4-52-2013: I Love Here!

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January 26, 2014 – I know I say it over and over again. And I’m going to say it again.

I Love Vancouver!

What a week.

The work week was taken up with production planning meetings across the Province. Since I work with facilities in most areas of the Province I was part of meetings on North Vancouver Island (conference call), the North Coast (conference call), Vancouver Island Straight of Georgia (meeting took place in Nanaimo), and the West Coast of Vancouver Island (meeting in Nanaimo). The meetings are part of a long process that discusses the number of fish or each species and stock that each facility will produce and takes into consideration fisheries, habitat capacity, and a range of issues from disease history to conservation status. It’s an interesting process, and one that often involves a great deal of passion and politics.

I sit in on a lot of conference calls, and I have to say that they can be both productive and non, but there are some annoyances that can crop up during them. A friend posted a great video on her husband’s Facebook, and it’s worth a share. I love the end, because I hate the “lurkers” who are on the call, never say anything, and don’t announce their presence. It’s irritating and a bit creepy. But the video is worth a watch, it’s good for a laugh!

One of the downsides of this time of year can be the weather. We aren’t subject to the bitter cold of much of the rest of the country – we live in Lotus Land here. But we tend to get inversions around January/February, and that brings the murky stuff to visit. Normally I like fog, except when it gets in the way of travel. Like my float plane flights. Float planes and fog just don’t seem to get along well.

The fog moved in about a week and a half ago and took up residence across the Strait and into Burrard Inlet. Since the float plane pilots navigate by sight, the planes are often not able to get off the water, or land at the other end or, if both sides are clear, may not be able to negotiate the pea soup in the middle.

This past week was beautiful in Vancouver, but the Straight had a large bank of fog that was moving around somewhat unpredictably, so nothing was getting off the water. The day before I was to fly to the Island I cancelled my flight and opted for a early morning ferry instead. And, of course, the day I didn’t fly, was the one day that all the flights did get out. I didn’t cancel my flight home, thinking that by afternoon the fog was usually cleared out. . . and that was the day it didn’t and I had to catch a shuttle and take the slow boat home.

Oh well.

I wasn’t overly inconvenienced, not in the way some others hoping to get on the flight were. There was a man trying to get to Vancouver to catch a connection somewhere, and looking at missing it. And there was the woman who was trying to meet up with her guy who was flying out the next morning and gone for nine weeks – she was heartbroken.

Me? I just had to take a ferry home instead of a plane. No big deal and if it had come down to one flight getting out over any other, I’d have given my seat up to either and taken the ferry instead anyway.

Besides, I was in a good mood from having the opportunity, the night before, to hang out with a good friend and enjoy a couple of beers in great company. And, as luck would have it, my ferry ride home was made more pleasant by the chance encounter and shared trip with two fun women who work in a different area, but on my floor, at my office.

Friday I enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine with an old friend I’ve known since before kindergarten and not seen in probably 12 years, and then dinner with another friend from way back in school days, and a friend of his, who has turned into a Facebook connection over the past year. It was great to finally meet him in person.

Then Saturday was the Boat Show, where Dufour came back onto the list of possibilities for that future sailboat that has moved a further couple of years into the future since we bought the new place. We thought we had it narrowed down to two boats, and now we are back up to four different ones. The Dufour 45 has some pretty stellar features and some very wonderful attention to storage detail. The day was fantastic! Sunny, warm, over 10C in the sun. The fog did creep in later, but wow, what a stellar day to be on the water looking at boats!

After the Boat Show it was to the theatre for a live performance of The Odd Couple, and an evening of non-stop laughter.

And, finally, today was a trip out to the Motorcycle Show. Last year we had said we were done with the bike show, it was a bit of a disappointment and we didn’t think it would really be much of an improvement this time around. But, for some reason, I bought tickets, so we went.

And I’m glad we did.

Another stellar day, with a bit of fog in between here and there. But it was 11C out in the Valley, and a lot of visitors to the show rode their motorcycles. Such a great day for it.

I’ve been wishing for a transitions lens for my helmet, but they only make them for Bell helmets, not Shoei. Bell helmets really didn’t fit my head well the last time I tried one on a few years ago, and Shoei does. For three years I’ve bugged the Shoei rep in Seattle, and been told, maybe soon…

So after chatting over dinner with friends on Saturday night, and being told that Bell has changed its fit, I decided to try on a new helmet. We visited the Daytona booth and waited until the guy I knew was free, and asked him to fit me and see if I could wear the new ones. Apparently the answer was yes. And then he gained my respect yet again, by not selling me one. Instead, he asked me what I was currently wearing me, and told me that he had inside information that the transition lenses would be available for my helmet by May 1st. So I paid up front, received a pretty significant discount, and will wait for a new shield for my existing, and very much loved, Shoei helmet.

So apparently the $24 for admission was worth it because I saved more than that on the shield, and also saved about $600 by not buying a new helmet. I’m glad we went!

On top of that, it was great to run into so many people we knew, some that we expected to see and some that were a surprise! We tried on a couple of different 250cc enduro bikes for size, and see where we could get into all sorts of trouble on them! They look like too much fun for words! And we had some great conversations with dealers, friends, and others.

All in all, a pretty great week!

I love here!