I thought things were supposed to get less complicated as we aged … maybe it’s all about what you gravitate towards?
Case in point … several months back, I found out that Steve Earle and the Dukes were playing Club Regent in Winnipeg. I’m a big fan, so I booked tickets for wife Leone and I, and good friends Brent and Kim Charron. The concert was on Sept. 21, so we would drive to Winnipeg Friday, take in the concert and return home the following day. What’s that saying about “best laid plans?”
In the time between when I booked the concert tickets and the event, my daughter and her fiancé scheduled a wedding social in Edmonton for Sept. 22, the day after the concert. Well, there is a lot to be said in explanation of the determination of a mother of the bride and unforeseen circumstances and I witnessed it firsthand. Armed with her tablet, wife Leone took on the mission before her. She found us return tickets to Edmonton on Flair Air for $300 total! We would leave at 9 a.m. the morning of Sept. 22 and be back in Winnipeg at 7 p.m. the following day. The kicker was that we had to drive the seven hours home that night, because she had to work the following morning. What the hell … we’d do it.
About three weeks before the concert, my vehicle started making some weird noises when starting cold and began burning a lot of oil previous to that. So we scheduled a visit to the Honda dealership for the morning of the concert and made plans to leave a day earlier in order to get it in.
We got there, settled in and took our vehicle in the morning of Sept. 21. They called back and advised that the timing chain is worn and it, as well as ancillary parts, would have to be changed … big job … it would take two days … and the warranty was up … but, they would cover it anyway, because of my previous complaints about it burning oil.
We hummed and hawed, but Leone thinks we can still do this. We will rent a vehicle, so we can get home in time for her to work, but I’ll have to take the rental back to the city and return home with our vehicle – 14 hours round trip! A tradeoff I rationalize … seeing as she has to get up and go to work on a morning after we arrive home at 2 a.m.!
Now to the part that made it worthwhile: we got the rental, headed out for a great supper, then off to the concert. It was fantastic … being the 30th anniversary of Copperhead Road, Earle played the album in its entirety. As well, he did ‘Someday,’ ‘Guitar Town’ and ‘Fearless Heart’. He also won over many in the crowd with his stance on the political situation south of the border. A fine show I’m glad I was able to take in.
We headed to the airport at 6 a.m. on Sept. 22 and touched down in Edmonton at around 11 a.m. As well as our daughter, we also have a son in Edmonton; he picked us up at the airport and took us to his place on the south side of the city. There, we visited with Joel, his wife Alysha and spent some quality time with one of our new grandsons, Bodhi. After supper, we headed off to the social. It was in St. Albert … on the north side of the city.
My daughter Jessica is a radio personality in Edmonton and there were a number of radio people at the social. The overwhelming topic of conversation throughout the night was, “What the hell is a social?” It appears that socials are a Manitoba thing. In Ontario, where Jessica’s fiancé Dan is from, they call them Buck and Does, and although folks from Alberta like a good party as much as the next person, there is no such designation for this type of hoedown in that province …. so I gave them one.
When I was young, they called this type of get together a Smoker, but I haven’t heard the term too often, or actually at all, since that time. So I thereby granted the people of Alberta the right to use that term to describe any future gatherings of this type. They will henceforth be called Smokers.
After the Smoker, we headed back to daughter Jessica’s home in St. Albert, hit the sack and woke to spend more quality time with our other new grandson, Sheldon. We left Edmonton at 4 p.m., touched down in Winnipeg at 7:15 p.m. and arrived home in Snow Lake at 2:30 a.m. Leone got up and went to work for 8 a.m. … and me, well, I’m off to Winnipeg at 6 a.m. tomorrow to take the rental back and pick up our vehicle. I hope to be home at 10 p.m. tomorrow night! Whirlwind indeed!
On a separate note, there will be no election for the six councillor positions for the Town of Snow Lake. In by acclamation are: Penny Roberts, Bill Pleasance, Sherri Hill, Tom Fleming, Andrew Smith (who has received a leave of absence from his position as town foreman) and Shelley Chrapun.
There will, however, be an election for the mayor's position. Those running for that position are Jodie Wilson, Marian Grajciar, and Peter Roberts. Municipal elections take place across the province on Oct. 24.
