Sept 12, 2012 – Well? That’s basically what toothpicks are, aren’t they? That and probably one of the world’s oldest tools.
This photo has nothing at all to do with today, except perhaps that I am exhausted and frantically looking for some random object to take a shot of before I collapse.
I had to catch the first ferry over to the island, and that’s not really such a hardship. I used to make the commute a few times a week when I was teaching on that side of the water, and in reality, the first ferry really is my favourite crossing, I just hate the part that precedes the ferry crossing. You know, the getting up two hours before the sun comes up part. I made my lunch the might before I even had my smoothie and my morning iced coffee already in the fridge ready to go. I went to bed at a decent hour. And fell asleep easily.
As I say, I used to make the commute on a regular basis and had the timing down to a science. But I haven’t done it that regularly for a number of years now, and my subconscious seems to be worried that I’ll sleep in – not that I ever have, I’m one of those freaky people that doesn’t need an alarm clock and can basically tell myself what time to wake up, and I do. But part of my subconscious obviously doubts the other part, so I tend to wake up too early, like at 3am, and then can’t get back to sleep. Maybe I was worried I’d run out of time with the animals to look after since Kirk is out of town, and also the neighbour’s cat whom we are sitting. Yeah, she was thrilled to see me at 5am. I got a bit of a “What on earth are you doing here?” look from Miss Lucy Cat.
So I dragged my tired and sleepless behind down and loaded up my motorcycle and headed off in the dark. I was the only bike on the ferry, I like that solitude. And I always like how quiet and peaceful the first ferry is. Although this morning there was a fellow playing the guitar, and he was really, really, good. So I sat close by and listened to his wonderful blend of Souther Rock/Blues/West Coast sound. It made it one of the nicest crossings I’ve ever had.
The broodstock injections went well, we were working on one of the most threatened stocks of fish in BC, the Puntledge River Summer Chinook. The facility also houses captive brood programs for the other two threatened stocks – Cultus and Sakinaw Sockeye. It was a long day in the sun (gee darn) handling sizeable fish. Forgot to put my sunscreen on until it was too late, but I’ll never complain about sun in the fall. So after all that, it was gear up and ride down island again, and catch the ferry back home.
The only photo I’d taken today was of a former student who works in the program, peering out of one of the big tanks, so I assumed I’d catch something of interest on the ferry ride back.
Wrong.
Instead I ended up in conversation with the other two riders on the return trip. When I pulled into the terminal there were two bikes ahead of me. The two riders were chatting with a third fellow, and as I turned my bike off, all three moved down to examine my bike and discuss its well established reliability. Both the riders had bikes 30-40 years ago and were newly back on two wheels. The other fellow had been riding since he was walking and was in the process of building a custom bike. One of the riders had his four month old apricot standard poodle – Nellie – with him -Nellie’s kennel mounted on a solid platform on the back of his Bandit. They were heading home after a week long camping trip out to the West Coast. The other fellow had bought his BMW bike new, put 1700 km on it, and then rode from his home in Saskatoon to Tofino and was on the return trip, and for some reason they were impressed with me for having put 22,000km on a two year old bike!
The flatlander was needing directions to get to a friends place in Jericho and was asking how to get to highway 1a thru downtown (aka Georgia street). After looking at a bit of fear in his eyes about his concern of missing the freeway exit, I just said he might as well slide in behind me as I am going right past where he should turn and I’d wave him off so he wouldn’t miss it. He said how impressed he’d been on this trip with the helpfulness of other riders and how much he was enjoying being back on a bike. He made a good point, even though I am generally antisocial with strangers, if another rider asks me for any information/assistance/etc, I don’t hesitate to hep out in any way I can, and I’ve had the same courtesy extended to me. I’ve taught a few people what to do on the ferries, led a few people on the highways, provided road information.
So I saw him safely off on the right exit, and then made the last bit home in quick time. From dark and freezing cold this morning, to pretty hot this afternoon. From ferries to fish. From the Mainland to the Island and back. It was a pretty great day, but exhausting.
Thus the only thing I had to share was a container of toothpicks. But the container WAS made by my Granny many moons ago! So that’s pretty cool to me.
And now I’m hoping to sleep thru the night, since I have no road trips until next Tuesday. . .