Orders are coming by phone and e mail, so it’s a busy time of year for the fruitcake monger.  I’ve also done some marketing, so hope something will come of it.  For instance, the other day our local CBC radio morning show hosts mentioned fruitcake.  Alia, the co-host said, “It looks so good, and then you try it and then you go, oh yeah, that’s why I don’t like it.”

I couldn’t let those words go unchallenged, so yesterday I drove a fruitcake and note down to them at CBC and said try this.  Then I mailed a fruitcake to a food writer at a Kamloops newspaper, as Discover Wines, my first customer here in Kelowna, expanded and they now have a store there, too.

Finally, I mailed a fruitcake to Jian Gomechi at CBC Radio and reminded him in last year’s panel on fruitcakes they did the usual fruitcake-trashing, and I asked him to sample mine and see if it’s even possible to disparage it.

In the midst of marketing, packaging, delivering and mailing, imagine my joy to open an envelope and find a bill from Impark for $62.00!  Apparently, on October 10th I was causing an “obstruction” in the Prospera Arena parking lot.

I recall being in a hurry to get to my last day of docent training at the art gallery, and as I parked I noticed I wasn’t within the lines.  However, as I’d paid for the ticket, was in a hurry, and because 95% of the spaces were empty and I was far from anyone else, I just left the car and ran.

Now I got a letter saying this is the final notice before being put over to collections.  I wrote them a nice letter saying please give me a break as this is ridiculous, and why put me over to collections when I had no clue this evil thing was in the works?

I look forward to their reply, as I’m certainly not mailing them $62.00 for being outside the parking lines by a few inches.  Remember Wiggins Adjustments who phoned me for three years to collect $25.00 on a parking fine in Penticton?  I have a feeling this is going to end badly for Impark.

That sort of thing is healthy as it raises adrenalin levels mightily and forges action.  The same thing happened when I heard our illustrious mayor and council approved a piece of land owned by the powerful Bennet family coming out of the Agricultural Land Reserve.  Same thing: huge spike in adrenalin.

Besides writing a letter to the editor, I made an appointment to meet with our MLA to discuss his government’s position on the Agricultural Land Commission.  Steve Thompson assured me they have no intention of messing with it, and I did that two fingers to my eyes then pointing them at him, De Niro style, and said, “I’ll be watching your voting record on that.”

Hence you can see the life of the fruitcake monger isn’t without its challenges.  Now that I started markegting, I’m doing that horrible second-guessing wondering if I made enough fruitcakes.  Either I’m crying because the sales are too low or too high, but that seems to be the way it is every year.