And now, a word from the voices in your head...

I recall an entry from Sept. of 2005 in which I discussed a dialog with the Still Small Voice.

Well, I've had another one of Those Days...

The Kids got a Wii for Xmas.

They broke the Wii earlier today.

This is some kind of record...they've only had the @#$%^&*!!! thing less than a week now...

So, after several stern words about the futility of indulging them and buying for them expensive tokens of rampant consumerism; only to have those trinkets destroyed by their boorish negligence...

Sorry, don't mean to go on about it.

We've set up the Wii atop Colin's dresser in the corner of his room. This is exactly where we had the gamecube (tm). It's getting rather crowded atop Colin's dresser now. I wanted to set the Wii up in the livingroom but Her Nibs decreed that it would interfere with her soap and talkshow watching if the kids were constantly at the TV playing the game console. Therefore the Wii was banished to the boy's bedroom. The kids aren't all that conscientious about keeping cables and boxes 'n things out of the way of...other things -- like say, Colin's dresser drawers.

SO: the Wii got pulled off Colin's dresser not once, not twice, but three different times today.

Third time was the charm...so to speak.

The console still operated and displayed, but it wouldn't read disks.

As the Dad Who Works Miracles, I had a bit of a dilemma...a true What Do I Do Now moment.

And the Still Small Voice answered once again:

SSV: You know, that unit probably fell on it's front panel, and since everything else still works, the impact probably knocked the laser assembly out of alignment.

Me: Yeah, so?

SSV: Well...what if you knocked it about on the other end...just a few firm taps.

Me: You have got to be kidding.

SSV: It's already broken, what have you got to lose?

Me: C'mon, that only works in SitComs, and my life is not a sitcom.

SSV: Murphy's Law of repair: If it doesn't work, shake it...if it breaks, it needed fixing anyway.

Me: sigh...all right.

So I *carefully* disconnected all the various cables and errata from the console and, holding the unit a couple of inches above a cleared space on Colin's dresser, gave it a firm 'thunk' - one, two, three times - on the back panel. Then hooked it all up again and plugged it back in.

It worked.

Unbelievable.

On the other hand, I could use a little SitCom 'magic' in my life.

More later. Yappy Hew Near, and Holly Happydays.

Holly Happydays!

The real story of the flood so far:

It's snowrained twice in the lower drainland in the last 10 days or so. Once again, water is seeping into the basement from the (probably damaged) southeast corner of the foundations. I am going to have to dig up the drain tile at that corner and try to figure out what the @#$%^&*!!! is going on down there.

Of course this time, the water made a beeline for the floor drain in the laundry area (about 20' away) and left the building. Why the water didn't head out through the foundation drainage is an excellent question. Either there is something still wrong with our foundation drainage at that point ($$$$$!!!), or there is something wrong with our neighbor's drainage to the east (upslope) of us. I sincerely hope the foundation isn't cracked and needing re-sealing or repair. I can do it...but I don't want to.

At least we are no longer flooding Manny's front lawn.

This latest development will almost certainly delay our restoration reno downstairs. My insurer has asked me to get a statement from our plumbing contractor. I may have to buy Claude a case of beer. His statement, plus the pictures I took, ought to provide pretty strong evidence that the city pooched.

There's a cable drum in my driveway.

'Twas left there a week ago by persons unknown...although I did hear inebriated voices and giggling about 4:30 am that morning. Also thought I heard my name mentioned. Was too groggy to go out and witness the hilarity for myself...I suppose someone at the city took exception to my calling them out to fix their mistake - after I paid 1700$ of my own money to show them just how big that mistake was.

"If we do it for you, we'd have to do it for everyone." Darren, I may have to make it my life's work to ensure that those words haunt you for the rest of your career...

Don't even get me started on the issue of negligence. The city could have said something to me back in August. Something like: "we couldn't find the outlet pipe for your foundation drain and it's possible that whatever arrangement you presently have for drainage will be adversely effected by the new storm line we just installed, and the fact that we also filled in the drainage ditch." Had they said that in August, I would gladly have paid the 500$ or so that it cost to have Milani locate that pipe and dig it up in my driveway. Since they didn't even mention it until after the first flood occurred around October 20th, and then only to point out the impossibility that the water coming up through our floor drain was coming from their new storm sewer line (which was impossible, as the two weren't even connected - and I completely missed the significance of that statement then), I think they ought to at least be on the hook for some of what I paid (uselessly)to fix a problem the nature of which they didn't actually explain to me until this month. How about it, Delta? Wanna pay the 1200$ I spent having drain tile and floor drain augered and the sump dug up and the driveway dug up and the piping scoped with a camera (twice)? I know my Insurance is going after the Corp of Delta for the costs of the cleanup(s) and restoration that would NOT have been necessary in the first place if SOMEBODY had said something back in AUGUST and we had been able to get the problem remedied THEN for a mere 500$!!!

But I'm not bitter, or anything...even though I still have to deal with possible damage to the foundation.

Sigh. This will be resolved. There is a light at the end of the tunnel...of course, given my luck lately; it's probably just an oncoming train.

The Story of the Flood so far:

KWY wrote me a letter when he accidentally hit the wrong "send" button and I got some of his business Email and razzed him about it. His basement in his new place in Mountain View, Alberta has also had a flood recently.

So I wrote him back:

Hello again;

I'll see your flooded basement and raise you two more; plus a third next week if I can't get the City of Delta and the good people at Milani Plumbing & Drainage on the same page.

If you've been keeping up on my 'blog ( www.brianarcweblog.blogspot.com ), you've already read how we came home from vacation Oct. 20th to find most of the basement floor covered in water. We had the floor removed, and moved the contents to the west end of the basement. Record rainfall, and a faulty drain were blamed and life went on.

Then, of course I got a premonition in the wee hours of Dec. 3rd...

Floor drain was full of water...again.

Water was rising...again.

The water couldn't rise any further than two inches 'cause that's the height of the toilet flange in the downstairs bathroom...the sanitary line is still ok, but the foundation drainage was apparently still obstructed...

Ok...let's shorten this up a bit...

Milani came out on Tuesday and flushed the foundation tile, and incidentally found concrete blocking the connection to the storm drain. When we called the City to find out what was up, we were told that was because our drain was never actually connected...

Uwah?

The city's contractor went looking for the outlet pipe from our house...but didn't find it, and due to liability issues, they could not dig up the entire driveway to go looking for it. Nice of them to tell us, eh?

SO:

Milani is coming out tomorrow (tried for today) and will go looking for that outlet. IF their guy finds it, I can let the city know and they will - For FREE! - dig it up and connect it to the new storm drain. If he can't, I will pay several thou$and dollar$ to have a trench dug across my driveway from the nearest downspout port to where the storm drain IC is. I do hope they'll re-pave...

In the meantime, of course, we've moved all the contents (again!) to the garage workshop. We'll be getting the entire basement flooring, walls, bathroom and possibly even the downstairs steps re-done. I want to rent the suite out after it's refurbished...what Laurie wants I will leave for another letter.

Hoping to find you and yours well and prosperous;

Brian.

Ok...that brings us up to Monday. Milani did indeed find the drain sump, and the outlet pipe therefrom...it stops about 6 feet short of where the city was digging last summer, but it does head off in the direction the plans they have on file show. Unfortunately, milani's technician couldn't tell where the pipe exited. At the point where the camera stopped, the pipe is either collapsed, blocked with debris, or makes an abrupt turn. I think it turns 45 deg to the west and abuts on the hollow ash brick retaining wall; from there it used to drain into the drainage ditch...but of course, the ditch isn't there any more.

Rob, from the Corp of Delta, is on vacation next week, but he was good enough to introduce me to Darren...who is Superintendent with the works dept. Darren will be coming out Monday morning to have a look at the situation; if it meets his approval, he'll arrange for a crew to come out either Monday afternoon or Tuesday. I'm sure "wednesday at the latest" is in the back of his mind somewhere.

If he doesn't approve...I may just take a mattock to the @#$%^&*!!! driveway.

Quick post before bed...I am probably going to work tomorrow...at least, I hope so.

The starter on the car went.

No panic on this one. The failure was gradual, the symptoms were clear, and I bought a replacement starter two days ago. This morning I booked off work to deal with the flood and since I hadn't had a chance to re/re the starter yesterday, I took a couple hours while the guys from Yaletown Restorations were here setting up the pumps to pump the basement dry. Laurie also had an early start at her job today. She asked if I could get her to work; I said "maybe".

The starter had to have one more crank, didn't it? Just the same, it was a near thing; took about six tries. Once I got the car home again and carefully positioned it in the garage, I tried the starter again...no dice. The fault was in something called the "overrun clutch". The result being that the starter could only turn the engine 1-2 turns before the bendix gear disengaged and the starter would just sit there spinning. The symptoms were described exactly in my Haynes manual.

How unexpected.

I have whinged long and loud about the dubious utility of Haynes manuals before. This was completely different. The symptoms were clear, the procedure was straightforward, and although I spent half the time pacing back and forth between the garage and the shop (searching for the right-sized tool), I still managed to get the job done without a hitch.

This went so well I'm a little freaked out...

Our neighbor Shelly noticed Yaletown's van in our driveway and asked what sort of problems we'd been having. She herself has a flooded yard, as does our next-door neighbor, Manny. Two doors further down from Shelly, they had to move out because their entire basement was filled with Sewage! It would seem that the Corporation of Delta (and their Contractor) has much to answer for in what would appear to have been a botched sewer upgrade on our street.

Shelly might not be thinking "class action lawsuit"...but I am.

AWWWwwwwwwwww -- crap...

I got a brand new bed yesterday.

I am finally sleeping (separately from my wife - long story) up off the living room floor (air mattress) and off the (dog hair coated) couch.

But it takes some getting used to, you know?

I usually get up in the wee hours to pee (hello middle age!). I had a premonition.

You see, the Lower Drainland got about 30-40cm of snow this weekend. This evening, about 6PM, the snow turned to rain...and hasn't stopped yet. The last time it rained this hard was the week that we got back from Disneyland, so I toddled downstairs to see how the floor drain was doing...

It was full of water. The water appeared to be rising...very slowly.

At 3AM, about 20 minutes after I woke, I grabbed our Canon digital camera and recorded a 20 second clip of the drain just as the water was pushing past the rim...then I took a few still shots of the growing puddle around the drain.

According to the Delta Municipality...it is impossible for water to be coming up that floor drain from outside.

Gotcha now...or so I thought.

I rigged up the siphon spout in the laundry room wash sink, and watched the water level drop dramatically in the drain...then turned around to see:

WATER COMING IN FROM UNDER THE FOUNDATION SILL!!

Pretty much from all over the basement...

as of this writing (I'll be done about 6:30) there is about 1-2" of standing water in the basement...

The water can't go any higher than the toilet flange, as there is no longer a toilet sitting on it; unfortunately, I can't get the flange off...so that puts the height of the flood at about 2". This is enough water to soak all the footings on all the walls. I am now going to need to put our washer, dryer, hot water heater and freezer up on footings...'cause this is probably going to happen again.

Crap.

From the Friday, November 23, 2007 of the Vancouver 24 Hours:

"APEC inquiry: 10 years later"

I guess the "POLICE TASER innocent man to death at YVR" story has lost some of its grabbing power.

According to the BC Civil Liberties group, Robert Dziekanski's death at the secured Customs area of the Vancouver International Airport (where he had apparently been waiting for several hours) was the 16th "accidental" death involving the use of a TASER since 2003.

I have read in the on-line curricula at the California Commission for Police Officer Standards and Training, that the introductory course for use of "conducted energy weapons" includes the option for trainees to experience a "TASER employment" for themselves; but it is not a required element of the course.

Personally, I think it ought to be mandatory.

Cynics in the audience will ask; "why not require police trainees to be shot with their own service sidearm, while we're at it?" Simple distinction: a TASER is touted as a non lethal weapon. If it is truly non-lethal, then police agencies should have no objections to their trainees finding out exactly what it feels like to be hit with one.

Others may suggest that giving a police officer personal knowledge of exactly what a TASER does to the human body (his own) and what it feels like to be struck by one could leave the officers with a mental and psychological trauma that would act as a behavioral "block" --ie: the officers might hesitate in a crisis situation and fail to employ their "conducted energy weapon" in a timely and effective manner.

Of course, in Robert Dziekanski's case a few moments hesitation may have made a difference...or not; hindsight isn't always perfect.

However...

For the four officers who struck him with a TASER - twice - I would say the issue of mental and psychological trauma is a moot point. We've all seen the video taken by Paul Pritchard on youtube.com, but those officers lived it...they got to see Dziekanski die up close and personal. I suppose it was a rather large shock - having what I imagine was an unpleasant and distasteful; though nevertheless routine police operation go horribly wrong. If they didn't have any mental or psychological issues with employing a TASER to subdue someone while on duty...well, perhaps they do now.

Now let's return to the APEC incident...

During the long, drawn out and tiresome course of the public inquiry into the APEC incident, it was revealed by then Staff Sgt. Hugh Stewart that during the training course in which he and fellow officers were evaluating "Oleoresin Capsicum" for possible use as a Non Lethal Force Multiplier, officer Stewart was himself dosed with pepper spray on more than one occasion. It is difficult to find the video of that day in 1997, but one fact remains clear:

Staff Sgt. Stewart was dosing the APEC protesters with pepper spray while fully aware of what it felt like and what it would do to them.

And he didn't hesitate at all.

I am sitting here late on a holiday morning...wondering where to begin...

You see, great and portentous events have occurred since last I wrote of the carefree days of summer and broken garden equipment.

So let's hit the highlights:

The Bike Crash.

The Extra Week of Summer in California.

The Flooded Basement.

The Great Computer Die-off.

The Great (ongoing) Clean Up.


These events aren't as directly linked as they first might appear; and so I will explain.
In May of this year, my wife booked us a week-long package excursion to Anaheim, California. This constitutes the first vacation we've had outside the Province since our honeymoon. We tried for Florida, but could not manage the airfare.

All week leading up to our October 14 departure, I had forebodings that something was going to go wrong. The proverbial Other Shoe was about to drop. The previous week (Oct. 7), my wife once again needed the car for an appointment with the kids' Dentist and so I was doing the two wheel transport mode to work.

They (Translink Highway and Bridge dept.) have been doing seismic upgrades on the Alex Fraser Bridge since May. They are currently working on the expansion joints on the South end of the bridge's West side. Cycle and Pedestrian traffic must use the East side walkway. Although the actual work is being done on the west side of the bridge (southbound), they apparently needed to re-route a lot of the wiring...

They've run high-capacity electrical cables across the walkway and over the side of the bridge. Now, these high-tension electrical lines must be protected from being stepped on or rode over, apparently, because they are encased in a wooden cable channel about 2-3 inches high. The cable channels (there are two, about 5 feet apart) are painted bright orange for visibility - heaven forfend that someone should trip over them!

However...

I haven't been on the bridge for some time. The cable channels were on the North end - which is the downhill side on my morning commute. Many of the streetlights are still inoperative, and besides, at 6AM, florescent orange paint may as well be black, 'cause I didn't see anything. Imagine if you will the happy cycle commuter, blithely speeding along after a hard huff up the south side of the the bridge, pushing a rapid cadence before settling into a well-deserved rest on the downhill and BAM!- the handlebars are torn from his grip and then BAM! - hapless cyclist is knocked arse over teakettle by the second unseen obstacle and hits chin on something hard and scrapes up both elbows. Bike does complete loop-de-loop and winds up facing backward.

Damages?

Nothing I can sue someone for. The bar clamp for my #1 LED headlight broke. I lost my new red blinkie over the side - no great loss, as I bought it at a dollar store. Both bike wheels got really creaky and had a couple of noticeable bends in each rim. I thought for certain I was going to need a full-on truing and dishing at my LBS (I only have one LBS now, as Gunnar's Cycle closed up - didn't see that coming!). Amazingly enough, I literally "picked myself up, dusted myself off, and carried on". The bike was still ride-able! Speaking of rides...

Our Trip to Disneyland:

Was pretty good. The kids didn't want to go on any of the fun rides; you know, the Tower of Terror, the California Screamin' Roller Coaster, or the Maliboomer. To their credit, they did go on the Jurrasic Park ride at Universal Studios, and the Space Mountain coaster at Disney. We even got 'em on the Grizzly Mountain River Raft ride! Though in retrospect, they avoided all the rides involving water after that. While Laurie and I dried off after Grizz Mtn, the kids discovered the "discovery park". Last I saw of them for a full three-quarters of an hour was them sliding down a 50 ft zip line into a giant bumper at the end. They had fun. Three especial favorites: the Astro Booster (the old Saturn V rocket ride, redone in a Buzz Lightyear motif), the Astro Blasters (a Buzz Lightyear themed ride-thru - except you get to shoot a laser pistol at nearly everything!), and Soaring Over California; about which I can only say that if you haven't been on it, a description won't help...and would probably spoil it for you...

Upsides: Our hotel was 40 yards from the park gates - literally. We didn't need a rental car for the whole week. Most of Anaheim around the parks has all been built up as hotels of various grades and classes. Shopping - other than over priced mini-marts - meant either a long walk or a ride on the LARTS. The nearest mall (anchored by Target) was all the way down in Garden Grove! It's a looonngg walk. Our hotel had an excellent view of the nightly fireworks, as well as laundry, pool, jacuzzi, and sauna.

Downsides: Two Snoring Adults and Two Hyper Kids. However, I made the pleasing discovery that "Breathe Right Nasal Strips" actually work. Two long trips thru LA Freeway traffic down to San Diego to see the Zoo, and Seaworld. Shouldn't have bothered. We're planning a shorter stay next time, and no trips outside of Anaheim (well, maybe one day trip back to Universal).

Then, of course, we came home...to find two inches of dirty, smelly, standing water in the basement.

Irony: this is the first house we've owned; that was the first trip we've ever taken...why now?
We're still a little unsure of where all the water came from. A little bird let slip that one of the sewer lines on 114th, just around the corner from our place, had burst the day before we got back. The real problem, of course, was that the water didn't leave. The floor drain has since been cleared. The City of Delta engineering dept. swears up and down that the water simply could not have come up the floor drain from the storm sewer line. According to their contractor (who replaced the storm lines on our street in August), our floor drain doesn't even connect to the sewer line; "it's been capped off". But, of course "it was like that when we found it".

If so:

We are the only house on the street with the auxiliary drain line capped.
We may have been paying for storm drain service...and if we have then I want a pro-rated refund for all those years of paying for a service we never got. To their credit, the city did offer to un-cap the pipe for a mere 1200$
In any case, the restoration contractor we hired tested the water and sludge and said "sewage", which was good enough for our insurance agent. They'll cover the cost of replacing the floor, wall paneling, and bathroom fixtures. Thus far, we've had to move everything to the east end of the basement.

Speaking of which...

Coral's computer developed a glitch from being moved and was sent out to Kevin to repair. My computer (previously mentioned) caught a bad Boot Sector Virus and may need a(nother!) new hard drive. So...I am typing this entry and we are doing ALL our internet transactions on...Colin's 233Mhz PII...you know, the Win98 system I built out of spare parts so he could play his alltime favorite PC game: Hot Wheels Slot Car Racing. It figures, the scrap system is the only one still functional. The tragedy of my system crash is mitigated by the fact that there was only one irreplaceable item on the hard drive: my copy of Total Annihilation. A second copy now exists on Coral's computer from the previous month when she begged me to try to set up a network game. Other than that, my .Mp3 files are mostly backed up on my .Mp3 player. Everything else I have replacement copies on CDr or I can download. Has been interesting using this doorstop as the Family Computer. IE 5 doesn't work with our online banking page; even with the 128 bit encryption add-on. Actually, to be fair, our bank is currently overhauling their online banking page and no version of IE works very well. I wrote them a heartfelt letter about it:

As Follows:

Where did the *banking* functions disappear to on the online banking page?

Your site renovations must have been done by the same contractor that did buysell.com last year -- thereby rendering the bs.c site un-usable until another -competent- webdesigner could be found to make the glitzy new eye candy actually *WORK*...

I'm assuming the missing functions will re-appear soon, since it's kind of pointless to have an online banking page that doesn't actually let you DO any banking. Ditto for the typos, line format errors and dead links...

BTW...did you actually *test* the new Personal Access Features sign-up page? Housewives, pensioners, college students...the digitally savvy and the digitally clueless alike are all going to try to use this page...and it's utility is questionable -- "far from foolproof" is the phrase that comes to mind.

Anyway...thanks for letting me rant, I'll check back later and hopefully next time 'round I will be able to do more with my checking account than just LOOK at it.

Sincerely;

Brian Sanderson.

I got a reply from their IT dept. the next day that advised (essentially); "download Firefox". So I did, works fine.

Further addenda: I made 100$ fixing up a wireless home network for a single-mom friend of Laurie's who is now on my Facebook page. Nice to keep my hand in.

Annnnnd speaking of hands...or handy.

The shop is mine. No-one, it seems, wants to take charge of all the tools and STUFF Opa left in the shop. I will finally be setting it up for bicycles and small engines as I intended all along. This means we are going to have one MOTHER of a Spring Clean Up next year.

It's good to be back. More later, but hopefully not too much later.

Lawn Mowers...

Our Murray mower (Briggs & Stratton 4.5hp rear bagger / mulcher) has finally packed it in. I did a marathon back and front yard mow and towards the end of the front yard the mower began stalling. I would wait a few minutes, then re-start it, it would run for a few minutes, stall again, then I would wait a few more minutes...

A ten minute job ended up taking more than 30 mins; and the sun was going down.

A day or two later, I got a call from Grant. His mower had died. Our two mowers are very similar...so I suggested that we both call mower repair shops in our neighborhood and then get together the next night and send out the mowers the following Saturday to whomever had the best price. That ended up being Fraser Valley Equipment on King George Hwy and 72nd ave. However, the plan went slightly awry afterward...

I had to work that Saturday, and Grant was told by FVE that his mower had a seized crankshaft and wasn't worth the cost of overhauling it. Curiously enough, after Grant got his "dead" mower home; he tried starting it...and it started.

He may need to do what I did: A Briggs & Stratton seasonal overhaul.

B&S has some basic manuals and procedures listed on their corporate website. A seasonal overhaul (yearly service?) involves cleaning the air and fuel filters, treating the fuel and treating the carburetor with cleaning solvent. Also checking and replacing the plug (if necessary) and checking and replacing / re-adjusting the ignition module (if necessary). Top it off (so to speak) with an oil change. Add a thorough scrub of the mower deck and wheels, and you have a mower that looks good, starts with the first pull, and runs like new.

So I did all that.

AND...as usual, something went wrong.

This seems to be a trend lately; especially when I'm working with something un-familiar. This is the first time I've gotten my hands dirty over the lawn mower.

With the engine rebuild on the Cavalier: forgot to plug the fuel pump back in...took half a day to figure out.

The replacement engine mount: forgot to jack down the front of the car and remove the lumber dunnage from under the engine.

The re-built bicycle wheel: well, not really my fault, I actually had no business even attempting to re-do a wheel with a rim that badly out-of-shape.

The Lawn Mower:

I got finished all the fluid exchanges and the re-adjustments. I couldn't narrow down what air gap to use on the ignition module so I just used a playing card as a shim. Worked fine.

The mower started and ran...but very slowly. Now I figured that this was because the carb was still full of crud and I would only have to wait awhile before the carb cleaner and fuel treatment did their respective jobs and restored fuel flow to the engine.

I played with the throttle. On our Murray, the throttle lever is actually pre-set to midrange with a bent metal tang and is not actually adjustable unless you un-bend the tang. I tried it; no dice.

That should have clued me in...

Finally, I did what you are absolutely NOT supposed to do: I removed the air cleaner and observed the carb underneath.

Then I saw that the throttle wasn't moving...'cause I had put it on backwards...

sigh...

At least I spotted it before giving up and sending the mower to the FVE guys. I'm sure they would have had a good laugh at my naivete.

The mower...runs very well now, thankew.

And I finally got to mow the front lawn...just in time for the city to dig half of it up next week.

sigh...

Good Samaritan time...

I found a Motorola Timeport "flip-phone" by the side of the road a few km east of the Tswassen Ferry Terminal.

The phone was in a puddle, but was otherwise intact and apparently un-damaged.

Hmmm. I need to back up a bit. I was down in Tswassen to see my good friend the eye doctor (pun intended); Dan Davies of Iris Optical. I had made the appointment with Dan mostly to get a signature for my Passport Application; but I found soon after that I could get all the necessary signatures and attestations at Church. After all, the people there know me, and my Bishop is actually qualified (on a couple of counts) by Immigration Canada's criteria. So I didn't actually have to keep the eye appointment.

But I did anyway; I haven't seen Dan in a while, and this gave us an opportunity to catch up.

As I was riding my bike that day, I figured out a way to keep the appointment by riding my bike from work in Richmond down to Tswassen.

The only hitch was that the appointment took a bit longer than I had anticipated, and I cheated a little: I grabbed a community shuttlebus from Ladner on the way back.

It was on the ride back from Tswassen to the Ladner bus exchange that I found the phone. I find a lot of stuff on the roadside...before this phone it was a pair of Foster Grant "Patriot" sunglasses (I already found - and lost again - a pair of FG "Ironman" shades two years ago). I think this tendency for Found Items is another simple advantage of cycling: you're not travelling so fast that everything goes by in a blur. You have time to see things.

Anyway, back to the phone.

It was dead. My first inclination was to just leave it where it was, but even though I already have a basic cellphone (which we no longer use, and hardly ever used), I am an unrepentant packrat and cannot bring myself to throw away things that might be usefull. Besides, this phone was much nicer than our old one.

Here's a pic:

Now, that's not really it...that's a photo I pinched off of Ebay. The Timeport I have has the "BMW" logo where this example has "Mercedes". I just didn't feel like hauling out the digicam to take a picture. My bad.

After about a week, during which I all-but-forgot that I had it in my backpack, I took the dead phone to one of the few used cellphone shops in Surrey that deals in old Motorola handsets. I managed to talk the counter rep into loaning me a new battery to see if the phone would power up and - surprise! - it did. There was only one number in the "phone book", and it was an inactive number. Several of the numbers in the "last 10 dialed" were a little...scrambled, but the shop rep used the "master clear" feature to clean 'em out. The phone's own number, however, still came up; so I wrote it down and (somewhat reluctantly) gave back the loaned battery.

By sheer coincidence, Laurie and I were shopping at the Talize thrift shop in our neighborhood the next day. The kids had been shuffled off to Camp Squamish and grandma Trudy's house and Laurie and I were enjoying some "us" time. I found a Motorola StarTAC car charger...for 3$.

I didn't buy it then, I was waiting until 6PM so I could again try to call the Alberta number that came up on the phone. However, when I finally got through, the person at that number could not recall ever losing a cellphone, so that was a bust.

So I rushed back to Talize before they closed and bought it...used it to give the phone a full charge.

I did a little research on the Timeport. I visited the Motorola website and DL'd a manual for it. I read some old review articles on the StarTAC, which was the model preivious to the Timeport. (the Timeport takes StarTAC batteries and uses the same charger). Did you know that PCWorld rated the StarTAC #6 on the list of the "50 greatest gadgets of the last 50 years"? Other reviews were just as positive: "you can drop it, drown it or freeze it and it almost always comes back".

With a full charge, I felt no qualms about messing around with my new toy...I didn't actually make any calls; unless and until I registered the phone with a service provider, it wasn't technically mine to use.

That's when I ran across the free helpline number.

The name on the phone came up "Han"...well, it did before I erased it. When I dialed the "free helpline" I got a recorded message from TELUS; in English...and Chinese. Telus in BC doesn't use the Timeport (Bell mobility does?) according to the phone shop, and their rep couldn't find the owner in either Telus' or Bell's BC client database from the serial numbers on the back.

Hmmm...Telus phone, Alberta number, missing for almost three weeks (the last number dialed was june 10th) and a Chinese voice message programmed in for a user named Mr. "Han". Hmmm...

So I sent an Email to Telus in Alberta. After a couple of days emailing back and forth, I sent their rep all the ID and model numbers I could find, and he matched one of those ID numbers to the "403" number that the phone had listed as its own.

And put me in touch with the owner.

The original owner...

Mr. M called me this evening to explain that the phone had been a bonus included with the purchase of a BMW car a few years ago. The car had been sold again, and the phone was sold along with the car to a new owner. This goes along with what Telus told me about the phone's original owner having cancelled their service contract in 2005. So the phone has changed hands at least once since then. I don't know why the phone's new owner didn't register the phone with Telus...if he even used the phone at all. I admit it puzzles me: why would Mr. "Han" bother putting his name into the phone if he didn't actually use it? Why wouldn't he inform Telus that he was the new owner if he was using it?

Mr. M says he will make some inquiries with the BMW dealership and see if he can find out who the car (and phone) was re-sold to. In the meantime, he and his wife technically are no longer the "owners" of this phone.

And I still don't know who is.

Sooo...

What have I been up to lately?

Remember that bicycle wheel I built?

Had to re-build it...

Honestly, I could not get that bent-up rim to roll straight. Laurie took Coral to the Okanagan on April 27th for the yearly Square Dance Festival and so Colin and I had the house to ourselves. I decided on a "guys day out" and took myself & son down to Our Community Bikes on Main st. downtown. They had a 27" aluminum rim for a reasonable price, and so I brought it home and re-re-built that back wheel. Turned out pretty well, considering I'm working with "homemade" and jerry-rigged tools.

Here's some pictures of the new bike; which I have named "Bender".

Turned out pretty well, eh?

Bender's story begins last October. I was going on an errand on the weekend, and noticed a bicycle stuck in the hedges in front of St. Cuthbert's church near our place in North Delta. I walked back and assesed the bike: obviously abandoned - missing a couple of cables, shifters and chain were rusted, and the rear wheel was completely trashed.

In the meantime, Freddy Fender suffered a catastrophic front tire failure.

Bender got most of Freddy's parts swapped directly from one frame to the other; although I did have to overhaul the rear derailleur. No carrier or rack on Bender yet...I have to figure out how to mount the new one I bought, and I don't want that grotty wire rack from Freddy.

What am I gonna do with all these spare bike frames?

One final note about Bender: it's fast, - scary fast, to be quite honest about it. Bender is at least 10-15 lbs lighter than my ATB; and although the sidepull calipers work just fine, I have to remember to use them a little earlier on than the center-pull brakes that were on Freddy. This ought to make things interesting when going down Nordel Way or the Alex Fraser bridge.

Come "fly" with me!

Check it out: the Sport Star simulator.

I'm pretty sure this version is a beta...with the final version going to Evektor aircraft as a promotional tool.

Flies pretty much like Microsoft Flightsim v.10. But only the one aircraft...

Now, typical of a "real" aircraft response; if you put a total newbie behind the stick, it will crash in no time flat.

With that in mind, how do you suppose I did?

I took to it like a duck to water.

I've always been an aviation buff. I've been reading about planes and flying since I was a little boy. First time I ever got to apply all this knowledge I've accumulated.

Mind you, the old saying is true; "Flying is easy...it's the landing that's the difficult part."

This led to a series of phone conversations with my Father. My Father, by the way, is a pilot, AND an ex-CAF fighter pilot, AND an ex-instructor...there is no-one I would trust more behind the controls of an aircraft. The first conversation went something like; "this may sound like an unusual question, but is it better to land into the wind, or with the wind behind you?" Other conversations followed, like; "how high up should you be when you turn onto the final?"

I eventually got the landings down. I also made a rather disconcerting discovery about the simulated aircraft: it lacks the wing flaps of the real plane. You can land this aircraft without flaps, but it's tricky...come in too high or too fast and you can either plant the prop on the tarmac, or overshoot the runway entirely. Come in too "low 'n slow", and you can end up stalling the aircraft over the runway and coming down rather hard and sudden-like...in the real plane, this is hard on the landing gear. Without flaps, the ideal landing speed is just over the stall speed, it can be tricky keeping the aircraft straight and level...bleed off too much airspeed, and you can find it difficult to keep the nose up without stalling...too much airspeed, and the plane will just "float" over the runway, and overshoot.

Hmmm. I make it sound much more complicated than it actually is...

The simulator has two different camera placements. One is in the cockpit, right up in front of the instrument panel -- the gyro compass, attitude indicator, airspeed, altimeter, and engine RPM gauge all work, by the way -- and the other camera view is just above and behind the tail of the aircraft. As you can't see much from the cockpit view (unless you pan the camera around -- unwise since the mouse you're using to pan the camera is also what you use to move the control stick), I refer to the "in cockpit" view as IFR flying. The view from behind the tail would be VFR flying. I am presently working on mastering IFR.

Man, do I ever want to buy my own plane.

If this is my midlife crisis...well, I can think of worse things to get obsessed over. After all, I've already done the "Italian Sports Car" thing...

Global warming.

Perhaps the greatest single example of colossal Human Egotism in recorded history.

I don't mean the fact that it is happening.

I mean the fact that most of the "experts" are assuming that we caused it.

Lemme explain:


First, a question: how and why did the science of Climatology get its start?

Well, the study of climate over a particular region of the Earth has been noted as early on as the late 17th century work of Sir Edmund Halley (yes, the astronomer for whom Halley's Comet is named) in charting the trade winds of the Southern Hemisphere, and also Benjamin Franklin's 18th century work in mapping the Gulf Stream. The study of global climate and changes therein started sometime around the late 19th century after it was hypothesized that catastrophic events, such as volcanic eruptions, were observed to co-incide with temporary variations in climate patterns. Most dramatically and specifically, the eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883.

It became important to be able to predict exactly what the long-term effects of such upheavals would be on the Earth's climate. Also, how long those effects would last. About the same time, discoveries were being made that seemed to indicate that there had been serious changes in the earth's climate throughout its history. Ice ages, for instance.

The general consensus was that climate change in the short term (months or years) could be effected by a cataclysm such as a major volcanic eruption, but long term alteration to the global climate would be more likely to be caused by factors external to the Earth itself. Like collision by an asteroid, or large comet, or perhaps even a minor variation of the motion of the Earth through the heavens.

That last one was taken on by a Serbian geophysicist and mathmetician named Milutin Milankovic. In the late 1930's, he took all that was then known about the Earth's motion thru the solar system: axial tilt, axial orientation, orbital shape and inclination; along with the variances, precession, and eccentricity of all of the above.

He constructed a mathematical model that predicted the Earth had regular climatic variations; specifically, that Ice Ages were a cyclic phenomena. Every 20000 years or so, the precession of the equinoxes would result in an overall cooling, from longer winters, and shorter summers. After 5 or so of these precession cycles, a 100,000 year ice age cycle would come along in which things got very cold.

Milankovic's model wasn't perfect...there were, for instance, certain astronomical phenomena associated with the Earth's orbit that were not widely known in the 1940's. The fact that Earth's orbit has variations outside the plane of the ecliptic and that stellar dust in the ecliptic plane could interfere with the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth when it's orbit corresponds to one of those variations.

Milankovic's model has been worked on since...

At the time, the hypothesis (supported by the model) that the Earth was regularily plunged into an Ice Age caused no small stir; in fact, the popular press of the day reported that human civilization was doomed to perish slowly as temperatures dropped, growing seasons shortened, arable land froze over, and cities were buried under miles-thick sheets of advancing glacial ice...

Hey, whatever sells papers, right?

A more recent development has been attempts to match the model with what's happening now. We already know the model's cyclic nature provides a prediction of the future...but where in the cycle are we at present?

Enter the science of paleoclimatology.

We can't just look up 20,000 year old meteorological records. There aren't any. But there are lots of things that were around 20,000 years ago that are still around now and can be dug up and studied. Things like: Ice cores, ocean sediment cores and petrified trees.

Don't ask me how they've managed to match up the evidence that's been dug up with Milankovic's model, but they have. His model predicts cyclic climate variations, and cyclic climate variations is what those core samples have shown. The match up isn't perfect; but then, as I mentioned, neither was the model.

So here's the crux of the matter: Milancovic's precessional cycle has a "hot" end and a "cold" end. According to such climatic record as we have, we are a little ways past the "hot" end and headed towards the "cold" end. No need to break out the long underwear just yet; we won't actually reach the "cold" end of the cycle for several thousand years, at least. But what this means is that global temperatures either ought to be remaining steady, or even cooling by a fraction of a degree, in the last few centuries for which temperature records have been kept.

Of course, the records show that global temperatures have not, in fact, been static or even cooling ever-so-slightly...

They've gone up...ever-so-slightly.

Now, there are three possible reasons why this could be happening; against the predictions of the model.

1.) We've failed to take one or more factors into account. The model, after all, is still being refined...

2.) We broke the planet. . .I mean;" human industrialization and it's accompanying pollution has altered the atmosphere and, by extension, the climate of the entire globe".

3.) There has been a subtle shift in the Earth's motion thru the heavens and we haven't noticed it yet...

Number one is kind of irrelevant, even if the model were further refined to include the possibility of what's being observed now...I don't think it would explain why.

Number three is the possibility no-one wants to contemplate: if the Earth has, in fact, shifted subtly in its orbit, and that is what is causing Global Warming...well, there ain't a whole lot we can do about it...

And that, dear friends, brings me to option number two...and a colossal case of human arrogance and egotism.

I leave you with one final thought:

Inuit hunters in Canada's high arctic have been reporting for the past several years an unusual observation of seasonal change.

Now, you may think those living above the arctic circle have only two seasons: Winter, and Hard Sledding.

Har Har.

No, the seasons referred to are the Dark...and the Light. As you may know, above the arctic circle, it stays light for 24 hours a day a good portion of the year. It also goes dark for a similar portion of the year.

The Inuit have claimed that the Dark is ending earlier than usual. Moreover, that the sun has been rising at the end of the Dark season "in a different place". These reports were finally sent to Canadian government scientists in Ottawa.

Their conclusion?

What the Inuit have been observing is being caused by...Global Warming.

DC 507 is a union shop.

Our Employer, HBC Logistics, is pushing cost-reduction in a big way.

How, you ask; since a wage increase is almost certain to be among the first of our demands in our new collective agreement?

By enforcing the letter of the law in regard to lateness and absenteeism...

...oh, and they've started firing people.

Randy Squires, Alaina Cain, and Clara Vermullen were all dismissed last week. Rumor has it there are more firings to come.

Clara I can explain: it was her "watch" as H.R. officer when the union vote went thru. Corporate in Toronto evidently took a dim view of her performance.

Randy and Alaina are more difficult to explain; although rumor has it that they were let go for a "lack of vertical osculation skills".

I was on the first new crew ever hired at 504 way back in Feb. 1994. I am now the only member of that crew still employed with the company. With Randy's dismissal, there is now no-one left of the crew that was hired the week following my hire. Wow...one hundered percent turnover in less than 15 years; a whole new job market, indeed.

"Rumor has it there are more firings to come"...further bulletins as events warrant.

Blogger is pissing me off.

Yes, I can use the word "piss"...it's in the Bible; along with "hell", "damnation" and "Raca" (whatever that means).

Idiots.

I'm using the "blog this!" feature on the direct-linked page. When saved as a draft, the entry automagically takes me to my homepage. From there, I can edit and view posts just as if I had successfully signed on as before. Perhaps it's just me, but I prefer to be able to view the last few posts I've made when writing new ones. The Gooooogle sign in procedure is stupid, and didn't even work when I had finally gotten everything typed in correctly after the umpteenth try. None too secure, especially if I can use the direct link (tagged with a scripted ID number) to go around the sign-in procedure.

If you can't beat 'em, ignore 'em...only on the internet.

I think that somewhere, somehow, I have been cursed...

I did the brake pads on the car today. Pretty simple job; and the brakes work just fine now, thank you.

It started to snow. Very lightly, and it melted almost immediately as the temperature is *just* at the freezing point.

So where's the curse?

This marks the fourth year in a row that I have been 1) Working on the car outdoors 2) In Winter 3) During a snowfall.

My kiddies had another birthday.

Coral is going to audition for her school talent show. She is going to use her "sonjee bongs" (foam nunchuks) to some asian-themed techno-muzak. Should be cool. She's becoming quite the spunky little "tween" there.

Colin is painfully learning to EAT what is put in front of him. This has meant a couple of nights going hungry. He's just so pitiful...but there doesn't seem to be any other way to convince him that he's gotta eat what Mommy makes for him.

My Mom came thru with presents for the kids: Gift Certificates to the other gaming store in our neighborhood. We'll see...if I can ever find the store.

***NEWS FLASH***

I am now a card carrying member of the Teamsters Local 31.

To anyone who actually READS this 'blog (besides me...): So Sorry...had to keep the whole "union drive at work" thing under wraps until the vote went thru. So now HBC Distribution Centre 507 is a Union Shop. The proverbial straw was a new compensation package with which we were informed that top-of-scale wage earners would no longer be getting COLA increases...instead we would be recieving a once-a-year "lump sum".

Ummm...sorry, but a once-a-year payment does NOT work the magic of Compound Interest.

It does not help my monthly Pension Contributions, nor does it increase the matching funds the company also contributes to my Pension.

It does not at all increase the extra monies I make from working overtime. At 507, we work lots of overtime.

Finally, the unionised associates at our unionised facilities in Ontairio and Quebec are still getting their COLA increases...and our management here has already pointed out that it is unalterable, set-in-stone policy to pay wages and compensation to our unionised and non-union associates exactly the same. Except for now, that is.

Irony: the new compensation package came about (I presume) as a result of a directive from HBC corporate in Toronto to come up with some way of decreasing the Payroll costs for this facility. For the "once a year payment" is certainly a good thing...for the Company. Now that we are unionised, the first demand from our bargaining unit is likely to be a pay increase to compensate for the deduction of union dues...AND our COLA increases back. Payroll is gonna get more expensive 'round here...

Aggg...

I awoke the morning of Jan. 19 feeling a little stuffed up. I headed to work anyways as THIS WAS THE DAY...

...I was finally getting re-instated as a Machine Operator.

More on that in a moment.

So I took the qualification test between 10 and 11 am and passed. I then started straight in on a clamp truck on the xdock (after Bill ensured that I was OK to resume operating that) helping Cal to offload some display pallets of summer sandals. Cal himself has yet to regain his qualification as a Machine Operator.

We finished about 1 PM. After break I realised just how peaked I felt; and the fact that my sniffling and coughing had only gotten worse during the day led me to beg a favor from our First Aider, Dave Thompson.

I asked him to take my temperature.

Don't get excited. Our first aid room has a perfectly good, re-usable, digital, oral thermometer.

I figured it this way: either I was having some sort of allergic reaction, or I was genuinely sick. Allergies don't usually involve a rise in temperature, so I figured if it was still 98.6 then I would stop *itchin' and get back to work.

It was 100.2...and rising. Dave also took my wrist pulse, just to be sure. My heartrate had gone from a normal rest of 68-72 BPM (I know, I'm out of shape...) up to 92 BPM. Swollen glands, too.

So I went home.

I've spent an absolutely miserable weekend with what wikipedia tells me is a low-grade flu. Fever, aches and chills, dripping sinuses and chest congestion/irritation. Dave was worried I might be coming down with pneumonia. My stomach has been...unsettled...for the last few days, but so far I have managed to keep what little I've eaten down. Still have the inevitable by-products to deal with, tho'. I am still at this hour debating whether or not I'll be at work on Monday. I am heavily medicated.

The Test: to fudge or not to fudge?

I pointed out to Bill that the test could be administered as written in aisle 23-09; as the racking there is only on one side of the aisle. Ditto for 24-02 and 24-19. We needed to avoid aisles like 24-13; according to my measurements, there was less than 5 inches of clearance to work with in that aisle...

So, guess where I got to test?

Uh-huh...

To Bill's credit, he did offer to spot me for rearward/forward clearance while performing the test manuevers. I certainly took him up on that offer. "Nerve Wracking" doesn't begin to describe it...took me two attempts for each lift in the test. Luckily I was permitted three attempts at each...

Lessons Learned:

Always follow correct procedure. Not only does it make for a safer workplace, it also COVERS YOUR ASS.

The Hyster reach trucks will, in fact, perform the manuevers required in the test HBC uses to certify our operators. The margin for error may be just over 4%, but they CAN do it!!!

The Hyster's steering point is off-center...you have much more clearance turning into the rack from the right hand side than from the left. I actually had to re-position the machine a couple of times in 24-13 just to make sure I didn't whack the racking behind me...I was almost certain that turning from the left was going to require more space than I had, and I didn't want to find out for sure the hard way. Did I mention this was nerve wracking?

Next Post: my. kids. had. another. birthday.

And another year passes...

The Tree is Chipped.

The Fall Trash has been sent to the landfill.

The Xmas Lights are down.

We've moved a heap o' stuff out of the downstairs TV room and into Opa's bedroom. I have taken over his "tailoring shop" as my new "computer shop". KWY has, coincidentally, recieved a job offer from the US of A and will likely be leaving us soon. I have been persuaded to store and/or sell his excess stock...on Ebay.

This means, of course, that I finally have to settle up with Ebay...

I am undecided whether to have the old account removed and start over...or keep it.

I don't have a problem starting anew...I have hopes of turning some $eriou$ coin for myself and KWY...OTOH...this may turn out to be more work than it is worth. We shall see.