Home
Banjo Player
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 370
And, had wondered where he was, not seen this year, a fixture on Baker or in front of 7-11, long bearded, playing his banjo.
The obituaries confirm he passed away, read with interest, he was about the age when it's no longer a surprise.
But the obituary, predeceased by 5 of his children and 1 grand child - My God!
One wonders at all the tragedies other people carry inside of them, writ not on the flesh or in conversation but there nonetheless and somehow they've healed, moved on, or well hidden it from the casual passers-by
***
Work, busy working but not busy at work. Doubles, days aimlessly without purpose, barely a living, and this jeep hunt, without wheels, well...it could be a lot swifter. The bank, despite promising to call, has reached out to me with no arms (or legs or phones or fingers) and so I'll be a calling them Monday. The private-sale deals always several times better than the those offered on the lots, but you need to have the ready cash, be prepared...
***
Thursday night off, hit the Art Gallery, small new exhibition, then later to the Royal for an Afro-Columbian dance party. That despite the lack of Africans in town (a few, but hardly enough to pack a dance hall). Plenty of Latinos though. The place fills up, the usual suspects, people in your neighbourhood, some very good dancers, some not at all, to this style of music I'm in the "Not at all" category and keep to the back of the dance floor, the rhythms, complex, impossible to keep moving to...
***
And the new, young good looking waiter, who's handwriting represented nothing so much as a "Calvin & Hobbes" Ransom note:
dismissed, he had a few tables, to-go orders, deliveries, unfortunately all at once, and he crashed and burned. Big time. Nice kid, but not everyone is cut out for this.
...
Bringing us to today, Saturday, at the library with my book, last night worked, sent the other waitress home, gave her the night off, with the hopes that if tonight proved the same she'd return the favour. So I'm waiting and will see, not that there's anything on tonight (rave in the Cave up in the Meadows, only - I'd need wheels) - but - a night off is a night off, there's never any complaining about freedom and I have plenty of other things to occupy my time...
The List
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 453
This is rather funny, the latest Epstein News Cycle, the doctored surveillance footage, the "Client List" to "No Client List" and finally those MAGA wingnuts are being forced to confront the fact that maybe their Orange Pompadour isn't telling the truth.
Not that he ever has, or if so, only incidentally, only some of the evidence they have on him would be indicting (at least 75 trips to Temptation Island), but the SUM of the evidence is damning.
Anyways, I don't care to go into it, I've been hypernormalized to the idea that all politicians are pedophiles and I don't think a lot would change that, and - hey, who am I to judge?
In the words of Bob Dylan (I think) - "The times, they are a changing".
Or, in the more contemporary words of Jesse Welles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbb_e6NHWU
You gotta admire the guy, who bangs out a song in the time it takes to watch the news.
Any one else notice that he wears his hair like a spirit hoody?
Leaving Nelson
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 406
Ran into friend yesterday, L*****, known her almost 40 years, an early girlfriend from Edmonton. I'm due to have dinner with her that evening, but here she is grabbing weed...
She's in tears. Moving back to Saskatchewan to look after her ailing parents, after 15 years in Nelson she just can't make it work. She has a great place, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, high ceilings, 2 floors, reasonable rent ... an enviable situation, only...
She hasn't worked for a year. And in the year she's been putting out resumes, setting the bar high, looking for those 100K+ jobs, and finally she realized she wasn't getting them, it wasn't going to happen, and so she bit the bullet, swallowed her pride, and decided to return.
The town, in the middle of Saskatchewan, nowhere really, hours to Saskatoon, more hours to Edmonton, I've been through, know the name although I can't picture it, probably a gas pump, general store, and buggerdly fuck else...
Seas of waving grass...
Over dinner I try and cheer her up. Brainstorm business ideas, like a mini-golf, or "The World's Biggest..." although what hasn't been done yet. I reassure her the dating scene out there is fabulous, (although, clearly, I'm no expert on this but that's a different post), the name of the town rings a bell and I Google - sure enough, one of the boundaries of a famous meteor fall, probably a few others that aren't recorded, plus in the coulee's you could find dinosaurs and every farmer I've ever met out there had a whoop-ass collection of arrowheads and if she wouldn't mind checking the thrift shops for watches...
She's favouring beekeeping.
I'm pretty good at finding the silver lining in things but I gotta admit, I'd be devastated as well...
I feel her pain.
Repotting the Chilis
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 439
And Monday I've set myself the task of repotting the chilis and moving them outside. I wake early, walk around town, looking at free piles for 12" pots. No luck. Hit the hardware store on Baker, nada, then down to Wal-Mart, nothing, over to Wholesale Club, nothing, then over to the Farm Supply Store and compromise with 10" tubs. Better than what they're in. And buy a big bag of dirt and wrestle it all home and repot the chilis, move them outside, there's a spot at the end of the landing where they'll get double the light.
Untangling the roots, getting them into the bigger pots, a couple will suffer for a few days but they'll thank me later. And I them, the infamous Carolina Reapers...
Now I'm faced with a few small empty pots and I'm off on the same tour, once again, to find herbs to fill them.
The herb garden I've set up has been punctually raided by the neighbours, and I could use a few more basil and rosemary and thyme plants.
To the Kootenay Co-op, Ellisons, the killing-field that is the remnants of Wal-Mart's seasonal display; "50%" off a dead tomato plant isn't a deal no matter how you look at it, and over to Wholesale Club where it's the same again. Nobody has watered a thing since mid-June. So now a bunch of love-lorn empty pots...
On the way home, a garage sale in the alley, more plant pots, and having bought them new I recognize the bargain, pick them up, if I can't fill them this year I will next.
And then it's noon, way too hot to be out and about, and I'm home, thrilled with a productive day, and checking my phone I've already walked 15 KM this morning. The rest of the day off...
Page 27 of 890