Walking With Freddie: Freddie's Long Christmas March

By the time he got to bed last night, Freddie was tired ... very tired. Exactly as I intended him to be. My tire-Freddie-out project began with an extra-long morning walk, from our place in Nofo* to Paul's sister's place near UBC, where holiday merriment was on the program.

(*I'm happy to report that I've recruited the assistance of my cousin Mollie's partner, Teal, in getting the new name out there. Teal works for Transit —in my mind she's everything that is noble and good about the organization — and is thus well positioned to shape the geographical lexicon of Vancouverites.)

OK! Here we are on 4th Avenue, between Yew and Vine, around 8:45 on a weekday morning, and what do you see? That's right! Nothing! Nada! It's that splendid and surreal Christmas morning lull, when the capitalist beast goes into hibernation ever so briefly. Ahhh ...

In the days leading up to the lull, this sidewalk and square were thronged. I stupidly tried taking Freddie into Whole Foods on the afternoon of the 23rd — an expedition that lasted about 37 seconds.

I dig that the Whole Foods sign makers have written "every day" correctly, as an adjective and a noun (as opposed to the oft-misused one-word adjective, "everyday"), though thankfully they're not really open every day. :)

No conventional Christmas decor in view, but this entrance looked festive nevertheless.

Some random views as we made our way west ...

A fetch break in the General Gordon school yard, where we met a family out for a walk

More randomness ...

Roof of the Ninth Avenue Hobbit House

After the morning festivities, I took off to my aunt and uncle's place for afternoon happenings and turkey dinner, while Freddie and Paul returned home to prepare another feast chez nous. Splitting up is a bit of a bummer, but both groups together would have amounted to 24 people and two dogs (next year I think we'll go to Bamako or Buenos Aires or somesuch and invite everyone along ;-)). Since Freddie is still recovering from the move, we decided to let him stay home and frolic with Dusty. There wouldn't have been much for him to do, alert-wise. I had a total carb-fest — which can result in lows, if one ODs on insulin (and nothing like chowing down glucose tabs when you've just eaten five butter tarts), but I tried to be conservative. I also appreciated, as always, the fact that my family never gives me the ol' "Can you eat that?" / "You can't eat that, can you?" routine. Merci!

Here are Freddie and his cousin Dusty at the start of their all-day play.

"That Dusty's fun, but she wears a guy out!" says Freddie.