Ness’ Outpost

We took a trip down to New York City as tourists visiting a friend in the city. It seems like we went everywhere!

Visited the Chelsea Brewery and went on their free tour on Saturday after our flight in. Then went to a market to pick up a few things for dinner. Lots of trips through the subway, but we only saw one rat. We checked out the Brooklyn bridge just as the sun was starting to set and things were cooling off.

Sunday we were off to Liberty and Ellis Island. Lo did very good on the ferry over - not a tinge of green. Then we went to Stout NYC to watch the hockey game. We all had Team Canada gear on but it was a little nerve racking wearing a Team Canada hockey jersey in the heart of the beast. There was quite the cheer with 28 seconds to go in the 3rd - but the small group of Canadians were even louder in OT. To top the night off we we went to Babbo — which is Mario Batali’s restaurant for an over indulging meal of the pasta tasting menu. There were some substitutions for Lo’s allergies though - mmm lobster.

Monday the city came back to life as everyone returned after the snowy weekend. Lo and I wandered through central park and then did some shopping at some huge discount store called Century 21 — all I could think about was real estate and obviously we couldn’t afford any of that in NYC. The store was down near where the twin towers used to be so we had a quick tour of the area - they are building a monument there now. Then we took the subway back up to Grand Central station and wandered down to the piers. Then a quick walk up through China town and little Italy before packing up for the airport that night.

Photos are here.

I did some work on Lo’s Vibe this weekend. Kevin kindly invited me over to his dads to enjoy the comfort of a two car garage even though it was pretty warm around here for January.

We did an oil change and replaced the spark plugs. She had 120k km on the vehicle and it was a little early for the plugs but it made sense to do since Lo was concerned about a drop in fuel mileage.

I should also replace her air filter and clean the MAF sensor but I’ll leave those jobs for warmer days it’s now dipped back down into the negatives.
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Kevin and I got all geared up to change the front pads and rotors on my Cavalier this weekend. Since I was jacking the car up and I was close to my 135K oil change we did that as well.

Things went really well for a bunch of novices. Labour took probably 4 times as long as a brake shop, but it’s fun to get in there with a wrench and have a go. We’ll only get better. The big problem of the day was when we were missing the 3/4″ hex socket to get the caliper pins off so a quick trip to Canadian Tire was in order.

What wasn’t very good to see was that my pads wearing unevenly. Which means the caliper pins were seized - they were pretty hard to turn through the bushings but they moved. I cleaned and lubed them up and along with the bushings in the caliper itself and hopefully these new ceramic pads will wear better.

I decided to replace the rotors instead of machining the OEM ones again. They’ve been machined 3 times now and warp every pad change (40-50K km). But I think they warped even more this time because of the uneven pad pressure, just the piston was pushing outward on the rotor with a single pad instead of both pads grabbing the rotor.

The next front brake job I’ll have to replace the calipers since it’s about the same cost as rebuilding them on the Cavalier.

But up next in the home mechanic maintenance is trying to figure out the rear shoes and drums, then doing a brake fluid flush.

Yesterday I got an email from HR here at GE about the employee benefit of bringing in nurses to administer on site flu shots. I have to admit that I have yet to get a flu shot when they have been available ever since University.

Today I read this CBC article titled Canadians urged to get flu shots despite problems.

I think I’ll continue the trend and not get a flu shot again this year. If I was interacting with older people or newborns more often then I might. But I’m not convinced it does more good than bad. I’ll just let nature take it’s course and roll the dice.

This from a complete health care idiot.

Remember when your Mom used to make you write a list to Santa. Well now in the digital age I can do it online, update and make changes up to the night of Christmas. Of course that doesn’t mean I won’t get a lump of coal, but what can you do:

• *NEW* Survival Suit - likely Large or XL - Bright coloured and floating for ice fishing.
• *NEW* Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ By Bjarne Stroustrup
• *NEW* Paper shredder - For all this mail I’m getting with my personal information all over it.
• Snow Shoes
• Gators
• Walking Poles
• Tool Chest (Craftsman)
• Tilly Socks - full length and the Unhole-y ones ($20/pair) - absolutely worth the cost
• Hiking Socks - smart wool or other moisture wicking brands
• Pants - For work and a few for play
• Rain pants - for hiking in wet conditions - I have fleece lined winter ones, but those are too hot for non-winter activities
• Flys for fishing in southern ontario - targeting bass, trout, and the odd pike - Check out number 3 at the link
• SOLD OUT?
  “Fumbling with a Flyrod: Stories from the River” By Ian Colin James in hard cover if you can find one that isn’t a collectible. You’ll know it’s a collectible because it will be ridiculously expensive. Otherwise paperback is fine.
• Waders - unfortunately a very personal purchase based on fit, value, features, etc. and are likely going to be in the $300-$500 range
• Wader Boots - no sense buying these without having a pair of waders. Waders may come with boots as a combo.
• Canadian Tire or Home Depot gift cards are always welcome! ;)

If it looks like most of my gifts could come from MEC - you’d be right.

That’s right, I saw snow. That means it is time to start work on the winter beard.

Sorry Lo, but I have the means to keep my face warm. I know at least one woman that likes me in my beard, and it isn’t my Mom (although she might). Chantelle is a sucker for the beard as Grant will attest to.

Chantelle and myself donned our rain gear and headed out to a trout pond in Milton called Fish4Trout.

Chantelle had my Ugly Stick spinning rod with 10 pound braid and 7 pound fluorocarbon tippet about 3 feet in length. Spinners were the best for her. Retrieve the lure just fast enough to get the blade spinning, but no faster.

I was set up with my 9′ fly rod with floating line attached to 3 feet of braid and then 3 feet of fluoro tippet just before the fly. I only used one fly all day, a green woolly bugger with some attractive flash in the tail I bought at my local fly shop in Mississagua. I need to find some time to get there on a Saturday and start tying my own flies over the winter. A great fly and well worth the $4 cost. It held up to being water logged all day and the trout pulling on it and trying to swallow it whole. Way better than the cheap Canadian Tire specials - if you can find them - that are throw aways after 2 hours of fishing.

Here are some pictures of Chantelles catch - which became our lunch. I paid the extra entrance fee for catch and release and each trout was released successfully. Anything that was killed on my fly I would have to keep and pay for, but everybody swam away after a quick hook removal. Be sure to debarb your flies which helps a lot when you are in a catch and release situation and makes the catching part more challenging - which is ok here since there always seemed to be a trout willing to take a fly.

Don’t be scared of the larger upfront cost of catch and release. If you’re a good fisherman you’ll easily land 20 or more fish in a morning and at 60 cents an inch that can add up. Besides, the pond needs that money to breed new fish for you to catch so they can replace the ~10-30% mortality rate of catch and release - even if the fish swims away.

If you ever are down on your luck and need an outing to pick up your spirits take a trip to Milton and go fishing with the folks at Fish4Trout. They were friendly, helpful, and prepared our catch for transport on ice. I’d go again.

Lauren and I officially moved into our new home in Mississauga today. Thanks to everyone who came out to both sites for loading and unloading the truck. It rained quite a bit but we are in and unpacking.

The bad news is that the truck leaked through the light. The good news is that it just slowed us down a bit since the bottom of the cardboard boxes were soaked and had to be handled carefully. Luckily the piano wasn’t on that side of the truck. I complained to Uhaul and they kindly reversed the charges for the truck so it turned out all I paid for was gas.

This is far better customer service than Bell that is for sure.
I would rent from Uhaul again - overall this experience has been pleasant. There is a little bit of frustration waiting in line to get and return the trucks. It seems the service centres are a little understaffed on weekends. Next time I plan to move something on a rainy day I’ll be to get a decent truck and not put anything under light fixtures in the box.

Our condo was sold and we had to vacate the unit by the end of July for the new owner to take possession at the beginning of August. Our new home doesn’t close until the end of August. We chose this date because Lauren is traveling and we need some time to get our ducks in a row financially and with the Lawyers and Realtors.

So all our stuff had to go into storage and I’m going into couch/futon surfing mode with kind friends for the month.

A huge thanks to Trevor, Robb, Derek, Ave, Rich, Jenn & Mr. Anderson for providing the needed labour to pack up the truck and help us put everything into storage.

The truck was supposed to be a 14 footer from Uhaul. But they failed to get me a truck in the time slot assigned to me for the service elevator in my building so they upgraded me for free to a 26 foot truck. Which is a beast to back into loading docks, driveways and try to attempt tight turns with.

If anyone is free in early September for Part II of the big move let me know! We’ll be looking for some help.

Grant and I braved the snow storm from earlier in the weekend and headed out onto Lake Simcoe again to try and find some tasty perch to jump into our bucket. We were supposed to have two more come along, but the 1.5′ of snow we had dumped on us the previous day didn’t give them a warm fuzzy feeling about driving up to Keswick.

The good news is that Grant has an all wheel drive Subaru so we didn’t have any problems and the main roads were cleared in plenty of time for our arrival. The Albertan and Naval man who were supposed to join us were easy targets the next day at work for their fear of snow.

Grant and I did alright pulling in 13 and 15 fish each. A few were too tiny and had to be released, but we had about 16 eating sized fish which Grant kindly cleaned and then cooked at his place. Lauren really appreciates that!

Once again we went out with Simcoe Fishing Adventures and other than Grant forgetting his wallet in the car on shore things were great. I’d highly recommend you contact Whitey if you’re looking for a pleasant day of fishing.