10-4-6

I'm not one to generally be starstruck. There are few famous people I would like to meet. If I were to be a fan of someone it would be a fan of their work, not necessarily the person. I would have liked to have met Salinger though.

10-4-5

10-4-4

"I found one. I found an Easter egg!"

10-4-3

It's getting easier and easier to miss days. I'm not sure that is a good thing.

10-4-2

My new "little" camera takes better pictures than any "little" camera I've ever owned. But with a picture like this in contrast to the rare photographs I find with my "big" camera (yesterday and the day before) the difference in quality is like a punch in the nose.

10-4-1

I wonder if that's true.

10-3-31

There are a number of cars that show up on here. I'm not sure why that is.

10-3-30

Seriously. It makes me smile ear to ear. And then, there it was, the book. I had to have it. I had to own it, if such a thing was possible to own. It truly is a beautiful thing.

10-3-29

I used to live in an apartment with the most beautiful painting on the wall. The painting was all greens with dashes of yellow and black and it was huge. The colours were streaks across the canvas, blurry, and moving. I might be making this up, but the person who owned the painting, she told me her sister painted it and I'm not sure who titled the painting but I think one of the two of them conspired to call it "A Drive in the Country in the Spring" or something similar. We were both from rural Ontario and both of us had spent at least some time in the back of a car with our faces pressed against the windows looking at the countryside whipping by. Anyone who has done similar and seen the canola just coming into bloom will understand just how perfect the painting was. I wish I had a photograph of that painting.

10-3-28

There Be Lions. This would be the name of my new band, if I had a new band, which would imply I had an old band, which I didn't, and I don't even play an instrument with any prowess, but if I had a new band it would be called There Be Lions.

10-3-27

Home is where the heart is.

10-3-26

10-3-25

It's in moments like this that it all makes sense. I never planned on procreating. It was an accident. And I'm sure her mother had a hand in this somehow but as we got ready to go to daycare this morning I looked down at the sidewalk and asked, "what's going on?" "I'm keeping your seat dry" she said in response. And there she was standing above my bike seat with an umbrella and it all made so much sense all at once.

She "borrowed" my camera before that and took the picture below. "I took a picture of Sophie" she said. "Yes you did." I responded. ? She took such a perfect photograph.

10-3-24

And then, poof, they were gone. There were artifacts that would slowly disappear too. The ash of the fire pits would wash away, the murals that had been painted on the wall in the background have already been painted over. It may be like it never happened.

I contemplated once that I might be a creative writer, that my stories would have some slim entertainment value to a select few and that particular small audience might have been all that mattered. One of the stories I contemplated was about a man who took photographs of things that disappeared, or rather, the things he took photographs of disappeared. It wasn't intentional, and over time he realized it happened quite frequently and he actually became somewhat afraid to take photographs any more. He had to fight with the sense of satisfaction taking a good photograph afforded him and the idea that he might be responsible for the demise of the very beautiful things he chose to take pictures of. He became particularly afraid of taking photographs of people but there were moments when smiles were utterly irresistible and he would cross his fingers, his pinky and his ring finger, as he took the photograph in hopes of protecting his subject, like he didn't really mean it as he released the shutter, like it didn't count because of the crossed fingers.

Maybe I'll write that story one day. Maybe I already have.

10-3-23

Odd Lots. Leftover spaces. Improbably places. If you look closely you'll see a shared little space with a small deck sandwiched in between the two buildings. The light well is required for any number of reasons but to bridge the gap between property lines with a shelter pushes a new boundary. The property line itself is interesting, the building pushing as close to it to maximize its volume, to be the most building it can be, while shrinking away as much as possible to pull light into itself, making itself a better building. It's an interesting relationship, this push/pull/bridging. So chock full of metaphors for me right now I don't know where to start.

10-3-22

Tent City was located at 58 West Hastings and was put together to protest the lack of affordable housing in this city. I can attest to that fact having bought one of the most affordable homes in the entire city and not being able to sustain it without renting the basement out. There were legal orders and rushes to find homes for people and all that good stuff and in the end there were a couple of hold outs who would rather live on the street than be given a place to live. Over a few days even that small number dwindled and now there are maybe three lonely tents in the middle of that vacant lot propped up on shipping skids and tarped to keep them dry, and an urban dweller's version of an SUV in the form of a shopping cart parked out front. I don't know how long it will be before the black helicopters and windowless vans swoop in to clean out the last of the squatters. A day? A week?

10-3-21

Cora and Chris Burnette of Vancouver's The Burnettes.

10-3-20

I had dinner with my good friend Dave in Calgary. His generosity has always been appreciated but this was extra special. He's got a bit of a Scotch habit and he opened up his liquor cabinet for us on Saturday night. It's a better stocked bar than most high end restaurants and never had I tasted so many brilliant Scotches in one sitting. And the meal was amazing, and to finish off the night was a 50 year old Cognac. Brilliant. Thanks Dave. You're a gem.

10-3-19

The day was a blur. And then it was gone.

10-3-18