A substantial feat

Last weekend we finally got our kayak hung in the garage. In our previous life it had its own home on a rack in the garden, but here we don't have that kind of space. It's been languishing on the lower patio on the wrong side of the house to ever be used.The plan has always been to hang it from the garage ceiling but it has taken this long to get it done. The kayak is 17 feet long and the garage is 19, so we didn't have much  room for error.The first and biggest hurdle was to find a mechanism that would support the weight and operate easily. We Googled weights and pulley systems and our first attempt was with bits and pieces from Capital Iron and Canadian Tire. Definitely a non-starter. A single pulley seemed to double the weight and a double pulley took up too much of the 23 inches we had available above the garage door runners. Back to Google where Jim came up with a Harken system specifically geared to our problem and even showing a Subaru Outback in the photo!
Unfortunately our roof trusses run the wrong way. Of course. So it took us one whole afternoon to install 2x4's across the trusses.  A second afternoon was spent installing the cross pieces in the right locations. And finally we took another 4 hours to attach the actually pulley system. The construction time was taken up in finding studs, measuring, figuring, drilling, and winding in lag bolts all 9 feet in the air. Installing the system was relatively straightforward until it came to balancing the kayak and the limited length length of the garage and the shortened drop that that allows.

So, it's hanging but it isn't perfect. We can't let the kayak down onto the car, even though it looks like we could in the photo, because the car with the kayak won't clear the garage opening. And because the garage is short the drop rope is short so the kayak only comes down to about shoulder height making for a not-as-easy-as-we-would-like-it operation. In fact it may be quite difficult to get it rehung as someone, Jim, has to hold one end up high while I figure out a way to get the buckle clipped. But at least it has a home and now it may get some water time.

Today was the day

Below our upstairs balcony we have a rich hedge of cotoneaster shrubs and today was the day that the birds decided the berries had reached perfection. While getting dressed I noticed a great flurry of winged activity  which was a mixed flock of about 50 robins varied thrushes and the elusive cedar wax wings. The feast may go on for a few days as the shrubs are heavily laden. I tried to catch the activity on video, but of course as soon as I stepped onto the balcony the birds headed for the trees and the sound of the morning commute pretty much drowns out the chirping racket. Oh well. I was excited.

if you look really hard there is a cedar wax wing in this photo

Happy first day of spring

I know, I know, it's a little wierd but then so am I.
In my sunny little world, discoloured by my rose-tinted glasses, today is the first day of spring not the first day of winter as stated in the newspaper. The sun sets one minute later tomorrow than it will today and I will be marking the progress of el sol's march northward. Yippee!
In about 10 days time when we pack away our Christmas decorations we will have gained about 10 minutes of daylight, not much, but enough to remind the early cherry trees to get into bloom. And after that there is no holding back...

So last night we broke out some champagne, lit the Christmas lights and a lot of candles in honour of the last day of darkness, and toasted the solstice.

I have a cold!

That is only a momentous announcement because I haven’t had one for several years, not because I think I am hard done by. I’m dosing myself with saline nose spray and salt water gargle which work as well as anything else. I briefly resorted to chemicals yesterday until I read the fine print about people with thyroid issues (they called it thyroid disease which sounds far worse than it feels) speaking to their doctor about the medication. That’s a problem.

It was recently reported in our local rag, and maybe in yours, that people in BC are the least likely to have an annual physical check-up. What wasn’t reported, this time, was how many of us don’t have a ‘family’ doctor which makes getting an annual physical pretty difficult. Our beloved and long time GP has recently given up his general practice so Jim and I are now part of that have-not group. We have a great system of walk-in clinics so it’s not hard to get things looked after but don’t ask them to spend more than 10 minutes, ‘cuz there’s a line up.  I needed two prescriptions filled (one of them the thyroid hormone without which I am even crazier than usual!) so I took myself off to the nearest walk-in, waited about 45 minutes and spent less than a nano second with the doctor who took my word for it that I have been using the same prescriptions for decades. Not exactly “health care”, but it got the job done for the time being.  I can only imagine the reaction if I had called to ask if I should take Sudafed for a cold! Meanwhile we both need physicals for our travel insurance and we aren’t sure how to go about it. The Victoria Medical Society lists one doctor taking new patients (“don’t call me unless your doctor has recently retired or you are new to the city”) but she is way across town.

Two other health related items of interest, to me at least:

I volunteered to take part in a huge Canadian cancer research study http://www.bcgenerationsproject.ca/ and had my assessment last week with an enthusiastic nurse from Ontario. When I told him my age he paused, and then said he was having trouble getting used to what 62 looks like in BC compared to Ontario. We decided it is all about our 12 month outdoor lifestyle versus the restrictions inherent in parts of the country that have ice and snow to contend with.

This morning I watched a YouTube clip about the benefits of walking that was posted on Facebook by Saanich Rec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInS6HIGo&feature=share. The last words were “Can you limit your sitting and sleeping time to just 23 ½ hours each day?”  Wow; what a powerful way to point out how little time is needed to invest in health, and since we don't have a doctor....

Silver Threads

Contrary to some predictions at the time Jim and I have just celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary. The silver that marked the event is present in our hair! Our decision to be together was not a universally celebrated event. In fact I don’t know anyone who was happy about it at the time. Even Jim and I wished it were otherwise but the decision seemed out of our control; forces of the universe and all that. And here we are 25 years later on the other side of the continent and the scandal of the century has been replaced by thousands of other interesting stories. We are still happy in our little bubble and have had a wonderful two and a half decades. It seemed a momentous milestone and we wrestled with how to mark the occasion initially thinking a super special trip would be the answer. Eventually we realized that the relationship we have with our friends and family members all over the world is our most prized possession and that we would go back to PEI to celebrate, to the scene of the crime as it were.

Alan making a point?

Nancy, Karon, Jim

Melynda, Mark, Pat, Paul, Sue

still not sure?

Pat and Ed, (Jim’s sister and b-i-l) agreed to let us host a party at their house and that’s what we did. We had a great time and it was the perfect celebration. Except for Jim’s parents everyone from the wedding was present; there were only seven of us on the day so it wasn’t that hard. Our very dear friends Jim & Karon Croll came from Fredericton and the family showed up in droves. Our stalwart compadres, who muster any time we appear and who can’t imagine how important they are to us, were there again and again and again.

the Saint John/Halifax Griffiths

Mark and Paul are both older now than Jim was when we married, that shocked them, and while they were reluctant attendees of the wedding dinner we seem to have worked out a happy relationship. Paul made it possible for Mark and Melynda to come to the party and he gave Jim and me executive class tickets which I am enjoying right now while I write this blog post.

Of our 25 years, actually 27, together, 22 have been on the west coast. Thankfully my sister figured that out while we were thinking only about ancient history, and she got our Victoria ‘family’ together for a celebration too. So the occasion has been signed, sealed, and delivered, and we are looking forward to the next 25 with great pleasure but also with the wealth of love and support that we enjoy from our very special circle.

If you ain’t got people, people, you ain’t got nuthin.

Jim enjoying his 'pod' on the way home.