With the recent freeze-thaw going on in Vancouver (albeit a lot more freeze than thaw), the roads have started to disintigrate. Some of the holes that developed were truly shocking. Frustratingly, in a city where bridges form bottlenecks all over, the pot holes were at their worst on a couple of key bridges. A couple of key bridges that are necessary for Ange and I to get to work.
Yesterday's total commuting time crested an incredible 4 hours. Not helping the situation on Oak Street was the abandoned, stalled car in the far left lane ("fast" lane). Either way, it was over an hour to go 3km to get to the bridge, where people gingerly crawled along avoiding holes that would almost certainly swallow a Smart car. I'm sure those in their SUVs were suddenly vindicated. What's more amazing is the government's response time to this problem. Opa and I were commenting on the bridge a week ago. It was only when the state of the bridge became lead-story, provincial news that the Ministry of Transportation became vaguely interested. Now, however, we're all action. There's even a hotline and online form (check it) set up so you can report a pot hole in your 'hood. The online form asks the relevant questions, like "How big is the hole?" but then offers few options, the largest being 'bigger than a dinner plate.' Not that all dinner plates are the same, but 'big enough to swallow a Smart car' indicates they might not have a complete grasp of the situation. At least they give you the opportunity to input "How easy is it to avoid?" with one of the options being 'impossible to avoid' and "How likely is it to damage a car?" with an option that it is 'very likely'.
Not really inspiring any confidence, the City claims that the pot hole situation is no worse than in other years. Perhaps if they place the same resource and urgency on pot-hole filling as they do on snow removal, getting an SUV might be the better option over waiting for the government response.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Saturday, January 03, 2009
It doesn't snow in Vancouver
Waking up this morning, I realised that it was snowing. Again. It seems that despite the express denial of most Vancouverites, it snows here. A lot. Certainly a lot more than Reading, anyway. It has, however, made for a most beautiful Christmas.
Christmas, and the season generally has been brilliant. Though we've done very little but eat well and play with new Christmas toys, the background noise continues to be buying a house. We've come close. As close as the Vancouver Canucks have come to winning the Stanley Cup. And just like the Canucks, we managed to bungle the purchase at the very last moment. In fairness to us, we were really excited about coming to terms on a house near the Commercial area of Vancouver. Minutes from downtown, close-ish to work, shops and cafés on our doorstep and in a great community. It was a lovely heritage home. Very old by Canadian standards (though 40 years newer than our terrace in Caversham), it had lovely heritage features. We knew there were some issues being an older home, but felt that we were happy to either live with them or fix them. Still, we brought in an inspector. He pointed out many of the issues we had assumed. He also pointed out something that--rather ridiculously--we hadn't noticed. It started with an oddly leaning wall in the basement and went from there. To make a very long and rather stressful story short, structural engineers were recommended and an expert in old home foundations called in by the seller. His advice was that it was "fine," although not certainly so. If he was wrong, it would be about $100,000 to lift the house (yep, you can do that with wooden structures) and re-pour the foundation. Hmmm. We were thinking it might be nice to add a gas connection to the kitchen for a gas stove rather than a electric one. Suddenly we're talking about lifting houses off their foundations. We balked. We pulled out.
So, again, we find ourselves back at the drawing board. Or, at least, the purchasing board. Daily drives into Vancouver to look at houses are much more tiring it the snow. The ploughs only hit the main streets and there is a lot of snow here. Side streets are really at the limit of my comfort in a front-wheel drive car with all-season tyres. Every foray into the side streets to look at homes invariably involves me driving someone else's car out before we can move forward. Years of Alberta and Ontario winters (along with several others who I've met also driving others out) serving their purpose to keep traffic flowing in lieu of the municipal governments of the Lower Mainland just clearing the streets.
Anna has not taken the snow as I had expected. Snow was meant to be the most exciting thing ever to a kid, right? Despite being born in a Calgary deep freeze, Anna has gone soft living in England. Our first adventure out lasted all of 3 minutes. Laughter and giddy-ness were quickly transformed into tears with the realisation that snow is cold. A brisk wind made the cold seem colder, but we certainly weren't at risk of frost-bite. No amount of negotiation was going to keep her outside. Days later, we attempted another winter-play excursion. Being slightly warmer and with the precedent of dozens of kids clearly enjoying themselves, we had a minor break-through and spent a good 45 minutes going up and down the snow-covered hill. Nevertheless, the snow remains a negative for Anna. It is now cramping her ability to 'scoot' on her new scooter or ride her bike.
Caleb, meanwhile, takes everything in. He has started to move, though is ages behind his friends Graham and Jack. Both are only slightly older, yet seem to be able to not just walk but are confident enough on their feet to start skating or skiing or playing football. Caleb has developed this worm like movement that is surprisingly effective at getting him across a room. On a hardwood floor, he spins on his belly incredibly well as he surveys what should next be chewed and then he's off like a worm. To be honest, it's all very break-dance. Were we to put on some MC Hammer, and let him go, he'd do alright amongst the entertainers in Covent Gardens.
So, as we slip and slide into the new year the transition from Caversham to Vancouver moves at a pace only slightly quicker than Caleb's worm progression. We've got an offer in on another house. It smaller, less character and slightly less functional than the house-with-a-questionable-foundation-in-an-earth-quake zone, but the new house we're offering on is in a killer area for us. We'll see what happens. Still, leaving something major for 2009 probably isn't so bad. Somehow in 2008, we packed in several international trips, a new baby, two new jobs, an international relocation and more than a few weekend adventures. Buying a house can wait 'til this year.
Christmas, and the season generally has been brilliant. Though we've done very little but eat well and play with new Christmas toys, the background noise continues to be buying a house. We've come close. As close as the Vancouver Canucks have come to winning the Stanley Cup. And just like the Canucks, we managed to bungle the purchase at the very last moment. In fairness to us, we were really excited about coming to terms on a house near the Commercial area of Vancouver. Minutes from downtown, close-ish to work, shops and cafés on our doorstep and in a great community. It was a lovely heritage home. Very old by Canadian standards (though 40 years newer than our terrace in Caversham), it had lovely heritage features. We knew there were some issues being an older home, but felt that we were happy to either live with them or fix them. Still, we brought in an inspector. He pointed out many of the issues we had assumed. He also pointed out something that--rather ridiculously--we hadn't noticed. It started with an oddly leaning wall in the basement and went from there. To make a very long and rather stressful story short, structural engineers were recommended and an expert in old home foundations called in by the seller. His advice was that it was "fine," although not certainly so. If he was wrong, it would be about $100,000 to lift the house (yep, you can do that with wooden structures) and re-pour the foundation. Hmmm. We were thinking it might be nice to add a gas connection to the kitchen for a gas stove rather than a electric one. Suddenly we're talking about lifting houses off their foundations. We balked. We pulled out.
So, again, we find ourselves back at the drawing board. Or, at least, the purchasing board. Daily drives into Vancouver to look at houses are much more tiring it the snow. The ploughs only hit the main streets and there is a lot of snow here. Side streets are really at the limit of my comfort in a front-wheel drive car with all-season tyres. Every foray into the side streets to look at homes invariably involves me driving someone else's car out before we can move forward. Years of Alberta and Ontario winters (along with several others who I've met also driving others out) serving their purpose to keep traffic flowing in lieu of the municipal governments of the Lower Mainland just clearing the streets.
Anna has not taken the snow as I had expected. Snow was meant to be the most exciting thing ever to a kid, right? Despite being born in a Calgary deep freeze, Anna has gone soft living in England. Our first adventure out lasted all of 3 minutes. Laughter and giddy-ness were quickly transformed into tears with the realisation that snow is cold. A brisk wind made the cold seem colder, but we certainly weren't at risk of frost-bite. No amount of negotiation was going to keep her outside. Days later, we attempted another winter-play excursion. Being slightly warmer and with the precedent of dozens of kids clearly enjoying themselves, we had a minor break-through and spent a good 45 minutes going up and down the snow-covered hill. Nevertheless, the snow remains a negative for Anna. It is now cramping her ability to 'scoot' on her new scooter or ride her bike.
Caleb, meanwhile, takes everything in. He has started to move, though is ages behind his friends Graham and Jack. Both are only slightly older, yet seem to be able to not just walk but are confident enough on their feet to start skating or skiing or playing football. Caleb has developed this worm like movement that is surprisingly effective at getting him across a room. On a hardwood floor, he spins on his belly incredibly well as he surveys what should next be chewed and then he's off like a worm. To be honest, it's all very break-dance. Were we to put on some MC Hammer, and let him go, he'd do alright amongst the entertainers in Covent Gardens.
So, as we slip and slide into the new year the transition from Caversham to Vancouver moves at a pace only slightly quicker than Caleb's worm progression. We've got an offer in on another house. It smaller, less character and slightly less functional than the house-with-a-questionable-foundation-in-an-earth-quake zone, but the new house we're offering on is in a killer area for us. We'll see what happens. Still, leaving something major for 2009 probably isn't so bad. Somehow in 2008, we packed in several international trips, a new baby, two new jobs, an international relocation and more than a few weekend adventures. Buying a house can wait 'til this year.
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