It's summer so the museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., I'm working 4 days a week and listening to a lot of CBC Radio One, that being the sole radio station here in Port Clements.

Today I listened to Episode 7 of Podcast Playlist, and one of the items, The Living Room certainly made me think. Superficially, it's about a woman who at first inadvertently (her new neighbours don't have curtains and their bedroom faces her living room) and then deliberately watches her neighbours. The watching begins with voyeurism and becomes compulsive, as though her neighbours' transition through life over a year had become a private reality-TV show.

During the broadcast, it doesn't seem so creepy. Largely I think because the omniscient author describing intimacies is such a common viewpoint in books, dramas, TV shows, and because we are used to being entertained by the details of another's life.

At times during the show, and certainly since, the whole situation seems somewhat plausible, yet bizarre. For a while I wasn't sure if it was biography or fiction. I'm pretty sure it's fiction... well, almost sure. Maybe based on an event, or an extrapolation from events. I suppose really I want it to be at least 90% or more fictional, as otherwise it's so intrusive it makes me feeling like a voyeur-by-proxy.

It made me think of The Truman Show, Analogous but somehow worse. This isn't a whole set-up centered on one person, it's reducing real people without their knowledge or permission into a passing entertainment, literally a dumb show.

It's a comment both on how easy it is to 'fall into' passively watching others--whether real people through a window or the TV or Youtube--and how despite watching and feeling involved with what you're watching, in reality you're apart from it. The whole mockumentary approach inherent in Reality TV, where people talk directly to the camera. The audience feels included, but it's an illusion.

Well, made for an interesting half-hour.

Ah, the mail. Slower than ever now that we're down to two ferries per week, storms permitting. But still, at least regular mail via Canada Post gets sent to my Post Office Box, so I can go collect it anytime the office is open.

Courier service--UPS, FexEx, Purolator--is capable of making my head explode. No deliveries to PO Boxes, delivered right to my door... at some time between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. within a three to five-day delivery 'window'. Oh sure, I have nothing better to do than to sit at home with my eyes and ears finely tuned so I can leap to the door when/if the parcel arrives. It's not like I have a job, or a life or anything.

I am good-natured enough to drive across town to deliver a parcel for someone else with a vaguely similar name which was left on my doorstep by mistake, but that's as close as I want to get to courier service for the most part.

One distinct annoyance is the price gouging. Order a parcel from the USA? The US Postal Service will hand off to Canada Post, and there's a $5 customs/duty/border crossing fee added to the postage. Same service via UPS? $30 fee. That's hmm, 500% more?

Ah, but Courier service is so much faster. Uh, no, not on this island. All of the couriers (finally joined 3-4 years ago by Canada Post) actually send parcels, freight, letters, whatever, on the ferry. So while it may go by air to Vancouver or Prince George, it goes by ground from there to Prince Rupert and then sits around waiting for the next ferry to the islands.

The only difference is that at least Canada Post admits they send nothing here via air anymore. The courier services, when asked, claim otherwise--it would be kinder to say that when you dial 1-800, their agents based in Calcutta or Moncton or Kansas City genuinely don't know couriers don't provide air service here, as opposed to they are deliberately lying, but the result is the same.

One company I talked to was told "Oh, (courier x) said we could have it to you in Port Clements from here in New York City by tomorrow with their next-day service." Yup, and I bet this claim comes with a nice picture of the Brooklyn Bridge they pack with it.

It doesn't matter what is said, the result is the same--takes 2-3 weeks, on average, for a parcel to get here. Every now and then the stars, fates and shipping services all line up and a parcel will arrive in less than a week, but that's rare enough to make you buy a lottery ticket before the lucky wears off.

Weird things is we still have airplanes and air freight. You just have to take your parcel to the airport, fill out the forms and fees to have it sent via the airline's freight service, then arrange to have it retrieved from the airline's freight department at the other end (Prince Rupert, Terrace, Vancouver) by a courier service who then delivers it wherever it's going to go. This involves several separate businesses--three if you hire a local freight service to take your parcel to the airport, and then they fill out the airport freight form and the second form to send it via the courier at the other end. It also costs hmm, somewhere between $60 to $80. It's fine when I have the funds and am completely determined to have a parcel delivered somewhere in Vancouver within 24-hours.

This past week UPS completely messed up a parcel delivery in Vancouver, which saw one order shipped in two parcels somehow split up and send via delivery drivers from two different UPS sub-stations. One package reached the address on the second attempt, the other half of the shipment had to be retrieved from the second sub-station. Ordered on-line November 26, shipped November 27, two missed delivery attempts December 3, one half delivered December 4, the other half collected from the UPS sub-station December 5.

Then yesterday after I requested Canada Post, a company shipped an item to me via Purolator. So I lost my temper, and sent an e-mail cancelling the order. Was amazed to receive a semi-snotty note in return explaining that while I can refuse the parcel when it arrives here, I should know that since Purolator is owned by Canada Post, their services are basically the same.

Checked with the local post office. Uh, no, not quite. Yes, Canada Post owns Purolator. Yes, there are some circumstances when parcels arrive at the post office with both Purolator and Canada Post tracking numbers on them, suggesting they potentially travelled via both services somehow. But no, Purolator explicitly states on its website it does not ship to Post Office Boxes. And my PO Box is all the address that I gave.

Amusingly enough, when I plug the tracking number into the Purolator site, it tells me my item, ordered from a store in Ontario, has left the depot in Los Angeles, California. But it doesn't recognize my postal code, so won't give me any further details.

Came close, but did not get elected to Council yesterday. The final results were Doug Daugert, 122; Christine Cunningham, 110; Matt Gaspar, 106; Charleen O'Brien Anderson, 92; Brigid Cumming, 86; Betty Stewart, 30. There were 152 votes cast altogether, 265 on the voter's list, so roughly 57% turnout. For Mayor, Ian Gould, 70, just pipped Dennis Reindl, 67, to the post, and Judy Hadley got 15 votes. Berry Wijdeven, 99, stayed as Gwaii Trust Director, with Chris Bellamy also getting 86 votes.

I feel quite philosophical about it, glad that I put my name forward. I did get votes from 57% of those who turned out, which is satisfying. Who knows? I can always run again in 2018.

Feel like I got a lot done this week. Printed, transported and set up the Remembrance Day display at the Multiplex, "War and Spruce". Mum & I went to Masset on Wednesday for the Anglican congregation's lunchtime meeting. Designed, printed and got my campaign brochure for tomorrow's election is in everyone's mailbox today, at least those who allow junk mail. And most importantly, managed to get a dentist's appointment for next week, thanks to a painful tooth emergency.

First time I've found myself looking forward to a dentists appointment. Broke a molar, filling fell out and oooh boy. Chewing on that side of my mouth is excruciatingly painful, otherwise it just hurts. Enter Orajel, aspirin and a great deal of feeling sorry for myself. Amazing how hours of nagging discomfort makes for the strong urge to whine. I can't say I'm as happy as a 6-year old the week before Christmas, but I'm definitely counting the days, hours and minutes until I get to "say ah".

Made my presentation at the school this morning, despite feeling nervous and unprepared. The kids were surprisingly interested, even the little ones didn't wriggle around that much considering it was mostly me talking. The topic was "War and Spruce", the theme for the display the Historical Society is putting together for Remembrance Day. I talked about Aero Camp and the steam locomotives and making Mosquito fighter-bombers out of Sitka Spruce during WWII. Then how after the war, half the camp was barged from Cumshewa Inlet to Juskatla, which must have been a mammoth undertaking in itself. The school is going to work on making a big hanging to illustrate the process, with the camp and planes and trees and such. Might not have it all done for this Remembrance Day, but if not, it will form a great addition to the display for future Remembrance Days.

Feel all thumbs here. Trying to update links and woefully failing to navigate to the correct screen. Mutter, grumble. Feel very sympathetic to all the other luddites out there. That said, when all else fails, read the help files...

Testing, testing, 1-2-3... It has been a while, again. I had to laugh when Mum showed me an old largely empty journal Dad began by writing down he didn't know why he started these things and then never kept them up.

Snap!

It has been however many years and months since my next-most-recent blog post and today I am wandering astray from my preparations for tonight's all-candidates meeting at the Community Hall. Put my name forward for election to the Port Clements Village Council as one of four Councillors earlier this month largely because Wally had asked me if I'd run.

The difficulty in a small community is that being on Council requires the ability to listen, patience, persistence and the hide of a rhino. The ability to think clearly and objectively must be balanced with the need to support your community, region and province. You have to be sensitive to needs and yet prudent with finances. You have to have the time to wade through massive amounts of paperwork, and be willing to spend hours in meetings. It is essential to retain the capacity for innovation while also respecting the familiar and routine.

In this particular village, you can be called out at any old hour to run around helping the maintenance department locate the empty properties with leaking water pipes when the big freeze bursts enough pipes to rapidly and dangerously deplete the water supply; to be on hand at the Village Office until 3 a.m. helping staff field anxious calls and people after the second biggest recorded earthquake in Canada rumbles through; and generally expected to lend a hand wherever and whenever needed for the next four years.

So it's a big undertaking.

Of course when I think about it, being a parent is a big undertaking, and how many of us leapt into that without much forethought?

Well, see how it goes tonight, and then again, just because I've put my name forward doesn't mean I'll be elected. Will find out one way or the other November 15.