Lei

MOVING III

Gambit walks into the house. Lei lives here with his mother still. With his older brother and younger sister having flown the coup, Lei is the last one remaining. The last one yet to grow up one could say.
"Is your friend here?" asks Lei's mom from upstairs. She can't even see who's walked in but recognizes the voices from below. She sits in her favourite spot in the living room planted right in front of her tv and watching whatever asian game show or soap happens to be on. And sometimes its in different languages which she does not even understand like korean or japanese.
"Yes. Gambit is here." answers Lei to his mother.
"Oh good." Lei's mother gets up and walks over and looks down the spiraling staircase. Gambit and Lei stand at the bottom taking off their shoes.
"Hi Gambit. Oh... you look different. Your cheeks look fatter" says Lei's mom.

It snowed this weekend. When I got to the nursing home, I walked in and told Hazel as such. Her response was "I wonder if it's going to last more than twenty seconds". She would soon regret these words. We got twenty centimeters of the white stuff.

As I stood there with the shovel, scraping the semi-packed snow with the loose fresh snow, thousands and millions of the little white flakes continued to fall down on me. One by one covering me from my head to toe. Yet I continued to slave away pushing it all off the sidewalk and onto the road over the curb. This went on and on until the whole sidewalk was cleared along the length of the house. I figured the large vehicles on the road would just slide through it and mash it all up. While shovelling the sidewalk at the front of the house, I could hear the sound of the buses engine revving away so I headed back to the other sidewalk to look. There it was, stuck. I walked around the back and to either side. The people in the bus were staring at me half soaked and covered in snow holding my shovel with my wet hiking boots on. Then I thought to myself, could this have been my fault?

Moving II

Standing in front of the club, the four of us waited in the line up. The doorman looks at me and my group of four. I show him my sears membership card. He looks at me. I look at him. He lets us into the club. Membership has its priviledges.

I'm taking a break from the clubbing circuit. After starting to recognize some faces everywhere, I think I've been spending a bit too much time in these places. My good friend has left today. After waiving good bye to him at the international departure gates I waited an hour before Gambit arrived from montreal. Gambit has a one night stopover before continuing on the second leg of his flight to the philipines for a job interview. In another hour, Cakemakers parents will leave to go back to the philipines as well. Funny how suddenly the people in my life shift in and out just like that.

Dieter left a lot of things behind. For me he gave his lavalife account having had little success. He already had some credit which would have gone to waste.

Here Dieter moves to the beats at the Caprice. Its almost closing time and the dj changed the music to some hard house music which cleared the dance floor fast. Earlier he was playing mostly hip hop which the crowd had liked. Everyone left soon thereafter.

Saturday evenings at the red room were great. We went twice enjoying the selection of electronic music. Sunday night long weekend at Lotus were alright. Good to see once but not over and over again. We checked out Shenanigans on the last night just for old times sakes but it was dead given that it was a monday evening. So instead, we went to the granville room for drinks and lounge music.

The badly sprained right ankle is still healing. I've stopped soccer and volleyball for the last couple of weeks because of this. Now its time for some winter hibernation before the ski season is fully underway. And one more thing. Auf wiedersehen mein freund.

Moving

The hole in the wall is pretty much fixed as I put the second coat of paint on. Now all that is visible is a faint outline of where the baby went through along with the protrusions on the sides indicating where my hands had held the baby. I think I will stop lift weights for a while.

I swam all the way home today in a huge lake or torrential rain. This weekend it poured. At times it felt as though someone was constantly throwing whole buckets of water at me. It has been sometime since I have walked in rain of this magnitude. The last time was when I was in mexico caught in one of those roaming bands of rain (storm) which lasted just ten minutes or so. It comes and goes so quickly you wouldn't have noticed that it even happened another twenty minutes later with the hot weather they have down there.

But today, it did not let up. I had to replace one of the wiper blades on my truck which was worn out. One of my rear tail lights had blown so I quickly fixed that in the rain as well. Afterwards, I drove downtown.

It has also been a number of years since I've been to Boomtown records. That place where I learned how to play with turntables and vinyl records all in a tiny sound insulated room at the back of the store. DJ Leanne had been operating her dj school called the rhythm institute and Tyler Johnson was the instructor assigned to me. A younger guy who was the dj at what was know as the drink night club. I've frequented this place many times before in its previous reincarnation as 'Madisons'. Now it is the Red Room. DJ Leanne has moved her turntable school a different location downtown. I think possibly zulu records on Pender street but the room still sits at the back of Boomtown records. Tyler Johnson still remains at the old record store being the lone instructor for his preference for house music. I went inside and looked around at the old sound room. Most of the original equipment was still there. Most likely just similar equipment owned by the record store instead of Leanne herself. On the wall is a schedule of the room bookings. It is sparce with only a few lessons booked. It seems a bit empty and bleak in the back area of the store.

Up front are still the vinyl records of various styles of music which many local dj's come to purchase for their gigs or private use. I flipped through a bin which has been marked 'new and current releases' recognizing some artists. Listening to some of them I can hear how the style has changed over the few years that I have left the scene. But one favourite still stands out. A track called 'tweak' by Felix da House Cat. I listen to each record on the turntables which the store has for listening and am tempted to buy it. but when i think about it, why would I? With only one turntable, a few records and no real mixer or a second turntable, there's not much point to collecting any more albums. I'd prefer the digital version of the song and control everything from a computer like I did once before for a wedding. I put the record back in a pile with the rest and leave it at the front counter. There I begin to make my purchase. DJ Sasha of the former duo Sasha and Digweed is performing in town on December 29th. Some friends I met at Lotus are organizing a small group to go see Sasha live. Unfortunately the venue he has chosen is Celebrities. A gay bar which I'm not too keen on. Apparently the original venue was the commodore as has most popular dj's that I have liked have performed at ie Tiesto. However, this time the organizers found a friday night available at Ccelebrities so they made the switch. Nonetheless, our group of faithful followers are still going.

The clerk in the record store punches in the order for the three tickets which I am purchasing for me and two friends. The others in the group have already bought their tickets.
"That will be a hundred and thirty five dollars please." he says to me.
I pull out my visa. He sees it and says "sorry. for event tickets, we do not accept credit card."
I decide to take out my interac card which I hardly ever use given that I prefer to charge everything on my credit card. As I hand the card to the clerk I suddenly realize I can't remember the pin.
"oh god. I think I can't remember the code. My mind has just gone blank on me."
"You don't remember your pin?" The clerk gives me a puzzled look. He swipes the card in the machine and I try three combinations not even sure which account I'm supposed to use for an interac debit purchase. All three attempts fail and he closes the transaction.
"There's an RBC cash machine at the gas station at the intersection there." pointing to the esso gas station. "you can get a cash advance there."
"Thanks. I'll be back." I didn't want to use a cash advance because it costs more and interest is charged from the day you make the withdrawal but I wanted to retry my bank debit card at the machine thinking that it would be faster than waiting for the slow and very audible dial up at the record store.
At the gas station, I put in my debit card and try a couple of different pin codes. I've complete forgotten it. None work and soon the message "all codes are being declined until you come into a branch to reset your pin number for your protection."
I need to get these tickets because I know the event will sell out. At the record store I could see that they only had a handful of tickets left. I decide to try my old bank debit card which is from a different institution. An account which I hardly ever use since I transferred to a new bank but kept this one open anyways. I put this old debit card into the cash machine to test it. The pin code works and the machine prompts me for an amount to withdrawal. I press cancel and retrieve the card thinking it will work fine at the record store.

Walking back to the store, the clerk is standing outside in the doorway having a smoke. He barely recognizes me in the low light but when he does, "you still want the tickets?"
I nod and we go in. I give him my old debit card and he swipes it. The pin pad device prompts for an account type to use. I select one and enter the pin. The pin pad responds by telling me that the account is not enabled for debit transactions. I try it again selecting the other account. This time it is fine. I enter the pin code and it is fine. Then the pin pad screen flashes the messages 'transaction declined. Limited use."
I can't believe this. None of my credit cards are accepted and my two debit cards don't work.
"I guess I'll go and get a cash advance with my credit card." I leave the store in the rain once again and go to a bank nearby. There I remember the correct pin for my credit card and get a cash advance close to the amount needed for the tickets. Quickly I go back to the record store to find the clerk standing in front of the store once again smoking another cigarette.
"You're back" he says with a temporarily startled look on his face before going back to his usual non-chalant composure. I have now given him the impression that I must have a wallet full of stolen bank cards which I must be trying to use. But now I am back with real hard cash.
"So that will be a hundred and thirty five dollars for the three tickets please" he says from behind the counter. I hand him the cash and the transaction is finally complete. Now I need to go visit my bank first thing in the morning to clear up this mess.

Helping The Whole World Move One Person At A Time...

Cakemaker and volleyball girl are now roommates. Sharing a two bedroom basement suite, I helped them move some belongings and furniture. Saturday was the first meal we all shared at the new place also using the new cookware which I helped cakemaker buy. Her relatives had given her an incomplete set of semi-useless pots and pans. The non-stick surface on the frying pan was old all scratched up. Just like volleyball girls old frying pan. Their small television set is partially non-functional. The satellite dish needs to be set up so I gave them a spare dvd player I had. A replacement unit from Toshiba which had already been replaced twice before. Now they don't have to just sit there and stare at each other when they have nothing to do in their new place. I guess they'll just have to chat and converse like normal human beings or become bored of each other.

Earlier we had all gone to Ikea so Cakemaker could pick up some kitchen goods. Fatboy, as his closest friends call him has recently returned from his honeymoon. Him and his new wife Sarah went to Japan for five days followed by another week or so in China. Now they are busilly starting their new life together a new condo in Burnaby. They picked out a bed which I carried in my truck.

Today I tried to move Gambit's stuff which he has in storage. The place is closing down so he needs to find another place. We found one except that I forgot about the paperwork. This move is temporarily postponed until Gambit can get the paperwork settled first.

On the way home, I stop off at the nursing home. It dawned on me earlier this evening that I'm just about done upgrading a number of the old dresser tables. I think I've bought and modified about five dresser tables and another five or so night tables. Each one getting an additional two coats of polyurethane to protect the tops with general everyday abuse by the patients. What is good for a gym or hardwood floor is also good for the furniture. I can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For awhile it felt like an endless array of furniture assembly and modifications amongst the other regular emergencies at the nursing home around my regular day time job. That vacations looks less like an dream and closer to reality now.

This is how the world moves one person at a time.