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musings of mark since 2001

As predicted the weather is warming up a bit and volumes of snow have melted today. The roads are in pretty good shape, bare and wet so should be no problem tomorrow getting the Mazda up here to take to work on Saturday. Walked down the hill today with the youngest of my three charges, it’s quite the trek and glad when coming back someone picked us up about halfway before the September Morn corner.

It’s only a nine month old dog, big size but inexperienced with the ways of the world and easy to spook as a kindly woman was to find out at the General Store. He got scared enough with me inside the store that he broke the leash, and lucky that we were using two tied together on the way down so had something to come back on.

No sign of any animal food being dropped off like it should have been done, enough until tomorrow evening but will have to call in the a.m. to see what is going on. Other than that it’s been uneventful so far up here, except for the weather and the scenery of course. Being so high up affords views of the “glory hole” in the cloud making its way across the water, and the sunrises are nothing short of spectacular.

Another big snowfall with about a foot or so accumulating mid-island this morning. Not everything came at once, yesterday morning there was about 8 inches to shovel off the sundeck for the house sitting maintenance and then more in batches throughout the day and evening. There was even sunshine during the non-snowing spells, turning everything into a spectacularly glorious winter scenery.

Attempted to get the car out of the house parking lot last night, but even with a fair amount of clearing it was just too deep to make it over the existing ruts and mountains on their sides from the 4×4 truck going through. A straight shot was no good, just too much of a slope to begin with so backed down and promptly put one wheel over the edge of a landscaping tie half buried in the ground. It was enough of an extra hump that then there was no choice to go anywhere but straight back and pop over the lower end of he driveway, navigating around the wood chipper and between two garden lights along the way.

Did real well and got up some good speed and made the sweep onto the driveway but again the mountains created outside the 4×4 ruts were too much for the little Mazda. Oh well, it will probably be raining and six degrees above with melting and flood waters in a couple days and will get it out then.

The new house sitting gig is at the top of an area called Valhalla, with a typical very steep and winding road to get to it and so had a buddy from the building centre take me up in his truck. Good tires and a good driver, he made it all the way up the steep driveway to the garage door and backed down again no problem.

The view from up here is incredible, way, way up the sound to Squamish it seems like and down south the Olympics and volcano should be there when the clouds lift. East goes on forever too, the city is laid out like a treasure box full of sparkling jewels at the edge of the sea.

UPDATE: Tim Naumetz from the The Ottawa Citizen runs with the Elizabeth May blog today and it makes it to the Canada.com web site. Let the photo mash ups begin.

Rafe Mair certainly thinks that our Premier feels like a king in the legislature, and Elizabeth May recently went back to the Opposition and Government Lobby Halls of Ottawa to help out with a student exercise and what she found there is downright creepy:

It used to have some paintings on the wall. Past prime ministers, certainly a formal portrait of the Queen. Landscapes. I know there was the occasional photo of current Prime Ministers, but when I walked in this time, I felt chilled to the bone. Every available wall space had a large colour photo of Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper at Alert. Stephen Harper in fire fighter gear. Stephen Harper at his desk. Stephen Harper meeting the Dalai Lama. Even the photo of the Queen showed her in the company of Stephen Harper. None were great photos. None were more than enlarged snapshots in colour. They didn’t feel like art.

The student with me said it was the same in Langevin Block, the Prime ministers Office. Photos of Stephen Harper everywhere.

“Suddenly it inspired me that we should learn from this dolphin to enjoy the live no matter where our circumstance is and to use our intelligence to the highest possible level it could be.”

Well done grasshopper.

Don’t often see a boat that has gone to the briny deep brought back up again, and not sure what to expect watching the retrieval of a wooden sailboat yesterday in Snug Cove. It had been under repair and the upper structure was mostly missing so introducing air and bags to it and floating was out of the question, instead a barge with a crane came over.

Setting up didn’t take long, after waiting for the ferry and its wash to leave the boats in the vicinity were untied and moved out of the way and barge positioned alongside the dock. Not a huge float, perhaps 60 feet long and about a 5 ton crane welded to the ramp end. Slings were brought out and the diver suited up and down into the cold January sea. Experience showed when in less time than it took to eat breakfast he had done the job and broke the surface with news that there was a large hole near the stern on the starboard side.

Not a good sign. The diesel buried in the bowels of the barge cranked up hydraulic pressure, and before long the top rail appeared and then about halfway down to the boat’s water line they stopped and waited for it to drain. The poor thing was in rough shape, the hole in back was easily 12 feet square and ended just below the waterline and then back to the stern edge. In addition, the bow was breached and split almost to the water line too while the top rails of the deck were crushed.

The top of the boat had been mostly removed for repairs, and so much of the structural integrity of the hull was missing as well. It warped and popped and cracked from the strain of the slings, bending and plainly showing that this craft was not going to float period with out a new hull.  A pump was brought into play, and it wasn’t long before the crane was able to hoist it almost completely out of the water, and when light enough it was towed to a beach for salvage. A real bummer of a day for the boat owner, it’s never easy to say goodbye.