Fire Trucks and Snowflakes

Sunday is often seen as a day of Sabbath - rest.  Our Sunday, however, was far from it.  Seeing that our children were exhausted and needing some good introvert time, we chose to stay home from church and ease into the day.  We all were ready for a change of scenery when we left for our adventure to Costco - an adventure we'd last endeavored right after moving here (translation: we were going to be replacing a lot of staples and would be coming home with more than a few bags).  Now our family never does Costco in a small way - not that many people do - and Sunday was no different.  We meandered through the aisles, dodging other carts [since most of downtown Vancouver seemed to have had the same idea we did and was also at Costco].  We made our obligatory trek down the 'Christmas toy' aisle and repeatedly said, "No we're not going to get that today" and "It's too close to Christmas to buy any toys" and "STOP ASKING FOR STUFF THE ANSWER IS NO".  You get the point.  By the time we'd made it to refrigerated food it was getting ugly - we'd reached the point of threatening to call Santa to ask that he skip our place this year and even that wasn't working.  Nonetheless, the string cheese was a lot cheaper, the chicken too and we finally queued up to pay.  Once we found ourselves safely back in the car we thought we were in the clear.

As we rolled up to our apartment building it became obvious we were far from in the clear.  It's never a good thing to see fire trucks parked in front of where you live and the fact that there were two smack in front of our high rise was not a welcome sight.  It was, however, obvious to Philip and me [since we're fire experts and all] that all was fine, so we proceeded to drive to our parking spot.  As we wound down to our assigned stall - 3 floors below the lobby - it dawned on me that our trunk was F-U-L-L of our Costco purchases and the elevators were likely OUT OF ORDER since there were firemen all over the place.  After trying to calm our very anxious children who weren't as convinced that there wasn't a real issue, we came up with a plan.  We'd haul the perishables up to the lobby, get the full report and head for home.  Thankfully (for our chicken and ground beef's sake) it's been unusually chilly in Vancouver the past few days so I left the meat outside after we climbed the 3 levels to our ground floor lobby.  We visited with the firemen and discovered that someone (whom I hope remains anonymous for their own sake, bless their heart) on the 24th floor had been cooking and it went awry.  Instead of opening the door or windows to the outside of the building, they opened their apartment door which led to the hallway and that's all it took.  Hallway smoke detector screaming equals sirens blazing in response and, might I add, non-functioning elevators until the alarm system is reset.  We hung out in the lobby for 20 minutes or so - the kids having quite a fun time checking out the axes and fire hoses strapped to the firemen's bodies - and we then decided it was time to head upstairs.  Now it shouldn't have been all that daunting, except hauling an additional 15-20 pounds in bags digging into your fingers up 9 more flights of stairs makes anything daunting.  We didn't even ask Henry & Lydia to carry anything but themselves - the hour and a half in Costco had already almost done them in and Philip and I weren't up for the nagging that would be required if we added to their load.  So we went - and I'm proud to say we only stopped once for a breather and to adjust the knife-like bags that were about to dismember our hands.  The elevators were restored to their normal function within an hour or so and non-perishable items made it into our home.  The whole situation did, however, make me grateful NOT to live in the penthouse on the 31st floor - that trek would've been hellish. [Note: there are no photos as both cell phones and all cameras were in the apartment during this whole ordeal.]

As if fire trucks greeting you on Sunday wasn't enough of an adventure, we awoke to a snowy morn on Monday!  Snow here in downtown Vancouver is akin to snow in SC.  It rarely happens, so when it does, it's a big deal.  There are several differences tho - the first of which is that school goes on as planned.  When your entire (almost) student population can/does walk to school each day and there are no school busses that transport kids to their place of learning, snow's just a little extra decoration for the day.  It was magical, really, to walk to school in the snow and it felt just a little more like Christmas-time.  We only had a dusting as we made our way the 8-9 blocks to Lord Roberts, but it was just enough to leave footprints and make grates a little slippery as we pretended to ice skate our way along the roads.

The road leading to school - on our way - just a little dusting.

 

I came home to ironing and left the TV and radio off as I just looked out the window - it's funny how snow makes everything look a tad more special and how its falling has a calming effect.  Then it dawned on me!  We were in the midst of a snow event and I needed some groceries - what if the dreaded run on milk and bread had beaten me and we were going to be without those two random staples for the duration of our smattering of snowflakes?  Off to the store I went, smiling to myself as I pulled my snazzy purple cart behind me with the white flecks dancing around me.  LO AND BEHOLD - the milk/bread disappearing act is something we Southerners can claim as uniquely our own, I do believe!  There was bread to be had by the car loads and plenty of milk to boot.  In fact, it looked as if grocery shopping saw absolutely no change from its norm because of this bizarre weather.  Relief.  Sandwiches could still be had in the Marcum household.

I picked up the kids - in no hurry to return because of the grocery cart - the outdoors were a fine refrigerator.  We stayed at the playground almost an hour - our dusting had become almost groundcover by then and soccer is apparently much more fun in the snow.  Once Lydia started slipping on the playground equipment it was clearly time to call it a day and we headed home for hot cocoa.  We enjoyed another snowy day on Tuesday and, much like SC, the ground is back to its normal state today.  It's been a week of extremes - from fire trucks to snow showers - but it's been a fun one and it's only Wednesday!  I pray the sense of wonder I shared with my children this week never dulls and that it grows as life continues to unfold. 

Henry post-soccer after school

Lydia pre-slipping after school