City Living

So, I honestly don't know why anyone in their right mind would live in a City by choice. The polution, the expense, the inefficiency! I'm not going to sugar coat it here, folks so if you're looking for a cheer-me-upper, you've come to the wrong place... Since arriving in Vancouver, I've had my car backed into, my insurance hiked up, been charged for an aircare check and spent a good week dealing with the ICBC claim. I've had a roomate leave without paying rent and without giving notice. To add insult to injury, I've had one speeding ticket (the one place you can actually drive in the city!), and one parking ticket (after paying the 3$ to park, and then not getting back in time.) Nathan's scooter has been knocked down once by someone backing into it, and once had it hit at full speed- it skidded down the street. If he had been anywhere near it, he probably would be dead, or at least severely maimed. His two ICBC claims had to go through at the same time, making for a rather confusing situation that is long from sorted. He will probably take his scooter in this week. Nathan's locker was broken into at school and his wallet, keys, school bag with all his school stuff, and cell phone were all stolen. Which was too bad for the guy who broke into his apartment just a couple days later, because he had almost nothing of value left there to steal! Most recently Nathan, a friend of ours, and myself were acosted by a madman (likely cracked out) on a bike, who responded to our quiet grumbling after he nearly knocked our friend down at full speed down the middle of the sidewalk with a violent and earnest offer to pound our heads into the road if we continued talking about him 'that way.' Thankfully we escaped after a few minutes of abuse with only slightly moist faces from his spittle and slightly moist trousers from the fear he managed to produce in us. Just another fine day in Vancouver, folks! Most beautiful city on earth. Then, as you may of heard, we are now enjoying the much anticipated water crisis that has resulted in the over logging of areas directly above our water supply- the bank slid into the water and produced such a volume of silt in the water that the filter is entirely insufficient to, well, filter, and the many bacteria that inhabit the woodland floor are having their hayday. Add to that the Portmann Bridge expansion soon to bring us more and more congestion from the south, and the great cause of the Olympics, which is sucking every service dollar out of every resource... this in the face of a housing crisis like none since the depression, the poorest per capita postal code in Canada living literally under the feet of the richest in Canada... and YES! Let's all move to Vancouver. What a modern, lovely city. The city of glass, indeed. You can see right through it when you get close enough, and it's ability to support life, as well as it's crystal image, are about as fragile.