Archive for January 29th, 2008

A lot of people found a way to e-commute today. Get things done from home with the kids instead of hiking up the skirt and pounding through the slushy puddles.

That’s fine, but could you do it everyday? e-commute, I mean.

Darren Barefoot does. He has a Vancouver based web marketing company called Capulet Communications. For the past 8 months Darren has been running that company remotely, from Malta and, most recently, Essouira, Morocco.

But you’d have no idea if he was in a trendy Railtown loft, or his ancient riad on the Atlantic coast of Africa.

Pretty cool. I profile Darren in today’s cyberbuzz. I’m working on a feature piece on his efforts for a magazine later this spring.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Snow day? For who?  I'm at work, and here's what's on the radio:

    - I dare you to find a cuter kid than my son.  I dont want to go all Kathie Lee on you, but you can't do it. 

    - Gwen Stefani's going to try, she and Gavin are having baby #2.

    - Marc Anthony and JLo will welcome twins any second now.  The names are reportedly Max and Emme.

    - It's SuperBowl Weekend!! Here's why we don't get the "good commercials" in Canada.  So now that you've got sattelite, you need to work on a menu! Check out these man sized appies.

    - If you're home with the kids today, build your best snowman, take a picture and email it to Nat and Drew. Best picture gets tickets to Walking with Dinosaurs.

    - No grey market iPhone yet?  Maybe this one is more your speed.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

So it snowed this morning. Lots of it too.

The schools are closed and people aren’t showing up to work and meetings are getting cancelled.

I arrived at the station 20 mins ahead of a scheduled meeting to find it cancelled. The out of town visitor was petrified to drive from downtown to Richmond and nixed it.

My ride in wasn’t that bad. The conditions really aren’t that nasty today, as confirmed by an email from Grouse Mountain encouraging people to spend the day off school up on the mountain skiing.

Wait a second. Your children can’t get the 5 blocks to the local elementary school safely, but you can haul the whole family up to the North Shore to carve up a few turns? Sounds a little suspicious to me.

The truth be told, on days like today the roads suck for a couple of hours and then it’s no big deal. The plows get the work done, the traffic finishes off the job, driving the salt into the snow. By the time I got on my way at noon, I had one of the shortest commutes ever. No worries whatsoever.

Last year there was a spooky ass ride home because it was iced up like nobody’s business. Took me 2+ hrs to get home. I even picked up a woman who was so scared she pulled over on Hwy 91 and just opened my passenger door and got in. She didnt speak much english, she was just so scared about the conditions she had more confidence placing her safety in the charge of a total stranger than weathering it alone.

Those days are few and far between in Vancouver. Today was not one of those days.

I would venture to say the mountains were a little busier than normal too. It wasnt that bad, yes the sidewalks weren’t shoveled and we got a little wet when we went for our walk today, but we still troddled around, the kids could have made it to campus too. Besides, the best part about being at school when it snows, is recess!

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

On a crazy snow day like today, it’s time to take pause and think of the less fortunate.

Like the daffodil who got a little excited by the sun and poked through. Oops.

Or the Jack In the Box guy left on an antenna without a scarf, or a body.

Or the garbage can, dutifully put out the night before, now almost totally buried.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.

The snow fell in thick cornflakes last night. It got a good 9 hours of tumbling from the sky without interruption. My chimney has a thick layer of butter frosting on it, like those in Whoville, or the North Pole, or Gingerbread Houses.

We’re taking Le Grand Monsieur for a sleigh ride in Lynn Creek Park this morning while I cross my fingers this stuff stops before I leave for work at noon.

It’s a day like today you bless the lord for bus service. Or do you?

When we really need it, I mean, really, really, really need it - on days like today - it’s hampered by shutdowns, delays and service interruptions.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.