Episode 10: Grandma Isabell

TRANSCRIPT

Thursday, April 29, ‎2021
Victoria BC 📞 Whitehorse YT, Canada

ANSWERING MACHINE:
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VICTORIA:
Hey grandma, it’s me just checking in… see what you doing. You might be out getting a haircut or… I know you’re a busy lady, but call me back, yeah, after dinner or whenever, just for a chat. OK bye.

ISABELL:
But then I – I just came up here ready to go down for my dinner.

VICTORIA:
Yeah. I thought you went to dinner a little bit later now. It’s only four o’clock, grandma.

ISABELL:
Yeah, I do. 5.30.

VICTORIA:
5.30. Oh okay, okay. I heard you get to sit with more people now at dinner. That’s pretty nice.

ISABELL:
Yeah, it’s getting better.

VICTORIA:
Yeah.

ISABELL:
You know, so… We can sit with people, with different people, so that’s good.

VICTORIA:
How’s the weather up there?

ISABELL:
It’s gorgeous today. Just a beautiful day. I don’t know what the temperature was. But I think it was quite high. 14!

VICTORIA:
14! Wow

ISABELL:
14 right now, that’s pretty good.

VICTORIA:
That is pretty good.

ISABELL:
Yeah, forecasting rain for tonight. Maybe we won’t get it because they’ve been forecasting rain for us for a while.

VICTORIA:
Oh, have they?

ISABELL:
Yeah.

VICTORIA:
You’re not going out at night, anyways. Did you get out today?

ISABELL:
That’s right. We don’t go out. No.

VICTORIA:
Not secretly going out to the dancing clubs, and you know?

ISABELL:
(laughs) No… What’s the weather like there?

VICTORIA:
Well… Don’t rub it in. It was nice. But…

ISABELL:
It was?

VICTORIA:
It was nice out. But last night we woke up and there was a layer of snow on the ground.

ISABELL:
Oh, dear.

VICTORIA:
And it’s raining.

ISABELL:
It’s too late for that, but it won’t last.

VICTORIA:
No.

ISABELL:
That’s the good part.

VICTORIA:
I think it was this last little snowfall. And it’s pretty much gone already. But it’s raining today.

ISABELL:
Raining?

VICTORIA:
Yeah.

ISABELL:
How will you have the green grass if you don’t have no rain.

VICTORIA:
Exactly.

ISABELL:
So how’s everything going up there? Are you happy up there?

VICTORIA:
Yeah, it’s good.

ISABELL:
Is [Lauren] happy?

VICTORIA:
Yeah. Yeah, she… Well, she’s actually just working on a job interview right now with the federal government.

ISABELL:
She had a good job.

VICTORIA:
Well, she does have a good job at the bank, but she wants to move on to something different. That’s not her interest. So… she got this interview. And they send her a little test to do to make sure she knows the right stuff. So that’s what she’s working on today. They gave her 12 hours to write this exam.

ISABELL:
Oh. And then they’ll do a personal interview or something.

VICTORIA:
Yeah, yeah, that’s probably the next step. If she gets through, then they’ll do probably over the internet over a video call.

ISABELL:
But tell me how do you like your, your new area, your new home and your new house?

VICTORIA:
Well, we’re still in a rental right now. So we’re living in my manager’s in-laws above the garage. Well, it’s it’s homey. It’s… he built it himself. And it’s a little old and rustic, but it has everything we need. And they are very nice. They’re very nice to us, though. Well, when it’s nice out, we’ll go and have a glass of wine out in the front with them. And Sandy has lots of… they have quite a big land. So there she has like at least three greenhouses and she’s gonna start gardening quite soon. Somebody might help out with that. And they have a dog, so we get to see him every once in a while.

ISABELL:
You can walk the dog.

VICTORIA:
We can walk the dog so yeah…

ISABELL:
What’s the dog’s name?

VICTORIA:
Chinook. Yeah, a little Husky… Husky mix. Used to be a sled dog.

ISABELL:
A working dog.

VICTORIA:
Well, I think he was given up from sledding because he was lazy. He didn’t… [laughs] He wasn’t built for… I think he just likes to lay around, he’s only five years old. But he just likes when we go down there. All he does is lay in front of the fire. That’s all he likes to do. Very timid. But then you take him for a walk and he pulls you, he just wants to pull. Yeah, so yeah.

ISABELL:
He just wants to get it over with.

VICTORIA:
Give me back to the fireplace. Yeah, yeah. So he’s very sweet. But yeah. Yeah, so every… every weekend, Lauren and I will take a drive out to our new place. Be like little spies and see how they’re building our new house.

ISABELL:
Seems like you got a lot on the go.

VICTORIA:
Oh, it’s not too bad. No, just we just work and do things on the weekends and oh, it’s not…. Everything’s kind of sorted now, now that we have a car, we have the house. Now we just…

ISABELL:
There’s no major things that you have to do.

VICTORIA:
No, no, Lauren and I both took next week. We have Thursday-Friday off. So we’re gonna do some exploring. We’re gonna rent a little cabin or lodge out. Maybe near Dawson City or the other direction and do some exploring. It’s a little too cold for tent camping. But…

ISABELL:
Did you just say it’s just a lot for tent camping?

VICTORIA:
It’s too cold. It’s too cold still for me, because it gets to below zero at night still, so it’d would be cold in a tent. But we can. There’s lots of cabins or lodges for rent. [phone vibrates]

ISABELL:
Oh, that’s good.

VICTORIA:
Yeah. So we’ll do that for a night or two.

ISABELL:
Next weekend? Take advantage of it.

VICTORIA:
Exactly, for sure.