December 2017

I don't know if it was official or not, but we had some snow on the ground during Christmas for the first time since 2008. It varied by region; we had about 2-3 inches, while there was barely any in Richmond, which incidentally is where the official measurements are recorded, at the airport.

Unexpectedly I found myself at Granville Island last week, just killing some time waiting for my dog at the vet. Tannah managed to scarf down a worrisome-sized piece of chocolate as I was outside hanging Christmas lights. I won't go into details of the procedure; the important thing is she's OK!

Ironically, my shopping was done at that point, but I did have a camera in my pocket. Granville Island is especially photogenic during the Christmas season, even without much visible snow left. We were also out early last Saturday morning, just after sunrise, at False Creek.

Under the Cambie Street Bridge. This is where we watched the under-the-
bridge video projection of the salmon last summer.

False Creek reflections.

On our morning run we even came across a Christmas spaniel. 

This place on E. 12th is always festively decked out whether it's Hallowe'en
or Christmas.

Granville Island.

Surface tension at its finest; I honestly don't know
how those ribbons of snow didn't fall from the
neighbour's metal roof.

Under the Bridge

It's always fun exploring new places, and our jogging group sometimes gives me that opportunity. Today Phillip suggested we try one of his regular routes; part of it goes under the Ironworkers' Memorial Bridge. We started at his house near the PNE, jogged through some neighbourhoods that bordered the freeway, ducked into a skateboard tunnel adjacent to a running track and found ourselves almost at the shoreline of Burrard Inlet. The trail that goes under the bridge is part of the Trans-Canada Trail network.

Believe it or not, this gate did not include the statement "Do not enter".

Looks like I'm wearing a steel structure hat.

This is part of the adventure; discovering a tree fort on the north slope of
Burrard Inlet.

The fog was starting to lift on the return leg of our journey.

And there's the Banister-Landy statue at the site of the former Empire Stadium
on the PNE grounds emerging through the fog.

And finally, here's a taste of the grafitti adorning the skateboard tunnel.

ISS

It's been clear weather the last few days in Vancouver, after about a month of mostly rain. Yesterday when I got home from work I let our dog Tannah out into the backyard. As I waited for her, my gaze rose above the houses across the lane to admire the intermediate blueness of dusk.

I seem to forget every year how early the sun sets in early December around here. I noticed a bright dot near the bottom of my frame of observation and assumed it was a plane. And it was...sort of. As I watched its graceful arc across the evening dome above me I realized it was the International Space Station. I've seen it a few times in the last few years but it's always an event for me, and if I'm able (i.e., not driving) I stop to watch it. It lasted from about 5:17 p.m. when I first noticed it, to about 5:22 when it disappeared over the trees on the east side of my street.

Then just for confirmation, after returning from walking our dog on her customary laps around the block after work, I heard Stephen Quinn announce on CBC that a listener had just emailed him a photo of the ISS gliding over East Van (with an arrow, of course, to identify the appropriate reflective dot).

Birds and Murals

I'm going to miss those sparrows at Olympic Village. Their migration is too far in my opinion; they're going to Calgary and then China (!!) for refurbishment. We won't see them again for almost a year. I never considered China as a sparrow-tech hub. Somehow, sparrows don't mesh with my perception of high tech.

On another note, I've been noticing explosions of colour on exposed walls of buildings lately, as in murals. Here are just a few that I've seen in the last few weeks.

I came across this one during the East Side Culture Crawl.

This one reminds me of the TV test pattern. (Does that even still exist?)

This one reminds me of an art style we saw at Circle Craft. I don't even

know if this style has a name. Probably does (geometric, I think).

When "the Earth" hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

Here’s another example of “I didn’t see that coming”. 

Perhaps Elon Musk’s monopolization of the headlines lately with his intended private industry rocket flight to Mars in the near future has had unintended consequences. Last week I heard about some bright spark in California that has declared he believes that "there's no difference between science and science fiction" and has decided to upstage Musk (OK, I added the Musk comparison) with a deep-fried space oddity; a flight in a homemade steam-powered (!!?) rocket up into the sky just high enough not to kill himself, to snap a photo to prove that a conspiracy of astronauts fabricated the shape of the Earth, i.e., that the Earth is indeed a big pizza pie.

Reminds me of a line once used in the long running tv series The Office:
"You must be 'this high' to ride the roller coaster." Would you strap yourself
into this thing? If nothing else, this guy's got guts.

One sticking point however is that it would depend on his believing in digital photography, and I seem to recall that that just may have been developed with the help of "science". Come to think of it, that denial of science might even become a sticky wicket in terms of old fashioned film photography. He might be better served by blasting off with a sketch book and crayons. If he does bring a camera, I hope he also gets a few good clear shots of the angels reclining in the clouds (laughing and pointing).  I’m sure word must’ve gotten out by now of his flypast. Better get your tickets now Angels, before the ticket-bots snap them all up and you’ll be left dealing with Stub Hub.

If I must admit to one thing however, and I really do mean only one thing that Trump's done well, it's been to draw the nut-jobs out of the woodpile.

Cartoon not used with permission, but hopefully the artist
will agree with the relevance.

P.S. (2018-01-05) I watched another video of Mad Mike over the Christmas break to see if there's a new launch date. There is; Super Bowl Sunday. He says he wants to be in direct competition of US football's biggest annual attraction. Hmmm. 

Also, he now says that the Associated Press article from a couple of months ago mis-represented him by saying he was doing this to prove the Earth is flat. Ultimately, he's the only one that knows why he's doing this. All I know is from what I read, and the AP article states that Mad Mike said, "He believes what he believes, including that the Earth is flat." and "I don't believe in science."

Hmmm...