{"id":340,"date":"2008-12-26T19:26:30","date_gmt":"2008-12-27T03:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/?p=340"},"modified":"2011-07-04T18:20:28","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T22:20:28","slug":"trip-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/trip-preparation","title":{"rendered":"Trip Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_5554\"Turning out to be quite an adventure already. \u00a0Vancouver is being pounded by a record breaking snow storm<\/a> for the past 4 days. \u00a0I haven’t seen snow like this since Michigan. \u00a0It’s hard to complain, considering that now I’m walking IN the storm and not just stick in traffic, while staying warm in my truck. \u00a0My shoes have proven themselves to be my best friends. \u00a0I can’t believe my feet are dry!!<\/p>\n

Day before Christmas I ventured out into the storm in order to get some gear for the trip. \u00a0I’m not even going to consider dragging around luggage, so I got myself a nice 65 liter backpack. \u00a0Should be just enough to carry my clothes without me getting stinky. \u00a0Woo!! \u00a0No stink! Also, I finally got a\u00a0new jacket. \u00a0So nice to wear something that is not 2 sizes too big. \u00a0It actually LOOKS nice too. \u00a0Yeah, i should have gotten one sooner, but I was a little nervous about spending $300+ on a jacket that would only replace the working jacket I already had… \u00a0 \u00a0but I spent less than $300, so all is good. It’s not a spectacular color, but the other colors they had were in styles that were very… \u00a0“meh”, ya know? \u00a0Zero character. \u00a0The new jacket works quite nicely with my Newsboy cap<\/a>. \u00a0Before, it was just… wrong.<\/p>\n

I wanted to go to work today to get stuff sorted out before I left on my journey. \u00a0I planned on also going to the currency exchange, but that didn’t happen… \u00a0because the storm hit hard again. \u00a0I left work around 2:30 (after raising my desk, cleaning up some code, etc.) and picked up the 130 bus. \u00a0I had it drop me off at a covered stop… waited for 30 minutes for the 25 bus. \u00a0Time passed and I saw a 130 coming that wasn’t full, so I decided I’d let it take me to the Skytrain, then figure it out from there. \u00a0I had to get somewhere, as the snow was piling up every minute.<\/p>\n

\"img_5557\"At the Metrotown Sktrain & bus depot, I ran in the largest backlog of people I’d ever seen. \u00a0Why? \u00a0The tracks were frozen and people were lining up for the buses like it was Disney World. \u00a0I couldn’t even get up the escalators. \u00a0I thought about waiting it out at the mall, but I noticed that the crowds were just getting bigger, so if I was to move, it had to be right then. \u00a0I had no time to spare, I have a trip to pack for!<\/p>\n

I walked from the mall and made it half way home before a 19 bus picked me up and carried me to safety. \u00a0People were packed on the bus to the point where I think someone was sitting in the driver’s lap. \u00a0OH! \u00a0That was me! \u00a0He was sweet. \u00a0I tell ya. \u00a0There was room for 1 person on that bus. \u00a0The door could barely close behind me. \u00a0Camera battery was dead, or else I’d have evidence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"snow<\/p>\n

I’m home now. The only event walking from the bus stop was me just taking note of my surroundings. \u00a0I don’t recognise anything. \u00a0Is that 2 feet out there? \u00a0I could barely get the front gate open.<\/p>\n

Also, good news is\u00a0it looks like I’ll have a place to stay while I’m in Sweden. \u00a0Never used couchsurfing.com (go figure) but so far, so good. \u00a0I’m all good with meeting new people and it’ll be nice to have a Swede tell me where all the hot spots are. \u00a0Here’s their response for my plea for help.<\/p>\n

Hey hey Jeremy! Michael here (the elder son). There
\nshouldn’t be a problem giving you a place to sleep.
\nAround the sixth of january my dad might be coming
\nhere so then you might have to take the couch if you
\ndon’t mind. ;D However, you’re more than welcome to
\nsleep on our couch for a few days. (= Wed just like to
\nknow which days and how long \ud83d\ude09 Don’t hesitate to
\ncall.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I told them I’d call tomorrow at 6am (that’s 3pm Swedish time). \u00a0Almost got my days mixed up, they were expecting me to arrive tomorrow.<\/p>\n

K, that’s enough for now. \u00a0Next time I’ll be typing, it may be moments before I meet with the angel. \u00a0A little mental preparation is in order.<\/p>\n

Dear Heart,<\/p>\n

Don’t fail me. \u00a0I will do my best to keep my head clear and calm. \u00a0No matter what the outcome, this is something that needs to be done. \u00a0She deserves it… \u00a0 I deserve it. \u00a0Am I willing to give it all up for her? \u00a0Well, let’s just say that I really don’t know when I’ll return to Vancouver. \u00a0Whether it’s immediately or weeks after, that will be up to her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turning out to be quite an adventure already. \u00a0Vancouver is being pounded by a record breaking snow storm for the past 4 days. \u00a0I haven’t seen snow like this since Michigan. \u00a0It’s hard to complain, considering that now I’m walking IN the storm and not just stick in traffic, while staying warm in my truck. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1885,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/1885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerslife.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}