Won't those fried eggs get soggy?

It's been raining for um, when hasn't it rained? Oh yes, we had one day in a row of brilliant sunshine this month, so we went to a bird sanctuary to take photos.

But right now the weather forecast for Vancouver has these odd fried-egg like icons on it. They are round and yellow, and there is some white bits around the sides.

Won't those eggs get soggy in all this rain?

I don't believe it could actually mean sun is in the forecast, the icon shows up for about 4 days in a row!

Must be soggy eggs expected.

Is anonymous fame possible?

If googling yourself is the ultimate in vanity searching or egogoogling (is that a fun new word, or what?) then is googling for photos you've taken a vanity search for the introvert?

I have a very old name, I can still count on one hand the number of times I've met someone else named Clara. The name is coming back into fashion, I've heard of three or four babies being named Clara in the last couple of years, but mostly people with my name have died of old age many years ago, so I'm in a dip of name popularity (and generally very happy for it). So when I do a google on my own name I typically come up with a lot of pictures of grave markers. This kind of vanity search is not a cheerful thing, so I avoid it.

But I do use Flickr to post a lot of photos I've taken and lately I've found many of them right at the top of google searches! All of my rose photos have the full variety name attached to them, I don't bother taking pictures of roses unless I can also take a photo of a name tag to go along with them. Otherwise, there are millions of photos of roses with the tag "yellow rose" or "red rose" and mine would be just one of millions. But if you search in google or google images on "rotary sunrise rose" or "harwelcome fellowship rose" or a few other rose variety names, my photos come up first! I've also found other non-rose images of mine coming up on top in google searches. (And for a fun twist, my photo of an odd image in a tree came up first when searching on "sasquatch suicide" for a few days.)

So on a vanity search for my photos, I come out quite well. Does this mean I have achieved anonymous fame? Is this introvert ego searching?

Did we really move that far?

This is our first December in our new place. It is 4 city blocks over and 5 city blocks down closer to the water than our old place. It doesn't seem that far, but yesterday - a day after the parade - we realized we missed the Santa Clause Parade noise completely for the first time in a decade! We only realized this when we saw a balloon caught in a tree outside our windows and remembered it was that time of year again.

As I mentioned in at least one previous blog entry we used to be awakened on the morning of the parade by 6 or 7 marching bands at a time warming up outside our building. Then when the parade started we heard many bands walking the parade route a couple of blocks from our home. This year we heard nothing. We saw no traffic jams, no crowds of people. We didn't even notice there was a parade.

Of course, in August we had a great view of the Pride Parade from our balcony in our new home, and that was noisy too, as I wrote in another blog entry, but it was so colourful and fun and warm, it wasn't nearly as annoying. (That may have something to do with the complete lack of tired old Christmas songs being played to death... could someone write something new, anything new, for Christmas?)

So have we really moved that far away? It seems like such a short distance, but it is like a completely different city just a few blocks away! What a difference a few city blocks makes!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Yes, actually, it's a bird.

It's a bird in a grocery store. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.... Is that supposed to be here?

I'm not talking a turkey or a chicken here. It's not a dead bird. It's a little, live, and very quiet sparrow. I think it's infiltrating our supply of crumbs. Not content to just pick up crumbs from outside eating areas, it has sussed out where humans go to eat when it's raining cats and dogs outside, and has made it's way into crumb heaven! That's a smart little bird with a strong survival instinct!

I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been sitting drinking coffee in the little coffee alcove. It was just a flash of something dark that I saw a couple of times, and then I looked closer. It was very silent! Not a peep, and it's wings are so tiny they don't make a lot of noise. You really have to look to find him.

So do I tell any of the humans at the grocery store? Hmm again.

OK, so bird poop on the groceries would be a bad thing... but you should look closely at the packages on what you buy as a routine step in the purchasing process, and any fruits and vegetables that don't come in a package should always be washed before you eat them anyway. It's just good hygiene, and if you don't do it already you may have built up an immunity to all the junk you have ingested. So I can't imagine anyone getting sick from the little bird.

And you have to admire the survival instinct of the bird. It managed to get inside. It knows enough to be quiet and it's staying mostly hidden, it's not hopping up on tables begging for crumbs the way they do outside. And it is not in the bulk area sitting on a pile of stuff and gorging itself... at least not while the store is occupied by humans. And the ceilings are very high, so it could easily fly out of reach of any humans and hide.

And how would a human manage to get a bird out of the store? I can't see anyone having the patients to lure it out. It may drive them insane. Would they have to resort to violence to get rid of the bird? I don't want to be part of that, it sounds painful for both human and bird.

So the little flutter you thought you heard could have been a bird... don't worry about it, it's not the end of the world, it's just the little animals getting smarter.

Are ideas really antimatter bubbles?

An idea comes to you in an instant.

If you are interested in the idea that just popped into your head, you keep it around and think about it. You make an effort to develop the idea and decide to think about it now or later. If not, it's gone, and will likely never come back.

The researchers at CERN have managed to capture atoms of antihydrogen. They've managed to keep them around for about 2 tenths of a second each. That's a long time for antimatter to exist where we can see it!

So are these atoms - that only exist for an instant - little idea bubbles? Are they fascinating ideas that scientists will suddenly realize they've just had? The nature of antimatter is a puzzle for scientists, and the idea of antimatter had to come from somewhere originally and pop into a scientist's mind. Do little atoms of antimatter exist everywhere for brief moments, not just in the CERN hadron collider? Are they little idea bubbles?

Will there be a renaissance of scientific ideas popping up in the near future because of the successful capture of antimatter? I bet there will be!

Did I really just harumph?

My spouse was shocked and amazed. He told me that I just did the perfect "harumph".

This is a word that will give spell checkers grief, but if you google you will find many good definitions for it - the best one I've found is from en.wiktionary.org: An expression of disdain, disbelief, protest, or dismissal; a huff, grunt, or snort

Yes, I have huffed, grunted or snorted my disdain when I found out there was some great tennis being broadcast right now, but I would have to pay to see it! We don't have cable anymore, and to see tennis online you need to pay for it. I've gotten very used to being able to see most entertainment online for free. Yes I know it costs money to broadcast events, but I thought all the advertising you have to endure while watching the events paid for them! If I do pay for it, do I get to skip the advertising? I doubt it.


But the problem is... a "harumph" is usually performed best by grumpy old men! Have I really mastered the art of sounding like a grumpy old man? Good grief.


And what about "bleurgh"? Can I pull that one off? Or "yeesh", "neener", "argh", or "bleh"? Guttural exclamations, that's my future. I wonder if this is because I've left TV behind? The mind wanders into new territory when not continuously spoon fed drivel, but is this the right direction to wander in?

Looks nice, but does it work?

Websites have been around for ages now, advertising, selling, making money, etc. so you would think that most of the surviving ones would work. Evidently, you would be wrong.

In the past few days I have been repeatedly disappointed by websites that are supposed to allow you to send image files to photo developers to have your photos printed out.

It seems like a simple idea - I have an image file, they have the ink, paper and a machine that reads the file, and they print out a picture for me. Then I pick it up at their store. But I have run into so many problems using this simple idea.

The first site I went to is for a pharmacy that does photo printing. I located a convenient store on the map on their website and prepared to print. I downloaded their version of some software that looked safe that the website needed to make the pictures look pretty online. Only after I had spent time uploading the files and preparing to pick the location I wanted them printed to did I find out that they only print to one shop in the city, and it's not the one I wanted to pick up the pictures at!

The next site I tried was a camera store that prints photos. I located one of their stores that was convenient, and checked that I could send files to be printed there. After downloading an update for Flash, uploading my files, and going through a pretty - but rather silly - interface that made you go through each picture as if you were holing prints in your hands to make sure they were all successfully uploaded, I went to the payment page, put in my credit card, hit enter and... the page blanked out the fields. It didn't let me complete the order.

OK, so I was on a PC (I usually use a Mac) using Google Chrome, a wonderfully lightweight and fast browser which may cause problems for some badly designed websites when their developers have use browser-specific code. So I tried again with Firefox, not my favourite, but most websites support it... many minutes later I had the same problem. So I held my nose and tried it again in Internet Exploder... and had the same problem. So it's the website that is the problem. It has pretty Flash graphics to play with your pictures... but it doesn't work! I can't use it to print my photos. And I'm not a novice who can't use a computer. As an e-commerce site it is a disappointing and annoying failure.

So I went with a site I know and have used before. No special software, no cutesy playing with virtual photos in a hand, just a list of files, thumbnails that can be clicked on to check the larger versions, and it prints at a drugstore about 3 blocks from me. Unfortunately, I wanted to print out the pictures in another city and have someone there pick them up, saving me the effort of mailing them, but that is just not going to happen.

Advice for e-commerce websites: kill the cutesy graphics, and spend your money developing a website that actually lets a customer acquire what they want, where they want it, and pay you money for it. Or it will be a case of:

Nice graphics... shame about the profits.

Is this some kind of message?

Evidence of Sasquatch Suicide
Originally uploaded by Clara Johnson

So, I was in Stanley Park, I was
Just takin' some photos, you see
And I looked up at the beautiful blue sky
And saw this.

So I'm thinking this is really weird.

There is no way a human could have trimmed this tree limb to look like this, it was at the top of a very tall tree in Stanley Park - and trees in Stanley Park are very tall, being part of that temperate rain forest and all.

So is this a message from Mother Nature? If so, I don't like the general gist this is taking...

Is rain really breaking news?

It's October 25. This is Vancouver. It is raining. And this is news?

There is a rain warning out for Vancouver. And it's not the warning: "It's gonna rain until March" which, well... we know that. The warning is that it's going to rain more than 50mm today. OK, so it's a very wet day... yes, we have those.

The rain warning includes a request for people to keep storm drains clear of leaves and try not to put the wet leaves into the road, where it makes it slippery for cars. This is good advice any time it rains, and I can see where people new to the city need to be told this advice, but it's not just for today... until March would be the real advice - things other than leaves fall into storm drains after the fall is over!

For the average person living in Vancouver, this warning thing seems rather over the top... until you read that the Grouse Grind has been closed due to the heavy rain! Oh my goodness! The Grouse Grind! That's extreme! Think of all those people who won't be able to run up Grouse Mountain today! And it may be closed for a few days while they assess the trail!

Outdoor recreation curtailed by rain, that is the news that scares Vancouver.

I love this place!

Should a submarine really be a tourist attraction?

Submarines typically travel in the water. Usually below the surface of the water. So really, an average person doesn't get to see a submarine that often.

But when they run aground and then the tide goes further out... well, that's an event.

In Scotland right now there is a nuclear submarine which has just been towed back out to see by tugboats after running aground off the Isle of Skye. There is a good picture of the submarine - I think after it was saved - in the Guardian news.

The report says many people were on the shoreline watching the event. Stealthy. Well, I live beside an ocean as well, and I would be on the beach taking photos if a submarine started coming up on our shore. It would be thrilling. But should a working submarine really be a tourist attraction?

Are these water craft really that hard to steer? If they are that hard to steer, should they really be nuclear powered? The news article said they ran aground while doing an exercise in familiar waters. Does this mean the driver got a reckless driving ticket? Is the driver a rookie just learning how to aim that thing? Isn't that just a bit more than bloody dangerous?

Back in February 2009 I posted the question "What will collide next?" when two submarines crashed in the ocean and then two satellites crashed in outer space. I am once again struck by how badly these very expensive bits of technology are aimed or driven. Do the drivers just need some more sleep?

What food to pair with this?

Chicken and other white meats, including several types of fish - but not all - you pair with white wine. Which variety of white wine... well, that depends.

Beef and other red meats - you pair with red wine. Which variety of red wine... well, that depends.

The rules can get to be quite challenging. And then you get the people who say you have to drink what you like, and forget the rules. So you have to know what you like... which is a test, because some liquors taste better with certain foods, and do you know what you are talking about, or will you make yourself look foolish by picking a bad choice?

But I've recently consumed a wonderfully inclusive and easy-going cider. It says "ideal with food" on the label. 

That's almost Zen-like.

Ideal with food. Simplicity in itself. And a wonderful cider I definitely recommend!

Do we really need pink toilet paper?

There is such a thing as supporting a good cause. Financial support to fund research for the cure for cancer and emotional support for people affected by cancer - that's supporting a good cause.

Then there is jumping on a bandwagon for a good cause, and for brand advertising. Putting little pink ribbon logos on the shoes you manufacture and sell - and presumably give some of the profits from sales to research - would be an example of this.

And then there is planning and executing a guerilla attack on the bandwagon to raid the cause and make everyone on the bandwagon look like they are grabbing an advertising opportunity instead of supporting a good cause. Pink toilet paper is an appalling example of this. I saw it yesterday. There was lots of it. It was on sale in the local drug store. There was still lots of it.

Do we really need pink everything? Is it even healthy to use coloured toilet paper? What did they dye it with, and why would we want to come in close contact with that? Who thought this was a good idea? It should give the competition a boost anyway... maybe it was corporate sabotage... make all the product un-sellable so the competition gains the advantage. Devious.

Isn't Wednesday the 13th more scary than Friday the 13th?

Ah, it's hump day. The middle day of the week. If you can make it over this hump, you can coast to the weekend.

That's a big IF.

And this week it's the 13th! The dreaded 13!

The number 13 has it's very own phobia - triskaidekaphobia. When the 13th falls on a Friday it has an additional phobia called Paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia. That's just friggin' amazing, eh? The earliest documented evidence for the Friday the 13th phobia is from the 19th Century. I think it may be time to update the phobia list with a Wednesday entry.


So far today, I phoned my pharmacy to renew a prescription 5 times. The first 4 times my call was dropped the moment I said I wanted to renew a prescription. I tried phoning an insurance agent about the status of a travel medical insurance application and they said "yeah, we'll get to it". The travel starts on Friday, so I think that's a slim chance. The new neighbor is renovating his entire apartment and the workers are making a hell of a mess of the hallway. I have put masking tape around the front door to try to keep the dust out, but they are keeping the front door of his place open to allow for the most dust possible to get into everyone else's home. And now they are storing stuff in the hallway in front of the door to the stairwell. 

That's the fire escape route I would need to take if there was a fire...I may be in trouble.


I would like this day to be over, and I'm ready to go hide under the bed sheets now.


Friday the 13th is nothing... I have 2 more weekdays to make it through before the weekend comes and life calms down... Wednesday the 13th is the scary one! Let's call it wiggatriskaidekaphobia, to coin a word.

Am I late?

It's September, so the summer is coming to a close and the world is getting serious again.

For many children it's time to go back to school. For others, it's time to have that September nightmare of finding yourself in a classroom stark naked; or everyone in the classroom is speaking gibberish; or coming into an empty classroom to discover the final exam was yesterday, and you missed it!

No, I don't have issues from my years of education, why do you ask?

One thing I've been remembering a lot this week is "late slips" from my Junior High School years. I was late so often, I routinely went to the office to get a late slip before class, even if I wasn't late... my first taste of the fun to be had by confusing people and shaking up their world view. (So that's where that started... I didn't realize that until now.)

I've been having these "late slip" flashbacks because we've unwittingly moved to within 2 blocks of both a high school and an elementary grade school. I think it's the grade school that has bells. Bells at 8:55am, 9am, 10:30am, etc. etc. until the last one at 3pm.

It's the set of "you're going to be late in 5 minutes", "yes, you are late now" bells in the morning that really bug me.

It always makes me think "Am I late?" until I realize the bell does not toll for me.

I wonder how many more people they are scarring for life with those bells. Poor kids.

Did the skunk get them?

The rather pleasant - from a distance - scent of skunk once again fills the night air, and I remember an incident from last week that has made me think.

My spouse and I were walking home from the Tea House in Stanley Park after a lovely dinner on the patio, watching the sun go down surrounded by puffy clouds. We were in mid-conversation when we heard someone whisper loudly (like a stage whisper) "Watch out! There's a skunk over there!"

Looking ahead of us we saw the skunk. We glanced back, and saw a couple of humans who were apparently hiding from the skunk. (All things considered, it was likely the humans, not the skunk who whispered the warning.)

The skunk was just crossing the path in front of us, so we slowed down, let it amble on it's way, and then kept going past the skunk. We know the skunks, they live here, we live here, we all try to keep out of each other's way. (And oddly enough, skunks DO smell of skunk just walking around... the creators of Pepe Le Pew had it right.)

But thinking about it now... I don't know if the whispering humans made it past the skunk.

We have had many nights of smelling skunk lately, so someone has been scaring them. We find the scent infinitely preferable to the cancer stick smoke coming up from one of our neighbors who likes to smoke on his balcony, and it keeps him off the balcony, so it even has a bonus! But it has been very frequent.

Hiding from a skunk doesn't actually make any sense. It's when they get frightened that they spray and run. If the skunk doesn't see you until you pop out from behind something... that's a frightening kind of thing. The whispering humans may have found this out... I do hope not, but I am wondering now if they simply followed our example (giving the skunk a wide berth and walking slowly by) or if they panicked and scared themselves and the skunk into more of a life story than they had planned to tell for the rest of their lives!

Are those crows or women?

Crows often sound like they are having conversations with each other. If you get enough of them in one place it can sound like a heated argument.

This week while at the farmer's market I was sitting waiting for my spouse as he did the shopping and I guarded the bags. I was playing a game on my cell phone to keep myself awake and didn't take too much notice of the other people. I was listening to a bunch of crows behind me having a conversation. And then I heard a much louder group on the other side of the street and I was worried there was about to be a crow fight in the middle of the farmer's market!

I looked up at this point, wondering if there was going to be a bird fight... and saw the second bunch of crows was actually a gaggle of women.

Is that supposed to be appealing?

Is Pink the new Black?

We just sold a pink leather recliner to someone through Craigslist. She loves all things pink and just had to have it.

We only had the pink chair because we needed a chair many years ago, and a friend had the chair and needed some cash... in the days before Craigslist, we bought it from her. We would never have bought a pink chair otherwise!

We have a friend who came to visit last year, with her teenaged daughter. I did some laundry for them while they were out doing a tourist thing that I did not want to join them for. The clothes were separated into the pink pile... and the other pink pile. It was somewhat confusing.

In high school there were girls who only had black clothes... well, some black, but lots of grey clothes, darn that whole washing thing. I did not have lots of black clothes because I looked rather ghostly in them. As a matter of fact, the girls who did only have black clothes looked quite ghostly or gothic in them, but they liked that. Me, not so much.

So with all of the middle-aged pink addicts today, who only have pink clothes, do they look any better than the teenagers of my youth who only had black clothes? Not so much. You really need the right mixture of white, red, orange, and yellow to make a pink that compliments skin tone. And everyone's skin tone is different, so it is a very personal pink that can make someone look good. So no, many women look ill in the wrong pink, some look rather ghostly in the wrong pink.

I think the answer is yes, pink is the new black. Only a few women are lucky enough to get the right pink to make them look good, the same way only a few women look good in black. There are many more women wearing pink than look good in it, the same way there were many more teenagers wearing black than looked good in it back in my youth. But are they the same people? Hmmm, maybe.

Is there catnip for squirrels?

Squirrel Playing
Originally uploaded by Clara Johnson

This is one of three squirrels I watched playing next to a schoolyard this week. They were having fun, and a lot of it!

The squirrels chased each other, ran up and down the chain link fence (amazing dexterity!), chased each other around the tree trunks, and played with twigs! This photo shows one of them playing with a twig.

So I wondered if there was the equivalent of catnip for squirrels... and with a bit of googling... catnip has the same effect on squirrels as it does on cats! So maybe these squirrels dug up someone's supply of catnip! Awesome!

Is the automobile an extension of the human?

Whilst at the farmer's market this morning I heard a snippet of conversation:

"I was broken into! During the fireworks. I was parked in the underground."

I was a bit alarmed when I took that at face value - breaking into a human being sounds painful! Then I realised she meant her automobile was broken into.

It sounded like this person took personal affront at having her automobile broken into. But this sounds like just a crime of opportunity to me. The robber probably had never thought about - and will never think about - the owner of the car! It was truly nothing personal, he just wanted to steal stuff.

So now this woman is traumatized about having her automobile violated. This does not sound like a healthy extension of the self to include your possessions. If you extend that to all of your possessions, you will see yourself getting old in so many ways, and bumped, and bits of you will break down and need replacing, and other bits will be hopelessly outdated and tired.

This doesn't sound healthy, but I think it's a prevalent attitude in the western world. How sad.

Is there anything worse than a summertime cold?

Oooh, you had to ask... how about a summertime cold with smoke from dozens of forest fires clogging the air?

Is there anything worse than asking "Is there anything worse than..."?

You just know that the infinite universe can think of a whopper of an answer for that, no matter how you end the sentence.

And if you don't ask... can you escape the universal "worse"?

If we all pretended that everything is wonderful and life is simple and easy... would it be? Pardon me while I blow my nose for the 667th time "667, neighbour of the beast". At this point I'm willing to try anything, but my cold keeps interrupting my concentration. What was I writing? Is there anything worse than having a head when you have a cold? The ancient Egyptians regarded the brain as an icky organ that dripped out of your nose. Blow like an Egyptian...

OK, well, think about it... I don't have the answer... brain is dripping

Will the evicted people be living in the alley now?

An extremely odd thing is happening in the alley behind our building right now.

The people from an apartment a couple of floors below ours are being evicted today. There were a lot of complaints against them and the person who owns the apartment is kicking them out. But now they are sitting on their furniture in the alley behind the building. I've never seen anything like this.

So will they be leaving? Or do we have squatters in the alleyway now?

One of the drawing points of this building when we decided to buy a condo was that no more rentals would be allowed, anyone who bought one of the places would have to live in it. Over time that should effectively get rid of absentee land owners who don't keep the place well maintained. But there are still a couple of apartments being rented out. The place with the evicted squatters is one of them.

The Pride Parade happened earlier today, less than half a block from us, and there is still a party (or several) going on in the street, but here just below us are evicted people sitting on their furniture in the alleyway. This is a bit surreal.

Aug 6 update: Ooh, this building has quite the information gathering mechanism, everyone knows lots about everyone else who lives here... the people evicted were essentially using the place as a shanty town with a roof. Every available surface had an inflatable mattress on it, and there were at least 18 people living in the 2 bedroom apartment. It is, as expected, a complete shambles. New sinks are going to have to be put in, etc. etc. The fire that they started on the lawn outside their balcony will need to be rehabilitated by the gardeners, thankfully we have automatic sprinklers in the lawn that put the fire out!

So the scoop on the furniture in the alleyway is: the people were just sitting and resting there for a while. These people somehow found another apartment a couple of blocks away and were using their two office chairs with wheels to move all of their stuff. I'm not sure how they got the old couch onto those chairs... would have been interesting to watch. So the problem has moved on. So much for buying a place and renting it out as an easy way to make money!

It is unfortunate that there was one really nice guy in the group. He was friendly and tried very hard to be helpful whenever I ran into him in the lobby. He's now lumped into the "group of scum" on life's scorecard, but he could be so much more. That's the tragic part of life.

Could we have just one loud music player?

The Vancouver Pride Parade just finished a couple of hours ago, and it was great. It was extremely colourful, and well attended, and very long - more than 3 hours of floats and crowds going through Vancouver's West End. We have a great view of the parade from our balcony, and even had an MC with a microphone just in front of our place so we had all the commentary for each float! What a great place to live!

And in the next couple of days I will have lots of photos posted on Flickr of the colourful excitement.

But now there are people partying outside at the hotel across the road from us, and some more over to the left, also partying outside but at a different party. The problem is, they are each playing extremely loud music, but not the same music.

One could say there is a battle of music going on outside our home right now. This is not nearly as much fun as the parade was. We have all the windows closed now because we couldn't stand it anymore, but we can still hear the cacophony.

We're not against loud music, it's a festival atmosphere and quite fun, we just want it to be from one place, not two. Is that too much to ask? Do they have to make us sound like grumpy old people because we want just one source of loud music? That's somehow not fair.

Which law would I rather have fail, gravity or Murphy?

I was having a lovely weekend, I was. Everything seemed to be going so well for me finally, and then Monday came.

I got a magnetic door stop in the mail - something that I had ordered weeks ago - and when I got it out of the package I realized I couldn't install it. It needs to be floor mounted, and we have carpet (yes, I know that's not a great thing to have by the front door, but we haven't had it changed yet in our new home) so we need to mount the doorstop on the wall, which won't work. Now I have to send it back and get a different one. (It will just make it easier to get my wheelchair out of my front door if the door is kept open by the magnet.)

I think I am suffering the after affects of a good walloping by Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It just took a break, so the smack was extra hard.

So I got to thinking, if it was possible to mute one of the universe's laws for just a brief moment, would I rather have the law of gravity fail, or Murphy's law fail?

To keep the universe together you need gravity, so a momentary glitch in gravity might be a really bad thing. But if it was short and just localized, it could be a moment of fun. If you had warning of when it was going to fail, you could jump at just the right time and be flying! And then when it came back, well, it was fun when you started. A moment as a bird for a long stay in the hospital could be worth the trade off. It seems skiers who end up in wheelchairs after really bad falls think it's worth the trade off.

To keep your expectations in life down to a "reality" level, you need Murphy's law. If you didn't expect something to go wrong, you wouldn't be planning for it, so you wouldn't have a back-up plan. But wouldn't it be nice to have a brief moment when you know nothing will go wrong? A moment when your plan "A" will work like a charm? A moment when you can just relax and not worry about anything?

Well, it won't happen, you can't fly, and you always need a plan "B". But if you know about these things, you can get on with your life and deal with anything that the universe throws at you really. Being flexible is part of living.

I think I'd like Murphy's law to fail more than the law of gravity, because if I was flying... Murphy's law would send an airplane to smack into me.

Do you really want to park there?

The first night of fireworks in Vancouver was last night. It was our first fireworks in our new home, which is about 3 blocks from the beach that you sit on for the best view of the fireworks.

Unfortunately, we don't get a good view of the fireworks from our balcony - too many buildings in our way - but we do get a good view of the crowds. We also get a good view of the alley behind our building and what people do in it.

There are many public transit options to get you close to the fireworks. We recently had a little sports event here, so there are even more options this year, with a new skytrain line and all. It is quite a walk down to the beach from there, but it was a nice night for a walk, and it's good exercise.

But some people still insist on driving their own vehicles down and paying ridiculous sums of money, or risk parking illegally, to park their vehicle and then walk to the beach with the thousands of others who took transit. They get less exercise that way.

The organizers of the fireworks realize there will be thousands of people down at the beach, and they do bring in portable toilets for the crowds, but apparently not enough.

As the crowd walked away from the beach after the fireworks, many many many males - human males, not canine males, no one in their right minds would bring their dogs to the fireworks - peed in the alleys.

We have a small parking lot next to our building. They peed there too.

So all of the vehicles that were parked in the alley, or parked in the parking lot, got peed on. All of the vehicles people couldn't bear to leave at home will now have urine stains on them. If they're lucky, it's just on the tires.

So do you really want to drive down to the fireworks? Do ya?

Is there really an app for the end of the world?

I heard about one, so I went on a search for it.

Oh the fun advertisers have!

For those who believe that the world will end on Dec 21, 2012 there is an iPhone app that will let them keep track of time using the ancient Maya calendar!

A countdown to the end? Not really.. but if you want to know what the date is according to the Maya calendar, complete with the proper glyphs for it, this app will let you keep up with the ancients. The end of the world hook in the advertising is subtle: "learn about various Maya cycles of time and gain a better understanding of why December 21, 2012 A.D. is an important Maya date." The end is near!

I remember many years ago the sandwich board with "the end is near" painted on it that doomsayers sported on the streets was as high tech as the end got, but now we can count down to the end of the world with digital accuracy. Now, yes, there's an app for that! Progress.

Is everything I'm missing in the same spot?

I know I've seen my sunglasses somewhere...

My iPod surfaced a couple of weeks ago, so I know it's around here somewhere...

The cork coasters all turned up in the same place at the same time... but I can't remember where that was, so we've been using another bunch that turned up together and haven't escaped yet.

This may be just the effects of moving, but I can't help thinking that everything I've been missing is somehow in the same spot.

When you find socks that go missing in the laundry, aren't they usually all in the same spot? When you find yourself a whole lot of paperwork you forgot to do, that's usually in the same spot. When you find that book that you were looking for, there's a whole lot of books that you want in that very same spot.

So maybe somewhere in our new apartment, there is a treasure trove of everything I've been looking for.

Well, it's possible.

What will I miss about cable TV?

We've recently moved, and in all the clutter, we haven't bothered to get ourselves comfortable around the TV yet.

We do intend to get a flat panel TV, but we haven't bothered yet.

I do use the old TV to play with my Wii, but that's about all we've done with our old TV so far.

We moved in over a month ago. I don't think we'll be needing cable TV in the future! We haven't missed it!

With the growing availability of TV programs available on the Internet - through youtube and many of the networks like the food channel and even the space channel - we have been watching some programs on our computers. They do typically insert 1 commercial 4 or 5 times inside the program, but it's better than 6 commercials 18 times an hour like you get on cable! And you can start and stop the programs whenever you want! No more making it home in time to watch...

But what will I miss about cable TV? I will miss Vince and his Slap Chopper.

I went to see my dentist last week, she has TVs on the ceiling so you can distract yourself when she has her hands in your mouth. And she of course has cable. I flipped through a few channels and landed on a commercial for Slap Chopper. Yes, Vince is so thrilled about his product, and so eager to convince his viewers that their life will be so much better with his product, I stopped flipping channels and watched the commercial!

So why is this commercial the only thing that catches my eye? Why is it the only thing I've been missing without cable TV? Is it the product? Nah. I have something just like it, and it doesn't make life better, it's just more to wash up when I use it. Does Vince have sex appeal? Nah. He's kinda young for me, nice kid, but. Does the artistic value of the commercial scream for attention? Nah. It's just a guy in a kitchen.

So why is this something that pops? I think it's because Vince seems to be talking directly to you, and he's just glad to be doing it! How often does that happen?

When I'm out in the park in the morning and someone says "Good morning!" as they run by, they mean it, and they only do it because they're happy, and I say "Good morning!" back at them. It's the same kind of feeling as I get watching Vince. There's no obligation, it's just a happy person being happy. I find that appealing, and so unusual coming from the TV. So I'll miss Vince.

Funny old world, isn't it?

Do you think anyone would buy this?

Gadzooks! We have just participated in our first yard sale, and we sold lots of stuff!

Oddly though, it's the stuff we thought wouldn't sell that sold quickly! The kitchen cart, which we used to keep a microwave on, made someone extremely happy. Based on that quick sale, we brought down our old filing cabinet - and it sold too! And we made someone happy with lots of Dr. Who VCR tapes!

It was a day long effort, and we got lots of fresh air, and met lots of our neighbours because it was the annual yard sale for the building we just moved into. So it was a great thing all around.

And to top it all off we actually sold our CD stand! We've had it on Craigslist for months and no interest, but someone wanted it today!

We've never been to a yard sale, let alone sold stuff at one. But it was greatly successful. Who would have known! Go figure!

What is he doing with those handcuffs?

We are sitting in a restaurant on Denman Street having dinner, watching people go by when a cop on a motorcycle comes up and parks on the other side of the street.

The waiter - quite the flaming type - looks to see if it's his favourite cop. Oh, no it isn't, how sad, this one is not quite as well built. But he does have an interesting trait.

As the cop slowly gets himself set to walk about, he takes his helmet off... and handcuffs it to his motorcycle!

The waiter finds that quite exciting, and suggests positions that can be taken on a motorcycle with handcuffs... he's quite entertaining.

As the meal goes on, no less than 3 more motorcycle cops come up and park next to each other, in preparation for going on a walk about. They all handcuff their helmets to their bikes!

So if you ever see a motorcycle cop walking around in Vancouver's West End... pssst, they don't have their handcuffs on them!

Unless they have a spare set... I don't think I want to bring it up with any of them... that could be a bit more "exciting" than I really want it to be!

This is a fun place to live!

How many layers of black paper can you get on a roof?

Wow, what a nightmarish move that was... yes, we've up and moved house, so I haven't been blogging lately. And I don't really want to ponder questions that came up while moving... so on to brighter things.

Yesterday I was sitting in my new living room watching men mow the roof of the building next to me. Yes, I said mow, as in cut down the green mossy growth. There was a veritable meadow on top of that building, bit of a drainage problem maybe?

Today I am sitting and watching more men take layers and layers of black paper - with a lot of dust on them - off the roof. Every time they seem to be finished taking off the black paper and they grab brooms to brush the brown dust around, they find more paper! And then they stop and rip up more paper. And then they start dusting again. How many layers are there on a single flat roof?

Oh yay, it seems to be getting a bit cool out there, they've put their shirts back on! I may just be getting older, but there was nothing good about bare torsos on those guys, that looks much better now. Of course now they are removing something with a sander that is throwing up lots of smokey white dust, so we've closed all our windows.

And they've found more paper!

And I've found an interesting entry in Wickipedia explaining problems with flat roofs. Yes, that would be why the roof was so green, lack of drainage. That can be quite the extreme problem in Vancouver. Now I get to watch to see if they put down a single sheet coating like the article suggests... and level it so the water runs off... I guess time will tell on that last part!

So many new things to ponder in my new home! This could be fun!

Post Script: Nope, no leveling. Nope, no single sheet coating... and boy does the dip in the middle of the roof look more like it's going to be a water feature, and not a roof to keep the rain out. I guess we will be seeing much more green in the months to come!

How did these adults manage to get this old?

Sometimes you just have to wonder how a person has managed to live as long as they have...

There was a flood in our apartment building a few days ago. Today the water was shut off for most of the morning while they fixed the broken pipes. For several days now, notice that the water would be shut off today has been posted in all the elevators. You can't get into your apartment without using one of these elevators, the doors to the stairs are locked, so unless you are being a hermit, you have been in an elevator and have seen the notices. Even if you haven't read them.

So lets take a count of who didn't know about the water being shut off... a staggering number in the teens, if not more.

The most egregious ignoring of the notices award goes to the dentist. She has an office on the lower level of the building and was in the middle of a dental procedure that requires water when the water was shut off. This is supposed to be a well-educated, literate person who needs to use the elevators to get to and from her car in the parking lot every day and runs her own professional business.

So what is the stupidest thing you can do during a water shut off... kill your children.

We have a pool. The pool is full of water. It is treated daily with bleach and other chemicals. The award for most dangerous stupidity goes to the woman who came down to fill her children's water bottles with water from the pool. She had to be told by other shocked adults in the elevator not to give this water to her children. Just imagine explaining what happened to your children to a person in Emergency at a hospital - this should get you locked up for life-threatening stupidity.

The children of tomorrow have no chance, the adults have doomed them, but how did the adults get to be as old as they have? What did our western society miss? Has wealth and over-abundance made everyone stupid about basic human survival? Has clean running water readily available in a million taps made people forget how precious that is?

Forget the danger of a comet hitting the planet and wiping everyone out... we seem to be doing the job ourselves.

Are crop circles alien skid marks?

We are experiencing more construction chaos at our home again. Luckily, we are moving!!! Yaaay! But before then, I need to use a temporary wooden ramp to get in and out of our building because the wheelchair ramp is blocked by construction tarps.

This temporary ramp will likely last until way after the middle of next month, when we are leaving, but it doesn't inspire confidence right now. It is made of wood, and they've stapled a black-gritty-sheet-of-something to it so it's not as slippery as bare wood. But it's not a stable black-gritty-sheet-of-something, it is a dispensing-millions-of-tiny-black-pebble-like-things-sheet-of-something. And those little black pebbles are getting into my wheelchair wheels.

On my way out, the little black pebbles don't bother me that much - they do eventually make their way out of my wheels - but on the way into my home they are a menace. I do park this wheelchair inside my home after all! So I've been driving back and forth and around in circles in the hallway outside my apartment door before driving in... which has made me wonder about crop circles.

The carpet in the hallways is reportedly going to be replaced soon (it's quite insane to do this when there is construction going on outside the building's front door, but the strata council is quite insane, so it's to be expected) so I'm not feeling so guilty about making a mess.

I can turn almost on a dime in my wheelchair and I can make completely round little circles of black pebbles in the carpet in the hallway. If I try hard, I can reproduce some of the more interesting crop circle designs in the hallway. Unless someone saw me doing this, how it was done would be a complete mystery to folks!

So do aliens in space ships use crop fields on Earth as places to get gritty stuff off their ships? Do they occasionally run through comets or other space debris, and they're just trying to get the gunk off?

If so, I can sympathize with them. It's just crap you shouldn't have to drag around with you. And if it can entertain the natives (or the neighbors) at the same time, that's a bonus!

Are there more odors down here?

It's been a while since I've ventured into busy downtown Vancouver during the lunch hour on a weekday, but I needed to go out today and it was about that time, so I steered my wheelchair slowly through the crowds to get to my destination. While driving I noticed a plethora of odors in the crowds. So am I being very sensitive, or are there more odors down here at sitting level?

The perfumes were extreme - both from people and from the shops that sold perfume. The oddest thing of late is that the men are wearing more perfume than the women! Seriously doused males wreaking to the max! Who are the advertisers who thought selling perfumes for men was a good idea, and how can we stop them? And why are men putting so much scent around their waists? Are they trying to attract females in wheelchairs? It isn't working.

The wreak of cancer stick cigarette smoke is always a problem, and down here at wheelchair level is worse than at standing level! On the other hand, the scent of smoke from recreational pharmaceuticals isn't that bad... and there was lots of that everywhere, not sure if I should complain about that... nah, relax, it's all good.

The sewers also have their own odors, and I'm closer to them now than I was before. Luckily I can hold my breath while I pass them, and I am as fast as your average jogger when I go at my normal outdoor speed. (I can go faster, but I reserve that for driving on the seawall when it's empty, because that IS faster.)

So there are many odors down here that I have to live with now. But I'm an adult and can understand all of the odors, what about all those children in child strollers? What are we doing to them?

Post Script: OH! That's where all the pot smoke came from! There was a marijuana rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery - as I drove my wheelchair past it! Well, that was timing wasn't it?

Will a washroom be a tourist attraction?

The new Vancouver Convention Centre is quite the tourist attraction. It is built out over water with a fish habitat especially designed to attract fish, and it has a roof with "thousands of indigenous plants" planted on it. (What plants - beyond moss - are indigenous to roofs? Now that's a good question... looks like a lot of grasses... maybe they're from the planet of the roofs.) But I digress.

The more interesting question is... during a hot, dry August day, will using a washroom at the convention centre be a tourist attraction?

Yes, it rains in Vancouver. A lot. A really great deal. Many days of non-ending rain. But that's in the winter. In the summer it gets hot and dry and watering restrictions are put into effect. In August most of the grass is brown in Vancouver - it will come back to being green in the Fall when it starts raining again, but August is a brown month. So what will happen to the grasses and other "thousands of indigenous plants" on the roof of the Convention Centre? It is prized at being a green building, so they will not be using water to irrigate it from the municipal water supply, not directly anyway, they will be using "brown" or "black" water from the waste drains inside the building. So if you wash your hands in the washroom of the convention centre in August... the water that flows over your hands will then go up to the roof to water the plants!

Cool. Does this mean the washrooms will be a tourist attraction? I'm thinking I want to go just to pay a visit! I'm not sure what kind of conventions will be going on there in August, but I'm going to keep my eyes open to see if I want to go to one of them! Or at least go to visit the washroom when they're happening.

Anyone for skiing?

In Britain they have a saying "Anyone for Tennis?" which is packed with British humour and actually means "Anyone for going outside and getting soaked in the rain?"

In Vancouver we should have a saying "Anyone for skiing?" which will mean "Anyone want to go for a jog on the snowless ski hills?"

So we just had the Winter Olympics, and one of the mountains that was used to hold many of the events had no snow. Well, it did have snow, but the snow was trucked in from other mountains, it didn't spontaneously fall from the sky onto the hills that the skiing was on. Seriously. But now, today, weeks later, at the end of March, there's tons of snow up on Cypress Mountain.

And a collective groan goes up from Vancouver.

Did the universe just end?

The search for dark matter and the Higgs boson particles using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has started! They started slamming particles together today!

See http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE62T26K20100330

So are we gone yet? Did replicating the actions that happened when the big bang started the universe make everything hit the restart button?

No. Looks like we didn't stop.

Or did we? How would we know? Maybe our existence has more to do with a collective belief in our existence than in physics. Maybe the people who believed that the hadron collier would end the universe and tried to get the work stopped in law courts are gone. Maybe they ceased to exist a few minutes ago. Maybe just little bits of the universe have winked out of existence. How would we know? Has anyone got the inventory list so we could check things off?

This may be the results of an overactive imagination with a cold, but it does make me wonder.

How old are those fashions?

Whilst sitting in the Public Market at Granville Island a couple of days ago I couldn't help but notice a lot of people who looked oddly familiar. No, I didn't know any of them - and most of them were in their late teens / early twenties, and I don't think I know anyone in that age group.

So why did they look familiar? Because they were wearing the clothes of the 1980s.

And because they were the same age that I was when those clothes were in fashion in the 1980s. Thunk. Am I that old now? If I was their age, I'd think someone my current age is... old. Oy vey. This is a time warping experience that I wasn't expecting.

Of course, skinny pants from the 1980s on the turn of the century women of today makes most of them look like... ice cream cones. The ones with the pointy bottoms that won't stand up by themselves. High definition is not always a good thing ladies and gentlemen! I hope that's not what I looked like back then! Sometimes reviving fashion is not a good thing!

What crowds? Were we expecting crowds?

HMMMM.... all is quiet on the crowds scene in downtown Vancouver right now. Where are all the Paralympic people?

The zipline across Robson is up and running again, the olympic torch in Coal Harbour is lit up, and all the other crowd gathering points are once again open for gathering, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest any more.

It is nice that the helicopters that pounded the air around us every day of the Olympics have stopped - there was some excitement on the weekend, but we're back to normal city noise now.

The sports action in Whistler and the various venues in Vancouver is going well, but the crowds are not as numerous as for the Olympics.

Did we overdo it on the 2 weeks of Olympic excitement? Are we all too pooped to party? Or is it just a Tuesday, wait for the weekend time?

Will the crowds be different for the Paralympics?

The constant reverberating sounds of helicopters flying low over Vancouver's downtown signals the start of the 2010 Paralympic games as I wonder what this crowd of athletes and watchers will be like.

The opening ceremonies are tomorrow, but the crowds have not been as big as they were just before the Olympics began.

The last set was happy, enthusiastic, healthy (except most of them were committing slow suicide by sucking on cancer sticks), and really didn't understand what to do about people in wheelchairs around them. Reminders of human mortality were not what they were expecting.

But these new athletes are paralympians, not olympians, so many of them are in wheelchairs. Top performing athletes in wheelchairs.

I expect the crowds will be different, but I'll wait and see. I'm almost looking forward to crowds... and odd thing indeed.

Does everyone in Vancouver have a hangover?

Many people are lingering longer in the coffee shops.

Many people are buying a tub of ice cream and consuming it.

Many yoga classes are focussing on "restorative" poses - the ones where you get into one position and stay there for 5 minutes. No one is complaining.

The early morning news is describing a marked rise in people calling into work sick with colds, but the traffic is still quite a mess this week as droopy people get themselves into work.

Do we all have a collective hangover from the Olympics?

The early morning news says all the "high-fiving" people were doing in the streets with complete strangers during the Olympics helped the cold spread. It's like the office cold gone global. But some of us didn't join a lot of crowds. (Those of us in wheelchairs tried to avoid the crowds at all costs!)

A distinct difference between the Olympic weeks and now is obvious on the streets. The streets are empty. We have normal traffic, but that's it. We've all calmed down and gone back to normal living.

I think we were all a bit over-stimulated by the Olympics, and now we have a low-energy hangover. It's an amazing, shared, hangover of immense proportions.

Are they going to change the words to Oh Canada again?

Warning, this post may end up being more of a whine than a fun thought or two.

My blog post from February 28, 2010 marveled at the amazing ability during the Olympics for people to spontaneously break out into singing Oh Canada on the streets. It was a wonderful feeling, and the energy was terrific (although now everyone in Vancouver seems to be having a hang-over of sorts - everyone seems lethargic here now...)

One of the things I marveled at was how everyone knew the words to the anthem - considering how many times they've been changed, it was surprising. So of course now (this started yesterday) the politicians in the nation's capital want to change the words again.

But everyone knows what they are now!

So the politicians want it to be more gender-neutral, sure, that would be nice... but no one will be able to sing the song anymore! After the words "Oh Canada" everyone will be muffing it again!

Nice idea, but couldn't they have gotten it all correct the last time they changed a large portion of the words? How slow are these people? Are they going to change it again in another 20 years? Can we really trust them to get it right this time and then stop picking at it? Is this the last time this will happen?

These are all questions I'd rather not have to ponder... I don't think I'll like the answers.

If I had a parrot what would I teach it to say?

An old comedy sketch from a kid's TV show The Electric Company has a plumber knock on a door, a parrot inside the house says "Who is it?" and the plumber says "It's the plumber. I've come to fix the sink." The comedy happens when the plumber is driven to distraction and collapses on the door step because the parrot keeps saying "Who is it?" over and over again and the plumber keeps answering "It's the plumber. I've come to fix the sink." The humans then come home and find the plumber on the door step and ask out loud "Who is this?" and the parrot says "It's the plumber. I've come to fix the sink." Ta-da-dump-bump.

We've just had our 5th flood since we moved into this building 11 years ago. The plumber just left after fixing the faucet in our shower. This is the first time the damage has started in our suite.

This is the also 5th spot that the flood damage has been in! A whole new area of damage has been opened up to us! It even goes out into the hallway outside our front door! It's amazing how an apartment condo building is put together to maximize damage from leaking pipes!

So if I had a parrot, what would I teach it to say? I may go for the "Who is it?" approach, but wouldn't it be so much more fun to teach it to say "It's the plumber. I've come to fix the sink." whenever anyone asked it "Who is it?"

Some people would be confused by the parrot, but others would just have to smile and laugh. That's the best way to deal with floods - I know this from experience.

Do we all know the words to Oh Canada now?

The crowds are singing our national anthem. This is because our athletes have just won another gold medal in the Olympics.

I am surprised. Not surprised at the winning, surprised at the knowing of the words!

Until now most Canadians didn't sing the national anthem. There was no real reason to, and most people would mumble in the middle if they were pressed into singing it.

A born Canadian who has lived here all my life... I know most of the words, and can muddle through the rest, but the words have changed since I learned them in school, and I learned half of them in French (the ones in the middle that get mumbled the most) and I don't speak French, so they did not mean that much to me when I learned them. I expect many others are in this position as well.

But the crowds that have been occupying Vancouver's downtown core for 2 weeks actually have spontaneously broken out singing Oh Canada! Many times!

And the athletes are singing Oh Canada when they win the gold - many have been captured on film doing it. They know the words!

And the crowds in the stands are singing Oh Canada! They know the words!

Everyone seems to know the words! This is an amazing change that has happened within my lifetime!

What is this line for?

Queueing, queueing and more queueing... we seem to have a world-class set of people who queue in Vancouver right now!

Forget the Olympic events - the queueing for those events is expected - it's the queueing for everything else that's amazing.

Early in the morning, people queue to take the zip line across Robson Street. People don't start going across until 11am, but the lineup starts many hours earlier. According to what I've heard from volunteers who work around the zip line, if you go between about noon and 1 pm, the lineup is much shorter! Everyone who was scared off by the morning lineup has given up, and everyone who was in the lineup has done the zip line! Then the rest of the day builds to one solid line! Talk about stamina! Go queuers go!

The there's the Olympic cauldron queue. It's an interesting sculpture, and has been the source of a story for media world-wide - with the fence that blocked the view, then the overnight alterations to the fence to improve the view, then the opening of a viewing platform in a close building for an even better view... and another opportunity for world-record queueing!

"It looks like they're building a pyramid!" Is a comment from one Vancouverite who was running on the seawall when they looked up at the zig-zagging lineup up the hill to get to see the cauldron. That's got to be a world record, not beaten for about 5000 years! Gold medals for everyone!

Do statues need mittens?

An obvious "no" would seem to be the right answer. Statues made from rock or metal have no need to keep their hands warm. But there are many statues around Vancouver decorated with red mittens right now.

The red mittens are a marketing idea for the Winter Olympics which are happening right now in Vancouver - the idea is to show civic pride in the Canadian athletes - and many, many people are wearing them. So why not the statues?

The statue of Robert Burns to the left has been given a pair of red mittens strung together with red string so he won't lose them. I didn't know this was a statue of Robbie Burns until I googled statues in Stanley Park, where he is standing! An educational time is had by all!

The Inukshuk is a symbol of these Olympic Games, so it seems fitting that the Inukshuk on the beach at English Bay has been given some red mittens too. They have been scaled up for the statue, very thoughtful.

Statues really don't need mittens, but it is amazing how many people are wearing the red mittens - and red everything else - and many people are wearing the official Olympic clothing too! In an odd way it makes sense that the statues should be part of the celebration. It's odd to see Canadians showing so much civic pride, these are truly amazing Olympics!

How do you simulate an earthquake?

A few years ago we had an earthquake tremor here in Vancouver which was big enough that we felt it in our apartment. The lamp in the dining room ceiling swayed and water sloshed. It was a memorable experience.

The Olympics started yesterday several blocks to the east of our apartment. Along with thousands of people really enjoying the event, we had about 200 protestors enjoying being annoying and complaining about... well, anything that struck them as something to complain about.

This morning there was a "big protest" about 2 blocks west of our apartment. About 200 protestors who are reported to be protesting "against capitalism".

That's a few decades old as a complaint, isn't it? A Bit lacking in either creativity or at least something a bit more meaningful to be against isn't it? They were right beside a movie rental store, a coffee shop, a convenience store, and a gourmet baking supply store. Maybe they could complain about getting to bed late because they had too much coffee, their cake baking experiment failed, they didn't win on the lottery ticket they bought, and it all made them return their movie late and they had to pay a late charge...

So the cops were out quelling the riot and nabbing the worst of the rioters to send them to jail.

One of the tools the police are using to quell rioters during the Olympics are helicopters. Big helicopters. Big powerful, loud helicopters flying close to the ground. They've been circling high in the sky for days now from early in the morning until very late at night, but they come in close when there is a riot.

Anyone seen the movie Apocalypse Now? Remember feeling the ground shake as the helicopters darkened the sky? It happens in real life too.

So with the lamp once again swaying, and water rippling in our apartment, we are left to wonder if someone is trying to simulate an earthquake, or if the rioters rented the movie Apocalypse Now, and that's the one they returned late and had to pay a late fee on.

And there the helicopters are again as I type... anyone got some popcorn?

Was that exciting?

Well it was only 2 blocks away from where we live, so we did go out to see the Olympic torch go by this morning... meh.

There was still traffic on the street when everyone was lining the route for the flame - mostly trucks on business, but there were some idiots in single occupancy gas guzzlers trying to drive in downtown still. "Oh, I didn't know there was going to be any traffic problems, I thought about transit, but I drove instead." What planet have these people been living on? The police on bicycles were interesting, the horses were great to see - they didn't look too thrilled about it, but it's the last day of the relay, so they can stop this soon - but the torch runner was just a blur as he ran by.

I don't recommend trying to see anything when you're in a crowd and in a wheelchair. Doesn't work. (I only ran over one guy's foot - but that was his fault, not mine!) (I drove over my own foot once, I wasn't wearing shoes either... long story... it actually doesn't hurt that much, so I'm not worried about him.)

My spouse heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger (spell that one without Google, I dare you) was going to be running in Stanley Park at 6 a.m., so he got up in the middle of the night to see if he could see Arnold - not as a drooling fan, just because he was going to be close, so why not? What he learned was, never believe what you read from unofficial sources online. Arnold was going to be at Prospect Point said the unofficial source - nope, it was Brockton Point on the other side of the park. So my spouse got some unexpected exercise, he didn't expect to run that far, but he's done it many times before, so he's fine.

The result of seeing Arnold... "He's got a big head."

So was that exciting? Meh.