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The Christmas Train
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 61
Last night, the Christmas Train comes through town. A couple of reservations for after the train, 7:30, it's an event for sure.
A couple of reservations meaning 2, one for 3 people and the other for 8.
Only it's never that easy, they're late, and there are the other "reservations" made 10 minutes before they arrive, a 7, 5, 9, 4, 2, 2, ...
There's a machine gun outside the restaurant firing people into it, we're full and the phone doesn't stop ringing, all this over maybe 10 minutes, "Kootenay Style", I call for backup - and more backup - but it's 15 minutes away...
Nonsense, absolute nonsense, there's no keeping up, no coming close, but here we are.
The night goes, I'm home just before 11:00. We close at 9:00.
***
Today a double, there's no Christmas train but it will be more of the same. Kids are out of school, kids love sushi. It's gonna be a bloody nightmare but I just - somehow - have to keep my sanity and make it through.
***
This morning, Kramer sauntering through to grab some coffee and toilet paper. She's in a fine humour - turns out she's won some $76, 000 on a jackpot last night. Now - I don't mean to be skeptical - but - well, you get it.
She assures me that the bulk of her winnings will go to pay off her debts. I'm not her only creditor, and I'm wondering where I'll be on the list, but let her have her victory and we'll see how things go. In any event I'm not certain she's won anything, no doubt she'll pop round tonight to borrow a few hundred dollars because that's what she'll need to "free up" her winnings...
In any event, my worries are on the day; if I make it to tonight we'll see how her story's holding up.
Of Community Housekeeping & Strange Neighbours
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
- Hits: 40
I was going through the house, finding bits of broken glass all over the floor. Kramer, it appears, didn't do a bang-up job. But I'm discovering chests of drawers and beds in other rooms and I'm discovering that she rearranged the furniture, then that she didn't I just have a lot of beds and chests of drawers and every chest of drawers has stuff in it, stuff I'd forgotten I had, a collection of ebony figurines and I'm showing my daughter and wondering if I have a collection of Ivory figurines as well, beautiful cabinets, there's a half-witted neighbour, he came by to show me a telescope he had, and now he's here sweeping the floors, and another neighbour tidying in the kitchen and yet another neighbour - pretty red head, she's popped by as well, and I'm finding old fridges and freezers and wondering why they're there and they as well are filled with curios and I'm discovering rooms I've forgotten about, never been in, and they are again filled with beds, cabinets, curios, and I'm surprised and appalled at how much I have to get rid of...
*(Woke up exhausted, strange dream, none of the "neighbours" in the dream were people I knew...)
Atmospheric Rivers & Slushing Outside
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 90
It snowed last week, or the week before, and for a brief time the town was like a Hallmark Movie.
Then it stopped and all disappeared.
Since when it has rained and rained and the clouds have hung lowering in the sky. Tuesday, a blue sky, not a cloud to be seen, but I'm working a double and so my vantage is only from the pavement in front of the restaurant when I'm smoking a cigarette. It would have been a mighty fine day to have off. I didn't.
Wednesday, it snowed/Slushed the entire day, by boots filled with slush, shoes, everything wet, grey and dismal weather. The snow, it just turns to slush on the ground, there is no snow.
And Thursday, the same, a little bit hungover - then a lot, too much of a good thing, went to the Royal to see a customer play, the place is packed, the music, good, but there's a drummer in my head and it's doing me no favours.
Then today, a text early in the morning, waitress sick, so I'm on a double, and still a little under the weather, lunch is busy, a 5, another 5, a six ,a four top, deuce, deuce, deuce and take-out orders out my a**...bloody hell. Way too much running for a called in shift...
But in the evening, quiet, and I'm out by 7:15, and glad I worked the lunch because otherwise my ring-out would have been zilch. And - the added benefit, the sick waitress is now obliged to work Saturday, meaning I have a proper week-end off, what to do? What to do? What's on at the theatre, about town, man about town on a Saturday off, l'm gonna start with a shower...
The Snow Ghost - Classic Japanese Ghost Stories
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 96
This was a much needed read, perfectly suited to the short days and long dark nights.
Classic Japanese Ghost Stories, most dating from the late 19th Century and early 20th, they demonstrate the hold the dead have over the living, the power to kill, vindictive, violent, vengeful, no pale shades half-seen in a graveyard, or ghosts walking in abandoned temples, these are full-on malevolent demons, fairies, spirits, that can interact in ways with the living that the Western Tradition generally doesn't allow.
So worthwhile....
(My other books, I mean Shopenhauer, Jack Kerouac, US Anderson, too many more to list, they've rather stalled on me)
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