058 HOT NIGHT IN THE TOWNHOUSE

It was a hot day yesterday at 30C, but a little cooler than the 35C it was the day before.  What made it worse was the 60% humidity, which made me feel like I was melting.  Sweat was pouring off me like I was doing a workout in the gym, but I was sitting still.  I do not tolerate heat very well, I never really have, so I don’t understand people vacationing in Phoenix where it was 120F.

As a result, Toby and I after the morning walk, went up and relaxed in the bedroom in front of the portable air conditioner that I thankfully purchased.  It’s too bad I can’t get air conditioning for the whole house, but there is a limit on what you are allowed in a strata-complex.  This unit is the most powerful one I can get at 14,000 BTU and it only cools the bedroom.  If I leave the door open, none of the cool air reaches the rest of the floor.

I give this preamble because, little did I know, it was about to get hotter.  It got hotter partly because I did my Mom’s baked Rice Krispy Chicken, so running an oven on a hot day, sort of adds to it.  Unfortunately, there is no way to do it on the BBQ.  Anyway, it turned out delicious and after dinner, we did our usual evening stroll.  It felt like the temperature outside had cooled slightly and we did our usual route.

I had planned on watching the BC Lions vs Calgary game in the bedroom, but I skipped the opening kickoff to do the walk.  While we were out, I heard someone yell from one of the units, “yeah, 95 yards”.  When we got back, I bee lined for the bedroom.  The Lions were leading 13-3 and yes, they had taken the opening kickoff back 95 yards for the touchdown.  Oh, well, I’d catch the highlights at halftime.

The Lions increased their lead and then the phone rang.  I figured Renee would answer, but when I looked at the call display, I saw that it was her cell.  She told me that she could hear an alarm and she was going to go look.  A few minutes later she called back and said it was the neighbours and I should come help.  So I grabbed my shirt and headed out with the Lions in a comfortable lead late in the second quarter.

I found Renee and we went looking and determined the smoke alarm was coming from a house a few doors down.  I started walking around the place and was getting a strong smell of smoke.  We didn’t try the doors at all.  But Renee was ringing the bell and pounding on the door, but there was no answer.  After a few minutes, we were certain that we could smell smoke and so Renee called 9-1-1.

ONE RIG

A few minutes later the Maple Ridge Fire Department arrived with two rigs.  They immediately started unpacking gear and hoses, because they could smell the smoke before they even got the rigs parked.  The Captain walked up to the door and was inside before I knew it.  I guess the door was unlocked, because he had no tools in his hand and there was no damage to the door.

TWO RIGS

While the crew was still inside, the family arrived home and was shocked to see a big hose snaking into their house through the front door.  The little girl, Sarah, who is a neighbourhood favourite was heartbroken and sobbing because her cat was inside.  She was inconsolable until one of the fire guys came out and pronounced the fire out and the cat safe.

Apparently, someone left something cooking on the gas stove and went out to get some further ingredients from the store.  That turned out not to be such a good plan.  It caught fire and was starting to spread when the fire guys got inside.  They filled the brand new gas stove with foam, but thankfully the fire did not spread to the point of setting off the sprinklers, or there would have been much, much more damage.

Even though our smoke alarms seem to be very sensitive and they go off so often, Renee still checks.  She has not succumbed to the “cry wolf syndrome” and in this case, it really was a fire.  Her actions saved not only the one townhouse, but maybe the whole block of six units.  In this heat, if the whole block had gone up, it would have easily spread to our building and so on.  She’s the heroine of our little village.

After an exciting show, I went back inside to resume the football game.  What was looking like a blowout was anything but.  Calgary had come back and was only two points behind.  No problem though, the Lions increased their lead again and were 15 points up late in the game.  Unfortunately, Calgary came back and tied the game with one-minute left.  Sadly, they went into overtime and Calgary got a field goal to lead by three.  The Lions got all the way down to the 10-yard line, but Calgary sealed their win with an interception in the end zone. 

057 LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!

So here we are, the end of July, the 23^rd to be precise and we still have not had any summer.  Two days ago it was sunny and 29C, yesterday it was pissing rain and 14C, today it is so far shaping up to be a nice day.  It looks like I picked a good year to stay at home from the lake.  Really though, in all fairness, with the physio on my back paying dividends, I didn’t dare risk screwing it up.

Caitlin gave me a Fitbit for my birthday and I have been wearing it ever since.  I was doing everyday walks with Toby before, but they were 30-40 minutes and only about 3K.  I think she knew my competitive nature and I am actively trying to get to my 10,000 step goals each day.  The morning walk has increased to an hour and 10 minutes and about 5.5K.  Then an evening walk and I easily hit my 10,000 step goal every day.  The best I have done is 13,500 so far.

A lesson learned from the lake though, is that I am taking days off from the long walks.  I’m still walking but not as far a couple of times a week.  The other day we cut the walk short because Toby was either too tired or too sore.  Really though, so was I.  Physio had really worked me over the day before and it was all I could do to drag my ass out of bed.

This morning it is sunny and warm at 6:30 AM and we will probably cut the walk short because the heat is pretty hard on Toby.  It is good that the weather is nice though, because we are having our first ever community event today.  It is a combined addresses Garage Sale.  It’s been well advertised on Craigslist and the people organizing it, rescued the sandwich board advertising signs when the sales office closed down.  They converted them to advertising for the garage sale and placed them out around the neighbourhood.

TREASURE I GOT AT GARAGE SALE
PAINTING (PRINT) OF R.A.F. SPITFIRE
BY BARRIE A.F. CLARK
MY ABSOLUTE MOST FAVOURITE PLANE

Speaking of rescuing things from the sales center.  I managed to get 4 custom made bar stools.  They are bright red in colour, but I can always paint them black if need be.  These things are heavy as well, it would take an extreme effort to tip them over.  Besides, if I find that they don’t fit in here, I can always sell them.

Amazingly the sales center has closed because the entire complex of 167 units has sold out.  Half of the complex has not even been built yet, but I have heard several references to it being a “village”.  Truthfully, it feels just like that.  I think when all is said and done, if you take as an average of 2 people per household we will end up with a population of approximately 500.  Which is the size of a small village.

We are all really sorry to see Ken and Jennifer leave us.  They were my first contacts here, well at least Ken was.  Jennifer came in later.  The two of them are both so friendly and helpful and always had a smile and a wave whenever you walk by the office.  When they were not swamped by potential buyers that would extend into pleasant conversations.  It seems odd to say that about the sales reps of the complex, but they were both really a part of our community.  They came in here expecting to take 4 years to sell the place out and instead it only took 14 months.

MY FIRST EVER LASAGNA.
IT WAS AWESOME

In addition to the garage sale, Renee is going to walk down to the Maple Ridge Country Fair.  Well at least we think she is going to walk there.  In addition to the coyotes and bears prowling our neighbourhood, we now have a very large cougar.  He was last spotted in a neighbourhood just 4 blocks from here and directly near the path Renee would be walking.  I’ll be staying hope to babysit Toby.

That’s not a bad thing though because like most policemen I do not like crowds.  They can be very dangerous places to be.  Yes, I know it is a country fair, but after years of policing the PNE, I have seen firsthand the things that can happen.  Not to mention, but I don’t tolerate heat very well either.  So, Toby and I will likely cuddle up, and take a nap in the air conditioned bedroom. 

Renee had a great time at the fair and Toby and I cuddled up for a nap in the air conditioned bedroom.  The Garage Sale was a success as well, at least for the first day.  There was a steady stream of traffic in and out, although a few people came in thinking that more homes had opened up.  Unlucky for them, they haven't.

056 RANTING ON

One of the very few disadvantages I have found to my move to Maple Ridge is the apparent confusion if causes to some organizations.  It’s not like I have moved to the deepest, darkest reaches of the Amazonian jungle, I’m 30 minutes down the highway from my previous address.

My battles with TELUS are well documented already and resolved, so I won’t rehash those.  But according to BC Hydro, my address still does not exist and so after 4 months of living here, I have not received my first hydro bill.  It’s scary to think what it will be when my address finally does exist.  I have electricity, so that isn’t the problem, it’s just, how much is my bill building up?  Fortunately, I have been playing it smart and putting money away in a separate account, based on my electricity bills at the old house.

I had a problem trying to donate some clothes to the BC Diabetes Foundation.  I advised them of the pickup and then did everything that was asked by bagging the clothes up and leaving them on the front doorstep with a label on them.  I left specific instructions on how to find my unit as you have to drive around a corner to get in.  Two days went by, no pickup, so I phoned.  The driver advised her that there was nothing left out.

That was a lie and I told her so and sent her a digital photo showing the clothes still there.  She called the driver again and he changed his story and said he could not get in due to construction.  Again a lie and I sent her a photo out my window.  All construction was in an area behind me.  I was going to have to wait 30 days for another pickup but she gave me the location of a drop off box and I ended up doing that.

What really prompted my rant today, is I am a frequent online buyer of things from Amazon.  Mostly movies and books, but some other stuff as well.  Again, I am only 30 minutes from my old place.  There I had available same day delivery service available and yes it was a couple of dollars more expensive, but I liked ordering in the morning and getting it in late afternoon.  I can’t get that here, even though their distribution center is actually closer.  I never had any problems with deliveries in Vancouver.  Out of 8 orders since moving, it’s gotten screwed up 4 times.

The best I can get here is one-day delivery and they usually ship with Canada Post.  Since mail gets delivered to my “Superbox” at 11:30 AM every day, I know when my package will arrive.  Every so often though, they do weird things like splitting my order and sending part by Canada Post and part by Purolator or UPS.  I had one late delivery by Canada Post and the problem is, they just deliver once per day and that is at 11:30 AM.

UPS was right on time, although that was one delivery.  Three deliveries have been by Purolator and two of those have been screwed up.  The first one the package didn’t arrive and tracking info showed delivery was attempted, but unable to deliver.  They even gave a time for the attempt and the strange part about it, was I had been standing outside talking to my neighbour and never even saw a Purolator truck.  Surprisingly the package was able to be delivered the next day.

My latest adventure is partially the fault of Amazon and partially the fault of Purolator.  I am an early riser and at 5:00 AM on Sunday morning I ordered the book 13 Hours the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi as I had seen the movie a few days before.  Coincidentally, the delivery of that movie was another one of the screw-ups by Purolator.  However, I ordered the book and saw an Amazon special for a great deal on the full series of Star Trek Enterprise, so I ordered that as well.

I paid the extra for the one-day delivery and when I checked on the package later in the day, I discovered it would not even be shipped until Tuesday.  OK, I get that Monday was July 4, American Independence Day and a holiday in the States.  But, the Amazon distribution center is in Burnaby.  The guaranteed delivery date was Wednesday.

Amazon split the order and sent the book with Canada Post and the TV series with Purolator.  The book arrived in my mailbox Wednesday morning at 11:30 AM.  Tracking the TV series with Purolator, it arrived in Port Kells, Surrey at 7:30 AM.  A beautiful sunny day, the first in about 10 days, and then I get a notice from Purolator saying my delivery was delayed by weather.  Really?  Port Kells is about a 15-minute drive from my place.

But, weather?  Come on.  Was it too sunny and bright for the driver to be able to see?  A phone call to Purolator resulted in a 45-minute wait on hold before I finally gave up.  I contacted Amazon this morning and within 10 minutes all of my shipping charges had been refunded.  I still don’t have the TV series, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing that I didn’t have to pay for shipping.  This is sure a bit of bad advertising for the reliability of Purolator.

***UPDATE***

The package from Purolator arrived Thursday afternoon at around 1:00 PM.  Coincidentally, while it was delayed by the sunny weather on Wednesday, the shipment arrived in the middle of a torrential rainstorm, that looked like the heavens had opened up.  Unreal!

055 INDIANNA JONES AND THE BURIED GARAGE

You just gotta love all these doomsayers and so called climate experts like Leo DiCaprio.  It seems to me that last year at this time we had been without rain since April, and the so called experts were saying that was what we were facing every year now.  Drought conditions would be the norm and snow in the mountains surrounding Vancouver was a thing of the past.

Of course, we ended up with record snowfalls on the Coastal Mountains, and Metro Vancouver endured 12 straight weeks of either rain, or grey skies.  We had a couple of unseasonably hot days in May and a few more in June, but again for the most part June and the early part of July has been grey skies and rain.  It has currently rained, and rained hard here for two straight days.  In fact, it was so wet in June, a bunch of my flowers in the railing boxes, drowned.

Anyway, the point of this rant, is that the crappy weather is making it a little easier for missing the lake.  At least at home here, I have access to TV, Internet and I have lots of room to move around in between the top floors and even the garage.  More room than I had at the old house as well.

Yesterday, I got busy.  I was forced into it by of all people the Canada Revenue Agency.  Here it is, eighteen months after Dad died, they wanted proof that he was disabled for the last few years of his life.  They have had a form T2201 on file for many years.  When I asked how they expected me to prove he was disabled, they said I would have to find the original T2201.

Now, I am about 99% certain that we would have mailed in the original and all I would have was a copy.  I was also 95% certain that I had shredded all of Dad’s documents dating back that far.  In any case, there was that 5% chance that I didn’t and the documents were buried among all those boxes in the garage.  They were insistent on it.  I could just say that I couldn’t find it and let it go, except as the executor of Dad’s will, I am responsible for all debts related to him.  If I let it go, it will be a $13.000 bill to pay back.

Anyway, I waded into the boxes.  I managed to find some of my missing tools, which is a bonus.  I managed to find two boxes of documents that I had been looking for.  One of which contained my own will.  I worked for several hours’ yesterday, and could not find any documents related to Dad.  Then again, I didn’t manage to get through all the boxes yet either.  I finally got so exhausted I had to pack it in.

When I came out though, the box warehouse which is my garage, is starting to bear some semblance to a garage again.  There is still a long way to go, but it looks a little less overwhelming now.  I even managed to make it all the way to the back wall.  Now if I can just get into the little alcove back there and clear it out, I will be able to slide the boat back another ten feet, which will give me enough room to be able to park my truck inside, finally.

I had intended to continue my explorations today, but I am so stiff and sore and tired this morning that it just isn’t going to happen.  I have physio tomorrow which should help loosen things up a bit.  I really don’t think I am going to find those documents, but the incentive to continue is getting my truck inside, oh and finding the rest of my tools.  Once I do that, and clear out some more boxes, I should be able to get one of those huge rolling tool boxes to get things organized.

So while the reason for doing it, isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world, (when is dealing with the CRA ever?) at least it got me started on organizing the garage.  Who knows I may even be able to get it semi organized before September rolls around.  As for the crappy weather, it has made it a whole lot easier to accept missing out on lake time.