Of Events and Celebrations
Greetings everyone!
So, how are things? Is everyone good?
It’s been a bit weird here, of course. But that’s nothing new.
I’d hoped to get a coat of primer on part of the wall in the entryway, but that didn’t happen. I just managed to get up on a ladder to sand down the last of the previously patched areas, but in the process I discovered many more bubbles that needed fixing, so I wound up applying more mud as well.
But that isn’t everything that was going on. Anne’s birthday was this past week and she hit one of those large, round numbers, so we had to celebrate. And our anniversary also occurred this week, and while it’s not a particularly round number, it is disturbingly large. So more celebrations are in order.
We are also in the midst of changing internet and cellular phone providers. Actually, the cell provider has already changed, and we have two ISPs at the moment, as we transition from one to the other. We have networking changes we still have to make to get things working well, though, and we will transition our landline (VOIP) phone over to the new provider once we’re sure everything is stable. I’ve gotta say it is nice to have fiber optic cable to the house. We’re getting 940 Mbps (both up and down) for a pretty reasonable price. But we may need a better mesh router setup to get that distributed well via WiFi. Our existing gear is a bit long in the tooth.
In other news, we’ve retained an architect and had the house measured to get baseline drawings showing sizes and locations of things. That’s all in preparation for the kitchen and bath reno that we know is coming. No clue when that will actually get started, but we are moving in the right direction.
And of course, the community association has been keeping me busy. There’ve been many website updates as we approach the big, annual summer event (tomorrow) and I’ve continued to look into the housing changes and the chlorine plant. But in addition to those I am also watching the huge cost overrun on the local wastewater treatment plant as well. The latter has caused all kinds of upset in Metro Vancouver lately — it’s well beyond a local issue — but it turns out that we (on the North Shore) are going to be saddled with the cost of it for three decades, and it’s going to more than double the average annual sewage bill. People are not exactly happy about it.
As you can tell it’s actually been a busy week, and next week looks similarly crazy, though for different reasons. I get to visit the eye doctor for my annual exam, the dentist for a regular cleaning, and Anne is going on a very short trip to see off one of her long time coworkers as he retires. Add in the usual website work and trying to get started on a couple of articles for the next community email, and things will be nuts.
I figure I will finally prime the entryway wall sometime in 2027.
Or maybe I will get the contractors to do it when they are here to work on the kitchen. Again, sometime in the distant future. *sigh*
As for the goose pictured above, we encountered it at Canada Place — the cruise ship dock in Vancouver harbour — while we were out celebrating Anne’s birthday. It was quite content to let people wander by, and wasn’t attacking anyone. I took the photo because it appeared to be safe to do so.
Now it’s your turn. Fill me in, please! What are you doing lately? Summer is coming… do you have big plans, or are you hiding, like Anne and I tend to do? Inquiring minds want to know!
Cheers!