Oooooooooooh!!!

And if you were reading the blog last year you will know...

                                 ...I've had my rabies shots! - Ooooooh Scary stuff.

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Some Very Good News

We got a call last night from our daughter Erin. She was having dinner at the Keg with Jake. He popped the question and presented her with a diamond ring. They stopped by today to tell us in person but a date for the wedding has not been set.




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Sinking of the Chinese Junk

Lovely to look at, lovely to hold. But if you buy it - it might not grow old.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know I’ve been “nursing” along my not-so-old “Made in China” natural gas barbecue. This stainless steel beauty has been rusting away little by little, every day since I bought it 4 ½ years ago. Asian manufacturers are very apt at copying good American designs and then paring down the amount of material in the product in order to slash the price. This is surely the case with my Mandarin monster.

It has rusted so badly that there are gaping holes everywhere around the grilling and burner areas. I've replaced the four main burners but everything else is disintegrating. Sometimes the flame blows out because the wind just blows right through the holes. The timing of the rise and fall of this Cantonese contraption seems to go very closely with our country's (and USA's) collapsed economy which, as most of our workers say, is very much tied to all this Chinese junk.

The very structure of the barbecue, the most important parts are NOT stainless steel. It's mostly made from ordinary, painted, and very thin, mild steel and therefore is quickly crumbling away. The stuff that sales are made of, the cosmetics, the pretty parts like the drawer and door fronts, the huge lid, the sides and knobs which really are stainless steel still look like new.  Wendy blames my placement, under the roof overhang where rainwater continuously deluges it for the problems. I contend that has nothing to do with it. It is made to sit outside and if it was engineered correctly then rain should not bother it. Indeed, the rusting parts are all under the cover of the shiny stainless sheet metal and don't even get wet. Simple fact - plain steel rusts.

Regardless of who’s right, I need it to get to the five year mark, a self imposed minimum lifetime that I believe a gas grill should last. Five years means it has to make it another 6 months before I can bring myself to fork out another $500 or so.  In fairness I do use the grill more than most people - all winter - since it is handily positioned as I mentioned under the eaves on the deck just outside the back door. Still, it is the principal of the thing - it shall make five years!

I was graphically reminded the end is in sight for this old Chinese tin cooker when yesterday Wendy, seemingly ignoring my admonitions against ever touching the thing, simply and innocently opened the front door of the lower cabinet. The door, which I don’t remember ever opening before, promptly fell off. You see the door was all that was keeping the bottom shelf (to which the castors are bolted) from pushing itself up through the two sides. The other door then followed suit since the lower hinge points were themselves anchored to the now free lower shelf. Crash!!! 

Here you can see, the whole thing leans precariously forward after crashing down to kneel on the deck.The front wheels buckled up as the bottom of the cabinet released its grip on the two sides and both doors fell free.

We can only imagine Wendy's shock and surprise as this massive Manchurian marketing marvel bowed to her, as it is customary in Asia, then sank and collapsed onto the deck. Bits of orangey brown, crumbled rust flakes were widely dispersed around the area. No personal injuries or damage to surrounding buildings was evident so there was no need to call 911 this time.

My son Tim and I wedged in some bricks to take the weight of the hulk, gingerly balanced the structure back to vertical and set the two doors back in just for show.

This time I mean it – DON’T EVEN TOUCH THE THING!. We’ll see if it, and our economy make it ‘til Spring.


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Wings at Kelsey's

Mmmmmm!  Enough said.




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A Place For Lunch That Has A Vibrant Atmosphere!

Yours truly, Mr. Big Spender snaps a picture of Wendy finishing a hot dog at Costco. It's a good place to snack and people watch but the atmosphere is a little urban. Of course we had already "grazed" around testing the free samples. Still the bill came to over $300 so it ranks up there with even the most expensive restaurants but - no tipping required.
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Water, Water Everywhere, But Not A Glass To Drink???

For many years we have dealt with a small, persistent but very sporadic and intermittent water leak in our basement laundry room. We have narrowed the problem down to a specific sequence of events. It seems the water comes in at floor level only when there is a very heavy rainfall and a west wind is driving the rain against the side of the house. Also when there is a significant snow melt and water overflows the eaves-troughs and drips down beside the wall, again driven by a north or south west wind.

Son Tim and I decided to tackle this problem by removing the deck boards close to the wall and inserting some black, vinyl, floor runner to divert the flow away from the house.

We tested it with the hose but we now must wait for a rain-storm to see if the fix really worked.

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A Country Visit

Today we drove out to Glencoe which is about 30 miles due west of here. The purpose of our trip was to deliver some baby gifts to our good friend Tom. His two daughters have each recently given birth to two lovely boys less than a month apart.  The "Circle of Friends" ladies volunteered Wendy to pick out some little gifts so we decided to deliver them to Tom's farm. 

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Tom, but he took us to the barnyard to show us a new baby Angus calf. It was a lovely day for a ride and we had a nice visit.
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An All-Too-Short Visit To Bayfield

In corresponding by email recently, Wendy was conversing with our friends Susan and Mike who have a second (and third) home in Bayfield. (Susan is a retired schoolteacher and Mike is still working as an Air Canada airline pilot.) Sue invited us to visit. We seized the opportunity and drive up to see them. When we arrived we could see that they had torn down their house and a new structure stood partially framed in its place.

Originally they had planned to rent the house next door to live in while their new place was built.

As luck would have it, they were able to purchase the house next door at a good price since it had been on the market for an extended time with little interest from buyers. The reason it wasn't snapped up quickly like most of the other sale properties in this trendy village was that it was not too visible from the road and did not present its best face from there. Now, with a couple of acres and gorgeous views from any window, the value of their home has shot up I'm sure.

A spare,  bullet-ridden, windmill from the past lies on the ground beside the one on a tower.

Not far down the road, a short walk, near the main street lives Wendy's cousin Jim Taleski and his wife Linda.

We strolled down with Sue and her dog Lucy to visit. Unfortunately Jim was in the midst of dealing with a case of the flu, so we stood our distance as we talked on the front porch.

Jim and Linda on the front porch.

We mentioned that we'd seen their new artists' studio "Main Street Gallery" when we drove into town earlier and planned to look in the window. Linda graciously volunteered to escort us to the store as we left poor Jim in his misery.

Linda unlocked the door and we enjoyed a private tour. The gallery is very beautiful and displays numerous works by various local artists as well as of course, Jim's own art.

We had a lovely visit. Of course Susan wanted us to stay and have dinner, but I'm afraid that after eating a huge sandwich of Montreal smoked meat at lunch and munching on hors d'oeuvres all afternoon we could not even think about eating again so we hugged and said our goodbyes, promised to get together sooner next time and headed back to London. Home by eight.

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We Have Another Hole In Our Other Roof.

Earlier this month I described a hole in our roof shingles that allowed water to leak into the condo. Back in London, we noticed a water stain in the ceiling of the living room ceiling. Having had experience with the condo roof, I wasted no time in calling Todd who owns Byron Roofing and arranged to have new shingles installed on our roof. This roof, with so called "40 year asphalt shingles" only lasted about twelve years – the same as the condo.  You can see that the shingles were heavily damaged and looked to be much, much older than twelve years. Todd ventured that the deterioration could have been due to insufficient venting of the attic space which allowed the shingles "to cook" in the intense sun on the south and east facing roof.  Unfortunately, unlike at the condo, this time I have to pay for the whole job.

 

The boards under the old shingles looked to be "like new" and the workers could find no evidence of a leak. Good news, since I think the stain inside can be sealed and painted and no further action needs to be taken.

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What a view from the top! It's a pity we don't have an upper story. Our son Tim suggested we add a turret to take advantage of the panorama.

 

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Back On Track for Thursdays

My son Tim and I went over to Kelsey's for lunch and had their half price wings. I've been away awhile (at the condo) but I can tell you Kelsey's haven't forgotten how to do wings.





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You Might Enjoy Trying This With Another Picture

Click on the pic for full-sized view
I found an "artsy" picture on the internet by looking through Google Images. This particular picture is not protected by copyright as it is stated in Wikipedia. Click here to go to the original picture.
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I downloaded the picture, brought it into Pixlr.com and played around with various effects. You can click on any picture to enlarge it.

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There are all sorts of effects that you can achieve with this on-line program that does a lot of the things found in the more daunting Photoshop.
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I then became curious about the source of the picture so I looked it up on Google Map.
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You can imagine how surprised and delighted I was to find the very spot where the picture was taken.
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Looking across the street, you can see the same scene as in the original picture. The world is growing smaller every day. All this is from a place I've never been before and would never have gone to... but now I might if I'm ever in the neighborhood.

Read more about "muggy-yohn" here:

http://www.mogollonenterprises.com/

and

   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogollon,_New_Mexico

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The End Of The Story:

If you've been following this blog, you may recall the harrowing rescue of a man who suffered a heart attack while we were on a Hawaiian cruise aboard the Norwegian Wind back in 2007. Click here to travel back in time to the blog entry.

The amazing follow-up to this initial blog entry came a year later when Ken Hughes noticed the rescue on YouTube and contacted me. Click here to read the follow-up blog entry and pictures of Ken and his recovery.

Ken's wife Lesley recently emailed us with this news:

From: Ken Hughes 

Subject: RE: The Man From The Helicopter Rescue on the Norwegian Wind
To: Tim and Wendy
Date: Thursday, September 30, 2010, 12:22 PM

Hello Wendy,
Hope you remember me, I'm Lesley, Ken Hughes wife who was rescued on the ship in Hawaii.
I'm afraid that ken passed away on the 30th June this year after suffering another heart attack which left him brain injured and paralyzed this time. He was in ITU for 6 weeks and died of complications. Sorry to have to email you this but thought you would like to know.
Take care
Lesley x

And here's my response:

Dear Lesley,
We were so happy when we learned Ken had survived the rescue. In this huge world, who would have thought we would ever find out? What were the chances Ken would find us in Canada on the internet? We really appreciated your sending the newspaper clips etc.

All of us that witnessed the evacuation on the Norwegian Wind near Hawaii, 3 1/2 years ago send our deepest sympathies and our hearts go out to you and your family.

Sincerely,

Tim and Wendy (London, Canada) Peter and  Donna  (Orillia, Canada) Holly and Barry (Waubaushene, Canada)  John and Cheryl (Toronto, Canada)



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There's A Hole In Our Roof

This month has been busy for us but not a lot of the stuff of great interest for a blog.  At the condo we have had a persistent and worsening leak in the ceiling of the main living room. The remedies to date have proved ineffective and include the replacement of the skylight and sealing and repainting of the ceiling - twice. We believed in the beginning that the leak was not at the skylight but was in the roofing as a direct result of workmen tromping around on the brittle, cedar shakes. This was evidenced by the fact that the situation seemed to worsen after they replaced the chimney earlier this year. Unfortunately at least two other condo units nearby have also had roof water issues.
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Finally, this month, we arranged with our condo manager Priscilla to have our (almost resident) condo repair-man "John the Handyman" come in concert with the reps from Imperial Roofing (who replaced this entire roof in 1998) to take down part of the ceiling to positively identify where the water was intruding. Pretty bad for a roof that is only twelve years old.

We moved all the furniture into the family room to make room for the repairs.The trouble spot identified, the ceiling will have to be completely re-done. Luckily this costly remedy is covered by the condo association and the burden shared by its 41 members.

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