A Tale Of Two Calendars

Just over two weeks ago, I got a phone call. It was a courier, explaining he couldn't get in my building to deliver a package. A package? I didn't order anything... who sent me something to my old address?

I let him know my new address, and how much longer I'd be home.

Package received, I opened it up. It was a Crochet-A-Day calendar. Odd... I didn't remember submitting any crochet patterns. From the invoice, it didn't look like something a friend had sent me. I went through the whole calendar, but couldn't find a pattern by me. Then I had a vague recollection of submitting a knitting pattern. Sure enough, when I looked up the accepted patterns on the knitting calendar, I found mine.

I e-mailed the publisher to tell them they sent the wrong calendar, and that I had moved. They said to keep the crochet calendar as a gift, and that they'd get a knitting one out to me.

A surprisingly brief period of time later, I came home to a message on my answering machine: DHL wasn't able to deliver a package, and could I call to make alternate arrangements. Hmmm... I hadn't seen any "missed delivery" slips...

I call. They had my old address. I give them my new address, and put a note on the door that they are authorized to leave the package.

Next day: nothing.

Day after: nothing. I call again, checking the address. "It can take 24 hours." "It's been 48!" "Uh... 24 to 48. It should come tomorrow!"

Day after that: phone call, they can't get in my building. "I already called to say I had moved, and gave the new address!!!" "Sorry, that wasn't written on the package." (Uh, maybe you should check the computer? They probably couldn't write it on the package because you hadn't brought it back in!) *sigh*

Get home tonight: package! Come inside: phone message: "could you leave a signed note so we can deliver your package" ?!?!?!!!

Since I have my package, I decided not to return the call.

My pattern is May 27 - 30. Enjoy! :)

*Screech* *Pop*, *Screech* *Pop*!

Subtitle: Why you should obey the speed limit, and keep sufficient distance (2-3 seconds) between you and the car in front of you.

Three-car pile-up on my street:

(I suspect someone ahead of them was turning left onto the side street... which happens often, but people don't expect for some reason.)

How handy! There was an undercover cop car sitting there:

(Guy in the middle is a cop, in case it's hard to see the details.)

Whoa, *three* cops! They must have been getting ready to do a safety check, rather than a speed trap:

Also handy: the truck that started leaking fluid all over the street also happened to be towing a trailer of sand (some of which spilled on impact). Plus he had a shovel! Cop was clever enough to use sand to absorb fluid. I'm not sure why he didn't put some more under the front of the truck so that the continuing leak didn't get into the sewer system... unless the sand is to prevent the street from getting slippery? I always thought it was for environmental reasons.

Additional tip: if you're towing a trailer of sand, allow for even more distance in front of you, because the additional weight will take more time to stop.

Update: Truck guy shovelled more sand to absorb stuff under truck. He's waiting for a tow (driving while fluids leaking out probably a recipe for damage to engine), and everyone else has left.

Beware Phone Scam!

This morning I got a phone call from a guy with an east Indian accent, but otherwise fine English, calling from an unknown number. He knew my last name. (He even managed to pronounce it correctly and confidently!) He claimed I had a Windows virus, and my computer was going to crash right away, and he was calling to help me fix my computer.

Uh... really?

I asked him what operating system he thought I was using. He said it was a Windows virus, so it was Windows. I said he was wrong. (I have a mac.) He hung up without even saying good-bye.

I suspect, had I been gullible enough, he would direct me to a website with a virus, or walk me through the steps to give him enough information for him to take over my computer directly. Or who knows, maybe he was going to ask for credit card information or something that he could use for identity theft.

If you have someone call claiming your computer is infected, and they're going to help you fix it, *please* don't fall for the scam! (You might also want to warn your more gullible, less-tech-savvy friends and relatives.)

Note: Here's an article about the scam, published by the Guardian.

And, in case you're interested, my computer is still doing just fine, 15 hours later. ;)

Apartment Step Conclusion

You may recall the ridiculous thing the concrete people put in as a front and back step:

It was big enough that you wanted to stand on it to unlock the door, but small enough that you pretty much had to get off in order to open the door. I asked the landlord if he would ask the concrete people to fix it, and they did.

First they sent someone by with a sledge hammer to remove the old step, but the sledge hammer wasn't proving effective. Then they sent someone with another tool I'm not sure about, and, although it appeared to be doing a better job, was still too slow.


So, one day, a few weeks back, they sent out the big guns:


Uh, perhaps I'll use the other door...


Yep, that worked:


Later that night:

(Is it legal to barricade the main door like this?)

Hmmm... I suspect the caretaker will be peeved about what they did with the extra concrete:


Getting inside required a little skill and balance:


(Hmmm... Flickr seems to be having some issues today...)

Yay Bike Ride! .... and *ow*!

Father's day weekend I also went on two bike rides with my uncle B. On the first one, I managed to fall off my bike twice.

The first time was in a spot that I walked my bike past on the way out, and thought to myself that I should be sure to get off the bike again on the way back. On the way back, I figured I was doing pretty well, and decided to try riding past the spot. It was a lump (radius similar to my bike's wheel), followed by a gully (ditto), followed by a lump (ditto). I went up, down, and half-way up. Then rolled back. My bike is a little big for me, so I couldn't stick the landing... and ended up doing a relatively slow-motion fall backwards. Advantages to falling backwards: the bike isn't in the way, and so ingrained judo falling techniques are more useful. My uncle thinks I was in the wrong gear. I think I didn't commit sufficiently, and didn't have enough experience with rough terrain. My mom thinks my brother should give me some lessons on riding my bike. (However, since he ends up in the hospital with various broken bones when he falls off the bike, I think I prefer my way.)

The second time was completely embarrassing. My uncle called for me to hold up while he checked something out. I was on a flat street, with a curb and a boulevard to the side. I decided to pull up to the curb and stop with my foot on the curb so that I didn't have to get off. Apparently my brain had ceased to work, because I was unable to dismount properly, and ended up falling on my side on the grass. I got some grass stains, two smalls scratches, and a whopper bruise.

The scratches were relatively minor, and the grass stains on my shorts not exciting enough to upload the photo. (Not when it's two weeks old.) The bruise was spectacular, but in a location that I'm not willing to photograph. (It's around the panty-line.) So, instead, here's the crushed branches from the first place I fell off the bike spectacularly on a previous trip:

(Notice all the broken branches near the trunk on the right, plus the dead/wilted stuff farther away. The mud in the upper-left corner is where the bike path is when the river isn't flooding it.)

However, the flowers were pretty:


We biked all the way to the BDI and back. (Google maps estimates the round trip to be 25 km.) I'm not sure if my falling off the bike was stupidity, lack of sleep (my uncle wanted to go before it got too hot), too much sun, or wrong blood sugar. Or a combination of all of the above.

Sadly, I didn't get on my bike last weekend due to all the stuff I had to do, and this weekend because it was too hot... plus I had too much stuff to do. Perhaps next weekend I'll be able to go for another ride. (I will need to go to bed earlier so that I can get up earlier, when it isn't as hot.)

My uncle says he'd like a video camera, plus notice about when to turn it on. :P

Holy *Bleep*!

About 10:45 I heard a child *screaming*... it sounded like it was screaming for its life! Now, sometimes kids do that when they're over-tired and having a temper-tantrum, but it was coming from a direction where neighbours and I have had to call the cops before, for fear of a woman's safety.

I went outside, to see if I could find out where it was coming from. (It had stopped by the time I got outside.) When I got behind the house where there's been trouble before, the people on the other side of the lane also came out, and confirmed they had heard screaming from that house too.

I went back and called 911.

Sh!t likes that leaves a person all wound up! I hope the kid is okay. :( Sheesh... what is *wrong* with people?!

Really?!

Vancouver! What the eff!?!! I hope every single rioter is found, charged, *fined*, made to do embarrassing sorts of community service, and publicly *shamed*!

To those brave souls who stood up to the rioters: Bravo! At least I can have *some* faith in humanity!

Yay Bike Ride!

It was a *lovely* day for a bike ride!

A friend needed something, so I decided to bike over to Wolseley Wools so that she could pick it up tomorrow.

My route took me through the Forks, where the Museum of Human Rights is making progress (above). Because of the construction on Osborne, I decided to bike down Broadway instead of the bike route. The car fumes made me decide to take the slightly longer route on the way home. :(

I was feeling a bit short of breath when I got to WW, so I petted the yarn and talked to the lady staffing the shop for a while.

I had planned to go all the way to Sargent Sundae, but decided that I was ready to head back. (There's ice cream at the Forks too, and my lungs were voting for the shorter ride.)

Since I was stopping at the Forks anyway, and it was getting close to dinner time, I decided to wander around the shops and have dinner while I was there. :) I *almost* bought a gorgeous painting, but decided that transportation by bike wasn't the best idea. I'm pretty sure I'll go back for it, though. (I know my walls are already crowded, but one day I'll have more wall space.)

After dinner and ice cream, I biked home. On the way, I rode past this truck that hadn't been there a few hours earlier:

Must have been some eedjit kids joyriding. (This is a *bike* path, not a road!) The tow truck driver arrived a few minutes later, and was not impressed with how far down the bike path it was. (At the bottom of a dip, too.)

I managed to spend enough time at the yarn shop and Forks that there wasn't really time to start on the tree stump tonight.

It's like today was a vacation! :D

Someone didn't think things through

See the new front step thingy?:

How it's deeper than a step, but about the same dimensions as are swept out by the door?

It's deep enough that you naturally stand on it to unlock the door. However, it's small enough that, unless you are nimble and thinking about it, you have to step (or fall) off it to open the door. (Usually I step... usually.)

They did the exact same thing in the back.

Before, there was a large stoop, about the same dimensions as the awning above. It was the same width as the door plus windows, and at least twice as deep as this step thingy.

Although it's nice not having heaved, broken concrete to trip over, it would be even nicer if I didn't have this step thingy to fall off of.

Another downside: before, the stoop was large enough that I could put my grocery boxes on it when unloading the groceries. This lets me get all the groceries to the entrance and lock the car before having to deal with the apartment door. Now I have to set the grocery boxes on the sidewalk. This means they're four to six inches lower when I'm standing on the step, holding the door open with my behind. (I haven't measured the exact height of the step.) Good thing I'm young and nimble, and don't (generally) have back problems.

I pointed out the poor design to my landlord, and his response was that it was unfortunate. (I was kind of hoping he'd call the concrete company and suggest they redo it properly.)

Reality TV, For Real

The northbound lanes on the main bridge near me are closed this weekend, and so a bunch of traffic got redirected onto the secondary bridge near me, and thus in front of my apartment. The cops seem to think this a good opportunity to conduct routine traffic checks, with so much traffic going past an area that only has the two lanes in one direction. (One lane for the cops to direct cars to, the second lane for traffic to pass by.

Apparently, some traffic violations result in the vehicle being towed. (I also noticed his hip knife holster was empty... was that confiscated too?)

I thought that perhaps the reason this guy got towed was because his back plate was missing. Turns out the tow truck driver takes that off.

I felt sorry for the mom & kids.

Although this vehicle also once held a couple with a kid, I felt rather less sorry... the couple has matching gang sweaters, and the guy has some rather scary tattoos and keeps spitting on the ground.


Despite all the entertainment happening out my window, I am making progress on the dishes.

You know, with the cops sitting out front, my neighbour might want to finally get around to switching his insurance to Manitoba.

Maybe if I'm lucky, the cops will talk to the other neighbour with the loud Harley. I suspect I'm not that lucky, though.

Dang... a number of loud motorcycles just drove past (one in the direction being checked), and none got stopped. *sigh*

Anyone know what gets a car confiscated at a routine traffic stop? No one looks drunk, so I don't think it's that.

Back to my dishes...

Firefox UNawesomeness

Okay... anyone know where I can find the *old* version of Firefox? (Update: found it by googling firefox old version mac!) Two more crashes since the last post. (I'm posting this from Safari... but I've got a bunch of open tabs in Firefox I want to read, and Safari doesn't work with a website I need to use for work. :P )

?

The "Awesome Bar"? Tip to people naming things at Firefox: If something is awesome, you don't need to name it that. If you name it that, and it isn't, people will laugh. (People may laugh anyway.)

Another tip: your browser would be more awesome if it hadn't crashed three times since installing the update five minutes ago.

(Clicking "post" before it crashes again. Thanks, blogger, for remembering my post. *You* are awesome!)

To The Fool Who Would Be King

I'm all for rehabilitating criminals, but wouldn't a prison farm be better than a job as a political advisor? And even if that person appears to have been reformed, do you really want to give them security clearance? Especially since their crimes involved fooling people?

Either you are a fool, or the person you allow to do your hiring is a fool... and anyone who allows a fool to do his hiring is a fool.

Hee!

Remember this photo I blogged last November?

Well, I sent it in to the local news channels, encouraging them to use it in a way that might cut down on the stupidity. I just spotted it on TV! It's on one of the "60 Second Driver" spots on CKY! (I hope that driver spots themselves and is embarrassed!)

Grrr

Someone tried a break-in again recently. This time they were actually in the building, and tried a crowbar to get into the storage area. I still hadn't heard from my landlord about whether he was making police reports, so I called the police non-emergency line to find out. They wouldn't tell me anything, and also wouldn't allow me to make the reports myself. Grrr. (It has to come from either the caretaker, who is half deaf and not super bright, or the landlord.)

So I called my landlord. He'd been away, and only just got back yesterday. He's leaving again for another trip. When I asked him if he'd made reports, he asked what the point was. Argh! Yes, I know there's not much that could be done, but they might send out more frequent patrols, or something. They *certainly* won't do anything if they don't know there's a problem!!!

He said he'd call the cops, and after he's back from his other trip, he'll do something about making the laundry room more secure.

Crazies In The Neighbourhood

Oooo! Another entertaining sign on the house down the street:

Looks like all the signs might be the result of a divorce gone bad?

I pity the new owner, should actually moving in prove problematical... but I'm happy for the neighbours of this nut. ;)

Tip For Idiot Drivers

Suggestion: you might want to brush off more than just the front windshield and driver's door windows... with roads the way they are, being able to see more than 90 degrees will help you avoid someone who is about to hit you from the right or behind.

Also, how on earth do you expect to be able to merge right safely?!?!?!!!!

I'm glad I'm home now, for more reasons than one!

Fun With Bible Thumpers

I saw this comment at another blog (Note: make sure you read after point #1.):

To rock another post about being gay and what the bible teaches:

1) When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

2) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness – Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4) I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

5) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

6) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? – Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging

Brain Fart...

Whoops... I misunderstood the bus schedule (and apparently had my logic circuits turned off), and ended up at knit-night an hour early. I was *really* confused when I first got here, but caught on when I looked at my watch. (For only the nth time since getting off the bus.) Doh!

Well, I was able to do a bit of work... but the rest will have to wait until I'm home (dishes, evil dishes) or back at school (access to Access). Or until someone e-mails me a question. Hmmm... just thought of something else I can do. TTFN!

All Better

This is what I didn't want to blog about earlier, but can now that it has been fixed:


Looks like some eedjit tried to force the front door to the building last night, and bent the latch. According to the caretaker, initially the landlord wasn't planning on coming to fix it until tomorrow, which meant that the building would be unsecured overnight. (The only way to get the latch to extend was to push it from behind with a screwdriver, which only worked when the mechanism was disassembled.) I sent him an e-mail with photos, and explained my concerns. The lock is now fixed, and I am happy. :) (Not happy that someone tried to force the door, but happy that all is now fixed.)