9) Fun stuff always happens…………..

I am, also, of course, still thrilled to hang out with Ra and Brian Smith, after all these wonderful years. They are always full of great advice, and fresh modern spirit. They remember all the details of past conversations, and we can start up 15-year-old topics where they left off.

There are so many funny things going on, I am sorry that I didn’t write down more stuff this year.

At the last hotel, Clayton was sleep-walking and ended up in the hallway, locked out of his room in his underwear. He had to take the elevator down and get a new key from the front desk in his gaunch. It was late and there were two guys who thought it was funny.

This is the kinda thing that gets mentioned, and then the next one moves it backwards.

He says he hasn’t gaunch-walked like that since October 2002, Stoke-On-Tent, England, on tour, on his birthday. A modern Ikea-looking hotel, ended up outside, no elevator, had to walk down 2 stairs to the front desk.

I never wear anything in the hotel, especially shoes and socks……I don’t think anyone does really, so he was lucky that way.

I know a guy, a bass player, who is a huge big galute, who slept walked into a lobby in New Orleans, totally nude, and apparently it was a big scene. Everybody freaked out. What a way to wake up, hey.

10) Fire can be bad…………..

Ra and Brian have heard all of my stories. Brian likes the one about the forest fire on Gogo Mountain in the 1940s, where Great Grandpa Gogo got so bummed-out that he wrapped up in a blanket and sat under a tree. He figured that was it. That was going to be his last stop. No more traveling Vaudeville, (he was in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show)…….no more rope tricks, no more signing his name with an X……..My Dad and my Grandpa had to rescue him. It was a tough grind back then, working in coal mines, clearing land by hand.

I still don’t like the idea of a forest fire on Gogo Mountain, but I don’t think I would wanna just pack it in. I wonder what kind of timber value we have up there now? Let’s clear-cut it. NOT. I can show you a fir tree that is wider than an elephant. Probably 1000 years old. Tall, too!

100 years of paying taxes on undeveloped land, I figure I can brag a bit about the stuff that only the bears get to see.

Did I tell you about the house across the street from us on Protection Island? The guy accidentally left open the door to his wood stove….went outside to have a smoke…..his house caught on fire, ‘cause it was full of stuff, and I mean FULL…..and speaking of smoke, more black smoke than our harbour has seen for years. From downtown Nanaimo, it looked like it was my place on fire. A bad feeling, for sure. His house burned to the ground. Just a pile of burnt junk, no house.

All the Protection Island fire team could do was to water the other houses and not let the blaze spread. And we just had had 3 days of rain, after a dry spell, thank God, or the whole Island would have gone up. Fires are not good things on Gulf Islands. We gotta be SO careful in the summers.

He had no insurance. And through the generosity of fellow Islanders, now has enough donated money to clean up his site, barge away all the burnt crud, and build a new house to lock-up. We had great fund-raising concert parties, where my big brother Johnny and I played together for the first time in 20 years (he is a great singer!!!) Three rich familes donated a bulk of the cash to rebuild. That is the kind of society we have there.

Now, next door to him, (right across from me)….a super rich developer-family is building a 2700 sq ft cabin for their mom, in a beautiful swamp lot. I guess they bought the lot in the summer when it is dry. It is now like a lake across the street, trucks getting stuck; trucks barged over to unstuck the stuck trucks. Excavators……..people fighting over lot lines and what rocks belong to who.

Don’t ever try to rip-off a shovel of dirt on an Island. It is like gold.
It is also that kinda society.
Dynamic. I love it.

Tons of rich folks moving to the Islands these days. I see barges go by with one car or truck on them. People moving almost empty barges around, at $300 an hour, on their own ‘cause they don’t need to buddy-up. I am OK with it all, of course. Means that if I ever have to go next door to borrow some tea, I will get the good stuff……..Not that I will ever run out of my own stash. Did I ever tell you about my tea collection? Massive, including the tea museum, complete with Oregon Chai I stole from Neil Young.

11) The Protection Island Cabin…………..

Our Protection Island cabin has a finished interior now (other than the heated floor not installed yet). All the rescued and recycled yellow cedar that we have been deconstructing, de-tarring, de-nailing, sorting, storing, moving, planing and sanding for the last 5 years is now a shiny floor, with 7 coats of heavy varnish.

Seven coats for the seven seas, I always say……. like a classic wooden sailboat.

There are uncountable hours into that floor. I killed 3 belt sanders on it. I calculated the hours for several sessions and lost track. One night I was over there until 3am, with one weird green lightbulb.

The place looks amazing. High-end West Coast Modern, almost Japanese. All the new furniture has also recently been barged over. Will Chadwick has a new aluminum barge, with wheels, so it trailers on land. With a truck on each island to tow it, you get door-to-door service. It is about the coolest thing I have ever seen. Fun trip, too!

When Trooper starts our winter break next week, I will ZODIAC over more often, crank up the sauna and bar-b-que and set the furniture up for real. But first I gotta get the rain water out of the boat….by bouncing it onto the dock….we had the wildest rain in 40 years last week………like our regular rain wasn’t wild enough already(?)……..don’t let that scare you, though. It just means that campfires are allowed.

I miss the steam sauna with the red hot rocks.
This is real West Coast Island life.

The whole experience of lighting the fire, cooking some food, singing some songs, and shoveling the glowing sandstone rocks into the cedar-lined little sauna room, is some kinda ritual. It brings total peace, and it warms your bones. I sat for 3 hours a while ago just looking at the fire. No instruments, no books, no wood whittling.

I let friends all stay at the cabin whenever they want to, of course, and some do. I have a special rate also for Trooper fans. Free, but you gotta at least play bongos at the campfire jams.

I also noticed at Gogo Manor, since the big high-tech fireplace insert was installed, nobody watches TV anymore. I watch the fire, and the students all have laptops. They think TV is all garbage. Poor old TV is gonna disappear from society, like the gramophones, hey.

But the fire stays, ‘cause I get free lumber tailings from Uncle Mike’s sawmill………like truck-load after truck-load of it, all bundled up. I hire a chainsaw guy (Trooper players don’t use chainsaws) and I stack tons of firewood way up high, just how my old Dad showed me, so many years ago.

Wood heat is the best.

(…written in the hotel in Castlegar after soundcheck………..)

OK, it is now 9pm, lobby call in less than 2 hours. I am lounging in a KING bed at the Sandman, back from dinner at the venue, the Bar and Grill in Castlegar. BEST blackened halibut. Thank you. Funny how we always leave the coast to have seafood. Great rock and roll room, cool blue lights on the stairs, CLEAN!…..super high stage….huge bar all lighted up from below, cool blue tones…..acoustic duo opening, sounded great during dinner.

This new toy computer has been eating my day, as you can tell…..have not even turned the TV on yet. Life on the road can be run run run, and some days, like today, quite relaxing for a few hours!

We always fly home on Sundays, so when everyone else is in church, I am watching The Sopranos with little earbuds, sipping tomato juice and eating those raunchy bits and bites. I love it, great combinations, hey.