I live almost exactly between two Running Room locations, so this evening I went to the other one. This one was located next to Stanley Park, so I figured there would be a good chance for trail runs. With that in mind I wore my Vibrams, which meant no cushioning.
Since I’m still avoiding driving, I ran the 2km there. Once there I discovered that the run would be along the Seawall in Stanley park. Actually, completely around the park. This is also known as a pavement heavy route. My shoe selection was not optimal.
But, it was still a pleasant run. I interrogated the other runners and learned about my options for trail running in the future. It was right beside the sea so there was interesting things to see. There were seals floating around like they were in a food coma. A large transport ship heading out to sea. A gorgeous sunset into the ocean.
I also discovered that I work for the same company as another of the runners.
On the run back, in the middle of a busy residential area, right next to downtown, I had to avoid a skunk that looked like it owned the street. In fairness, as far as everyone else was concerned, he did.

I went out to lunch with a friend today at work. Since she knew the area, she picked the place. The only caveat that we had agreed on was that it would be someplace healthy.
I was taken to Living Produce Aisle. My first though on entering was that this was a place for farm animals to have lunch. They had flats of grass all over the place. Although it was probably actually something else that was healthy, it still looked like they were doing a grow-op of grass.
Their website claims they “want to revitalize Yaletown”, but I am afraid that ship has sailed. Yaletown is already very affluent. Check you real estate prices if you are unsure. They are also working with the “Zero Mile Diet™” which has a trademark. That just sounds like they are trying to one-up someone else in the buzzword competition.
I have found where yuppies go to act like hippies.
All that said, the smoothie I got there tasted good. And it was low in sugar.
But after lunch I was still hungry enough that I had to go find some more stuff to eat.

On Friday I got a phone number local to Vancouver. This meant I had to give up my previous phone number that I had had for 21 years.
Today, I was told by some friends that I didn’t need to do that. A friend of a friend had moved from Edmonton to Vancouver and kept her number. Well, I really liked my old number, so I never wanted to give it up. I was upset that the cell phone person I was dealing with had never even mentioned this as an option.
I went back to the cell phone dealership. Everything is conveniently within walking distance, so it wasn’t hard. There I found out that my old phone number has already been claimed.
Yesterday I was fine with losing my cell phone number. It was something out of my control, and it made a sort of sense. Now I am angry that I didn’t need to. And yet nothing has changed. There is nothing I can do anymore about it, so I should move on.
But I am also suspecting I would have had to change it anyway. In a way, it is just a number, so I wouldn’t think that any number had to be tied to a particular location anymore. But there is such a thing as being able to tell the location of a number by looking at the first few digits.

I have now completed my first day of work at my new job. There was a lot of orientation in the morning. This place has a lot of benefits. Among them, food is heavily subsidized. The orientation people mentioned that people gain weight when they join the company. I can see that.
I got invited out to lunch to a Japanese restaurant. It seems that it is very common for people to go out for lunch here. (See that earlier remark about subsidized food.) The problem is that sit-down lunches are very long. I am not a fan of long lunches. And sit-down lunches invariably have too much calories that make me want to take an afternoon nap.
Coca-cola is subsidized too.
The afternoon had me filling out forms and attending meetings.
Hopefully I will be a productive member of society too.

Tomorrow I start my new job. It has been a whirlwind of activity to get to this point.
The apartment is starting to come together. The living room is almost looking livable. There are still a few boxes that need unpacking, and my clothes need to be sorted through and homes found for them. This place is small though. We have been managing, but we have to be watchful of everything we bring in.
We have found that the part of the city we are in is very walkable. And we are hip-deep in restaurants around here. They are more expensive than what I am used to, but we are downtown, so what was I expecting. We can also find numerous stores that we don’t need a car to get to. So we can make a run to Costco on foot, which nicely prevents us from buying too much. It is right next to a T&T superstore. Movie theatres are around here. We haven’t explored regular grocery stores that much; we’ve ended up driving a fair distance to a Superstore for some staples.
Generally, if there is something I need though, it is within walking distance.
I did a run with the Running Room this morning. Since I’ve made it a goal to avoid driving as much as possible, I ran 2km there. This was followed by a 24km run. Since the move has prevented me from doing any real training, I am not used to that kind of distance. My legs hurt now.

We got up early. Our Airbnb host said they would be up at 7, which meant we would be able to have half an hour for breakfast. But I guess she was partying too late last night, because we left at 7:30 and no one else in the house was awake. We got a breakfast at a Tim Hortons in Kamloops instead.
The rest of the trip went okay until the last kilometer. I had no trouble driving a big truck through downtown Vancouver. But the truck didn’t fit into the entrance to the building I was trying to take. I discovered this when I started banging on low hanging signs designed for this express purpose. And with the car attached behind, I could not reverse.
Thankfully, my new security guy came out and helped me. I “quickly” detached the car (it felt really slow with all that was going on) and parked in a very convenient spot. With that off, I could reverse better, with the spotter watching for traffic. Then around to the back alley I should have gone in, and had a better time backing up there.
The movers were thankfully late, so everything was handled in time for when they arrived.
This place is small. I knew that going in, but it is different actually looking at it in the face. The big furniture was mostly done correctly, but we should have made starker choices purging in the kitchen. There is not as much space for things there either.
But we returned the truck, had sushi for dinner, then got home and laundered the bed sheets (after we found them) and slept.
Today will be unpacking.
2016-9-22 8:57

Well, I’m moving. I have the job offer and now I will be working in Vancouver.
It has been stressful, but it, annoyingly, hasn’t sunk in yet. There is so much to do, that I haven’t had time to reflect.
Packing has revealed that I own too much stuff. I need to purge more, but it is too late now. Steph has been good at helping with that, but there comes a time when you have to do it yourself. That time is not now.
Finding boxes was a challenge, but I eventually found that the liquor store at Superstore just lets people take lots of boxes. I made several trips, sometimes multiple times in a day, and grabbed lots.
It came to a head yesterday when the movers looked at my stuff and the truck I had rented and declared I didn’t have enough room. I had rented from U-Haul the truck they claim was good for a two bedroom apartment. Apparently I collect more than most people. However, the mover had great Tetris skills and was able to put a lot on. But not all. Some stuff is still in my condo. We have some plans as to what to do about it, but that is an issue for the future. Fortunately, I have all the the stuff I wanted in Vancouver.
He also didn’t use all the blankets. Which was good, because I was worried I hadn’t brought enough. On the morning of the move, I got up at the crack of dawn (that is relevant) to go to the U-Haul dealership to get some more. They only had one and a half dozen, and I thought I would need more. So I drove to another location to try and score some more. Unfortunately, the location was due east of the first. It is also around the fall equinox. So the dawn sun was making my drive to the other location very bright. The other location was closed by the way.
We left late, with my car attached to the back of the truck. My car is on a roll dolly, so that means I will not be able to reverse the truck. The truck sucks back a lot of gas. I think it is getting 25l per 100km. It is also a very American car. It has stickers all over it giving information in imperial units, while traffic signs in Canada continue to be metric.
We got to my parent’s late, and the next day we tried to unload some of the things we were leaving there. By this time it was raining, and we discovered that the roll dolly could not be unattached from the truck without taking the car off first. We were not willing to risk that, so we couldn’t move the truck close to the house. We proceeded to juggle the furniture out while driving it to the front door in another vehicle. We finally got off by eleven.
The drive through the mountains wasn’t too bad, but it did snow at times. I have to drive slow, because, well, I’m hauling a lot. We were stopped for 20 minutes for some construction project. However the most harrowing moment came on a dry sunny road. We were on “Deep Creek” road and going downhill, when it did far too sharp a turn to manage. We stopped and luckily no one was coming the other way.
We are now in Falkland. Tomorrow we try and get to Vancouver in time to meet the movers who will move me.
2016-9-20 22:17