July 12–14, 2002 — All alone at last

On Friday night, we started on our way to Goderich, with a quick stop in London to pick up Jeff.

The drive was mostly quiet and dark, and took us along empty country roads that reminded me a bit of the drive I used to make to and from school when I lived in Richmond. We listened to a lot of music that I hadn’t heard before, and to Neil Young’s Harvest, which I’ve since decided is a very good album.

There were grooves carved in the roads that made the car vibrate as we approached a stop sign. The idea being that the grooves would wake up drivers who have gone into a bit of a daze. The concept was completely new to me; at first I thought that the car itself was making the noises, that it could tell when a stop sign was coming by sensing the reflected red light. (In my defense, I was a bit exhausted at this point.) We eventually pulled over so that Jeff and Paul could relieve themselves on the side of the road while I examined the warning grooves.

It was around 3:00 am when we arrived in Goderich. We went to a beach and were questioned by the police; Goderich is wary of visitors, apparently. Then we went to Amy’s house. I slept quite soundly on the floor, though it was a bit cold: I ended up sleeping with all my clothes on and with my hood over my head.

My allergies arrived in force the next morning. Preparations for Amy’s mother’s birthday party had begun, and we were asked to set up some tables in the back yard before leaving on a tour of Goderich. I kept a large pile of Kleenex in my pocket just in case.

We visited a miniature church first. Inside, recordings of sermons would play if you pushed a button on the pulpit. We took pictures of Jeff posing in the doorway with his shirt off and left with some flyers that explained why body modification is against the will of God.

Then we went to a petting zoo outside of Goderich. It was free, but it had been put up for sale since Amy last visited, and a lot of the animals were gone. But we still saw donkeys and goats (one of which looked a bit like the devil) and an ostrich, so it was worth the trip. Jeff liked to torment the goat that looked like the devil, while Johnston preferred to agitate the swans.

Next, we went to a park and waded through a river. I almost fell a few times because I’m not used to walking on slime-covered rocks, and I cut up the button of my right foot. But it was a very beautiful place.

After buying blocks of ice to cool the tub that the beer kegs were to be placed in, we started on our way back to Amy’s house. The party started soon after.

Jeff handled the mostly thankless task of deciding what music to play for the assembly of parents and relatives. And he did a very good job of it if the number of inebriated partygoers singing along and stumbling up to the stereo to turn up the volume are any indication.

During the buildup in “Come On Eileen”, Paul wondered out loud if Converge might be fans given their use of similar buildups in songs like “The Saddest Day”. Without any members of Converge in attendance, though, the question of whether or not they were fans of Dexy’s Midnight Runners remained unanswered.

Not one to give up so easily, Jeff decided to see if the inverse might be true, if a group of adults more than happy to listen to Dexy’s Midnight Runners might also be willing to give Converge a chance.

Thirty seconds of “The Saddest Day” later, we had our answer, best summed up by the expression of horror on one woman’s face. She seemed equally appalled by the fact that she was being forced to listen to Converge as she was by the fact that music of that sort is allowed to exist.

Jeff eventually gave up on DJing and we went to a park. I decided to see how far I could jump from the swing set if I left the swing at full speed and at as close to a 45–degree angle as possible. I’m probably lucky I didn’t hurt myself.

By midnight we had arrived at Amy’s cottage to sleep. I retreated to the top bunk in a room with a door, which was more than enough for me. My allergies had been bothering me all day and I just wanted to lie down. Amy’s relatives woke me up at one point in the night, but I slept more or less through to morning, wearing all my clothes for the second night in a row.

We left early the next morning; I wanted to be home in time to let Dave and Matt into the house, as they were visiting from Ottawa and Andrew was supposedly on his way back to Ottawa with his parents.

As it turned out, though, Andrew hadn’t yet left for Ottawa, and the three of them didn’t arrive home until almost 9:00 pm. Alex visited that night, too, since we didn’t think we’d get another chance to spend much time together until over a week later.

It was a busy weekend.