Vancouver Skyline from the North Shore

Vancouver Skyline from the North Shore, originally uploaded by seattleforge.

On Thursday night I got a call from my pal James.
James grew up next door to me from the 7th grade through the end of high school. His Dad was a product of Windsor's toughest neighborhood, Drouillard Road and he worked the Ford foundry there. The foundry is the toughest job in Ford Motor. It is unbelievably hot, dirty and dangerous. There is a premium paid for working there but most of the guys working there are paying on a habit they still can't afford. It is a soul crushing, body killing grind that only a few people come out of whole. James' Dad Mike was a ridiculous tough, alcoholic mick with a gambling problem and he liked to take it out on the kids and his wife upon occasion. Rarely with his fists, but I don't know that the distinction matters.
James was at our house a lot. He is my brother's age. He and my brother were friends, but my brother isn't easy to be friends with. Pretty soon James was coming over just whenever he wanted to be out of his house, which was a lot. There was even a time when he had his drum kit set up in our garage when his Dad told him he was going to sell it. In high school it was not unusual to see James chatting my with my Mum at the kitchen table and doing his homework before heading home for dinner. I didn't realize it until a few years ago but there were a lot of kids in our house all the time and most of them were there because of my Mum.
After high school James got a job at Ford and I didn't pick up with him again until we linked up on Facebook. He had just moved to Vancouver. He had quit Ford and started college (sound engineering). Moving out of the cocoon of FoMoCo and Windsor James' world grew quite a lot. it was great getting reacquainted with him. It was great sharing reading lists. He was having a tough time though. Finances were tight. His house back in Windsor couldn't hold a renter and his renters were like rats vandalizing the place. He got through school only to see the entertainment biz in Vancouver get gutted by the Canadian dollar coming up to par with the USD. He's struggled to keep everything going.
He called to tell me that he had to move back to Windsor. The last set of renters completely vandalized his house before eviction. He didn't have the money to fix it to get it rented again and couldn't pay the mortgage and rent. He had a job lined up back home that would allow him to get things back on the rails again. He's hoping that this would only be a four month trip. He wants to get back to Vancouver as soon as possible. The people might be odd, the city is incredibly expensive, but the views are staggering, the air is clean and there is a vibrant economy (at least compared with Windsor). I told him to consider it a business trip. He liked the idea.
Friday I headed up to Vancouver (a trip I had been promising for months to make but didn't - for all sorts of reasons). I helped him a bit with the packing up and then we went on a tear. I haven't laughed that much in ages. It was a cure. It was sooo great getting time with someone who gets where I'm from and being able to joke, jab and parry. James is a great guy. I'm hoping he can get things on track.
Heh.. one thing off track. I hardly ever drink coffee anymore, but he gave me an espresso machine. James only drinks tea, but his brother re-gifted James one of his wedding presents last Christmas. I got it running this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll toast James with a cup of the black stuff.