I am working again.  Kinda.  Not really.  A friend has a problem and I am trying to help and the first thing I am doing is going about seeing my other friends and sharing the problem with them.  I picked the ones that were smarter than me this time so that I could make some progress rather than pick any of the rest of you and end up making things worse.  So, if you haven’t heard from me, well…………you know.

Actually, the real truth is: I have friends from all walks of life and the ones I am seeing right now are from the ‘real estate and politics’ section.  I have the techno-weenie, quasi criminal, business, mediation, old school and weird character sections, too – not to mention some really ‘out there’ sections I am too ashamed to admit to.  ‘Course, the ‘back country section’ is by far the strangest (except for family, of course).  The nice thing is that all my friends, regardless of how we know each other are cross referenced in the ‘wonderful people’ file.  

Actually, I can’t really call it working.  It’s visiting with people I care about but don’t see often.  As you can imagine, I have few occasions to mingle in the real estate and political streams anymore.  So, this is great and having something really interesting to share (another friend’s problem) makes the get-togethers even better.  The only reason I am calling it work is that I am exhausted at the end of the day!

I am no longer cut out for the rat race.  I really am not!  The first thing that hit me was sensory assault.  I saw more colours, moving and shaking and flashing and blinking (on Donner and Blitzen) in the first hour than I had seen in the past six months on Read.  It was like being taken from solitary confinement and dipped in Disneyland.  I was confused.

Then I parked the car downtown!  I thought that I was negotiating a down payment on the stall when they gave me the parking ticket!  I was paying $3.75 a half hour or portion thereof.  “Can we do this on a lease-to-purchase plan?  I leave the car here for two months (= to $11,000 in fees), and then I own the stall?”   “Sorry, sir, I do not believe we sell parking stalls”.  Of course, half the time spent in the parkade was going around and around trying to find a spot!

The challenge may take longer to resolve than the time I have allocated but I have either started the ball rolling or else I am going to have to come back to the city for a few months.  Sally is frightened.  “You know what will happen, don’t you?  It will get us.  We’ll be trapped again!  We’ll never get back to Read!  I may have to leave you.”   “The city will never trap us.  Not again.  This will be a one-off contract that may show up now and again every two years or so but, basically, we are Read Island residents now and only short term winter gigs have any chance at us.”

She looked doubtful.  But she needn’t.  There is no way………..