Author: Doug Rutherford

Posted on

Camper water repairs continue

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…

Posted on

Dress rehearsal day

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.

Photo from dress rehearsal

Image from dress rehearsal Dress went well, but fortunately, not too well. After all, a good dress rehearsal seems to result in a not so stunning opening night…

 

Posted on

An important anniversary

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…

Posted on

Rent is… how much??

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…

Posted on

There is an easy way to do this

Well, the use of the proper tool wasn’t much help. The fitting on the back of the water heater is simply in there too tight to remove with a basin wrench. That left plan B, removing the hot water heater.

A friend mentioned the other day that it would be a better way to do it, even though it would take over an hour to get the heater out. I sucked up my courage and started the awful chore of pulling out the water heater. In total, it took almost 10 minutes to do.

image of water heater hole

I’ll admit, it’s now a little ugly looking with a huge hole in the side of the camper. However, this just gives me an excuse to clean out this area before the water heater goes back in. And, with an 18″ pipe wrench, you’d be amazed at how quickly the fitting came off the back. Of course, you can convince a lot of things into compliance with an 18″ pipe wrench, can’t you?

So, I’ll let the area dry out a bit tonight and pick up a new fitting tomorrow morning, and run in the new water line. I’m going to run in a city water connection, a lacking amenity, at the same time. With a little luck, I’ll have the water supply sorted out tomorrow afternoon. Then, all I need is the grey water tank repaired and we’ll be back in business…

Posted on

Repairs continue

Well, no rehearsal this week so I go back to being a plumber. Or an RV tech. Or, at least trying to approximate one or the other.

I borrowed a good basin wrench and found a file. So, other than a bit of memorisation over the weekend, I get the opportunity to run the new water lines and hopefully, deal with that little leak problem. Of course, this will take place after the game is over…

Posted on

Fixing the camper

Did you ever have one of those days? I picked up most of the supplies to fix the plumbing on the camper yesterday. I managed to get the grey water tank off and cleaned off the other day and needed some new copper tubing and fixtures to patch into the water line and replace the leaking bits. However, that’s where it sort of ended.

Tapping in the new line is the easy bit. I do have to get the fitting off that meets up with the water heater. Here’s where the real fun starts. What I really need to do is latch on to it with an 18″ pipe wrench but, since it’s a camper, you have about 3″ of space to fit the 18″ tool into so you can remove it. The ideal tool in such a case is a basin wrench which should work, unless the fitting is in too tight to get it out. On my shopping list yesterday was a basin wrench (they cost about $10-15). Needless to say, I forgot to get it.

That’s okay. I wanted to put some penetrating oil on the fitting to make it easy to remove anyway and will pick one up today. However, when I cut into the line to put in a union and measure the tubing, I ran into a bit of a problem. Cutting the tube was no issue. But to flare the end, you need to file the end of the cut down to remove the rough edges left by the tubing cutter. In the 400 sq. ft. of garage, do you think I could find a flat file? More shopping, I guess…

After class today, I get to run the grey water tank to the RV repair shop to see if they can fix the leak. Hopefully, it is patchable since replacing it is a major pain. Patching it involves polyethylene welding, since there is no adhesive that will actually stick to the material. Think of it this way: try to glue something to a plastic milk jug. It’s the same material. When the black water tank gave up the ghost, I had another made from aluminum and added the holes, fittings, etc. to match it to fit. Hopefully, I find out this afternoon that I’ve avoided this…

Posted on

First rehearsal down

I always enjoy the first read through of a play. I’ll discount the fact that I kind of know the contents. However, when you get to see an actor’s interpretation of the dialogue, it is always neat. A script is really nothing more than words on a page and how it gets presented is always a congruence of the vision of the director, the actors and the designers.

There’s a great quote, although I can’t remember who said it or exactly how it goes. Basically, you pour your heart and soul into writing a play, and then, hand it to a directors, actors and designers who ruin it. Since I’m the director and the designer and half the actors, and since Heather is doing a stunning job in the other half, I don’t think we’ll ruin it…

There are a few things left to get on this weekend. I’m going to need a large coffee urn, although I do have a backup plan if I don’t get it. I need to draft the press release for the play. I need to line up someone to videotape the play during tech week. I also have to do a bit of design work yet, too. I don’t know what days the play will run or the times it will run. I find that out next week. At the same time, I find out which of the two rooms we go in, and I’ll need that to finalize quite a few things.

I also want to fit in some work on the motorhome. After all, camping season is coming right after the festival and I need to be ready. With the winter we’ve had, the lakes should be open early and the sooner fishing comes, the better…

Posted on

April Fool’s Day

Needless to say, I’ve been avoiding Twitter and Facebook today. I really don’t want to look at every posting and ask if it’s an April Fool’s Day prank.

I really only have one April Fool’s Day tradition. Fishing licenses here run from April 1 to March 31, so I wandered down to Canadian Tire this morning and partook of tradition by picking up my new license. I’m actually looking forward to using mine this year, since with surgery, I didn’t go fishing once last year. Fishing should be good this year. Since we have a new boat, the fish won’t recognize it and know it’s me coming.

This is also a family anniversary day. On April 1, 1929, my grandparents arrived in Canada, along with my great uncle, John, at Pier 21. They had a total of £10 between them when they came. This sort of makes us the April Fool’s Day joke that never quite ended…

Posted on

Time to concentrate on the play

As the Nakai Theatre Homegrown Festival rapidly approaches, it is time to concentrate on getting the play on its feet and in front of an audience. The script for the excerpt that we’re doing is finalized, I’ve written all the director’s notes I can think of and next week, it’s time for the first rehearsal.

To date, much of the production work has been dealt with. I’m still waiting back on my requests to the technical director, although our requirements are pretty minimal. I’ve found rehearsal space, all of my props but one (I still working on this), actor and light board operator found, etc. The set design is more or less done. There is some more work to be done on the marketing plan, although this is also dependent on seeing the performance schedule. This is due in the next two weeks.

I suppose my next step is working on my lines and blocking. Given that the portion of the play we’re doing is only about 20 minutes, this is going to be a relatively easy job. Finding time for this, everything else, and, incidentally, working in the daytime is another question entirely…