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June 3rd - Salmo Garage Sales
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1905
I'm writing this before I wake up to go. Probably there is already a shin-dig underway and I shouldn't bother, they'll all be sleeping, like in Ymir, but hope springs eternal, I'm off to bed, it will be an early morning, fingers crossed, and I'm hoping for lots of treasures...
***
It was shit. I was first on the scene - 40 garage sales, I covered them all in under an hour. Not a single thing worth buying, let alone owning. And driving back, through Nelson, the garage sales along the 3A, nothing. Nothing at all. A couple - remotely good, but nothing at all I was after. On a good day I can strike at 2, 3/4 garage sales, today, I spend a dollar at a total of 50 garage sales. Nothing of interest. Without a doubt the most discouraging day of garage sales in my life.
Shotgun Blasts
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2070
Woken in the middle of the night, day, early evening, the bears coming around, seen a lot of them, beside the road, the neighbors dogs generally keep them at bay, but still there are the shotgun blasts from up the road, across the lake, down the hill, all hours, every day, I'm rooting for the bears...
Friday Night at the Balfour Superette
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1899
I forgot my phone, a shame, this would have been a great photo. In at the Superette, down the road, picking up my ration. And across the street - the highway, a beat up old truck, two guys get out...one tall, other short, both dressed like they're homeless in warmer climes, torn plaid shirts and jeans, mid fifties maybe, beards grown halfway down their chest, one tall and lanky, the other, shorter, one arm, his sleeve blowing in the wind, his other hand balancing a cardboard flat of empty beer cans and water bottles, both running across the highway, lanky one has a couple of boxes of cans, the short one-armed one, he's been beaten up, black eye, limping, the expression on their faces, they're down to party, they'll exchange these empties for a couple of beer...
I'm looking on, beside myself, cursing my lack of phone, the checkout clerk, he's seen it all before, there's no novelty to this, now the guys are in the beer aisle and I'm laughing, it's like out of a movie, only better done...
Kaslo Rocks
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2231
Thursday, day off, into Kaslo for a bite to eat. Check the thrift shop, nothing, across from it a new consignment shop, filled, more or less, with the kind of stuff people have left over after a 3 day garage sale. Upstairs to the "boutique", however, and I find some treasures:
If you can see past my reflection, on the left some black tourmaline, various quartz crystals, one big one, what looks like a selenite or desert rose, a stalactite (probably from the Cody Caves, or the mineralizations near Ainsworth Hot Springs)...
And this:
Blue/Green Tourmaline in Quartz, and (not pictured), a fine rhombus of Icelandic Spar.
Now this is exciting for me, because recognizing the quartz specimens as similar to ones I've found I'm pretty sure that the rest of the rocks are local as well. The lack of preparation suggests they weren't storebought at a rock-shop. And Tourmaline is a major constituent of rocks here, and I've found dogstooth spar (a different varietal of Calcite, not quite as pretty), and it gets me salivating...
I'm not going to buy any, a rock to me is generally only as good as the finding...and I want to quiz the proprietor to see if she knows where they were found - but I suspect - if like me - they'd be a little cagey about specifics...Nevermind, I got maps.
And finally, the bookstore:
It's a gem, open - like a few Kootenay businesses, whenever the owner darned well pleases. An interesting selection of old books, esoterica, a well-read proprietor, but it's not open today.
After this, to the Fish & Chips kiosk, tasty, Halibut and Poutine, then home, a bear in a field (they're everywhere at the moment), snap a couple of pictures but he's too far away...
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