Writer's Club at Annis Bay

Bonnie said we are going to have Annis Bay Writer's Club while I am here.  So ... here  I begin. 

Connor was going home after his last exam Tuesday night, taking the 11:30 pm bus.  I decided that Kelvin and I should take the same bus and slipped down Sunday afternoon to reserve the two front seats on the bus for us.  This was not good for Connor, for when we arrived at the bus station, compliments of Richard and Braden Keeler’s driving skills, Connor discovered that the Greyhound had pre-sold all of the possible tickets going from Calgary to B.C. up to December 24^th.  By this time Richard and Braden had gone home, so Connor struck out on foot for the C-train. Kelvin and I began a two hour wait in the bus station.  Though there was a full bus load of passengers there was no bus on the horizon, mystifying even the bus driver.  He didn't pull out of the Greyhound terminal until 1:30 am.

The bus driver now tried to make up for two hours of lost time.  "I am going to drive responsiblty and the only breaks in Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise and Golden will be smoke breaks," the driver told us. 

“What is that abandoned Greyhound bus doing in the parking lot of the Husky Station,” Kelvin asked the bus driver.  “I don’t know,” said the driver. “I would think that with the shortage of buses, maintenance would have sent someone to warm up the motor for the engine and get that thing going.   But things have changed now with Head Office in Florida and the dispatching office in Montreal.  I don’t even know if anyone knows the bus is sitting there,” he said, driving out into the snowy night.

I don’t get frequent Greyhound passenger points anymore.  It must have been a year since I travelled on the Greyhound.  Some things have changed.  What with the general health mood of Canadians in general, moving toward a better style of eating out, I thought it was the ultimate in good nutrition to find a bowl of hard boiled eggs for sale in the cooler, eggs, 69¢ for each. On another curious note, the Revelstoke stop is now at a 24-hour gas station at the Frontier Motel, nearer the east side of Revelstoke.  In the meantime, the 24 hour gas station has cut back its hours, which doesn’t serve the purposes of a 4:30 am stop there very well. No snacks. Hard to find the motel public bathroom.  Just another smoke break.

The highlight of my day was going to a medical appointment with Bonnie – not often that the Dr takes the mother and the daughter in on a consult.  What I love about this Dr., long before I saw her, is that Bonnie told me she is inviting  her patients to join her own New Year's Resolution  – to live more responsibly.

“I know what I am doinging.  I am choosing to get more sleep,” said Bonnie ... then writing down four more resolutions 

“I know what I would do, if I were a patient in this practise,” I said.  “In fact, I might do it anyway.  I would take closer control of my financial house.  But I wonder what it is the Dr. is doing.”

In the appointment Bonnie asked the Dr., and the quick reply was, “I am trying to reduce some of the chaos in my life.”   

I think I am going to join the Dr. in that, as well.  But starting tomorrow.

Arta