The Deprived and the Departed (or I don't think I'll ever have another cat)

Anyone who ever chose to be in attendance when a veterinarian ended the life of their first or most loved pet and was so shocked at the loss that they couldn't even think of ever replacing the departed, will know what's going on here.

Years pass and we remember and yearn for the departed, occasionally believing to spot glimpses of the soul in other animals, usually ones that exhibit similar physical traits. And away we pet!

Zebra and pocket-tiger in a petting session

This is why I was so looking forward to cat-sitting the little monster in the above picture. 

But: Caveat Pettor! It's not even the above all-wrong emotional 'thought' process that can let this turn out horribly (After all, what are the chances that this poor creature could measure up to the ideal we built up in our brains?).  In our attempt to re-create or at least re-discover the pet of the past, we ignore the fact that we are no longer the same human being that this pet was the perfect companion to.  Recipe for disaster. And it's not the cat's fault.

Wishing you only sweet notes where ever you are Monte!

Someone else departed recently. Roams eternal hunting grounds now.  Died. Passed away. Biochemically failed. Is ash now.   On May 4.    I'd known him for a long time. Known him quite well too. He was kind enough to accompany me to to George's Native Memorial Service about a year before his own at that time unlikely and unforeseeable death.   At some point I probably would have called him a close friend.  There is something about him on YouTube: Meet Monte Jones in THIS VIDEO     




There was something else I noticed today.  For the first time in 28 years.  I was shocked. I saw it in an East Vancouver Safeway.  I saw it in an East Vancouver Sushi restaurant. I felt in an East Vancouver street.  You've seen pictures of places like Detroit or Rochester that are now only dusty dirty desertable shadows of their previous selves. Somehow in East Vancouver it felt as if Hope had departed at least 2 months ago. 

Not my pic

What else? 
Air Quality Moderate Risk warning for North Vancouver. Thank you, all you car drivers sitting in stop-and-go traffic all afternoon every day!   

Four departed (DEAD) Humpback Whales along the BC coast.  Good Think that Mr. Spock doesn't have to see this!

Feeling old and weak

This is what 7 days of lying on a couch after a run in with Crohn's Disease looks like. 10+ pounds off the scale, I guess (don't have one).  

It's not even the pain of the first 24 hours that's the nasty thing about these episodes (OK, puking all night with a virtual burning iron in one's side is nasty enough), the really nasty thing is the fear that sets in the next day once the hurling has stopped.  

I'm STARVING.  What can I eat that doesn't start the whole process all over again?   And what minuscule amount of it is safe?  Not an easy experimental series to perform because in my particular case, the result does not come in until 8 hours after the food has been ingested.  And there is nothing you can do once it has started.  There is also no point going to a doctor or hospital, because they never believe a patient and insist of putting the poor pained sucker through tortures starting at first principles.  Been there, done that. NOT again.

Inept Emergency personnel telling you for 24 hours straight that you must not leave AND must not eat until Dr. Where'sMyGolfClub has finally arrived is one of the more exhilerating experiences offered by the Canadian Health Care System.  That time I didn't even have an episode but my MD had thought it would be a quicker way to an Ultrasound. At 2 am I told them to get stuffed at that time and went to Denny's.

already?

By day 3, 4, or 5, with guts still irritated and bloated and muscles being converted to food to keep from starving it is best to not look in the mirror.  For a moment I saw George's previously proud but now wrecked torso there with his bony shoulders and gassy midsection.  

This leads to the next step:  Maybe it isn't Crohn's disease this time?  Maybe this is something else! Better not to look in the mirror again; this is usually the low point and things will be better the next morning.


Rewards:  

Weight loss at a reasonably rapid pace and new or re-found insight into the vast amounts of food people shovel into themselves every day without even thinking about it.

A reborn lust for life and awareness of purpose when the signs of recovery can no longer be ignored.

Those little moments that make it all worth it.

After waking up next to my temporary cat on a couch (By the look on his sleeping face I assume it was good for him too ;-), I feel hunger and head to a restaurant close by. 
I've been here a few times and the waitresses remember me.  I order my usual glass of white wine with food.

Mine was even fuller

The waitress brings me a large glass filled to the rim, lightly places her hand on my shoulder and says in a low voice "I put a little to much in there. Could you please drink some right now."  The place has a strict owner who would not look kindly on such generosity.  She walks away, I take a huge gulp lowering the fluid level substantially, look at the waitress, who by now has moved a few tables away questioningly, and she approves the remaining amount in the glass with a bright smile and a slight nod.


This has become a routine: I see her coming towards me with her body sheltering the overfull glass from the direction where the owner might lurk, I give her a slight nod and take a BIG gulp as soon as she puts the glass down.

I have seen the owner once or twice and in addition to being cheap to his staff as evidenced by several postings close to the kitchen he does NOT look like a person I would dare to mess with.
While I like a full glass of wine ;-), it might at some point become necessary to tell that lovely waitress that I am not worth risking trouble with her boss.


A few days later she arrives at my table with a beaming smile.  Today is your lucky day, she says, when presenting me with my double double yolk breakfast

Actual picture of my actual eggs ;-)

.
Life should and MUST NOT be about account balances and figures before and after the decimal point.  Life is about living human beings.  Like the Greek pensioner who tried to withdraw his wife's pension payment at 4 different banks.  
Grown men may be reduced to tears by loss or compassion but NEVER EVER should something as stupid as money be allowed to have that effect

Not my picture

Oh F*** this city!

I have been back for a week now.

On day 2, a jet-lagged blogger has his first cigarette at around 6 am only to see across the courtyard of the hotel a slightly out-of-shape man in his 60s having a cigarette in front of the door of his hotel room.  The man is wearing nothing except his underwear.

On day 4 or 5, Vancouver actually issues an air-quality warning, telling people to avoid exercise and stay in air-conditioned spaces.  Reason?  High levels of ozone at ground level, which is a result of large volumes of car exhaust and heat.

On day 6 it is impossible to see the North Shore mountains from East Vancouver. Reason? Forest fires.  Again people are told to stay in air-conditioned spaces.  

On day 7 my car gets broken into.  No, there is nothing in it, but that didn't deter the culprits.


Third most liveable city on this planet?  Time to burn The Economist.

I have returned

after 1159 kms cycled

and there are posts for 11 days in bare to half-baked to almost-complete form waiting to be completed and published. 

Too many new impressions and views to just slap them into quick posts, but they will appear in chronological order in the coming week(s).

stay tuned ...

First Impressions of Vancouver

Border guard "So did you do anything else over there?"  "Like what?  Brush my teeth?"

The bike arrives, but only one pedal remains on the rat-trap in the back.  The other one must be somewhere en-route.

HUGE lineup at the customs corral. I tell a pale rotund white person "This is ridicilously slow" to which he replies "Actually it's flows smoothly today".  He stays quiet when I say "THIS is a JOKE" pointing at the line-ups.

Angry voices when people come out of the skytrain and on the roads.  And all just one-syllables like HEY, MAAAN, etc.

I take the skytrain from the airport, get off at 25th Avenue, and push the bike to 17th Ave.  Cambie Cycles sells me 2 matching pedals for $12.60 and lets me use their compressor hose to bring my tires up to the proper inflation pressure.  I'm good to go again!

I remember the motorcyclist who cut me off going around the traffic circle of Place de la Bastille, who then apologized profusely (with a big smile) and explained the whole modus operandi how he had not seen me.  So much more humane!

At the Vietnamese Restaurant traffic on Marine Drive and Capilano Road again is stop-and-go in BOTH directions.  And there isn't even a parade going on!

A police cruiser is pulling over people with cell phones or without seat belts. I'm reminded about French cop cars unable to move through traffic or just being cut off by other drivers.

On y va! (Return to Mordor)

Alarm clock was set for 6 am.  I'm uploading all of yesterday's pictures, because Citizen M has fabulously fast WiFi.
That, showering, and packing the 2 panniers and my backpack specifically for today's journey takes all the time before I have to find my way to the airport. No time for breakfast. Which is probably a good thing, because Citizen M, while providing cheapish accommodation, charges fancy restaurant prices for their not that exciting food (exception was a big glass of excellent Sauvignon Blanc for 4 Euro 50.

The hotel entrance is probably less than 1000 meters from Terminal 3, but again CDG is has developed in such a cancer-growth fashion that I wouldn't have found T3 without the blue line in Google Maps.

Checking in the bicycle is comparatively easy here. No waiting for the baggage handlers but quite some waiting for the counter staff to bring themselves up to regulations.  But every single one of the people behind the counters are SOOO NICE ! 

 Finally I have my boarding pass and get to catch up on breakfast. Hey, it's after 9 am so I can have my mini-bottle. Too bad it doesn't taste very good.

Yes, that's a Concorde in this illegally taken picture

 The lovely Air Transat employee in the picture below is doing her best to let me know that taking pictures is INTERDIT !

Not just in China ! NO taking pictures of planes !  The RETARDED thing is: there is a fence RIGHT behind the Concorde, from which a person with a telephoto lens could get much better pictures of the Air Transat plane, AND perfectly legally !

The flight is pretty much eventless (the usual cheapo routine of not getting enough food) but there is one scary thing that happens in Calgary.

This flight is scheduled to stop in Calgary to dump half its passengers (It is surprising how many people are willing to travel from Paris to Calgary !!).  We're in the final approach, wheels are down, etc etc and there is so little space between the tires and the runway that I expect that touch-down-shake in my butt any millisecond now.  But what I get is a giant shove in my back with a simultaneous increase in noise level and distance between my window and the runway.

HOLY FRICK !
I've only ever seen that in video clips (HERE is a good example) and didn't think that I'd ever be on one of those planes.