A Light Dusting Of Snow Covers The Cowichan Valley

There oughta be a law against snow here on southern Vancouver Island. Actually, I thought there was!  When I walked downstairs Saturday morning and looked out our kitchen window, this is what I saw:

Eeeegads!  It’s snow!  What a rotten development this is.

Thankfully, the snow barely covered the grass and the roads were all bare and wet so I guess we can’t complain all that much. Paulette, though, won’t drive at all even if a snowflake is seen anywhere.  She was looking forward to a really big annual craft show at one of the local community centers so I offered to drive her – that got a really big “yahoo”!!  I dropped Paulette off and then returned home with Rylie to await a phone call to return and pick her up with all her latest “bargoons”.

 

After picking up Paulette at the Craft show we decided to go for a hike around the Cobble Hill Quarry Lake.  It was pretty cool for around here with a temperature of 28F so we both bundled up nice and warm. I even found an old black toque to wear on my head.

The trails were pretty much clear of snow so we had no problems at all walking. We were about an hour on the trail so by the time we got back to our little Honda Civic we couldn’t wait to turn the heater on full blast to warm up.

By mid-afternoon, the snow was nearly gone from Valley farms

I ventured down the hill with Rylie in mid-afternoon to go for a walk alongside some of the local farms. I was quite surprised to see that most of the snow was gone. No more snow is expected and by next week sometime we’ll be back up to 50F which is a whole lot better.

Mason all dressed up warm for Saturday night’s Santa Claus Parade

Carrie sent us the above photo of Mason just as they were getting ready to head downtown for the annual Victoria Santa Claus Parade. Carrie was definitely not taking any chances on Mason getting cold as he had his new jacket, ski pants, insulated boots, a toque and he also had warm gloves to wear. Somehow, I don’t think Mason would even notice the cold once he gets to the parade!

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Black Friday In The Great White North And Visiting Mason

Twice a week, community newspapers are delivered to our doorstep with stories about local news and events. But, mostly they are vehicles for distributing flyers advertising all the retailers having sales in the Cowichan Valley. Normally, there might be 4 to 5 inserts but this Wednesday that ballooned to well over a dozen.  Why? Well Canadian retailers have adopted Black Friday even though our Thanksgiving Day was way back in October!  Thank you, citizens of the USA!!

These are some of the flyers we received this week

As the popularity of Black Friday exploded in the USA over the past several years there’s no doubt Canadian stores felt the pinch with cross-border shopping and the even more threatening boom in online sales which has allowed Canadians to buy products over the Internet rather than crossing the border – it’s easier and costs a lot less too.  Canadian retailers have responded in force with virtually every store, big and small now featuring Black Friday sales just like it was our own idea!  Ain’t life grand!

Mason got a nice, warm black jacket on Black Friday

Not to be left out of all the Black Friday bargoons, we bought Mason an early Christmas present – a nice, warm, down-filled jacket for the winter. After all, we can’t have our little man freezing while we’re sitting by the pool in Desert Hot Springs. The reason we gave it to Mason early is because Carrie is taking him to the Santa Claus Parade in downtown Victoria on Saturday evening. This new jacket should help to keep him nice and warm while he watches his first outdoor Santa Claus parade.

We spent a couple of hours trying to tire Mason out but only succeeded in wearing out both Paulette and myself. He is a bundle of non-stop energy and whenever we visit Mason seems to want to make sure we spend every minute down on the floor playing with him. It’s a lot of fun and we enjoy it because once we head south for the winter we know we’re really going to miss him.

Swans and ducks on the Cowichan River

I’m still going for my long. early morning walks in our neighborhood with Rylie and then Paulette joins us for another hike in the afternoon usually to a nearby hiking trail or park.  This system really makes it easy for me to reach my 10,000 step a day goal. As of today, my daily average is 11,675.

I knocked another few things off of my to-do list in preparation for our departure in mid-December. I loaded up both of our 30lb propane tanks and a 20lb tank I use for the Weber Q and took them all to get filled. At least now I know we won’t run out of propane on the way south.  I checked my toolbox to make sure everything I took out during the summer was put back in. It’s going to get cold this weekend so I’m glad now that I did winterize the 5’er after all. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks for visiting!

Were America’s Esteemed Forebears Actually Cannibals?

While browsing on my iPad as I was watching Thanksgiving Day football games, I ran across the following post on G+ and you know I just had to read more.  Cannibals? No, it couldn’t be.  At first I thought it might be a reference to the Pilgrims since it was Thanksgiving Day. Instead, the story by Nina Strochlic, who is a reporter and researcher for The Daily Beast online news site, was about the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 which was 15 years before the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving.

Were America’s esteemed forebears actually cannibals? In her story, Nina Strochlic points out that new archeological evidence indicates a firm yes. According to Smithsonian magazine, a recent excavation in the Jamestown Colony in Virginia finally turned up evidence of what’s long been hinted at. During particularly harsh beginnings upon landing in the New World,desperate colonists resorted to eating each other to stay alive. Always be thankful you weren’t around 400 years ago!

While the Pilgrim’s did most things right after landing at Plymouth Rock, the 104 colonists who landed at Chesapeake Bay on April 26, 1607 and founded Jamestown three weeks later seemed to do everything wrong. Trouble rose almost right away and within three months one of the six original councilors was charged with mutiny and executed. Within the first nine months of life in Jamestown, the original 104 colonists had dwindled down to 38,

All the while they were subjected to attacks by Native Americans who surrounded the fort and blocked any food and supplies from getting in. Somehow, colonists continued to arrive by ship over the new 2 years, maybe as many as 800.  But, the dying continued as they were starving from the lack of food and water. Men died “of the boudie Flixe,”; “of the swelling,” ; “of a wound given by the Savages,”.  It wasn’t long before there there were only 90 colonists left who had survived drought, famine, attacks, and widespread disease.

So, what do you do when you’re dying of starvation?  Well, you eat each other, of course. From documents written during and after the time, historians gleaned that the desperate settlers may have engaged in cannibalism:

“And now famin beginneinge to Looke gastely and pale in every face, thatt notheinge was Spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things which seame incredible, as to digge upp deade corpes outt of graves and to eate them,”…. ” Another testimony describes a man who killed, salted, and ate his wife, and later was executed for the crime.

Somehow the colonists of Jamestown hung on and survived but things didn’t get any easier for them. This was just the beginning of years of settler vs. natives brutality on both sides. For the Jamestown settlers, in 1622, just months after the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving with Indians in New England, 347 colonists in Jamestown were killed in an attack by Powhatan Indians.

So my American friends, be thankful that yesterday as you sat around tables laden with fresh bread, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh vegetables and wine to toast your good fortune with family and friends, that you were eating Turkey to celebrate and not your “salted neighbours”.

Thanks for visiting!

Paulette Featured In QUILTmania Magazine Article – Wow!

Paulette’s favourite quilting magazine has always been QUILTmania.  So, guess what?  She received an email from the magazine several weeks ago asking her if she would like to be featured in their new BLOGGER’S CORNER.  Paulette was taken aback by this and expressed shock, surprise and bewilderment as well as a lot of disbelief. Was this some kind of scam?  Nope!  She received a complimentary copy of the Nov/Dec #104 issue and there she was in a full page write-up on Page 88.

This is the article Paulette wrote for QUILTmania Magazine’s #104 Issue

Even Rylie managed to sneak in for a cameo appearance

When Paulette submitted her article with about 20 photos, as requested, she had no idea how much, if any, would ever make it to the magazine. So, you can imagine her surprise when QUILTmania arrived in the mail the other day and she opened it:

Paulette:  “I can’t believe that that’s ME…being featured in QUILTMANIA MAGAZINE…my favourite all time magazine…and no, I’m not just saying that…it REALLY is my favourite magazine!!”

So, congrats to the most famous, talented blogger in the Doyle family – by a country mile!

It was a great article in which Paulette talked about her popular Sweet P Quilting And Creations blog, how she started quilting and how much she enjoys it today. Above, on the left, is current Issue #104.  If I had been asked for any editorial input, which I wasn’t, I would have suggested only one change and that is shown in the right panel above. I just couldn’t help but think of that old song by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show:

“I wanna see my smiling face on the cover of the Rolling Stone” 
only this time with a slight change in lyrics:
“I wanna see my smiling face on the cover of QUILTmania Mag” 

As for my take on living with a celebrity, so far all’s good. I’m showing the right amount of respect and deference to the ‘top-dog’ blogger. I have to say though that when Paulette first discovered the Joy of Quilting shortly after she retired, it quickly became a passion.  Then it progressed to an obsession and now it seems to be on the verge of full-scale incurable disease. I mean, Paulette’s “quilt-stash” is almost enough to clothe the Russian army, that is if the Russian army would wear quilts!

Happy Thanksgiving to all American readers

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Thanksgiving USA 2014 – Bring On The NFL Games!

Here’s how I plan to spend tomorrow even though we here in Canada have already celebrated our Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

An American Caught Smuggling A Handgun Gets Lucky

So an American guy driving a 2011 Corvette takes Washington State’s Anacortes Ferry to where it docks just north of Victoria, BC.  He’s a 43-year-old former deputy sheriff and U.S. army reserve officer, who earned three purple hearts in Iraq. He’s currently waiting to be called to the bar in California and is visiting Vancouver Island with his girlfriend. So far, so good. That is until a Canadian customs officer asks the man if he has any firearms with him. The man answers “no, I don’t”.

Victoria, B.C. Law Courts

Things went rapidly downhill for the man after that. The customs officer asked him to pullover for a secondary check and when he went to open the trunk the man blurted out “oh, I just remembered, there is a gun in there”.  Big mistake not to have said that just a tad earlier. The customs officer found the gun but no ammunition. The gun was confiscated, the Corvette impounded and the man was carted off to jail where he was held in custody for the next 32 hours.

The man in question hired a Victoria lawyer who managed to get him out of the clink after he pled guilty to trying to smuggle a handgun into Canada. He was released on a promise to return for a sentencing hearing in mid-November. After paying $1,000 to get his Corvette out of impound he was free to head for home. His lawyer must have done some good negotiating on his behalf because the man was looking at a mandatory 3 years in prison.

The guy dutifully returned and appeared before Judge Wayne Smith in Victoria just last week. His Victoria lawyer argued “the problem is, when a U.S. citizen is entitled to carry a weapon and does so lawfully in the U.S. and decides to come up to Canada, things are overlooked,” he said. “But he did recall just before the car was searched that he had a weapon and he did tell the customs officer.”  

Victoria’s Our Place Society Soup Kitchen

The judge was in a very sympathetic and understanding mood it seems as he ordered the man to pay a $1,000 donation to Our Place Society which serves Greater Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens. The man will also be granted a conditional discharge after he completes a period of probation.  With that he should be able to be admitted as a lawyer to the California bar.

In announcing his decision, Judge Smith said he accepted the argument that the man had simply forgotten about the gun in his trunk. The judge said  “I have no hesitation in concluding that you have served your country well in many, many respects and you are now performing a service with your legal education. That is impressive. … This aberrant behaviour is not likely to recur.”  This lawyer to be, just dodged a bullet and is a very lucky man.

I’m pretty sure by now that most American RVers are pretty familiar with the law that prohibits handguns being brought into Canada. Most RVers I’ve talked to or read about in blogs seem to know that and leave any firearms in the US before crossing the border. I know a few RVers who absolutely refuse to travel to Canada because they cannot bring their guns with them. That’s fine with me.

Thanks for visiting!

Here Comes Santa Claus – At Least For Mason

I know it’s a little early for my American readers as they still have to get through the upcoming weekend of Thanksgiving celebrations but, here in Canada, Santa Claus is already making a few early rounds to get the little ones all in an early frenzy.

Getting ready for the Santa Claus Parade

Not to be left out of this early frenzy, of course, was our Little Man, Mason. Carrie took him over to a local shopping mall, the same one that hosted the Halloween Trick or Treat for kids, for their annual Indoor Santa Claus parade.

My Mom said I have to stay behind the yellow tape

Last Christmas when Mason was only 6 months old he loved meeting Santa Claus and sat on his knee smiling and laughing.

I hear some bells jingling down that way

Carrie was quite anxious to see how Mason would react this year wondering if he might find Santa a bit scary now.

I think I see Santa coming

Here he is….

It’s Santa Claus

Hi Santa!

Mason wasn’t afraid of Santa at all and just smiled at him as usual. He’s been a good boy all year so I’m sure Santa has his sleigh full of surprises for Mason.  A month tomorrow (Tuesday) is Christmas Day!

Thanks for visiting!

Amazon’s $39 Fire TV Stick Has Impressive Specs

The Amazon Fire TV Stick is the bargain version of Amazon's $99 Fire TV that is a competitor to the $109 Apple TV. Streaming to TV devices are hot right now as all the big tech companies are out with these little gizmos in an attempt to loosen the stranglehold the big Cable TV giants (i.e. Comcast in the US and Shaw in Canada) have on what we watch on TV and how much we pay and that’s a good thing.

Amazon’s $39 Fire TV Stick

The problem for most of us is that there’s now an almost bewildering variety of choices.  It’s almost becoming like searching for the best printer or smartphone.  For me, I’ve looked at a lot of these devices and tried most of them too. My recent foray into the world of Microsoft’s new Wireless Display Adapter left me scratching my head in dismay and I returned it. I have both the Apple TV ($109) and Chromecast ($35) and I much prefer the Apple TV for performance and simplicity of use.

At first glance, and maybe even second, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick is pretty darned impressive as it comes with its own remote, a dual-core processor with 6x the processing power of Roku’s Streaming Stick, a dedicated VideoCore4 GPU, and 8GB of storage—4x that of Chromecast and 32x that of Roku Streaming Stick.This TV Stick has the same on-screen interface as the Fire TV and it’s pre-registered to the user’s Amazon account upon arrival which streamlines the setup process.

So, what’s wrong with it?  Well, nothing really except it’s just half of the $99 Fire TV – which makes sense as it’s half the cost. The Fire Stick remote looks to have a more plastic look and unlike the Fire TV remote does not support Voice Search – that apparently works well on Fire TV.  You can buy the better remote for $30 but then you’re up to $70 so why not just bite the bullet and buy the real thing?  Google only offers the Chromecast and not a more expensive, deluxe version like Amazon. That’s smart I think.

The bottom line here appears to be that when considering the Amazon Fire Stick TV to Google’s Chromecast, one of the deciding factors might be whether or not you’re an Amazon junkie. The system is connected with your Amazon account, so even if something isn't included on Prime Instant Video, you can just click and pay to watch a movie.  It's comfortable and easy TV-watching. You don't have to think too much and that’s always a good thing.

For my way of thinking though, I like what Apple and Google  have done – they offer only 1 device for streaming to TV.  There are no cheaper versions just one version. The Apple TV at $109 is the “full meal deal” while Google Chromecast ($35) comes with a “small fries and small coke” but if that’s all you want then it’s perfect. I don’t like it when tech companies sell a cheaper, less functional version of their best product. That’s why I’m happy with both my Apple TV and Chromecast!

Thanks for visiting!

12 9 14 Things to know

Dear
Classmates. 

Tuesday
December 9 at 7 pm at our Windows Class, after questions from our classmates,
we will demo: 

1. On the Desktop, View, Sort by,
Refresh, New, and Personalize.  

2.
Dragging files and
folders into a folder. Name all your files in one fell swoop. 

3.
Saving Photos and Documents to a CD, DVD. or Flash Drive. 

4. Use both Internet Explorer and
Chrome.

 

5.
Please do not Defrag and Scan when it is not needed. It just wears out your
computer.  

6. How to
use Programs and features to make it easier for
you to find your programs. 

7. Microsoft
Word: Change your Font, Font Style, and Size.

Also an easy
way to find out what a word means. 

8. Using the Snipping Tool. Greatest thing since sliced bread. 

9.
Where to
go to find out about your RAM, HARD DRIVE, PROCESSOR CHIP???

 10.
Tips on Windows 8.1.

The Tears Of A Clown – GOP House Speaker John Boehner

GOP House Speaker John Boehner is well known for his habit of tearing up and crying.  Unfortunately, they appear to be the Tears of a Clown.  President Obama had to take the action he did Thursday on immigration reform because John Boehner would not. Boehner has put his own self-interest in remaining Speaker ahead of the interests of his country. On June 27, 2013, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill by a 68 to 32 vote. Boehner has since steadfastly refused to bring it to the House floor for a vote because he knows it would pass.

Tears of of Clown – Putting his own self-interest ahead his country

Instead, Boehner prefers to huff and puff in faux outrage and indignation.simply to placate the crazies in the Tea Party wing of the House. Why?  If he put the Senate bi-partisan bill to a vote in the House and it passed the Tea Party crazies would revolt and remove him as Speaker. To Boehner, his own political ambitions are far more important than fixing a broken immigration system. Profiles in Courage this is not. It’s more like Profiles in Self-Preservation.

President Obama’s plan is NOT Amnesty – but President Reagan’s was

There is much for Republicans and all Americans to like in the bi-partisan Senate Bill including the fact that it was drafted with the help of GOP Senators Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake and John McCain. It’s been endorsed by every important GOP constituency – big business, farmers, and most religious groups. Only Tea Party crazies despise it because they cling to the ridiculous fantasy that somehow 11 million men, women and children could be rounded up and deported. They can’t say how that would work.

Even Fox News' Megyn Kelly agreed Obama’s plan is not ‘amnesty’

In somewhat of a surprise to me, and I suppose a real shocker to Faux News fan boys, Megyn Kelly said on her November 19th edition of The Kelly File that President Obama is not actually pursuing "amnesty," because "amnesty is citizenship and that's not what [Obama] is talking about." Kelly also explained how conservatives purposely misuse the word "amnesty" for political gain: "That's a hot-button term that the right uses to sort of get people upset."  Kudo’s to Megyn.

Republican’s Michelle Bachman and Steve King – as crazy as it gets!

Just to be absolutely clear what the Republican caucus position is on fixing the broken immigration system, let’s just look back to August 1st of this year. The GOP passed legislation that would effectively require the deportation of everyone in the U.S. illegally, including young people brought as children who attended college or joined the military. It passed by a vote of 216 to 192. John Boehner allowed THIS vote to take place but not the bi-partisan Senate Bill that dealt with the problem.

(In a non-related side-note, I’ve always thought that Rep. Michelle Bachman’s head is not screwed on quite tight enough. Perhaps her family should call a plumber who could use a really big pipe wrench to give her head a few turns to tighten it up a bit.)

    President Obama to Congress:  Just Pass a Bill

So for now, and into the foreseeable future, Boehner and company will revert to what they do best – doing nothing but whine and howl!  Except, that is, for passing  hopeless, fantastically impossible bills that will never survive Democratic filibusters in the Senate nor a certain Presidential veto. It’s all a show vote for the crazies. In fact, their idea of defunding President Obama’s directives on immigration have already been shot down by their own Republican House Committee:

The Hill reported:  “This agency is entirely self-funded through the fees it collects on various immigration applications,” the committee said in a statement. “Congress does not appropriate funds for any of its operations, including the issuance of immigration status or work permits, with the exception of the ‘E-Verify’ program. Therefore, the appropriations process cannot be used to ‘defund’ the agency.”

That probably won’t stop the GOP crazies though as they might use this action by the President on immigration just to try and break their own record of over 50 votes to repeal Obamacare.  Really, all the GOP has to do is “pass a bill”. Instead, poor old downtrodden Speaker of the House in name only (SHINO), John Boehner will continue to do what he does best – shed the Tears of a Clown.

Thanks for visiting!

Putting Humpty-Dumpty The Laptop Back Together Again

Jim, one of my fellow Old Retired Guys Lunch partners called me last week for help with his daughter’s laptop computer. It seems the hard drive had failed so he had ordered a new one. I’m not too sure what Jim was up to while attempting to replace the HD but he ended up with a table full of parts and wasn’t able to figure out how to put Humpty Dumpty the laptop back together again. So, after Jim offered to buy me lunch if I could help, I drove down to Victoria Thursday morning to have a look.

To get at the motherboard, I had to remove the keyboard and display screen

Arriving at Jim’s at 10:30am, we got to work. After looking at where the HD needed to go and what Jim had done, I decided it would be better to completely disassemble the computer as there were cables disconnected that had fallen beneath the metal plate that separated the keyboard from the motherboard. Also, Jim said there were probably a few wayward screws down there. That could cause a short-circuit so no sense in trying any shortcuts.

A completely disassembled Dell laptop computer

Thankfully, I brought along my case of ‘tiny screwdrivers’ which made it fairly easy to take out all the little black screws holding all the components together. It looked like a jig-saw puzzle by the time everything was unscrewed, disconnected and taken apart.  This took about 30 minutes. We ended up with about 30 tiny black screws which was a bit worrisome.

Beginning to put Humpty the laptop back together again

Once we got the new HD installed underneath the motherboard, it was simply a matter of making sure we got all of the various components back in the correct spots and properly connected. Then, I re-attached the display screen and plugged in the connector followed by snapping in the keyboard and connecting it.  Now, it was time to power-up and see if Humpty Dumpty the laptop had any brains!  We only ended up with 3 tiny black screws leftover but I knew where they’d come from and weren’t critical.

It all works!

The laptop hummed to life and began the Windows loading process – all good signs meaning that all the components were installed and properly connected. Now would Microsoft co-operate by loading up a good Windows 7 product!   It didn’t take long and everything worked just fine – miracle of miracles. We signed in and it all looked good. I did forget to mention earlier that I cloned the old drive Windows 7, apps and data to the new HD using another computer.

Looking good!

We finished up just after 12 noon – just in time for lunch.  And with that we were off to a famous homegrown restaurant chain here in BC, the White Spot, for lunch.

Thanks for visiting!