16 January 2011
Karma
16/01/11 14:19
In last weeks letter I closed with: "We'll be here not shovelling snow or scraping windows. It's even supposed to be sunny for a bit today".
Well, as has been pointed out to me karma can be a real pain. Sunday we got a few inches of snow that didn't cause too many problems. I did clear the driveway. But even that little bit of snow was enough to cause major problems. Near the Nanaimo office a manhole froze over and flooded. This shorted out the copper phone lines for a dozen cables with 150 lines apiece. Our Nanaimo office was off line for the day and the crew from Telus spent the rest of the week underground replacing corroded cables, terminals, and shorted out electronics. It didn't impact our house but there was a big chunk of downtown that was in a world of hurt.
On Wednesday we got another storm, a foot of heavy wet snow. We had to clear the driveway. Schools were closed. Once the roads were clear we drove over and rescued Barbara. She'd lost power and here in the land of all electric homes that means no lights, no heat, no food, no nothing. She spent the day with us, well with Marsha actually as I was in my office working. They had a good time though, chatting, snacking, watching bad TV, and such.
Actually I think there were two doses of karma in this. Marsha is going to work for H&R Block again this year and on Sunday while I was scraping the the driveway I said it was all her fault. The last time she worked for H&R Block was a couple of years ago and we got lots of snow then too. That was about when the second storm started forming west of the Island.
I've decided I'm going to stop gloating now.
So this week we've been watching curling. It's the "Really This is the Ultimate Big Final Tournament" Tournament. Next week there is going to be another one.
Now I don't really understand curling. I get that you slide the rock and try to hit the other guys rock out of the way. It's the nuances that escape me. This isn't helped by the announcers. They have the main announcer and the ex curling jock colour man. (OK, I admit it. The idea of curling and jock appearing in the same sentence just seems weird to me.) To the uninitiated the language can be more than a little mystifying. Here is a transcript from the broadcast as close as I could write it down. They were talking rather fast after all.
Colour: The lighter you throw this the more chance you have of sneaking in behind the guard.
Announcer: How about bumping the yellow and putting it in the crotch to score?
Colour: You could go for a freeze on the out turned side but that isn't what you got right here. You'd want to go for an angle freeze on the shot rock by doing a rub off and roll from the fresh pebble between the fat side of the hog line to the top eight. That would feather the carryover to give the Skip a stolen skin.
I have no idea what they are talking about, but then, I suspect neither do they. In that respect they're like the announcers is most every other major sport.
This week we heard that Target was going to buy Zellers, a big chain of stores here in Canada. We were very happy about this. Zellers is good, far better than Walmart, but it really looks like it could use a facelift. With a little luck Target will be just the thing they need to spruce up the palace a bit. We are wondering though, how Target can move into Canada. There is a well established Target chain up here and they aren't going to give up there name or logo. It could be interesting.
We also got new cell phones this week. Now I know that some of you expect that we got Apple iPhones. Well, sorry to disappoint you but no. We got simple phones with a few minutes, a keyboard for instant messaging and almost nothing else. We dropped our monthly cost by almost half and have cheap phones that do just what we need. I have 50 minutes per month which should be a great plenty, so you can see why I can't justify spending a lot on a phone. We barely use the ones we have. Sometime this year we'll get an iPod Touch and an iPad for the rest of the functions. Best of all Marsha discovered that as an H&R Block employee she gets a corporate discount on Apple products.
Now that's the kind of karma I like.
Doug & Marsha
Pix: Let us know if you have trouble with these. We are using some new software to put the e-mail together and they're behaving a bit differently than before.
Well, as has been pointed out to me karma can be a real pain. Sunday we got a few inches of snow that didn't cause too many problems. I did clear the driveway. But even that little bit of snow was enough to cause major problems. Near the Nanaimo office a manhole froze over and flooded. This shorted out the copper phone lines for a dozen cables with 150 lines apiece. Our Nanaimo office was off line for the day and the crew from Telus spent the rest of the week underground replacing corroded cables, terminals, and shorted out electronics. It didn't impact our house but there was a big chunk of downtown that was in a world of hurt.
On Wednesday we got another storm, a foot of heavy wet snow. We had to clear the driveway. Schools were closed. Once the roads were clear we drove over and rescued Barbara. She'd lost power and here in the land of all electric homes that means no lights, no heat, no food, no nothing. She spent the day with us, well with Marsha actually as I was in my office working. They had a good time though, chatting, snacking, watching bad TV, and such.
Actually I think there were two doses of karma in this. Marsha is going to work for H&R Block again this year and on Sunday while I was scraping the the driveway I said it was all her fault. The last time she worked for H&R Block was a couple of years ago and we got lots of snow then too. That was about when the second storm started forming west of the Island.
I've decided I'm going to stop gloating now.
So this week we've been watching curling. It's the "Really This is the Ultimate Big Final Tournament" Tournament. Next week there is going to be another one.
Now I don't really understand curling. I get that you slide the rock and try to hit the other guys rock out of the way. It's the nuances that escape me. This isn't helped by the announcers. They have the main announcer and the ex curling jock colour man. (OK, I admit it. The idea of curling and jock appearing in the same sentence just seems weird to me.) To the uninitiated the language can be more than a little mystifying. Here is a transcript from the broadcast as close as I could write it down. They were talking rather fast after all.
Colour: The lighter you throw this the more chance you have of sneaking in behind the guard.
Announcer: How about bumping the yellow and putting it in the crotch to score?
Colour: You could go for a freeze on the out turned side but that isn't what you got right here. You'd want to go for an angle freeze on the shot rock by doing a rub off and roll from the fresh pebble between the fat side of the hog line to the top eight. That would feather the carryover to give the Skip a stolen skin.
I have no idea what they are talking about, but then, I suspect neither do they. In that respect they're like the announcers is most every other major sport.
This week we heard that Target was going to buy Zellers, a big chain of stores here in Canada. We were very happy about this. Zellers is good, far better than Walmart, but it really looks like it could use a facelift. With a little luck Target will be just the thing they need to spruce up the palace a bit. We are wondering though, how Target can move into Canada. There is a well established Target chain up here and they aren't going to give up there name or logo. It could be interesting.
We also got new cell phones this week. Now I know that some of you expect that we got Apple iPhones. Well, sorry to disappoint you but no. We got simple phones with a few minutes, a keyboard for instant messaging and almost nothing else. We dropped our monthly cost by almost half and have cheap phones that do just what we need. I have 50 minutes per month which should be a great plenty, so you can see why I can't justify spending a lot on a phone. We barely use the ones we have. Sometime this year we'll get an iPod Touch and an iPad for the rest of the functions. Best of all Marsha discovered that as an H&R Block employee she gets a corporate discount on Apple products.
Now that's the kind of karma I like.
Doug & Marsha
Pix: Let us know if you have trouble with these. We are using some new software to put the e-mail together and they're behaving a bit differently than before.
