The Squamidian Report - Dec.14/02

Hi All,

It's nice to have Ryan here. We picked him up at the airport last Saturday and of course did the usual shopping in Vancouver on our way home. That's the part that makes trips to the airport take so long. Tracy has always looked on Ryan as her property so she was very happy to see him after a few minutes of disbelief. She spent that evening starring at him and demanding that he rub her arm pits (her favorite thing).

Yogi really does not care one way or the other. He's a one-person dog. But Tracy sees Ryan as a non-stop source of petting, spoiling, cookies, attention on demand.

We finished up at Grouse, Warren and his son Jason had worked through the weekend so there was just Monday needed to complete the job. Ryan came along to give a hand and we got it done. Our weather has changed to rain with snow in the mountains. The chance came on Monday so we were pretty wet by the end of the day.

Sue is doing a North Van audit this week so she is home every evening. That lets her visit with Ryan every day.

Ryan and I slipped up to Whistler to do some Xmas shopping. Where else can you get cheap trinkets that have exorbitant prices. Whistler is still desperately waiting for low elevation snow. They are skiing up in the high country but the snow only comes down about half way. It looks funny to see skiers going both up and down on the lifts.

We tried out our pellet stove. It came with the house and I really don't know much about them. Instead of chunks of wood and a big burning space, they use little wood pellets that look like rabbit food. The pellets trickle down a little shoot from an auger that brings them from a hopper in the back of the stove, into a little burning pot. They seem to burn quite nicely. The only draw back I can see so far is that there are two fans in the stove which do make a little noise. One fan brings in fresh combustion air and the other fan circulates heated air into the rooms.

Ryan brought out some recording equipment with him. We are having fun recording our jam sessions and will probably burn some of it onto a CD. Sort of a 'live on the west coast' recording. This modern recording technology is a little bewildering to Warren but he is quite impressed with the results.

Almost every house in the Squamish area gets into Christmas lighting. There are so many outdoor lights here that the whole west coast must be in danger of browning out.

Sue and I can't agree on what kind of Christmas tree to get. I want a little 3-foot artificial tree and she wants either a very expensive 7-foot artificial or a 7 foot live tree. Now I figure that the little tree could be put away into the closet fully decorated and be ready for next year. Her big artificial tree would be too big to fit in the closet so it would have to be taken apart, and her idea of a live tree would make a big mess and have to be dragged out side and disposed of. Now, who is the more logical here??

Oh well, have a good one.

the doug