A Day in Photos

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are all well today.

I took a little jaunt out to the University of British Columbia on Sunday to take a friend for coffee. He's been a patient at the University of BC Hospital and before that, a patient at the Vancouver General Hospital.

On my way to the University of BC

Once I arrived at the hospital, I made my way to an area of the university that is new to me. In the sky just beyond where you see the tree branches in the below photo, I spotted two eagles heading in the opposite direction. I'm always very excited to see eagles and I don't get to see them that often. I was a little slow to get my phone camera ready so I ended up with just a photo of empty sky.

I spotted 2 eagles flying just beyond the leaves.

I wondered why these trees were lined up the way they are.  They remind me of an orchard but this would be a very small orchard.

I'm not sure what kind of trees these are.

Regent College (see the small sign at parking lot) an interdenominational evangelical Christian college affiliated with the University of BC is located on the UBC Endowment Lands. It's peeking out behind the fence.  Like most other areas of the university the college gets a lot of international students.

The photo below looks toward a tower where a professor I know used to live. I'm not sure if the housing is meant for professors only or is also open to the public. A lot of the new housing on campus is for students and staff alike. I know the staff get subsidized rents.  When I was a student at UBC, highrises were extremely rare and development was minimal. The university is barely recognizable now as there has been a lot of development, both housing and amenities for staff and students, grocery stores, restaurants and coffee shops.

The Starbucks I was headed to is located just beyond the awning in the below photo. It turns out that the store with the awning is a wonderfully stocked grocery store. Both of these are newer additions to campus life. I stopped there to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables some of which I used for dinner that night.

The Starbucks is just beyond the awning.

Many years ago there was only one main bus to the university campus, the #14.  A second bus took an obscure route nearer to the waterfront but students seldom rode that bus.  Today, there are multiple buses coming and going from multiple directions. On the way home I took the #99 B-Line bus which is an express bus that travels along a major street called Broadway; a good route for intersecting with many other bus routes, subway and sky train options. 

A new subway line needs to be built to the university.  There is a current subway extension being built.  It was was meant to go out to the university but will only go part way due to the ballooning cost of construction that occurred over the "Covid period".   Of course, plans can change and political parties at all the levels can decide that the construction needs to happen now rather than later.

Heading home another way.

A Friend in Need

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

How are you all doing?

It's been a hectic time in my life of late but things are getting done. Nothing too exciting just a lot of hard slogging with shopping expeditions for small items (shopping is not a favourite activity of mine), a lot of small household jobs requiring a lot of elbow grease (rust removal, grout cleaning, small diys, etc. and planting.  Spring is always a busy time as I dust off the cobwebs of winter, quite literally and figuratively, and prepare the household and gardens for the warmer days ahead.

 I went out to the university hospital to meet up with a friend of mine on Mother's Day.  Both he and I lost our mothers several years ago and he tends to get very depressed on Mother's Day without his mom to call. He has been in hospital for 5 long months which is another reason for him to be depressed.  Currently he is in rehabilitation at the university hospital to try to re-learn to walk.  He lost several toes and part of his heel on one foot about 5 months ago. A few years ago he lost several toes from his other foot and he'd been in a wheelchair ever since.  I'm not sure what happened but I think during one of his many surgeries they must have damaged a nerve because all of a sudden he couldn't walk anymore.

He insists he is not going home until he can get out of his wheelchair and walk again.  Otherwise he's thinking of seeking medical assistance in dying (MAID).  It wouldn't be his first time to think seriously about MAID and I know he was thinking of applying after the experience a few years ago of needing to get around in a wheelchair. I hate hearing him talk about it but I can certainly understand his feelings. 

He has been to hell and back for many years already with various medical and housing issues.  He's experienced a lot of discrimination and ill treatment by both housing and health officials.   Right now he is battling with the management at his current place of residence and he's fighting to remain in his apartment even though he is in hospital. It's basically the housing management views that he is unable to live independently and they want him to go into an assisted living facility.

Wednesday update:  The eviction  threats against my friend seem to have stopped. At least for now he can breathe and his building administration is s now being very nice  I guess they don't want a legal fight.

There is much more to the story but I also don't pretend to understand it all. My role is just to try and be supportive and a listening ear so I'll leave the story there.

So on Sunday I went out to meet him and treat him to Starbucks coffee and a lemon loaf.  We enjoyed a long natter. It was also good for both of us to have a visit with one another.  We both lost our mother's years ago to their various health challenges and it gives us time to reminisce and share our memories. Both of us met the other's mother once or twice though they both lived far from Vancouver.