Mel (our first W’fer) left about two weeks ago. She was good…helped us get started on the summer chores. Then a couple of guests for a few days. Then a few more guests-of-neighbours. Some of our close-by summer residents also arrived. Then our second W’fer came about four days ago. Bottom line: all the winter wood is in, all the last two weeks of groceries have gone out.
In the meanwhile, I did some prawning in the new boat and gathered about 25 pounds of beauties but half were given away and most of the other half are in our freezer. Firstly, two pounds of prawns are eaten already by ‘folks’ and the ‘red tide’ warning was lifted and so we have a lot fewer oysters as well. Sal also made her famous clam chowder so the clams are fewer, too. Mind you, all guests brought wine and scotch and so the larder is well, almost full. It seemed to go almost as quickly as it came, tho. People and wood come in, shellfish and wine goes out. Some scotch comes and goes. The circle of life.
I made several attempts at forming a roof for the new boat but the first two efforts were for nought. Kinda wasted some hard-got plywood. But third time is the charm (maybe) and that last effort is looking like it might work. We’ll see.
Two long blogs were written over this past week. One on economics and how all the charts and graphs are moving in irregular ways but WordPress, me, my computer, the computer Gods or maybe just Murphy erased a long and well researched post and I did not have the heart to start again. Count yourself lucky. Bottom line: the various charts and numbers are not moving in unison like they normally do. The economists are also confused. The second one was all philosophical and gooey…..I got sick of myself half-way through and quit it. Count yourself doubly lucky. That one will hopefully never surface again.
And then we had the Congressional hearings into the madness that was Trump during the last days of his malignant presidency. What a gong show! What a total farce! What a house of scumbags! I am even more stunned at how low the office, how putrid the administration, how rotten the people and how close the US came to being dismantled by a total idiot. And it makes me wonder……
This insurrection attempt, as amateurish as it was, ran pretty deep. Still is! There are a lot of players, a lot of helpers, a lot of supporters and a lot of money behind destroying the USA from the inside out. The president tried to kill the country! AND THE SECRET SERVICE erased all their emails on that day! Just how rotten is their government when General Flynn, a bunch of congress people, Fox News, Capitol police, the resident family scum, a pack of mental lawyers, quasi militia thugs, various police forces, state governors and even election officials are in on a coup!? The depth and breadth of this scurrilous plot is mind-blowing.
And the beast is STILL not dead!
(‘Scuse me….I have to count to ten….1…..2….3……4….. ……..)
Our community folk built a pavilion. It is beautiful. It is a hexagon shape with about a 25′ diameter. Heavy beams, timberframe style. Open. Very nice. I’ll send pics when it is done.
The community is a’hummin’ and things are gettin’ done, guests arriving and leaving, water taxis, planes, friends and acquaintances meeting up again…..it is all good…..almost….
It is not so good for visitors by car. BC Ferries seems to be drowning in their own mismanagement. We had two replacement ferries built (overseas, of course) and brought to BC. Our current ferry could not be gifted to a 3rd world country – it is so overdue for retirement. We greatly anticipated the swap-over from one rust bucket to two, cleaner, newer, more-frequent, safe ferries. And the ferry traffic has tripled in the last few years. They are very overdue. But, in their wisdom, BCF did not have staff ready (hired or trained) for the deployment of two ferries on our route, so they loaned one out for another route and the second one sat at the dock all alone and empty. Going nowhere. And that has been goin’ on now for months. Meanwhile the traffic is backed up the hill, around the corner and along the approach roads. Three sailing waits are now to be expected. Coming by ferry should be 15 minutes, 30 minutes max (for buying a ticket, etc). Now it can be three hours. That makes a lot of folks more than a bit angry.
But not me…not so much…’Cause I do not go anywhere. I hated the rat-race before. But I would be catatonic waiting three hours for a 15 minute run. So, I stay home. Sal has forbidden me from leaving and mingling with the public anyway. So, all in all, it is still all good…just so long as I do not have to ‘deal’ with the world anymore. Thank God for OTG.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Maybe the ferrymen (women) crossed the Styx? The irony! Sorry, trying hard to be upbeat. I need to get out more rather than read the news.
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Fitting, you being down under and having to get out more and me being up northerly and needing to stay in more. Must be climate change. Or magnetic pole reversal? Or restraining orders…….
Trying to be upbeat, RUM? Not the default state of mind? ‘Course it is winter there……and you are housebound, right? What you need is a high-powered rifle, a bagful of clips and some kind of tower to climb in the middle of a busy area. Preferably the US. Seems to work for some ‘Mericans…..jus’ sayin’….
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The general populace don’t have guns here, not since the Port Arthur massacre. However the criminals find them easy to come by. That is no way to live in America.
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I confess that I, too, would have a gun in ‘Merica. It is too dangerous overall and, in some cases, insane. Gun control is a pipe dream in the US. Too many already in circulation. That cat is out of the bag and has grown big and mean. People NOT wanting guns have them because of that.
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The world is definitely NOT coming to its senses. We have again a very hot and dry summer, soon we will have the same climate as in the Mediterrenean, so no need to go on hollidays to the Southern countries. We can have summer hollidays in our own backyard. Water levels in the main rivers in Europe are at an alltime low. In Germany, several factories will have to shut down soon, because no boats are allowed any more to transport goods over the Rhine due to low water levels. So third biggest economy will shut down because of lack of gas AND water (Putin has nothing to do with lack of water….at least I think). Consequences on global economy will be huge and a major crisis is again 1 step closer.
Thanks for the tip, we will bring Scotch, chocolates AND groceries when we stop by!
Amrica seems to be more crazy then ever, it amazes me how many Americans still support Trump, even after everything he has done!
Sorry to hear that your blogs were eaten by WordPress (or maybe it was the Russians), would like to have read your blogs (as always)
Surprises me that BC Ferries management can not make a decent planning on staffing, but there is a lack of workforce everywhere
I’ve seen a picture of the pavilion, nice job! What will it be used for?
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Re: Pavilion. I really do not know. It was a voluntary, community project that was undertaken with enthusiasm and well supported. But the end use is somewhat vague (to me). The location is right near the community Bunkhouse that has come to be used as the winter gathering place and it has a full kitchen (or will soon) so the Pavilion may very well become the ‘dining room’ for the kitchen when the weather is nice. On the other hand, when the weather is nice, most folks gather at the little Seaweed cafe’ down on the dock – about 200 m down the hill. There is no question that it will be used (yoga, meetings, dining) but it’s original purpose is unknown to me. It was inspired by Covid (outdoor meetings) but even that seems a bit odd to me. Am I supportive? Absolutely. Our little community has few buildings and they are all used. It will work out.
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You have a cafe? Or is this just a gathering place near the docks?
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The Seaweed Cafe is a small, floating hut about 3 meters square that holds two people ‘cooking’, serving, and selling what they already mostly prepared at home. They serve about 20 or so lunches on Wednesdays. All the lonely people come out. All the people who have business on the dock that day come out. The mail plane comes in at that time. The dog people bring their dogs. The groceries ordered get delivered that day. From about 11:00 to 3:00 it is a very busy little dock. And it is kinda fun.
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Just got back from big road trip to Nanaimo to help one of sons with house reno. We got a fair bit done. Talking to them about your travel wish, they being well traveled both said Columbia, I said what! With all those drug lords? They will send me the safe happy people islands, meets your specs, cheap, entertaining, 10 hours if you do it in one flight.
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Colombia could be good. Hmmmmm……definitely worth a look-see on the net, anyway. Thanks for that, Mr. Anonymous. John?
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Its Scott, WordPress will not let me log in. I must have done something wrong in my forgotten past.
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None of your past is forgotten. Everything was wrong! WordPress is trying to protect us. But we forgive your minor transgressions. We.come back.
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I almost wonder if the long range plan by the govt is to make Ferry schedules so unreliable people will accept Bridges where feasible.
Some of the Gulf Islands could be joined by bridges without question.
Diminished staff, unreliable schedules…..all part of a nefarious plan….
Or they just incompetent , bureaucratic dolts.
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