(236/366) Working, Catching Up, and Coming Home

August 23, 2012 – I was on Vancouver Island for a hatchery visit and out on Comox Lake with a co-worker doing some lake water and plankton sampling. Last month when we did the sampling, it was a gorgeous sunny day and we didn’t want to go back to shore. Today the lake was grumpy. The wind made doing a vertical plankton tow a challenge, and every piece of equipment that went down was threatened by the propeller as there was a frequent need to adjust the position of the boat because of wind and wave action.

After we finished up I had an opportunity to catch up with a former student from when I was teaching over here on the Island. Up until now I’d either been running flat out, had too many meetings, or was travelling with others and couldn’t get away. But today I was on my own, had no meetings after the sampling, and we were finished just before 1pm. So that meant I could take a lunch break, meet up with Brendon, and catch up on the past few years in a much too short visit before I had to run for the ferry terminal in Nanaimo. I’m glad that work should bring me back over relatively regularly.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to make the 3:10 ferry, but I also knew I’d be a good hour early for the 4:40 one. Unfortunately, as I came towards Nanaimo at around 3:15, the information board out of town indicated that the 4:40 was already full and that the 5:20 boat was already half full!! On a Thursday!?!? And not on a long weekend!?! It’s one thing to sit inside the terminal and wait and hope you will be on a boat soon, it’s another to be stuck out on the road hoping to be let into the lot, so you can hope to be on a ferry sometime soon. I was left wishing I had ridden rather than driven. But then again, there was that rainstorm I drove through between Courtenay and Nanaimo. It was nice to not be riding in the rain for a change.

Eventually I made it in, and luckily I made it onto the 5:20 ferry by the skin of my teeth. Others were left waiting for the 7:30 boat. The Island is a great place, but there are some downsides to it.

And then I checked my email. There seems to be a strong correlation between my travels to Vancouver Island, and bad news on the family front. Nothing tragic – yet – just setting the stage for some sadness. But sometimes I think that’s harder.

So today was a bit all over the map. And I didn’t really have time or inclination to pull out the camera, and nothing much inspired me visually either. Just feel sort of drained. I took a couple of shots, up on the lake, and hated them. Lousy light, rough water. So, as usual, I was hanging out on the car deck on the way home, hanging out over the side of the ferry enjoying the scenery and the solitude of the view.

So this is about all I had in me, but it is a view I love, it’s my ‘coming home’ view and I always enjoy it, no matter what the weather.