Ruminations on Rhubarb

Last night I dreamt about rhubarb (!) I’d parked my car (although it seems like it was perhaps a motorhome) on the front lawn. It seems like maybe it was the front lawn of my inlaws' old house in Winnipeg. I was returning to the vehicle to retrieve something (in the rain) and one of the neighbours had placed large piles of rhubarb stalks across the boulevard as if they’d been discarded as hedge trimmings. And these were no ordinary stalks; they were massive, like tree boughs that might have been brought down in a heavy wind! You’d have needed a handsaw to carve these up for baking needs. Like a rhubarb crisp perhaps? Or a hundred? 😁

I dreamt that we awoke in the house that a childhood friend's family used to own on Parker Place in White Rock. As usual, my first morning task is letting out our dog; I think this is the first time Flynn has featured in one of my dreams. For some reason I released him into the front yard which was unfenced. Fortunately, the street is a cul-de-sac so there was no traffic. I had to rush back into the house to grab a leash, but upon entering I noticed that the bedrooms were gone. A wall now existed where the bedrooms had been only minutes earlier. I was dumbfounded. How could this be? The leash was in the bedroom. Now where had the bedrooms gone? Something told me that the bedrooms were now in the basement but also, where had the basement stairs gone? It's a split level foyer but half the stairs were missing. I'd have to find another way in. I exited the house and went in the attached carport (now an enclosed garage in the Google Maps-supplied photo). Lo and behold, there was a goldish/yellow Beetle parked there covered in dust and clutter. Also, a sheen of surface corrosion had formed on the hood. I had to sidestep all the clutter in order to see the basement door tucked in behind the Bug. However, it looked more like a Hobbit door, being only about 3 to 4 feet tall. That's when I woke up.

13

Stephen Colbert did a “Late Show” monologue recently on Taylor Swift’s obsession with the number 13; or at least her Swifties’ opinion of Taylor’s obsession with 13.

If she attended the 2024 Superbowl (the 58^th) it would kinda be a “13”; 5+8.

If she attended the 2024 Superbowl it would be the 13^th Chiefs game she’s attended.

If she attended the 2024 Superbowl it would require a 13 hour flight from Tokyo.

The digital date of the game is 2-11; 2+11=13.

The Chiefs are playing the 49ers in the Superbowl; 4+9=13.

And, playing a hunch yesterday while watching the game, potentially adding a new “13” to the list, I counted the network camera shots of Taylor throughout the game. Guess how many times CBS panned their cameras over to show Taylor within gametime?

13.

Suspenders

Have you ever heard a conspiracy theory something along the lines of, "Your cellphone is eavesdropping  on you"? 

Well, funny story here. We were walking at False Creek this morning and came upon a dog wearing what could only be described as boots with suspenders. I'd never seen such a thing so we stopped and I asked where such a product could be found. It's been my experience that booties for my past dogs have not stayed on long; they fall off pretty easily on walks. The longer boots with straps (suspenders) look like a much more efficient system. During a short conversation the couple told me where they'd purchased the item for their dog. My phone was not involved at all in this interaction; it remained tucked in a pocket inside my jacket. We continued on our walk. 

Then, later at home, I opened my Instagram account and one of the first ads to pop up was for that exact store the couple had told me about (!) complete with a photo of the product I'd asked them about (!!) 

Amber Sky 2088

Time for another blog post; it’s only been about 4 years, LOL. Life got busy and I switched to Instagram because it was easier to do short posts; mostly photos.

But today, as we approach the Christmas season, life has slowed a bit (no really, only a bit!) and I’ve had an experience that demands longer prose than a photo caption.

Yesterday I participated in a work team event at a Virtual Reality facility in Richmond. I didn’t know what to expect but I’d heard these computer-generated environments have become quite realistic. As a first impression let me say that the “elevator” floor we were standing on was realistic enough to fool me for a micro-second into thinking I needed to stand well back from the edge of the platform. But of course, in reality, we were standing on a solid floor in a commercial retail unit!

Also, I must admit to feeling a momentary burst of claustrophobia upon donning all the gear which included wrist and ankle monitors, padded vest (for “feeling” the impacts of enemy fire), a backpack (probably containing batteries), visor (computer display), and headphones. I was cut off from any real world inputs. Interestingly, when viewing each other through the VR googles we digitally resembled Tesla Optimus robots!

Our transformation.

Fortunately the new “world” quickly emerged starting with a briefing from our commander. Our mission was to prevent an imminent enemy alien invasion by killing them all (and the horse they rode in on! (i.e., the mothership)). Pretty basic.

I think the elevator was the coolest part. As in any computer game, each successful battle progresses to the next level. In the VR case, each level literally went vertically higher and higher. At first I was comparing it to the elevator within the Shangri-La tower in dwtn Vancouver (to date the fastest and smoothest elevator I’ve ever ridden in). But pretty quickly it cleared the tops of all the adjacent city skyscrapers. It just kept going and going. Eventually we cleared Earth’s atmosphere! We were gazing down upon the planet as if from the ISS.

Still at skyscraper level.

At this point another comparison came to mind; the space elevator described in the "Mars" trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is a fictional device built to carry Mars colonists from Mars’ surface to an orbiting asteroid via elevators installed within a 35,000 km long cable, thus eliminating frequent rocket trips through the planet’s atmosphere. It was one of the coolest science fiction plot devices I’ve ever read (not that I’ve historically consumed tons of science fiction, that is).

"Michael and Me"

Yesterday was my most interesting VIFF experience to date. I didn't have my act together this year prior to the film fest; I didn't get an event guide book to choose my movies ahead of time. Life gets busy and my usual go-to bookstore was all out by the time I stopped by.

My secondary source was the local newspaper which lead me to to an ad for the 30th anniversary screening of "Roger & Me" with Michael Moore (the director) appearing in person for a Q&A session afterwards. Apparently TIFF and VIFF were the first two venues to pick up his movie back in '89. Seems it was a bit to toxic at the time for American networks to touch. Having never seen the movie I was very intrigued and tried to buy tickets. This was on Thursday before the Saturday screening. Of course, there were standby tickets only by that point.

Undeterred I proceeded with my plan B. We usually get up early on Saturdays to meet with our jogging group but I chose to go downtown instead and lined up in the Vancouver Playhouse standby line. Turns out I'm either a Super Fan or an ultra-keener because I was the only person in line from about 9:30 to about 11:00 a.m. when the box office opened. However, in the meantime Shauna had texted me to ask if I'd had any success, and based upon the non-existent ticket line-up I'd reported she decided to skip our usual post-jogging coffee gathering and join me for the screening, assuming I'd score two seats.

Sure enough, by the time she'd arrived I already had bought one ticket from a fellow film goer with an extra ticket for sale. Then shortly after Shauna arrived I was able to buy the ONE ticket that the box office had in reserve.

Once inside seated in our 3rd row seat (!) Mr. Moore was introduced to a standing ovation even before he said anything. He had an interesting and humorous (albeit rather long) introduction, at the tail end of which he invited everyone present to join him afterwards at the Library Square Pub for more discussion and a drink, the first round being on his tab! He explained that this generosity was in thanks for our country's initial support of his first film.

Michael Moore with CBC's Stephen Quinn

An extraordinary experience, to say the least. It turned out to be kind of a combination film screening/ Writers' Fest-style presentation. I make that comparison because this week we were also fortunate to attend a Writers' Festival event featuring Malcolm Gladwell (interviewed by CBC's Lisa Chistiansen).

Michael had to get a post-screening selfie to commemorate his standing
ovation. Stephen Quinn, the host, posted this shot on Twitter. Shauna and
I are in row 3 (with me looking at my phone to see if I had gotten a clear
photo of Michael).

Serendipitous Security Screening

I know, I know, TLDR, but this is why I’m stunned by how well this morning turned out.

For my job site visit in Kelowna, in an environmentally conscious vein, I took transit instead of my car which meant I arrived about 15 minutes behind my ideal schedule.

And to make matters worse, as soon as I was halfway down the airport escalator the full consequence of my folly was realized. The day after the Labour Day long weekend is no day to cut corners on timing. The queue snaked through its full complement of posts and ribbon permutations to extend outside the security zone which meant about four more rows of people had been added even before entering the security screening lobby.

I was silently doing the math in my head of how I would probably JUST make my flight if I jogged straight from the secure area to my gate (alas, no breakfast!) when a uniformed woman interrupted my trance to say I’d been selected for security pre-screening, based mostly on the bulk of my backpack I surmised.

After effortlessly being allowed to bypass probably 400-500 people in line ahead of me I realized I was enjoying a breakfast sandwich and an Americano only about 20 minutes after exiting the Skytrain. Unbelievable how things turn out sometimes!

And plus, my flight was only about 2/3 full, meaning I enjoyed more elbow room with no one else in my row. And plus-plus, it was sunny and I had a south-facing window seat. A good start to my day!