Vancouver weather forecast seem to have the habit of painting the forecast in overly optimistic colours (I start to suspect that they are on the pay list of Tourism Vancouver or a conglomerate of real-estate developers ;-), so suffice to say that I was riding the bicycle home for 40 minutes in a DOWNPOUR. I stayed mostly dry, except for my my feet, which were taking a cold sloshy bath in the puddles that had accumulated in my Cons.
I look for a brief respite from the deluge by stopping under a pedestrian ramp of Cambie Bridge. My cigarettes are still dry. I light one. A pedestrian approaches me and looks at me. I have to move my hoodie away from my ear to hear what he says."I'd like to offer you 5 dollars if you quit smoking for one day." It actually takes me a second to comprehend what he is suggesting. With a big smile I reply "No thank you, but I appreciate your efforts". Now if the same legislative and individual effort was expended to combat homelessness, air pollution, or social injustice in this city, we could live in a paradise. But smokers are not the scapegoats of the day because someone wants to save our health or keep the air clean. Reducing traffic volume by 10% would serve both those objectives much better. No, a scapegoat serves to distract from the real problems, which all can be blamed on that scapegoat. Simple thinking: Get rid of the scapegoat, and the problems will disappear with it. Trump Thinking ;-)
I was cursing the city, its weather, and its weather forecasters all the way back to my motel. To the receptionist the soggy hooded figure finally entering a warm dry spot could only hiss "HATE is a word that no longer suffices to express my feelings about this city and its weather".
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