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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Miscellany

Published: 21 March 2019

Hits: 1501

Can't seem to get a job, can't seem to quit one...

A tentative date to restart, long commute but worth it, it's a happier place by far in the Summer, I've a month to get things under control, to make a few prospecting trips and hope that alternatives present themselves, then back to life on the logging cuts and campground showers, they've promised a better schedule so I can commute back to Calgary on days off, we'll see, I'm still hoping to turn up treasure - as good as it is, there's room for improvement.

Flood

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Dreams

Published: 20 March 2019

Hits: 1168

**Strange dreams lately. A long spell of no dreams, then a few wild ones I forgot to write down. This one I did**

I'm going prospecting, Southern Alberta, not Southern Alberta, a dream landscape I've visited before. There's a valley, strewn with lava stones and gems, and I'm going to stop there first along the way...

Only as I get there there's a bridge, and over the bridge, towards me, flowing a viscous green mass of water, there's been a flood, no prospecting today...

I'm at home, a 3 story apartment in a small sunny neighborhood somewhere, wooden balcony, peach plaster building, external stairs up to the flat, 3 beds, I have roommates, ....

2 pretty girls, I don't know them but I work with them, they're friends, upstairs on the beds making themselves comfortable, they're going to be spending the night, their flat is under water, and I'm thinking this could get spicy...

Then more people - B****, hipster waiter from the D "n" D in the Kootenays, he's here, other friends I haven't met yet, don't know, know only that they're friends...

Outside, the light of the setting sun, I see the green water swirling down below, the flood has reached here, people are climbing the steps to higher ground, leaving their ground level flats, I see  ****?, the wife of an old customer of the old restaurant, I've seen her husband around lately but have been avoiding him, wanted to avoid awkward artificial pleasantries, the balcony and apartment are filling up, there's a festive atmosphere...

I've walked around the balcony, lots of people up here watching the water, when all of a sudden it rises at once, 10,  maybe 20 feet, and all the flats beneath me are flooded, I'm teasing B**** about living in his parents basement, he's going to have a mess to clean up for sure, when I realize - I live on the second floor, and everything I own is under water...

The water, as suddenly as it rose it's sinking now, and all I can think about is that everything I have is ruined, watches, everything, and I have no insurance...

The Junk Dealer

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: For Sale

Published: 19 March 2019

Hits: 1547

The last few days, inexplicably weird.

Running out to cars to drop off junk, a clarinet, good but needs work, the client, sitting in his van while he looks it over...me in my green woolen hoody looking for all like that dodgy guy buying coke, or selling it, only me, I'm selling junk...

Well, be kind, not junk, stuff I'm done with, stuff I don't need, I need a life and there's no space for one here.

A previous customer, in for a half dozen items. He stands at the door and calls me "sir", he was waiting, it seemed, until he had the minimum number of items to come in for. When critical mass was reached he messaged me and came. He reminds me of the other stuff he bought, I remember, he's got a big house he needs to fill, he still waits at the door and calls me "sir". For a big guy he's surprisingly polite.

Another one, for a vacuum cleaner and a Bible Stand. He trips on the stairs, breaks the vacuum cleaner, but he's fine, he's fine, and he talks about some artists mannequins I'd had, he'd wanted, sold to a man who wanted a microphone stand and stainless steel meshed glove, he would have liked to pose them on his desk in sharing and helping poses. The vacuum cleaner, an unexpected success, 3 people wanted it in 20 minutes, the things I value, they sit for weeks, months even, the shit I hate, the day to day mundanities of life, others' can't wait to snap up.

Someone messages about the fountain pen, nice condition, he comes, picks it up, I show him others I haven't listed, he's travelling broke and so will come again the next day to look at them...

He messages me later, like me he's cash poor, asset rich, and would like to swap some solid silver Canadian $5.00 coins, valued at $30 - $35 apiece, and I say sure, I think he means just one for a pen he had his eye on. And he's not happy with the pen he bought, it doesn't work like he'd hoped, and so I arrange a swap for that as well. He returns, sorts through, some cuff links, pens, exchanged, a pocket watch, for 6 Silver 5$ coins, these go to the daughter, I need nothing.

Now a lady for the round stone spheres, she takes them all, Filipino, I show her geodes and she doesn't understand, what they are, and I explain they're stones, and she's dubious, ...

Then, the final customer of the day, someone texting me that they're coming at noon to look at a planter. And she shows up, a beautiful Japanese Canadian girl, and I've a brief flash of embarrassment at the state of the place, boxes still everywhere, and she's not here just for the stands, she wants to poke through the boxes, piles of stuff, and so I resume what I was doing, wrapping up things to be sent off, she's in the bedroom, there should be cues to stay out of the closet, then in the living room, in the end she builds a pile, old books, prints, ephemera, takes it all for $400 - cheap at double the price, but it wasn't selling, let it go, let it go, the deal's made and done, she drove here in a Porsche, I help her load up. She's furnishing a house she bought in the South with her husband.

She perplexes me. Most of the people wanting my shit, they're the same age as me, going through a different sort of mid-life crisis, I'm going the opposite way, cutting strings and ties, and I get them, old guys interested in watches, rocks, fountain pens, cufflinks, we're talking about my generation, but this girl - 

...I don't know. She's interested in a couple of other pieces as well, curious, it's not often that I meet people so out of my box. But this is how it's done...