Way Past Time For A New Roof!

My good friend John would be proud of me. As you know, I have never been afraid to take on a project and Wendy has never been slow to encourage me on especially if we can save a buck or two. This particular project  has been stalled all summer due to our preoccupation with selling the condo in Point Edward. That's a good thing because the summer past has been the hottest I can remember and working on a roof would not have been possible in my world anyway.

As you can see the roof is toast, especially on the right hand side which faces south. The completely baked-out asphalt shingles  are both unsightly and useless at keeping the elements at bay.  These shingles replaced a cedar-shake roof back in 1995 so they really only lasted about 20 years. The low pitch and the south-facing orientation meant that asphalt  shingles were not the best choice for this extreme location.

Of coarse once the shingles failed, water intrusion caused the wafer-board below to become rotten, fortunately only along the eaves.

I went to Home Depot and bought one sheet of 5/8 wafer-board and had them slice it into 3 strips of 16 inches. I laid it up, over top of the rotten section and traced a line. Then I set my circular saw to just graze the beams below and cut the rotten sections out.

It was easy then to just replace the rotten boards  and nail them into place.

The job went pretty smoothly because, planning to do this in the summer, I had already went to Menards over in Port Huron and ordered/bought all the paneling and screws etc. Home Depot here in Canada quoted me over $600 and in the States it was only a little over $100 USD

Wendy always worries when I get up on a roof because I am so clumsy and I really hate heights but I took care and managed to avoid falling.
.

The other side of the peak revealed the same kind of damage so I repeated the process on the northern side and the job went quicker since this side did not experience the extreme heat of the southern side and the old shingles came off in one piece at a time instead of  multiple broken shards.

So it was the same routine on the north side of the shed. I cut out the rotten wood in the eaves section and replaced it with new wafer-board. The rest was easy. Nail on some new drip strips and screw down the lovely new steel roofing.

Hey! MY THOUGHS ON THE MATTER: If you think you can do a job and save some money that you can spend on something you'd rather be doing, then why be lazy and pay somebody else; especially, if by doing so, you do not then have the money to do the thing you'd rather be doing?  Hmmm!

Too philosophical for me!  Must be my Puritanical background. I'm really just trying to loose weight. Ha ha!

Anyway... Looks pretty good for an amateur don't you think?
.
.
.

We're Booked On The Eclipse.

10 nights departing December 11, 2016 on Celebrity's Celebrity Eclipse out of Miami.

We booked a Celebrity cruise because we found a good itinerary and a good price of only $800 USD each for a balcony cabin. Flights on Jet Blue out of BUF were under $500 for both of us, both ways. (all taxes in)

It looks like it will be just Wendy and I on this one as all our regular cruising friends are tied up with other plans.

This time we booked directly with vacationstogo.com because our usual agent (Airmiles) has changed its policy and now will only allow appointments with their booking agents. Ha ha! What a joke! The earliest I could talk to anyone was October 21; over 3 weeks from now. How will that work?

Antone (he pronounces it an-toni) at Vacations To Go, Dallas TX was courteous and efficient. My booking experience was one of my finest EVER. In fact he is taking the same ship and itinerary in November... on his Honeymoon. I asked if I could check back and see how it went. Ha ha.

Antone Beckford
Travel Counselor
Vacations To Go
abeckford@vacationstogo.com
Office hours: Mon-Fri: 7am-4pm (US Central Time)

US and Canada: 1-800-338-4962 ext. 7796

We are flying down out of BUF the day before and staying at the Quality Inn in Dania. That will give us lots of time to take the TriRail down to Miami in the morning of the cruise.

We took the flexible dining since we are alone and the early seating at 6:30 was booked and the late dining at 8:30 was getting pretty late for us.

Bring on the winter!
.
.
.

Are You Ready For The NEW "Gangnam Style"?

The next great internet craze is underway, and it’s got everything that has propelled previous stupid songs to viral fame.

Pen Pineapple Apple Pen, aka #PPAP has conquered Asia, and like Gangnam Style, Friday and The Harlem Shake before it, appears to be headed for world domination.

It's hilarious and upbeat with a catchy, brain-melting melody, nonsense lyrics, a silly, quirky dance routine and a singer dressed in a flowing, yellow costume of mismatched animal prints.

Don't forget the pencil-thin mustache. The guy has a pencil-thin mustache that won't quit.

It's the most bizarre thing you'll see today. And it's so goofy, it’s great. You will laugh. That's how it starts.

Next, you won’t be able to get the tune out of your head. You will mumble the lyrics walking down the street, like a crazy person. You will do the dance for co-workers, friends and total strangers.

.
.
.

I Hate To Say "I Told Ya".

Wynne Blew It!!!

Editorial (appeared September 27 in the Toronto Sun)

Wynne’s green energy nightmare

By announcing the cancellation of all future large-scale renewable energy projects Tuesday, Premier Kathleen Wynne tacitly acknowledged the Liberals’ multibillion-dollar blunder in getting Ontarians involved in them in the first place.

Of course Wynne will never openly admit it, because the Liberals are incapable of admitting error on their signature environmental program — green energy.

As we predicted, their blunder has turned into an unmitigated financial disaster for the people of Ontario, costing them billions of wasted dollars on their present and future hydro bills.

So the Liberals insisted Tuesday that their decision to scrap all future wind, solar and biomass energy projects (hydro projects were also included as a distraction) was due to careful planning.

That they were saving Ontarians $3.8 billion in projected future costs, and $2.45 per month on their future electricity bills, by scrapping plans to add 1,000 MW of renewable energy we no longer need to the electricity grid.

In the real world, the Liberals have long known Ontario has a massive energy surplus.

Ironically, it was caused in part by their ruinously expensive experiment with green energy.

That helped to drive up residential and commercial electricity rates to the point where hundreds of thousands of Ontarians are now living in energy poverty, while many manufacturing businesses either closed down or fled the province.

Facing a growing energy surplus that was already large enough to power the province of Manitoba, according to Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk in her annual report last year, the Liberals nonetheless kept madly adding more wind and solar energy to the grid.

Energy we didn’t need which makes the electricity grid operate less efficiently, and thus more expensively, because of its intermittent nature.

The Liberals Tuesday finally decided not to keep adding to their problem by signing even more wind and solar contracts.

But the damage they’ve already done through the expensive, long-term contracts they’ve already signed with renewable energy developers will cost Ontarians billions of dollars extra for generations to come.

None of this was necessary to end Ontario’s use of coal-fired electricity, because the Liberals did that with nuclear and natural gas power, not wind turbines and solar panels.

But they’ll never admit that, either.
.
.
.

Joel's Birthday and My First Uber Ride.

Monday was Erin's friend Joel's birthday so we decided to go to a local pub, the Dawghouse for some beer and chicken wings. Joel's best friend Dan also celebrates a birthday tomorrow so a dual party was arranged.  Even though the pub is only 1.2 km (.8 miles) from our house, we decided to use Uber to get there and back. Could this become my new wings destination now that we no longer have the condo and the "Wing Dinghy"?  I haven't been to this pub since I sold my company over 20 years ago. At that time the place was known as McGinnis' Landing'

Andrew, Erin and Sean at Joel and Dan's Birthday Party.

Should You Tip Your Uber Driver?

Oct 15, 2014 by Richard Myers
Should You Tip Your Uber Driver?   

In recent times, thousands of people have been getting around in popular ridesharing services, such as Uber. It’s convenient to use a smartphone to get a ride. Paying for the ride with a credit card on your smartphone is a relatively new concept. However, it is hard to imagine living without on-app payments. So, the question to ask is whether you tip after an Uber ride or not.

Most people who have hailed a ride in Uber think about this. When you are living in the United States, you have to accept the tip-friendly culture. People tip their taxi drivers, waitresses, baristas and valets. So, why do people avoid tipping their Uber drivers. Moreover, if you don’t tip them, is it something to feel bad about? In this post, we have tried to answer these questions.

The Concept of Tipping on Uber

When it comes to ride sharing and tipping, almost every person is confused. A lot of people don’t understand how the Uber payment process works. In fact, people don’t have any idea about the payment process on ride sharing companies. It’s worth mentioning that the payment process takes place in the app. Therefore, most customers assume that the tip is included in the fare price. Others don’t have any idea that they are allowed to tip. However, tips are always welcome. In fact, tips can break or make a driver’s weekly income. There is no tipping feature in the Uber app.

Some customers have been confused and surprised by Uber’s policy. After signing up, some people want to do right by the Uber driver. Since service charge is already included and the website mentions ‘no need to tip’, people don’t know if the driver expects a tip.

It is worth mentioning that most people think that the tip is already calculated into the final bill. People think that some part of the bill stands for the tip that would go to the driver. However, some Uber drivers have been trying to clear this concern. Unless you are using UberTaxi, tip is not required in the bill. In other words, UberX drivers don’t receive any tip. However, when you insist, every driver gladly accepts it.

Some real life exchanges between Uber riders and Uber drivers only underscore the argument that almost everyone is confused about the matter of tipping required, included or appropriate. While paying for your ride, you need to have clarity about the final bill and what’s included in it.

A few months ago, Uber released some data about Uber drivers and their respective incomes. According to Uber, drivers working with Uber can easily make about $6 per hour more than regular taxi drivers. However, this has been argued upon by numerous Uber drivers since they need to pay increasing prices for insurance, gas and car maintenance. The added cost factors can create a big dent in the weekly income.
.
.
.

It's In The Bag!!!

On with our lives; the condo is now history. Today at around noon the certified cheque arrived at our lawyer's office so the condo, W37, now belongs to Wayne and Sandra Ross. Wayne (51) is a Sales Manager for a large, international automotive tooling supplier and Sandra (41) is a teacher. They moved to our complex over a year ago as tenants to see if they liked the place. They obviously did!
.
.
.

More Than "A Slow Leak".

I got the "Wing Dinghy" home and turned it upside-down on the trailer. You can see that the part between the PVC fabric and the rigid fiberglass bottom has widened and stretches for several feet revealing a hole relatively bigger than the one that sank the Titanic. Good thing Dorothy and I turned back from our sundown cruise last week. This would not have ended well if I had pressed on! Ha ha!

Do you know its been at least 2 years since I even added any air to the pontoons so they don't leak at all. I don't know if this major water leak can be fixed, but you know me; I'll try anything. Not much to lose at this point.

It's hard to believe I've owned this boat since 2007; so over the past ten summers it has served us well. Ten years is the fairly common life of a well-cared-for PVC dinghy. We've taken it lots of places from Orillia to Long Point to Port Stanley, Port Franks, Port Huron MI, Fort Myers and lots of trips to the bar at Stokes for chicken wings and beer.  I'll clean it up and see if I can glue it back together but once the glue starts to fail, it probably will split somewhere else. Check back to see.

Here's the web page when I got the dinghy:
http://chocodaddy.blogspot.ca/2007/06/launching-and-recommissioning-phoenix.html
.
.
.

Moving Day... The Last Load.

Well, That's it. We arrived at the condo shortly after 10 am, filled the U-Haul truck with all the furniture and by 3 we were heading out with a full load.  Monday we meet at our lawyer's office to sign all the papers and Friday the deal officially closes and we get the certified cheque. Bitter sweet but a big relief to get this project, which occupied our whole summer, over with and finished.
.
.
.

Load #5 to London. Garage Filling Fast...

There has been not a lot to blog about but I thought you might like to see the "work in progress" shot for today. Thursday we rent the U-Haul for the final move. I'll keep you updated...

.
.
.

The End - The Final Cruise of the "Wing Dinghy"

Feeling a little nostalgic, I decided to take the 2 mile ride in the "Wing Dinghy" with Wendy over to Sarnia Bay for my last visit (by water) to Stokes for wings and a pitcher of beer, You can imagine my disappointment when Wendy and I got there and were refused admission. A private party had booked the entire outdoor patio for their event. This is the second time in 20 or so years that I couldn't enjoy my beloved wings because of a chartered function. Oh well. It was a nice night for a boat ride as the temperature was still in the eighties which for this time of year is quite amazing. Except for the fact I noticed our little boat had developed a very small trickle leak the boat ran perfectly.

Life jackets and gas tank floating as the "Wing Dinghy" sinks lower into the water.

My trusty bilge pump seemed to be keeping up. I jammed a cloth into a 2 inch open seam between the bottom floor and the air-filled sponson and we continued to enjoy the boat without further incident except for having to bail water from the bilge each day. That was Thursday.

Our dear next-door neighbour Dorothy has been hinting that she would like a boat-ride. We really have not done enough things together in the nearly 20 years that we have been living at the condo. For this I am extremely sorry. We tried to connect Thursday night but Dorothy had a meeting, so Friday was the night!  I really wanted to make our final ride memorable. Well I guess I succeeded at making it memorable. Ha ha! Let me tell you what happened as Dorothy and I set sail at about 7:30 pm Friday evening on our sunset cruise, our date.

We putt-zed around the marina, chatting with boaters and gabbing until dark. Overcast prevented us from seeing the sunset, but now it was dark and we decided we'd steam up to the Blue Water Bridge. It's always spectacular at night. I noticed that even thought the throttle on the outboard motor was wide-open, we could not plane out. The extra weight from water leaking into the boat was heavy enough to prevent the little craft from attaining a plane. This was not good. I could see with my flashlight that the seam had opened to almost 12 inches so I inserted a another, larger rag and the bilge pump seemed to catch up. We attained a plane and headed down the Winter Harbour out onto the St Clair River.

Oh oh! My feet were getting wet and I could see that the water was rising in the bilge. This could get dangerous so I explained to Dorothy that we needed to turn back NOW! We hastily made it back to our dock without incident as the rags kept the leak to a minimum and the battery pump took away the water. The next morning, I saw that the seam must have continued to open. It was now over 2 feet long and water moved freely in and out through a gaping hole. The sponsons of course still held air so the hull didn't sink, but what a night we could have had if I had persisted and gone further.  Dorothy and I were both lucky we didn't have to swim for it.

This morning we hoisted the boat out on to the floating dock and the damage was clear. The starboard sponson was torn away from the fiberglass hull. Now I have a new winter project as I try to re-glue the unstuck vinyl and repair the damage. At least that was ALL that happened on that "special" night.

Time for a new boat I think.
.
.
.

Chicken Wings At Last - Two Cougars Take Me To Lunch.

Actually, one dear old friend that we've known forever, Linda, came to Sarnia/Point Edward today on Wendy's invitation. We had a motive. Hopefully Linda could use some of our furniture from the condo and we wouldn't have to move it.  At least we could drop it off in Grand Bend on our way home to London. She did need a few items and since the new owners were taking the appliances and the living-room furniture, our retained collection has now shrunk considerably. So much in fact that the U-Haul truck will not even be full and we no longer think we need the storage warehouse 10' x 10' that we reserved last month.

Linda scours the menu. It's hard to find anything but wings that's any good here. IMHO!

Draft beer glasses are getting smaller. I beefed that the pitcher wasn't full so they brought me a "free beer".

Since I missed the chicken wings at Stokes on Thursday, the girls decided we should go today (Sunday) and of course I agreed, even though we had to go by car since the "Wing Dinghy" was kaput. 

Stokes is not the greatest restaurant in the world and I wouldn't likely go there if it wasn't for the fact I can get there by dinghy, enjoy a few beers and not worry about driving home. Their Chicken Wings are usually pretty good and in fact in almost 20 years I can't remember ordering anything else.
.
.
.

Annual Quest For Things We Don't Need, A Boat Show, Hobos and Yankee Beer.

Two or three things we always enjoy this time of year on the other side of the Canadian/US border are the annual garage sale at the Edison Shores condos and the Antique boat Show on the Black River in Port Huron. Then there's Rix on the Rocks for a Reuben sandwich and a beer. This year as we have done in the past, our good condo friend George met us and followed us across the border. He could have come with us but we had the rear seats removed for our "moving experience".

We left Canada at 8:15 am and glided through customs with no line up to arrive at the garage sale at 8:30.  This is usually a good sale and this year there were 7 places open for business to sell their surplus items. You may remember that last year I bought 10 pair of shoes here for about $60.  A widow lady gave me a great deal on the very new shoes; as the poor guy who passed away was exactly my shoe size. (10 1/2 Wide)

This year since we are packing up to move, we were not in "acquisition mode" (only spent $6 between Wendy and I) but I couldn't resist a Garmin Nuvi 780 GPS for $1. (Ooops, found out it doesn;t work) Wendy bought some widgets and a couple of plastic storage bins, while George got some large drill bits that he was looking for for 50 cents each.  Big spenders... ha ha!

By 10 am we were at the antique boat show and we saw some different boats from last year; all beautiful examples that must have taken years to restore. The pictures speak for themselves...

I had read on line about Hobofest and somebody at the boat show said to be sure to go there. Since we had time to kill before lunch at Rick's, we  drove over to Petit Street and 32nd to check it out.

There was a trolley in the parking lot to shuttle participants to the event.  Port Huron has a proud heritage of railroad history and Hobofest salutes the men in the Great Depression who had to leave home and hit the rails in order to survive. They were attempting to raise money for a railway museum donated on property. The soup was delicious, and I had a very interesting historical conversation with the "bum" doing the cooking. There seemed to be a poor turn-out and not much going on. Too bad. They need a good promoter/manager.

Rick's was great as usual but I worry that there was only a handful of people there on a warm, but rainy Saturday noon. I fear they won't survive with the small number of customers.

Anyway, the food was excellent as usual with Wendy and I having the Rick's Reuben and George the huge hamburger and of course some American beer.  Thanks George, for picking up the tab. No supper needed tonight!

.
.
.

The Condo Is Officially Sold.

The condo is now officially SOLD as of Wednesday August 31.

Wendy and I have been packing up all the smaller items.

This is the third load in the old Rendezvous. I took the seats out to accommodate the volume.

Just a couple more trips to go. We booked a truck and a storage warehouse for September 20th and now we're not sure we need either one. We are leaving the appliances and the living room suite with the new owners. The remaining stuff might just go into a rental trailer. We'll see.
.
.
.