“SUMMER IS OVER TIME TO GET BACK TO WORK YOU OLD FOOL”

So with those words of encouragement in my head, I slink back into my cage and search for inspiration. I read back thru a few of my most recent posts and find little there to inspire anyone. No wonder my readership dropped by 33% (from 3 to 2). I try to think back over the last few weeks to see if there was anything worth updating my remaining fans, about. Well my previous three weeks went something like this; return from fishing with my buddies, rest part of one day and pay penance for having “too” much fun, receive my list of jobs to do before Ange, Ron and JMW arrive for September vacation, make jerky with D2, clean jerky mess for two days, then get stuck into my list of things to do before the little princesses arrive. Two weeks later I am finished and tired to the bone. Now I am awarded with another 1/2 day of rest before the entertainment starts. Does anyone see anything during that time, that they want me to dig into further? I thought not. Let it suffice to say that Ol Bubbaloo had things on her list that were not fit work for any self respecting senior citizen. I thought about going on strike, protesting, refusing to do them, but in the end decided that any form of refusal to work would result in even more “elder abuse”, heaped on my shoulders. So I just muttered curse words under my breath and carried on. Meanwhile Ol Bubba proceeded to cook food and meals that would last us for all 7 days of the visit and then for the rest of the year, after everyone was gone. I might say we had more food on hand than what she put together for our 3 month Covid isolation. Geezus! Well birthday week arrives and we are well prepared.

Oh, did I forget to mention that all three girls had birthdays exactly around the week of this vacation. So pile on some birthday celebrations on top of my already stressed out mind and you can quickly see that I was close to becoming a complete nutter by the time the festivities started. Well let’s see how much fun we can pack into 7 days. It didn’t take long to start. JMW, Ron and Ange all arrived in Nanaimo about the same time on a Saturday in mid September. We met and congregated at D2’s for a welcome dinner and commencement celebration. So along with our daughter in law (AMH), and grandson Benhameen we had enough people for a small party. D2 had promised a feast and did he ever deliver! He had spent a few days gathering up the makings, and by the time of our arrival had put together a ‘seafood’ feast fit for royalty. D2 had learned portion control from me, and let’s just say there was enough food for all of us, plus enough for a goodly share of the neighbours, if they had popped over! He had prepared a huge steaming cauldron of Seafood medley, which included much of the life that lived in the ocean around us. To this he had added big chunks of corn on the cob, potatoes and some slabs of smoked sausages. The aroma was exotic, the drinks were flowing and the chatter was lively. The table was laid with a big plastic tablecloth and covered by a clear plastic tarp. I am thinking D2 is probably expecting we will be making a bit of a mess. I don’t see any table settings or utensils, so I figure maybe he is loading the plates in the kitchen. Nope, not even close. Benhameen calls everyone to their assigned seating. D2 comes in carrying about a 5 gallon cauldron of “heaven” and starts dumping this feast in huge piles, directly onto the table in front of each guest. Finished he says “well dig in”! “MEDIEVAL STYLE”! “Using the appendages built onto the ends of your hands”. I gorge myself on prawns, scallops, clams, muscles, oysters, sausage, onion, potatoes, corn and other delights, too numerous to mention. An hour later, wet up to my elbows, I emerge and look around to see if anyone else has been eating. All I can see, is what looked like, the remains of an explosion in a seafood factory, strewn over all of this huge table. I had been too busy to notice that everyone else had been feeding at the trough in the same manner as myself. Benhameen (watching his weight) politely chewed on a piece of one sausage and kept the banter lively. AMH (our daughter in law) had the task of keeping the glasses full and she did a yoeman’s job of it. A sidebar here. AMH produced a special bottle of vino, which told a story, about settling Australia, through her external speakers, when she pointed her cel phone at a man’s picture on the bottle. This was pretty freaky, but when the figure of the man, on the bottle, moved in sync with his story, I was completely gobsmacked. To this point in my life I had seen nothing like this! Back to the meal A huge success, one of the best meals of all time. When D2 was ready to clean up he grabbed the four corners of his plastic tabletop cover, lifted it up, folded it together and deposited all the remains straight into the garbage. Wow!

After that start to the week, we followed up with a long lunch on Sunday which included some Peruvian snacks such as Anticuchos, Papa a la Huancayina, Tequenos and three different salsa’s made to accompany the food and also “to light your fire”. This all followed by a rousing game of poker won by JMW (our son in law). We had promised ourselves an early bedtime because the next morning we were headed out exploring Ron and JMW’s ocean front property in Quatsino, at the north end of the island. We were also hoping to dabble a line or two and make up for my previous trip where I got skunked. I had spent significant time the previous week making sure everything was ready and by dawn on their third day, I was up and ready to rock and roll. The worrying was all done, nothing left to do but face disaster (at least that’s how my mind sees the world). JMW and I left early and went up to get the boat launched and packed. The girls followed at a more civilized time. Of course Deysi had all the food cooked, packed and ready to serve. Each meal being a separate culinary delight. We launched, packed and made the boat ready for the arrival of the girls. Of course everything went well, so another good few hours of worrying had been wasted. They arrived, we loaded the last few bags and vvvvaaaarrrrooooommm, we were off to Quatsino. Ten minutes later we pull up to the dock, unload, our “beater” truck starts perfectly and two minutes after that we are in our cabin for the next two days. More worrying wasted, when will I ever stop? Settled into our 4 bed, two bath, fully appointed cabin we now prepared to “rough it” for a couple of days. AAAhhhhh! That afternoon we set out our crab traps, cruised a bit, took some pics and dropped a couple lines, hoping to catch a straggler salmon, that hadn’t yet gone into the river systems to spawn. Well we had no luck with the salmon, but JMW did catch a monster rock cod.

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The next morning fully rested and fed by another of Deysi’s creations, we loaded everyone into the truck and drove to the other side of the Quatsino community and spent the morning as well as early afternoon, exploring Ron and JMW’s (and JMW’s little bro JES’s) property. It is a magnificent piece of primal forest, bordered by the ocean at the end of Hecate Cove on Quatsino Sound. This is an area, very close to, where the wilderness TV program Alone was filmed in its 4th season. The area is wild, rough, beautiful, haunting, and silent. It is humbling and awe inspiring. We started out by walking the beachfront at high tide and getting reacquainted with the magnitude of the property. We then drove onto the property and spent our remaining time exploring a lake that is fully enclosed inside of the property lines. The girls were in a discussion as to the name of the lake. Names like Lake Ronnie, Lake Jeronica and Otto Lake (my personal favorite because that is what it is named now), were bandied about. The younguns took their small skiff out and toured the lake. It appeared that there was more water in the lake then what we had remembered from the previous year. The rest of the day we spent cruising, fishing a little and retrieving our crab traps. I would like to say we slayed the meat, however, I cannot. Geezus 2 times in a row, I get skunked. I’m starting to develop a complex. After a long and tiring day Ange, Ron and JMW still had energy to hike into a local lake (Colony Lake) for an evening swim. My god where do they get the energy. They made it home, just at dark and just before Deysi and I were about to go looking for them. They were still in time to have one quick game of cards before curfew.

Another relaxing evening on the ocean, a lovely dinner, and a lively game of cards that JMW and I finished in second place (aaaarrrgggghhh) again. The next morning up and back to town. Deysi had a schedule to meet, so we had to get her back into the dock so she could head for home. JMW and I emptied, loaded, cleaned and stored the boat before proceeding home. Now you might think by this time that we should be a little tired. When I mentioned the possibility I was told that we didn’t have time to get tired, so suck it up and quit whining. It was time to party! Ange’s birthday was the same day. She had picked her special dinner, which her mom had prepared for her. It was a Thai dish and was delicious. After dinner the cake, or should I say cakes! The reason that Deysi had to be home was that she had ordered special cakes for each of the girls and had only until 4pm to pick them up. One was chocolate of the most decadent kind, and the other a vanilla cake with 1/2 inch thick, blue icing. Both were three layers, with each layer divided by another 1/2″ of fudge or 1/2″ of vanilla butter. All thoughts of controlling my weight, that still remained at this point, were now out the window, as I politely agreed to sample a thick slab of each, thereby showing impartiality to choice of cake. There were present exchanges between the three birthday girls, the song was sung and another long day had passed. JMW and the girls then started a rousing game of cards, while I snuck quietly away, to my bed.

Day 5 starts with Ange, Ron and JMW off early on a sightseeing trip. I prepared an early breakfast, while Ange organized the hiking team. They headed to Strathcona Falls which is located a little north of us and about halfway across the island. It is a spectacular falls and completely unexpected as you are driving along. This gave Deysi and I some extra time to regroup, replenish foods supplies and get ready for Ron’s birthday meal of choice. Her selection was Philly Cheese Steaks made by her old dad. So while they were gone we scrambled around getting the ingredients and by mid afternoon I had started the food prep. We knew when they finished their hike they would be famished and wanting to eat on arrival. Our timing was pretty solid and not long after their return we sat down to eat. I am not so sure, but everybody seemed to enjoy the cheesesteaks, however they could have been faking it so as not to hurt my feelings. Another long, long day finally comes to a close with another round of birthday cake. A side note: it was also Deysi’s birthday in between those of the two girls, but because of the already packed schedule she agreed to forego her festivities in exchange for a BIRTHDAY WEEK, provided by me once everyone had left. Seems like she is always the one to sacrifice her spot in the limelight for me or one of the girls. For the final full day of the vacation, JMW and myself were allowed to go play golf. We got our tee time at my local course and early on day 6 we headed out. We were joined by a friend and had a rousing/competitive round of golf. Once again, the wyley old veteran prevailed and thoroughly administered an ass beating to the other two. I hate to sound boastful, but remember It’s not bragging if you did it, HA! I must admit though JMW had not been able to play yet this year because of work and Pandemic issues and my other friend had to give me 14 strokes, and I got very lucky on a couple of holes. They both hit the ball about twice as far as me, with all their clubs, however at the end…………. age and cunning (plus I got to keep score) trumps youth and ability.

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The final meal was a classic, again requested by Ron. It was my mother’s famous tuna casserole. It has been a family favorite since Deysi first met mom and was given instruction on how to feed a Canadian. Mom’s best advise was, “no matter what you have available, just find two pieces of bread and make a sandwich out of it”. “That’ll keep the little buggers happy for a while”. Well Saturday came, all to suddenly and like phantoms, they were packed and gone. Looking back now, it seemed to happen so fast, that I’m not sure I didn’t just dream up the whole visit thing. Nothing remained to confirm that they had been here, not even a candy wrapper or empty wine bottle, nada. Ange stayed one more day to help us get over the withdrawal pains. She also packed up on Sunday and left for home. That just left me; and Deysi, waiting for her Birthday Week to begin. How much more fun is one old man allowed to have?