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I need good things to listen to while I ride away the stress of life on my exercise bike.

Today I listened to This American Life, recommended by one of my Facebook friends. This week was Scenes from a Recession – and I quote the prologue from the website:

“Host Ira Glass notes the sub-industry in journalism right now of reporting anything that looks like a sign of the recession. He then goes on to list a handful of his own favorites, including a dentist who’s seen an increase in broken teeth from grinding, and a decrease in shark attacks.”

Suffice it to say, I was so engaged in the stories that I rode the bike for just over an hour. This is a big deal for me, since I’ve been meaning to exercise more often – *and* I’ve been wanting to listen to some good podcasts. For some reason, I’ve just never gotten into the whole podcast thing, so I’m not sure what to listen to.

Have any suggestions?

The staff and students of this East Vancouver school are working in portables in the field. Construction trailers line the street. Police and parents are monitoring traffic and there is a “walking school bus” program for families to drop their kids at a nearby high school.

This is one of eight seismic upgrade projects now underway at schools in Vancouver, according to an article published by CBC on Mar. 2, 2010.

In the article, Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus said some schools – like the one in this photo – are nearly 100 years old and not able to withstand an earthquake.

“We’ve seen, just in the last couple of months, a couple of devastating earthquakes in Haiti and in Chile, and we are also in a high seismic risk zone,” Bacchus told CBC. “It could very well be the case here that in the future, we are hit with a strong enough earthquake that could cause catastrophic damage to some of these schools, so it is critical that we get on with making them safe.”

It’s pretty easy to get freaked out about “The Big One” that’s predicted to happen along the fault line that runs up the coast from California. But all you can do is take the approach of this old English proverb: “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.”

For advice on being prepared, check out What to Do in An Earthquake from the City of Vancouver Emergency Preparedness website.

It’s impossible. Don’t bother trying.

Haha. Just kidding. You could always go for a rainwalk, as writer kc dyer called it today on Twitter. She took a rainwalk with her dogs and I did one with my son. We carried my big umbrella (a doorprize!) and rainwalked to our favourite cafe, then to the grocery store. It’s been a “getting it together” day, doing the mundane yet necessary chores of life. It’s so unbelievably mundane! Perhaps you’d like to hear all about it.

I didn’t think so.

It’s hard to believe that last night I was sitting outside eating dinner with my neighbours, thinking: “spring is here!” The adults sipped home made chocolate orange port at the picnic table. The oldest kids reclined on the balcony and looked at stars. The gang of 3-year-olds milled around eating cheezies until they got tired and started whining til their dad took them inside to get ready for bed.

The oldest kids stayed up giggling together til late, and we all went to bed with an excited “It’s a sunny weekend!” feeling.

Then… this!

Maybe this is the reason people write those “gratitude lists” I’ve seen around. When you get too focused on the negatives, and it rains when you hoped for sun, it’s a good time to acknowledge what you have to be thankful for. I’m feeling too cynical to tell you what’s on my list – but I do have one in my head, and I hope you do too.