Sunshine and Lollipops and Rainbows

SO my mother has been having a bit of a miserable time in B.C these past couple of days. While my father and I were there it was plenty hummid but not too hot - tolerable and not altogether uncomfortable. However, since we have departed that lovely province she 'claims' that the weather has taken a turn for the worse. 36 degrees yesterday with a humidity that made it feel like 46 - can you honestly even imagine what 46 feels like (that's 109 for you Americans). That's like turning on your dryer and jumping inside (minus the spinning part; that only comes after you've been sitting in the sun and drinking for too long).

On the other hand, the province of Saskatchewan is having very unseasonal weather in the other direction. As we sit here having supper the pounding rain on the awning is making such background noise that we have to raise our voices to hold a conversation.

To see just how much it was raining here, compared to a typical B.C rain, we decided to throw our dirty pot out into the rain to see how much we would collect. Throughout the course of our meal we collected enough to wash the dishes!

When we started supper we did not realize that it was going to rain. So we planned to have kabobs done on the BBQ. It started to rain just as we were lighting the BBQ but thought nothing of it - it rains here for 10 minutes then stops. Not this time! It kept raining and getting worse and worse. Furthermore, we managed to run out of propane on the BBQ half way though cooking. It was not a matter of just switching tanks, we've been using our spare BBQ tank on the trail as an extra when one tank runs out (it has to always run on two tanks). So we have to take the tank off the trailer (losing the hot water) and go out in the rain and hook the BBQ back up. However, the flame from the new tank was pitiful and after 20 minutes of the Kabobs being on the BBQ we decided to call it quits. We then moved to the microwave which also proved useless. Finally we settled for reassembling the trailer and finishing them in the pan - the kabobs wouldn't fit across the pan so in the end it was stirfry.

The best part of the rain is the shoes, coat, umbrella, and water wings that are need to get from the trailer to the bathroom. I can't wait for an ensuite.

Oh, and we got some supplies delivered for the foundation today! Not that we have an excavator and may not have one tomorrow if this rain doesn't let up. The wood is also blocking the alley way slightly and the sweet old lady who lives in the garage across the way has to take ten minutes to back out of her garage because she is so scared to hit the wood.

All in all, we're thankful for the rain instead of the heat but we're going to be upset if it delays us any further.

Excavation

That almost looks like it could be my place doesn't it?

So I have been putting off updating the blog again because we had an excavator lined up and I wanted to be able to post with great news and pictures of the work beginning! The excavator was scheduled for this morning! and then we get a call at 7:00am saying that he called in sick today. My dad swore! I pouted... neither reaction helped the situation at all. The guy will try to go to a doctor and maybe come in the afternoon, but no matter what we're not getting to start before the long weekend.

And on a really cheery note - my mom is in B.C right now (so are most of the readers of this blog I guess) and you guys are having 36+ degree weather plus the insane humidity. Anyone want to guess what I woke up to this morning? 6 degrees - not to mention we live in a trailer. And, dad took the furnace out to take to B.C to get fixed so not only do we have no heat we have a giant gaping hole in the side of the trailer letting in all the "fresh" air. Anyone want to trade provinces?

I hopefully won't have to update again until I have some "ground breaking" pictures and news.

Waiting again

So I have had a few people hint that this blog should be updated more often. Well, that would be easy enough if there was information worth posting! Dad got here last night and we're all set and ready to start working on the house - too bad nobody else is. The excavator will be here Friday... maybe. But more likely Monday, but then again Monday is a holiday so maybe not even then. We've been battling to find anyone or anything to dig the whole in our yard to get started, but no luck. So now, dad may have a week out here with nothing to do and he will have to fly back to B.C just in time for the work to start out here. I feel like we're losing the battle.

On the Road again

July 22nd ish to July 23rd ish

Dad and I had a great time driving back to B.C. with just the two of us and my dogs (Dante and Emint). We left Saskatoon at 6pm after I had worked a full eight hour day. We stopped for supper in Kinderlsey for some grade A McDonalds. Side note: All McDonalds have now stopped serving Orange pop - my childhood favorite. At some point we crossed the Sask/Alb border without much notice. Somewhere in Alberta, sometime in the middle of the night (yeah, that's how similar everything is) Dad was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat just chatting away. All of a sudden a small mouse runs across the road a few feet in front of us then there is a flash of white and BANG! An owl had swooped down hunting the mouse, it was so low and fast that we didn't see it at all. When the owl realized the truck was right there it must have tried to use the air from the truck to turn up and out of the way - to no avail. We took the belly of the own across the drive side headlight/hood. The impact scared us but it happened so fast Dad did not even have time to tap the breaks. We continued to drive - the only damage we noted was that the headlight now pointed in a slightly different direction. A while later (yes, that's how accurately we were bothering to measure time) we stopped for food/fuel/fluids break and to check out the front of the truck. At first glance nothing appeared to wrong, until dad touched the headlight! It moved slightly and it sounded like several small fragments of what used to be the headlight mount tinkled down onto the ground... oops. The owl broke the whole mounting system for the headlight without damaging the headlight cover of bulb! It also dented the hood; we didn't realize till later (in the daylight) that it was not only a dent in the hood but the impact actually bent the whole corner of the hood and broke the some of the front grill. In the end Dad is claiming the damage (he tried to argue that the owl hit US and therefore we should not be responsible for the deductible; ICBC's response: "We can't collect the deductible out of the bird, so you pay"). Dad figures it is around $2,000-$3,000 damage to the truck. Oh well, he wanted a new hood anyhow. After the exciting owl incident the rest of the drive was pretty boring. I drove, dad slept; dad drove, I slept.

July 25th

I won't get into much of the details about the Nazareth concert - things like that are best left unsaid. I would like to say that we all enjoyed ourselves (Dad a little more so than the rest of us). People born in the 50's - 60's should NOT try to dress like they did 20's and no drugs are not cool at that age anymore. Nazareth is older than dirt but still sounds great (he might have had a heartattack on stage... or may he was just dancing).

July 26th

What a crummy way to wake up from a hangover. Dan and a friend had an "unsupervised" night while I was in B.C. Sunday morning they woke up late and were on the way out to breakfast when Dan realized that my bike was sitting out in the back and the gate was propped open. He walked around to the garage door in time to see someone run out of the garage and hop the fence. A guy/teen broke into the garage (no damage, just jimmied the window) and was in the process of steeling my bike, some clothing, and a ton of food. He took off when he saw Dan. The cops came with the K9 unit but after three blocks the dog's lost the trail in the rain. Of ours nothing was stolen that we can tell - he may have stolen one of my sweaters but I can't tell which one. Some of the food he was trying to take got damaged so we had to throw it away (which is sad because if it was food he was after we would have let him have it). He broke a shelf while trying to get my bike down - but it was from JYSK so not a big loss. We still have to go through the garage and clean up and do a good look through to make sure nothing important is missing.

It's just upsetting when someone comes into your personal space and starts taking your stuff - it also hurts knowing that the guy who did it may have just really badly needed food and clothing.

July 27th

I'm back in Saskatoon now. Dad will be coming back later tonight. He has decided to fly back for the week to help get things underway. After the long weekend he will fly back to B.C to fulfill his obligations there. He will then be driving back out here with my sink and more cedar siding for my house (Thank you Halicia for your endless hours of staining). Hopefully by that time his truck will be out of the body shop and he won't hit anything on the way home.

We had some bad news from the guy who is doing our foundation. He is unable to get an excavator in here until Friday! Dad said no! So we'll see how that works out. We can't afford to lose another entire week to just sitting around.

All in all the progress on the house is so slow it feels like it is going backwards.

Reilly's Law

Reilly's Law, states that in any scientific or engineering endeavor, anything that can go wrong will go wrong (Later this law became more commonly known as Murphy's Law).

Hypothesis: If someone with the Sibley gene's were to undertake a life changing scientific or engineering pursuit anything that could go wrong would.

Experiment one: Dad and I had some spare time (as usual) so we installed the air conditioner into our bedroom. Reilly's law states that in any engineering endeavor something will go wrong - how about the air conditioner leaking water all over our bed. Few slight adjustments, towels, fan, sunshine, skil saw, and some pounding later the bed was dry and the leak fixed.

Experiment two: After being in a small parking lot accident my car had to go into the body shop for new bumper, headlight, and fender. To test Reilly's Law I decided to take my car in for an oil change. Upon receiving my car back it had "mysteriously" been in an accident while in the possession of Toyota. Needless to say my car now needs a new bumper, fender, and paint job. $3,700 damage covered by Toyota. (Not a scientific/engineering endeavour none the less valuable evidence).

Experiment three: It has been a cold spring; the trailer came with a furnace but it has not worked since the first day. Dad pulled it out before and had it apart to fix the apparent problem. However, once he placed it back into the trailer it just sat there like a giant paper weight. Frustrated, we decided to leave it and pull it out just before we head to BC to bring it along to get fixed out there. Dad went to pull it out today and just for fun decided to see if it would work. (Please note above story of installing Air Conditioner indicating that summer is here and we are now sitting at an average 25-30 degrees every day). The furnace, mysteriously of it's own free will, has NOW decided to work!

Experiment four: After submitting the building permit on June 28th we received a list of hoops to jump through. In a miraculous display of athleticism we were able to complete said obstacle course in two days. The building permit office then informed us it would be another day or two to review our performance and get us the permit. Two days pass and dad goes in to see them. True to Reilly's Law our addendum is not even with our original application. After much searching the two valuable pieces of information are stapled together! (thank you King Louis XV). However, there was a mysterious list of new complications attached to the front of our application! Dad was able to deal with all of them then and there but I assure you it took ten more years off his life. They then informed us that the lovely person in charge of reviewing such permits is going on vacation on Monday (this being Friday afternoon). In one of my father's finer moments he pointed out the unjust nature of this situation and persuaded them to have someone else review our cause. Sure enough, my father's sweet talking one them over and we were assured that we would have the permit Monday morning. This morning dad wondered on over to the building permit office only to receive more confirmation of Reilly's Law - the permit has not been looked at yet. At this point I am sure that dad used tears and puppy-dog-eyes to woo over the lovely ladies as the counter! Later in the afternoon I received a phone call from the building permit office the lady introduces herself: "Hello, I am ______ from the building permit office; I have been asked to call you if there were any problems with the permit..." (insert my eye roll here please). So I ask her to hold and hand the phone to my father (who was trying to help the new guy pump the poop-house). Contrary to Reilly's Law; though, we DO now have our permit AND we paid less for it than originally budgeted (Looks like a bar night tonight). True to Reilly's Law - the permit was received just in time for Dad and I to take off to BC. Dad will not be returning for 8-10 days and we are most likely unable to move forward with the house until he is able to be here with the trades.

Thesis: Reilly's Law is true and inevitable in any engineering undertaking at least when you try to do it while being a Sibley (or variation there of).

Waiting

July 16th


Sitting, Waiting, Thinking, Wishing....



That's about all we do anymore these days. On Tuesday we received word back from the city that our building permit was "incomplete" and therefore placed on hold until we submitted further information.

The blue prints were professionally designed by a company I took as large and reputable; however, they failed to inform us that we would need to get the two little pilings on my drawings professionally engineered. Dad started calling around trying to find out who in the city would be able to put there stamp on such an easy drawing for us. The answer: Remple! The problem: On vacation! It is frustrating when every construction place in the city recommends the SAME structural engineer who happens to be on holidays until MONDAY. Admitting defeat until next week Dad and I continued on our search for cheap granite counter tops in this city (an almost impossible feat!). While talking to a contractor about our granite we mentioned the engineering problem; he mention a name that took both Dad and I for surprise. It turns out that the man who demolitioned our house is actually a structural engineer who holds his certificate still but does not practice. Dad called him up (since we still owed him for the work on our house he was glad to hear from us). Dad drew up some diagrams and took them over to him the next morning and he gave us the stamp we so badly needed!

Then it's back to sitting, waiting, and wishing. We need the city to re-process the application. We were told it should only take a day or two; however, if it takes two days that makes it the weekend and pushes us to next week before we can start any excavating. We leave on Wednesday for BC! (yay for working all day then driving all night). This gives us very few days to get the excavator guy set up and ready to go so he can work in our absence.

Yesterday, and some mid-afternoon entertainment, we pulled out our lawn chairs and sat in the ally way to watch the gas line guys work. Apparently they work about as hard as we do. A crew of about six guys showed up and no more than one person worked at a time. They used a Ditch Witch to dig a narrow trench from the main line to the new meter in our yard... it was basically a big chain saw that cut through the dirt two feet down! They were friendly guys and even used their excavator to pull out the stump in our neighbours yard.

In between minor diversions, Dad has used his spare time to re-arranged our garage about six times. His latest endeavor was to create enough space make his stack of hardwood flooring into a double bed rather than a single.

Demolition

July 2nd, 2009

This day started like any other day; wake up at the hotel to the sun shining and a hot cup of Tim Horton's coffee. We grabbed our lawn chairs and took up our residence on the sidewalk to watch the show begin!

At about 11 am an excavator pulled up in our soon-to-not-be-house and unloaded. After a bit of small chat and getting into position the digger raised his bucket. With a dramatic pause he opened the door, "Do you want to kiss it goodbye first?" he sarcastically yelle

d over the roar of the engine. And this those words an earth shattering rumbled ripped through the air as the bucket took off the front porch of the house! In one hour time the house was nothing but a large pile of rubble in the front yard. A few more hours of work and one giant s

emi dump trucklater the house was no more.

Dan and I officially spent several hours that afternoon homeless. Dadarrived from the coast that evening towing our new house. That's

right, our new residence is able to be pulled behind his truck. We are staying, with our dogs, in a 23' travel trailer. Dad is sleepi

ng in the new garage we build last year; he has a mattress placed on top of our pile of hardwood flooring.

So here we sit with a hole in our

yard where our house once was. We wanted to have the house started by now, but we've had a few hang ups with the building

permits. Things are coming together slowly though.