We used to sing “we’re off to see the wild west show” in university days. I think it helped to be or maybe was essential to be drunk to appreciate its humour but one of the verses went something like:
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in this corner we have the kee kee bird” to which the drunken response was “fantastic …. incredible …… what the hell’s a kee kee bird?” And then the verse continued “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I’m glad you asked that question. The kee kee bird flies over Antarctica singing ‘kee kee kee riiist its cold down here’”. There are other verses with much less family-rated lyrics.
I take back all the whining about BC weather. Constant rain at least means it isn’t freezing outside.
Me and the idiot cat left the boat around noon on Monday, having done most of our getting ready on Sunday. When I got close to Nanaimo it seemed like I would be in danger of missing what they thought was a 12:30 sailing out of Departure Bay (going to Horseshoe Bay) so instead I caught their 12:45 sailing out of Duke Point (going to Tsawassen). In hindsight I could likely have made the Departure sailing because I think it was a few minutes late but Duke Point is probably 15 minutes closer to Cow Bay so 15 minutes closer with a 15 minute later departure seemed like really good insurance. Its a longer ferry trip when you land at Tsawassen but you miss the grind out through west and north Vancouver in the car so the extra time on the water kind of balances out the shorter distance once you reach the mainland. As it turned out I hit gridlock on River Road getting over to #1 highway but that can happen anywhere at any time in Vancouver so there was no guarantee I would have missed the parking lot experience no matter which ferry I caught.
That night me and the cat got as far as Merritt. The Coquihalla Pass was a little wet but really no big deal. Tuesday was another matter altogether. We drove in slush, on snow pack and through fog pretty well the whole day. Not that it bothered the idiot – he split his time between the floorboards behind my seat and the rear parcel shelf. He seems to really like it up on the parcel shelf at night but he spent some daylight time up there as well. We slept that night in Drumheller and arrived in Saskatoon shortly after noon on Wednesday.
Marilyn had arranged a stay in a cat hotel for the furball so I dropped him off as soon as I got to the city. He’s good company but a pain in the ass to travel with so I wasn’t sad to get him out of the car. During the fog and slush portion on Tuesday he spent a good deal of his time complaining about something. I’m not sure what was bothering him but I know damn well what was bothering me --- the cat was bothering me.
I had a Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA) conference to attend in Saskatoon on Thursday. That went late in the day & I had some meetings afterwards so I didn’t leave the city until Friday morning. Of course I had to pick up the nitwit first. Then the two of us headed for Buchanan, arriving in the early afternoon. Damn it was cold here when we arrived. The bus was a frozen lump of steel and glass and wood at roughly 20 degrees below zero and it took over 6 hours of the furnace running wide open to finally get everything warmed up again. By the time Marilyn arrived though thanks to a lot of burned diesel fuel and with assistance from Sask. Power she had a warm home to come into.
We had a pretty lazy day today – long overdue for both of us. She’s going to take the cat and head back to Regina tomorrow afternoon but I’ll hang around here until Tuesday before going back to Saskatoon. She starts her housesitting gig on Friday so after that we’ll have a place we can be together at in Regina but until then she lives in a cave in a Chinaman’s basement with no guests allowed.
By some incredible stroke of luck I am now expecting my cubevan buyer to arrive here Monday. Its really impossible to believe that it could work out this well so I am reserving judgement until I have his cash in hand and he has the van in Yorkton. Last spring when we made the deal he assured me it would never take until December to complete it. We’re close but if he shows up on Monday (and if the van starts) we won’t make it to December. I’ll be glad to be rid of it.
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