Bennie is 4 today 🎂- the perfect dog age.

Bennie is 4 today. We don't usually remember on time to do anything but we got him right after I retired and we spent his first month with my Dad. Bennie is the first dog we've had that's gotten this old with only us for company. All of our others had companion dogs to keep them company while we were at work.

I say 4 is perfect because they're old enough for us to all understand expectations but there's energy and less illness - we're between the eating of random junk and organ failure. 

He's been a gift. He slept through the night from the day he arrived and is very solid on house training. We've always wanted a dog that we can just leave at home without setting barriers and he's it. We've never come home to random destruction.

For his birthday we got lots of treats and he got a bone...his first. I was expecting him to hoard it or maybe cover it to keep for later. Instead, he ate some of it, came to hang out by us with his bone while we ate ice cream, and eventually left it on the deck under the stairs when he realized it didn't get to come in the house.

Bennie had been a challenging pup in many ways. We'd forgotten what it was like to have a puppy when he came along and we forgot, oddly enough, how reactive cairns are to other dogs. I used to have two dogs tangle at the end of a leash when another dog looked at them funny and now I have just one. It's a little more manageable and there is less excuse for not being proactive and recognizing when Bennie's at the end of his tolerance; clicks and treats are the coin of the realm. 

If you have a challenging pup, take heart. They do grow up.

One Month with the Cayenne E-Hybrid - I regret nothing

With gas prices so high a lot more people are thinking of EVs. Just want to say, to save money on gas NOW - slow down your speed and carpool if you can't take transit. That said. we did plan for our vehicle to be a hybrid and we've had our Cayenne E-hybrid for over a month now. I did a first impressions post and, after a month of typical driving - we made the right decision.

One thing I would definitely advise is getting a home charging station if you can. We got a Level 2 charger installed in our garage and it's great. We can charge at up to 40A which will fill our small (19 kWh) battery in a couple hours.

The battery may seem small but it's great for limiting my driving - without it, I'd be driving all over just for fun, which was one of my fears. Usually, I'll walk if the weather is good and I'm not carrying things. EPA gives 4.2 L/100km and the only way we can think to get that is by a mixed city/highway commute. With ICE you have the worse consumption during city trips, EV or hybrid is reversed. We did a ~1000km round trip and got 8.5 L/100km averaging ~ 105 kmh. That included a full charge when we started and no more charging. We did top up the gas at one end but that's more of a range anxiety thing since we got home with over 1/2 a tank and have just left it.

I loved my Macan but the Cayenne really upped the experience. I'm surprised to say the Cayenne feels more refined. It doesn't feel any larger to drive, I park it a lot better, and with the higher ride I have better visibility overall🤷‍♀️ Handling is smooth and steering is responsive. I didn't think I needed any PCM upgrades but that was a lack of imagination. Porsche uses Google Maps for nav and now that we've had more chances to use it there are ups and downs. We drove into the city and the instructions included things like "turn after the gas station on the right" - nice. On the downside the day the maps updated before our long trip, there was a road closure so we couldn't set the nav to take that route. The back seats are, naturally, more spacious but they also can move back and forth so you can get more cargo space without flipping down the seat OR accommodate people with long legs more comfortably.

So what would the wrong decision look like for me?

Less fun driving experience than the Macan (other than brapp noise), unable to find a seat position with good visibility (happened with the Panamera), variable handing depending on road conditions, not feeling solid on the road, handling like a truck, OK Porsche not handling PCM directions (I don't expect it to be able to tell me the population of Nutavut), no Android Auto support (it's wired which sucks but is manageable), not having enough EV range for our short hops in winter (touch and go but it is a hybrid so ...).

Like I said in the title - I regret nothing.

New Tech is in the house...Hybrid Cayenne

 

It's been an exciting week - Saturday we picked up the Cayenne, Monday my S22 Ultra arrived and Friday we got the charger installed. Phew - let's do the small stuff first.

Things living rent free in my head - I hate this!

You know what I mean. Much like how your hands move to the nearby bowl of potato chips without thinking my brain cycles through unresolvable annoying topics.

This is year 3 of not being able to go on our tropical holiday and this winter has been brutal. A month-long spell of weather so cold that outdoor activities were out of the question. Like many, I am done with this pandemic. We've limited travel to heading out to the coast for family emergencies and running to Edmonton for service appointments then coming right back home. I need to put on my selfish hat (and mask🙄) and get out in the community and do things...except I really don't want to run into convoy supporters and if I do any kind of group activity, that's likely to happen.

And speaking of convoys - what the actual f*ck is their problem. Vaccines were mandated for Federally regulated industries ages ago and trucking got an exemption that expired. Still, they can work across Canada unless the companies they want to access require vaccination. This would be horribly discriminatory if the vaccines weren't widely tested before being provided for free from a bunch of places you don't have to have an appointment to get. Booster, whatever. I really don't like getting sick so I'll take it. Other countries want me to be vaccinated to visit - okay, it's your health system. I could be sympathetic to anti-maskers - it does feel awkward to be the one out of step - but I have yet to hear news reports of insisting people wear masks to the point of assault but I do see videos of non-mask wearers spitting on people and trying to remove masks from people wearing them. From the start  (in the mid 2020s) it's seemed like people being thwarted who are not used to being told no. 

This thing with Trudeau is just irrational. He's a leader in a recently elected minority government.  During a pandemic, as a responsible employer, the Feds are reducing health risks by requiring vaccines - just like a lot of large companies. He got a vaccine supply and distributed it. He's mostly followed the recommendations of PHAC (mostly because wildly changing test requirements is...wild and quarantining was lax) and really left provinces to themselves when doing their pandemic response and vaccination distribution. There's been no Federally mandated lockdowns - all there have been is essential travel recommendations with no questioning of what people decide is essential. No mass testing like Hong Kong no lockdowns like China, just gradual lessening of quarantine and testing on arrival. I know this is mentally difficult - see the third year of not traveling thing - but in spite of hyperbole, this is not forever.

Finally the Emergencies Act. From the start, the CPC and their provincial counterparts wanted to provoke the Feds into doing something that could be used in the next election and I think they wanted it to echo the FLQ crisis and G7 head bashing. But it didn't. After weeks of having their lives further interrupted by the squatters, Ottawans got to see overwhelming numbers of law enforcement move stoically to contain their tormenters. Yep, that's my take. I can't imagine having people from another town set up a block party in my neighbourhood while the police look the other way. The Act has a limited term and any actions will be scrutinized by people hostile to invoking the act.

One reason I'm writing this is to force myself to check into background elements to ensure I'm being fair. I have a CPC MLA. Other than donating to the convoy, which according to its memorandum had the secondary aim of overturning an election, and decrying gun control the last thing she wrote about was to defend fertilizer use by farmers as part of resisting climate change initiatives. I agree that there metrics have to be reasonably set but, we've seen under Conservative-led (CPC, UCP, PC) government, it's a lot of talk and encouragement of making things worse by kicking the can down the road.

Anyway, hopefully just writing it down will get everything out of my system. I think Canada's governmental COVID response was pretty good. Individuals got support, we had pretty decent movement and not huge swaths of deaths although there were some - it's a pandemic after all. I have to admit, I hope the Emergencies Act spawns some better financial laws that prevent money laundering and tax dodging so the Feds can focus on things like affordable housing in major centers and inflation.

COVID - how far we've come!

In 2020 as we were getting ready to cancel our trip I wondered how things would shake out. There's always a range of people and at far ends are the ones who will never comply with public health measures and the ones who never want the health measures lifted. How will our levels of government manage that? 

In many ways, the Feds have it the easiest. Timely vaccine and medication supplies, with backup personnel along with health mandates for Federally jurisdiction workers. The Federal government seemed to think something would be resolved by September 2020 so they could end the CERB program that gave almost anyone to applied $2K/mo to meet expenses along with a program for small businesses for the same purpose. At that time the virus had been identified and sequenced but weird public health things happening. Even though it seemed obvious to anyone who watched the news that this was an airborne thing...choirs, restaurant and cruise ship infection events...doctors seemed pretty intent on emphasizing surfaces. I always thought if a surface was that contaminated, no way would I touch that but mask for something that goes through the air - yep.

After one year - thanks to operation WarpSpeed we had vaccines available. Amazing what having enough money to explore multiple streams, while completing all the required documentation for ethical testing, can do to propel health🤔Even though the companies who brought the earliest vaccines to market didn't use those funds they did benefit with access to things that didn't work and a lot of science developed can be used for other vaccines. Feds did their job by ensuring vaccines supplies for Canadians.

After only two years we have several vaccine options, enough for boosters, 2 medications (also procured and available in Canada) for early stages of infections and the medical profession has established effective treatment protocols. The swiss cheese layers seem to be numerous enough that we need a strategy for lifting COVID restrictions. 

But should we?

Being tired of wearing a mask and showing you're vaccinated is not enough reason to abandon health care workers. Being angry because you can't go places because you don't want a vaccination is, again, not enough. I don't know why the idea of "bending the curve" became so onerous but I suspect it has something to do with politicians promoting vaccination as THE end rather than a tool to ending. Have you thought about what would make you feel safe to resume activities? Is there anything that makes you not want to get COVID?

Vaccines that get us to the point where even if most of us are exposed we are unlikely to get infected - even asymptomatically - is huge. I would look at publically available lagging indicators like hospitalizations. When hospitalization at the point all other hospital treatments are resuming and ICUs are at the 80% full level (80% is arbitrary as I don't know how full they were before) for 2 - 4 weeks. At that point attempts to reduce exposure have been effective enough.

As for getting it? Do not want. We don't talk enough about how long people suffer with symptoms after infection much less long-COVID and we don't know the long-term effects of a virus that damages the vascular system. I would not be surprised if we get a slew of unexpected strokes, aneurysms, and heart attacks from people who recovered from COVID (like Bob Sagat). A lot of people now have COVID as part of their medical history.

I just hope we don't move on without learning lessons. We really need to work on HVAC systems to ensure cleaner air for indoor spaces, whether by increased air exchange, sterilization, filters or a combination...and communicate those changes so everyone can understand what it means. More "pop up" facilities to handle overflow patients and perhaps even a corp of medical adjacent professionals that can keep up their skills monthly or annually and be pulled in for emergencies.

As for the pandemic/endemic thing? With the ability to travel widely, endemic viral disease is not small thing.

Family fragments

 

I retired early to be able to be available to visit with my dad as needed. I started by spending over a month with him right after retiring then visiting more often. I was lucky to fly out for his last birthday right before everything shut down before COVID. Also lucky that his health really started failing after vaccines became available and most restrictions were lifted. We rushed out a few times but in the end, he spent a calm day with his wife then left.

It's been strange. We've been here many times when he hasn't been, whether in the Philippines or, more recently, in hospital then being released when we are here. So it's as if he's just elsewhere for the moment. I guess belief in the afterlife lets you continue that framing. And he made things as easy as possible. His wife had time to make tentative plans so he could go directly to a family-owned funeral home loosely associated with his church. Happily, he had a will and I was able to start the probate process quickly.

As he was dying it was interesting how different the sibling experience was for each of us. I know the relationship with my youngest brother wasn't the greatest and I moved out of province at 20 so that give some idea of how my youth went. I thought my next brother and him got along ok but from his eulogy, there were lots of challenges and I can see how it influenced his relationship with his sons.

The Eulogy (more or less)

My father ***, what can I say. Born *** to a well-to-do family he grew up working in some of the family businesses driving trucks, running a wood mill and doing all kinds of things. When I was young my father would tell me of his life growing up as someone of privilege. How servants delivered his lunch at school in sterling silver dishware, how his family had a yacht, how there was someone who made the family jewelry and other things I can't even remember right now. I would ask; Dad, why aren’t we rich also? And my dad would say, make sure you have a will! Anyway as he and his siblings got older many went to study abroad in Europe and other places. That is when my father as he put it; I’m going from being a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond when he came to Canada. A man who was disciplined, a man who was focused, a man of reason who spoke clearly and expected others to behave the same. Growing up observing him I saw these traits made him larger than life in some things and overbearing in others.

In my time with him, I saw he lived 2 lives. The first life was with my mom for whom he said he would be the provider and raise a family. The second life with his second wife where he would have to learn to let go of some control and to accept people for simply who they were. 

In his first life with my mom, he came to Canada in ***. Joined the RCAF, was stationed in ***and where they had their first child ***in ***in ***. He was soon transferred to *** where they had their second child (me!) in ***. During all this time he was also studying to complete his high school diploma. In ***, after a brief stop in Comox, he was stationed in Vancouver. This was a time of opportunity. He worked in Search and Rescue, attended the Fine Arts program at UBC received his degree in English literature then earned his education certificate. In *** he became a father for the third time to Gregory while starting a new career of becoming a primary school teacher.

My father was a genius mechanic. We had several English sports cars he would restore and sell. By the age of 13, I could disconnect an engine and have it ready to be pulled out. His last project in our old family home was a 1951 Chevrolet Torpedoback 4 door which he had already begun a body off restoration. Unfortunately, it was never completed. He later learned MIG welding to work on his Karman Ghia project car. He kept working on sports cars until he lost a lot of his sight, selling the last of them in 2018.

He was also very social. Mom met *** *** at the beach and the two couples, ***, ***, Mom and Dad became fast friends with their young families. Dad became busy with the *** Club. I remember the club Christmas parties, Stanley Park cricket games and visits down to Birch Bay. We later moved out to Port Coquitlam to be closer to his work - he taught at an elementary school***. After moving to another part of Port Coquitlam, he and *** met the other pivotal couple, *** and ***. ***, also a car enthusiast, went with Dad to many show and shine car shows over the years.

He retired from teaching at the age of 60. Sadly, then mom passed away in 1994 at the age of 55. Those friends, ***, ***, ***and ***helped dad with his grief and ushered in his second life.

Chapter 2

My dad first met ***at my son ***christening. ***said, hey Mr. Lall, you’re single and ***is single so why don’t you get together. I laughed. Then one day I went to visit dad and who should open the door but ***! They were keeping their rendezvous secret. BUSTED The rest was history. ***was the ring bearer at their wedding 20 years ago.

They traveled well together and we have many happy photos of their visits to different areas of the US, on a short cruise but mostly they did a lot of traveling to the Philippines. Dad loved it there often staying months at a time while *** returned to Canada. They fixed up *** house in Laguna and built a beach house in Katanowon. He loved spending time there with ***. He loved everything about the Philippines from the people to the climate to the lifestyle. He even took his sister and friends there. I had the pleasure of holidaying with them one year and we had a great time.

He brought his club social skills to bear with great Christmas and Birthday parties and *** was the ultimate party planner. The parties were all family-style blending old friends and new and he remembered everyone’s names. His physical health took a turn for the worse in the last few months and he relied heavily on *** but his mind remained sharp. He would recite recipes and directions that *** could cook and they would turn out wonderfully. When alone with *** and regular visitors he would spell words and count things together. Visitors were always welcome and they even had a small party for *** birthday earlier this month.

In closing, I can’t express how thankful I am for the support from ***, *** and all the people who so selflessly gave their time. Without them, Dad would not have been able to spend his final days at home with May. 

My memories were very different. I know when the favoured son came along, I felt relegated to the dutiful daughter role - something I didn't fit well and resented until distance and age brought insouciance. I guess he couldn't see how my life paralleled his. I didn't tread the road he planned for me - like he didn't tread the road his father laid out for him. I remember as a child that his father left Trinidad the day before we arrived for a long-planned visit...pretty sure there was a will and he was excluded; he had no contact with him certainly after his mom died. I moved away from home, although not to another country, and returned to school a couple times after graduation. I recognized his influence on my choices and was really appreciative of being able to spend that month with him building an adult relationship. My only regret is we always left for our trip home before people woke up so there was never a goodbye... is that a regret though?

The house is full with people who had come to help care for Dad near his end. His wife's culture has 9 days of novenas which really helps here with the grieving process. I feel such relief at his passing it's hard to be sorry he's gone although I will miss him. He didn't want to be a snarky old man reliant on others but he wanted to support his wife in her health problems. I think he trod that line pretty well.

I empathize with Boomers - with apologies to Millennials and younger

Because I've turned into one. Sigh.

We've been replacing appliances recently and let's just say things haven't gone smoothly.

We bought a Samsung Range in January and it started throwing errors when we used it as a pizza oven (480F then cook for 3 minutes). First of all Samsung's website is a mess of broken links. I know because the emails are also a mess of broken links. I put in a repair request for the error code and the ticket was closed with the comment operator error - they actually didn't email me with that information so I didn't find out for weeks🙄 I called to find out what that meant but because I had to swirl around the garbage that is the Samsung website I was pretty out of patience when I finally spoke with a customer service rep. I asked if they were saying I was too stupid to use an oven correctly. The answer turned out to be I was too stupid to be able to use THEIR oven correctly and they weren't going to tell me how to fix that until they had wasted a service call and unnecessarily replaced a control board. They didn't even tell the appliance repair guy until I put in a third ticket for the same thing and I dropped him a text. Turns out you can't preheat a Samsung oven to high temperatures then switch to broil without triggering an error. They could have included that information with the ... oh wait they didn't bother to email me they closed the first ticket.

Next up BestBuy. I ordered a dryer (not Samsung) and a washer showed up. I didn't take possession and called to file a ticket. No email to confirm I had filed a ticket or what reparation steps would be taken. I called every day and got the usual - it's been forwarded to a department, with random tidbits of collateral information. When will I get a replacement? You'll just have to wait; we have to make sure the carrier returned it to our warehouse!?!? By service rep 4 I was livid when they said they had to confirm it was in the warehouse. Keep in mind they had documentation that I refused the delivery so it wasn't at my house. This person insisted corporate HAD to follow their procedure to find the dryer. I said their incident investigation wasn't my problem. They also asked why I would want an email...sure I'm going to trust a company that just delivered the wrong item, still has my money, and forwarded my case to someone in a group who may get sick or quit or whatever and I'm not going to find out until I realize after Christmas that I never heard back because I got busy. But they did tell me that after they take 5 days to investigate they deliver the correct item in 2 days way better than the fuzzy next available truck. Also since I was ready to cancel the appliance they marked the ticket as urgent.

So here's a tip on how to communicate with Boomers. Most of us have email...you know that because you keep asking for it. When you do something with a ticket autogenerate an email with a reference number and details on resolution steps with a timeline. 

As for Samsung and BestBuy - I'm not boomer enough to destroy stuff I already have from them but my new dryer will not be a Samsung product and I likely won't buy appliances from BestBuy again even if, by some miracle, they actually deliver it 2 days after their 5 days to investigate why the wrong product ended up at my house. To be fair - it probably will because I've been an asshole about this entire episode. Not an absolute one because I haven't been asking for discounts and free extended warranty and stuff.