Sponsorship Shoutout!
We would like to give a huge and loving shoutout to two wonderful, amazing women: Beatrice Corbett and Norma Wartman! BT and Grandma W are the heads of large, boisterous families and somehow these women manage to keep us all in line. I've (Jill) loved getting to know BT, one of the sharpest and most knowledgeable women, particularly about all things important: the history of Kingston, Canada and Scotland. During the second world war, BT listened for Japanese subs on the West Coast of Vancouver Island for the Royal Canadian Navy. She's also a published journalist and prominent figure of the WRENS in Kingston the Octogenarian seems to have a busier schedule then either of us combined! She was the one to kindly inform me of Duncan’s true character as an "exemplary child" (insert sarcastic tone here). This story seems to add a little more every time she tells it and the last time I heard it I believe it went like this: The family was having a wonderful weekend at their cottage at Presqu’ile, when BT and little 5 year-old Duncan were out in the barn and noticed a wasps nest. Duncan went running out, pushing over the lovely BT, slamming the door and knocking down the nest. He then bolted it from the outside, pushed a gigantic 300lb log in front of the door (yes he was also freakishly strong at 5), locked BT's keys in her car and then slowly strolled back to go for a swim with just the littlest smirk on his face. All the while BT was in the barn with the wasps! The little rascal!!! BT of course held her own against the wasps and to this day has the story to hang over Duncan’s head, until she seeks her revenge…watch out Duncan!
Grandma W is the kingpin of a family currently 22 in number, and this is just children and grandchildren (soon to grow with grandchildren-in-law... as my sister has just become engaged, Congrats Kate and Adam!) and somehow she manages to be at each important event, trounce people at bridge, sew almost everything she wears AND help organize our Paterson family reunion (which by the way is attended by over 300 tri-annually). She was also always there to take us in when we were sick. I remember being bundled up in snowsuits in July and cranking the heated seats. It always worked. We would simply sweat out the sickness. I also remember always having the most amazing Halloween costumes out of my friends thanks to the annual weekend at Grandma’s house where “we” sewed them (any chance you and your Singer could come to Vancouver this weekend?).
Both these women are role models for everyone in their big loving families, and we would like to thank them for not only being so supportive of our newest endeavour, but also for each and every thing they’ve done, do and are. We love you both!
Grind #14 - Friday October 15th
Grind Time - 47:13
About half way through this fundraising mission we decided we could go a little further than we originally anticipated and would attempt to complete 25 Grinds by October 30th. On Thursday, We sat down and mapped out a schedule of how we could accomplish this and determined that we needed to do four grinds in the next five days. Jill picked me up from work and we headed over to the Grind for #14 to reach our second Kilimanjaro. We were running a little late but figured we'd be alright as we still had about 75 minutes of daylight and the drive hadn't been too bad lately. We drove downtown and headed towards Stanley Park to find ourselves in a complete deadlock and proceed to not proceed anywhere for a good fifteen minutes. We tuned into the radio traffic report to see if the Lions Gate bridge had dropped out or perhaps a meteor had landed in the middle of the Stanley Park Expressway. Turns out it was even crazier than both those situations combined - a stalled car, in the opposite direction, and everyone was slowing down to look. Now this, I totally get. This is what I usually do when I see a stalled car: "Whooooooooooaaaaaa, what is that up there Jill? It isn't? No, it can't be... That car isn't moving at all! It's totally stalled! Wait, hold on a minute... I just need to grab my camera and I'll take a picture... put it on aperture of F2.0, flash or no flash? Okay, no flash. Slow down Jill my camera's not ready yet. Should I take a video? Look... behind us! There's a thousand other cars that aren't moving too! Incredible!" Jill and I are very fortunate in that we rarely have to drive to work or much of anywhere for that matter. Having said that it doesn't take long for Vancouver drivers to get to you. Growing up in Kingston where a traffic jam often means three cars at the Princess and Ontario St intersection because the Wolfe Island Ferry's come in. I'm sure some of you may have read about the two-week long traffic jam in China a couple of months ago. Two weeks. How does that happen? One stalled car, that's how. Unfortunately we reached a tipping point in the traffic jam and realized we weren't even going to make the base of Grouse by nightfall and had to turn around. This upended our whole schedule that we'd put forth for ourselves in order to reach our goal and our goal had just become a heck of a lot more painful - 4 Grinds in 4 days.
Friday we left work early to make sure that we would make it in time to show that Grind who's boss and arrived with plenty of time to spare. We pushed ourselves decently hard considering this was to be the first of four consecutive Grind days and reached the top as the Sun was setting just in time for some great pictures. Grind #15 - Saturday October 16th - Slow as Molasses
Celebrity Guest Appearance - Will Crosby
When we woke up on this glorious Saturday morning we thought wouldn’t it be a good idea to invite a friend along for our hike. We have to admit that there was an ulterior motive. If we could find a friend who wasn’t doing the Grind every day (and thus didn’t have the Posterior Grousus Maximus Assus Painus muscle – See Grind #3) or had stayed out late the night before then we would have a bit of an excuse to maybe not go as fast, considering we were only at #2 of our 4 in a row line up. Will Crosby kindly volunteered for the job! Though we joke, Will is by no means slow but thankfully he was not planning on Grinding that day, so we had the element of surprise. We reached the top in good time and headed down the mountain to meet up with our friend Brendan Myles for a beer as he was passing through town for the day. Brendan and Karen are good friends from Kingston and Dalhousie and being the philanthropic type they are supporting our efforts as are many of you. It was great hanging out with my old roommate and catching up on how time has flown since we graduated a few years ago and how we've become contributing members of society (at least Brendan anyways). They're also responsible for the first wedding among our friends a couple of years ago which was an incredible time; poofy wedding dresses, plaid yamulkes, scotch and all. We packed it in and psyched ourselves up for another big day tomorrow - although there was an added challenge to both of our days... |
| Jill tries not to breathe in |
Grind #16 - Sunday October 17th - The Day of No Rest
Grind Time - 51:02
Today was shaping up to be a great day. After completing our third grind in as many days we headed down the mountain to indulge in some 'leisure' activities, which seem to be few and far between these days! Andrew, one of Duncan’s co-workers, seems to truly enjoy donating to anything that will cause Duncan pain. Most recently, Andrew generously gave Duncan his old golf clubs, and promptly invited him to what would certainly be a very painful (emotionally and physically) semi-annual golf game for the year. I (Jill), although enthusiastic, had not been invited. Perhaps due to my very very sliced shots the day before, when at the driving range. Duncan assured me that it’s alright he’s a slicer too and it’s better to be a slicer than a, um… someone who hooks it. In my defense, it was my second time ever and I was using Duncan’s clubs… okay, I can’t golf (yet). Apparently enthusiasm doesn’t get you very far in this ‘sport’. So I decided to begin the other annual sport, Christmas Shopping. Duncan complained about how he had to walk another 10km mid-Grindathon in hilly North Van while I got to go “shopping”.
Now many of you would argue that Christmas Shopping is by no means a sport. I beg to differ. In fact I think it could be placed on par with golf (excuse the pun). Let us consider the qualities of each in terms of sport classification requirements. First, cardiovascular exercise. In the game of golf, I believe there are two levels of exercise: those that walk the course and end up getting a good amount of moderate cardio, and then those that drive the course and unless you count the pushing with the toe on the gas pedal, get none. While I do admit that Duncan did walk the course, let’s be honest how many of you do…who wouldn’t love to zoom around on those miniature cars, it’s like bumper cars with no boundaries. Here Christmas Shopping is a clear win. The only ones not walking are the old grannies in those huge, all terrain motorized vehicles that they zoom around on downtown and to the grand canyon and such. And I am sure they get enough blood pumping thanks to the thrill of the chase trying to mow down pedestrians and cars. Next we have skill. I have to admit Golf does require quite incredible finesse. Hitting that little white ball straight is not easy! I think this is why the fairways are always curved. Christmas Shopping certainly requires finesse, balancing a full black coffee, wearing a white jacket, carrying shopping bags and a purse, walking down a packed street of pushy women and children…now THAT is skill! Further impressive are those women that do it with all their kids in tow. To be honest, I’ve never mastered the skill involved with shopping. Perhaps I’m not a finesse sport athlete, I’ll stick to running. Okay, we’ll call skill a tie. Now for the most important aspect of sport: competition. Here Golf has NO chance. Picture this: A lovely game of golf on a pristine golf course with a silent crowd watching a single player take their time lining up their shot, practicing and then executing their play, followed by gentle applause. Plus, we all know Duncan was no competition with the guys who golf all year (his words, not mine). Now, picture Christmas Eve or Boxing Day shopping. I’m sorry, until all golfers are swinging their clubs at the same ball for the same hole, you just will never reach the level of competition that shopping has. Let’s tally the score: cardio = shopping, skill = tie, competition = shopping. So if we’re calling Golf a sport, then I hereby declare that Christmas Shopping be officially named a sport!
Needless to say, Duncan had a successful game of golf as he managed to get over a hundred points! Apparently that’s pretty rare. I came home Christmas giftless, and we were both exhausted and not looking forward to Monday’s Grind. So we carb-loaded with my first Lasagna (which we’ll have leftovers of until Tanzania) and crashed.
Grind #17 - Monday October 18th - A Somewhat Silent Assent
Grind Time - 49:40
We pulled into the parking lot of the grind to find it surprisingly empty. This time of year it seems that people are fairweather grinders. So on grey cold days they stay snuggled up by their fires at home… not us though! We promised to grind it out till the bitter end considering how amazing everyone has been with this endeavour! We ran into a friend was doing the grind that evening, Andrew Elgar, who was among the few people who toughed out the weather.
Today on the Grind, we saw a total of 5 other people. It was empty! Especially when you compare it to the zoo it was all weekend! We saw three nice women, Andrew, and then an eccentric older gentleman. This fundraiser has been wonderful not only because of the amazing support we’ve received but also because it’s given us more insight into Vancouverites. This guy certainly was one of them! As we approached him he bellowed out that we had to be masochistic to be Grinding sleeveless in October (he was sleeveless himself of course, though he hadn’t seen shirtless Duncan yet). Then as we huffed past him, he kindly informed us it was not polite to pass your elders without permission: “You must be from Toronto!” We chuckled as he then explained that should we hear a loud burp it was just him being eaten by a bear, and not to worry about it. A few paces later we heard a very loud burp…it was just the beer he’d had at lunch, so he explained. He proceeded to continue a conversation with us as we climbed ahead. In the end, it was more of shouting conversation up the mountain. But we learned that you can never stop on the Grind or risk getting eaten by bears or worse cougars (not true, don’t worry mom), that long sleeves are necessary in the month of October, that beer is a lunch time drink, and that people from Toronto don’t know how courteously to do the Grouse Grind. He certainly entertained us while we hiked!
With our four in a row line up complete, we were ready for a day off (consisting of 2 hours of basketball for Duncan).
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