Feh-boo-wary should be Lie-berry month

I think the best part of the beginning of March is the end of people mis-pronouncing our shortest month as "Feh-boo-wary".

In my opinion that's the calendar equivalent of saying the "lie-berry" is where one goes to borrow books.

Central BC Winter

As part of a portfolio of work I traveled to Quesnel and 100 Mile House a couple of weeks ago. We're swamped with work this month so it's taken me a while to blog about it.

Front row seat for the engines spooling-up prior to take-off as we waited in queue.

I never tire of the scenery in this province. These photo ops are the advantage
of low altitude flights.

I'll have to try to find out which lake this is. It's somewhere
between Whistler and Quesnel I think.

About -20 C when we landed. A bit of a shock to the system crossing
the tarmac to the terminal.

My rental vehicle was pretty plush I have to say, perfect for all the highway
driving I did this trip.

My trip also included 100 Mile House so I did a side trip to
Horse Lake to see the cabin our family used to own. It hasn't
changed much; I'm glad to see it's still there.

A frozen Horse Lake viewed from a boat launch.

Pop-up Concert

OK, you've gotta keep a secret for me on this one. I've been sick with a cold/flu the last three days (i.e., home from work), but I felt well enough, and was hungry enough to drive to Duffins close by to get a sub sandwich for lunch. As I was parking the car it was announced on the radio that the Arkells were going to play a "pop-up" show at a local doughnut shop called Cartems on Main Street.

It crossed my mind that it was only about 15 minutes away and I thought, "Why not go?" So I did. It was pretty cool to see them play their short 3-song acoustic set in a doughnut shop setting. Turns out they played a gig in Cancun (!) on Monday night, then Edmonton last night. I think they went straight from the airport to Cartems, then they're playing the PNE Coliseum tomorrow night. At home later I turned on CBC radio to hear the end of one their songs; turns out I just missed an on-air interview. They probably did a tour of radio stations this afternoon. Talk about a packed itinerary.

The first two songs were beside the front window.

They moved to the centre of the store for their last song.

I guess "merch" in this case is a custom-frosted doughnut instead of a concert
t-shirt.

We last saw them live at a cold outdoor venue during the 2010 Olympics at Holland Park in Surrey. They mentioned that show today between songs.

Chilly Chase 2019

Our running group participated in the Chilly Chase again this year. It was last Sunday morning. It's a dash of varying distances (5K, 10K, 15K or half marathon) starting at Olympic Village and heading along the north side of False to the Inuksuk and then retracing (for 10K).

Here's our happy group full of pre-race enthusiasm.

And here's post-event. My official time was 63:20. The start/finish line clock indicates a slower time but we started running at the drop of the flag; it took a couple of minutes to shuffle forward
to actually cross the start line.

And here's Shauna. Her time was actually around 70:00. According to her stats
this event was her second best ET ever! 

Believe it or not, the hillside adjacent to the Inuksuk at English Bay was
full of early blooming daffodils.

Snow drops are blooming in our East Van front yard.

Even our rhubarb thinks it might be Spring already.

But don't call off Winter just yet. The forecast is for snow on Sunday.

The Day After Tomorrow

Have you been following the "Polar Vortex" that's walloping Winnipeg, the prairies and central Canada? And of course the central Midwest in America too. 

As I found myself home with a cold/flu the last couple of days I had a bit of unscheduled time (a precious rarity it seems). I was feeling a bit better today so I decided to look up a movie online that I haven’t seen yet (it’s only been out for 15 years, LOL) that feels somewhat relevant this week, “The Day After Tomorrow”. It’s about climate change, but sped up about a hundred or a thousand times. Amazingly enough I found it easily online and watched it this morning. And lo and behold, this movie unexpectedly coughed up a bit of political irony.

Although it is of course fiction (but don’t take that as a personal denial of Climate Change please), it was interesting to note a couple of scenes in particular. The first one was weather-related disaster footage of a pier having been torn apart by high winds and hurricane-force winds (does the White Rock, BC pier ring any bells?)

"The Day After Tomorrow" fiction vs January's White Rock, BC pier
catastrophe.

But the most ironic scene by far was the mass American exodus to the southern border to flee rapidly approaching deadly cold only to be greeted by a closed Mexican border (in my imagination to be followed by The Simpsons’ Nelson’s sing-song guffaw “Ha, ha”). Of course the next scene shows Americans abandoning their cars en masse and crossing a river by foot to gain illegal access, carrying children and suitcases.

“Move along people, no sarcasm to be seen here.”

In this scenario I bet a certain un-named President would be pretty happy there's no wall to impede the climate "refugees".

River District Time Progression

Before the River District transformation progresses any further, I thought I'd share some past photos of an old warehouse at the east end that will surely be demolished soon in the constant push for more condos.

Circa 2013.

2019: The only real change is the brightness added by the graffiti.

Still a blank canvas in  January of 2013.

2019: I  need a translation from Hipster to English. What's the last letter?

A similar warehouse still exists in the Olympic Village development. I don't know what the plans are for it, but I've been meaning to return to photograph it again for a similar time lapse photo spread. I shot it way back in about 2006 before construction even started on the Olympic condos.

We've lived in Vancouver for almost 20 years now and I regret not having photographed an even older warehouse that was demolished long before the winter Olympics. The bike route along the south shore of False Creek had been started, but it included a U-shaped detour around an inlet where a large deteriorating boat was moored. The warehouse I believe was supported by piling over the water. I wish I'd taken a few photos of it, but that was before the convenience of digital cameras and I didn't often bring my 35mm with me in those days.

Airport Inn at Fraser and Main

December blogging was a bit of a wash. Crazy work deadlines got the upper hand during the lead-up to the Christmas season.

However, on my way to the recycling depot near Kent Avenue yesterday I passed the old Airport Inn (it's last official name) on Fraser Street at Marine Drive. I've been monitoring its demise for the last year or so. It's designated as a re-development site for a bunch of condos and other amenities. As I drove past I noticed the windows have now been removed and it appears to be down to its bare concrete shell. I parked the car and walked back to get a few last photos.

This is its current state.

And this is the artist's (me) conception of what will happen to it soon. Of course
it won't be blown to bits, but that's how my camera interpreted it.