May in Victoria

Well I'm not sure where May went, but is nearly the end of it. There are changes in the wind, but hopefully welcome changes. My current work contract finishes in a couple of weeks, but I hope t be continuing the same work with a different employer, which would be pretty awesome. I have to move out of our parking space, however as they are planning some renovations this summer and need the space. I hope to get back in by the end of July if I'm lucky, as I really like my space. If I find something better, however, I would be happy with that too. For now, I am heading to Duncan on Monday to housesit for a friend who will be away for 5 weeks. She has a nice big house and big back yard. I will be looking after the cat and gardens/plants, and in exchange I have somewhere free to park for 5 weeks and I can live in a house for awhile. Not that I mind living in the old gypsy wagon but staying at my friend's house will be like a vacation! She has a big screen television and CABLE which I haven't had for a few years, so looking forward to flipping through channels a bit, catching up on some HGTV. She also has regular wifi, so I don't have to fret about not using up all of my limited data package on my phone. 

So I will be Duncan based for 5 weeks. I will travel to Victoria once a week as I want to spend my Wednesdays off with my friends here, and I work in Esquimalt on Thursdays and have a drumming group after work that night, so will head back to Duncan on Fridays and spend the weekends hanging out at my friend's house. I work Monday's and Tuesday's in Duncan. The drumming group came out of a random lucky day last week at one of the agencies I work for when they were having a drum making workshop after work for anyone who wanted to come, so I stayed behind and made my own elk skin drum. We started with raw elk hide that had been soaking in water. We then punched holes in the pelts to use for lacing the hide over the cedar hoop.

Then we strung the hide over the hoop, stretching it as tight as we could, and tying the knots. My Girl Guide knot tying knowledge helped a great deal, ha ha. The Aboriginal man who was teaching us how to make the drums was very friendly and funny at times, which always helps when learning something new. Mine turned out quite good in my opinion. While I was making my drum with a bunch of folks, the women spoke about a women's drumming group they've been having and asked if I wanted to come, so I told them sure! Now that I have my own drum, why not? I made a case for a few days ago, and now I need to make myself a drumstick.

I've settled on how I will be celebrating my 50th birthday this year - a road trip to California in the old gypsy wagon with a friend, meeting up with two other friends in Indio (near Palm Springs) for the music festival of the century from what folks are saying - Desert Trip. I can't recall if I wrote about it before. There are three nights of double headliner concerts with some of the largest well known acts in music history and I can't friggin wait! I've seen all of them once before, but I am keen to see them all again. Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, The Who, and Neil Young. Wow. What a killer lineup. So my friend and I will be driving down to California, taking our time and I think we might travel on the inside of the Rocky Mountains on the way down to the Grand Canyon, and then meet the others for the concerts, and then we drop them back at the airport in LA, and we will spend a few days in the area, want to see Hollywood, some Beverly Hills mansions, and get on The Price is Right, ha ha. We might pop across the border to Tijuana for a bit of cross border shopping. Then we head back north on the coastal highway, stopping for a night in San Francisco of course! I hope the old girl is up for it. I didn't have any issues driving to Edmonton, which had me over the mountains a fair bit, so she should be able to handle this trip. I'll get her looked at over the summer to make sure she is in tip top shape. 

The Festival itself should be pretty epic, as well as the campground where we are staying. The festival itself is being held on the Coachella Music Festival grounds, and we booked an RV site right on the grounds. It was pretty expensive, but so worth it. No shuttling too and fro from a crappy hotel where you can't make too much noise, and risk missing a show. We are right onsite and Gertie will be full! I am going to leave Nash behind as I don't want him subjected to the craziness of the festival and have to worry about keeping the doors and windows shut, nor do I wish to stuff four people into an RV with cat littler. I'll miss the little guy, but he will be safer here for him. 

We are. Hoping to come across some celebrities in the RV park, or just randomly at the show. Given it's so close to LA. And the musicians are so epic, I am really hoping lots flock to the shows! You just never know who you'll see out walking their dog in their bathrobe. 

Sad news earlier this week about Gordon Downey, lead singer of the Tragically Hip has terminal brain cancer. They are, however, putting on a final tour this summer and the first stop is here in Victoria so we are truly hoping to get tickets when they go on sale. We will have to be right on the nail with it. I just love them, and had always wanted to see a full show of them. I saw them once before when they opened for the Rolling Stones. I HAVE to see them one last time.