(as the past few blogs)……..MADNESS. Ya know? All the stuff that seems crazy to me?

Anti-vaxxers. Anti-maskers. Hate mongers. Fox News. Those that blame Biden for Afghanistan (Trump and Pompeo surrendered to the Taliban last year and did nothing to mitigate the impact of that. Trump caused Kabul). Trudeau – in every regard, of course. The so-called Health professionals making Covid statements and then reversing them and then getting up to the podium again and again…… Demonstrators protesting any health measures whatsoever. I am inclined to go on that same old blog theme as before: madness that just keeps going on. And on. And on.

But wailing and ranting doesn’t actually do much except vent my spleen and so I really must move on. Preferably on to something positive………and stating that we are all positively living in madness is not good enough. But, of course, before one writes about the positive, one must first find some. And I have been looking. Honest.

Search rule# 1 – start local, start small……..Our summer temps have noticeably cooled. I really needed that. Mind you, it is the end of August and I am wearing a light jacket in the house but still, it is absolutely fine compared to the two heat domes we experienced. Climate change is upon us and likely here to stay (for my lifetime, anyway) and so I will have to adjust the best I can. And I will.

Lumber prices are almost back to normal. Whew! And Sal and I managed to keep working at the new shed-build using reclaimed wood in the meantime. It is almost 100% framed. Just awaiting plywood and siding and roofing. A small victory but a victory nevertheless.

Whales have visited again lately. Oooh.…that is always good but last week they were doing an acrobatic show and that was a marvel to see. Bonus (for the whales): many, many fewer whale-watching boats. Many, many fewer kayakers, too, so far. And our water system – which was down to the trickles – has picked up a bit and has remained steady throughout. That is a HUGE plus on the Gulf Islands – especially this summer.

One of the nearby OTG islands had a cabin-fire that quickly escalated to a small forest fire but the local community leapt to the challenge and fought it into submission. The Fire Service helped and likely provided the ultimate squelching but they were full of praise for the locals. It was ugly and dangerous and threatening but it was subdued. Kind of heroic in my eyes. Locally, we are doing good.

Globally, however……..I think the most positive way of looking at all the madness and chaos is to see it as the normal perception and response to change. There is no question we are in a time of transition. We are changing. The world is changing. Because we cannot see exactly what it will all look like, we mostly just see madness and fear. Make no mistake: the change a’coming may very well be worse. Fearing change is natural because sometimes the change is not a good one.

Yin and yang. Optimist or pessimist? Glass half full….of what?

On the other hand, this GIANT change is striking several positive notes already. Even some Conservative, right wingers are suggesting that the age of BIG OIL is over. Wow! Some amongst the blind can now see!! A lot of people have been kicked into a work-living perspective change, as well. Not so many wanna go back to the grindstone anymore. Many do not want to even go back to the office!! That has to be good in a myriad of ways.

There seems to be a gradual but significant reduction of racism but I may be seeing something positive that isn’t quite there yet. We’ll see. There is no question about climate change anymore. Even Bubba comes around after being hit by drought, plague, pestilence and tornadoes. A double-wide can only take so much! We also seem to be more aware of the environment on the whole….I hope…we’ll see.

Please consider reading: Natural Capitalism, Drawdown and Regeneration. All three books are by Paul Hawken. Elon Musk is smart, Paul Hawken is genius.

If some kind of shake-up doesn’t happen in our hoary institutions and the way we live, I will be very surprised (but, most likely, I’ll be dead. None of this is happening fast enough for me to see great societal-shift-in-my-lifetime). But what more evidence is needed? The police clearly need some kind of therapeutic re-make. Our hospital-doctor-nurse pedestal model needs reform – the sooner the better. Politics may be unrescuable so we may simply have to get more revolting (I am doing my best). Education has long been moribund but the industrial model on which it was built is changing even more so and fastest of all. New-think has to be coming. How can they perpetuate all that old nonsense much longer? It has to change.

The Capitalist model seems here to stay but many flaws have been exposed ever since 2008. In response to the flaws, the poor are getting poorer but that might be needed before reform is demanded. Infrastructure is finally getting the review it needs. Well, it needs a serious rebuild in so many ways but a review is, at least, a start.

Personally, I want mag-lev bullet trains but well, that’s just me. See: I have positivism. I positively want a cross continental system of mag-lev bullet trains (and then I’ll shut up)

Canada ends all evacuation flights out of Afghanistan, abandoning thousands of Canadian nationals and Afghan refugees. Globe and Mail

Canada’s airlift mission from Kabul ends, leaving many behind. CBC

“The government of Canada recognizes that there are a number of people in Afghanistan, including Canadian citizens, permanent residents, their families, and applicants under programs for Afghans. Until such a time that the security situation stabilizes, (we advise you to) be mindful of the security environment and where possible, take the necessary steps to ensure your security and that of your family.” (press release: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada)

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Canada has Afghan friends and staff still in Kabul but today we announced that no more evacuation flights are planned. The Taliban and opposing militia waving their Kalashnikovs around and blowing themselves up in random suicide bombings gave the world time to get ‘your people’ out of the country. Deadline? August 31. Today is August 26. My calendar suggests that we still have 5 days. We are leaving the premises early instead.

What!? Trudeau too busy giving out selfies on the election circuit?

If we have a plane that flies, we should be on a runaway and not even turning the motors on until 11:30 pm on the last day. Wheels up by 11:45 and out of SAM range 15 minutes later. This is completely shameful. Morality has been abandoned. Decency ditched. The courage of Dunkirk has long been forgotten. In fact, the Bloody Boris Brits have advised their ‘peeps’ to ‘just run for the border!’ They, too, I guess, are not gonna try anymore. “You are on your own, chaps!”

That is standard operating procedure for the US. See Vietnam. See the Kurds. See, just about anywhere…..they leave their ‘friends’ stranded all the time. Immoral and amoral. In fact, they actually have the planes and they are not helping the Canadians or anyone (or so it is reported). But I am ashamed for Canada. I am angry at Trudeau. I am wondering about Harjit Sajjan our minister of doing-nothing-while-dressed-in-camo. Regardless of who joins us in the effort, we should do the right thing.

Mind you, doing the right thing is maybe NOT part of the government’s agenda. Certainly not the Canadian Armed Forces. This is their mission statement: The Department of National Defence supports the Canadian Armed Forces who serve on the sea, on land, and in the air with the Navy, Army, Air Force and Special Forces to defend Canadians’ interests at home and abroad.

So, I dunno……maybe defending our interests means running away early? Leaving friends behind? “We’ll leave you behind if you are late, on time, early or, well, if we are busy campaigning.”

MY father paid a very high price during WW2 ‘doing the right thing’. He was classified as 100% disabled. He would be appalled at our actions in Afghanistan. It kind of makes his sacrifice pointless and, if that is too dramatic, just ask yourself: “Would I ever offer up to risk my life for my country if this is the way we treat friends and allies? And, if I did do it, how could I ask anyone to help our country knowing that we will throw them under the troop carrier or Toyota Land Cruiser without hesitation?”

Yes, I know it is dangerous there. Yes, I know it is easy to say all this from the safety of my own home. And yes, I know that war is hell, complicated and chaos reigns all the time. But leaving five days early? Really? The forces of the Western World can’t hold off the Taliban for five more days? One Canadian Forces spokesman said, “Let us be clear. This situation is untenable. The Taliban are at fault!”

Well, duh!.

….just about every scenario possible and most of ’em don’t make any sense.

And none of them are indicating what they used to. The money supply has gone through the roof and that suggests/guarantees inflation and, as you would suspect, we are already feeling more than a bit of that. But precious metals remain relatively stable. And yet, lumber prices tripled in price over the recent year. But, geez, man…..in the last few weeks, lumber prices have fallen back to pre-pandemic levels and a mill in BC that was running 24/7 four months ago just shut down from ‘lack of profitability’ due to the drastic price change. And still the fires burn up standing inventory. And, so, that means exactly what? Thinking it might be that supply-chain crap? I do not think so – the mill is at the FRONT of that industry supply chain. Lack of shipping containers? I do not think so, lumber does not require shipping containers. Maybe all the loggers and mill-workers are fighting fires?

Oh, well, let’s consider that an aberration. How ’bout those housing prices, eh? They keep going up but, of course, wages are not rising as well and banks are making mortgages much, much harder to get. And yet, the money supply is getting larger, all other prices are going up, inventory is going down, young people STILL cannot afford anything……so how are housing prices still rising? Who’s buying? Where is all that extra money supply going?

Oh, well. How ’bout that unemployment, eh? Unemployment is near an all time low and yet most of the service and hospitality industry is dead-in-the-water. And tourism is non-existent except, surprisingly, Vancouver Island where the hotel rates have doubled and tripled and the ferry system is full. No staff. High prices. Who’s paying? And Canadians have paid down record levels of personal debt recently and they did that by NOT spending and having fun……so how can unemployment be down? How can tourist prices be up?

A cabin-y type resort just down island raised their room rates by 600% and those are the rates they want for February!! (consequently three regular very large local groups of annual attendees simply walked away – ‘not this year!’). Oil prices and gasoline prices no longer seem to have much correlation. Crude has yo-yo’d like mad (currently around $65.00 a barrel) but gas prices are higher than when a barrel cost $140.00.

Anybody else notice the general lack of ‘sales’ – as in discounted prices? The stupendous rise in second hand goods (Craigslist)? The lack of normal inventory at big retailers? Did you know that McDonald’s restaurants in the United Kingdom can’t sell milkshakes due to lack of supplies?

And yet, they say the economy is booming. They also say millions are staying home from work. They then say millions are no longer unemployed and they also say whole industries are moribund. And, of course, the pandemic carries on. The hospitals are near capacity. Trump still has followers. Two Canadians returning home from the US got Covid tested ($600) but they were deemed the wrong tests and so were fined almost $6000. How does that make any sense in this or any economy?

And so the whackedness continues.

Our PM calls an unnecessary election. All the parties campaign on the wrong issues. We hate ’em all and yet a record low turnout is predicted. Biden is taking flack for Trump’s Taliban deal. And the Red States have cut off unemployment benefits even though the money came from the Feds! Why? Because the Republicans believe the unemployed are lazy butt heads and should be forced back to work.

As you can tell from the last few blogs, I am having difficulty making any general sense from all the usual indicators. Only the Taliban seem to be having things go their way, it seems. And, as a bonus surprise: in a time of the in-your-face obvious climate change threat, double or triple Covid infections and more and more Right wing news being debunked as lies, the Red States are the ones with rising real estate prices due to people moving more and more to the Southern US.

My only theory? Madness has gravitational pull.

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One of our regular readers, Sid, passed a few days ago. Cancer. Rest in Peace, Sid.

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Tipping points? Catalyzing events? Who knows, but……ya really gotta read: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/23/portland-oregon-clashes-protests-proud-boys-antifascist?utm_term=f9ff0b6d1bcd2e302e4c8712d965ae27&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email

Are the pictures a harbinger of things to come? Are they just reflections of the ‘mood’ since Trump was president? Do Proud Boys battling Antifa in the streets of Portland mean anything? People shooting at each other….well, that is status quo in the USA, really. Police nowhere to be seen? The Mayor exhorting everyone to ‘choose love’. All that in Portland, no less!?

In California, the governor is under a recall campaign and currently the leading opposing candidate is a right-wing, anti-vaxxing, pro-Trump, anti-BLM man by the name of Larry Elder. Good ol’ Larry is black. It is hard to make this crap up. But is it really a portent of things to come or just another California nutty situation?

The Taliban took over Kabul with less violence than the US police inflict on a single black man daring to go for a drive (altho that will likely change over time). And, not surprisingly, our own Montreal police do much the same thing in Canada. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-man-files-complaint-against-police-again-after-alleged-driving-while-black-incident-1.5438316. But the police were chastened….will they keep being cruel and stupid or was that just a few aberrant cops in a force of really good folks?

I suppose much of all that can be ignored as ‘just more news’. After all, ignoring all that stuff is what we have done, mostly. It happens. Life is messy. Next thing you know, another school bus goes over another cliff, a flood takes out a town, so does another forest fire, a new pandemic emerges, more politicians fiddle while doing nothing, the water becomes unsafe from contamination, arsenic, oil-spill or nuclear accident……the list is endless. Same ol’, same old?

The real question, for me, is there actually more of it now? Or is this the way it has always been? Are we at a tipping point? Really? Or just carrying on as we have? Or, maybe I am just noticing it more, social media hyping more crap-news, everyone is riding the ‘like and subscribe’ button, lies and spectacle just have more appeal? I really do not know if I am just getting old and ‘fed-up’ or if there is an increase in the madness. Do you?

Here’s what I think: I think life on Earth has always been chaotic and corrupt, dangerous and dumb, ugly and dark. “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (Thomas Hobbes). Maybe we can add: ……and, when exploited for perverse reasons, it can also make a buck? (Zuckerberg)

After all, the USA has created a culture around violence, corruption, greed, spectacle and ugly and they are still the wealthiest country in the world. “Coming to a theater near you: Thomas Hobbes in Technicolor and Panavision. Life as you have never seen it before! Starring Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and the supporting cast from the Taliban together with the Proud Boys. Brought to you by Big Oil, Big Pharma and MIC International (the Military Industrial Complex).

I am saying: most of this horror show may possibly just be more of the same only writ larger by Social Media.

To me, the only REAL story is Climate Change. I’d talk more about that but I really want to go see more of Kim Kardashian’s latest butt pictures. C’mon….!

Polls are, basically, trying to put human tendencies in a bite-sized nutshell……which, of course, suggests that we are all basically just nuts. So, the description is apt. Canadians and the pathetic individuals who lead us have just proven that definition to the level of obvious and pending tragedy – thus the title of this blog.

It seems that the latest polls commissioned by the latest iteration of ‘parties’ has revealed that Canadians are overwhelmingly concerned about the environment and the climate and all things plague, pestilence and fire. Nothing like your street being reduced to cinders or your family members dying in hospital to focus the mind. Good on them. Finally, they seem to understand what is truly important….kinda, maybe……

The same polls show that that concern is not their number one issue! The number one issue amongst Canadians according to Gallup, despite living in their RV’s and being on evacuation alert or hooked up to a ventilator, is the cost of living. Yeah, you read that right.…Canadians are still more concerned with their wallets than they are about actually breathing.

Our s**t-for-brains leaders, therefore, have designed their most recent campaign around housing costs, energy costs, business stimulation, employment and food costs. Only the Bloc and the Greens even mentioned the environment. When we die en masse, we, hopefully, can drink wine and maybe pay off the mortgage as we lie there gasping and unable to move.

“Dave! Aren’t you being just a bit dramatic?”

Yeah. I guess so. We all believe: “It can’t happen here. I mean, we live in the first world, don’t we! This isn’t Haiti!* Doesn’t that make us exempt from climate change, forest fires, plague and growing madness? I mean, aren’t we privileged”? (*Siberia has more forest fires raging out of control than all the rest of the world combined – jus’ sayin’)

A regular reader in Kamloops does not think he is exempt. Or privileged. Because he is not. He’s in his RV watching a looming forest fire. The natural flora and fauna around us do not seem exempt (we just contained another forest fire but a few miles away). Our fire-fighting community didn’t feel exempted (because they were not) and, didn’t we all just kinda ‘lose a year’ due to a pandemic?

The pandemic is getting worse (Delta variant. And coming soon to a community near you will be the inevitable blockbuster Omega variant). And yet our decision-makers are opening up the schools and restaurants and pubs! We are like Lemmings being led by Loons!

Trudeau is flying around the country in a large Canadian airliner designated for our privileged elite and has emblazoned the fuselage with his name writ large (like Trump but with more letters). He acts as if the plane is his, not the Canadian taxpayers’. As our climate burns, Trudeau jets and campaigns in an unnecessary effort to achieve a majority government. I am voting Jagmeet* for no other reason than to keep a minority government. I mean, seriously, do I want my life held in the hands of one single imbecile or one managed by a group of them? Gawd! What a choice!

*Annamie Paul (Greens) has no influence and neither do the juvenile, petty-focused Greens. Their sole purpose was the environment and they failed to move us one bit. I do not hate them but they could not get the job done.

And, in case you are confused, I will state it even more clearly: our planet is changing and our lives and the lives of our children are in danger – if not this year, then next. If not next, then soon. The cost of living issues are irrelevant at this time. Breathing without smoke, plague and pestilence is the priority.

What the hell is wrong with those people??? And….what the hell is wrong with us?????

If you write a book or a blog or, it seems, even post naked picture of yo’ fine self on social media, some people will be touched (settle down, no worries. I ain’t going all Kim Kardashian on ya). The blogger-author has no idea who gets ‘touched’. Some of those who are touched, sometimes touch back. They usually just write. Comment section, emails, the very, very occasional ‘meet-up’ (if they are in the neighbourhood) ensues and a relationship may form. Maybe. Dave-up-North, NonCon, Wim, Aldo, Margy and Untidy mind come to mind. They are friends. I have been touched (OK, teched! But you know what I mean!). Anything more than that is a special kind of magic…human magic….very good stuff.

And this week, we had a bit more than that more common-ish but still weird magic. J, H and their daughter K left South Africa and settled in the U.A.E a couple of decades back – the United Arab Emirates in the middle east. They settled in. A year or so ago, J got an itch and, like a select few others (D&K, DW and wife and a few others), started (as I did) sniffing around the internet kind of pointing unconsciously in the OTG direction. He was mostly responding to his feelings (see last blog). One thing led to another and he found my blog (not easy) and then bought the book! I had a reader from the Middle East! They have desert there, fer Gawd’s sake! Sheesh!

A few emails later and a Covid year, J, H and K left the UAE, got Canadian residency (even more magic) and flew out in a direct line to BC. OMG! A few days in transit and they end up at the end of the road and we have guests for the night. Did I mention…DIRECT FROM the UAE?

A quick reconnoiter of the area was conducted the next day and even the still-quite-reluctant H was making tentative plans to move here.

C’mon! that is incredible!

What does it say? Well, that J, H and K are adventurous and unafraid is obvious. That they responded to my book casts them in a suspect light but maybe it was the humour. C’mon, face it – there was not a helluva lot to go on regarding living OTG in that book except that we were so ill suited and unskilled and yet still made it work. Somehow, they saw some appeal in blood loss and ravens – go figure. It also suggests that they are already committed to something OTG. Think about it: it had to have cost them $10,000 for that journey – probably more. J was a sponge for OTG information. H was hesitant. K was keen on her parents leaving to go OTG (she was returning to the UAE). She has a boyfriend. This could be win-win for her.

He is skilled and has a South African farm-boy background. The guy knows enough. H is hesitant but most urban wives are. Sal was. But 80% come around and many have stayed even if the hubby left. This place has appeal for both genders but it is not as clearly evident to the urban female at first. I could be wrong, (right, Moira?) but that is what I have seen. Makes no never-mind. A couple (or three) of years is all it takes. You either fall in love by then or you don’t.

They are, however, pushing the age envelope. They are already 60. My own measure of the challenge is that after 55 it gets too physically difficult. Still, that is an individual thing and he is in good nick. And money can buy some time. H, too, kept up well on treks and hikes. They may be on-the-edge age-wise but, with some hired help, they could pull it off. It is kinda neat watching dreams grow. In fact, it is very human and very touching. If they make the leap and pull it off, it truly is a dream-catcher event.

I am touched they chose to share that dream with us.

The popular myth is that feelings are entirely hormonal and personal…and, to some extent that assertion is correct when dealing with personal matters. But feelings, intuitions, suspicions so often are proven correct that we still attribute weight to our feelings despite admiration for the logic of Spock or the focus of stone-cold action heroes – and despite the new appreciation for data driven statements of fact due to the computer age. And so we should. In fact, we really should give more weight to our feelings if, for no other reason, hard, irrefutable information is not always available. Facts are hard to discern. Truth is real but elusive. We just ain’t that smart or educated. We live in confusing times.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s there was a New York based consulting group serving the advertising business. My hazy memory wants to call them, Goldman, Goldman and Goldman Associates. Maybe three Goldbergs? But Google doesn’t confirm that…..

Anyway, the lesson from G,G&G was ‘inferential scanning’. It seems we all do it (look around and intuit, infer, learn) but we all do it and accept the ‘feelings’ we get at different personal levels. Inferential scanning is the term they used to describe our conscious and unconscious absorption of information that we discern simply by walking around, living and looking at stuff.

The best example they proffered was, “Ask anyone what they think is the most popular colour for cars on the road. Of course, everyone will at first say, ‘Oh, I dunno…..how could I know? But, if I had to guess, it would be white? Or grey?” Typically, they were right (for their area).

The point was that they did not know from any proven facts or learned discipline or even a TV show or media article but they still had a hint or a suggestion of an answer. How did they get even that? Well, by GGG hypothesis, it was by inferential scanning – the natural absorption of random bits of information.

Intuition does not come from the hairs on the back of your neck – it comes from indirect learning and constant but immediate observation. And that plays out in so many interesting ways. Sal and I once avoided a car hijacking in Mexico simply because we both felt at the same time that ‘something is not right here’ and we turned the car around only to read in the English newspaper a week later that there had been many hijackings, robberies and such in that very stretch of road. Our instincts saved us.

And years ago, my instincts started whispering to me that I should quit working and go live away from the city – and that seemed to mean move off the grid. Those whispered hints went ignored for a few years but started to show results when I began almost out of amusement to read about OTG living. In fact, I wrote in our book about an hysterical article in Mother Earth News on birthing lambs and having to mouth-suck the snot out of the newborn’s nose or else they couldn’t breathe. That, alone should have put me off the OTG path!

This is taking too much of your time so I’ll get to the punchline: everyone has feelings, intuition, deep-set curiosity or even (if you are more focused) dreams and plans. Acting on those dreams and ‘feelings’ is hard to do. What if? How do I? Why? Cost? Is there a You Tube on it? What will my spouse say?

The most common response? “Maybe later…..kinda busy right now. “

Those feelings (if you have them) will persist because they are not based on hard information, education or even logic. They are based on inferential scanning or, better-put perhaps, observing life as you know it. And the ‘life-as-you-know-it’ is changing. You do not need to rely on feelings to understand that part. The latest IPCC report (Climate Change Scientists) is making a very clear clarion call for HELP and ACTION NOW!

The planet is changing. Fast!

Please do not read this as Dave being smug. In fact, the opposite is true. My inferential inner voice was warning me, to be sure. And I listened as I should have. But I am no better at interpreting intuition or feelings than anyone else and likely not as good as some. In fact, I think we erred. We did good but we did not do good enough. More than a few times Sal and I have jokingly referred to our relocation as ‘perhaps we’re not far enough away!’

Having feelings and listening to them doesn’t mean you are right in all regards. It may be that a remote island up the BC coast might not be enough of a retreat. It is hard to run and hide from climate and it seems the climate is out to get us all.

Let’s face it, y’all know this at some level. Y’all feel the changes, feel the threats, feel the general unease (or smoke) in the air. There is, of course, inferential quasi-proof in millions of people migrating north, polar bears starving, wild fires like never before, Covid, floods, altering ocean currents and patterns, wildlife die-offs….the list just goes on and on…..we know this is a time of major shift, a change in the status quo. Hell, a lot of people do not even want to go back to work to get their money, money, money! This is now almost TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) and they sense something….. But now we have harder, data-driven proof, too. The IPCC report is alarming. If you didn’t feel it before, you can now read about it on your computer.

I guess what I am saying is: it might be time to have a heart-to-heart chat with your inner voice.

Another Omni-blog………

BUT ACTUALLY, we had rain today!  Blessed rain!!  I cannot call it a downpour, not even a storm-of-sorts (Environment Canada generously described them as showers – must be the kind with water-saving heads) but it has been raining lightly for the better part of sixteen hours.  Thank God!  We are currently cloaked in a very damp distance-obscuring mist, like a wet fog.  Lovely.  Beautiful.  And, I think, very necessary.  The forest was looking a bit parched….especially for an area that is renown for being a rainforest!  I am pretty sure that we have had no rain for two months and a rather too-dry Spring before that.  August 7^th and it is finally raining – even the tourists are appreciating it. 

Ten or twelve years ago, in a gesture of support to one of my lower income neighbours, I pre-bought two roasting chickens in advance of a real-live chick or even a chicken coop in her sight.   And, tho it took a few more years, chicks came to be cooped at some point but, before the chicks became man-hating Karens, a cougar ate ‘em. And, in the chicken business, a cougar is the very definition of a force majeure (an act of God).  She was very disappointed and, of course, my $50 was forgotten (by me).  No problem.

But we hired her a while back to assist in one of our volunteer programs (volunteer for us, not the worker-bees) and, I guess she has still been dreaming of chickens all that time.  You know how chickens die easily but chicken dreams die hard, right? 

“Hey, Dave!  It’s a bit late but I am pretty sure I can fulfill your chicken order finally.  I just now received some new chicks but I have those chicks in a really substantial coop.  This time, I am very hopeful.  I hope you still like roast chicken?”

“All good things come to he who avoids cougars or something like that.  This just might be my first successful seed money investment!  Ya did buy the seeds, too, didn’t ya?” 

We have more guests coming.  Most of them we know in advance.  Friends and family.  But, sometimes, we get guests we don’t know.  Typically, such a strange arrangement comes about because we were volunteer hosts to a school run by a friend of ours in Hong Kong and the guests were Chinese young people visiting his weird, gweilo friend who lived in the forest.  That was always fun.  East meets West.  Young meets Old. 

Other unknown guests came by way of WWOOF Canada, the work-stay volunteer program that puts international young people on Canadian ‘farms’ (or wilderness places) to live, work and stay for a week or so as they travel around the country. We have some great young friends from the WOOF program.  Many have come back years later just to visit.  Very rewarding.

But we have also found ourselves hosting the odd reader of our book.  Not often.  Once in awhile.  And mostly just an all-day visit with lunch and happy hour thrown in with a little ‘tour’ of sorts.  That, too, has been pleasant and, in a few cases, very rewarding in that the visitors eventually became neighbours.  They came, they visited, they searched and they bought a place out here or nearby.  That is very cool. 

But J and his wife are likely to be the new distance record-holders.  They are coming to us from The United Arab Emirates, originally from South Africa.  This family of three have such an adventuresome spirit that they left their home in the UAE, traveled to Germany and have just landed in BC – all in aid of getting a feel for OTG, BC style.  In a few days we’ll pick ‘em up and give ‘em a quick tour around.  And then, there they are, sadly, – in Campbell River.  We would ‘keep ‘em for more than a night but, due to theirs and ours Covid-disrupted schedules and other forces, there is a scheduling conflict and we have three ‘normal’ guests arriving the next day (for the record: we do not have any truly ‘normal’ friends).  Still, we will give it our best shot and also try to score them some extra time somewhere else nearby so that they get more of a ‘taste’ of OTG. 

Write a book.  Make friends.  Who knew?

And, finally….I sprang for the lumber.  Yes, it is still too expensive but life is short and I simply cannot stand by NOT building my little new shed that is just at the ‘start’ stage still.  That little shed will have a story.  At least half of that story is that it was built by cobbling materials from ‘salvaged’ used wood.  The floor of this new shed is almost 20 years old already!  The other half of the shed-tale has yet to be written but it is almost certain to have some blood spilled and damage done to tools, skin, bone and bank accounts.  After all, we are employing/deploying all the usual suspects (Sal and me). 

Two friends came to visit for a couple of days. It was hot. So, rather than work, I took ’em on an island tour in the limo we have for just such a purpose.

They were keen to ‘see everything’ and so I slowly went down-island poking into rough tracks, wide trails and driveways – hard to tell the difference sometimes. The main road is a logging road graded semi-smoothish now and then but mostly only one lane wide, rutted, rocky, tilted, hard-scrabbly and off-kilter but still quite passable most of the time if you go slowly and drive the high-side. Do not drive the ruts or you’ll bottom out. You also need 4-wheel drive if you get off the main road (and you’d need 4×4 even on that main road in the winter).

I deviated from the main road down towards the east side community dock. That steep little side-road is about an eight-of-a-mile but is so rough it still takes about ten minutes to cover. We traveled at walking speed tilting and rocking to and fro as we got closer to the beach. In theory, we were hell-and-gone being on a remote island with small boat access only and then going into the middle of it in an old 31 year-old right-hand-drive Estima (the Japanese version of the Previa) van.

Down at the dock there are two small shacks, built in hill-billy style, but quite liveable. I know that because people live in ’em! One couple has a son about 8 years old. He was set up under a tree just where we approached the first dwelling. He had built a lectern-style ‘counter’ from reclaimed off-cuts. It was about 30 inches tall. The kid was about 45 inches tall. Think: a kid’s sidewalk lemonade stand but without the lemonade or the sidewalk.

Good manners suggested we stop and say ‘hello’.

“Yo, dawg! S’up?

“Huh?”

“Sorry. Whatcha doing here under a tree in the hot noon-day sun?”

“Selling my cars.”

“Oh, yeah? What cars?”

“My Hot Wheels.” He then stooped down, picked up a cardboard box and showed my passenger his dozen or so Hot Wheels, lifting the ‘monster truck’ from the offering for closer inspection. “Five dollars each.”

“Okay, I’ll take the monster truck.”

“The monster truck is ten.”

“Ten? Will you take five?”

“Yep!” And he held out his hand. Clearly the money had to show before the truck left his collection. My guy paid. The kid was happy. As we were leaving the kid said, “Thank you for your business. Please come again.”

As we drove away, “What are ya gonna do with the monster truck?” I asked.

“I have a 45 year old friend, professional musician. Bit of an artist, too. He builds dioramas in his spare time and they are amazing. He also likes to use toy cars in his scenes. He’ll love this! Imagine finding a kid selling his used cars in the middle of a forest with literally no one around for hundreds of miles?”

“I know. It proves the old adage, tho. Location is everything in the retail game.”

“It would seem that Covid is coming back with the Alpha/Delta/Gamma variants but we are opening up anyway and have dropped the social distancing and mask-wearing protocols.” That from Alberta. “We forbid the schools from requiring masks!”

“Vaccinated Canadians can’t come in!” That from the US of A and UK/Britain. New Zealand is closed again. Australia’s Sidney, is calling in the military to help with a resurgence. Thailand, Japan and South Korea are having outbreaks. The US is having a surge in cases amongst the still unvaccinated. And the list of Covid setbacks around the world continues…..but…“well, let’s go to the pub or the restaurant, anyway”.

The Philippines and Vietnam are on the edge of medical collapse. And we may as well just stop watching Mexico and Brazil as they just keep getting worse. Africa? Well, they are not yet at the 2% vaccinated population stage. Britain and France cases are on the rise again.

BC has largely had a good response compared with other jurisdictions mostly due to high compliance with safety protocols and fairly quick acceptance of the vaccine but BC is also rapidly trending upwards.

………and everyone is ‘opening up’…??????

So, what does that tell you? That we are giving up and that Covid is here to stay? That the vaccinated are safe-ish and the unvaccinated are so bloody stupid they can just die? Are we saying that the cost of protecting folks is too high to maintain so let’s just let this plague play out in the bars and cafes, schools and theatres, the big-box stores and the stadiums? Or, are we saying that we have shot our best shot and we have nothing left…?

“Why not just take a flight to to somewhere nice….?”

I have little faith in experts at the best of times, not because of what they know – they know more than me – but more because of what they don’t know – and that ignorance is showing up as great and vast in a rapidly morphing and spreading pandemic. Clearly they do not know enough about Covid. We are being led by freshmen and sophomores at this point. And it appears as if they are throwing in the towel, “Oh, Hell! Go to the pub if you want and take unvaccinated Bubba with you!”

The good news? This is Covid, not Ebola.

The weirdest part of the problem is that there is a readiness in the general population to go along with the madness…….“Say, what!?”

It’s true! I am afraid that even I am manifesting a bit of it…..“Well, I would like to see the grandkids.” “Hey! It’s great that we are having visitors!” “Hmm…maybe a trip to Costco?” “How do you feel about travel this winter?” It’s so incredibly illogical. Those thoughts are close-to-Bubba-stupid (especially given the previous 18 months of experience). Here we are having been isolated and masked, social distanced and with no touching; and here we are vaccinated and watching the virus still spread and we, too, are wondering about – even baby-stepping towards – normalized life. If the house is still on fire, do you go back in to finish your lunch?

“Dave! Relax. It is getting better. C’mon, man, take off that mask and have a beer!”

Well, I, for one, am not so sure that now is quite the right time to let down the guard and, to be fair, I don’t think anyone knows when that will be. So, in the meantime, you may wish to consider keeping up the miserable, ineffective guards that we have been employing just in case. They were better than nothing. Gettin’ on a plane and heading south for the winter should not be part of your immediate planning process…….

…..jus’ sayin’…..