Can I throw dirt and gobs of paint on your windows?

Construction dudes have been working on the outside of my apartment building for more than a year now. Apparently mostly glass walls start leaking after 15 years or so - go figure. The construction has meant we've had dirty windows for more than a year now, removing all the benefit of having walls that are mostly windows.

The most aggravating moment happened about 2 days ago. After drilling, hammering, globing out sealant around all the windows, and making a general mess, they've started painting... ooh, could they be getting near the end? I'm afraid to hope. But they aren't being any more careful with the paint than they were with anything else they've done.

At the end of the day, there was a huge gob of paint on the window. The window that we look out of most often. The window that faces West, where the sun makes the shadow of the gob of paint so incredibly obvious. The window most likely to have paint burn a hole in it from the sun beating down on it. I guess it had to be that one, didn't it?

But this story doesn't end like that! I am stunned, thrilled, and amazed that today the construction workers have removed most of the gob of paint off the window!!!

I've always wanted to open a window to ask these construction dudes if I could have their home addresses, so I could come to their homes and throw dirt and paint on their windows. They all seemed to care nothing about the people living in the building they were working on. But I guess some of them do understand that this is our home, and there are humans living here, it's not just a bunch of windows they are working on.

So my faith in human nature has recovered somewhat, and I may not refer to these guys with the derogatory name I've been using for a while for them. This is a happy day.

Did I really need security slippers?

Fall is coming and it's time to bring out the warm slippers and sweaters again. I needed some new slippers, and I was in a store that had slippers, and they cost next to nothing because they were last year's slippers. So I have some new slippers.

But my new slippers do more than just keep my feet warm - they are security slippers.



The slippers have a grippy sole. Very security conscious, I won't be slipping anywhere. But they grip so much... you can hear me coming when I'm walking on the hardwood floors in the hallways and kitchen of my apartment. Think of space boot suction cups. Hear the squish? That's me. Echo location to pinpoint my existence in space, just what I needed.

I've also been told that the heels have added security features. There is a bit of elastic around the opening with a little pull to tighten it behind the ankle. This pull glows in the dark. Actually, if there is a light source, it flashes in the light when I walk. In case you didn't hear me coming, that flashing light will help you locate me when I'm going.

So now I'm easy to spot, I can't sneak up on anyone, or quietly sneak away without being noticed. And I feel my existence in space. There is no doubt that I'm here, no chance of fading into the background. Yep, I'm here. I have bright blue slippers (they didn't look that bright in the store) that are little security pods for my feet.

Did I really need this? Was I playing a joke on myself? Does this mean I'm going to get other new slippers as a gift in the near future? Hmm.

Are clouds darker when the sun is out?

It's getting late in the summer and the rains are slowly, but surely, coming back to Vancouver. So when it's sunny here now, there are often big dark clouds in the sky as well. It may just be a trick of the light, or an emotional reaction, but are these clouds darker than the average clouds we get in the winter?

Sometimes when you can see the clouds in the distance between buildings they are very dark and have little white clouds in front of them. If you didn't know better, you'd think the mountains were getting closer. Of course, if the mountains were sneaking up on you your other senses, beyond just vision, would be screaming out warning signs and shaking your very existence into a new view of the world. It's very unlikely that the mountains are stalking you.

If every cloud has a silver lining... the silver needs polishing, dear. These clouds are dark and angry.

But when the sun goes behind one of the clouds, the clouds don't seem as dark. Is this just nature's way of showing you that the upcoming months of clouds and rain are not nearly as scary as they could be if the sun was always coming out? Are we supposed to be happy about the days of flood-fill gray with no detail in the sky?

I think the clouds are darker when it's sunny. I also think I think way too much about the rain that is coming. Could it be that after 10 years of living in Vancouver the rain is getting to me? Hmm, I guess that's better than having mountains sneaking up on you when you don't expect it, she writes, looking over her shoulder.

Are they old enough to drink?

Well, here's a question that makes me feel old!

We just spent the weekend up in Whistler - the spouse was running up the mountain, and I was there to be bored stiff.

The huge number of adrenaline junkies who were there hooting and hollering were expected, but there were also so many party-hardy people there that looked like children! Not doing anything other than having a good time and apparently a lot of alcohol, there was nothing particularly wrong with this... but they all looked so young.

Yes, I've come to that point in life where I could be the mother of people who can legally drink... and I'm oh, so glad I'm not!

So maybe that's the real question for which the answer is 42: When will you feel old?

Why is there an elephant in my dream?

I'm having a bit of a sleep-in one morning and I start having a dream. I'm on a bus going somewhere, I'm not sure where, and then I decide to get off the bus because I really didn't want to go where the bus is going. Once off the bus, I'm in a suburban neighborhood, I don't know where. I realize that was a bloody stupid thing to do, because I don't know where I am and now I'm stuck there. So I start walking down the sidewalk, and then this little (only as tall as me) baby elephant rushes up to me and tells me to move off the sidewalk. He head-butts me off the sidewalk and onto some grass.

The elephant was my height, still had some of the fluffy tufts of hair that baby elephants have... and spoke English.

So now that I'm fully awake, I realize that I'm very cold and I need to go get another blanket.

I find it extremely odd that my body has found a way to stop a dream and wake me up by simply making my dreams go odd past the limit of credulity. "That doesn't make any sense" is a feeling I've had many times when I've awoken after dreaming.

So is it just me? Do I need to do dream research on the meaning of baby elephants that appear in dreams... speaking English? Am I going a bit odd? Do I really need to just relax and let dreams go to odd places, because that's what dreams are supposed to do?

The thing is... every time I wake up from a dream because it didn't make sense, there is a good reason for waking up. Either I forgot to do something, and I remember it when I wake up, or I'm cold and need more blankets, or I'm sleeping in an awkward position and need to move, or something like that.

I just don't know if this elephant is a good thing, or something to worry about.

I guess I'll have to sleep on that.

Did you remember to bring the...?

It's taken ages to get everything together and you're outside your apartment waiting for the elevator now. Then someone says "Did you remember to bring the ..."

Now the elevator door opens and there's someone in the elevator. So you either:
* decide we really didn't need that anyway and go into the elevator
* split up and arrange to meet downstairs at the place you usually meet up when this happens
* apologize for making the elevator stop and everyone goes back into the apartment ... thus starting over again: "Did you remember to bring the ..."

On the outside of my apartment building there is a lot of construction work going on. This means that there are at least 5 construction platforms being used by the construction workers to go up and down the outside of the building. They are like little, slow elevators. They've been doing this for months, getting onto years now. Up and down. Slowly. The men on these little elevators wreak of body odor and cancer stick smoke and it all gets blown into our apartment. Day after day.

It's become quite obvious that the "Did you remember to bring the ..." problem is a plague on these construction workers. First thing in the morning, you hear the little motors going and the bumping on the outside wall begins. The babbling of radio programs gets louder as the platforms get closer to our floor, then fades as the platform goes higher. The stench of body odor and cancer stick smoke makes everyone inside wrinkle their noses in disgust. A few minutes later, the motors get louder again, the radio blabber gets louder, the smell gets worse. Then it fades again as they reach the ground. Half an hour later and yes, they are back, once again with the motor, the radio, the stench. They forgot to bring something.

It's annoying when you're going out for the day and have to go back to get something. But wouldn't you have a checklist if you spent your days going up and down on slow little elevators for a living? Wouldn't the aggravation of having to go back down to get a forgotten tool just drive you nuts?

Did I mention that the building is about 30 stories tall? Urgh.

Battle Plant Update: The Mint Wins In The End

So after a hard fought battle between left-over Mint plant seeds and left-over Bachelor Button plant seeds, the Mint has finally taken over the pot.



Back in April when I planted these seeds I was expecting the Mint to take over and squeeze out the Bachelor Buttons very quickly. I was surprised when I did get some flowers from the Bachelor Buttons, and the Mint has not taken over that side of the pot yet. The Bachelor Buttons have since given up due to the climate - there is a lot of construction being done on the outside of my appartment building, and the construction workers have to keep closing the windows of the balcony... thus making an oven out of my balcony. So I will remove the sad Bachelor Buttons from the pot soon... when we get a cloudy day.

All in all an interesting experiment with plant seeds that didn't seem to be viable, but I gave them a chance anyway. And I'm looking forward to more Mint Tea. I wonder what I will plant next Spring...

Isn't talking on your cell while driving rude?

So, ignoring the fact that talking on the phone while you are driving strikes terror into the hearts of pedestrians on the sidewalks around you, and flares anger from the other drivers around you as you do such a bad job of driving... isn't it rather rude?

Putting aside the possibility that it really is All About You...

1. Are you really supposed to mount the curb while parallel parking?
2. Are bumpers really supposed to be used to hit the cars ahead and behind your parking spot when you are parking your car?
3. Is the terrified passenger in your car ever going to want a ride from you again?
4. If you are talking to someone while driving, shouldn't it be your passenger - or do they really enjoy having to hear half of someone else's phone conversation?
5. Does the person on the other end of the phone conversation really only deserve a small part of your attention?
6. Is talking to you really a pain in the ass for the person you are talking to on the phone - so they aren't really paying attention to you either?
7. Have you noticed that no one wants to talk to you when you don't catch them on your phone? Is that the only way you can pin them down to talk?

Hints are flying at you, lets hope they don't hit you like that telephone pole that just jumped out in front of you...

Why is the sky over BC a milky-white?

Allergies making you cough and sniffle? Is your throat dry, making it hard to talk? It could be smoke from forest fires in California - even if you live in BC.

The more than 2,000 wildfires burning in California are now being made worse by strong winds, and these winds are blowing smoke northwards as far up as BC. It's one planet, so what happens "over there" is just as important as what happens "here".

It's quite the lesson in global thinking. Nature's way of hitting you over the head with an idea, giving you a headache.

Do corn husks grow the other direction in South America?

On the weekend we acquired our first corn of the season from our local farmer's market. It was picked that morning, and we had it for lunch, so it was almost the sweetest corn-on-the-cob imaginable - it could only get better if we were sitting in the field it grew in and pulling it off the plant and popping it into our mouths right there!

While I was taking the leaves off from around the corn cob I noticed a definite pattern. If you hold the cob at the stem, with the small end facing up, the leaves grow around the corn cob to the left in a clockwise manner. Taking the leafs off one at a time starting at the left and working to the right works well. Taking the leafs off one at a time starting at the right will give you a big knot of leaves that is tough to pull off.

From what I've read, the petals of a daisy grow in a similar pattern to the corn husks. So playing "he loves me, he loves me not" with a daisy is much easier if you pluck the petals off in a counter-clockwise progression around the flower - if the flower is from north of the equator. But if the daisy has grown in an area south of the equator, the petals grow in the other direction!

It's a memorable part of listening to travelers who have been south of the equator, to hear them describe how the flushed water in a toilet swirls in the opposite direction to what we are used to in the northern hemisphere.

It seems that more than just the water swirls in the other direction.

If the daisy grows in the other direction, maybe other plants do too. I haven't found evidence for corn growing in the other direction yet, but apparently the swirly patterns on butterfly wings swirl in the other direction, and the ozone layer swirls differently at the different poles... so maybe swirling is an integral part of that planet thing.