075 A BAD CASE OF GAS

Yesterday I took advantage of the momentary lull in the 90-day rain event and managed to get Toby out for his morning walk in the sunshine for a change.  No, it didn’t last, but we go every morning rain or shine and maybe even snow next week.  We also do another walk in the late afternoon.  It’s good for him and good for me too as it helps me to get my 10,000 steps per day in.

The walk became a little broken up and mixed up though.  When we got to the top of the trail, all the construction fences had fallen over blocking our way.  So, we turned around and went all the way back.  While we were heading back down, we could hear a rushing sound.  It sounded like our little creek had turned into a rushing river, or it was the sound of escaping gas.

Suddenly, the air horns started blasting and I saw the construction safety officer yelling for the workers to get off-site.  They were all complying too.  Dropping their tools and heading out in an orderly fashion.  That’s when I smelled it.  Natural gas, which has a very distinct odor like rotten eggs.

We continued our walk and headed for the upper trail, which is well away from the townhouse complex.  Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in our direction and the smell of gas on the trail was almost overwhelming.  We completed the trail and headed through the neighbourhood and now that we were out of the wind the smell of gas disappeared.

When we got back to the upper driveway of the construction zone we found it full of fire trucks, police cars and Fortis BC trucks.  There were construction workers, civilians, policemen, firemen and gas workers milling about and figuring out the plan of attack.

I got talking to the construction safety person and discovered that someone using one of the big machines was digging out an area near our soon to be finished club house, when the shovel pierced a significantly large gas main.  This had the potential to be dangerous.  Everyone on the entire site had been evacuated.

So, I was still quite a distance from home and a distance from my truck which is parked on the street.  One of the fire guys, seeing Toby and me both shivering, offered to escort us to the truck to get out of the cold wind.  I was cold because I had been working up a sweat, Toby was cold because he got shaved down again a couple of weeks ago.

So, we headed down the street and got to go right past where the Fortis guys were working hard to seal the leak.  It was an impressive looking line.  Anyway, we made it to the truck and got in, got the heat going and managed to stop shivering.

Not counting the walk, we were only kept out of the house for a little over an hour and then got to go home.  The line had been capped, but the smell of gas lingered for quite a while.  I was nervous about turning on the gas stove, but managed to do it without incident.  That’s funny, because I saw someone on the street, close to the leak, light up a cigarette.  Someone with a shred more intelligence convinced him to put it out.

Just as we got back in the house, the sun had disappeared and the heavens re-opened and it poured rain once again.  It continued all night and again all day today.  Noah only had to put up with 40 days and 40 nights of rain.  On the weather report, they said between September 1 and November 30 we have only had 5 completely dry days.  The rest have had measurable rainfall either at some point in the day, night or the whole day.

They are calling for the possibility of snow on Monday afternoon, but we shall see.  Either way, I’m ready.  I have a 4x4 and just put on a set of Extreme All-Terrain tires, which even carry the snowflake symbol on the side.  I’ve never had trouble driving in the snow, it’s what all the other poor drivers out there do that scares me.  Some are not capable of driving in the sunshine, let alone snow.

074 MOVING RIGHT ALONG

It is now the last day of November and things are moving right along.  Renee decorated the tree with all the little baubles a couple of days ago, but it remained unfinished.  The snowflake tree-topper would not work at all as it had a strange little scoop thing on the bottom, designed to balance on top of a large branch or trunk.  This tree doesn’t have one.  So, it was back to Canadian Tire I went.

TREE ALL DECORATED

I started looking at the trees on display and saw that there were tree-toppers that had a very impressive looking clamp.  Then I started looking at the tree-toppers available and came across the exact same one that Renee liked initially, but we rejected because it felt too heavy.  Right there at the bottom was a very skookum looking clamp, so I bought it.  Renee has her first wish tree topper, but she doesn’t know it yet.

NO FLASH JUST LIGHTS

The tree-topper is a solid looking star made from chips of wood and has jewels embedded in it.  It’s very west coast looking.  Now if I can just get it to work with the tree.  The cashier that took the return of the snowflake one saw this one and hoped it would work.  I told her that I would give it a shot and if it didn’t I could always bring it back as well.

Of course, I couldn’t go into Canadian Tire and just buy one thing.  So, I ended up buying a third string of lights to put on the fence.  This will complete the back yard.  The front is another chore.  I do have a battery-operated wreath on the front door, which has a timer allowing the lights to be on for 6 hours and off for 18.  Unfortunately, I obviously set it wrong because they were on all the time and I burned through a set of batteries in 3 days.

RUDOLPH IS READY

Renee set up some gold leafed path markers and set the timer correctly since they go on at 4:00 PM every day and go off at 10:00 PM.  Oh, well, I bought more batteries and I will re-set the front door wreath.  If it ever stoops raining I will tackle the back-yard fence and the front of the house.

I wanted little lights for the inside of the windows but the shortest string I can find at Canadian Tire is 33 feet and I don’t think any of my windows are big enough.  When in doubt, measure.  So, once I get home I will measure the windows.

As luck, would have it, it stopped raining.  I waited just to be sure and it stayed dry for several hours, so off into the yard I went with my string of lights.  Of course, as soon as I got about 10 feet done, the heavens opened again and I got soaked.  But the lights are done.  The string was too long for just the top of the fence, so I doubled it back along the bottom of the lattice.  It looks good tonight too.

BACK YARD FROM THE DECK

The front of the house will have to wait until Thursday or later now.  It’s already the earliest I have put up Christmas stuff, as I usually wait until December 1.  New place, new rules I guess.  Lots of people in the neighbourhood are getting into the spirit, as lights and decorations are going up everywhere.  The complex is looking more festive every day.

The house is looking good now, but am I finished?  I doubt it, although I really can’t think of more to do yet.  I do intend to project the animation of Santa in the window, but I must find some translucent material to put up to project onto.  I checked the Atmosfx website with the intention of ordering it from them.  Unfortunately, a roll, not big enough to cover the window costs $74 American and then they want another $74 American to ship it.  Then you can add in duty and 2-week delivery time and I said “forget it”.  I’ll put my brain to work and come up with another idea.  How hard could it be?

Anyway, the decorating saga continues and who knows where it will end.   We shall see.  I may be done now, but I really don’t think so.  I have a nice ledge under the winter painting that is crying out for some Christmassy items.  Sure, wish I had that set of snow people my Mom made years ago, but I will find some other items to put there.  I should maybe even get a Christmassy table cloth for when the kids come over for Boxing Day dinner.  We shall see.  Stay tuned for more adventures.

073 CHRISTMAS CHEER

As a follow-up to the article “And So It Begins”, Canadian Tire is having a big sale on everything, but especially on Christmas stuff.  I finally made the decision to go with an artificial tree and Canadian Tire has some amazingly lifelike ones.  Better yet they are on sale and so the one I settled on is over $100 cheaper.  I ended up getting a 7’6” Noble Fir, which even with a tree topper will fit nicely as I have 9 foot ceilings.

A really nice part about the tree is that not only is it very lifelike it comes with the lights built in.  Over 300 lights.  Renee wanted just white lights, but I like multi-coloured ones.  So, we compromised and I got colour changing ones.  They go from white to multi-coloured and back again. It’s a very nice looking tree and setup is supposed to be easy.  It comes with a bottom, middle and top section.  You just put them together and fluff out the branches and plug it in.  I’ll let you know in a later article whether it was easy.

BOXED TREE

BOTTOM SECTION

In addition, I got some multi-coloured ball ornaments.  We were worried about the possibility of them falling onto the laminate floors and shattering, but these are all shatter proof plastic.  They look like glass, but without the danger.

TWO SECTIONS

ALL TOGETHER NOW

Renee found a couple of tree toppers.  One was a large star made from wood, but it was too big and heavy to be able to go on the tree.  The second was also a star made from twigs and lights, but it was too small to have an impact on such a large tree.  Finally, I spotted a nice and delicate snowflake design, plus it is just the right size and light enough to perch on the tree.  Renee really wanted one of the stars but relented and picked the snowflake.

I also bought another string of 150 lights, but imagine my shock.  Two weeks ago, they were $29.99 and the same string of lights were now $49.99.  I need the lights and would have paid that if necessary, but one of the managers dropped the price back to the same $29.99 because of all the other stuff I was getting.  There is still more to be bought but it will come later.

TOBY KEEPING WARM

Imagine my shock when I picked up the box holding the tree.  Not only does it look real, it feels like a real tree weight wise.  Holy cow, is this thing heavy.  I managed to muscle it into the shopping cart and then into the truck.  Once we got home I lugged it into the garage and then the next step will be to lug it up the stairs.  I may have to do it a section at a time.

The next chore will be to put up the lights.  I’m going to line the balcony railing and maybe around the patio door.  I’ll also be putting lights around the front door and wood columns.  The neighbor across the street has lights lining his lower roofline and I may do the same, depending on my energy and bravery level re going up a step ladder.

I also plan on getting some indoor lights to go around the windows, since I don’t want to be going up a ladder to do those.  I also have a DVD to project on the window called “Santa’s Visit”.  It’s made by the same company that did the animated pumpkins on Halloween, but for this one I must get a translucent covering for the window that will allow the video to shine through.  It says you can use a “frosted” shower curtain, but I can’t find one.

This will also give a neat set of ideas for the kids.  They always complain they can’t think of what to get me.  Since I need ornaments for the tree they can get me some special ones from them or make some that will help to replace all the personal ones that I inadvertently gave away.  Again, it was long before I thought about moving and Dad had just died, so I was not thinking that far ahead re the Christmas ornaments.

So, the shopping for decorations is well underway, and I don’t think I will need too much more, but it will depend on what I discover I need after setting stuff up, or neat stuff that catches my eye when shopping.  It’s hard to believe that it is down to a month left before Christmas and for my first Christmas in the new house.  Almost 9 months I have been here now.

072 ACTION GALORE

It was almost non-stop action around here for a couple of days during the Remembrance Day long weekend.  It was like being on an action movie set.  It’s usually pretty quiet around here and quiet being a relative term with all the construction noise next door.  Now granted, that is only during the day and I’m one of the few that is home during the day.  The buildings though are pretty well sound insulated, so it isn’t too bad at all.

But, I digress.  Shortly after watching the Remembrance Day ceremonies on TV, we were surprised to look out and see three RCMP cars come racing into the complex with red and blue lights flashing.  They raced past my place and up the street to the security fence where they were met by the on-site security guard.

The officers bailed out of their cars and set up containment around one of the buildings under construction.  A short time later they were joined by two more RCMP cars.  One was a Supervisor’s unit and the other an SUV with a dog.

After searching the building for a short time, they came out with a suspect in handcuffs.  One member was carrying a very expensive looking bicycle and the other carrying two back-packs.  After loading the suspect into one of the cars, they went back to searching the building.  This is a building which comprises of six individual townhouse units.

It is not even in the lockdown stage as of yet.  The windows are all in, but not all the doors and you can freely walk between units inside.  I don’t know if this is just a moron who picked the wrong building or if he was hoping to steal copper pipes, wires or left-over tools.

He would be out of luck on all three counts because the places are not wired yet.  They use plastic or PVC pipes and the workers are extremely diligent about not leaving tools behind.  He could just be one of the many druggies who roam the streets looking for a score, or he could have been a homeless person just trying to get out of the rain.  In any case, the Mounties did a great job and received a round of applause from all the residents gathered.

The following evening I finally managed to surprise Renee.  I told her we were going to Canadian Tire to get the new Christmas tree and decorations, but instead took her to The Keg for a Prime Rib and Lobster dinner, to celebrate our 13^th Anniversary.  She was very surprised, so surprised in fact because for the third year in a row, she forgot it was our anniversary.  People think men are the ones who forget things like this.

Sunday, morning and we had the whole adventure from Friday repeated.  RCMP units converging and again, they managed to arrest a person in the same building.  I saw him being led outside and it was a different guy.  He was fighting all the way and screaming that the security guy had let him in.  In fact, it was the security guy who spotted him and phoned it in.  this guy was taken away and on the way out was trying to kick the window out of the police car.  Another great arrest.

On Monday morning as Toby and I were going for our walk, I saw the head of construction and told him about the action.  He was aware of the first incident but didn’t know about the second.  It turns out the first guy on Friday was a member of their construction team.  So, all charges were dropped.

I kind of suspect that the guy was one of the “working homeless” and just ducked into the site to get out of the rain for a few hours.  Who, really knows though.  The second guy though, I have no idea who he was or what there is for an update on him.

It’s worked out well though as it has all the residents more on their toes and looking around at who is around.  This could also be because of Maple Ridge City Council imposing a “red zone” on downtown Maple Ridge.  Any of the known criminals in the area are not allowed to be found in an area in downtown.  Unfortunately, this will force them into more outlying areas, which will make us targets as well.

071 AND SO IT BEGINS

…And so, it begins.  After going crazy on decorations for Halloween a visit to the store reveals that even while the Halloween decorations were still out, just one aisle over were, you guessed it, Christmas decorations.  Now, I would never think of putting up Christmas decorations until after Remembrance Day, but even if I wanted to, townhouse bylaws state no decorations before November 15 and they must be gone by January 15.

In the old house, living in the basement, I had LED lights around the back door and around the front window.  They were plugged in on December 1 and unplugged on January 3 every year.  The lights were small and unobtrusive and so I left them up year around.

For a time, I used to put up a Christmas tree (a real one) especially when the kids were younger and would be coming to my place over the holidays.  But after the arrival of Toby, I stopped doing the tree.  I had one up the year he arrived, but he came two days before Christmas.  I stopped because it was just too much temptation for him to either pull it over or pee on it.  Plus, it was very crowed in that tiny basement.

My Mother, many years ago, made some neat Snow People and those were put out each year.  My sister had a set as well.  Hers got destroyed somehow and so I let her have mine.  After Dad died and my sister and her crew were clearing out the house, I told them to take all the Christmas decorations because I wasn’t using them anymore.  This was long before I even thought about moving out.

Now I find myself with a real urge to decorate for Christmas again.  I think this was brought on by the fun of decorating for Halloween.  I have one neighbour who decorates for every holiday.  Valentines, Easter, Canada Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas just to name a few.  I have no intention of reaching that level, but, Halloween and Christmas are in there.

I’m having a great deal of difficulty deciding between an artificial tree and a real one.  The mess made by the real ones is a great deterrent.  I was vacuuming up needles for a month or more afterwards.  The artificial ones didn’t look real and sure don’t have that amazing smell.  Well, imagine my surprise when at Canadian Tire yesterday, I saw some amazingly real looking trees that come with lights built in.

Real trees are expensive ($50 and up), messy and it’s killing one more live tree.  Yes, I know they are grown specifically for Christmas.  You also never know what you are going to get or how long it will last, plus they are major fire hazards.  There are no regulations saying you can’t have a live tree, but those factors make it less likely.

Artificial trees are expensive ($199 to $699) but it’s a onetime expense rather than one every year.  You buy the specific size to fit your living area and the tree is always the same.  They don’t have the amazing smell, but that can be achieved by getting some real branches and there some amazing new artificial scents that can be used as well.

We went to Canadian Tire yesterday for something else and I did buy some multi coloured lights to put around the deck railing and some icicle lights in blue to hand down the railing.  I like the multi coloured lights and Renee likes all one colour and so this was the compromise.  She also picked out a reindeer to hand from the front door.

So, this is the beginning.  I saw two great statues that would look great on the deck.  One is Santa and the other is a bear.  They are both about 3 feet tall and heavy as hell.  They are also $250 each, so I think I will skip those.

So, like the title of this article suggests, “and so it begins”.  There will be more purchases, I am sure.  I also need to buy decorations for the tree, whichever way I opt to go.  There are some great personal decorations that went with all the rest, but I’ll be starting over.

One last note.  On Halloween, I had the great animated pumpkin program and I have just gotten one called “Santa’s Visit” that I will put into use.  It projects a video of Santa prowling around in the house.  It can be used in many ways, but I think I will get some translucent material for the window and project him on there.

070 HALLOWEEN SUCCESS

So, there we have it.  The first Halloween in the new house is in the books.  It sure didn’t start out very promising.  It pissed down rain, almost in deluge format from 5:00 AM until 5:00 PM and it wasn’t looking good for the trick or treaters.  Then almost on cue at 5:00 PM it stopped raining and turned into a relatively pleasant evening for the little kiddies, and us big kiddies.

DECORATIONS

ANIMATED PUMPKIN FACES

BACK DECK DECORATIONS

Unfortunately, I could not put out some of the animated stuff until the last minute.  It took me awhile to get the projector set up with the three pumpkins, but it worked perfectly.  It’s too bad that the way I had it set up, it couldn’t be seen from the street.  But the main thing is that it worked and it was a lesson for next year.  It took a while to get it working perfectly and so I was crunched for time.

I filled the fog machine and put it out to warm up, and it was too bad that I hurried it, because I could not get it working under any circumstances.  It was only afterwards when I was packing up that I discovered that the intake hose had a plug in it for transport.  Had I removed it I’m sure it would have worked perfectly.  But that was the only glitch on the night.

Well there was one other when Renee closed the screen door and I didn’t know and just about walked through it.  Luckily, or maybe not, I bounced off it.  But, man it hurt.  I did manage to remain upright, but it’s like skating g with your head down and that big defenseman comes across the ice to take your head off.

ANGEL

OLD DUDE

COME TO ME MY CHILDREN

Renee dressed up as an angel and then later tossed on an old man mask and caught me completely by surprise.  It worked well with her costume.  I had not planned on dressing up, but I got into the spirit of it anyway.  It was just something I had lying around.  I debated wearing my Canucks uniform or even wearing my old police dress uniform.

Instead, I had bought a camouflage Ghillie suit (aka a sniper suit) last summer with the plan of using it for wildlife photography.  I never did get around to use it, because my sidekick Toby would give me away anyway.  So, I threw it on and was amazed by the number of compliments I got from parents walking with their kids.  I was even more shocked when an 8-year-old boy said to his Dad, “Hey Dad, he has a Ghillie Suit”.  Most people don’t know what it is, let alone what it’s called.  Even on a cool night, it was hot in that thing.

GHILLIE SUIT GHOUL

BOO

The weather held off all evening and there were lots of kids patrolling the neighbourhood.  We ended up with close to 50 kids and used up more than half of the candy in the bowl.  There’s still some left for us though.  It was great to see that many kids around, as last year in East Vancouver, my neighbour had less than 10 kids.  This was more like the days when I was young, although, then my Mom used to get over 200.

Since the complex isn’t even half constructed or full yet, we weren’t expecting too much.  But it was way better than expected.  We had close to 50 trick ort treaters and once everything is occupied by next year, it should be a great turn-out.  Still, it was an awesome evening and it felt like being a kid again.

GOODIE BOWL

MY JACK-O-LANTERN

RENEE'S JACK-O-LANTERN

I learned some lessons about setting up decorations and next year I will be better prepared.  Or at least I hope I will.  Having it rain all day though, limited my options.  Maybe next year the weather will be better.  One can always hope.

The other thing that was great, is that the fireworks were very limited and much farther away, so Toby wasn’t panicked.  With the park across the street from the old house, the fireworks were constant from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM.  Tonight, the fireworks, even in the distance were done before 10:00 PM and Toby wasn’t freaked out at all tonight.

Hurray for Halloween and already looking forward to next year.  The next big project will be Christmas decorations.  Going to have to get lights for the front door and the back deck.  I’ll even think about doing the windows and getting a tree.  I just must decide on real or artificial.

069 HALLOWEEN HORRORS

Here we are, the day before Halloween and I’m as excited as a little kid.  Most of the decorations have been up since early in the month.  Yes, I said decorations.  I have never decorated for Halloween before other than the traditional carved jack-o-lanterns, but this year I have gone nuts.

There are spider webs in the living room window, although the way we put them up, and when I say we, I mean Renee.  I bought the stuff, she decorated.  The spider webs feature lots of plastic spiders and along the window sill are several plastic rats.  My hope is that is the only rats to invade this house after a long battle with the real ones at the old house.

There is a skeleton hanging from the railing as well as a light up tombstone.  There are electronic skulls on the railing.   They are designed to be pathway markers, but it was better to put them on the railing out of the way of the gardeners.  These have a switch that detects motion which causes the eyes to light up and trigger a cackling spooky voice.

I mention these because they have been out on the railing for almost two weeks, with the switch turned off.  But last night we had a very spooky thing happen.  Around midnight we were already in bed and we could hear strange sounds.  Renee looked out the window and discovered the skulls lit up and cackling.  It was so odd.  The skulls were checked and we discovered that the switch had been turned on.

Renee swears she didn’t do it, and I believe her.  I know I didn’t do it because I have felt so crappy lately and the weather has been so bad, I haven’t even been out on the deck, so I have no idea how these things got turned on.  Just one of those spooky Halloween adventures I guess.

There is an animated witch, which won’t be going outside until we are sure it’s not going to be raining on Halloween night.  It is also motion activated.  Her partner is an animated skeleton playing “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round The Mountain” on a harmonica.  Again, he won’t go out until we are sure of the weather.

BONES HARMONICA

RENEE AND FRIENDS

Completing the high-tech mentality for the evening is the fog machine that I acquired.  This will produce a nice low lying fog to add to the mysterious nature of the evening.  Hopefully the weather cooperates because I won’t be able to use it in the rain.  It will come in handy around Christmas as well, in addition to using it for smoke effects in some portraits and other photos.

Finally, the last high tech thing is a video from AtmosFearfx called Jack-O-Lantern Jamboree.  Using a projector, it projects animated Jack-O-Lantern faces onto three uncarved pumpkins.  These are complete with sound and the videos have the three pumpkins making rude sounds and making faces, they sing songs or tell stories.  I’m excited to see the kids and adult’s reaction to these.

Finally, we bowed to tradition yesterday and carved two more pumpkins with the traditional candles inside.  They are out on the deck already and will be proudly lit and displayed on Halloween night.  As I said, I went completely mental as far as Halloween goes.

LIGHTING THE JACK-O-LANTERN

2 SMILING FACES

I guess because I was not able to participate for years because I was usually working and because the kids would not come to the basement door of the old house.  I have stocked up on goodies to hand out, although I must keep them well hidden for now.

Finally, Renee has an Angel costume to wear and I am just going to wear the camouflage Ghillie suit I got for wildlife photography, but I have not yet worn.  The final prep piece is to put a sign on the front door to direct kids to the back.  Partly because I don’t want to be running up and down all those stairs to hand out treats and partly because all the decorations are set up out back.  I think it will be magical for the kids as well, to walk down the boardwalk between the houses.  Especially if everyone participates with decorating.  It will also be a lot safer too, since there won’t be any cars to contend with.  Happy Halloween everyone.

RENEE AND JACK

PUMPKIN PAIR