For those not familiar with the poetry of Emily Dickenson (or the song cycle by Aaron Copland that my parents recorded for the composer back in the 70’s), the rest of it goes:
Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat—
You must have walked—
How out of breath you are!
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell!I got your letter, and the bird’s;
The maples never knew
That you were coming,—I declare,
How red their faces grew!
But, March, forgive me—
And all those hills
You left for me to hue;
There was no purple suitable,
You took it all with you.Who knocks? That April!
Lock the door!
I will not be pursued!
He stayed away a year, to call
When I am occupied.
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come,
That blame is just as dear as praise
And praise as mere as blame.
It’s a sweet little poem, and as a kid I was tickled at the thought of someone talking to a month like a long-lost friend at their door.
With the new month has come a bunch of new opportunities for Pam, and I’m glad that she is probably going to be busy with work for the next few months, at the very least. As for me, I’m finally feeling fully recovered from the exertions of the Gamelan concert at the Museum of Anthropology. We’ve both got bus passes now, and we’re not afraid to use them! With Spring indeed arriving (flowers and budding trees showing up everywhere), I’m hoping we’ll get a cloudless weekend day to take a trip to one of the gardens south of us (the Vandusen Botanical Garden on 33rd Avenue or Queen Elizabeth Park, which is nearby there just to the East).
I’m pleased to see that someone finally did a bit of a Google Mashup with some of the major bus stops and lines for Vancouver. Too bad it doesn’t do any of the locals, but it is nice to see where the Skytrain intersects with the other lines to the east of us, as well as where the CanadaLine (Rapid Transit system going in for the Olympics with a great deal of cries of pain and gnashing of teeth) will be in 2010.
written while listening to:
Tubin — Three Pieces for Violin and Piano (1933) — i. Sostenuto ” by Arvo Leibur, Violin, Vardo Rumessen, piano
David thanks for the Google mashup of transit routes. I read recently that Translink is purchasing GPS systems for their buses. The problem with the system is though you can quickly get on the Skytrain to get around when you need to connect with the bus you need the schedule and invariably you end up waiting longer than you wanted. It would be ideal to get some idea at each bus stop when the approximate time the bus will appear. Or be able to get text messages for specific timetables. In this day and age it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. I am sure they could increase ridership by making it easier to make schedules relevant to each user.
Only 3 weeks to spring!! You are going to enjoy this time of year. Make sure you get down to Lumberman’s Arch ( just south of the arch up the hill a little) when the cherry blossoms come out. On a clear day with the mountains showing in the background it is beautiful. And the Japanese monument there is interesting. It is in Stanley Park (the same person the hockey cup is named after). Take care.
Congrats on the gig out at the museum. I made it out there for the very first time a few weeks ago. What a great place! Would be a great venue for a concert like that for sure.
I will say that the “Canada Line” just doesn’t roll off the tounge. Back when it was known as the RAV Line seemed much more fitting, but such is the way that the Olympics will have. Went to the lighting of the Inukshuk last night. Very cool stuff. Can’t wait for 2010!
John
http://www.audihertz.net/
Hi Gene — I know what you mean about the GPS. I’ve often been impatient why it’s taking so long to get to a really good level of knowledge about when the next train/bus is due. The Skytrain does run very often, but the busses are indeed really hard to catch. I have noticed some electronic signs at the 5th Avenue stop that say things like “4 minutes till next B‑Line”, but I wonder how accurate they are.
Given what GPS offers, this can’t be that hard to do. I wonder if it’s a knowledge (Information Technology, that is) issue or a money issue. Perhaps there is an interim step: sending to people’s cell phones the location of the bus (say, the next stop on their route) when they dial a particular SMS address (say trlnk-‘route #’). It’s true that it would make this knowledge less available to the people who don’t have SMS-capable cell phones (or no cell phones at all, for that matter), but it would be a start, and would probably cost less than the weather-resistant displays at each bus stop (and the power needed for them, maintenance, etc.)
We were in Stanley park just about a year ago when the cherry blossoms were out. It was amazing. Will definitely have to check out Lumberman’s Arch this time.