BLUE SAILS IN THE SUNSET

Visitors to Vancouver, B.C. (as well as the natives) may have noticed what could be interpreted as a widespread popular display of blue banners from condominium balconies. Someone might think that these were the new abodes of the ex-patriot blue-staters who abandoned the good old USA upon the election of George W. Bush as President. (Well, they promised to go).

Maybe a few did. Seems reminiscent of an Eastern Bloc country - - - red banners flying from balconies - - - prior to President Ronald Reagan anyway. Why has the left given up red? Seems they don't want the association anymore. And, I see myself and like minded people as the true blue. Red, white, and blue is ok too. But, the left has wrapped themselves in the blue now. Let it be.

British Columbia still seems reminiscent of an Eastern Bloc country. (I never figured out why we don't use a 'k' on bloc. I guess if they were right leaning instead of left, we would be forced to write blockkk). But, those blue thingies are not banners. I misled you. They are not sails either. They are just lowly tarps put there by people trying to keep water out of their condos. It is a 'blue tarp epidemic.' Others have described it as a "disaster" and have tried to get the their government to declare it as such.

Permit me to digress. I have unnecessarily maligned the blue tarp. I don't know where I would be without them. For example, what else would I use to cover my classic 1963 Rambler? Without them, how would I keep my firewood dry? Blue tarps are very useful, but why is blue the most popular color for tarps? Could it be that most of them are made in mainland China and it would be upsetting if they were red? Or yellow? (Oops, I probably just committed a racial transgression). Brown, black, or white wouldn't do. Someone would complain. Green seems like a good choice. Naw, that would probably upset the "greenies" because tarps aren't alive and growing. Tarps are like asphalt and concrete. You should need a water runoff variance or exemption before you could install one.

Water runoff? Wait, where is the outcry in B.C.? How dare those condo owners re-direct the water off their balconies! Didn't the planners and architects have something better in mind? If just a small bit could be stored in each condo, like an above ground water retention system, that would reduce the demands upon the surface water runoff system, right? Well, I suppose, but I don't think that was their thinking. (I really think it was more diabolical even though those types are extremely retentive).

Not banners. Not even sails. No blue outfitted condo is gonna sail away from its dock - - - docket is more like it. Seems that there is a major explosion of lawsuits over the leaky condos. Leaky? Maybe. Water damaged? Certainly. But, that's another story. And, then there are the B.C. schools, some 500 built since 1985. It is not just in B.C., not even just in Canada.

There has been a huge toll in human misery. Do you know the extent? If you can grasp it, you know why the left wants our guns and why the right wants tort reform. (and why the Vancouver Sun stumps for a "non-adversarial" means to settle the issue - - - I guess before blue tarps fill in for a shortage of body bags). The sealed building and local carbon dioxide level thing is going to make the Johns Manville thing look like nothing. It is coming. It has already started in B.C.

Am I blue?

Hardly.

Copyright © 2005, Donald L. Beeman. All rights reserved.

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