View from the porch this morning...

It's going to be a nice day, after an overcast evening yesterday, and a sudden violent wind-storm between ten and eleven-thirty last night. Standing at my north window, looking toward the upper streets of British Properties, suddenly there was a brilliant, bright-blue flashover very near or possibly right at our Glenmore Substation, near the merging of Millstream and Crestline Roads in the eastern (Glenmore) section of "Ye Olde Snob Hill". 

I'm familiar with the neighborhood, because I used to service that substation in my younger days. Rich kids from that neighborhood used to party on our lawn there, because it was secluded by reason of surrounding trees and hedges. And I had to clean up after them the next day. I didn't really "have to" because we had a crew for that, but rather than call them out, I'd do it myself. And one day as I was making my usual inspection of the place, a very nice lady who lived down a very steep driveway right next to ours came over to chat for a minute. She asked, "Could you possibly do anything about these kids that love to party on your lawn late at nights? They drink and get loud, and they bring sound systems that rival ours in the house." 

I said, "Ma'am, I'll immediately mention this to my boss, and I'm very glad you have mentioned this, because a customer's complaint carries a lot more weight with my supervisors than anything that I can say to them. So while we're having this little chat, what can you suggest as a cure? What would you like to see done here? She smiled, and said, "Well, obviously, put a gate right out by the street here, so they can't drive their cars into your place behind the trees." And I said, "Exactly my thinking too. And believe me, I'm not enjoying cleaning up those whiskey bottles and other unmentionables any more than you are listening to those who leave them here, so you'll definitely get your gate, I promise!"

Two weeks later, after I'd told my boss this story, and he'd said, "You know what's needed there, so go ahead and take care of it" and I'd got what I needed from our shops across town, and was up there one hot sunny day, pouring the ready-mix to mount the gate-posts, that same lady drove up, returning from shopping downtown, and before she turned down into her own drive, she called to me, asking "How would you like a nice ice-cold Heineken about now?" And I replied, "That would probably save the life of a guy like me, dying of thirst!" And she said, "I'll send my boy right back with one!" I loved every drop of it. And that's how Glenmore Substation got its front gate.

This is one of our local "alarm clocks" and part of my personal Air Force. These guys go through about two loaves of bread every morning during the winters. In summers, I usually let them forage for themselves. But they keep reminding me that they know where the goodies come from.

And here's a couple of cruise ships heading into the inner harbor to tie up at 6:00 A.M., so their passengers will be in downtown Vancouver before breakfast. That's the hills of Vancouver Island in the background.