Personal

by

I Am Now REALLY French

I have a decidedly more adventurous palate now than I did when I was younger. I credit sushi for a lot of that since the stuff that comes out of the sea can be very strange indeed.

There is one dish that I have always avoided as it truly repulses me. Every time I see a picture of it, my gag reflex starts. And every time, I think that I gobble down eel. My logic is definitely lacking!

Tonight, my mother made this dish as an entrée (which is an appetizer for my American readers). I decided that it was time. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to look at the item in question, took a piece, and chewed slowly.

The picture of this dish sucks as I only had my phone, but, truly, it didn’t look appetizing at all:

What are you looking at? An escargot in garlic and chive butter sauce. Yes, a snail.

I had two more. They were very tender and the flavour was very delicate and mostly over powered by the sauce. In other words, with my eyes closed, they were completely forgettable. At least, I now know that I can be served escargots and they will go down my gullet smoothly, but I would not seek them out. I know my dad used to love them, surprisingly enough for a meat and potatoes man, but now I understand that it was probably the garlic butter he loved.

Next up on my ‘I can’t believe I haven’t tried this yet’ is black caviar. No concern on that end, I know I will love it. I’ve got to make a point to find out what a good affordable brand is and where to buy some.

Now, I am off to try my squid ink pasta!

by

Why I’m Still in Quebec

It’s been quiet around here this past month because I’ve been too stressed to do anything beyond working, sleeping, and eating as my truck needs work to be able to tow it behind the rig so that I can get out of here before the weather turns. Needless to say, the window of opportunity is closing very fast.

The problem is that I’m about $4,500 short in my budget this summer because of the accident since I had to return to Alberta to get the truck. Maxing out credit cards and emptying the emergency fund wouldn’t close this gap or eliminate the stress.

I was patient with the third party adjuster, waiting until September to ask how the claim was going. I agreed to settle for $3,400 with payment to be made by October 1st. That deadline came and went without any further news, beyond my representative being in touch to let me know he was pushing for me.

October 18th came around and by this point I’ll admit I had cracked. I was terribly sick the Monday and Tuesday of that week. It was probably just a little stomach bug that compounded because of the sleepless nights brought on by stress.

At 3:07PM on the 18th, I sent my representative an email with the subject, “Final request for settlement.” I then reiterated my position, where things stand, what additional costs will be added up if I don’t get a cheque immediately, that I regret not having a lawyer speak for me from the start, and that the insurance company is mistaken in their belief that I won’t sue.

At 13:17, my representative let me know that he sent my email on to the third party insurer.

At 3:20, the third party insurers let my representative know that they were cutting me a cheque for $3,400 immediately. So that’s what it takes to get things moving with a U.S. insurance company.

It’s now the 30th and the cheque has arrived in Montreal!!!!!!! I will be picking it up tomorrow morning and it will take a full week to clear, although I will have access to part of the funds.

Last week, when I took my truck out for a test drive, I stopped at a nearby RV dealership to ask if they could install the base plate on my truck. Yes. And they felt that even if there was a delay with getting the part, they could get me on the road by November 14th at the latest. So I called back today to get the ball rolling. I’ll know tomorrow when the base plate will be incoming so we can set an appointment.

Now, the big hiccup is my tow bar. After doing a lot of research, I have decided on a Ready Brute Elite tow bar as it has a braking system integrated into it, which will save me nearly $1,000. It’s a well rated and proven system that is perfect for a manual Ford Ranger. The only hiccup is that I need to get it here from the States and I can’t order it till my cheque clears. Moreover, there is a part of it that needs to be installed by professionals. The dealership said they would be willing to install that part if the bar arrives in time.

So I am going to schedule my appointment at the last possible second and will be ready to pull out the day after. They dealership says that I would have to bring my truck in first thing, then pick it up in the afternoon with the motorhome. So I would leave the dealership with my vehicles properly hooked up together, park overnight on the street, and head south the next morning.

My deadline for the appointment is the 14th because as of the night of the 15th, I can’t park on the street anymore. My mother’s driveway isn’t big enough for my rig, my truck, and her SUV, so I have to be gone. Can all of this be done in just two weeks? I’ve seen bigger miracles…

by

Meteorological Déjà Vu

Seven years ago, I was supposed to be in Virginia or on my way to New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Instead, emergency dental surgery made me delay my trip, keeping me in a safe area.

Tonight, Frankenstorm Sandy is incoming. If the warnings are not hyperbole, then the U.S. faces one of the worst catastrophes in its history. I was supposed to be in Virginia by this time. Instead, the accident that occurred at the end of April has led to the delay of my departure from Montreal, and my being in a safe area.

Everything happens for a reason, huh?

To all my readers on the east coast, I hope you are safe.

by

The Canadian War Museum (Very Briefly)

My eight year old nephew, R, expressed a desire to visit the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. I decided that it would make a nice day out for us and mentioned this to my mother. She came over last night to let me know that today was R’s last day off from school for a while and that he had nothing planned. So if I wanted to go to Ottawa with him, I had to decide immediately. Needless to say, I was on board!

I picked him up at about 8:30 this morning and we set off westward. Getting out of Montreal was tricky enough for R to actually worry about whether or not we’d make it. He was very relieved when we finally hit the open road!

I asked him why he wanted to visit the War Museum and his answer was delightful; he was just curious. He’d been to the Nature and Science & Tech museums already and felt that his education was missing a visit to this museum.

At some point along the way, the subject of lunch came up and I mentioned that we would be eating at a restaurant. His eyes lit up and he said, “Sushi!” Ah, R and I are kindred spirits! 😀

I really should have done some research ahead of time about Ottawa sushi restaurants as I didn’t eat sushi back then, strangely enough. Now that I think about it, I really can’t figure out where my sushi obsession came from, but I digress. At any rate, I decided to just head for the heart of Chinatown, where I knew I’d find several suitable options on Somerset.

We parked at the corner of Arthur right in front of Koreana, a Korean BBQ place that also serves sushi. R said that there was no sense going any further, or crossing the street, so that’s where we ate. We had a great lunch!

I ordered a combo meal with nigiri, tempura, delicious glass noodles, veggie pancake thingies, and more. R asked for ‘shrimp with rice’, which I correctly guessed was ebi nigiri without wasabi, as well as ‘cucumbers with seaweed’, which I also correctly IDed as being kappa maki. I thought that there would be more than enough food for the two of us, but I wound up having to order him another six pieces of the kappa maki, of which he ate four, and I had the last two.

What I most appreciated was that the meal came with a complimentary delicious miso soup and a bunch of Korean sides! I had a chance to try radish pickles (YUM), kimchi (it’s true what they say, the stuff needs to grow on you…), potatoes with a sweet glaze, and some unidentified tasty green veggies with sesame seeds.

Our Koreana spread.

Chinatown is tiny, but then again, so is Ottawa proper. But there’s no mistaking you’re there as the area has the ubiquitous arch:

The second to last time I went to the War Museum I actually left my car parked in Chinatown and hoofed it, a distance of just a couple of klicks, but I didn’t want R to be tired before we arrived. The last time I went to the museum, I lived just north of it in Gatineau, within even closer range, so I just ambled over.

So we piled back into the truck and I drove us down to the museum, which is located at the intersection of Wellington and the John A. MacDonald Parkway (no, dear, he did not launch the McDonald’s restaurants). I didn’t get to take a picture of the exterior, so I’m borrowing this one because the Canadian War Museum is housed in a spectacular building!

http://www.navy.forces.gc.ca/cms_images/centennial_images/events/canadianwarmuseumnightview_530x352.jpg

Parking is underground and I worried that my truck wouldn’t fit. My mother scoffed at that, but my fear was justified. I had only a couple of inches of clearance from the lowest points in the ceiling, but my roof rack brushed against the clearance signs! I parked right at the bottom of the entrance since I just fit down the ramp and figured I could just squeeze back up.

There is now an admission to the museum, and it’s not cheap when you factor in parking. Admission for the two of us was $23 and then I had to add another $12 on top of that for parking!

The museum feels like a bunker:

Lobby area.

The theme of the museum is Canada’s place in global conflicts. So it starts right at the beginning with wars against the Native Americans and between European powers before Canada was even a nation, then moves to the Boer and First World Wars, the Second World War, the Korean and Cold Wars, and then modern conflicts. This year, there is a special exhibit about the War of 1812.

R liked this exhibit and the beginning of the main museum a lot because he is currently studying the Iroquois at school and he got lots of information for an upcoming project. He especially enjoyed an activity where we were shown how to do ‘wempum’ style beading like the native peoples did. It was explained to us that the beads and patterns all told a story.

Arts and crafts are fun! I beaded this purple and white key chain. 🙂

The interpreter teaching this activity told us to keep an eye out for a blue and white belt symbolizing two powers (as rivers made from blue beads) sharing one land peacefully (white beads). I dryly commented that Quebec could learn something from that belt and the guy burst out laughing. This is the belt:

We moved on to the US Civil War era, where I found my gaze falling onto a Gatlin gun. I still can’t believe that machine guns like these existed that early on!

the first machine gun, US Civil War era

The WWI exhibit has a fun bit where you can determine if you would have been eligible for service by making you check your height, foot arch status, eyesight (I’m apparently blind), and teeth.

We have normal feet; not flat, not over arched!

We spent some time at a computerized display listing all the Canadians who served in WWI. I typed in Henry Blake and my great-grand-father’s listing showed up:

My great-grand-father’s enlistment papers for service in WWI.

I tried to convey to my nephew that this was his great-great-grand-father and that he, R, wouldn’t be here if this man hadn’t existed, but I don’t think that sank in.

And then came my favourite exhibit. I remember seeing it at the old war museum way back yonder with my dad and it never ceases to fill me with a sense of awe that it is here, in Ottawa:

Hitler’s car

That caption is correct. This is the car you see in photos of Hitler standing in a car saluting his troops. Through some miraculous circumstances, the car survived the war and was shipped to Canada, where it is now available for all to see. That car gives me the shivers.

Believe it or not, R walked into this exhibit area and said, “Oh, Nazis!” He actually had a little bit of knowledge about the era and a sense of who Hitler was (“A very bad man with a little mustache.”) What amazed me the most was when I told him that the car is Hitler’s, he asked if it was “built for the museum to be like Hitler’s car or an artifact?” I was stunned! He casually replied that he’s studying artifacts at school and understands that some things in the museum are reproductions and others are real. Wow!

This exhibit also includes a captured Nazi flag:

captured Nazi flag

I was disappointed to not find the exhibit that completely ruined Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for me. In the movie, there’s a scene where Jones literally runs into Hitler and gets his autograph. ‘Hitler’ signs his name using a pointy A for Adolf. The old war museum had a bunch of documents signed by Hitler, showing that he made round As. (Yes, I’m a history nerd and this kind of detail fascinates me!)

There is also a sad reminder of Hiroshima in this exhibit:

This was a temple roof shingle that miraculously survived the atomic bomb while the temple itself was destroyed.

I rushed us through the more modern era stuff as R reads really well and some of the texts were very graphic, as were the photos. It’s all well and good that he learns about the dark side of human nature and another to bring him home completely traumatized. Moreover, I started to get emotional as we went through exhibits of conflicts that have occurred in my life time, including the Rwandan genocide and the current conflict in Afghanistan.

At the end of the exhibits, you can enter the ‘point’ of the building:

And then you enter a huge space filled with just about every military vehicle ever used in conflicts Canada has been involved in. R said this is what he will remember most, and with good reason. This section is impressive!

Just a tiny corner of the vehicle exhibit.

Me: “I want one of these amphibious German vehicles to tow behind my motorhome!” R: “You’ll need to go back in time and ask the Nazis for one. That doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

Both of us in unison: “Hey, it’s the Bat signal!”

This vehicle’s front end was destroyed when it hit a landmine in Afghanistan in the early 2000s. Thankfully, the vehicle was so well armoured that everyone survived.

Just a few of the tanks on display.

R noticed that this tank was missing its chains.

We did a quick tour of the gift shop on the way out (he asked for and received a $1 post card!). By the time we headed for the truck, it was past 4PM and I had said I would bring him home by 6. So I called in with the change of plans and that we’d be getting supper en route.

Getting out of Ottawa was a little tricky because of traffic and construction, but I know that part along the Queensway so well that I just wound and wend are way around until we could finally get onto the highway. It was stop and go to the Orleans junction and there was a bit of construction along the way, so we did not make good time.

By the time we hit Rigaud, R needed a break so I decided to stop early for dinner. He wanted poutine and I decided that he’d had a nutritious enough lunch, so I agreed. We split one, but it wasn’t enough for him, so he asked for something I have seen in years, a pogo:

pogo

I think the English world calls these corn dogs. I can’t stand them, but R was thrilled with the treat. I’m just glad that’s not the first thing he mentioned to his mom when he got home! 😀

Today was completely off the cuff and unplanned, like a proper adventure. R is a great kid and I couldn’t have imagined a better companion today. It’s been a very long time since I’ve gone on a day-long adventure with a youngster and I enjoyed it!

by

People With Too Much Time On Their Hands

One of this blog’s most loyal and long-time readers is a guy named Kevin Johnson who, according to the comments he occasionally leaves, can be reached at prospectorguy@gmail.com. Readers who follow comments might not recognize this name because I delete the majority of Kevin’s comments.

It’s rare that I moderate legitimate comments on this blog. I might correct someone’s spelling if they might as me to or delete a duplicate post, but I won’t delete a comment just because I disagree with the person’s opinion.

So why do I delete Kevin’s comments? It’s because Kevin is a bully. His comments are mean spirited and do not promote positive dialogue. One thing I find interesting about Kevin is that he uses an email address that can be traced to a real name. So he’s not talking behind my back, but rather right to my face. I like this because it lets me get right back into this face and publicly call him out.

Kevin left a comment this afternoon that bears addressing. In reply to my latest post where I joked about being a catch, he commented negatively about my weight, looks, and affinity for cats, then wished me luck in finding a partner, as though any of that has any bearing on my character and suitability as a potential mate.

He’s not the first person in my life to use objective facts as weapons of attack against my personality. That’s how bullies think. They create a flaw in another person in order to make themselves feel better about themselves. So attacks by bullies have nothing to do with the target, but rather with the bully’s own low self-esteem.

Kevin, you obviously have too much time on your hands. Have you thought of volunteering or taking up a hobby like a sport of craft? Such enriching activities will help you develop new skills, which is a great self-esteem booster. A therapist can also help you work on your self-esteem issues. There’s absolutely no shame in asking for help.

I feel really bad for people like Kevin and wonder what made him a bully. Did he lack parental love? Was he bullied himself? All I know is he must feel very poorly about himself if trolling a blog with the sole purpose of attacking the blogger passes as a fun activity.

Pity the trolls, folks, rather than be angered by them.