On wide-bodies and weather

I probably know too much about aircraft. Then again, I know how to try and get the most out them. Or possibly know enough to get into trouble. Or maybe minimize the trouble. 

Given my leg, I had made a point of booking a flight on a wide-bodied airliner from Montreal to Vancouver. I also made a point of choosing my seat for extra legroom. To avoid the issue of having to step over and being stepped over, I chose a bulkhead row seat in the center block of seats. Finally, the flight I selected left at a very reasonable hour.

In the period leading up to my vacation, I began to suffer from lower back pain to the point that I contemplated delaying my trip by a few days. Nothing came of this which was just as well as the two days following my flight saw freezing rain in Montreal along with the attendant flight disruptions! This may contributed to my flight being solidly booked as some people may have moved up their flights. Among other passengers, there was the Université de Montréal Women’s Volleyball team as a fair number of Sikhs, including three generations of a single family.

I was escorted through security by an airport employee. At first, I didn’t understand when she told not to extract my iPad from my backpack. It turned out that the airport now has a special fancy scanner meaning that it is no longer necessary to take electronics out of your carry on luggage. As with my last flight to Vancouver, there was no point in getting a lift in cart as the gate was extremely close to security.

I put my handicap to good use and boarded early, taking pains to pack my cane and backpack away as tidily as I could. I encountered a weakness in my plan early on as the bulkhead row seat was slightly narrower than the regular seats on account of wider, immobile armrests housing tables and TV screens. Also, I am unfortunately wider than I used to be.

I must be getting old as I found the noise of flying much louder than I remembered. Then again, I was sitting over the wings and therefore nearer to the engines as well various pumps moving air and fuel around the plane. I wasn’t able to relax during the flight.

I made a point of standing by the implied deal of pre-boarding for the handicapped by waiting for the able bodied passengers to leave before leaving myself. I found I was being bumped by the disembarking passengers so I used a lull to move into a middle seat which was also more comfortable as it didn’t have an armrest on one side.

My original plan had been for Chris to meet me at the airport. However, it emerged that he had only flown back from Norway the day before. I could not in good conscience ask him to do so as my flight arrived about 8:30 PM Vancouver time. As it was, he sent me an email saying that he would leave the front door unlocked in case anything happened. I replied with: “i.e. you fall asleep.” 

The weather here has been what I expected for Vancouver in March, generally cloudy and wet. Consequently, I have not been disappointed. Furthermore, this vacation was intended to be a very relaxed one. I will grumble that when Chris and I took the ferry over to Victoria on Saturday, it was very nice and sunny day. Unfortunately, it was also a very windy day, so the open decks of the ferry were closed which meant I could only take pictures through the salt-stained windows which was a pity as the snow capped mountains were quite spectacular in the sunlight.

I made the obligatory visit to the Vancouver Aquarium and soon wished I had bought a season ticket as it less expensive than two tickets. Also, my back was giving me trouble so I didn’t have the patience and energy to force myself to look at everything with attention it deserved. I was happy to see a Pacific octopus actively moving around as opposed to just lurking in a corner as is the wont of the species. However, it was the marine mammals who were the stars of the show. The rescued seals, sea lions and sea otters were easily the most interesting things to watch. The Aquarium puts a goodly emphasis on “rescued” as because of somewhat misguided priorities of animal rights activists, that is the only way they are allowed to keep marine mammals in captivity. I was most enthused by the talk about the Steller sea lions as the guide was openly and honestly passionate about them.

During my visit, I overheard a couple of references to a change of status of the Aquarium that I didn’t think too much about. It was only when I got home that Chris informed me that the Aquarium was no longer the Vancouver Public Aquarium, but simply the Vancouver Aquarium as it had been bought by the company behind Sea World. Apparently, the Aquarium had failed to weather the financial disruption brought about by the Pandemic as a public entity, and had been sold. There is an irony about this from my family’s perspective as back in the mists of time, namely December 1984, we flew to Vancouver for Christmas. We took in the Vancouver Public Aquarium which housed orcas and belugas in those days. We then drove down the coast to California where we stayed for six months. During the Easter break, we went to Sea World in San Diego where we were repulsed by the schmaltzy sentimentality of the various whale displays. Even Alice (aged nine) was of the opinion that she much preferred the presentations at Vancouver than in San Diego.

The excursion to Victoria was planned for the weekend in order to see my cousin John, his wife Caitlin and their kids Arthur and Ruby as well as my brother Stephen, his wife Margaret and their offspring Avery. For reasons that I must not go into, I stayed with John and company rather than my brother. I was their first guest since a major renovation. As such, I was more or less invited to provide feedback about the guest room. I hope my contributions were viewed as positive and/or constructive. There was a slight issue that my electronic devices were Apple products and therefore I could not use the charging cables provided. (Caitlin’s father used to work for Microsoft and therefore there is a familial bias. This was not a real problem as I had brought my own charging cables.)

John had told me before hand that Saturday’s supper would be make your own pizzas. Various posts on Facebook informed me that Saturday, March 14 was Pi day, so I assumed John was being his (very) geeky self and hence, therefore or otherwise, the menu was chosen in light of the date. As it turned out, I was mistaken as John hadn’t realized the coincidence. My faith in John’s geekiness was misplaced.

At breakfast time on Sunday, John started to talk about his espresso machine and how he had modified it and wired it into the internet at some length. At some point, I said with a smile: “So, short version, I should let you make my coffee for me.” John agreed with this. I then commented that my practical knowledge about how to make espresso started and ended with stovetop Bialettis. 

Sunday was spent on low key activities including a play date at a nearby park and a visit to a used bookstore. Interestingly enough, John and Caitlin had to explain the concept of a used bookstore to Arthur.

I had supper with Stephen and company. Stephen was slightly disappointed that I wasn’t drinking as I was taking a muscle relaxant so he couldn’t show off some of his more exotic spirits. To be honest, so was I. However, my back pain is real and wasn’t made any better by the low chairs and sofas in his living room. 

On Monday, while waiting for Chris at John and Caitlin’s, John sort of apologized for how boring my stay with him had been. I scoffed at that and said I much preferred the term “relaxing”.

On Tuesday, I drove to Mission in order to see Steve. He was my first roommate at the Lindsay, and through his example, I began to exercise much greater agency in my recovery. Previous to that, I had acted a lump in a bed. It was very good to see him. We chatted for a while in his basement cum guitar repair business in the company of William the movie star corgi. His daughter works for an animal trainer and coordinator for various film and TV shows produced in the area. The nine-month old corgi had been in a movie with Randy Quaid as well as one or two commercials. He was being fostered by Steve and his daughter on condition that they lend him back if needed. 

Steve seems  to be regularly involved with minor aspects of film production in the area. We went to lunch at Rocio’s Family Diner, the exterior of which was used for the filming location of Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe in the Riverdale TV series, a dark and gritty live-action take on the Archie comics. As we got out of the car, Steve was greeted a friend who also worked on various film and TV productions in the area. Steve joked about how the vast majority of shoots in the area were set elsewhere, usually in the United States. He then asked me if I knew the name of just about the only film actually set in Vancouver. I didn’t hesitate to name Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, which was the very film he had in mind. I should have mentioned that a friend I saw it with commented that Antonio Banderas had a hard time trying smoulder in that movie on account of being too wet!

Update

After several days relatively heavy rain caused by an atmospheric river and causing various landslides, the weather was very sunny today. So much so that returning from a shopping expedition, I made a detour to find a park near the water looking out at the North Shore mountains for a quick photo op. (Unfortunately, for some reason, I can’t post it right now.)

Also, during this trip, I found out the WeatherCan app from Environment Canada has a feature which alerts the user to weather alerts on highways in the general area. It would appear that Montreal doesn’t have a need for them whilst Vancouver with several nearby areas sometimes having radically different weather than the city, such as the Sea to Sky Highway or the Coquihalla. (I also took a screenshot, but I can’t post it at present.

On Vonn and vicodin

On Lindsey Vonn

During the Winter Olympics, I was struck with sympathy for the downhill skier, Lindsey Vonn. Even my Mother thinks she was courting trouble by participating in the Olympics after a recent ACL injury, I found my myself interested in her as she also had her left tibia fractured. As well, she posted a picture of her external fixation which took me a long time to do. Her external fixation was much more complicated than mine, though I understand it was relatively temporary as she had at least another operation lined up when she released the photograph.

 So, good luck to her and I hope she recovers faster than I did.

On matters relating to vicodin

Strictly speaking, I am not really going to write about Vicodin. However, it is a "v" word and touches on what I am going to write about.

Morphine. 

Fentanyl. 

Dilaudid.

OxyContin.

All of them drugs with a lot of baggage. And all of them one which I have consumed in one form or another. I will quick to add that in all cases the consumption was medically regulated and, in most cases, administered by medical professionals. There may have been other opioids administered to me but in all honesty, the names ran together at some point. 

The third one in the list is somewhat scary for me as it was the one that I was on the longest and at dosages that made me wonder. For various reasons, it was administered by injection early in my hospital stay. At some point it was decided that I should receive it orally. I had no objections to this. However, the first time a nurse came around with my pills she said I had been getting 2 mg of Dilaudid by injection, but as it isn't as effective taken orally, the dose would be doubled. That would mean 4 mg at a time and they only give that much to addicts. At the time, I was taking very passive approach to my treatment and said something like "Okay, give me the dose you think I should get." However, looking back, I wonder if I should have asked questions about the dose I had been receiving by injection. One of the side effects of Dilaudid is hallucinations. I can think of a least one time when I was at the Montreal General when I think I was talking to nurses as though I was still in a dream involving a girl and boy and a Bernese mountain dog. I wasn't supposed to let the nurses know about the dog. With hindsight, I find it somewhat scary that I was so disconnected with reality.

Partly as a result of this, I tended towards taking as little as possible of the opioids prescribed to me. In fact, at least once, my physio had to tell me to take my dose before the physio session! Even after going home, I was still on opioids, though I was scrupulous about taking no more than the prescription warranted. After the operation to reconstruct my left tibia using bits of my hip, I was prescribed a higher dosage of Dilaudid (2 mg). When I went to the pharmacy to get it filled, I was somewhat frightened by the fact that they also gave a Naxolone kit, "just in case". As a result, I only ever took one of the 2 mg pills. I later returned the unconsumed portion of the prescription.

Why am I writing about this? Well, BC recent tightened up the rules for supplying various opioids to people at high risk of drug abuse. The drug featured in the picture is hydromorphone which is the generic name for Dilaudid. I feel uneasy about how easy it is has been for me to access the drug compared to others versus the potential danger for the substance. 

One of the reasons I used Vicodin in the title was because it is the drug that Dr. House used and abused in House, MD. Looking back at the show with the benefit of having been a user of an opioid, I wonder at how realistic the way he consumed the pills was, popping them like they were candies. On the flip side, I now appreciate the fact that we often see Dr. House arriving at work with a backpack instead of briefcase or small bag, as when you are using a cane, keeping your other had free is fairly important.

On undeniability and umbrage

As I near the end of the alphabet, I find it increasingly hard to find proper nouns for the titles. The first "u" word is a bit of a stretch but it refers to an absolutely wonderful picture Louise posted recently, which I show here with her permission.

My immediate reaction was to comment that it was a lovely picture showing undeniable fascination and familial love. Tessa is clearly enthralled by the book and Chris' storytelling. Patrick is interested at the least and Chris' arm around him shows his style of quiet grand-paternal love.

However, when I took a closer look at a picture taken slightly earlier, my appreciation for this picture was multiplied. 

From this picture, I could see that the book being read from was evidently a printed and probably edited version of Chris and Margo's blog. The thought of Chris relating to Tessa (and Patrick to a lesser extent) about his adventures with Margo had been on filled me with undeniably warm and fuzzy affection. The feeling is reinforced by the fact that while their adventures were undeniably remarkable, I cannot help but feel that Chris would have told them in a very matter of fact manner.

I am going to veer into probably unwarranted and widely outdated associations here, but somehow it feels appropriate. Norway (where Louise and family reside) was one of sources of Vikings more than a millennia ago. Between my frequent re-readings of Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom series, a reading of the Orkney Saga and a book about Viking artifacts on my kitchen table, I have the idea that the Norse were ones to boast of their accomplishments. They did not hesitate to highlight and sometimes exaggerate their deeds. Modern grandfathers have also been known to do so. However, Chris would be last person to do so, first because of who he is and second, because there is little need given the fact that one of his adventures was to ride from Bangkok to Paris, which is hard to underplay.

(As an aside, last night, I watched Les Douze Travaux d'Astérix. One of the tasks is to defeat "Cylindric the German". He proves to be a rather small man who manages to defeat Obélix using judo. He explains to Astérix that he learned it on a trip which took him far to the East. The relevance is the trip to the East and past Germanic activities.)

My recent dealings with my own immediate family have not been as welcome. Over the winter holidays, I received umbrage from most of them. I could explain, but it would not be wise to.