Saturday, up early to catch the bus. Go for a coffee, enjoy it because the next few days I'll be couch surfing out in Balfour, and nothing makes you appreciate town like a few days in the country.

Only I've read the bus schedule wrong, missed it by perhaps 10 minutes, and am stuck for an hour and a quarter beside the highway hitchhiking for a ride. 

This is a new record.

Eventually, Wayne from ********* picks me up, heading with his kids to Ainsworth to pass the day - local, it's always the locals, if you see an Alberta plate don't even bother putting out your thumb. 

Wayne proves an interesting fellow, with a temperament that reminds me somewhat of Wayne from "Wayne's World". 

Customers, a few regulars - R****, an older guy, maybe in his 70's, a certain fame or notoriety depending on who you speak to, hopping in on one leg (he carries his prosthetic under his arm or over his shoulder and has been noted on occasion to even wear it), he sits at the bar, JR. serves. 

Other customers have told me tales about him, about how when he was younger he would hide in the trees to drop upon the logging trucks, he's one of the local activists. A proper sort of Kootenay Character, the kind that are too regular lost to grasping landlords and gentrification.  

+++++

Dag's in, she's found a ride, "my neighbor, he's stoned 24/7; a real pothead..." she tells me. "Soulmate, perhaps?" I enquire. She laughs.

+++++

The Menu, revised to reflect the increases in costs, restaurants, they're a dying breed. Ours has seen increases in the round of 20% over the year before. Last year they revised the menu again and prices went up 20%. We were always expensive, now we're prohibitive. 

+++++

The owners, they're showing it to potential buyers. They're older, they look to be retired, and I'm wondering what could induce people with the kind of money needed to buy this place to consider sacrificing a peaceful retirement for the "investment" opportunity afforded by this restaurant. After they've left the the owner is explaining to me that the wife is "healing" via "Quantum...." and she can't remember the word. I know what she's talking about. "Quantum Jumping" I say. 

Sr. is shaking his head. I explain, because I get these video "recommendations" all of the time on YouTube, and have succumbed to most of the rabbit holes.

"Imagine that there existed somewhere in the infinite multiverse an intelligent, good looking, successful version of yourself...now, imagine harder and pray and maybe you can become that person....", he's baffled, his wife is laughing, I clarify to her later: "Yeah, I visited all the multiverses, there was no multiverse where he was both good looking and intelligent, you have to choose...".

In absence of our trusty scapegoat I've assigned our chef - S*** - the role of Ken, and have begun ascribing Ken's backstory to S*** with all the new employees. I don't think S***'s impressed, but - this restaurant needs a Ken like every trashcan needs an "Oscar the Grouch" and until I find another he's it.

+++++

The weekend passes. One young couple, up from Idaho, chatty, here for the hot springs, they're having a great time, loving it, going to make it a yearly thing. So I make my recommendations as to the sights in the area, and, now back in the restaurant they're breathlessly telling me that they got engaged. And she shows me her diamond ring, very pretty, diamonds all round the band and they're both over the moon and more than a little tipsy. Their Facebook is blowing up, and they're soon busy answering all their messages. 

Even at our prices there are still customers, although a lot of them are getting in the habit of splitting burgers and appetizers, I can't blame them, we've gotten too bloody expensive.

+++++

In town, checking town prices, The Main St. Diner, good food, similarly vast menu, 35% cheaper. With the 25% tipping "option", which I find annoying, but at our prices we're in no position to be slinging mud. 

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Category: Blog

Over 2500 Gold Coins with a combined weight of almost 20 KG found during construction in Germany, 1993. 

Note the paltry payoff given to the man who recovered the bulk of the treasure - a mere 20, 000 DM. No wonder the vast majority of ancient treasures get melted down - the law actively discourages the finding of treasure.

This was the largest Roman Era gold hoard ever discovered.

Regardless of the gold value, the historical value is priceless, and this is precisely what is lost when things go onto the black market.

Link: Wikipedia on Trier Gold Hoard

 

 

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Category: Found

And - restaurant opening deferred until tomorrow, so this evening it's the member's show at the museum. 

I bought/renewed my membership for this. It should be good. 

I was right, it didn't disappoint. A very mixed bag of art - watercolor, acrylic, oil, encaustic, mixed, some "flowers" done in the acrylic pouring style that inspired me - these were what the technique was designed for, and they're realized perfectly. All of the art shows talent, perfection of technique, but there are only a few pieces that grab me. A few, simply the execution - not the subject (landscapes, local architecture, mountain scenes). There's a fine picture of Gimli peak, very moody, but unfortunately printed onto canvas - I hate this. Photography is an art form that shouldn't be printed on canvas - it's an attempt to make it - well, something it's not. It doesn't improve it.

Some sculptural pieces, I need to learn to weld. Actually, I don't really, I need to find a place to work. This lack of studio/think space is killing me. 

And on and on, the gallery - small, crowded, they're selling wine and have canapes out, and there's a few people from the community I recognize and a lot more that I don't. 

I find M***'s piece, M*** from the thrift shop, and it's good, mixed media on canvas, abstracted to the point you wouldn't recognize it as a person - merely textures and colors, but that was his point. He arrived to much greater effect at what he was trying to do as I would attempting to do a figurative self-portrait spending hours looking into the mirror. 

...I'm impressed, it's good, will probably sell, it's decorative, pretty, people like this. And I'm a little closer to understanding him, "his art" - always hinting - never giving anything away, but that's his charm...

Visit, but the gallery is crowded, only the smaller half of the gallery is open and it's a milling ground for people to chat and catch up, "Society" as it were, and had I dressed a little better, or taken the time to get a piece into the show (how? I need a place to work...) I might have - should have - taken the leisure to socialize, grab a glass of wine and "hob-nob", but it was a bit crowded...

But - again - 5 Stars, local talent overflows and there's abundant inspiration and something to work towards next year...I'm curious how much of this sells, prices vary from a few hundred to close to ten grand, very curious indeed...

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Category: People

Now, for the next month and hopefully not too much longer, the Balfour Bus.

The schedule - frequently disrupted, and so weekends - more or less - will be spent crashing on the couch in the restaurant. 

But there's still the getting to & from the weekend in the restaurant, and as I don't care to hitchhike this will involve the bus. This bus, depending when you take it, can be an interesting bus. Today, the 2:45 back from Balfour to Nelson, 3 people, me and 2 women - 1 girl, one a rather ravaged and older cougar with lipstick on her teeth. The cougar is talking to the driver, a driver's quit, no notice, just walked off the bus...

...and cougar is wondering if it was the driver that dropped her off the other day, yesterday, her cat, I mean, it was in a carrier, but it got upset and had an accident....smelled the bus right up, wasn't her fault, couldn't help it, but he just stormed off the bus afterwards...

and they talk back and forth for a bit and it turns out it wasn't the same driver, not the one that quit, and then the conversation turns to the tweakers at the BBI...

...which has long been famous for providing minimal shelter to tweakers in return for their government cheques, and I'd been behind one, 9:30 this morning, in the bakery, buying up all the chocolate treats, clearly jonesing for a dose....

...back to the cat...

He's very loud (the driver) about talking about what an asshole that driver-quitter was. A lousy driver too...I'm at the very back of the bus, and I can hear everything.

We acquire more passengers, now - another reformed junkie, in his 30's I'm guessing, Cougar is unpacking and repacking her purse, taking everything out of it, then putting it back in, giving pep-talks to the reformed junkie, telling him he'll feel better soon, can't expect to be good after all he's done to himself...

I've talked with him, about him before, the other day he'd been in the library, in the aisles, talking loudly to himself, "Firing them all!! I'M FIRING THEM ALL!!!", I have no clue as to who was so deserving of his wrath, indeed I didn't picture him an employer, but....

Now more passengers, someone sits up next to the driver - and together, talking about that asshole who just up and quit 10 minutes before his shift...

You can tune your mind between every conversation on this bus, everyone knows everyone, and everyone talks loud enough that everyone can here, it's never a conversation with one person, it's with the entire bus...rural BC performance art...

 

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Category: Conversations
  1. Back at the Vancouver Restaurant...
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