Tag: Life

Accident Crew

Yesterday after the parade was a very scary time. Sox and J left with the girls to go feed them in the car. T and I had the boys and watched the parade a little longer. We started the walk back to the car, and when it was visible, I saw J and Sox standing at the side of the road. J was walking towards T and I with a strange look on her face. Sox was getting Beet into her carseat.

When J was close enough, she said they had been in an accident. They were rear ended while nursing the girls.

My stomach instantly dropped. J said they were OK, but I picked up the pace and caught up to Sox. She was shaken, and I was pretty scared. I gave her a big hug to reassure her, and to make me feel better too. I was pretty worried about her, and for Beet too. The drivers involved were all exchanging information, so I helped with that.

After a couple moments, we could hear an ambulance siren. Sure enough the ambulance was for us, but noone knew who called it in. The crew got out and ensured everyone was fine. Once they determined there were no injuries, they went on their way. As they were leaving a police car showed up, and a firetruck, both with lights and sirens going. The firemen wanted to make sure the scene was safe, and that no cars were on fire nor leaking anything flammable. The police took statements from everyone, and helped figure everything out. I am glad that they arrived because that reassured me and seemed to calm everyone down. Also, with their police report on file, we no longer need to keep track of anyones information. Through it all though, the boys were very patient, and the girls uttered not a peep.

Sox and J were not buckled at the time they were hit. Sox was feeling a little sore yesterday so she headed to a clinic to get herself and Beet examined. I am extremely happy that they are fine. The car is a little banged up, and now we need to start dealing with ICBC to get it fixed. There is a bunch of damage to the drivers side rear quarter panel, the rear bumper, the rear door, potentially the rear tire, and the front bumper too (our car was pushed into the one in front of us). We have plans to head to Vancouver this weekend so hopefully we won’t be without a vehicle (although a close friend of ours offered her van for us to use).

Quite the saga. Imagine sitting in a parked vehicle at the side of the road and being rear ended. Scary. I am just glad that nobody in any of the four cars was hurt.

Vacation Things

Vacation update here. It has been a very busy week.

This past Wednesday I fired up our brand new gas powered weed eater. Holy smokes is it ever powerful and does an amazing job. Once I got it running I hit the twitchy gas trigger and the engine took off. When that happened the trim head also took off with the torque from the engine. The electric variety never do that. I also got through the trimming in no time flat. Awesome.

Thursday Sox had a dentist appointment so I had the kids for a little while. After dropping Sox off at her appointment, we headed to the mall to see the fish at the pet store. We then spent some time in the play area.. Later, I got out for a tiny ride to downtown to meet a friend for lunch. I also stopped at MEC for a bit of shopping. Since I was on my bike I wasn’t able to pick up the new tires I was going to get.

Friday I spent some time on the computer upgrading some software and I also did some yardwork. These are all some things that I have been wanting to do for a while, and it was nice to knock them off the list.

Vic West Fest was pm Saturday so we took Sprout and Beet out there to check things out. Sprout checked out the fire engine, played on the playground, checked out a smart car, and had a hot dog for lunch.

Mothers day I had plans to sneak out when Beet woke up and get Sox a morning Chai. Of course that morning Beet slept in and my plan was foiled a little bit. Everyone seemed to get up at the same time (8 am) and that is when I went out for coffee’s. After breakfast Sprout and I headed out to Kinsmen Gorge park to check out a new playground.

Yesterday Sox and Beet had some errands to run after dropping Sprout off at daycare so I had some more computing time (a nice way for me to relax), then did some more yard work. Sox, Beet and I then walked Yoshi and bought the week’s groceries.

Busy week, but extremely productive and satisfying.

Roundhouse Refurbish

I was at Vic West Fest on Saturday, and came across a display for the proposed changes to the Esquimalt Roundhouse. I’ve been to the Roundhouse on a couple picture shoots (Oct 2005, Feb 2006) and it is a pretty amazing historical site. Here is the development’s website.

The problem is that the buildings are in disrepair and partially condemned. Many people want to save the site but they cannot raise the funds to preserve and refurbish the site to its former glory. The plan I read is to revitalize the area and completely redevelop it into a live/work arrangement that saves the Roundhouse, and its usage for the E&N dayliner while introducing high rises, shopping, restaurants, a brew pub, a market, and condos.

I really have mixed feelings about this. I’d love to see the site preserved as is, but without the money, it just isn’t going to happen. It is sad to think that the site may cease to exist in its current state, and only the roundhouse building will be saved. Even at that, the roundhouse will be forever changed into mixed use.

Lose it and save it. I guess that is better than losing it altogether.

Vacation Planned

Today is the first day of vacation. I don’t return to work until June! This is the longest vacation I have had in probably close to 20 years. We have all sorts of things planned for the month, many are chores, and many things should be lots of fun too. Parks, beaches, Vancouver, bike riding, swimming lessons, Duncan, Yoshi walks, photography and catching up with friends are all some of the fun things.

Yard work, cleaning the house, and selling unnecessary furniture all some of the work things.

This is going to be an excellent month to spend time with Sox, Sprout, and Beet. I am hoping that the weather improves though. Today’s Yoshi walk got a little wet, and that made me a little cranky.

Power Mower

We’ve got power!

After using a battery powered lawn mower for so long, we finally decided to get a new mower. After dealing with electric ones for so long I made the decision to go gas. Maybe not the most environmental choice, but it is newer technology.

Also, it must be better than wasting electricity on the batteries. It also wastes way less time too. The old electric would start to die quite quickly and I would have to spend ridiculous amounts of time cutting the grass.

With the new mower I was able to rip across the grass and get it nicely trimmed in half the time it normally takes. Nice!

Yoshi Busted

We were out at a playground yesterday, and Yoshi stayed home. We always take the cushions off the couch, otherwise Yoshi will sleep on the couch. Apparently that isn’t a deterrent as we busted him sleeping on the couch. As we pulled into the driveway I saw his head in the window. I snuck up to the window with my trusty camera and snapped a few pictures.

Once satisfied that I had enough evidence to convict him I knocked on the window to wake him. He had the gall to stand on the couch and bark at me, presumably because I woke him up. Nice try Yoshi.

Searching Wallet

This morning ended a rather trying 24 hours. Yesterday morning I wanted to do some running around. I made my list, prepared Sprout, grabed my keys and wallet … wait. Where is that wallet?

My wallet was not in its usual spot, and that is pretty strange for me. I began searching the house top to bottom. No sign of it. I looked in the laundry, in the bathroom, the bedroom, rooms my wallet really should not be in. No signs of it anywhere.

Last time I remembered seeing it was at work. Off to Oak Bay. Nope. We were at Kaptain K’s for dinner, so I called over there. They had not seen it. Back home there was more searching by the entire family. Could not find it. I even went back to work a second time and scoured my office.

I gave up the search for dinner, and decided I was stressed enough and didn’t want to keep looking. As we were climbing in to bed Sox asked me when I would call and cancel all the cards. In my mind it must have fallen out of my pocket, and I wanted to give the locater time to get it back to me. I decided Monday morning I would call the banks and cancel the cards.

As I was drifting off to sleep I was still thinking of more places to look. An odd one popped into my mind: in the closet under Sox’s hanging clothes.

This morning after breakfast I looked in that spot, and as I peeled back the clothes, there was my wallet! Weird. I really have no idea how it got there, but it may have been sitting on some clothes, and as they were picked up it bounced under the clothing, neatly hidden from sight.

It got me thinking about all the cards I have in my wallet. I don’t have an inventory of what’s there and what phone numbers to call. Perhaps I should make such a listing.

Grinder Drinks

Sox got me a new grinder for my birthday, and it is way, way better than my old one. The first time I ground some beans I knew it was going to make a difference in the coffee I make. At a medium setting, the grounds were finer than the finest setting of the old one.

Sure enough, my morning Americano’s are tastier than every.

The grinder has all the features I really wanted. A timer instead of just a button, better grind controls, and a way to disassemble for cleaning. Switching to grinding for a bodum is the simple turn of a knob. The new grinder is also a lot quieter than most others, which is an excellent feature for a parent.

To complement my drinks, perhaps I need some new mugs?

via BoingBoing

via Gizmodo

Flowers Vertically

I walked Yoshi and Duke, Jen’s dog, this past weekend up at Thetis Lake. The trails were covered with these really cool white flowers. We have a couple in our back yard, but they aren’t as nice, nor as plentiful as the ones at Thetis. They were a bit of a challenge to shoot due to the light, and that some of the cool parts of the flower can only be seen by looking vertically. I spent an hour walking dogs, and didn’t spend much time shooting, but I still ended up with some quality shots.