With frozen rain and slushie precipitation in the forecast what else would a good Vancouverite do than brace for school closures and abandon their cars at the side of roads when there’s a call for such treacherous conditions?
Local news outlets have already composed their “school closures” posts on their websites, and with that first frost of the year on our minds, I’m sure downtown will look like a ghost town if an icy storm front hits the coast this evening.
Honestly though, I can’t be too hard on those commuters who bundle up and stay indoors when there’s the slightest hint of ice on the roads, as living downtown I’ve been a bit sheltered in recent years from the true elements Fraser Valley residents face. Not to mention the trek my sister has to make from Surrey to North Vancouver, which can hit her with dozens of weather patterns throughout the single car ride.
However, this doesn’t stop me from letting my husband go about about how we all throw on two scarves and layer gloves when it’s -5C outside for a day, when he’s been brought up with -25C temperatures that last for months.
We love the pineapple express, La Nina, El Nino and all their quirky cousins. Rain in the city means snow on the mountains, snow in the city mean no work or school – it’s a win-win when winter actually decides to hit Vancouver. Sure we moan and complain about it being too cold, or when we slam on the brakes and skid into the car we’re following too closely behind, but that’s just what West Coasters do.
So pile on those fleece vests under your Goretex and prepare yourselves for a blizzard of Metro Vancouver proportions: possible snow in the Valley and frost from Langley to Stanley Park. It should be a doozy folks.
Of course if there actually is 2 feet of snow come morning, I’m SO grabbing my ‘krazy karpet‘ and hitting the nearest hill.
One thing John and I do when we have hours to kill, whether it be at a beach laying out in the sunshine or flying across the country, is hookup our headphones to a splitter and listen to podcasts he’s downloaded to his ipod.
I’ve mentioned a couple favourites before, but I just need to reiterate how greatly I appreciate Ira Glass and the This American Life podcast.
One of the episodes we listened to while flying over the Black Hills of South Dakota was all about humans’ interaction with their pets titled, In Dog We Trust. It opened up with a short story, The Youth in Asia, written and read by David Sedaris. I don’t think I’ve consistently laughed like that while listening to any other podcast or radio show for that matter.
Here’s an except:
In the early sixties, during what my mother referred to as the “tail end of the Lassie years,” my parents were given two collies they named Rastus and Duchess. We were living in upstate New York, out in the country, and the dogs were free to race through the forest. They napped in meadows and stood knee-deep in frigid streams, costars in their own private dog-food commercial. According to our father, anyone could tell that the two of them were in love.
Late one evening, while lying on a blanket in the garage, Duchess gave birth to a litter of slick, potato-sized puppies. When it looked as though one of them had died, our mother placed the creature in a casserole dish and popped it into the oven, like the witch in “Hansel and Gretel.”
“Oh, keep your shirts on,” she said. “It’s only set on 200. I’m not baking anyone; this is just to keep him warm.”
The heat revived the sick puppy and left us believing our mother was capable of resurrecting the dead.
Faced with the responsibilities of fatherhood, Rastus took off. The puppies were given away, and we moved south, where the heat and humidity worked against a collie’s best interests. Duchess’s once beautiful coat now hung in ragged patches. Age set in and she limped about the house, clearing rooms with her suffocating farts. When finally, full of worms, she collapsed in the ravine beside our house, we reevaluated our mother’s healing powers. The entire animal kingdom was beyond her scope; apparently, she could resurrect only the cute dead.
The oven trick was performed on half a dozen peakish hamsters but failed to work on my first guinea pig, who died after eating a couple of cigarettes and an entire pack of matches.
“Don’t take it too hard,” my mother said, removing her oven mitts. “The world is full of guinea pigs. You can get another one tomorrow.”
Eulogies always tended to be brief, our motto being “Another day, another collar.” (Continue Reading – Part One)
From “The Youth in Asia“, a part of Me Talk Pretty One Day, a book of essays.
David Sedaris on YouTube: Jesus Shaves, The Squirrel and the Chipmunk, Bend Over and Say “Ah” or read this review including the short story about the turd – one of John’s faves.
Between card games and rounds of turkey it was next to impossible to live blog DemoCampVancouver04. That, and I was thousands of miles away in America’s midwest. Fortunately, there has been some nice coverage of the event by attendees and participants.
The Techvibes blog has a few recap posts about Nethook, Adhack and the super-entertaining Battledecks.
John Biehler has some photos up on Flickr.
Quick recap from my co-worker, Trevor.
More presenter and participant links can be found on the DemoCampVancouver04 wiki.
As for Third Tuesday, it happened on the eve of the big Raincity/Bryght announcement.
Recap blog post by the presenter, 76Design.
This week should be pretty tame in the realm of social media happenings but it picks up again on December 5th with Launch Party with a Twiist. This “fun-filled tech mixer”, brought to us by the fine folks at Strutta, is highly anticipated and will feature networking, demos and maybe just a few drinks.
Update: There’s also TransitCamp on Dec. 8th and the Vancouver Blogger Meetup on Dec. 12.
This past week I heard nothing but “Girlfriend” remix by Avril Lavigne blaring from the back room at my in-law’s house. The two nieces were rehearsing a dance for the family, which they performed after Thanksgiving dinner.
Their dance was really sweet and thoughtfully choreographed but once the final show had ended pretty much everyone agreed that they’d be happy to never hear that song ever again.
Thanks to a contact form tip from Nick, I found out that Avril Lavigne will be playing a free concert in Burnaby within the next month.
After news broke that her Spring of 2008 tour is not selling well, she’s resorted to this. Avril Lavigne is playing a free concert, y’all! But not just any free concert! She’s performing at the opening of a Best Buy in Canada!!! For real! [Perez Hilton]
I know that’s an unprecedented link to Perez Hilton so here’s the official news release:
Celebrate good times! Best Buy, Canada’s fastest growing retailer and e-tailer of consumer electronics and entertainment products, celebrates the Grand Opening of its brand new Burnaby location across from Metrotown with a free, live musical performance by Avril Lavigne.
This celebrated Canadian musician takes the stage at the Main Stage in Swangard Stadium on Sunday, December 2nd at 1 p.m., for a free performance presented by Best Buy. The first 350 people in-line at any of Best Buy’s stores in the Lower Mainland on Wednesday, November 28th and Thursday, November 29th before noon will receive a pair of tickets for Avril Lavigne’s live outdoor performance on Sunday, December 2nd. [CNW Group]
It’s not quite as bad as playing at a Best Buy, since she will be giving the outdoor performance at the home of the Vancouver Whitecaps, but Avril does have a thing for playing strange venues in Metro Vancouver.
In April of 2004 she performed for free at Metrotown, BC’s largest shopping centre. If I recall correctly there were rumors that she wasn’t very well received, though some video evidence and archived blog posts prove otherwise.
Regardless, if you’re an Avril fan I suppose this is great news. Check out Buzz’s interview with her from earlier this month and even the supposed “revenge” website PerezLavigne.com for kicks.
Update: John came across some die-hard Avril fans this morning:
Update: Apparently things didn’t go so well at the concert.
Update: Thanks for reporting back guys! It’s nice to see the fans were happy. Here’s a link to a couple of the vids on YouTube [When You’re Gone][Don’t Tell Me][Don’t Tell Me][Girlfriend]
We have 4 hours to sleep, 3 hours to drive, 3 airplanes to connect, 1 piece of luggage to check that hopefully doesn’t end up in Dallas and a total of 6 hours to fly before we touch down in the Pacific Northwest tomorrow afternoon.
It’s been too short, time has flied, and we’re really wishing we could have taken two weeks off instead of one. John’s up playing Madden on PS2 with his nephew so I thought I’d finish writing this out.
Today we walked around ‘downtown’ for a bit. I got a tour of John’s parents’ business, the community centre that had Christmas trees all setup by local businesses, took a walk to Riverside Gardens, and got to spend the entire day hanging out with my Bollwitt family – which included losing terribly at a card game.
I got to taste a different type of Thanksgiving meal, with corn casserole, Josie’s famous green beans and sweet potatoes and finished nicely with pecan and chocolate silk pies from Perkins – rounding out the meal, and probably my waist line.
John’s family is starting to feel more and more like my family and I’m continually amazed at how strong they are, together and as individuals. I also know they’re probably all reading this right now so I’ll try not to butter them up too much, even though we won’t be seeing them again for a while… and we owe them all a lot more than a sappy mention on a blog post. We’re really hoping to get some of them up to Vancouver, I know in particular John misses his nieces and nephews dearly. He talks about them often and schemes almost every week, plotting to “steal” one of them away to Canada for a visit.
We’re leaving the house in about 5 hours so I best get to bed, maybe I’ll post an update for the road but we’ll be napping every chance we get. Might check in again when we reach SeaTac as we have a bit of a layover until we get the flight home. We’ll take that time to see if we can make sure our luggage made it to the coast with us, and to hit up one of those fine brew pubs we spotted in the airport when we left. Bye bye Iowa.
