KatieTheKat

PART II (no more chapters)

My phone rang around 8am the next morning. It was the owner of the other house on Broder Street. He wasn't really upset but he also didn't seem to have much of a sense of humour. After I re-explained the story of why my tent had been in his yard, he informed me that when he found it, he didn't know what to do, so he chose option d): call the police. He told me that the police had come to his house and packed up my tent and that I would have to contact them about getting it back.

I don't believe that option would even have occurred to me, had I been in his situation. And I was surprised that the police did come and pack it up for him. When I called the police, the communications officer was very curious to hear just why I had set up my tent in a stranger's yard, and she found the whole story quite humourous indeed. She was also very helpful, though she informed me that my tent was already "on exhibit", which meant that it was likely inaccessible until Monday morning. I told her that I had to be back in Saskatoon by then, so she gave me the names of the constables who had responded to the tent "incident" and let me know when I could call back to talk to them about it.

Unfortunately, when I eventually got in touch with the constable late Saturday night, he reiterated that our belongings were on exhibit and the department with the key to that area would not be on duty until monday morning. He also mentioned that their first response to hearing about the mystery tent was to suggest the homeowner just toss it out in the alley. I'm not sure why they decided to go in and collect it instead. I guess that we should consider ourselves lucky that crime was not heavy in Regina on that particular night.

Collette was incredibly helpful through all this - not only did she put together a nice little nest in her tent for Johnny and I to stay in on Saturday night (once it had dried out), but she volunteered to go to the police station in my place on Monday. Furthermore, she had some friends at folk fest who happen to be driving to Whitehorse starting on Tuesday, and chances are good that they will be able to deliver the tent on their way through Saskatoon.

And that is where the story ends, for now. I have not yet been in touch with Collette today, but if all goes according to plan, Johnny and I will be reunited with our gear by sometime tomorrow morning.

As for the remainder of the folk fest, it was great. Turns out all of the daytime performances are freely open to the general public, and even the main stage was quite visible from outside the fence. If you ever find yourself near Regina around the middle of August, I would highly recommend looking out for the folk festival. Apparently it is one of only 2 North American Folk Fests with official free entertainment. And the lineup of artists was really quite excellent.

Emily Wells was the star as far as I was concerned, though Johnny says Patrick Watson is incredible (we decided to get an earlier start to the drive home last night and ended up missing his performance). We discovered Alexis Normand from Saskatoon who I really liked - hopefully we will see more of her around here. Then there was BD Willoughby, who is moving to Victoria to go to school for a little while - I gave him my brother's phone number since I thought maybe they'd have fun jamming together... later I discovered the number I gave him is out of date and has been disconnected. I hope he's not too disappointed. Oh also Arrested Development put on a great show. And Mr. Something Something. It was all good.

I'm writing this up from the edge of the river underneath the University Bridge in Saskatoon. It's shady and there is a nice breeze, a great escape from a hot day. From here I have a view across the river to the University grounds, which I have yet to explore. I am probably about a 10-15 minute walk away from home. Speaking of home, perhaps I will go back there now to post this and relieve your suspense.





kat