Hi, Neighbour! I’m glad you’re here. This is the first of many articles that I’m planning to post on this blog. I’m calling it TGIF on the Boulevard, because I love the Grand Boulevard neighbourhood. I feel so lucky to be living here, near North Vancouver’s Champs-Élysées (an image rendered circa 1908) or our mini-Golden Gate Park.
This season, this year, is so different from any I’ve experienced. I’ve lived here more than half of my life and, like most of us, I’m not sure how we’ll be celebrating the holiday. But I really want to connect with as many Grand Boulevard neighbours as I can. I’m also inviting family and friends to attend a Zoom call. These days, it’s better than a Christmas card. Yep, I’ve learned how to Zoom and it has literally Saved the Day for me. If a Zoom call has to happen when I need to eat, then I “join with video” and tell the others on the call that I’ll be ‘feeding my face’, so I’ll be turning off the video. Who wants to watch me eat? I can still hear the conversation or join the discussion. It’s great! Sometimes I join SFU’s free webinars (like Zoom calls), where only the presenters are on the mic and the ‘host’ mutes everyone else. Sometimes there are 100’s of participants and keeping up with the comments or questions in the Chat box is challenging.
All that to say that online socializing has filled a big gap during COVID-19. If you haven’t discovered or used Zoom, go to www.zoom.com and learn how to create a meeting, copy the link and email it to your best friend, who can click on it at the scheduled time and visit with you for as long as you want to talk. If it’s only you and one other person/computer, there’s no time limit. You might need some Christmas cheer, even if it’s only tasty-looking.
I’m going to post something every Friday for 2021, so you can follow TGIF on the Boulevard on this blog. I invite you to contribute an article — up to 500 words — and send it to admin@gbrra.org. TGIF on the Boulevard will be non-partisan, non-commercial, friendly, entertaining and humourous, whether you write about Grand Boulevard history or landmarks, personal memories in the area, events, new things you’ve learn or maybe things to do at home, in your garden, or on Grand Boulevard.
TGIF on the Boulevard will not be like Facebook, as quick and easy as a ‘like’, but it will connect neighbours. I want to spread the joy of living in the best neighbourhood I know. It might help Grand Boulevard shut-ins to connect with other shut-ins — aren’t we all shut-ins these days, with COVID and the cold, rainy weather? Enjoy.
Fiona