I give you the Calgary story.
Insert Star wars opening theme song here...
Click the link to play Star wars Thanks Carolynn
Insert Star wars opening theme song here...
Click the link to play Star wars Thanks Carolynn
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| I stole this from the Calgary website, There are a few new buildings in the skyline now that were not there when I left. |
Calgary started with us working the Stampede. We had a few pennies in our jeans, but still no place to call home. Somehow we ended up in the mountains. Then things went really bad. We tried to solicit help from someone on the mountain, they ended up bringing the rangers to our door, (the truck was torn apart as we were working on the head gasket.) The lovely Rangers then arrested me on a bogus old traffic warrant and had me locked up for 45 days. The truck had Johns camper, most of our personal belongings and was the only way that I could tow the camper trailer. They left John and Marianne plus our Mokie dog and Mitza cat, on the mountain without transportation, and without a working stove or fridge, (yea the kitchen was in John's camper too.) We were broke because we gave our last $500 to the person who brought this all down on us because we were trying to buy a car that we could get licensed in Alberta.
When I got out Marianne was a complete basket case. John was so stressed out he couldn't think and the government had sold my truck Johns camper and most of our possessions for the grand total of 16 dollars! The truck was supposed to be impounded until I was released and could have it returned to Calgary where it would be re insured and relicensed. The kicker came when I tried to renew my drivers license and they said I needed another $300 to pay for impound fees.
Someday, I hope that I am not called to help the ranger that did all this, because I will have to show him the same kindness he showed me. There were options, that he could have allowed to happen, that would not have endangered anyones life. Try as I may to let this go over to God, this wound is too deep. Somewhere I HAVE to see some justice!
Oh, one other thing, If you bought a '73 red GMC one ton flat deck with a 15 foot camper on the back at an auction in Alberta that was full of stuff had the hood removed and the heads opened up and a brand new gasket kit sitting in the front seat, for $16.00, I want my stuff back! Please E mail me and we will talk. Some of the things you aquired from us are completely irreplaceable.
Also, there is a fallacy that if you are jailed for over a month and have no job or income, social assistance will help you, if you provide a letter of incarceration. HA! They wouldn't help a starving man find crumbs if they were sitting at a full buffet! There is a place reserved in hell for government bureaucrats who have the people skills of a back end of a donkey! It is right next to the place reserved for politicians and lawyers! .....
Ok coffee time again c[_]
We spent about 3 months living in the basement of a party girl's house. (None of us like to party and this did not go well.) We found the house that we would eventually call home for the next 5 years. It took some working, but we finally saved enough to pay for the place and get moved in.
OASIS MOBILE HOME PARK
Things Slowly turned around for us. The house we now had was lived in by a 3 pack a day smoker and her "friends". The walls and ceiling were so saturated with nicotine that even when we moved out on any original walls it would STILL leach through the paint. The ceiling was washed thoroughly every other month. It still shows brown after a few weeks YUCK and people put this garbage into their bodies willingly! It is no wonder that they have health problems.
We tore out the carpets, and SCRUBBED every inch of the house over several times. Marianne got a new floor in the front living room made from 'peel and stick' floor tiles. (my first flooring job)
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| Marianne called this her "dance floor" I loved making it and was quite proud of the job done. Even though the tiles would bubble in the summer and shrink in the winter. |
The first big thing that needed attention was the furnace, and central air system. Marianne called the guys in. Bp propane dropped off a full 500lb pig (propane bottle) and the furnace cleaners showed up to service the system. We warned them about the nicotine in the duct lines and informed them to bring solvents to clean it with, as just a quick vacuum would not do. The guy came and inspected the system. "Cracked heat exchanger" was the prognosis. NEW furnace was now in order because to turn on this one would result in 2 or 3 things happening; we would get carbon monoxide and or propane build up in the house and we would eventually get a furnace fire. I took a closer look at the thing and it was an old oil burner furnace that had a propane burner installed into the original heat exchanger. For those who do not know Oil burns colder than propane by a 'few' degrees. The lining was never designed to take the heat that a propane burner puts out. It had burned through in a few places and was on the verge of total failure. We canceled the duct cleaning for now.
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| Art Plugging the ducts and rebuilding the floor where the furnace was so we didn't have cold air blowing throughout the whole house again. |
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| Out with the old furnace. |
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| Testing to see if it works, and planning where to put it. |
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| Put it here but then we need a place for the pots and pans that were here. The solution came when I built the island for the wood stove. |
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| Counter is built and walls are repaired Window is filled in, drywall is on, Plug moved over 4 inches. Concrete backer board is on walls and floor ready to tile! |
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| Floor tiles went down first for the test fit. |
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| Marianne putting the tiles on the wall, I was cutting them in the kitchen |
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| First wall up |
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| Getting the adhesive on the second wall |
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| Second wall done The hole was for the insert to provide fresh air intake for the woodstove |
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| Grout time Floor is black and the walls were a dark blue |
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| All fired up and making heat for us! (picture was taken at a later date) |
I settled down into a regular routine of work and work at home. Marianne and John took care of many of the issues we had keeping the house in order, but I remember seeing her 'working' on the computer more often than not. She did make a few attempts to get sober and even went to AA for a while. She also attempted to resolve her old Mary Kay business and to get a few contacts with friends from her past. We were struggling, but surviving, and slowly getting caught up on the bills.
Mokie.
Mokie was Marianne's dog from when she lived in Saskatoon. When we got her back from Marianne's ex, Mokie had not seen a haircut in almost a year. She was one of those dogs who needed regular grooming, haircuts were not uncommon for her. When we had arrived here the first time, Mokie looked like a shaggy ball of knots with a pair of eyes and a little nose. Marianne's mom let me take her into the spare bathroom where I spent almost two hours giving Mokie a haircut. I did not get her belly finished, as that was a 2 person job and Mokie did not trust me enough at the time to lay on her back while I trimmed. So we ended up with a mostly hairless tiny dog with a fuzzy belly that rubbed on the floor when she walked. At least I didn't worry that she was going to over heat or something.
After we got moved and the summer of trials was over, Mokie adopted me as her newest best friend. Once we got settled in the house it became fairly clear that I was Mokie's human and that was it. She used to come to my lap for love all the time and when something was wrong it was me she would come to first.
Mokie developed an odd bleed in her intestines, we took her into the vet he checked her out and gave me some nice expensive pills and he gave her a needle that "should clear that up".
I spent the majority of the night holding Mokie and keeping her comfortable, She dozed off and I finally went to bed at about 2:30 am. Sometime after that I heard Mokie start fussing, I reached out of bed and gave her some rubs and let her know I was right there. I fell back asleep and woke up when Mokie died. I heard her fuss and gasp then with a small wheeze she passed. Marianne heard the noise and asked what the noise was and I could barely answer her that it was Mokie dieing, Marianne fell back asleep and I spent the remainder of the night mourning. My Mokie was gone. The next day we took Mokie to the SPCA for burial as it was all we could afford to do. When we took the pills back, the vet bellyached that we should have brought her in for an autopsy, and I said something along the lines of I was refraining from sending him to the dentist to have his teeth reinserted. That ended the bellyaching and we got the money back for the pills.
Someday here I will be building my memorial garden and the memory of Mokie will be placed there, along with others.
Mary.
Mary was John's sister. She moved from Toronto to move in with us, She brought along 2 old Greyhounds. In case you do not know they are dogs bread for racing, they are BIG DOGS! Mary had been beset with depression her whole life. It cost her, her son, and former husband. When she moved in with us it was so that we could help her get herself together, and so her and John could find there own place. That at least was the plan. Mary and Marianne had a few small spats. Never anything that couldn't be worked out with some hugs and a few tears. Her two dogs Willow and Cruiser. Willow was the older of the two greyhounds She had allot of love, but was a bit of a handful. The first day she got away on us and ran around the trailer court. The driveway was a oval so for her it was a fun sprinting track. I grabbed John's mountain bike and took off after her. I came around the corner calling her name and pedaling as fast as I could hot on her heals. She stopped cold and looked at me as if to say "what? I didn't do anything"
I planted the binders on the bike and found myself laying on the asphalt. I think I cracked a few ribs cause when I could breath again she came over and was nuzzling my face, kind of a "I'm sorry silly human" gesture. Cruiser on the other had was a couple of years old and built like a small horse with the energy to match. Before I had a chance to get him out for a walk he peed on the hallway floor. No big deal about 2 cups of dog pee. I have a mop and hot water, soap and some elbow grease and it was all but a memory. Except the dog pee destroyed the glue on the peel and stick floors that we had in the hallway and 4 tiles would never stick right again. We eventually had 4 black tiles in the middle of our TAN hallway floor. The mark of Cruiser never left the house.
At the time I was riding the bus back and forth to work. I would get home and be exhausted, Settle any family disturbances and get on with our day. Collapse into bed and at 430 am start all over again. It was on one of those days when my supervisor Darren got the phone call from the cops. I was working he came up to the room I was tearing apart and told me Mary was dead. My first question was "How is Marianne?" she was a basket case he handed me the phone and I talked to her. I then told Darren I needed to take the rest of the day off. He did the only decent thing I ever saw him do, he gave me a ride home. He was a shmuck most of the time but every now and then he showed a human side.
I got home and Marianne was in hysterics. The EMS guy had just left and the cops were waiting for me to come in and take over. I had a 2 minute rundown and the rest of the day was spent with Marianne. At one point John came home. He phoned his other sister, the one till then I never knew about. She was so self centered, all she could say is how is this affecting me? She never even showed for the funeral.
We were piss poor broke, Marianne was drinking her way through about 20 to 30 dollars a day. We could barely afford to have Mary cremated. It gives you a understanding of how little we actually are when you get a box 3 inches by 6 inches by 10 inches from the funeral home with a seal on it and a number tag.
Enter Regina. I do not know how it happened but Marianne and John got in contact with someone from the greyhound society who was upset that Mary was dead. They were actually good friends. They couldn't afford it but they agreed to take the dogs to their farm where the dogs had room to run. Greyhounds do not live long and Willow was already over 8 years old. I understand that she didn't live past 10. Mary's ashes were scattered along a river bank by John. Everyone left before I could say any prayer for her. I always felt that it was left undone. I did pray later and got some comfort from it. But I felt that it was too late. Next time I feel the NEED to pray for someone to hell with everyone else I am taking the time to pray, with or without them.
Sigh
Marianne did eventually get into counseling and we repainted the bedroom. Over time things got back to 'normal'.
Unit 36
The park seized a unit from the estate of another person who just quit living. Unit 36. Apparently this guy died in his easy chair watching the idiot box. his house had garbage piled shoulder deep. The plumbing was not working so I can only imagine what he was doing.... Well lets say it was repulsive. They pulled 3 or 4 40 yard roll up bins of garbage out of the house. The trailer itself was not all that big and I cannot imagine how he had more than 2 in there.
The park sold it to us for $5000 They had to make up the back rent and the cleanup costs. I began demo on the unit with the hope of turning it into a usable place. I had planned to resell it for about 10 to 15 grand. Instead it became a drop zone for stuff and an extra unit that I was paying lot fees for. I also made a part of it into a studio for Marianne to set up her sewing in. Part of it was my workshop but nothing was insulated or finished so it was just a 36 foot long shed.
Procrastination and lack of time and money kept that one from becoming anything more then that. Unit 36 eventually moved to become one with our house, But more on that later.
Lois
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| Lois, Or as Marianne called her, Luigi! |
Lois is a very unusual person. I first met her while working on Sonshine Women's shelter. She was sweeping, which is the first job you do in construction no matter what. What struck me was that she had a sweep style broom and was using it as a push type. Push brooms you push dirt along in front of a wide broom and sweep are usually narrow and you usually pull dirt in towards yourself. Neither one works well when used like the other. I figured her for just another dumb temp and got her working on some other cleanup while I got caught up on the sweeping.
We got talking and she actually worked for us, she made some claims that were extravagant, and unusual. But not totally unprovable. I figured she needed to have association issues to make her feel better. I have never challenged her on some of the claims because it just doesn't matter to me. I do not care who you know, I only care what you can do. She was a good consistent worker, but her skill set was unimpressive. She understands what she does and appears to know more but I think that because she was never given a opportunity to practice those skills she never became proficient at them.
What I liked about her was she reminded me allot of Marianne, I felt they would be good together. I invited her for dinner and we got introduced. In the time that followed Lois had issues with her roommates, and needed to move out. We let her move into what was Mary's room. The room got a repaint, we made it feel nicer and a couple of loads later she was moved in. I think this was about the time the white truck died completely on me and I bought the blue one.
Marianne and her unfortunately were too much alike, as friends they remain so even today, but I don't think putting them as roommates ever again would be a good idea! Lois quit her job with Reed and went on to other things, she did find her own place and has a multitude of stories about that one. We had discussed buying it and fixing it up so when she did it was looking like a good thing.
Eventually, as it appears things do for all of us, everything went sour for her in Calgary, she let the park take her place because she couldn't pay the lot fees for about 3 months. She then moved home, back to Toronto. She couldn't take her cat so we adopted him. It was this time we became the proud parents of the Midnight Care bear.
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| One of the first few pictures I have found of Midnight, It was taken with a phone/camera hence the poor quality. |
Lois returned for our wedding, but only just long enough to be there. She does make a mean cheesecake!
June 21 09
Marianne and I finally made it official. We got the papers all done up had a grand ceremony and it was official. Unofficially her and I were married for about 3 years by now. At least according to my understanding of marriage as it was in the bible.
We had a nice little wedding planned. I took her to Heritage park. She fell in love with the place, (date tip guys: women always seem to love looking at old buildings, I don't know why but they do) We decided that it would be fun to have the ceremony there. Sort of a Scarlett O'Hara VS Grizzly Adams kind of thing, She went nuts making time piece costumes for herself. John and I got a couple of tunics and were unable to get the leather coats with fringes that I wanted but oh well.
Martha introduce us to Pastor Gord, from the airport church. He did the ceremony el'gratus or for whatever we could afford... which was nothing. We invited over 200 people had less than half that say they would come, and ended up with under 30 We paid for a buffet to feed 50. I was somewhat depressed, but it was too late. I told the wait staff to help themselves as we apparently had extra. No one danced, except us, we forgot music except for a couple of cds that Marianne had for the wedding march and that sort of junk. Pastor Gord forgot to read some of my lines and missed reading the passage that I wanted. Everyone had a load of fun, we were married offically and that was it.
The Photo shoot was the most fun I had all day, as we got to play with the costumes and the girls at the photographer had a blast. People have to remember with me I don't worry about small details at times like this, 'cause life sucks enough without having to worry yourself to death about it. By the end of the day Marianne was so exhausted that she could barely keep awake for the drive home.
The merger, and our dream house number one.
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| Original drawings made using sierra architect program that 'works' Program is a bargain basement special. it works like one too. |
If you scroll all the way back up you will find the story of unit 36. After we got married John moved back to Toronto, (he had been feeling the call to go back for a while). I guess he felt we didn't need a chaperone any more. We had now the opportunity in front of us to do some things that we had not even considered. I pulled out the measuring tape and laid out some sketches, we got approval to move 36 over beside 33 and make them one with each other.
It opened up some money by no longer paying the lot fees on the second place but somehow we were still always behind the 8 ball financially.
Before the wedding Marianne had managed to get back in touch with her folks, and we had looked at the possibility of buying the place here in Manitoba. The thought was to find out the costs, get a loan and move the houses there before we got all carried away with building them. If we had done it that way I estimate we could have been moved and paid for, with a now very nice house for under 150K I could have kept working at Reed for another year, and when we had paid for the property and saved enough to move we would have just moved the houses. By this time I would be in a position of having a very nice home here.
They didn't answer us so we started on building the dream house in Calgary instead.
We did eventually get an answer but it was too late. Marianne's Mom pushed for a move in date. So we talked about it and it was decided to try for April. Deadlines are never a good thing with me. Had I been given a chance I would have said 'as soon as I get the paperwork'. If they had sent me the intent to sell, I could have taken that to the bank. Along with our equity and my income and we could have set up a loan for the place and the moving of unit 36.
NO ONE LISTENS TO ART! She never sent us the intent to sell paperwork, we continued fixing up the place and decided to sell it there in Calgary before we moved.
I ended my job with Reed in April as we had planned, (Bad move again). I needed another 3 or 4 months to finish the house to a point of having it ready to sell. But it was too late. The crunch time came on hard. I put in back to back 20 hour days until I was almost lame.
We somehow got packed and ready to move in the middle of it all. Then we finally bit the bullet and got the realtor over. The first guy said NO WAY. Finish the house and then we would talk. The second was a tad bit more helpful but not by much. He agreed to take the place and sell it for us.
MOVING and The first month here.
This was the journal entry I made for the first month after we arrived. Things only went down hill from there.
But this is how it all began.
April Month One
The month of problems:
First was the truck, packing and loading. We wanted a smaller 18' truck but they had none. We got a monster 26' truck instead. It took 2 days to load. Many thanks to Don, Martha & Jessica for helping when they could.
Second: The realtor, Wally, bailed on us. We got lucky with Martha to the rescue again. She got us in contact with PJ. He said he would sell the place. Let's hope that he can sell it soon.
Third: The camper had not been paid for 3 months. They had the checks but forgot to cash them (due to a clerical error on their part). Marianne was able to sweet talk the guy into letting us take the camper and he would cash the checks over the next couple of months.
We loaded the cats into the camper and got it working, kinda. Mickey Mouse strikes again. This is all just flippen' Goofy!
The camper almost made it all the way. It wound up that each time we stopped for gas I had to screw pieces back together again. We got here with it all wrapped up with tie straps.
It was also cause of the only time we got stopped by a cop. We stopped for a nap and got going again. At our turn off, we had the local volunteer fire department decide to get a call. I was distracted by that and didn't realize that I needed to turn there. I went about a half a click down a bunny trail in the middle of the night before I found a place to do an “Austin Powers turn”. I found the road I wanted and again passed a cop on patrol. He pulled us over. The trailer lights came uncoupled. We chatted, he checked my load, I plugged the lights in again and we were off. Marianne was almost in hysterics when we got stopped.
Fourth: We forgot to include the costs of gas into the drive, all 24 hours straight of it. I was exhausted, tired, grumpy, irritable and worn out when we finally arrived.
The first thing we said when we pulled into the yard was “Oh My GOD!” The place looked like a DUMP!! Marianne was ready to turn around and go home.
The next shock came when Marianne went into the camper to find the cats. I hear this ear-splitting howl “NOOO NOT THE BEAR!” My entire world stopped and I tore the camper apart. It turned out that she saw the reflection off a speaker and it looked like Midnight's eyes. Both cats were alive and well, hiding between the mattress and the wall.
Fifth: UNPACKING! Well simple math, two days to load and then two days to unload. Also we made a trip to Balmoral to visit Marianne's folks. We loaded some more stuff on and found a closer place to deliver the truck. Marianne did some fancy chatting withe the Budget people and they were able to redirect our drop-off. Made it easier for all involved. We finished the unload and got the truck back, now with the oil light on. Keep the gas at about half and pray right. We were 1 day late and well over mile limit. We got to the drop, and about half an hour of the clerk making phone calls, and arguing with her computer, which wanted to charge us almost $300 more, she took the truck with only the 1 day late charge because of ... the oil light and the fact that I put in 3 ltrs of oil in. Best investment in oil I ever made. I guess someone was watching out for us or something.
Sixth: Getting settled. Clean up, clean the yard, clean the house, rip out the old carpeting, bleach the floors excetera ad infinium. My best friend became the burn barrel. For about a total of 10 days I burned garbage all day. I still have about a dozen piles of garbage to deal with. Marianne attacked the house work and unpacking with fervor, driven by a need to find a single piece of paper for the realtor. After many short temper snaps we found it, THANK GOD!
Seven: LACK of maintance. I was almost unwilling to move because I needed another 2 weeks of work to finish the place in Calgary. This place has not seen ANY maintence since we were here 6 years ago. The septic tank is FULL (no pictures please). The floor is sinking in almost half the place. Every window is cracked. The out buildings are either full of junk or falling in. And anything not already damaged has been shot, litteraly! There is bullet holes in the 2 vans that I was expecting to be able to rebuild one of. The chicken coop has bullets through the windows. The burn barrel looks like swiss cheese. The yard is covered in dog poop and cat food cans. I counted 6 places, possibly more, where vehicles were parked so long that it killed the grass under them. There are sucker trees poking up everywhere.
The lawn tractor that I was hoping to use to catch up on the yard work is in rough shape. The blades were worn out nubs, 1 wheel was off, the seat was rusted through and falling off, one wheel is cracked and splitting and the battery cover is missing. Fortunately there are no bullet holes in it!
Eighth: PESTS! Ants were the first. While cleaning the house we were innondated with ants. Second were spiders everywhere. In the cupoards, behind the bathtub (another maintance issue), crawling accross everything. Third were maggots! About 2 inche long mealworm maggots, almost made me PUKE! Then came the ticks! First tick was found in the bath water within the first few days, since then I cannot go outside without encountering them. The WORST was one morning at 3am I felt one crawling on my neck IN MY BED! Ok total shakedown of the bedding and 2 more were accounted for. Not much more sleep for me that night. In addition to the ticks were FLEES. You are already on edge trying to be aware of everything crawling on you, (ticks, spiders and ants) you keep all wrapped up and tucked in at all times and still feel stuff crawling on you. Back to cleaning YUCK!
But the bugs were not all the fun. There were also mice, (which I caught 3) a shrew ( the cats got that one) and Skunks! I had to get a trap from fish and wildlife. I ended up catching 2 in 2 days, but for another week I haven't caught another, but someone else got one out on the roadway (Phew smelly). Also was one squirrel who is making the sheds his home. The pellet gun got that one (1 shot, 1 kill. I must be getting better)! Burn barrel became a kritter-creamatorium.
A few prayers later and we got BIRDS (krackles?) dozens of them on the yard eating TICKS and spiders and ants! Probably also caterillars, moths and the other bugs that I have found everywhere out here. Ok I really have to admit that I still miss the city, at least it was easier to keep bugfree there!
On the other side, Marianne found a Mary Kay group, if you could call it that. Her first meeting was a 'foot-spa'. The girls were dressed in sweats and slacks. One brought a six-pack (I guess it means beer not having a male with rippling stomach muscles). She did meet the local director and got a ride home in her PINK CADDILAC so she was pumped. I took her to Winnipeg for a pole dancing visit with her. Marianne brought chocolates. We got them at the mall. Someone forgot to tell me that they were for the party.
I finally got to get a small start on the garden. I replanted about a dozen or so sucker rose plants. Marianne's folks brought me some ruhbarb and tulips, already in full leaf so it may not live this year very well. They also brought me house plants to kill. I guess they don't know about my “green thumb”. When it comes to indoor plants, Art could kill plastic plants.
Oh well May will be a busy month!
Epilogue
The house in Calgary we listed on Kijji, the realtor was never any help. I could not even see the pictures he had for the MLS site for it. We made an agreement to sell it to Marianne's cousin Sam. The deal was Sam pay the lot fees and finish the renovations and after one year she starts paying us for the house. Sam went back on the deal in December. She left us with a nasty note from the park unpaid bills and a house that had my work ripped out of it, and the needed renovations left unfinished. She then went underground and I cannot take her to court without being able to send her a suponia.
We gave the house to a church ministry, at least they were able to do something with it. You can find out the story from them here.
And that is how the Inverted Cow came to be. Funny seeing 5 or 6 years of your life written down into a few paragraphs like this, and that is all it is, just a memory now.
