F O X Y !

OUR resident red fox has been around regularly lately.  We know it's the same female that has been here for several years.  She has a slight limp originating in her right rear leg.  Certainly not enough to handicap her, but it is noticeable when she trots.



Winter has been a mixed bag.  A lot more snow than our inaugural year, interspersed with rain and warm temperatures. 

She's been hunting rodents, sitting intently for long periods of time listening under the snow cover.  A quick pounce, and maybe a mouse or vole for a snack.  I've noticed her coming close to the house, setting off the motion activated lights.

There is some construction wood piled under our deck and given the cover and warmth from the house, it's a veritable condo complex for mice.  I am quite certain that in the wee hours, she is prowling right next to the house.



Tomorrow I am going to (finally) take the sled for a ride.  I serviced the Polaris upon my return from Phoenix, but for one reason or other have not had a decent opportunity to use her.  There has been ample opportunity though to use the Cadet and the Big Bear.  It seems every couple of days there is a fresh batch of snow.

D I G I T A L

IT took a very long time for me to give up my SLR 35mm film camera, but yes, I too finally entered the digital age some 15 years ago.  In fact, I still have my very first digital camera... and, it still works.  It's a Logitech, right around .003 megapixel or some such thing, stores 80 images and about 5 seconds of video.

During the good old days (?) you took along 10 rolls of film for your Brownie/110/disc camera/35mm and were very fearful of 'wasting' even one shot.  There were days I'd be traveling, riding my bike or driving or flying and realizing that I'd left the exposed roll of film behind on a rock which I threw into the stream a moment before... or that somehow it was exposed and therefore useless and wasted. 

Okay, I'm jesting, but what it did for me was free me up to point and shoot everything.  I took pictures of mountains, lakes, streams, rocks in streams, minnows under rocks in streams, people throwing rocks at minnows under rocks in streams, people walking in streams to retrieve the rock they just threw realizing at the last nano second that they were certain it had flecks of gold in it.

By the time I'd purchased my Pentax Auto 110 Mini SLR camera, I was used to using a tri-pod or varied lenses to perfect the shot I was looking for.  When I got my first manual 35 SLR, I had (almost) learned patience to get the aperture right or the shutter speed so I could take better photos.  It was time consuming, tricky and occasionally I'd return from Baja or some other place only to realize that, for one reason or other, many of the photos I'd painstakingly taken, were toast.

I have hundreds and hundreds of photos both in and out of albums and my current computer library holds upwards of twenty five thousand images.  That's 25,000 plus!

 Once I'd converted reluctantly to digital, you could shoot everything, a number of times from different angles, in different conditions and you had a reasonably good chance of getting a handful of good photos with the occasional great pic.

Now I'm still nothing more than an amateur photographer, but I have to admit, as they rotate on my screen saver or when I take the time to go through a folder... there are many photos that I look at and say to myself, "that is a great photo."

During the writing of this blog I try to convey a particular point with words but especially with photos.

I have no favorites as such, sometimes there may be a poignant moment with a face or an emotion, or it could be a mountain with an ice cap (not from Tim's) set against a sky blue sky.  Sometimes it's a memory of where I was or how I was feeling when I depressed the button.

After all... a picture is worth a thousand words... right.

Winter.

The season us Canadian motorcyclists attend motorcycle shows (Moncton N.B.) make plans for the new year, go through photographs from the last, and read mags.



Can't do much else during the cold months...

For myself, I have been working on the final large indoor project for the house.  A massive 16x8 foot wall length book case and display stand.  About the only thing left in boxes are some of the huge collection of books I had in Calgary.  Only about half survived the Stalin like "purge" where my entire collection of National Geographics, decades of various moto mags including vintage copies of Cycle, Cycle Guide, Motorcyclist, MXA, and others, encyclopedias, and many more succumbed to the need to pare down the goods for transport.  Had I known ahead of time how things were going to turn out, I would have left some of this stuff behind and made two trips!  As it happened I did the equivalent of that and more and the cost incurred would have easily covered both.

Such is life right...



The winter has been a mixed bag on the Island, as it has for much of North America.  There has been lots of early snowfall, cold temperatures, thaws and high winds.  That has kept me clearing snow, servicing equipment and shoveling.

On top of that I have about a dozen batteries I charge routinely and soon I'll be working on some needed mechanical's for a couple of the bikes.



The VX needs head bearings, the TY a seal replaced, XT's a couple of tires, and maybe I'll even manage a ride on the Polaris.


For 2014, I should have more spare time to enjoy riding and friends.  My plans include at least a couple of street rides off Island and I'm especially looking forward to exploring some back roads and trails on my XT 600 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.



You'll see lots of photos of luggage laden riding this coming year. 

In addition, I am thinking of using my shaft driven Suzuki VX800 for a cross country ride in 2015.  It would be the fortieth anniversary of my BMW ride on another twin in the other direction.

Living room bookcase, Passport display.

The difference being, I would not be restricted to a work imposed time frame, and I could make stops in Yorkton for a visit with Ed, family in Edmonton area, the Yellowhead to Kamloops for a stay at Ronnie's... and on the return, a side trip to Penticton and Golden to see Dan the Man and finally, a stop over in Calgary to touch base with old friends.

After two years it will be appropriate.



Of course I have my younger daughter's wedding this year in Naramata, and however brief, a stop-over in Cow town. 

In the meantime, we're heading to Moncton N.B. along with several other couples, the girls can do some shopping in the big city and us guys can attend the show.

On the Cabot Trail

One of my favorite

 

cartoon quotes, was an illustration of an older gentleman sitting across an imposing large desk, facing an equally large imposing financial adviser.  The caption below read;

"Well Mr. Jones... tell me what your financial goals are?"

Mr. Jones replies meekly.

"I'd like to make it to Friday..." 

Ain't it the truth.  The answer I thought was hilarious, but ironically painted with a great deal of truth.

This isn't my usual, lost in the desert blog, this is more (or less) serious.  Depending on your p.o.v.

In a phone conversation with my older daughter last night, who has just landed a job with a well known firm after four years of study, she asked me how we are managing to live without a "paycheck"  It's a question several of my long time friends and even some new acquaintances have asked.  Some people are cheeky while others are direct.

As an independent adviser for many years, one that did not work for a bank or insurance company or other proprietary firm (how can those guys be ethical when their very paycheck depends on selling their product?) I found that the majority of people I dealt with had little to no understanding of how things worked.  Even the concept of 'saving' eluded many.  In fact I read the other day in the Globe that many still think an RRSP is an actual product!  They still haven't twigged into realizing it's just a container!

Take for example a young guy like me, I wanted to be in the motorcycle business since my teens.  I loved motorcycles but also understood that a business could give me a great deal of freedom from a typical job and had at least a chance of providing a retirement.  I also realized fairly early that relying on an institution (ie the government) to do my thinking for me, was not necessarily the best option.

In order to have any chance of success (provided you aren't born into a Rockefeller family) you had to have a vision of life in your later years, and what that would look like.  Easy... right!  Think again.  Who really spends more than a single nanosecond Saturday night, while partying, contemplating what life will look like fifty years later.

You can rely on your bank, they're trustworthy right?  After all it's the bank... maybe some financial adviser working there... maybe your insurance agent, they always have your future foremost in their minds.  Perhaps someone you know, knows some one.  You can do it yourself, pick stocks, research mutual funds, buy rental property, play the ponies, a weekend in Vegas? 

Then of course there are thousands of variables.  A million things could change.  The economy, war, famine, oil prices, your health... and it doesn't even have to be in your backyard!  You could get married, or divorced.  You may get downsized, your pension could be lost.  You may have trouble saving or if you did, it may get lost to inflation, or your  adviser could steal your money in some ponzi scheme.

Where am I going with this you may ask?

Simply that we have one life to live, live it as true to who you are as you can.  Trust some people but most of all trust yourself.  If you get some of it right (or you have a silver spoon in  your gums) you have a reasonable chance to do good enough.  Is good enough okay?  Well you be the judge of that. 

Getting back to the start of this blog, we don't know the future.  Hell we could all disappear when the Yellowstone super volcano blows, or the asteroid hits.  You may be in a 10x10 nuclear bomb shelter and emerge  unscathed (would you really want to?) to a scene from Mad Max. The bottom line is; it's still a crap shoot.

I've stopped giving financial advice three years ago, well officially anyway.  In the years I was at it,  some listened some of the time, others were like a drain, it went right down the tube.  The key is simple.  First pick a target... liken it to an archery board with circles painted on it in different colors.  You have two maybe three arrows in your quiver.  Aim for the center.  You can screw up once or maybe even twice, but shoot the dam thing. If you do absolutely nothing, only you are to blame.  If you even get on the target, you have a chance.

Failing that... you can keep on working forever until your health gives way.  Or until they turf you as they did to my Chicago cousin Mike after thirty years, with no pension and no warning.

Will it be easy?  Nope.  You may have a good head on your shoulders, you may have an uncle or Dad that you can count on, but in the end, like I say, it's still pretty much  a toss of the dice.

Us, we have some savings and we have parlayed some of it into various mutual funds, cash and a rental property.  Hopefully that will be good enough.