Parliament was attacked this morning. Two dead at this writing. Not enough information to have much to say, actually, but any blog should acknowledge that event. It is bad news. Again.
I am writing because I was going to anyway. But I’ll keep it to off-the-grid stuff. We had a major gale last night. Some reports stated 90 kmh gusts in our vicinity. I doubt that number but, then again, I slept through the whole thing. Sal claimed that it sounded and felt like all hell was breaking loose. Even if it was only 60 kmh, it was a test.
I mention this only because we passed the test. The panels are still standing. The first thing we do when the wind exceeds the last high wind is to check to see if the array withstood the latest test. It did. I am relieved but I know my neighbour would say, “Well, we have had worse than that, so the possibility of catastrophe is still there.” He’s a ray of sunshine, he is. If we ever get hit simultaneously by a hurricane and an earthquake and the array collapses, he’ll say, “See. Ya shoulda had more steel structure!”
He’s right, of course. With enough of an engineered steel structure, I would be at less risk but, then again, I would not have been able to build it for $300.00.
The ramp on the dock jumped it’s rails last night. Moved a good four feet south. The dock must have been a-leaping like lords at Xmas. So the seas were nasty to be sure but everything was basically OK.
While I was traveling in the boat this morning a huge sea lion reared out of the water right beside me. Unlike their usual actions, this one came half out of the water and looked at me. It was like he was standing on a submerged stool. It was pretty neat to see such a huge animal so close and so high out of the water that his head was higher than than mine!
I picked the doctor up from the community dock for her bi-weekly clinic on the island and the waiting room will be full. A lot of islanders are grateful NOT to have to travel in the winter. They still do, of course, but they are happy to minimize their trips to town.
One of the people at the dock laden with groceries said, “Man, I hate town days!” A recent guest at our house asked me what I disliked about my living out here and the only thing I could think to respond with was, “Man, I hate town days!” Another woman at the ‘other side’ community dock said, “Man I am glad I don’t have to go to town! It is not an uncommon refrain. Nobody likes going to town.
Living off the grid, October 22, 2014…….out here, today was just an ordinary day with sea lions, neighbours, wind, rain and doctors making their rounds. But, in Ottawa, history was being made.
I prefer here.
Our Off the Grid Home 
What’s next? Harper announces a police state for our own good? Lord save us from unregistered ‘long guns’!
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I confess to such a knee-jerk response, myself. But, really, it is just that – kneejerk. I’m a little whacked, I think. We are convinced that the authorities are trying to ‘up’ their control of the people and we tend to think they will exploit this tragedy for political reasons. And, they have never failed to do that in the past so the ‘kneejerk response’ is to be expected. The counter response is that they did NOT do anything for the 14 women students massacred at the Ecole Polytechique so why do it for one soldier and a rukus? Why do anything for one soldier given the attitude of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs towards vets these past ten years? Logic suggests that they didn’t do anything for EPoly because Marc Lepine was simply a nut and single ‘nuts’ come loose now and then. If this incident is just another ‘nut’ (and we have plenty of them) there would only be ONE reason to do anything – politics – to make us think we are lousy with terrorists in this country and thus justify greater controls. My neighbours all expect roadblocks on the logging roads. So, we are all thinking along the same lines but, really………….it has NOT happened yet. Let’s wait and see.
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Sadly, the response from Harper, full of BS, crap, cliche’ and supposition is so embarrassing and stupid that, if I had an international passport, I’d move to New Zealand. His speech made my knee jerk. What nonsense! What bloody drivel came from his mouth! ISIL inspired? How does he know that at this point?
It is just as likely (more so given the fact that he seemed to act alone and used a double-barreled shotgun) that the gunman is just a nut-case. If he was ISIL inspired, they did not equip him very well. It looks like (on what has been reported) just another Marc Lepine all over again. These guys are dangerous and bad for community but they are NOT terrorists in any sense that we have come to know terrorism. They are just crazy. But Harper is re-dedicating himself to defending Canadian values and will not be intimidated. Feel more secure, do you?
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It’s the Conservatives idea of priorities…spread fear to justify why Canadians need them setting the priorities for the country as they become the ‘rightful ruling party.’ Clearly the message will be only the Conservatves and Sun Media shall lord it over the sixty percent of us who do not share their ideology. The truth is you and I can not be trusted to vote our best interests.
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glad to hear your solar array passed the “test” I was wondering how it made out. Very wind the other night.
As for the incident on parliament hill.
Total agreement. A lone lunatic seeking his “15 minutes of fame” . Marshall McLuan’s prediction. For all the wrong reasons.
And Harper will take full advantage of the situation to push his own agenda further. Its somewhat ironic since it was his party that pushed for the “long gun registry” to be scrapped. The rifle looked like an old lever action antique. a la hollywood western type firearm.
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That actually raises a good question. The gun in the picture DID look like an old lever-action carbine. But the witnesses said he was carrying a double barreled shotgun and the ‘shot’ that was distinct in the audio recording sounded like a shotgun – just one shot – followed up with a fusillade from Security. But, if he shot a soldier and then ran to the House and was chased, he likely only had the ONE shot left and that was fired inside. He was likely carrying an empty gun when he was killed. At best, he could only have two. And how is it that the police have a picture of a guy wearing a mask with a smoking gun? That must be an old picture.
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Yeah, I wonder if that was an old picture. Mind you, that being said. The more modern lever action rifles are .30-30 calibre.
The old style lever action was a .45-70 (where the term ‘ounce of lead” originated) and when one of those is fired….it sounds like a cannon.
Some new lever action rifles in the old calibre 45-70 were manufactured a few years back by Marlin I believe but they are more of a curiosity and a collectable than a hunting rifle. Not very accurate compared to todays technology but when Henry sold them in the 1860’s to the Union troops during the civil war. The Confederate troops nicknamed them the “hellfire rifles” because they were a quantum leap from the single shot firearms being used up to that time. Nothing like a war to spur innovation.
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I just dread ANOTHER $1 billion dollars squandered by another computerized gun registry that wont work.
All because of one nut with a deathwish. He would have done the same thing with or without the “jihadi excuse” .
A loon is a loon. No matter what God he professes to pray to when justifing insane actions.
Lock them up. Forever.
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It is instructive that the RCMP wanted to keep the long gun registry. How many mounties gunned down recently by long guns? It’s true that the registry did not work for Conservatives but somehow the hand gun registry is fully functional. I’m tired of sops for voters and Conservative spin.
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