Tuesday 30 October 2012


What not to do in the event of an earthquake:




Elizabeth Zook, Salt Spring's Emergency Co-ordinator,
was quoted last year as saying, "The best thing to do is go under a desk and hold on to your head with your arms."
Either that, or "stand in a doorway, as long as you're aware of swinging doors." What if you're in a saloon? I guess you're toast.

Today on the CBC, another person was advising the same thing: "roll tuck and cover" - and this is the recommended course of action being told to students all across North America.

Being told to scurry under a desk and use your arms as some sort of debris-defying shield, is one of the really dumb things people are often told to do. I suspect this advice has more to do with crowd control. Fair enough, but I'd choose pandemonium over waiting for a roof to collapse on my head. Number one cause of death in these situations? Being trapped, or getting hit with falling objects. Hence, the folly of assuming a flimsy desk made from particle board is going to save you from a five hundred pound beam falling from a school that was built in 1945.

(It makes you realize that our human-made infrastructure is what threatens us. If you're living in a teepee, what's there to worry about? You could make a snack, sit back and enjoy the ride.)


I have had many discussions with my kids about this. This morning as I was driving them to school, I reminded them that if they feel an earthquake while in class, they are to run out of the building as fast as possible. Don't stop to pick up your backpack, don't wait for the teacher to start issuing frantic instructions, and don't hang around waiting for your friends. Book it - run to the field and wait for me.

My older son said, "Great...just when the cottage is finished it gets swept away by a tsunami." My younger son said, "Mum, just make sure you save Sachie and Marcello." His friend said, "I just worry what would happen to my baseball career." Sports injuries: one more thing to fret about.

 






Studies indicate that people who question authority are twice as likely to survive a catastrophe. I highly recommend this book - everyone should read this, and it's riveting:






This means I have a fighting chance because I question everything, and I generally take a dim view of the average person's intellect. Telling kids to sit around waiting to be squished like a june-bug is irresponsible. Things don't start to fall right away; you have time to find some place safer.

*    *    *    *

Lorenzo and I, like millions of BC'ers, are not prepared for any sort of calamity. Flashlights? There might be one in the junk drawer but the batteries are probably dead. Candles? Yup - lots of Ikea tea candles, so if the power goes out we'll at least have ambiance. Water? There's a half-barrel in the front yard that would provide us with not-so-sparkling-clean water for about...a day or so. Lanterns? Nope. Food stocked away? A few tins of tuna, I guess. I don't buy a lot of canned goods. Shovels, picks, tools...? Lots of those, but if the storage area gets crunched, good luck finding them. The good news is, if the house suffers damage Lorenzo can rebuild it! This makes you think about how totally useless we are. I should have joined the Girl Scouts when I was a kid, but we all thought that was for nerds.

In the spirit of emergency preparedness, I am going to Home Depot today to buy some flashlights. I'm also going to start filling up our empty milk jugs with water and putting them aside.

(global warming, anyone?)

*     *     *     *

Lorenzo is heading over to Mayne Island on Thursday night to install the hearth. He's been suffering from neck pain and overall exhaustion, so I investigated the easiest hearth-pad solutions. A hearth pad goes on the floor under the stove, obviously. You can buy them and just pop them in:




I thought this one was quite nice...





Believe it or not, one of these hearth pads can run you as much as five hundred dollars. Which is ridiculous. So then I thought about using a piece of sheet metal, or checker plate...







Lorenzo called one of his steel contacts to get a price, but they didn't get back to him. In any event, we already have some pebble tile, so we'll just use what we have. I think we need a few more sheets, though...


 

The legs of the wood stove need to rest on a flat surface, so now I have to buy four tiles and Lorenzo will have to cut the pebble tile around them. I saw these ones on the Home Depot website. They measure 4 inches square and they're cheap. Good enough...






Until next time!






Tuesday 23 October 2012

I'm baaaack!

It's been awhile, hasn't it?  Everyone was under the weather - Lorenzo, our daughter, and myself all came down with stomach flu and even though we're over it, Lorenzo & I have both had constant headaches for the past four days. So, we're still on the mend. At least the boys didn't get it...

Well, the fireplace situation continues to be the Achilles heel of our cottage renovation. To refresh: the cottage had an old cast-iron wood stove, which sat upon a ghastly heap of bricks and mortar, jutted out from the wall nearly five feet, and was an overall eye-sore, not to mention toe-trap because every time you walked by, you ended up injuring yourself...




We decided on an actual wood burning fireplace, so it was all torn out and Lorenzo built a fantastic fire-place surround...








Then we discovered that the firebox we'd excitedly purchased from Craigslist was completely inadequate and wouldn't pass code. Blowing thousands more on another fireplace insert seemed woefully extravagant, so we decided to keep the original wood stove. All the framing gets torn down, and we're back to where we were before. BUT! We wanted to install the original wood stove closer to the wall. This entailed building what is called a "heat shield." This is a "wall" of cement board that floats in front of the exterior wall with a one-inch air space behind. First, Lorenzo removed the existing wall board and re-insulated the wall...




Then new plywood...





Lorenzo had to purchase copper couplings, cut the cement board, and fiddle around for a whole day. Just to be on the extra safe side, Lorenzo covered the area with metal foil...




On the floor you can see the cement board with the copper couplings. Here it is installed and ready for some sort of non-combustible material to be installed on top - ie - tile, stone, etc.


Here is the crucial one-inch gap that is required...




When he was done, he laid out the pebble tile we'll be using on the hearth just to see how it will look...





After all this, Lorenzo decided to drink a cup of coffee and take a look at the original wood stove. He came to the eventual conclusion that it's a piece of crap and has to go. I didn't argue, because the manufacturer no longer exists, which means you cannot obtain any specs on it - insurance companies don't like this. It also has some rust, but I figured I could remove it with a bit of sanding.

In any case, I started making phone calls to a variety of fireplace retailers, and learned that Pacific Energy makes a great wood stove that happens to be offering several hundred dollars in rebates. We decided to bite the bullet and get a new stove.  What is really fantastic about these units, besides the fact that they are made right here in BC, is that you have the option of enamel coating in a variety of colours, two door styles, leg styles, etc. Here is the one we're getting... My choice is ivory with nickel-plated door and legs...




Lorenzo also likes the ivory, but prefers a black door with black legs...




My oldest son chooses green...




My daughter prefers blue...





My younger son was playing his drums and wasn't available for comment. With all of these choices, I wonder which one we'll go with. I think the person who'll be cleaning it should make the final decision. Wait a minute - that's me! Yay...





So there we were, feeling very pleased that we're getting a well-priced, lovely looking wood stove. Lorenzo spoke to the guy at Salt Spring Home Design who'll be installing it, and get this: He says, "Gee. Too bad you built a heat shield, because with this wood stove, you don't need one." That's right. Because it's made of steel instead of cast iron, it can be installed 6-inches from a combustible wall - meaning that not only do you not require a heat shield, you don't even have to tile behind it.

Once again, poor Guido will be tearing everything out. He's like Prometheus - but instead of struggling with a boulder, he's forever fiddling around with a fire place. The good news is, the new wood stove will sit in front of our beautiful pine-panelled walls without any interruption. No tile, no pebble stone, no messing around with grout and mortar.

Let's hope this will end the Fawlty Towers chapter on the wood stove/fire place debacle.

*     *     *     *

The other development is that, much to our relief, we hired painter on the island. So far, she has repainted two of the bedrooms and primed the stairwell...trim work around the windows and the doors still have to be done...




So to recap: Our new wood stove will be installed around November 14. By then, the painting will be done, and then Lorenzo wants to go ahead with the flooring. He was going to hire someone, but it will cost thousands of dollars. At this point, I think he really likes the idea of being able to say that he did everything.


*     *     *     *

I walked my dog tonight and listened to Oscar Peterson on my i-pod. His "Hymn to Freedom" never ceases to blow me away. It just doesn't get any better...imagine a world without music. I can't - it would be unbearable. If you haven't listened to Oscar Peterson, you are missing out on one of the greatest musical wonders who ever lived.





*     *     *     *


Tomorrow there will be a province-wide action to defend our coasts from oil-tankers and pipelines...





We just keep going in the wrong direction.

In the meantime, Germany is committed to harnessing 35-percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2020, no matter what the cost.

Sweden has had to import garbage to use in energy conversion because their recycling and composting efforts have been so successful. But here we are, getting ready to put our beautiful coastline at risk.

Lorenzo and I attended a town hall meeting about Kinder Morgan and several hundred people attended, which was very heartening. Our MP, as well as our Mayor, are vehemently opposed.

If you want to know where the action will be in your area, follow the links:


http://defendourcoast.ca/actions/


I'll be there. Let's hope it doesn't rain.




     The Gulf Islands - Beautiful British Columbia









Wednesday 10 October 2012


The cottage is definitely coming along. Lorenzo returned from Mayne Island on Sunday morning, feeling very happy that his work is pretty much done. We have hired a painter and she has already started working. Here is what has been done the past few days...


The original sliding glass door was removed...





And the new patio door was installed; the space to the right will be for the piano...




The closet doors for the laundry closet are in...





Side by side closets: The ones on the right for the washer & dryer are a plain recessed panel door. I'm going to put mirrors in them to reflect the light from the patio door and the windows opposite. This will really brighten things up...





The posts are all done...





The beam has been cladded...





Looking good!






Saturday 6 October 2012

I think the other shoe has dropped. Gloomy blog ahead...

This weather - the relentless blue sky, the shining sun, the unusual warmth... lovely? Maybe not. My eco-depression has returned.


                                Dry river bed 2012


Picked up a copy of Rolling Stone at the library last night - read an article about global warming that left me weak in the knees. The whole world needs to read articles like this.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719

I felt numb today. Did a ton of paperwork, picked up the turkey, walked the dog, answered emails...and all the while felt pulled down by a heavy sense of foreboding.
But life has to go on, so you plan your Thanksgiving dinner, and you renovate a cottage, and get your hair cut, and everyone goes about their lives. That's what I do: get depressed about the environment, but then I perk up again. The backward slide into denial.

Because we are unable to imagine the unimaginable. Unable to grasp the global catastrophe that is happening. It isn't coming, it's here.

I predict that future generations, assuming we have a future, will look back upon this time as the age of swallowing horses and choking on fleas. The right of someone to smoke a cigarette - on an outdoor patio during a windstorm at midnight - garners more outrage and media attention than global warming. You can drive your Hummer and shake your finger at someone having a smoke. Because they're violating your right to fresh air, the selfish bastards.
 



Read that again: Smokers, not smoking, are dangerous to your health. Not the effluent from refineries, car and truck exhaust, dioxins in the ocean, pesticides and genetically altered food, acid-rain... No signs posted for all of that.  No, it's smokers. Get rid of smokers and everyone will breathe fresh clean air. How dangerously insane....



 
                                Devastated Corn Crop 2012


The droughts in the US - where most of our food comes from - is being called "The 50-Billion Dollar Drought." Food prices will rise to record levels. What will we do if the US can no longer feed us? Cattle ponds are drying up in Arkansas. Illinois in in danger of losing its corn crop. Droughts in Canada, in Africa, in Asia, record forest fires, extreme weather being cited by meteorologists around the world...


The New York Times: "...From deep water drilling for oil to fracking for gas and arctic mining, there are no more limits. This is astonishing...it should also be alarming. We are tempted by our successes to exaggerate our power to solve the problems of the world — that if we really need to, we will be able to. We believe that our ingenuity, though it may cause some problems from time to time, will also help us get out of them. Yet the evidence increasingly points in the opposite direction. Since the United Nations set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, investment in technology that could counter global warming has been on a tiny scale compared to that spent on technology that contributes to expanding energy usage, and thus emissions..."
 

Global warming is the story of the century, but how often is it front-page news? How long will we wait? Our oceans already have dead zones that are devoid of fish, and it's expanding everyday. The list of our planet's warning signs are seemingly endless.


                   
                                Record forest fires



                                Drought - Eastern Canada 2012



                                Morse Reservoir - Indiana 2012


 
 
 
                               Drought - North Korea 2012




                                Dry cove in the midwest 2012


*     *     *     *


Lorenzo is on Mayne Island right now, installing doors. He is making a cottage for us which has been our dream for nearly twenty years.


 

                                            October 6, 2012






But right now it feels tainted by a sense of hopelessness.

The ferry trip over there is already enough to fill me with guilt...all these ferries, half-empty, dumping thousands of gallons of eco-killing toxins into the sea. What are we doing?


I know I will never live on Mayne Island. Not unless I can be self-sufficient. The idea of parking myself on that island, in stupid oblivion, making trips to the grocery store where everything is shipped in, where every tomato I buy, every loaf of bread, was brought there by burning thousands of tonnes of fossil fuels, makes me feel sick. It makes me feel irresponsible. I will only live there when I can produce my own food, my own eggs and chicken, and hopefully install other green-sources of energy.

But what good will that do if you can't grow anything?
If it never rains?
If it never stops raining?


Anyway...Happy Thanksgiving.

Thursday 4 October 2012


The Not-So-Great Debate...





The family gathered around the blue screen to watch last night's debate. What a disappointment for anyone in the Obama camp. Mitt Romney owned the podium, in my opinion. He was articulate, straight-forward, and easy to understand. He is a polished public speaker.  A born salesman. Obama hemmed, hawed, and reminded me of a car that keeps lurching and stalling because the gear-shift is disengaged.

Twice, Romney charged that Obama invested 90-billion in the green economy, and half of those investments have gone bust. Twice. Obama's response? Silence. Why didn't he retaliate by reminding the people watching that his investment in green technology created a million jobs? Or that only 10-percent (which is fairly standard) of thousands of companies have gone bankrupt?

And when Romney mentioned "clean coal" I nearly fell off my chair. Again, no reaction from Obama. He's a much smarter man than Romney - better read, better informed - and yet he came across as weak and ineffective. There was too much "we can" and "we should" and not enough "we did."

The Democrats have always been terrible at defending themselves and continually try to advocate for bi-partisanship; they seem unwilling to accept how much the Republicans hate them. So often, Democrats will acknowledge good ideas from the other side, but rarely is there any reciprocation.

Romney threw out statistics that are patently false - political fact checkers have discredited nearly every charge he made; even his own team had to clarify some of his errors. I hope the next round is better. I hope Obama can tap into some healthy outrage and show some passion for what he's saying.


*    *    *    *

Lorenzo left for Mayne Island tonight to install doors, finish up some odds & ends and meet with the painter. He's planning to come home Saturday. I sure hope she shows up!

I found a dead chickadee in my living room today. I can't imagine how it got into my house; it must have flown in when I had the back door open. I'm guessing that it hit its head on the window. Poor thing - they're my favourite birds. Lorenzo said, "You know what they say about a bird in the house." Where do these superstitions come from, I wonder...




A few people have mentioned that they've been unable to post comments on this blog. I have checked my setting several times, so I don't understand why this is happening. I was wondering why no one had anything to say...now I know.




Tuesday 2 October 2012


Breaking news: Ralph Lauren has hired its first plus-sized model. You have to admire Ralph for having the courage to give this chunky flabbalanche a turn in the spot light, thereby giving all the fat women in the world an opportunity to feel better about their ample proportions. Here she is:





What progress we're making, seeing this rotund gal making news around the world. Imagine how much better women like Adele and Kirstie Alley must be feeling. Or half of the population of the United States. Way to go Ralph - we need more plus-sized chubby-chunks like this in the fashion industry. And if she gains 5 or 6 pounds, you can include her in your "Obese Summer Swimsuit Catalogue."



 
 
 
 

Monday 1 October 2012



It's October! The leaves are turning yellow red and orange...the days are getting shorter. Makes me think of Linus in the pumpkin patch. Autumn is a lovely season, but it's a harbinger of what's to come: WINTER. I'm getting a bit anxious about the cottage as the weather is going to get colder and we have no heat over there - which is very bad for the piano.

The winter cold on the Gulf Islands feels different than on the mainland; it is damp and bone-chilling. Our cottage is already over-shadowed by towering pines so I can only imagine how uncomfortable it will be if we don't get it finished soon. It reminds me of a book I read awhile back written by a fellow who lives on Mayne Island...




Grant Buday arrived in September:

"Everywhere we looked we saw sunburnt fields, balmy shores, boats bobbing picturesquely in the bays...October passed. And then, like a steel door slamming down, November arrived." 

He wasn't prepared for the winter nightfall - it is darkness that you don't see living in the city. There are no street lights, no infrastructure to lighten the sky overhead. It's a saturated, pitch blackness that is hard to describe if you haven't experienced it. He writes that it felt "positively medieval."

And then the rain started:

"It roared down with such a vengeance that the trees sagged defeated under its punishment."

This is a very entertaining read. It's only 76 pages long and I was so disappointed when it ended.

One evening in the summer I went for a walk with two of my kids and the dog. The sun went down and suddenly we were having difficulty making out where we were. Our white t-shirts were glowing in the faltering light and very soon we literally couldn't see each other. It was exhilerating and you could feel all of your senses going into high alert. The snap of a branch indicated a deer close-by; the rustling of trees could have meant a psycho axe murderer was following us. Soon, we saw the head lights of Lorenzo's truck coming down the road - he was worried about us. I thought about that when I read this book - I'll bring a flashlight next time.

*     *     *     *     *

When I was a kid, I would stare at the Aboriginal art work that adorned the walls of my aunt's cottage, and I found it frightening. I was unable to understand why she liked it because children cannot process abstraction or symbolism. As an adult, I have to come to really appreciate it. A few years ago, Lorenzo and I wandered into the Indigena Art Gallery in Granville Island and saw a piece of art work that we knew we had to own. It was done by a Metis artist named Michael Robinson, who died a few months after we made our purchase. It is called "The Poet and The Song."






He would trace his drawing onto copper plate and make an etching, cover the picture with ground rosin, and then the copper plate is heated. It is a very time-consuming process, but the result is very unique and unlike anything I had seen before.

What we both found mesmerizing was the contrast between life above and below the water line; above, there is movement, it is busy and noisy - and human beings are visible. Below, it feels eerily silent and still. The turtle is watching the people in the canoe - and you wonder what she's thinking. Micheal Robinson had a deep concern for the environment, so it's hard to know if his art is pessimistic or hopeful. Actually, it isn't hard to know...I sense he felt a real despair. To me, his art is incredibly haunting and beautiful and I would like to acquire a few more of his works. We have this on the wall in our living room and I never tire of looking at it. Here is a sampling of his talent.




                 Birth of Dreamtime: The Sound of Silence




                   Fogbound on the Great Canadian Highway




                                               Legacy


So much of his art depicts human contact with nature, or first European contact with the Aboriginal. You feel a sense of disruption - that something is being violated.

If you haven't been to the Indigena Art Gallery, you are missing out on a real treat for the eyes. (if you're passionate about art, that is) Here are two carvings that I just love - I'll have to save up for these...





I am ashamed to admit that I have yet to visit the Bill Reid gallery, but it's on my list of things to do. What a genius he was...




                                     Raven and The First Men



                                        Spirit of Haida Gwaii


It seems there was hardly a medium in which Bill Reid did not excel - sculpture, carving, jewelry making, painting... what an astonishing talent.


*     *     *     *


Well, my twins are fourteen years-old. I can't believe it. They had a nice birthday, but it was different from years previous. As soon as dinner was over they took off with their friends and didn't even stick around to have the cake. We ended up eating it the next day, which was a first. I was a bit annoyed about that, but what can you do? Oh, there is something good to report about the cottage: we may have found a painter who actually lives on the island. She is going to meet Lorenzo on Friday and hopefully she's more qualified than the previous guy we hired. Remember "Dud"?

Ciao for now...

 
 
Twin Love