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Mum Saves the Day

February 21st, 2010

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Sooner or later everyone has to eat and by the time I sat down for dinner at Capilano Heights Chinese Restaurant in North Vancouver, I was halfway between delirious and nauseous.

Day 2 of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games had been a busy one for our fleet of Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell electric vehicles. I had just given British Columbia’s Minister of Environment, Barry Penner and his wife Daris, a zero-emission drive to Grouse Mountain where they were attending a Sustainability Recognition event.

My next assignment was to ferry the Honourable Jim Prentice, Canada’s Minister of the Environment, back from the same function to his hotel in Richmond. And with a two-hour time window, I figured it was time to chow down.

The restaurant was packed with families and romantics huddled in corners getting a jump-start on Valentine’s Day. But this loner, with VANOC accreditation badge hanging around his neck, was ushered to a small table in the middle of the restaurant. I ordered a large bowl of War Wonton soup, spread out the schedule for the upcoming week and dove into 124 unread emails on my iPhone. Loser.

Breakfast so long ago had been at The Elbow Room, a quirky Davie Street fixture, where I had stuffed myself on yummy chicken sausage, eggs and home fries. Co-founder and star waiter, Rejean ‘Patrick’ Savoie, foul-mouthed his receptive customers with healthy servings of profanity while my wife/business partner Lisa Calvi and I considered some of the week’s highlights.

I had driven David Suzuki, icon of Canadian conservation, home from a speaking engagement at the Walmart Green Business Summit and, although we had an engaging discussion on sources of the hydrogen we fuel our fleet of fuel cell Equinoxes with, Dr. Suzuki and I drifted into straight talk about daughters, in-laws and how we financed our first houses. He signed the vehicle’s logbook, in green ink of course, “Great little machine. For Mother Nature.”

And what about the hour I spent driving Paralympian Josh Dueck, a Vernon lad going for gold in the sit-ski competition at the Paralympics, to his rendezvous with the Torch Relay? Josh is a charming young man with a level-headed approach to living his life to the fullest while appreciating the graciousness of community and friends in helping him achieve his goals. His honest, straightforward approach to the misfortune of the skiing accident that changed his life forever humbled me.

I was thinking back to the Opening Ceremonies performances of Manitoba fiddling and singing sensation Sierra Noble and Measha Brueggergosman’s spellbinding operatic version of the Olympic Hymn, both of whom had been driven around in our Fuel Cell vehicles earlier in the week, when the polite waitress at Capilano Heights Chinese Restaurant placed the steaming bowl of War Wonton soup in front of me.

At precisely the time I scorched my famished lips on the first spoonful, Minister Prentice’s assistant telephoned, proclaiming the Minister of the Environment will be ready to depart Grouse Mountain at precisely 7:30 p.m., an hour and a half earlier than scheduled and exactly 17 minutes away.

A calculation of time, speed and distance led to the conclusion I had six minutes to cool the scalding soup to a point of safe consumption, settle the bill and get up the mountain.

“Multi-task, Garry! Pay the bill while you eat.” Fellow patrons eyed me suspiciously as they lounged over plates of chow mein and Peking duck.

And that’s when the sinking feeling hit. Empty back pocket. A visual of my wallet on the desk back at the office flashed in my mind’s eye. My pockets turned up a paltry seventeen cents.

Not impressive, especially since the window of time was closing before the Federal Minister of the Environment was expecting a ride back to Vancouver in GM’s zero emission chariot.

Panic! What would Dr. Suzuki or Josh Dueck do? Too bad I wasn’t back at the Elbow Room. Patrick Savoie might have sworn at me but surely he would have understood my predicament and let me flee.

“JUST PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, GARRY!!” I muttered through seared lips, loud enough for the folks at the next table to hear. That’s when I remembered the $50 bill my dear mother had given me for a birthday a couple of years ago. I told her I’d stash it in a secret place in my briefcase, the one sitting beside me.

Mum saves the day. Again. And Minister Jim Prentice got picked up on time. Another day in the life of an Olympic Fuel Cell roadie.

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