Three Days and Two Nights
Feb. 9th, 2004 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqMy Dad has been chomping at the bit for a vacation, he hasn't had one since the stroke (seven years ago). Having the least responsibilities and most free time of his children I was elected to take him out.
Our trip consists of flying out to Vancouver, and spending some time with his brother and sister (and assorted in-laws) in Langely Township. Langley is part of the GVRD, but is insanely far from anywhere I actually wanted to be. Times like this I wish I had more driving experience.
The trip out was fairly good. We departed the frozen (-23 C) wastelands of Cowtown, being dropped off at the airport by my brother. The only downside was at the Westjet check in, where the agent wouldn't give us our boarding passes because Dad didn't have any ID (an oversight on my part - I assumed that my ID would be sufficient as I was his keeper). Now, I don't mind them enforcing a security rule, but the agent had a really snarky attitude that was fairly shocking in comparison to the usual level of service I've gotten from Westjet. I'm hoping it's an anomaly. I haven't decided if I should bitch or not. Probably not as I'm not as pissed off about it now as I was then.
It took a bit of effort to get my Dad into the plane, but luckily we had the help of the stewards and seats in the first row. Throughout it all, my Dad was in a pretty good mood. We joked around and he sexually harassed the female stewards. I've given up on trying to get him to change his attitudes to something approaching the 21st century.
So we visited my Auntie Jan and her husband Len, as well as my Uncle Roly (who came in from Victoria to see us). Having thrown my back out slightly, I went to bed for a few hours after getting him settled in the house. Got up, had supper, put Dad to bed. And then my day really began.
Made my way to the Clubhouse which was about 220 blocks west and fifty blocks north of my relative's house. It took about an hour and a half and also loosened up my back a bit because the Skytrain was about 2 Km from the restaurant. I overestimated how long it would take to get there so I was a little early. As luck would have it so was Chris, so we chatted until the others showed up.
On the way back I sat on the train and eavesdropped on the teens sitting around me.
"Yeah, I hate cops - they were picking on me while I was working"
"Where do you work?"
"On Granville, dealing drugs. They came and took $950 bucks off me, all my weed and dropped me off in Stanley Park without my shoes."
Not a touch of irony in his voice. He should be glad he doesn't live in Saskatoon. The cops have killed people with the shoeless hike trick there.
Got to Surrey and took a cab the rest of the way. $40 bucks - ugh.
Next day was fairly routine. I had to take care of my Dad, but he wasn't causing trouble so it went fast and easy. As an aside, the first time you have to change a parents diaper you are on the urge of an anxiety attack, and after that it becomes utterly routine. Just another chore to do. Not a pleasant chore to be sure, but no more onerous than taking out the trash. Besides, there was a time when he changed my diapers, so this is just karma.
I played on my relative's computer and discovered that it was stupidly slow. It damn near brought tears to my eyes how badly this machine crawled. However, nobody else knew a thing about computers so they all thought it was fast. Turns out we were both right - the machine was normally fast (It being an Athalon 2 Ghz), but had so much spyware on it you couldn't open any sort of web page without there being several pop ups. The spy ware was actually feeding off itself - one programs pop ups would trigger another programs pop ups. This meant that to use the internet you had to wait several minutes for a page to load and then close six to twelve other windows just to see your stuff.
The spyware also changed the homepage to some fly-by-night outfit, and the first two screens (!) of the Favorites menu was porn, online pharmacies and other links of a dubious nature. Did I mention that the primary user of this computer was my second cousin Nicky - an eleven year old girl. Somehow I don't think she needs a larger penis.
So I spent about three hours cleaning off the spyware by hand (I used Pest Patrol to identify the culprits, but they won't actually clean it up automatically until you buy a copy. We use it at work and it's pretty good). By the end of the session I think I removed the most annoying 75% of the spyware and the machine was actually performing at tolerable speeds.
My relations were suitably impressed with their now semi-healthy computer. I now have a whole new set of people who think I'm a computer god - though they were unwilling to foot the bill (about 50 bucks) for a copy of Pest Patrol that they desperately need. I predict that I'll have to clean the damn thing again the next time I'm in Langley.
I again took off after putting my Dad to bed, this time to the Wolf and Hound pub in Kitsilano. Two hours to get there, mostly because I choose my route unwisely. Not much to say about that except that I had a good time and caught up on my gossip. Getting back to Langley was also faster and cheaper this time as I discovered a bus that runs to Langley center until 2 AM.
There I was, wandering around downtown Langley looking for a cab (or a pay phone) at two in the morning. I found a payphone and called up Langley cabs. Turns out the dispatcher (who spoke perfect unaccented English) did not know where Langley city hall was (which is where I was using the phone). The cabbie I eventually got didn't speak English at all, but knew the most direct route to my Uncle and Aunt's house. Kinda turns those stereotypes on their ear.
My last day out my Dad decided to start being a dink. His ability to help himself virtually vanished on the flight back - I suspect he was trying to prove he could still exert his will on me. It was rather annoying as I couldn't threaten to cancel the trip by this point and had no choice but to suck it up. Despite that, i would do it again - but not right away.
Our trip consists of flying out to Vancouver, and spending some time with his brother and sister (and assorted in-laws) in Langely Township. Langley is part of the GVRD, but is insanely far from anywhere I actually wanted to be. Times like this I wish I had more driving experience.
The trip out was fairly good. We departed the frozen (-23 C) wastelands of Cowtown, being dropped off at the airport by my brother. The only downside was at the Westjet check in, where the agent wouldn't give us our boarding passes because Dad didn't have any ID (an oversight on my part - I assumed that my ID would be sufficient as I was his keeper). Now, I don't mind them enforcing a security rule, but the agent had a really snarky attitude that was fairly shocking in comparison to the usual level of service I've gotten from Westjet. I'm hoping it's an anomaly. I haven't decided if I should bitch or not. Probably not as I'm not as pissed off about it now as I was then.
It took a bit of effort to get my Dad into the plane, but luckily we had the help of the stewards and seats in the first row. Throughout it all, my Dad was in a pretty good mood. We joked around and he sexually harassed the female stewards. I've given up on trying to get him to change his attitudes to something approaching the 21st century.
So we visited my Auntie Jan and her husband Len, as well as my Uncle Roly (who came in from Victoria to see us). Having thrown my back out slightly, I went to bed for a few hours after getting him settled in the house. Got up, had supper, put Dad to bed. And then my day really began.
Made my way to the Clubhouse which was about 220 blocks west and fifty blocks north of my relative's house. It took about an hour and a half and also loosened up my back a bit because the Skytrain was about 2 Km from the restaurant. I overestimated how long it would take to get there so I was a little early. As luck would have it so was Chris, so we chatted until the others showed up.
On the way back I sat on the train and eavesdropped on the teens sitting around me.
"Yeah, I hate cops - they were picking on me while I was working"
"Where do you work?"
"On Granville, dealing drugs. They came and took $950 bucks off me, all my weed and dropped me off in Stanley Park without my shoes."
Not a touch of irony in his voice. He should be glad he doesn't live in Saskatoon. The cops have killed people with the shoeless hike trick there.
Got to Surrey and took a cab the rest of the way. $40 bucks - ugh.
Next day was fairly routine. I had to take care of my Dad, but he wasn't causing trouble so it went fast and easy. As an aside, the first time you have to change a parents diaper you are on the urge of an anxiety attack, and after that it becomes utterly routine. Just another chore to do. Not a pleasant chore to be sure, but no more onerous than taking out the trash. Besides, there was a time when he changed my diapers, so this is just karma.
I played on my relative's computer and discovered that it was stupidly slow. It damn near brought tears to my eyes how badly this machine crawled. However, nobody else knew a thing about computers so they all thought it was fast. Turns out we were both right - the machine was normally fast (It being an Athalon 2 Ghz), but had so much spyware on it you couldn't open any sort of web page without there being several pop ups. The spy ware was actually feeding off itself - one programs pop ups would trigger another programs pop ups. This meant that to use the internet you had to wait several minutes for a page to load and then close six to twelve other windows just to see your stuff.
The spyware also changed the homepage to some fly-by-night outfit, and the first two screens (!) of the Favorites menu was porn, online pharmacies and other links of a dubious nature. Did I mention that the primary user of this computer was my second cousin Nicky - an eleven year old girl. Somehow I don't think she needs a larger penis.
So I spent about three hours cleaning off the spyware by hand (I used Pest Patrol to identify the culprits, but they won't actually clean it up automatically until you buy a copy. We use it at work and it's pretty good). By the end of the session I think I removed the most annoying 75% of the spyware and the machine was actually performing at tolerable speeds.
My relations were suitably impressed with their now semi-healthy computer. I now have a whole new set of people who think I'm a computer god - though they were unwilling to foot the bill (about 50 bucks) for a copy of Pest Patrol that they desperately need. I predict that I'll have to clean the damn thing again the next time I'm in Langley.
I again took off after putting my Dad to bed, this time to the Wolf and Hound pub in Kitsilano. Two hours to get there, mostly because I choose my route unwisely. Not much to say about that except that I had a good time and caught up on my gossip. Getting back to Langley was also faster and cheaper this time as I discovered a bus that runs to Langley center until 2 AM.
There I was, wandering around downtown Langley looking for a cab (or a pay phone) at two in the morning. I found a payphone and called up Langley cabs. Turns out the dispatcher (who spoke perfect unaccented English) did not know where Langley city hall was (which is where I was using the phone). The cabbie I eventually got didn't speak English at all, but knew the most direct route to my Uncle and Aunt's house. Kinda turns those stereotypes on their ear.
My last day out my Dad decided to start being a dink. His ability to help himself virtually vanished on the flight back - I suspect he was trying to prove he could still exert his will on me. It was rather annoying as I couldn't threaten to cancel the trip by this point and had no choice but to suck it up. Despite that, i would do it again - but not right away.
