a boy and his blog

Monday, November 06, 2006

finding a new place to lie down

This car was a ton of fun for 9 years until it was stolen last October. It was found with all my groceries still in the trunk, but it was trashed, so the insurance company bought it and crushed it. It is probably now part of a steel girder in a tall building in Shanghai!

one of the books I'm reading

The Lighthouse by P.D. James

this is from the website:

Combe Island off the Cornish coast of England has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty. Owned for centuries by the same family, it now serves as a place where over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority can come to find serenity in conditions of guaranteed security. But when one of its distinguished visitors is found hanging from Combe's famous lighthouse, an apparent murder victim, the peace of the island is shattered.
The situation is awkward, demanding exceptional skill and discretion on the part of investigators. Commander Adam Dalgliesh, well known and admired for exactly these qualities, is called in to solve the case. Unfortunately, it is a difficult time for the Commander and his team. Dalgliesh himself is distracted, uncertain and deeply worried about his future with Emma Lavenham, the woman he loves; Detective Inspector Kate Miskin is coping with tenacious emotional problems of her own; the ambitious Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith is not happy about having a woman as his superior. Moreover, the team has scarcely begun to unravel the motives of the various suspects before a second brutal killing occurs. Then, as if to challenge them to the utmost, a new and unexpected—and deadly—threat suddenly confronts Dalgliesh personally, leaving Miskin and Benton-Smith to carry on alone in a race against time.

A richly complex tale of crime and passion, The Lighthouse is a deeply satisfying novel, P. D. James at her masterly best.
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/index.html

Sunday, November 05, 2006

weird looking clouds

Livingston Place

Livingston Place is named after Sam Livingston who was an early pioneer here or something. The project consists of 2 office towers. I think they are going to be 23 floors each. The project was started on spec without any major tenants signed. It was going to be built in 2 phases but because it is now fully leased, both towers are going up at the same time.
The second picture shows from the left: Livingston, the 3 towers of Sun Life Plaza, the TransCanada Pipelines Tower, the east tower of Fifth Avenue Place, the International Hotel and the head office for BP Canada.
There are about 14 office buildings under construction downtown right now (the Mount Royal block, Stampede Station, phases 2&3 of the IBM campus, Genco Place, Opus 8, Centrium Place, Citadel West, Livingston Place 1&2, Centennial Place phase 1(40 stories), Banker's Court, and the Homberg-Harris towers 1&2) with more in the works including the 59 story Bow Tower.
Also Canada's biggest courthouse is under construction downtown. There is a 24 story high atrium between the 2 courthouse towers which are 24 and 20 floors each. The building is massive and has been built to withstand the impact of a 747 hitting it. It should be open for business in about a year.
There are over 40 condo towers in the downtown area under construction or in the planning pipeline. Downtown should become much more alive, especially in the evenings, when the residential population increases substantially. The daytime downtown office worker population is over 110,000, but fewer than 10,000 people at present live downtown.
I'm not sure if the 3,500 homeless people downtown are counted as residents.
I hope they find space for all of them to take shelter this winter. It is a crisis.

spelling mistake?

Its Sunday, so they are finally paving in front of my place. We have been waiting for this day since July. I wonder when they will pour the new sidewalk, put in a retaining wall before our parking lot collapses in the street, pave our driveway and restore the power outlets for our vehicle block heaters?
I wonder if Big Cheif was deliberately spelled wrong, or the sign painter got it wrong and the owner of the truck didn't notice or didn't care?

Friday, November 03, 2006

an angel in mission

This morning I took Mom to get a flu shot at her doctor's office in the Mission district. I dropped her off and then drove to a cash machine at Mac's to get her some money for the weekend. When I got back to the medical building, there was a parking spot right out front which was perfect. I checked the parking meter to see if there was any time remaining but there wasn't. Knowing that a flu shot wouldn't take long, I didn't want to put money in the meter because I presumed she would be out soon and we would be on our way.
After standing on the sidewalk looking out for the meter man for a long while, my feet began to get cold and it was snowing lightly so I went into the lobby of the building to wait. The building is set back from the street and the main floor is several steps lower than the sidewalk. I watched the pedestrians go by and held the door for all the people going in and out of the building.
Still no sign of Mom nor of the meter man, and I'm sure that Mom will step off the elevator at any moment, so why waste my change feeding the meter?
A young lady, early twenties, comes walking along, stops, looks at the empty parking meter, looks at my car, opens her purse, puts a quarter in the meter and resumes walking!
I was so astonished, I didn't do anything. I could have run after her, given back her quarter and thanked her and asked her why she did such a nice thing for a stranger, but I didn't.
Eventually her quarter ran out of time and I was still waiting for Mom.