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No snow on her. Waiting for the bus on West Broadway -- with her umbrella, under a store awning.

 It's still snowing in Vancouver and my WordPress blog is still suspended.

Unfortunately the snow isn't enough to cheer me up. Still, I should just buck up and get on with it right? Life goes on around me, demanding my attention.

Bloody hell!

While I've been typing this post in McDonald's a woman has appeared at the counter. It's free coffee week at the Golden Arches but they weren't giving her one. I turned to see the woman, she was squat with a stolid expression and she was carrying a jacket and a plastic shopping bag. She had cross-cut slashes all down both forearms which were consequently covered in blood.

What the...?

See what I mean about not paying attention?

I jumped to the counter. There seemed to be an abundance of coffee denial and a shortage of 9-1-1-ing. I was a bit loud about that. A woman did finally call for an ambulance.

The woman with the cut up arms left. A customer at the counter actually declared the cuts were superficial -- self-inflicted -- and couldn't have hurt. Aarrgg!

The staff justified not calling an ambulance immediately because the woman had come in one time before in the same condition and that she left before an ambulance arrived.

In fact the woman left the restaurant. I couldn't convince her to wait. She didn't say a word, she just left. She immediately tried to get on a westbound bus but I watched as the driver took one look at the blood covering her forearms and hands and ordered her off the bus.

She trudged off down West Broadway. The woman who had called 9-1-1 was trailing after her trying to talk to her. I didn't go out and help. At no point did I consider trying to "detain" the woman with the cuts.

When I looked up a few minutes later the woman with the cuts was back; she was again trying to board a bus but now she had her jacket on with the sleeves over the cuts. A different driver still ordered her off the bus. As she walked  walked west up Broadway I could see bus passengers pointing at and complaining about something to the driver. Not a minute later I heard sirens and watched an ambulance and police car speeding west. Then there was the woman who'd made the original 9-1-1 call; she was walking east.

So a potentially mentally-ill woman, covering in blood up to her elbows, was, and may still be, wandering around Fairview in the snow and cold. She appeared to be willfully dodging help, which didn't seem too hard to do as most people just wanted to ignore her.

Vancouver is a wonderful city full of people who care. They just don't always care about other people. But then neither do I.

Did I mention my WordPress blog is still suspended?

 By now, most WordPress.com bloggers will have found they now have the ability to flag a referrer link as spam.

WordPress.com, the free service that hosts WordPress blogs, quietly rolled out the new feature on Friday in response to a two-month deluge of referrer spam, all generated by one Website.

The Website, semalt.com, was raining spam disguised as post views down on thousands of blogs, not just those powered by the WordPress content management system (CMS).

It wasn't exactly a rain of terror but it still left bloggers curious, worried, and ultimately pissed off -- the spam hits were skewing everyone's traffic stats!

Overlooking Arbutus Ridge and beyond from King Edward Ave. and Arbutus St.

Homes, home, homes and more homes, That's one strong impression you get looking over the Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood. The other impression is that it all appears to be comfortably well off if not flat-out wealthy.

This impression of comfortable hominess continues for several kilometres in three directions beyond the Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood, south into Kerrisdale, west into Dunbar-Southlands and north into Kitsilano.

[caption id="attachment_10555" align="alignnone" width="497"] How he rolls. Looks like Hansen's statue is about to run the barricade.[/caption]

As I rode west along 10th Avenue I happened to spy a big hunk of something behind barricades and yellow caution tape in the little parking lot beside the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre. It was a very impressive statue of the famous wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen.

This was not a new statue; it had previously been featured on the grounds of Rogers Arena in downtown Vancouver. I had no idea why it was parked here, but here it was in stall 2524.

The larger-than-life size granite sculpture was carved by sculptor Bill Koochin in 1997 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the completion of Rick Hansen's Man in Motion World Tour.

[caption id="attachment_10540" align="alignnone" width="497"] The scene as I was getting up: unusual snow and the typical snarl of poorly-driven SUVs.[/caption]

Thick fluffy snow has been falling steadily at least since I got up early this afternoon. Because the temperature has stayed above zero the snow has only been finding a foothold on lawns, parked cars and garbage bin lids; it hasn't stuck to roads or sidewalks.

[caption id="attachment_10541" align="alignnone" width="497"] This bottle depot has spare shopping carts for binners. Why aren't the boys taking this one?[/caption]

I skipped my usual weekday morning coffee because it was Saturday and I'd slept right through the morning. Instead I made my way through the snow to the bottle depot. The trip was uneventful; the snow was no more inconvenient than a light chunky fog.

The bottle depot wasn't very eventful either. When I arrived at Go Green there were only six other binners there -- at 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon! The staff watched the big open entrance of the bottle depot and complained about the snow.

How many people driving by this construction site will have already forgotten what used to be here?

It's probably about time to stop calling the crest at Arbutus Street and 16th Avenue the former site of the Ridge shopping centre. It is now the future site of Cressey's Arbutus Ridge condominium development. I say that without caring for it to be true.

I'll always miss the Ridge Centre. Over the course of 30 years, I shopped there, did my laundry there. went there with friends and by myself to see a lot of movies, and I ate a lot of meals there. I regret never trying the bowling alley.

It was a big old shopping mall with character that was associated with some of my fond memories. Now it only exists in my memory -- all the physical details I remember, down to the date stamped into original sidewalk on the south side: "1950" --all gone.

Soon to be replaced by an uninteresting condo for rich people. In three to ten years when it starts leaking I'll try not to feel good about it. Click the image to enlarge it.

This was the first of several photos I took this morning looking straight up through the glass "awning" at the Canadian Western Bank building on the northwest corner of West Broadway Avenue and Birch Street.

Water from overnight precipitation was making pretty on the glass and I wasted effort capturing the effect. I say wasted because nothing nailed the surreal look like my first quick zoomed shot. Click the images to enlarge them.

[caption id="attachment_10480" align="alignnone" width="497"] A Cossack horsewhips one of the members of the band Pussy Riot. From the video.[/caption]

This morning The Province newspaper had a story straight out of the history books; apparently Cossack militia (also known as "thugs") attacked the anti-Putin agit-punk group Pussy Riot with horsewhips on Wednesday in Sochi, Russia, for trying to play their music in public under a sign advertising the Sochi Olympics.

Cossacks? Horsewhips? Wow! Russia really does still have one foot firmly planted in the 18th Century. But their other foot is on the gas pedal of a brand new Beemer and they also have the latest model iPhones and high-speed Internet.

So hours before I saw The Province I had already seen what I took to be smartphone footage of the attack in the music video Pussy Riot put out on the Internet this morning for their very excellent song "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland."

Singer Madonna, a vocal supporter of Pussy Riot, posted a still of a Cossack swinging his whip at one of the band members to accompany her amazed tweet this morning:

"Are you kidding me? Are the police in Russia actually whipping Pussy Riot for making music on the streets? Is this the dark ages? GOD bless P.R. They are fearless!" she wrote on Twitter.

Madonna also included a link to an International Olympic Committee spokesperson describing the pictures and the video as "very unsettling."

I agree with the IOC flack that the pictures are unsettling and with Madonna about Pussy Riot being fearless. And while I do not love the Motherland I do really like the song.

[caption id="attachment_10466" align="alignnone" width="497"] Late shipment of winter. Wet snow at 10 p.m. this evening.[/caption]

Don't you just hate it when one of your Christmas presents arrives late?

As I type this inside where it's warm and dry, the weather outside is trying frightfully hard -- to snow.

I know what it looks like from the photo; it looks like it's raining drinking straws -- it isn't. It's snowing, but only above street level, no lower than, let's say three storeys. All that's hitting the street is cold rain.

Found this toy and book on a Container blue bin last night where someone had left them for a binner to find. They were neatly in their own Ziploc freezer bag, helpfully labelled: "FREE TOY + BOOK."

The toy is part of the cheerfully creepy plastic sim that is the Playmobil System, product 4407, Child with Wheelchair -- a US$21 value on Amazon. Pairs well with Playmobil Pediatrician.

I was writing a post about Low Orbit Ion Cannons (really) but then this Kate Upton in zero gravity story broke.

At first blush I'm inclined to declare that it's the greatest event in aviation history -- I could be overreacting.

But probably not. Forget about putting a man on the moon! Putting a woman -- Kate Upton -- in a zero gravity plane along with a pile of photographers and stylists and then repeatedly looping-the-loop, all for the 2014 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. That's aerospace history in the making.

And they filmed it! Mesmerizing!

[caption id="attachment_10409" align="alignnone" width="497"] Not quite the cat's meow, but I respect the thought that goes into any stencil graffiti.[/caption]

Yesterday I saw another version of the stencil graffiti of the Cat on a Pedestal, this time in on the edge of the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.

I was making the first leg of my journey westwards from the bottle depot through the alley on the north side of West Broadway Avenue. It was in that lane, west of Columbia Street, that I saw the cat. I'm quite sure it wasn't there even a few days ago.

[caption id="attachment_10393" align="alignnone" width="497"] Not fit for man, woman, or duck -- maybe salmon or trout.[/caption]

The entire morning was bright and sunny. I guess Nature needed good light so it could perfect its evil plans for the rest of the day.

By 4 p.m.the heavy rain had washed away all thoughts of sunshine.

People are happy to say that the rain falls on the rich and poor alike. Aside from wanting to amuse the rich, I don't know why people say such silly stuff. They also say of an especially rainy day like today that it's a great day to be a duck, and I always want to know if anyone has bothered to actually ask ducks about this assumption.

The only ducks I have ever seen in Vancouver are from Anaheim, California and they only like water when it's frozen. I don't think ducks like a rainforest climate one little bit, whether they're the poor kind of ducks or the rich kind from Anaheim. Click the images to enlarge them.

[caption id="attachment_10394" align="alignnone" width="497"] Water cascading down the side of a building off South Granville Street on 10th Avenue.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_10380" align="alignnone" width="497"] George Vancouver stands his ground in a torrential downpour. What a sea dog![/caption]

Two days ago I posted that I couldn't find the Pride flag that was supposed to be flying at Vancouver City Hall. Well I found it today in the pouring rain.

I was still thinking the rainbow flag would be conspicuously flying amongst the gaggle of flags on the southwest corner of city hall where it would have maximum visibility but no, it still wasn't there. This time I walked all the way around the building. And when I got to the north-side entrance, where I was positive it wouldn't be, Captain George Vancouver was kind enough to point it out to me.

[caption id="attachment_10361" align="alignnone" width="497"] Totally bodged blue Toter-brand recycling wheelie bin.[/caption]

Most people in my little corner of the world call this crumpled little thing a "blue bin." Some, if they work in the local waste-hauling business, likely call it a "Toter" after the company that made the bin. Beginning in the late 1990s Vancouver invested in hundreds of thousands of Toter-brand blue bins for recycling and grey bins for residential garbage.

But in the UK -- the cradle of the English language -- people would almost certainly call it a "wheelie bin."

Apparently all the real heavy lifting, language-wise, was taken care of ages ago by their ancestors. These days the British people just have fun with their language.

And not just people in the UK but also people in Australia and New Zealand. Together they share a subset of English I call Ukanzish.

Outdoor tennis courts in Vancouver's Fairview neighbourhood -- the three courts I saw -- were empty of people.  It must have been the rain.

Apparently tennis player don't like to get their balls wet. Well their tennis balls, I mean -- they seem to absorb water which naturally makes them heavier and affects their bounce but it doesn't sound like they recover their performance even after they dry out. But I also read that tennis balls have an active tennis life measured in hours. Their afterlife as dog chew-toys is at least measured in days. Click the animated GIF to see a less annoying large static image.

[caption id="attachment_10350" align="alignnone" width="497"] Bad panorama of the rainbow at 4 p.m.. I was jostled by disembarking 99 B-Line bus riders![/caption]

On my way in the to bottle depot at Ontario Street and 7th Avenue I deliberately ended up at 12th Avenue and Cambie Street -- on the south side of Vancouver City Hall.

Previously I snapped a photo of the giant Canadian flag on the north side of the hall. Today I wanted to photograph the Pride flag flying in front, as reported in yesterday's item in The Province newspaper on a grumbling B.C. Pavilion Corporation agreeing to occasionally light Vancouver's Olympic Cauldron during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia:

"At Vancouver City Hall, a large Canadian flag is displayed on the north side of the building, while a Pride flag is flying in front of city hall to support LGBTQ rights in the face of Russia’s anti-gay laws."

I saw several Canadian flags and two provincial flags but I didn't see a Pride flag. I was looking on the south side of city hall, specifically for a rainbow flag. I might've just missed it. I'll look again tomorrow, Saturday, February 15 -- National Flag of Canada Day. Click the image to enlarge it.

[caption id="attachment_10335" align="alignnone" width="497"] Used cigarette butts don't taste any worse and they might even be healthier![/caption]

This evening my friend Florida Pete showed me the latest thing in "safe smoking" apparatus for street people: a short length of clear plastic tube.

Pete was wearing at least two too many jackets to be comfortable when he came to visit me this evening in McDonald's. It wasn't long before he was so dozy he had to go back outside -- to look for a place to crash. But first he put on a bit of show and tell.

He started with a nifty little LED flashlight some one had dropped. It also doubled as a red laser pointer. Neat!

Then he showed me what he said a community health nurse had given him earlier in the day outside the Kingsgate Mall at East Broadway and Main Street. At first glance it looked like the sort of glass tube used for a crack pipe but no, it was about two-and-a-half inches of flexible plastic tubing. It was the simplest of devices for "safely" smoking used cigarette butts.

[caption id="attachment_10325" align="alignnone" width="497"] The Plaza's golden facade at about 1 p.m. this afternoon.[/caption]

The Broadway Plaza has been a striking visual landmark on West Broadway Avenue since it was completed in 1980. Not only is it 51 metres tall but the tower is dramatically planted at 45° to the street grid on the northwest corner of West Broadway Avenue and Ash Street.

That means both its southwest and southeast-facing facades -- gold-tinted, glass curtain walls -- are very visible to east- and west-bound traffic on West Broadway, presenting motorists and pedestrians with a constantly changing golden reflection of the sky and the surrounding skyline. It's still impressive after 34 years.

The "Plaza" part is ground-level retail and is topped by a 14-storey tower of prime office space, something Vancouver routinely runs short of. According to Wikimapia tenants include the Consulate of Slovenia on the fourth floor.

The plaza features a fountain -- very nice -- but I can't remember the last time there was water in it.