to be pursuing a solo career. He writes most of his own songs which are tender and personal. As a 'pop' singer he still occasionally makes good use of his countertenor voice. His album "Hide Nothing" contains a lovely acoustic version of the song from this video with just guitar and trumpet (flugelhorn?) accompaniment.