what a weekend!

I was already highly stressed on Friday afternoon when I had to drive up to the Carr Astronomical Observatory near Collingwood.

It wasn't just that I had offered or committed to help at the mini-work party to complete the installation of the propane-powered generator... This weekend was the rain-or-shine (ha) tour of the CAO for the NOVA course participants. And since I was the host (by being the NOVA course co-ordinator), I had to make an appearance.

My computer training gig finished early. I was home by 5:00 PM. Did the final loading of the car. Skipped dinner. And hit the road. It was raining, the sky was darkening, when I tried to get through the airport zone. Traffic was very heavy going up Highway 410, making for stop-and-go on the 401 ramp. My car still does not have a working auxiliary fan so I had to manually monitor the engine temperature and run the cockpit blower at maximum to bleed off some of the extra heat. The congestion steadily decreased the further north I travelled and was light by the time I reached the top of the 410.

I remembered this time to take Heart Lake Road. Great alternate! There were 4 of us on that whole stretch. I almost missed my left/west turn though onto King Road.

Ironically, there was a car crash at the intersection of King and Highway 10. By the time we arrived at the junction, they were just dragging the wrecks out of the way. I wonder what effect that had on the north-bound traffic; for us it was a minor delay. The somewhat heavy rain combined with cool temperatures had caught off guard these drivers who were probably tailgating one another.

That was a heads-up to all of us. I kept an eye on the air temperature given my tires. They are good in dry conditions, it can even be quite cold; but they suck in the wet below 11°C or so.

Around 8:00 PM, I arrived at the CAO. Tony was already there but had only arrived 1 hour before me. While he had left earlier, he had made some pit stops for supplies.

Tony reviewed the work to be done on Saturday while I checked over our computers and network. Everything seemed A-OK. Tony reported the supervisor closet was not unusually warm when he opened it. So that meant my new server was not getting too hot. I dropped off the new red LED rope lights to replace the faded incandescent ones on the porch and stairs. I also tested my shortwave radio. I still could only barely receive (inside the house mind you) the 3330 CHU time signal. Tony had brought with him the Toronto Centre's old Dell laptop (with purportedly dead battery): I was planning to work with that later in the weekend.

When Tony explained that some of the house circuits were not well documented, I offered to help. With a pair of hand-held radios, we killed all the breakers one by one and tracked down the affected lights and sockets. It took us a while but we developed a much better understanding of the house wiring.

Tony shacked up in the Lyra bedroom. I thought I'd try the Cygnus room a.k.a. the Honeymoon Suite. I had never stayed in it before. Nice having a large bed.

I stayed up a bit longer. In our house electrical tests, we had unsettled the network and internet service. I had to reboot equipment in a particular pattern to get it all working again. I checked NASA's web site to see how the STS-126 launch had gone off. Found a beautiful shot of the vehicle climbing "uphill" with the Moon in the background.

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I set an early alarm, for Tony's wake up call, at 7:00 AM. I also set one on my mobile phone for redundancy. I knocked on Tony's bedroom door. There was no answer. I trundled into the kitchen, noticed the computer was off, didn't notice (at first) that the living room was very dark (since the blinds were pulled), and heard Tony behind me. He had slept in the living room so to angle his torso. Sinus trouble during the night.

We had a small breakfast and discussed the morning plan. Tony was going to hit the Home Hardware building centre in The-Town-Formerly-Known-As-Thornbury for supplies. I would hold the fort. And remove the pea gravel from the generator crib. 7 cubic feet doesn't sound like a lot; 12 000 cubic inches does!

Tony returned to the CAO with various bits. We transferred these items to the work site. On cue, the expected delivery showed up. We unloaded the 17 kW generator and put it place. It was heavy. And I was feeling a little tired. I said to Tony, "Let's have lunch!" He agreed.

We headed indoors, assembled some grub, and recharged our batteries. Mmm, soup. Just then, Leslie and Costas arrived. When they asked what we were doing, and when I explained, they pointed out the time was 10:30, a strange time for lunch. Oh! So it was.

Speaking of recharging, Leslie and Costas had brought some laptop batteries up. I popped one into the RASC laptop, fired up the machine, examined the Power Options control panel, and I got a reading. That was a good sign. I powered down to let the battery charge rapidly. I vacated the Cygnus room for our expected visitors.

Well, there was no avoiding it. I was assigned to dig the trench. Ugh. Fortunately, Tony had brought some pick axes, in particular, a pick mattock (with a hoe). I had already piloted the trench, removing the sod, across a 10 foot span. But now I needed to go to a depth of 16 inches (to code). I spent a couple of hours working on it. It was tough. Nay, exhausting. And it was raining. The trench was filling up with water...

Real lunch was called and I was grateful. I needed to recharge again. After chow I did some more testing of the laptop batteries. The charged battery worked, i.e. it provided power to the laptop while disconnected from AC. As it should. I switched to the second spare battery that had been provided and let it fast-charge.

A family, from the NOVA course, showed up. I gave them the tour of the house. Which was precisely the time that the gang doing the electrical work decided to cut the power, forcing me to delay my tour of the observatory building. Still, I unlocked the GBO in preparation. We killed some time in the kitchen discussing general topics. I answered a bunch of questions. In the background I could hear the weather station and security camera server running off the UPS battery supply.

When the AC came back on, I turned the dryer back on, and we headed out to the GBO. There were big water puddles everywhere due to the continuous rain, even inside the observatory.

Our guests announced they were not going to stay. Too bad on one hand. But they were concerned about the incoming weather. And, I must confess, it simplified my breakfast planning. I had not yet shopped for supplies!

It was good having them. My first official CAO tour guide duties!

With the guests departed, my clothes dried out, I returned to the trench. It was slow going. And increasingly strenuous the deeper I dug.

Geoff B and Tony joined me outside for hookup tasks. Tony wanted to build a canopy to help get us out of the rain. Unfortunately, a gale force wind moved in. And it seemed to generate speed at the corner of the house, exactly where we were working. Tony drilled a port into the house. I drilled holes in the concrete pad. Tony and Geoff fed the generator cabling into the trench. And Costas connected the internal line to the junction box and mounted it to the wall. We were cold, very wet, very muddy, and tired with fighting the wind. And when we emerged from our whipping blue tarp canopy, the ground was covered in snow. We were in the middle of a blizzard! We packed everything up and concluded the outdoor chores.

And it started to hit me. How would I get home?

If many centimetres of snow fell, I would not be able to drive my car out. If a lot of snow fell, all of us might be "trapped" at the CAO. The municipality normally did not plow the road up to the property. That was a 1000 to 1500 metre distance. Many options flickered through my mind, some of which included me leaving the car at the CAO. But that could mean it might stay there until April!

Two new NOVA guests had arrived in the meantime. Brave souls. Just in time for dinner. Leslie had prepared a fantastic meal for the work party people including two chickens, lots of salad, potatoes, and Chudleigh pies! Our guests had brought dishes as well so there was no lack of food. Tony and Costas discussed the remaining work to be done. It seemed like a lot. So Leslie and Costas agreed to stay overnight. Well, now I had a bed for them!

Many of us went back to work after dinner. I dropped some additional electrical wire for baseboard heaters and connected it into the new generator breaker satellite box.

I gave our new guests a tour of the GBO before locking it up. One split for his nearby cottage. Perhaps he too was nervous about being marooned on our property. Matthew stayed on.

I checked the server computer. Cool! I found the UPS had performed a Managed Shutdown. Nice. Everything was working as it should.

But when I checked the weather data, I noticed the wind speed read zero. Oh oh. I hope the mast hadn't fallen over in the high winds. Costas braved the outdoors and reported the anemometer was not spinning. It was frozen into position with the cold rain and sudden temperature drop.

I checked the second laptop battery and found it also worked. I could definitively say there was not a problem with our laptop proper but that we had a dead battery. Costas later suggested that we keep the batteries, that we could make use of them since they had retired their old laptop. I thanked him. It would make the laptop portable again, even if they couldn't hold a full charge.

Tony decided to not leave. The storm was looking severe but it sounded like it was going to be clear in the morning. I helped him pack the van for an early getaway. I shovelled the back steps and porch. My first shovelling of the season... Blah. I set another early wake up call for Tony. And an alarm in front of that for me so to get in the shower early. Hatching a new plan, I packed up almost all my gear...

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I slept like a baby despite having a lot on my mind. I woke up in the morning dreaming about my car! I asked Tony if he could take a bunch of my things back to the city. If I had to take a train or bus, I needed to reduce my carry-on. When Tony drove out with his loaded minivan on new snow tires, he punched 5 to 10 centimetre deep channels into the snow. It didn't look good for me. I cleaned my car of icy snow. I fired it up to get some heat in the motor and cabin. It ran fine. Then I tried to reposition in the driveway. I travelled about 10 metres and got stuck! Crazy. I would definitely need a tow out to the plowed road. No doubt about it.

Tony telephoned periodically to give progress reports. He strongly suggested I not take the Highway 24/124 route. I decided to do what I normally avoid: take the well-travelled roads. Assuming I could get out the driveway.

I tended to some final chores outside and on the property. I closed and alarmed the GBO.

While Costas loaded his truck, I tried to reposition my car. I was trying to line up in Tony's tire tracks. I couldn't do anything! But with some pushing from Costas and Matthew, we were able to reposition me behind Costas's truck.

We considered how to tow my vehicle. I had not brought my proper car tow rope (perhaps I should always carry it). Tony said there were tie-downs in the garage but I couldn't see any. Costas said he was 3—at home. Suddenly I remembered my bungee cord box... I had new 1" tie-downs in it! I pulled them out: 3 complete sets. Costas said they'd take 1000 pounds each but when we checked the label we found they were rated for significantly less: 300 pounds. Cautiously, we put the 3 sets together in parallel.

Leslie and I did the final close-out of the property, we climbed into our vehicles, and I tried to start my car. No go! WTF?! I could smell fuel, so it wasn't a fuel supply problem. There was no fire! I wiggled the spark plug wires at the plugs and distributor and the wires at the high-voltage coil. I removed and reinserted all the fuses and relays. Still no go. Damn it. Well, I suggested that the new plan be to tow me at least to the plowed section of the road. Then I'd call CAA.

When we got to the top of the big hill, Costas suggested we try bump-starting. I was not confident it would work if in fact I had an electrical problem. So I tried again to start the motor. It burbled. Costas eyes lit up. I tried again. Vroom! She started. That was very strange.

Matthew, needing a ride to Collingwood, jumped in with me. We all travelled out to the highway together to make sure everything was OK. Leslie and Costas turned south while I turned north. We rendezvoused with Matthew's friend in town. My car continued to run fine. The roads, while wet and cold, were OK for me to drive on. I pressed on heading for the Highway 400.

Just west of Barrie though, near (ironically) Snow Valley, I encountered a squall. Snow started to cover the road. Ruts started to form. The trees looked like those on the road to the Overlook! I was starting to get very anxious. I started to look for hotels or motels. Then I saw the steep hill ahead, leading into Barrie. I really wondered if I was going to be able to make it up particularly since my ABS was coming on as I slowed for stop lights. Somehow... I made it. Fueled up and jumped on the 400. And it was a pretty straight-forward drive home.

It was really good to pull in the driveway free from snow.

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We accomplished a lot this weekend. We conducted tours of the CAO for some of the NOVA people, 6 in total. We got a lot of work done on the generator for the CAO. I had lots of yummy apple pie. I got a bit more practice as a supervisor. And I was able to bring my car home.