Thirty-seven years ago I got up in the middle of the night and sat on the rug in my bedroom with roommate Kelly watching Charles and Diana and that dress get married.

Today my galpal Annette and I watched their Number 2 son do the same.

This time there were two differences. First, we cheated and watched it recorded at a more reasonable hour. Second, we wore hats!

“So, how’s the new car?” I’m asked.

“Well I’m sure I’ll get used to it”.

Hardly the happy, excited, new toy acquisition response one would think on this rare occasion. It’s been going on 7 years since the last new car.

Oh no, the emotions surrounding this new car are mixed, to say the least.

When we first came back here after Asia we bought a Volkswagen Golf Diesel Station Wagon. A real car (as opposed to the ubiquitous SUV), perfect size, awesome cargo space, drove great, very fuel efficient.

Ads running at the time promoted the “clean diesel” of the cars and the great fuel efficiency. Believing it was better for the environment we even paid extra for the diesel model.

Then in September 2015 came the news that all those diesel cars, over 600,000 of them in North America, were bogus. They were very far from clean. What eventually was revealed was a tale of fraud and toxic corporate culture of epic proportions. They sold these cars knowing full well that were spewing out nitrogen oxide, the nasty stuff that harms human health, 40 times higher than allowable limits. For over 6 years they got away with it.

Here’s what happened.

Back in the mid 2000’s Volkswagen was keen to increase its market share in the U.S. in a big way and they wanted to do it with their diesel cars. There was just one problem with that strategy. No one had yet discovered a way to create a diesel system that could reduce NOx emissions to comply with regulations in a way that was anywhere near easy and cost efficient.

So they cheated. They installed a “defeat device” which is a software that recognizes when the car is being tested in the lab and reduces NOx emissions temporarily to yield results within legal limits. Once it’s back on the road, it goes back to its normal and releases the stuff out through the tailpipe.

In 2013 an independent lab started testing the VW diesel cars, not because fraud was suspected, but in an attempt to discover how VW had succeeded where others had not. They very quickly discovered that emissions results in the lab could not be replicated when the cars were driven on the road. The California Air Resources Board soon became involved and did their own tests with similar results.

For 15 months the Board was in intensive communication with the company as they tried to figure out what was causing the discrepancies while VW continued to stall for time. Instead of coming clean (ha) VW continued its fraud with more lies, stalling and misdirection all the while continuing to sell these vehicles to an unsuspecting public. Eventually in September 2015 they admitted what they had done. Even then this was only after the US authorities threatened them by stating they would not certify for sale any of their model 2016 cars, gas included.

Nitrogen oxide, the nasty stuff that in these cars were spewing 40 times the allowable emissions in North America, creates smog, factors in acid rain and causes health problems in humans including asthma in children. Volkswagen admitted that their massive deception was a financial decision, an “intentional, premeditated cost benefit analysis to cheat”. The wanted to be Number One no matter what.

Ultimately VW was forced to pay $25 billion in penalties including buying back all the affected vehicles from owners. So far 6 people have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the U.S. The Chair of VW in Germany resigned but to date has faced no charges. Hundreds of thousands of internal documents showed very clearly that he definitely knew of, and sanctioned this fraud although right up to the day before his resignation he was denying all knowledge and vowing that “he was investigating how this could have happened”.

That’s it in a nutshell. The company also at various times during the attempted cover up offered to recall the vehicles to fix them – a “fix” which involved not reducing the toxic emissions, but to install a different kind of cheat device; they lied to the US Congressional investigation, stating that the problem was a result of a couple of rogue engineers; and they secretly formed with Mercedes and BMW a bogus “non-profit organization” to prove that their diesel was safe by pumping tailpipe gases into chimpanzee cages for hours (while running cartoons to distract the primates), testing their bogus lab results against an old dirty diesel engine to “prove” their cars were clean and harmless.

Volkswagen TDI Graveyard, one of 37 sites across North America. What will happen to these 600,000 diesel cars VW was forced to buy back?

So our perfect little car that turned out to be a fraud has been bought back and on its way to who knows where. For me the company’s actions were so egregious I was unable to consider another (gas) VW station wagon. Searching for a replacement was depressing. For some reason station wagons, a preferred choice, are no longer popular in North America and few manufacturers are making them. The new car is a distant second choice.

Time to move on and think less about what the new car is and more about where it will take us. A road trip was in order and off we went for a few days in March to Tofino/Ucuelet on the west coast of the island – a great antidote to winter cabin fever and this huge disappointment.

One last word before I “move on”:

Bastards.

Netflix is currently screening a documentary series Dirty Money. The first episode, Hard NOx, tells the story of this Volkswagen fraud – compelling viewing. The story does not end with North American penalties and buy backs. Six jailed executives do not change an entrenched corporate culture. Trouble still brews in Europe under a different regulatory system.

For the past 2 years we’ve traveled to New Zealand in the winter to get a welcome break and a taste of their summer. This year we didn’t and I’ve been thinking that may be the reason why this winter feels so long. No break. But now I suspect it’s just part of the program. I look back a year ago and find that I was feeling the same way then. Waiting for winter to pass.

At one point in January the island of Maui came to my attention as a maybe winter destination. A couple of friends like to travel there and one of the things that attracted me to the idea was that it only takes one flight to get there (Vancouver-Maui direct), 5 1/2 hours, not counting the travel from Qualicum Beach to Vancouver, another 15 minute small plane flight. Any other destination that may be of interest takes much more effort to get there. So this could work, given my aversion to air travel these days – it takes a lot to get me up and motivated.

As I was contemplating the warm winds of Maui, along came the news of the people of Hawaii getting a bogus text message that an incoming ballistic missile had been launched and was on its way. Whoa. Goodbye to that bright idea. Decided that I didn’t want to go to a place that may have missiles pointing at it, with a fucked up warning system to add to the mix. Besides, what would you do if you received a message like that? Take cover under the nearest table?

So here I am. Waiting out winter.

The first part of February was a joy. Noticing the days getting longer, watching the bulbs start to appear and the winter blooming shrubs flower, some of them fragrant. Some of the large pots of early daffodils I’d planted in the fall were starting to bloom. When the tiny iris reticulata started blooming I announced that spring had arrived.

NOT. By mid month, winter reappeared to mock me, and another heavy snow came and stayed, covering these little flowers and wiping out the camellia bush, with its hundreds of buds just starting to open. I’ve spent a lot of time staring out the window, watching, willing it to go away.

I spent the first part of the month bent over a killer jigsaw puzzle of an owl in a winter scene. This is the closest I’ve been to an owl for quite some time as I haven’t spotted them in the forest for awhile. I heard a news report from Tsawassen on the mainland of an owl attacking a couple of humans who were minding their own business, jogging and biking, which sounds seriously bizarre. That must have been one confused owl.

This time last year I was entranced by the release of the television series Planet Earth II, narrated by David Attenborough’s dulcet tones, and this February saw the new Blue Planet II, about the wildlife in our oceans, that is just as spectacular. Outrageous cinematography and compelling stories highlighting the sheer wonder of the creatures that inhabit the oceans of our planet (think about fish using tools or sea lions coordinating intricate group hunting plans to take down a school of yellow-fin tuna). Stuff like this makes me wonder once again how humans can possibly retain the idea of that our species is somehow superior to the rest of nature.

The Olympics were also a great winter distraction. Loved the snowboarding and free-style skiing that resembled skateboarding on steroids. Oh. Wait. That may be an unfortunate turn of phrase. When young Cassie Sharpe, a skier from Comox up the road from us, won the gold medal for women’s ski half pipe I was cheering out loud and the semi romantic drama around the ice dancing where the Canadian golden couple won yet another medal was great entertainment. I was also cheering for the young New Zealand bunnies, Nico and Zoe, both only 16 years old, who won bronze medals, in half pipe skiing and snowboarding, breaking the country’s medal dry spell. Fun.

Cassie Sharpe – photo Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press

In the studio I haven’t been painting so far but I did interrupt (with great relief) my Swedish Death Cleaning project long enough to set up the camera to play with some close up and macro photography, mostly of flowers, practicing lighting, focal length and manual focus.

Now that March has come, the temperatures have risen slightly, the days are longer still, the snow is vanishing and the garden is slowly coming back to life. The GreenHouse is full of 25 large pots of leafing out fuchsias and seeds I’ve planted are sprouting. Lots of gray days still but when the sun shines it’s glorious and hopeful.

Winter days and probably cabin fever have turned my attention to dreaming up change of scenery trips. Time to think about going exploring and once again expanding the perimeter. So far I’ve booked a few road trips – a trip to the west coast (Tofino-Ucuelet) this month, to the mainland coast mountains late spring, back to Quadra Island, as well as a much longer, farther trip this summer.

I know that this account reads like the weather report it is, but hey, I’m Canadian! Talking about the weather is one of our tribal characteristics. Bring on spring.