Off The Grid is, of course, about living OFF the grid, not ON the grid and, since I am currently ON the grid, I should stop writing under this blog title.  But I can’t.  Writing is a habit.  A man’s gotta vent his spleen.

I won’t bore you with the basic urban traffic story anymore.  It is as bad as it has been described in the past and seemingly getting worse.  What a colossal waste of time for everyone.  It took us over an hour to cross the Lions Gate Bridge the other night.  At minimum wage and factoring in gasoline prices, it cost close to a gazillion dollars in wasted time, auto depreciation and operating expenses not counting pollution.  Maybe closer to two gazillion.

We took Fiddich for a walk on the seawall (off-leash section) this weekend (both days) and it was almost as crowded as a Hong Kong sidewalk.  That’s weird.  Dog walking is supposed to be relaxing  – not like commuting in traffic.

Yes, you’ve sensed the theme of today’s post: urban life is crowded, polluted and requires you to smell the butt (or exhaust) of the entity ahead of you while experiencing your butt being too-closely explored by those behind.  Fiddich and I are not amused.  Fiddich, especially, seems put off by all the butt-sniffing going on.  As a dog, he should be ‘into it’ but he is more than hesitant, he is literally shocked at such coarse behaviour.  Walking on the sea wall, for him, is a just one long moving violation.

I feel the same way about traffic.

And I can see why everyone is freaked out by ‘talking-on-the-cell-phone’ all of a sudden.  I have had a car-phone/cell phone since the mid eighties and I just couldn’t understand why all of a sudden it was such a big deal.  But my cell phone was (before I left the city) simple. As in ‘dumb’.  Now the phones are smart and require your complete focus.  Driving and phoning is easy.  Driving and smart-phoning is a major challenge.  Mind you, I am doing it. Like everyone else.  But it is NOT surprising that people are generally unaccepting of that. I am, too.

Even as I do it.

I am, of course, back to filling my car up every other day.  $60-70.  Ka-ching!  That gets old fast. And that’s closing on $750.00 a month!  $1000 before taxes. That cuts into my consulting fees!! The rat race is insane!

But we are ‘restauranting’ again. A bit.  Interestingly, that habit maintains it’s cachet for us and will for a while.  So far, so good.  We’ve had some really good food these past few days and I am not opposed to doing that a few times more.

Our Wfer’s came to join us at the site.  They had been on their own for the last two months on other Wfing gigs.  They got work cleaning up.  They are happy.  Canada has been good to the ‘boys’ and their memories will be good.

Sally has been content to shop, cook, walk and do quilting.  Wants me to pick up some bon bons for her next time I am out.  It is a bit of a vacation for her.  And that’s good.

All in all it is a back to the future kinda thing.  Deja Vu.