Category: Passing Scene

Starting Friday morning and continuing into the day on Saturday, Calgary experienced what can only be termed a blizzard. In Calgary itself, I think the boffins are not calling it such because some technicality that it wasn’t cold enough or some such <bleeping> idiocy. It was a <bleeping> blizzard.

For those of you not in the know, a blizzard is a huge snow storm with falling snow, strong winds, and cold temperatures. It usually comes with near zero visibility or “white out” conditions. However, it’s not the storm itself that is the noteworthy bit, though it seems it would be. The storm passes in a day or two. The aftermath is much more noteworthy than the storm itself.

First, there was clearing the walks and driveway. That was great fun, but not so terrible or even unusual. The real fun came when I decided to go down to the grocery store for a couple of items. I should have stayed home. The alley leading to my driveway is impassible in one direction and barely passible in the other. But that’s nothing compared to the street, which varied between hopeless to almost useable. While the alley was sheltered some from the howling winds, the street was not and, thus, had much more snow blown onto it that the alley.

All that would not have been a substantial problem except that due to traffic conditions I ended up taking the less optimal turn coming onto the street (there was traffic in the way). Then at the end of the street I again ended up going the less ideal direction. That was enlightening. In my neigborhood, there is a single street that circumnavigates it. That street has two points where it crosses a utility allowance, which is another name for a completely baren (and straight) corridor which allows snow to really drift in. At one point, there was space for a single lane of traffic (that dared) to get through the snow drift. The other point was totally blocked. People were forced to drive off the road and into the school playground to get around it.

Now, the major “arterial” roads are passable if not ideal. They have been kept relatively clear by city crews but there is only so much a limited number of people can do so during the storm, they concentrate on the busiest roads and work their way down to the less important roads as conditions permit. Unfortunately, after a blizzard, almost every road has something that needs clearing. Many of the residential streets will likely remain largely impassible for several days yet as crews continue to dig out the massive snow drifts.

Now, I’m not talking simple snow drifts that a 4×4 with snow tires can power through, either. If that were the case, a few 4x4s would already have done so and the totally blocked parts of the streets be somewhat open. Some of the drifts are easly five high or worse. In some cases, it’s clear that cars are completely buried under the snow.

All this makes me very glad that I work from home. It means I will not have to head out onto these roads come Monday. Well, I won’t have to as long as nothing that requires my physical presence goes wrong; the joys of being on call. Still, the powers of the universe willing, I will not have to figure out how to get downtown in these conditions.

Now I’m going to curl up with the TV remote and studiously ignore the weather.

The big news story in Canada right now is how the opposition parties in Ottawa are planning to bring down the Conservative minority. Now that’s not a terribly big surprise in a minority situation. However, the fact that we just had an election in October makes the strategy seem dubious at best. After all, it is unlikely that Canadians want another election and would likely punish the parties that forced it.

What’s even worse, however, is the issue they’ve picked to fight over. The Conservatives are planning to eliminate the taxpayer funding for all sitting political parties. That means that none of the parties will get a stipend based on the number of votes they received. This issue, and no other, seems to have united the opposition parties. What I (along with many other commentators) fail to see is how the elimination of this taxpayer funding is bad for Canadians. After all, if a party cannot raise the capital it needs from the population at large, it clearly has not got the support it needs to form a government, has it?

The opposition has a plan to avoid voter anger over a snap election, however. They’re making noises about forming a coalition government to replace Mr. Harper’s minority. While this would be entertaining to watch, I fail to see how it will be good for Canada. Even if they manage to put together a coalition and the Governor General accepts it, I fail to see how it will survive the spring budget. Even if it does, given the policies of those parties, I foresee massive deficit spending on dubious programs to save the economy which does not really need saving.

I should point out that a coalition formed from parties that do not have the largest number of seats in the House of Commons does have a precedent although most Canadians will not remember it ever happening since the recent period of minority governments comes on the heals of a long period of chiefly majority governments.

While I wish it was otherwise, I am predicting the opposition will bring down the government. I am also predicting that they will attempt to form a coalition. I am further predicting that that coalition will be defeated on its own budget.

Since my last entry two months ago, much has happened. Usually, I have to reach to come up with something to babble about, even if I leave writing an entry for a long time. This time, there is much to draw upon.

At the beginning of February, our room mate was felled by an apparently long standing but thereto undiagnosed medical condition. I’ll leave out the details as they are really nobody’s business. The result was that we found ourselves in a bit of a tight spot as we watched her two kids for a day or so until the family deigned to do make arrangements. There was something of a fight over how much rent was due and why and, sadly, it got as far as threats of legal proceedings. The situation did get resolved in what seems to be a relatively amicable fashion. The room mate is recovering at last report. This did cause something of an upheaval, though, since during her convalescence, she really can’t deal with a place with a lot of stairs which meant she could no longer stay with us.

That leads into the next item. We have been looking for new room mates to make ends meet more easily. It’s not as easy as it sounds to get room mates, however. You can put as much information as you want out there, but if nobody is willing to buy what you’re selling, you simply don’t get anywhere. I’m optimistic that we will have takers, though, so it’s not causing me all that much stress. I do admit I’ve been enjoying the quiet around here since the two rugrats left.

As many folks will know, I’ve also been working on publishing a book of poetry written by people in the family. There is a lot of detail work involved in doing so when you are a contributor. There is even more work when you are the editor, typesetter, and publisher, too. I did manage to release an electronic edition at the beginning of January but the print edition required more work. Once I was in discussions with the printer, I realized I had to redo the typesetting some, partly due to bad decisions in the first place and partly because I changed my mind some about just how I wanted things to look. I am told by the printer that I should have the 100 copies by the end of the month which will just leave a few details required by law and actually selling the copies to interested parties. (Drop me a line if you’re interested.)

Pretty much exactly zero progress has occurred on the book cataloguing program in the intervening time due in part to the book publishing and other events. But that’s not everything I’ve been up to. I’ve been ripping the Doctor Who DVDs I have. While I’ve had good results for the most part with the software I’ve been using, I have decided that I need more study to determine just what works best. I’ve come to the conclusion that the clunky command line method is about the best way to go since it will allow me to queue up a whole lot of processes and then start them going, say overnight. It will also give me better control over the results and now that I understand the terminology and technology better, the manual method is not near so daunting.

Well, I think that’s enough babbling for now. I now return you to your regularly scheduled goofing off.

Well, another Christmas has come and mostly gone. I got the first entry in my Doctor Who DVD collection among other things. I have to say that this year has been a good year. Today saw my parents down from Olds and my aunt was able to visit as well. A good time was had by all.

Probably the best surprise of the day was from Canada Post. I had called yesterday morning to arrange for new keys for our mailbox since the previous owners had not managed to get them to us. I was expecting them to call later this week with details on how to arrange for the keys. Instead, a fellow arrived at our door this morning and dropped off two shiny new keys for the mailbox. I was pleasantly surprised and I have to say that whoever did the deliver went above and beyond. It was much appreciated, however.

Essentially, that meant that we had full possession of our new house as of today since we now have all the keys and junk that go with it. We even have most of chaos worked out from the move.

In retrospect, 2007 has been a busy year. It came with two moves, a house purchase, a trip to Elgin, a trip to Albuquerque, picking up a roommate with two kids, my car is paid off, and that’s only the highlights. I think, though, when all is told, I’m much further ahead today than I was this time last year. I know saying this is like as not to jinx things but I think things are starting to come together.

Here’s to 2008 which is less than a week away and is likely to usher in just as many changes, hopefully all as good in the long run.

As mentioned last month, we’ve bought a house. The possession date has come and we have the place. We have all the paperwork done and everything we can has been done. Of course, we’re still waiting for the finalized paperwork to go come to us, what with the usual delays with land titles and so on.

We’ve now basically moved in and we just need to deal with the chaos of sorting out our <insert expletive here> stuff. Still, we should have that chaos largely resolved this week in time for the Christmas chaos to kick into full gear. Much excitement. I think, though, the house is the best Christmas present.

I’ll finally get my ‘puter set up again today. I got the network wiring in the house sorted on the weekend so once I get the ‘puter connected up, everything should Just Work™. Once that’s done, things will really start to feel like home.

Well, that’s all for now folks.

It started back in September when my current landlord suggested he wanted to sell his house and he gave us the opportunity to make an offer before he listed it. We did a bit of digging and came up with a fair price for it, somewhere around 15% less than he thinks it’s worth. He, of course, turned down the offer. This happened on Thanksgiving.

Now we’d done some additional legwork since we decided that if it was at all workable, we would buy a house, even if it wasn’t the one we’re currently in. That meant we had a mortgage pre-approval basically sorted. We had decided, however, to hold off until I got back from my trip to Albuquerque (which was looming at that point) before we did any looking around, just so I’d be available to sign papers. As luck would have it, things didn’t work out quite according to plan.

The day after I hit the road, my parents tripped over a realtor when they were coming to visit. So we had a realtor. They also put an offer on a house but that offer was declined. This turned out to be a good thing even though the house would have been a good deal. It was probably an emotional offer, though, so it was probably good that it fell through.

Later in the week, though, the realtor found a what he thought was a great deal and he passed it along. I looked at the listing online and agreed with the assessment of my sister that it would be a good place. So an offer was put in on the Sunday (the second day of the drive back) and was accepted mere hours later with no dickering.

I found out when I strolled in the door that evening. Then there was a bunch of legwork the following week (which I had off from work) which got insurance and a few other bits dealt with. Everything we could do was done at that point and it was just waiting for paperwork to go through.

Well, today I got the call from the lawyer’s office saying the paperwork for the mortgage had arrived and it was time to get that signed. So this Friday, we get that done.

It still doesn’t quite feel real that in under three weeks, we’ll be owning a house. It probably won’t feel real for a while after that.

Since returning from the ‘Fest trip, I’ve had something of a rough time of things. I ended up getting really sick with something or other just about in time to go back to work on Monday last week. I can’t remember the last time I got something that hit me so hard. I think I’m mostly over it now but it has been a very rough week involving ruptured ear drums among other things. Which is to say I’ve spend an uncomfortable several days in almost total silence and that looks to continue for a while yet as the ear drums heal.

To cap things off, some time on Friday night, my sister’s car was stolen. Now that’s most definitely not handy and puts a severe crimp in her daily operations. Fortunately, she may have a line on a replacement for a reasonable price. Still, it’s very inconvenient to have to deal with something like a stolen car and I don’t envy her. The strange thing, however, is that there was no evidence of an attempt to break into my car which was parked right beside hers. It’s almost like her car was specifically targetted.

Well, here’s hoping the the coming weeks are better than the previous couple.