I just got back from a trip to Alberta to see my family. I was there for two weeks. It wasn’t all relaxation; I was remote working there. I took a couple of days off, but otherwise I tried to be a productive member of society during the day.
Since the Alberta government has effectively collapsed, the pandemic is rampant there. My family lives outside of the city, and there was very little need to go in, so I was able to avoid other people. There were only two times when I interacted with the public. The first was a trip to Costco to buy a monitor to help me work. The second time I ran to an Apple store to pickup a nice keyboard for my iPad that I had ordered online; no PST makes it cheaper.
At the store, I double-masked, cleaned my hands and distanced from everyone. I followed all the rules; get in, get out, nobody gets hurt. When I left the store, a woman hanging out in front, who I had had no contact with, imperiously told me “You should have used curbside pick-up.” That had not been offered to me online. I told her “I don’t know how.” Her rebuttal: “You should learn!” I think this was my first interaction with a Karen. Good intentions concerning the pandemic, but try and save your energy for someone who isn’t making a good effort.
I will say this, if you are flying into Vancouver, try and be on the starboard side of the plane. There were amazing views of the mountains as we were coming in. They looked so close at times, you would almost think we were landing on them. Thankfully, we did not.
We continued flying right over the Fraser river into the landing strip. I was glued to the window looking over Vancouver. I recognized the places I had run, but what struck me was that I got a good look at how hilly the city is. When you are staring at a map, the hills aren’t there. When you are on the ground, a hill you are on effectively looks flat. When you are flying, the topography really pops out.
While waiting in the Calgary airport, I had briefly seen something about a shooting at the Vancouver airport. When I was leaving the airport, I saw that the entire departures road was blocked off by the police. Apparently there was a gang assassination in broad daylight there. For a time the bridges away from the airport were closed to try and catch the perpetrators. Fortunately the train was still operating, so I had no problem getting home.
Vancouver changed while I was gone. It had been warm for awhile, but dry. While I was gone, it rained a lot, and all the trees have greened up. A pleasant change from the snow I left in Alberta.