To be fair (to me), it *has* started raining

Sleepy. Want to take the dogs for a snowy walk. Sleepy. Want to take the dogs for a snowy walk. Sleepy. Want to take the dogs for a snowy walk. Sleepy. Want to take the dogs for- zzzzzzzzzzz

It's so pretty and white outside, and it's mid-afternoon with plenty of daylight left, but working overnights this week has me in rest mode right now. A power nap is where it's at. The weather forecast is for rain and warmer temperatures, so after the final two overnights the snow will likely be all gone. Not cool.

David Letterman - Chilean Miner, Edison Peña

Longest run since May 2008

10-kilometre run. With doggies. Pouring rain. Total joy. 49:49.

mailing it in

A good friend of mine celebrated her birthday last week (Happy Birthday, cexylizziepants!), and I procrastinated in getting a gift in the mail for her. She's currently living in another province, one that is home to two NHL teams. Her birthday was on Thursday, and I had assumed that a birthday parcel would take 2-3 days to get to her, so if I put it in the mail on Tuesday there was a chance it'd get to her right on her birthday. However, after getting the opinions of a few other people, I became a little nervous. One person said two weeks, another said about a week, and another said 4-5 business days. Ugh. At the post office on Tuesday I considered my options that were given by the worker and went with the cheapest option which she said had a chance of getting there by Friday. The gifts weren't time-sensitive, and it wouldn't be the first time in the history of the world that a birthday gift sent by mail arrived after the fact. Would it? Doubt it.

The shipment even came with a tracking number, which was exciting for me. Only the second time in my life I've had a chance to track something. Coincidentally, the first time was waiting for an online order to arrive - an online order that was a wedding gift earlier this year for this same birthday girl! My first check of the tracking number showed me that the parcel had arrived at the post office in Coquitlam. Um, right.... I was there for that. The next check showed that the parcel had arrived at the facility in Richmond! It was about to take flight! Before I could check again, on Thursday my birthday friend thanked me on MSN Messenger! At first I wasn't sure it had, based on her first comment. We had joked about us giving her a car - a blue car - as a gift, and in the parcel I included a small blue car toy from a collection of similar cars we had here. So when the first thing she wrote was 'thanks for the blue car', I wasn't sure if she had received the package or if she was pretending we actually got her a real blue car. Turns out the parcel had indeed arrived right on her birthday! Approximately 48 hours after I handed over the parcel to Canada Post in Coquitlam, it arrived in Calgary! (Alberta: home to the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers.) I had tricked her into believing that we weren't getting her anything for her birthday, so its arrival was a surprise. Plus, she says that it was the only thing that arrived by mail that day - no bills, no nothing, just our birthday parcel. Cool.

Yesterday she told me a very cool story about the car (there were other parts to the parcel, I'm just not sharing), but I'd have to get her permission before I can tell it. If she gives permission, this post shall be edited soon to add her exact text from yesterday's chat.

It's now a day later and permission has been granted! Sort of. I can share regardless. My friend took a two-day weekend course right after the arrival of the birthday parcel. The course focused on psychic development and they were asked to bring a small item on Sundays. So BW took the blue car. All the items were put into a bag and each person chose one of the items randomly from the bag. Then each person gave a reading of the item they had chosen, with no knowledge of who brought the item. According to BW, the girl who did her reading said that the moment she started to read it, she got an image of a small boy, playing with the car.

Then,

• she got the impression that it actually belongs to an older person, and it represents a car that they want
• and that it was a gift
• ok wait, she wrote down her impressions, so let me write them for u
• small boy....son, brother.... husband, father
• favorite color - blue, chosen for the color
• treasured favorite toy or treasured car owned by an older version of the small boy
• given to the person for safe keeping, and a strong loving relationship
• brings lots of joy to the beholder
• and she was so bang on about everything
• and she was so HAPPY, when she gave the reading
• because she could feel the energy from the car
• and when she found out it was mine, rushed over to give me a huge hug
• and whole class loved it
• i think mine was the best reading!

a fine time up the Grind

I got home about 45 minutes ago after getting up bright and early for a jaunt up the Grouse Grind. I know what you're thinking: a jaunt? Really? Dictionary.com defines jaunt as "a short journey, esp. one taken for pleasure" - surely you don't find a rainy early-Saturday hike up a mountain pleasurable. And that's where you're wrong. I find it highly pleasurable and don't do it enough. Rain or no rain, I like hiking. It would've been nice to have had the dogs trekking along with me, but, alas, they are not allowed on that trail.

After meeting my friend KB at the base of the trail just before 8 a.m., I pushed the buttons on my watch that make the numbers rise and up we went. However, KB was under the weather and that made for slow progress early on. We took a few breaks as he tried to fight through the queasiness, but just past the 1/4 mark, he decided that he better not risk anything more severe and opted to turn and return to the bottom. I was feeling pretty good, very good actually, and continued with the wet ascent. From that point on, I managed to summit without taking another break. I was feeling very, very good. So good, in fact, that I'm thinking of going for a one-hour run* with the dogs after publishing this post (which will be roughly two hours after reaching the Grind's peak).

Here's a brief summary of today's Grind time:

45:00 - KB turns around a little past the 1/4 mark.
53:00 - I pass the 2/4 mark.
1:07:00 - I pass the 3/4 mark.
1:18:00 - I summit.

I am pretty sure that the cost of the gondola ride down was $5 the last time I was there, and so was surprised to learn that the cost today was $10. If it wasn't for the rain I would've kept my money and hiked back down, but since I didn't want to risk a slip on wet wood, onto the gondola ten bucks lighter I went. On drier days it'll be hike up, hike down, fo' sho'.

Of note, I was back in the car at 9:55 a.m. and at 10:30 a.m. I was turning the car off in our driveway - pretty quick, eh? Especially considering I didn't have the carpool lane option on the highway. And now, I runnnn. C'mere doggies..

[* The run - one of my best in a long time - was actually completed in a time of 47:12. Today has been a very good day. Now to get stuff done at home with playoff baseball and regular-season hockey (including the Canucks' first game of the season!) playing on the television in the background.]

'are we family' or what?

It almost went on the book, until I remembered.

A finale of two to bid you adieu: 1) it might be late, but it won't be early, and
2) lonely like the tightrope walker, hitchhiker, long-distance runner

2 things

1.

On October 3, 2009, my wife and I went to a Seattle Mariners game at Safeco Field. It was a meaningless game against the Texas Rangers, but neither Biscotti's sister nor Biscotti's sister's hubby had ever been to a baseball game, so the four of us enjoyed a cold evening at Safeco Field.

Growing up in Vancouver, the Mariners were pretty much the hometown baseball team. Seattle was the closest city with a major league team, and the closest Canadian team was waaaaay far away in Toronto. We used to have a triple-A team, but now just a single-A team. Anyway, my position was centre field for the various teams I played with, and I had much admiration for Ken Griffey Jr., who played centre field for the Mariners. His cool batting stance, his smooth swing, and his ability to make leaping catches to rob hitters of home runs were all things that made this boy's heart go all a-flutter.

At the start of that game last October, I was happy Griffey was in the lineup and was aware that it could be the second last - if not the last - game Griffey played. Sitting out the Mariner's final game of the season the following day was a possibility (in fact, he did end up starting), and retirement during the off-season was a distinct possibility. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to be at the game where he hits his final home run?' Considering he'd only hit 18 all season, I knew it was a long shot (no pun intended). But guess what?! He hit a long shot! It wasn't that long of a shot, but I remember it clearly from the vantage point of our centre field seats. The ball left the bat low, and stayed low. It was heading towards right field wall, and although it was low, it was going fast. My focus was rotating between the ball, the wall, and the right fielder. It became clear, as the right fielder retreated, that he wasn't going to catch the ball, and I was getting ready to watch the ball bounce off the wall when I saw it disappear into the arms of the fans in the first row. Griffey had hit a homer!

The next day I paid online attention to the Mariners game and was happy when it ended with Griffey homerless. I waited all winter to hear news of his retirement and was disappointed when he began the 2010 season. Oh well.. Every time I watched late-evening baseball highlights on television I would cross my fingers that Griffey hadn't hit a homer that day. I knew it was just a matter of time, but I wanted to know when that time was. I would also check Griffey's stats online every few days to make sure I hadn't missed anything. April ended and he was homerless. May ended and he was still homerless. June started and two days in he retired. I promptly checked his season stats online - for what would be the final time - and it was confirmed: I was at the game in which Ken Griffey Jr. hit his final career home run. I saw it in person. I am happy.

2.

My name and a picture I took are in Vancouver Then and Now.

Tomorrow's to-do list

6:00 a.m.: One-hour run with the dogs
8:00 a.m.: Several hours of tennis with AM
1:30 p.m.: Eight hours of work

--------------------
The day after tomorrow revised-to-actual-time list:

6:30 a.m. - 7:25 a.m.: Run with (off-leash!) dogs
8:15 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Tennis with AM
1:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.: Work

Plus I got my hair trimmed between tennis and work.

Running four years to spell

I've continued to run regularly, and have kept to my promise of not blogging about it, but today I break my promise. But, hey, a now-and-then running update is good, right? It lets you know I'm still keeping it going without cramming that fact down your throat, or eye sockets as it were. Today was marvelous. Today was effin' brill. Warm without being too hot, the sun shining, the river's water glistening (would you believe I have yet to go tubing this year?!), and hardly anybody else on the trails. Plus, there were NO bugs!

Enough of that. Last week, Biscotti and I celebrated our four-year anniversary in part by attending a performance of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It's being put on by The Arts Club Theatre Company, is showing at Granville Island Stage, and is a lot of fun. A LOT of fun. There were many, many highlights, such as the sundry "definitions" of words, and several clever riffs of the spelling theme. I loved the whole show, and here's a particular bit that stuck with me:

If you took the W from answer, the H from ghost, the extra A from aardvark, and the T from listen, you could keep saying "what" and no one would ever know what you're saying, 'cause the whole word would be silent.

One more thing: "Life is Pandemonium" was phenomenal.

REMiniscing

On my way to work one day last week - as I walked through the park and around the lake - I was listening to my Zen music player. The device was on the Random Play All setting and at one point Andy Kaufman's version of "It's a Small World" was playing. When that fun bongo-filled song ended, any one of the other 758 songs could have started; the one that did was R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon". For those that don't know, that R.E.M. song is about Andy Kaufman.

Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey, baby.
Are we losing touch?

I smiled at that fortuitous one-two punch of songs, and then my thoughts wandered to a guy I knew named Scott. That often happens when I hear R.E.M. because one of the few times I spent time with Scott I was playing an album of theirs and he was asking about it. Scott was engaged to my stepsister when he was in a car crash and died in hospital a few days later. While growing up he had never shared living quarters with any animals - no dogs, no cats, no nothing. After presenting my stepsister with a kitten named Matilda for a Valentine's Day gift, he couldn't get over the fact that they were living with an animal! However, stepsister didn't want to keep the cat without Scott, so my mom expressed her desire to adopt her, and ours she was. Over time she became my cat, and when I moved out of my parents' place I was moving to a no-pets residence and had to leave her behind. It wasn't long before she was living with us in stealth. When it comes to Scott, I have R.E.M. and I have Matilda.

There are some other things that prompt memories of people I knew who have passed on:

• Diet Coke makes me think of Jennifer, a classmate in grade eight who would often - almost always - have a can on her desk in whichever class we were in. I didn't know her well and though I could tell that there was something a little different about her, I couldn't put a finger on what it was. It wasn't until after she died during our grade nine year that I found out that she had been fighting cancer.
  
• Will was a friend of mine from a very early age, when he was still Evan. We went to elementary school together and started high school together, at which point he was often singing the theme song to "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" . I suspect his name change had less to do with him thinking Evan sounded too childish and more to do with him wanting to be Will Smith. Now that Will Smith is a huge movie star I wish that Will could have enjoyed his many movies. He would've especially loved "Men in Black" and "I Am Legend", but he committed suicide mere months before "MiB" hit theatres. Anything to do with Will the actor reminds me of Will the friend.
• One day during grade twelve, I was walking into biology class and somehow found myself singing Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" with Clare. We got to the point where neither of us knew the words - about halfway through the first verse - and then Clare mentioned that we're probably not supposed to know that song that well. Well, I'll admit I liked the song. I also liked Clare. She died a few months later after getting hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street. I hear that song, I think of Clare.

In all four deaths, parents were left to grieve the loss of a child. At the start of The Last Six Minutes: A Mother's Loss and Quest for Justice (a book by Sandra Martins-Toner about the murder of her 16-year-old son), there is a page with this quote:

When a child loses his parents, he is called an orphan.
When a spouse loses her or his partner, he is called a widow or widower.

When parents lose their child, there are no words to describe them.

~ J. Neugeboren ~