I needed that, not a retrospective

The last few days we escaped the brutal cold of Calgary to the damp cool of Vancouver to stay with my buddy Susi and her BDD Marco. It rained and was cloudy, of course, but the point was not to get a tan. The point was to see them again, do a bit of tourist stuff, and relax. Especially that last one.

We slept in lots. On the various days we visited Granville Island, went for a walk in Lynn Canyon, visited Horseshoe Bay where I almost became the coat whisperer, did some snowshoeing on Mt Seymour, and wandered through Gastown. Plus lots of the relaxing and chatting. To say nothing of eating and chatting, and getting a tour of various parts of Vancouver. Deep Cove looks like a very nice place to live, if you've got lots of money.

I've discovered I love snowshoeing! It was something totally new to me, and liked it enough to do it more. Maybe SportChek sells snowshoes. I'll have to try something else new this year and see how that goes.

We got back last night, and I was rubbing Susi's nose in the difference between a real airport and whatever it is they have in Vancouver where the planes land. That part goes well enough, but they haven't mastered reuniting passengers with their baggage. We probably waited a half hour or more, horrified at the dimensions of one particular male gut that wandered in. Back in Calgary we had our luggage in hand 8 minutes after getting to the carousel, and we didn't stop to go to the bathroom along the way. Susi's texted response to that news - "********!" Our wonderful neighbors had come to pick us up so we even had a ride in a warm car all the way home. That was very nice of them! Thank you John and Verna!

The cats were pretty happy to see us again. They have been very well fed, the little porkers. We'll have to be cutting down the quantities a bit for them. Unlike one one cat I've had that wanted out as soon as we got home, then in, then out, then in again, these two were right there for some attention.

We did not stay up till midnight. I didn't even consider it. We were up starting the new year at the regular time. Shortly after that I was on on my bike for an hour spin. Moderate effort to get back into it. I pondered making fitness resolutions or setting a race schedule, but ended up deciding to wing it this year. I want to increase my overall fitness envelop, and try to work on my love handles, but at the moment I have no idea exactly what path that will take. Sort of like the rest of my life, in other words.

Plus I want to work on other stuff. I haven't been reading as much as I'd like to. I've been dabbling with Evernote on the iPad, and I'd really like to get a good grip on it. There's a ton of stuff it can do that I think will help me get better organized. Plus other stuff.

Always good to start the year with a rant.

One thing that pisses me off this time of year is the various obit columns starting "We lost...". If they were lost we'd get up a search party, wouldn't we? These are famous people after all. We can argue if they are important later. The point is they died during the year. Some young, some so old we'd forgotten they were still alive. Some peacefully with their families, some in a bizarre or outré way.

Every single person that has ever been born here is either alive now, or has died. So why can't we say so? It's not like it's a remarkable occurrence, or something we don't understand. Instead, we try to "soften it". We say: became an angel, belly up, bit the big one, bought the farm, called to heaven, cashed in, checked out, cocked up his toes, deceased, demised, departed, expired, finished, gave up the ghost, gone into the west, gone, in a better place, in repose, kicked off, kicked the bucket, lost, meeting their maker, no longer with us, paid Charon's fare, passed away, passed on, promoted to glory, pushing up daisies, resting in peace, run down the curtain, shuffled off the mortal coil, six feet under, snuffed it, snuffed out, sprouted wings, stiff, succumbed, terminated, wandering the Elysian Fields, went to his reward, went to sleep, with his ancestors, and no doubt there are many more.

WHY??? Why can't we just say they died? Adding in "of xxx" is usually what people also want to know, but can't really ask. Sometimes that leads to family pain. But it doesn't really matter. There are a great many ways to die, but the end result is the same. Let's just say so.

Here's some photos from the last few days.

Linda, leaving Susi in her snowy wake. I have mentioned there is video of Linda leading us all. Still working on getting that into the blog.

Lynn Canyon has a little pool with the most astonishing emerald green water. Very inviting, if you didn't know the water was THIS close to being ice.

On the way to the little pool there is a suspension bridge. It's a long way down.

Here's a screen shot of me and Linda that I stole from Susi's Facebook page. I should have brought sunglasses but forgot.

Susi is careful about what she eats. The smoothie was nothing special, but whatever this is looks so yummy I'd have eaten it.