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!