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Friday Night at the Balfour Superette
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2252
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: 2456
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...
Grade School Reunion & Louis Riel
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
- Hits: 2229
I'm at some sort of Grade School Reunion back in Moose Jaw, or Edmonton, but not Moose Jaw or Edmonton, they never are...in a mall, 2 stories, everyone is older, there's Chris S****, Michael I**** and his brother, it's a good party but I shouldn't be here, everyone is worried that someone (N***) is out to get me, I'm not worried but it's time to go, Chris S**** offers to give us a ride home, some old beater of a car, and he crashes and the car flips and everything is wrecked...
We get out, get back to a place I can stay, there's a girl there, tall, lean, freckled, long hair, large eyes, she's concerned about me, about (N***), she's beautiful and familiar looking, "I forget your name..." I explain, the I**** brothers berate me, "Don't you know her? That's Louis Riel...You dated her for YEARS!", and I don't remember any of it, is that her name or where she went to school? But I look at her and I'm in love and curious...
Ridiculously Early Mornings
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1469
And mornings come early and earlier. The guesthouse, lined up with the first rays of the morning sun, if it's cloudy I can sleep in, if not I'm up with it. 5:30 now and earlier, no possibility of napping until it's raised itself above the window, by the solstice I'll be up at 4:30 every day, not a problem, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm working until 11:00...
Still, the mornings here are the best times, every bird in the forest is singing, a hundred different pitched conversations, clouds gently rising up from the valley, silkworms hover in the sunlight, little gossamer curtains with glistening dewy beads, sit outside on the shaded step and watch the day begin...time, at this hour, for fa hundred, a thousand plans to be laid and revised...
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