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The BBI
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1628
Short for ...
It's the local pub, never been, want to go, finally with a few friends we hit it. It's the competition to where I work, and - picture every small-town bar you've ever been to, it overlooks an apartment block - same owner - that, while commanding a king's view offers squalor as the viewpoint, in the bright light of summer depressing as all out. The bar, newly furnished, cheaply, pool table, VLT's, the hardened local alcoholics, it's classic, the waitresses, the older, down-on-your-luck sorts, probably living in the housing across the way, the location is paradise, the accommodations, the bar, despair itself, for trifling savings the whole community has to endure what is clearly the "ghetto" of Balfour, where take place the drug overdoses, the thousand miseries of small town life, all beneath a blistering summer sun ...
Drink, chat up the waitress, the classic ditsy older waitress, lovely, you couldn't ask for better caricatures, ride out the summer heat, drink your drink, order another, it's still too early, 8:00 PM on a Friday night, I gotta come back here 'round midnight, 1 AM, see what's up, the town, so tiny, but a pretty big nightlife considering there's only 350 people, there's a band setting up and I'm done, I've eaten, soaked up enough of the ambiance, but I'll be back...
The Daughter's Visit
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1534
And the daughter comes, with her best friend, to visit for 4 days before my eviction, not even a week after the boy has left.
It's a lot of visitors, expenses, in just a couple of weeks...
Pick her up from the bus stop, Tuesday morning, 9:00 AM, first stop - I've got it planned - whitewater rafting. $80.00 per kid, + $20 tip for the guide. They're in with a small group, an American woman, her mom, should be fun, it's a beautiful morning, they're leaving from the dock at the Prestige...
I pick them up at 2:00, J*****, her friend, had a great time, the daughter complains it was boring. I buy the photos from the guides, a CD, yeah, I get that it was boring, not so white-water, not so adventurous, but still, she could have had fun...
She's way too jaded, even for a 16 year old.
The next day, the Kokanee Zip Line, only 2 of them in the group, they have a lot of fun although the daughter still manages to be blase about it. Another $240 spent, with tips for guides and go-pro footage...It's Wednesday, so I drop them in Nelson, they can peruse the markets, get lunch at the Yellow Deli, Visit Oso...
Her friend loves it. Doesn't want to go home. And the daughter is sensing that she maybe shouldn't have enrolled in summer school, she could have stayed on a bit longer...
Thursday, Friday, days off, Thursday we tour - Kaslo, the museum at the Ferry, to New Denver, then down through the Valley and to Thor's Pizza for dinner, then home.
Friday - a small day, the ferry over to Crawford bay, check out the Artisans, The Glass House:
("It's where I got my quidditch broom" I tell her...)
There are lots of Artisans here, blacksmiths, glass blowers, potters, etc. A quiet day, then home, and to the bus, I might not see her again all summer, she's school, other plans, and surviving summer here, well, it's gonna be long and tough. But in the fall there will be a little - lot - more time off, and I'll be returning to Calgary ...
I think they had fun. J***** definitely did, the daughter, well, probably, but she's keeping it on the down-low.
Sunday Market at Meadow Creek
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 1170
Almost an hour North of Kaslo. I'm curious, in absence of garage sales, and there's much here to be curious about, the road is empty, there's nobody...
There's a lot of Sunday Markets here. Every community has one. I'm curious, not hopeful, just curious...
Bullshit. A couple of buskers playing badly to an audience of none. A very few stalls, nothing, a 40 minute drive for diddly, no-one here could sell their stuff - all of it - and hope to make a hundred dollars, I settle on a couple of expensive croissants - spinach and feta, chocolate, and that's it, the day is done, return to work.
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