JACK CALLING

I am sound asleep at 7:15 a.m. this morning when the phone rings. Last night, as I was about to turn off my bedside lamp I remembered that I had not turned my cell phone to 'silent' - something I do every night as I have been wakened too many times in the wee hours by a wrong number. I looked at it lying on top of my current book (I went and bought the hard cover of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - I just couldn't wait for the library) and, for the first time ever, thought 'oh whatever' and didn't turn it off. So not like me.

So when the phone rings, I snap out of a dead sleep and grab it. I look at the caller ID. JACK. Jack? Who's Jack? The only Jack I can think of is a producer in LA I worked for last summer and I don't have his number saved. Then it hits me. THAT JACK! It's the radio station, Jack FM. I have their number saved so I can speed dial it for contests when I am driving into work in the morning. I quickly try to clear the morning voice from my throat and flip the phone open.

"Hello?"

"Hi there!!!! This is Larry and Willy calling from Jack FM. Who's this?"

"Sandra."

"GREAT! Just who we were hoping to get. We want to talk to you about your garage sale. Can you hold a minute?"

"Sure." I answer and, as rock music fills my ear, I clear my voice some more and shake the cobwebs from my brain.

A couple of days ago I received an email from Jack FM telling me about a promotion they're having called Larry and Willy's Neighbourhood Suck Up. The gist of it is, write and tell them about an event you're having on the weekend and they might show up in the Jack Suck Up Truck and party with you and hand out freezies to everyone. They specifically named garage sales on the list of the type of events they were looking for. I thought that was pretty timely so quickly filled out the form and, in the "description of your event" space, I just copied and pasted the ad I placed on CraigsList. I sent it off with pretty low expectations. But now, here I was on the other end of the phone, waiting to talk on the air!

Pretty soon the music ends and I hear them say, "We are looking over entries for our Larry and Willy's Neighbourhood Suck Up this weekend and we have Sandra Montgomery on the phone to talk about her garage sale... So Sandra, first of all, what do you think about GM Place now being called Rogers Arena?" I JUST read about that yesterday. I don't watch the news or read the newspapers anymore, for peace of minds sake, but every now and then a headline catches my interest on Yahoo. I had also just read about a new name proposal for Stanley Park. How great that I know these two things; I won't sound like a complete idiot. "Well, with that and the name change proposed for Stanley Park, I'm not going to know the city soon." "Oh no no," they both chorused, "that's been struck down. Stockwell Day stood up and said it's not happening." "Oh good!" I reply.

"So tell us about this huge garage sale you have planned for Saturday. We're interested in the antique sewing machine. Is it a Singer?" "Yes, I believe it is." "Of course it is, that's what they all are." They then ask me some questions about stuff I have listed and comment on my line about 'no crocheted toilet roll covers' and say they will bring a few to toss on the table. They ask me for the address and for directions. They ask if there's a landmark nearby like "under the big oak tree" and I say there's not but there will be signs on the main roads and then, because I work in the film industry and can find anywhere with the arrows they put up to locations, I am putting up pink arrows that I made to lead to the house from the main street. They jump on that. "Ohhh! Great idea!!!" I hear them both chorus. Then one asks me, "If you don't mind my asking, what do you do in film?" I tell them I am a script supervisor, but no one knows what that is. "Are you responsible for that awful Twilight script?" they ask. I say I am not but I did work at the cabin they used for the werewolves den a few weeks ago. "Oh really? Wow, that's kinda cool." I am on the air for ten minutes with them and it's so much fun! They finally say that our garage sale is in the running for a visit from them on Saturday. I tell them we are planning on making some Margaritas. "That's it then. We're coming." one says. The other says, "Great. Drunk by 9:30, passed out on the lawn by noon getting sunburned."

After I hang up I realize it was martinis we planned to make. Now I need to find a good Margarita recipe in case they show up!

PS I LOVE YOU

Up at 3:30 am after not being able to sleep because the spare bed was just a mattress on the floor and still covered in the plastic I had on it while stored. I didn't have any sheets or quilts unpacked for it so just used a couple of throw blankets. My daughter and her hubby are tucked into my bed and that is as it should be as they both have to go to work after dropping me at the airport in Bellingham at 5:30am.


















The flight down is uneventful, although cold sitting by the window, and it's great to see Ron and Nelson as I wait for my bags to appear on the carousel. As soon my bags are in the car we zip over to the BEAUTIFUL home I will be staying in for the next 6 nights. As we pull up to the walled property, I see a huge yellow ball hanging from a tree. "What is that?" I ask Ron. "A grapefruit." he replies. "No way!" The thing is as big as a 5 pin bowling ball. He proceeds to tell me that there are orange, lemon and grapefruit trees all over the property. I am delighted and amazed.

The homeowners aren't home so we drop my bags in my lovely 'red room' and I hang a few of my nicer clothes up in the closet before Ron whisks Nelson and me away for Mexican food for lunch.














He pulls up at a restaurant in the heart of town and I love the look of the place... all adobe with palapa-type roofing. We walk up to a grass-roofed bar and each take a stool. Ron orders us each a Margarita. When they come they are enormous! We raise a glass to each other and order our meals. The bartender puts warm tortilla chips with guacamole and salsa in front of each of us and I remember why I love eating Mexican food in the states so much. I could make this my meal, it's that delicious.

As we eat, I ask Ron if there's anything I can do to help him get ready for Christmas, as he just arrived two days ago from shooting a movie in Toronto for the past three months. He tells us that he wants to get the lights up on the outside of the house so I tell him to put us to work. Once lunch is over, we head to his house.

His place is a lovely home on one level, as most Palm Springs houses are, and is a much coveted Alexander home - designed by Robert and George Alexander in the early 60's.

We drag out the stepladder, four boxes of LED lights, and one box containing a big snowflake that lights up. I undo the first string of lights and we get a system going where Nelson holds the ladder, I pass up the clips and feed the string of lights to Ron up on the ladder. We start at the west corner by the garage and I hand little plastic clips up to Ron. The clips have one end that clips onto the flashing and the other end has a clip to slide the string of lights into. After about 20 minutes of work we are close to the peak of the roof and I make the point that we may not have enough lights. It seems to me that the peak is not in the center and that there is more on the side we haven't lit than the side we have, and we are half way through our lights. I suggest we may need another string. Ron disagrees and climbs down off of the ladder, and as Nelson moves it over, steps back to take a look at what we've done so far and lets the end of the string of lights he's holding drop to the ground. As we stand there and look, suddenly the weight of the string hanging down pulls the string overhead out of the first hook and then... with a quiet 'tick, tick, tick' the rest of the clips let go of the lights right across the whole half we just finished. At the end, they hang off of the last clip for a second or so, and then that one lets go and they all hit the ground. We are, all three, frozen for a moment, and then Ron turns to us and says "Well then." And we start to laugh. For me it was the kind of laughter where you can't get a breath and the tears flow. Still laughing, Ron walked back to the beginning and Nelson followed with the ladder while I remained doubled over, I just couldn't get a grip. It was something right out of a movie, although it would take forever to set that up, and the visual was replaying in my head. Even later that night as I was falling asleep in bed, I started to laugh again just thinking about it.


Ron rented me a car at the airport for my Christmas present and so we pile into it with Ron at the wheel and drive over to another car rental place and Ron gets himself a car. He doesn't drive one when home, he rides his bike and just rents a car whenever he needs it. Once we have that, I follow him back to the house I am staying in, his boyfriends parents place, and I get to meet Bob and Ada, my hosts. They are so welcoming and kind to me, and I just love them on sight. Ron and Nelson leave to run some errands and I settle into my room before it's time to leave with Bob and Ada and meet back up with the boys for BINGO!