In da fog

Vancouver (and surrounding areas) have been drenched in fog for the past few days. I took this photo on my walk home from the office the other day. I was trying to get a sense of how thick the fog was at the time.

It hasn't all been fog though. On Saturday, the fog dissipated by early afternoon and we were treated to some sunshine. Quite nice, actually. Well timed too, as I had a home inspection to participate in. Lots of pictures and questions later, we wrapped things up and I headed home.

What kind of car is this?

While walking to work today I noticed this little car in the parking lot. It has had some obvious custom work done to it, such as the overstated wing on the back and much to my chagrin, all the labels have been shaved off. So I have no idea what kind of car this is.

Can anyone help me identify this car?

I have a few other pictures so you can get different angles. My apologies for the chain link fence. The lot is part of a car dealership and they weren't open yet so I was stuck with taking my photos from the street.

Another thing to note is that this car is VERY SMALL. It makes a Miata look roomy. The red car behind it is one of those old Honda micro convertibles that were made before the S2000.

Please leave a comment here if you can help identify what kind of car this is.

The hunt is over

Or so I hope. We put an offer in on a condo in Vancouver, and managed to get it accepted. In realty speak, we still have to remove 'subjects' before it's a done deal, but it's as done as I need it to be for the moment. I'm not really going to talk much more about it here because if I have been talking to you recently, chances are I have already talked your ear off about it. Yeah, I'm a little excited.

I'm also a little tired. The whole search process was exhausting for me, and I am not sure why. I think it was because I was always aware of our 'March first' deadline. That is when we have to be out of our Vernon condo, so I felt some pressure to make sure we had a place secured for then in Vancouver. The more time that passed, the less likely it was looking like we would meet that target. If the lady selling us her condo is reading this, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ADJUSTING YOUR DATES. It means a lot to us, really. Heh. What are the odds that some stranger is reading this? Last I checked, I get about 35 hits a week. That tells me that aside from me, I might have about 10 people who casually look in to see what I'm up to.

Well keep watching, faithful readers. I'll be sure to post the details on the house warming party here. That way I'm guaranteed to have at least one or two people show up.

Condo hunting

First off, it is neither raining or night time as I post this. I took this photo a couple weeks ago now and liked the glow of the lights. It also has nothing to do with my post, other than it's a picture I took.

I'm on cold medication today, so cut me some slack if this reads poorly. Some sort of daytime, non-drowsy-keep-my-head-in-a-fog medication. Normally I like that state, but today it just makes me irritable. But not as irritable as I was without the medicine, so I take it. I figure I got the cold while touring multiple open houses on the weekend.

As far as that goes, things are getting better. It used to be that we hated everything we saw, and were starting to feel like we would be forced to choose the best of the worst, as opposed to something we might actually want. But now, the selection seems to be better so that we should hopefully be able to get a place that is suitable to our needs.

Trapped in an elevator

It's been a while since I blogged, so here goes.

This morning, I was dropping a few items off at the office, so had to go up/down the elevator several times. I was in a bit of a rush because technically I was illegally parked in some reserved section and did not want to get towed.

On the final trip down, the elevator doors did not open. I was clearly at the lobby, but could not get out of the elevator. I was trapped. I am not normally a claustrophobic person, unless I am also physically restrained (ie. a MUCH smaller area) so realistically my biggest concern was getting to the car before the tow trucks did. I mashed most of the buttons, to no avail. I called the office upstairs and the technical support guy (he answered the phone) came down and tried to call the elevator (no good).

By this time, I figure the car is towed for good. It's been a whole FIVE MINUTES, afterall. I press and hold the 'call technician' button and get some person on the speaker. She asks what the address of the building is, I read it off the sign and she replies 'No sir, I need the STREET address.' Bewildered, I inform her that I did in fact, give her the street address. I repeat it and this time am very slow and clear in my phrasing: 'FIFTY-SIX, EAST SECOND AVENUE, ma'am.' After about the fifth attempt she called someone else over who was able to interpret my obviously thick accent. A service technician was dispatched, and I sighed in relief.

But then a certain realization hit me: technicians do NOT appear suddenly. In fact, they are usually HORRIBLY LATE. I would be TOWED FOR SURE if I waited for him to finish his latte, check his phone messages and then work his way through traffic over to my building. (I am sure that there are some prompt service technicians - it's just that it has been a while since any have done calls to my place.)

So I start mashing buttons...

...and the second floor lights up. The elevator starts moving! Oddly, both the second floor and Lobby are lit, but I do not care, so long as I can get out of this box. The doors open, I escape to the second floor and then press the elevator button, to call the OTHER elevator, to get down to the lobby.

The good news? My rental car was not towed.