BRADLEYBE IN THE HOUSE

 I am sitting here with Peter, Bradleybe on my lappy doing his djaying thingy on twitch.  Sun is shining, no clouds, smelling mustard.  Yeah, jeez, I have my white fuzzy housecoat on and I was eating a slapped together hot dog...raw wiener, mustard, mushy bun....and promptly dropped a gob of mustard onto the housecoat, right near my nose.  sigh.  (shovel list!)

It's been a pretty nice few days.  I went out to dinner with Marian.  Trying to find a restaurant was a trial.  In this town there is a shortage of workers, like everywhere.  So many restaurants are closed in this town on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  And the ones that are open close by seven.  We were

BILL SENT THIS TO ME ONCE

AWWWWWWW

HE'S GROWN A LITTLE!  ONE WEEK OLD

WATCHING MRS. BROWN'S BOYS

KERRY'S SISTER WENDY.....ONE OF THE MOST FUN PEOPLE I KNOW

BILL'S FUNERAL TABLE

meeting about six thirty.  So I ended up taking her to Solda's, a personal fave of mine but not a very sophisticated place. It was the only one open until nine.   I knew she loved beer but there were no pubs open.  But Solda's sold a limited amount of beer choices.  And as soon as we walked in she ordered a beer!!!!  And Solda's food is great so we had that at a least.  I had a wonderful time with her and was so honoured that she would call me up!

I found a crazy recipe for pumpkin muffins.  It called for one can of pumpkin (14 oz about) and one box of either carrot or spice cake...same thing basically.  So I bought the stuff, added more pumpkin spice I had mixed up, made a spicy crumble for the top and baked them up.  Delish and so damned easy!  I would have liked them to be a bit denser but hey! easy peasy wins the race.  And the dollar store sells everything you need!

Don't tell my kids this, I don't think all of them read this blog, but I actually bought a whole bunch of outdoor hallowe'en decorations!  Now I am not a fan of hallowe'en as the kids will tell you.  They had to make their own costumes once they got old enough to realize that slapping a sheet over their head and cutting two holes for eyes was just not cutting it.  I really dislike it and now with covid I am wondering what the protocol will be this year. The boys here have already eaten through two boxes of chocolate bars!

Well I don't have a whole lot else to report.  I am going to put up the next two challenges and a quote. I don't have any current pics but I could prolly find a couple old ones.  I will go see.  Take care, stay safe TTYL

55.  Cook up an outdoor bbq dinner.  Even if it is just for yourselves or for company.

56.  Get some seeds or seedlings and plant an indoor herb garden.

"Muffins spelled backwards is exactly what you do when you take them out of the oven." 

I am so fed up with this stupid blogspot.  Why, why would the size of the print shoot up to HUGE?  And why did they put the pics in the middle and not at the end?  I really hate this site.

THAT IS MARION DRIVING THE BUS, I AM THE FAT 'SPECIAL' ONE IN THE BACK OF THE BUS AND SUE IS THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE

RATS RATS RATS....AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

 I knew when we bought this place that we would possibly have the occasional rat show up.  We live three houses down from the back of a grocery store. I learned this from Kevin.  They live behind an IGA and the rats eat their garden!

I have already posted about our rat adventure with our heat pump.  Sad....but funny.  This time was funny too but phobic for one our crew!

I whipped open the sliding door to the deck to obtain my wok, which I had taken out of my oven, where I store it, and put it out on the table by the door.  I was making brownies and needed my oven earlier.  Now I needed my wok.  As I rapidly slid the door open, a big fluffy rat dashed across the deck from the left to the right, not four feet in front of me.  Well my immediate reaction was to slam the door shut and run into the living room,  shaking my hands up and down, dancing around and making inhuman sounds. God!  I hate rats!!!!  Spiders are bad, but rats are just evil awful things.

The next day Monte and Austin were cleaning and organizing the garbage and recycling on the deck.  I did warn them that there had been a recent rat sighting out there.

They had been working away for a while, I was in my chair on my lappy, when suddenly there was an ungodly screaming/yelling coming from the deck.  LOUD!!!!!  I looked out to see Austin running like a crazy person around the deck, throwing his legs up and down in the air like James Cleese doing a crazy walk at full speed, twisting his body around and windmilling his arms at a hundred miles an hour....all the while screaming in a most godawful way!  He came flinging into the house and ran around in here shuddering and screaming.  Well crap!!!   It was funny!!!!  Monte came in and we started to laugh!  We couldn't help it!  But at the same time we felt really bad for him.  Hahahaha!!!

Later he told me that he lifted a box and the rat was curled up in the corner of it, snoozing.  Well that ended real quick!  He said it didn't touch him but that didn't help much.  Clearly!  Poor Austin. Nothing like a little rat activity to liven your day up!!!

I got a text from an unknown number the other day.  It was announcing that whoever it was would be in Port on Wed. and could we get together.  I had no clue who it was.  You know, instead of asking who it was I should have just made arrangements to meet with the person somewhere and been surprised!!!

Well I asked and it was a friend from Kamloops I haven't seen in a while.  Do you remember the Mystery Tour we went on with Wells Grey Tours? Marion works for them and turned out to be the texter.  She is on a tour of small ships of Vancouver Island.  The group is taking the Francis Barkley to Bamfield on Wednesday and she was at a loose end for dinner Wed night!  I was delighted that she even remembered I live here, let alone want to meet.  Her roommate Sue was not only a friend but my handyman in Kamloops.  They stayed in our condo in Maui now and then.  I can't wait to see her!!

Now a wee dilemma.  Where to take her for dinner.  I had planned on the Clam Bucket.  They make amazing sea food, a kind of natural for Port.  I even asked her if she liked seafood.  She does.  And when I phoned to make a reservation I discovered they are closed Tuesday and Wednesday.  Sigh.  (shovel list restaurants in this town!!!)

The only other open decent place we can go is Little Bavaria, which we love love love, but Marian is German.  Is this not a little like coals to Newcastle?  But there really isn't much choice in the matter.  The other choice is a Brewery.  We have a number of newly opened breweries and I know from experience with her that she loves beer.  Also the new one across town has pretty good food too.  I have a feeling this would be the best choice.  I will report back and let you know.  I shall attempt some pics as well!!!

Well I am now about to denude a ham bone.  A couple of the household boys would like some pea soup.  Pea soup is one of my fave things to make.  And there is not an overload of meat in it to satisfy two of us that are quasi vegetarians.  I think a nice big Caesar salad and a bowl of pea soup for supper tonight!  It is feeling wintery all of a sudden!  I love it!  It is inevitable so we might as well love it as opposed to making ourselves miserable by not loving it!

A quick note to you Sharri.  Thanks for your thoughtful comment on the last post.  I agree with you wholeheartedly!

Well that's it for today folks.  I shall post on Friday and let you know how dinner goes tomorrow night.  Take care and I will maybe put two more challenges on on Friday.  TTYL

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”

— Rainbow Rowell

FLOATING ALONG THE COAST OF GREENLAND

AND THEY SERVED US PEA SOUP AND HOT CHOCOLATE OUT THERE IN THE FREEZING COLD...SO APPROPRIATE!!

TIME IS A'FLYING' BY

 Egads!!  So busy.  I love it.  Most the boys are back at the moment.  People to cook for!!!  I find myself laying in bed in the morning, smiling, planning dinner, my fave past time.  Two semi vegetarians and one somewhat picky eater.  And soon we will have Graeme with us as well. He eats everything and is grateful!!!  Well they are all grateful.  I love it.

Last Friday Monte and I drove to Port Hardy.  For those that don't know, Port Hardy is about five hours north of here..up Island.  Austin was coming in around midnight on the ferry from the Charlottes.

About half way there Monte started to get agitated and by the time we arrived he was pretty much in a full blown panic attack.  His arm had gone numb and that started a rolling panic.  The poor guy.  He is still somewhat fragile.  He is so good all the time I tend to forget that he is on all kinds of medication and is always keeping a lid on his issues, but sometimes they overcome him. But with talking and looking up symptoms involving numbness etc.. he made a supreme effort and got a handle on it. But it's clear there will be no trip across Canada.  In fact he won't be able to come up to Kamloops at thanksgiving.  He needs his little house out here in the boonies and that's totally okay.

Now today for some odd reason that is beyond me I have a long doctor appointment that happens once a year.  I asked the mo what it was for and she said that the doctor just goes over all your meds and general health.  Yeah.  Sure.  Why?  I get labs done that she looks at every three months.  I just had that done.  What the heck?  I don't get it.

And that being said I have to run.  Gotta at least try to comb my hair.  sigh  (shovel list).  Stay safe.  We just found out that one of Monte's band mates probably has covid.  For jeez!!!!!  Monte hasn't seen him for two weeks so fingers crossed.  TTYL

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.”
—Charles Spurgeon

. “Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”
—Arthur Somers Roche

FORGOT TO TITLE LAST POST

 It was a busy week.  Levi came for the night on his way to Tofino camping.  He was meeting a friend there.  He asked Monte to go along so he did.  The site they had had electrical plug ins so he could take his cpap and sleep in the van.  He had a great time!

Peter came home for a couple of days, on his way to work at Nitinaht.  Nitinaht is about and hour to an hour and a half away, over the road to a halfway point to Bamfield.  It then goes off towards Cowichan.  He bought himself the cutest little 4x4 Tracker.  So off he went Monday nite to start his first day on Tuesday.

Levi stopped in on his way back to Victoria.  It looked like he had a good time.  After a while he and Monte headed off to Parksville for a feed of Ramen.  I stayed behind because we had received a message from Peter.  He was coming home!  What???

Apparently there are a couple of guys working there that live in Port here and they come home every night!  EVERY NIGHT!!!!  The DFO provides a rental truck for them.  Holy Hannah!!!!  I can't imagine getting up at six in the morning, banging over that road for over an hour, working hard til four for five then banging their way back here.  Crazy!  But Peter seems to be happy about it, which is what is important.  But I have to say, when that road deteriorates as winter progresses, we will see how happy he is then!  I am happy he will be home each night.  I will be a pro vegetarian cook by the end of his stint up there!!!

I happened to catch an episode of "You Gotta Eat Here" the other day.  I have only watched it now and then, mostly by accident.  What I like is that it is Canadian.  So all the places he goes are in Canada, pretty rare.  This episode I saw was mostly in Nova Scotia!  And what I saw...I gotta eat there!!!  So I am now taking notes and plan to go to some of these places!  Mont and I will be coming back three hundred pounds heavier!

Another great suggestion came from Aryn.  There is a show on CBC called Still Standing.  Johnny Harris goes to small towns in Canada and meets all the people and sees things and eats in small diners then does a stand up schtick for the townspeople at the end.  I am going to start watching them with the idea of making a point of going to some of them. 

 On one of our trips back from New York, we were driving through Canada, we sought out the little town in Saskatchewan that Corner Gas had been filmed in.  It was a fave show of Monte's and Bill's.  It was so much fun to go there.

Well it's Wednesday, which means it's clean the house before Millie comes tomorrow, and it's Ange coffee day.  We will probably go to No frills or Walmart after coffee.  I think I will stock up on vegetables!  Gotta keep the fridge stocked with salad stuff for sure.  Peter is a big salad eater.  Today he took left over Dahl for his lunch.  He is so easy to please.

Well that's all I got today.  I apologize that its turned into a 'diary'.  I think once life returns to a little more normal, if it ever does, life will be a little livelier and a little more interesting.  Take care folks.  Challenges next time, not that we are doing them.  Lol!!  TTYL

"Animals are nicer than human beings and they are conscious beings.  If you stick your grandmother in an oven, she will probably be tasty. But is that any reason to eat your grandmother?"  Morrissey, Musician

This is by far the most interesting town I have lived in so far.  Just this week we have had a mentally ill mother shoot her son...just a block or two up from us, a mentally ill man climb a tall tall tree which no one could get him down from.  After a couple of days they found him one morning and he had hung himself.  We had the infamous anti masker pee all over the Dairy Queen floor and counter, just down the road from us.  And remember this is the town that produce those two boys that caused one of the biggest manhunts in Canada, after shooting people up north.  As a matter of fact we have a very forested park right in the middle of town and it's nickname is 'Murder Park'...for obvious reasons.  I love it here! Never gets boring.

On a more serious note, I just saw a native lady on tv saying, "every piece of land that you are walking on was stolen from us".  This may not be pc to say but I am getting tired of the inferred message.  I didn't steal it.  My parents didn't steal it.  Their parents didn't steal it.  Neither did any of my blood ancestors.  Just because my skin is white I have to take on this burden?  Reverse racism? 

 I am more than happy to concede that, yes, white people came into this land and took it.  And the white people ended up being the majority.  And due to that, I am more than willing to understand and be part of the fixing as much as possible but, comments like hers are NOT conducive to reconciliation and understanding and 'fixing'.  What is their end game? What is it they want that I can give?  Definitely not the land we are walking on, that can't happen.  So what can we do? What will bring this to a satisfactory end?  I have been listening carefully to what has been said and so far I am not hearing solutions, from them, that would satisfy and correct.

Monte, bless him, is no Bill.  I have to remember that now and then.  Back when Spod was still kicking, sigh, I miss him, if we decided on a trip of some sort, there would be hours of discussion and research and planning.  It would be so exciting.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are planning a trip across Canada.  Actually I should say 'I' am planning it.  I can't get him to talk about it or contribute or anything.  He is excited and looking forward to it but spending time researching and discussing just isn't in his wheelhouse.  To me that is half the trip!!!!

Meanwhile back at the ranch I have a herd of Lost Boys, as I call them, descending on us in the next couple of weeks.  Firstly Awsty, as I call him, is finally arriving!  He plans to stay until the end of October.  He is in the Charlottes I believe at the moment and will be arriving in Port Hardy next week.  Monte and I are going to drive up there the day before, stay in a hotel and pick him up the next day and bring him back here.  I am pretty excited.  I have never been to Port Hardy. Maybe we could fit in a quick trip to Sointula (sp?).  They have an amazing museum I want to go to.

Peter is coming home on Saturday, but just til Tuesday then he is off to work in Nitinaht at the fish hatchery for three months.  He bought a 4x4 vehicle!  I can't wait to see him!  I am hoping he will be able to come home on occasion on his days off.

Graeme has handed in his resignation from the hotel he works in in Tofino.  He has had enough of that icky little hole.  (I hate Tofino). (I also hate Whistler for the same reason). He will be coming here for a wee while before he takes off for the big city.  Now why he wants to go to Vancouver baffles the hell out of me.  Why anyone would want to go to that unfriendly overcrowded nowhere to live city is beyond me but to each his own!  It will be awesome to have him here for a while!

So that is it for today.  I must get back to my work I am doing today.  I have finally cleaned out the guest room, getting it ready for Austin.  That is a huge burden off my mind.  I have also cleaned out the huge rubbermaid in the bottom of the pantry closet that was full of unlidded plastic containers.  I organized them all, lidded them and cleaned out the rest of the stuff in there.  And guess what?  I found the frigging dutch oven pot that has been missing forever!  Its my pea soup pot!  I thought it had been stolen off the deck.  It is huge!  What does that say about how badly that area needed organizing!  Anywhooo, gotta keep going!  Stay safe and TTYL.

"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up". A A Milne