Seems I was wrong – some people do read this blog!  And I offended a couple of them!  Maybe more. 

A couple of neighbours took umbrage at my reference to our community as a motley crew and implying, however indirectly, that they may be, in some way, not respected by me.  This because of the description of the Gladstone school incident in the previous entry and descriptive SWAT team response.

I heard tell of this while in attendance at the Annual School Xmas Play (capitalized because it is a big event).   

Naturally, I apologized and explained myself as best I could.  For the record:  I love and respect my neighbours all to hell and their attributed ‘motley-ness’ is meant in the best possible way.

Having said that, I still reserve the right to poke fun and to try, as best I can, to call a spade a spade.   But good manners and real respect (read: fear) means that I will resist any such teasing for awhile and until the ‘incident’ blows over.  I am not so well respected myself that I can play fast and loose with any sensitive community feelings.   

Still – for the record: they are motley.  And, for the record, I fit right in!  We are motley!  We certainly would attract attention if we went through a Vancouver urban school and 150 Read Islanders would definitely generate a SWAT team response.  Hell, RI’s even ‘stand out’ somewhat in Campbell River where gumboots and multi-layered, old survival gear is a fairly common ‘look’.  Truth is: we tend to look a bit like the homeless contingent of Vancouver’s back alleys.  It’s called the ‘survivor-on-a-budget’ look. 

But what else would you expect?  There is no hairdresser, barber, haberdasher, dry cleaner or full length mirrors on Read Island.  And we are on a budget.  We are minimalists, damn it!  And we intend to keep it that way!  (except for outboard motors, Blue-Ray DVD players and chainsaws, we keep the expenditures to a minimum)

Please understand – there is nothing wrong with that (we work outdoors in all types of weather year around) nor is there anything wrong with any of the RI community members as people (well, maybe a couple……).  The story was not about us.  It is about them!  The city is paranoid.  They are freaked.  They are living under a subtle form of house arrest and they suspect everyone.  All the time.  And, after my last experience, I can’t really blame them.  The day I left, 10 people were shot on Oak Street after a restaurant party ended.  Ciudad Juarez and Vancouver are becoming sister cities in the worst possible way. 

The hotel parking lot in which my car was sitting when broken into has 12 security cameras.  All pointed at the relatively small 40 car lot.  That is almost one camera for every three cars!  My own car was front and centre of the view from one camera.  We saw everything after the fact.  And, at the time of the incident, so could the all-night desk clerk – who, of course, saw nothing!  Security in the city is like security at the airports – pointless. 

“Ever since the skytrain…..” is the common response.  B&E’s into cars are so common that they don’t even report it (not that it would do any good) anymore anyway.  Being insecure while draped in the technical, so-called security systems (read: privacy invasion) is just a ‘fact of city life’.

And except for the nasty coincidence of my boat trailer being stolen, it is much, much better here.  I know the point is weakened by the boat trailer theft I had but not really.  The theft happened on Quadra.  NOT on Read.

Now those Quadra Islanders are a suspicious lot…………..