Journal: News & Comment

Last day of June

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Here's how the day went:

1. My oldest daughter stepped on a small terra cotta pot by accident last night. Shortly after midnight this morning, we returned home from the emergency ward, and she had eight stitches in the bottom of her right foot. No swimming for at least a week, and she needs crutches to walk. (Yesterday was the last day of school.)
   
   
2. B.C.'s Queen of Oak Bay ferry lost power and plowed through a small-craft marina at Horseshoe Bay, crushing 15 to 20 small boats and causing chaos in Vancouver's traffic all day, just as the Canada Day long weekend (one of the busiest for the ferry service) got going. I wasn't anywhere near the crash, but it was all over the news.
   
   
3. Vancouver's straight-talking mayor, Larry Campbell, announced that he will not seek another term, and is leaving any kind of public office altogether. Indicting politics in the city, and more generally, he essentially said that political life isn't cut out for a pragmatic, extremely popular, and all-around good guy like him. I work in Vancouver, but I don't live there, but I admire Larry. Too bad he's leaving.
   
   
4. At work, we had a mysterious and persistent computer problem that stressed everyone out for most of the day. On top of that, in the process of running around to try to fix it, one of the staff accidentally tripped a burglar alarm in the office, jarring us further.
   
   
5. Because of the late-night hospital visit, I took the car to work today instead of biking or taking transit. And the traffic on the way home sucked.

But to make up for it all, my family and co-workers all wished me happy 36th birthday, and my wonderful, lovely wife got me gift certificate for a spa treatment this weekend. At home, we had some Me-n-Ed's pizza and nice cabernet sauvignon wine for dinner. My daughter is feeling okay, and is learning to hobble along—her younger sister has been a great help too. No one was hurt in the ferry accident, and the computer problem is on its way to being fixed. Traffic has calmed down. So after everything, I feel good tonight.

Maybe it's the wine. But you know, it's damned good wine. Have a happy Canada Day.

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