Attended a party last night at Rendezvous Lodge located unsurprisingly on North Rendezvous Island. That’s about ten miles North as the 16 foot skiff flies. It was well attended. About thirty people including the locals, our hosts, their son and his fiancé and at least three dogs. It was great!

Rendezvous Lodge looks out across Calm Channel (anything but, in the winter) to the entrance of Ramsey Arm by way of Raza Passage. See: http://www.rendezvouslodge.com.

A few miles to the Northwest lies Stuart Island, home of the rich and famous and Sonora Lodge, their convenient and uber upscale local guesthouse. Michelle Pfeifer lives (sometimes) a few miles from there up Bute Inlet. We keep beautiful company.

Our hostess had spent the previous year or so in Arizona, the last few months with over 100 degree temperatures 24 hours a day. That’s right – 100 degrees F. even at night! It was so hot that the cold water side of the plumbing in her house delivered warmish water! And this incredible heat wave was not limited to Arizona! Large portions of the good ol’ USA got BBQ’d this year. Seems a bit harsh, eh? I mean the rest of the world expects they are all going to Hell but no one really expected them to get pre-warmed while still here.

Oh, I don’t think they are all really going to Hell. Not all of ’em anyway. Maybe Texans. Some of my best friends are ‘Mericans. Nice folks, as a rule. But you have to admit, that the four horseman of the Apocalypse do, at a cocktail party conversation, come readily to mind when discussing ‘Merican politics. To my mind, anyway. There is CONQUEST, WAR, FAMINE and DEATH. Think Dick Cheney (how many Vice Presidents shoot their friends in the face?).

They do seem to have Apocalypse in their culture somewhere.

I don’t usually talk ‘Merican politics at cocktail parties mostly because I don’t attend cocktail parties or, better put, I am not invited to them. Either way, my discourse on US politics these days usually starts and ends with Sarah Palin. As soon as she does a nude spread for Playboy, that weird story is complete and I, for one, would then go see the movie. Until then, it is just a poorly done farce. That perspective amuses half my ‘Merican friends. But not the other half. Ergo – few invitations.

There is a point to this blog (just taking awhile, sorry). Our ‘Merican friends are wonderful people or better put; people just like us. The politics doesn’t really play a role in our relationships because, like us, they are not involved in the way their government works. Not really. They watch it all on TV just like us.

Having said that, their politics is hurtin’ them these days even more than ours hurts us. Has been that way for a few years now. We see a deep divide in the US and it is getting deeper. Red and Blue. The Reps and the Dems are just getting further apart on issues and the rhetoric they are using to bring harmony just seems to be working in reverse.

Things seem to be heating up down there in more ways than one.