feb 17th

We went to the store to buy some ingredients for lunch.  On the way shawn who is a fountain of local knowledge, pointed out different things to me.  we stopped at amy’s work, a cute little dark blue motel, so she could check her schedule.  Shawn and i stepped outside the truck and he pointed out different mountains, passageways, islands and homes.  We also saw a bald eagle.  Amy came back and we all popped back into the truck.  Just as shawn was getting in, a bearded, red plaid clad man popped out of the bushes shouting a greeting to shawn, and shawn non-pulsed, greets back and they go on to have a conversation.  Amy and i found it quite funny.  It was joel who has chickens which chickens run all over the motel’s parking lot.

At the co-op we meet another local who knows shawn.  Shawn has lived here for ---years and has had almost every job and knows almost everyone.  This lady acted like she hadn’t seen shawn in months and months and shawn was like “i come here all the time and even come through your cash.”  Shawn saying this to this lady did not even get through to her.  “must be on my days off.  We get three days off a week now.”  When we left she told shawn not to be such a stranger.  “oh i won’t.” Says shawn with a smile. Shawn used to work at the co-op of course and used to have to give that lady’s car a jump daily.

On the drive back i commented on a lady walking on the side of the road.  I thought she looked like some sorts of dark arts voodoo lady.  Shawn knew her of course—maybe from when he worked at the coffee shop.  He told us her story—very eccentric, a masseuse. We passed another guy on the side of the road.  “who’s that?” i asked shawn, testing him, to which he just laughed.  Amy says it happens all the time.

Back at the aromatic cedar home, we made the most delicious satisfying lunch.  Shawn made his famous greek salad and delicious spicy hummus, and amy and i combined our creativity to make a fantastic grilled sandwich. It was on some artisan bread that had whole roasted garlic in it—dijon mustard, mayo, extra aged white cheddar and a thick carpet of shawn’s hummus.  The extra bread we cut up to dip in the hummus.  It was the best.  We all thought so.

After lunch which was more like a really early dinner shawn wanted to go catch some more waves and i wanted to get some shots of him surfing.  So amy and i went along.  When we were getting into the truck shawn dashed off around the side of the house and came running back with a surfboard under his arm (there are surfboards tucked into every nook and cranny at cedar house). “i’m going to surf this one!” he said excited like a little boy. It was an old board that apparently was rotting and shawn hadn’t tried it out yet.   First we went to north chesterman beach but like this morning when we went there, there were no waves.  Very pretty beach though.   So   we went back to cox bay.

The tide was out this time.  Amy and i tried to drag a drift wood log closer to the sea for us to sit on but after a while gave up and left it.  the wet sand was all glassy and reflecting the dramatic sky—part heavy cloud, part blue, part setting sun.  We got distracted taking pictures of ourselves jumping with amy’s camera that we forgot to look out for shawn so we could tell which surfer he was.  we lost shawn, but that didn’t stop us from watching the different surfers and trying to figure out which one he was. And amuse ourselves with amy’s camera.  It got dark fast and shawn came in.  As we walked back down the trail to the truck it started to hail heavily.  It snowed all night

We finished off the night by finger painting and watching the rest of that darn cat and then Sydney white which amy and shawn both liked.  Finger painting was fun.  Amy was amazing at it.  we’re supposed to go kayaking today but it depends on the weather.