Gaff rigged Friendship Sloop. Sailed her around in the late twentieth century. Jakartra had five plus tons of soul.
At the helm of a boat named Bottle with a 2 1/2 hp Johnson. The fondest memories of my life grew from summer months learning to be a happy kid in the widening of the Trent River known as Katchewanooka Lake. It was full of weeds, lilly pads and wild rice; frogs, snapping turtles and water snakes. Me and my two cousins, Chris and Hugh - now my best friends - explored every inch of the fabulous and now non-existent paradise and loved every minute of every summer month.
I found the one-year-old Ishalluk chained outside an Ontario redneck Bar in the middle of a minus 25 winter. I couldn't touch him, for fear of reprisal, for another year and then we became fast friends. He moved to the West Coast with me and spent the rest of his magnificent life giving me happiness and warmth.
My name is Peter, I used to be 71 years old, and I live on the West Coast, also known as the Wet Coast, or the Left Coast, of Canada.
It's nice here, you'd like it.
Since a young boy I always wanted to be one of only two things: I really wanted to become either an Open Pit Miner or a Writer.
I chose the easy one, of course, the Open Pit Mining.
Well, the mining career never panned out so I dropped my worn down pointy shovel and picked up a brand spanking new pointy pen and got going on the Writing.
It didn't take long to remember why I avoided Writing in the first place... Writing was enormously difficult to do. I almost returned to Open Pit Mining but fortunately I had already been replaced, by another Writer as it turns out.
That's life...
I actually never wanted to be in the military. I was pressed.
During an eleven year period, I did 76 magic shows for seniors and hospital shut-ins. I was being selfish - I got so much pleasure out of meeting these truly 'advanced' people.
One of my Barnacle Journal assignments: go out on the ocean with the local Coast Guard and let them try to drown me. Came close! (This also would have been the perfect casual-wear for the Covid Pandemic years on the horizon.)
If the Ossiwoppe seems familiar, you just might have read the story "Mentors".
For fifteen years, I hustled Elbow Grease and other valuables at Windsor Plywood on Salt Spring Island. That was sure the funnest job!
“You can make anything by writing.”
C. S. Lewis