Journal - Burnaby - Thor

The long weekend is passed.  Madigan and I walked Laura to her little red Smart Car and she headed back to her Bute apartment home.,  Madigan barked but wasn’t as upset as he’s been in the past. I think he’s learning ‘objects constancy’ . That’s the term we use in child psychology for when a baby drops something and doesn’t believe it disappeared.  I believe Madigan is begging to believe Laura will return or we’ll visit her but she’s not ‘gone’.  

He adores her and she loves him.  I believe he sees her in some mixed up Oedipal way as his mommy he’;d like to hump.  I love how much he enjoys our walks together, part of a bigger pack,  Also he works the room.  Has her throw his toy till she tires then comes to me to ‘fetch’.  It’s a family atmosphere.

I didn’t do anything this weekend.  A few errands, a few calls to pharmacy, a meeting, a swim, walks and mostly preparing and eating meals and reading novels.  I love hugging Laura.  I like kissing her too,

The Pride weekend was on with the parade and crowds and I miss seeing it but frankly traffic and crowds are barriers to me going to events. I’d much rather have gone camping with the Sober Riders in Keremeos.  Maybe next year.  I have been enjoying life in the new Thor Hurricane motorhome, barbecuing outside, sitting in lawn chairs in the sun.

I really am enjoying For All the World the Apple TV Science fiction historical drama based on idea that Cold War continued with NASA and the Russians having moon colonies. Last night they had a mars colony and were trying to capture an asteroid.  It’s captivated me like the Sons of Anarchy, Yellowstone, and Breaking Bad series did.  

Madigan had an accident with diarrhea I cleaned up in the morning. Then he didn’t poop all day and I walked him for over an hour before he did. He’s had lose stool this morning.  I’m thankful for the paper towel and comet and the new wet swifter.  

Now it’s work.  Yesterday’s BC Day civic holiday will make it a short week. I’ve just signed up for the UBC Pacific Psychopharmacology conference.  

First the long term neighbour across from us left then the neighbour on the left and now the neighbour on the right has pulled out.  All this activity has me wanting to head to Logan Lake like I did a couple of years back, enjoying swimming each lunch hour.  We’ve considered going away for the Labor Day Long weekend but didn’t find a good RV campground open. Our first choice was Whistler Campground and next Harrison.  It’s a popular weekend for camping and everything seemed booked up.  I may look more.

I’d best get settled into the office seat and begin the days telemedicine work.  

Thank you God for this weekend.  Thank you Jesus for all your blessings.

Thank you God for the rest.

I am grateful today.  I’m settled back into my residence with Star Link finally working.  I’d restored electricity , water and sewer and had the marvellous ladies from Merry Maid come to clean my place as well as clean and sort the camper.  I had simply done so much since arriving back from two and one half months in the south missing winter here. It’s not a minor matter.  So many matters need to be addressed with even a short term move. I’m still sorting out my mail which wasn’t forwarded but collected at the post office to be there when I returned.  

The greatest challenge was the death of Starlink, the cable and dish interface failing. Starlink sent me a new dish and cable but in the the couple of weeks I had to use Tengointernet which has a limit of two devices and sometimes intermittent coverage.  It really did tide me over. Now my Star link is up.

At Apple gifted myself the new Titanium tough watch, good for scuba diving and having gps and maps. It replaces my Garmin and the Apple iWatch that really was too gentle for the hunting and camping trips I took it on.  I was glad for the $200 trade in.

There was the mini ipad that Apple Care replaced since it had broken with a bang being carried in a knapsack.  I bought the new Samsung 43 QLED Smart TV having had such pleasure upgrading the tv in the camper to a ‘smart’ one. I was able to give the old one, still in great shape to a friend who told me his smaller tv had just begun to fade.  Timely advance

Kelvin of Travco helped me with the getting the electricity and water and ensuring the camper was set up for storage.  Murray was so kind to make the time to come out to Chilliwack with the camper, get it off loaded then tarp it against leaks. He drove my mini home and I drove the truck.  

I worked the week too. I even made it to the clinic and gave Karen the hard copies of work that I’d turbofaxed her from Yuma.  

Today I’m picking up my new hearing aids.

I’d kept money in reserve while travelling in case of any calamity in the US.  Only minor costs , like fixing the sewage outlet arose so I felt I had this ‘saved’ money so could do some self care. I was even able to gift family which always feels good.  When I was young my aunt use to surprise us with small gifts of ‘fun money’ she called it. 

I had my hair coloured and nail painted black.  I’ve been to church and meetings.

It’s like I’m reestablished in my home.

I learned some things.  One was that I didn’t ‘use my city’.  What I enjoyed away is right here at home.  The beaches and birds of Oceanside California with the surfers and people having fun on the beach is readily available in English Bay. It’s simply been to long since I ‘ve made the time to go there. Covid so disrupted my life that I became a homebody. I used to have season’s tickets to the Ballet, Theatre and often went to the Opera and Symphony.  Since Covid I’ve just made it to a couple of sympthonies.  I’ve the New Westminster seawall I can walk and I’ve done that a couple of times. It’s not quite Stanley Park but it’s a working riven and truly lovely. I really need to do that more , having the fish and chips on the outings.  It’s been too long since I’ve been to Steveston’s.  I haven’t had chilli at the top of Grouse or Cyprus and haven’t been snow shoeing or skiing since before Covid.  Since Covid I’ve mostly walked the Brunette River with little change in routine, a circumscribed life and too much time watching tv and not venturing out. I realized that while I ride my motorcycle I’d not done more than day trips and the fun was weekends in the saddle a camping nights.  I’ve been hunting a few times and still love Princeton and Merritt and 100 mile.  I’ve done a few weekends at Harrison but simply not enough. Away I was taking trips to ghost towns, riding my bike to the Marine Airfield, going to the Proving grounds, checking out the wildlife museum, trying out different outdoor cafe’s.  I love people watching on Commercial and it’s the best but too much time I took the path of least ressstance.  I did several virtual meetings a week but before Covid I was doing them in person. I was attending the Canadian Author Association monthly meetings and making it too regularly.  I was participating in my city.  I realized that and have made the plan to mend my ways.  More exercise and more being a tourist in my own town. It was good to see Murray , Dave and Mack.  Covid isolated me and now I’m realizing I need to make the effort to reconnect. 

I gather I was depressed by the time I left.  The stress of Covid and illness and all the patients struggling with finances because of government corruption and mismanagement. It was great being away because I wasn’t hearing of Trudeau mania, the frenzy of a bad kid spending no everyone else’s money as if it was his own.  Twisted and evil.  I let it get to me because finances were so hurting my patients and as I listened to them every day it got to me how the lies of Ottawa were hurting the little guys of the west.  I got away and for 2 and 1/2 months didn’t see the devastation, didn’t have to watch the countries decline to a third world nation.  America had its problems but they were not my problems and I was just passing through. I really have to let go of the politics of my home because I’m just passing through.

I am praying every day. I meditated daily but not long enough. Not deep enough. It’s like walking the dog. I do that every day three times , about an hour and a half to two hours but I know I’ve done a better job when on some days I’ve walked him more.  In Arizona I had a longer walk routine and we both benefitted from the exercise. He’s my physiotherapist.  

 I’m supposed to be writing books but frankly I’m enjoying my work and time.

I’m astonished at the ‘mess’ I’ve created since returning. I really need to ‘cull’ my stuff. I’m far too cluttered and after living just fine in a little camper for 2 1/2 half months I can see there’s just so much I’ve got that’s duplicated or in excess. I’ve pots I don’t use and mugs I don’t use and everything is duplicated in the storage locker.  I have a dozen dress shirts and would only wear those if I had to go to court.  I have so much trouble reducing and wished I had someone I could do this work with.

Should I keep this, give it away, or toss it ?  Person. 

I’m going to make an effort.  Maybe a trip to the storage locker too. That’s gloomy though and I’d love some help there. I’ve spent so much of my life entertaining others and serving their needs that it’s good now to show self care. I’ve not got into the chiropracter her though my back has been painful. My knee has been problematic too but I did swim and can do more of that.  Before I left I was swimming twice a week though not doing enough laps or spending enough time.  I picked up a couple of hand weights and need to simply move with them to help the tremor in my hand from the neck injury in the pitchpoling rolling car crash, my first near death experience. God has been good to me , what with helping me survive plane crashes, motorcycle crashes, truck crashes , assaults and being held hostage. it’s been an adventure and always God has been there. Thank you Jesus.  

I really need to read scripture more but I do this is spurts whereas I did better when I took courses and need to do that again, commit to study. I’ve a conference in psychiatry I must attend to find the answer to questions I’m encountering.  One day at a time.  One step after the next.  

Today I’ll address the hurdle of banks and taxes.  That’s the next step . I’ll get started right now.  

Thank you for the air, the earth, the trees, the river, Madigan, wifi, cell service, propane, heat, running water, electricity, my heater blanket, the refridgerator, expresso maker, milk, honey

thank you for all this God. Thank you for feelings and the temporary material pleasures of consumer happiness. Help me to seek joy more in you and know that attachment is still a struggle. Help me to over come fear of financial insecurity and better manage my time and resources to your  end.  

I’m happy in my own adventure. I know that so many do it. It’s not like bicycling a cross Europe, becoming a specialist, being a flyin doctor in northern canada or on tropical islands or sailing solo to Hawaii through winter hurricanes. It’s fairly mundane.  Driving a truck and camper with a dog and motorcycle down to the Mexican border and skipping a Canadian winter for a season, living and working virtual for 2 and 1/2 months.  It’s something I dreamed of doing when I read Steinbeck’s Travel’s with Charlie and a dream I had when I sailed my sailboat to Sea of Cortez and left it there to return to only to have a divorce limit that dream and adventure. I know now to chart my own course but while I invite others along they don’t share my dream and have their own ideas of what brings them joy.  Now I’m again wondering what I’ll do when I grow up.

What’s the next adventure. I imagine Venice, Berlin and Vienna or Thailand and India again. I ‘d love to return to South Ireland and scotland but truthfully I’m travelled out and think maybe this year I’ll just visit family and maybe join a moose hunt. I do want to go to Victoria again. It’s one of those places I’ve been too long away from.  

I continue to explore the anima feeling I’ve done my animus time as best I can and physically feeling no longer capable of the ‘masculine ‘ idea of being the ‘woman’s tool’. Serving her lifting and carrying and defending and supporting her. I’d instead like more massages and maybe visits to the hot tub and spas.  My body has really hurt with the storms and weather here. It was more comfortable in the dessert but I expect that in time that would have worn. I love the air here now as I loved the air there.  I am here with the coming of spring and that’s joyous.  I love the bird songs and look forward to the migration that’s so exciting here.  

thank you Jesus.  Son of God you came to earth and faced the ignorance and fear of the closed minds of the worldly.  Help me open my heart and mind to your lesson of faith.  I would know your grace and be more aware each day. Thank you for all your blessings.

Thank you for the dreams. I loved that the toilet that accommodation had been painted, the room was white and not the sordid shitty mess that it so often is.   I loved discussing paranoia in another dream with my esteemed colleague. It’s like I’m emotionally able to confront the greatest threat and time of greatest abuse in my life in a different way. I can look the betrayal in the face racially but my unconscious is letting me know I’ve moved forward.

It’s like every time I finished a motorcycle ride I’m again assured that God loves and protects me. Thank you Jesus. 

Autumn air

I enjoyed the autumn air this morning.  It’s officially fall and the temperature has been lowering each day. This morning I walked the dog in shorts and a sweater.  I remembered London and Winnipeg.  A thousand falls before. The crisp air. The change. Bird behaviour mostly.  Preparing for winter.  I have little fat sparrows eating more than normal it seems. 

I was out hunting. I shot some grouse. Madigan actually fetched them.

I attended the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with Dr. Colonel Hadfield revelling in the music and proximity to the man who sang David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Major Tom from the International Space Station.  His pictures played on the screens along the walls.  Laura was beautiful.  A reason to be alive.  A truly uplifting gift.  Star Wars theme by full orchestra.

Then a series of evening meals and great movies, Tom Cruise in Top Gun Maverick, and then Where the Crawdads sing and finally the documentary of Shania Twain.  It was a thoroughly peaceful relaxing loving weekend with Laura and Madigan.  We even had an outdoor lunch at the Havana on Commercial.  I bought us shirts and jackets because the fall wind despite the hot sun was chilly. 

Then. I so enjoyed learning in group again at the virtual Psychopharamacology workshop.  I drove with Madigan to the West End and Mexican lunch with Laura.  

I continue to go to Burnaby Mens.  I attended Western Canada Docs , our monthly meeting yesterday.  I’ve contributed to Cyberdocs. I’ve the long weekend planned for a hunting trip. Laura is coming to Princeton where I have 4 nights books in the Ace Motel.  I’ve stayed there so many times before. There’s always that sense of revisiting places known.  Learning more about them each time. Forgetting and remembering. 

I’m preparing for my month south, the workcation.  I loved going to MEC and buying another little portable single burner stove. I had the same for the Sturges trip but could not find it in the storage locker.  I bought another cot too so can try tenting.  I’ve a few days of travel.  It’s an  au femme vacation.

My back still hurts but is much improved thanks to the chiropracter Dr. Ready at Klein Clinic.

I pray each day. I meditate each day. I want to know God more. I have Madigan and his life ahead of me and continue to work.  I like my little home. I have all I need .  

In the bavk ground is threat of war with Communist China, war continues with Ukraine and Russia.  The globalists plot and Trudeau is a traitor. I told a major liberal supporter, that he always looked stoned to me, « He probably is, the in the know guy replied.  He hoped he ‘d step down and Christia Freeland would take over. She’s even more a WEF Schwab girl.  Biden appears to dement and the blow job queeen, his vice Kamala Harris may step in. Why do I knock her for using sex to progress in power.  I turned down just that opportunity and thought it was morals.  The funeral of Queen Elizabeth took place and we watched it on the television.

I’ve often though the Greek Gods were the template of politicians. All above my pay grade. I did enjoy going out to meet Pierre Poililerve at breakfast and his later winning the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Life is good. God is good.  

Thank you for all the blessings.  Grace is shining on me or I’m paying more attention.   I’m not glum and the fear is less.  

Thank you Jesus. 

Burnaby Rain

When I first came to the West Coast as an adult, I stayed in Burnaby.  The magnificent hues of rich green foliage, shrubs and grass amazed me.  Canada’s rain forest.
Today I remembered that as I heard the heavy rain falling on my roof. I pushed the button that extended the awnings on my home and a deluge of water poured off. It had  been trapped in the folds.
I turned on the electric fire feeling the warmth challenging the chill. I'd left the outside door open with only the screen door to keep the cat and dog from escaping.  I lit a lavender incense stick enjoying the rich fragrance as it joined the heat.
Then I brewed some Sambucca tea and  poured the rich exotic elixir into an elegant grey and white tea cup . I added a dab of honey and savoured the fragrance as I swallowed the sensuous creation.   It reminded me England, the time I lived there,  My latest memory was of Ireland. I always think of Britain when I have tea.
I was putting pictures up that I’d previously had up in my office, before it closed. Cherished photos, etchings, paintings and engravings.  So many memories.  Oxford, Singapore, Saipan, Scotland, Ireland, St. Petersburg, Mexico, the SV GIRI.  I couldn’t decide. How high, where. Holding the St. George engraving my friend George came to mind.  I had to sit. Each picture holds a favoured memory.  I found I couldn’t even decide the placement of the cross I’d brought back from Rome.  Jesus.
I thought how I’d once imagined myself this old, smoking a pipe, drinking Irish whiskey, sitting in an old house with a fireplace and writing desk, looking out on a forest scene and lake or sea. Now I’m lightening up, giving stuff away. I don’t even smoke or drink anymore.  I’d rather wear a skirt than sport a moustache or beard.  I especially like a cup of tea.
So often the rain was an enemy at sea, obscuring vision, making the deck treacherous, my glasses fogged, the north Pacific seas in winter,  rain  freezing on the rigging.  I didn’t like it either motorcycling year round , squinting into the face hurting sleet praying my tires would maintain their grip, hoping the distracted signal impaired Vancouver drivers would see me.
Here in Burnaby the plants thrive and literally sing in the rain.  They are alll a glow with new found wonder. This is their time. This is their season.  I can’t pout in face of such celebration.
However, I can’t say it sounds like pitter patter. Heavier.  Like an invasion of Lilliputian paratroopers.  I fear for my roof.  The water seeks to get in everywhere.  The soldiers who’d been to Afghan told me the sand was like that.  Invasive.  I’ve always associated sand with vacations.  I first met this Burnaby rain on vacation.  I imagine that’s why I like it so much better than Vancouver rain and work rain.  So often I ‘ve fought the rain to get to work.
Here I can sit in the warmth of my home looking out my window at the magnificent forest sipping my delicious tea as I thank God for all the wonders of sights and sound, and smell and taste. I am especially thankful for this weekend.   I am  waiting for my friend. She’ll help me hang things.  She’s wise that way.
And luscious like the foliage.  And tasteful as the honeyed tea.
We have dinner and a movie planned.  After hanging memories.
She reminded me to get the pop corn and I did.
What a wonderful way to enjoy a Burnaby rain.
Indoors, curled up on the couch together, with the dog and the cat.

Vancouver Grows Greater Every Day

 

Vancouver  grows.  I look up and see all the cranes and that’s the sign of a successful city. There’s space for business here. There’s a wild west feel. What I don’t like is petty. It’s hard to provide excellence in health care at the bargain basement rates while paying top drawer costs for all services in the city.  But that doesn’t detract from the growth of the city.  Cranes everywhere.  Vancouver despite the mayor cutting down trees for bike lanes and all manner of other oddities is really expanding. There’s fuel lines flowing through the city bringing riches to all. There’s work for construction industry and tech is expanding. Vancouver is really attracting brilliant people. Our cancer research facilities are the best. I’m bitching and whining and complaining but UBC is magnificent in it’s achievements.  I’m loving the rapid transport advances made in the city. Of course it’s always been one of the most beautiful places in the world.  It’s a rich person dream destination. The police protect the rich here, not the moderate rich, but the very rich. it’s a place where the million dollar homes are worth a million dollars and the million dollar cars are worth a million dollars. It’s a rich city. It’s a place with the finest restaurants and all manner of toys and places to play really close by. There’s drugs and alcohol and nightclubs and shootings in the street.  There’s gangs, public and private. There’s a fast crowd. There’s an uptown wheeling dealing with outlandish markets and stock exchanges and back alley drug deals.  It’s got the street whores galore and the uptown underage girl and boy prosttitues going for thousands a night.  It’s Sin City.  New York and LA are clean towns compared to Vancouver. Hong Kong has nothing on this city. Surrey is infamous.  It’s that kind of rapid growth places. It brings a fast crowd. 

But then there’s the cranes.  You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.  Wood and mines and fisheries are still fantastic sources of abundance. We’re blessed with the riches here from land and sea. There’s cattle ranching in the interior but there’s also a hub where ships meet the land where railways and trucks unload. It’s everything. This increadible place.  

I’ve lived in the west end where parties went all night every night. I’m in Burnaby now. A suburb like Richmond, Kits, Westvan, and North Vanc. One of the inner suburbs as Cloverdale and Sqaumish become the new commuter suburbs of the ever expanding city.  It’s built on a peninsula and we live in fear of earthquakes and tsunamis.  But there’s no success without risk.  If you want to feel peace you vacation in Merrit or Oosooyos or Kelowna.  There’s tranquility there. But here is buzz. It’s big city in a beautiful location. it’s San Francisco with a whole lot more.  It’s 10 years ago and 20 years a head. it’s Vancouver.  City of cities.  Everyone from all over the world is coming here.  Our friends are every colour and every religion and they or their parents came from different conteninest or the furthest reaches of this once great nation Canada.  Now Vancouver is great and Canada is floundering like a fat gutted beast waiting to surface again when it’s re invented itself to somehow be with the times. Vancouver has the energy. Vancouver has the people. Vancouver has it all.  The corruption is it’s fertilizer.  

We manage here.  The rain washes away the tears.  The summers are fast. The beaches are packed and in winter we strap boards on our feet and laugh skiing and snowboarding down the pristine slopes of Grouse and Whistler. There’s hiking and sailing and swimming pools outdoors and in. A whole lot of people actually bicycle no matter how much we like to make fun of our mayor whose vision is to have the city a kind of Amsterdam on the west coast. There’s ideas galore here. Ted talks comes here. It’s Hollywood of the North.  There’s opportunities. The Chinese say, ‘may you live in interesting times’ Interesting times are times of great opportunity and great disaster. It’s that way here. Business go boom or bust. The downtown east side with itis’ drugs and disease are the dregs of thousands of once bright dreams.  The city is a hard city for those who are trusting and don’t recognize the thieves and killers in their midst. It’s not just the fentanyl but the drug dealers who know the poison gives a profit.  There’s risk here.  It’s with risk there’s potential for high finance.  People are coming from all over the globe for that risk and venture.  

Vancouver is a new city state.  Our airport is a wonder of modern fast technology and ancient West Coast aboriginal art.  The planes bring the businessmen to the conferences along with the writers and scientists. It’s a hub city. It’s a great city. It’s amazing. Really truly amazing.  The Aquarium is a wonder in the city’s huge park with the magnificent seawall and grand protected English Bay harbour.  It’s hard to believe that one day men in canoes looked on this pristine wonder and knowing that know that someday soon space ships will land where today planes do.  Intergallactic travel is years or decades hence and men and wearing redwood bark clothing could not know that in a mere century the sky rises would be coming to their land.  

It’s out of Vancouver flights go north and south to Alaska and the Yukon. The fishing boats to the northern pacific harbour here. The roads to Fort St.John and Fort McMurray depart from here. Vancouver is still the gold rush city of before but now the wealth is in everything, in people, and products and communication and transport and energy and commodities and people power and raw material. It’s a centre of centres. And everywhere there are cranes and this present government has helped business grow and prosperity arise.  

The life expectancy here gets longer and longer.  

The intensity gets more and more.

It’s a place where fireworks happen annually alongside the Shakespearean Bard on the Beach and Vancouver Folk Festival.  The BC Ballet Performs and the Vancouver Opera is world renown. And we all love our Canucks Hockey Team dearly. But there’s all the unsung sports and the Fringe Theatre and the cubby holes like Banyan Books that make Vancouver so unique and appealing. It’s got such character and charm with Granville Island and Londsale Key and Orcas sometimes sited in the harbour. There’s always Eagles and Seagulls.  Coyotes walk through the city.  Sometimes a bear or a moose even gets lost in the suburbs. it’s high tech and rural wilderness juxtapose in clashes and comfort. Harrison Lake so near and yet so far with hot springs and nearer still Chilliwack Tulip Festival taking off on the over the border Mount Verno Tulip festivals. We ride our Harley Motorcycles and sports cars down the seaside roads to Seattle and Portland and get a rush in another land and another country. Our near by Gulf Islands with all their charm are just across from the San Juan Islands with all that Yankee and southern spirit. We’re surrounded everywhere with specialness and precious adventures. 

Vancouver is fabulous.  Poetry readings and Soccer games and even cricket and lacrosse. And in the pubs they shoot billiards and darts and dance the night away.  Gay Davie street and earthy Commercial and uptown Robson and the Art Gallery and funky Granville and movie theatre complex and karaoke and everything the heart desires.  And less and less Ottawa and more and more Hong Kong and Washington. It’s a world city . It’s a great city.  It’s LA in the north. It’s Tokyo east. It’s Manilla in Canada. It’s Mumbai and St. Petersburg. it’s still italian and Greek and all the British are here as well. But it’s so much more.

Even now there are daffodils and crocuses hearkening a new spring.  Vancouver is always known for it’s early spring.  The winters are dark and wet and dreary and even cold sometimes but the spring comes soon and the cyclists and motorcycles come out and then the walkers and the hikers and the city that cocooned for a few short months becomes the outside city it really is.  The streets fill and the outdoor restaurant and cafe’s blossomed with conversation and laughter.  

Vancouver is a great city.  A really really great city becoming greater every day.

Brunette River Walks

Gilbert and I continue to do our Brunette River Walks. I leave the peeing and marking territory up to him and he leaves the photography up to me. It’s a good division of labour.

Weekend Wandering

I’ve ‘used’ long weekends more ‘usefully’:taking trips, doing projects, you know, important stuff.
These last weekends, though,I’ve been kind of hibernating, Not actually doing much, but enjoying that.   Errands. A little tidying.  In town meandering.  A little shopping.  I got out to Langley to pick up some stuff I'd left over at the RV store, talked to the guys in parts about a ladder installation. Talked to some guys at Rack Attack about a trailer hitch.
I got to Church.  I atttended meetings.  I visitted a friend.
I’ve walked the dog, taken out the garbage, cooked meals for myself, gone for swims. I’ve been enjoying reading books.  A little reading, then a little napping.
I’ve watching too much tv.  A movie every night and usually some NCIS or the new Helix or Intelligence. I even caught a new Homeland and a new Walking Dead episode.
I've been reading a lot of Facebook too, following the fascinating links of friends.
If I was watching Sochi I could sound ‘in tune with the world’ but .....well.....I don’t tend to be that interested in ‘sports’ ,unless I’m actually playing them at the moment. Right now if they had a couch event in the Olympics, I’d  tune right in.
It kind of ruins my idea of myself as a ‘unique’ individual.  I’m mostly mundane.  My dog gives me street cred but overall I’m fairly ordinary.    I work all week, long hours, as is  typical of Vancouverites in the private sector.  We support the arrogant entitled white collar  civil service and their blue collar cronies, those on the take somehow, and city of corruption and drug criminals.  There's probably more under the table industry than above the table industry here in the wild west.  
I complain about paying exorbitant  taxes to people who consider working citizens the enemy and instead represent every wing bat special interest group with endless funds for all manner of shameful public tit sucking.  For every doctor there's a few dozen 'regulators' and 'monitors' and 'activists' and 'media personnel' and 'lawyers'. The same goes with anyone actually 'working'.  All these other groups weigh them down.  All my professional friends are overwhelmed by the demands of perfectionism from the most incompetent and corrupt in society.
Then I want a government job or corporate income with indexed pension and company car or gang affiliation and a block.
But really, I’m pretty satisfied.   When I have check my attitude  and get into a state of gratitude, I'm living in grace. This is heaven on earth, especially with a companion like Gilbert who gets me of the couch.
It’s warm and cozy in my home. The water is clean. I have working sewage and the garbage is taken  away from the nearby bins where I drop it.   My refrigerator is full and I have cans in the cupboards. There are stores nearby.
If the zombies came today I could get a good start on them.  I think one of the attractions of the zombies is that older people like me, with sore feet, and painful knees,  can envision keeping ahead of them. When we were younger we liked those fast alien monster  flicks, but now older and slower, we like the slower zombies. .  
I’ve been hankering for motorcycling.  That’s next month.   I could go hunting the month after that. The tulip festival is coming.  I could go fishing even now but I’m lazy.  Best fishing is wet and cold. It's wet and cold. But I like being inside right now.  
For a type A driven sort of person with myself as my major competitor, I’m not at all Sochi material today.
I swam and soaked in the hot tub then walked the dog for an hour.  Now I’ve been reading and napping a bit.  Seems like they go hand in hand on the couch.
I drove out to Langley Saturday on an errand.  Missed seeing Andria.  She and her husband claim to live there but I miss them every time I drop by.  Had a coffee and cookie on the street with Gilbert.
Sunday after church at St. James Anglican I visited George. He’s my jazz musician, poet friend who was on call and certainly earning his keep with multiple calls from the hospital while I was with him.  He just moved and needed assurance that there would be order from the chaos. Having just moved from the boat to the RV I was well equipped to reassure him that, yes, there is life after the disorder of a move. I'm actually no longer stumbling around boxes and my clothes are no longer in green garbage bags.  There's hope.
He’s got a spectacular view of English Bay.  I actually opened my blinds today just to get a feel for this ‘view thing’. I’ve green all around me and it’s lovely. Usually I like privacy,  thinking the neighbours are like the old lady in My Favourite Martian. They aren’t. I just think that.   I loved George’s balcony.  He's got eagles nesting nearby.
Swapping tales, it’s hard to believe I was the professional dancer in my early twenties while he was playing rock and roll bands.  We seem like a couple of respectable older gentlemen these days.  He’s got children and grandchildren he adores.  It's easy to forget.   It was good hanging put with him.  He’s got a great electric keyboard with all manner of sounds including sitar and helicopters.  Reminded me of teen age days with music and conversation.
After, I visited my boat. The power had been unplugged so I fixed that.  Bailed the little boat too. Walked Gilbert along the dog only park on the north shore.
Today I walked Gilbert in the rain along the Brunnette River.  Even the ducks looked especially wet.  He’s a wet dog now.  He did his job though.  Got me off the couch.  As a dog, he takes pride in his work.

Winter River Walk

The snow has made the winter real.  Walking is a slippery sliding squishing affair.  The leaves of trees are gone and great open spaces appear where memory says there never was. I can see the train passing now.  I couldn't see this in spring.  I love the ducks in the winter and can see them fly further without the foliage in the trees.
Gilbert runs about joyfully. It's a long walk but maybe only an hour or so.  I remember when injuries didn't let me walk for 15 minutes.  I'm thankful for healing. I'm glad I'm still in some semblance of shape.
Talked with a couple in their 60's.  They'd liquidated and were travelling the world, living in hostels, not eating out,  going on the cheap, hiking. Europeans. Adventurous.  Not something I associate so much with Canadians or Americans.  Yet friends winter in asia and some others are in Mexico.
Maybe the mainstream is sedentary but the outliers aren't.  My friend George gave me the latest book by the author of Outliers.  I look forward to a good read.  Now I'd just like to lie on the couch and watch a detective show.  I'd like to hike along the old pilgrimage paths in England.  I don't think they take dogs in hostels.  Gilbert is a luxury consideration.
I like my Keystone RV.  There's a lot of places I'd like to go with this.  Canadian lakes and parks are a wonderful world of outdoors and fine people.  I'll have a motorcycle in the back of this toy hauler and a canoe at very least. Just wish I could take  the boat and motor along.  Now I wonder if I could get a rack in the truck?  I certainly have everything I could want right here.  And I like the idea of a moveable home.
My dream was always to arrange my life so I'd be three months in the south in winter and the rest of the year in Canada's wilderness.  Don't know if I'll ever achieve that or I'll just come to enjoy winter again. I'm not minding the snow so much this year, even thinking of skiing, something I've not even considered for several years.  The idea of going to the cold was simply unappealing but now with friends in Whistler I'm thinking maybe. Mostly though, ski areas don't accept dogs so as always I must consider my pal first.  I like best people and places who like dogs.
This winter river dog walk is just that sort of place.

Brunette River Walk with Gilbert

Sunny day. Warm with slight breeze. Blossom fragrances. Other walkers and cyclists on the trail. Smiles, greetings. Occasional tail wagging crotch and butt sniffing encounters. Robins in the trees. Ducks in the river.

I just arrived back from Edmonton. Picked up Gilbert from Hannah. Her dog, a female, bossed him all weekend. He didn't mind. He got to bark whenever someone came to the door. Glad to reunite.