Friday evening: looking north up the Arm to the Twin Islands
Less than 20 km from Vancouver’s Coal Harbour is a little fjord called Indian Arm. It is a part of Burrard Inlet, has salt water, is affected by the tides, and is populated with all the ocean creatures you’re familiar with: sailboats and power boats included. But really, the environment is like many of BC’s lakes.
Michael picked me up Friday evening after work and we made good our escape to Deep Cove through the traffic. We paddled to the Twin Islands the first night – about 5 km. Our plan the next day was to go all the way up to the camp at Granite Falls, but in the end we decided to camp at Bishop Creek instead.
It turned out to be the best thing we could have done. Granite Falls camp was as busy as a Skytrain station with all the power boats moored there for the day. We would never have got any sleep.
As it was, because Bishop Creek was quieter we saw several seals, eagles, and I saw a deer swim across the Arm and come out on shore not far from our camp.
To take advantage of the ebbing tide we struck camp and hit the water at 6:30 yesterday morning and by 10 am we were having breakfast at the smallest Tim Horton’s in the world. I kid you not. It’s got a drive through and store front but is barely bigger than a couple of garden sheds.
After school we went to Crescent Beach and let the kids play in the sand.
I heard about this program weeks in advance. Notice arrived in the form of an e-mail from the mother of my children. The preschool class the twins attended was going to have a special program in honour of Father’s Day. Could I attend?
I hate disappointing my kids. I would rather tell them no, they can’t have what they want, than say yes and not deliver. I’ve never wanted to be a dad who said, “Yeah, I’ll be there.” and then didn’t show; the cliche Disney villain dad.
I gave my standard response, “I don’t know where I’m going to be that week. If I’m in town, I’ll be there.”
A few days passed. I heard again, “Is Dad going to be there?”
“I don’t know.”
Fig. 1
Apparently this went on for days. It finally stopped, at least for me, the day I committed to attending the program. The plan was for their mother to pick me up at work and drive me to their school. I heard on the actual day of that they continued to nag and harass their mother about her ability to find my office and then drive us to the school. They did this with a daily tenacity that five year-olds seem to specialize in. I actually felt sorry for her.
I walked into the classroom and there they were. I could tell just by looking at them they were extremely pleased. At the same time they were being cool and restrained in front of their teachers and classmates as all kids are.
Fig. 2
Oddly I hope they never lose this capacity. Specifically: knowing what it is they want and then not stopping until they get it. Oh sure, I’d like for it to be tempered of course with the wisdom of knowing what’s good to go after, what isn’t, and of course when it’s appropriate. I can imagine the potential carnage without that restraint, but really, if they learn that, oh the places they’ll go.
Figure 1. The twins showing me the cookies and gifts they made.
Figure 2. We went to Crescent Beach after school to enjoy the sunshine for a few hours before an evening of homework.
Minolta 3Xi SLR, 200 ASA Fuji film
The ball of fluff kitten you see on my futon was the product of a Himalayan crossed with a Persian-Siamese. Basically you get a very warm, affectionate cat .. for just one person. In this case: me. Anyone and anything else got shredded pretty quick.
Animals and I generally get along, as long as I’m home. The problem is that I’m not a homebody. Therefore I am not a very good candidate for a human-pet relationship. The other thing is the amount of fur generated by these breeds is staggering. It was a strong incentive for me to not be home, which was not really fair to Chi. It wasn’t his fault or choice to have the cat heritage he had. For these reasons Chi and I were only together for a couple of years – which is pretty much the length of time it took to find someone he liked (read: could stand).
This was around 1998 I think.
