Monday, head out of town. The weather's fine, as good as it'll get, there's been a lot of snow, a lot of rain, it's warming up, out to Balfour to look for artifacts.
It's been a few months since I made the trip, the trees, stripped of leaves, show how much the lakefront is filling in, 2nd, 3rd properties on lots that once held a single lakefront property.
The character of the lake, the town, it's changing, has been for a while. Not for the better.
Arriving at Balfour, first thing I notice - the property 2 lots down from the restaurant has been sold. Maybe 150 meters of lakefront, now cleared of trees and being built up by excavators. Asking around, apparently it'll be a trailer court for 55+ retirees.
It's ugly. Ugly as fuck and the lack of trees mean that it's a least 20, probably 30 years from being presentable.
Then there's the restaurant and it's neighbour. The neighbour, I've mentioned him before, a local "Character", by which I mean hostile abusive drunk. He's been banned from contacting any number of people on Facebook, he's the kind of ass that thinks threats of violence and Nazi salutes are funny. His property, it's been improved after his own mind and model of self improvement, more grey modular homes, garages, the property is now filled with them, side by side, garages filled with vehicles - how many does anyone need? More and then some it would appear. And other buildings, rentals perhaps, or guest accommodations, all so closely packed you'd wonder how they get in. It's a dump, formalized with a lot of crummy and probably unauthorized buildings.
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Then there's the restaurant. Smoke coming from the chimney, somebody's home, garbage piled high outside the staff accommodations. That probably can be attributed to SR's absence this summer, he was responsible for the management of the property, without him it's gone to shit. JR will have done nothing.
Apparently the restaurant has sold. Or is about to sell. Soon. There's a bidding war. I see posts on Facebook by the customers it never had looking forward to the new, better owners that will win back their business. And I've heard from acquaintances that it's sold, or is selling,...
All this talk of it's selling, it selling, it's proof it hasn't sold. That it didn't sell, that it'll be that liability on their hands again this summer and thank god I'll have other plans and won't have to go back there and work.
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The Ferry landing, the strike tent in the middle of the traffic lanes. The washrooms, at the top of the landing, they've finally gotten fucking smart, gendered the bathrooms. A men's and a women's. And where the mens (ungendered) used to have a single stall they now have 2 stalls and a urinal. 3 times the capacity. I can't speak for the women's but safe to presume it's doubled. This, 2 years after the improvements, could have been done at a fraction of the cost and double the quality when they were building it, but they were too much the fuckwits.
That said, the strike, ongoing, US/Canada relations, well, ....all these improvements to infrastructure, the uglification of Balfour, to what avail? The people are disappearing, the world is changing, and no ferry means we need no improvements to the landing, why would we, things are not what they once were...
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Change, that spotted over the past 4 months, since last I was out here, it's startling. Things have been going on. Not good things, but things nonetheless.
I head down to look for arrowheads. 3 1/2 hours spent stooped, bent double, crouched, looking at rocks on the foreshore. The lake is low, there's lots new exposed. That said, no great treasures. A couple of worked pieces of flint, an old scraper, nothing to photograph or write home about. When the bus comes to take me back to Nelson I'm pretty grateful. When I get to Nelson I stop at the candy store, treat myself to $10 worth of school chalk (Licorice), the last they have. And then at the Kootenay Bakery for a half dozen salted chocolate cookies. I have no idea where this sweet tooth has come from but I'm doing my best to accommodate it. And damn if it isn't all just tasting mighty fine...
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And in the days following I'm realizing I need exercise, yoga, this bending double for a few hours has seriously wounded me, my every muscle, and summer's coming, summer's soon, and I can't be this out of shape...