The Squamidian Report - Nov. 9/02

foot note;

As you can see, this letter has come via Sue's bank Email system. My ISP has gone down the tubes, rather unexpectedly, leaving me without Internet access. I have made arrangements for Shaw cable to hook up their high-speed stuff this coming week. In the mean time, don't bother to reply to this letter (if you were going to) until I can send out my new Email address. Also, if anything was sent to me past about Tuesday of this past week, I may not have gotten it.

Hi All.

We finally seem to be getting some rain. We do need it so no one is complaining. This should be the start of the rainy season on the coast and the snow season in the high country.

Sue drove her parents to the airport on Monday morning at 4:30. They made it home safe and sound. She spent the day in the Vancouver office. She flew to Winnipeg on Tuesday morning.

Things are slowing down at work in Whistler. We are doing the small jobs that kept getting pushed aside as they wait for snow. Snow is an obsession there. That's understandable as it is a ski resort. They want me to help plow snow but I had told them in the beginning that I had no interest in that at all.

There is no way I'm willing to drive to Whistler at 4 in the morning to sit in a loader for 12 hours. That highway can get pretty bad. I've put Toyo winter tires on the van and car but I simply don't need the stress. You have to keep in mind that our weather here is as 3 dimensional as our scenery. I'll help them out if they are in a pinch but I won't do a regular snow route.

I spent most of the week on a 'small' job where we had to replace a water main running into a building in the village. We had to dig down to the line, about 10 feet deep and then tunnel under the footings. There was about 3 feet of space beneath the floor so it was pretty tight in there.

To lift the safety cage into place I had to drop the bucket off my machine. That's the only way I could lift the cage. The bucket made it too heavy.

At the end of each day we set barriers and tape around the excavation to keep the night life from falling into the hole. On Thurday morning all the barriers were down and one of them was through a window on my machine. Seems that it doesn't matter where you are, there are low lifes around.

Sue got home quite late Friday evening. The drive from the airport was slow, rain, fog etc.

We are into the 'rainy season' now. The rivers that had shrunk to a trickel are now running full and fast again. The low valleys are very green again, the high country fresh and white.

By the way, Tracy will be 14 on the 12th. She's an old dog now. But she can sure bounce when she thinks we are going to Hortons.

Have a good one,

the doug