Time to become a handyman

Tomorrow is D-day for the start of work on the unfinished basement in our house. I've been primed with an 8 week home wiring and two weekend drywall and taping course. Sixty studs, eighteen 2x4x12 base and top plates and nails - along with my father-in-law - await me.

I'm going in with the feeling it's going to be difficult and the hope that it won't be as bad as I think. The one thing I am truly confident with it my wiring skills. The eight week course truly prepped me for the task. I thought I was ready with the 'Home Wiring 1-2-3" book from Home Depot, but one's eyes truly get opened when being trained by a 30 year veteran in the trade.

Of course I get ahead of myself there as the walls have to go up first. That's what my father-in-law, Ron, is coming over for. I am a man, but I'm not afraid to admit when I don't know how to do something properly (my better half might argue that's not always the case) and will need assistance.

So wish us luck and I'll post pictures of our progess perhaps on Sunday night.

From the "feel good but wonder what the hell was going on" file

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/03/30/jewelry-found.html

Toronto couple keeps low profile after $1M purse lost and foundLast Updated Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:49:46

CBC News

A Toronto couple has been inundated with calls from international media after a Good Samaritan brought back a bag they lost during a trip to California – containing $1 million in cash and jewelry.

The story made headlines around the world, including in the Daily Times in Pakistan, the Maldives Haveeru Daily and HappyNews.com, a website devoted to good news.

Shahla Ghannadian and her husband Saied Khalili were in California over the weekend to attend their daughter's wedding in San Francisco. They were strolling through Sausalito when they accidentally left a Louis Vuitton bag on a park bench.

The bag contained jewelry belonging to the bride and groom — including a 12-carat diamond ring, pearl and emerald jewelry and a Cartier watch — and $500 in cash.

The distraught couple only realized the mistake after they returned to their hotel room in San Francisco. They immediately called police.

They flew home the next day, believing what police told them – that they would likely never see the bag again.

Fortunately for them, John Suhrhoff, a 56-year-old man from San Rafael, had found the purse while out for a walk.

He took the bag to police, telling them it was filled with costume jewelry. The police then sent the bag on to Ghannadian.

Family members have stopped giving interviews on the incident, explaining that they're too exhausted after so much media attention.

But before the spotlight grew too overwhelming, Ghannadian's son Ali expressed gratitude to Suhrhoff.
"You have to be a real man to return that bag," he told a California newspaper.



It's nice that Mr. Suhrhoff turned the bag in, but if he knew it wasn't costume jewlery, would he have done the same? To add to that, what the heck were the Canadian couple doing with $1million in jewlery in a hand bag in a park? I know East Indian (making an assumption here) marraiges are huge affairs with lots of money and jewlery, but isn't that a bit much?

Rain... depressing?

Yeah, usually rain gets me depressed. Not today however. The snow is takin a cuttin b'ys. That means a little bit of work tonight to clean up the strata of dog poo accumulated over the winter, but I'm ok with that. With the snow leaving, that means Spring is really here/on its way. Of course now that I've said that the local weather is calling for "light flurries" tomorrow which could possibly mean "heavy snowfall" since our weather reports this year has been so accurate.

However, if it happens it happens. Spring is here and a little bit of snow that will disappear in a day or so isn't going to get me down.

And she was whole again

As I wrote yesterday I was expecting my 2000 Neon back today from the bodyshop. A friend of who had his classic muscle car (Superbee - saweet!) in for insurance work recommended Pembina Dodge. We've dealt with them on the aquisition of three vehicles over the last few years, but this would be the first time dealing with the body shop.

Very nice guys to deal with. I brought the car in last tuesday and it was ready for pickup this morning. Color matching is excellent and they even went so far as to replace one of my turn signal indicators without me asking (I had the bulb in one of the cup holders and they must have noticed). Overall I am more than impressed with the work and the level of customer service I received.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the car is minty on the outside now. Yes, the bra will stay off (it was on there when we bought it).

The tax man cometh... and taketh... your moneth.

So if the news (aka: rumors on the internet that happened to end up on a couple of news websites) is to be believed, Oregon is toying with the idea of implementing a new tax system that charges you based on the number of miles driving in your vehicle. Why you ask? Well, the state feels that with more and more people buying hybrid vehicles and more fuel efficient vehicles they are loosing taxes normally collected at the pumps.They want to install GPS units in every car and track your route each day to determine how many miles you have driven, and those miles will have a fee associated with them.

Big brother?

You bet. Nothing better than a detailed map of where a person has driven everyday. What if I drive a "normal" vehicle or a fuel inefficient vehicle? Would I need a GPS unit installed? Why do they need to know the route? Wouldn't a simple odometer reading be enough? It should be.

Of course, no hard numbers were released as to how much money they can potential lose with more people driving fuel efficient vehicles. One thing to consider however if that for a short term loss in some tax collection, it will have long term benefits on the environment and the populations health. Another fact is that there are more and more cars on the roads today, and barring a few, they all need gasoline, so that also equals more money.

All in all, it's not the best way to go about collecting tax (not that I agree with the amount of tax collected anyway), but in someone's eyes in government this is the cheapest way to collect the most money. However, I don't see the majority of people knowingly agreeing to such a technology.

Spring is here... I believe

At least it's starting to look that way. I'm still waiting for that one last winter storm sometime in late April to early May. While we can't complain about the winter we've had in Manitoba it will be nice to have the snow melted and to go out without a parka.

Of course we are seeing some issues with the outside of our new house now. For one the evestroughing on one side of our garage slopes back towards the house and not towards the downspout. What does that mean? Well, a poorly sealed endcap and water leaking down through the stucco and overtop of a window. I attempted to fix it but found out that the reason it was installed that way was because of some bad work on the framer's part. Temporay fix? Drill holes to let the water drain before it hits the house. When it gets dryer I'll have to install a new downspout since the evestroughing can't be sloped the correct way.

On other news I should be getting my Neon back from the bodyshop tomorrow. It's in for some fixing from a run in with a deer. Literally, the deer ran into me. Nothing I could have done to prevent it baring not driving on the road on which it happened. While it doesn't look like much, Autopac (Manitoba's Public Insurance) appraised the damage at $4243. That must have been close to writing it off. I have a feeling it wasn't since there was no mechanical damage.

The door received the brunt of the impact and only opens about a foot wide. Just enough for me to squeeze my large behind in and narrow enough that I get a good coating of road grim on my clothes.

And the biggest news of all this spring is that my wife and I are expecting our first child. It was unplanned planned if that makes any sense=) We are very excited and if possible I think our parents are even more excited. I don't know if it's completely hit me yet that there is going to be a little person to love and nurture in a short time, but I do get emotional when I see babies on TV, so there must be a part of me that realizes it. I just hope that I can be a good Dad.

Winter tyres? Say what?

Winter. In Canada. While it certainly whips up images of waist deep snow, biting winds and bone chilling cold I don't believe the majority of Canadians can complain about our winter to date. It's almost over for us here in Manitoba actually. We'll just get that one last dump of snow in late april/early may that will lead to many fender benders as people quickly forget how to drive in the winter. Funny thing for a province that spends most of the time in winter or something nearly like it.

Speaking of winter and of driving, let's talk about winter tires. I've had the luxury of experiencing three different brands (and types) of winter tires since October: Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi, Michelin X-Ice and Nordic Trac Ice Trac.

To be fair, all three brands were on three different vehicles, so vehicle dynamics will most likely make a slight difference in the capabilities of the tires. The Nordic tracs will only get a partial review due to certain circumstances that I will cover later.

A look at the tread pattern on the Nokian:


In order of perference

Hands down the best tire has been the Nokian Hakka RSi. While it is an all around winter tire (hence the designation, R(ain), S(now), i(ce)) it excels in all three areas. Dry pavement handling is excellent for a winter tire but definitely feels softer than an all season. In the wet the tire handles like it's dry. On ice, the tire offers great stability and predictable traction loss - and it's no trouble to hear the tire trying to get grip when sliding. In the snow however is really where this tire shines. Through hard packed snow, or freshly fallen, at low speeds or highway speeds, these tires offer confidence and communicate well with the driver. As with it's ice characteristics, it is predicatable and easily read while driving in snow. Even when most of my street was snowed in once this winter I was still able to drive out with little difficulty and if the tires were alive, they would have been laughing and enjoying themselves.

Second place would be the Michelin X-Ice. While the Nokians were on a 2005 PT Cruiser, the X-Ice were on my wife's 2005 Nissan Altima. One advantage the x-ice did have over the Nokians was road noise. While there are differences in sound deadening between both cars I am basing the road noise level on the different between the all season tires and the winters on both. The X-Ice was a just a more quiet tire on the tarmac. Grip during acceleration was good but the tire was just not as predictable as the Nokian. Handling in snow wasn't as good either. That may have been due to a wider tire (205 x-ice vs 195 Nokian), but the tire just felt "slippy" in snow. The Nokian tracked with confidence, while the X-Ice felt slightly unsure of itself. All in all, it's still a really good winter tire but price slightly higher than the Nokian.

The Nordic Trac can't get a full review due to some... different circumstances. We purchased a 2000 Chrysler Neon in January that had two Nordic tracs on the front and a pair of all season Goodyear LS on the rear. I knew that wasn't recommended, but not how much that it would affect the cars handling and dynamics. The nordics were newer while the Goodyears had 100,000 km on them and 2/10th tread depth. The rear would whip around unexpectedly on turns, even in wet weather. From what I could gather the Nordics would be comparable to the Michelin's for traction, but are much louder and don't offer the same lateral support. The tires on the Neon were replaced with a set of BFG Tractions T/A.

With respect to my better half who is now driving the PT, she says the Nokians are also hands down the better of the tires. I feel very comfortable having the one I love drive any vehicle equipped with those tires. To get technical I believe the siping (I'll leave it up to you the reader to look that up) is better on the Nokian.

What am I doing here...?

The Field Behind The Plow

Watch the field behind the plow turn to straight dark rows,
Feel the trickle in your clothes, blow the dust cake from your nose;
Hear the tractor's steady roar, oh you can't stop now,
There's a quarter section more or less to go.

And it figures that the rain keeps its own sweet time,
You can watch it come for miles, but you guess you've got a while;
So ease the throttle out a hair, every rod's a gain,
And there's victory in every quarter mile.

Bridge #1:
Poor old Kuzyk down the road,
The heart-ache, hail and hoppers brought him down;
He gave it up and went to town.
And Emmett Pierce, the other day,
Took a heart attack and died at 42;
You could see it coming on 'cause he worked as hard as you.

In an hour, maybe more, you'll be wet clear through,
The air is cooler now, pull your hat-brim further down;
And watch the field behind the plow turn to straight dark rows,
Put another season's promise in the ground.

Bridge #2:
And if the harvest's any good,
The money might just cover all the loans;
You've mortgaged all you own.Buy the kids a winter coat,
Take the wife back east for Christmas if you can;
All summer she hangs on, when you're so tied to the land.

For the good times come and go, but at least there's rain,
So this won't be barren ground when September rolls around;
So watch the field behind the plow turn to straight dark rows,
And put another season's promise in the ground.

####.... Stan Rogers ©1981, Fogarty's Cove Music, Inc ....####

Welcome to what will most likely be an outlet for assorted ramblings. I have no plan on making this a consistent blog with regards to when I write or what I write about. I have a huge interest in the automotive industry, so expect some information about that in the future. I also enjoy a good book and good music, so expect that as well. Perhaps I'll also write about anything that bothers me. In other words: assorted ramblings; or a typical blog.