Vacuum

I was away for three days, and something wonderful has happened – our home got a vacuum! We were planning on borrowing or renting one but now we have our very own. Much thanks to whoever got it, and much thanks to Nathan for putting time and effort into grazing the layers of shiizen off of our floor, for which he is forgiven for leaving that greasy green-tan ear plug on my pillow, which was pretty gross.

Our home is looking better and better as time goes by. We have two simple lamps now, a couple wooden shelves, a rug and a couple of paintings. Since the removal of that fuzz, which from above looked like a bacterial colony with a significant housing development program going on, and from ground level looked like another layer of our atmosphere, with floating clouds of disease threatening the life of all those under 3 inches tall, it is even more a place that feels good to be in.


"Whenever there is lost the consciousness that every man is an object of concern for us just because he is a man, civilization and morals are shaken, and the advance to fully developed inhumanity is only a question of time." - Albert Schweitzer

From Burnaby

So this is the longest that I have been away from home. Since I got here that is. Funny how in a couple of weeks this place seems more like home then any place that I have lived in the past while. You’re a special bunch you are, and you know who I mean. Yes you, the one reading this in your black T-shirt, and you two, over there at your desk and reading your book on the couch, snuggled under your blanket and in your woolen sweater.

Things are good over here. They treat me well, make me feel at home and are really awesome folk. See you guys tomorrow.

Move to Vancouver

Top 10 Reasons to Move to Vancouver

1) The fish here are fresh. That means they taste like rotting sea vegetation instead of stale rotting sea vegetation.

2) People here seem to be attempting to reverse the trends of capitalism. I heard of this one group of people who instead of always clambering for more, more, more, were willing to shell out $820 a month for the chance to live simply, in a one room apartment.

3) It’s the best and only place in the world where you can live in B.C. AND get a job!

4) You are 40% less likely to die in a drought.

5) Vancouver gives you the chance to meet lots of friends who you haven’t seen since they moved away from that boring old prairie town of yours.

6) Some people complain that it is always cloudy here but that is a load of crap! I mean, how would they even know that when you can’t see thirty feet in all this fog?

7) If you get tired of the humid, +10 temperatures you are only a twenty minute drive from either some frigid mountain air or an icy northern ocean.

8) Vancouver, when compared to 95% of other Canadian cities, has four times the number of concerts and shows that you can’t afford to go to.

9) Vancouver is the perfect city to expeience a new place but at the same time is familiar enough to prevent you from suffering from too much culture shock; at least if you're from Asia.

10) If you like walking, or even if you don’t, you can walk all the way from the east side of Vancouver to the west side of Vancouver.

A green chair.

Old news:

It is a Saturday morning, and it almost feels like a Saturday morning. It is a week since I arrived here almost exactly to the minute, and I feel fairly settled. Often a week slips by for me without me starting at all the things I need to start at, but I’ve been doing alright.

I am here to do a lot of reading and writing. I want to do at least four hours a day and while I’m not quite there (averaging about three hours) I have been making significant efforts. I have also done a lot of grocery shopping and a little bit of seeing what is around here to do. I will make a to-do-list with everything that I have yet to bother with.

It is raining outside but the kids across the street don’t seem to realize that. They are outside doing whatever ten year old boys do while I stand on our balcony under the overhang watching them.

One of them calls up to his father about something I can’t quite make out. “Fair!” or “Chair!” and then sure enough, out comes Pops onto the third floor balcony and tosses down a green chair. Apparently mission accomplished, the boys grab the chair and run off.

Tuesday, November 1

The sun is a bleach that cleans, whitens, sterilizes, and reduces the landscape. Today it is cloudy, with a sixty percent chance of rain, and while the sky is gray, the trees are greener, gold-er, or more naked as we drive through this old red-brick town.

This morning I forgot to bring my towel to the bathroom, so I was flossing my teeth in front of the mirror as I dried. The funny thing about the bathroom in this little southern home, is that there are two doors to the bathroom. One comes from a normal public space, but another comes from Claire’s roommate’s room; So while I dried, naked, and flossing in front of the mirror I think Claire’s roommate got a bit of a shock.

Poor girl. First, running into a naked stranger in her own bathroom, and if that wasn’t enough, then hearing him and his two friends laughing hysterically in the next room.

I’m on my way back from Tennessee and I feel like life is so abundant, so bursting with significance, with affection and loneliness that I’m not sure what to do with it all. My life is moving again, but it moves so fast. Right now it is 10:30 and we are driving home again. It seems a bit like we just got out of the car, but 9 tired hours from now I will be far from Tennessee. And just as soon I will be with two more people who I care about, for an even more brief period of time. Excitement after excitement with barely time to realize it.

October 27, 2005

I’m on my way to Tennessee. I was supposed to be moving to Vancouver, but that is on hold one more time. My life has been a life on hold for so long; since September 15 I’ve been waiting for everything I need to do. Now I’ve got my passport, I’ve driven at night through the rain at 150, picked up our final team member and at 7:30 on this Thursday morning, it’s my turn to sleep and my life is going again.

Driving is an important part of life. You are both in motion and at rest. You know where you are and where you are going, overcoming Heisenburg’s uncertainty principle. HUP is basically the most interesting thing ever if it wasn’t for a few other really interesting things.

Jason, Brian and I are talking about what we are going to spend money on this trip, and I can’t really think of anything that I want to buy, but you know what? I’m going to spend money, and I might even spend a lot.

Brian’s words were, “working is awesome.” Do you know why? Because you make a lot of money, enough that eventually “cost” starts to loose it’s meaning. For a working man it is no sacrifice to spend money. We realized that we were soon going ot be like old men, like our fathers, for whom cost and need play a calculated role in the face of disposable income and usefulness.

It is true, people to spend to satisfy desire, but I think our production outstrips our desire. Now we are creating desire to use up our boundless energies. All you need to do is give people and excuse to give you money. There are masses of wallets, expense accounts and good credit records begging you to give them something on which to spend themselves. “What can you do? Do something that I think I’ll want and then I’ll pay you!”

I am sick of trying to find new desires. Having bought all I want, and spent twice what I need on food and entertainment, I’m gonna find something else to spend my money on.

Tuesday, October 25

Jillian Wong and I both started thinking about rituals, and about making rituals for our own lives at the same time, in different places. I like that.

I was thinking about something in the morning that involved ordering morning activities, drinking green tea, and maybe some sun gazing, or something like it. I would also like a corresponding bed time ritual.

Jill suggested something about hool-a-hooping in Stanley Park. I like that idea especially now because I managed to get one of those giant rings going for more then two seconds on Sunday. Have you tried hool-a-hooping before? It isn’t as easy as I once thought.

This last Sunday, however, was a magical day. My sisters, brother-in-laws, and nieces and nephews all come over on Sundays so it is always a special day, but this Sunday we all learned to hool-a-hoop. Each family member attempted to waive any expectations of success, telling the rest of the family that they had tried before and never managed to do it. But each member, in succession, successfully managed to looked ridiculous as they gyrated their body, each with their own awkward looking style, and swung the hoop around their hips denying its efforts to fall to their ankles.