Pondfilk / John’s memorial was great. A neighbourhood stranger wandered in with his daughter and picked up the guitar and started singing Wish You Were Here and THAT was the point I had to flee. I like two people singing that. One of them is me, and the other is Mike, and this guy’s version was raucous and came close to being guitar abuse.
I wandered around the pond, talking to Katie on my cell phone, and cherishing the tech that allows me to do that, and all the men and women who maintain the network… because I could BE there for her while she was crying and unhappy about her life. I told her to quit worrying so hard about finding a job. To tell her to stop feeling bad about Dax – who has another girlfriend named Kayla now – is pointless, so I didn’t try that. And I talked to her for 45 minutes.
My Unca Dave is going back for more radiation therapy in Kelowna next month. He had a health blowout that sounded, and was, very scary, and I got the description from his own mouth yesterday in a phone conversation. I chaffed him – people who are quite sick get sick of being treated with a pall of frightened solicitude, so I decided to be bracing, rather than go all, There There on him.
Paul turned up at Pondside about 7 and we sang and played and talked until about 11, when I hauled him out of there pleading exhaustion (no, it was some guy playing Wish You Were Here with no delicacy or spirit of overwhelmed longing). Thank you mOm for putting up with both of us.
Breakfast (porridge and decaf coffee with skim milk and no sugar) has been consumed, and now Paul and I will turn to the great Stack of John’s Books and try to make some sense of them.
Carrie and her spouse John attended, it was lovely to meet John. They are headed back up to Telegraph Creek soon. She seems to think I’ll be going up there, but alas, unless I fly most of the way, or somebody gives me a ride in an extremely comfortable vehicle, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell. The wine was awesome!
Douglas sang Bigfoot. I updated John’s memorial site… the man who wrote, and taught John, “Hit them in the Bottom Line” Alan O’Dean, was there so I got the skinny on that song and by the blessings of reason, did we make a loud singing noise on the choruses. Or Chori, as Douglas would say. Also found out that the Mother Nature song was written by the Berrymans.
It will be sad to see them go. With John dead, Juliana has little reason to stay in Victoria; she’ll be heading off to Columbus OH sometime later this year. They have purchased a house there. They’ll need somebody to stay in the house but she’s hoping to arrange that through church.
I missed Tom and Peggy by minutes. Sigh. Her bass on Tapioca is always something to look forward to.
The Devon Rexes, especially Sugar, previously shown on this blog, were in fine form, as was John’s erstwhile cat, Vincent.
Anyway, apart from a little residual sadness from talking to Katie, who really is having a rough go of it if her facebook posts are anything to go by, I am in a really happy, centered place. So I guess I can be more or less guaranteed that something interesting and challenging is about to happen… cause you know, it never lasts.
