First blog ever

I'm sitting in a lovely but dull (thanks to cloudy skies and rain) hotel room in Courtney B.C. Sunday morning, Easter Sunday morning actually, with a whole day of hanging around in my future until 6:oo when I fly away. Not quite as exciting as it all sounds since my "fly away"is work for me and I'm headed to Calgary to head to Abbottsford where I can do this all again tomorrow.

I have just said goodbye to my friend Rose who drove up here along with her lovely newish husband from Gabriola Island to visit me. We only had a few hours together but that is enough to remind us both of why we are friends. We had a lovely time teasing Darcy about his dressing habits. Even though he is the one that grew up on a farm on Gabriola, (one of the gulf islands off the coast of B.C.) he never bought into the whole hippy style life that so many islanders adopt. Rose accuses him of being a city boy, high criticism indeed. This is because he wears nice clothes that he bought in Vancouver, not at the GIRO. GIRO stands for the Gabriola Island Recycle Organization (I think).
Everyone should try a shopping trip to GIRO. Besides being practically free, you can find some great stuff there. One time I purchased a brand new riding helmet for $5.00. I thought it could inspire me to write a story about finding a riding helmet in a recycle shop but so far no luck! I was however, able to give it to a co-worker who had started taking riding lessons. She loved it and although we no longer work together or see each other since she moved away, I still sometimes do a circuitous memory route that lets me experience both the fun memories of buying the helmet and of giving it to Kim, allowing me to imagine her riding off into a variety of landscapes thanks to my saving her head......Yes,I do realize she would have gotten the helmet somewhere else, thanks for mentioning that~!

I visited Rose for a month once, mid winter. I was planning to escape a cold Alberta January and a relationship that was winding down somewhat painfully. I left Calgary on the date I had determined and nothing was going to hold me back. I packed up my convertible and my dog, Izzy, and off we went despite weather warnings. Calgary to Gabriola is a long way. I had made arrangements to stay in Kamloops that first night since hotel that accepted dogs, especially bigger dogs like Iz, were hard to find. My second day would take me all the way to Gabe (affectionate term for Gabriola) All was well until I was about twenty miles out of Calgary. A optimist at heart I figured the blowing snow and driving winds would settle down as I approached the Rockies. It didn't, in fact continued to get progressively worse. One day soon, I will download the whole story and you can see how it went, suffice to say right now that it was eventful.

All of this train of thought started because of Rose and because of the people on the flight yesterday both going to and returning from Puerto Vallarta, or as we say it in the travel biz Puerto VaLLarta. I was talking to Barry, (the lovely man in my life) about the unusual attire and bathing practises of some of the west coasters. No offense to those of you who bathe regularly, but what is with the.... I will not use deoderant, I will use public transportation and I will foul your airspace with my odors. This same person had a row all to himself, coincidence? Maybe this is a west coast way of upgrading to first class. (Our airline has no first class or as we say, you are all first class).

to be continued.....