benetton...

bear country...

valdy.

"when they told me about the bear, i though they were kidding,
i'm like "you're bullshitting, are you for real?" they said "yeah,
it lives at the end of our street, where the forest and the
country road meet, you might see it, on your way to the
beach." on my way to the beach, on my bike, that night,
i stopped at the crossing, looked left and right,
about an hour after dusk, there wasn't much light,
i heard a rustle in the underbrush, and filled with fright,
flashed my light like OFF, ON, and OFF, honked my horn, like, HONK, HONK,
my chest got tight, heavy breath, i pedaled off..."

my first day in tobermory.

got here last night, after a whirlwind "pack-n-move," something i have gotten close to mastering in my somewhat-nomadic life. "i'll be there in an hour," my brother says on the phone from the road on his way to pick me up in my mom's friend's van. (i haven't started packing yet.)

coffee. music. throw everything into garbage bags.

organized?

yeah, right.

just get in all into something that we can carry, load the van, grab some brunch and a pint somewhere - this time at mezzrow's, for greek omelets and a pint of creemore - and hit the road. goodbye flatmates (this time "big gay charles" and "holy-shit-do-you-ever-stop-talking damon"), goodbye city (this time toronto), goodbye job (this time the rhino bar & grill, on queen st. west - great place to go for a cheap pint, terrible place to work), and hit the road...

so now i'm here. tobermory.

i was here once before. the summer before grade six. my mom and her friend across the street, vera wren, rented a cottage for a week. the two of them, vera's son mike, and my brothers and i. i don't remember much of it. flowerpot island. glass-bottom boats to look at shipwrecks under the cold water.

my little brother colin, mike and i walked to the nearest store to look for comic books one day. they didn't have any. so we decided to keep walking and find another store. well, up here, it's not like the city where you're going to find a corner store every few blocks. an hour or two went by. mom and vera - freaking out that we were taking so long - come flying over the hill in their station wagon to find the three of us walking along the side of the road. happy to find us - and know that we were safe - but furious at us for being stupid and deciding to go for a long walk in search of comic books without realizing how long we were gone for. ah well, kids, what are you gonna do?

turning over rocks to find crayfish, filling up a bucket of the things, and bringing them back to the cottage to create our own little watery zoo in the cottage's bathtub. i don't really remember how that one went over.

phone calls are expensive up here. i bought a new phone card and made two or three calls and already i'm almost out of time. i'm going to have to be careful.

the view? the air? the water?

well, that's why i'm here.

fireworks tonight. i should finish this beer and climb back on my schwinn cruiser and head down to the harbour soon.

happy canada day everybody!