Hood Happenings

Now that I've settled into the lazy writer's life in Victoria, I've been slowly exploring my newly adopted city, albeit temporary. The slower pace was just what I needed. When I think about things, I've been on a whirlwind for years. Man, I'm tired. So now I sleep in, which I have not done since my teenage years, sometimes until 11am! I don't always want to sleep in and miss my favorite time of day, the morning, but with no real constraints on my day, I find myself up very late some nights, so need to sleep in a little from time to time just to keep balance.

I take my time throughout the day, go for walks, usually destination oriented but not always. Victoria is a gorgeous city to walk in with beautiful tree-lined sidewalks that carry you anywhere. The city is alive, full of color and a walk anywhere is usually interesting. Why just the other day when I took a short walk to the 7-11 for a cappuccino, I was passing a small apartment building I heard a couple arguing, and then just as I passed the window on the sidewalk, I heard him yell "I ain't going back to jail!!!" Nice. Let's move on, quickly.

The high school across the street is busy but I haven't noticed any extra noise, not particularly. With such a large high school, it might have been noisy, but I find the elementary schools much noisier as those children are "playing" where the high school kids are "hanging out" and often in the smoke hole, which incidentally appears to be at the end of my driveway. It's a long driveway so I smell no smoke, however I often come and go in the van and have to drive through them, waiting for them to move. They do, they love the van. I get a lot of waves and peace signs. I just really want to see inside the school, so am considering going over to see if I can volunteer for a few months on something. Maybe...

Stormy has been out for a few walks, not far. The park across the street by the high school is very popular with dogs due to the fenced portions, with lots of large dogs coming and going. They might decide to chase him and then I'd be stuck with this 17 pound cat in my arms running for cover...so we hang out. Stormy isn't much for walking like a dog. It's really just a lot of standing around, while he sniffs at things or rolls in the dirt. We walked by another cat once, he just kept on going like he had blinders on, keeping one eye over his shoulder to watch her. I thought he might be interested in checking her out. Nope. The full moon certainly has him psyched up as he tears through the apartment, up and down off the furniture, and then diving into a paper bag. Crazy cat.

The bathrobe club runs strong. The ladies huddle in the parking lot for their smokes on and off all day long, dressed in pyjamas and bathrobes. Kind of reminds me of Hawkeye on MASH who often wore his bathrobe around the unit.