Eventually with a few well-timed influxes of cash from finding gemstones in the dumpster and River and I managing to scrape together enough paintings to give us a little tidy amount in the savings account, we managed to scrape enough to put a second storey on our home. At least we were out of my mother's grasp and far enough away to make it a difficult run from West Side - Vancouver to South Richmond, if she even knew where we had gone to. The scuttlebutt going around was that she'd separated from my dad because things went south in terms of their relationship. But at least we were well away from that toxic relationship; River and I had each other and for now, that was enough.
A loud blast indicated a meteor strike nearby (if you call West Side near from the likes of Richmond and well, after hearing that, I was on my bike in an instant pedalling through the darkness to a house from where I could see smoke rising into the air. Everytime there was a meteor strike, there was usually space rocks that could be found. If I was lucky, maybe it was my mom's house that got impacted. But no, it was someone I didn't know. He told me I was welcome to the spacerocks. He had no use for them and well, for me having some connections within the astrophysics and space sciences community, I could get the rocks appraised to see how much it netted River and me.
Lugging all the space-rocks back home was bone-tiring and well, I certainly felt like hitting the sack when I got home, but I saw that River was on her way out the minute that I returned. She indicated that she had a buyer for one of her paintings and was headed out to meet that guy. No worries. I knew that she could handle herself and well, we both loved each other so I had no worries in that regards either.
Lo and behold, the guy she met who wanted to buy one of her paintings was my old friend Phil, who had just started his job at the fire-hall. She met him at the Richmond Hogan's Diner, which meant that she didn't have to go all that far to hand-off the painting. At least it meant that she was able to get back just as quickly as she didn't have to go all the way into Vancouver to meet with him.
From what I could remember, Phil had a habit of talking to himself and well, suffice it to say, he was a few cashew nuts short of a squirrel. So it was fitting that he was joining the VFD. It takes bravery as well as being a few screws loose to run headlong into a building on fire while everyone else is running the hell the other way. Gotta hand it to these first responders - they do the jobs that most of us would think twice of putting ourselves in harm's way. When I take a good hard look at myself, I'm not brave enough to be a first-responder. The only person I'd willingly risk my life for is River.
...and of course, I took the time to show River just exactly how I felt about her...in the shower of course. ~smirk~
The nice thing about Richmond is that it's far enough away from Vancouver that we don't get the disturbances from all the traffic or the smog. The only thing we have to contend with is the airliners flying into YVR, some of which go right over our heads on #3 Road. That's when they're landing aircraft on 26L/8R. When you see a Boeing 747 or a A380 go by and get distracted, it's a great recipe for a fender bender and let's face it Richmond drivers ain't the best in the world, even at the best of times. Some of the Watcher's white-hairs come from driving in Richmond. There's a reason why Richmond is world-renowned for having carp drivers.
Sometimes it was just safer to stay home and paint.
But of course our pocket book pretty much ruled out that eventuality. So it was back to the dump to go rummage through the piles of trash to see what hidden gems we could find.
That took the rest of the day.
But all of that was appeased by a warm shower and a hot dinner made by an even hotter cook on the teppanyaki grill. Ah...the comforts of home.
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