hey ferry! wait for larry...

wouldn't be hornby without a facepainter.

actually it's not that it wouldn't or won't wait for larry, it's just that the ferry from hornby to denman island only takes 30 cars at a time and we were around 40th after the ferry at 1 p.m. left and then the 2 p.m. ferry was full also so we're now number eight i think...if it was raining or shitty out it would be a bummer, but dude, i'm totally on island time and just chillin' watching some episodes of breaking bad, walking around, and then more chillin'. i have some provisions so all good.
yesterday was jam packed with action here - the farmer's market, some beach action, fish and chip and ray's seaside fish and chips...this morning we had breakfast at gloria's, i think, and then a big walk around halliwell park and then a visit to the cardboard house bakery.
now. the ferry life begins again.
below. the last day or so in pictures.
enjoy.

g. xo

ailsa's house/cabin on hornby.

veggies at the market.

larry loves the ferry.

garvie buys some fruit and veggies for a woman that has such a short skirt on when she bent over....god lord - cover the kid's eyes.

gailan, i think her name is spelled...a friend of shauna's i kinda know. she makes and sells pottery on the island. her dad is a big deal potter.

larry loves hornby.

fiona loves cinn. buns.

the fish and chips were ok...bot great but ok. always better when on vacation.

god's country.

doro and tom - ailsa's parents.

beach action.

arts and crafts.

parksville loves classic rock - all nihght long.

ok. so maybe the skylite's close proximity to the 19A wasn't such a good thing. little bit noisy. at around 4:40 a.m. some local rocker was cruising around listening to pink floyd's 'the wall' at top volume. then around 5:00 a.m. a few guys sat on the side of the road listening to 'riders on the storm' , pretty cool. and then at 5:30 a.m. a guy pulled up outside my room and let out the girls who are staying in the room above me - getting back after some parksville all night beach party action.
ok. i need to get going before anyone notices i haven't got the correct stickers on my car.
i don't think i brought enough clothes. oops.

have a great saturday.

g. xo

island time

i managed to make the 7:30 ferry and am now holed-up in a hotel in parksville - any town with 'ville' in the name is ok by me. it's the world famous skyline hotel of course. i'm tired and need a good sleep before i head over to hornby tomorrow morning.

it was about halfway across the water that i realized i didn't put the new sticker on my license plate and at midnight tonight i won't have a valid plate on my car - even though i do have new insurance, it's just sitting on the floor of my element which is parked at my place in kits. oops. if i get pulled over i'm good but it'll take some 'splainin'.

the island is really just over here, so to speak, but it's really a world away and moreso as you head up island - the hairdo of the manager at the skylite is clear evidence of this fact. if there was a 70's version of madmen she'd be the joan on that show, just less buxom. slightly hee-haw with just a hint of 'get smart'. or something. the girl at the petro-can who was picking herself up a bottle of soda, who, as she walked by my car as i was filling it up said, with her head slightly tilted, "niiice caaarr", could have been mistaken for a more blonde suzi quatro minus the leather jacket. i love it. but i'm still a little weirded out by it.

i caught-up on my 'breaking bad' on the way over.

there was a huge dude with his shirt off sitting outside the room next to mine when i first arrived. he and his wife were outside taking in the highway 19A sights and having a few smokes each. i said hi and got a 'howdy' back. i like them already.
tomorrow i'll hoss-down a little of the continental breakfast and hit the road towards hornby island...along the way the sights and sounds of the island.
see you soon.

g. xo

shortsighted

well, the vote is in. welcome back the gst and pst.

very shortsighted in my regard.

too bad.

g. xo

don hoven - great set of hands, all-round good guy.

the other night i was putting in ailsa's new tap set and one of the nuts was seized so i needed a second set of hands to hold the top side while i wrestled, from below, with the nut to get the thing off and put the new one in...so i called the only man for the job - and one that only lives two blocks for ailsa's place - don hoven - and went and grabbed him and went to her place to make shit happen.
he's a good man that don hoven. - very good friend of the garbs and when we needed a new guy at the shop, we wanted him. and he's been a great addition here to the BOC gang - just delinquent enough to fit in. always a smile on his face and willing to help out where he can...and laugh at you when you do something stupid...
anyhow...after we got the tap set in, we sat and had a beer and had a few laughs...good guy. good man.

i've been trying to get all the lawns done during the week after work or at lunch time because i'm thinking of going to hornby island tonight to see ailsa as she's up there right now for a couple of weeks with fiona on their annual vacation there. i think her parents are there right now too...i've never been there and feel like going on a little adventure so why not hornby? after work last night i raced to the dog lawn and cut as fast as i could while the sun went down...i was sweating like a freak. but got it done. i have a couple to do today, which i should be able to do, and then i can go sit in a chair and read a book on hornby island. and as i love ferries so much, i get to take three each way...
ok. busy day at the salt mine.

have fun.

g. xo

getting shit done - late night stealth syle

the other week i was installing a new GFI outlet in ailsa's bathroom and shorted out the plug. no biggie. (usually.) but this time it was. sort of. the breaker box wasn't tripped but the plug and another close by failed to work anymore. i looked at what i could but decided to let someone a little more knowledgeable look at it. enter scott. he came by ailsa's last staurday and had a look. we took off panels, tested breakers, etc.
nothing. everything seemed as it should be.
fuck.
so yesterday another fx guy came to work for us - wray - and wray happens to be an electrical dude and i guess he and scott were talking and he told scott what he thought the problem was...and scott told me..and last night after work i went to ailsa's and like magic, it worked.
for those who care...
if you have several GFI outlets - usually in bathrooms, in your house, if one trips and won't reset, go check the other one(s) in your place as they may be tripped from the other and they're all, usually, ganged on the same cuircut and cancel each other when they trip. and that's why you don't see it at the breaker box.
ok. electrical lesson is over. for now.
i also installed a dimmer in fiona's bedroom yesterday as her chandelier, that i put up at xmas, is a little bright so now it can be dumbed down a little. and..then, it was time to do the new tap set in the kitchen. and since there was one nut that had/has rusted on to the shaft of the thingy, it will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow before i can fix it - i need another set of hands on the top side to hold the fixture as i lossen it from below.
a little late night contractor action.
busy today here in the old salt mine. soon, i think, i'm going to need a second driver as paul is being run ragged with all that has to be picked up in a day and donovan is getting great at running errands but i need him here as well. helpful little fella.
ok. back to it.

g. xo

tuckered out

my neighbours - whom i have seen exactly once...planted some sunflowers...i like how they peek over.

after waking up so early for a sunday morning, i am now a sleepy sort. i may also be extra sleepy after a dinner with the garbs at refuel - burgers will do that for sure.

it was a big day - cleaning at the garnyard, a little shopping, gardening, a nice visit with mishi at the pickle (where i may or may not of helped make a sale of some cufflinks...), lunch at the pickle, a bike ride to kits beach for a visit with shauna and her crew (claire, devon, john, hottie, jeremy, kerry...that i can name right now...) - it was a late birthday celebration for shauna, then back home for a clean-up and off to get the garbs for dinner...

action packed.
ok...a little relaxo now and then bed time...back to the salt mine tomorrow...

have fun

g. xo

pump kin

hey! look! i discovered a going-orange pumpkin just minutes ago. we planted these pumpkins for fiona and they weren't looking so good but now they're happenin'...kind of. one of them weaved its way into the neighbour's garden so there are two green ones and one orange one. we'll see who wins the race.

ok. windows washed - in and out, gardening done, deck swept...i feel better. now some shopping.

g. xo

nap time

stella and shauna have been staying with me for a few days now and will be here until the end of the month when shauna gets her apartment back...she came back from spain sooner than expected and her apartment was sublet so she blew up and air mattress and now it's in my office area for the next week or so. except last night when i decided i'd move it outside and sleep on my deck - something i've wanted to do since i moved in here. shauna took my bed and i crashed outside. pretty cool. oh, except the part i didn't know about which was that the air mattress leaks a little and by the morning an otherwise hard firm mattress becomes a saggy 'you ass feels the concrete' mattress - but at least it was the morning and not in the middle of the night.

and look something red in my garden - the garden that is a disaster this year - friday night garvie and i had dinner with katherine at roma and she was saying that this year her garden was less than great as well. though she's starting from scratch at her/their new place and figuring out what works where is part of the new process....whereas mine just didn't work. i'm gonna go out there today and try and pin up some saggy tomatoes and see if the pumpkin patch is actually gonna make it.
have a wicked sunday.

g. xo

one for nine

if i was a baseball player i'd be sent to the minors or to winter ball in mexico to get a tune-up...today i drove around to see how 'my' lawns were doing but, due to the lack of rain, there wasn't a lot of grass growing this last few weeks. i cut one lawn in the west end and that was it. so i drove from kits, to the west end to the east side, dropped by the shop, up to main street area, then to richmond and then to dunbar. one lawn. i did stop in at que pasa for some lunch, which is always good but, not so much green. it's been like this the last few years in late july, early august and then by sept. it's wet lawns again and the end of the season in october it's boots and wool socks to cut and get it over with. i love it, cutting, but it can be frustrating.

ok. i need a snack.

g. xo

puppy love

my good friend debbie sent me this today...
....

Good Morning All,

For those of you who don't know yet, Kathryn and I welcomed Chloe, a pregnant 4 year old lab into our lives last Saturday, to foster her while she gave birth to and raised her pups for their first few weeks. She arrived on August 13th and her babies followed on the 14th, with the last one making her grand entrance early in the morning on the 15th.

Five days later, we are happy to report that 8 little girls and their Mother are doing just fine. (I am going to quit my job in accounting and apply to the circus as a shit-shoveler, as I have gained alot of experience these past few days, and have become quite good at it.)

In about 7 weeks Chloe and her pups will be returned to the Toronto Humane Society where they will be spayed and then put up for adoption. Ideally we would like to find homes for all of them before this happens. Any adoption would still go through the THS, but it would be great to return them knowing that the stay there would only be temporary, for shots, spaying and recovery.

If you, or anyone you know is interested in adopting one of these little girls, let me know, and we can move forward from there. Chloe is a Lab-cross and her babes are to be determined - quite can't tell yet.

For those of you in Vancouver, shipping can be arranged so no excuses! (seriously, if you happen to know anyone in this area that would be interested, please pass the information along)

Thanks!

......

g. xo

i need me...

hey!

if anyone has one of those cheap-ish, sling onto the back of your car bike racks - usually designed for hatchbacks - i need one to borrow for a couple of weeks.

give me a dingle.

g. xo

pardon me, pardon me ma'am...

ok...i fucked up...not on purpose, but i did. elvis died yesterday (i wasn't the only one...)....it was not his birthday as i reported yesterday. i knew there was a don bull/mondonna/elvis connection but i got mixed-up...and i should have known better as floyd's birthday i the same day as elvis'...jan. 08.
anyway you slice it, he's dead. died on the shitter.

so...anyhooo...happy birthday madonna and bullski...happy six feet under to elvis.

g. xo

ma(don)na and elvis..this day in birthdays...

question:
what do madonna, elvis and don bull have in common?

answer: fuck all...

ok. actually, today is their collective birthdays. one is dead, one looks like she could be close to death and don bull is still here tormenting us...for a while yet i would think.

happy birthday kids!

g. xo

gotta get me some of that scott action.

i love scott.

g. xo

lookin' for the one they call G-Zee

tell 'em where you're from...
garvie treated me to dinner friday night at l'abattoir a new joint in gastown close to my loft. that part of gastown really is yaletown north now - and great for me as my real eatate there should hold it's value at least in the short term. (fuckin' rrsp's ain't doin' shit so other options better work out...or it's tomato soup make from hot water and ketchup in my old age..) the food is great at l'abattoir. ailsa had a scollop number with ox tail fried dumplings and i had a pork should done in milk that was capital T tender. nice action. i also had a rabbit cannelloni that was wicked while ailsa had a fresh tomato salad for a starter. good place, you should try it. they also make a great margarita. i had to have two to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

i picked my carrots today and they's fuckin' weird...tasty, but weird.

saturday was lawns, errands, the dump - which is awesome on a hot day - the stink is just that much better...car washing at the BOC, a burger at Refuel and then in bed at ten p.m....i am such a geezer...oh, and more breaking bad - the second season is behind me now. still not stoked but am more interested to be sure.
today - after cleaning my place from stem to stern, and going to ailsa's to try and figure out an electrical problem i may have caused - issy came into town and we roamed around, ate lunch at a new place just down from me, cafe bica, ran into 'he who can not be named on the blog', went and visited mishi at the pickle, did a few more errands (new hockey lumber, stuff from the drug store...) and now am having a little relax before dinner...
more as it develops...

g. xo

hand in.

things i ordered today at my job.

-50 x 5/8" x 2 1/2" flathead allen head cap screws
-10 double burton swivel clamps
-a shit load of steel
-two syphon draw paint guns for our wax guns
-flat black latex paint
-lacquer thinner
-batteries of all sorts
-punch lock clamps
-hydraulic hose
-6k worth of brass fittings
-slap shot degreaser
-1000' of wire rope
-a dozen ethical bean donuts for the boys

and much more.

the other night on my way home from cutting i stopped in at whole paycheque to get some goods for my morning smoothies - love that shit - and noticed that they had stuff there from Butter bakery up on dunbar st. i had heard of this joint as the garbs had told me that oprah gets there cookies brought in by the truckload..so i decided i had to try one of the oreo-type cookies they make. good fucking god. i never need to eat one of those ever again. after the first bite i knew i had to eat it all to get rid of it - i do that instead of eating a little, putting it away, and then eating the rest later...i need it gone. and shit, you can feel your heart seizing up and clogging as you eat it. kinda delicious but really kinda two much. one cookie really is good for four or five folks.

look at this fucking toaster! i want it...i love it.


and this espresso machine! years ago i would have wanted it, now i just like looking at it.


i've settled in and am trying 'breaking bad' again. mishi had asked me if i was watching the new season but intially i couldn't get past the first three episodes of season one...so now i'm trying. i'm halfway through season two...still not convinced. we'll see.

ok.

kenny rides free, bombers eat and drink...

oh...what a night. i'm all fat and happy and full of pizza from incendio in gastown. new bomber brother donny is the head honcho of incendio and tonight gave some of his bomber brothers a flat rate charge on beer and pizza...good deal too. (thanks donnie!). not only can he give a wicked pass, he makes a mean pizza.

i'll be paying a bit tomorrow as i think i went over on the cheese action but it'll be ok...i hope.

before i headed down there with corie i managed to snap a pic of my co-worker kenny on his west coast chopper. i had heard tale of this bike and today got to see it for the first time. it's quite the machine. he built it a few years ago and for various reasons doesn't get it out that much. it's loud, just flashy enough and has no shocks or suspension. you gotta wanna. go kenny!

ok. i need some sleep.

night night.

g. xo

trains, planes and hamish

hamish, a good lookin' fella i work with in the salt mines, invited a bunch of us - actually a whole lot of people, to his family's property over on bowen island sunday afternoon, to witness the running of the 1/7th, i think, scale locomotives, men with such an obsession, bring to his place to run on the track his uncle made over his years there. it's amazing.
hamish's uncle made a train track that runs around their property that had tresles, a tunnel, a work area, turnarounds, etc. and to see all the old timers in their conductor's hats and overalls is awesome. kids running around, people eating hot dogs and hamburgers, drinking sugary beverages..relaxing. nice. i don't, as some of you know, relax well, but did manage to sit still for a bit yesterday. i also, do swim, at least in front of other people, and did yesterday, kind of, in a pool they have on their property.
the property belonged to his grandfather and some other relatives and has been passed down through the generations and has, i believe, six houses on it all belonging to different family members. his other cousins have a lot next door that also has several small houses on it - his cousins are part of the roger's sugar gang (the mcgeers) who i know through the music scene and they are also friends of the shums - brent and mina. it's all kinda confusing but the land is amazing and i swam.
garvie and i took my motorcycle over as did sonja and andrew. not my bike but his. dan and muzda took the water taxi and joel and his family - joyce and kids cole and indiana - took their camper and stayed over the night before. (though i think they actually stayed in one of the homes there.)
you really should come next year...you're invited.

g. xo

loco

the kids love the train.

hamish and his daughter katie.

joel telling a 'short' story.

dan and muzda getting the low down on trains.

more kids on the train.

feeding it the coal it needs.

andrew and sonja love the train.

garvie laughs at joel.

uh-oh...

i don't think i need to panic but...the edges and some tips of my mary-jane plant are looking wierd. maybe it's the heat. the new shoots look good and the overall health of the plant seems good...

hhmmm...green thumbs?

g. xo