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Just a journal of life beyond Hope and past the Gates of Hell |
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I am writer first, a man of many experiences and father, Writing a blog is definitely a difficult task and hopefully something here will pluck a strand from your emotional heart and you will say, oh yeah, I get that! If not, then you are a better person than me. Thanks for reading and I am always open to your opinions and comments. |
| Wow! What a great holiday and lots of juicy stuff to talk about. Where to begin? How about the beginning? (See, I read your mind). As I stated before, the kids, my wife and I headed down to the coast to stay at my mom and dad’s for a couple of days. The cast included my mom, a published author, my sister Bev, the school teacher and my personal editor (she reads a novel in one evening), my sister Sue, the accountant and my wife, Nicole the bookkeeper / administrator, (not to be confused with a bureaucrat). Then there’s my dad who owns a large painting company, my sister Debbie the airline stewardess, my brother Jason the tour bus operator and four kids (my two and Bev’s two). Sound like the cast of a good whodunit? Well maybe there wasn’t any murder but it did get good. It started off as the usual family get together, we all talked about our childhoods from our own perspective. It seemed the common analogy that I pretty much was the evil villain in the early years of my brother and sisters’ lives. They could admit that they held a certain level of responsibility in the creation my actions. I simply called them reactions. My brother pointed out the fact that I beat him almost daily but then added it was highlight of the day. He would come home, antagonize me until I beat him up, usually wrestling. He would give, I would let him go, he would provoke me some more and I would beat him again. It was a daily ritual. My older sister Bev, pointed out the many times I chased her around our 2.5 acre yard with a baseball bat. I was quick to point out to her that I never actually hit her, not even once. She was surprised to find out that it was by design not just dumb luck on her part. One of my younger sisters, Sue, mentioned how I used to put her stuffed animals (which she valued like children) on trial on a regular basis. Mr. Doodle would often be sentenced to long periods of incarceration which was served in my room. My wife Nicole was quick to point out that these things were minor compared to what she used to put her little brother through. Including convincing him that crap was actually fudge and that he really could make that ten foot jump off the edge with his bike. Dinner was finally ready about nine pm, my mom and dad had a new cooker (a RONCO knockoff) that didn’t exactly live up its claims. Being stout Catholics (my mom and dad) we naturally had to say grace. I’m not exactly sure how it started but I wound up in an argument about organized religion with my dad. Sister Sue had to get her digs in, naturally arguing against me, not because she was for dad but it’s her nature to argue the opposite of whatever I think. Dad quoted the bible a couple of times, I said it has nothing to do with the bible, it has everything to do with controlling the sheep. I told him if he wants to be part of the flock (getting fleeced by corporate worldwide) he could go right ahead but if I had to hear his nonsense, he could hear mine. The argument ended with dad not looking so good and having to lye down. Last we saw of him that night. The rest of us retired to the deck that overlooked the swimming pool, bringing the dinner conversation with us. Having spent plenty of years in the corporate structure, I certainly saw how things worked. My sister Sue, on the other hand, admired the actions of large corporations like WalMart and Costco. She dwelled on mechanics and refused to argue the big picture, typical Sue, try to discredit you by asking for detailed facts and figures that nobody carries around in their hip pockets. I described a typical marketing plan that these companies used to force the closure of their competitors that typically included small business and corporations that acted responsibly in their communities that they served. In her eyes, if WalMart was a fiercer competitor then the others don’t deserve the right to share the same market space. Now I might not appose that logic in the Metro-Urban areas but in the small rural towns, this was usually devastating to the community. Wiping out hundreds of family supporting jobs to be replaced by forty or fifty minor wage jobs. The difference in income would leave the community shell shocked. Most old downtown areas were shut down and people who lived their whole lives there would leave for greener pastures. She pointed out that they would get cheaper prices though (like that makes up for the destruction of the community base?). My wife could see that this argument wouldn’t end pleasantly and quickly put an end to the conversation suggesting a change in subject matter. Later on my mom came outside ushering everyone else away to have a private conversation with me. I figured I would have to apologize for the dinner topic and likely get a lecture on religion. So right away I humbly expressed my regret for my actions. Her response was mind numbing; “Well I should of stopped it right away but I actually enjoyed the fresh perspective around here.” One should understand, my mom is nearly sixty and decided a few years ago to go back to university and economics is one of her studies. “You know, everyone at the university says exactly what you said tonight. The professors use mass transit and live simple lives to ensure that they feed the corporate machine as little as possible.” She explained. Talk about a free thinking woman! Yes, I love my mommy. At any rate, there’s still more good stuff to come but it’s late so I’ll try to continue tomorrow. Ending with a cliché ‘To be continued’ Sincerely, Nemesis |
| Oh christmas tree, oh Christmas Tree, blah blah blah. Well I'm back in civilization! Okay, maybe it's only for a couple of days, but hey, it's better than nothing. I've left the depths of Boston Bar to spend the Holidays at mom and dad's. Their million dollar plus home out on Panarama Ridge in Delta has the greatest invention, high speed internet, wow. Forgot what it was like. Everyone is in a festive spirit, the kids are running around playing games and even my In-Laws have stopped by for a drink. My youngest brother, Jason has just confided with me that he is going to propose to his girlfriend Kate for Christmas. That's a big step for the 33 year old adolescent. He seems rather nervous but I told him I proposed to my wife 11 years ago this Christmas. Not sure that made any difference to his nerves but at least provided a little association. At any rate, I promised to write every day so now I have. Until tomorrow, NEMESIS |
| Well it's almost Christmas yet again. Thank God for wives and their love for shopping, you know it had to pay off at least once a year. Had my good friend Gurb over for dinner tonight. He's a single man in his mid thirties who has been a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 12 years. Gurb's not having any fun up here either, I can tell, he doesn't drink but he did tonight. Granted his version of drinking is a glass and a half of Napa Valley's finest. He'll be transfering out in January, He's still fighting about where they want him to go next. Lower mainland is what the force wants but he wants to go back to Manitoba. Had a good writing day, wrote 3000words of commercial fiction. I'm heading out of town for the holidays, a whole day and a half! Woopi. It'll still seem like heaven. I have some friends in from out of town waiting for me so I guess I better get a move on. The Nemesis |
| So what's with the 'beyond Hope and past the Gates of Hell? Well I'll tell ya. It's not that I'm an entirely negative person, (BUT THIS PLACE WORKS YOU OVER PRETTY GOOD), the place just makes it easy to dwell on the negative. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that two magnetic fields crossed in this area. The fact of the matter is; This town sits forty minutes beyond the town of Hope on the Trans Canada Highway and eight miles past the Hell's Gate Airtram. That's a tourist atrraction that crosses over the Fraser River at a spot that was named by the great explorer Simon Fraser. He travelled the area by canoe, using portage to explore this territory. Now we got that out of the way, we had a fire call today, second one this week. On monday, we were called out for a single vehicle accident up at nine mile bridge. The road was icy and the elderly driver lost control of his truck and fifth wheel trailer, slamming into the ditch. We did a quick rescue and he and his passenger are fine. Today's call was for a fire alarm at the local high school. It came in at seven thirty at night so we half expected a fire. It turned out to be a malfunction and after we searched the building (Liability reasons) we called it a day by nine thirty. Didn't write at all today, at least no commercial fiction, just this. I wound up having to go to Hope for some banking and to meet up with an associate. I got back in town just in time for the fire call. I guess I'll just have to work twice as hard tomorrow. Sometimes I mess up with the daily word count but by the end of the week I usually keep to my quota. Book one is currently at eighty two thousand words and books two and three have about 3000- 4000 each. Book one should be completed by early January, I'm on the home stretch now. Just about at the final showdown. Well that's all for tonight. See you soon. |
| I've never read a blog before much less written one but here it goes. I live in a town of about four hundred people. Now that might not sound too bad but considering it once was over a thousand, it's kinda bad. When the lumber mill closed down, most of the decent families moved out leaving, you guessed it, all the shit rats behind. There used to be a day when living here was fun but now we just count the days hoping to get out. Feels kind of like the Hotel California. But I'm determined to check out, sooner or later. You see, I own a business in this town. If I just had a regular job, I could quit and move on. My only hope is to sell or commit suicide. I'll take the sell part. Problem is, it's a big ticket item, over a million bucks but it is worth it. Assets are nearly 700,000 and it does three or four million in sales annually. Don't get me wrong, there's people here that I will miss, if they don't get out before me. Take the other day for instance, this Dave guy comes in to see me, total 'meth head' probably 'crack' too, wants to borrow ten bucks, I said no way! Making a long story short, we wind up outside in the parking lot and he wants to go! Well many things run through my mind, I mean this guys got to be almost fifty. I know he has hepatitis c and he's wired on Meth. Me with no gloves and since this is Canada, they frown on blowing the guy away. I just stood there and told him to get f' out or I would rip his head off his shoulders and shove it up his butt. Eventually his friends dragged him off. Do I need this kind of shit? I don't think so and then there's the Postal Nazi, yeah that's right, Postal Nazi. I'm not even going to start about her today but trust me I will later because this is a story begging to get told. At any rate, it's three am and I told my wife I would be home in five minutes back at eleven pm. So I better get a move on. |
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