The First Day of Sunshine

This weekend was a little strange — we received some very unusual weather.

It all started Friday night. As we were walking around English Bay with our friend Tyler, returning from a wonderful Greek dinner, we noticed that the sky was dark — much darker than we were used to. As we gazed up into the sky, we noticed that not only was it dark, but the soft texture seemed to have disappeared. It was now just a stark blackness, save for tens of millions of tiny, shimmering specks. At first, we didn’t know what to make of it — had something gone wrong with the clouds? Why were they so black?

Then came the uncomfortable truth … our comforting blanket of cloud-cover was gone. The bleakness of space could be seen — our protection from UFOs was nowhere to be found.

We quickly ran indoors to protect ourselves from the open night.

The following morning, we rose slowly, allowing ourselves to bask in the joy of the weekend dawn. Yet again, we were disturbed by a change in the norm — one of us had left the light on all night.

As I fumbled about, trying to find out which light was still on, I had a sudden attack of fear — none of the lights were on; the mysterious light was coming from outside. With a shaking hand, I slowly parted the window, only to have my eye seared by a powerful light from the sky.

I darted back into the room, jumping back into the safety of my bed, and pulling the pillow overtop of my face, resisting the urge to break into tears. I was terrified — the sky had caught fire, and we were all going to die.

Allison asked me what was wrong, why was I shaking with terror? I told her about our imminent doom. She took it surprisingly well. She got out of bed, and peered out the window. I expected to hear a shriek that would wake the dead. Instead, my ears only met with a sigh. For a moment, I thought it was the sound of her last breath, having peered into the face of Death.

But no — she breathed further! In fact, she threw the curtains open, allowing more of that curséd light to pour into the room, filling every crack, and even passing through the comfort of my pillow. A moment later, my comfort was ripped away as my love flung the sheets from the bed, exposing my poor body to that harsh brightness.

“Why?” I pleaded, “Why do you torture me so?”

“Because it is the dawn, and the spring is upon us!” she harkened, throwing open the window to the day.

The room filled with an eerie warmth, which reminded me vaguely of springtime in Ontario. But no — it could not be — the sun did not shine in Vancouver, it was not meant to happen!

But as I rose, holding my hands over my eyes, I could see that I was wrong — the sun had bled through the ever-thinning clouds. The sun, giver of life, and burner of skin. It had not given up on our poor, soggy souls! The sun was out, the birds were singing, it was a completely beautiful day!

So we decided to go see a movie.

(Hey, how much sun do you think we can take after four months of rain?)

All kidding (and over-done prose) aside, it was a very unusual weekend. The sun was out, and a lot of the cold and wetness that has plagued us here for the past four months (at least temporarily) went away. Taking advantage of a nice day, we did opt to go see a movie.

It was “Babe: Pig In The City”. I highly recommend it, along with it’s predecessor, “Babe”. Very good movies. The movie cost $1, which was the only real reason we went.

To get there, we had a nice, long drive into Coquitlam. It was a beautiful day, with blue sky, white-capped mountains, and surprisingly little traffic (at least until we got to Coquitlam).

The following day, we decided to do something even bolder — we went biking. Unfortunately, Sunday’s weather wasn’t quite as nice. It was a little cloudier, and a little cooler, but it was still much better than normal. Although I’m hesitant to say it, things are beginning to look a lot less like Christmas, and a lot more like Canada Day.

Now if we can just do something about Eastern Canada…

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