Fuel Pump Blowout

My car has been such a great little car (thanks Sage), but lately it has been costing me lots of $$$. It is getting up there in km, but it's happening all at once. Apparantly, it is almost never heard of to blow out the fuel pump on my car, but the mechanic says that if it's fully drained or you drive it on empty too much it overheats. Why do we not learn about this???? I figure I'll just go to get gas less often as I have other things to do. So a lesson to myself and all you other non-car-mechanical people out there - don't drive on empty even if you know it will go for quite a while and are near lots of gas stations. The pump cost isn't worth it.

Kits pool

You know it's the start of summer when Kits pool opens for the year. It was exciting to be in the really, really long pool with a view of the mountains with every other breath. Everyone there was so excited and chatting with more people than normal because of this. Just had to share that I was excited for it to open and may even join the swim club there this year. Would have to get up early though. I'll see.

Tour Guiding in Vancouver

This past long weekend I was lucky enough to have my friend, Jamie; James; Matear - depending on how well you know him - out from the big TO (aka center of the universe). He had been here before, but there's so much to see. Of course I enjoy the outdoor pursuits of the West Coast which is why I love it here. This appreciation just gets enhanced when I'm showing others around that don't live here. We went hiking up the Chief in Squamish and the clouds were high enough that we caught a great view of the inlet and valley (click on the link to get a pic). My ankle didn't feel to badly with high-topped boots and a lot of tape. The next day we went kayaking in Deep Cove with lessons from George, the expert paddler extraordinaire. It must have been feeding time for the seals as there were plenty of them around. It was great to get back doing things that I hadn't done this year and even better to have my appreciation for what's around me enhanced. Can't wait to do more!!!!

Grind victim

Yes, I became a Grouse Grind victim this week. Nothing serious. I hiked up the long staircase of a hike and then was coming down for some downhill training. I was feeling good on the way down so thought I'd try to go a little faster. Halfway down I rolled my ankle and had some really good crunching sounds happening. Serves me right for getting cocky with the trail. Had to get down so I just went carefully. Xrays were negative - yeah!!! I wouldn't care so much if I didn't have my 25km trail race next weekend. It would be my first running race in a few years and I was looking forward to it. Not sure if I will do it - will decide next week as it's getting better fairly quickly. Oh well. A couple of perks of my job are the free physio and also working with people with way more pain than me who can't work, etc reminds me that my race is so insignificant and I felt better having that perspective. So careful of roots and rocks and, most importantly, don't get cocky.

Maya Angelou

Last night I went to see Dr. Maya Angelou speak about her unique life as part of the Unique Lives speaker series at the beautiful Orpheum theater. She is an anazingly accomplished woman in so many different areas with 60 Doctorates. She has helped the African-American culture along with other racism issues. She has empowered women with her famous poem "Phenomenal Women". Now, I have never been big into poetry, but to hear her read her own poem, with her strong, emotive voice and the depth of her exerpiences, I did not want her to stop.

The theme of her talk was a 'Rainbow in the Clouds'. To remind us of when someone has shown up to be a rainbow for us and even though it may have been a small, seemingly insignificant thing at the time, what changes it may have done for us long term. We can do this for others and we have no idea how far reaching a word of encouragement or whatever it is, can go. And how that person can then affect another person and so on.

She also made a funny point that we may yearn to have the life of someone else as it may look great from the outside, but we don't know what goes on day to day for them. She wanted us to celebrate our own unique life as no one else would want it anyways. Our life is shaped just for us and noone else. So go enjoy and celebrate your own unique life.

Tipping Point

I just got finished listening to the audio book the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. It's a book on his theories on how epidemics are spread. This is not just with disease, but with exploding business growth and marketing. He looks at the success of Hush Puppies, Sesame Street, Airwalk shoes and the rapid decline of crime in New York City. He explains his three main reasons of why these became successful. I won't get into the details here especially since I know nothing about marketing. One of the things I can take into my life came from how the crime declined in New York considerably. It started with the subway system and focussed on no graffitti and cracking down on fare beaters. These seemingly small things gave the message that bigger crimes wouldn't be tolerated if the smaller ones weren't and the physical environment was better. This did significantly decrease the subway crime which then they took this principle to the city. Would bigger things in my life change if I love my environment, which I already do, and if I take a couple of smaller things in my life and tweak them a little, would it change something bigger for me. I may start watching the little things I spend $$$ on and see what happens. Anyways, the book was interesting and if you are interested in marketing, it's been a bestseller, so you may gain insight for your own business.

Housing Bubble

As most of us have seen, the housing prices, especially here in Vancouver, have been soaring up and up. This is just been starting to level off presumably since the interest rates have started to climb and possibly just affordability. Also, here in Vancouver, there is an abundance of condos being built and possibly an oversuppply at the moment. Warren Buffet was recently quoted as to say that housing market is slowing down especially in the hottest areas. I would have to say that Vancouver would be one of them for Canada especially with the Olympics buzz. He also says that with banks having made it ridiculously easy to get a bigger mortgage that soon people may not be able to afford their homes shortly. Since I haven't bought a place yet, I'm going to wait and see what happens in the next couple of months and be ready to catch some good deals on the downturn if it happens.

Yamuna body rolling

I just got a Yamuna ball to do some body rolling on. This is not a kinky thing unless you are into pain. Ball rolling has been around for a couple of years, but I have just recently tried it and a lot of my clients rave about it. There are different size balls you can get for different body parts and with gravity and lying/sitting on it, the ball can dig right in and release muscle and fascia really well. You can get the right spot yourself to release tension and the ball gives enough pressure so it's kind of like self-massage. There is a specific way to do it and going to a class would be the best way to learn it. I highly recommend it for anyone.

Fraternities

I just recently heard of a new kind of fraternity initiation. I envisioned a half-shaven head, one eyebrow missing and a whole lot of alcohol - Animal House like. Was I surprised to hear of a 4 day weekend with almost no talking, introspection and specific readings!!! Some of this was frat talk, but it was to think about yourself and your life. I thought this was absolutely amazing!!! Especially to do this at such a young age! It reminded me of my retreat a couple of weeks ago. It would have been so useful to have done this years ago and to be "forced" to sit with yourself. It's still a hard kind of initiation that's for sure, but one that's meaningful and with insights that you can take into your life. I won't say which frat for privacy sakes, but it certainly makes me respect it more.

Eagle Bluffs

Yesterday, George and I went hiking around Eagle Bluffs in West Vancouver. It is the start of the famous Baden-Powell trail and the Kneeknacker trail race. It's a beautiful rugged trail which then gets steep over a scree slope, but with great views!!! Right now, with the Olympics coming in 2010, road between Whistler and Vancouver is being widened and safer since there are a lot of deaths on it every year. This has been much needed and the Olympics are just making it happen now. Part of the widening would be to take out part of Eagle Bluffs and alter the trail. There is a HUGE protest going on there by the locals. A big camp is set up with tents, portapotties, etc. Not knowing all of the facts fully, this is may not be an accurate opinion. I don't like seeing the environment altered as I love it and think it should be protected, but for those who know the area, that part of the highway is a bottleneck especially with the ferry traffic right there. So to have that little section of the highway slow to flow of a lot of traffic doesn't make sense to me. The other side of the highway is residential so they would have to widen on the bluff side. Noone seems to have a problem with the blasting on the sections fo the road that noone lives on, but it is still the environment. There may be a lot more to it, but this is just what I think.