My Wet Coast Life

After the lack luster first weekend of July is over and Mother Nature still not giving us a summer to remember. After a not so great June-uary, I seem to be rusting instead of tanning. Looking outside at another overcast day and temperature sitting around 15°C, I look east to Ontario and Quebec who are currently experiencing a hot, humid and smoggy heat wave. Now living on the wet coast, we tend to always get cooler weather compared to the B.C. interior and prairies mainly due to cool ocean breezes keeping us in check. But every so often the wind dies down and we get the nice hot weather and looks like that is coming in 1 day for us.
Now I prefer love the hot weather. Due to my lack of insulation, you can still find me wearing pants or layers in 20°C+ weather when others are sweating and pealing off all their clothes. So i decide to go check our weather and see if the weather is gonna get any warmer and sunnier.

To my surprise, it looks like we are about to get our first heat wave of 2010! WooHoo! Both Environment Canada and Weather Network show the heat is on the way!
After calming down from the shear excitement that the sun will be out and the temperatures nice and warm, I realized I live in Rain-couver where people loooove to complain about the weather. Whether it is raining too much or not enough, someone has to be a weather hater. As for me, my body works like a human barometer and whenever the weather is inclement, my body hurts. I can now somewhat accurately predict weather based on pain and its location. Now why do I mention this?? Well sun and high heat tend to be the only times I do not hurt which means little to no pain medication for my bad back = Win.

Now for my unfortunate family and friends who tend to “die” when the temperature goes over 25°, fear not for i have put together some tips and tricks to beat and deal with the gorgeous tropical weather on the way.

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It's been awhile since my last post due to being busy with work and other things. But now i feel the need to share my 2 bits on another issue that irks me and finally measures are being introduced to reduce/eliminate drunks on the road and severely penalize the ones that still drive drunk.

British Columbia has finally stepped up to take on the drunk drivers and impose stiffer penalties. This week they announced tough new measures to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road and implement stiffer penalties for those that think they are OK to drive after having a few brews, when they are in fact not OK, and get caught.

I have had friends, and most likely you do to, that still stupidly get behind the wheel after a few when they should have made a smarter choice for getting home and luckily they are still around. Unfortunately, sooner or later, their luck will run out or maybe already has. Sometimes my friends or I were able to stop them by taking away their keys. But every so often, some felt obliged to refuse or even go to the extent of offering "we''ll fight for it". Some battles are just not worth it. You can't win against someone aiming for top spot on the Darwin awards. I just hope they don't take out others in that process. We can only hope.

Everyone that drives and has a wobbly pop or two, or three, has multiple alternate options and choices to make. They can get designated driver, take a cab, call a sober friend, stay overnight, take transit and one of the best services of all, Operation Red Nose, a volunteer safe ride home service. That's 6 alternate options compared to getting behind the wheel but alas, ignorance fueled by alcohol is bliss.

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With the recent massive quakes hitting Haiti and repetitively battering Chile, a couple decent shakers for Japan and South Pacific, we have been lucky to dodge the bullet in the Pacific Northwest. And that appears like it is going to change...

Around 1 week ago, i wrote about earthquakes and the frequency that they are occurring, how the Northwest so far has dodged the bullet and if British Columbia is in line for the next big one. In the last couple days, we have had two 4+ magnitude quakes of the coast of Oregon and now this morning, Los Angeles gets hit with a 4.4 magnitude quake. Luckily, no reports of damage or injuries have been reported.

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I woke up this morning to find out another large earthquake has struck somewhere on terra firma. The unlucky recipients today are the citizens of Turkey. A strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Eastern Turkey Monday morning. So you are probably thinking what's the big deal? Earthquakes happen all the time and as long as it is not in my back yards, i will be sublime about it. Now are you sure about that?

Living on the wet coast, we live in the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is a 40,000km horseshoe ringed shape area, in the basin of a Pacific Ocean, where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

We experience earthquakes all the time in this area, but most tend to be small enough that they are rarely felt. But since 2010 began, at least in my opinion, I have noticed we have been seeing much larger quakes and more frequent and most of them were around the Ring of Fire. All you need to do is check out the U.S. Geological Survey's website showing worldwide earthquakes with magnitude of 4.5+ in the last 7 days to see there have been a few...

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After writing about the hateful Gil LeBreton's article comparing us to Nazi Germany, i assumed it would be the last attack i would hear or read for awhile against Canadian Pride. I guess with the Olympic's "modified" version of our anthem at the openning and closing ceremonies has given our own government an idea. Our "wonderful" Conservatives, 3 days after the Olympics ended and after proroguing Government for a second year in a row, announced in the throne speech it will ask Parliament to examine the original wording of the Canadian anthem. They want to change O'Canada lyrics. What? Come on....do they have nothing better to do than waste tax payers dollars to change our anthem? It was proclaimed Canada's national anthem on July 1, 1980, 100 years after it was first sung on June 24, 1880. Now for those unfamiliar with the lyrics and to show the current version adopted pursuant to the National Anthem Act in 1980, it reads as follows:

"O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North, strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee."

The basis for the change is the phrase "In all thy sons command" has some women calling for a gender-neutral version. Now wasting our tax dollars, they will create a parliamentary committee to study whether the phrase "In all thy sons command" should be changed to "Thou dost in us command", which the Prime Minister’s Office says is the wording from the original version, which they are at least correct on that.

Now I understand it was the original wording, BUT you need to keep in mind the version on which the official English lyrics are based on was written in 1908 by Mr. Justice Robert Stanley Weir. Key word is BASED ON. By the way, the French lyrics remain untouched to this day. Even Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff doesn’t object to a more "gender-sensitive" anthem, but said the government should take serious steps to improve the status of women. WOW, Liberals are agreeing with the Conservatives. Well if that is the case, why not join forces and spend the money where it will be useful and have a much larger visible and beneficial impact? Can we say health care? what about education?

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