Winter's Project Dreaming

Well, all right, not dreaming per se.
But project ideas generally surface at this dreary time of year.
This winter is no exception.

Husband is planning to redo a 25 year-old low wall in the back yard that we've affectionately named the Pisa wall.

Today the materials arrived, and the operator deftly manipulated the Hyab's hydraulic arms, via the hand held remote, to place the three pallets on the dime!

Glad we don't have to unload the pallets block by block...

It was sad to read that OK Builders' Supplies is closing its builders centers and masonry divisions after 65 years in Penticton, Kelowna and Vernon.  
 

The low wall, which runs approx. 25 feet, will be replaced.

Pisa's lean...we'd waited for it to fall over...alas it did not!

"Steel-toed runners are required," Kia would've said.

For the Quail too...

Let's hope all the workers of that business land on their feet with good replacement jobs!
Thank you OK Builders for years of great service and products!

Buchanan Road Water Line Break

"It was ugly (to fix)," sighed a Coldstream utility worker today, adding "We were done at 1 in the morning!"

Residents were notified via door-to-door late Tuesday afternoon, January 29th, of a broken line on our road.

We shut off the residence's incoming water, while crews worked on the repair as darkness fell.

They had to flush the line to drain water before the repair could even start.
Must've been a nasty job in the dark.

This morning, ditches all along the road showed the scope of draining work.

Repair finished

Everyone's likely grateful that temperatures were only -4C during the water line break.

"Bet you weren't complaining about the price of water during the outage," Kia would've said.

Nope!
Especially when we--in a brainfuzz moment--turned the dishwasher on during the outage!

Never take water for granted!

Robins Herald Spring's Arrival

Either that or they've developed a taste for frozen worms.

Difficult to see, but at center (just below middle) are two Robins.

The weather has been so nice this winter...mild, with relatively low snowfall.
And here we are on January 28th with Robins bickering with one another...already!

The next photo is of my prized Northern Red Oak (don't look for a bird), Quercus rubra.
Another sign that spring is just around the corner is when the tree loses its dried and brown leaves as buds begin to swell...from the top down.

These Oak trees are native to the eastern half of the continent, and I'm thrilled it has turned into a fine specimen in this hot and dry environment.

Quercus rubra, planted approx. 40 years ago.

 

Unattractive during winter, it's truly a magnificent specimen the rest of the year, and today tops out at about 30 feet.

During October and November's mild days, our grandson asked for "garbage bags" so that he could pick up the tree's crop of acorns.  Pity his Mom when he brought the bags home and proudly announced "Here, Mommy, acorns I picked for you!"

Many, many birds have overwintered here and it's customary to see flickers, finches, sparrows, chickadees, magpies and the ubiquitous Quail.  The quail are truly everywhere!  Hundreds of them!
This winter's supply of black oil sunflower seeds so far totals 3 large bags, and 6 Suet (loved by the Flickers)!

Small group of Quail await spillage from overhead feeder.

And a hawk that hangs around daily:

The hawk atop a pine tree at our eastern fenceline

The Flickers will be disappointed this spring as the dead birch that stood for many years in which a large nesting hole had been extended no longer exists.  The "wildlife tree" fell during a windstorm in December.

"Wildlife tree" where Flickers nested is no more

The February weather forecast is calling for continued mildish conditions.

All that's missing is my best friend's pawprints across the last of snow.
Ah...the melancholy of what used to be.

Legal versus Public Opinion

EDIT 3:30 pm (post-publish):
And this comment (from another blog):
"Exclusive: Plecas’s “final straw” was Clark’s plan to politicize riding offices.
Look, if anyone was “above board”, this exposure would have happened years prior, but it took an independent Speaker of the Ledge to bring it to light.
I would love an independent audit of at least the last 10 years of the BC Ledge, which includes current BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkenson’s tenure, when James got promoted without a consensus, over more qualified candidates.
You have to at least go back to the John Doyle accounting era, where his report chastised the BC Liberals for non-compliance to the rules. He got the boot with an NDA. I’d love to hear what he saw-the Greedo Scampbell-Coleman-DeJong horror show. Might as well throw Mary Polak in there because they all said not a thing about this for years and the blind excuse does not wash..
The fix was in from the start with Greedo’s inauguration when he LIED at the polls saying he wouldn’t sell BC Rail and then selling it to one of his prominent donators and creating a huge lawsuit and trial that cost taxpayers tens of millions and the trust of gov’t.
“You won’t recognize BC when I am finished” Scampbell said at his victory speech, almost identical to Justin Greedeau’s victory speech."

Now to my original post!

...and never the twain shall meet.
Unfortunately!
 
This week's exposure by B.C. House Speaker Darryl Plecas of the expense account "irregularities" of Messrs. Lenz and James have, as predicted by Plecas, made taxpayers barf.

As this Vancouver Sun article portends, legal opinions are already posturing that these guys will never see a day in court, and certainly not be found guilty of a criminal offence even if they do end up in court.

Seems to me they're separating crime from the white collar description, implying that if the rules are "loosey goosey", then the person can make their own decision about what the rules actually mean.
As in anything goes.

Senator Mike Duffy's expense account, and former Liberal aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk spring to mind, and we all know how those went.  It's called precedent.

The public considers this to be white-collar crimes.
But legal opinions--expressed in the Sun story--by lawyers (obviously jostling to become involved in this chaos if charges are levied!) separate the words "white collar" and "crime", as though nothing a white collar bureaucrat or official could do, or did in this case, is tantamount to crime.


So who are these guys?
James and Lenz.
Lenz and James.

I don't even care who is who...it's Lenz and James.  Or James and Lenz.

While the public considers "white collar crimes" to be criminal, these fraudsters will likely get a slap on the proverbial wrist, if anything at all.

Think back to the sub-prime debacle in about 2008...did any of the Goldman Sachs principals end up in jail for purposely bundling junk bonds within packets of good stuff to sell to the global investment community?
No, of course not!

These guys cheated us!
They defrauded taxpayers of contributions we made that belonged to the Province of British Columbia.

And that's just the start of it.
More will come out as the RCMP investigation--aided by two special prosecutors--will no doubt reveal.

And this isn't the first time, either.
Entitlement by senior bureaucrats isn't rare.
The investigation may indeed even cover elected members of the Legislative Assembly.
Remember that the ~16 year tenure of the Liberal party in B.C. was fraught with considerable chaos, specifically charges of political corruption most notably the BC Rail issue.  Not immune to chaos, British Columbia's NDP party had also faced charges of corruption after their second term.
Does anyone remember that taxpayers during the BC Rail issue ended up paying about $6 million for the legal defense of Basi and Virk?

Maybe government(s) count on our having a very, very short memory.

Decide just how disgusted you are.
Start with the 76-page Report authored by House Speaker Darryl Plecas.
Then have a quick read about bureaucratic entitlement called "The Final Pre-Extinction Clash".

Frankly, lying and "entitlement" isn't what we teach our children.
This isn't how we--the public--live our lives.

"Because we're honest," Kia would've intoned.

Our collars, whether blue or white, are clean.
Just like that of House Speaker Darryl Plecas, who deserves a medal from taxpayers.

Right after we clean up the barf.

Thank you, Darryl Plecas.
The "Honourable" that precedes his name is well-earned.

Long Hiatus Over

Wow, seven months since my last posting.

Was hoping Fortis would get going on--finally--planning to provide natural gas to the Buchanan Road pariahs...you know, the folks on Buchanan Road from Grey Road at the west end to approximately Warren Road at the east end.

Pariahs?  Well, what else would have prevented residents' receiving the virtual necessity--natural gas--due to B.C. Hydro's annual gouging other than to have been discriminated against...for some reason?  Especially since natural gas lines have extended all the way to Lumby along Highway 6 for many years.

Now, months and months after Debbie Fisher got the ball rolling with a petition to Fortis from residents, there's been no word from Fortis.  They had said in late Spring 2018 that they were focusing on getting natural gas to the VegPro operation on Highway 6.
Since then? 
Nothing at all.
Sigh.

So what's been happening since July when I last posted, a full six months ago?

Firstly, a huge catch-up.
Maria Besso was engaged late summer to list our property at 7961 Buchanan Road, Coldstream.
So far only a couple of people were interested in a further discussion.
Maria will do a good job, as she did selling my Mother's townhouse in Vernon after Mom had moved into Coldstream Meadows care home.

This year's golf season ended on its last day--September 30th--which was unusually rainy and windy.  September had been coolish but we didn't mind.  It was a nice change from the months of July and August--with their heat and fire-fuelled smoky skies which were, frankly, nasty.  Especially with newspapers and radio and TV all advising residents and tourists, on a daily basis, to "stay indoors".
National television coverage of B.C.'s second season in a row of devastating fires didn't help, and tourists stayed away.

It was a tough year in many ways.

My 94 year old Mom passed away on Mother's Day, May 13th, and a month later, my Mother-in-law in Abbotsford also passed, a week shy of her 96th birthday. Husband was named Executor which necessitated numerous trips to the Coast for meetings with siblings and agencies to conclude paperwork.
The melancholy continued as the second anniversary of Kia's passing was marked near the end of September.  It was tough to come home without that wagging tail at the gate, and it continued to be heartbreaking as some now-and-then customers enquired "where's Kia?"

October was unusually warm and sunny.

It was wonderful, and during the second week I jumped into the Tacoma for my twice-annual "three-day getaway" to Washington state. 
T-shirt weather, great shopping (for Grandson!), found a fabulous Bavarian restaurant in Wenatchee, one so-so motel (ugh, actually, but I was so tired I took it anyway).
I never make hotel reservations, as I'm determined to go whichever way the wind blows and the mood strikes, as they say.
The next night I treated myself to the Cedars Inn in East Wenatchee.

And what a treat the Cedars Inn was (especially following the so-so motel the night before).  On the Columbia River, the Cedars was almost fully booked (it was a Friday), but they did have a handicapped room with king-size bed, parking immediately outside, clean and very roomy. So roomy in fact that it was easily twice the size of any hotel I had stayed at in previously in Wenatchee.

I had planned to again meet Ed Payne, of Golfer's Edge.  Over the years, our meetings were more like friendly visits, but his business advice and camaraderie were always eagerly anticipated.  I had forgotten where he was now teaching since he left the Mission location the year before, but I luckily ran into an individual who said Ed was now at Three Lakes Golf Course.

Over numerous years of my Wenatchee getaways, I had come to know its roads well (with the exception of my getting lost a few years ago and ending up at Rock Island!  a story for another day).  I headed south toward Malaga and found the course (albeit more than the stated "four miles from Wenatchee"), tucked in the hills along a rural road.  "Golf Drive" had my jaw dropping at the lovely homes along a tree-lined fairway. 

Surprise...Ed wasn't there.
Anywhere.
The pro in the clubhouse chuckled and said I could find Ed at Highlander Golf Course "up by the airport".
I didn't tell the fellow that Highlander was only a couple of miles from where I was staying in Wenatchee!

Knowing exactly where the airport was--high up in the eastern hill above the Columbia River valley--off I went, customary donuts (for our meeting) in hand.  Winding my way through myriad identical cherry orchards on the high mesa, I saw the golf course's fairways before I found its entry road (akin to finding Three Lakes).  The road I took led me to a small newly-built subdivision of the most magnificent homes I had ever seen--even more spectacular than those at Three Lakes--and within three minutes I reached the end of a dead end road.  So it was back out to the cherry orchards to find a different road to the gigantic golf course that I glimpsed here and there through the cherry rows.

Succeeding at last, I was met by impressive open wrought-iron gates and started to enter.
I immediately stopped as a red truck was exiting, so I gave him the right of way.  The driver waved his thanks, and off I went to the end of the road where the rather unusual-looking clubhouse sat high overlooking the valley below.  The clubhouse looked small when I compared its exterior to those I knew at other 18-hole courses, but the interior was immense with high ceilings and marble floors.

On finding the pro shop, I was very warmly greeted by a sporty looking fellow, who directed me to the employees in charge.  Now-cool donuts in their fancy pastry box in hand, I asked for Ed Payne.  "He just left, you must have seen him in his truck, his red truck, he's gone for the weekend," I was told.

It was early Saturday afternoon, and I had goofed.
I was going home on Sunday and Ed would be back on Monday!
A mischievous glint in his eye, the fellow said he'd give Ed my apologies and a message.
"Yes please apologize on my behalf, but there's no message".
(I had briefly explained my re-routing to Three Lakes, blamed for the delay).
He continued to smile...and his eyes never left the pastry box, which I handed him with a smile.

As I turned to leave, he chuckled "I'm sure the crumbs will still be fine by Monday" when Ed returns.

Not all business meetings are fruitful, but some are certainly sweet!
So...it'll be in 2019 when I next see Ed...with a new batch of warm from the oven bakery delicacies!

The Tacoma chock-full of clothes and shoes for my grandson, I headed north the next day.
Despite missing Ed, it had still been a wonderful escape for me.
The rest of October was filled with the customary dentist and doctor appointments.

November was unimpressive generally.
December was wonderful with our grandson so delighted by, well frankly, everything.
Rather than gush on about this pleasant and pleasing young lad who will turn five this Spring, suffice to say he's the apple of my eye!  And skiing for his second winter.
Christmas saw visits by relatives and good friends, and there was finally (barely) sufficient snow for the little ones to toboggan and ice skate.

Then I entered the truly contented month of my year, January:  Ahhhh...books to read.
But first, I spent two days doing my business' year-end and calculating GST, issuing T-4, etc. etc.
The joy of keeping up with bookkeeping throughout the golf season is that it only takes me a day or two to complete it during the winter!

Now to the books! 

I started with the reasonably light-hearted "Matters of Vital Interest" by Eric Lerner, his recounting of his forty-year friendship with Leonard Cohen.  Leonard Cohen had died in late 2016 and I had for some time wanted to know more about this unassuming and complicated man. 

My next book was "Red Notice" by Bill Browder, "a true story of high finance, murder, and one man's fight for justice", its jacket states.
Interestingly, as I walked past the always-on family room TV today at 4 p.m., which is always tuned to BBC Canada, Katty Kay and Christian Fraser's comment caught my ear: "and in Davos Switzerland today, we're speaking with human rights activist Bill Browder".

What a coincidence!!!!!  I had only yesterday finished the Browder book.  Long before turning the book's last page, I was convinced Mr. Browder was placing himself in extreme danger of the Russian officials he exposed, alongside the apparent acceptance of the Russian president Putin.
Mr. Browder details in the book his considerable years of work in Russia and to have Russian criminals barred from entering the U.S.A.   The Magnitsky Act received unanimous support and was passed into U.S. law in 2012.

The next book (I'll start this weekend) is "Fascism--a Warning" by Madeleine Albright.

This winter's mild weather may be an omen for a difficult golf season, but I've learned to only sweat the stuff over which I have some control.  It mostly works.