Visit from Uncle Andre

I don't know why but despite this being a fairly important event i don't seem to have any pictures. I'm hoping there might be some on Kerry's phone so if I remember I will come back and add some. I have another post about how I learned about my long lost uncle so I won't bore you with that story but the exiting part was that he was coming to Canada to visit for the first time. We had already met him in Amsterdam and we met up again at my Uncle Bob's celebration of life and as part of that trip to Victoria he was going to meet us in Surrey.

His plan was to go to Prince George and he was hoping for a local train but this is North America so that's not really an option. He ended up flying up for a few days where he saw my Grandmother's house, visited his Father's grave and checked out our lake property. It was April so not a great time to visit Prince George but they still managed to get down to the lake front.

Him and is wife arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday and I picked them up from the airport after work. We came home where Kerry had a nice dinner waiting for us.

The next day I had to work but I still had a plan to keep them entertained. In between meetings I took them to the Skytrain where they could see North America does have some ability to get around by rail and they went o Waterfront station in Vancouver. This allowed them to finally make it in to Vancouver since the airport is Richmond and we live in Surrey. They had a good time taking in the waterfront and then I picked them up and we checked out Whiterock Beach.

Perhaps the reason I didn't get pictures was because we had such good conversation. We talked for hours into the evening and I took them back to the airport the next day. I think they are glad they managed to get a visit in and they enjoyed their Canadian experience.

Carter's Last Basketball Game

As I look back on my failed attempts to get Carter into sports including soccer, judo and riding a bike, I'm glad I was successful at basketball. During COVID we installed a net because they had boarded over the hoops at the school. He had enough hours on his own that he was confident to try out in Grade 8 and he took it all the way through to Grade 12. Their last season had some success as they made the provincials but a single knockout tournament is a tough way to end the season. Only after the final buzzer goes off do they fully comprehend the end of five seasons. Hopefully he can find an intramural league in University.

Fan Fest 2026

My buddy Jeremy from University took participation at  Fanfest to another level this year. We have attended as participants a few times and last year he wore his Ghostbuster costume. This year he volunteered at the Ghostbuster booth. I'm sure there are other clubs but the most noticeable to me at the Ghostbuster and Star Wars booths. One day I plan to win the lottery and buy a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance for him to restore and transform into Ecto 1 to complete his ensemble. There aren't very many so it I'm sure they aren't cheap and I suspect most are at some stage of transformation.

The other reason I like to go is to check out the R2D2 builds. We are several years into our own build and it's nice to check out one that's already done, both for inspiration and to figure out specific details. We're working on the foot right now and I needed to know which parts were aluminum as well as how the hoses came together. The best part of the day was realizing that I had already over engineered our hoses and they were going to look better than the ones I was looking at. There is no 'accurate' version of R2 but we are aiming for it to pass as looking screen accurate.

Patullo Bridge Closure

Construction on the replacement for the Patullo Bridge has been underway for several years and was finally reaching the point where they were closing the old bridge. They had technically closed it to traffic for several days and it was open for bikes but they indicated they would leave it open for a few more days before permanently closing it and starting on the deconstruction. The final closure was February 17th but the weather looked better on the 15th so I got up early so I could get there before sunrise. I figured I'd get the best photos plus it might get busy later in the day.

Turns out I was right on both fronts. The lighting was perfect, the weather was perfect and it got so busy later in the day they had to have the police come for traffic control. When I got there, there was just a few people and there was a security car driving up and down indicating we shouldn't go on the road way. We of course ignored them and before I left they gave up trying. They eventually had to kick people off entirely because people were climbing up the bridge for pictures. 

I wouldn't say I was sentimental about this bridge but I do have quite a few memories. It was on my commute to work so I biked over it dozens of times each year which was a unique experience. There is only a single sidewalk and there isn't room for two bikes so I always joke that one person had to hang over the edge to let the other pass. The bridge also had a lot of flex such that when large trucks drove past you could feel it shake. It was originally only a single lane and was widened to two but big trucks always took up both lanes for safety. The new bridge is two lanes each way and can expand to three and has some very nice bike lanes. 

 

A Family Trip to Whiterock

It was a sunny day in Whiterock on January 19th, 2026. Despite the fact that I'm catching up on blogs in June, AI is able to immediately find this information without me having to find a website with historic temperature data. I believe it to be true, partly because I remember it was nice and we have pictures from that day but also because AI told me so. One day I will look back on this post as I defend my bunker from Skynet. On a more chipper note this was a fun day for me because I could once again go agate hunting. Before my cataract surgery I couldn't see the rocks at my feet clearly. I found two nice ones.

One of Callie's favourite pastimes is to bring Oliver to Whiterock Beach so he can run. He's not allowed during the summer and he enjoys running on the sandbars. We aren't an 'off leash' family but he still has fun with one of the kids running beside him. The tide wasn't out all the way but there were still a few spots to run and we were able to keep Oliver away from the other dogs. He looks all fluffy and innocent but once the other dogs get close he goes into Kujo mode. 

Of course it isn't the Whiterock if we don't have fish and chips at Moby Dicks. We found a quiet picnic table a short walk away where we could adequately defend our dinner from the seagulls. I finished early and took a walk up the stairs with Oliver where we could see the family below. It's very steep and he liked the challenge of running up the stairs though he was a bit more apprehensive on the way down. 

Christmas 2025

Last year's Christmas tree hunt was eye opening. I'm fairly certain I had some sort of blood pressure event because it took forever to cut down the tree and once I I was done I nearly passed out. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure shortly after. So this year, I was not looking forward to the tree cutting event even though I've got my blood pressure back in line. Luckily we went there early on the first day and the family was very willing to make it a quick trip. We found the perfect tree in the section of already cut trees. It wasn't too tall and the only dead spot was towards the back so we were set.

For some reason the farm was open the third week of November and since it was raining out we decided we would wait a few days before brining the tree inside. It was cool and I stuck it in a pail of water until we were ready. One trick I've learned for having your tree last is a 'Fresh Cut' on the base. I take my reciprocating saw and cut the bottom inch off and as an extra step I take my grandfather's hand plain and shave off the bottom. This makes sure that all the pores of the wood are open, similar to what you would do with cut flowers. I always know if I've been successful once I get the tree in side and water it for the first time. If it takes up at least 1/2 to a full litre on the first day it means it's thirsty and still alive enough to take in water. This ensures the tree stays green and doesn't dry out. I'm always amazed at some of the houses that show the step of taking their tree out after Christmas and all the needles fall off. I'm assuming they don't even know you're supposed to water your tree let alone the "Fresh Cut" trick.

The Fondue this year was on the Monday before Christmas. The usual gang of the Dukes, Kildens, Elder Kildens and Ronnie attended. If we ever got a bigger house I would want to have a slightly bigger dining room. Although we don't use it often, it's nice to have access to one  with seating for 12 to 16 would be good for family events. I may have to start a separate budget for his event. With food prices where they are I feel we spent as much as $75 per person and I think it will only get worse. The event itself was great. No one put the hot forks in their mouth and the smell dissipated in about 3 days.

In past years we've gone to Vancouver to the annual Christmas Market. This year we heard about something similar in North Van with the big difference being that this one was free. It had similar booths and similar atmosphere and if I were to recommend one I would probably go with the North Van one, simply because it's free. There was even a covered ice rink. There were more booths and we got lots of local merchandise for Christmas presents. The only issue was that it took us a bit of time to find a parking spot but I think that was because we got greedy and tried to park close. If we knew better we would have started looking farther out.

We started putting Christmas away a couple of days early. Most things stayed up but the most irritating things to put away are the inflatables, especially if they are wet. It was drier on the 29th so I brought those guys in and started to dry them out. Now I can put them away in their boxes right away. 2025 was okay in that nothing bad happened and our trip to Japan was great but it was much too busy with things like work. This year I'm hoping for a bit more balance especially once my big work project starts to wrap up. Happy New Year!

Halloween 2025

For various reasons I didn't have much time to work on an elaborate Halloween project this year though I had also indicated I wasn't going to do anything big anymore after last year. I did want to do something a bit better to keep kids directed towards the front door and off the lawn where there is a spiderweb of extension cords that they can trip over. Previously I just had some garden stakes and some caution tape but I wanted to do something that I could reuse. I found some metal balusters in the bargain bin at Rona and added some plastic skulls to the top followed by some yellow plastic chain.

I have considered learning to weld so I could do something really fancy with metal stakes and bat wings but that will have to wait for another year. This year I didn't put out the arch or the monster in a box because the weather was supposed to be terrible which it was in the morning but cleared up later in the afternoon. Will have to stop listening to the weather man when prepping for halloween.