05 June 2011
Dominos
05/06/11 19:50
It’s been raining in North Dakota. Raining a lot. Now you might be saying “so what, you live in BC,” but the world is connected. One event will trigger another, one domino hits the next, and the next until the repercussions reach all the way across the continent.
Let me explain.
The rain has been falling in the Prairies. North Dakota is very flat so the water has nowhere to go, at least not quickly. In particular the Devils Lake basin is filling up. Devils Lake is larger than it has ever been. The thing is, a hundred years ago somebody thought it would be picturesque to put the railroad next to the lake. Now the tracks are in the middle of the lake. Earlier this week they decided that the railroad bed was no longer safe and they cancelled all trains passing along this track.
“But,” I can hear you asking, “what the heck does that have to do with you?”
Well you see, This week our friends Jaki and Dale are visiting. They got here on Tuesday and planned to leave on Friday. On Wednesday they called to confirm their reservations and found that their train had been cancelled because of the flooded tracks in North Dakota. Now, trains’s aren’t like airlines. If one gets cancelled you can’t just walk over to the other guys ticket counter and book with them. There aren’t any ‘other guys’. Amtrak is it. So Wednesday night was spent juggling plans and reservations. The upshot was though that Jaki and Dale are with us for three extra days, which is nice. They had time for an all day side trip to Victoria and a trip to Coombs to see the goats on the roof. They also learned that you can make voice calls on Skype for a lot cheaper than calling the US on a cell phone. They also learned that Skype is not 100% reliable when everyone in the province is trying to watch the big game on the web at the same time.
All because it’s been raining in North Dakota.
And speaking of the the big game. The Vancouver Canucks are in the Stanley Cup Finals. As of this writing they are up two games to nil against Boston. We check the scores once in a while but we haven’t been watching the games. With our history of rooting for teams that collapse it seems safer to keep the series at arms length. Others are not so circumspect. Locally, the Boston Pizza chain in BC has changed its name to Vancouver Pizza for the duration of the playoffs, though I’m not sure if this is out of team spirit or self preservation.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/999633--boston-pizza-now-vancouver-pizza-until-the-end-of-the-playoffs?bn=1
Also near Campbell River here on the Island somebody has built a Good Luck Canuck Inukshuk
http://www2.canada.com/courierislander/news/story.html?id=d60bb8c5-cfff-4546-bac2-4abe118f99f2
In other news, Winnipeg got their hockey team back. The Phillies beat the Reds in a 19 inning game that saw the second baseman end up as the winning pitcher. Jo Reyas, starter for the Jays, won his first game in nearly three years breaking a 28 game losing streak. And the Indy 500 was almost won by a rookie who crashed on the last corner of the last lap and skidded his wrecked car across the line to end up in second place. Elsewhere there is war, famine, revolution, and a deadly e-coli outbreak and a local pilot was hurt when he crashed at the Nanaimo air show.. But enough of that, lets get back to the Canucks.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/stanleycup/story/2011/06/04/sp-bruins-canucks-game2.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/04/bc-canucks-vancouver.html
Got another film up. Actually I got it posted a couple of weeks ago but have been forgetting to put it in the letter. We see the windup to the biggest sporting event on the US calendar, running for president so I put together my take on Politics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzJFyTP2xo
Doug & Marsha
Marsha's Peony is in bloom. The flowers are huge and we use them to spruce up the the decor for showings.
At Coombs they have a sculpture garden. These are carved out of local marble or granite.We liked the cat bench. Rose would have liked the pig bench.
Yes, Coombs is the place with the goats on the roof.
And finally the Lupin is is bloom.
Let me explain.
The rain has been falling in the Prairies. North Dakota is very flat so the water has nowhere to go, at least not quickly. In particular the Devils Lake basin is filling up. Devils Lake is larger than it has ever been. The thing is, a hundred years ago somebody thought it would be picturesque to put the railroad next to the lake. Now the tracks are in the middle of the lake. Earlier this week they decided that the railroad bed was no longer safe and they cancelled all trains passing along this track.
“But,” I can hear you asking, “what the heck does that have to do with you?”
Well you see, This week our friends Jaki and Dale are visiting. They got here on Tuesday and planned to leave on Friday. On Wednesday they called to confirm their reservations and found that their train had been cancelled because of the flooded tracks in North Dakota. Now, trains’s aren’t like airlines. If one gets cancelled you can’t just walk over to the other guys ticket counter and book with them. There aren’t any ‘other guys’. Amtrak is it. So Wednesday night was spent juggling plans and reservations. The upshot was though that Jaki and Dale are with us for three extra days, which is nice. They had time for an all day side trip to Victoria and a trip to Coombs to see the goats on the roof. They also learned that you can make voice calls on Skype for a lot cheaper than calling the US on a cell phone. They also learned that Skype is not 100% reliable when everyone in the province is trying to watch the big game on the web at the same time.
All because it’s been raining in North Dakota.
And speaking of the the big game. The Vancouver Canucks are in the Stanley Cup Finals. As of this writing they are up two games to nil against Boston. We check the scores once in a while but we haven’t been watching the games. With our history of rooting for teams that collapse it seems safer to keep the series at arms length. Others are not so circumspect. Locally, the Boston Pizza chain in BC has changed its name to Vancouver Pizza for the duration of the playoffs, though I’m not sure if this is out of team spirit or self preservation.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/999633--boston-pizza-now-vancouver-pizza-until-the-end-of-the-playoffs?bn=1
Also near Campbell River here on the Island somebody has built a Good Luck Canuck Inukshuk
http://www2.canada.com/courierislander/news/story.html?id=d60bb8c5-cfff-4546-bac2-4abe118f99f2
In other news, Winnipeg got their hockey team back. The Phillies beat the Reds in a 19 inning game that saw the second baseman end up as the winning pitcher. Jo Reyas, starter for the Jays, won his first game in nearly three years breaking a 28 game losing streak. And the Indy 500 was almost won by a rookie who crashed on the last corner of the last lap and skidded his wrecked car across the line to end up in second place. Elsewhere there is war, famine, revolution, and a deadly e-coli outbreak and a local pilot was hurt when he crashed at the Nanaimo air show.. But enough of that, lets get back to the Canucks.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/stanleycup/story/2011/06/04/sp-bruins-canucks-game2.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/04/bc-canucks-vancouver.html
Got another film up. Actually I got it posted a couple of weeks ago but have been forgetting to put it in the letter. We see the windup to the biggest sporting event on the US calendar, running for president so I put together my take on Politics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzJFyTP2xo
Doug & Marsha
Marsha's Peony is in bloom. The flowers are huge and we use them to spruce up the the decor for showings.
At Coombs they have a sculpture garden. These are carved out of local marble or granite.We liked the cat bench. Rose would have liked the pig bench.
Yes, Coombs is the place with the goats on the roof.
And finally the Lupin is is bloom.