Month: July 2024

About five years ago, someone told me a former co-worker of mine had moved to my neighbourhood, about four blocks away. If this was a friend, I would have confirmed this with the person in question directly but this was more of an acquaintance, so I didn’t need to confirm that badly. Plus, I figured with him living so close, we’d surely run into each other at the local shops or other locations.

Well, five years went by and I didn’t see him once. I began to wonder if that information I was told was wrong or if he’d moved away without me knowing. How close can you live to another person without those two people never seeing each other?

About three weeks ago, I was out on my daily walk to the waterfront park when lo and behold, I saw my former co-worker at the park. We exchanged pleasantries and I explained to him that I knew he had moved close by years ago, yet I had never seen him around locally until now. I half expected him to reveal to me that he’d been living as a hermit up until that week but he did no such thing. We said our goodbyes and I wondered when the next time I might run him into, since it took five years to even see each other once.

About two weeks later, I was having chat with a friend at my local market. He had come to have lunch with me and afterwards he was enjoying an iced coffee outside. We were chatting at a patio table when surprise, my former co-worker sauntered on by. Another sighting in less than a month?!?! Perhaps this was going to be a common occurrence now.

We joked that we were going to see each other everywhere now. It’s been another two weeks so far and I haven’t seen him again. When will the next sighting be?

Yesterday was the first day I didn’t need to use my A/C in about two weeks. Thank the maker this heat wave we’ve been experiencing has finally broken. I’m also thankful that the heat wave didn’t go away because of rainy weather, it just got cooler and the sun stayed. So it’s still sunny, just not as hot.

I don’t want to even imagine what my electrical bill is gonna look like for this cycle. I bet the A/C used so much juice.

I went to the park like I intended to yesterday and I did not poop my pants during that time. I am grateful that my bowels stayed under my control.

It’s another hot and sunny day here and after work I’m considering walking to one of the larger parks in my municipality to get some shade and be around some nature.

I am wary of this however because this is the same park where I’ve had some close calls regarding pooping my pants/shorts. At least three times, either on the way to the park, at the park, or on the way home, my gastrointestinal system has decided it needed to quickly evacuate my bowels. This had led to some dramatic and stressful walks home. I’ve made it home before disaster strikes every time so far but there have been some really close calls where I was thinking that public defecation was imminent.

I am not sure why this park is such a triggering factor. The park is about a 15-20 minute walk away. Does that have anything to do with it? There is the concept of a runner’s or jogger’s diarrhea, where the running motion cause the body to want to poop. I’m not running to this park though. I also walk to other places and that hasn’t caused me to want to poop badly as much as the park does.

I’ve also tried to consider what I eat or drink while I’m getting there or in the park. Sometimes I won’t eat or drink anything because I don’t want to trigger something but I believe one time it happened anyways. Sometimes, I’ll drink a lot of water and nothing happens.

I’m gonna tempt fate again. I know one day my luck will run out and I’ll have poop running down my leg.

It was 27 degrees in my apartment by 11am today and that’s the supposed to be the cool time of the day for me. I had to turn on my A/C before noon because it was becoming too uncomfortable to work.

I left the A/C on until I needed to go downstairs to pick up some groceries and some lunch. Normally when I go out for my daily walk or grocery run, I make sure I wander down to the local waterfront park to get some fresh air. Today, I skipped that part because I didn’t want to be in the direct sun with the temps near 30.

When I got downstairs, it was hot even in the shade and I could only imagine how terrible it was to be in the direct sun. The A/C in Safeway remains incredible. Whatever system they have in there is probably rated to cool a store twice that size.

When I got home, I turned the A/C on and left it on for the rest of the afternoon and pretty much all evening. In my living room and kitchen area, which is not cooled, it got up to 30 degrees in the late afternoon. That’s just darn too hot. It’s no wonder I spent all day and evening in my cooler bedroom. I bet I used a lot of electricity today to keep cool. My next utility bill is gonna be expensive.

The heatwave is supposed to break tonight. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 23, which is much more reasonable than the high of 30 today. I’m hoping it’ll be cool enough for me to not have to use my A/C for the next few days.

I’m also hoping all my local seniors found a way to stay cool today. The provincial government began giving away free A/C units months ago to eligible seniors to ensure people had ways to to cool their home, regardless of income.

The weather waited until the first week of July to give the greater Vancouver area its first heat wave. Because of a slight issue, I couldn’t get my A/C working in my apartment until today. The heatwave started Friday and by Saturday, it got up to 28 degrees Celsius in my apartment.

I went to my parents’ place for dinner this evening and when I arrived back home, it was 29 degrees inside. I finally got my A/C sorted out and it’s now 23 in my bedroom. The six degrees drop in temperature makes a huge difference.

The heat wave is supposed to last until Thursday, at which time, the highs will drop to low 20s. Until then, the highs will be near or above 30. It’s gonna be a hot start to the week.