I’m writing this from our very own deck, at home, in McCall. Isaac is in British Columbia filming grizzly bears and salmon for an eclectic British film crew making a TV series about predators. We decided it would be an OK time to take a break, and it did offer real money, and real exposure. I am, quite happily, holding down the fort in McCall… enjoying this town in summertime: farmers markets, the lake, biking everywhere, our home and all its wonderful half-finished projects, and logging. Logging footage, that is, not trees. Endless logging. Logging every day, and for so long that I feel like my eyeballs will never quite be the same again.
We live in such an amazing town. Today, simply in the time it took to bike home from the grocery store (about ten minutes), I encountered three separate things that made me smile. First, two women walking along the road talking about Sharlie. Sharlie is our lake monster; our Loch Ness. As I pedaled up they were deep in conversation and this is the bit I overheard:
“I saw these great big ripples, making this ‘v’ formation… but there were no boats, nothing in the near vicinity!” woman one.
“Sharlie.” Woman two, with total confidence, “Don’t worry, she’s a friendly serpent.”
“Oh that’s good. Yeah, I mean there was nothing out there…”
And I passed by, pedaling on to soon meet a man, standing in the middle of the street, barefoot and wearing nothing more than boxer shorts. As I pedaled up I squinted into the slanting evening sunlight, trying to ascertain what was going on. A few cars where lined up on his other side, and he held out his arms as if directing traffic. I squeezed my brakes, just as I noticed a deer, and a young fawn crossing the road about 20 feet in front of me. As they exited the road, and the man walked off to the side towards his house, and the cars began rolling again, I stood up on my pedals and pressed by.
“Just want to make sure they get across safely!” He said to me as I passed.
I smiled and pedaled on, only about fifty yards down the road to find a cowboy, wearing chaps, cowboy hat, spurs, the whole deal, riding his horse across the town bridge. I slowed, worried my bike would spook his horse, and passed, smiling and waving as I pedaled towards home. What a wacky place.
I woke this morning to a strange clanking sound out the back window of the yurt. Sitting up, bleary-eyed in bed, I saw a murky black form in the early dawn light out by our woodshed. I knew exactly what was going on. Leaping out of bed, I raced out the door and around the corner of the yurt (wait a minute, yurts don’t have corners… sorry, around the side) and hollered at the good-sized black bear that was rooting around in our compost pile. Then I realized I should have grabbed the camera and set it up to roll some footage… but the camera was way out in the truck… The bear merely glanced at me with absolutely no worry whatsoever, and ambled slowly off into the woods.
Ah, McCall…
Isaac returns on September 4th, and we will be heading back out soon after. Sorry for the long delay in blogs!
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