Snow Days

It has been about three weeks since we had that amazing weather that allowed our roof to be completely done and the cash, that was in the bank, is now a distant memory, but it is lovely to have a new covering to the house. I would take a photo to show it, but it is currently covered in snow.

Everything is covered in snow and there will be snow days, good job we have provisions.

This is turning out to be a rather strange start to the year, for a week or so there we had a big dumpster parked on our driveway and there was disruption, then I was sick with a quite impressive wheezing and creaking set of lungs, plus having blood tests for other phenomenon going on in my body, and now snow everywhere and we're not going nowhere.

Which means we are somewhere, which is here, indoors, looking outwards.

And so it begins....

Our contractor contacted us last week and asked if we were ok with starting the roof project today, mainly as there is a forecast for three or four days of suitable weather for the crew, and for the customer. It was of course a big yes as it will be great to get it out of the way and move on with the year.

The shingles are being delivered as I type.

This is only the third roof we have had replaced in our time in Canada, but by far it is the most complicated. Somewhat similar to the one you can see in the background but with the garage to one side, prices have certainly gone up over the years, in 2002 we paid less than three thousand, in 2009 less than six and today it is just over seventeen.

It's only money.

Part two, Calgary

There was a flurry of people arranging to go off to places left, right and centre and I think we felt that we should be doing something. It is usual at this time of year, when we both have our birthdays, to arrange some hotel, perhaps in Victoria, and then go and have a steak and a baked potato at the Keg. this October we sort of instantly decided to fly off to Calgary for four nights, and it really was an amazing little holiday in a place we had only ever driven through on our way out west back in 2007.

In the last year or so, a fair bit of our investments have been in Alberta, so we were both really interested in seeing what one of the big cities was like, before the coldness crept in, and so we booked our flights on Westjet, stayed at the Best Western, downtown and had four lovely days there.

View from the TC Energy building towards the Petronas building. It was the day that TC Energy had split their company into two pieces, the new one called South Bow. This was the night we went and had happy hour at the Keg and that steak and baked potato, that was the great thing about doowntown Calgary, the happy hour with a lot of happy people, good food and great beer.

It was a marvellous walking holiday between all those bars and restaurants, easily 20,000 steps a day and we were impressed with the city, there is a lot of construction going on there, typical, but a great transit system, clean streets and fair prices. 

We will go back again.

Year in review, part one

The year is closing down again, we had some interesting weather over the last few weeks, and another repair on the roof, so it is now time to have the roof on the house repaired in the spring, we knew it was going to happen, and happen it will.

A little catch up on the year,  we took ourselves up to Sidney for an amazing afternoon, evening and night, one of our favourite bars has gone, it is no more, but in the tradition it has quickly been replaced. the old bar was called the Rum Runner, the new one is Jack's by the Sea and we hit happy hour, then continued at the Surly Mermaid just around the corner.

Life in Sidney goes on, even though things change, the fish market is still there.

Along with the bored cormorants having perhaps a happy hour of their own.

Just waiting until they have set it up....

Retired water bomber Hawaii Martin Mars arrives on Victoria International Airport land on Wednesday night, on its journey from Patricia Bay to the B.C. Aviation Museum in North Saanich, where it will be an exhibit.

We are looking forward to visiting the museum in the next few months, it should be spectacular!

Like something out of Thunderbirds.

A nice Surprise in August

Just two weeks ago, our good friend Lynn had messaged that she and John would be having a birthday trip to Canada, starting in Toronto and going around the houses, Whistler, Banff, Vancouver and Victoria.

We arranged to align with their plans on Wednesday, meeting up at Butchart Gardens and then spent a dozen hours enjoying Victoria's restaurants and bars, it was a brilliant day, full of laughs and giggles, gin and tonics, pizza, fish and chips and everything else. It was a fantastic surprise and it seemed like we blinked and it was over.

 

It really brings it home how we are all indexing through this life, all of us around our sixties now (with John not quite there and me the old man of the group approaching the other big one) but we are all still healthy and on the right side of the carpet. Lynn and John are now in Banff, experiencing the Rockies before they fly back to Manchester quite soon, back to less mountains but more beans on toast and cornflakes.

Yet another year in the life of Old bess.

 Another birthday, the RSX is now in it's twenty-second year.

An early photo here, still covered in morning condensation, the car has (sort of) been behaving itself this year of life, I will present the highlights of the year.

It has been a year of slight electrical niggles, nothing to disable the vehicle, just enough to irritate the driver, overall the only "major" expenditure over the last twelve months has been a new set of NGK Iridium spark plugs that I installed a month ago.

The knock sensor started throwing out random errors, so the check engine light would come on. The psychology of that little amber light in the corner of your eye is quite powerful while driving and from what I understand it is most common for the wiring to be at fault, or the actual sensor. The problem there is the sensor is behind/below the inlet manifold and not readily accessible. 

The car had hit 145k and it was time for new plugs, it was also time to buy a new extension for my socket set, for the one I had was not to be found anywhere in the garage, which is quite typical, so the $65 for the four plugs was augmented by another $25 for three Craftsman extensions, so we will add those up for the total "repair" cost.

The DRL light is still misbehaving, the knock sensor throws out the occasional error and then resets itself for most of the time, the SRS light is still on, it has been on for over half a decade, it keeps me company while I drive. It is no surprise to me that despite all the electrical niggles, the car is still driving very well and behaving itself mechanically.

I will save those electrical jobs for later....