Skip to main content

Long Underwear...


It is November...usually a rainy month with not a lot of sunshine. Lately we've had a bit of a break with the weather and the sun has broken up the dreary shorter days we are so used to in the lull before the Christmas rush. With the clear weather you also get the crisp, even cold, bone-chilling freezing temperatures that, as a Vancouverite, we aren't used to. I love fall and winter sunshine because the glare of the sun is not as harsh and the refraction of light from the tilt of the Earth makes everything look different . I don't have lots of clothes for this kind of weather though. I only have jeans. I can layer as many shirts and hoodies as I want but below the waist I am so cold! Jeans are the worst textile to wear in the chilly weather, too, as the freeze goes right through them, especially if they are a tight fit. Don't get me wrong, I am not the proud owner of a camel-toe, but I like my jeans to be slim not loose fitting.

For this particular reason I think I will purchase a pair or two of long underwear, or at least a pair of tights. I hate being cold, especially my legs, and I would rather layer up than not if I am going out to venture around in the park on a crisp fall day. Yes, I may sound like a wimp, and if you are from Manitoba, I am a wimp. But, instead of walking at a high pace to stay warm, missing many exciting new views of the park, with the seawall re-opened now, I can enjoy my walks and be out even longer with the layers . I love the park (Stanley Park) so much, I can't stand to be distracted from it by a chill up my legs.

Speaking of Stanley Park, and how much I treat it as my own special refuge from my mediocre life, I have shared it with new people in my life that I meet. The last person was Ray, and before that my ex and I would walk around the park at least once a week, enjoying the beauty it holds and the comfortable silences we shared. The problem with sharing something so close to your heart is that, if the person you share the park with leaves, or does you wrong in some way, that refuge is a place that holds memories. Immediately after the hurt occurs, the park is a lonely place, memories shooting straight into your heart like red hot daggers. As time passes though, I realize that ole Stanley is my only constant in an ever changing life. At least I can depend on him to be there in my time of need. He can bring forth many great memories, too. Sharing him with others is like sharing my heart, so when someone leaves they take a bit of him too.

After the storm of 2006 I was devastated to see the bald forest, trees everywhere. It was as if my only constant had changed so drastically I couldn't depend on Stanley to relax me. The walk around the seawall was detoured through many upper paths and disrupted my routine. The best part of the storm is that I became more familiar with the park's areas I never visit, including a new eagle nest I had never seen. I rarely if ever viewed the bay from above, up where the cormorants roost on the cliffs by the Lion's Gate Bridge. Prospect Point was considered too touristy for me, and I still think so but it is beautiful up high at the highest point of the park. The new paths and new planting is taking place and the park has a new face, the trees very sparse in places where the wind tore through. I now have a new perspective on the park and life as we can all go through storms and be injured. We can also heal and may look a bit different but in the end we are still the same.
















My refuge has a new look and during the fall and winter I am going to be it's best friend. I will purchase that pair of long underwear so I can spend as much time as I can with my ole pal, Stanley. Maybe I should buy a pair or two for him too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Hey! Love to hear your comments!!!!!!

Popular posts from this blog

Adults and Toys - Do Adults Ever Really Grow Up?

Every morning I drag myself out of my warm bed and prepare for another work day, as everyone else does in numerous routines and rituals. I pop in my earbuds and tune out the nearby noise, listen to the news while doing my daily puzzles on my mobile phone on the bus, and mentally prepare my "To Do" list. Looking around the crowded bus I always look at the similarities students wear to university, checking the popular brands and styles. At one point during my employment at the university, I created a "style" Bingo game, matching brands and styles students wear, and I always tried to figure out how these younger "starving" young adults could afford Nike Air Force One sneakers, Canada Goose parkas, Blundstone boots and the like. I do this today, sneaking a quick snap of the style and Google Lens the style (no faces of course), sometimes outwardly scrunching my face at the price of the item on my screen. No wonder these kids are starving, they can't afford ...
Post a Comment
Read more

And Just Like That ...

  Like a cozy sweater, I wrapped myself in the past, took a deep breath and pushed play. I knew what was coming, and I was already familiar with the first episode of its release, but knowing I had full access to every episode made the experience more personal. There was no familiar theme song as it wasn't a reboot, but it had the feeling of something you know like the back of your hand, like that smell that brings you back to your grandmother's home or the taste that transports you to another time in your life. It was almost like the feeling returning to a numb limb, with which I have had recent experience, two carpal tunnel surgeries later. My brain, or rather my soul, was awakened from the fog bathed in for what seemed like forever.  I decided to use my time back in New York with ladies from my past. Although fictional, they definitely were part of my life, playing out storylines side by side with my life on the tube weekly. Having them back, 20 years later, aged and lived i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Snow is Beautiful and Triggering

Vancouver has never been known as a winter wonderland, well, at least the actual city center, but the weather pattern has consistently turned frigid. Usually, Vancouverites are used to the dreary gray decor, cloudy and rainy 24 - 7, making the shorter days even worse, as if the Sun is wearing shades. The streets are usually lined with puddles and the locals walk around the city with black umbrellas adding to the dark wet days of winter. I have noticed some people donning vibrant coloured umbrellas, standing out from the wave of black, but this is probably more for safety from cars, scooters, e-bikes, buses and other vehicles trying to peer through the rain. I was almost hit by a car and now I have a bright yellow umbrella, hoping I don't experience that shock ever again. This past week, the weather went from unusually warm and balmy in January to an about-face in February with negative temperatures and snow falling in the city and all over the Lower Mainland. The excitement of hear...
Post a Comment
Read more