September 20, 2021 ; Canada’s Federal Election Day
When Canada’s federal election was announced about five weeks ago I saw an opportunity for Joanne and I to work as election officials, as we have in the past, to earn enough to pay for the upcoming painting of our condo suite.
We were hired as Central Poll Supervisors because of our previous election experience, and were assigned to work at the polling location in the small town of Grunthal, about half an hour south of Steinbach. We were also designated as “substitute” supervisors for the four advance polling days. As a result, Joanne was called in to be a substitute supervisor at the polling station in Dugald last Sunday and Monday, the third and fourth days of the advance polls.
Elections Canada (arbitrarily ?) designated me as the lead supervisor, with Joanne and another woman as the other two supervisors assigned to Grunthal. And I did not discover until two days before the election that Grunthal was assessed as one of the anti-mask protest potential “hot spots”. How wonderful <sarcasm>! Elections Canada hired two uniformed security officers to assist in Grunthal.
This morning we were up at 5:30, left home at 6:30, started work in Grunthal at 7 AM, finished in Grunthal at midnight, delivered all the election materials to the Provencher Returning Office in Steinbach at 12:30 AM, and arrived back home at 1 AM, an 18 ½ hour day. The day went about as smoothly as it could have. We were very busy with a steady flow of voters, but our line-ups never exceeded about fifteen minutes. We had five polling stations, each staffed by a Deputy Returning Officer. Along with the three Central Poll Supervisors we had four Information Officers, two Registration Officers, and the two “Rent-A-Cop” security officers.
We had less than a dozen “anti-mask” voter protests, and all but one grumpily complied with the requirement that they be masked before entering to vote. One man, with a baby in his arms, steadfastly refused to put on a mask, while the security officer stood shoulder to shoulder with me as we blocked the voter from entering. I refused entry to the voter, and refused to have a “debate” about my “denial of his right to vote” <sigh> The voter filmed our entire interaction and later posted it to Facebook. <sigh> By mid-afternoon the incoming voters were all chattering about the Facebook video of the morning “confrontation” at the Grunthal voting location. <sigh> The good news is … my Elections Canada “boss”, the Provencher electoral district’s Returning Officer, was pleased with how I handled the situation.
We also had two voters with mask “medical exemptions”. No problem … come in and vote ! I had a security officer escort each of them from entry to exit, to ensure “social distancing” from others, to expedite the voting process, and to ensure no unexpected “problems” or “protests” arose while they were in the building.
And yes, yes … we earned enough to pay for the painting of our suite, with a couple of hundred bucks left over ! WOO-HOO !
Yes, yes … I’m probably far better suited … and qualified … to be an Elections Canada Central Poll Supervisor than a painter ! HA HA HA !
September 23 ; Day 1 of 4 day camping trip ; Steinbach to Lockport to Gimli to Hecla.
Sunny and warm all day, a nice fall day.
We prepared for departure and left home around noon, heading north on Hwy. 12 to Anola, then east on Hwy. 44 to Lockport, the little village built around the locks and dam on the Red River a bit south of the town of Selkirk. Lockport is, and has been since our childhood, a favourite “Sunday drive” destination for fishing or … having a hot dog at Skinner’s Drive-In !
We parked in Skinner’s parking lot and went for a leisurely walk along River Road before buying lunch at Skinner’s. I showed Joanne where my father used to bring me and my brother when we were young children to fish for a few hours for Silver/Sheepshead Bass. The fish would travel upstream on the Red River from Lake Winnipeg and get blocked by the dam and locks at Lockport, congregating just below the dam. Like shooting fish in a barrel. HA HA HA !
After lunch we headed north on Hwy. 9 to and through Selkirk, where Joanne received her schooling in Psychiatric Nursing. We continued north on Hwy. 9, following the shoreline of Lake Winnipeg until reaching Gimli. We parked in downtown Gimli and went for a long walk on the beach, then drove a few miles back south to Winnipeg Beach Provincial Park. We explored/drove through the provincial park campground, assuming therefore that all provincial park campgrounds would still be open. WRONG ! How wonderful to be back in a province run by a Conservative government <sarcasm>.
On our way back to Gimli we stopped at a fisher’s home based sales outlet and bought extremely fresh, very well priced pickerel fillets, intending to cook some for supper. We planned to buy more on our way back home in a couple of days.
We returned to Gimli and found our way to the Thursday afternoon Farmers’ Market. It was a disappointment. Filled with unmasked customers, and even more distastefully, unmasked vendors ! I refused to spend money at unmasked vendors hypocritically displaying “food safety” certifications.
We returned to downtown Gimli and went for a walk along the long pier, admiring the murals painted on the concrete breakwater wall. We walked around downtown, looking at the pickerel dinner offerings of the local restaurants, debating whether to buy a take-out pickerel dinner, or cook our own. We decided to cook our own. Good decision, as things turned out.
We drove north out of Gimli a short distance to Camp Morton Provincial Park, our destination for tonight. <sputter> It was closed for the season. We debated whether to backtrack south to Winnipeg Beach Provincial Park, or continue north to Hecla Island/Gull Harbour Provincial Park, our destination for tomorrow. We headed north.
When we arrived at Hecla Island, signage indicated that … <sigh> … the provincial park campground was closed for the season. We drove the length of the island, to the small village of Hecla, before finding a good overnight boondocking spot in the parking lot of the town’s large wharf. It was almost 8 PM, almost dark, and we were too tired to prepare a home made pickerel dinner.
Very nice moonlight reflection on Lake Winnipeg, though !
September 24 ; Day 2 of 4 day camping trip ; Hecla to Broad Valley to Fisher Branch to Camp Morton
Sunny early in the day, becoming cloudy, a few drops of rain, chilly all day.
We drove a few more miles north from the village of Hecla to the resort village of Gull Harbour, then returned south the length of Hecla Island back to the mainland. Shortly before leaving the island we stopped at a very small, but very good Farmers’ Market. We bought produce and home made preserves ; jam and relish.
We dipsy doodled around country back roads heading west to the very tiny village of Broad Valley, the “home town” of my mother’s family. We explored the tiny town … that didn’t take long … then stopped at the town cemetery before leaving. We wandered around and I discovered … the grave sites of my grandfather, who died before I was born, my grandmother, who died when I was a young boy, my beloved Aunt Lena, her husband, my Uncle Mike who also died when I was a young boy, and their son, my cousin Ed who died a few years ago.
We had lunch parked on the side of the road in Broad Valley before heading north a few more miles to explore the larger town of Fisher Branch, the “other” home town of my mother’s family members. We refilled the truck with diesel while in Fisher Branch. WOO-HOO … cheap “rez” gas.
We returned south towards Broad Valley again, to find my Aunt Lena’s farm, where I spent my teen years “working” each summer. It took me a bit longer today to drive from Fisher Branch to Aunt Lena’s than it did forty-two years ago … at age fourteen … in her 1956 Mercury … at 100 MPH on a gravel road ! ! ! You know … it’s amazing that I’m still alive, n’est-ca pas ?
Finding Aunt Lena’s wasn’t difficult. What was difficult was finding … <sputter> … it’s not there any more ! The driveway was overgrown. I turned in to get the truck and camper off the gravel road, then we walked in. Her house is gone ! Nothing left to indicate where it stood. The trees are where they always were, albeit larger. But … no house ! Not even a foundation or basement. Large garden gone ! Large yard of lawn that I used to spend a lot of time mowing … gone ! It was easy to ascertain that I was in the right place. All the outbuildings were where they were supposed to be. Except … they were all just collapsed piles of rubble. I even waded through the weeds to get behind an equipment shed to verify that Uncle Mike’s old 1940’s something Plymouth was still behind the shed. It was ! Mostly buried beneath the collapsed walls of the shed. I was definitely in Aunt Lena’s yard ! ! !
I felt very old !
We continued on back roads, aided by GPS, to Arborg, then to Arnes, looking for an advertised seller of pickerel. Sold out ! <shrug> We’ll get more tomorrow in Gimli. As we drove we discussed our “camping” options. Because of yesterday’s disrupted plans, we have now completed in two days what we had planned to take three days. We returned to the closed Camp Morton monastery at the closed Camp Morton Provincial Park, and parked at the end of the approach road to boondock overnight. So there !
We went for a long walk in the woods, along cross country ski trails, until returning to the camper at dusk to prepare supper. Again too tired to cook a pickerel dinner. Oh, well, probably tomorrow at home.
September 25, 2021 ; Third and final day of what was supposed to be a four day camping trip ; Camp Morton to Steinbach/home
Mostly sunny and warm, another nice fall day.
Before leaving Camp Morton this morning we went for a long, leisurely walk around the huge grounds of the Camp Morton Monastery, the historical site that the provincial park is centred on. It’s a beautiful place, especially in the fall. While walking I kept my eyes open for edible wild mushrooms, and … found a nice batch of Oyster Mushrooms, which I harvested and we incorporated into tonight’s pickerel dinner at home. I also found some Shaggy Manes, but Joanne thought Oyster Mushrooms and Shaggy Manes were not compatible tastes, so we did not harvest the Shaggy Manes.
Leaving Camp Morton we headed south back to Gimli where we bought more fresh pickerel fillets at another fisher’s home based sales outlet. And … some of his wife’s lovely Vinarterta, an Icelandic celebration cake that Joanne quite likes. We noticed as we were nearing the fisher’s home and sales shop, and again as we were leaving, a scruffy, itchy, little fox hanging around in the ditch on the side of the road. Poor little thing had very scruffy looking fur, and was obviously very itchy, probably with fleas or mange. I wanted to rescue it and give it a medicated bath. HA HA HA !
We stopped at Winnipeg Beach Provincial Park’s campground to use their sani-dump station to dump our camper’s waste holding tanks, but … PHHHHT … they didn’t have one ! We parked in “downtown” Winnipeg Beach and had lunch in our camper. As we left Winnipeg Beach we stopped at a weekend Farmers’ Market and bought some fresh produce. We continued south on Hwy. 9 to Lockport, crossed east over the Red River bridge onto Hwy. 44, then south on Hwy. 59 to Bird’s Hill Provincial Park, where we did use the campground’s sani-dump station. We went into Bird’s Hill Provincial Park on the west side, and came out on the east side, onto Hwy. 206 heading south. We stopped in Oakbank to shop at the Co-op supermarket, but they did not have what we were looking for. We continued south on Hwy. 206 through Dugald (our future home, we hope), then east on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1 and south on Hwy. 12 back to Steinbach. I refilled the truck with diesel at Superstore Fuel Bar before we arrived back home at 5:30 PM.
At supper time while Joanne prepared home made cole slaw and Oyster Mushroom Risotto I prepared pickerel fillets. MMMMM !
In the evening I discovered online that our previous home in Riverside RV Park Resort near Keremeos, BC has just been put up for sale by the woman who purchased it from us six and a half months ago. What a flake ! She has ripped out all the home builder’s flooring and draperies and had them replaced with inferior flooring and ugly draperies that don’t match the other design features of the home.
DSK
