The Jeff R Project

Today marks the 2 week point before the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the signs are popping up everywhere.

It feels like every open lot or parking area in downtown Vancouver has had a tent or bigger building erected in it and most buildings have had a bit of sprucing up done. Power wash, new signage or paint has really given the downtown a facelift, and it’s quite nice. Too bad it’s probably a one-off. It would be great if the building owners and tenants continued to take this amount of pride in their appearance.

Too many buildings in downtown (business mostly) look like they were nice about 10-20 years ago, but the owners forgot you can still buy paint, or hire a pressure washer for a few bucks. With the annual Vancouver Rains buildings get this dirty streaking where the water runs down and very few people ever clean it up.

There’s a travel office 2 doors from my office (Creatively named ABC Travel) who have been getting a facelift. What was once an older building with classic features is being updated to be a nice fully-glassed in front. Very modern/contemporary. Unfortunately the business inside hasn’t caught up. They moved in 2 years ago (moving down 4 doors) and the place is a disaster. I swear all they did was carry everyone’s desks covered in years of detritus down and drop them in. So here’s this lovely new glass front, giving you a nice view into a filthy, messy, dark office full of desks covered in 5 year old travel brochures.

Meanwhile, outside our home here on Abbott Street, we’ve finally been cut off from the rest of the city. Well, mostly.

When I took Rumble out for his nightly walk, they’d basically created a corridor of giant traffic cones leading into and out of our garage, but preventing traffic from going anywhere else.

This morning, they’ve been allowing 1 or 2 vehicles past (Casino shuttle for one) and turning away a bunch of pissed off motorists because they’ve also closed Expo Blvd and Pacific Blvd from Quebec to Nelson! They’re in the final stages of putting up the concrete dividers and chainlink fence to completely block the intersection of Expo and Abbott here and should be done when Rumble and I leave for work shortly.

The Olympic “garbage collectors” have started appearing. Basically 2 pinch rings attached to various light posts around the city, with transparent green garbage bags hanging out of them. Not a very “pretty” sight, but as Chris pointed out, they are anti-terrorist friendly. The can collectors will also be thrilled to be able to see which ones to target.

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I haven’t posted in a week, and after the last time, people have been emailing, calling and generally asking “Are you ok?”

Yes, I’m fine.

We have no clue what caused the hospital visit last weekend. All those tests were clear, and so was my cardiac-stress test on Tuesday. Boy what fun that was.

Anyway, it’s been almost a week, I’ve been tested, poked and prodded a few times and nothing happened. Which is good and bad. Good because it means there’s nothing big and obvious wrong. Bad because it means we don’t know what caused it. I would like to know – no matter what it is, knowledge is power.

Today was an amazing! day. Chris and I grabbed a ZipCar to take Rumble for his bi-monthly haircut so he was less of a furry little monster. It also helps with the “post-walk grooming” shall we say.

Right now, we’ve been home about an hour and Rumble is curled up on his bed, happily sound asleep knowing that his dads aren’t going to mess with him any time soon. He’s also exhausted from the playtime he got while waiting for his turn at the groomers.

Fetch in North Vancouver is a HIGHLY recommended place. They keep to their timelines, the dogs are always happy and comfortable. We tried the Kerrisdale location once and they were great too.

We also found a pop-can crusher! We’ve been looking for one everywhere we go. We found them online, but they’re expensive. HomeSense at Park Royal had them for $12.99. They’re supposed to be wall mounted but we don’t trust our walls and it seems to work just fine (if awkwardly) by hand! Yeah recycling.

By the way, Chris expounds on Rumble and the trip to North Van on his blog. Give it a read.

First, for those friends and family reading this – DON’T PANIC! The story I’m about to tell is true, but there is nothing to worry about.

Sunday morning started like any other. Relaxing wake up around 8:00, husband lying beside me, dog sleeping at the foot of the bed, smell of coffee brewing from the other room, man-servant bringing us breakfast. Oh, no, wait. No coffee, no servant.

But then I noticed a “fluttery” feeling in my chest. I’d felt it before (several months ago) and it usually went away fairly quickly. So I dismissed it.

Finally we get up around 8:30 and discover that all the water in the house is brown. It’s happened once before when the turbidity levels were high in the local reservoirs and we’ve had rain recently so we assumed that’s what it was. Turns out there was a burst pipe/leak in the building and we had no clean water.

Fine, we hiked down to the brand new Nester’s Market in the brand new Woodwards development, bought some water and other groceries and hiked back home. My chest was still fluttering from time to time.

I made breakfast (egg McMuffin type things with turkey bacon) while Chris walked the dog and then we watched some TV while deciding what to do for the day.

I finally told Chris around noon that I was having these “flutters” but that it wasn’t anything major. Being Chris (wonderful guy), he insisted we go to the hospital ASAP and figure out what’s going on. And we headed off to St. Paul’s Hospital.

That’s where I got Lucky.

Dr. S. Lucky was the name of the doctor in the RAZ (Rapid Assessment Zone) when we got there. After a very brief wait in the chairs, I was whisked in for an ECG, then got blood drawn, then a little medical history and finally a chest x-ray. From there it started to slow down. We were now in the waiting game.

Nurse Jennifer was awesome in the RAZ and kept a close eye on me. Eventually, the first round of tests came back clear and they suggested Chris and I go for a walk, and we did. But I got some tightness in my chest afterward, prompting them to hold me for a second round of Troponen tests at 6pm.

Chris had to go home and walk Rumble. We hadn’t anticipated this taking ALL day of course.

During this time, Dr. Lucky basically disappeared. At least I didn’t see her again until about 4:45, but her mysterious doctoring kept putting notes into the computer and more things happened. I got Aspirin and was prepped to be moved to a room with better monitoring equipment.

My new temporary home was “Acute Stretcher 5″ as pictured above. Tres chic. I had to leave Jennifer behind and was introduced now to Gemma (or Jemma), a wonderful nurse from the UK. Unfortunately my stay here was brief, like 30 minutes and I was move “somewhere quieter” that I never did find the name of. It was quieter, but I liked the ER feel of Stretcher 5.

Now I was in the able hands of Kristen (or Kirsten) who eventually brought me dinner. Turkey dinner from a hospital on Sunday isn’t the worst thing out there, and considering I hadn’t had anything but a bit of water in 6 hours, I was glad for it. It actually wasn’t too bad and it certainly hit the spot.

In the end, I was sent home a little after 8pm with not much to show. A few sticky spots from the monitoring pads, a little less hair on my hand from the IV tube they never used and orders to go for a stress test on Tuesday morning at 8.

Nothing showed up in anything, and the fluttering never re-occurred. We have our theories as to what it was, and I’ll be talking to my family doctor about them once I can get an appointment.

Chris was with me the entire time, which was VERY much appreciated. He was very nervous and worried about me, but kept calm and helped me relax too. It freaked him out more than he let on. His father passed away from a heart attack so Chris has, if not reason then history, to cause him to worry. I’ve promised to outlive Chris so I have to do everything I can to make sure that happens, or he’d never let me live it down.

See – nothing to panic about. I’m taking today off to relax and make sure everything is up to speed before heading back tomorrow.

Many people have written about the start of 2010 and what it means to them, so I figured I’d throw my hat in the ring too.

Last year got off to a bad start. I don’t remember why exactly. A lot of things went wrong but I didn’t whine about them on my blog hear so I have nothing to go on. I do remember talking to people about how I wanted to start over and that lasted for about 2 weeks. If you remember what I complained about, let me know.

2009 did get a lot better, things were good etc. And then it came to an end much the way it started. I had a headache and was generally “out of it” for a couple of days, including New Years Eve, leading to me being in bed between 10:30 and 11:00. Yep, hardcore party people in the house.

I was actually asleep by 11:10 and woke up not feeling too well again. But it passed.

And then we were in 2010. Corey Monteith of TV’s Glee ran a quick check on Twitter and said it’s officially ‘aught ten’ which I’m not going to pick up. The Olympic branding, which hasn’t taught me much, but has engrained Twenty Ten into my brain, so that’s what I’m going with. It may not stick either but I gotta start somewhere.

Vancouver is roughly 40 days from Olympic Chaos. I could complain about how much it’s going to mess up my commute, but it won’t be too bad (I hope). Considering Rumble and I will mostly be walking. I will have to change my bus route though. It won’t be too bad. I think the 50 False Creek will keep running from the Keefer Street side and end up on or near Granville where I need to get off.

I’m also hoping for nice weather for the Winter Olympics, not to be mean, but just because I don’t like winter.

Oh – and a rant.

Chris and I went to The Bay downtown and I wanted to buy us each a pair of the Red Mittens to wear during the Olympics as we wander around. Apparently the Olympic store in The Bay only accepts Visa and Cash.

Yep, no debit cards, no MasterCard, no American Express. Only Visa (the official card) and Cash (the official cash).

We left without mittens… For now. We’ll be back, oh yeah, we’ll be back.

Screw you 2010, I’m going to win.