Watercolour Landscapes of the Yukon
The old adage is somewhat true. Let’s be honest. Most people don’t swoon over the view of a new grey water tank. But, control yourself because here it is:
Now to me, it’s a thing of beauty and missing only a few coupler bolts to lengthen the rods that hold it in place. I’ll pick them up tomorrow and I can drive the camper again any time after the 15 minutes or so it will take to permanently install it…
Well, I went off to see the surgeon again the other day to get his perspective on my incisional hernia. My family doctor’s comments were not what I was hoping to hear. It went along the lines of, “Oh, it’s let go completely. Back to the body shop for you.”
At the consult, the surgeon sort of agreed. I say, “Sort of” since I don’t have an incisional hernia. I have two. I feel like I”ve been bulk shopping, although this probably wasn’t my planned purchase.
What happened? Well, 10% of abdominal surgeries do develop a later hernia. Also, remember my little slip on the ice on Christmas Eve? That was probably the biggest contributor to my current ills. And, the fact that both incisions got infected probably threw in a last two cents (of course, that’s now rounded up to a nickel) that was needed.
It’s not an emergency so I’m going in the regular rotation. No, I’m not coming in relief in the eighth inning. It means that I go for surgery at the end of July or in August. It means a three-day stay in hospital and no lifting for two months. If this is the brass ring, I think I’d like off this merry-go-round at any time.
This better not cut into my fishing…
Needless to say, we’ve had a minor setback in the camping department. Mother Nature seems to have dealt us a wee blow and there are still a few repairs that need finishing on the camper.
In case you don’t know what Mother Nature did to us, here’s what it looked like at 1 o’clock this morning:
Considering that it snowed longer and harder up the highway at Kusawa Lake, I’ve lost my interest in going out for the long weekend. Hopefully, next week will be a bit better. The good news is that it’s melting already…
I have a number of things I really would like to get around to doing. The camper repairs need finishing, the boat needs seasonal setup, the mosquito vac needs fixing and so on.
I also have the last showing of the play tonight, but plenty of time to get to most of these things. However, I seem to have no ambition today whatsoever. I’ve run through my lines twice. All seems well, so I probably could go out and work.
After a little thinking, I’ve decided I’m going to take things easy and enjoy today. After all, it’s the last day of a run and I think I’m due for a little laziness.
Maybe, if I call it efficiency, since it looks exactly the same as laziness, it will sound a bit better…
We survived opening night and it seemed to go over very well. Some people found that it wasn’t what they had expected, although I do try to explain that the earthquake is the backdrop to the play and not the play itself. Yes, it has funny moments. Yes, the scene we present does end with a bit of a surprise. I like surprises.
However, there was a bit of playwright abuse at the end. Clara explained something to Heather and me that my grandson, Ryan, had commented upon.
Ryan: I think Heather has a crush on Poppy.
Clara: Why?
Ryan: She laughs at all of his jokes and they’re not that funny.
I got a bit of a giggle out of that until Heather responded, “It’s the only way I could get cast.”
Fortunately, it was the only abuse I got last night. I can live with that…
Well, it all seems to have come down to this. At 8:15, the play gets to see the light of day, so to speak. Actually, an audience gets to see part of the play.
After all this time, I would assume that I would be well inured to all of this getting ready, rehearsing, etc. Nope. I’m a wreck. I didn’t sleep well last night, running through dialogue. Then, when I finally got to sleep a little bit, we got a phone call and had to take a friend to the hospital. This was my morning. I was going to pace myself a wee bit and work up to this evening. Oh, well.
I have a few things to pack up and a bit of hockey to watch. Then I’ll grab a shower and go and pick up Heather and head off to the theatre. Am I ready for this? I guess we’ll know in a few hours…
The work on the camper progresses. Yes, I said “progresses.”
I took the tank to see if it could be repaired. I didn’t get the answer I was hoping for. Yes, it could be repaired but it would cost about $250 and with the amount of material fatigue, there was no guarantee that leaks wouldn’t start just by putting it in my truck and driving it home. I can take a hint occasionally and did manage to get the word, “condemned” out of that. So, I took the tank home and measured it and went off to one of the sheet metal fabricators in town with a drawing.
The estimate was a bit more than I was hoping for. However, there really wasn’t any choice. Newer tanks don’t have a drain in the center. Rather, they drain from one side or the other. The only choice is to get a new tank built and metal is the best choice. Therefore, I said to build it and bit the bullet. However, when I went to pick it up, the guy said that it wouldn’t cost as much as the quote and there was a $125 difference between the quoted price and the actual cost of the tank.
I picked up the fittings I need and now just need to do a bit of measuring and cutting the holes for the intake and vent pipes. These get a rubber grommet-style connector that the ABS pipes fit into. However, I get to agonize over cutting the holes since they have to be in the exact spots and you only get one chance to do it right. How does the saying go? “Measure nine times, cut once?”
I need to put in one more water line piece as well. It was getting late when I was working on these so I quit when I had the last one left. Oh, well. This is a good project for the morning before I start working on finishing the tank. Then, I have a little repair job to do on my mosquito vac.
Ahhh, it must be spring. I have more jobs to do than you can do in a spring and summer…
Dress rehearsal day seemed to be a bit more hectic than most. It started first with heading down to CBC for an interview. Two of us, Amanda MacDonald and I, were interviewed about our plays in the Homegrown Theatre Festival. The interview can be found here.
We had tech and dress on the same evening. This was slightly dampened by Heather being sick as a dog (it was dress rehearsal… someone had to be sick). She suffered through it though and I have to give her the “Tougher than a Boiled Owl” award for outstanding performance while nauseous.
Dress went well, but fortunately, not too well. After all, a good dress rehearsal seems to result in a not so stunning opening night…
This last week has been one of important anniversaries. First, on April 9, it was the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Then, on April 15, it was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. And finally, tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the repatriation of the constitution.
The Constitution Act (1982) represents a major milestone for Canada. Its greatest contribution was the incorporation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms into the constitution. While the Canadian Bill of Rights was passed in 1960 and did offer protection of some rights, it was also strictly passed as an act of parliament and left parliament with the ability to rescind any of its contents at it leisure. By placing the Charter in the Constitution, it restricts the ability of parliament to change its contents unless through the amending formula, also contained in the Act.
Some parts of the Constitution and Charter have raised questions. The first is the point that Quebec was not a signatory of the constitution in 1982 and two attempts to integrate the province into the fold have failed. However, this is probably not as great an issue as some have made of it, in that the province has used section 33(1), the “notwithstanding” clause on several occasions and it can be argued that by using part of the constitution in court of law, they have informally adopted it.
One of the main sections of the Charter is section 15 (1), which states that: “Every individual is equal before the and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disability.”
This is also one of the most contentious parts as well, since it has been used for a number of Supreme Court of Canada cases whose outcome has sparked controversy. It has led many to condemn the clause since it can be seen as setting the Supreme Court in a position to “make laws,” a role relegated to parliament. This is a bit of a specious argument since acts passed that have not withstood a Charter Challenge usually did so because the acts in question should have been better drafted, rather than the Supreme Court directly intervening in the making of law.
Have there been decisions that you didn’t like? I think all of us could find a decision that makes us scratch our heads and wonder what someone was thinking. We could probably all find one or two that we definitely disagree with. However, these illustrate a very significant concept.
While you might not agree with some of these, you should consider them in the framework of what these indicate. We have a constitution that states that everyone is equal before the law. And, not only does it say that everyone is equal, but we actually enforce that principle. While you may not agree with how it has worked out sometimes, this is a thing of which we can all be damned proud…
Our ongoing issues with the neighbour across the street finally came to an end last fall when he moved from Whitehorse to Carmacks. Collectively, most of us on the street breathed a collective sigh of relief when he left.
Then, in January, we got a new neighbour. Shortly after he moved in, I met him while we were both cleaning out the driveways. We had a chat for about half an hour. He moved to Whitehorse in the beginning of January when he transferred here for work. His family was coming shortly and he needed a place on relatively short notice. When I came back into the house, Clara asked, “What is he like?” The only response I could come up was that thing we came up with when we were young and brought home a stray animal: “I’m keeping him!”
Sadly, I’m not keeping him. He came over yesterday to tell us he was moving out that day. He found another place, renting a basement in Riverdale. Although he said he really liked the neighbourhood and the people on the street, the place he was renting was inadequate and far too expensive. He figured that the new place in the winter would cost about $1,000 per month less by the time he added the cost of heating and lights. While the place would be smaller, the cost of the trailer across the street was far too high.
What was he renting? First, the trailer was quite run-down and the wear and tear of having two junk dealers and a crack house was pretty extensive. For example, the owner remarked a few years ago that she cleaned more than 1,000 needles from the house after the crack dealers left and they had the disturbing habit of not walking as far as the washroom when there was a perfectly good floor to use for that purpose. The place is poorly insulated, as most 40-year-old trailers are. However, the house does have a large shop attached to the trailer and a heated basement. These might offer some additional benefits; however, they are not part of the rental and cannot be used. Further, the smell of dog or cat urine in parts of the house is not conducive to either happiness or health. For these stunning accommodations, the rent is $1,400 plus heat and lights a month. Oh, by the way, part of your heating costs go to heating the basement you’re not allowed to use.
How, you ask, can you get away with such an exorbitant rent for such conditions? The answer is seen in the vacancy rate, which was 1.3% in Whitehorse in March of this year (note that houses being rented are not included in the vacancy rate calculations). There is so little housing available that costs are quite high for some rather poor levels of accommodations. The average rent for a 3+ bedroom apartment in a small apartment building is $1,475 per month, although the vacancy rate in March for such accommodations was 0%. In short, regardless of how trashy your rental unit is, you will not only find someone who will rent it but you can also charge a king’s ransom for it.
Something has to be done with the shortage of housing in Whitehorse. Until the territorial government and the city get their acts together, and both have a long way to go in achieving that status, the cost of housing will remain high, even for slums…
Doug Rutherford 