Houseguests

We have visitors this week. Louise and the cats are all thrilled. No, really - they have all learned how to capitalize on the situation to it's fullest. Even Roscoe has decided to grace us with his presence. At one point, he was even sitting on the lap of one of our guests! Unheard of for a cat that normally runs into the bathroom to hide every time someone arrives. Anyway, I took a picture just to prove it.

Meanwhile, I'm on kitchen duty at work this week. (we all take turns, the secretary keeps a schedule) Some weeks this job has perks, other weeks it's just chores. Oh yeah, it gets better - the schedule always assigns two people per week. And this week I got scheduled with my boss, who was conveniently out sick today. I can already see the writing on the wall with this one...

More snow and another webcam

I woke up this morning and it was snowing like a sonofa.... let's just say it was really snowing hard. Oddly enough though, I didn't really mind. It was warm enough outside and there was no wind, so I decided to shovel the walkway for the rest of my neighbors. (condo living and all that)

The picture here is again from another webcam, this one courtesy of the Weather Network. I'm pretty sure the view is of Kalamalka Lake, which means we are looking at the other side of town and technically not Vernon at all, but a town called Coldstream.

Good news, Bad news

The good news is that I did not spend more money on the Jeep yesterday.
The good news is I still have the Jeep, and amazingly enough, it still runs.
The good news is we made it back to Vernon safely and without the aid of a tow-truck.

The bad news is my Jeep is still not fixed.
The bad news is we blew a piston, so we would need to replace the entire engine to fix this problem.
The bad news is an engine replacement will cost about $2,600 after taxes.

The good news is the mechanic will credit me the time he has already worked on the car, reducing the price to roughly $2,200.

The bad news is that it's not worth putting that much money into the Jeep.
The bad news is that I'll have to come up with an alternative method of transportation.

The good news is there is a bus route that goes from my door to only a couple blocks away from work.
The good news is that we should only have another couple months until Spring arrives. (work with me here.)
The good news is I have a Jeep for sale? Lots of new parts! Make me an offer.

Creative Parking

Last night, while walking Louise, we noticed some creative parking. Since this person doesn't appear to have room in his garage for their car, they decided to park under this tree. It seems to have been an effective plan, as there was very little wind during the bulk of the snowfall.

Yep, that's pretty much it. Nothing else to say about the parking job, except that his car looks nicer than mine.

Returning home

When I took this picture, all was well. We were ahead of schedule, the weather was clear, the drive was pleasant. We were making good time and enjoying the drive.

About an hour later, we had engine trouble. We were still about two hours from home.

I noticed the engine started burning oil when I saw clouds of smoke coming out the back. The engine was running very rough and I had a loss of power. We limped into Kamloops and attempted to have a mechanic look at it, but they were too busy so we opted to continue limping the Jeep home from there. I took it easy, and we made it.

It turns out that we blew the valve seal, which caused oil to spray over most of the electrical components, including the spark plugs, distributor cap, wiring, etc. Repair with a tune up will cost us about $500, or we could opt to get things running smooth without fixing the valve cover leak for about $300. Of course, more leaky oil over new components would simply mean having to fix this again in the future, so I opted to get it all done now. Not the best timing for this sort of thing, but at least it will be done. By this afternoon, it better be the smoothest running Jeep ever.

First stop in Vancouver: sushi

Well we survived the trip to the Lower Mainland, and after getting gas and dropping off our stuff, our first stop was at Metrotown mall, for some sushi.

Please note, when I took this photo, I was going for true gwilli style. For those of you who eat lunch at the village, you will know what I mean.

We ate light, as we already had dinner plans with family, but the food was tasty. After eating sushi, we checked out one of the other stores in the mall that sold anime products. I don't remember the name of the store, but they had DVDs, comic books, plush toys and other action figures. We have been watching anime on YTV lately, and so it was kind of cool to see stuff for those shows for sale.

We really miss the 'big city'. Can you tell?

It's gonna be a looong drive

So we are preparing to drive to Vancouver tomorrow morning. This will mean taking the Coquihalla highway, which has spectacularly bad weather this time of the year.

But this is what we got the Jeep for, right?

I actually enjoy the drive, under most conditions. I'm not a fan of driving at night if it is raining, but during the day I can take just about - oh heck, I'm not about to tempt fate the day before I leave. I prefer sunny, warm and dry conditions when driving across mountains. Always.

So this photo has been taken from one of the webcams set up along the highway, which makes things really handy as now I can take a look at conditions before I start my trip. Ah, the wonders of technology. So if you are browsing the web tomorrow morning, feel free to check the cams for busted looking green Jeep Cherokees. It just might be me.

In Vancouver this weekend

Great. It's 2:30 am and I can't sleep.

Oddly enough, neither can the dog. Well, sorta. She has followed me out onto the couch, and seems to be sleeping just fine now. But she has been restless for most of the night. Me too, although I can't say for sure why that is. Some nights I can get like this if I have coffee too late in the day, but this isn't one of those times. Well I did have a large cup shortly before noon, but I don't feel like I have caffeine coarsing through my veins, so unless the stuff I drink is over caffinated, that probably isn't it.

As I indicate in the title, I'll be in Vancouver this weekend. It will be yet another one of those whirlwind trips that we tend to make, in part to see family, in part to visit Ikea. We will breeze into town for an extended weekend, just long enough to make the trip worthwhile but not long enough to make it a vacation of any sort. We have made this trip often enough that I am reasonably sure it can't be the cause of my unrest.

I guess its just one of those weird nights for me to be up. The only good part about it is that, well, there really isn't a good part I guess. Hopefully I won't be too tired tomorrow.