Michael R. Barrick

Despite the fact that I was tired last night I hardly selpt In hindsight, if I had known I wasn't going to get to sleep until sometime after 3am I would have gone to Luv-a-Fair with Trish. D'oh! The other ramification of this insufferable summer weather that concerns me is I don't feel like eating. All I ate yesterday was a bowl of ice-cream. You'd think I'd be hungry, but I'm not. Instead I am having what I call a "Kafka day"... I know I should eat something but there isn't a single food I can think of that is even remotely appealing.

So getting here at 6am was interesting. I drove so I could get that precious twenty extra minutes of sleep and the first thing that struck me odd was the realization that in all the years I've lived in Vancouver I don't recall ever having driven into town at sunrise in the summer. It's more normal for me to staggering home at sunrise (like last Monday morning). It seemed weird to see the sun rise in the northeast from behind the mountains. The roads were deserted and I only counted seven other cars in the parkade, which by eight o'clock is often full. I knew it was way too early when the Starbucks across the street wasn't even open yet. The building was still locked. I never even bothered to confirm that my swipe-card would work on the main doors and the elevators after hours. Fortunately it did. When I reached my floor I knew I was the first one in because my <sarcasm>favourite</sarcasm> newspaper (the Province) was lying on the floor still. It was nice being absolutely alone on the floor for the first hour until the keeners started arriving around 7am.

...another ball of shit wrapped in money.

Actually I'm kind of glad to be here today because the office is air-conditioned. It is a particularly gross, hot day today and my apartment was already getting warm by the time I left at 8am. I left the fan running, the curtains closed, and the small (too small for someone to climb through) windows open so hopefully I won't come home to an oven. I avoided the sun's anvil of a bridge this morning choosing rather to walk in its shadow and take the ferry from Granville Island.

Walking across Granville Island in the morning is nice. There are no bums waiting just outside the entrance to pounce with hands outheld, there are no tourists sauntering aimlessly and stopping randomly, there are no "ladies who lunch" in giant SUV's ignoring the crosswalks and stop signs; there are just people who work there quietly getting ready for another onslaught of stupidity and tourismo charismo and the smell of fresh fish and salt air.