Anybody Who Owns His Own Car Deserves It

Alan King wrote a book in the early sixties titled “Anybody Who Owns His Own Home Deserves It”. In the book, which is ripe with sarcasm, Alan proceeds to tell the reader of all of the joys (and expenses) he has encountered since he has become a home owner. Well in slightly over a year I had several pitfalls that are starting to make me question the whole car ownership concept.

Last summer coming home from the cottage we had an accident in which the family van was totaled, thankfully no-one was hurt. My son was driving and it was an at-fault accident so while we got some money from our insurance company, we didn’t get near enough to replace the van. For those of you that are concerned about the Insurance Company, there is no need; they have increased my rates so I am sure they will get their money back with interest.

Last fall when Tina and the girls were at the Mall the car was stolen. As the car is more than 12 years old the police assured us that in all likely-hood we would get the car back within a couple of weeks. They suspected that it was stolen by a bunch of kids out for a joyride. Almost exactly 2 weeks later the car was located a couple of miles from the house. It was indeed taken by some kids out for a joyride, when we got the car back it was full of used drug paraphernalia and fast food wrappers. After spending several hundred dollars to get the car fixed and the ignition replaced, the Parking Tickets and 407 tolls started rolling in.

Last winter the car took another hit as Cory slid the car into a Hydro pole. Once again we were lucky that no people were hurt, unfortunately the car wasn’t so lucky. With Cory’s track record it is a good thing that he is apprenticing to become an Auto-Body Mechanic. So off the car goes to his work so that he can work on it during his slow periods to try and save us a couple of bucks on repairs. After spending more than $1000 dollars to get the front end fixed up, we get the car back only to find that the transmission took a beating and is not performing properly.

Instead of spending another $1500 - $2000 to get the transmission fixed we chose to let it go and take our chances. So last week when we got the call from Cory saying that he was on the expressway and the car had broken down we fully expected the problem to be the transmission. We had the car towed to the garage, where we learned that it wasn’t the transmission, it was the engine. A 12 year old car with a blown engine and a bad transmission just isn’t worth fixing so off to the wreckers it went.

So now I am in the market for a new used car, which is always painful for me as I am not the type of person who gets excited by cars. I think of cars as expensive necessities that I would love to be able to live without. Maybe I should just forget the whole thing and get bicycles and bus passes for the whole family.

Also the next time you are at the bookstore keep an eye out for my brother’s new book titled “Anybody Who Owns His Own Boat Deserves It”.

From Korean Weddings to Niagra Falls

I know I have said before that I like digital photography. I like the fact that I can take as many pictures as I want without having to buy film or pay for development. The only drawback I have found so far is I tend to be taking a lot of pictures of the same things. When I first got the camera it was spring so I took pictures of the kids riding their bikes; now that summer is here, it’s the kids doing water sports. There are only so many pictures of the same thing that a person needs. Other popular photo subjects have been; boats, sunsets, landscapes, and cottages. I have decided to show a couple of the many pictures I have taken and tell the stories behind them.

This is a picture of Lucas and his new bride Sohyun on their wedding day. For the church service Lucas was in a tuxedo and Sohyun was wearing the standard white wedding dress. For the reception Lucas and Sohyun got changed into more traditional Korean garb. The service was a standard Presbyterian service that was preformed almost entirely in Korean. The only thing that I understood was when Lucas stated his vows in English, but the overall feel of the service felt familiar. It was at the reception that things started to get interesting.

The meal was buffet style and nothing was labeled, and as I don’t get out much I could not recognize anything. I am not afraid to try new foods and I think it is important to keep an open mind but I do have a seafood allergy so this kind of felt like playing a game of Russian Roulette. With a couple of lucky guesses and some good advice from friends I ended up making it through the meal without incident.

Shortly after dinner there were some announcements and karaoke, all of which was in Korean. There’s something about watching a group of about 25 middle-aged Korean women singing Karaoke. Towards the end of the reception they changed their clothes again and preformed another ceremony. I have no idea what it was about, and I haven’t had a chance to ask Lucas about it yet but it was interesting to watch none the less.

This picture of Niagra Falls was taken this spring when Cory’s hockey team went to the Alliance Cup in St. Catherines. Tina wanted to support Cory in his tournament and the girls have never really been on a family vacation to anywhere other than the cottage so we decided to combine them and do both. Cory got a room and hung out with his teammates in St. Catherines while Tina, the girls and I got a hotel room in Niagra Falls.

In between running back and forth to St. Catherines to watch the games we tried to do a few tourist type activities, but no matter what Tina and I wanted to do, all the girls wanted to do was return to the hotel and go swimming. The morning this picture was taken the weather was cold and overcast which made the girls want to get back to the hotel even more. This was just after I got my new camera so I wanted to stay until I got the perfect shot. Did I mention that I have a tendency to take allot of pictures of the same thing? I think I took more than 400 pictures that weekend. Cory’s team ended up getting second place in the tournament.

This is a picture of my niece that I took on Easter weekend. I don’t really have a story to go with this picture I just like the picture so I decided to post it.

A Little More Choke and You Would Have Started It...

The title for this Blog Entry is almost identical to a Blog entry made by Moloquin. His links are on the side if you are not easily offended I suggest you check it out, if you are easily offend stick with my family friendly blog. I read his blog entry a couple of times, and I still haven’t figured out what the title has to do with the actual content, but that is not unusual. Most of the time when I read his blog, I can’t figure out the relationship between the title and the content. I figure that either means there is no relationship, or his method of thinking is on a higher plane than mine, either way its fine with me.


That’s all fine and dandy, but why would I be using it now as a title for one of my Blog entries. There are a couple of reasons, the first is I wanted to say thank you. When I read the title to his entry I immediately thought back to when I was a kid and was visiting my grandfather’s farm. I could almost picture me sitting in his lap trying to start the John Deere Tractor that to me must have seemed like a big green monster. I would be working the choke and the ignition switch and he would be working the clutch and the brake, as my legs weren’t long enough to reach them. I can almost hear those very words rolling off his lips, “A Little More Choke And You Would Have Started It.”.

So Moloquin, thanks for the memory.

The other reason I am using it is, this Blog has definitely been stalled lately. I need to do something to get it started, let’s try applying a little choke and see if that works.