test blog #10

Many well-known rock and pop musicians have died lately, including Helen Reddy, Eddie Van Halen, and Jerry Jeff Walker. More names will be coming fast and furiously as the icons of the Boomer generation age.  One such death came to the country and blues music communities recently, that of Billy Joe Shaver.  Shaver's songwriting epitomized the outlaw-country ethic and apparently so did his life. He talked the talk and walked the walk. He was outlaw-country before the movement had a name. Shaver wrote songs for Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. On a 2007 country-gospel album, he sang duets with Cash, Kristofferson, and Tanya Tucker, backed by notables such as Randy Scruggs and Marty Stuart. In 2010, Willie Nelson called Shaver "the greatest living songwriter". In his younger days, he hung out with Townes Van Zandt -- and really, what more can you say? Some 30 years ago, Allan and I attended the New Orleans Jazz Festival, which is not reall...

I've spent the last two days reading, blogging, scratching, and occasionally eating and sleeping. There were other things to do on Salt Spring Island, but I was too uncomfortable to do anything. It was very nice to have uninterrupted time to read and write. Tomorrow we'll take an early ferry to Crofton, drive up to Campbell River, take care of our appointments, then head back home.  * * * * I've had a long running argument by email with the host of this cottage. I'd like to leave a negative review, but I've read that bad reviews can seriously damage a host's standing with Airbnb. Also, I don't have many reviews on Airbnb and I don't want to be reviewed as a bad guest. I wish the cottage was listed on TripAdvisor, as I have a more substantial body of reviews there. I've also read that a guest's review is not published until the host reviews the guest -- so if the host wants to suppress a negative review, they can simply decline to leave...

Today's big news is that the GP Dermatologist in Campbell River will see me on the day we are driving through that town, on our way home. Which is two days from now! I'm so relieved I could cry. I called and pleaded my case -- to be honest, just a simple explanation, I didn't need to exaggerate! -- and also explained we would be passing through town in a couple of days. The scary part was waiting to see if they actually had the referral. I suppose if they hadn't, I could have corrected that with more phone calls.  The best thing is once the doctor sees me, I'll be able to follow up by phone, without a huge amount of waiting. * * * * There was also some conditional good news from Oregon, as my brother and sister-in-law, nephew, grand-niece, etc., are back in their homes, and have power for the first time in nearly a week. They live on a hillside; those in the valley below have lost everything. Last we spoke, SIL was looking into how they could volunteer and/or donate...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times? Perhaps not as dramatic as all that, but yesterday was a tale of two days, for sure. We had a leisurely morning -- well, when you barely sleep, all mornings seem long -- and drove the dogs over to Salty Dog , the local daycare and boarding spot. When I made the arrangements, Jaime was the opposite of every doggie daycare place I've spoken with in any city. She was so totally laid back. Whatever day, whatever hour, just come on by. She didn't ask for vaccination certificates or do an aggression test. She does boarding as needed, grooming if you want it, she raises Husky puppies, and she's open 24/7 to accept rescues, which she tries to rehome, but will keep if need be.  We followed signs up a rutted mountain road -- perhaps this is why she does pick-up and drop-off? -- until the sound of barking told us we were in the right place. There was a large collection of outdoor kennels -- clearly homemade, irregularly shaped, some...

I am having the surreal experience of looking through photographs of the wildfire devastation in Washington State, Oregon, and California, and seeing the names of towns where much of my family live. They are all personally safe, and as of right now their homes are intact. It's very scary, both in the immediate and the larger pictures. My own personal surreality continues, my skin covered in red welts, scabs, and bruises. (Bruises from scratching; my skin bruises easily.) I've learned that chronic hives are a roller coaster. Two or three times a day they appear to be clearing up, only to come back with a vengeance. I am worn down from the trifecta of not sleeping, not taking any of my medications, and not getting any exercise (activity inflames the damn stuff). It's warm here, but I won't wear shorts out of the house -- which is ridiculous, really, but the skin on my legs is wrecked. OK, enough complaining! Something I forgot to mention yesterday, on our last night in Vi...

I slept more last night than I have since the hives started, and this morning felt halfway human for the first time in months.  I took Cookie and Kai for an early-morning walk on the harbour. There are few things I love more than a paved, accessible, waterfront walk. (On our first trip to Vancouver Island in April 2018 , I was in love with a very special such walkway in Sidney, not far from here, that is also studded with public art.)  The Victoria harbour is beautiful, and/but full of expensive-looking marinas, hotels, and condos, plus party-coloured float houses . (Some or maybe most must be vacation rental properties). It would all be an exclusive private manse if not for the beautiful public, accessible, walkpath. And since it's Victoria, it's ringed with well-tended plantings and gardens. A lovely way to start the day. In the late-ish morning we dropped the dogs off at Whisker's Urban Ranch, and headed to Jam Cafe for breakfast. Besides having removed many tables, thi...

We had another good breakfast at Popsey's, then hit the road to Victoria. Campbell River is halfway between Port Hardy, the northernmost town on the Island, and Victoria, at the southern tip. We really felt the change in climate, from the north and west coast cool, temperate barely-summer weather, to the rest of the island's hot dry summer. We had a good drive down, and went straight to the doggie daycare place where the pups will be tomorrow, for their "meet and greet". Cookie and Kai have never been anywhere like this! Diego (and for a time, Tala) were old pros at daycare. Diego especially loved it. These pups, though, are with us constantly! The few times we've been away, a teenage dogsitter hung out with them. So this is an entirely new experience, and I think it's good for them. Whisker's Urban Ranch is a small, mom-and-pop operation. There were lots of dogs in an indoor playroom, and staff takes them for on-leash walks at intervals. The owner introd...

This is the time when wmtc turns into a travel journal, which I write almost entirely for myself, for a record of my travels. First of all, we were supposed to travel in April, an ultimate road trip that would take in everything I could want in a vacation, from beloved friends and family -- many of whom we had not seen in many years, and who I really miss -- to gorgeous scenic drives, and, of course, baseball. And with our dogs, too! That is truly my little heaven.  Even before the lockdown, we realized we had to cancel. When the border closed, at least it confirmed our decision. So yeah, that's all behind us, and when so many people have died, and so many others are near starvation, it seems the height of privilege to complain about cancelling a vacation. But I miss my family, and I don't know when I'll see any of them again, including my 89-year-old mother. Perspective or not, it still hurts. Back in the present moment, I am struggling with uncontrolled, chronic urticaria...

I've never cancelled a trip because of external circumstances. Until now. In 1994, we were heading to Mexico -- to travel through the country, not to stay in a resort -- when revolution broke out in the state of Chiapas. We went anyway. In 2001, we were booked on a flight to Ireland, two months after September 11, and less than 24 hours after a plane crashed immediately after takeoff from the same NYC airport. We went anyway. In 2017, we were finally going to Egypt, when a bomb went off in a Cairo church. We went anyway. In about a month from now, we were to take a road trip with our dogs, to visit family and friends in Oregon and California. We've cancelled. Travel in the US seems ill-advised right now, even more so because we would be seeing my 88-year-old mother who already has respiratory issues. What if were exposed to the coronavirus and then infected her? It was a simple decision, yet such a painful one. I am so disappointed! I haven't seen my west-coast nieces and n...

This week's day trip was fascinating, meaningful, and so much fun. We went to Alert Bay, toured the U'mista Cultural Centre (us for the second time , my mom for the first), and participated in a traditional salmon barbeque through Culture Shock . Know before you go: residential schools and the potlatch ban On the drive down to Port McNeill, where we get the ferry to both Sointula and Alert Bay, we gave my mom some context for the U'mista exhibits -- both the residential schools and the potlatch ban . We have talked about it before, but I felt a review of sorts would make the day more meaningful. After taking the Indigenous Canada online course through the University of Alberta, I feel more confident summarizing the issues -- a concrete benefit of the course. If anyone reading this doesn't know about these two horrors of colonization, I encourage you to learn about them both. I'll briefly summarize the issues at the bottom of this post. U'mista Cultural Centre...

I thought it would be fun for my mom to see a different part of Vancouver Island. I didn't want her going home thinking the whole island is a sparsely populated rain forest! Plus it's more fun stuff to do together. I booked an Airbnb in Royston -- just south of the town of Courtenay -- and we did some exploring from there. Saturday: driving and eating First there was the drive down-island, which included our obligatory stop at Ideal Cafe . We contrive to eat there whenever we go to Campbell River or beyond -- which means anytime we go anywhere out of the North Island. After another great breakfast, we found the Airbnb, a two-bedroom cottage with a patio, surrounded by pear trees and blackberry bushes, and steps away from the water. Courtenay sits on an estuary, directly across from the town of Comox, and the cottage was only steps away from trails along the water. Estuaries are supposed to be paradise for birders: there was a bench hidden in tall grass, and our host leaves bino...

More photos from our drive west are now on my Flickr page: here . I'll also be adding to the sets vancouver island and vancouver island north as we explore.

We are here! At our new home! Very excited! We had a reservation on the 10:15 ferry from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo, but we had to get there super early. If you get a lower berth, you cannot stay in the car -- which means we'd have to stay in the designated pet area with Diego. (You can leave your dog in the car by itself, but you know that's not gonna happen.) We wanted to make sure we had a spot on the upper deck, but you can't reserve that. This meant getting to the ferry very early. We were the second or third vehicle to check in, and M & SIL were right behind us in the truck. Waiting to board, we listened to the end of the Westlake book and an interview with David Yaffee, who wrote the recent biography of Joni Mitchell. That was notable mainly for our disagreements with the author. Eventually the boarding began. We happened to be parked right near the pet area. Turns out that is a little glass enclosure, about the size of an elevator, with a few built-in crates and two ...