August already!

It's August already and the summer is half over! We didn't make the beach on Thursday, that has been moved to this coming Wednesday instead. The week at work was very hot and quiet. Can't move trees in the heat, it will probably kill them. We do most of our tree relocation in the cooler weather unless necessary. People are pretty much done planting their gardens as well so I have been working on the website and getting pictures to trees.

Friday night Al and I went out for Pizza and then to a movie. We run into problems with movies because we like different styles of movie. I hate slapstick and Al is not into "chick flicks" so we usually end up with a comedy or an adventure. This time it was a toss up between War of the Worlds and Sky High. We ended up at War of the Worlds and it was pretty good. Good special effects, not much in the way of a story line but that's ok. We went and saw Josh's new apartment between dinner and the movie and it's looking great! He has the projection screen adjusted the way he wants it and can get the biggest setting on his projector tv. The only problem is that if the room is light it fades out the picture so he has blackout curtains on order and that will take care of the problem. He needs them anyway because he works nights and sleeps days so it will help in that department as well.

Saturday was a full day. We left home by 10AM and headed in to Vancouver. We are so funny. We have decided we get into ruts with things and refuse to deviate. So we decided to look at maybe a different place to watch the fireworks from. We headed to the west end. Drove aimlessly around there for awhile. Then we thought ok! Stanley Park is the place to be. So we headed into the park and around to the side with the fireworks and found a spot to park and paid for all day parking. Then we wandered about for a bit and tried to see where we would have to sit to see well and decided with the amount of people arriving during the day and evening the space would be very crowded so we finally just went "Oh to hell with it lets go back to last years good spot" So we gave away our all day parking pass and headed over to the other side of the harbour and right down to last years spot.

We got a great spot under the Burrard Bridge on the edge of Vanier Park and it only cost us $4 to park from 9AM to 11PM. From there we left all our stuff in the car and took one backpack and walked the seawall to Granville Market under the Granville Street Bridge. There are some really beautiful apartments along there. Must cost a fortune to live in them! We parked just on the other side of this bridge. The walkway extends all around the waterfront.

Once we got to Granville Island we wandered around and looked at some of the little shops (very expensive) and then into the market which is a huge warehouse type building that the front of is big sliding glass panels that open out onto a dock at the back along the water. There are benches and wide walking areas, places to sit out and eat or feed the seagulls. The little ferries run back and forth and the channel is fairly narrow so you are looking across the water and boats to the apartments on the other side. Inside the market are tons of little stalls that sell all types of food. Breads, cheeses, pasta, meat, fresh fish, veggies and fast food that you can then take outside to sit in the sun and eat. We bought picnic food; fruit, meat, cheese and bread and then I had a major major hot flash that damn near knocked me out. I was seeing stars and getting lightheaded and the sweat was running down my body. I said to Al, "I have to sit" He didn't even ask questions, just steared me to an exit and out to a bench. I sat in the shade for awhile (luckily beside a busker with a very nice voice) and he went and got us cold drinks. We sat and rested and enjoyed the people. Then we started meandering back towards the car and Vanier Park.

We got back and got out our chairs and books and picnic basket and had ourselves a very nice lunch and read and rested for an hour. Vanier Park has the Vancouver Museum, Archives, Planetarium and Maritime Museum all on the same site right on Kits Point.

The walkway going in the opposite direction from the bridge takes you down into Kitsilano Beach which is where I grew up. Spent many summer days hanging out at Kits Beach. In the 60's when we had the hippy days, Kits Beach was just down the road from 4th Ave which was the hippy stroll in those days. Like Haight Ashbury in CA, in Vancouver it was West 4th. I lived on 1st and Cypress and went to Kitsilano High. I was just on the young end of hippies and was still under parental control for the most part so didn't actually get into the best most fun part of hippydom but I did have alot of fun back then. My mom called me a hippy and that made me happy.

I really wanted to be a hippy and live the nomad lifestyle. By the time I started running away from home alot of the hippies had gone home and only the real druggy type hardcores were left and I really wasn't into that. I just wanted to be part of the whole "Make Love not War" "Flower Power" lifestyle hanging at the beach and sleeping 10 or 15 to an apartment all smoking some pot and having fun in the summertime going to the summer Be-in at Stanley Park, dancing and smoking when it was warm and fun. Not the reality. I got the tag end of it and some fun though. :)

Anyway we walked down into Kits and I took Al up into the old neighbourhood hangouts and down to Henry Hudson Elementary. We wandered around and peered in all the windows. It's one of the old red brick, three story schools dating back to probably the 30's or before. When I went there the basement's were split into the boys basement and the girls basement with the janitor's room in between and we weren't allowed on each others sides. I don't know if it's still that way or not. It sure brought back memories standing there looking in the window of rooms I ran around in back in 1960. The school looks exactly the same even on the outside with the playing field outside.

From there we headed back to the beach and got out our blanket and food basket and chairs and laid under a willow tree by a pond behind the planetarium and spent the rest of the evening there. We had a clear view of the sky over English Bay. We ate and played cards, read our books and in my case had a nice nap. We watched the ducks with tiny babies still swimming around the pond. The sky clouded up a bit but it stayed warm with a warm breeze blowing in off the water. It was heaven. The fireworks were excellent and Sweden was last years winner and they were again very good. We are thinking of going back next Saturday for the finale. We hung around afterwards. Took our stuff back to the car and then crossed the path to the water's edge and watched all the boats coming back in. The police helicopter flew overhead with a searchlight going over the crowd and the boats. Thousands of people. We heard on the news the next day that there were 62 liquor seizures, several fights and numerous drunk arrests but we saw none of that at all where we were. I think really the families come to the Vanier Park side of the water and the young partiers go to the West End/Stanley Park side. Also in Vancouver it was Gay Pride week this week and Sunday was the big Gay Pride Parade. The city and the West End were busy and full and lots of fun this weekend. We didn't get home til 1AM

Yesterday we were home most of the day doing various household chores and fix up's and sorting and changing rooms about kind of day. Worked on the bedroom and moved the room around. When Josh had his big entertainment centre in our livingroom we moved our much smaller one into our bedroom. It has the stereo and a tv and dvd in it and one of our shaw boxes. So we have left it there and Al got the stero hooked up and all the cords sorted out and zapstrapped together. Much nicer and neater. Then we were out to friends for dinner and cards.

This morning I am sitting here tired but feeling good. We did a lot over the weekend and we've been really enjoying it just being the two of us. We love having the house to ourselves and running our own schedules with no worries about anyone else but the dogs and cat. We still see the boys often and Josh drops in several times a week but he never stays long. He is loving his place and it's looking really good. He's a good housekeeper at his house :)

A few bouts with nausea this week along with this problem with the heat. It is very hard to manage if I need to be outside for some reason. Hats and sunglasses help as does lots of water but it does not stop the continuous hot flashes. They are so intense it's hard to explain to people. I go bright red and am instantly covered in sweat. I can see Jude and Stewart get worried looking. It must look like I am getting ready to have my head explode or something. Stewart generally tries to order me back into a building (I mostly ignore him unless I am seeing stars and feeling faint) and Jude starts fanning me with whatever she has in her hands. We must look quite the sight as we go about our day. This morning I am listening to Rob Thomas's new disk over and over. I love his voice. My My My is a great song. Norah Jones is good this morning too. Very soft and quiet today. Rest day.