- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1493
I've got the internet, again, finally, it's been a while and I'm not to into hauling my computer into town and cybersquating cafe's, this should make my writing a little more regular...winter's settling in and it would be a long one without entertainment...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1472
This is a short list of all the places that I've lived these past 6 or so years.
Prospecting, in the bush, camping by the highway, off on logging roads, in motels, with crazy and his every conspiracy theories in the NE of Calgary while I did construction, around Drumheller, Alberta, back in the bush, at the restaurant - with crazy again, and back into the bush, finally into that apartment in Bankview - then out of there, and in with that crack-addled waitress and her sex swing, and on various sofas and couches throughout the city, then finally to Nelson - not Nelson, not quite, the guest-house, the tent on the front lawn, the highway, beside, the logging cuts, a hundred places and turn-outs between here and there, then the staff accommodations at the pub - just a place, really, to store my clothes, then the basement - hell - at the pub, dire, bleak beyond description, the trailer, fine at the beginning but with winter closing in, the propane running out, ran out, cold, foot stirring the air beside the space heater, it ain't much but I'll take it, all my life has been preparing to live in the Kootenays, add hardship upon hardship, intolerable situation to intolerable situation and then learn to shrug it off, and finally now, here, the nicest place I've probably rented in my life, loft, modern, if you like that, I'll like that for the moment, shower, flush toilet, all en-suite, power, heat, I've no complaints for another 6 months. At which point I'd better be settled, really, better be a lot closer, this regular living is costing me dear in money that I can't at the moment afford...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1810
And the pub, business dropped off a cliff, long days cleaning, the place is spic-and-span, the season apparently will pick up in another month. Fingers crossed. We're down to 2 staff members - Myself, and the chef, the other chef wasn't getting enough hours and so found a more reliable job at the hotsprings. She gave notice, then they terminated her, they were doing her "a favour" they tell her, and that if the owner wants to scream at her that's her right as owner of the business, and that she doesn't - the owner - owe any one an apology because she is, after all, the owner...
It's unbelievable.
The other waiter - 1 shift per week - 4.5 hours, and they ask me if I want his shift, if I do they'll lay him off, I don't - I need more work, for sure, but not at the expense of firing somebody else...they're proper corporate sociopaths...
But I know the remaining chef is looking for work, if he finds it the pub will close. The reputation they have in the community is well deserved and hard won, and it's definitely what they imagine it to be, I trust them about as far as I can throw them, they've done nothing to me but I've seen too much their treatment of the rest of the staff to deceive myself that my day isn't coming...
Keeping a full tank of gas in the Jeep just in case...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1574
Friday Night, October 27th, and the boys - the band at the BBI, called to see if we, the staff, would be going to see their show.
I wasn't aware there would be a show, only that there was a party, and so go along for the entertainment, it's been a month, too long, too soon...
The BBI, the bar at the end of the world, the real "Magic Tavern", the Hive of all Scum and Villainy...
I digress. The night passes, The boys - D*** and B*****, D***, in his baseball cap and mullet, play their set, B***** has taken the spirit of the season and facepainted himself to look like "The Joker" from the latest Batman...Heath Ledger's 'The Joker'. It's a look, for sure, I guessed "Kiss" and a couple of other stray shots before I landed it. With his long, dark hair and slender appearance its certainly scary...if that's what he was going for...
End of the night a chef at the restaurant agrees to give them a ride home, I go along as well, my trailer's only a few km up the road...they don't drop me off, I'm along for company for the chef on the way back, I'll have to get out on the return trip...
Winding bends, it's dark, late, after 2:00, approaching Nelson when from the left of the road come a couple of deer...
...it's quick, they're small, she only hits one, it goes flying perhaps 5 meters, struggles to get back up, falls back down, tries to get back up...it's hip, maybe some legs are broken, flailing in the middle of the road, God knows what internal injuries, it's done, deer, people, animals in general, they never do well with car collisions...
B***** from the back seat says: "Let me deal with this..." and I let him out, a minute later there's the surreal scene of the Joker in the headlights dragging the futilely struggling deer by it's hindquarters over the edge of the embankment, they disappear into the high weeds and trees...
Waiting, waiting...D***, The chef and I, we're all quiet. What's to say? This is lousy, the companion of the deer is off in the distance, just beyond the glare of the headlights, you can see it's shadow against the night, it's waiting for it's friend, it'll be waiting for a while.
After an eternity I get out, walk to the edge of the embankment, I can see nothing in the weeds, the night, the darkness, it's complete, strange noises, not B*****, howls or cries, I call for him:
- silence.
Again:
- "Damn thing won't die!!"
he replies, the deer, in shock, many broken bones, it won't live until morning but he's trying to kill it with his bare hands, finish it off, some bizarre obligation, "put it out of it's misery", but this last bit of misery is the last bit of life it will have, it's not feeling a thing, only struggling against it's inevitable death and his helping is not encouraging...
We finish the drive to Nelson, all of us, drop the boys off, the Chef is in tears, a vegetarian, perhaps a little more sensitive to it than the rest of us, crying, I can't shake the image of the Joker hauling the deer off the side of the road, off into the bushes, out of the headlights, it's the darkest thing I've seen in a while...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1513
An early morning. Worthwhile. And in a few hours the sun would burn all the clouds and mist away and I'd be trapped at work...
(right click, open image in new tab to embiggen)