Projects

26 May 18
06:15 hrs

     We have a new project at the Wayward Inn. Due to the orientation of the house we get a fair bit of sun in the afternoon. So much sun strikes the house that the front door expands and contracts with the heat. The game plan is to build a a privacy/shade screen that is not only decorative but functional as well. Of course, I am the only one who knows how to swing a hammer without the use of an intergrated keyboard. I really pity the upcoming generation as they have very little or no household skills. My Couch Monkeys are better than most, they can cook and do their laundry but I've never seen them even change a burned out light bulb or wash out a refrigerator. Here's a task for you Dear Readers, if you are an older adult as I am, write a list of all the household maintenance tasks that you do and check to see how many of them you Loin Fruits can do. I doubt if they can do 50%.

12:00 hrs

     The three holes have been dug for the upright posts. My Better Half is picking up the stain to protect the wood. Of course, I'm using treated lumber to start with.

     While I was in and out of the shop I was listening to CBC. Say what you want but I like it. It seems that someone on the Hugh-Ess has come up with an algorithm that, if you record an audio vclup of your baby crying and send some university an audio clip they can tell you why the baby is crying. They say that this algorithm can determine what the baby is trying to tell you. That's right! Record your screaming kid, send it in and they will get back to tell you feed your kid, play with him or change its dirty nappy. How about you get off your damn phone and take a sniff. Maybe your nose will tell you that the kid has a load on!

     The Sages are on a road trip. They are completing a trip to the Flatlands that had been postponed due to health issues. It's not quite a whirlwind trip but they will be hitting all the high points - family, friends, gophers.

     Have you seen how Ontario PC candidate Doug Ford has been implicated in signing up bogus party memberships? There is an audio recording of the deal going down in an Etobicote Tim Hortons. Canada's poor version the Tangerine Tyrant. Drain the pond. The current Ontario Liberal government under Wynne is doomed but some of the NDO candidates have proven to be real loons - including 9/11 conspiracy theorists (as if matters to us in the Great White North) and some retro peacenik who refuses to wear a poppy on Rememberance Day. I say send her ass to the front lines. Either way you slice it the people of Ontario will have a tough decision ahead.

     There is now a second facility in the works for our local residentially challenged individuals. This one is to be placed near the bottom of the Big Hill. Supposedly, it will be staffed by members of the John Howard Society. Good idea.

     I was babysitting contractors this past week which gave me plenty of time to work on "Who Let the Goats Out". Damn near finished the rough draft for the chapter I've entitled "Nasty". I don't know how many pages the book will be. Maybe 150 pages if I'm lucky. Once it's in the rough draft I may have to talk to the District to get their blessing.  I wouldn't want to lose my job over it because I really like my job and my Better Half Lukes that I have a job. I'm pretty sure that those who purchase "Wood Knocks" will probably buy this one too.

     There was a large accident on the highway near the Capital City. The TCH passes through a winding 16 km pass that 95% of the drivers respect the road. The other 5% are the ones who cause 95% of the accidents most of which involve a fatality abd usually chock off the road. And that's the point. This particular accident stopped all traffic from the Capital City Region to the rest of the Island unless to wanted to sit through a three ferry wait on the Mill Bay -Brentwood Bay run or take a 5 hour detour up the far left Coast of the Island and come out still south of Hub City. This issue has sparked the notion of bridging the gap from Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay with a ...bridge.

     Why not? It's only a couple of miles across the inlet.

     Currently, if you live near the Swartz Bay ferry and want to go to Hub City you have to drive south through the Capital City and then turn north in a big bloody U-turn that leads almost right past where you started. A wast of time and fuel. Put in the damn bridge. Make it a toll bridge. $10 for a car & $25 for a tour bus or a transport truck. It will be paid off in no time.

     There is another location where a bridge may be built and that is on the Sunshine Coast. By extending a road at Saltery Bay and Earls Cove a bridge could be placed across a small stretch of water. This would eliminate another ferry and reducing the cost of travelling up the coast not only for people but for all the goods and services needed for residents along the Sunshine Coast.

Perennial Faves

18 May 18
14:15 hrs

     We have our annual guest staying at the Wayward Inn. He had worked with my Lobster when we were stationed in the Frozen Hole. He retired a year before I did (retired - yeah right!) and moved to Hub City. He has a great place with an unobstructed view of the water that  separates The Rock from the Mainland. He's here for the annual Old Guy golf tournament. He only swings his club once a year and his wife isn't even with him. All kidding aside, he's  a welcome visitor at the Wayward Inn.

     Last night the Jr. Couch Monkey took his Main Squeeze to see a Queen tribute band. By all accounts the show was great.

     It's definitely not a fave but there has been another school shooting in the Hugh-Ess. A number of people are expressing hopes and prayers. Hopes and prayers do not keep guns, even legally owned guns out of the hands of whackadoos. In this instance at 17 year old male took his father's .38 pistol and a shotgun to school and shot the place up. Ten individuals, one teacher and nine students, are dead - more are injured. Pipe bombs and pressure cooker bombs have been found on campus. A second individual has been arrested as well. The plan was for them to commit suicide after the shooting but could not go through with it. Well, since this happened in Texas, I'm quite sure that after sometime in a federal correctional facility abs some unwanted intact with their cellmate, Big Bubba-Fay, their wish will be granted with the aid of a needle in each arm. If they survive the appeal process. 

     When will they ever learn that the 2nd Ammendment must be altered. There has been, on average, one incident every week since the start of the year that involves a gun in a school. Three in the past eight days alone. Hopes and prayers do not keep people safe and neither does arming the teachers. How many more innocents have to die before they wake up?

19 May 18
06:00 hrs

     So, Prince Harry has finally married. Good. By all accounts, when he came to Canada for training as a soldier he was as a randy as a stoat and his security detail was hard pressed to keep a handle on him.

     There are some who don't give a rat's ass about the Royals but when I joined the military I swore my allegiance to my God, my country, to the Queen and her heirs. I'm pretty sure that all Anglophones had to take this version of the oath and they had no problem dating it. On the other hand, Francophones could opt out of swearing allegiance to the Royals. From what I understand todays recruits  can also opt out from swearing their oath before God. Maybe this lack of a covenant  may be part of what is wrong with a lot people.

     I was cruising out by The Spit the other day. It was low tide. But not your regular low tide. The water had receded so far that the boat basin in the lee of The Spit had shrank to the point that the few boats in the basin were cut off from the rest of the harbour.

11:45 hrs

     A new perennial fave is the Empire Day celebration out in the Wild Wild West. Three days of artsy market stuff, parades and music. Even the local distillery had a booth. There was quite a turn out despite the cool weather that threatened to turn to rain at any moment. We dined at Bibliotaco where the burritos were twice the weight of a chihuahua but lacked flavour. Better luck next time.

     I was wearing my "I'd rather be squatching" t-shirt and I had a few comments, one from a lady that my Better Half said I was flirting with. I don't think I was but if it generates a book sale I don't care.

It's about time!

08 May 18
20:30 hrs.

     I read in the most recent cage liner that finally, at long last and after years of dithering on the part of business leaders and city hall, that a "New Supportive Housing Project" is to be built. It will be a 46 unit complex on city land near the downtown area. Each unit will include a private bathroom and kitchen with shared facilities, meal programs, employment and life skills training. It will be managed 24/7 by the John Howard Society.

     This facility is being welcomed by all of the groups who assist with our local residence challenged individuals. There is a rush to push this project forward as fast as possible to have the homes ready for occupancy by winter.

     Another housing program that is going forward is a Habitat for Humanity initiative. Twenty town houses are being built. Some corporations and large businesses such as Home Despot and 19 Wing Comox are challenging other large entities to put together build crews. These crews will be supervised by master construction foremen otherwise who knows what the buildings would look like or even if they would be functional.

09 May 19
08:00 hrs.

     I don't know what spring is like where you are Dear Readers but here in the Valley the leaves on the trees are out in full force. And so is the pollen for all of the allergy sufferers. My Sr. Loin Fruit calls it tree sperm.

10 May 18
05:55 hrs.

     Excuse me, it's the top of the news hour.

     I know that there is no hiding from the Super Shit Storm taking place on a daily basis South of the 49th Parallel.

     Several weeks ago two African American males were ushered out of a Starbucks, last week three African American women were detained and questioned after coming out of a house and just yesterday a white male was arrested for trying to arrange to have his African American neighbour lynched by a white supremacist group. Pretty shocking stuff for 2018. You would think that we should be beyond above all of this white/black/brown/red/yellow skin bullshit. After all, we all bleed red. Oh, but this is just in the Hugh-Ess right? Wrong.

     On the CBC news this morning was a video taken by an Afghan immigrant to Canada of a white Canadian woman verbally assaulting three Afghan men in a Dennys restaurant. I am disgusted with her display. She has come out with a formal apology - "I was impaired and I was having an off day". But, that's no excuse for being an asshole. That venom was not created by your impairment. It was already inside of you and your impairment allowed it to come to the surface - my Lobster's assessment. The incident took place in Lethbridge, AB and she was from Cranbrook, BC. She has been fired from her job in Cranbrook.

     A Canadian MP, and federal cabinet minister, was in Detroit last year and was flying back to Montreal. He went through security and was called back. He's a Sikh and they wanted him to remove his turban as the security scanner was acting wonky. So, he goes back to security zone where he says he would like to try the scanner again. Hazah! It works and he proceeds to his departure gate. Several minutes later security officers find him and inform him that the would really like to have him remove his turban.  It was at this point that the MP showed them his diplomatic credentials and guess what? They backed the fuck off! That's right. He was suspicious looking foreign person who could be a potential terrorist until he proved to be a foreign government official. Bullshit!

     It's about time that more people stand up and do the right thing. Stand up and point out the wrongs. Stand up and inform others of those wrongs.

     It's about time.

Observations that need to be discussed!

02 May 18
06:15 hrs

     Good Morning Dear Readers! If you have been following the news you may have heard that some universities in the Hugh-Ess and in the Great White North have built (wait for it ) - crying rooms.

     That's right, a crying room. A special room where you can go and have a good cry regardless if it is on the sniffle level or in a full blown bawl your eyes out  session. I can imagine that it would have a comfy chair, stacks of triple ply kleenex and an open trash can - that an interior sanitary engineer will have to empty.

     I can't frickin believe this! What is the world coming to. You're in university and if the professor says something harsh to the assembly or maybe you don't like your letter grade but that's okay you no longer have to suffer in silence in you chair because you can go to the crying room and let loose your feelings. Bullshit! This is just more soft hearted squishy kinder gentler bubble wrapped protection for people who had better learn to harden the fuck up because once you leave the world of education and move into the working world you will learn in a heartbeat that your feelings mean nothing. Harsh words will be spoken. Your work will be criticized and your crying room will be in your vehicle on the ride home. Our Sr. Loin Fruit, now that he has his first real employed position, has learned that concept in real hurry and I am proud if him for it. 

03 May 18
06:30 hrs.

     There has been quite the rash of accidents involving motorcycles here in the Valley. One last week where the bike hit a stray dog. The rider was hospitalized and the dog was buried. It could have been avoidable if the dog owner had been a responsible owner and ensured the dog was kept on property.

BIKER -1      DOG - 0

     One of the two accidents on Tuesday could have prevented if the motorcycle rider had better situational awareness. He had passed a number of vehicles in the right hand lane and because the lane ended by turning right to the college the rider merged into the left lane and drove into the side of a transit bus that was turning left into the college.

BUS - 1     BIKER - 0

     There was other biker accident on Mission Hill at roughly the same time as the previous accident. I have not heard of the outcome. I'm sure the biker lost.

14:30 hrs

     If you are out at the Mini-Putt near Redneck Holler do not try their farmer sausages. They cook them split open on a panini press. The result is a dried out piece of meat. Not good.

     There is some new food venue at the old Portuguese Joe's fish market. The sign said "Ribs". I didn't need to read anything past that. I'll keep you informed on my findings.

     Linda's Leathers is modifying an article that I will be presenting to the Big Swede at this year's adventure Out in the Weeds.  Sort of a belated birthday present to match with his Rendezvous outfit. Something that he appeared to be lacking. It will be labelled in case anyone tries to walk off with it.

     Oh, and before I forget,  the Sr. Couch Monkey had a fender bender of his own. He's safe and only cosmetic damage done to the car. It took me an hour and some epoxy to fix it.