Small Towns and How They View Outsiders

I just spent three months in Vancouver and needed to use the library.  It was simple.  I took my Victoria library card into one of the branches, and they gave me a OneBC library card which they told me was usable all over the province for any library services offered.  I could also login any library branch in the province to reserve books or material.  Wrong.  Not this little community.  My OneBC card was not recognized.  I called the library.  No answer.  I wrote to the local information person and explained my dilemma.  She kindly responded and said I must attend the library I mentioned, and produce this OneBC card, and then they will activate it in their system.  OK, I can do that.  On the bus, to the library, and asked the question.  Oh no, you can only borrow one book at a time with that card - ever.  You are not local.  Hmm.  I actually wanted to rent a dvd, but discovered that is not EVER possible with this card.  Hmm.  How about if I get one of your local cards?  Oh no, you must live here.  I responded that I do live here.  Then show us ID that indicates this.  I don't have any with me because that was not explained as a requisite in the mail I received.  Why don't you check my Victoria or One BC card - they have both been validated.  Oh, no, we need only local people.  I am local, I am living here.  Finally the little clerk best the librarian when she realized that I am rather disturbed about this whole thing.  Librarian does her problem solving.  She is foxy, she says she will mail my new card to my address, and then when I receive it - if I really live at that address - I will have a card as a local.  Good.  Now to the dvd's.  Nope.  The ones I wanted are not available at this branch.  Ever.  Even though, online it indicates they are.  Holy smokes, I found a dvd to entertain myself, checked it out - ONE ONLY, and then was told by miss efficiency, that I must bring that card in PLUS some id that indicates I live at that address.  Why?  If I received the mail, I must live at that address - right?  Oh, no, many people steal mail. I should have advised her that she was defaming me, but thought that might just be too much for her to deal with.  Besides, at this point, I actually wanted a dvd, and any further irritation and I would be going home empty handed.

Holy smokes, this library is the size of a broom closet.  They have almost no material, and almost no brains in the people who work there.  That was my afternoon.

Here is a fitting picture.

No snow - sunshine

I guess we will survive this one. The massive clumps of snow continue to fall out of the towering trees. Fortunately, none have broken from the weight.  Here is a day that rain would be welcome. Rain would speed up the melting process.  With the trees lining the perimeter of the property, the sun has a difficult time reaching the various paths to different areas. Namely, the path to the woodshed for the firewood.  I guess we will have to count on warmer temperatures rather than direct sunshine to get that stuff outta here soon.

Today I will return to the school books and study for my next set of exams that will be scheduled 'sometime' in May.  It never ceases to amaze me that a university cannot offer an exact exam date and that it cannot mark and post written exams until 3 months after the exams were written.  Good grief, that timeframe may no longer be currently correct in the field of science.  I guess that is just one more cultural difference between where I am, and where I was.

As for snow, here is what the path looks like to where the firewood will be stored.  Not anywhere near accessible at this time.  No visible path here.

fourth day of snow - no end in sight

Holy crow, we lost power last night, but now back and running.  Some whole cities on the island are without power, so I cannot complain.  Knocking the power line into the property with a tennis ball was clearly a very wise move.  I check it regularly and aim at the line when I see too much snow accumulating on it.  I have to have a good aim, because losing that ball in a snowbank means no more throwing.  Snow keeps falling, covering the trees, the roads, and anything it lands on.  It is really very beautiful to look at, but when you lose your conveniences that you have learned to expect, you tend to be a tad inconvenienced.  Such as it is right now.  I am not trying to be a fashionable country girl these days. Just layers of sweaters, of which I have many, and UGGs on my feet.

Soon I will be able to light a fire. I still cannot burn all day, the firewood delivery will not happen for about a week now.  So, the few logs remaining get to be burned very purposefully - one at a time.

Snow and More Snow

Holy Crow, yesterday I had a firewood delivery scheduled and they called to cancel due to the weather. It had snowed all morning and he was concerned about the men having to climb a granite rock to stack the wood for me.  I understood.  He said they would be here bright and early today.  Oops, this morning I woke to even more snow. It is still falling, and accumulating on the massive trees here as well as everywhere else.  Forecast is for the snow to continue all day until at least 9 pm tonight.  Now I ponder what I will do if the power fails. The snow is building up on power lines as well, and if they get too heavy, they will snap.  Without power here, one has no water, heat, lights and everything else.  As far as I can see, there is no backup generator to take over.  I cross my fingers, hope I have enough logs to keep warm until the new delivery arrives, and that the power will not fail.  Yay for pioneering spirit.  Maybe the heat and monsoons of Malaysia are now looking pretty easy.  I gotta say, I am pretty proud of my accomplishments here.  My son told me upon leaving, that there was an axe at the woodshed, but it was pretty dull.  I discovered this device and figured out it is not at all an axe.  It is a log splitter.  Shaped much like an axe, it has a rounded dull surface where an axe is fine and sharp.  You drive this splitter into a log making a wedge to split it into smaller pieces. If you tried this with an axe, the axe would get stuck between the two pieces you were trying to create, and you would end up having to burn the whole thing - axe and all because it will not release.  How is that for a pioneering nature?

chop wood and carry water would have been easy in comparison to today

I can barely type this message after what I did today.  The renovation guy here at the house tends to be a bit of a sloth in regard to work and clean up behind himself. I cannot bear it any longer, so decided to start cleaning up myself.  He dumped a pile of 2x4s of tongue and groove fir boards on the front of the house verandah that piled higher than the kitchen window.  I was fearing that rats might decide to call that home, so I found a hand saw and began cutting these damaged boards into fire pit lengths.  They cannot be burned in the fireplace - the wood has been lacquered.  So, there I stood all day, cutting each board into 5 pieces and then snapping the cut lines with my foot, piling them into a bin and taking them up to the fire pit.  By 5 pm I realized I had a right arm that looked much like I had recently had a stroke. I could not lift it above my hip, and knew it was time to stop.  I did manage to saw 2/3 of the pile by that time, but yuck - I have to go back to it again to finish.  I will.  Anyone who knows me also knows just how stubborn I am, and if I have to use my left hand to make my right hand work, I will.

Before I hit that job I had to clean up the wood (shed) because there were just a few logs left from the recent order of a cord and I have a new cord arriving on the weekend.  I scavenged all the bark for kindling, and stacked what was left of the cord(about 12 logs) to allow room for the new cord.  I am not a complete fool.  I have advised the delivery man to have the order stacked as well as delivered. It is worth every cent that I will pay.   You can also be sure that I will either put a meter on the wood pile for the construction guys to pay in order to burn the bloody stuff, or a rottweiler to bite their hand off if they try to take it without paying.  They are the clowns who burned through a full cord in about 6 weeks.  A cord should last 6 months if it is the sole source of heat for a dwelling.  This is not the sole source, so you get the picture.  I am not at all as nice as my son who accepts this kind of squandering of resources by others who are not paying the bill.

If I have the strength, I will take a picture of the stack of fire pit wood I cut (with a hand saw - powered by ME) and show you just how much work I did.  Now gotta turn this machine off and ice the arm.

Thanks a Lot

One of my peeves is when native speakers write thanks a lot as 'thanks alot'.  There is no such word as alot.  There is a word 'allot'.  But that means to 'give' or 'apportion' something.  A lot, which is really not grammatically correct, means a great deal.  My mentees in Malaysia learned this grammar rule and applied it perfectly in the plaque they gave me in thanks for the teacher professional development courses we held regularly.

anyone notice the typo in the plaque?

The Power of Radio

Yesterday I listened to my favourite radio station  - CBC

A story was being told about the invention of the newest smart phone - called the smart disc.  Without the gift of imagination, this story falls on deaf ears.  That got me thinking about the newest generation of smart phone users and how they probably missed the whole point of the story.  The story teller explained this new smart phone is in the shape of a wheel, with numerals around the disc.  The beauty of this new device means no more clumsy thumbsy in texting your friends, because it automatically converts your voice message you speak into the device into a text message to your friend, whose phone then converts that text message into an audio message to them to listen to. Just think; no one will have to be able to read any longer!  For example, you speak 'hello' into this smart disc, and that message ends up at your friend's disc as the audio message 'hello'; to which they reply 'wow dude, this sounds exactly like your own voice', which is sent back to your smart disc.  The story teller goes on to say that there are no further typing errors with the smart disc because they have incorporated a series of numerals from 1 - 0 around the edge of this smart disc. One finger dialling is all that is required. Just dial your friend's number, speak your message into your microphone and it transmits to them as an audio message on their phone. No thumbs!  Just place your index finger into the slot for the numbers you want to call. Here is a cheat sheet for those under age of 50.

Of course this new smart disc would be a round device, not the rectangular one in this picture.  There was much more information imparted in the story being told on the radio.  We were advised that these new phones are ready and also assured that all those who text each other will be fighting to be the first buyers when they are available to the public.  A whole new way of communicating. Right?  

Happy Valentine's Day All

I took my trusty bus to the shopping centre because I forgot to post the valentines for my little grandchildren. Better late than never, right?  Anyway, I took the wrong bus, so did a convoluted trip from one shopping centre to another, and then waited for a return bus.  As I waited for the bus I spied all the men going into the grocer and a few minutes later emerging with a bouquet of red roses.  Hmm. I still had another 45 minutes to wait for the bus. I trundled back to the grocer and bought myself some bacon and eggs and came home to make myself a bacon and egg brunch/lunch/linner or whatever it might be called. I didn't see anyone lining up to do this for me - so took it upon myself as my valentine gesture to myself.

It was worth it.  Just consumed the delight and will now light a fire and enjoy the sunset which will shortly be upon us here.

Something I Have Learned

When you live in a forest - look upward if you want to know what a sound is, or what the weather is.  Not at the sky. But at the three tops.  I made myself some coffee and went out to the front verandah to take in the scenery.  I heard what sounded like a mountain waterfall.  I don't live on a mountain.  It kept rushing.  What was it?  Trying to figure out this sound, I listened intently.  Then I decided it was heavy traffic on the road below.  But that was not it either.  No traffic was going by.  What else could it be?  I thought again.  It sounds like a river rushing. There is no river near me; I am at a lake. All around me was peace and serenity; tiny birds flitting from branch to branch, everything standing still; yet this roaring sound kept my attention.  The massive cedars and fir trees stood quietly tall all around me.  Then I looked upward as I saw an eagle fly past.  There, at the top of the trees, swaying and swirling.  The sound I heard was the wind in a forest.  Being a stubble jumper, unaccustomed to a forest, this sound was foreign to me.  So now I know - when I hear that sound again, I can be sure it is windy. Lucky for the little birds and myself, that wind does not reach us down here on the ground in our forest.

Look What Happened!

We do not get snow here. Right.

But even though this happened overnight, it is now raining so will all be gone soon.  I had to take photos; I wish I had children here to build a snowman. They would love it.

This is the path to the driveway. 

You can see the solar lights to the left that mark the path (under the snow)

This is the fire pit for bonfires. Guess I won't be lighting it today.

This is the pathway to the fire pit and our private forest behind. 

It is perched atop a rocky crop of granite.  

Job at the FBI

This is the funniest e-mail I have ever received

Job at the FBI

The FBI had an opening for an assassin.

After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done,

there were 3 finalists; Two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal

door and handed him a gun. 'We must know that you will follow your

Instructions no matter what the circumstances.   Inside the room

you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill her!!'

The man said, 'You can't be serious. I could  Never shoot my wife.'

The agent said, 'Then you're not the right man for this job. 

Take your wife and go home.'

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun

and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes.

The man came out with tears in his eyes, 'I tried, But I can't kill my wife.'

The agent said, 'You don't have what it Takes. Take your wife and go home.'

Finally, it was the woman's turn.  She was given the same instructions, to kill

her husband.  She took the gun and went into the room.  Shots were heard,

one after another.  They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls..

After a few minutes, all was quiet.  The door opened slowly and there

stood the woman, wiping the sweat from her brow.

'This gun is loaded with blanks' she said. 'I had to kill him with the chair!!!!

My Carbon Footprint - Am I really here?

Since returning to Canada, I have made a conscious choice to reduce my carbon footprint.  I am not the most disciplined person in the universe, so I know that I need to give myself as few options to waste resource as I possibly can.  First option was to not drive a car.  Easy task you may say when you live in a city.  Rapid transit, cabs, and buses get you everywhere. That is how city planners make a city efficient.  However, I am in the country.  But, being in the country is a good place for me to practice this new pattern too.  No car, no shopping trips when I am bored.  No car, efficient purchasing of food, because I take a small cart with me, and I know that when that is full, I come home.  I am thinking this plan might also be very good for the waistline.  No treats in that cart unless all food essentials are there first.  And because it is a bother to get a bus here and then take it back home, I tend to try to do a shopping trip once a week only.  Now comes the real test.  Figure out how to get from this tranquil paradise to Royal Roads University (in the city) somehow, in order to supplement my income with research work.  I think I have figured it out.

I was always aware that there is a commuter bus service available from here to there. I also knew that there were actually two scheduled runs of this bus route each morning to the city and each evening back home.  I need to be at the university around 9:30 tomorrow morning.  I looked at the schedule for the last bus to the city and saw that it runs by the stop near my home around 6:56 am.  The poser is that in order to get to that stop I have to climb a very steep hill and walk about 2 km - in the dark. If I don't do the climb, my other option is to catch a local bus in front of my home, in the dark at 6:07 am, ride about 2 km, and then get off and wait at the designated stop for the express commuter bus; and then wait at least 45 minutes in the dark for that bus. Hmmm.  I also know that this same bus travels past my own home before it goes to that designated bus stop.  I also know that drivers of these efficient 'express' commuter buses tend to take the express far to seriously and will ignore random pick up requests along the way if they are not at the couple of designated stops only.  But, my location is as perfect as it can be to plead my case.  I am at a corner where there is a local bus stop. I am at a corner where the bus has to stop and then turn right up the steep hill, on its journey to that designated stop.  I called the bus service people and explained my situation.  I asked if I could flag down the bus as it comes to a stop in order to make the turn to go up the hill.  They said I could.  They understood that the other option was rather silly, and because I am not expecting the bus to stop at a non dedicated bus stop anyway, I should have no problem.  Now all I have to do is test this tomorrow and see if the nice driver will stop for me.

As for the carbon footprint, I am very proud of myself.  We have a recycling program in place where the pick up is twice a month.  Everything is not acceptable, but better than no program.  I sort everything in the bins and then drag the big bin to the roadside for pickup.  Trash is a bit more difficult. You have to contact the authorities to pick up your trash, and being a rural spot, they charge you for the task, rather than assess on your taxes. The amount of trash I generate is not worthy of this fee.  Frugal by nature, I have been testing to see how I can reduce my trash to zero or as close to zero as I can.  I am doing a great job.  I watch what I buy. Excessive packaging that is not recyclable has to be something I really need. Even have figured out that only meat or poultry without bones comes to this house.  I will have to make the odd exception when I think I cannot live without chicken soup.  Maybe I will make that when I have a friend come out for a visit and then give them some soup in exchange for them taking the bones back their own trash bin. All other food wastes goes into the composter to enrich the soil.  Right now, because the house is under construction, I tend to go to bed early.  I have a lamp in my bedroom but the living room beside the fireplace is unlit. Tons of pot lights that are not yet activated make this a dark spot to sit in the evening. But a cosy bed with my Big Bang Theory dvd's (Christmas present from Ry) is my evening electrical consumption before lights out.

So, I am thinking that I have done a great job in regard to my carbon footprint.  Some might not even know I am here.  Firewood?  Well, I do draw a line.  But I burn when I need it, which is probably more often than just for ambiance. But then, there are no fossil fuels being burned on my behalf either.

Now lets see how I manage with that commuter bus tomorrow.

more chop wood. more carry water…..

Island life can be very simple.  I think that is what I like about it.  I had a call from a friend in Victoria who has invited me to stay over when I go to RRU this week.  That is something I really should be appreciative about.  I am.  However, all I seem to be able to think is - how can I maximize my time in Victoria and still make it back on the commuter bus to the lake in one day.  Maybe I really am a hermit.