Two Days of Fog

After 2 wonderful days of foggy weather we are back to the normal rain in Vancouver...
How I love the fog so much more...
I'd rather have the fog around here in the eternal land of rain.
Here in North Vancouver it actually rains the most.
It's not to say that Vancouver doesn't get lots of rain.
That's all I have to say..

A Piece Of Canada

Last night P and I watch a show called The Greatest Canadian Inventions on CBC. The host, Bob McDonald, counted down a list of the top inventions, many of which were very surprising to know started in Canada and NOT the US as most people might think.

Quite frankly I was shocked, but also amazed that Canada's Top 100 inventions have not been in the limelight for most of these inventions. Canucks to many are quite selfless in their inventions, and usually let someone else steal the limelight to mainly the US.

Yes the US actually bought many of the patents from Canadians. Sorry Thomas Edison but you didn't actually invent the light bulb. You only bought the patent for $5000 to claim it as your own!

Some Great Canadian Inventions Include (in random order):

1. The Light Bulb - not Thomas Edison didn't invent it!
2. Pace maker
3. Telephone
4. WonderBra of 1935
5. Robertson Screw Driver
6. Plexi Glass (think Hockey games)
7. Basketball game
8. Electric Wheel Chair
9. Insulin
10. Propeller boat motor
11. Canoe
12. Electron Microscope
13. 5 pin bowling
14. The First Replay - think super bowl!
15. The Zipper
16. Poutine!

Since I didn't have a clue what a Robertson Screw Driver was, I thought I'd also tell you guys what I learned about this unique driver. The inventor, Peter Lymburner Robertson, was planning to sell tools from a street booth. As he was setting up this booth, Peter slashed his hand open. So Robertson vowed to create the ultimate driver so that he would never slash his hand with a flat head screw driver again.

P.L. Robertson went one step further and patented his square-headed driver in 1908. In fact, this driver was so cool the Fisher Body Company which constructed the Ford Model T decided to use his invention in its product line. Today 85% of Canadian screws sold use the Robertson head. See how simple the screw is! It's about a logical as the metric system if you ask me.


What's even harder to believe is that I've never seen this screw in Canada yet! Only 10% of the US uses this more practical screw but if things go their way, you'll be seeing a lot more people switching to this Robertson screw.

I'm thinking a few more inventions are on the horizon for the future to tell you about what Canada has done for the world. So this is the first of a series which I'd love to learn more about Canada too..

Purple Haired Lady

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This weeks Photo Hunt Theme is Gross.

I'm not so sure I was all too creative this weekend but here's what I found. Some might say this is gross. I certainly know my mom would be one who would say exactly that. "Eww - Gross!" To me, it's just funny and shocking. What amazed me even more was the age of this woman who happened to be walking up a small hill in the streets of Lausanne's shopping area.


What's your take? Maybe the trash on the ground or the rubbish bin near by is a better example of what can be gross. It's certainly not all that tidy for Swiss standards. If you click on the pic, you can see more rubbish on the street too. I'm not so sure I got it, but it's a try...

This is a look on the other side of the Rhine River in a French park. I'm sure we all get the point. But I certainly had a big laugh when I saw this for the first time.

It's Cross Quarter Day

For most of us in North America, we usually know today as Groundhog Day. Since I did a post last year about Groundhog day, I figured I wanted to add something new and different about the day.

Did you know today is the Cross Quarter which falls half way between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. It means we are half way to beginning Spring which for me is one of my favorite seasons. I operate better with more light and the closer we get to the summer equinox, the more light Vancouver gets. Even when I was able to ski more, I still loved it when the time changed for spring occurred.

I'm also willing to guess Fasnacht and Carnival are in full swing in places like Switzerland, Southern Germany and the Alsace region of France, as this officially marks the pagan holidays in Northern Europe and the British Isles. Basel's Fasnacht is said to start on the Monday after Ash Wednesday which is on Feb 26th this year. Yes it still might be cold out, but there's something to celebrate everywhere.

Does anyone else know of a holiday celebration during this time of year? It's said in Ireland they celebrate an Imbolc

In case you were wondering, Punxsutawney actually did not see his shadow today, so there should be an early spring! It's also 1 year ago today that P and I finally moved into our new place.

**Special thanks to CS for correcting me on the Basel date!

Amazing Sunsets

Yesterday I spoke about my amazingly dumb blunder of not having my camera with me as the most amazing sky ever lay out before me in Vancouver. I wasn't all too impressed since I only had a few words to describe what I should have recorded in a few photos.

So yesterday, with fog and all, I brought my camera in tow just to see if I could catch one great moment in the sky. The colors weren't as impressive, nor was the view. But I am sure one gets the point of how beautiful the evening sunset was**.

Viewing from the deck in North Vancouver.

The Fog ruins the downtown view, yet the colors still make Vancouver so beautiful.