Between Airdrie and Drayton Valley, Alberta the mind drifts

Friday March 6, 2015 I got a call from my mother asking me to come up and visit. Not really near the top on my list of things that I like to do. There are occasions that you do the things that you need to do out of a sense of duty or obligation. This was one of those times. I stayed the weekend and managed to accomplish the usual mother son stuff. I hand washed her car and fixed a few things in her condo.

The trip up is a little over three hours. I have a decent amount of Willie Nelson on the ipod so that helped. I once had a lady friend who made light of Willie. We are no longer together.

I dropped out to see my friend out in the country east of Drayton Valley for a few hours on the Saturday. I was not there too long and I had a beer in my hand. Not just any beer, Innis & Gunn. With treatment like this I can’t afford to lose this guy as a friend. Especially since I had two. We did a short tour of the countryside. Lots of beaver in his area, too soon for them to make an appearance. The coyotes declined to show up. So much for pest patrol.

Whoever graveled the county roads in his area must have got paid a bonus per dump truck load. I was doing about thirty miles an hour and it felt like I was driving on marbles.

This is that in-between time where spring and winter are fighting it out. You know you are going to get ambushed by another snowstorm or two before winter gives up. At the same time you are waiting for greenery to appear any day now.

Frost heaves were making the highway drive very bumpy in places. It could be unpleasant when I get the motorcycle on the highway.

The Drayton Valley area depends heavily on oil and gas. It still seems busy enough. There were highway trucks on the road moving huge pieces of stuff I don’t recognize to sites off in the bush. New residential units were being built and newly completed commercial buildings were having tenants move in. I saw evidence of a couple of new wells. The downturn in oil does not look like it has seriously hit yet.

The amusing thing was on Saturday night my mother abandoned me for four hours to play cards with her friends. There might be a message there somewhere. If there is I can’t be bothered to look for it.