Life of Dave

Life of Dave

Monday, December 12, 2011

Vancouver wildlife (as opposed to "Wild Life")

For a winter month I've seen quite a bit of wild life recently. It started with a racoon scratching at our back door several weeks ago.


















Then the knocking of a woodpecker caught my attention in our back lane.







The familiar, although somewhat eerie, call of an eagle pulled my gaze up to the treetops in Surrey's Bear Creek Park recently.


I've seen two Great Blue Herons in recent days; one in Elgin Park in South Surrey, and the other at Canada Place, on the wharf where the cruise ships tie up.










And finally, a seal in False Creek yesterday.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Is there a Latin plural for coincidence?

Do coincidences occupy the same realm as Ogopogo or the Easter Bunny? By that I mean, how does the average person view them; as fact or fiction?

A while ago I wrote a blog about coincidences, and this morning has convinced me to add a couple more to that weighty tome.

And what’s the deal with coincidences anyway? They appear to be super-persistent in that they just keep happening until you finally break down and exclaim, “Enough already! I get it! Yes, I realize that what I just experienced was indeed strange, but I can’t process it logically. Leave me alone!” And hopefully one does not espouse such comments in the middle of a crowded shopping mall at Christmas, or during a board meeting or…You probably get the point.

My guess is I’m not alone in wondering what it all means. This tangent is likely the result of hearing about a planetary discovery released yesterday by NASA concerning a potential “new Earth”. It’s called Kepler 22b, located a mere 600 light years away in the “sweet spot” of a similar solar system to our own. While not exactly related to my initial topic of coincidences (there’s gotta be a Latin plural for that word), it none-the-less veered me toward this existential thread. More specifically, there’s gotta be a source that guides the experiences of humans; a central command room, if you will. A “Jacob” for all the fans of Lost.

Being somewhat of a news junkie, another current topic that stirred my grey matter this past week has been the increasing unrest in the Middle East, especially concerning the recent Arab Spring that has toppled so many dictatorships. I’ve read in the news or heard on radio more than a couple of times the expected rise in sectarian violence that appears to be coming to pass regarding Sunnis versus Shias.

I guess what I’m wrestling with is, I do accept the existence of a higher power, thus my exhortation on coincidences (don’t worry, I haven’t completely lost that thread), but I’m wondering about the ferocity of a belief system that would pit two groups of the same religion against one another so intently as to kill each other in ever increasing skirmishes, even though what the West saw as their nemesis is now gone, i.e their former dictators.

But then again, how about Catholics versus Protestants? Northern Ireland hasn’t exactly been a picnic the last few decades.

Or Tutsis versus Hutus.

Or Israelis versus Palestinians.

Wow, this is getting pretty deep.

And now, we join previously scheduled programming, already in progress…

At work we’re currently contracted with another company to conduct facilities audits of several recreation buildings in Surrey. Our company does the building envelope portion and the other does mechanical/ electrical.

The first interesting experience I had was a couple of weeks ago. I had just pulled into the parking lot of the South Surrey Arena. It was about a quarter past 8 and Rick Cluff was just about to conduct a radio interview with a guy about the upcoming Vanier Cup game. As he finished the introduction of his guest, he then greeted him by name: Jim Mullen.

As a bit of background, I grew up in White Rock, and the South Surrey Arena is right next door in South Surrey. As you might agree then, I was a bit intrigued that just as I pulled into the parking lot of the area in which I used to live, the voice on the radio at that exact moment was a guy I used to know in high school. Admittedly I didn’t know him well, he was a friend of a friend, but I did know him. As a side note, he let me drive his MG once. It was the first car with a manual transmission I ever drove, so being a car nut, it was a rather special honour.

Fast forward to today. Arriving at another facility audit appointment, again listening to CBC, again an announcement of an upcoming guest on the program. This scenario is a bit more complicated, but again, still intriguing. And it actually involves the same friend as the previous story.

I had reviewed the Elgin Community Hall earlier in the morning. Friends Rob and Rachel held their wedding reception there about 15 years ago. That was the last time I’d been inside the building. The next appointment was Elgin School, just up the road. I’d just parked the truck and was opening up the job file of the Elgin Community Hall on the iPad to make some revisions. As I did so Rick Cluff was announcing his guest coming up shortly who just happens to be Rachel’s sister! She's a reporter for CBC.

By the way, for clarification, Jim Mullen was (maybe still is) a good friend of Rob’s.

That’s just weird. People can’t generally process the multitude of connections required to link such strings of events together. The cerebral gymnastics are just too advanced.

And just to promote that old adage that things always happen in threes, here’s another one, again related to Rob. My City of Surrey contact today happened to be the brother of a teacher I had in high school, Mr. Wiebe. (Thinking back, I must admit he did seem pretty young at the time, even to a high school kid. It could have been his first teaching job.) Currently Mr Wiebe teaches at the same high school as Rob (he’s a teacher too).

Ya just can’t make this stuff up.

Now I have a challenge for you. However you may feel about the phenomena of coincidences, whether you believe in them or not, I ask that you try to be more aware of them, at least for a while. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of the more you’re aware of them, the more often you notice them when they occur.

Because I believe they will occur.