Pre-Blast-Off Blues: Thursday, March 27th!

A pedestal is as much a prison as any small space. -Gloria Steinem, activist, editor (b. 1934) 

Dear Sir Patrick and Lady Coriander.Thanks for your usual newsy email. Apologies. I thought Ihad opened the Jacquie Lawson card.I remember opening an Xmas card. I must have thought it was the same one.No change since we last talked.Much work to finish off, mostly transport.Lots of singing as usual. Bach Choir and a solo this Sunday in church a negro spiritual. An extra practice for Beethoven ninth symphony tonight. I went to a violin concert with a market research friend last week before my afternoon shift. It was at St Martin and the Fields our usual haunt. V. good as usual. Glad cycling going well. I keep fitish walking and swimming as usual. Must dash to choir. Fondestos.

 

"Jane Jacobs, iconoclastic author of such works as the landmark Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities. Jacobs, in our view, was one of the great original thinkers of our age, who according to architectural critic Inga Saffron 'almost single-handedly launched the movement to stop America's cities from being paved over by highways, housing towers and high-handed urban renewal projects.' Written in 1961, Death and Life was a withering critique of the post-World War II planning establishment, which believed it could cure what ailed America's cities by replacing dense downtown neighborhoods with a monoculture of concrete public-housing towers. Mrs. Jacobs took the then-radical view that cities derived their richness from diversity itself -- their natural if sometimes scruffy mix of people, buildings and commerce. 

Jacobs and Robert Moses!

Her observations were initially derided as the quaint musings of a simple housewife with no academic degree. It didn't help that she was a woman commenting on a largely male profession, or that she wore her hair in a childish page-boy with self-cut bangs and owlish glasses. But Mrs. Jacobs had her revenge. Her revolutionary ideas have been thoroughly absorbed into mainstream thinking while her critics have been discredited with one public-housing implosion after another. A review in the New York Times grandly declared her book 'the most influential single work in the history of town planning.'" The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs, Vintage, 1961

Hi Patrick, You don’t need to use your donor voucher for that event – it is part of the reception invitation. So you can use it another day! Ann
Hi Ann! Thanks so much! Things just keep getting better and better and better! Books, free tickets, wine, caviar! What's next? Cheers, Patrizzio!

P, hope you got a ride in lasterday and dodged the hail. We are just walking out the door, returning from K in the evening Saturday. Have a good trip to OK Noggin yourselves. Cell block 2736 G is now vacated. W

Hi C'lown(a) on the sustainable lam(b)!

Guess I'd better suit upin my rain-proof cat burglar togs and jimmy your back door to grab your malt to replace much of what was downed, here, lasterevening! More anon, but foist...

Hope to sneak in a short "stretch" ride shortly, on Brodie, as both forecast and sky suggest on-going showers. The Milionaires are coming for dinner, arrivng around 5:00 pm to have drinks here with Flamin' and Sarge as they curl at 6:30 pm. Won't be a late night as we are off at 6:30 am next morning. 

As it turns out, we are now going to take our bikes, having decided to let Domestique Coriandre meet us, probably in Okanagan Falls, on Saturday morning. Perhaps a variation of same on Sunday morning, before we head home. At any rate, trust you Interior Monologue cursing The Sisterhood, goes well in The Interior. Fondestos to Warden Kerry. Are you wearing an electronic shackle on your ankle? Might give you extra heft when you kick one of the West Van yappy mutts! Cheers, Dipsy Doodle Dipster Dunn!
Left at about 1:20 pm. No rain but forecast predicted some so I took my Brodie as I didn't want to have wet clip-ons to take upcountry. Seawall to Stanely Park, via Science World for a three Prospect Point Loops. Day turned out to be far drier than yesterday, (not a raindrop to be had!), and sun actually started to shine through heavy overcast as I made my way back from SP. English Bay looked magnificent, as if some molten metal had been drizzled over its surface, ribbons of silver lacing the water, different temperatures of current I suppose. Effect was magical whatever the underlying cause.  Bit of ahead wind on last leg of approach home but I pushed as hard as I could as I wanted to try to bring up AVG from 21.05, reading exiting park, to as close to 22.0 as I could manage. Felt pretty good to reach 51.07 km for AVG 21.7 km/hr over 2:21'26, MAX 53.5 km/hr, given I had far steeper hills to climb on this ride than during yesterday's outing, spread out over far fewer extended flat stretches.

Back home to shower and change and am now waiting for the arrival of The Millionaires. Time to set the table so must away. Cheers, Patrizzio! 
 Dear Allen Soroka,

Thanks for signing our action alert, "Please Protect Wild Thompson River Steelhead in the IFMP" Will you take a second to help the cause by asking your friends to sign too? There's a sample email below that you can forward to your friends. Thanks again -- together we're furthering protections for our native Salmon and Steelhead. Native Fish Society
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Note to forward to your friends:

Hi! I just signed the Native Fish Society's petition "Please Protect Wild Thompson River Steelhead in the IFMP". It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link:

http://alerts.nativefishsociety.org/campaign/30-please-protect-wild-thompson-river-steelhead-in-the-ifmp?token=3600&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition  Thanks! Allen Soroka

Hi Big Al! I signed the petition and posted it on my Facebook page. Buona Fortuna! Cheers, Patrizzio! 

Hello IHOP Man! Just a quick note to say how much we enjoyed our wonderful breakfast and seeing you and your lovely wife and difficult brother, after all these years! I do hope we can accept your generous invitation for another breakfast in the not too, too distant future. Just to warn you, I will probably be ordering steak since you are paying! All the best for now, from Clara, Dusty and Corinne. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Sir James and Lady Patrizzia!

I'm impressed with your messaging, Sir James! Keep it up! Not sure if we've been to St Martin and the Fields. Usually frequent St Martin in the Fields, our usual haunt! Been a busy week with spotty, rainy weather. Back home to shower and change, after my Stanley Park jaunt, and await the arrival of The Millionaires. 

They had been skiing at Whistler and were staying in Vancouver for most of weekend. Cora Lee did some spicy chicken, saffron rice and double-baked cauliflower, all mouth-watering. I contributed an avocado/tomatoe saladin and Rosita brought back some of last night's dessert overlefts. Grogg brought some very tasty wines and Lurch three delectable cheeses, for appetizers, so everyone had full tummies by the end of the evening.

Must away as I have to finish packing for weekend and just had a call from Andrew, in Toronto. He was quite drunk and called from a bar near his place. He will turn 68 this coming Saturday and is already starting to celebrate! Fondestos to you both. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Pics: Taken Tuesday evening at dinner with Sutherlands. Avery being fed by her mother, Beckster; Molly and Jake with Coriandre and Flamin'.

Hi Cousins, I hope this email finds you both well this week :)

I had lunch with Rick last Friday and he plans to come to Tofino with Lori for the 23rd and 24th of August. My mom, Patrick and Chloe have offered to accompany me for those same two nights. We would have to come back that Monday morning of the 25th due to my having to return to work. With my traveling to Winnipeg to take Grandma Dunn's ashes earlier in August and to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday I won't have much vacation time to use I'm afraid.

Thank you again for the wonderful Tofino lodgings and I hope our not being able to stay all four nights will not be too much of an inconvenience. Hope all the other Vogts are doing well!

In 1976 I went to Tofino with my Mom and Patrick on their honeymoon and we checked into the Wickininnish Inn and then ran into your Mom and Dad...it would have been May 16th that year. It was always great to be in the same room with your parents and I took such pride in the fact I was member of their family! Hugs to all, Ayn