Travel Day

 As you know, I had to make a quick trip to Vancouver to take Bear home to be with his family. I couldn't convince M to let him stay with us, and once she was over her quarantine, she could come and get him. Oh well, I tried. So now, I'm going to self-isolate for 14 days. Not a full out quarantine, but I'm going to stay away from people. 

I thought I'd share a few shots of things from my quick trip. I wasn't worried about the pandemic and travel. I wore my mask the entire time, which wasn't that big of a deal. It's become such a common thing that I don't really notice it anymore. At the Skytrain stations, I even took the stairs - UP and DOWN. Yep - I was breathing a bit harder than usual at the top, but no big deal. I walked a LOT of km on that travel day.

The only issue with the mask is that now I seem to have these small fibers in my nose, making it super itchy! But it's also all the fabric dust in my studio that isn't helping the allergy situation. We were all seated apart on the plane - no middle seats were used, and I felt entirely safe. On the way home, there was one person a few seats ahead of me who kept pulling his mask down. I don't know how many times one of the male flight attendants told him to put the mask back on correctly. 

Our temperature was taken before we were allowed into security, and the airport is like a ghost town. This was the flight board for outbound flights. Usually, that board is FULL. Half the washrooms and half of the stores were closed. 

The outbound flight schedule

At our Virtual Retreat on the weekend, we had a discussion about traveling with dogs. Janice was telling us about a time when she wanted to bring two dogs home. They were small dogs, so they would go on the plane, not cargo. Turns out that one person cannot carry more than one dog on board. And the seating plan is set so that no row would have more than one pet in it. Why? Not because they could fight with each other. Oh no - those dogs need to be in their kennel at all times. It appears that it's because of the OXYGEN MASKS. No way!!!

Yep - if the cabin pressure changes and those masks fall, there must be one for every person. OK - I get that. But there needs to be an extra one for any child under two (that doesn't have a purchased seat) or for a pet. And sure enough, when the safety video came on, I checked, and FOUR masks fell out, not three. I had never thought about that before. I learned something!

Four oxygen masks in the safety video

Of course, Little Bear is so small that I'm not sure the mask would have fit him, but the things we learn! 

However, on the way home, there was a young girl - well, around 20??? I noticed her in the gate area as we waited to board our flight. She had a dog with her, which was too big to fit in a kennel and was on a leash. AHA - a therapy dog. Except the dog did not have any official harness or other indication that it was a therapy dog. The girl seemed to be cuddling this dog a lot. Then someone passed by the dog, and the dog barked frantically. Well, that isn't how a therapy dog behaves. They would NOT do that. The dog barked a second time at someone else and scared the crap out of everyone. 

The dog behaved almost as if it needed therapy. So I'm not sure what the story was there, but this was NO therapy dog, yet it was allowed on the flight without being in its kennel. I didn't hear it at all during the flight. Oh well..................  I don't think Murphy could pass as a therapy dog! 

On the way home, I found a quiet gate at the airport, which wasn't hard to do. I set my alarm and had a good sleep while I waited for the boarding time. Then I slept like a log on the plane. I don't think I even remember pulling away from the gate, and the next thing I knew, we were 30 minutes to landing. As we exited the plane, we had to walk through Business Class, where they had their seats, which turned into beds and a big comfy duvet. But that's OK - I still slept pretty well and only had a 20-minute nap yesterday. 

I snapped this picture as we were getting ready to land—Toronto in the early morning. The CN Tower was in red. 

Aerial view of Toronto

And there's the sunrise. 

Morning in Toronto

It was back to work! I had another presentation last night, so a bit of prep work for that. And yes - just as I was getting started, the internet dropped. Seriously???  I was so mad. I guess I'll be calling Bell today. I can't believe this. Why is the new connection so unstable? I wish I had never touched it. I don't think there is any difference in the speed. It was fine. Sigh.......................

I went for a walk in the middle of the day. I would have if Bear were here. It was a beautiful day, and so I went for a walk - just because. It's a beautiful place to walk, and it's just at the end of my street. So quiet and peaceful. 

Walking in the forest

Someone had parked their bike. That's a bag of potting soil on the back! You got to love it. The front-wheel was looked to a tree! 

A bike parked in the forest

Now here's a reason that I love Zoom. The One Book, One Community, had a session with the author (Waubgeshig Rice) of Moon of the Crusted Snow yesterday, and there's also another one tonight. I'm sorry, I didn't alert you to this. The One Book, One Community, is located in Kitchener/Waterloo. So usually, I'd have to go there to hear the authors speak. That's about one hour away, but with real travel time, it would have taken the ENTIRE afternoon. I was able to listen to the entire talk in the comfort of my home. 

It was funny, and well, these two authors were terrific. I even put a couple more books on hold while I was listening. If you get a chance to connect tonight, I'd strongly suggest that you do. There are two authors again tonight - the primary author is Waub (that's the name they referred to him as, I didn't shorten it), so I don't know the author that he is chatting with tonight, but the one from yesterday was brilliant. 

I love being exposed to different authors and different genres than what I would normally read. It's opening up a whole other world. 

The second author, Cherie Dimeline, was brilliant also. Both are Indigenous Canadians, and they call themselves storytellers, not authors. The session yesterday was recorded, and you'll be able to find it somewhere on Youtube. More details will likely be on the One Book, One Community website that I linked to above. 

What's chilling is some of the scenarios in Moon of the Crusted Snow reflect our current situation. It's very scary! What would you do??? I don't have time to watch the live presentation tonight, but I might tune into the Youtube channel later to watch the recording. 

If you get a chance, I'd watch them. And I've ordered more books to read! ACK!!!  I believe that Cherie's book - The Marrow Thieves is now in schools and replaces "To Kill a Mockingbird" in the curriculum. 

One other thing about Zoom. I've heard that some members of quilt guilds say that if their regular guild meetings continue on Zoom, that they will NOT continue their membership. Seriously??? Do they think that we can have face to face meetings?? In our province, you can't have an indoor session with more than 25 people. So they would rather have NOTHING then chat on Zoom. Well, you know my thoughts? If I were the guild president, I wouldn't want those people attending. They are the complainers, and it's best to be without them. But I don't get it - why do people want all or nothing? We need to be flexible; we need to roll with the changes. Read Waub's book - and see what can happen, and there is NOTHING you can do to stop it. 

What's very alarming is that our current society is highly dependent on modern conveniences and extremely addicted to resources of all kinds. What if one of those resources no longer exists? Just take toilet paper, for instance. What if, for whatever reason, toilet paper could no longer be made. What would you do? People would be frantic; they would be ugly, they would be violent instead of learning to adapt. It's scary!! 

I do have one sewing related thing to share with you. I have nothing else to share because I'm getting ready for the classes this weekend and writing. Lots and lots of writing to be done today. 

I put on a clean hoodie this morning, and I was a little peckish, so I had put a couple of almonds in the pocket to have a snack while I worked. When I pulled out an almond, guess what else I pulled out????? 

A gold thread

Seriously???? Another gold thread! It went through the wash intact in the pocket. I wonder how many more of those gold threads I will find???

Well, I see it's time to go. I think I've gained an extra hour each day by not having to walk Little Bear. He's a boy, and boys need to stop and pee on every blade of grass. But we love him!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!