(no subject)
This weekend has just been one catastrophe after another. It started off with a bang Friday morning.
My Landlord had told me I had to have all my stuff out by noon. I had arranged with Trouble to use his car to transport the small things and was not sure how I would move the big stuff. When I got up Ramlah had a friend with a truck moving all his stuff, except what he didn't want which he just left there. I asked if his friend was willing to move my stuff as well for a few bucks, and the guy said sure. Noon comes and the Landlord arrives to find everything there, he gets mad and starts pushing me for a time when I can have everything out by. I say 6:00. However as soon as all of Ramlah's stuff was moved the guy had to go to work so he disappeared, fortunately I hadn't paid him yet. So then I phone around frantically looking for a moving company who could take me on no notice. I find a place but they change $100 an hour and have a three hour minimum charge. I make an appointment and then decide, "Since I have to pay for three hours, I'll get three hours worth of work." and send Trouble, Silvox and Carter (thanks you three for coming to help) home figuring the movers can get the small stuff at the same time.
The movers arrive at 5:00 (45 minutes late) take one look and say we can't move this today. So I am left with nothing but to wait for the manager to show up and try to talk a deal. In retrospect i should have phoned him at 5:00 but I was busy fighting against a nervous breakdown. he arrives and goes ballistic, we manage to talk a deal whereby anything still in the apartment 2PM Tuesday belongs to the building. The upside for me is I could leave my stuff there and run to catch my plane, after phoning to reserve a U-haul for tuesday morning. Fortunately there was a taxi waiting at the Macs store where I used the payphone, because mine was packed. So off to the airport. Current time: 7:00 Flight departs: 7:30, estimated time to airport: 30 minutes. ARGGGG!!
So I arrive at the airport just minutes too late for my flight. There is another flight an hour later, it routes through Calgary and then goes on to Abbotsford, instead of a direct flight to Vancouver International. At first the woman says it will cost me $320 but then when i tell her why I am going (only mildly exaggerating by saying Sheri is my sister) she pulls some strings and makes it happen for $45. So I phone my parents house leave a message as to what has happened and then I am gone again.
Just after 10:00 BC time I land in Abbotsford, realizing on the final descent that I had not eaten since the previous evening. No ride to pick me up, I phone my parents again and get the machine again... odd, maybe Mom got time off to go to that SCA event in Kitimat, and Dad is at work, so i phone the steam plant where my father works. He is away on vacation, both parents are in in Kitimat, so no-one got my message!
I phone my Aunt and Uncle in Edmonton, to ask for my sister's phone number, they do not have it so i get my Nana's (grandmother) phone number. I phone her, no answer, she must be sleeping through the phone since she doesn't exactly wear her hearing aid to bed. about a dozen times over the course of an hour I phone her house, and try 411 to find Angela's number, no luck.
Then I start to walk from Abbotsford Airport to Surrey, because I was able to get my grandmother's address from 411 because I had her phone number. For those who do not know Surrey is about 50 Km from the airport, $65-$75 by taxi. No damn way!
At 11:00 I start my quest which before it was over would leave a trail of stunned spectators in it's wake, including the nice people sitting in their yard who helped me find the Fraser Highway, and a slew of convenience store attendants. Still no food by this point, but lots of fluids (mostly water and sports beverages). I walked a distance of around 15-20 Km over the course of 5 hours. finally I get a ride after hitchiking 90% of the way), and he takes me about 5Km down the road.
One my way again, but the next 10 blocks takes me half an hour and my legs are starting to cramp from walking all night. At 5:00 I stop to phone a taxi from a Tim Hortons, and grab another juice. By the time it gets there and takes me to my Nana's house it is 6:00.
I wake her and she lets me in and informs me that she not my sister had gone to pick me up from the airport and she had been trying to find me until around 11:15 when she went home. X|
So we call my sister and let her know what is going on and that I still intend to catch the wedding, after everything I did to get here I would NOT miss it. I sleep for an hour and then get up to shower before setting off for the island. We arrive just too late for the 1st ferry to Nanimo, so we try for the 1st ferry to Victoria. Too many people in front of us so we trade our ticket for one on the 2nd ferry to Nanimo. By the time we arrive (after a couple hours napping) it is 3:00, the wedding started at 2:00. Half an hour to Duncan and another half an hour finding the private residence where the wedding is taking place and by that time no-one is there.
We now have an hour and a half before the reception. And we have gotten directions and a map. Well we figured if trying to get somewhere got us lost, perhaps trying to get lost will help us find things. Shortly thereafter we find a second hand bookstore, no THE bookstore. Gallowglass Books was one of my hangouts when I lived in Duncan. It was my sanctuary and home to some of the only really enjoyable times on the island. I go in, finally getting to see the larger location they procured shortly before my departure, and were still moving into before. It takes the owner of the store all of 30 seconds to recognize me before I even say anything. We start chatting about how things are going, both in Edmonton and Duncan, my writing etc. He recommends a couple books, which I get as well as a couple others, and we spend a generally pleasant 45 minutes chatting and perusing the store. Then onto the reception.
A great ceremony, good food good times, I was even called upon to make the toast to the bride as I had known her for as long as her own family had. Although a little nervous I came up with something short but pleasant, which was followed by a humorous toast to the groom by the father of the bride. After the reception (including myself being the first person Sheri dragged up onto the dance floor after her traditional dance with her husband and then her father) we went back to the bride's parents house on the decommissioned BC Ferry Atrevida. A beautiful ship if I do say so. Much talk into the night, mostly around the trouble us four kids (My sister Angela, Myself, Sheri, and her older brother Neil) used to get into. I swear we didn't know that salamanders could climb when we tried to keep thirty or so of them in the sump-pump hole in the basement. Angela and Neil jumping off the balcony into five feet of snow on the other hand...
So a good nights sleep followed by pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast and then we are headed for the mainland again. We arrive for the first ferry back and find that it is having mechanical failure, we will have to wait for the next Ferry, two hours later. Finally get across and now I sit here typing this as Angela and Alex are in the other room having their weekly D&D session with their friends.
My Landlord had told me I had to have all my stuff out by noon. I had arranged with Trouble to use his car to transport the small things and was not sure how I would move the big stuff. When I got up Ramlah had a friend with a truck moving all his stuff, except what he didn't want which he just left there. I asked if his friend was willing to move my stuff as well for a few bucks, and the guy said sure. Noon comes and the Landlord arrives to find everything there, he gets mad and starts pushing me for a time when I can have everything out by. I say 6:00. However as soon as all of Ramlah's stuff was moved the guy had to go to work so he disappeared, fortunately I hadn't paid him yet. So then I phone around frantically looking for a moving company who could take me on no notice. I find a place but they change $100 an hour and have a three hour minimum charge. I make an appointment and then decide, "Since I have to pay for three hours, I'll get three hours worth of work." and send Trouble, Silvox and Carter (thanks you three for coming to help) home figuring the movers can get the small stuff at the same time.
The movers arrive at 5:00 (45 minutes late) take one look and say we can't move this today. So I am left with nothing but to wait for the manager to show up and try to talk a deal. In retrospect i should have phoned him at 5:00 but I was busy fighting against a nervous breakdown. he arrives and goes ballistic, we manage to talk a deal whereby anything still in the apartment 2PM Tuesday belongs to the building. The upside for me is I could leave my stuff there and run to catch my plane, after phoning to reserve a U-haul for tuesday morning. Fortunately there was a taxi waiting at the Macs store where I used the payphone, because mine was packed. So off to the airport. Current time: 7:00 Flight departs: 7:30, estimated time to airport: 30 minutes. ARGGGG!!
So I arrive at the airport just minutes too late for my flight. There is another flight an hour later, it routes through Calgary and then goes on to Abbotsford, instead of a direct flight to Vancouver International. At first the woman says it will cost me $320 but then when i tell her why I am going (only mildly exaggerating by saying Sheri is my sister) she pulls some strings and makes it happen for $45. So I phone my parents house leave a message as to what has happened and then I am gone again.
Just after 10:00 BC time I land in Abbotsford, realizing on the final descent that I had not eaten since the previous evening. No ride to pick me up, I phone my parents again and get the machine again... odd, maybe Mom got time off to go to that SCA event in Kitimat, and Dad is at work, so i phone the steam plant where my father works. He is away on vacation, both parents are in in Kitimat, so no-one got my message!
I phone my Aunt and Uncle in Edmonton, to ask for my sister's phone number, they do not have it so i get my Nana's (grandmother) phone number. I phone her, no answer, she must be sleeping through the phone since she doesn't exactly wear her hearing aid to bed. about a dozen times over the course of an hour I phone her house, and try 411 to find Angela's number, no luck.
Then I start to walk from Abbotsford Airport to Surrey, because I was able to get my grandmother's address from 411 because I had her phone number. For those who do not know Surrey is about 50 Km from the airport, $65-$75 by taxi. No damn way!
At 11:00 I start my quest which before it was over would leave a trail of stunned spectators in it's wake, including the nice people sitting in their yard who helped me find the Fraser Highway, and a slew of convenience store attendants. Still no food by this point, but lots of fluids (mostly water and sports beverages). I walked a distance of around 15-20 Km over the course of 5 hours. finally I get a ride after hitchiking 90% of the way), and he takes me about 5Km down the road.
One my way again, but the next 10 blocks takes me half an hour and my legs are starting to cramp from walking all night. At 5:00 I stop to phone a taxi from a Tim Hortons, and grab another juice. By the time it gets there and takes me to my Nana's house it is 6:00.
I wake her and she lets me in and informs me that she not my sister had gone to pick me up from the airport and she had been trying to find me until around 11:15 when she went home. X|
So we call my sister and let her know what is going on and that I still intend to catch the wedding, after everything I did to get here I would NOT miss it. I sleep for an hour and then get up to shower before setting off for the island. We arrive just too late for the 1st ferry to Nanimo, so we try for the 1st ferry to Victoria. Too many people in front of us so we trade our ticket for one on the 2nd ferry to Nanimo. By the time we arrive (after a couple hours napping) it is 3:00, the wedding started at 2:00. Half an hour to Duncan and another half an hour finding the private residence where the wedding is taking place and by that time no-one is there.
We now have an hour and a half before the reception. And we have gotten directions and a map. Well we figured if trying to get somewhere got us lost, perhaps trying to get lost will help us find things. Shortly thereafter we find a second hand bookstore, no THE bookstore. Gallowglass Books was one of my hangouts when I lived in Duncan. It was my sanctuary and home to some of the only really enjoyable times on the island. I go in, finally getting to see the larger location they procured shortly before my departure, and were still moving into before. It takes the owner of the store all of 30 seconds to recognize me before I even say anything. We start chatting about how things are going, both in Edmonton and Duncan, my writing etc. He recommends a couple books, which I get as well as a couple others, and we spend a generally pleasant 45 minutes chatting and perusing the store. Then onto the reception.
A great ceremony, good food good times, I was even called upon to make the toast to the bride as I had known her for as long as her own family had. Although a little nervous I came up with something short but pleasant, which was followed by a humorous toast to the groom by the father of the bride. After the reception (including myself being the first person Sheri dragged up onto the dance floor after her traditional dance with her husband and then her father) we went back to the bride's parents house on the decommissioned BC Ferry Atrevida. A beautiful ship if I do say so. Much talk into the night, mostly around the trouble us four kids (My sister Angela, Myself, Sheri, and her older brother Neil) used to get into. I swear we didn't know that salamanders could climb when we tried to keep thirty or so of them in the sump-pump hole in the basement. Angela and Neil jumping off the balcony into five feet of snow on the other hand...
So a good nights sleep followed by pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast and then we are headed for the mainland again. We arrive for the first ferry back and find that it is having mechanical failure, we will have to wait for the next Ferry, two hours later. Finally get across and now I sit here typing this as Angela and Alex are in the other room having their weekly D&D session with their friends.