E- Conan the Environmentalist

Wow, it's been a really busy couple of weeks and Les and I are feeling like blogging flunkies for our lack publishing. In fairness to us though, one of the weeks was spent down in Point Roberts where our connection to the world consists of hoping the wind blows in the right direction (south) for our cell phone to pick up some sort of signal. We had a great time down there and gloated about the fact that the weather was quite a bit sunnier than in Vancouver. We built a 60 foot fence (long not high) across the front of our property and put a trampoline in the back yard. As my friend Joey would say, it's looking pretty "festy" with the huge trampoline, hammock, swing set and sandbox. We have our eyes on a gazebo next, to house some comfortable lawn furniture.

Since coming back, I have either been working or doing my first aid course. This leaves Les with 3 kids, which is less than an ideal blogging circumstance. Work is pretty much the same every day for me- the tunnel gets built and I take care of any injuries that may or may not occur. However today was pretty different. Our premier Gordon Campbell and Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to use our work-site for a meeting/photo opportunity because it is a good example of a public/private greenhouse gas reducing project. There was a lot of excitement around the place as a couple of hundred press and hangers-on inundated our suddenly unproductive place of work. They each spoke for a few minutes and I was surprisingly impressed by Arny and his ability to concisely and poignantly answer questions. Us workers (by that I mean the guys doing the work building the tunnel, and me) got to meet Gordon and Arnold and pose for a few pictures. I even managed to throw Arnold for a loop when I greeted him with "Gruss Gott". It took him a second (probably because my accent is sooooo bad) but he eventually replied with "Gruss Gott,
Wie geht's". Not much of a conversation, but I didn't do much better at the local grocery store in Austria either.

The scene turned even more surreal as the press decended on us after the "stars" had left and peppered (I alone had 6 interviews)with the most juvenial questions. "What was it like to shake Schwarzenegger's hand? Was he the same in person as you thought he'd be?" Although I definitely answered the questions concisely, I can't say I displayed any of the poignancy that I had just witnessed and admired.