Oct 20 - jumping the gun

I forgot to mention that on Sunday night as I was fishing there were multiple flights of ducks that went overhead and and one point -- BOOM -- someone not too far off was shooting at them with a shotgun. At around 6:30 -- dusk -- there came a CRACK -- the unmistakable sound of a high-powered rifle -- not a shotgun. Was someone "jumping the gun" on the moose season ?? It did not officially start until this morning. Was someone sighting in their rifle at dusk the night before the season started ? I doubt it.

... more later ...

Morning again -- first snow of the year -- well, actually the season because the first snow of the year happened last January. Mya's first encounter with snow was funny. As usual she ran outside to pee but stopped in her tracks on the deck and came back into the house. After she had breakfast I took her out on the leash and she tip-toed, if dogs can do that, and put her nose to the snow. She'll soon grow to love the stuff -- after all, that's what they've been bred for.

Back to yesterday -- it was another day off, but this time a day off from fishing. It rained all day, never hard, drizzle sometimes, but always raining. I spent most of my time in or near the den labeling Dad's videos on the DVR and copying them to DVD. My aim is to have each of them on DVD before I start making copies of same for Arlene and Philip. It's a slow process. I'm hoping to use the computer for the copies because it's faster.

I also tackled the job of putting grommets in the tarp and ran into a snag. I had bought a grommet tool and grommets from Rona -- whoops, we just lost power -- my UPS's kicked in and now it's back -- anyway, the tool came with a dozen grommets which I installed and then started to use the ones that came in separate bags and they were a) slightly smaller and b) flimsy -- just lost power again, this is not good -- bottom line, those grommets would not work with the tool and they were so flimsy that I don't think that they would work with this 10ml tarp anyway. I tried grinding down the end of the tool to make it smaller but ran into the flimsiness issue as I tried to press them closed. So ... it's off to Home Depot on the weekend, since I'm going in for Mass anyway. I'm making my list already.

As I sit her typing I'm copying more videos to DVD. Sixteen down and seven to go ... and that does not count the ones that are purely travels, eg. Fiji, Australia etc. I'll copy those at some point but those will mostly be scenery / event shots with the occasional wave from Mom. I'll probably leave those for when we get back in December.

We just lost power twice while I was setting up another video for copying. One of these times I'll be heading up for the generator. There is a scheduled power outage for this coming Sunday -- I got a call yesterday from Hydro One -- from 8am until noon -- which coincides with my trip into Sudbury, of course. I'll probably just shut down the computers because they would exhaust the UPS's if the actual outage is too long. That's not good for the batteries.

When I got up this morning I didn't have internet connectivity. My immediate thought was that the cloud cover was too dense and then I realized that I would have a coating of snow on the dish. Sure enough, after I cleaned the dish I had a good enough signal for internet access. That is a limiting factor if I ever wanted to set things up so that I had ongoing video maintenance of the place. I'd have to cover the dish somehow so that snow would not collect on the face. That would be a challenge -- cover it but don't cover it, if you know what I mean.

Will I go fishing ? Not in this kind of wet snowfall. If it stops by dawn I'll go out. I just checked the weather forecast and they're calling for -6C in North Bay and -7C in Sudbury. We'll be somewhere in there too. I'm glad that I'm not camping, hunting moose !! That will surely take care of the black flies !!

I'll check with Jason and close off his basement and turn on his basement and in-house heaters. There is little chance of pipes freezing but it's not worth taking the chance -- the downside risk is too great for the couple of $ worth of electricity. He has an exposed external hose connection that should be drained. It's high off the ground and if the temperature gets that low there is a risk of frost cracking that pipe.

I'll have to bring in my pressure washer too and drain the pump in the shed ... I guess that I've got my day's work cut out for me. I had run the pressure washer on the weekend to drain any gas left in the tank so it's all ready to go. I put it in the basement during the winter.

The first time that I wrote the prior paragraphs I had mis-read the weather forecasts -- I had read the "feels like" lines that say -11C and -14C respectively. Those would be for-sure frost issues for pipes while -6C and -7C are in the not-likely category since the ground is not frozen. However, with the daytime temperatures low enough, there will be a heavy frost. When I went out to clean the snow off the dish the ground had that crunchy feel to it like the top half-inch is frozen. It is supposed to be -6C to -9C each night until Saturday when it warms up so an ounce of prevention is in order.

....

I just labeled and started up another DVD. Jan - Apr 1991 -- I had to fast forward quite a way through the video past a video documentary of pictures and people that I don't recognize until Dad had turned on the date/time so that I could verify that I had the correct video. I saw Willie & Florie and at least one of their boys before I got to the date that I could verify. Once I verify that I have the correct video I then label it with the menu system which is a real pain because you have to scroll up and down through a menu to pick letters (no keyboard) and then "lock" the file so that it cannot be changed or deleted. They are easily unlocked but that stops them from being deleted accidentally. Next, with a blank DVD-R in the drive I go into "dubbing" and select the video and then start writing. After it's written I then have to use the menu system to "finalize" the DVD. Then I pop it out, label it with a marker and put it in a sleeve. Creating additional copies would be quicker but not as quick as using the computer. Using the computer has the additional benefit of ensuring that the DVD is readable.

So ... enough rambling for this morning. You may or may not be interested in what we do every day but you surely don't want this kind of detailed play-by-play !!

Sandy and Lauren went into Sudbury yesterday. The primary purpose of the trip was to get another gallon of paint to finish the basement. She ran some other errands at the same time, naturally. Stef was originally going to go but changed her mind.

It sounds like the plan is for Sandy to take Stef and Lauren down to Oakville on October 30th -- for Halloween -- and then Stef is going to stay down there. We won't be up here much longer anyway since we expect to leave for Philly on the 12th. Sandy is going to see Joyce on that trip, staying over for a couple of days, and then go down again on the 5th or something to see a ballet. Alex is supposed to be here on November 1st and deer hunting season starts on the 3rd. I am going down to Toronto on Monday October 27th for a couple of dentist appointments -- dental checkup and periodontal cleaning -- and will stop at Alex's on the way down to get a cross-bow from him and try my hand at sitting in the bush since bow season for deer is open the entire time. I wouldn't want to sit in the bush in camo with a bow during moose season though !!

Enough blogging ... another video has finished copying and needs to be finalized. Soon this will be done. It's time for breakfast.