Cam I Am

Please stop poisoning my family.

Every time that you start your very sick sounding vehicle, it spews out a horrid blue cloud that smells atrocious.  It’s bad enough that I walk out my front door into a haze of gases that nearly knock me unconscious, but it filters into my home, even with the windows closed.  You compound the problem by letting your van warm-up for 10-20 minutes each time you start it; even if you just returned from the store. 

I’ve politely asked you what was wrong with it, you told me that it was the catalytic converter and that you were going to get it fixed “soon.”  I’d like to know what your definition of soon is. 

You are making it uncomfortable and dangerous to be in my home.  I know that it is dangerous because my carbon monoxide detector is set off nearly every time you start your van…

So, once again, I ask you..

Please stop poisoning my family…

It seems that the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park has received a reprieve from being cut down. 

One of the many attractions there, the over 1000-year old tree (or what’s left of it), will be reinforced and kept upright.  I, for one, am glad to hear it!   While some people may argue that it should be left to rot and decompose naturally, there is a lot to be said for keeping a piece of natural history in the heart of Vancouver intact.

To all the volunteers that worked on saving it:   Thanks!

While I’m eight days late, I wish you all a happy new year!

At this time of year, many people set “New Year’s Resolutions”.  I’ve done this in the past, but I stopped doing it about a year ago..   Instead of resolutions, I set goals for the year.

Some people might think that there isn’t a difference.  After all, a resolution is a goal that you want to achieve, but I think that there is a big difference..

Here’s an example.  You make a resolution to lose weight in the new year.  Perhaps you even say 20 pounds.  That’s great!  The first few weeks, you try..  but let’s face it!  Old habits are hard to break, whether they are eating, smoking, spending, etc.  After the first few weeks, people generally start to cave into their temptation, give up, and then say that they’ll try again later… or next year.

So..  I’ve set goals for the year.  Some of them are relatively easy, like painting a decorating my oldest daughter’s bedroom (well..  future bedroom!).  Some will take work, like losing some weight.  But here’s the beauty of my plan.  If I get off track, that’s okay!  I’ve got all year to do it.  I don’t get discouraged as soon as I realize that I’m visiting Starbucks too much and it’s not helping my lose the weight I’d like.  

Not only do I set goals, but I’ve written them down.  They are taped up on a cupboard in the kitchen, where I will see them every day, and be reminded of what I want to achieve!

Last year, I didn’t cross many things off my list, for a variety of reasons.  It’s all good..  I’ve got a new list this year!  So of the old stuff is on there, but there are new goals too..

I know that it could very well be just word games that I’m playing on myself. But if it works, I’ll call it whatever I want..

I’m looking for ideas…

My wife and I want to go on a vacation somewhere in January or February.  Initially, we were thinking of going to Mexico, but we’ve decided to put that off for another year.  So, we seem to be fairly short on ideas of a vacation/trip destination.

What we would like to do is go for 5-7 days, without our kids (Woohoo!).  We’ve thought of San Fransisco, Las Vegas, or Boston as options, but we are still trying to think of ideas.   We’d prefer to not spend a ton of money on airfare and hotels, so most likely we are looking at somewhere west of the Mississippi River, but not restricting ourselves to that. (I’m aware of Boston’s location!)..

So..  any ideas for us?

A couple days ago, I was chatting with a co-worker who lives near me. We were talking about how much time we spend commuting.. Then we started doing some quick math..

It seems that I spend 22 days of the year driving to and from work. This doesn’t include the driving I do DURING the workday, just getting to and from the office. I have to admit that I was amazed that I waste that much time in a year.

I’m kind of curious about the amount of time I waste waiting for elevators..

So.. how much time do you spend driving in a year?

Last night, I was driving to North Vancouver where a couple friends of mine from Ontario are camping.  I left Maple Ridge, and headed down the Mary Hill Bypass.

So, I’m driving along, listening to my daughter tell me about something that happened at school earlier that day when down the road I see a person wearing a yellow jacket walk out into the middle of the road, point at me, then to the side of the road..

Oh crap!  I’m being pulled over..

Anyone who knows the Mary Hill Bypass could probably agree how easy it is to speed down that stretch of road.  While the limit ranges between 60-70km/h, it’s easy to do 80-90…

The officer comes to the window, tells me that he’s pulled me over for speeding.  Then he asked if I knew how fast I was going.  I sheepishly reply that I thought it was about 85 km/h.  He says that was close, it was 86.   Then he asked if I knew what the speed limit through that area was.  Embarrassed, I reply that it is 60 km/h.

Double crap!   The first thing I think when he goes to write the ticket is that my wife is going to be pissed with me.  (Yes, she is!)  Then, I have to explain to my 6 year old what is going on.  I tell her that I’m getting a ticket for speeding.

“Are you going to jail?”, she asks.  I quickly reply, “No..  I certainly hope not!”.   Then she wanted to know if it was a special ticket. 

“Yup..  An expensive special ticket”, I answer.

A few questions later, she had all the answers that she needed to be satisfied.  The officer comes back to my window, presents me with the ticket and I’m back on my way.  As I continue down the road, paying very close attention the the speed limit, I pass by another speed trap.  For the remainder of our trip, my daughter read out to me what every speed limit sign says.

So, I’ve learned my lesson.  Unfortunately, it’s going to cost me $196.00…

I know two people who are going to get extreme pleasure from reading this.

It seems that over the years I’ve changed my preferences on a couple things..

First, it seems that I prefer to drink Coke more than Pepsi.  Yes, Mark, I know what you are going to say:  I told you so.  It all started with me deciding that Coke tasted really good with sushi, instead of Pepsi.  Then, partially because of the choice we have from the vending machine at work, it seems that when I am presented with a choice, I’ll usually choose Coke.  I’m not proud, but there..  that’s off my chest.

Secondly, I seem to be much more accepting of country music.  Yes, Colleen, it’s true.  I remember years ago, when I still lived lived with my parents, our neighbours would have it cranked up most summer days. I would retailate with whatever I had going, and eventually played Weird Al’s “Don’t Play That Song”, and they eventually learned to keep their music to themselves.  These days, I listen to some now.  I’m now not in denial that Shania Twain and others are actually country.  

I’ve been saving this post for almost four months..  I dread the comments to come..

In the last couple days, I’ve received some news that I’ve been expecting and dreading.

First, I finally had my appointment with the neurosurgeon (that I’ve waited for 7 months) to determine that I do need back surgery, and that it should happen within the next couple months.  This is welcome news and not.  I need my back to heal, and clearly other methods have not worked.  There are risks involved, but the outcome could be very good.  I don’t have an exact date yet, but I should have that within a few days.

Second, I saw my doctor..   I’m off work again, probably for another 4-5 months.  This poses all sorts of problems such as money and plans that my wife and I have made.  I had only been back to work for 3 months after being off for six months because of my back.  The other problem is that my wife and I were planning to go on a vacation (without the kids) to Chicago.  We haven’t been on a vacation in over 10 years, so anyone could imagine our disappointment.

Other than that, I’m managing.  I’m glad that I’m off of the serious painkillers, but I haven’t found a reasonable substitute.  I’m hoping to see my doctor next week again to find something.

After several months of seeing the message “WordPress is out of date” in my admin panel for my blog, I decided to upgrade.   The last time I did it, the message didn’t disappear, so I left it.

A couple days ago, I thought that I’d try upgrading again.  I read on a friends blog that he had trouble upgrading and warned not to use the “Maintanence Mode” function.  So armed with this information, I carefully backed my blog up.  In the instructions, Wordpress advises to be carefully how you do it, and suggests that you replace the contents of the directories, rather than the whole directory.

I didn’t take this approach.

I just replaced everything.  And it seemed to work!  As far as I can tell (with the help of a friend), the site appears to look the same as it did before to anyone who visits it, and the admin panel has been updated to a more user friendly interface.

So, maybe it was luck.  But everything seems to have worked out fine. 

So why all the warnings?  The last time I tried to upgrade I had nothing but problems when I followed WP’s instructions.  Yet, when I tried it my way, it works fine.

Picture this..

You go for a night out to watch a movie.  You spend the money for a couple tickets, the popcorn, some pop, and maybe some M&M’s.  You go into the theatre, watch the show, have a good time.

Ordinarily, this is an outing that costs a few bucks. 

You walk back out to your car to discover that your car has been keyed..  Wait..  so is the car next to you!  Wait a second!  Every car in the parking lot has been keyed!

Unbelieveable?   You would think so, but this happened in Coquitlam on the weekend.

 Here is the little blurb from News 1130’s website.

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