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And the days have suddenly gone insane, previously, busy, but in spurts of an hour, now, 2, 3 hours, non-stop all day, people have gotten used to higher prices, it's the same all over, everywhere, there's no getting away from it, patio, restaurant, full, if you're lucky 3 staff, usually just two.
Full on gong show.
Tell the customers - "Sit at any Clean Table", and they'll undoubtedly find the dirtiest table, husband gotten up to pay, wife in bathroom with child, and seat themselves there, like swine the lure of filth is too attractive and steam whistling from my ears they pretend not to understand English.
Sunday, Monday, we're busy, Tuesday the pace is furious, we're the only show open between Nelson and Nakusp, and paving & construction on the road means no one is taking the time to go to town.
Manners, people, manners, and did the Pandemic teach you nothing?
That said, there's the regulars, who've gotten used to it, and so you do what you can when thrown in the trenches but what you can is seldom enough.
7 weeks left of this, the full tilt madness, then it will drop an order of magnitude, things will once again be manageable, but surviving these 8, 9 hour days until then, I'm not sure there's enough Vodka in all the Kootenays...
On a more pleasant note, a rather charming drawing of yours truly done by a child customer when I attempted to ID her for her Shirley Temple...
The resemblance is obvious.
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3 Fatal Drug "Poisonings" (or OD's, not sure what they mean there) in Nelson in one week.
Bloody hell. That's a big number for a small town.
Link: https://www.nelsonstar.com/news/3-people-die-of-drug-poisonings-within-1-week-in-nelson/
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Monday after work which didn't start, slow, JR felt he could handle it on his own, rainy outside, rain, in July, how often does that happen? Not very.
And I was chomping at the bit, had my granola, water, was ready to get up Crystal Mtn and clean it out. About time.
A long drive with nothing to talk about, beautiful, piss pouring rain, 2 hours to the logging road that turns up and up and I'm off, the first 6 KM, rocky, bad, but I can manage. This was the site of my last breakdown. This is the cause of some slight anxiety, as this place, this mountain, it's been the graveyard of a few of my automobiles, and the three cylinders of fury, gallon of oil, well, I'm not cancelling any adventures because of it...
The next 6 KM up, they're nail biting. The road, always bad, is plenty the worse for the lack of wear, from this point onward I'm unrecoverable, car breaks, nobody is coming up this last stretch to get me, peel your VIN, grab your shit and get the hell out of dodge...
And herein lies the rub, that this car, it's full, packed full of rubbish, more than I can carry in 2, 3, 4 trips even, and so a breakdown - well, it's inconceivable. Intolerable.
Up and up, the switchbacked cobbled roads climbing at 45 degrees and then pitching cliffwards another 45 degrees, less a road than a boulder-jammed rut with 6 inches of navigational wiggling, every year the road slips a little more in line with the slope of the mountain, away from the level, and already I'm thinking this was a very, very bad idea.
The roads up to 6KM are bad, past 6KM, well, ....
I arrive, breathe a sigh of relief, my fingertips are numb from clenching the wheel. I pour a goodly libation to the gods that got me here and if so inclined will see me safely down.
And begin work. The day is grey, rainy, overcast, you can barely see the mountaintops across...
The work, well, first the surface collecting, picking up the easy finds off the top of the dirt. Small, nothing too worthwhile.
By this time it's dark. The rest will wait for morning.
The next day, rainy, grey again, I'm filthy in a matter of hours. Dig down to bedrock, search for new pockets. Nada. I do a good job of baring a few meters, but - nothing. And so I go through the dirt I've dug, go back to a few vugs, clean them out again.
And for all this there's precious little return. A couple of one hour breaks to prospect other possibilities, above, below, but it seems this is the spot, the only spot, really, where the crystals got a chance to form.
Back to the digging.
***
I get, in the end, maybe 10lbs of crystals, most small, a few as big as my thumb, a couple of beauties. But this I would have gathered in a few hours a few years ago, and so - and so - this area is tapped out, no need to return unless I can somehow come up with some dynamite or explosives.
Which I may.
The mosquitos now are insane, and I've no Vodka left for another farewell salute, but it's time now to head down the mountain, now, the smell of brakes as I ride them the entire trip, and safely to the road aim the car southward, I need a shower, covered in filth from the pit, sweat, deep-woods-off, but I've done it, done for the season, done and I have my treasure and now to find a shower, find some food, find a town...
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Much like the habit of going to the gym, has largely dropped off due to the demands of work.
Yesterday, my sole day off after 7 in a row, town, coffee, laundry, meet a friend, go for lunch, walk, library, pay a bill, get another parking ticket, to Lakeside park to find shade and read my book, back to the library, read my book some more, (The Book of John Mandeville, curious, but I'll review that later), another friend for dinner, game of crib, killing time out of the heat of the day, my window doesn't roll completely down and the vehicle has become an oven...
Today, Kaslo, collecting the Kootenay Lake stickers for a friend, then to work, this weekend will be a madhouse, 4 days and then three in a row off, time enough to take the deathtrap up crystal mountain and see what I can uncover...
But not a lot of time for writing. The adventures will slowly percolate your way though, never fear...
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Emptying my junk email when I discovered this little gem:
(INTERNATIONAL POLICE AUTHORITY UNITED STATES SECTION (INTERPOL <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >
Sun 2023-07-02 3:33 PM
(INTERNATIONAL POLICE AUTHORITY UNITED STATES SECTION (INTERPOL
JOHN F. KENNEDY RESIDENT AGENCY
ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONITORY CRIMES DIVISION
JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
JAMAICA, NEW YORK 11430
We, office of the international police authority (IPA) hereby write to inform you that we caught a diplomatic lady by the name Mrs. Marcy Smith at (John F Kennedy International Airport) here in New York with a consignment box filled with United States Dollars.
Base on our interview to the diplomat she said that the consignment box belongs to you and that she was sent by one Mrs Janet Hibbs to come deliver the consignment box to your doorstep not knowing that the content of the box is money.
Now, the diplomat is under detention in the office of (IPA) security,and we cannot release her until we carry out our proper investigation on how this huge amount of money managed to be yours. So, in this regards you are to reassure and prove to us that the money you are about to receive is legal by sending us the Award Ownership showing that the money is not illegal.
Note, that the Award Ownership Certificate must to be secured from the office of the Nigerian Senate President, because that is the only office that will issue you the original Award Ownership Certificate of this funds, this is because the fund originated from Nigeria.
You are advised to forward immediately the Award Ownership Certificate if you have it with you, but if you do not have it, we urgent you to contact back the sender of the diplomat to help you secure the Award Ownership Certificate if at all you do not have it.
Below is the contact information of the person that sent Mrs. Marcy Smith as provideby her;
Name: :Mrs Janet Hibbs
Email:(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
Furthermore, we are giving you only but 3 working business days to forward the requested Award Ownership Certificate. Please note that if we shall get back to you after the 3 working business days, that if you didn??t come up with the certificate we shall confiscate the funds into World Bank account then charge you for money laundering, but if you forward the Award Ownership Certificate then we will release diplomat with your consignment box also gives you every back up on the money.
Thanks for your understanding and co-operation
Yours Truly,
Agent Shadow Truper
JOHN F. KENNEDY RESIDENT AGENCY
ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONITORY CRIMES DIVISION JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
JAMAICA, NEW YORK 11430
CC: Canadian Police Association
CC: GENERAL INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT (GID)
CC: Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG)
CC: Egmont Group
CC: FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI USA)
CC: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
CC: Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
CC: International Monetary Fund (IMF)
CC: International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
CC: International Banking Security Association (IBSA)
CC: International Air Transport Association (IATA)
CC: Institut de Formation Interbancaire (INSIG)
CC: World Customs Organization (WCO)
CC: Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
CC: Offshore Group of Banking Supervisors (OGBS)
CC: WORLD CENTRAL BANK (SW)
CC: NIGERIA POLICE FORCE (NPF)
CC: NORTH YORKSHIRE POLICE (UK)
CC: ECONOMIC FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION (EFCC