lawn speed record, garbs grabs the camera and full on pickle action

yesterday ang and i made our way outta here reasonably early and got started on a whole whack of lawns that needed to get done by 3 p.m. when i had to be at the pickle to take over for the garbs. he had to go to aunt fanny's 80th birthday party so i was enlisted to run the pickle as best i can...which isn't saying much. and what a sight i must have been in my lawn cutting clothes and shoes covered in grass selling goods to the fine folks coming into the store...oh well...
so ang and i managed to cut 10 lawns in just over five hours - lawns that were spread all over hell's half acre - west van, horseshoe bay, east van, vancouver near boundary, richmond and the west end....we kicked some lawn ass. thanks ang...
when we got to the pickle i told the garbs i had to get a snack before i started my pickle shift and ang and i left there and headed over to the market - leaving my phone and camera behind...the picyures below are what happens when you leave your camera at the pickle with the garbs...
i love that guy.
ok...i need to get this day going i have to phone the fawnz and see if we're going to get some snacks and coffee today....and maybe a movie with megan later on...two fabulous babes i don't see enough...

ok...have fun - and don't let the garbs touch your camera.

g. xo

puzzle pieces, new places, old faces...

well, i have to say it's been a couple of days - if ya get my drift. so much to tell, so little space, or ...well, no, lots of space but really, you don't need to know every move i've made over the last few days...
ok...
just as a FYI, and you may already know all of this but, i'm gonna put it out there to stop people from making faux pas when they run into me or shauna...shauna and i - while very much in love - have decided to go to our separate corners and as such shauna has moved into a new place, a very nice place, in the west end. it not something that makes either of us super happy but suffice to say, some things - as much as you'd love for them to fit and be perfect (and a lot was so great, it really was), sometimes love isn't enough and things have to turn into something else...in this case, a great friendship - which we already have - will, hopefully, continue and we can drive each other crazy as friends instead. i know i've probably said more than enough but, i just wanted to say that...
her new place is really a nice pad, with newly finished hardwood floors, new paint, and feels good. she's in ang and allison's building so that's cool having pals so close by - easy stumbling distance home late at night. good times.
i have been fumbling along as best i can, and i have to say my back feels at least reasonable right now as i write this. i have been doing the home traction still and my excercises - even though they - or really just my doctor - basically said none of it would do any good. and even if it'll never be 'fixed' it's more about managing the pain so this is the only way i know how to do this for now. my pal lena suggested a pilates place she did some training at and i dropped them a line but haven't heard back yet...maybe i'll have to rattle their cage a little more...
i was hoping to go to santa cruz before the tenth of sept. but it doesn't look as though that will happen...i am still heavy into the headquarter job - that keeps getting pushed along and the on the 15th i start my two week run at hammered and pickled maning the store while the garbs and mishi are in england. so come on down and see me there if you're so inclined.
the countdown had officially begun...i just forgot to start it at ten and count down...come wed. morning i should be a driver's licence carrying member of society once again...i can't decide if i should shave this itchy thing on face into some good male trimmage or if i should keep it full or shave it off....a goatee and sideburns could look pretty good...so many options...

i think i'm gonna have a shower and then go roam the streets....look for me...

g. xo


i ran into jessica, owner of the templeton restaurant on granville st., i don't think i had seen her for at least a year...so we played catch-up and now i feel like going there and getting danielle to make me a milkshake...

shauna's new pad...before she gets settled in...you always need a couple before pics so the after seems so much better...it's a nice place...


i had to go up on the roof of my building the other day to see something...something you'll hear more about in the coming month or so i'm sure so i won't try and get into it here...just have a look at the lovely view...

you farted, i'd ike to have coffee...

what the ?......

from craigslist today...the 'i saw you' section is always good for something....like this...

nice.

g. xo

mr. itchy to you pal....

ok...so this not shaving thing is getting out of hand...and fuckin' itchy. it's like having steel wool glued to my face...i know, i know, shave it off...but i have a new driver's license picture to get ready for so...for now it stays.

i love you.

g. xo

better yet

yesterday i got a phone call from a co-worker and, as far as i'm concerned, a friend who had issues with something i had posted on 'the blog'. he was angry and, after having time to reflect on it,i can see where he was coming from. now, i don't have to completely agree with everything he said to understand what he was saying to be on side, and to him to want to say i'm sorry if i crossed a line i had no intention of crossing. i'd also like to say i take my job in film seriously, do the best i can every day and in no way take my responsibilities lightly or want to appear flippant in my attitude towards my work, or my co-workers.
my friend took issue with things i had no intention of presenting as a joke, although i do admit i made light of some terminology we sometimes use to describe a certain work object - i'm sorry about that as well.
all in all i just want to publicly apologize for anything i may have said or posted in that blog posting and any lines i crossed we crossed accidentally and again, i'm sorry about that - i'll use my head a little more in the future.

sincerely,

garnet

greetings from venice...

my good pal, and all-round good guy, craig, was on a family holiday recently and sent this picture that was taken in venice. that's his awesome better half barb in there with him...i love that he's wearing the garbs shirt. he loves that shirt. i feel like a proud papa...or something.
today was a day of getting shit done...a list that's too long to put here - and it would be a boring one as well..you know, went here, went there...but we did have a good snack at the purple onion in crazydale and picked-up some rugula at kaplan's star deli on oak street...nice.
this week could be a busy one...more on that later.

have a great monday!

g. xo

let's see now

i got up at 5 am yesterday...i was at work by 7 am..and then got home again at 5 am(ish)....
that was a long day...
ok...i need to go and cut some lawns.

have fun.

g. xo

saying good-bye to emilie - for now.

emilie has left town...but before she did we ran into her on granville island and said our last good-byes...she's off to berlin to do an artist's residency. good luck to her i say....

ok..i need to have a little relax...

have fun.

g. xo

i've been walkin', yes indeed, i'm talkin'....

today was a day to try and get shit done...and it started off ok. i left the house, went and dropped off my ct scan results to my man tony at yaletown sport and spinal - he'll tell me what he thinks...hopefully he doesn't give me the jelly donut talk as well and tell me there's nothing that can be done - and thanks to all of you who have phoned and e.mailed me about my doctor's bedside manner. i just want you to know, i have not exaggerated what he said one bit. he told me what he thought and that i should just not worry about it and deal. so...i'm off dealing...
anyhow....thanks for the support.
so, after the ct drop-off it kinda went south for bit - in an ok way, it just wasn't getting shit done. i met-up with shauna and we went to caper's for snack, then walked down robson, and then decided we needed coffee at artigiano - where we saw the voltage kids taking a well deserved break as well. so after some procrastination, shauna headed to work and i headed to headquarter to talk with ricardo about getting shit done at his new richmond store...but he wasn't there so i headed over to don bull's place to give him a little iphone tutorial. his first ever cell phone. our little boy is all grown-up.
the it was back to headquarter where decisions were made and shit ordered. the new store is gonna look great. i just hope we can get it all done on time and on budget...cross yer fingers.
ok...i need to have a little relax...

g. xo

i seem to have lost my razor.

devon sticks up, bbq goodness and shitty bedside manner.

devon unveiled her latest creation the other night at emilie's birthday party...what are they? i dunno the name she's given them, but it'll be good since her other creations are called doodlepuffys...these little finger shaped worm-like babies are the perfect fridge magnet. every morning when you go to get your shit out of the fridge they're there looking at ya....i like e'm. devon will be selling these along with some of her other creations at upcoming craft fairs and off the back of trucks around the city...



so...here's the deal with my doctor and his estimation of what's up with my back and what can be done...and i quote here..." you have old man's disease.", "your back is like a jelly donut. and the jelly is getting squeezed out." (bad discs)
so what can i do about it?
"there's nothing you can do."
so the traction, the..(he interupts me...)
"nothing. not traction, not acupuncture, not chiropractor...nothing. maybe if it gets bad to the point where you can't function on day to day, then maybe surgery, but..for now, you do what you can and take it easy when you can't."
huh?
really?
that's that?
ok...
so i got a copy of the ct scan report and i was away. he has this weird casual nature that i'm not crazy about. he's sort of this 50ish hipster ,no socks, frosted tips and choker dude...at one point, a few weeks ago, he said in regards to my pain, "i think you are going to be fine..." and he was kinda smiling and half smirking...now, there's nothing that can be done. nice.
so, i'm getting some other opinions as i should and will continue my home traction, which i stopped on the advice of my sport and spinal guy until we got the report back...and i'll do the home stretching etc..mishi also looked up some stuff on the old interweb and sent me some links that i'll be looking into as well....but i can't believe that at 44 there's nothing that can be done and i'm to live with pain for the rest of my life...
bullshit.

ok...have a great saturday....

g. xo

we had buffalo sausages the other night with other jingus...nice..

stuff i kinda like...

today i found out the results of my ct scan - kinda weird, kinda disheartening - but i'm gonna soldier on and get a second and maybe third opinion. i have to, and i will get more into this as the details come in, go onward and hopefully upward because i think my, new, doctor my not be the right man for the job.
ok...so after that i headed over to the icbc offices and had a chit chat with the folks there about my license and when i can get it back. now, it was suppose to be three months but they also but the number 90 in parenthesis indicating the actual number of days i was to go without. well, today they told me it's sept. 03 that i get it back, which is actually 93 days. so...i've got to make a few phone calls, but it seems kinda shifty to me. not that three days is the end of the world but after you've been cooling yer heals for 90 days, three more is a drag.
ok...so i just got off the phone with icbc and it's three months not 90 days...so it's better to get your license suspended around feb. than may...seems kinda shitty but whatever...they're the boss. i feel like getting mad and such but i don't think i have the energy. so sept. 3rd it is....fuck.
here's a couple things i think are kinda cool...

g. xo

new leatherman gardening shears.

pantone coffee cups.

more birthdays, less phone and jangus.

a big (day late) happy birthday to emilie who celebrated her's yesterday...shauna and i went over to her place last night and gave her a few hugs and ate a bunch if her food. sure, we took some food with us as well, but we mainly ate hers. other people made food or brought food - we ate that too. emilie is off to berlin in the next couple of weeks to do an artist's residency there. some schnitzel, some beer, some painting...sounds good.

to anyone who may have tried to phone me yesterday and couldn't get thriugh....i guess i was having some sort of iphone/fido problema...not so happy with old iphone yesterday, it better be better today. fucker.
i'm off to cut a few lawns with the garbs today- what a champ he is - and then, maybe, take a trip out to see issy. i have a battery thingy to drop off ut there and i may also get the big box to old cool t-shirts i have there and bring 'em home, wash 'em, and then give them away. to who? i dunno. maybe you.
speaking of shirts. there will be another run of lawn order gear in a couple of weeks. i have a few e.mails sitting around from people who want them and i'll be collecting cash for those....but if you want one of the highly coveted shirts, now's the time. or it could be a hoodie. whatever. shit, i'll make ya gonch.
ok.
have a great thursday.

g. xo

in a perfect world

love and relationships aside, let's talk about a perfect world. love and relationships are too complicated to discuss in a 'perfect world' get-up. awesome, sure, but not for here and now.

let's talk about this.

i was riding the bus out to issy's the other day and listening to music as i did so. and as if it, my ipod, new exactly what i needed to hear, at that moment, a freedy johnston song came on. it was a track from 'can you fly', one of the great american albums of the last twenty years. really. you don't have to be a freedy johnston fan to agree to this. it was an album that came at exactly the right moment for me. a time when i was struggling with a faith of sorts, with love, with work, with being no longer young-young, but becoming more of a man. i think. but what it means to be, that album, is not what this is about, this is about something else, something really, sad to say, kinda clique. why didn't freedy become a big deal? everyone should have heard 'can you fly'. but they didn't. i saw freedy open for uncle tupelo at the old cruel elephant on cordova street - steps from where i am right now, and it was amazing. which brings me to this perfect world...
in a perfect world....

freedy johnston would have sold a million copies of 'can you fly'
mark fidrych would have pitched for at least ten years and won a world series for the tigers.

ok...i interupt this to give you am update...i am not going to buy a place in the mantra...not like you were holding your breath but, you can stop wondering. i will keep on keepin' on in urineville.

ok...oh, now i've lost my focus..

nevermind.

g. xo

knowing when to say when...

when may be now, maybe. i don't know. a few years ago, well, actually, almost 12 years ago, when i was in a similar state of mind and place i decided to make a change. a change of location more specifically. i owned a place in kits and loved it, it was a pretty good place. it was the first place i ever bought but i knew that it was time to shake things up and move and my reasons were not entirely clear, to me at least, but i felt it. it seemed right. and in the end i really only looked a few places but decided on the place i am in now, the gastown loft-type thing deep in the heart of crack central.
now i have figured out a few things about myself since moving down here oh so many years ago. or, better put, i have learned what living down here has done to me over time. i think i was more free-wheelin' before my move down here, i have become more suspicious of people on the street, i have become a less tolerant of the 'bums' and pan handlers, guys i used to hand money to, i no longer do, or less than i used to. i think i am more stern. and i think, i suspect, it has a lot to do with the environment i have put myself in, i have no one to blame really, nope, it's just what goes on down here. the city has failed to 'fix' anything down here, they have ...oh fuck it, you know what goes on down here, it's no shocker. but that environment can't not fuck with you over time. it just does. it has to. and i've often wondered, out loud sometimes - even to myself - if i should get the fuck outta dodge. sure, it's getting better, or should with the opening of woodward's and the paris block - it should but really, the koret lofts haven't really helped much. not much.
ok...so what to do. i dunno.
today, after shauna and ang left me to go out to pitt meadows to visit shauna's sister and her mom - who is in town for a scant 24 hours, i went for a walk and ended-up looking at a new development down on fourth ave. very near my old apartment in kits - well, close enough. it's a place called Mantra - nice name....and really, it's fuckin' great. sure, it's different- regular height ceilings, a little smaller sq. footage, etc...but the overall feel is amazing. all new. a new thing. total change. and it can all be yours for....holy fuck! but that holy fuck may be the just the tonic. maybe. beautiful deep soaker tub, amazing kitchen, storage, den, etc....nice.
so what's a guy to do?
sure i can sell my place, i have a decent amount of equity, but, the mortgage i'd be paying each month to have my new tonic...steep, at least compared to what i have been paying for the last 11 plus years...i have been lucky over that time and my low mortgage payments have allowed me to have a fun, road trippin', art buyin' lifestyle. so, am i ready to have a little of that go away to make way for a new place to live? to get back to the west side of town? getting away from the junkies and dealers and such? i dunno. it may be not so much a decision as much as an escape plan and a way to mend and save my mental health. just maybe.
but in the end it just may be too much. too much money. and i look around here and it's not so bad really. really it's not. someone else would possibly, probably, love this place. and a part of me is scared that if i don't do it, i'll lose even more of myself, the good part of myself, that's been getting whittled away over the last 11 plus years.
so, that's that. my report.

more details as they come in.

g. xo

sandwiches and good looks

i don't have much of a report i have to say...things are moving along and i'm making it through but it's a tough go sometimes...
there are things i wanna say but i feel best keeping to myself, sometimes it all comes out wrong and then you can't take it back....better to hit the backspace button than to press send so to speak. i am trying to convince the garbs that he should come on a roadtrip with me to get an el presidente in los gatos and see the beach in santa cruz...plus maybe a baseball game or two...we'll see. i don't hold out much hope he'll come but i think you help celebrate the regaining of my driving license i'll head somewhere. maybe gerlach.
shauna and went for lunch yesterday at so.cial, a joint in gastown. they make a good sandwich there. you should go. that's it, you should go.
marcy hooked-up with shauna and i as well before she left town to go on a little roadtrip her own self. she has a week off and she, as she said, "needs to get outta town for five minutes.", so off she's gone with no real plan. good for her. we went for coffee and then she came by the house and i loaded her up with books and a battery charger fr her camera and away she went - after dropping me on granville island...
ok...that's it.

have a great saturday.

g. xo

good lookin' sandwich.

good lookin' outfit.

nice lookin' salad.

nice.

stuff...more fuckin' stuff.

a couple of items you really don't need at all...well, one you may need or at least want - i do...the other not so much.

this is fucked....
this is not...

g. xo

don bull gets new shoes...

...sort of.
last night the garbs and i, after cutting some lawns - a lot of lawns in the fuckin' hot africa like sun - went and met up with don bull for a little topanga action. don had been trying to get me there for a while now to buy me a birthday burrito and today was the day - i just brought a date, the garbs. and somehow, don bought him dinner as well...and the garbs was putting it back last night like, well, a man who had cut a fuckload of lawns in the hot sun. and drinking too. i kinda feel badly now that we ate like champs in don's dime...well, maybe bad isn't the work...maybe, really fucking good is better...i love don bull...thanks for dinner, nice work.
as much as i hate to admit it, because it's still a ways off, i have begun the 'give me back my fuckin' license' countdown...according to my calculations, i should be able to walk in there, the DMV, on the 31st (or the latest the first of sept.) and get the mug shot done and go for a drive. and i am gonna drive. all around, willlie nillie.
and happy birthday greetings go out to erin boniferro who turns 31 today...31! what the fuck? well, happy birthday sister...

ok. i need to get some shit done.
have a great friday.

g. xo

i've been cleaning out my closets a little lately. getting rid of t-shirts and stuff and cam across my favorite jeans. i had these jeans fixed, so to speak, by a guy over on fourth ave. at least five times and also mishi had a crack at them four times at least. i loved them. fit just right, felt good but, i finally let them go a couple days ago. sad really.

this fucktard again....

just in case it had slipped your mind at all...this guy still owes me money...sure, i'll never see it but, i love posting his picture. here he's telling his gal pal how he fucks over people for small amounts of cash....she laughs and laughs and then he gets her to pay for dinner. oh, in case you've forgotten, his name is laurie mercer.

have a great day...

g. xo

it's all gonna break

the blog. sometimes i just don't know what to do with it, about it, for it, for those of you who read it....none of it. it was and is a outlet for me to express my feelings, let you in on what i've been doing, up to, who i have been with and hanging out with, and sometimes, about love. and now heartache.
i have in the past let it all hang out when i have been in the state i am now, but this time, i'm not going to do that. it's not maturity, not anything of the sort, it's more about privacy and respect and just, for lack anything better, a time to tough it out. put on my big boy pants and get through it. i am still in love, very much so, it's just that the situation that finds me in love is changing. and i'm hoping for the best result possible.
in a few short weeks i will get my license back and with it a renewed sense of self and freedom and, well, i'm sure something else. there may be a need for a trip to once again re-visit the original el presidente...always good for the soul and heart.
i don't have much to report right now....it's all about laundry, keeping busy and making it through....

i love you all so much. i really do.

g. xo

monte clarke shells out

tonight, or last night i suppose, monte clarke invited a few of his pals out to his annual back alley party. now, i wouldn't know monte if he stood right in front of me but, i was there too...as was the lovely shauna....our main motivation was to support our man byron dauncey who was having a coming out party of sorts as monte had asked him to provide the art for the party as well as do the front window of monte's granville street gallery...pretty big pants stuff to be sure. and by all accounts byron did a great job....
it was a tad loud for the old set - me - and the free beer and wine flowed freely...so to speak. fellow bomber cam andrews was there representing bombers everywhere, as was the flower factory contingent of katherine coe and rosanne bennett. good times...
have fun...more as it develops.

g. xo

angela fama and marcy enjoy the big back alley show.

cam and larry get down.

rosanne gets ready to leave the alley and the factory...

hey mister where ya goin' with that mower?

yesterday as marcy and i were coming back from richmond, after taking care of the doglawn, i got a phone call from a guy in strathcona who's lawn i was to cut as well...due to the crappy weather and such i decided i'd do it this morning - because it was gonna be so much better today. don't get me wrong, i was the guy who said we needed some rain, and we did/do, but, lawn cutting when it's super wet, not so good...i had also told shauna that she could use the car today to do some work related activities...so....this morning, as it rained and rained, shauna dropped me off in strathcona, very near casa gelato but just up on union street, and went on her way...so there i was armed with a mower, bag, and a weed eater and away i went....and it was a bastard of a cut....a: very wet out and getting wetter, b: long grass - like perhaps 8 inches long and c: did i say it was raining out....? anyhow, away i went and surprisingly, it went ok....sure, i got very wet, and there's only so much you can do with a long wet lawn, but in the end, jay - my lawn order client - was super stoked getting his lawn cut on a rainy day....i have to admit i really like it when the people i do lawns for make a point of saying how great it looks or how happy they are with the job, makes it worthwhile, or more worthwhile.
so there i was...wet, and getting wetter and i had to meet with the propellor kids to make some drawings of the stuff i am getting made for the new headquarter store in richmond...so i loaded up my weed eater and such and walked over to there studio on hastings street, all the while looking like a guy who had just stolen a lawn mower and weed eater.
i threw my stuff in their dryer so it was all good...and away we went making drawings and getting shit done. thank god for them, them propellor kids. i think this stuff is going to look great, as soon as i find someone to actually make it...i have a meeting with a wood working shop just down from propellor on tuesday and am also gonna assemble some other quotes as well. i kinda like this co-designer/construction coordinator stuff....a different kind of pressure than i'm used to...a new sensation.
on y way home from propellor i was walking along columbia street and some dudes asked me if i wanted any nacho type chips. i said no as i thought they were selling bags they had stolen from some store - and i really didn't need any chips - and then one of them said, "we're out here giving them to the homeless"...hhhmmm....now i look homeless in my lawn cutting gear after cuting in the rain....nice.
i made my way down to the island to see mishi and garbs but shortly after getting there, and having some lunch, started feeling very sore and my back started acting up - not that it's actually stopped acting up at all really - and i decided to have a little lie down in the back of the pickle...then i'd had enough of that and headed home courtesy of shauna who was driving by on her way back from richmond....
i'm home now and it is here i shall stay unless we decide to go see the new hellboy flick or step brothers...

now you know the whole story.

have fun....

g. xo

tobe took these pics as i approached propellor this morning after cutting the long wet lawn.