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Hey... been busy with work. This is what I do!

West Coast Home Inspections Ltd.

Soooo Disappointed

So my stupid phone died again!!!!!!!!!!! My previous phone... the PALM Treo 650 half-died on me a few weeks ago... wouldn't ring outloud, which meant that any calendar notifications or the speakerphone (which I used often) didn't work either. So I got a new phone... the Blackberry 8100 pearl. It is a really nice phone to use but it pissed me off that I had to spend nearly $400 on this new phone because the store wouldn't exchange my old one, which was less than 2 months past the 12 month warranty period. Dumb. What's also dumb is that 'little' things started acting funny a few months ago - when I was still within that 12 month window - but because it seemed to re-set itself, I never worried about it.

So now, after my monsoonian bike ride yesterday, my new phone has completely died. Did it get wet in my closed and water-resistent pack? It was probably humid in the pack, but not wet. And my other phone rode with me in my pack in the rain... many times... and it kept working... PLUS, I had my digital camera in the same pocket and it works tickety-boo, thank you very much. Oh... I even had a motorola Startac (one of the original flip phones) about 5 years ago that I went swimming with! No kidding! I dove in the pool and forgot I had it in my pocket. DOH! Eventually I remembered and when I took it out, it was blank, so I opened it, popped the battery off, and let it sit in the sun for a couple hours. When it was dry I plugged the battery back in and it was perfect. That's a TOUGH phone! But apparently this new $400 phone is a piece of crap.

They had better not give me any grief at all when I bring it back today!

I See You Looking at Me Looking at You!

Okay... remember the classic scene from the re-made movie "I Spy" starring Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson (the original starred Robert Culp & Bill Cosby). Well, there was a shakespearean-like scene where Owen's character (the Spy) had Eddie's character... Buddy (the Boxer) wear a contact lens that was actually a camera/transmitter and it allowed The Spy to see what The Boxer was seeing... and when The Boxer tried it out he said... and I quote... "I can see you looking at me looking at you".

Why do I remember useless bits of information like this?

Anyways... I have a new camera that I scooped with my Airmiles points. My bigger camera... a Canon PowerShot S3 with a 12x optical zoom really kicks! I use it for work, however I needed something small and compact to be able to take with me on bike rides and such... hence the nice little compact 5.1MP Fuji.

Going Postal!

I pasted the text below from a curent news story! The picture - of what is normally a 3' wide trickle, now 12' wide torrent - is one I took while we were out riding in it, as Maria and I continue to train for the Test of Metal! After 3 hours we were quite ready to dry out!

March 12, 2007 11:35:00 AM MDT

Water, water everywhere, as Pineapple Express drenches B.C. south coast

VANCOUVER (CP) - Southwestern B.C. is soaked after a huge weekend downpour left roads and fields flooded, and rivers threatening to spill their banks.

The rain let up early Monday but not before the River Forecast Centre issued a flood warning for Greater Vancouver and lower Fraser Valley rivers. The warning was expected to be downgraded as the streams started receding, said Alan Chapman of the River Forecast Centre.

RCMP said several roads were closed because of flooding and swollen roadside ditches, many in the low-lying areas of Surrey's Cloverdale area.

A flood watch was also in effect for Vancouver Island, with many rivers rising through the night Sunday - including the Cowichan, Chemainus and Englishman.

The saturated soil may have triggered a mudslide that closed the Trans-Canada Highway from Rosedale to Hope while falling rock closed the route through the Fraser Canyon to Spences Bridge.

The Trans-Canada was also closed in southeastern B.C. from Revelstoke to the Alberta boundary because of the high avalanche hazard and a mudslide east of Golden.