The Squamidian Report - Nov. 30/02

HI All,

This has been a quiet week. We've been having lovely sunny weather (sunny in the day, dark at night). Normal daytime highs here are about 10 and we have been a bit above that. Our night skies have been so clear that the Andramida galaxy in an easy visual target.

I've put up some outdoor Christmas lights. No choice, I had promised Sue that I'd put more effort into that kind of thing at our 'new house'. We had brought along a big jumble of icicle lights but when I tried them only about 1/3 of the lights worked so I ended up pitching them and buying all new ones. I think we keep the local Canadian Tire store in business. A lot of homes here are well decorated. It's a bit strange to see winter type decorating with everything so green. The balmy west coast is very different from S. Ont.

I had Thursday off as the machine I run broke down. This company's equipment is in pretty bad shape and it gets abused all the time. I went with Warren to Grouse Mountain where he is doing some repairs on big carvings up at the top of the mountain. The views over the St of Georgia and Vancouver are great. Van was socked in with fog so just the tops of the high buildings and the tops of the trees in Stanley Park were visible. That made it more interesting. We could look down on the planes as they descended into the airport, disappearing into the fog layer. Cool.

It is quite common this time of the year for the coastal areas to be foggy. The mountain valleys and the top end of Howe Sound tend to stay clear.

Went up to Warren's on Friday evening for supper and some music. It's Janice's birthday party, sort of. Don't know how old she is and she wouldn't tell me. They have the upper house rented out to a couple of young guys from Montreal who have come to Whistler for the snow boarding. They have jobs there but can't find any place to live so the chalet is perfect for them. Anyway, they move in on Dec. 1 so this little party was held up at the house to enjoy it before the tenants take over for 6 months.

Once this first rental is over, Warren's intend to rent it out for much shorter durations. A week, weekend, that type of thing. They will get more revenue that way as long as they can find customers.

I did something this week that I don't think I've ever done before. I've sent out a bunch of Christmas cards. Not to you guys. At 50 cents a pop for stamps I couldn't see any sense in sending cards to people I keep regular contact with. I've sent them to the people we know but haven’t been in touch with since we moved. However, I didn't send any to people that I'm glad we haven't been in touch with. That would have been dumb.

Just before Sue headed out on her current excursion, she had trimmed the hair around Yogi's eyes. Now he can see. Anyway, we have a mirror shower door and when he went into the bathroom for a drink (yes, we all know where he prefers to get his water) he saw himself in the mirror. He made a double take that was hilarious. His eyes went wide open and his ears stood straight up. He then gave his head a shake and refused to look at the mirror again. I guess it was more than his brain could deal with.

Have a good one.

the doug