Came south a couple of yesterdays ago. Campbell River to Victoria by way of Lantzville and Duncan. Felt like a trek. Weird. It used to be that I’d drive as much as 500 miles in one long, hard day. Now, four hours on the Island Highway feels like a major ‘haul’. Age, eh?

Stayed at Patti’s Oceanfront B&B the night before last after leaving the island that day. Patti’s is located on the entrance slope of the lower Island highway leading into Campbell River just before the public wharves. Patti is great (and so is the breakfast)!

The B&B overlooks Discovery Sound and is beautifully appointed. Plus she likes dogs and seems to tolerate me well enough. Tís a rare establishment that welcomes us as warmly as Patti does.

Oceanfront is highly recommended although she is threatening to close up this year. After 12 years of hosting the road-weary, the business has lost some it’s luster and she is contemplating freedom.

Can’t blame her in the least.

As you likely know, I am not pleased with the election results. In fact, I am appalled. And I confess to having been slightly ‘bummed’ by it until we arrived in Lantzville, the little hamlet just North of Nanaimo.

Went there for the soap. A British importer there brings in Imperial Leather at exorbitant prices but Sal won’t use anything else and her lovely complexion proves her point. So, we drive for four hours or so and buy Imperial Leather soap in Lantzville. Now THAT is love.

Just before we got there I was at the gas station getting ready to fill the car when a woman around 45 or 50 presented at the pumps wearing an old brown, shapeless, puff-ski jacket like the kind we used to wear in the seventies. She was the owner, very pleasant and offered to pump the gas for us. This was a full-service station despite having only two pumps (one of them diesel). And she asked ‘how I was’ in that typical way store-owners greet customers.

“Bummed all to Hell. Bastards got in. This country is mad. Harper is a totalitarian dictator whose last acts in power gained us a 35 billion dollar fleet of fighter jets and a citing for contempt of parliament. This country is going to hell in a handbasket with that George Bush clone at the helm.” And then I frowned at her to show my displeasure.

“Well, she said, it is a lot better than where I came from. Just be glad the socialists didn’t win. Can’t have that! That’s just a step away from communism!”

“Whoa! Where did you come from?”

Romania. My husband came here years ago and had to dodge bullets in the process of leaving. No passport. No visas. But he got here. Finally he got enough to send for us and we came to live in Canada about twenty years ago. It is heaven here. I can buy fresh produce any time I want. We raised our kids here. Own our own business. It is safe. Canada is way better than Romania and any communist country. But I see it getting more communistic every day. We have to be careful not to let that happen!”

We talked for awhile. She was very nice. Their story was a hellish one involving near starvation, police state bullying and all the crap we read about. But they lived it. She had ‘cred’.

“OK”, I said. “I’ll shut up. You win any political discussion. I am basically happy and content and also spoiled rotten. Romania is too harsh for me. No more complaints!”

Some perspective gained in Lantzville. Who woulda guessed?

But the lessons didn’t stop there. Dropped in for a quick visit to a friend living near Duncan. He’s not working much due to a few health issues but his mind is still extremely creative and inventive. He likes to create quasi-practical things that serve his living needs. Some are his own idea, some are ‘cutting edge ideas of others’ but mostly it is a mish-mash of both.

His forte’ is applying scientific principles and processes to made-from-scraps-and-garbage-prototypes. He makes Rube Goldberg seem like a precise engineer-cum-technician! He is currently distilling Buytenol (spelling?) from grass clippings by using special yeasts and algae brewing in old pails and salvaged pipes and tubes. The goal? To power his own vehicle! And not to get kicked out of his neighbourhood by the neighbours……….

Don’t laugh! He have me a liter bottle of fuel! Value: $1.30 by Esso standards. Cost to him (other than the scrounging) $0.00! OK, maybe the gas to run the lawn mower. But, still…………

Man, I have great friends!