It’s been a good day to catch up on a few things– sleep (8 hours), exercise, and some Toronto Rehab hospital work. I figured that the hospital e-mails wouldn’t take me very long since I have been keeping up pretty well on my Blackberry. However, what I failed to think about is the fact that I had opened and deleted all the “easy” ones, which left 30 or so e-mails that require some thinking and attention and several minutes each to respond to. So despite coming back from breakfast at 9:30 a.m., I couldn’t go for a run until 2 PM.

Trees in Vancouver The sun has finally returned to the west coast. Today was 10 degrees and sunny with a bit of a breeze – not nearly as nice as Toronto, but the scenery is better here – when you can actually see the mountains. The Brits jokingly said that they had heard a rumour about mountains being close by, but they hadn’t seen any.  I didn’t plan to take pictures, but I had my camera phone with me, so today’s pictures are a reflection of my encounters during that run.

The trees are in full bloom early here after an unusually warm winter. Allergy sufferers on the team aren’t that happy, but I personally like the look and smell. I ran along False Creek, and you can the smell the blossoms, the sea (occasionally a bit too strong I have to say), horses (unusual I’m sure but the police squad was there taking pictures) and dogs…lots of dogs being walked. Running here is like navigating a dog slalom. And since it’s Vancouver, the occasional illicit substance smell hangs in the air, within 20 paces of the police officers no less!
Vancouver shoreline
Police on horses
Olymipic Village
 I also got a very nice view of the Paralympic village from across the creek. Back in the village, the volunteers are all smiles. It’s amazing what a bright sunny day can do the one’s mood! Oh yes, Lauren received another Gold Medal in GS. Let’s see how well she’s known after these games. For fun, try to name one Olympic Gold medalist who helped design the villages’ electrical grid system!
Wheelchair Curling Our curlers won the early game and I followed their progress through regular text messages to my cell phone. We try to keep everyone abreast of the latest results in real time. A few of us headed out to see the late game, and it was another win. Wheelchair curling is different from standing curling in that there is no brushing to change the trajectory of the stone. Once it’s released, the work is done and you can only watch it go. So strategic placement of stones is crucial as is a very predictable delivery – which uses a special stick that allows release and twisting of the handle to determine the curling direction.

Thursday is the hockey semi-final and I’ll head out to Whistler afterwards, hopefully to see a Canadian on the top step of the podium at the medal plaza. It amazing how fast time has gone by and already we are talking about departure procedures.

This is the link to the pictures and a few more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaetan_tardif/sets/72157623642947638/

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