Random Thoughts

Wow! I'm sure glad I had that fabulous Christmas break to nourish my soul with some down time, cuz it's been hit the deck running full tilt since I went back to work on January 4th! Lots of new projects happening for my office (translated: lots of MEETINGS and many REPORTS) and very little time to breathe. I made a pact with myself to take a half hour in the middle of the day this year to get out of the office. I don't make New Year's resolutions, and I seldom start new things in January, but I really need a brain break in the middle of my work day. I haven't succeeded in accomplishing that EVERY day, but am pleased to say I have gone out for a walk or a bowl of soup (or a brief fondle-new-yarns session at our downtown yarn store) MOST work days so far this year.

In addition to a crazy work schedule, we've been experiencing a crazy warming trend in our weather. Hello, weather gods! This is January ... in The North! We're supposed to be well below zero and buried in snow in January!

Hello? Weather gods?


Anyone listening? (tap tap) Is this mike working???


Apparently not. Thanks to recent rain and warming, there is green grass appearing ...
... yet it's still close enough to zero degrees that SIDEWALK conditions are rather perilous. In pretty much any given location around the city, you can have one foot in a puddle ...... and the other foot in snow ...... then one step farther, both feet in a patch of ice ...... and hopefully you can navigate that without landing on your keester! While out on my travels today, I was pleased to see Terry wasn't having a problem navigating our sidewalks ...... and that he currently loves our University! I love our University too. I MISS our University! I was a guest speaker this past week for the BC Rural & Remote Health Research Network's "The Many Faces of Health Research: Promoting Seniors' Wellbeing Using the Seniors Mental Health Policy Lens Toolkit" presentation. Sound complicated? This project is just one of the multitude of things that's keeping me really busy this year! It was rather fun to be back up at the University ... made me realize how much I miss being there (sniffle) and how very much I want to be a student again!


With all this craziness, I haven't had much time during my weekends or evenings to continue with the quilting. Sadly, I've only managed to complete Heart #2 ...... and partially finish Heart #3 ...... of my wall hanging. Getting all three hearts joined and quilted before Valentine's Day 2010 is looking rather uncertain at this point! However, I have made a point to relax for a few minutes at the end of each day, even if that brief bit of relaxation didn't accomodate sewing. My routine usually includes a fast shower, but this stuff ...... a gift (thank you, S.!) this past Christmas ... is certainly helping me to slow down and smell the Moroccan Roses! (If you like roses and have a Body Shop near you, I highly recommend this stuff. It stinks purty!)


So I deliberately took some time out today and took myself out for brunch.Do you have a White Spot near you? I have a special place in my heart for this restaurant chain, and was reminiscing about why that is over bacon and eggs this morning.


My oldest boy, Robert, had surgery for lung cancer when he was a toddler. There I was, about 20 years old (too young to be married and a mum, never mind mum to a little lad facing lung cancer!) and in the big city of Vancouver BC all alone. I was afraid to walk too far from the hospital for fear I wouldn't be able to find my way back again, but found I really needed to get out of the hospital for a little while each day. I found a White Spot restaurant a couple of short blocks away ... still within sight of Vancouver General Hospital ... and, bless them!, they had chicken pot pie on their menu! Respite and comfort food! I noticed today that they still have chicken pot pie on their menu.


That's only one reason that I have a special place in my heart for White Spot. After my boy started recuperating from his surgery, he was seriously craving two things: real potatoes ... particularly home-made potato soup ... and peanut butter. Both items were forbidden on his ward as too many of the children there had difficulties swallowing.


Okay, that was the excuse given by the hospital staff at the time. I might buy it for the lack of peanut butter, but not for the lack of real potatoes!


Robert begged and begged for potato soup, and finally someone brought him a bowl of instant mashed potato flakes mixed with hot water. He was NOT impressed! I can still hear his squeaky little voice letting the entire ward know "You're not fooling me! That's NOT potato soup!"


Nearing the end of his hospital stay, I was allowed to take him out on day passes for short periods of time. On one of those day passes, I took him to the White Spot near the hospital. On Cambie Street, if I remember correctly. Robert was a bit of an extravert and exhibitionist, and quickly regaled all the waitresses with every gruesome detail about his lung surgery along with a close-up display of incision and sutures. He explained that all he really wanted was real potatoes and peanut butter ... and, bless them!, the White Spot staff brought him a beautifully arranged platter with a little bowl of peanut butter surrounded by pieces of real boiled potatoes! Even dressed up with a bit of parsley! Robert was so thrilled! Any busy restaurant that takes the time and makes the effort to cater to a sick little 2 1/2 year old like that is pretty darned special in my books!

While I'm on the topic of pretty darned special in my books, this fella ...
... Canadian wrestling legend Gene Kiniski, is right up there with the White Spot (photo from http://www.wrestlingmuseum.com/homeie.html) One another day pass, I took Robert down to a Dino's restaurant on Broadway ... about the same distance from Vancouver General as the White Spot but in a different direction. We had just ordered pizza when Robert spotted Gene Kiniski. He knew who Gene was because Grandad F. had been an avid "wrastlin'" fan and Robert had watched many hours of "wrastlin'" on TV with his Grandad. Before I could catch him, Robert was down out of his chair, across the restaurant, and regaling Gene Kiniski with tales about his surgery and the accompanying display of incision and sutures. And Gene, bless him!, picked Robert up, sat him on his knee and treated him with the utmost graciousness and patience. He gave Robert a very special memory to take home and brag about to his Grandad F.!
Hmm. This isn't where I was planning on going with this post. I suppose Robert is on my mind because we are almost at the time of year when he left us. Robert lived with lung cancer for another 6 years after the White Spot / Gene Kiniski experiences. Sometimes he's as close today as he was 30 years ago.

First serious snow

This past Saturday, I went to Quesnel for a Fabricland visit as we no longer have a Fabricland here. Only an hour and a half away. It was a great sunny morning, temperature hovering at zero, but nice dry roads going down. Only saw one moose, and it was munching in the trees well off the highway. Sorry, no pix of my Fabricland purchases ... you'll just have to take my word that I found some great Christmas (shh ... don't tell anyone ... you'll ruin my Perpetual Grinch Reputation!) prints, and some wonderful royal blue cotton with white Celtic knots all over it that I'll find SOMETHING fun to make with, plus a couple of print panels for placemats. One will become my "Fish 'N Chips" placemats as it has a British Bulldog on it. We were back home by 2:30 in the afternoon, and the roads were clean and dry all the way back as it was still sunny and about 6 degrees C.

Good thing we went on Saturday, 'cuz Sunday wasn't so sunny. I went downtown to work at my office for the afternoon, and about 2 pm, this is what I saw out our front window ...... yup. Pretty serious looking white stuff starting to come down. And there was me with ...

... NO BOOTS! Yes, I was in serious anti-fashionista mode ... grey stripes in my pants going vertical and brown stripes in my socks going horizontal. I'll spare y'all pix of my burgundy corduroy shirt! Go easy on me ... it was Sunday, and a wonder I wasn't downtown in my jammies as they are definately my favourite Sunday attire. It was a slippery slushy walk to the bus stop in order to get home.

The nearest city bus stop to my office is beside a small municipal park. Snow on the bushes in the park ...

... is quite pretty (although doesn't show up very clearly in this pix). However, snow on this young lad in the park ...

... really disturbs me! I know, I know ... he's a statue not the real lad. It's just that I look at the statue and REMEMBER the real lad, and my Mummy/Nana hormones fire, and I just want to wrap a warm cloak around him. To me, he'll always be the cheery one-legged youth who sat on the hospital ward floor and read comic books to a gaggle of children who were also battling cancer ... my son Robert included.

Directly across the street from this statue is this little soup and sandwich spot ...

... which boasts THE BEST SOUP IN TOWN. I think they deserve the title. Their soups are always amazing! I had corn chowder from there last Friday, and I couldn't have made it any tastier myself. The couple who runs LADLES are really nice. If you're ever in PG, I highly recommend a lunch hour stop here.

Now it's Monday, and the snow is gone again. Sometimes winter makes a couple of trial runs up here before it settles in for the duration. I think I'll take a pair of boots to the office tomorrow ... JUST IN CASE!