Assiniboia

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Bell Canada Makes Up For A LOT

I called Bell at 3:30PM Tuesday about my junky Novatel Mifi 2 crapping out on me. The tech didn’t even have me do any troubleshooting. She knew what was wrong and that I needed a new one. Once we established that going to a store was out of the question, she agreed to Priority post one overnight.

I suspected that my device would be leaving from out east (I was right, Mississauga), so we were right at the end of business day there. So I was wasn’t surprised when I called back Thursday to confirm the order had shipped that it hadn’t gone out till Wednesday morning.

Instead of Priority, it was sent the slightly slower Xpress post route. Having worked in shipping, I know that outside of major centres, Priority and Xpress are pretty much equal in speeds, but not in price. So I wasn’t miffed at all, just disappointed that Canada Post estimated that delivery would be Monday.

So imagine my surprise this morning when I got a call from the post office in Assiniboia telling me the package had arrived! That’s right, the post office called me. Talk about service!

I drove out to town, got my package, and went back to the truck to make sure the new Mifi would work before sending back the old one.

The Mifi 2 is so badly designed that it takes fingers the size of a Barbie doll with the grip strength of the Hulk to remove the SIM card. I am not exaggerating. It took me 20 minutes to get the damn thing out of there and I only succeeded by slamming the device hard against the dash to force out the SIM card. If the device wasn’t dead before, it surely is now. But there is no evidence of my brutal SIM card extraction as the device’s programming might be crap, but the its casing is very sturdy.

Inserting the SIM card into the new device was slightly easier (you just needed the Barbie-sized fingers or longish fingernails). I was pleased that the battery was charged. The device powered right up and I had no trouble connecting with my iPad. Success!

I repackaged all the pieces (device, battery, cord, 120V adapter), keeping all the new stuff they’d sent, and brought the box back into the post office to be taped shut and mailed.

I didn’t even notice that Bell had included a prepaid PUROLATOR bill of lading. The post master was at a loss. He said that he knew Purolator delivers to Assiniboia and that maybe I could bring the package to ‘Great West’ to be picked up there, as he knew they got Purolator stuff regularly, but that I should check with Purolator first.

I spent 20 minutes on the phone with Purolator. The guy wasn’t even able to confirm that they service Assiniboia. Finally, he called a supervisor over and the supervisor said that I should take the post master’s suggestion, but that there was no guarantee ‘Great West’ would accept to hold my package or that a driver would pick it up without knowing s/he had something to pick up.

So I decided to mosey on over to ‘Great West’ and see what they had to say. Worst case, I would call Bell for an alternative sending method.

I left my truck at the post office and walked the block to Centre Street, turned left, and what did I see but a Purolator truck!!! It was pulling out, but the driver’s window was rolled down, so I called out. The guy stopped and I asked if I could give him a package. He asked to look at it and said, “You’ve got a label and it’s being paid third party; perfect. I can take it!”

Talk about serendipity!

I got home and couldn’t get online. I glanced out the window and noticed that the antenna had moved so I realigned it and tried again. Success!

Now, I am going to file a Better Business Bureau complaint against Novatel with the hope of recovering lost wages and the money spent on fuel this week since I have evidence that they know their device is prone to crapping out and they are still forcing it on an unsuspecting populace.

But first, a post about my week!

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Meanwhile, Back at Haven I’m Dealing With Weeds and Rust

I can’t believe I’ve been back at Haven for five days now! I’ve been getting internet in snatches long enough to check email and sometimes do a little surfing, but updating the blog is always difficult on this connection and I’ve frankly had more important things to do up the hill.

Let’s backup a little bit to Wednesday, which was a little hazy since I got so little sleep and got up so late (about 10:00). I started by emptying out the truck and putting things away, then I cursed the internet connection for a bit before going up the hill for a spell. I was able to pick up Neelix mid afternoon and he was happy to see me! I couldn’t believe it! He came running when I entered C&C’s house and cuddled for a long spell, then followed me around the rig.

I had bought shrimp in Medicine Hat, so I treated myself to a shrimp boil for dinner, then went to bed crazy early.

Thursday, I had transcription work to do, but it had a generous deadline, so I just picked away at it and really didn’t get much done. I don’t remember anything else about Thursday, except that I spent some time up the hill.

Friday, I had to do some updates on the Windows computer and the internet fairly cooperated, so I was saved a trip up the hill. I continued with my transcription until 7:00 and then it was time to head over to Laura’s for canasta.

It was so nice to catch up with her and then C&C when they arrived, quite late but bearing cake, so all was forgiven. Charles and I were a team and lost three of four rounds, but did so well on the fourth that we won the game overall! I love Friday night canasta. 🙂

I got up early this morning to finish up my transcription since more came in for the weekend. Also, I wanted to go into Assiniboia for propane and gas for Miranda’s tank since I didn’t know if the Co-Op would be open on Sunday and Monday (turns out yes).

I left for town around 12:30, got to city limits, and realised I had left my wallet on the desk!!! I had come home to a just about empty on board propane tank (good thing I got home earlier than planned or the fridge would have been off!), so not getting propane today wasn’t an option. I turned around, got the wallet, and retraced my steps.

My first stop was Peavey Mart, a store I had never been into before. It’s basically Alibaba’s cave as you can find EVERYTHING in there, from clothes to cow ear tags.

I picked up:

-a 25L jerry can (I already had a 20L one and wanted to bring back a decent quantity of gas)

-a 7 gallon (okay, I’m being bilingual on my measurements) water container (I plan to have running water soon, but this will be useful for my upcoming excursion)

-a cherry tomato plant

-a weedwhacker-type thing (more on that below)

I then got the fuel and propane, picked up some veggies and fruit at the Co-Op grocery store, and headed home, stopping at C&C’s first for water.

After hooking up the propane, I added the fuel to Miranda’s gas tank. I had bought a siphon thing at Canadian Tire for 15 dollars, a length of clear hose with a ‘pump’, that was well worth its money as it emptied the jerry cans quickly and with no fuss at all.

Then, it was time to attack my lawn. Charles has been doing a great job mowing it (THANK YOU) with a tractor, but the edges were really tall and my boardwalk had disappeared under a cover of grass. A weedwhacker was in order.

The weedwhacker-type thing I found  is a ‘grass whip.’ You use it like a golf club. I was looking for something cheap and the least costly powered option was $99. I had never heard of a lawn whip, but could understand how it would work and it was just $15. But surprise at the till, it was on sale for $11!

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Here is the boardwalk after the first pass with the lawn whip.

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And here it is after:

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After dinner, I went out to put some fuel stabilizer in Miranda’s tank and apply some carb cleaner to the genset. I only had a quarter tank of fuel on board, so I knew there was no hope in starting it, but hope springs eternal. I hit the start button and it sparked then tried to turn over. There is life in it! I am going to Willow Bunch on Tuesday to deal with getting water and garbage collection and I will get more gas so that I can try the start exercise again after cleaning the fuel line. I am probably being too optimistic, but I have a good troubleshooting manual and the confidence that if this generator is salvageable, I can fix it myself, thanks to the Onan dealer at the seminar thinking this.

Today, I had some transcription to do and I also wanted to tackle the rust on my truck. A guy came up to me at the RV seminar to tell me that he does body work and that the rust on my truck had to be deal with NOW. He is not the first person to tell me this in the last year… He said to go to Canadian Tire or Walmart and get some Tremclad for rust. I could apply that directly to the truck to seal in the rust, but the caveat is that I wouldn’t be able to get a colour to match my finish, nor could I apply automotive paint over top. This is the worst of the rust:

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I got as much of the loose material off as I could, sanded, and then wiped it down. Next step was taping off the area I did not want to paint:

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Here’s the Tremclad. I knew the green would be too Christmasy for my truck, but hoped it would dry a little darker than this. It didn’t. *spoiler* It dried lighter. I wish I had left the rusty look and just gone with a clear coat.

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You can really see the difference in colour here:

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I applied three light coats of colour, then two clear coats. Don’t laugh at the result. It’s better than rust!

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I could not see myself applying any more of that awful colour to my beautiful Moya, so I blasted all her other rusty spots with just the clear coat. These are the worst of them:

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So it’s been a productive few days. If I have no transcription tomorrow, I will likely tackle the driver’s side rear wheel well (damaged in the last blowout, sorry the connection’s too slow to load the blog to get back links). Tuesday, I want to go pay for garbage delivery and find out who to call to get a water spigot put on the property. I want water by the time I get back from camping next week!!!!!!

That’s the scoop. I’m off to see if my spaghetti squash is ready. 🙂

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A Journey of 3,040 Kilometres

Whew! I made it home at 2AM this morning (Wednesday)!

I had a most excellent drive even though it was a loooooooong day. I stopped for a nice lunch in Fernie, paused in Blairmore, then had a long break in Lethbridge where I did a ton of shopping (one clever person told me the apocalypse is over, LOL). I hit up a few electronic stores for a better cell booster antenna (no luck), Walmart for dried goods, and then Canadian Tire for a few projects. I also bought a big cooler that was on special; nothing fancy but will come in handy for supply runs.

There was construction coming out of Lethbridge, so it was slow going for a bit, but Medicine Hat still came more quickly than expected. There was a lot of talk on the radio about the flooding and evacuations, but I saw no evidence of any of this. I decided that I was four hours from home, so I was going to get my grocery shopping done and finish up this trip.

When I pulled out of town, it was about 9:30, with my ETA being 2:30AM. The drive to Swift Current felt endless. I was physically tired, but not mentally since my body thought it was an hour earlier. I stopped for gas and a leg stretch, found a station playing my generation’s music, and rocked to Bryan Adams, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and New Kids on the Block all the way to Assiniboia, a stretch that felt about a 10th shorter than it actually was. It’s nice when the last stretch flies by!

I pulled into Haven at about 1:45AM, unloaded what absolutely had to be unloaded, and climbed into bed where I was asleep by quarter to 3.

I’m feeling a little groggy today and expect it will take a few days for me to fall back into my routine. I did get the truck fully unloaded and most of my stuff put away. I don’t have internet at home right now (I’m telling you, the bloody thing is sentient), so I’m up the hill waiting for Charles and Caroline to come home so I can pick up my boy.

I have several posts to write up about the weekend, but I want to say two things right now.

1) The weather in BC was mostly miserable, as it usually is, and the mountains were damp and grey, and shrouded with fog. I am so happy to be back under the sun bleached skies of my beloved prairies. If I have to live in this cursed country, there is no place I’d rather be.

2) I LOVED camping in the truck. It was the perfect compromise between car and hoteling it or taking a cumbersome gigantic rig out. I’m going to write more about that, but I really saw on this trip that my gas guzzler wasn’t a stupid buy at all. I didn’t have a lick of trouble with her and she is soooooo comfortable. My clutch leg isn’t even sore today, as it would be with half the distance traveled yesterday traveled in my Accent. It took a year to really use the truck the way I intended to use it and now that I have, I am fully at peace with the compromises I have made.

I’m off to shop online for another antenna and plan to pay big bucks for fast shipping. Wish I’d known I wouldn’t find anything in stores and had ordered earlier.

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A Long Good Drive

I went to sleep around midnight to the sound of pouring rain and awoke at 5:00 this morning to the same. I managed to squeeze in another fitful hour and a half of shut eye before giving up.

The rain varied between torrential and drizzling during the half hour or so it took to finish packing and load up the truck. I pulled out just past 7:00 with an ETA of 5:00 pm.

I got fuel and coffee in Assiniboia, then headed west on high 13. Just shy of Cadillac I got my sign that I really wasn’t meant to make this journey with Miranda. A truck in the opposing lane marked oversize load approached me waving madly that I needed to pull over. There was no shoulder and I made it to a country lane as a house wider than the road bore down on me. I have no idea how I would have gotten Miranda out of that lane way without having to back her onto the highway to turn around.

The weather was still miserable when I made a pit stop in Swift Current, although I had seen a few promises of clearing.

I hit Medicine Hat at noon and was looking forward to a sushi lunch, only to discover the restaurant doesn’t open till 3:00 on Fridays. Oh, well. I’m sure I’ll have another chance for sushi on this trip.

Medicine Hat’s road planners must have been drunk as the city is a bear to get through as it has service roads and odd turns. I managed to rejoin highway one, but got off almost immediately to get gas and coffee.

Just past Brooks, a massive hail storm hit. All but one driver in a long column pulled over to let it pass. This was good hail, small enough not to be damaging, but big enough to really clean the truck!

Speaking of Moya, she hasn’t had a good leg stretch since we went to Mexico in February and she’s been cranky on our few runs to town. Not worrisomely, just showing signs of her advanced age. Once we got a few miles under our belt today, she started purring. I don’t thing I’ll ever get sick of doing long hauls with her.

The Badlands soon followed and were incredibly lush, not a word I would have associated with them!

I landed in Stettler at 5:00 and found Donna and Ken’s mansion without any trouble. Note that anything bigger than a 45′ class A motorhome with full slides counts as a mansion in my eyes now. 🙂

We gabbed for a bit, then Donna and I headed out to get supper fixings. I decided to pay for and make supper myself, which meant grilling prepared garlic bread, slicing a pre-roasted chicken, opening a bottle of dressing for a prepared salad, and then doing the dishes. 🙂

Donna and I gabbed till way too late and then I availed myself of the luxurious appointments of the guest bathroom.

It’s really late and we have a full day tomorrow so I’d better sign off. I’m just so glad I’m here.

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Town Day

I’m crazy busy, but today was the one to go into town as I needed gas, propane, drinking water, groceries, and to send and receive some massive digital files.

Propane in Assiniboia can be had at the Co-Op gas station, which is next to the Co-Op hardware store. I stopped at the latter also to get prices and options for cement pavers on which to park Miranda.

I then stopped to check out The Bargain Shop!, a discount retailer, to see what they have. I found better prices for paper products than at the Co-Op grocery store, so I stocked up.

Next, got my groceries, including a pre-roasted chicken and everything I need to turn its carcass into soup. Meat is otherwise too expensive in town and I’ve been eating pretty much vegetarian since I got here. The chicken and a loaf of fresh baked bread will be a real treat tonight!

I almost forgot about my files, so now I’m parked at the top of the hill waiting for the download to finish. I can’t wait to get home; the smell of that chicken is about to send me over the edge!

I really need to come up with a better solution for drinking water. In the US, I could buy a gallon for $0.70. The same gallon here is $4.00!!!!!!! Now, I don’t drink anything else, so I don’t mind buying water, but this is getting to be expensive. The tap water in the village isn’t potable without using a ceramic filter, so I need to find one of those. I was going to go with the undercounter kind, but that makes no sense for when my fresh water tank is empty. So I need to find a countertop or pitcher unit.

I’m surprised that I wasn’t itching to go to town today and would have gladly waited if I didn’t have such pressing needs. I think that once I come back in July with a truck full of supplies, I could easily not go into town for weeks. I’m simply not having any trouble at all filling my days and I have enough social engagements to keep me from going stir crazy.

Yay, my download is just about done. Back to work I go.