Happy New Year everyone.
2016 has been a pretty shitty year for everyone. Including in my personal life, as both of my remaining grandparents both passed away within two weeks of each other. It therefore goes without saying that I hope 2017 is better.
Late last night, there was an earthquake here in BC. This morning, everybody at work was talking about it.
Per news reports, the epicentre was off the coast of Saanich, on the Island.
As for what I felt, it woke me up. I heard a rumbling noise, and there was light shaking for about several seconds.
I broke down and finally got a tablet.
Frankly, yesterday I discovered that some people who cut tree branches away from power lines are total idiots. There is a big maple tree in my parents’ backyard. It is about 4 metres away from the fence. Today, BC Hydro cutters came by and mutilated it. It looks like they cut the branches too short. The stem was 4 metres away. It used to offer luscious shade, and now you can see through the canopy and into the neighbours’ windows in the distance.
Now the tree is unbalanced. Considering that their yard floods in winter, it might not take much of a gust of wind for the tree to topple over.
And this was a special tree for my parents. They got it as a seedling and now this maple is over 30 years old. It takes time for a tree to get as elegant as this.
And in addition me and my mother basically got the runaround from BC Hydro when we phoned to complain. They still haven’t returned our call.
My being rear–ended resulted in more than $6000 of damage. Since it was not a new car, this edges the accident into total loss territory. As a consequence, ICBC has decided to write off my vehicle. However, the claim hasn’t been settled yet.
And yes, I do have whiplash.
On Thursday, I was in a car accident and was rear–ended by an SUV while making a turn. My car’s rear end got bashed in with a taillight broken, and other damage.
This ought to be an example of why goddamn SUV’s are evil. They are much higher up, which means their points of impact with regular cars will be higher up, therefore causing more damage. Being higher up also makes them more likely to roll over. SUV’s greater mass also means a bigger force at impact, all else equal. In addition, since they are so big, they make you feel safe. A smaller vehicle makes you more likely to drive safely because you don’t feel safe and therefore must take more safe actions. SUV’s are also huge wastes of energy and are very inefficient with fuel.
In case you’re wondering, my neck hurts a little (I don’t know if this is whiplash or not) but am otherwise okay.
With other people, spent all day collecting and packing several months’ worth of files.
Drove them to another location elsewhere in Metro Vancouver.
We took the files up several flights of stairs, and organized them in that building.
We’re not finished yet.
The Words on What... 