Slothlike Splendor

Ah, the Mac. No forward delete key. I forgot about that.

I can feel myself getting lazier, as you can see by that last, er, paragraph. Right now, I am slouching on the couch and also typing. The heat broke and now it is no longer 30C outside so, you know, it’s a good thing we got a laptop.

Oh, come now – it is a VERY good thing we got a laptop. My mom started creating her christmas cards in her backyard today. We co-designed an angry sheep/horse type drawing that might just be the tattoo I’ve always wanted.

Change is afoot! See previous post for evidence!

We are talking, more and more seriously, about moving back to the West End of Vancouver. It was where Saint Aardvark spent his first few years in this city and its nooks and crannies are still haunting him. So we were walking through the old neighbourhood last week and sat for a bit in Nelson Park and realized that we used to do that a lot – walk and talk and see stuff and be outside. We don’t do that so much in our neck of the ‘burbs because we’d be walking on a highway. Now, yes, the highway does go all the way across Canada! It’s true. But not always what you want in a Sunday stroll.

If this house could be moved, it would be a dream. It is attractive, large, well laid-out. It has a big back deck (overlooking the power lines and the highway and beyond that, the mountains are gorgeous) and hardwood floors and it is the perfect size for us. It sits so pretty on its pretty lawn, groomed by our landlords because we don’t do so much lawn grooming, flowering with garbage flowers and a nice little nectarine tree. And the rent is so much exactly the same as our last west end apartment, the one that was big enough for my big toe and my ego on a bad day.

But the neighbourhood, the neighbourhood, sweet J.Lo with a pre-nup, the neighbourhood. Bounded by Boundary Road, Canada Way and the Trans-Canada. The tattoo parlour, the Wendy’s, the lawnmower shop. Mowhawk, 7-11, a really good Indian restaurant and Charlie’s Chocolate Factory – those are our neighbourhood shops. Those kids with the zombie eyes and the dreadlocks who have been stuck on the boulevard asking for change for at least 10 years. That guy who got shot a few months ago. People who drive 100 KM/hr down our street because it’s a shortcut to the highway. The revvv revvving of engines always blasting by and being able to count to ten between the first hint of rain and the first series of sirens. Really, the most compelling feature of the neighbourhood is our proximity to Costco.

That is a very sad thing.

Correct.

I want to be part of something again. I want to be able to go for a walk and maybe see a movie or maybe watch the seagulls or maybe go to the library and I want to be able to do all of those things in one day and I want to be able to do them without driving my car – I don’t even want a damn car – and without being completely exhausted at the end of it. I want to be further from Ikea. I want to be able to go for a run without having to impose hill training on myself. I want shade trees when it’s sunny and awnings when it’s raining.

I also want watermelon, and I have some. Today I bought a watermelon. It is 14lbs. I am the only one who likes watermelon in this house so if I look red and kind of sloshy over the next few days, that would be why.