Bingen VFD

Hydrant Wrench

Iowa Man has been training with the Bingen Volunteer Fire Department. There was a forest fire not far from Bingen this summer. If a forest fire ever reached the town, the whole town would go up in smoke. Hence, training with the VFD.

Pumper Controls

Stream

Spray

Wedge-It

Wedge-It is a door stop for firefighters. I guess it is easier to block a door open than to rip it off its hinges, and this thing can be used six ways from Sunday to accomplish that. Amazon sells them.

Wedge-It

Tweakers

Fentanyl pills on the streets on Portland, where such doses of the great annihilator cost as little as $1 apiece. (Credit: Tara Faul)

IAman is looking to move to Bingen, Washington. Bingen is about 60 miles east of Portland across the Columbia River from Hood River, Oregon.

The main reason for the move is our neighborhood is the drug / murder epicenter.  3 middle aged good Samaritans murdered in last few months. 

This article captures the bad stuff that I see. 

Oregon’s Drug Apocalypse - Matt Thompson

The linked story is pretty horrofic.

Previous posts about IAman's current residence:

• Witness to the end of Civilization
• The Borg Have Landed

Electric Bike Conversions

Want the Absolute Best Electric Bike? It's probably already in your garage.
JohnnyNerdOut

IAman's electric bicycle was stolen from in front of Winco a couple of weeks (months?) ago, and now he's looking to build another one. His previous source for electric bike parts was Bafang USA Direct, but they quit importing Bafang motors on account of them operating in Communist China, so he's looking for another source for parts and finds Johnny Nerd-Out just across the river in Vancouver, Washington.

Witness to the end of Civilization

IAman reports from the eastside of Portland. A neighbor pushes a lightweight, two drawer Craftsman tool chest out in the hall. He snags it and advertises it on Facebook:

June 27,2024

Amazingly it received 235 clicks & 10 messages, within a couple hours.

Guy came right over, his wife wants it as a base for a flower planter

The guy retired after 25 years driving city bus.

So I asked him about this neighborhood.

He said it is getting better. It is certainly better than the "nums" street slang for the streets 122nd through 188th (or thereabouts), that area houses poor people displaced by gentrification. More crime there.

My building super says all of Portland was so nice, back 1992. He attributes the shitty streets to the homeless (bums) drawn in by $1000 a month they get & lack of cops.

Speaking of Cops, Joe, tonight's security guard has an app for his work with a magic-cop button, pressed, guarantees a cruiser within minutes. Only used once in 2 years for some recalcitrant homeless female that refused to leave a property. Joe trained as a boxer for a couple years and has an electric zapper on his flashlight. His company is going to upgrade their defense weapons soon.

I went to mail a letter tonight, riding on the KPX.

No lobby, no mail slots, drive-up boxes removed. WTF! Angry as I pull out of the USPS parking lot I am faced with one of those littered nasty looking homeless sites, a couple of greaseballs standing around. I pull up & call out "Heh, you know why the post office removed the mail boxes?" "Yeah" the head tweaker reponds "because of people like you!" Whoa... Haha he beat me to the punch.

Greaseballs 2 IAman 0

I watched a bum rifle through our dumpster without leaving a mess, then he pulled his two wagons next door and cleaned up & picked up trash before looking for cans. Takes all kinds I suppose.

Later the same day:

Worried about my KPX250cc security, from face book I buy:

• Heavy chain & lock
• Brake rotor lock
• Cover (perimeter) alarm 

The nice fella I bought them from said the cover alarm served him well alerting 3 times to thieves. Says he lives in Vancouver because “yeah where you live is a jungle of crime”

Driving back to PDX I stopped by the scene of the crime (ebike theft) at Winco. Couple greaseballs scoping out the parking lot. I take their pictures and they leave. I go to the front desk and tell the head clerk my tale of whoa, she responds “crime is bad here, that's why I moved”, I tell her that Winco has been offering platitudes but otherwise is unresponsive, she takes my info and promises to give it to the manager. Outside I talk to the security guard and he says they typically have 10-12 thefts per day in the parking lot while they are on patrol.

I did everything corporate Winco told me to do, just to ignore me. Winco had 3 nice emails to me says their 3rd party was CSC and they would help me. They ignore me is what they do. (Using AI to write emails of empty platitudes to customer inquiries)

I ask the apartment manager if I was robbed could I see their video. “No.” Is there any circumstance I can see it. “No, cops only.”

So this video surveillance is a crock of poop…..until someone with $money$ or a gun needs to see it.  And then the video has looped or the camera lens was on, or other horse hockey.

Returning back to the Apartment, I see the building construction manager, a no nonsense sort of guy, Bill. I said I am getting spooked about the neighborhood, he conveys “good”. Talking he relates a couple anecdotes.

The construction site were losing tools and materials to greaseballs. Then a greaseball tent compound is built next to their parking lot. Cops don't do anything. Once the greaseballs were out of their tents, Bill had his boys throw the entire compound into a 20 ton trash bin and covered it with broken concrete. Greaseballs haven't been back since. Yay!

Several of his crew were mugged. A couple at knife point. A couple beat the shit out of one set of greaseballs. And then 3 teens held up a crew at gunpoint and tried to steal their tool trailer. The victims call the cops, the teens scatter. Cops leave, teens come back immediately, guns drawn. Victims call the cops bus. card number cops come back immediately and at gunpoint detain the teens and haul them off.

Then there was that evening, cops serving a warrant across the street, the respondent came out guns blazing, the cops shot him dead.

Bill’s solution? Move to a small town in idaho. “This is not going to get any better here.”

Once the construction security leaves, there will be a feeding frenzy of the greaseballs on every aspect of the apartment securities weak points.

BTW don't feed the street people. Bleeding hearts here drop boxes of food or feed them out of the car trunk. After they leave, piles of trash is thrown to the wind.

I'm called to the lobby, Fedex has a delivery for me and the property managers are not allowed to accept packages. The little black gap toothed driver responds to my question “how is the neighborhood here?” “not as bad as east of 122nd, there they follow my truck around waiting for an opening.”

I cannot depend on the cops, stores, nor my apartment management. My neighbors look helpless.

Life has gotten very interesting, like how war is interesting. 

 My Bike is “secure”. I am less enthusiastic about tracking down greaseballs who thieve from me. I’ll need to find another use for my Appletags.

Maybe a quick draw handgun is in my future. I may just stay castled up here, only leave by Tundra for destinations deemed safe.

PS As I finished this I called my cousin, while talking I spy out the window a greaseball walking to a neighboring dumpster, thinking the worst that he will dump trash everywhere, just looking for bottles/cans…….but wait he holds up in a corner of the lot , a buddy comes over they exchange packets, light up something in foil, puffs of smoke, the bottle boy doubles overs for a few minutes, a “fentanyl pose” me thinks, while his buddy walks in circles. After 5 minutes the bottle boy straightens up, then leaves while leaving trash behind him. I yell “Pickup your trash” he does so without complaint. His buddy tries to backtalk, I ask him to just wait there, I have somebody he wants to meet. He leaves. It's funny they cannot see me, just a big Borg like structure talking to them.

Related news:

In major decision, Supreme Court allows cities to ban homeless camps

The Borg Have Landed

Traditions at Hazelwood

IAman has moved into his new compartment in the Borg Cube on East Burnside. He is the only tenant so far. On Google Maps - Satellite View, this building shows as a bare patch of dirt. I got this image from Streetview. The gang stopped by for lunch today and it is very near completion. Those are the Max tracks out front. IAman says he can hear the trains go by, but the sound it more soothing than annoying. We were there for an hour and I didn't hear them at all.

The building has a big courtyard in the center, so half of the apartments face the courtyard and half face outside. Every door in the place has an electronic lock operated with a key fob. The ground floor has a big lobby as well as variety of common rooms.

Lifan 250cc Dirt Bike

Giant Box

Two months ago IAman bought a Lifan 250 cc dirt bike and had it delivered to my house. I go down to the garage to make sure we have space to work on it and when I open the garage door I find this giant box sitting just outside the door.

Box removed

Up on blocks

Putting it together was pretty straight forward. It was a bit of a struggle for these two old guys to lift the front end up, but we managed. My wife assisted by sliding the wood blocks under the frame to support it.

The handlebar mounted controls are kind of complicated: buttons and switches and levers and cables, but we managed to sort it out.

Filling new motorcycle battery with acid
Chuck Pergiel

The battery came dry. The acid came in a separate container. I expected filling the battery to be terror inducing. Not so. Easy as pie. See above video.

It wasn't until we were cleaning up afterward that we discovered the guards for the front forks.  No biggy, except that one of the mounting screws goes in from the wheel side, which is almost impossible to get in with the wheel on. Also discovered that the speedometer cable is supposed to go around the front of the fork, so we took the front wheel back off.

Motorcycle Rack

IAman bought a rack for carrying the bike on the back of his pickup truck. It comes with a ramp, the idea being that you can roll the bike up on the ramp and onto the rack. The ramp is a U-shaped channel. As the bike weighs 350 pounds this is easier said than done. He starts rolling it down the driveway to build some momentum but when he hits the ramp he is not on center, the tire hits one of the edges and the ramp flips over. This kicks the wheel three or four inches towards him, which throws it off balance and down it goes. I didn't notice any damage. Kind of good to get that out of the way because you know it is going to get dropped eventually, so now you don't need to live in constant terror of dropping it for the first time.

Giovanni's

Tundra Repair

My gang gets together for lunch every Tuesday. Today we were going to Giovanni's but IAman makes an excuse for not coming:

I’m busy with Tundra coils-over-shocks.  Can’t do lunch today.

You all are welcome to come over and commiserate with me. 

Again it was easy, except for the one inaccessible nut, that finally gave into a nut splitter.

Wells Fargo, a long story about not much.

Wells Fargo Forest Grove

IAman reports:

There is a nice branch of Wells Fargo bank 2 miles from me. Looks like it was built in 1990s, maybe 3,000 sq feet. 3 tellers, about 10 empty cubicles. A drive through and a good functioning ATM. So far, sort of good.

A couple weeks ago I went in to secure a safety deposit box for some treasures and documents, box 31.  ‘Mel’(Melissa) slight disheveled frizzy haired 20 something waited on me. The process took quite a while, 30 minutes.  I asked about having my kids have access to the box, Mel didn’t know but would forward a request for info to the main office. I forget about this promise.

The next day, I get a call from the branch manager, I asked about my request through Mel about my kids access to the box. She replied Mel left WF the day after, but she would contact the main office to find out about box access for kids. She then quizzed me about the level of service Mel provided, I said all was  fine. Strange.

A week later I go to deposit health directives into the box. I ask for the manager who is on lunch break, relay my inquiry about kids access, then go to deposit papers. My antennae now being up, I verify the contents of the box as I place papers within.

I leave as the manager is still lunching. “She will get right back with you”.  Still crickets.

But what really grinds-my-goat is the entire bank staff was wearing beyond-casual clothes, hoodies and sweats and hair in bungees. I was raised in a era of bankers in pinstripes.

Googling all this, the advise is don’t use bank safety deposit boxes, they are a relic of a bygone era. Not only boxes but me too. Who knew?

 

Five Came Back

Five Came Back | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix
Netflix

IAman reports he stayed up till 2AM watching this.

Excerpts from the Wikipedia page:

Synopsis

Five Came Back explores the experiences of five U.S. film directors – John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens – and their frontline work during the Second World War.

Referenced films:

• The Battle of Midway (1942, John Ford)
• Prelude to War (1942, Frank Capra)
• The Battle of Russia (1943, Frank Capra)
• Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines (1943, John Ford)
• Report from the Aleutians (1943, John Huston)
• The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944, William Wyler)
• The Negro Soldier (1944, Stuart Heisler; produced by Frank Capra)
• Tunisian Victory (1944, John Huston)
• Know Your Enemy: Japan (1945, Frank Capra)
• The Battle of San Pietro (1945, John Huston)
• Nazi Concentration Camps (1945, George Stevens)
• Let There Be Light (1946, John Huston)
• Thunderbolt (1947, William Wyler)

Episode 1 The Mission Begins

The series looks at the backgrounds of the five directors as World War II begins and their motives for helping the war effort. John Ford's The Battle of Midway was approved directly by President Franklin D. Roosevelt while Frank Capra fights to get Why We Fight made.

Episode 2 Combat Zones

The directors learn their vision for the films is not always permissible by the U.S. government. Wyler is shocked by the racism he encounters against African American soldiers and refused to make a film recruiting black soldiers. Meanwhile, the films' racist depiction of the Japanese versus human depiction of the Germans causes worry for the War Department, which at that time planned to redistribute the Japanese-American population from internment camps into towns across the United States.

Episode 3 The Price of Victory

The five directors return to Hollywood after the war but are forever haunted by what they saw. Ford goes on a drinking bender after filming the carnage at D-Day. Stevens is wholly unprepared for the horrors of Dachau and realizes he is not there to film propaganda but to capture evidence of crimes against humanity. Wyler, who lost his hearing during the war, fears his career is over. Huston chronicles soldiers suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder in the film Let There Be Light, only to have it suppressed by the U.S. government.

Not to be confused with the 1939 melodrama starring Lucille Ball.

 

Craig V

1975 Yamaha XS650

IAman reports:

In the mid 1970’s my dad helped me buy a motorcycle, a 1975 Yamaha 650. A great motorcycle, I spent years exploring USA on that bike.

Dad enjoyed hearing of my adventures, and came out to visit me several times to visit me at my outposts. He hedged his bets with a term life insurance policy on me. I haven't thought about that till recently, till hearing about the Russian wives and parents encouraging their boys to fight in Ukraine, the possible payoff a death benefit in way of cash or “coffin car”. Recently I heard of the ham-ass terrorist’s justifying their murderous assault on Israel with being rewarded a apartment and $10,000, and historically the PA paying terrorist prisoners.

Backing out of the weeds, back onto the motorcycle.

Craig Vetter and Windjammer Fairing

Having that Yamaha, I became aware of a motorcycle fairing designed, built and sold by Craig Vetter, a genius motorcycle designer. Windjammer 3 was a black and gold fairing, just like my bike.

That name Craig Vetter lodged in my brain for the next 48 years, I suppose because it was an unusual name somehow associated with my beloved bike?

What I couldn't figure out was the connection between this guy's motorcycle design genius and what I thought was his exploring the human genome. ???

See, I kept hearing about a Craig Ve?ter in California making inroads in the research of the human genome, so much so that he was being rewarded billions of $ for his contributions to human medicine science.

This week I wikipedia’d Craig Vetter and found he has been kept busy with motorcycles, not having anything to do with the genome.

Craig Venter, famous geneticist with some of his favorite motorcycles and sports cars. (John Gastaldi)

That would be Craig VeNter. Another and completely different person. One of the most influential people in the contemporary world. Who knew? I didn’t. I thought he made motorcycle fairings. Nope, Venter’s forte is genome science.

Other interesting Venter factoids are:

• C student
• Drafted into Vietnam conflict, his CO status routed him to be a Navy corpsman triage-ing mortally wounded Marine boys.
• This depressed him to the point of attempting suicide by swimming miles into the China sea.
• Returning from Nam, he attended community college and followed his developing interest in biochemistry, 1969.

I need to read Venter’s autobiography.

Wikipedia pages:

• Craig Vetter
• Craig Venter

Fog

Valley full of fog

IAman continues to meander northwards. He camped overnight at William Hill Recreation Area and caught this view of the valley to the east. Highway 101 runs through there.

Pic of the Day

Santa Rosalio

Weather in La Paz was heating up, so Iaman is heading north. The buildings in the distance might be ITESME, the Instituto Tecnológico Nacional de México Campus Mulegé.

Mt. Peale Tree

Toyota Tacoma Bent Tailgate

Many moons ago IAman backed into a tree on Mt. Peale in Utah and put a big dent in his tailgate. Now, sitting in Baja California he has time on his hands so he decides to see if he can undent it. Given limited tools and equipment, ingenuity is required. Clever guy, IAman.

Mt. Peale Utah

Pic of the Day

Man fishing on the beach near La Paz Mexico

IAman went for a drive north on State Route #1 along the coast north from La Paz. At least I surmise it is a state road, because there is another highway #1 that goes to Tijuana. The mountains you see on the horizon are on the peninsula that juts north from La Paz into the Gulf of California. They are about 20 miles away. Those on the extreme left might the Isla Espirito Santo.

HMS Royal George 1756

Royal George , a warning to all citizens of the future.


Sea Stories (FULL Audiobook)
Iaman has been listening to sea stories, and he found the The Loss of the Royal George worth sharing. This story is recited in the above video of Sea Stories. The book, and the story, can also be found on Project Gutenberg. I couldn't listen to the audiobook. I don't have much patience with recorded voices, but the written version is short and quick and a very grim tale. As Iaman says:

"What could go wrong?  Calm water, no wind, sun out, warm festive atmosphere."

The loss of the 100-gun First Rate H.M.S. Royal George at Spithead, 29th August 1782 - William E.D. Stuart (fl. mid-19th Century)
(fl. stands for Floruit, which means flourished)

Here is the table of contents for the audio book (top). I had some trouble locating the story I wanted so I started making my own table of contents before I thought to look in the comments where I found it, and not too far down either.

A Representation of H.M.S. Royal George of 108 Guns now lying sunk.... at Spithead, having been under water fifty one years. Mr Deane equipped in his newly invented Diving Apparatus.... in August 1832

This shipwreck was the scene of some of the earliest attempts at diving using artificial breathing equipment.

some useless information supposed to fire my imagination

The Rolling Stones Satisfaction (I Cant Get No)
Organized retail crime costs retailers nearly $778,000 per $1 billion in sales . . . (don't follow the link, it's crap).

That is less than one-tenth of one percent. The stores could save more by renegotiating the rate that the credit card companies suck off the top.

Note they are talking about organized retail crime, which I suspect means traveling gangs who swoop in and grab a bunch of high dollar items before heading off to the next town. They aren't talking about shoplifting.

Typical mass media, babbling about a small problem that it going to get people stirred up, but isn't going to have a big effect, other than fuck up the lives of people who get stirred up and decide to do something about it and end up getting arrested for assault or worse.

There have always been thieves, and if they are stealing from big box stores, then at least they are not breaking into people's houses. Mostly it's a matter of belief / religion. On one side you have the good citizens who believe theft is bad and who have enough money that they can buy what they need. On the other, we have those don't feel like they are part of society and are going to ignore social conventions in order to get what they feel they deserve. If might be that they have been expelled from society, and it wouldn't have to be for bad behavior, it could be something as common as getting laid off. Or it could be that they have rejected the position that society has offered them. Could be a good reason, or it could be a personality defect.

Via Iaman

P.S. I always thought the line from the song was 'fry my imagination', but I suppose that's what you would get from firing it.

One night in Bangkok....I mean Vancouver

Iaman reports from Vancouver:

Interesting night.

J the landlady slips her skinny jeans on, flashy wig and sunglasses invites the houseguests to Jazz club 70th birthday tribute to 'William'  ex NFL player turned jazz Bass player ....who is riddled with oldester maladies.
Her buddy Salve accompanies us,  bespectacled, quiet Filipinia.

Driving in Vancouver

J asks me to drive,  the Tundra being short a couple seats,  we take J's Ford minivan.  No drinking for me tonight (I dont drink anyhow) and responsible all  of a sudden for 6 world travelers, driving a strange van in a dark crowded unfamiliar city.
Fortunately the old van is a pleasure to drive, though a bunch of warning lights are on ("dont worry about those,  oh and dont trust the mirrors, they move")
Arriving safely with expert directions from J ( shes live in VBC all her life)We meet William at the door,  big strong older  jazzman wearing a worn grey silk suit.
We  snag a table front center,  our Chinese contingent  a bit out of  their comfort zone, but game.
Music starts slow, the musicians are skilled,  turns out locally famous, a handsome Trumpet player joins them midset,  J and he were talking earlier about tour logistics,  turns out he too is famous with CDs and concert tour.  William the birthday boy is the quintessential jazz bassman and soulful singer.

Dancing in the Jazz club

All is going swimmingly, grooving to the beat.  Then J gets up and invites me to dance  with her and the other 6 women dancers. Ok!?!  I do my best jazz skatt steps,  J is a fabulous smooth expressive dance ( " Did I tell you I taught ballet and modern dance?" J quips)

Sitting with Salve, I learn she has been married 40 years to her piano player husband,  has grandkids.  The couple had a popular jazz club for 15 years.  received numerous awards and still play in concerts, shows me her videos, yep a pro, and wow glamorous dressed up  and dazzling coifs.  A real show woman, not shy on stage.  She also mention she used to swim 50 laps a day,  which I do,  but that interfered with her hair now she does 1.5 hours of calisthenics per day....Than explains her physical condition.

Turns out J arranged the concert/party  calling in many local musicians  many who performed expertly,  J is a self proclaimed connector.  What a great hostess to have in a strange city.

---

Update a few days later. Previous post about One night in Bangkok.

Iaman Reports from Vacouver BC

Burnaby, Vancouver BC

Vancouver BC Monday 10/21/2019

Hi from Canada,

I’ve been in rain for the past week, but the temperature is cool not cold, not hot.  Pleasant if you are dressed well.

I have a basement Airbnb room,  quiet, warm.  The décor, paint and finishes were familiar, then I learned the owner is an Indian meditator family.  Yellow, gold and whites.  J who is the tenant rents out the 6 bedrooms to people like me.  J is cute Asian gal ~40? Disheveled sunglassed smiley solicitous spacey upon first meeting her, happy upbeat but looks like she stumbled out of bed at 4 in the afternoon.  J has had many careers including lead singer with a a number of small jazz bands.  J  is deep into the older VBC music culture.  Yesterday she had a invite to MC at a memorial to a Jazzman,  30 minutes later she shows up glamourous in black evening gown and  a wig. Modern, svelte and cool.  J  has pictures on the walls of her well attended house parties complete with live jazz bands.  I wondering if the sunglasses are to cover pinpoint pupil of an addict?

J wants me to stay and unilaterally without telling me first,  blocked the rooms off Airbnb for the rest of the month.  Waiting for her to get up at 4PM to discuss a reduction in rent or maybe trade work to stay (1 hour a day?) lots of simple maintenance to be done here.

Plan B is head back south, maybe into the rain shadow of the Salish sea. Or Portland area...or farther south to the 72 degree weather of Redding CA.

Fellow roomers; M & Irene. M is a 76 singer & P&P (pension & a paper route).  Has TV music videos of himself singing professionally in the early 1970s,  very professional and good.  Then went on to MC at dinner & strip clubs.  Strippers never excited him, being as they are  "paper and paste", he volunteered the only time he was aroused by a performer was on a amateur night a regular normal unadorned woman stripped to her natural self, he liked that. M still sings & strums guitar at church and small events. He is embarrassed about his bad and missing teeth, but is on a government waiting list to remedy that.

M’s wife Irene is a simple dumpy gal who was once beautiful.  Her mind wanders and tends to bore others with astrology theories. M is tolerant, mostly. I wonder how they will get on, especially if Irene is in early dementia?

M & Irene are financially strapped, hence the paper route when they are 75 & 69 YO.  They had lived in the same apartment for 40 years then after a long eviction fight, settled for $10k to move out, now they are here in a room for $1200 a month and sharing the house with travelers that pass through.  They like me, they are not happy with their situation.

Another roomer-tenant is Tony who everyone seems wary of.  I finally met him big black strong young guy with a scowl.  I introduced myself and shook hands, and he opened up with a smile and a hello.  The other residents seeing this later expressed their amazement,  in the 3 years Tony has been here that is the first smile and most words they have heard him speak.  His accent is Dominican.  They say he works construction,  but I suspect more of a underground profession.

Unitarian Church

Clarence had a card table set up in the Unitarian Church hallway during the after-service-coffee-klatch.  76 and wheelchair bound he expressed a happy demeanor, was neatly dressed with spiffy cap and manly necklace and rings.  He was offering to sharpen peoples knifes for free, my chisel and screwdrivers would take more than a honing. Asking about his conditions he related he was a mine mechanic (like me) deep in the Canadian Rockies,  had a nice lake house with a 3’ diameter fir tree that had fallen across a ravine.  Cutting it into sections, the trunk shifted and fell breaking his back.  “It is what it is, I’m happy to be alive and functioning.”

I’m going to call him today about a Shark Tank episode I saw today about Knife Aid (mail-order knife sharpening $10 a blade)…. Well…. I called Clarence,  he has no PC nor smartphone, not interested in my story, he was written up in the newspaper as a interest story and the police called him to enquire about his Biz, then the landlord in his subsidized housing reminded him he couldn’t have a Biz in his apartment. So he doesn’t charge people, does it for free, "it was never about the money".    He invited me over to see his themed subsidized housing décor, complete with a camouflaged out door machine shop on his patio porch.

Swimming

Big 50 meter pools here in VBC,  and many swimmers, mostly Chinese.

Differences; unisex locker rooms- similar to Amsterdam,  wanting clarity I asked a attendant about the etiquette of coed sharing the locker room,  they said there are privacy changing booths but sometimes people strip in front of everyone…unusual but there is not a rule against it. I'll need to try that. ;)

Showers, one is labeled “cold shower” with warm side spray. Strange,  high entry walls below the dive blocks,  kids can scamper up, but I need to swim to ladder.  Signs in shower say "no spitting or other personal hygiene allowed in shower."  Apparently Chinese like to spit,  a lot.

Chinese.  Burnaby was a sprawling suburb now has a high rise city center like I imagine Hong Kong, mostly Chinese signs, all pedestrians Chinese.  Not racist,  but what happens when you are suddenly surrounded in your home town by people who don’t look like you speaking a language you don’t understand.  Just so many of them. ..  I had a preview of this in Croatia, when Chinese cruise ships loaded in Dubrovnik and I was suddenly transported from a Dalmatian mindset to the land of China.

And  coincidentally the housing market became unaffordable for the average Canadian, many like M & Irene.

Burnaby’s 20 year old houses are being raised for incoming high rises.  Mostly Chinese I am told.

Woodmate's Mr. Grip

Woodmate's Mr. Grip

Iaman brought me a sample of this stuff. He swears by it. He was working on his truck and the screw that secured the grounding strap to the A/C compressor stripped its hole. He peeled off a couple of threads of the Mr. Grip stuff, stuffed them in the hole and that was enough to secure the screw.

Sun Dogs

Roadrunner

Iaman reports from somewhere in Arizona:

Had a couple of road runners ouside my window yesterday negotiating a catch of a lizard.
Went on a hike with Randy last evening, there are old mines here, one is filled with crystalline water.  The dogs Brill (old cow dog) & Pup run amok in the cactus and rocks seemingly oblivious to rattlers which this is prime habitat for. Both have been bitten.
One neighbor who has no dogs suffers with Coati running on his roof at night, and mice chewing his trucks wiring.  He miss- identified them as ring tailed cats which are  native here too.  A new neighbor who doesn't like dogs, has trail-cams of mountain lions padding around his house.  Randy's dog Pup, big german shepherd, has been ambushed and mixed with up with coyote packs a couple times. 
Weather perfect in morning till 10, then heat is relentless till 7PM.  Randy, a desert rat, goes out shirtless hatless in midday UV walking the dogs on the near vertical hills, I'm attempting to acclimate to the Chihuahua desert life.  Houses relatively cheap here,  may have something to do with no water and relentless solar assault.  Pools scarce, neighbor has one but is always on guard against monsoon winds and debris.