why it’s wise to love thy neighbours

It’s close to 1 p.m. PDT as I start this.  Already the air, even out here, is sweet with

the anticipation of the Canucks’ game tonight.  Liquor stores in downtown Van-

couver have to close at 4 p.m.  The policy on our back deck will be decidedly more

relaxed.  We had a dozen or so here for Game Six.  It rained so hard just before the

puck dropped that Mowat, our intrepid aqua-boy, didn’t want to fish.

 

So the lot of us piled into our small living room, sharing the seating on a rotating

basis.  Whoever went outside to check their food on the BBQ grill did so knowing 

that they would likely lose their spot.  But it was good that so many of the commu-

nity were so close together.  It made it easier to bear the 5-2 loss.

 

I would like it on the record that after that furious four-goals-in-four-minutes

flurry, the Canucks outscored the Bruins 2-1, the one ursine score coming on a

five-on-three kinda deal.

 

I haven’t felt this type of excitement since the Giants won the World Series last

October.  Nothing else galvanizes a city or area more that a championship sports

team.  And that’s what we’re shooting for tonight.

 

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In my last post, I hopefully regaled you with the tale of my ineptness while trying

to tweak our micro-hydro system.  One of our neighbours, Nina, remembered that

she and hubby Chris had an idle piece of 2″ poly pipe available and trucked it over.

Jude and I stretched it out in the front yard so it would lose some of its coil in the

heat of the sun, should El Sol ever show its optimistic face here again.

 

  Right now the pipe is indeed basking in the bright stuff.  It’s sunny today, but

windy.  There’s an island-wide ban on open burning, so we can’t have a celebratory

bonfire when the Canucks win.  Jude reminded me that we have lots of candles, so

that’s Plan A now.

 

While I can’t be guaranteed of a Canucks’ victory, I do know that we’ll have fun

tonight.  We should be able to move the TV to the back deck and have plenty of

seating, with the grill nearby.  I’ll report back on that.

 

For now I want to pull the 30′ section of pipe that Nina and Chris gave us up the hill.

I’m confident it will help me improve on my original crappy idea.  I’ll miss  the pipe

being in the yard, though.  Jude forgot about putting it there and mistook it for an

extremely rare ebony python — so rare that it doesn’t even exist.

 

Thank you again, Nina and Chris.  You’re quality neighbours.