Completing the Journey: Returning to Vancouver Island

It only took eighty-nine months to come full circle, but here we are. Tonight there are Yukon Gold potatoes frying in the oven, a little olive oil and lots of garlic; they'll be eaten with fresh West Coast prawns we bought yesterday at a seafood store called "The Codfather", here in Port Alberni. Chaos rules in the house we've inhabited now for eleven days; everything that was supposed to be clean wasn't, and scrubbing and painting have been the prerequisite to unpacking. I'll flame the "registered property manager" in another post that I'm sure will make interesting reading.

The five kitty-dudes have adapted remarkably well, finding a two-storey, four-bedroom house much more fun than the little two-bedroom house we shared in Lethbridge. Innu, the ferocious Malamute, sticks to Dorne like glue, not wanting to let him out of his sight, other than when it suits Mr. Doggie to hang out in the yard that's probably about six times the size of what he left behind in Lethbridge.

Wanda, the Siamese Fighting Fish, made the journey in a margarine container, spending the two days of driving on the dash of my Chev Blazer, and the night with us in a trashy but doggie-friendly motel in Osoyoos. She's been living in a small fish bowl since we arrived here, but tomorrow that'll change as I found the 2-gallon aquarium a few minutes ago. Once it's cleaned and certified water-tight, I'll be setting it up and putting a cat-proof top on it (they can look but not touch!).

And the Blazer. What a vehicle! Cudos to the GM workers who, in 1991, built me a vehicle that turned over 380,000 km just as we came off the ferry in Nanaimo, after crossing from the mainland to the Island. She's still purring, and hopefully I'll be able to get those 1/2 million km out of her.

Our frequent trips to Canadian Tire (so far, NO looping TV ads blaring in our faces!) and a couple of other hardware stores, as well as grocery stores, have netted bumping into several familiar faces. Alex, the wife of our former MLA and Leader of the BC New Democrats gave me a hug when she saw me, and then informed me of her husband's Parkinson's disease. We had tea with my longtime friend Patrick, and then bumped into my son's girlfriend's parents, and then my friend Pam, former school board chair and all-around Great Person, appeared in front of us.

Ok, now I have to remember how to cook prawns (we had Fanny Bay Oysters last night ... I thought about Linda, back in Lethbridge, who had mentioned the Fanny Bay Inn to me ... we'll get to the east side of the Island later this month, and we'll be sure to stop at the FBI and pass along your greetings!).

Time to toss the potatoes and get serious about those prawns.

Love to all!