OUR YEAR AT HOME
OR
YOU CAN TAKE US OUT OF BC, BUT ......
(Just a little "Monty Pythonesque" humour here)
CLICK HERE FOR INDEPENDANCE NOW!!!
The Republic of Cascadia is not yet officially recognized by Canada, the United States of America, or the United Nations. Not that it is any of their business.
Why Cascadia you ask....? Well, not only are the people of this region "very special", but also the fauna is indeed in a class of its own!!! No where else do you find the world famous "Tree Octopus". Click on the poster below and find out more about this endangered species.
After joining YOU may wear your pin with pride! 
But don't ever forget the greatly endangered "SASQUATCH". Click on the poster below and find out what YOU can do to save this rare creature!
After you join, you too can help Big Foot's literacy campaign for the Ogopogo
The list of things that make us "stand out" from the rest of North America is endless. Indeed it is our time to be INDEPENDENT!!!
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All the "sillyness" above came to our minds as we slowly made our way across the last of the "flat lands" and entered the serenity of BC. Traveling across Canada sure shows us just how lucky we are to be Wet Coasters!!! Give us the warm embrace of the mountains and 9% hills .. you can keep the ROC (Rest Of Canada) -- well ...with the possible exception of Newfoundland and the Annapolis Valley.
We arrived home in early November, and now we face a whole year here in Vancouver. What to do with all this "down" time? This will be the first entire winter we will have spent in Vancouver since we retired in 2002. Will we be able to survive the soul destroying constant rain and ... shudder ... the possibility of snow? Hmmm .....
One day, I was sitting in my study ... you know the place ... small dark room filled with books, papers, dust and memories? The perfect definition of "Comfort" to my mind. So, casually, I throw out the thought that perhaps it was time to repaint my man cave. Like a great white responding to bait on a hook, Elsie pounced on the idea. Next thing I knew, contractors were running around with tape measures, hammers, drawings and Elsie was collecting large numbers of empty boxes. I was sunk!
"After we pack up 25 years of 'stuff' into the handy boxes, it will only take 6 weeks to complete the job." Elsie was on a roll.
My "comfortable study" was to be transformed from 14 by 18 feet to 14 by 40 feet complete with new desks (one for Elsie of course), new book cases, easy chairs, coffee tables, TV, new carpets everywhere, and a totally redone, adjacent bathroom. Whew ....
Well, I thought , it would only be 6 weeks.
"Oops" says the Contractor, "you will have to put in a new, larger, electrical panel". "With the new low wattage pot lights, we might as well take down the entire ceiling and all the walls and re gyp-rock the whole place. It will look better. You certainly do not want to do 1/2 a job!"
"Well, OK, I guess..."
"Oops, we have been studying the old plans, and the original builder did not have sufficient support in the ceiling rafters to support the expansion to 40 feet long".
Perhaps that was why my original study was such a cozy little room?
"But, no problem! We do this all the time! We work closely with an engineering firm, K.A. Boom, here in North Vancouver, and they will design a steel beam we can insert to reinforce the existing beams so the load will be shared properly."
An Engineering Firm called KA Boom?????? Oh please......
Well, things moved on glacially ... 6 weeks stretched to 12 weeks ... "We can't get BC Hydro here to turn off the power so we can remove the old panel ... the drywallers are stretched to the limit with new construction ... they will be here soon ..." and so forth and so on ...
To make a long story much shorter, mercifully, the 6 week job stretched to 6 months of life style destruction.
As the last contractor finally left ... I was heard to mutter "... The next contractor who enters this house will be very uncomfortable!!!"
It was "Done" but I must admit that the result is not bad. I can now spend the next 25 years filling this place with books papers and memories ... unless Elsie beats me to it. So, 6 months ???? Well, I guess it was worthwhile.
I should also mention that it was "decided" in that 6 month period that we had to replace the washer and dryer, the fridge, the freezer, Elsie's laptop, the family room leather sofa and easy chair for Elsie, ("But, we can use the old set in the new study. It is necessary") and lets not forget the purchase of a 52 inch HD TV.
My head was spinning, my palms were perpetually damp, and my wallet was empty!
But, we did get away during those 12 months. One trip was down to Junction City to get some work down on the DataStorm Satellite System on Harvey's roof. We thought a week long run south would be fun. Little did we realize the number of trucks that use the I 5 during the summer. At least I hope it is only during the summer .... What a gawd awful mess --- wall to wall traffic from Seattle WA to Salem OR. Elsie counted 110 trucks in a ten minute period heading south from Portland as we were going north. Oh well, Harvey ran perfectly, and it was fun to get away.
Another trip was late September to the Interior. Elsie's niece was getting married in Naramata so we thought that we could head to Vernon for our yearly visit and then head to Penticton/Naramata for the wedding on the Thanksgiving weekend. Harvey purred his way to Vernon ... ran like the true gentleman he was!
We had a great September and October here in BC. We get to Swan Lake in Vernon and on came the shorts and T Shirts. Many years ago, I had visited the "richest acre in the World" but never made it back this late in the travel year. AS many of you know, the "richest acre in the World" is the Adams River when the salmon came up from the Coast to spawn. This year it was a record return so what a chance to see one of nature's wonders.
So a quick call to our good friend in Salmon Arm, Dave Hadley, and plans were made. It was a great day ... take a look at the pictures to see what a million and more salmon look like as they are spawning and dying.
We headed south to Penticton a few days before the wedding to get set up in the area the Naramata Conference Centre, where the wedding was to be held, sets aside to RV's. Calling it a RV Park would be just a little charitable, but we did the deed and began to look forward to the upcoming nuptials to take place on the Saturday of the long weekend.
What can you say about a wedding ... the bride was beautiful, the groom was there, and everyone had fun. It was a very successful event.
Our plans were to stay until Tuesday before heading south in order to miss the long weekend traffic mess getting into Vancouver. What with the great weather we had been enjoying, and the traffic chaos at the Port Mann bridge construction, it was sure to be a mega headache drive. We were being clever ... we thought.
That gave us Monday to fill in. Many of you won't know that Midtown RV, located in Penticton, is the largest volume dealer for Newmar RV's in Canada. What better way to fill up an open day ... kick some tires in a large RV dealer.
Who would have thunk it???? Elsie found not one RV but two that fit her requirements for a Harvey replacement. Strangely enough, both RV's had the mechanical toys that I wanted. How to justify this???? Harvey is running well but ....
"Do you really think that he will last 18 years? If we continue to RV for the next decade at least, what will we need to do to keep him running? Won't it be easier to just buy a new one now, before the pollution control idiots get complete power and make huge changes that will cost mega bucks in the future?"
Enter Périgord ....
You know something? I don't think that we can afford to spend another year at home!!!!!
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