The Kicksled Saga Continues ...

They did not deliver my sled today.  Now they say they will deliver it tomorrow.  I will believe it when I see it.  The last one I bought came directly from Finland ... with no trouble at all!

There are now two delivery services I will avoid:  UPS and DICOM.

OTTAWA, ON, CA	03/02/2010	10:36	THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
	03/02/2010	6:49	A CORRECT STREET NUMBER IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION / THE ADDRESS HAS BEEN CORRECTED. THE DELIVERY HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED
OTTAWA, ON, CA	02/02/2010	9:08	A DELIVERY CHANGE REQUEST FOR THIS PACKAGE WILL BE PROCESSED / DELIVERY TO AN ALTERNATE ADDRESS WAS REQUESTED
OTTAWA, ON, CA	01/02/2010	17:51	A CORRECT STREET NUMBER IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION / NO ONE ANSWERED THE PHONE WHEN UPS CALLED
OTTAWA, ON, CA	29/01/2010	18:15	A CORRECT COMPANY OR RECEIVER NAME IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
	29/01/2010	10:49	DRIVER NEEDS SECURITY ACCESS WHICH MUST BE OBTAINED FROM RESIDENT/CONSIGNEE IN ORDER TO ENTER BUILDING
OTTAWA, ON, CA	28/01/2010	10:49	THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
	28/01/2010	6:30	OUT FOR DELIVERY
	28/01/2010	4:50	ARRIVAL SCAN
LACHINE, QC, CA	28/01/2010	2:50	DEPARTURE SCAN
LACHINE, QC, CA	27/01/2010	23:33	ARRIVAL SCAN
OTTAWA, ON, CA	27/01/2010	20:30	DEPARTURE SCAN
	27/01/2010	15:54	EMERGENCY CONDITIONS BEYOND UPS' CONTROL
	27/01/2010	5:30	ARRIVAL SCAN
LACHINE, QC, CA	27/01/2010	3:03	DEPARTURE SCAN
LACHINE, QC, CA	26/01/2010	20:25	ARRIVAL SCAN
BLAINVILLE, QC, CA	26/01/2010	20:00	DEPARTURE SCAN

Tracking results provided by UPS:  03/02/2010 10:51  ET

Yesterday and Today

Cracks in the facades [can be] seen as opportunities; inspiration erupts as you careen over bumps in the road; you love the enticing magic that flows from situations that other people regard as rough or crooked. "That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal," wrote poet Charles Baudelaire, "from which it follows that irregularity -- that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment -- is an essential part and characteristic of beauty."  (From Rob Breszny this morning)

I have finished the kitchen wall and shelving.  This morning I added two pieces to hang my measuring cups and spoons ... and I fear I may have gone too far.  I am not sure that the "slight offness" of the latest holders could be considered artistically beautiful ... or that Wabi Sabi really means getting it slightly wrong ... but at least now the area over my sink looks neater and things work better.

Have you ever noticed that once you clean up it becomes easier to keep it that way ... at least in the short term?

Today

Yesterday

Mrs. Doubtfire and the Sled

The Sled Saga Continues

Today I spoke with Oky.  He was the third UPS spokesperson I had contacted.  Last week I had a few conversations with Tracey from DICOM and with Ron and his son from Kicksled Canada.  An unexpected benefit of all this is that I seem to have overcome my phone phobia.

Oky tells me that UPS drivers do not carry cell phones.  That is why this driver could not contact me as requested. In a previous post I mentioned that they do not seem to have snow tires or experience driving in Canadian winters either.  I am certain that deliveries here in the Gatineau Hills require both the tires and the ability to drive in snow, and I am not sure how one can be an efficient delivery person, especially outside urban areas, without a cell phone.

Oky read through the delivery notes and started muttering about denied access.  Like the last person I spoke to at UPS, he thought I must live in an apartment with an access code.  I explained that this was not the case.

Oky asked whether it was a building site with an unsecured building and no access.  I explained that it is a fully finished house.

I told Oky I thought that the driver had had trouble with access because of my road, and described the road with all its freshly plowed surface and freshly sprinkled sand.

I suggested that perhaps the driver had got lost, that he had ended up somewhere else.  After all if he was unprepared to call me for directions, it was a distinct possibility. 

Even without a phone, he could have managed to find me.  He could have asked at any house on the lake, and he'd have been given directions to my place.  Hell, someone would have hopped in his truck and directed him.  They'd likely have offered to drive, for pity sakes.

It is not that difficult to find me or to deliver a package.

So who do they hire at UPS?

At DICOM they hire people who break sleds but who know how to find addresses and then drive to them.  The second DICOM driver (not the one who broke the sled on its way to Ottawa) was a woman. 

At the risk of sounding sexist, I wonder if that might account for the difference.  A woman  might have been more willing to ask how to get here.

Update on Mrs. Doubtfire

On a totally different subject, I feel great.  It has been years since I have experienced a surge of energy that has lasted more than an hour or two.  I have been cleaning and painting walls and installing shelves that I painted ... and I still energy to spare.

I have also noticed that Mrs. Doubtfire's belly rolls seem to be receding. 

Isn't all this supposed to happen in the spring when one feels impelled to spring clean ... or just before childbirth, when one feels a need to scrub floors and feather a nest?

Well, it ain't spring, and I ain't no spring chicken about to pop out babies.   But I no longer feel as if  I am wearing Mrs' Doubtfire's body suit.

Is it just me?

Has anyone else seen Mrs. Doubtfire recently?  If so, what were your thoughts as you watched Robin Williams get in and out of his 60 year old body suit with its sagging breasts and rolls of belly fat? 

I gasped aloud and thought, "Oh my god, someone snuck into my house, drugged me, and used my body to make a silicone suit for this movie!"

The Ongoing Viking Saga

Last night UPS called to tell me that they were unable to deliver the kicksled because my road was icy.  I told the woman that the road was sanded and plowed and that my old Toyota front wheel drive managed it fine ... and so did the municipal garbage and recycling trucks.  What vehicle were they using?

She told me they would try again.

"Tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.

"Oh no, not till Monday."

"I thought your had 24/7 service," I replied.

I was wrong.  But why would that surprise me?  The first delivery service (Dicom) took five days and then delivered a broken sled. By the time I got the phone call I had been waiting five days for the UPS shipment.  And it was now two weeks since I bought the spark.

Of course, I suppose it was silly of me to expect that any delivery service would have drivers and vehicles that could handle snow in the Gatineau Hills AND know enough to load their truck so that light things were on top of heavy ones.

The two sections of this road are 10 and 12 feet wide (I know because I measured them for another trucking service).  They are scraped right down to the gravel bed and the icy spots have been spread with sand and salt.  I know all this because I hire and supervise the man who keeps the road clear, and I just provided $350 worth of sand for him to use.  I walk or drive that road every day at least once.  This is the third year I have lived here full time and it is the first year that everything has gone perfectly ... partly because Leonard and I are more experienced but largely because this has been a very easy winter.

You have to understand, I am probably the worst winter driver up here in these hills.  I hate winter driving and the best vehicles to use up here are ones with 4WD.  I can't afford to trade in my trusty little 1998 Corolla for a Honda CRV,   I would like to, but the old Toyota manages just fine.  This suggests to me that UPS is not using snow tires or hiring competent drivers.

There!  Rant over.

No Fish

Fish Tale #1

Happy Birthday!

January 25, 2010
Birthdays Galore

Today marks the birthday of several people ... well of course, many more ... but today I celebrate the birthdays of Robbie Burns, Virginia Wolfe, Marta,  and my third child and youngest daughter.

Happy Birthday, Everyone!  A couple of you at least can enjoy your day.  I wish you both many more happy celebrations.

This One is for Irish Girl

Hi Irish Girl,

A kicksled or spark as they are called in Norway is a set of skiis to which are attached the following:

foot pads to stand on

a wooden seat with a handle at chair height

a foot rest for a passenger to which can be attached a dog harness

It is propelled by pushing it while holding the handle (walking between the skiis), or by pushing with one foot as you would propel a scooter, by being pulled by a large dog, or on its own power descending a hill while you ride on the footpads.

Its braking system is equally simple.  You plant your feet between the skiis and hope that you stop.

It can be used as a walker on ice, as a toy for sliding, as a wheelchair, as a cart for groceries, or as a place to sit while ice fishing or eating lunch.

It is a remarkable and versatile pleasure used by everyone from tiny children to old lame grandmothers in Norway where they do not sand or salt the roads.

I will post a photo when I get my new one.

Cheers,

Barbara

Rivers, Streams, and Tiny Brooks

"I do love the sound of your life, rippling, murmuring, giggling, humming along as you live your days,"  wrote a dear old friend the other day.  I smiled at her description of my life and thought of myself as a little brook splashing its way from one tiny lake to another.  The occasional bit of treacherous rock outcropping to manoeuvre around.  The odd waterfall to navigate.  The occasional portage necessary. But mainly a pretty serene life.

Margaret Laurence wrote of life as a river in The Diviners.  Moving water is not an uncommon metaphor for life, but we usually think of much larger rivers, ones with depth, and speed, and great breadth and length.  Important rivers. But perhaps that is because the metaphor is used most often in the middle of a life.  When it describes old age, it is the end of the river,  the estuary where the water spreads out over mud flats to meet the sea gently, sluggishly.

I think I much prefer the idea of my life coming to its end in a little tributary, in a happy little stream.  I've lived through the tumultuous years, the years of being a part of the world, the years of building  career and family, the years when what I did made a difference. Now I am quite content to live my life simply ... rippling, murmuring, giggling and humming my way along.

I am lucky.  The friend who wrote those words is back in hospital for the second time since November when I visited her.  She is still hopeful and positive, but living is hard work these days.  I wish she could join me in my little tributary and have some respite from the waves that threaten to engulf her.

Nose to Nose

Oberon, King of the Fairies

The Bathtub Mirror

I am back ...

Thanks for waiting for me ...   Just jump in and join me mid-stream ...

Snowshoeing yesterday was not wonderful ... too many clothes ... too long a trek ... and boring ... mainly across frozen lakes ... and sometimes not so frozen which produced heavy balls of ice attached to the picks ... Sharon's old wood and deer hide snowshoes were the lightest ones there ...

It was a little like driving around Lake Superior's north shore to get to Thunder Bay ... miles and miles of boredom punctuated by jolts of spectacular.  The sky which has been grey for months was suddenly, startlingly, a brilliant blue.  The air was fresh and a perfect temperature once I removed clothing.  We saw coyote tracks ... and a dear little sleeping cabin on a tiny lake.

I preferred the bog area that Sarah and I hiked into a couple of years ago ... more to see ... wonderful shadows on snow.  I don't really like trekking across frozen wastes that go on and on.  I think I like little and pretty better than big and bold.  For Sharon and the men, this was a great opportunity to work muscles.  I like a combination of exertion and sensual stimulation.  Lise thought we should have brought a lunch.  Me too.  

But I want to get in better shape physically so the weekly snowshoe excursions and the kick-sledding will continue.

After wine and snacks at Lise's place, I headed home on foot carrying the snowshoes and found my kick sled had been delivered ... broken ... one runner bent out of shape.  Swedish steel is tough.  What in hell did the shippers do to bow it out like that? A huge amount of pressure must have been applied.  So now I start the work of dealing with the problem.

It seems to me that I experience more problems with goods bought recently than ever before ... washers, dryers ... Good god, even the poster I ordered seems to have slipped into the ether and now I have to track it down.

I have started painting again ... and every so often I experience a little success.  The owl on the chair and the dress on the mirror both work ... I think because I allowed my brush strokes to create the flow I knew was there or to create the curves and featheriness.  I used my brush like an extension of my eyes and mind somehow ... instead of like a foreign tool held in fingers.  I doubt if that makes any sense logically, but I know that the breasts, the fabric's movement and the owl's feathers resulted from something different than what was happening with the cat, the turtles, and the bathtub.  (When I have finished the mirror, I will post a photo.)

Ben's Chair

Ben likes owls dinosaurs, blocks, balls, turtles, and cats ... and the colours red and orange ...

End of the Old, Beginning of the New ...

January 7, 2010

If March comes in like a lamb it is supposed to go out like a lion.  I hope the same is true of the larger unit, the year, and of the still larger one, the decade.  2010 began badly for me.  I have spent the past week dredging up old hurts, old mistakes, old sins  ... examining the exhumed bodies relentlessly and finally returning them to their tomb.  I have written nearly 15,000 words of analysis and contrition.  I am completely flat, completely emptied out right now.  I have nothing to give to my blog so I am going to retire it for now.  I will return at some point I am sure because writing is one of my lifelines, but I may start a new blog for the new decade.

For the next while I am going to concentrate on painting.  I have two chairs I must complete soon, and a few Christmas presents that didn't get done in time.  Besides, painting allows the worrying part of my brain to take a vacation, and I need that.  I may post photos as the work proceeds, as photos are my record of work that I give away or sell, but there will be few , if any, words.

Happy New Year, everyone.  Thank you for reading "Gone to the Dogs".  I hope this decade will be the best one ever for all of us.

Bicycle Built for Two Box

Music Man Box