A headline I read online, from one of the local news outlets, caught my attention: "2017 Homicides in Vancouver on the Rise", or something to that effect. Thinking it might be worth reading, I checked it out learning that there have been 17 homicides here in 2017. No wonder a local homicide gets plenty of attention! Contrast that to the 84 so far this year in Orlando, and you'll get a notion why I feel so safe here.
For the record, there are still beautiful leaves to be seen, they have not all fallen, but lots of them sure have. The Japanese Maple trees are outstanding with such intense color it is hard to imagine.
The park workers, on the other hand, are working mighty hard to keep the lawns mostly leaf free.
In spite of the dire weather prediction for the week, we've had no rain until today, and what we are having is very minimal; good news for me as I'm taking Baxter to the vet in about 45 minutes. I'm not wishing it to be true, however, there must be some explanation as to why he is peeing all of the time and sometimes on the floor. Tuesday morning, waking up to his yapping, I began to walk onto the kitchen tile, only to put my bare foot into a puddle. Then when I did take him down in the dark, I stepped in some other dog's poop wearing my Uggs with the ridged soles. Not the best way to start a day! It matters not how often we take him down, he still manages to wet his pad continually. In other words, this is not much fun, to say the least.
Because I thought I'd only have one day of good weather, Monday I took the train out to Richmond to Fabricana. Plenty of red trees there to ogle.
Along the ride we passed this place, River Rock Casino.
Which begs the question, why should you care? And most of you won't, but for those amongst my readers who want to know more about this place we are calling home for a year, the River Rock Casino is a hot bed of money laundering, and I do mean big time. There is a lot more to this story but for a primer,
here's a link to the Vancouver Sun. Part of the whole, hiding Chinese money from their government, turning it into Canadian dollars to purchase wildly expensive real estate. (think all the towers here) Very complicated, but no city that looks like this one seems to come by it honestly.
Instead of walking only through the parking lot of the mall in Richmond, this time I walked through the mall. Now here is quite the Chinese gift shop for you.
That is some serious red for you!! This leaf from downstairs would fit right in, wouldn't it?
So, I've been making a coat, and most of it went pretty well, however, the lining sleeves about kicked my butt. I was going crazy trying to make them fit. I spent almost all of Tuesday working on it until I remembered Bruce was coming home from Seattle, so I probably should think about dinner. Heading along Homer Street on my way to Urban Fare, the fancy nearby grocery store, I was put on hold for a few moments because, well, just another day in Vancouver.
Looking at the photo now, call me a liar, looks like we had rain on Tuesday after all. You are asked to stop while the scene is filmed, then when they call CUT, you just mosey on through, and if you are like most folks, take a photo or two.
The cab, by the way, had all of the windows broken out and on my return trip towards home, one of the "assistants" was sweeping it all up. I saw Kate near our building, mentioned something about it, and she said it was for a television show called, The Flash, and that they were supposed to be blowing up cars that day. I did notice some smoke in the air, so perhaps while I was shopping? What she also mentioned was that they are moving back to Toronto, her husband having quit his job in Vancouver. She is stressed about the weather there, but is happy to be returning to their old neighborhood, presumably with more room for their two toddlers. I'm a wee bit bummed as she is one of only a few folks that I've talked to more than once. That is, aside from the ladies at DressSew, who are somewhat amused at how often I've been there. Including yesterday trying to solve a little problem with the coat. Along the way, well, you guessed it, another production!
They use those fluorescent signs with fake names on them to guide workers to the set. You may recall that the ones used for Dead Pool II said Caribbean Beach. That was a stretch, to say the least.
So, it all came down to the buttonholes. I spent all of yesterday morning, hemming the coat, lining, and lining sleeves by hand. I'd made several sample buttonholes on some scrap fabric, both to check the thickness of the fabric, and get the size right. Well, not so fast Gail. I marked them all, sat down to sew, and that is when things fell apart. Not any amount of coaxing could make the buttonholer sew through all of the layers at the top spot. Gingerly, I ripped it all out, wondering what to do next. At DressSew I bought a large snap that is in the shape of a flower, very cute, but at six dollars each, I decided that wasn't going to work, times five. So, I came home with the notion to fake the first buttonhole, sew the button on the front side and the snap behind it. Now, onto the next four buttonholes which should have been a breeze, but was not. More like a tornado. I made two horrible ones, changed the machine settings, and finally made two good ones. Channeling my inner Bruce, the most diligent worker I've ever known, I patiently ripped the first two out and tried again. Success at last!
Ignore the wet spot on the bottom left, the iron here leaks like mad. In what I'm becoming accustomed to, the Kwik Sew pattern fits perfectly. I think it looks better in person, but perhaps I'm biased after spending some serious time with it. :)
Unrelated, I finally got a shot of the black squirrels I see now and again.
Also unrelated to anything else, they love protesting here, there are walks and protests against something most weekends. So much so, the Vancouver Museum
has an exhibit on the history of protesting during the last 100 years! This boat owner seems to be in keeping with tradition with his sign saying, No Tankers No Pipelines.
Well, we made it to and fro from the vet office. Carrying Baxter in my arms, as he would never be able/want to walk about six blocks or so, I made it uphill and back just fine. The vet was super sympathetic and nice, ordering blood work and urine tests. She noticed another fatty tumor on his leg, aside from the growing one in his groin, however, she doesn't think those have anything to do with the mess we are in. No pun intended. Although I should know by now that things aren't cheap here, I still was shocked when the bill was $430 without any medicine. They will call in the next two days with the results, and we'll go from there. Clearly, peeing 10 or so times a day is not normal, not to mention it is a huge pain for us.
Okay, so it is dark now, the sunset was at 4:38, with the sunrise at 7:15. Orlando has 1 1/2 more hours of daylight at this time of year. Wow! I do remember Matt saying it gets dark really early in London so being situated at nearly the same latitude I am now experiencing something our son has been doing for the last 11 years. Hard to imagine he's lived abroad for so many years.
Garments made to date:
4 blouses
2 skirts
1 pair of pants
3 knit turtlenecks
1 overcoat
It feels really good to be improving my skills, while at the same time having clothes that are unique.
More to come, for sure.
yours truly,
Gail
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