New one on me....

Today a magical visit to the toy show down near Tillicum Mall, always a reminder that fall is here, and we spent a pleasant few hours indoors while it rained outside and perused with the hundreds upon hundreds of the happy punters.

I picked up a few things, and one was this chap, very similar to the Johnny West character from Marx back in 1964 but this guy had no knee or hip joints and was called Stoney Stonewall Smith. I had to buy him for the collection and he was only thirty-five bucks including the accessories.

Port Renfrew

The day after labour day, when all the kiddle winkles went back to school, my good friend and I drove up to Port Renfrew for three solitary nights, a stones throw away from Sooke, what seemed like a light year away from reality.

We stayed at the West Coast Trail Lodge, which sounds exotic but was quite normal, a couple of queen size beds, a bathroom, kitchenette and a difficult to understand television set. The lady at reception warned us not to have two kitchen appliances on at the same time or we would trip the breaker, which we did, they also warned not to unplug the fridge, which we didn't, but we turned it right down in the night.

A holiday away from the holiday, three ever so quiet days and lovely trips to beaches and trails, nights at the only pub in town and good food, relaxation from a life of relaxing, and down there on Botanical Beach, off Botany Bay, Rock pools, endless rock pools....

 

A Morning Challenge

I was minding my own business and the good lady shouted me that she had a challenge, a mission if I was prepared to accept it. I thought to myself "here we go, another spider in the bathroom" but this time it was something else, it was a creation challenge and no, I don't mean I was summoned to the bed chamber, it was a food creation task.

In all the time we have been retired we strive to not waste things, water, electricity, energy on idiots and of course, food. This mornings challenge was to be based on the latter and a pound or so of grapes we had bought a few days agao, or should I say, an extra pound or so of grapes that I had insisted on buying a few days ago because of a ridiculous "used food" price at the local supermarket.

This is a name we jokingly use for the little section in most supermarkets that are solely there to clear out some stuff, perfectly good food but bargain priced, and you know, if they want to do that, we are perfectly willing to oblige the corporation whims in this day and age of ridiculous pricing.

The challenge was "do something with these" and it seemed like the most obvious thing to do with twenty-four ounces of red seedless grapes was to mash them all up in a food processor, add four tablespoons of sugar and one of lemon juice, boil for fifteen minutes and make a couple of jars of jam, so I did, and here they are....

Challenge completed!

Another year in the life of the RSX

March went by and we were both still recovering from some terrible affliction, you know the thing that the last years have brought upon us, something like that. The birthday of the RSX went by and the energy just wasn't there to do anything about it, so time moved along and here we are on the eve of the annual tire rotation down at our friendly tire store. 

This will be the third rotation, which logically means we have had the "new" tires for four years now, time is indeed moving along. The car has had various moments over the last sixteen months, I will discuss them after showing a nice photo taken today after some welcome rain and a little wash :

The RSX has been up to a few things over the year, or so, it is now quite firmly into the twenty-first year of ownership and some little things are starting to show their age. The major additions have been a serpentine belt, battery and a starter motor so basically a thousand dollars right there. The minor niggles have been quite numerous, the rear number plate light had vanished into the rear bumper, it was gummed up with sand and silt, needed a total clean out and a new bulb, the drivers side window switch stopped working altogether, but then recovered with the application of some quality contact cleaner.

I should define the word quality there, a year or so ago I bought some "quality" contact cleaner from Princess Auto that actually dissolved plastic, I found out after attempting to improve a couple of video cards and subsequently ruined them. The contact cleaner I've used on the RSX has been a trusted product for years, so I returned the bad one, and sourced the old one once again which for those that wish to know is Revive Electrical Contact Cleaner.

There were other electrical issues, the battery ground connector needed replacing, the front windscreen washer pump stopped working completely, then inextricably started again one day after me making all sorts of plans to get at it and fix it. The passenger side door switch needed replacing, all mostly niggling little electrical jobs. 

The ongoing SRS light being on, well, there is a connection under the drivers side seat that will intermittently fault due to vibration, I have reset it twice, which usually involves back breaking gymnastics under the steering wheel only to have the warning light turn on again a year or so later, I've had quite enough of that, so I now keep the light on as my little driving buddy.

The last thing is the DRL light, which has an occasional habit of staying on until I put a bit of amperage through the circuit by switching the main lights on, high beaming or cycling the lights. I have researched the issue and it is a common one, the solution being to remove a little circuit module from under the steering wheel and check the relay solder points and resoldering as needed. 

I will save that job for later. 

The year of the stumps

It has been a long job, we had a cold winter about two or so years ago and then a heat dome, so we are not quite sure what damaged our three leafy palms, but they went mushy and deadish, so I chopped them down to the ground and then over the next year, they grew the leaves back, then started to die off again. It happened to most of the same type of palms in the area, and we decided that we needed to take the stumps out, which proved to be a mammoth job. 

Well, I reckon it was almost two hours for each one, so six hours of digging, bashing, using the maul, using up energy, but even though it was a challenge the feeling of triumph after each one was removed was huge, and as we say, any excuse for a beer.

The bed was dug over and yesterday we travelled up to Russell Nursery near Sidney and bought three variagated Pieris shrubs for the bed, and a couple of others for somewhere else, a bed to be made later as we say. A big shout out to Karen's mum and brother, Pat and her Stephen, for providing a generous gift card at Christmas, we spent it all.

It will be fun to watch these three grow over the years, they grow slow, but this variant can grow big, so at some point they will need to be managed. It was a happy hour planting and mulching them, thay are three happy little shrubs in their own bed, a project two years in the making.

Any excuse for a beer.

 

Birthdays approaching...

It won't be long before the Acura has the special birthday, in a little over a month it will be 20 years old. I was chatting to a couple of friends last week and I told them about the compressor we have, well we have two, one very modern, made in China no doubt and the second, that I use to inflate tires and blow out dust bunnies on computers. I decided to take a photo or two for posterity.

It was bought at a Gibsons public auction 10 or 12 years ago, I think it was my $20 bid that was a bit too rich for all the other bidders, and this little baby became mine until the end of my tenure with it, whenever that may be, it is a piece of history that has been travelling through time and has ended up in my workshop.

It has travelled in time that is for sure, and space too, originally manufactured by Webster Air Equipment Ltd in London, Ontario. Webster founded in 1932 bought an Oakville die-casting company back in 1936 and through the passage of time sought CESA and then CSA applications for their various compressors. An approximate date of manufacture for mine would be between 1945 and 1955 based on a similar model on the web that was CESA approved. I am sure that model and serial number could help me find a more exact date, but information is often elusive.

This heavy little unit, with the little cart and wheels, but missing it's handle,  holds a lovely warm place in my heart, it was from an age when we manufactured stuff like this in Canada, is built like a brick outhouse and will outlast us all, and of course, it still works like a champ. I think my $20 was a reasonable price....

The weather here in Sooke Christmas 2022

We had an interesting week of weather here in Sooke, all starting with 10cm of snow with large drifts up to 40cm and Karen and myself were out for two and a half hours shovelling our driveway just before Christmas, it was a happy time, most of the neighbours were out doing the same, some sherry was being drunk at the same time and after the snow was cleared, we closed the garage door and locked ourselves away for the rest of the day.

Then, over the following four days, the rain came, and by golly did it rain and all the snow has gone as quickly as it arrived. The forecast for the next week is more rain, so we will not be snow bound, just rain bound, which is certainly not as bad.

Christmas Eve was spent down at the brewery, Christmas day we locked the doors, cooked the traditional everything and had a lovely day away from the world. Today, boxing day, we will do the same, but if the rain holds off we will go for a neighbourhood walk to see what the locals are up to.

Happy New Year everyone!