Summer of Sunny J

I'm sick. I'm so sick I'm making Wookie noises like I lost Han. I got the cough due to cold. I took some cough syrup and now I will take the time to write about the last two weeks.

Timmins was fun. It was crazy staying at Mikes parents place across the street from my old place on Chenier Ave. I found myself staring at it, sometimes just sneaking a peek through mikes front window, the view now partially blocked by the gargantuan trees in mikes front yard. The house I grew up in is totally different now, the lawn has been paved to accommodate more trucks, and I don't know anything about the familly inside. Mikes house hasn't changed at all.

Mike and I walked around the Timmins Square just like we had back in the day, but it was so different from before. Not just the stores (Tim hortons, in the mall) but the feeling I had as a slacker teen shuffling through the halls of commerce. Feelings of panic, fear and isolation, that there was no out, those feelings gone. Replaced by the happy truth, that the slacker adult shuffling through this mall where Shania Twain once performed a free concert I was too cool to atend, is not stuck here and free to leave at any time.

I am reminded of somthing I said to Eric Pilon when he said his cousin Shania would become famous:
"Nobody from Timmins will ever become famous"-Julien (before Shania blew up)

We went out to Mickey J's(previously Fionn McCools, and then previously a St-Hubert) for Karaoke Night. Not to sing any songs but to have some cheap beers andsee if there was anyone we knew. When we got there they were at capacity, we waited for two people to leave, then Mike and his brother Gabriel went in and I waited with Vannessa outside.

I am lucky enough to have six Grandparents(My moms parents remarried). My Memmere and Peppere Chabot, and Peppere Gerry and Frances all live in Timmins so I should have visited them a bunch while I was there, but I didn't. I went to see my Dad's parents but Marcel was away with Uncle Dan in Sudbury. He had to get his heart checked out. So I hung out with my Memere but really missed seeing Pepere Marcel, and I should have gone back later in the week, but didnt.

I dropped in on Pepere Gerry. He offered me a beer, then noticing he was out, he offered not to make fun of me if i drank the pinia colada. I did and true to his word he didn't make fun. We had some leftover vodka and then since it was a special occasion, he broke out the scotch. He brought up a bottle of club soda he said had been in the basement for 10 years. it was most definatly flat, we drank scotch and club water. We talked about what I was up to(Burning Man, Going to Japan). He told me some stories. When Frances came home he went to play the piano for a bit. Frances said he has been playing again since the doctor told him he might be able to sing after his surgery later this month.

I went to Gillies Lake for rib fest, half-cut from the scotch at grandpas. They had oversold the beer tent and were not letting anyone in. I figured I would rock out wildly by the humongous Canada Dry can(no beer tent is complete without a giant inflatable can of something). I ran into Shawna and her husband John Stata but Mr. Cayen was not around. Delling showed up, we went to his house and I saw his new truck, we went to Micky J's, It was dead. Mike was there with Gab and V. Delling disappeared. We took a cab home and ordered Chez Nous on the way. It never showed, damn you Loverboy!