NOVEMBER 26 - What's Up With The Bugs and No, I'm Not A Beon

On Tuesday, the bus driver 'forgot' to take a side-trip off Westminster Highway, worrying one young gal who needed to get off at Fraserwood Way. He pretended ignorance as to his route - but I find that hard to believe, especially as he said he did the same thing the morning before. However, it did cut about 10 minutes of my transit time, and for that I was very grateful. And to make the trip even better, as we rolled along, I saw My Eagle swooping over the field near the road, and a few minutes later saw him land on his tree as we rolled by. Well, maybe there were two different eagles, I couldn't really say, but two sightings in a few minutes - whether it was one single bird or two separate ones - raised my spirits slightly.

Since I arrived at work really early, and it was really cold in there, I jacked up the heat and decided to take a stroll to see what was new in the village. There was a film crew around for a couple of days, and this day there were setting up scenes to for later in the morning. This crew, however, was not doing Once Upon A Time, but a new series set to debut in February, I believe. It is called Bates Motel, it is the prequel to the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Psycho, and it will probably end up blaming his mother for everything.  A&E has okayed 10 episodes, most of which are filmed in Fort Langley, but obviously a bit of Steveston will appear every now and then.

And we will see Mr Gold's shop turned into a diner for the early riser - or at least his shop windows.

Farther down the road and up an avenue, I found this store front - and I don't remember seeing it in Once.

And then on the side of the same building this sign appears, which sort of links it to Bates Motel, as Once takes place in Maine and Bates takes place in Oregon. If Norman Bates is in 1991 Oregon, I think I'll play at home, thank you.

And you might think, how does she know the show takes place in Oregon? Because she saw the Steveston-filming-mandatory-vehicle parked on the street - no, not the yellow bug owned by Emma Swan on Once -

- but the orange one with Oregon licence plates (and a temporary BC licence on it's back window.)

So, after another little bit of wandering, I happened to slide into McDonalds to buy a coffee to wrap my freezing hands around, and of course an Egg McMuffin (well, to be honest, a Sausage and Egg McMuffin) to warm my cold tummy. Then it was off to work - past the candy store, where the first Gingerbread House of the season was displayed.

So at work - we had a lot of kids' crappy stuff to unpack, price and put away, one of which is this marble mazey thing - remember them?

But just in case you don't remember, there are instructions written on the box ...

... and if you think you are a famous detective (rather than a middled one) then the one below may prove to be a bit more difficult to figure out.

Now I'm going to see if I can bring that little beon to the DNE position, while downloading Psycho so I get some background information on that good old home boy, Norman.

NOVEMBER 22 - Howard vs the Squirrel

What a great idea, to hang a bird feeder. We are surrounded by trees and bushes, so we see a lot of little birds pecking away looking for food. Since we already had a bird feeder, it was relatively easy for Howard to just hang it from a branch. So nice to watch the chickadees and occasional Stellar Jay snacking while I was doing dishes.

However, this free fly-in quickly became a major attraction for a cute little squirrel. At least, she was cute until she started stealing all the best seeds and peanuts. It was so easy for her to just climb the tree, run on the branch, and crawl down the nice yellow rope to the birdhouse roof - from there it was easy to shimmy onto the wire suet cage on the side and enjoy the suet block, then into the house itself for seeds and nuts.

So Howard changed the rope to wire, as squirrels can't shimmy down wire. I found that was true - this one didn't even attempt it. However, this is when she perfected the jump from limb to roof. I guess she was glad she had nice sharp hanging-on nails so she wouldn't just bounce from the roof to the ground.

Until of course, he moved the birdhouse farther out the limb of the tree,  making a jump virtuously impossible - one would think. But no, after climbing a couple of trees, eyeing all the possibilities of closest trunks, nearest branches - what ones would give the best spring-off points - she found a way.

But did Howard give up? No. He then attached a long and narrow piece of metal to the end of the branch -

- and hung the birdhouse from that.

So, you may wonder, did that work? Nope. Steve came down while he was doing this, and took great joy in running out with legs and arms flying whenever the squirrel landed inside, at one point waving a garden rake madly. I really thought I had caught a better video than this ... but I was laughing so madly it's a wonder I got this much.

And then I had to leave for work, unfortunately. However, when I got home, I saw a big metal pole in the yard - with the birdhouse perched on top. Howard said if I went upstairs I could look into it through the bedroom window. I only wondered how I was ever going to get bird food into it - however, by standing on Howard's bucket and hanging onto the pole, I can just barely manage to waitress this particular restaurant.

And if I ever want to start pole dancing - we're all prepared.

WANTED - a Poem for MOM (03/23/23 - 11/18/10)


Wanted:

a toddler,

a baby of two hearts

wartime poverty tore them apart

sisters and brother,

father and mother

wanted her,

never stopped trying

to find her

to welcome her back

wanted:

a daughter,

to fill up a home

by a woman who offered

a heart filled with love

and the girl grew up safe,

and the girl grew up treasured

for that is the way a mam's love is measured

wanted:

a woman, a lover, a wife

a man from a strange land

found her for his life

and their love never faltered

their memories grew

for that's what comes from

love when it's true

wanted:

a family

a dad and a mom

and that's what God gave us -

their daughters, their sons -

and we grew up with love

always knowing that they

would be there if we needed

a word or a hug

at the end of the day

wanted:

comfort and peace

for two hearts filled with love

apart for so long

now together once more

and comfort and peace

for our hearts filled with pain

when all of a sudden

we're babies again.

NOVEMBER 15 (I think) - Around Around Around She Goes and Where She Stops Nobody Knows

 When I opened my eyes this morning, I noticed the sun trying to sneak through the horizontal blinds on my bedroom window, and knew I'd have no excuses not to have a Breehy kind of day. However, the air was really cold - all the little children on their way to school looked like they were smoking - so I thought I'd just wait a while and see if the sun warmed up the Earth a bit before I went. 

Well, as you can see, I guess I should have waited a little longer.

However, the sky was brilliant blue, only marred by the trail of jet planes on their way to exotic places.

I decided not to go on a long bike ride (HA!) and headed down to Bear Creek Park to see if the girl salmon were still flicking their tails at the boy salmon, and yes, indeed they were. There were several by the first Salmon Walk stop, but the day just wasn't the best to take pictures - sun shining and dappling on water, making it difficult to see, let along photograph, them. So I just brought Breehy on the rest of the trails, finally covering all the paths in the park.

Hmm. Two paths converged. One obviously led to a busy street (probably 88, but what do I know? Stay tuned and you'll find out ... ) and the other, not so well travelled, led to a bridge. Bridge = Water = Salmon. Maybe. So left we went.

Well, not such a great bridge. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a troll lurking underneath.

Not much water, either.

And this trail sorta kinda petered out - I was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable here, so back we go, one more backtrack in a life of backtracks.

Uh uh, no way. Not going that way, either.

We did find our way to another nice little path, wider and more populated. This pretty stream didn't seem to have any salmon in it, but it would have been a nice birthplace for their babies, I would think.

And then it was time for lunch, before I headed home. One of my yummy Blackberry/Blueberry/Coconut Muffins and a thermos of coffee to warm my frozen hands. Sitting here in the sun was lovely. (In case you're wondering why the muffin looks funny, it's because it's missing its top. Burp.)

After my snack, we travelled back through the park to 88 Avenue. Imagine my surprise when I saw the kids in the swimming pool. I wouldn't have thought it was that warm.

As I rode past the track oval, I passed two ladies - one of them asked the other 'Have you ever had fo?'

Now, if this were years ago, I would never have known what fo was. But now, since I'm a city girl in a hugely multi-cultural environment, I do know. It is actually 'pho' and it is Vietnamese noodle soup, and some of it  comes with thin slices of raw meat that you actually cook in the hot broth before you eat it. I've never had it, but will some day.

And of course, we couldn't leave the park without one tree picture.

Now, this is probably where I went wrong, as I decided to ride up 88 Avenue for a bit and see what I could see. Since this is a pretty busy non-bicycle-lane road, I took the sign's advice and stuck to the sidewalk. If I got stopped by an over-zealous policeman all ready to hand out Riding-On-The-Sidewalk tickets, I could just show him this picture.

False advertising ahead. I could see no creek, let alone any salmon, just a huge forest area with a leaf blanket on its floor.

A familiar place came into view - this corner store was where I bought my first East Indian food last summer. However, now I would think twice about eating at a place that also sold bait.

Up the road I go, riding on the level, walking on the incline or whenever I came across pedestrians. I called this number to see if someone could come change the light bulb over the side entrance, but of course, they were busy. Too bad. (Also not true - oh they probably were busy, but I didn't call. I have my own busy boy to do that - even most of the time he's too busy to do stuff too.)

Now, this is where I got my first stomach cramp. Not a good thing when we live on 133 Street. However, I persevered. And I think this is when I maybe took a left turn instead of a right turn - or a wrong turn instead of a left turn - because all a lot of the way was uphill, and it all seemed to go downhill from here.

It seems that even though all the streets and avenues are numbered, when they get in my head, something happens to them -

1                                                                  5                                                                0

                            3                                                                    2                                  8

        4                                       2               

                3                 8                                                                                     7

8                                                   9           6   
- and even though I believed I was getting closer to home - I was definitely not. However, the beauty continued.

Now I probably wouldn't have noticed this strip mall, except I had just passed the Green Timbers Covenant Church, so it was odd to see the Green Timbers Pub not so far away. What I didn't realize at that moment that maybe I was nearing Green Timbers Park, as I was certainly heading in the wrong direction for that particular part of Surrey. Ha.

Well, this is where I decided to take advice, stop, and head back home - then changed my mind at the thought of getting closer to the mountains in the distance ....

The road seemed to morph into a ski-jump. Breehy made it clear she was neither carrying me down, not carrying me up. So stupidly enough, I went Shanks Mare.

Just because I saw mountains in the distance, I wondered if I'd get a beautiful view if I went a little farther. Well. I just found out I had travelled to the very end of 92 Avenue.

So I huffed and puffed up the hill, wondering if the muscles in my thighs would hold out long enough to get back home.

This should have been another clue. Remember the river at Tynehead Park? Serpentine? I really thought I was heading towards the Fraser River and a mountain view, maybe even a bridge. Double HA.

 

These were the wrong mountains. But they are so beautiful, and I was still ignorant of that fact at the time.

So, pedal pedal walk pedal. I finally came across a very familiar looking intersection. Yes, down in the valley, the valley below, was Tynehead Park and Salmon Hatchery. Now that was probably the place to go see salmon - but was I up to going down then up that hill pushing and pulling Breehy? Uh uh, no way. But now I knew how to get home - that wonderful yellow house nestled on the corner hundreds of miles away. Crap.

I decided to cut across to the Greenway, away from the traffic. As I rode along, I came up to two guys walking in the same direction as I was going, so I called out 'Old lady on bike behind ya!' and they separated - one going on the grass on the left, and one going on the grass on the right. I pedalled through - and said, 'I'm not that bad at steering!' They laughed. I pedalled and groaned.

And pedalled I on. And on and on and on. By the time I got to a soft easy chair I was glad to tuck Breehy away for at least an overnight - and I'm sure hoping that I'll be able to walk tomorrow. I have no idea how far I went, as so much of my travels were zipping up one road, down another, and across yet one more. I would think at least 15 km. My legs disagree. They think more like 238 km. Maybe an average of the two would be closer.

NOVEMBER 14 - Hatless Eggs, The Joy of Transit, and Leaves

Here's a little recap of my exciting week (remember to cover your mouth when you Yawn, since one of the causes of yawning seems to be boredom. Just remember that (a) Yawning leads to evil spirits entering your body unless you cover your mouth with your hand, and (b) Yawning is a sign that death is calling you and you must snap your second finger and thumb to stop this, so remember to do both these things so I won't feel responsible for anything bad that could happen to you as you read on.

On my weekly Thrift Store hunt, I found a knitting book that had one neat little pattern - tiny toques for boiled eggs. I didn't want the whole book - so being the smrt person I am, I just took a little snap of the pattern. So I thought.

 Guess my boiled eggs will have to weather the winter hatless.

Now to transit. On warmer days, this jer... gentleman would board, sit on a wheelchair bench, kick off his flipflops and stick his smelly feet up on the seat in front of him. People would stand rather than sit next to these monstrosities. On Monday, he came in wearing sneakers - which he took off, and stuck his dirty-sock covered feet on the bench. I was glad I was on the other side of the bus. Then two older Asian ladies came in, and chattered away on the bench on my side of the aisle - and he started shouting 'Gung Hey Fat Choy' to them, which they ignored. He said, 'Hey, Year of the Goat, right?' and I felt like saying, 'Sounds more like Year of the Jackass.' (Well to be honest, I didn't really think Jackass - but still a two syllable word using the second syllable.)  And then to top it off - he dropped something on the floor and TOLD someone to pick it for him. I would have just kicked it to the back of the bus. By the way, in case you're wondering, the round thing on his lap is a huge tray of sushi, which he proceeded to eat .... with a fork! Ye Gads! A fork, no less.

Tuesday morning's Skytrain ride was also blessed with ignorance. I sat in one of the single seats facing backwards, and a guy sat in the single seat facing sideways right in front of me, so my knees were about 2 inches away from his left side. Got that picture? Ok. He started rubbing the top his head with one hand, while 'MMMMM-ing', then after a few minutes, changed hands and direction. At first I just thought it was a bit strange, but then I wondered if this was something maybe a suicide bomber might do before the final blast. I mean, who would know, right?  In the last two weeks, there was a bomb on the skytrain track and a suspicious package at one of the stations I travel through, so one never knows. However, when he finished his head-rubbing moaning ritual, I stopped pretending not to notice him, and glanced away from my window view to see his forefinger knuckle deep up his nose.

That's when I got up and went farther back in the train, half expecting to get hit on the back of the head with a bloody big booger - which didn't happen, thankfully.

I didn't even know about the bomb on the track until well after the fact - it happened during the tail end of the week while I was enjoying my Day Offs, so didn't affect my trip. But the suspicious package one? If I ever meet the person who pulled that little prank, I'd certainly like to thank him (or her) for that one. I didn't even know there was a suspicious package, and I certainly didn't know the train was bypassing that particular stop. If the Sky Train control centre people had mumbled any newsflashes regarding this change of service, their Miss Othmar voice kept their words from my ears. I'm in such a sleep-deprived daze in the mornings, I rely on my body to tell me when the third New Westminster stop comes along, and I just stumble off the train, down the stairs and in through the open doors of the bus. However, this particular day, when I was waiting for the third stop, I looked out the window - and saw unfamiliar territory. Crap. I had overshot my station, and was on my way to Vancouver. So I had to get off at the new third stop, which was Edmunds,  go across the overpass, and catch the next train heading back the way I had come.

However, now anyone can understand - I don't hate my job - I hate my journeys to my job. However, today I had no journey, as it is the first of my Day Offs.

It was cold again, and I didn't have the energy (or guts) to pull Breehy out of her mild hibernation, so I took   Georgia instead - I had to go to Zellers to return a defective bed spread, and to Pricesmart to get something for supper.

There is still a bit of colour on the way - and some interesting pictures waiting to be 'took.' This tree is completely covered with moss, but still gives life to a myriad of colour and design. Yes, only God can make a tree, that's for sure.

Farther up the road, there's this huge great grandfather of a tree with such interesting textures in its trunk.

When the skyscraper at Central City was built, it was the tallest structure in Surrey. However, I bet the trees in Holland Park will still be there long after the tower is gone.

Another sign of fall - a bunch of leaves plugging up the drainage holes at the sides of the road, causing flooding. So how was I going to cross this little pond without getting my feet or Georgia's contents soggy?

It was a straddling event. Nobody got wet, and nobody got picked up by the nice men in white coats. This angle, taken with my zoom out lens, makes it look like quite an easy straddle, but it was a lot wider than it looks. I was happy my jeans didn't split down the butt.

However, home again, relatively warm (except for my hands and feet) with a pot of pea soup bubbling on the stove and provisions in the larder for supper - corned beef hash and beans. One of Howard's 'Once in a Blue Moon' meals - meaning that's how often he wants to see it. Tough. It's the day before payday.

NOVEMBER 10 - Walking People, Running Salmon

This afternoon, Nikkie and I braved the cold weather (only a shivery 4 degrees), and dragging two kiddies, went on a salmon hunt at Bear Creek Park. 4 species of salmon return to this area to spawn, and this was the right time of year, so even though Someone doubted we would see any, we ignored his comments and off we went.

Before the entrance to the park, we crossed a little stream overpass on King George Boulevard, and look what we saw when we looked down over the fence - two big 'uns trying to navigate the shoals. This was one day I wished I had a Professional Camera with all the bells and whistles - or at least a good zoomer lens - but as with me and all my precious thingies, we did the best we could!

After watching from the sidewalk a few more minutes, we left to cut across the grassy field to the Salmon Trail I had seen a couple of weeks ago. Seems this was a favoured home of the industrious groundhog. I imagine they will soon be hibernating, as we have had signs of frost. Brrr.

See? Signs of frost on the ground. Brrr.

Well, here's the proposed path - we would have travelled it all in a fishy pursuit, but two little rascals weren't as enthusiastic about it as we were. However, we did make it to number 4 (I believe.)

Now, some of these pics are similar to the Where's Waldo books that used to be so popular. But there is at least one little fishy here.

And there are at least 2 here. Believe me, seeing them was a heck more exciting than looking at these pretty awful pictures.

There's a duck here, for sure. I think the salmon swam away. Or maybe the duck ate it.

It doesn't matter if there were any fishes here at all, as this is such a pretty picture.

There's a beauty down below. It's easier to see if you first find the tail (that's the whitish tail-shaped thing at the end) and work your way to the right, sort of lowering your eyes as you go.

Talk about nature's camouflage. The salmons' journey is a true definition of bittersweet. After the eggs hatch in the spring, the babies make their way to the ocean - a large percentage of the 'fry' don't make it. Then when they are mature, they will find their way back to their birthplace - again, a lot don't make it - to spawn, and after they spawn? Well, then they die. But they do have thousands of babies, and I'm sure that comforts them - thinking about the faces of their children.  But it doesn't sound like they got a deal on life, does it, now. However, if If you want a more detailed lesson - click here. Read carefully - there may be a quiz later.

Now here's a good snap! Gotchya!

And here, thanks to Nikkie and her camera, here are two Sockeye salmon - the nice lady watching beside us was very knowledgeable about such things, or we would never have know Sockeyes were red. I guess it's just when they are ready to spawn though, as the ones we buy frozen at the Steveston Fishermen's Dock aren't red.

Now, as I was watching and talking and listening, I didn't realize I had my phone on video camera, so if you can bear with a lot of sleeves, and rails, and fuzzies, you'll see a bit of Nikkie, hear a bit of me, and learn some cool salmon facts from the nice lady we were talking to!

Now, everyone, close your books and get your pencils ready, for here's the Salmon Quiz I warned you about. Good luck!