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musings of mark since 2001

   The commute is all set, I’ll need to get to the ferry by 9:40 to get into town and at 4th and Burrard by 11:11 and ready to go to work. It’s a bit pricey for commuting: bus transfer is $87 for the month, and I still need to find out about the commuter fares on B.C. Ferries. Normally it’s 5.75/roundtrip, but I know there is a commuter discount if you go upstairs to the administration office and get a book of passes. Joan mentioned the price, I think it’s about half that for 10 passes in a booklet. (Turned out to be $29.50for 10 round trips). Even at full price, the commute would come out to about two hun a month which is still doable.
   It will be interesting to see who’s on the bus; the morning should be fairly light, but going home with the crowd will be a good opportunity to get acquainted with the locals of Bowen Island. The Sunday trips have produced some interesting conversations, on the way home I talked with a Caucasian woman living in Thailand and coming over every summer to sell her jewelry. She was born in Canada, lived in Hawaii but found it too expensive, and now has spent many years getting rooted in old Siam.
   Another trip and chatting with a woman from Ireland, who had come over specifically to see the West Coast and British Columbia. Did the whole bit, Tofino, whale watching, the Rockies, Coquihalla Highway, and had just spent the weekend at BowFest, (the islands’ blowout for the summer). She was now on her way home with lots of good memories of the land and people, as it should be.

   A toddler running after a crow in Confederation Park in the twilight of a setting sun after a hot day. A flurry of baby steps, arms in the air for balance until, surprise, as the crow takes off for a few more feet across the grass. This is a lot of fun! A look back to make sure the family and picnic table is still in sight, and then it’s off and running again. The crow puts up with the child a couple more times, then rises in the sky to land on the apartment block at the edge of the park. Suddenly, the child realizes that it’s been a while since looking back, whirl around, and a sigh as everything is right where it was a few seconds ago. A nice slow stroll back to family, food, and Mom while taking in the rest of the park along the way.

   Another Friday rolls around, one more to go here in Burnaby and then it’s off to cleaner pastures. Looks like the cash flow will work out for a while, but it’s imperative that I find another job either in North Vancouver, (to avoid the Lion’s Gate Bridge commute), or preferably, on Bowen Island. Still holding out that an opening at the building centre will appear on the horizon, but also wishing that something new and more interesting will show up off the mainland. Computer work of course would be ideal, but other than web sites nothing much there requires the expertise. There’s always Horseshoe Bay too, but it’s much the same in that everything is tourist and service-orientated types of work. Getting the right type of work in that field would be a nice change from the things like warehousing, printing, driving, and manual labour that I’ve done so far in my life. Meeting new people everyday and being an Ambassador for the Province would be a really good fit, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed showing visitors the sights of Vanncouver and love bragging about where I was born.

   Another hump day, after today it’s over the hump for the week at work delivering plans to the architects around Vancouver. A little bit cooler for the beginning of the week; it’s PNE time, (Pacific National Exhibition – lots of 4H kids, animals, and rides), which usually means that some rain is in store but this year none. Good year for them, there has been talk of moving the PNE out of town for a number of years and they could use a good attendance and the money that comes with it.
   Time is ticking away for the move to Bowen Island too! Haven’t nailed down yet about which day I will be doing it, Friday night would be good. The last day of the month is Saturday, but the sooner I can get out of this hell hole that I’m living in now, the better. The same unwashed rag is still being used two weeks after moving in here by them to wash their dishes and clean up the chicken parts from the Chinese cooking – gross!

   There’s a picnic table under all that foliage! I started the task of cleaning up the yard by creating three piles of wood out of the scraps hiding under the massive amounts of horsetails, blackberry, and thistle bushes growing all over the yard. It’s been a while since anyone has been able to do any yard work, and I’ve showed up none too soon. There’s a spot under the boardwalk that goes nowhere, it was basically a hole but now is a mound of plant material getting ready to decompose. The wood is sorted into a pile of non-2×4’s, good stake material, and then the 2×4’s that will be used for the privacy panel between an artist’s studio and my apartment.
   The apartment itself is coming along very nicely, the insulation in the bathroom is done and it just needs the green board put up before the fixtures, toilet and tiling goes into place. Then the next task I think would be mudding and taping the drywall, laying the foor tile, and finally the kitchen fixtures. It’s going to be a beautiful place to live, a great view of the Cypress Mountain, Horseshoe Bay, and the deer in the morning looking for a snack form the garden. Hopefully I’ll be able to set up my web cam to catch it all. The desk is going near the doors leading out to the deck, but the USB cable for the cam is pretty short so can’t guarantee anything until everything is in place.