It's Going To Be A Busy Day

The wood fence at the front of the house that Brooks built for us a couple of decades ago is rotting out and falling down! Norma did not follow Brooks' instructions and piled dirt along the bottoms of the boards and posts, causing rot. The fence runs along the top of a ten foot retaining wall so replacing it is a safety issue! 

 

Brooks and his crew are arriving at about noon to remove the old fence and install a new four foot black chain link replacement They will do the removal and set the posts today and then stretch in the new chain link and re-install the rolling gate tomorrow before returning home to Shawnigan Lake. I will take them to the Riptide Pub for dinner tonight. This is going to leave a mark on my bank account!

Porch Repairs

Brooks built our porch in 2016 so it has hit ten years old. There has been a problem with the main support posts sinking into the ground with the two outside ones having sunk about four inches and it was becoming very noticeable. I called a local contractor and he gave me an estimate of $7,000 if all went well and more if the posts or footings had to be replaced or if (horrors) he had to dig down to hard-pan which could double it. I called Brooks and he knew he could do it for a lot less so he organized a trip up with one of his employees.

They arrived at noon on Friday after a three hour drive and started right in. They used a laser level to see exactly how bad it was and then started digging down to the footings to see what was going on. There were two possibilities, 1) the footings were sinking into the soft, damp soil or 2) the footings were stable but the wood posts were rotting off at the bottom and giving way to the considerable weight of the structure. The latter proved to be the case which was actually the best case scenario as long as the rot did not extend too far up (which it didn't).

 They dug around all three footings and used jacks to raise the porch to an inch above level. They then cut the bottom foot off all the posts, poured quick setting concrete into each hole to raise, enlarge and reinforce the old footings and temporally supported the porch to let the concrete set overnight. It was about 7:00 PM when they quit for the night.

I fed them a dinner of Greek Salad and authentic Mexican Red Snapper Veracruzana from a recipe I found and modified to most closely match the delicious version we ate several times in the beautiful Mexican Gulf city of Veracruz. We washed it down with a nice bottle of Merlot. After dinner the three of us sat at the kitchen table and Brooks and I shared many old stories of his mother, something we have never previously been able to do. We covered old serious and humorous stories of her Union and Political organizing days as well as our Mexico travel adventures all fuelled with a 1/2 bottle of very nice Single Malt scotch, a very thoughtful Christmas gift from Penny's son Mike and daughter in law, Erynn. There are a thousand stories yet to cover but they will wait for another time. It was an amazing evening in so many ways! We were all tired and went to bed long before midnight.

Brooks and Kevin were up at 7:00 AM, shooting levels and making sure everything was still good. They placed piers on top of the footings to keep the wood well away from the ground and lowered the deck. One post had to be shimmed a tiny bit but the deck is now within 1/8 of an inch from level. Perfect. Probably good for as long as I will be. They stopped for a breakfast of poached eggs, potatoes and toast and were gone by noon.

The top photo was taken when it was new, the rest are of the current repairs. 

The Peeing Boy

The Peeing Boy!

Norma's parents had this Peeing Boy beside the pond in their yard for many years! When they passed, it found it's way to our yard where there was no pond but he spent his time here in Norma's flower garden. Brooks and LindaLee always wanted the boy but Norma would never part with him. Well, they have now been working on me and I finally relented and hauled the surprisingly heavy statue down to their place on Monday. LindaLee had purchased a submersible pump for it and Brooks soon had him peeing once again! I must admit he looks far more at home in her pond than he did in what is left of Norma's flower garden.

 

 

62 Years

 62 Years!

A Kitsilano High School classmate of mine decided to organize a lunch at the White Spot beside our old Kitsilano High School in Vancouver. We got together for our 60th reunion just two years ago but age is starting to catch up to us and he thought we probably shouldn't wait until our 70th in 2033. So I booked a hotel room for September 19 & 20. I never get to Vancouver any more so it will be fun seeing some of my oldest friends. I also managed to score a "cheap" hotel room for two nights at the same Steveston Cafe and Hotel where we stayed two years ago for $225 per night (breakfast & parking included). Downtown hotels are running $500 - $700 per night for that weekend. It will still be a $1,000 weekend with ferry, gas and meals but what the heck, I can't take it with me!

The Steveston Hotel (formerly The Sockeye Hotel) has been around since 1895 but has recently had an extensive renewal / upgrade and is very pleasant inside.

 

 Here is an old shot of Kitsilano High with the White Spot Drive In Restaurant in front. Taken in 1966, three years after I graduated. Best shrimp Sandwiches in town!

 

 

Final TV Post And A Trip!

The TV guy came back today with all the parts he needed to move the dish to the other end of the house. We had a short discussion on running all the wire in the attic instead of inside the rain gutters but he said new company rules did not allow him to go into attics for insurance reasons. I don't like it but that's the way it is. Anyway, not his fault and I was very happy with the signal he got in the end. A "perfect" signal strength of 95 and 11.1 dB on the new, smaller dish. I am happy but if that cable causes the gutters to plug up, they will be hearing about it.and getting a bill.

In other news:

I drove down to Shawnigan on Sunday for my Daughter In Law's 50th birthday party. The bad part was sleeping in the back of my car which is not as comfortable for my 6' 4" frame as I had hoped. It was all my fault as the couch I usually sleep on was vacant, I just wanted to try the back of the SUV for future reference. I discovered two things: 1) If I drink more than two beer, I have to make several trips to a big tree overnight and, 2) There is no way to open the rear door of my SUV from inside so these trips to the tree required crawling to the side door and exiting from there. The good part of the trip was was buying a pint of fresh oysters on the way home. I hate patting myself on the back but I cooked them to absolute perfection - done but not overdone! There were enough for three meals of fried oysters and mashed potatoes! Tonight I am watching the Blue Jays four game sweep of the Yankees! One inning to go and it is 8-5. Life is good!

TV - Part 2

The Shaw Direct repairman was here yesterday and agreed with me that my dish needs relocating to the far end of the house. He also noted that the mount on the old dish was so badly rusted that the whole assembly needs replacing. Unfortunately, he did not have the required materials with him and will have to come back in a week.

In order to get me by until then, he tweaked the dish a little to get a stronger signal. The path is still going through the tree branch but the signal is now strong enough to give me the minimal required signal strength and it is working just fine (fingers crossed).

Here is the path to the three Shaw Direct satellites as seen with the app on his phone. Only one satellite is obstructed but that must be the one that carries all the channels I watch.

"Well, HERE's yer problem!" 

 

No TV For Three weeks!

 

About a month ago I noticed my satellite TV (Shaw Direct) TV reception starting to fade out badly with any rain. I just assumed the weather was worse a little further south or back east where the signal originates. It is something I have always dealt with but it was worse this time. About three weeks ago the signal was off more than it was on. That's what I did for a living, radio, satellite and fibre optics communications so I should have been onto it earlier but I wasn't. I went out and sighted along the path to the bird and saw that a tree in my neighbour's property had grown quite a bit taller and wider and decided that was the problem, "tree fade" and there was little I could do about it.

 

The property is owned by a Vancouver real estate company and is rented out so I could probably have gotten permission to remove or at least top the tree but I would have to hire a tree removal company company to do it as well as to finance an engineering report to say it was safe to do so without destabilizing the steep slope behind both our properties. A very expensive proposition. The other option would be to move the dish, something I would have tackled myself long ago when I was 50 or 60 but not so much now at 80. So I called Shaw Customer service.

 

I explained the problem and he started going through the checklist. Are both the TV and receiver plugged in? I told him I had 40 years experience dealing with equipment far more complicated than theirs and he could be assured that I had done all the preliminary checks. He finally agreed to send out a repairman but it would take three weeks! I told him the dish needed to be relocated and he said they would do that.

So, no TV for three weeks! At least not regular programming. I have Netflix, Prime and YouTube so I was not without entertainment and I usually get my news from the computer anyway with CBC, Aljazeera, BBC, CNN and others so I wasn't really missing much. Except for sports, I could probably live without network TV. They will be here on Tuesday and I will see what they say. If they won't do it or if they want me to pay, I will just cancel the service and go to Telus TV. It can't be more expensive that the $150 per month I pay for Shaw Direct. More to come!

Shopping Canadian

I don't know if you have heard but Donald Trump is threatening to annex Canada and turn us into "his" 51st State. You've got to be kidding me! Who in their right mind would want to be part of Trump/Musk's  country? Canada has a higher standard of living, much better (and cheaper) medical care, better working conditions, we retire earlier and live longer. And even better, we are happier! We have higher literacy and education rates I know I have missed a bunch of things but you get the idea, We have no intention of becoming "Americans". In order to force us into doing as we are told, Trump is threatening our economy by introducing what he thinks are crippling tariffs on Canada (as well as Mexico). Will he take the final step and send his military against his neighbour? You tell me. He is certifiably crazy so who knows? Would that be the final step that would make the American people stop him? I don't know.

So what can we do? Stop travelling to the US. I decided for myself back in December that I would not spend a dime in the US as long as Trump is in power and the GOP is in charge. That means no travel there. Period. Several European countries have put travel bans and advisories into effect since Trump's "Alien Enemies Act" has started allowing customs to search phones for any evidence of activities they don't like, even talking critically of the child king. My granddaughter has been planning a destination wedding in Florida for later in 2025 but I will not be there. I know I will not be popular but I will live with that rather than live with the disappointment in myself if I were to go and spend thousands to encourage that reddest of red States to continue what they are doing. If I did that I could not live with myself. I hope she will see the light and cancel or move the wedding. I am sure she would lose deposits but so be it. I would help her out if that were the case.

The other thing I can do is stop buying anything made in the USA. Canadians have really taken this to heart and are using various websites and apps the avoid anything that is a product of the USA. Grocery shopping has become an adventure involving Internet on cell phones and magnifying glasses. Liquor store shelves have been stripped of US liquor, beer and wine. Everything Canadians buy is getting a hard look for country of origin and stores are slowly beginning to cooperate by labelling shelves of Canadian made items. Items from other, more friendly countries are just fine but the US has proven to be anything but friendly to Canada.

Canada is working to develop markets for our goods that previously went to the US. The EU is proving to be willing customers and I would far rather see our raw materials and manufactured goods go there. Canada has just cancelled our huge deal with the US for 88 F-35 fighters. We may have to take the few that we have paid for in advance but no more. Maybe the US's new best friend Russia will take the rest of them complete with the rumoured software "kill switch" that Trump or Musk can activate at will. The newest Saab fighter is cheaper, more reliable and much easier to fly and maintain and Saab has promised to build a factory in Canada to produce them. It is past time to cut our military and financial ties to our hostile neighbour to the south. Canada is "Strong and Free" and will remain so.

 

Just Checking In!

Not much to report but I just thought it was time to come back and say, "Hi". I am and have been well, no problems other than the same old 80 year old aches and pains. I spent Christmas and New Years down in Victoria visiting my friend Penny. She hasn't been feeling top notch lately so we didn't do anything wild and crazy, just hung out around her place. I took down a baked, stuffed Sockeye Salmon so that was a big hit. I also took down two "large", fresh Dungeness crabs which were very good but not as large as I have bought in previous years although the price has certainly gone up! I paid $82 for two not so large (but the largest they had) crabs where last year two actual "large" ones cost just over $60. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at her son Mike's nearby house being entertained by her four year old grandson, A.J. It was a good time.

On my way home I stopped for a short overnight visit with my son Brooks and LindaLee. Brooks is busy working on a huge fencing project, installing several kilometres of chain link around a huge animal rescue shelter. The fence goes through forest and over creeks so involves a lot of clearing and packing of heavy rolls of fencing through the bush. It is keeping him and his crew busy trying to keep to the contractual deadlines but they will do it and there is a large payday waiting at the end. I got home on January 5th, worn out and ready to relax in front of the TV for a few days. Now, if I could only renew my friendship with Kelly's cat who has been giving me the cold shoulder since I came home with scent of five cats and two dogs on me!

Generator Service

Back in October or November the generator quit starting, I did not want to put plates on it to take it in so I just left it for the winter, trying it every month to no avail. It cranked enthusiastically but no start. I finally got it started a week or so ago after a long drive and it ran perfectly. It still needed a service so I took it in to the local White's Diesel & Marine on July10. It had not been serviced since 2012. Yes, I know! I started it before I dropped it off and it chugged, rattled and smoked so I shut it off and tried again, It started and ran perfectly! 

I left it with them and after one and a half hours they had it done. Just a regular service, plug, filter(s), oil change and carb adjustments. I paid the $325 Canadian bill and drove away with a perfectly functioning generator! FYI, the last time I had it serviced was in 2012 in Yuma, Arizona on our way into Mexico. They did the exact same service and charged me $180 US twelve years ago. Almost as much (after conversion) as I paid up here. I am happy! The furnace does not work but that is another story. It has eaten circuit boards for years so I may convert it to a "Buddy" propane heater. If it goes bad, you throw it away and buy another!