The Squamidian Report - Jan. 11/03

Hi All,

Sue was in Kelowna this week. I drove to the airport with her so that I could pick her and Jackie up on Thursday. It was a bright starry drive in, as we left at 5:30am. The coastal mountains and the mountains of Vancouver Island were shining brightly on the drive back as the sun had come up while we were at the airport.

I had nuked this computer last Sunday as it had gotten a bit unstable lately. Re-loading was no problem but I need IE 6 for my firewall program and I had a heck of a time getting it to install. Still don't know why. With a fresh copy the OS and programs running, it is a lot smoother now. No crashes, no error messages, and its probably a bit faster. It had gotten pretty bogged down.

One of the problems with the Window OS and its registry is that all sorts of junk tends to build up. Every time a program is installed it puts code all over the place. When it's uninstalled, a lot of that code is left behind. Even deleting a file leaves crud in the registry. By the time the system is a couple of years old it's constipated. Nothing like a good enema to get it running smooth again.

I'm laid off right now, have been since before Christmas. That’s fine with me. The excavating business slows down in the winter, especially since the company I work for is based in Whistler. They put all their resources into snow removal during the winter and I'm not interested in driving to Whistler in the middle of the night just to push snow around.

Drove to the airport on Thursday afternoon to pick up Sue. Her flight got in about 5. We had dinner and then went (grumble grumble) shopping. There was 5 1/2 hours to kill before Jackie's flight from San Francisco came in. After we picked Jackie up we headed home, got here just after mid night. It was clear and starry but too dark for her to see our scenery. That had to wait until morning. Jackie is doing a stop over for the weekend on her way back to Toronto.

Friday was bright and clear and mild. Sue went into the office so Jackie and I climbed the Chief. We had our shirtsleeves rolled up while hiking up to the top but at the top the wind chill was about minus 10. The view was it's usual spectacular.

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Guest Columnist Jackie

WOW! It is spectacular here. If I had a dollar for every time I've said "wow" since I landed here, I'd be flying home first class. The drive in from the airport was pretty cool. It was too dark to see the scenery, but there was just enough illumination to tease me with a taste of what was coming. When I woke up Friday morning the very first thing I did (even before visiting the loo) was step out onto the deck to get a good look at all these gorgeous mountains.

The climb up the Chief was pretty grueling but totally worth it. It felt like being eyeball-to-eyeball with the mountains when we got to the top. Quite possibly the coolest place I've ever been. My legs, however, got the worst of it. By the time we got back down to where we started, my legs felt like the consistency of gummy-worms. And the morning after, those gummy worms have hardened into tight knots at the back of my calves. Groan! But I earned these aches and boy was it worth it!

Other plans to squeeze into a short visit include a drive to Whistler, going eagle-watching, and seeing tons more of this stunning landscape. I'll have to come back soon and see even more!

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Well, that’s about it for this week. I think we are headed back into some wet weather. That will put more snow up in the high country.

Catch you later,

the doug