All tallied up

In the last week Porter's Lake offered me
many sightings both good and bad:

a beaver dead on the side of the highway. It's a shame because his fur really did look as soft as those beaver fur ear muffs I had as a child. My best to his fam.

the poor eel that squirmed in the hands of a worker who thought it would be funny to throw in at a truck.

many nematodes and platyhelminthes in the ditch beside the Musquodobit Industrial Park. They were all different, cohabiting the polluted water so pleasantly.

a one-legged grasshopper who had survived the excavator. It'll grow back.

The poor mouse who was stripped from his home. I thought the pipe was going to crush him as it descended down on him from the hoe bucket but he managed to escape into the bushes. It made me wonder how many tiny animals are buried alive when they excavate and how often it goes unnoticed.

The smell of pine from 10's of metres away as the bucket levelled several trees. The smell was amazingly strong and reminded me of Christmas.

It was all put behind me as I drove home yesterday at dusk and spotted the blue heron flying low over the overpass and my car and into the marshes.

Ignorance

I walked 7.5 miles the other day.

My job required me to photograph every driveway culvert we were to replace along a 6 km stretch for liability purposes. I was elated because I could get out of the office and be by myself the entire day... and I could ...walk?

My boss would have gotten out of the car every 50 m and took the picture with the car running and probably would have gotten back to the office in time for lunch.

I chose to walk the length and screw off.

I had nothing else to do and I hate to see people idling, and a work site is worse for emissions than a traffic jam in the T.

Construction sites require idling dumptrucks, generators, diesel sucking excavating equipment, and traffic control pilot trucks that drive back and forth ALL-DAY-LONG. They wouldn't be efficient if they ran on man power alone and it would be ridiculous to criticize them for not. But the contractors, oh the contractors.

This particular contracting company who wins all of the contracts in this area (you'd recognize them on the site of the new Dartmouth Industrial Park job site.... excuse me while I puke), is paving this stretch of highway. The company provides the contractors, supers, and anyone above that with new Ford trucks in the colour of grey brown. It's kind of like the colour of muddy gravel sand, which is fitting.

I asked the contractor yesterday why he lets his truck idle with the air conditioning on and the windows rolled down. I watch him do this everyday along with all the rest of them as they stand around for a half an hour or longer.

"I don't care how much gas it burns, I don't care if it blows up, I'm not paying for it."

M, this is a textbook example of ignorance for you.

One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor!

Ugggghhhhh!

Why is it that whenever you bump into someone in a bar you always get tequila?? It always tastes bad (pretty much like ass) and just that one shot in the middle of your night's ongoings .....such an insignificant moment.... totally fucks up the next day.

And what is this bullshit about fine tequila? Who has the gall to go around and sample different makes so they can be the authority on the product. Iron stomach much? When something is so distinctively upsetting that it forces you to contort your facial muscles unwillingly, who is the guy who rasied his hand to volunteer trying them all?

I think people go for the tequila option because

A: it's fun to get set up. Drinking is more interesting when it involves props. Much like jumping into cold water, everyone has to do the steps at the same time so that you can all enjoy the pain together.

B: no one knows what the fuck they want when they get up to the bar. If you already have beer than you need something quick so that you can get back to drinking said beer. Ah ha! The shot.. but what shall we shoot? No one in their right minds besides maybe desperate underagers want to shoot vodka, and all the liquers are too expensive and you're too drunk to find the shooter list or remember/ pronounce your favorite one. So we opt for tequila. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

C: Its tough. Everyone has the little man complex when there is a beer in hand. I don't know why but the one who can poison themselves the most and still stand up is the Dali Lama. Its always great fun to watch your friends flex after they've finnished their shot line. Too bad you won't make it to the gym tomorrow.

Best use of free time

As a last minute decision, we packed up and headed for the Ovens Natural Park, cliffside camping. With Gen's Geology knowhow we concluded these beautiful cliffs are formed from shale.

We arrived at 10 pm and set up promptly in under 15 minutes...God bless Mere's trail shop tent and all of its efficient glory. After beer and smores (Yum!) we teetered off to sleep and woke up to the pretty ocean which we hadn't yet seen.

Breaky wasn't complicated: pb&j (no cooking required), Genevieve's morning Stella, and an egg. I am extremely proud to admit that I was stupid and forgot the pot but managed to boil it in an empty. If I had more time, I would have fashioned a handle, but afterall, we aren't picky now are we? : )

Mahone Bay was our miniature tourist indulgence. Meredith had her knitting orgasm at the Yarn Shop, and I ironically enough, was checking out a sale on pots. The pearl earrings we bought quickly offset the fact that we desperately needed showers. Nothing that a little jewellry won't fix. Our friend Sam directed us out of town and we started out towards the Lunenburg Co. Winery.

This winery bottles lots of different wines and seemed to have an array of dessert wines. Kiwi, apple, pear, maple, cherry..... it goes on. I picked the Blueberry table wine for $11. This was only after we picked what we could fill our bags with and posed for our spread in Saltscapes Mag. (What 20 year olds go blueberry picking on holiday anyway? That's right bitches, we do, and it was excellent. I ate enough to clear the free radicals out of my body for the next 5 yrs. Give my best to Martha.)

Great show ladies. Time of my life.