Bomb Squad

Last night I came home from work and noticed a large group of police cars parked around the corner from my house. I did not think too much about them, and just went home. Around 21:00 I hooked up the bike trailler and rode down to the grocery store to get supplies for the week. I noticed the cops were still there, had set up a road block and were re-routing traffic. Again, I did not think to much of it. I came home an hour later, and the road block was still set up. I noticed there were police everywhere. Now I was starting to get curious, but decided that it would be best to stay home and wait and see. I read my book for a while. I started hearing somebody shouting into a megaphone for about 15 minutes. I heard a very loud bang... high callibre gunshot or explosion! Are the birds attacking the hydro wires again? Now I was really curious, but decided that lurking around the streets in the dark with armed police officers in the vicinity would not be a smart move. I stayed home and turned on the news. A second explosion occurs! The guy with the megaphone finally shuts up and some fire trucks leave the area. A brief newscast appears on the television, and I go to bed.

Although the news reports I have seen are all conflicting, the general jist of what happened is as follows. Some neighbour reported a suspicious object, either in someones back yard or on the street. Some reports describe the object as a cylinder. The bomb squad was called in and attempted to detonate the object twice with no success. Some of my neighbours were evacuated for the evening while this was going on. It was not a bomb. No report on what the suspicious object was.

It was garbage day yesterday. I suspect it was someones garbage. Could it have been the broken shop vac someone was selling at a garage sale a few weeks ago? It was a weird metal cylinder with wires (a plug) sticking out of it. Definately suspicious.

Fried Bird

Saturday morning I was sitting at my computer about 06:30 typing away, enjoying the cool morning breeze through the window. Suddenly the power goes out. About half a second later, I hear the sound of a loud explosion from a North-Easterly direction. Is it a terrorist attack? No, it sounded more like an electical transformer explosion. The power comes back on in about 10 seconds. Nevertheless, I decide to go investigate, so jump on my bike and pedal off to the north east. Two streets over, I come across a small gathering of pyjama clad people standing in the street. There is a very frazzled dead bird lying on the sidewalk. There is a transformer directly above said dead bird. The fuse from the high voltage line is dangling open. Several people had a cold breakfast Saturday morning.

So, was the noise caused by an exploding bird, or an exploding fuse? Was the bird a suicide attempt on our electrical infrastructure or our western freedoms? Perhaps we should arm ourselves with slingshots and shoot to kill any bird seen in the vicinity of electrical wires.

Bench Plans

Since I like the table and chairs I built, I have been designing the benches. They will wrap around the two long ends of the table. Each bench will accomodate 3-4 people. Figuring out the mechanics of getting around the 45 degree corners took me a few weeks of on and off thought. With quite a few compound miter cuts to make, I think I have it figured out now. The design looks decent on paper... just have to build it now to see what it looks like in real life.

Shopping Failure

Saturday I got on my bike and rode around the city to buy a new drive belt for the lathe. The current one is starting to wear, causing the speed control to stick sometimes while accelerating. I went to an electric motor shop down on Preston. They were closed. There were no hours posted on the door. I rode down to GBS, I could not remember exactly where it was, so spent a little time riding around the neighbourhood until I stumbled across it. It was also closed. Again, no hours were posted on the door. I rode home a little frustrated and passed a mom-and-pop electric motor repair shop on Gladstone. I pull in and walk up to the door. Locked. Business hours??? Of course, no posting of these... you would not want anyone to try again later. Was I too early for these stores? Are they all just closed on Saturdays?

Fine. I think to myself, I will stop by the homebrew shop and pick up some supplies so I can make some beer next weekend. I arrive, lock up my bike, and walk in. I needed two ingredients. Yeast, and barley. Nope, sold out of both of these. WTF! How can a homebrew shop not have barley!?! Guess I will not get a batch going before my vacation out to BC in a couple weeks.

Hangover Fun

This weekend my friend Dave from Halifax was in town. Of course that meant going out to the Dominion and spending all night drinking beer. After they kicked us out we all went over to Ilona's house for a swim at 03:00. Ray (male) borrowed a swimsuit... Ilona's moms. It was quite funny. Then despite drinking all night and sleeping for only a few hours, I managed to complete two projects.

The first was spoking a new front wheel for my bike:


Then I completed two walnut spoons to go with the salad bowl that I turned a few weeks ago. These complete the wedding gift.


I also split a bunch of firewood, cut the lawn, and did the dishes. Hangovers can be quite productive.

Hiking Algonquin

Emily and I did a three day hike last weekend of the Western Uplands trail in Algonquin Park. We were joined the first night by Rob, Dave, Pete, Stephanie, and Jeffrey who were all hiking a different route than us.


The weather was perfect. We went swimming a lot. We tried to make fire with a stick and bow. We ate good food. It was a great camping trip. Many more photos can be found here. I am working on a complete trip report which should appear soon on my website.