Alien

I’m not going to pussy foot around it, I was a negligent blogger this weekend. I don’t even really know why I didn’t. I don’t have a valid excuse. So I won’t try and come up with one. I’ll just apologize and assume you’ll forgive me, and we’ll kiss and make up and move on.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let me tell you about what happened to me today! Let me start off by saying, especially to all you city folk, you don’t know what you’re missing. Sure, I had a minor melt down on Saturday night when I decided walking too and from the Ghostriders hockey game in my jeans would be a good idea, oh, it was -15 degrees out. But, the thing is, when it is cold like that here, it is because the sky is totally clear. Which means you can see every mountain in the area perfectly! It takes your breath away.

Yesterday, my car got here! Driven all the way from Victoria, B.C. And let me tell you, this morning when I saw that it was -21, I couldn’t have been happier to get behind the wheel of a car. My parents asked a co-worker of my mom’s, named Monty, a former long-haul trucker, to drive the corolla across the province. So, when he got here, I had to drive him to Cranbrook so he could fly out to Victoria. I’m not a snow driver, I don’t think anyone who grew up in Victoria or Vancouver is. We just never get enough of the white stuff out there to give us the practice, so needless to say, I was a bit nervous to make the two hour drive, there and back.

The hardest parts of the drive where making sure I kept my eyes on the road and not on the mountains, rivers and other bits of gorgeous scenery, and surviving a stare down with a mountain goat. We passed the mountain goats on our way to Cranbrook. They walk on to the highway and lick the salt off the road. So I round this corner, and smack dab in the middle of the high way are about 15 mountain goats. And I don’t mean goats like you see in your local petting zoo, I mean curly horned, big a**ed goats. But they were pretty cool nonetheless. So we manage to slowly move them off the road and head off to Cranbrook. Well on the way back, sure enough, there they were in the exact same spot, only this time I knew where they would be and had tips from my new friend the long haul trucker to get them off the road. So I start inching up, and the start moving towards the side of the road. And then this big guy stops right in front of the hood of my car. He looked me right in the eye (I’m serious, RIGHT in the eye!) and curls his lips. It creeped me out for a minute, and then he shoved a female goat in the butt with his horns and they went on their way, and I did too.

I spent the rest of the day unpacking the boxes that my parents had shoved in to the car. I now have all my cookbooks here in Fernie with me. And they are taking up a pretty big portion of the kitchen, but I think it makes the kitchen look used, which is always a good thing.

Today it was back to work, and I decided I was going to have spicy oven-fried chicken for dinner (ala everybody loves sandwiches), I asked my co-worker about the butcher near work, and she advised me that Backcountry meat and sausage is better, and cheaper. I didn’t even know there was another butcher in town so I was pretty excited about this. And after work on my way home, I stopped in at Backcountry meat and sausage.

I should have wondered when I pulled up and there was a row of pick-up trucks in the parking lot, but a lot of people drive trucks here. So I zip up my coat and hop out of the car. When I walked in, it became clear that I was the only woman there, and also the only one not wearing camouflage. To be honest I wasn’t really phased by this. I just looked in all the cases, while I was eyed up by all the camo-clad men. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any chicken legs, just breasts. So I was sore out of luck as far as oven fried chicken goes. But I learned a valuable lesson, if you are looking for good meat and sausages, follow the camo.

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