Townday yesterday.  Long day.  Went to Comox and back (dogfood) and did all the usual running around in Campbell River.  But we left early, hustled (ate lunch as we drove), drove fast and got back by 5:00 pm just as darkness was setting in. Dogs were happy that their dinner was not late.  Sal and I were beat to our schneez.

And so I’ll divert a bit from the Alternative energy blog-of-late and spend a paragraph or two on ‘shopping day’ logistics.  It is definitely energy related.  Kinda.  In a personal energy kind of way.

Out here, logistics are big.  Go to town and forget milk and it is another six hours and $100 to correct your mistake.  So, a ‘list’ is incredibly important. 

I know, I know….you knew this.

But did you know that we have several lists?  We probably run six or so lists-on-paper and another casual íf-I-see-it-in-my-travels-list in my head.  We have the ‘when we go to Vancouver/Victoria’ list, the when we go to Costco list, we have the ongoing food and ‘stuff’ list and we have project lists.  If you have a few projects, you will have a few more lists.

Every town trip carries all lists.

And, when you get shopping, you take what you can get.

Regardless of the list, it is impossible to get it filled fully every time.  Got ten items on your Home Depot list and you have had a ‘good run’ if you got seven of them. Generally speaking, a 70% achievement rate overall on all lists is good.  80% and it was a great day!  Get everything there is even on just one of the lists and we sit waiting for the ferry with a a grin our faces!

“Wow!  You went to the fabric store and they had everything!?  I can’t believe it!

“Yeah, I know.  It was amazing.  After the list was all crossed off, I started to look on the nursery and electrical store list and asked the clerk at the fabric store if they had junction boxes?  She just looked at me!  Hahahahhahah!”

“Hhahahahah!  Sal, you are a riot!”

It is a kind of humour you have to live to fully appreciate.

“Sorry, sir.  We don’t have nails just now.  Out of hammers, too.  But a shipment is due tomorrow.  Can you pop back into Home Depot tomorrow?”  (No, but maybe you can ‘pop over’ to Read?)

“Sorry.  Doctor was held up.  I can fit you in tomorrow same time?” (unh…….doesn’t ‘appointment’ mean the same thing to a doctor as it does to the rest of us?)

“Yes, sir, we carry those.  I’ll have them in by Thursday at the latest.”  (May as well make it a Thursday in the next month)

“The computer says we have a dozen but I can’t seem to find any.  I think the inventory is wrong. I’ll have to check with the manager.” (Good.  While you do that, I’ll do the grocery shopping, pick up the lumber, take the propellor in, see the doctor, pick up Sally’s fudge and get some tuna for sushi.  Can you talk to him within the next hour and a half?  ‘Cause by then, I’ll be back!)

You’d be surprised by how many times I have gone off to do six other chores and come back a while later to hear, “Oh, you’re back!  I know he’s in.  I saw his car.  Let me just try to reach him now!”

As it was, we were full to the brim, anyway.  If we ever got everything on all the lists it would take us 12 hours and an extra car, anyway.  That is why you ‘take what you can get’ regardless.

For instance: if I need cement, 4×4’s, lag bolts, staples, fencing, some hardware and some paint and stain for a fence and I went to the store, I would be lucky to get most of it.  Sometimes none of it.  On occasion the wood is there and so is the cement but all the hardware is on back order.  Advice: take what you can and try again and again for the hardware on future trips.  Reason: the hardware comes in when the wood inventory is low.  And there is no cement on that day because the local contractor just loaded up.

And so it goes.

“Doesn’t that drive you mad?”

“Not anymore.  When I was younger, I had a schedule to keep, people who had expectations of me, things to do, people to see and ‘deliverables’.  I lived a juggling act.  It has taken me awhile but now I have slowed down.  I am ‘on island time’.  For me, anyway.  The to-do list is really a wish-list, a maybe-it-will-happen list.  And mostly a maybe-not list.

The only thing that drives me mad?  Not having a book to read.  Now that’s annoying!