Monday, Christine’s dedicated studio day, I accompanied Linda and Luz to a toy store seeking birthday and, Inspired by Convenience, Christmas presents for the soon-to-be-five-year-old, an expedition which stretched into a daylong quest for birthday party decorations and supplies

including but not limited to a “piñata”* which led us first fruitlessly downtown and

then to West Vancouver where, after a most curious Thai lunch [curious mainly thanks to Hans,

the creepy-spacey waiter], we treated ourselves to a last look across the waters

before Party City met All the Party Needs

and we slipped back into Hastings Sunrise with a Carload of Secrets.

The next day, as Christine managed another morning of hard-won studio time, we took Izel to Lord Nelson for a last look at “The Dentist from the Black Lagoon” and returned to wrap

the Secrets before Luz generously ran us back to the airport in plenty of time for customs

[nothing to declare except two colds and a big bag of chewable vitamin C]

and the short nearly empty flight down to murkier

Seattle where construction

between gates allowed barely time to pee and load for Oakland which

was, however, unavailable for landing so we ended up in Los Angeles where,

after burgers while the plane refueled, we re-boarded

and returned north for a third try…which, though slightly bumpy

on the approach, succeeded.

We reached long term parking in light rain and were home

by one a.m. Wednesday where dogs, on their own since Erin departed for New Mexico

some sixteen hours previously, had had plenty of time to express their happiness inimitably.

• Piñatas aren’t the only things migrating north; in season Hatch Chiles are readily found  in Canada, or at least Vancouver, as well.