I attended a one-day streamkeeper training course in North Vancouver hosted by the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation. We covered modules 2, 3, and 4 from the Streamkeepers Handbook.
I figured it was about time I had a refresher, since it must be around ten years ago that I originally took the training.
It was a lovely, sunny day, and a great group of people.
You can check out some photos I took in this Flickr album.
A couple of years back I installed a dual-flush toilet in our basement bathroom, and it’s worked well. So recently we began keeping an eye out for dual-flushers on sale, and spotted a model that we liked at Lowes on sale from $269 to $169. We bought two, for the upstairs bathrooms.
Today I installed one, and by the time I was done, I was soaked with sweat. It’s not that hot, but it must be humid, because by the third trip up/down the stairs from the garage to the top floor, I was dripping. Disconnected, disassembled and hauled down an old toilet, and carried up, assembled and connected a new one.
Thought one was enough for today, as I have to be careful with my fused back. Do the other one later in the week.
Caught two sockeye on the Fraser River today – the recreational daily limit. Large one just over 7-1/2 pounds, smaller one about a pound less. Cut the bigger one into two “roasts” and a couple of fillets, and the smaller one into cross-cut, bone-on-center, inch-thick steakettes for salting and freezing for Japanese-style broiled breakfast pieces. Thank you sockeye for your sustenance.
And thanks to my cousin who invited me out in his boat, rigged me up properly, and taught me how to bottom bounce for sockeye!
Our Shaw home phone VOIP system died in mid-conversation this evening. Just cut out in mid-call, and all of the phones connected to it had no dial tone. My Shaw business phone on a separate box was fine, as was our Internet connection. So I figured it had to be something with the home phone modem.
I did the unplug-the-power-pull-the-battery routine twice, to no effect. I did a system reset twice, to no effect.
I plugged a phone directly into the box, and got a dial tone. Hmm.
I unplugged all our phones and plugged them all back in again. And just as weirdly as the problem arose, it disappeared.
I’m happy that I “fixed” the problem, but I’m unhappy because I don’t know what it was that fixed the problem.
Yep, since I stopped posting to my old blog, and started this new blog on July 5, 2014, every single “comment” has been spam.
That’s why I never had comments open on my old blog on an aging software architecture.
So what the heck is the purpose of comments, if they are ALL spam?
UPDATE: August 25, 2014. I have turned off comments on all previous posts on this blog.
Good deed of the day accomplished. While we were checking out lighting stores in Richmond BC, Yumi spotted a seagull that appeared to have a broken wing. We observed it for a few minutes, and it was definitely dragging its right wing, and when approached, stayed on the ground.
I called the Wildlife Rescue Association in Burnaby, and described the situation. They said it would be great if we could get it into a box and bring it in.
I grabbed a pair of work gloves and an old towel from the trunk of the car, and kept an eye on it, making sure it didn’t stray onto busy Bridgeport Rd. while Yumi went in search of a box. Yumi was back in a few minutes and after a short chase and trapping pincer movement, it scooted into the box and we had it secured.
We drove directly to the WRA, getting there in about half an hour, and deposited the patient. We kept the box covered with the towel to keep it dark and relatively quiet, and the gull made the trip with little noise.
Hope it makes it.
We were so focused on the rescue that I forgot to take any photos!
UPDATE: Aug. 20. I’m sad to report that I contacted the WRA today to check on the gull, and it had to be euthanized. Apparently the humerus was beyond repair. Sad to hear, but at least it didn’t have a potentially long, suffering death.
Lauren and Boggie. That’s what most of us remember. But recollections of them together are framed by where we saw them on the big screen. And that brings back memories. . .
I think the first place I saw this movie aside from small-screen TV may have been an old theater In Takadanobaba, Tokyo.
Back in the 1980s Takadanobaba was a haven for students, local and foreign. Cheap dorms, cheap cafes, cheap bars and a dingy, cheap movie theater that ran amazing series of foreign films. The theater is likely long gone by now.
Oh, gosh, my mind is tickling at the answer, but it’s not quite there.
“Waseda Shochiku”? Something like that. Anyway…
I’d walk by the theater every few weeks and sign up for series of Bunuel and other Euro masters. Saw a lot of stuff in many languages that I didn’t understand, but the lighting, the photography, the acting remains in my mind to this day.
it was a perfect place to watch Sam play it again.
Hot damn, a Google search says it’s still alive? Hard to comprehend, but wonderful.
OK, I’m wimping out.
I’m about three quarters of the way through a novel, and it’s 9:30 pm.
I figure one or two characters that I like are going to get killed in the next chapter or two, so that the hero can righteously explode into revenge, and I don’t want to have all that on my mind just before bed.
It’s a struggle. Can I put it down? I hate putting novels down, if I’m into them.
But I also hate trying to fall asleep emotionally roiled.
Tonight I’m figuratively staring at the sinister muzzle of the 9mm S&W pistol pointed at me, and am complying with the order: “Put the book down, and step away.”
I will finish it tomorrow in the bright light of day.
Occasionally I like to skim through the subject lines in my email spam folder, and construct silly stories from them. It’s like being a kid and playing with those spiral-bound books in which you could individually flip sections to rewrite stories, often with funny results.
Here’s a mashup from my spam folder today:
“Explore Russian Dating Online” it’s OK because there is a “Frenzy Over Herpes Cure (Latest Discovery)” If things go bad, “Do THIS When a Gun is Pointed at Your Head” and if things go really bad “Many Threw Their Glasses Away After Seeing This”
🙂
Choco the Cat had her annual checkup and vaccination today. Here I’ve just scooped her up and am heading for her carrier. She knows what’s coming and gives me a clingy “Daddy don’t put me in there” wriggle.
Choco was a Burnaby, BC, SPCA adult female rescue when we got her on August 12, 2005. Wow, that means it’s exactly nine years to the day since she stole our hearts : -). At the time, they thought she was about three years old, so she’s around 12 now, putting her at the human equivalent of around 64-65.
So the vet greeted her with a cheerful “she’s a senior citizen now!”
She’s still a wonderfully bouncy, active cat, though. Drinks lots of water, eats well, and in nine years of annual checkups, her weight has never varied by more than 1/2 a pound from around 7.5 pounds.
She looks bigger, but most of it is incredibly soft fur that she’s always kept impeccably clean and smelling wonderful. She’s had only one bath in her life with us, the day we brought her home from the pound, because in her initial stress she’d soiled herself.
She’s an indoor cat, only goes out on a harness for short stints of eating grass. She’s always been a bit afraid of the outdoors, and has never wanted to explore too far. We’ve always spent lots of time playing with her, so she can happily burn energy.
There are lots of photos of Choco and other pets on my old blog in the pets category.