Spring is coming...eventually

This winter has just been awful. I haven't seen this much rain in many years. Might be that we now live in Sooke, but winter has been terrible everywhere this year. I haven't felt too badly about having my bike parked and LOVE that I have a garage to park it in. I am just really getting sick of having to scrape the frost off of my windshield on my way to work in the morning. Usually by now I would have had my bike insured and had been riding to work already.

So, we've been spending our time working around the house and getting the yard in shape for the summer.

So here's to hoping that spring is coming soon and I can get out and play on my bike!

WE BOUGHT THE HOUSE!

Finally! I ended up having to wait ALL day to find out! They say that the third time's the charm and it was so in our case. It took us a year to get all of our financial stuff in order but we got it all done and that was able to help our case.
I am so glad that I don't have to deal with the CMHC again as I think I would pull my hair out!
Time to start packing!

It's all good...

Next: The RENO blog! Whoo Hoo!

April 30, 2010 The fiasco continues...

Unbelievable is the word that I would use to describe this transaction to buy a home. I have never experienced such a poorly managed banking transaction.
Friday morning we had the inspector go through the house and it was pretty much what we expected to see. So that was a "go"
On the other hand it was a good thing that I was working all morning or I would have been a basket case waiting for the phone to ring.
I get home at 2:00pm and make a phone call to Debbie to find out the status of our mortgage.
I have to leave a voicemail.
I come back from picking up the kids at 3:30 and phone Debbie again. She tells me that she hasn't heard anything but she is still trying to get a hold of them.
Debbie phones back 15 minutes later and tells me that "there was a computer glitch". WHAT???
"they can't see your father's application at the other end"..WHAT???
Twitch, twitch, twich...
Great
Now what?
"Can you possibly get an extention until Monday morning?"...um, NO as there are other offers waiting on the house.
So, Debbie gets her bosses boss to phone Peter who then tells them to phone the realtors as it was their "f&%k up" and beg for an extention.
It looks like we got it as we haven't heard anything.
I have never been more frustrated!
So now we have to wait the weekend and find out monday (hopefully morning).
Still hoping to be able to start a renovation blog!
:) Miriam

A change of plans

It's funny how life makes plans for you while you weren't looking. I really enjoyed riding on the fine weather days that we had in the late winter and early spring. I even had my boss giving me the evil eye as his bike was still parked.

As the weather changed for the worse so did our lives (somewhat). At the end of March we received a 3 month notice for termination of rent. We have been renting this house for 4 years so it came as quite a shock as our landlord had told us not two months earlier that she was not going to sell the house. We were settling in beautifully and I had just planted some flower bulbs and had started a garden as I thought we were going to be around for at least a couple more years. Well, that was not to be so we were left with a decision.

We got ourselves a "plan B" and lined up a place to rent but thought "why not try and buy a home" as we were paying as much in rent as we would be to have a mortgage. Well, we did a mad week and a half dash and looked at 7 homes for sale and found one. Now it's not the prettiest thing on the block and it didn't show well, but it had LOTS of potential. Being handy kind of people we thought "why not" and put in an offer. They accepted.

So the insurance came up for renewal while all this was going on and we decided that we were going to park our bikes for the few weeks as we didn't want to have any extra expenses and wanted to put all our cash into the down payment. It hasn't been much of a loss as the weather this spring has been windy as hell and cold so I'm not really missing it too much. The only thing is that I had to give up the women's weekend in Uculet which is a real drag, but I couldn't justify the expenditure of going out to play while all this was happening.

So now we had to get the banking in order...
I would have thought that a 3 day wait would have been normal, but it's been 10 days of jumping through hoops to get this mortgage. I'm beyond frustrated with the whole thing and have lost 10 lbs (which I can't afford to lose) as I haven't been eating, and many nights of sleep over this whole fiasco.
It should be a simple accounting...they make x amount of dollars and the mortgage payment would be as much as they rent for...Shouldn't be an issue but of course it is. I think that the CMHC needs some new accountants that can actually add up the numbers!

So, we now have one day to get the mortgage and the house inspected. It HAS to all happen tomorrow or we LOSE the house as there are other offers in on it.

In the end, if we end up renting plan B I'll be fine with that but I sure as hell would be pretty angry for wasting my time and energy (and money for the inspection) for a house that they don't think we can have.

As soon as the bank says "yay" or "nay" I will be putting the insurance back on my bike and going for a LONG ride!

The fingers are crossed that I'll be starting a new renovation blog on my birthday June 1st. We take posession on the 31st of May and I think that taking ownership would be a great birthday gift!

Happy birthday, here's a sledgehammer...

Parked her for the winter

Well, after riding all last winter and freezing my poor hands off and being waylaid by 3 weeks of snow, I decided that I should park my baby this winter. On the 26th of November I took my last ride and gave her a really good bath and wrapped her up with tears in my eyes. Now I was just waiting for the snow...

The snow DIDN'T come! Darn it! I had her parked for 2 months and at the end of January I re-insured her again. The crocus' weren't too far behind popping out of the ground so I knew that all was well.

Just last week the weather was gorgeous enough that I got to test my new GPS that I got for Christmas and buggered off for about 2 hours. There are some great roads to ride around here but I never know how to get to them. Now I have the ability to meander and not have to worry about where I go because I can always just "go home". You might laugh, but it's totally freed up how I ride. I now dare to explore a little more and can tell that some roads end or take off in a different direction.

I'm really looking forward to the ladies weekend in a couple of months. I haven't ridden out to Tofino yet so it's going to be great. I'm such an island road virgin...sigh...

Here's to months of great riding!

Port Alberni Toy Run, Sept 19, 2009

I was told that this was "the one" to go to so I made plans last year to get the time off so I could go and do this. I headed up to Ed and Sue's again on Friday night and we had a lovely hot tub dip and a beer. Saturday morning we got up later than expected (7:30) and headed out to PA about an hour later.

Our small group got larger by the hour and eventually there were six or 7 of us who met up with the SCRC at a petrocan on the way. Hugs were exchanged as other bikes loaded with toys were racing up the highway to get to the run before the doughnuts ran out!

We pull into little qualicum falls and are later than they expected. By this time there

must have been about 700 bikes when we pulled in. It was an awesome sight to see.

This was just a few of them in the lower bowl and we had to make our way through the throng to reach the doughnuts! It was really nice to see some familiar faces and hugs were passed all around. I thanked Sue for wearing her pink jacket because I would have lost her without it! I was joking with Ed and he said, "yeah I'll be the guy in the black leather jacket...." It was a sea of black!

After making our way through the coffee line, I yacked with some of the Victoria CMC who were also there, passed around a few hugs, and had a good laugh.

Finally they start their presentation, the cannon fires and we get underway for the ride.

Little did I know, this was not a ride but a PARADE! Wow! I was so impressed by the turnout from the townspeople. They were lined up and honking and waving and holding thank you signs. Some moments just brought me to tears they were so touching. Parents had their sick kids by the road and they were waving. There was an entire home of elderly people out waving. It was just unbeliveable! There were bikes as far as the eye could see! The count was around 1100 bikes for the day.

I was expecting to go home afterwards, but ended up getting hoodwinked by a few cronies...but that's another story!

Sunday, July 19, 2009... The ride home

In the morning I arose a little later and Bill wanted to get going so I had to pull up my socks and get to work tearing down camp. It took me about an hour or so and I wanted to take a few minutes to say my goodbyes to my wonderful hosts for the weekend! I really appreciate everything they did for me and I have to say that it was a BLAST!

So Bill and I take off on our bikes and head out to a bit of adventure! We were originally going to head down the Killarney Beach road to Kelowna and catch the connector, but there was a large forest fire raging at the time the closed the connector down so we decided to take the 5A (Lac Le Jeune) from Kamloops to Princeton. What a lovely road! The scenery was FANTASTIC and I REALLY have to stop and take some photos next time! I kept thinking as I was riding that the mountain roads are much more interesting than any of the island roads that I've explored so far, but I still have lots of island exploring to do!

After a bit of a detour we make it to Princeton without much trouble and stop at Billy's family restaurant in Princeton. Bill and I have a lovely chat and he points me in the right direction and I'm off on my own!

Riding through Manning Provincial Park is a lovely ride and I only had to change my underwear about 3 times as the cars in front of me decide to break in the MIDDLE of the turn which in turn makes me have to straighten up mid corner and apply my breaks which is always fun! There are a few good 30km/hr corners and the hairpin turns are definately interesting!

I've come to the conclusion that I'll be going to the stomp for many years to come just so I have a reason to try all the different roads home!

The funny thing is I stop at a chevron somewhere around Maple Ridge or so and who's whistling at me but Suzie. They left about an hour after Bill and I did and took to Coquihalla. I think I got the better deal! So we ride together towards the ferry and they decide they are going to make a stop for beer and I carry on. There was a 1 sailing wait for the ferry, but in all my motorcycling glory I made it just in time for boarding! I was on the ferry by 5 and home at about 7:30pm.

I had such a great time but it was sure nice to get home to hubby and the kiddos! I sure missed them! But, I can't wait to go back next year!