Brenda9's Journal

Yes indeed, the sun is shining brightly - has been for a couple of days, and it got up to 39C yesterday.  It's supposed to be even hotter today.  We had to open the French doors off the bedroom at 5:00am, because we were cooking in here!

My hubby took me out for dinner last night to a little restaurant here in town called Joey's Only.  It's a seafood place, but they also have ribs, and chicken.  We hadn't been there before, and it was REALLY good!  It was like Boston Pizza, only about 1/4 the size and with nicer people and MUCH nicer prices.  I had the Cajun Combo (blackened snapper, spicy cajun shrimp, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli and these awesome sweet potato sticks with a creamy honey-lime sauce.  Yummmmm.  Very tasty.  Hubby was boring, and had fish and chips.

Then we went to Canadian Tire and bugged our son (he works there).  We bought a hummingbird feeder.  There were TONS of hummingbirds in the backyard yesterday... there is this certain bush with red flowers on it that they LOVE.  I tried to get photos of them, but those little buggars are speedy!  One came right up to the back of my son's head while he was standing on the porch.  Startled him.  I thought it was funny - my son is afraid of birds, especially parrots, but... a hummingbird?  Good grief!

Anyway, they don't sell the nectar at Canadian Tire though, so we'll have to hit a Pet Shop today.  Oh, and we are finally going to get my stone slabs!   I can't wait!  We're doing it today as soon as I get ready - I'm really excited about it!  I hope that dumb broad is there and ready to help me... stupid woman.  If this turns out to be a bust, I'm gonna be pissed off!

Well, I'd best get moving - hope you're all having a great day!

4:00pm update...

HAD a good day?  When I wrote the above, the day was just getting started!  Or did you mean yesterday, Shivers?  (Winter eh?  No wonder you're shivering!)  ANYway... I ended up having an awesome and very busy day.  We hopped in the car and drove out to Salmo, which is about 30km away.  I had a little... just a little... anxiety about 11km out of town, but it lasted less than 5 minutes, and I felt perfectly fine after that.  We went to Kootenay Stone Center, and that woman there I've talked about before... Iris... what a fruitcake!  When I told her who I was and reminded her of my panic disorder, she tried a laying on of hands right there in the yard in 40 degree weather, with other people standing around!  She tried to perform an exorcism!  Casting out the demons... "Oh God, I command you to deliver this child...."   Holy crap!  I mean, hey... I believe in God and I pray, but Holy Hell!  That was over the top.  All she did was preach like a TV evangelist to everyone and his dog that wandered onto the property.  I guarantee you she drives customers away on a regular basis.  Anyway, I liked her dog.  A big pitbull cross named "Rocky" that wanted nothing more than to have you throw his ball for him.

Then... THEN... she wanted me to buy an entire pallet of stone pieces that SHE had hand selected!  She was insistant that she had to pay her yard man for his time in selecting and putting aside the pieces, and that's what I asked for... I set her straight, I tell you what.  I told her, "Iris... I never asked her to pick out anything for me.  I simply asked for answers to my questions, and you didn't oblige... I wanted to come out here and look through your loose rock piles and choose pieces for myself.  AND, I wanted a price quote before I purchased anything.  Today, all I want is 2 or 3 pieces to get me started, and I'll come back for the rest in a week or two."  Well, she wasn't going to oblige me!  She insisted that I buy the whole pallet (about 20 pieces) at $25 per piece!  I told her that we had about $160 to our name until payday, and we still had to have money for groceries and gas for the car, etc.   Finally, she said I could have 2 pieces for $20 in total... $20 for all 3 pieces.  So, that was a good deal, but I'll tell you something:  I ain't NEVER going back there!  She's a nut!  She held this one poor guy up for about 1/2 an hour, telling him that she swore God gave her a message to relate to him, but she couldn't remember what it was, and it must be because he's not a believer yet.   She flat out asked him, "Are you a believer?"  And he flat out said, "Nope."  And she said, "Well, that's why then... you see... God doesn't want me to give you the message yet - you need to let-him-into-your- heart-praise-the-Lord."  I quietly said to my husband, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition."

Anyway - we decided to try another stone place that we passed along the way that we didn't previously know about.  Normal people.  However, they didn't have any flagstone, which is what I need - their quarry is still covered in snow.  They only had river rock, but she gave me the names of two other places in the West Kootenays, and we are going to try those next weekend.  For now, I have 3 pieces of stone because I was able to split one of the pieces I bought in two... you know, slice it like bread.  Worked perfectly.

Back to my story... before leaving Salmo, we stopped to visit my hubby's aunt and her family.  Her very dysfunctional family.  We witnessed a puppy being beaten, and then a teenager... his Dad gave him a punch to the side of the head for "touching someone else".  I don't know what that means, and I don't wanna know.  We left after that.  You see... it's a different way of life in the small, inbred town of Salmo.  It's like a bunch of hillbillies... really drunk.

So we headed for Fruitvale, where my hubby has been working on a construction job - he showed me the place, this big huge condo which looks terribly out of place in the little town of Fruit Loops.  Then we stopped to get a drink at the local gas station before heading for Trail.  See, we left Castlegar and went over the summit into Salmo, then out of Salmo through Fruitvale and into the valley towards Trail, then from there back to Castlegar - it's a big loop.  While we were in Trail, we scoped out the neighbourhood where his sister and her hubby are planning on buying a house.  It's a run down dirty looking place.  Right below the big Cominco plant (what we call Stinky Cominky).  Smelly place.  Trail is an ugly town to be sure.

Then we headed for home.  When we got back into town, we headed for Mom and Dad's so that we could wash and split the rock and have a visit.  Then we came home.  It was great!  My right arm in sunburned, and I can't hear out of my right ear from the wind whipping through the open window of the car, but it was still great!  I hope the ringing in my ear stops before bedtime... it'll keep me up!

Now, we are just waiting around until it's time to go pick up our son from Canadian Tire.  Then we are going to go rent a movie and spend the night pigging out on popcorn!  Hallelujah!