Sunday, January 23, 2005
the dark morning
Working for breakfast. + chance meeting part 2
The next morning, after landing we were still jet lagged. We woke up at 6am. In the Canadian winter, that means its still pitch black outside. And it’s cold. And due to the now infamous freezing rain of two days ago ( everyone was talking about it ) the roads are one big skating rink.
Still, we were up, and we were hungry.
According to tradition, Dallas always needs a big Western style breakfast the day after we land in Canada. So we went out to start up my cousin’s car.
Now, this car had been sitting outside for a few days in the cold. Plus, it had been snowing. There was 1.5cm thick layer of ice on the car, plus snow on top of that. We went outside with two snow shovels, and shoveled the walk. The car was started up to let it warm up for 20minutes before driving. In addition, I had to scrape all the snow and ice off it. There was so much ice, I had never seen so much on a car before. I had to go inside, boil some hot water, and then pour that over the car so it would make my job easier. It helped a little, but the weather was so cold, that the water began freezing again quite quickly.
Once it was all said and done, it took 45 minutes before we were able to get on the road.
At the restaurant ( remember it’s still dark outside at 7am) there was only one other table of customers. We sat down, had some coffee. I looked at the menu and thought about how bad this was going to be for my body.
“ Man, this stuff is going to kill you. Eggs, bacon, sausages…” I said.
“I never worked so hard for a breakfast before. I come to Canada only once in 3 years. Kill me? Fine. I’m eating.” Was Dallas’ reply.
It was big, greasy, and my feet were still frozen from the outdoors. But slowly, after it all, I can feel my body quickly metabolizing it all to try to bring up my body temperature.
In the midst of this, one other customer came in. I hadn’t seen him for about 8 years, but an old Tai Chi classmate of mine, Wayne, came in with his wife. We did a bit of catch up. It was quite surreal. Neither one of us expecting to see the other on a cold, dark morning.
The next morning, after landing we were still jet lagged. We woke up at 6am. In the Canadian winter, that means its still pitch black outside. And it’s cold. And due to the now infamous freezing rain of two days ago ( everyone was talking about it ) the roads are one big skating rink.
Still, we were up, and we were hungry.
According to tradition, Dallas always needs a big Western style breakfast the day after we land in Canada. So we went out to start up my cousin’s car.
Now, this car had been sitting outside for a few days in the cold. Plus, it had been snowing. There was 1.5cm thick layer of ice on the car, plus snow on top of that. We went outside with two snow shovels, and shoveled the walk. The car was started up to let it warm up for 20minutes before driving. In addition, I had to scrape all the snow and ice off it. There was so much ice, I had never seen so much on a car before. I had to go inside, boil some hot water, and then pour that over the car so it would make my job easier. It helped a little, but the weather was so cold, that the water began freezing again quite quickly.
Once it was all said and done, it took 45 minutes before we were able to get on the road.
At the restaurant ( remember it’s still dark outside at 7am) there was only one other table of customers. We sat down, had some coffee. I looked at the menu and thought about how bad this was going to be for my body.
“ Man, this stuff is going to kill you. Eggs, bacon, sausages…” I said.
“I never worked so hard for a breakfast before. I come to Canada only once in 3 years. Kill me? Fine. I’m eating.” Was Dallas’ reply.
It was big, greasy, and my feet were still frozen from the outdoors. But slowly, after it all, I can feel my body quickly metabolizing it all to try to bring up my body temperature.
In the midst of this, one other customer came in. I hadn’t seen him for about 8 years, but an old Tai Chi classmate of mine, Wayne, came in with his wife. We did a bit of catch up. It was quite surreal. Neither one of us expecting to see the other on a cold, dark morning.
# posted by jason @ 3:15 PM 
