reevesr1

Oui, un petit peu

Around 2 years ago I bought a Dodge Ram 1500. This freed up my old 2000 saturn to give to my son. He got the car in October I think, and by November he had totalled it sliding down an icy hill into an unsuspecting Highlander. And that began the great car odyssey of 2009-2010. A couple of months after he totalled the Saturn, we found Ben a 1997 Intrepid with 120K km on it for $1200. It was a trade in at my Brother in Laws lot in Edmonton. Car ran great. Drove it back to Calgary, and all was good. <2 wks later I get a call from my son that it is making lots of noise on his trip back from skiing in Sunshine. I was at a party and in no condition to go get him, so I said to check the oil and get it home if it will make it. It does make it home and it was making horrendous noise. Take it to my mechanic the next day, and get the "she's done" call. Can remember exactly what, but one of the bearings had let go and the engine was a very large paper weight. Fortunately, my B-I-L gets one of his buddies to change to a rebuilt engine at cost (which was just about as much as the car cost originally). Unfortunately, that took 2 solid months before they found an engine. But in the end, it worked out ok, and he's driving the car today. In the spring of 2010, I decided the Ram didn't make any sense. While it was great offroad, I decided I didn't go back country enough to justify it's inability to ever get past a gas station without stopping. So I decided that we would sell the truck, buy my wife a new van (or at least a newer one), and I would drive the 2002 Chrysler Grand Caravan for one year, then buy something new. It took a couple of months to sell the truck, for less money than I'd hoped (not the best truck market out there right now). But we did buy the wife a 2007 Minivan, and I took over the old minivan. To this point, this vehicle had around 220K on it, and had been very reliable. Since selling it in like July, between then and 2 weeks ago I estimate I poured $3500 in repairs into it. If it could break, it did. So my plan to save money by putting myself in the ultimate emasculating vehicle didn't work out quite as planned. I was emasculated and broke. Not a great combination. So several weeks ago I decided that I had to buy another vehicle and pawn the van off on some unsuspecting thrifty car buyer. I looked at a new Ridgeline (with FNG over at Honda West-shameless plug here, but if you want a Honda go see Darrin. I was very impressed with him and Honda West both), but ended up buying a 2008 Ridgeline from the B-I-L. This one is a top of the line truck, leather, power everything, nav, etc. Gets far better mileage than the Ram (though not as good as I had hoped), drives like a dream, and will be able to handle the type of off road I do in the summer. So the car gets driven down from Edmonton by one of the employees of the car dealership. We trade vehicles (I had decided to trade in the van), and off we go. Next morning I get a call from the B-I-L to tell me the brakes had failed on the van in Red Deer at a red light. Fortunately he went through the light without hitting anything. The brakes stated working again shortly thereafter and they have been unable to replicate the problem. So if you see a green 2002 Grande Caravan in Edmonton, I'd probably steer clear. 3 days after I bought the Honda, I was coming to work on the deerfoot. There was a wreck in the left hand lane, with two lanes closed. No problem as I was encased in the luxury of my new vehicle. I eased into the right lane and after a few seconds the traffic stopped. When I stopped, about half the status lights turn on. I thought the car had stalled, but no, it was still running. "Must be the computer" I think, so I decide to reset it. So I turn off the truck and turn it back on. Status lights clear. So far so good. Go to put it in gear and it won't shift out of park. So here I am stuck in the only moving lane, on the Deerfoot, in rush hour. People are LOVING me. Honking, waving, all the friendliness one would expect at 7:30 in the morning. I remembered reading in the manual that there was a manual override for the gear shifter. I open the glove box for the manual and discover the manual was still at home. Sweet. Call my wife and she can't find the part in the manual that tells me what to do (though I could feel the encouragement from my fellow drivers). Call my mechanic and he gives me some places to look. So after about 10 total minutes stuck, I find the override, put the beast in gear, and continue on my merry way straight to the mechanic. Turns out one of the after market tow package wires had come out of a harness, rubbed against the chassis, and shorted out the taillights among other things. The security system interpreted the lack of taillights and putting the car in gear as a security threat and would not let the car go into gear. $200.00 later, problem fixed. My mechanic did say "nice truck", but I think he just sees his potential future revenue. I'm not planning on selling anything in the next several months, but will be sure to let everyone here know when I do. Once I'm done with them, everything that can break will have already broken and you can be sure you will be getting a quality vehicle at a quality price. Trust me.

They did my neighborhood. One pass, but one is better than none. I can't imagine the layout of the streets in the subdivisions around here make plowing all that simple The land of 10,000 cul-de-sacs.

I know that there is conditional support for shale gas from some environmental groups, I think due to lowering of carbon footprint if the economy begins to convert to natural gas. The condition is of course the method of extraction-the huge amounts of water used in frac'ing shale gas formations and assurances that ground water is protected. Not to get into a philosophical discussion (which in most cases here means name calling), the prize is truly game changing in North America-making the assumption that we could actually change to a nat gas economy. Easier said than done I think. Personally, I think natural gas prices are going to be low for the foreseeable future, though I fully admit predicting these things is a fools game (which I am foolishly participating in). The amount of shale gas in North America is astounding. If you look at a map, it seems to be in every state and province. Until there is a massive shift in demand, which is many years away, the potential supply will far exceed demand, keeping prices low. As has been the case in the past, some will be against this energy source because they are against all energy sources. Some will be for it because they are for all energy sources. Most of us are in the middle trying to figure out how to weigh "cheap" energy in our own back yard (and lowering dependence on energy from some unsavory sources) vs the environmental impact of extraction.

Ok, I'll put this back on track..... Several years ago I decided to make the long drive to the Hat to fish Bullshead for the first time. I was still pretty new to the fly fishing game, so it was not hard to determine which rod to bring (I had one), which reel (I had one), and which fly box (I had one). So with everything packed up, I take off. About 1/2 way there my phone rings, and my wife asks "did you mean to bring your vest". Well, since my only fly box was in that vest, my heart sank and all I could utter was "uh, yeah." So I 411'd Medicine Hat and find a fishing store that sells fly gear. Not very much of it as it turns out, but I was able to buy a couple of leach patterns (actually a couple of them were really jigs, but close enough I figured) and some nymphs. I ended up catching 6 or so, which for me back then was really good, so the trip wasn't a total bust. I check my packing very carefully now!

Nice pics Rev, even if you were using bait.

If you go to any saltwater board, or at least the ones I frequent, Costa del Mar's get a tremendous amount of press and a very loyal following.

On my second pair of Maui Jim's. First pair was prescription, then eye surgery, then this pair. They aren't cheap, but to me they have the best lenses going.

wow. Big fly reel in that last one. What kind of rod do you need to turn that line over?

X2. And to answer the question: Limetrude (or madame x, I can never decide) Parachute Adams BWO Ant Small black bugger

A River Runs Under It

I once thought about guiding when I was a younger man. One does not need to be a math or business wizard to figure out that you will in no way "make a lot of money"!

Everyone, With the help of the more than generous participation of members of this site, I have raised over $6000 for Prostate Cancer research over the previous 2 years. I am not participating in Movember this year due to too many things on the go this month. I see that so far, three (!) of our members have signed up to participate. I would like to implore the members of this site to support Ryan, Darrin, and Jared in their fund raising for this extremely important cause. Too many of us have lost friends or family members to this disease, and too many of us on this site are right in the line of sight ourselves. The research funded by Movember could very well save one of our lives. Please contribute, it is so important. And if you are over 50, or over 40 with family history, make sure you get your yearly checkups. Early detection is critical.

Awesome Jared. I am not going to do it this year, glad to see someone else stepping up! Give me a shout and I can give you some ideas. I did get a few of the shops to donate last year and we raffled them off.

I've heard them all. And my family owned a bait camp/marina in Texas for a while. "Master-baiter" jokes abounded. Troutlover was trying to get involved in the Chaparral Lake management. I don't know if he ever did.

This is the sub I served on in the 80's. This is an Emergency Blow picture from 1977 when she was doing acceptance testing. It was the Navy's sub promo picture for years. USS Birmingham, SSN-695. One BAD ASS piece of machinery. http://www.htc.net/~kutterer/blow.htm To get back to the original topic, Kevin, that fish is bad ass too!

I think we've read the same book.......

Nice buddy! Where have I been??????

I went with the kids on Saturday. Got my son a board and bindings, snow pants for the oldest, and new boots for my daughter, as well as 3 Louise cards. I almost bought myself some Head Monster's, but decided to go new instead. Anyway, line was like 45 minutes.

I have a 5 gallon bucket.

Don't know what I was thinking. I should get all my breaking news from "This Hour Has 22 Minutes."

Beast!

Nice way to spend an early morning..

4 posts from joke to outrage. About the norm around here recently.

I was at the Calgary Folk Fest this year. Nenshi was on the tarp right in front of me, with several young folks (like University age), who looked to be embracing the old hippie lifestyle (though in fairness, it was a folk fest!). I remember dreadlocks and tats. Anyway, I do remember thinking at the time "yeah, like this guy could ever be mayor." Good on him from proving me wrong and reminding me looks can be deceiving. Seems like a smart guy. Good luck to him!