Hello Miramichi, it’s been a very long 32 years!

And when I lived here, it was called Chatham, at least the part I lived in. Apparently I drove right by the base when I came. I wasn’t expecting it or looking for it as I was counting numbers for houses as the friend’s house we are parking at is on the same street as the one that runs right by the former base housing. We’re going to go back today to check it out.
Karma performed awesomely. I didn’t stall once, although first gear is tricky to find at times. Just when you think it’s in there…it ain’t…but if I have trouble like that, it is usually only once or two more attempts and I get it in there. Changing to any of the other gears is not at an issue. I think I read somewhere on the net about that being a common issue with some of them. Reverse has been smooth too, which is great as it is in a different place in the VWs as you know. I’m plugged in at my friend’s house, parked in her driveway in the back. It was exceptionally quieter than living on Portland Street…wayyyyy less traffic noise and no buses. In fact, this town has just two buses. I think my friend told me they are short buses too. So yeah, nice quiet neighborhood at night, and busy by day. I finally wound down last night and fell asleep, and Stormy must have as well as he didn’t roam last night like he did the night before.

Stormy seems quite comfortable in the van and so far has a favorite perch on top of the stove/sink cupboard. So I put an afghan on there and he is basking in the morning sun. He was in the house since I arrived until bedtime last night. There is another black kitty in there, female named Lestat. They are getting used to each other a minute at a time. I think they will be okay with each other before long. Stormy has been invited to the same party as I have in the house tonight. My friend’s son is moving away tomorrow to Toronto. There is to be a huge crowd. I am grateful for my traveling detached guest room.

Today I need to organize the van. I had been carefully packing things in for weeks and then when it got down to the wire yesterday and I just wanted to make tracks, so chucked all the last few things in the house into bags and now have several bags of STUFF. I hate rooting through stuff in any situation, and this is a small location so to look through stuff can be very frustrating as you must move many other things in order to root. The sun is out, and the morning is warming so I’ll be setting up an outdoor area soon and try Stormy on his harnessed lead. I’m certain he will hate it or be dumb enough to tangle himself up in it or both. He’ll probably end up in the house, which he seems to very much like. My friend lives in a big old house with lots of rooms and nooks and crannies to inspect. He seems to like the music room where we hung out most of last night. It’s filled with lots of guitars, drums, vinyl, Alpine collectors memorabilia, and so on. We spun some vinyl last night with an undisclosed amount of alcohol and hooka. Yes, hooka. Apple cinnamon I think. Very interesting. My friend used to own a few t-shirt and smoke shops in the area and had purchased the hooka and setup to burn it.

My friend happened to mention to a local reporter for a small local interest piece that I was coming to town in the van, all painted up, and how long it’s been since we saw each other – grade 6, 1978. When the school year was done, the base closed, and we moved away to Labrador. We had been best friends and hung out together all the time, particularly in grade 5 and 6. It was very interesting to go back to those years and see what we could remember. She can remember more than I, but often because she has more years of time with the same people, having lived in the area for a great deal of her life. She is the only classmate from grade 6 and under that I have any contact with, and have maintained that contact nearly constantly since 1978. There were a couple of years where we strayed apart – I moved, she moved, and it was pre-internet. However she found me in Grand Bruit and we’ve kept track of each other ever since. Facebook has certainly helped maintain contact in recent years, as it’s popularity continues to grow. They have made addicts of us all!

So getting back to the reporter, we are to hook up with him at some point this weekend and I’ll be featured on the local tv/net. Her son was caught wearing bunny ears earlier this week, and we watched his clip last night. I think the segment is something like “Give ‘er on the river”. I’ll be sure to post a link when the time comes. The sun is calling…time to set up outside and do some yoga.