This geekend was a lot of fun. I canned up the beer L got me to make at a u-brew place here in town called West Coast U-Brew on Saturday morning, and then all three of us went out to do some berry picking at Driediger Farms this afternoon. We picked a few pounds of strawberries and then bulked up our purchase with a few more pounds, and a couple pints of raspberries.

This was a geekend because L often teases me about my geeky impulse to do something fairly basic from start to finish, when something very similar can be purchased for probably less money, and definitely less time. For example, the beer: there are stores here that sell beer already bottled, and are quite happy to simply let you walk in and buy some. But what’s the fun in that?

The u-brew place was fantastic; none of those dinky room-temperature, corner-of-the-mud-room kits in evidence here. Steam-heated, copper-jacketed kettles in which you make your wort from the individual malts, boil it, add hops, boil it, add hops, let it cool and then come back in two weeks to put it in containers. I chose cans for my first trip because I didn’t know how things would turn out, and wouldn’t know what to do with the plastic bottles after everything was done. So I came back at lunch on Saturday with 138 cans of rather excellent beer. I considered it a total win once L said she couldn’t tell it was not storebought. Now for a real test, I should buy some Newcastle and do a blind tasting!

The u-pick (I wonder how many of one’s weekend activities need to begin with “u-” before it’s officially a geekend. Perhaps just one.) had strawberries and raspberries available today, with currants and gooseberries on the horizon. I don’t remember the last time I ate a strawberry that was just picked, still a bit sandy and hot from the sun. Some of the berries were so deep red as to be almost mahogany. I rationalized eating those on the spot by deciding they were so ripe that they simply wouldn’t take to transport.

So in the not-too-distant future, I have blueberries, currants, gooseberries, blackberries, peaches and apples to pick, as well as ciders and ales to brew and enjoy. There may be a lot of things which earn my griping about living in Vancouver, but freshly picked berries and a cold drink are not one of them.

Well, one out of two ain’t bad.

This marks my third Canada Day as a permanent resident of Canada, and the end of the second year of my three-year period before applying for citizenship. Two years of living here haven’t changed my perceptions of Canada too much. I still prefer the way Canada does business (politically) in the world, I still prefer living in a country where everyone pays for everyone’s health care, and I still don’t think paying what amounts to US$5.75/gallon for gas is too much.

I’m not exactly sure how living in Vancouver compares to living in Canada, since it’s quite different from my previous experience here, and seems quite different from most other places in Canada according to the other transplants to whom I’ve spoken. I’ve actually started to wonder if this is Canada’s “cultural mosaic” writ small: Canada doesn’t exist as a country, but as a collection of municipalities which share some similarities and have many striking differences. Spider Robinson (another transplanted American now living in the Vancouver area) once described Canada as an amazing place, that was seemingly held together despite language differences and mutually exclusive regional interests by nothing more than extreme politeness and a hatred of its national airline’s coffee (although I’ve had it pointed out to me that most Canadians wouldn’t narrow it down to the coffee). The longer I live here, the more accurate that seems to me.

It’s not all roses living here, but again, I don’t know how much of that is Canada, and how much is living in Canada’s La-La Land. There is a certain amount of gullible credulousness in Vancouver that really rubs me the wrong way. Most of these I attribute directly to a lack of critical thought (what our friends Kayla and Alan described as “the other national deficit”):

• Yes, I want to help pay for my neighbour’s medical care, but no, alternative medicine (whatever that means) should not qualify as “medical care”.
• No, a 650 square foot condo sold for $385,000 cannot “appreciate forever”, not even if the Olympics are coming and yes, I can back that up.

However, at least this kind of disagreement doesn’t get someone tarred as un-Canadian. Too bad the same can’t be said south of here.

Happy Canada Day to everyone, everywhere. I wish you were all here.

M:  I’m done packing.

D: Great, what do you got?

M: Two light sabres, soccer game, scoobydo puzzle….

D: How ’bout some clothes?

M: Nah, Gramma will have all that for me.