15-10-29

I have never seen so many fire trucks in one place. And I don't know how this house didn't just fall down, though it's likely that it will be knocked down when all this is done. This photo was before it got bad. The far side of the roof was in heavy flame when I arrived. The front was doused with a high pressure jet of foam a few times. The flames got bigger, and then smaller, and then they disappeared, and then they came back. The house was in good shape before today. It wasn't a boarded up old house waiting for a fire to facilitate redevelopment. Time shift Street View suggests it was fairly heavily renovated 6 years ago.

I have a back up hard drive with all my digital photos on it and I know where my passport is and where a camera or two is, but I can't imagine the loss of a full on house fire. All we are is all we have. I don't mean that in a material sense, not specifically, but in a spiritual sense. Photographs are memories. Artifacts of our past are proof of our existence. The value of the artifact isn't in its resale value, but in your spiritual connection to it. To that end the material object might be a ratty old teddy bear you had as a kid. It might be worth a buck in a garage sale if you're lucky, but the memories caught up in the felted fur of that proverbial teddy bear are priceless.

This house burns down. Teddy bears are the only victims. Poor teddy bears.

15-10-28

We had a long talk about doing things we want to do and things we don't want to do. She did a bunch of stuff she didn't want to do and in the end we got to do something she did want to do. I wanted to do it too so, good.

15-10-27

Broccoli soup. Delicious with a bit of goat's cheese and some pepper.

15-10-26

The lot was leveled recently. It's had a fence around it for as long as I've lived here. It was mostly tall grass and garbage until a couple of days ago. It's sandwiched between 4+ lanes of main thoroughfare and a bike path and a ravine with a train running in it. The lot is a triangle with no access other than off the busy street and a quirky, dead end street.

I often think it would make a good lot for a third year architecture studio project with a program of social housing or transitional housing. Or hospice housing. 4 stories of programmed housing space.

The sun is getting low. 2 more months of shorter days. 4 months from the longest day. The light is good, if you can find the light. It beat me home tonight. I could see its back end as it ran away today. Barely.

15-10-25

Like. A. Weed.

15-10-24

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15-10-21

Every so often...

15-10-20

15-10-19

On the day we elect a new Prime Minister in Canada I found myself about 30 pages into this book. A change of leadership should bring hope and optimism for a brighter future, but this book fixed that brief moment of optimism. We've got some work to do, and some middle class tax breaks aren't going to help much. The election speeches seem so full of rhetoric. Change is good. Hopefully. Because we need change.

15-10-18

It was suggested this plate could be found at Costco. I like it, but not enough to get a membership. Maybe knowing they are popular enough to be found at Costco is a bit of a deterrent as well. But I liked it when I saw it tonight in all its kitchiness.

15-10-17

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15-10-13

15-10-12

I did.

15-10-11

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15-10-9

Inside the city limits of Vancouver is this abandoned driving range. And now there's a hole in the fence. I may go adventuring there tomorrow with a proper camera, and more time than I had today.

15-10-8

Making a break for it.

15-10-7

Shayne Koyczan.

I should just sell my cameras; Eggleston.

15-10-6

Fall.

15-10-5

The deal was, as long as she was reading, face in a book, no snacks, no playing with the cat, no breaks, she didn't have to clean her room. She read for an hour. Messy room be damned.

15-10-4

More here.

15-10-3

15-10-2

Television...

15-10-1

I could get into details. There's not much point.

15-9-30

Two photos. Either would do. Both are better. I don't particularly like either, but like them both enough. I like the understatement of a beauty salon sign. The relentlessness with which we bulldoze Vancouver is always of concern. I'd like to see "Beauty Salon" stenciled onto the side of a bulldozer. "Removing Vancouver's warts, one at a time."