"Keep a Journal: How else are you going to get a good look at who you were?"

Sunday, June 22, 2003

Been a while, eh gang?

For the fans of this 'blog (both of them), I had intended to write daily; or at least weekly. Life got in the way.

This weekend was a prime example.

Grandpa Hendrik's sister Katy died last Saturday while Laurie and Coral were away at Brownie camp. The funeral was set for the 20th at 11AM. I was not going to attend as Katy wasn't a member of MY extended family and I doubted I could get time off to attend the funeral.

But I took the day off anyway.

Colin took sick on Wednesday night, and the poor little guy was in a pretty bad way Thursday. I had no problem with taking my bike to work Friday (even in the rain!), but Laurie was certain Colin should NOT leave the house in his condition. So I stayed home to take care of him and phoned the news in to my boss; who should be thouroughly confused when I see him on Monday. I think I will make it a goal to have no absences for the month of July; Lord knows I should have at least ONE month with no missed days!

Friday night Laurie took Coral out to the Harry Potter Premiere party. Waited in line an hour for their pre-ordered copy of "The Order of the Pheonix". Laurie and Coral BOTH went in costume. Coral was the best little Hermione you ever saw (she even got auntie Danny, who went with, to do her hair!), and Laurie put together a decent Madame Sprout costume, complete with screaming Mandrake Plant. AT FIRST Laurie was too embarrassed to show her face publicly, but then the inner-child like urge to have fun play acting took over and she WON second prize for her costume! She may even have her picture appear in one of the local papers.

Laurie informed me Friday afternoon that I was going to be doing some gardening Saturday morning. I WAS to have gone to the chapel to set up chairs for Stake Conference, but evidently I wasn't going to be able to. Bob arrived bright and early Saturday morning with a steaming truckload of the City Reclamation Centre Special Composted Bedding Soil and set to spreading it about. We pulled up the old near-dead rosebush and the two dead cedar bushes by the front door; breaking numerous lengths of nylon rope in the process. After the soil was spread about and the bedding plants put in (and the bed next to the driveway weeded out in a BIG hurry by yours truly), Bob LEFT (with the kids, to get a treat) and after leaving the remains of the load in the driveway, was gone for good.

This left a pretty massive clean up for...you guessed it: ME. Bob was gone, the kids had gone back inside to watch cartoons (was raining by this time anyway), and Laurie went for a nap.

So I decided that since I was all alone on this job, I was gonna do it MY way.

Got the leftover soil policed up.

Cleaned all the weeds out of the driveway.

Built a new border on the west side bed with the dressed stones.

Built a new border on the driveway bed with the smaller dressed stones.

Used the remaining stones to re-build the east bed border, plus I got some beach stones we dug and piled in the backyard to fill in when I ran out of the dressed ones.

Fixed a new garden hose on the front hose reel, and disposed of the old one.

Swept the walk and driveway.

Stowed all the tools and the barrow.

I went in for a SHORT nap. By this time Laurie had awakened and demanded I help her lay some chicken wire in the beds to keep the neighbors !@#$%^&*!! cat from shatting in them. I dinna wanta...but she was insistent. After a delay of some minutes to find a proper pair of tin shears, we got the wire laid and buried. I was kinda pleased to see this morn that kitty had already tried to dig some in the west bed and got 'er claws snagged on the wire - ABORT! ABORT! My favorite fevered dream is to come out one morning to find that cat wrapped up in a furry, dirty, chicken-wire ball lying helplessly in the flower bed she tried to pollute. Cruel? Perhaps, but ohhh so instructive. I guarantee that cat would NEVER come around our place again if that happened. In the meantime, kitty will have to find a less sharp and pointy place to shat.

Needless to say, I fell to bed exhausted Saturday night. It can be forgiven that I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT STAKE CONFERENCE ON SUNDAY. By the time we got up for church today, stake conference was half over...so we skipped it.

Shame on us...

Laurie LOVED what I did with the front yard (which surprised me greatly)...but was disappointed that I didn't have it together enough to remember conference (which was no surprise at all)...

Here's what I still (STILL!) have to do before summers end:

Put a coat of barn paint on the deck railing (before the dry rot REALLY sets in)

Re-Surface the deck (and fix the leaks).

Hang a Laundry Line. I think I have this one figured out, but I don't know if I will be able to do it CHEAPLY enough and still have it WORK.

Get the Tracker ready to be sold: Fix the tailpipe and muffler.

Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

Tuesday, June 03, 2003

Oh, what a week we had.

My In Laws (God Bless 'Em) GAVE us their old car. This is good, because the Tracker finally went from Junker status straight to WRECK status. The tracker lost its tailpipe, and finally dropped its muffler; so it is no longer drive-able. We have reached the cusp where the repair bill to make the car 100% now exceeds its total book value. I could still fix it up on the cheap, with minimal parts and mucho labor; but I don't see the point of that really. One thing I could try is to find a Tracker/Sidekick/Sunrunner wreck for CHEAP and try to mix 'n match the two wrecks into one working vehicle. What a hobby I would have!

The Die-Nasty suffered a bum ignition switch, a corroded fusible link, and a crispy-fried starter solenoid; all in the space of TWO DAYS! It went from starting with difficulty, to starting with GREAT difficulty, to not starting, to DEAD.

It Died while Laurie was out visiting Don and Magaly Cronin. The Cronins are moving to Europe for a few years and my parents are going to be renting their house. YAY! FREE BABYSITTING! It will be nice to have Mom and Dad close. It will be even nicer for Mom and Dad to get all the stuff they've left in storage for the past seven years out into the open air again. We WILL be helping them move, of course.

SO: I loaded up a compact (but comprehensive) tool kit on my bike and rode over there. I got the starter out, and cracked it open to have a look. Sure enough, the solenoid was nice and toasty, but I figured there was nothing to lose in scraping the contacts down to clean metal and trying to see if I could get it home. After putting the starter back in, I tried it and was pleased to hear the solenoid engage and the starter motor spool up.

But the bendix was stuck; the engine wouldn't turn over.

This is the embarrasing part...I really should turn in my Real Guy license.

It was getting late, so I packed up all the tools and headed home. I rode my bike to work on friday, and got a ride home from Don Holburn. I was fully expecting to ride out to Cronin's and remove that starter again, and then call Father-In-Law Bob and see if he could get me a good deal on the starter; or whether I should just take the starter a few blocks to Moben Motor Clinic and have them do an on-the-spot rebuild (seriously, they do them, it's like one-hour photo developing...).

Instead, I came home to find the car in OUR driveway, up on my ramps, with Bob (feeling his 58 years!) under the car, installing a new starter. He apparently WAS able to get a good deal on a new starter. I took over for him, and he graciously took my wife and kids out for ice cream.

I can hear the reader ask...HOW did he get the car home? Why does this make me any less of a Real Guy?

Bob did the one thing I didn't think of...

The one INSTINCTIVE thing every real guy knows to do when a car starter won't turn...or the bendix or the solenoid or whatever is stuck...

...He had Laurie turn the ignition over while he hit the starter with a hammer!!!

Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers of NPR fame, recommend using a Louisville Slugger for this task; "and go for a bunt single, not a home run...". However, a gentle tap with a hammer works just as well. Oh well, best laid plans and all that. For now, our automotive woes have been set aside and we are once again a one car family. I have never really appreciated LARGE cars. I put this down to too many bad memories of the car I first learned to drive in: my Parents' station wagon. I could never get behind the wheel of that beast without feeling like I was following General Patton into Belgium.

But THIS large car is starting to grow on me...difficulties aside.

Sunday, June 1st 2003. I baptized my eight-year-old daughter Coral. Co-incedentally, that sunday marks the one-year anniversary of my wife's (and myself's) return to church attendance and renewal of church membership. BOY, was I nervous! I haven't been called upon to exercise my Priesthood to that extent since the 'ol mission days. We had also talked of presenting Colin for a Name and Blessing; and since we were there with family and friends from all over (Chad came down from Calgary! But Karen and the kids could not, alas...), we did the Name and Blessing right after Coral's confirmation. My In Laws and Danielle showed up; which was both surprising AND welcome, and Trudy and Danielle both made it a point to let me know they are "UN-convertible". If they are not convertible, are they both hardtops? I was nervous enough to blurt this silly question out loud; fortunately, they both saw the humor and laughed instead of being offended. That's TWO church functions in a YEAR...If they're not careful, people will start to talk.

I am reminded of the poem about the long and winding road. We often arrive where we want to be, but the path we took to get there bears NO resemblance to the path we chose. Trust in God, son...everything will work out in the end.

Speaking of paths...

Don Holburn has resolved to get more exercise. He acquired a decent bicycle (about as good as my schwinn) for 60$ from a friend of his. He wants to ride to work and asked me for advice about a good route. I started to describe the route I take when I cycle-commute...then said, half joking; "You know, it would be far easier to SHOW you the route than try to describe it. Do you want to ride out with me tomorrow?"

He said yes.

So I told him to be at my place at 5:30am.

True to his word, he showed up.

I had told him not to have any breakfast that morning. If you're not used to doing a climb like the Alex Fraser Bridge, you'll probably feel like tossing your cookies by the time you reach the top. To his credit, Don stayed with me most of the way up. He also RODE home, arriving at my place about the same time I did. I ususally ride out to Annacis Island and catch the #340 bus; it doesn't get me home any faster (unless I'm lucky enough to catch the connecting #319), but it saves a WHOLE lot of hill-climbing. I basically trade off 3$ in bus fare for about an hour's worth of exhaustion and aggravation. Someday I will be in condition enough to do the ride home without feeling it later. I personally believe I will have to get my time to work down around 40 minutes before I try the two-way commute. Currently my best time to work is 51 minutes, down from 73 minutes two seasons ago. I expect some good results this year, owing as how I started the season (intermittedly) back in February.