The State of the TV Nation

Graeme Wright, my buddy in Ontario, will often ask if there are any flaws in the financial plan, and our answer is none. At this time a year ago we had just "cut the cord" and gone off the cable TV mortgage, something that was costing about $85 a month, so over the year, we saved a little over a thousand bucks.

Ok, one off charges for new equipment cost us about $300, so we saved about seven hundred bucks and a subscription to Netflix and a VPN was another $160, so we should subtract that from the savings, so at the end of the day, we saved about five hundred and sixty dollars over the year.

Although we did have Netflix before we sunk cable TV and we did fund the cost of the new equipment and the VPN from eBay profits, so we're back to saving a thousand bucks a year again.

So, in retrospect, was it worth it?. The big and loud answer is yes. We have watched more quality TV this year, when we wanted to watch it, than any year that we have been in Canada. The experience has been terrific. In fact, as time goes on, we keep finding more things to watch, again, at a time when we want to watch them, if we had the time to watch them that is.

If there are any flaws in this cord cutting plan, we have yet to find them.

Will update again in a years time.


 

Boxing Day

All signs of the snow have gone and we've been having warm temperatures over the last few days, today, Boxing Day, we went for a long walk, the "Reed Road Right" walk down into lower Gibsons, I thought the North Shore Mountains looked like they deserved a place on the blog, not that you can actually see them that is, but the cloud was fantastic.

Snow Day

Well, it's been threatening for a week or so and overnight it was supposed to snow and by golly, the people at the weather office got it right this time, good stuff, kids and dogs are bounding through it and the plow is making it's rounds, we'll have to go out and shovel the driveway later, shake off some of the shrubs and have some fun, but for now, hot toast and coffee in a nice warm house, yes, Christmas is definitely coming.

It's beginning to look a losh like chrishmoos...

Yes, here on the ranch, the turkey has been rustled and some of the fixings have been fixed, today we went out and spent some eBay money and bought some booze, a week or so to go, starting to look good, you know, we wouldn't normally bother, it's just for the kids...

Another Happy Anniversary

Twenty Six years and counting, seemed like a reason to get our boots on and do the Cliff Gilker Park route, bear and cayote warnings aside, we had a good, brisk walk through the forest and could not resist going off to Robert's Creek afterwards to have some decent food at the Gumboot Restaurant.

Yard House

We discovered two new things in Vegas, Chipotle Mexican Grill and the Yard House. Two American food and beverage chains that we had never heard of, Chipotle was indeed impressive, serving self assembled burritos and bowls, after an inexpensive meal there we didn't have to eat again all day. The other chain, the Yard House, well, they had one hundred and thirty-eight beers on tap and as they say, regardless of how full you are, there's always room for beer...

The Strip at Tropicana

This was what that Gray Jay was looking at, over the road, New York, New York, the MGM Grand and lazy afternoon traffic at Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. A quiet November day in sin city.

Birding - Vegas Style

There really is no shortage of little birds throughout Las Vegas, what was once desert is a thriving environment for the little scavengers, we saw eagles in the desert, several ducks in a fake Casino lake, numerous opportunist white crowned sparrows, grackles, cowbirds and this little fella, sat on a wire outside of the Tropicana casino on the strip, a gray jay. The last time we saw one of these we were staying up at Whistler with Karen's mum Pat, celebrating her seventieth birthday.

  

Anniversary

In a few weeks time we will be having our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary, things are moving along as they do in this life, we worked out that this was at least our eighth trip to Las Vegas and we've been to Red Rocks about four or five times and it never gets old, hopefully, besides some number on a birthday card, neither will we.

Red Rocks

A twenty minute drive from the madness of the Las Vegas strip and we spent a nice few hours at Red Rocks, took a tour of the visitor center, a walk down the sides of a small canyon and breathed in the dry, desert air. At this time of the year, temperatures were warm with a cool breeze, or in the terminology of a typical Nevada resident, rather chilly or downright cold.

Cloudy with a sign of Vegas

Flying out of Vancouver on a Westjet 737-800 down the coast to Las Vegas, a birthday present for the half-century lady, clouds on the way there and on the way back. We stayed in Vancouver on the Saturday night and enjoyed some night life and the hockey game, an early flight on the Sunday and we started our Vegas adventure as a familiar Washington mountain said hello through the top of the clouds.

Growlers big and small

Persephone have two Growler sizes, about 1.90 Litres and 0.95 Litres. The large one costs $12 to fill, the smaller $6.50. The gift certificate of $100 from Karen's family will provide a lot of beer over the next three or four weekends! - the large one is usually filled with Goddess Golden Ale and the small one, well, that was actually filled twice this time, once with Rum Runner Red Ale and the second time with the stronger Scotch Ale. All yummy stuff.

Persephone and the old one

The other baby, we've had her over ten and a half years now, takes us to and from the brewery where we fill up our growlers.

Persephone and the Birthday Girl

November 2013, a very special month for young Karen, the big five-o as they say, or, as the annoying older people say, fifty years young, well, she is still a spring chicken and as I keep telling her, it's only a number (it's just a bloody big one), still, Karen will never be as old as me, but at least the percentage difference is getting smaller.

Money to Burn

Second fire, yes, I did say we had lots of wood to burn, so we're watching survivor and we decided to burn some money too, not real money of course, but strangely, even burning fake money felt good.

Burn Baby Burn

The first of October, the first fire of the season, we have wood, we have lots of wood this year...

Friday Paddle, Out of the Gap

It was a celebration this week, six years retired and two years for me being a steersperson, one thing I have never done is to go out of the "gap" mainly because we've tried a couple of times and it has proven too rough to get out onto the Strait, on Friday however, things were calm and we had a marathon trip out, all the way to Preston Island and the Pophams, the GPS reported it was 7.26 miles total. The last two and a half miles were quite brutal though as the winds picked up considerably, but we made it, safe and sound, back to the marina. Of course, it does not need to be said that further celebrations, of the liquid kind, were undertaken.

Steamworks, down in the Cellar.

After a visit to Gastown we stopped in at Steamworks as usual, but decided to go down into their cellar where a lot of the brewing action goes on, beers of course were consumed along with a pizza. All good.

Cheer and Beese

Downstairs at Steamworks in Vancouver, looking at our latest haul from Benton Brothers :

Done, dusted

Yes, the house over the road has been completed for a few weeks now, up for sale and grass is growing (weeds too) - the listed price is $439k and we hope we'll soon have some nice, quiet neighbors who can afford it.

Last of the First

We visited Persephone brewing on Thursday night to fill up the growler, this one was from the last keg of the first batch of Goddess Ale, the next batch being ready to roll. It seems that it will also be available on tap down at Gramma's today, will have to investigate...

Skyped

As Microsoft continue to work their magic on the Skype program they are determined to destroy, we managed a few hours with the New Zealand faction of the Glee club. We drank the new beer, from our new brewery "Persephone" here on the coast, a delightful lager called "Goddess" that we had bought in the afternoon. All is well.

On our way Home

On the early afternoon Horseshoe Bay to Langdale ferry after an excellent drive back from Kelowna, that's the last long drive on the tires which now have 68k on them, so time for new rubber before the next long trip. Here's old faithful sitting at the back of the boat, waiting for a deserved rest on the driveway.

On a Mission

It was beer club Tuesday and all pints were $5.55 at the new Mission Tap House, which was actually a converted pub that we had visited a year ago. we drank a few very fine craft brewed beers and then moved on, an afternoon swim at the hotel and then an evening out, drinking wine of all things.

Tree Brewing

What a great way to start a day of drinking, visiting a palace of drink making, Tree Brewing in the Industrial Area of Kelowna. We had multiple tastings of their best beers, great atmosphere as well and the lady gave us directions to a great new bar in Mission.

Western Painted Turtles

Yes, those things again...

Rotary Marsh Park

On a visit to Kelowna, a morning walk down to the Waterfront Marsh Park is essential, lots of wildlife to see in this protected environment, here, a couple of ospreys who gave us quite a show with their hovering and calling.

Kelowna

Kelown first night, we went to Joey Kelowna's bar and grill and then onto the Cactus Club for some lovely beers. It's the last stop on our vacation and we booked an extra night just to make it feel more like a stop and not just a stopover.

Glacier National Park

A photo through the windscreen as I took a long rest as Karen drove us through the Glacier National Park on the journey through the Rockies to our next destination, Kelowna. Amazing views with big objects everywhere. The windscreen shows evidence of a few of the many bugs that met their doom on the way, fortunately, they were the only things we collided with.

Hola Amigos!

After all that walking, it was only fair that we stuffed ourselves silly with some good food. We visited the long established Magpie & Stump and enjoyed their guacamole, salsa and fresh baked chips as a starter, then both had a taco, rice, black beans and salad. Of course, there were cerveza's, served in jam jars. The drive back to Canmore was quiet as we were rather full, both experiencing that "bowling ball" feeling.

Banff

Our visit to Banff was a good one, however, it really was only good because we went off the beaten track and explored the area (and suffered the mosquitoes) to see some of the views that the trekkers would see. The town center feels somewhat of a theme park, far too crowded with thousands of tourists searching through the various shops (filled with foreign goods) for some souvenir of the town or the Rockies. Regardless of all the tourist madness, we used our GPS and avoided most of it, walked five or six miles and had a great day!

Wabbits

Along with all the other wildlife, there are Wascally Wabbits everywhere...

Canadian Rockies

It is incomprehensible to imagine the vastness of the mountains even when you're standing beside them, so a two dimensional photograph does a lot less, nevertheless, here is the view looking down the Bow River towards Banff.

Bow River

Karen, investigating the Bow River that flooded a month or so ago, impressive backdrop has been photo-shopped on to give picture balance.

Douglas Sqiggle

This little guy allowed me to get about four feet away from him, he posed nicely for a photo.

Walking Day

Yes, we walked our little legs off today, exploring the local area of Canmore, which, apparently was the victim of major flooding in June, although you would not notice as the community has done an amazing job of cleaning up. Here we are, near the train tracks, about to stroll into the path of an oncoming Canadian Pacific Locomotive.

Cleanup on Aisle three

All done, time for a little bit of sweeping and polishing and we were back on the journey to Banff and Canmore.

Take a Break

A well deserved break from the driving through the Canadian Rockies as the maintenance crews force a rock avalanche to make things safer, there were four guys up on safety lines, poking about, this dust storm was the result of a rock the size of a volkswagen coming down onto the road.

Columbian Ground Squirrels

On the hills in Sun Peaks, these little critters were absolutely everywhere, popping up as sentries to warn each other as we walked along, it was funny later (as we enjoyed dinner in Masa's) to watch them tease numerous dogs and puppies, popping up like whack a mole figures and vanishing in the nick of time, good exercise for the canines.

 

Sun Peaks

Days one and two up at Sun Peaks resort, fantastic place in the summer, boy was it hot yesterday but of course, to cool down there were ten dollar jugs of Grasshopper beer out on the patio with the hummingbirds, Columbian ground squirrels on the hill, wine in the hot tub in the evening (fingers and toes like prunes) so we're managing through it all.

Crab Cake

No Mister Bond.....I expect you to die......muhahahahahaaaa!

Back on dry land

Of course, water is far better when it is served as an ingredient in beer...

Cheeky...

Just to prove that Karen, and her sister Sue, have also been in the Pacific, here they are, down at Robert's Creek.

Sea Cavalcade

It was the Sea Cavalcade weekend last week, a different cavalcade than normal as it evolves. One of our paddle club members, Diane, joined the Keats Swim, swimming the vast distance from Keats Island to Armours Beach, of course, myself and the goodly wife were mere spectators in such athletic endevours, often we will swim, for short periods of time, but spending over an hour in the water, even at this time of the year, brrrrhhhhh.....

Cheeky Chappy

Amazing little things these birdies...

New additions

This young one was very interested in the pair of us, allowed us to get very close on the pier in Gibsons, in the background, the new addition to the pier, the float plane float.

The boat came back

Another year and that familiar boat has returned. On Friday we paddled around the boat, it was a beautiful paddling morning, we stayed out for a couple of hours with a very happy crew.

Goslings

Over on Granville Island, a month ago, more little goslings than could be counted on one hand...

Baby Birds

There are babies everywhere and much activity with smaller birds dive bombing bigger birds who are after the little ones as a nice crunchy snack, here, on our bird bath a couple of baby crows are nagging their mother to share the food.

Huli Day

Today, Sunday, was Huli day down at Armours Beach, we willingly dunked ourselves in the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean (and actually had a lot of fun doing it) and then came home, still with our feathers ruffled, and celebrated by bottling the latest batch of beer.

Forty-three 500ml bottles of Cooper's Real Ale, ready to drink today and better in a week's time.

We're off for the second celebration to the Blackfish now.

Concrete Donkey

I was sat out on the picnic table early this morning talking to this young buck in my pajamas (I was wearing the pajamas, not the deer) and he decided to take a look at the concrete donkey.