A very productive week

We arrived here a week ago tomorrow with non-functioning Jakes and one whole side of our clearance lights dark. I didn't know the clearance lights were out until we did the safety inspection but there was no doubt about the Jakes. I had the Jakes working by Monday afternoon and yesterday I finished off the clearance lights. We now have LEDs all around, including the one at the top middle on the driver's side that hasn't worked the whole time we have owned the bus. I don't like driving after dark but we'll have to do it at least once so people can see how beautiful we now are.

Last night we cooked up a mess of chicken wings in oyster sauce for our hosts:
- as many wings as you need to feed your crowd, cut them at the joints
- brown the wings in oil with some garlic
- drain off most of the oil and add some red wine
- add some soya sauce and some worcestershire sauce
- add some oyster sauce (you'll find it with the stir fry sauces)
- simmer the wings for about an hour an a half
- I like to add some chopped onion and a few chopped carrots but they aren't essential
- before serving thicken the sauce with some corn starch

We like to serve the wings over basmati rice prepared according to the recipe one of Marilyn's Iranian tenants gave her:
- partially cook the rice
- slice some potatoes as thinly as you can
- oil a frying pan and warm it
- place the potato slices around the edge and across the bottom of the pan to cover it completely
- spray the inside of the potato slices with cooking oil
- gently place the rice in the pan
- add water sufficient to finish cooking the rice
- place some paper towel on top of the rice and put a lid on the pan
- cook gently for at least another hour

The goal is to have the rice steamed fully and have the potato slices crispy and golden brown when you turn the rice out of the pan. If you do it right the potatoes will provide a golden covering to the rice when it turns out.

Today I ripped out our non-functioning DVD/VCR combo and installed a $39 DVD player we bought at Wallyworld yesterday. We debated buying the fancy Blueray model but then said "who are we kidding?" We buy all of our DVDs in the bargain bin for a max of $3 so it will be a while before the Blueray discs are in those bins and by then the players will be $39 like the one we just bought instead of $279 like the one we didn't buy. Of course in addition to the DVD player I had to install another box (another $39.95) to convert the multi-wire signal that comes out of the DVD player to the single coax that our TV demands. Can somebody explain to me how it is progress to go from one wire to 3? We looked and looked for a DVD player that had a coax output but they apparently don't exist anymore. Presumably our magic box will still work when we can buy a $39 Blueray player.

Taking the bus back to its roots

The day we picked up the bus from Clarence & Sylvia I followed Bryan St. George back to his home and backed it part way up their very steep driveway. Last Sunday we moved from Chilliwack to Kelowna and once again parked in Bryan's driveway. It's hard to appreciate just how steep and winding that driveway is from the photos but there was no way I was going to back around any corners 6 years ago. This time it was a piece of cake. Bryan was outside calling the signals and we could have put it in his garage if the door was tall enough.
We had a pretty exciting trip over the connector from Merritt to Kelowna because the Jakes picked this trip to quit working. The Coquihalla and the Merritt Connector are two stretches of highway where you really don't want to have a runaway. There's 6% grades on the connector that run for over 10 miles with no let up. I finally ended up in 2nd gear because that was the only one that would hold without regular brake applications. I only got the brakes smoking hot twice but that was more than enough. The Jakes turned out to be a pretty simple fix. One of the wires on the curb side of the engine had broken loose at the solenoid and was shorting out under the valve cover. Once I traced the problem to that side of the engine I decided that I was brave enough to pull the valve cover to see what was going on. That side isn't too hard to get the valve cover off - the other side with the turbo is a whole 'nuther matter. As soon as the cover was off it was obvious what the problem was and easy to fix.

On Tuesday Bryan and I headed off early in the morning to Central Valley Truck Service where Bryan had me booked in for a vehicle inspection. Despite the fact that the bus has previously been registered in BC we still need to have it inspected prior to registering it out here. The inspection went well with one notable exception. I hadn't bothered to check the clearance lights before bringing it in and I clearly should have because I had lost one whole circuit of lights. I think what likely happened is that when we put the awning on we must have pierced a wire along the roof line and now that circuit is shorted out. Of course I couldn't quickly fix that during the safety but they very kindly passed me anyway with my assurance that I would get it fixed. I spent yesterday working on it and have most of the lights back on. I've located the stretch of wire that has the short in it and all the lights on powered side of the short are working but now I have to figure out how to get power to the "other side" of the short.

The mechanical portion of the inspection went well, aside from the clearance light problem but putting the results into ICBC's computer was a huge problem. Whoever the genius was that decided to computerize the safety inspection records obviously never thought about the fact that the inspection technicians by and large are 60+ year old mechanics. It was beyond painful watching Billy try to type the results into the computer but it wasn't entirely his fault either. The application was, to be generous, less than user friendly. They ended up making at least 5 phone calls to ICBC and eventually ended up phoning Victoria to get the original registration number from when Clarence and Sylvia owned the bus. I was pretty nervous during that process because one false move and we could have easily ended up on some list that required us to have semi-annual inspections. No doubt we could have fixed that later but the problem might easily have popped up while we were in Mexico or Arizona and fixing that kind of problem over the phone might have been really hard on my blood pressure.

Right now we're parked in a very pretty spot in a yard belonging to some friends that we met in Mexico a couple of years ago. Their address is Peachland but to me it seems like we are closer to Westbank. When you were seeing those pictures of the Glen Rosa fire last spring they were taken just over the ridge that we look at out the front window. We've been trying to get here all summer but never quite made it until now. Later today I'll get a picture of our parking spot posted.

Tonight we're having supper with one of Marilyn's brothers who lives here. This weekend we'll probably move back out to Chilliwack. We're getting pretty close to ready to head south. We've actually got a reservation at a campground outside of San Francisco starting on Nov 29 so it feels like we are ready to leave. We're still waiting for our BC health cards to arrive and it wouldn't hurt our feelings if we were able to get vaccinated for the pig flu before leaving. I don't suppose there's a hope in hell of that happening though. I'm afraid the epidemic will be over and done before our government ever gets around to vaccinating the white anglo-saxon taxpaying members of the population.

The greatest show on earth

I'm in the middle of "The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins. Its an irreverent and thoughful look at evolution. I didn't expect to run into Monty Python but there he is, or more accurately, there is Eric Idle. For those of you who don't recognize the name he's the author of such classics as "I'll Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio" and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". I just have to quote the entirety of his "The Lord God Made Them All" parody because it's too good not to share:

All things dull & ugly
All creatures short and squat
All thing rude and nasty
The Lord God made the lot

Each litte snake that poisons
Each little wasp that stings
He made their brutish venom
He made their horrid wings

All thing sick and cancerous
All evil great and small
All things foul and dangerous
The Lord God made them all

Each nasty little hornet
Each beastly little squid
Who made the spikey urchin?
Who made the sharks? He did!

All thing scabbed and ulcerous
All pox both great and small
Putrid, foul and gangrenous
The Lord God made them all

We gotta get out of this place ...........

Murray & Jill's yard doesn't look too bad in this picture but that's mud to the right. The mud is left over from the snow that covered the yard a few days earlier. So it seemed like we were living on borrowed time. We got an early start on Friday morning so that we could travel on the frost. Their yard is at the end of about 20 miles of gravel - the bottom sides of the bus show evidence of the gravel & mud on the trip out to their place. We took a shortcut down to highway 7 and our plan to travel on the frost worked. Then we headed west for Airdrie.

But then Airdrie was a whole lot worse when we woke up Saturday morning to this crap and more falling. I checked the internet and Camiel checked his $4000 airplane Garmin and we decided that we would likely drive out of the gack at Cochrane which is exactly what happened. We had a glorious drive through the mountains.

The only time the weather intervened was at the top of Rogers Pass and that didn't last long. Once we got west of the pass we got into autumn leaves and even the occasional green deciduous trees. We got to Sicamous as it was getting dark. It was strange driving south down Mara Lake with no boats on the lake and none in the slips. We briefly debated spending the night in one of the rest areas along the lake but decided they would be too noisy so we carried on to Grindrod.

It was getting pretty dark by the time we pulled into town but the park was open so we pulled in there and spent a quiet night beside our favorite river. This morning we got a leisurely start, had lunch in Kelowna and ended up coming all the way back to Chilliwack where we found our Holiday Trails membership park was still open. We both thought it closed on Oct. 15 so this was a great surprise. Our Thousand Trails park is open too but we like this one better. We're also limited to 50 nights a year in the Thousand Trails system before we have to start paying $5 per night compared with unlimited nights in the Holiday Trails system so we might as well use the nights on the Holiday Trails system if at all possible. So tonight we're tucked into a 50 amp site at Holiday Trails listening to the warm rain fall. Life is good.

(Monday) The rain is over, the sun came out, the temperature is about 10 degrees higher than what we left behind. We should have done this a month ago. Tomorrow I'll get the boat out of temporary storage and get it winterized. I've been worrying about it for the last month.

Counting the days now

We're back west of Saskatoon in Murray & Jill's yard counting the days until we can leave Saskatchewan. Marilyn got back from her last trip up north and shortly after she got home we got kicked out of 16 West. They said they were closing for the season and they made everybody leave but they lie. We left there on Thursday and today when I went by the owner was still camped there but I guess he must be happy because he is all by himself.

Today I got the 2nd muffler hooked up on the genset. I'm not sure that it made a whole lot of difference in the racket that the gennie makes but it must have helped a bit. Grandma used to say "every little bit counts like the old lady said when she pee'd in the ocean". I've got some soft mounts to put under it that should take out some of the low frequency vibration noise but I think I'll wait until we find a warmer place because that project could quickly turn into an ordeal.

I've got a contract through BDC Consulting that I am working on right now. I made a roadtrip to North Battleford and I've got a meeting with one of the principals on Wednesday and then I think we can leave here. If the weather doesn't go completely to hell we'll pull out Friday morning and go as far as Airdrie that night. We'll drink some wine with Al & Camiel and then be on our way through the mountains, probably arriving in Kelowna sometime Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow we are headed for Regina to check up on father. He's back in the hospital because of a bedsore that has turned into a major issue. The details aren't important and they're too messy to include here but suffice it to say that our so-called healthcare system has so far failed miserably in its feeble attempts to treat this latest indignity. The owner of his care facility put her foot down last week and forced the system's hand so he is in the hospital until they get the wound to at least start healing. In a nutshell the problem is that the care facility isn't allowed to change the dressings and the (taxpayer paid) staff that is tasked with changing the dressings won't come often enough to actually cure the wound. Meanwhile father is caught in the middle with a deteriorating and debilitating out of control bed sore. Thanks a bunch Tommy Douglas.

Not evil - just wrong

This is too good not to share. Turns out there's a Irishman named Phelim McAleer who has made a movie called "Not Evil - Just Wrong". Phelim calls himself an environmental journalist but don't hold that against him because this guy might just have it right. He's taken a direct run at Al Gore. You remember Al - the guy who invented the internet that makes it possible to read this weblog. You may also remember that he made a pseudo-documentary called "An Inconvenient Truth" that has made him a bunch of money. Its also made him the darling of big environment and that was what brought him to a convention in Baltimore where Phelim was able to ask a question. That's newsworthy because apparently Big Al is too much of a celebrity to actually answer questions anymore.

Apparently a British court has been asked to rule on the veracity of Al's movie because the schools want to use it to brainwash British children and it turns out ................. wait for it ............. there's some mistakes in Al's movie. I know - it's hard to believe but apparently it isn't as pure as the driven snow that Al claims is no longer falling. Those mistakes were the subject of Phelim's questions to Big Al and Al was squirming. He didn't answer the questions and the organizers cut off Phelim's microphone but I think that was probably Phelim's objective. He wanted some publicity and I'm happy to do my little bit to help him out.

Not Evil - Just Wrong is the web address but don't be surprised if you can't log in because I think they are experiencing a lot of traffic.

Debasing the coin of the realm

The morning after the US dollar closed at roughly $1.05 Canuck bux it is somehow completely appropriate to wake up to the news that the promised one has been annointed with a Nobel Peace Prize. Leaving aside the fact that he would have had to be nominated within weeks of taking office at a time when he clearly had done less than he has now this is a very bad joke. The Nobel committee has become nothing more than a UN cheerleading squad. I've heard comparisons to the Academy Awards this morning but that does ill service to the Academy. They at least provide employment and some measure of entertainment.

So far all the annointed one has done is not be George Bush. He hasn't implemented any policy domestically let alone internationally. What he has done is promise to spend money on a scale never before seen and the world has rendered its judgement on the wisdom of those announcements. That judgement can be seen in the chart above.

So it seems appropriate that the man who is debasing the greenback is now also debasing the Nobel Prize.