The tone for this week was set early on. We were taking the bin of empties to the Bottle Shop for recycling. As we drove down Mostar Road, we were chatting and suddenly realized that the entrance was RIGHT THERE. Marsha hit the brakes and we turned in. Unfortunately this tipped the big plastic basket of empties over and we were inundated by a tidal wave of plastic bottles. They poured over the front seats, filled the footwells and our laps with plastic. As Marsha put it, “It was like something barfed bottles all over us.” Not the way I would have put it but picturesque at least. Two things then happened. First we gave thanks that the basket wasn’t full of glass bottles. The second was that we both had a good laugh over the whole thing. It was all so unexpected and silly.

But then it’s been a week full of silly things.

The RCMP intercepted a shipment of frozen poultry on it’s way to Baffin Island. Inside the birds were packages of marijuana. I guess in that means that Canada is the land where there is a Pot in every Chicken
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/12/23/north-drug-stuffed-poultry.html

This week as I was driving home from work the CBC was having a radio call-in show where people could send greetings to others and generally enthuse on how their holiday was going. I’ve mentioned before that Canada is like a small town. There were greetings from ‘Bert’ in Salmon Arm to ‘Ernie’ in Kamloops. One guy in some tiny town waaaay up north left a message for ‘Mary’ with greetings and added. “I want her to know I have her present. I hope she hears this because she doesn’t have a phone”. My favourite though was the lady with a thick British accent that came on and effused how well her Christmas was coming together. Her daughter from England had flown in for the week along with her family including the kids: Saffron, Ruby, Bluebell, Roaz, and Reagen. What’s the matter, don’t the British name their kids Phillip or Elizabeth any more?

Work did get done this week. I struggled with a project to program the ‘brains’ for one of the robots. At one point even my test box got broken. On Thursday I fixed the test box, then I got the card made, then I got the card customized for the model of robot they were building, all for the first time. They tested the brains and it worked perfectly. They were able to ship the unit this week rather than in January which made everyone happy. Then my boss came by and asked me to document the process to make the cards so it wouldn’t be so difficult next time. The thing is, I’d been documenting the process all along. I was able to show him that it was 90%+ done before he’d even asked. Overall it was a good week.

Then there was the person who stayed at the office until almost 10:00 one night to finish up a project. Sounds like he was really dedicated, right? Well, he’d mentioned to me earlier in the day that his wife was home with his two sons (aged 7 and 9) both of which had the flu. Somehow it seems that he was more staying AWAY from something rather than staying AT the office. On the other hand in his place I might have done the same thing.

There were a few Christmas Miracles this week.
A group of Inuit were picking up a cache of frozen walrus meat buried near Igloolik, Nunavut. They can do that because this time of year all of Nunavut is a freezer. It’s dark all the time up there too so they left their snowmobiles running to keep the lights on. The light and noise kept them from seeing the surroundings and so while they were chipping away at the permafrost they were jumped by a hungry polar bear. One guy jumped in front on the bear and fought it with just a hammer. He was able to battle it long enough for the other guy to load his rifle and shoot the bear. Amazingly, the guy with the hammer was only slightly injured, needing just a few stitches in his hand and lip. Miraculous indeed.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/12/22/north-polar-bear-attack-igloolik.html

The feel good story of the weeks was the homeless cow that had lived in a park in Surrey for some months was rescued.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/12/24/bc-surrey-fraser-cow-rescue.html
Nobody seems to know where the cow came from though. To me that would be the most important question. I mean I’ve heard of dogs or cats getting dropped off but a whole cow?

Then there was the near collision in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. A US nuclear sub was running under water when he noticed through the periscope  he was heading for a trawler. He adjusted course but didn’t check where he was now headed and he almost ran into a freighter. Fortunately the freighter captain saw the sub and changed course to avoid it. The result of this was the Navy captain who almost ran into another ship AND failed to at least keep his submerged boat hidden from civilian eyes has been relieved of duty.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/12/23/bc-nuclear-submarine-scare.html

And speaking of boating incidents, BCFerries had another accident. One of the boats hit the dock at Duke Point and the whole Terminal will be out of commission for months. There is the other ferry terminal in Downtown Nanaimo but it’ll be swamped. BCFerries seems to have a history of crashes just before major holidays. I just hope they have it fixed by May when we have a trip planned.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/12/21/bc-ferries-crash.html

This reminds me of a line from one of our production managers at work.
“Those guys couldn’t organize a piss festival in a brewery”.
Which was in fact the third weirdest thing we heard someone say this week. A friend told us a story; she was at home when there was a knock on the door. It was someone from the local volunteer fire department. “Lady your house is on fire” She replied “No it isn’t, that’s just dinner”. The best part of it was she was right. (She admits that she isn’t the best cook). However, the strangest thing I heard this week was on the radio. In the sports report they said “Tonight the Canucks play the FIRST PLACE MINNESOTA WILD”. That couldn’t have been right.

A now the silliest thing for this week. On Friday I had just started to go down the stairs when for some reason my feet decided to take the afternoon off for Christmas. As a result I skated down the stairs on my rear end and elbows. You know, that sort of thing was fun when I was like 4, but now not so much. No serious damage, just soreness and reproachful looks from Marsha. I’ve given my feet a serious talking too and we’ll see if they try THAT again.

Hope everyone is having a safe and wonderful Christmas!

Doug & Marsha

PIX:Random Stuff

OK I respect the sentiment but really? A special parking space for Hybrid vehicles? Seems a little strange.


Christmas Day dawned dark and gloomy.



We gave Barbara's cats two big balls full of catnip. This is a seriously stoned kitty.