So, first I’m very grateful for everyone’s participation & interest and for simply remembering me after i disappeared with illness and other life conundrums.
Keeping Expectations Balanced with Priorities
Next, extending a warm invitation to come meet us at various parks and gardens where we’ll be with a picnic blanket and a thermos of coffee at checkpoints in:
Langley/Surrey: current til April 19
West End / DT Vancouver: April 19 ~ 25
Metchosin: April 25 ~ 29
Victoria / Oak Bay: April 29 ~ May 3
Pender Isle (Woods & Sparrow): May 3 ~ 10
Fairview / Kits: May 10 ~ 12
North Van / Lynn Valley: May 12 ~ 17
Langley / Surrey: May 17 ~ 25
Home to Tsuchida Cottage: May 25/26
“Main point” of the trip is for my darling wife and adorable son to meet family as well as to reconnect with hugs and gifts with so many of you wonders.
Especially eager to meet kids for Ichiro to hang with at wonderful playground. Also, so grateful for recent friends coming to visit and participating in our life.
My big concern is “crashing” with this illness which puts me out of action for days/weeks. Good news is: doing the best i have in years thanks to some recent treatment protocols and modalities.
I’m doing my best but/and if we can’t meet, no big deal – its complicated and folks have lives/jobs etc, please come to Japan! A safe, efficient, interesting, amusing, and somewhat affordable destination where we will be happy to welcome you with tea and goats.
Preamble: While planning for this trip to Vancouver & Victoria I’ve noticed that yes, obviously, a lot has changed (duh) & a lot of the places (cafés, neighborhoods, parks) I want to visit are definitely tied to nostalgia and memories (and facing ghosts from past life)
nostalgia is a heck of drug
{aside: finding nostalgia for Vancouver past is more potent than thoughts and plans for Vancouver present – neighbourhoods once loved now “not recommended (esp with a toddler who like to pick things up off sidewalk”), no more dim sum carts, hotels with endless extra taxes and fees, restaurants are expensive + tipping, complicated transit zones schemes persist, old haunts gone, so we go one}
Dear Diary:
10:45 in bed eating granola and medications, wife outside running woodchipper, grateful for noise-cancelling headphones.
Today’s “must-do” is organizing 70 days of meds in fishing tackle box.
Ok bye
Anyway, in the meanwhile… I’ve got out of bed, put on the clothes, now going to fold some laundry, rock the dishwasher, and organize some meds before he comes… (Actually looking at the clock I will do 1.5 of those tasks)
37% of me wants to go back to bed, another 15% of me wants to make a video to remind folks about my limitations for BC trip (i.e.: “I/we can’t meet you at *fancy place* at 7 PM for dinner but hey, we’re on a picnic blanket at a park from 11AM till 2PM with a thermos of coffee”)
Otherwise: So now, this is the last week of Ichiro school / the school year begins and ends in March in Japan so there was just graduations and he moved up to the next class which he will only be in for about two weeks total.
We pull him out and then stretch run for getting a whole ton of stuff ready for Canada… Not just the suitcase of medications, the suitcase of gifts (possibly two suitcases), various clothes for rainy weather but also doing all the stuff to get the house in “stand-by mode“ which includes standing up mattresses and fumigations (we’re going into the season of the bugs), having mosquito nets ready for when we come back, packing up the futons and the bags with the “bugs don’t eat me” devices inside plus… Of course the wife needs to renew her drivers license (her birthday is while we are in Canada) and…
We’re hosting a little pizza party as a post show celebration for the bands concert two weeks ago (because yes, we need something else to do), plus a retirement for another pal and “safe pregnancy” for another and i guess “bon voyage” for us. First time to have more than a few folks over, including several kids.
As such, finding a new school for Ichiro to start in September (looking into two or three days a week more nature and fun and free play-based environment… yesterday wife investigated a YMCA program which looked really good except it’s about a 40 minute drive away which is kind of a drag to do but I was able to tell her about the importance of the YMCA in my Dad’s life… Child of a poor single mother in Regina Saskatchewan, that was his hang out and finally charted his career path and his first job out of university was a program Director at YMCA, of course I have the business card).
There’s also the saga of the piano player from our wedding whose husband died recently suddenly (my age, a heart attack) and we’re going tomorrow with the little dump truck to help haul some stuff away… Specifically including a stone specially made for pounding rice in the mochi / no, you can’t make this up. But, we have a dump truck and my wife is endlessly supportive, creative and nothing is impossible so… I just ride along and pretend to help.
So, were less than two weeks out and have too many tasks but what gets done gets done… Yesterday I organized medications and labeled everything, today I am going to try to bang out a little profile for open medicine foundation (you know this group/organization right?) for awareness and *yikes* share my story just as i hit 10 years since “sick day”.
There’s also a call for submissions for University of Idaho in Boise for mail art collage and… I mean, no one ever asks for this kind of stuff specifically so I really feel like I should make something but, maybe I’ll do that on the 9th, mail it on the 10th and fly out on the 11th… Maybe mail it from the airport as a bonus. I have a dear friend who lives in Boise who will be able to go see it in real life… Maybe take her husband and kids (they are adults now) that would make it kind of fun for me.
Also, 1 more round of injection, 1 more setai treatment, and a haircut for me and Ichiro so we are rolling sharp.
I also remind myself that six months ago or a year ago or two years ago I couldn’t do a quarter of what I’m doing now. I am grateful but so anxious.
{gonna be a lot of picnics in parks and when using hotels, booked rooms with kitchenette / going April May will be better cost than July/ August but still, i’m a medically-retired pensioner so gotta be frugal while still showing wife and kiddo funtimes}
Bonus:
My kid got up in his “moose suit” fleece romper, checked out his new art gallery we hung up yesterday, set out granola and bowls for the family, & tuned the radio to Peter Barakan’s NHK radio show playing Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones’” sung by Warren Zevon (I’m pretty sure) #Parenting
He’s definitely curious, energetic and is developing great taste in music. He spent most of the “public health restriction time” hanging out with adults and that impact is definitely evident.
Briefly: Ichiro, Ryoko and Dave are hopping the jetliner to BC from April 11 – May 25 to introduce Ryoko and Ichiro to family, friends and culture and together enjoy slow adventures and *usual life* with you
Theme: Family, Friends, Parks and Gardens
Locations:
Langley/Surrey: current til April 19
West End / DT Vancouver: April 19 ~ 25
Metchosin: April 25 ~ 29
Victoria / Oak Bay: April 29 ~ May 3
Pender Isle (Woods & Sparrow): May 3 ~ 10
Fairview / Kits: May 10 ~ 12
North Van / Lynn Valley: May 12 ~ 17
Langley / Surrey: May 17 ~ 25
Home to Tsuchida Cottage: May 25/26
Note to Pals *yes you* – get in where you fit in and please be a part of our activities. As such, there is a GDoc to which you can request access with all the deets cause i/we don’t wanna be monitoring all the social comm-channels via pocket-robot while on the ground.
If, for some reason we aren’t able to get together because, I get it, people have lives, and I’m a bit elusive, consider this an invitation to come to Japan, which is safe, efficient, amusing, endlessly interesting, and surprisingly affordable / we will welcome you with enthusiasm and tea.
We want to:
visit parks and gardens (Stanley, Butchart, Bear Creek, Lynn Canyon)
check out White Rock pier, Granville Is market, Lonsdale Shipyards, maybe Steveston & various tea gardens
meet up with pals at the locations above and especially other Ichiro-aged kids (you know who you are)
eat dim sum, perogies, meat pies, fish and chips, etc
hit up low-key museums and chill public spaces
share tea ceremony and awsum gifts (and hugs)
usual things like home centre and grocery stores for Ryoko
BC Invasion trip / energy vs expectations and plans
Memo: we aren’t crossing the USA border for WA, UT, ID, OR etc visits this trip (for various reasons)
Ride hailing service that doesn’t suck (nope, so updated Ubr and Lft)
Are there public restrooms yet? (seems like mostly “no” including at Skytrain, shocking!)
yikes tipping!?!?! and taxes? how does that all work again (yes, onerous, will avoid restaurants to over-stim and thrifty reasons)
Considerations / Disclaimers:
Dave avoiding MECFS “crash” by pacing activities, limiting transportation and exertion [read more about MECFS], by:
avoiding restaurants at busy times / dinners (i.e. hotel breakfasts, picnic lunches etc) to limit over-stim
not getting overwhelmed by planning and details – let’s enjoy time together, not on phone / social planning
of course, realizing albeit sadly, we won’t be able to do everything and meet up with everyone and some things will get canceled… it’s just the way the world works with the illness
& obv, avoiding C19 (makes return to Japan complicated etc etc)
This is indeed a landmark in downtown Eastside area Vancouver, one a few of these classic diners left as everything becomes condos & chains
I’m so in love with living where I am in the life I have reinvented that I don’t “miss” Vancouver or Victoria but sometimes, it’s nice to have a little peek at parts which I recall fondly.
In this case to freshly delivered paintings by Timothy Wilson-Hoey of the Ovaltine café neon sign in downtown eastside Vancouverwhich now hangs by my inside desk (you’ll no doubt not be surprised that i have several desks) and Don Mee dim sum restaurant sign in Victoria which will go to the barn studio.
I recall stuffing myself with dim sum with my buddy Neal here in Vancouver
Both acrylic on wood panel and quite wonderful. (There’s one more and three more on the way… We’re getting quite a gallery of originals go in here at Tsuchida Cottage).
Exit by the gift / coffee shop :) ¥500 per ticket.
One more note: my family here doesn’t *really* know much about where I come from – and we talk about taking a trip one of these years – but in the meantime, these are a couple hints and we will close the loop whenever (if ever) we cross the Pacific.
PS Now there’s a painting of a bonfire next to the woodstove so it feels like a fire even when there’s not / Timothy Wilson Hoey is the painter.
Project: Upon turning 50 years old on August 16, 2020, Dave Olson (me, hello) is posting a photo (or maybe photos) a day / per year – starting with 1970 with intent of chronicling existence through various primary evidence sourced from studio portraits, class photos, ID / passport photos, or occasionally other “casual/group/random” shots when the above don’t exist in my archive (note: not “artificial intelligence,” really me, pulled from shoeboxes, journals, wallets and whatnot – diligently scanned and dated via glasses and haircuts, lightly annotated).
Memento: Reggie Watts and “Hootsuite Guys” / Tectoria, 2012
The early days of Hootsuite was a wild barrage of excitement and activities including a lot of semi-related speaking gigs which were on “my own time” but often relating to experience gained while doing start-up companies including this particular social media software project.
In this example, my co-conspirator and fellow vice president (me community, and him business development) Greg Gunn went back to Greg’s hometown of Victoria, BC (where i later lived for a bit) for a “Experience Tectoria” event which ran in tandem with the fantastic Rifflandia festival (for which we received VIP passes and a fancy hotel).
We did a Keynote on a Boat at Experience Tectoria (spiel with orcas and beers) – Roundup in the lovely harbour with “12 pieces of wisdom” learned from doing this and other start-ups. It was one of the funniest and most fun speaking gigs ever and, was interrupted as a pod of orca whales (seriously) was breaching off the side of the boat, so we could pause to see the grandeur.
There was abundant food and beer on offer during the talk, and at the end I was given a case of “bomber” bottles which, shockingly and only time ever, I had to decline as I had an opportunity to rush over to the music festival to catch my buddy Dan Mangan perform – at the time a rising star, now a solid presence, Juno-award winner and a start up founder himself.
As part of the programming, Reggie Watts also performed and had a chance to hang out with him for a “session” plus Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips came to check out the event (but sadly wasn’t at our talk – though i did say hello and later rocked out to his band’s stellar outdoor performance) – I also judged a start-up pitch panel, choosing a winner and went on to be at on their advisory board (Kiind / Giftbit).
Audio: Some years afterwards, some video clips surfaced, I extracted some audio, cleaned it up and released for educational use as Keynote Aboard a Boat.
PS Goes without saying neither Greg nor I are with Hootsuite anymore.
Hemp cannabis pioneer entrepreneurs in Victoria, Canada are featured in this chapter of 1996/7 documentary film in which host/producer Dave Olson (hello) visits with interesting characters including:
* Ian Hunter, Victoria Mayoral candidate & Sacred Herb shop
Scotty, the man who made me dig haircuts. He plays country punk, served me a bevvie and gave me laughs.
While i started enjoying haircuts when i found a barber shop which also offered libations, good tunes, pinball and the like,… since “the illness” I made a list of things I can do which involves sitting down, but gets me out of the house, and leaves me with a feeling of satisfaction.
These include: making scrapbooks, seeing matinée movies, sitting in parks under a tree, getting my beard professionally trimmed (rather than chopping at it myself) plus trim up the haircut,… as well as pedicures documented elsewhere.
While rambling, i like to seek out the hole-in-the-wall, no fuss, traditional barbers and enjoy a leisurely visit. Its hit or miss sometimes but ya know, hair grows back right?
This is Mr. Bong who’s shop in Las Vegas is hidden down corridors of a less-attractive hotel, the decorations are cheap and cheesy and location lousy but the cut and company great. He called my cut something… something to do with my affection for writing poetry… i can’t recall though i recall his name, Bong.
Sometimes, not always, i grab a snap with the barber or the shop or me before and after… sometimes i don’t so you won’t see those. Oh sometimes i recall names and/or locations, this is not meant to be comprehensive, just amusing and vaguely documentary.
This assortment features barbers in Canada and USA, moreorless (pending).
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