My Friday night war game was the American Revolutionary War, with myself against the rebel rabble. I isolated one wing, outflanked them in the woods with my rangers and routed a regiment of traitorous Canadians fighting on the American side, serves’em right! The American commanders conceded rather early I thought, they still had a fighting chance but their morale was shattered. The next day I slogged through a blinding blizzard (okay, it was snowing) to attend three gallery openings in one night, more out of a sense of duty to the arts than anything else. Owen and terry bought me Chinese food. I never did go to the Culture Crawl, I stayed at home shivering as the snow JUST DIDN”T STOP FALLING ALL BLOODY DAY! This is bizarre weather for B.C., sure is pretty though when you don’t have to get anywhere fast… the cold really hurt me in my back. On Monday I had to go outside to check to see if money had arrived in my bank to pay for tomorrow, fortunately it did so I went and bought oatmeal! I had my granny cart (I wonder if you can get snow tires for granny carts?) walking the streets of hard packed, icy snow… the streets are eerily quiet of people and traffic, most people choosing to stay home if they can. I’m lucky to have my power, thousands in the lower mainland lost theirs. The next day the temperature plummeted, to lows we just don’t see here. It is what I call “Tajik hat weather”.

I have a Tajik hat, you may have seen them on TV being worn by members of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, Tajik’s mostly, the ones who fought the Taliban for the yanks. It’s like a thick woollen beret with a puffy rolled up brim. I got mine at Bumbershoot in Seattle, I collect hats. My tajik hat is black and made of rough wool and it is so hot to wear I can only wear it in the coldest weather, otherwise my head overheats and the sweat blinds me. Today I wore it comfortably, along with layers of clothing, out to UBC to be poked and prodded by sharp things in the hands of nervous dental students… the only dental care I can afford… which I can’t, really. In exchange for discounted dental care I have to commit to three hour sessions in the dental chair as the students carefully and slowly examine and clean my teeth while under supervision. Although I am generally a patient patient into the third hour one is quite exhausted and not a little fed up with the whole process, wondering if a few missing teeth might not be such a bad thing after all. The good news is that it looks like I won’t be needing any drilling or root canals or anything, the bad news is that I have to go back tomorrow to finish the cleaning… when more snow is expected with perhaps freezing rain as well. As you can imagine, with the entire student body of UBC leaving their cars at home and taking the bus instead, getting out was a bit of a challenge but I made it, even picked up some bread and bagels on the way home. The 84 used to be such a nice, genteel bus, with hardly any passengers. Now leaving UBC it’s packed to the rafters and leaving people behind at the bus stop. There’s rain in the forecast so it’s possible that by this time next week the snow will be a distant memory…