...One of Us...One of Us...
Talking to JR, explaining to him that the homeless, they've more or less accepted me as one of them. I'm on the same schedule, up too early in the morning, scrounging for coffee, I'm the better dressed homeless guy with money for coffee and cigarettes and then disappears with places to go...
...but the café owners, they know, I'm fooling no one, and JR is joking as we pass a few of them on the street and they greet me and after they pass he begins the low chant..."One of Us...one of us..." and I'm laughing, my fate appears inescapable...
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A substitute Physics Teacher...
Dreams, that I was the sub for a bunch of High-School Physics students in Toronto, the class, more an old school library with the green shaded lamps and bookcases, a class out of Oxford or Eton, I was to sub for a week and now was time to administer a test...
Only I don't know what questions I should ask, let alone the answers, it's been a week and I haven't yet figured it out, I'm confused, know nothing, and the professor shows up, back from vacation, indignant, to throw chalk and curse at me, call me a fraud...
There's another sub I'm getting along with, talking, he's telling me nothing,...
Another dream, more dreams, still images, this next, I'm being pursued through an abandoned factory by giant disembodied ghost heads, like the the demons in Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", only these aren't cartoons or anime, more real-world renderings of his nightmares, nightmarish but not a nightmare...
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New Roads in Ordinary Time...
(Views from the Sat Night Milford Lake Excursion)
South, for my day off, checking out new roads I've never explored, there are still a few...
The day, gorgeous, the highway, driving the shoulder to let everyone pass, I need a combine or something so people understand, one of those warning blinking "Yield" signs on my rear window like they have on Snowplows or Sanding Trucks, hazards, this is bloody torture. Evenings I should drive to my destination, so that I don't snarl traffic, it's so bad I have to speed up to get through construction zones and it's a relief to get onto the logging roads where the road sets a speed limit I can maintain.
First up, Porto Rico Road, 10 KM or so up, the rocks, all ultramafic basalts, some shales (not fossiliferous), musical, you check them, throw them back, a pleasing ringing sound. A bust, but great views of the Salmo Valley. It would be interesting if only for gold or metals, the rust colored patina they all acquire shortly after breaking suggests possibilities if only you could find some Quartz stringers, notably absent.
(Basalts, ultramafic, bedding suggests they might make for good black countertops)
(View down the Salmo Valley)
A bust.
This is the job.
Next stop, slowly slowly down towards the Beaver Valley thrift shop, where I turn up a UV Flashlight, $1.00, then on to the Dollarama in Trail to get batteries for the many headlights and flashlights I've acquired.
Then back, this is the furthest I'm going south, way back stop at Champion Lakes, always curious what lies there, home of the Western Painted Turtle, I'm curious, how did they get up here? A (herd, flock, swarm) of discontented turtles making a wagon train, working their way upstream, I never thought of turtles as adventurous, but - clearly here again I'm a victim of my own prejudice because here they are...
Anyways, charming beaches and campsites, a great camping location for families with young children.
(Views of the Champion Lakes, home of the Western Canadian Painted Turtle)
Eerie Creek FSR, the dust, the dust, my laundry, why did I do, the dash, seats, me, covered in the dust blowing in through my window, the rocks the same, the ultramafic basalts that break black and weather to red or yellow, some beds of quartzite, again no quartz or intrusions that might offer up hope for crystals or gems.
(fresh roadcuts, always a good thing, but nothing exposed of interest...)
(roadside stacks)
And that's it...
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Neolithic Quarry, Milford Lake
Having worked the early shift Saturday I'm off to investigate a few prospects out Kaslo way. Archeological surveys suggest there's a Neolithic quarry north of Kaslo at the headwaters to Milford Creek, and so I find the appropriate logging road and I'm off...
This logging road, 10KM long, rough and what's left of my exhaust is scraping the dirt about to fall off...slowly slowly up and up.
It makes it, surprise surprise, and I get out to explore. Milford Lake, headwaters of Milford Creek, thick brush, more a small pond than lake, solitary campsite with a sign-in book that complains largely about the road...
Exploring is brief, the mosquitos will be overwhelming come dusk and so I head back done, stopping at the roadcuts along the way.
The rocks, heavily metamorphic mudstones, and in the veins of quartz I find the chert nodules. Quality varies, I collect a few with some hard banging then continue down the mountain. When the trees break there's great views of Kootenay Lake, I must be a KM above it at least, and no trace of snow.
Back in Kaslo I head on the highway North West to spend the night.
***
Night spent, morning is spent gathering coffee in town, French Toast, 2 slices, $13.00, coffee $4.00 per cup, and people say we're expensive...
Then off to walk the banks of the river, collecting more flint nodules, better quality, the water has polished them much like the arrowheads I've found, how long does it take? I mean, I've found flakes with sharp edges, but the longer they lay in the sand and waves the more they come to resemble just pieces of Chert, no longer discarded tools erosion has smoothed all their rough edges and knapping marks...
Other rocks, none of interest other than for possible mixed media projects that hinge upon me finding a time and place to get them started...
***
Sunday night, slow, working with T* who is not so competent I'm discovering, and she's having a rant about the tip out, thinks it's too much, unfair, and I hate to break it to her but it's literally half of what anyone in town is paying to the house, but she doesn't get it and the squeaky wheel may soon be replaced...
Customers, a couple of good ones, the rest, well, should have hung a wreathe of garlic on the door and sprinkled it with Holy Water...
***
Monday, up and ready to go to Gym, days off, only now H***** is texting me, 7:00 AM, she's sick, heatstroke, too long in the sun yesterday, could I please, pretty please, work her shift for her....
This is fucking annoying. I'm working 6 days a week now, 4, 5 hour shifts, no chance to go anywhere, she's working two and this is the second time this month she's dropped one..."I really need this job" she'd told me in confidence, nope, she doesn't, and yet - here we are, her second absence, 2 shifts a week and she's 50/50, next time it'll be a bee-sting or Lyme disease or the blueberries need harvesting or a favorite laying hen needs to go to the vet...
The excuses are a bit much and I'm getting pissed, here on a day off when I should be off on a hundred other adventures, and this is not going to be the pattern for my summer...
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