20 INCH BIKE RIMS

Comfort & Joy: A Novel

New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah is beloved by readers around the world for her unique blend of powerful emotion and exquisite storytelling. In Comfort & Joy, she offers a modern-day fairy tale—the story of a woman who gets a miraculous chance at happiness.

Joy Candellaro once loved Christmas more than any other time of the year. Now, as the holiday approaches, she is at a crossroads in her life; recently divorced and alone, she can’t summon the old enthusiasm for celebrating. So without telling anyone, she buys a ticket and boards a plane bound for the beautiful Pacific Northwest. When an unexpected detour takes her deep into the woods of the Olympic rainforest, Joy makes a bold decision to leave her ordinary life behind—to just walk away—and thus begins an adventure unlike any she could have imagined.

In the small town of Rain Valley, six-year-old Bobby O’Shea is facing his first Christmas without a mother. Unable to handle the loss, Bobby has closed himself off from the world, talking only to his invisible best friend. His father Daniel is beside himself, desperate to help his son cope. Yet when the little boy meets Joy, these two unlikely souls form a deep and powerful bond. In helping Bobby and Daniel heal, Joy finds herself again.

But not everything is as it seems in quiet Rain Valley, and in an instant, Joy’s world is ripped apart, and her heart is broken. On a magical Christmas Eve, a night of impossible dreams and unexpected chances, Joy must find the courage to believe in a love—and a family—that can’t possibly exist, and go in search of what she wants . . . and the new life only she can find.



From the Hardcover edition.

New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah is beloved by readers around the world for her unique blend of powerful emotion and exquisite storytelling. In Comfort & Joy, she offers a modern-day fairy tale—the story of a woman who gets a miraculous chance at happiness.

Joy Candellaro once loved Christmas more than any other time of the year. Now, as the holiday approaches, she is at a crossroads in her life; recently divorced and alone, she can’t summon the old enthusiasm for celebrating. So without telling anyone, she buys a ticket and boards a plane bound for the beautiful Pacific Northwest. When an unexpected detour takes her deep into the woods of the Olympic rainforest, Joy makes a bold decision to leave her ordinary life behind—to just walk away—and thus begins an adventure unlike any she could have imagined.

In the small town of Rain Valley, six-year-old Bobby O’Shea is facing his first Christmas without a mother. Unable to handle the loss, Bobby has closed himself off from the world, talking only to his invisible best friend. His father Daniel is beside himself, desperate to help his son cope. Yet when the little boy meets Joy, these two unlikely souls form a deep and powerful bond. In helping Bobby and Daniel heal, Joy finds herself again.

But not everything is as it seems in quiet Rain Valley, and in an instant, Joy’s world is ripped apart, and her heart is broken. On a magical Christmas Eve, a night of impossible dreams and unexpected chances, Joy must find the courage to believe in a love—and a family—that can’t possibly exist, and go in search of what she wants . . . and the new life only she can find.



From the Hardcover edition.

Johnson Street Bridge (the Blue Bridge), connects to Victoria's downtown from Vic West and other west side neighbourhoods and municipalities.

There are actually two bridges spanning the city's Inner Harbour - one serving road traffic and the other, on the left of the picture, serving rail.

Numbers of years ago the city assumed liability and the railway reluctantly allowed legal access for cyclists and pedestrians, albeit with an instruction (often ignored) that cyclists dismount while crossing the rail bridge on the 2.5 metre wide platform adjacent to the tracks. The space is inadequate for the thousands of cyclists and pedestrians who cross the bridge every day.

The bridge will be replaced in a project now underway, with design work and the decommissioning of the old bridges only a few months away. The rail bridge will go first and the road bridge will stay in place until the new structure is complete, scheduled for late 2015.

Until 2005, the rail bridge was still the responsibility of Canadian Pacific, the national railway company that built the railways across Canada at the time of confederation back in the 19th century. CP for many years was attempting to abandon the E&N rail service on Vancouver Island and did little to maintain their infrastructure.

Noticeable is the more advanced rust and corrosion on the rail side.

At the end of March, 2011, the city's consulting engineers declared the bridge unsafe for rail. Many of the structural members are near failure due to pack rust that forms in between the plate steel and rivets holding it all together. Maintenance and repair is a difficult, if not a fruitless endeavor that, at best, would squeeze out a few extra months of service for the railway, but for excessive expense. Sort of like painting your old car so it looks nice on the way to the scrapyard.

Without the stresses of heavy rail crossing the bridge, it may still serve cyclists and pedestrians until decommissioning in January, when some creative thinking will be required to help maintain some level of safety and comfort for cyclists crossing the road bridge (pedestrians already have an existing sidewalk).

A complaint from the local media that the city didn't do its job and could have maintained the rail bridge is misplaced. We inherited a structure already in an advanced state of deterioration and its failing condition report informed our decision to replace the bridge. Both the design and age of the bridge, as well as the harsh salt water environment eating away at both the foundation and superstructure have forced our hand. There is little that can be done to augment the bailing wire and duct tape solutions being applied to keep the bridge going for those few months of service left.

Putting more money into the old bridge makes little sense. Best to start making arrangements for the change to come. Rail will be moved to the west side of the bridge in any event and the service is already down for other maintenance work.

Life support for the old bridge is an expensive luxury. The money will be better spent ensuring a sensible transition to allow bridge users to adapt to the next phase of the project.

Scenes and smiles from Tuesday afternoon during Bike to Work Week in Victoria, BC, 2011. Cyclists jump ahead of vehicle traffic at the city's iconic Johnson St. Bridge to wait for the bridge to come back down and open for crossing. The adjacent rail bridge (at the left side of the picture), is permanently closed and will be dismantled in September 2011.

The "sharrows" or shared-use arrows, were added within days of the closure of the rail bridge to accommodate the many cyclists using both bridges, with those less comfortable on the roadway most often using the platform on the rail bridge (however inadequate the space). As a city councillor and working with our engineers and other members of the cycling community, agreement was quickly reached on the best approach to improving conditions for cyclists. Prohibitions against passing cyclists were already in place on the bridge deck but the sharrows helped to emphasize the protocols and had an immediate effect on driver behaviours and comfort levels for cyclists. Traffic has slowed and motorists are giving cyclists more room to take the lane on the bridge approaches.

The arrangement will be in place for a few more years as work commences to replace the bridge, with the new road crossing using the alignment now occupied by the rail bridge on the left side of the picture.