Garage Sales & Herkimer Diamonds
I'm on my way to a garage sale in Nelson-not-Nelson. It's Nelson, but it's somewhere else, I'm not sure, a combination of Hampstead & Portabello Road in London, every grown in-attractive neighborhood I've ever visited...
The garage sale, I'd followed the sign and parked, but I'd already been to this one, it's been picked over, still, rummage again through a few bins, find a few trifling finds...
Outside, there's a brick wall beside a sidewalk with vendors set up. I go over, look above, see the glitter of Mica, begin to dig and...
...uncover a vein of mica schist, silver and glittery, and falling out of it are these chunky Herkimer diamonds, big double-terminated quartz crystals, I fill my arms...
Now I'm looking for my jeep, only it seems to have disappeared and I can't remember where I parked it, up side streets - there's old cars stuffed in overgrown balconies, not my jeep, and I'm looking and looking...
Back to the garage sale, through the house, there's an exit on the other side, only they've closed it and I've got to find my way around...
Finding my way, finding my way, someone is digging in the vein that I exposed, the jeep, it isn't there, must have been towed goddamn-it, but there's the vein of mica to be dug, right in town, and I can't wait to get back and dig it all up...
(weird dreams. And there was another, something about bottled water and Jeff Bezos, but - thankfully, I forget...)
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- Category: Dreams
Smoky, Hot, Jeep, Work
The skies grow increasingly hazy with all the forest fires. You can't smell them - yet, but they're increasingly close.
Usually I'd pay my rent up early, get ahead on my bills, - but - what with the state of the world and all I'm just going to sit on it until the last minute.
The restaurant - Thursday, reasonable, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - bananas.
Stupid busy. Busier than we can handle, and they've had an ad in for staff for how many weeks now, without a single nibble.
The jeep, flooring it home from work every night - can't escape that place fast enough - only halfway, at Sitkum or Kokanee creek begins to stall. Power on, jeep off, drift to the side of the road, wait 5, 10 minutes, crank it again and I'm off.
Phew.
Except for Saturday night, when at 9 mile it does the same thing only it isn't restarting and I'm calling AMA for a tow.
Whatever it is it must be trivial.
Sunday, thumb out by the big orange bridge, not 10 minutes and l'm picked up by a retired gent out touring in his vintage 1975 TR6 - little sportscar, I'm squeezed into it, limbs akimbo, popping out every which way, he's in a loud Hawaiian shirt decorated with martinis and bright cocktails, a fine German mechanical chronometer on his wrist, just out for a spin, we chat - he's that comfortable air of someone who's done well in life, for whom everything has worked out and now he's in a position to enjoy it and by goddamn-it he's going to, and I'm along for the ride to witness his good fortune.
The most stylish ride I've had, and I'm not dressed for it.
Work, busy in the day, and then, contrary to expectations, and every year previous, we're busy again in the evening.
** shows up. **'s a regular, stylish, tattooed, pays cash, he's in the other "industry" - on the East Shore, and I remind him that he failed to pay his bill last time, to which he quickly counters "You must have overserved me...". I laugh. He's pretty sharp. But he pays the bill, the bill from today, from last month, and tips 100%, cash, and I'm gonna need this for the jeep, gotta love **.
Most of our customers are pretty decent.
Monday, my new balloons have shown up, I've been out of balloons to make animals for the kids since the beginning of the pandemic, you can't buy them in town & so I'd ordered a whole new batch off of Amazon. Chromes, looking for 260Q Qualatex, found these shiny off brands, and I blow one up - tough, near impossible to blow up, but they're perfect. Perfectly shiny, like fluid gold, silver, metallic colors, I'm pleased. I'll be producing Jeff Koons in no-time.
Now I need a pump.
To the mechanics, describe the problem with the jeep, then - too late for the bus, thumb out to get to work.
A lot longer for a ride.
Work, Monday, the afternoon, busy, then slow, reasonably busy, chug-chug-chug until 7:00 and WHAM!, the restaurants full, inside and out, they keep coming, table after table, we're the only place open for 30 miles, we're full, people sitting at dirty tables, demanding service, it's every service industry nightmare, fucking-the-fuck hell shit, can't keep up, they keep coming, it takes us 10, 20 minutes to get to each table, to figure out they're there, they're new, gong-show.
Bloody hell. I mean, bloody-fucking-hell. And I'm taking no complaints, we're hiring - you want better service? I don't blame you. Get a job here and raise the bar you fucking moron, can't you see we're short staffed? Grab a cloth, a rag, go wipe a table, clear plates, take an order? What? You don't want to? Then fucking shut-up, I don't want to either and yet here I am and YOU - YOU are not making it any better....
My patience is done, we're perpetually short staffed, everywhere on the lake is, but some places - they put up signs, they've reduced the section sizes, the menus, limited the numbers they serve - we've done none of this, we're in over our heads, every fucking day, and I'm getting tired of it.
Tuesday, day off - finally, there's no amount of Vodka can recover me from this. The mechanic calls, found the problem, camshaft sensor, need a new one, all-in $600. Oh, and there's this other thing as well....
The struggle, it never ends, no matter what you make, how hard you work you're never on top of it, and the skies fill with smoke, the end of the world, it's coming, it's nigh upon us, and I'm the hamster running in the wheel...
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Halloween in Edmonton (??)
I'm in Edmonton, working a weekend shift at the old Italian Restaurant - the one I used to work at in Calgary.
Weird, but I'm calling old friends to tell them that I'm here, I've made it back over the mountains...
Anyways, it's Halloween here and you know, you look outside and everywhere there's someone in costume. Over the top costumes, the street is filled with them, a 6-Man dinosaur costume, Maids, Alice in Wonderland, Cap'n Sparrow, everywhere, the level of detail is amazing, everyone - they're pent up from these years of Pandemic...
And I'm waiting for the train and the revelries, they've gone on too long, there's an elevated hospital bed with a bunch of men surrounding it, can't see exactly what they're doing, they're "treating" the partiers that have passed out and fallen down, too drunk, there's one guy, passed out on the bed, and they've got him undressed, are pressing on his belly, a giant shit begins to push out of him, and I'm thinking that this belongs on reddit, and someone is jacking him off at the same time and I've a dark feeling that it's time to get out of here, it's turning into "The Purge"...
(fucked-up dreams, too hot, can't sleep beneath the covers)
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The Road
Day off, late start but I go for crystal mountain again. The road - it's a lot worse than I remembered - more rockfalls, trees down, and the hardscrabble portion to the top - well, I surprise myself even. But I made it, only to be besieged by mosquitos - a pitiless whine, hundreds of them, I manage a couple of hours of unfocussed digging, some new pockets, tiny crystals, there's about 15 or 20 tons of overburden to be removed before I can start finding the good stuff, and with the bugs - mosquitos, black-fly's, deerflies and midges it might just have to wait until fall. They are maddening. A weeks digging to expose where I should be digging - but it will pay off.
Anyways - completely raw, hand-held phone out the window footage of the drive down the mountain (2 videos, missing about half the drive where it got boring) - I really should be a brand-ambassador for jeep, you see all the fancy Wranglers, lifted with the big tires and paint jobs that tell you they've never left the pavement. This jeep, if it could talk, well, it's been there. This is the same road I rolled the jeep down last year with the boy when the radiator blew.
I'll need a GoPro and a gimbal stabilizer, mount it to where the CB antennae would go, and then be off. Jeep Brand Ambassador, free gas, maintenance, jeep (of course), maybe a 6 figure salary (why not?) and I could provide 12 hours footage like this a week, of all the places Google Maps can't go....
Note: Sorry for the shaky footage, rough road and if it's any consolation it faithfully reproduces the nausea that every single prospecting partner has reported.
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