Day 164

we headed to the grocery store for our interviews this morning. adam ended up getting a job in the bakery and, as we sat in the manager's office and i looked at all the pdt guns lined up in their chargers on the desk, i got an uneasiness about the familiarity of this environment and decided to not pursue work there. this decision turned out well because i soon found that, since i didn't yet have a sin number, they couldn't hire me as a cashier today. whew.

having access to a car today was an incredible blessing after walking and longboarding the town for the past two days. we hit up several businesses and there's some good potential with a small sporting goods store, a curry restaurant right next to our future house, and with a brick layer who needs a labor assistant in a couple weeks.

i turned in a resume at edge of the world where i happened to meet the owner greg. shining white teeth matched his hair and the circa sixty year old 'dude', dressed in a zip up hoodie, cuffed jeans, and skater shoes, gave me and adam a tour of his business. apparently that doesn't happen very often. this is the third store he's opened after the original in north carolina and the other, run by his son, in montana. in a southern drawl, he told the stories connected to the vintage snowboards on the wall and raconteured their means of acquisition. we stood on the balcony near the indoor skate park in the back of the store and i asked him about the guitars he had hanging along the walls. turns out g-money, that's what the locals call him, is the front man of an 'old school, punk rock band.' "you guys wanna see something? come here i'll show you." we followed him through his office to the stock room where guitars and amps and mics and cords and a drumset sat acutely arranged in the middle of bordering shelves of snowboard boots. 'this guy is the coolest old guy i've ever met', especially after he told us that the rest of the band members were in their early twenties. greg talked about the earlier days, some as recent as three years ago, before some of fernie's most popular bars and venues had been closed due to poor management. this limited his band's performances, he said, but when they play, ''we still draw a crowd.'' and why not? even i wanna see this guy play guitar and sing the songs he's written in a self-described ''ramones influence.''

we left that place even more happy with this sweet town and cool denizen and continued to look for opportunities to meet managers and hand out resumes. the fresh snow that had accumulated at the highest peaks over the night began to fade in the warm and glowing afternoon. yellow and orange trees contrasted with the horizon of towering mountains and the scattering of brick buildings visible from the second story of the library. turns out the library is really good here.

i ate a two dollar box of discounted cereal for lunch today. it's all good. work is on the way.