June17, Cool and Windy

We are really enjoying living so close to town. It is four kilometers to St Peter's, so it takes about five minutes to get there--depending on the light.

The first step in getting NS license plates is to get your vehicle checked at an authorized inspection garage. Brigitte had the Escape checked this week and I wanted to get my Ranger done as well. I asked her for the bill so that I could get phone number and call them for an appointment, but she had already thrown the bill out. As we needed a box of wine anyway, I drove into town, made the appointment and got the wine. We could never justify such a trip into Guelph when we lived in Puslinch. On the way home I had to stop at the new bridge construction site. It was a long wait of about 15 minutes. All the vehicles turned their engines off and had the windows open. A woman came across the road towards me and as she passed my open window she said, "Buddy up there in the truck with the light on top is playing the spoons". I looked up and saw that the driver of the truck two vehicles up was indeed playing the spoons and with my attention focused, I could hear it. In Atlantic Canada the spoons are a musical instrument. You put a spoon handle on either side of the middle finger and tap them together by slapping them on the thigh or the other hand. Perhaps comparable to castanets. "Buddy" was putting on quite a concert. After the long wait it occurred to me that when you live in city you sometimes live on the wrong side of the tracks--clearly, in St Peter's we live on the wrong side of the canal.

Today, Brigitte was busy all day volunteering with the Lobsterfest event of the day, so I took the dogs for a walk at the Grande Greve beach, about 10 minutes away on the ocean side. Just before we got there I saw a car stuck in a driveway and a middle aged couple were trying to push it out. I stopped and told them my truck was a 4X4 and that I had a chain. They said they didn't need help, but thanked me for stopping.

We had our walk and on the way back the car was still stuck. I got out to help. I assesed the situation and saw that the car could not be pulled out, it had to go up the hill of the driveway, then back down. In the interim, they had jacked up the front tires and put boards under the tires so that they wouldn't spin on the loose gravel. Alex asked Cassie to drive, but she said he was a better driver. He got in. Cassie and I went to the back to push. In a low voice she said to me, "I'm a better pusher than he is, but he gets angry if I tell him that". Maybe this wasn't the first time they were stuck. We pushed and Alex hit the gas--all the way. He got past the boards then the car started digging into the gravel and throwing it at us. However, he got far enough to be able to back out of the driveway. With the emergency over we had a chance to chat. They asked where I lived and I told them Corbetts Cove Road, clearly they hadn't noticed the Ontario plates. Alex told me that he used to go fishing there all the time. They asked did I know this person and this other person. I had to admit that I had only lived there for three weeks and had only met Errol and Gloria and that I knew where Larry Boudreau lived. They asked where I had come from and I told them, but explained that we had been coming here every summer for at least 40 years and that now we were here to help my wife's aging parents. That seemed to satisfy them. But in most 'Caper's' eyes we will always be labeled 'Come from away'.

I am now observing the local custom of giving a small wave to on coming vehicles on gravel roads, as they are likely locals, but not on paved roads.

Paul