Skip to main content

The good, bad and where-the-heck-have-you-been fall edition

I've neglected my blog this summer. I'm sorry to whoever still reads it. Now that fall is here, I'll have more time to devote to it, I think.

So, what the heck did I do this summer? In a word, lots! I did a fair bit of running, hiking, biking, swimming this year. I turned vegetarian. Well, a relapsing vegetarian. I attended a wedding, a lamb roast, bought furniture, went back to school, learned to cook new things. I watched a royal wedding, a state funeral and a royal tour of our fine land. I also watched as our hockey team went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals and watched in horror as some of our citizenry decided to set fire to parts of our city.

School's back and I'm excited by it. I've also got back to reading. I missed my books. I have no idea why I stopped... but somewhere along the way, I forgot how peaceful it is to sit in a quiet corner somewhere and lose touch with the outside world and step into an imaginary (sometimes brutal) world where words paint pictures more powerful than any moving image can.

The vegetarian thing was inspired by a documentary I watched called Forks over Knives. I've had an interesting time of it. I think the hardest part of being vegetarian in this part of the world is not knowing what to eat on a regular basis. 

I climbed a few new mountains this year and enjoyed some incredible views. This part of the world is a lovely place. Every time I get up a mountain, I realise how little we really are and how much of an impact a whole lot of us can have on this world.

My friends seem to be on a mission these days; to get married, to have kids and what not. I'm not sure I like all the change around me, but it is what it is and I have to live within the confines of what I have control over. So, go on, get married and procreate. But remember me when you set that table at Thanksgiving (like next weekend!)... I'll eat salad at least. Anyway, this isn't a ramble (well, it has been I suppose), but I'm back, and I intend to keep writing.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Birthday Canada

I have celebrated more than 20 Canada Days in Canada. While this nation is far from perfect and we have so much further to go, there is hope. We are a nation, at 153, looking at the future with a mixed record: we have immense prosperity, peace, safety and a relatively good standard of living for most . We are welcoming to immigrants, refugees and guarantee people with a wide range of rights. We are a leader in respecting people's human rights and punch above our weight internationally. We are also a country that is in the midst of a reckoning right now. We have systemic racism, we are at war with the environment - we are actively digging things out of the ground to sell to the rest of the world. Climate change is ravaging our country - we have floods, fires and drought.  Our past and present deeds towards indigenous people is shameful. We have a long way to go yet, but there is hope. In the midst of a pandemic, with social upheaval to correct past wrongs, or at least make amen...

Summers are getting hotter in Vancouver

This shouldn't be a shock to anyone, but summers are getting a lot hotter here than it has been since I started living here. It used to be that in summer, it would be in low to mid 20s and reliably sunny between mid June to about mid August. Perhaps the sunshine stayed till September. Somewhere along the way, there would be rain as well. But that was 2+ decades ago.  In the past few years, there has been many days where wildfire smoke dominated the skies and air. Rain is rarity now in the summer. And it has started to get hot. It is not unusual for days when the highs are over 30C.  This is starting to cause homes to get very hot. Most apartment buildings in Vancouver are covered in glass. While it makes for great views, it also turns apartments into little ovens. My apartment faces West and it regularly goes over 30C by the end of the day. And it barely cools down overnight. The outside is a lot cooler in the evenings. A few years ago, we had something called a heat dome - ba...

Thoughts on the new year