Ruby and the Chaffey’s Locks Road
January 11, 2017
Those who have driven the Chaffey’s Locks Road from Perth Road to Hwy 15 over the years don’t need any convincing that it is one of the best scenic drives in Eastern Ontario. Regular improvements have turned the rough cottage track into a fine hard surface through the original twists and climbs around Upper Rock and Opinicon Lakes in this section of the Canadian Shield. The wider eastern stretch from Chaffey’s Locks to Hwy 15 also received a superb paving job two summers ago.
Of course the county fathers clapped a 40 km speed limit on the whole thing lest there be a Miata wrapped around every tree. The many bicyclists in summer no doubt appreciate this.
After an errand in Kingston on a snowy morning last week I came home by Perth Road, but then turned toward Chaffey’s, partly to escape the deluge of salt and sand on the more heavily-travelled route to Westport.
Ruby discovered twenty miles of packed snow with a light dusting of sand down the middle. This could be interesting. At 5380 pounds empty, the Porsche Cayenne plants its winter tires quite firmly on the surface below, so I expected a smooth and controlled drive around the many dips and turns.
But I hadn’t taken the traction control into account. After a while I began to wonder why the car felt so rooted to the road, so I tried to induce a little bit of slippage on a sweeper around an open field.
No. Ruby just slowed down to a reasonable pace and continued on her way.
What?
I tried again when I found another good sightline. As soon as the computer detected any slippage, on came brakes in a couple of wheels and she resumed the correct line.
You mean I could drive this road without braking for turns? But that would be crazy! There are far too many blind spots for that.
So behave, you old coot!
And so I did. Ruby and her computer/nanny guided me on an amazingly smooth passage to Chaffey’s Locks. The ride was as serene as an illegal golf cart tour on a back road on a fine summer day. It offered about the same sensation of motion, but it wasn’t long until Ruby pulled up to the stop sign at Hwy 15.
We ducked across the sandy main road and followed a series of other snow-covered by-ways back to Young’s Hill. Only at the hairpin on an unused road around Forfar Station was I able to confuse Ruby. I guess German programmers didn’t anticipate a 25 mph hairpin turn on virgin snow over gravel. The left rear lost traction, all four brakes instantly burped that machine-gun rattle, and Ruby collected herself and proceeded at a resolute ten miles per hour regardless of my efforts on the throttle.
Two thoughts collided: I certainly wouldn’t want a teenager to learn to drive on this thing. If the computer ever failed with the bad habits it had engendered, he’d crash. But then I thought how great this car would be in the kind of slush on a crowded highway which turns light front-wheel drives into aquaplaning death traps.
There’s no doubt that a smart tank like Ruby is the right conveyance for my new grand-daughter.
Woodlot excursion
December 25, 2016
Over the years it has become a Christmas ritual to tour the woodlot by whatever means necessary. Ten years ago Charlie and Shiva began the tradition by bullying the golf cart into the trip through too much fluffy snow. When the Ranger replaced the golf cart, it hauled passengers and their snowshoes across the windy fields to the woodlot and froze them on the return trip.
This year Charlie started up both 2004 Cayennes to try out their low range and differential locks around the yard. Ruby was thus already cleaned off and warmed up when I grabbed my keys and tracked him down on the property. Then we toured the sugar bush.
We soon observed that it would take a good deal of snow to stop a Porsche Cayenne equipped with winter tires. I did manage to twist over an earth berm at such an angle that I needed to use the locker to maintain traction to the wheels, but Ruby felt right at home off-roading in snow.
The only problem is that puttering through the woods in a Porsche Cayenne isn’t much fun. It’s far too capable a vehicle. A golf cart or 2WD UTV, or even a snowmobile, provides much more of a challenge, and hence a higher fun quotient.
On the other hand Charlie is now a father and I’m not getting any younger, and we did break a good wide walking track through the bush.
Cash for Access
December 20, 2016
Here’s a thought:
Over the last few years my contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada have been directly tied to the level of abuse Justin Trudeau has faced in the media during his time in office. Unfair attack ads opened my cheque book because, like a distant but somewhat protective parent, I felt I could at least do something to defend the guy.
All fall I have ignored the LPC email stream begging for contributions because things were going pretty well for JT and the Liberals and they could get along without me after we had gotten rid of Harper. It seemed it was somebody else’s turn to pay the piper. I didn’t mind if it was Chinese billionaires. It at least showed the Liberal Party had gotten off their butts and learned how to raise money.
But now the media’s lining up on this ethics issue. The LPC has learned to find the money to operate, but they’re vulnerable because of the catchy bumper-sticker phrase “Cash for access.”
I guess the condemnation is really directed at me, the lazy parent. So last night the cheque book opened up again.
Trudeau, Trump, and the failure of the Manichean myth
December 18, 2016
Remember when the Canadian media called Justin Trudeau a hypocrite for refusing to condemn Donald Trump during the long presidential campaign? Turns out JT was wiser than his naysayers thought.
Then his loudest detractor quipped he would be no match for Trump in negotiations. Cheap bumper-sticker thought, that Bambi-vs-Godzilla line from Kevin O’Leary.
Even Michael Harris’s David-vs-Goliath comparison is a poor analogy, because it still speaks to a cranky, insecure Manichean tradition of the battle to the death between principalities which today is far from the Canadian experience.
The last fresh idea about Canada-U.S. relations (mouse-sleeping-with-a-friendly elephant) came from the elder Trudeau, come to think of it.
From what I’ve seen of Donald Trump so far, the elephant-in-an-orange-toupe idea still retains a good deal of currency. Justin Trudeau would fit naturally into the role of the rider trapped on this panicked elephant as the United States careens along the road, driven by its fear and natural urges, but unsure of its destination, or even direction at a given moment.
I’ll watch with interest the first public encounter between Trump and Trudeau, but I expect the rider will continue to calm the behemoth and begin to nudge it away from the more obvious hazards as it burns through its manic energy.
Ruby visits Sweet’s Quarry.
December 15, 2016
When Charlie tried to transfer his trailer’s registration from BC to Ontario, the clerk told him he was obliged to provide a weight for the vehicle. Email ensued.
Roads were good today so we unloaded the BMW track car, squiggled it over driveway ice and into the shop, cleared out the luggage in the trailer, and hit the road to the Sweet’s Corners quarry.
Ruby towed the 2950 lb trailer quite willingly, though in a headwind on the return trip the fuel consumption shot up to just over 17 litres per 100 km. (Interestingly, a few weeks later a 6X12 U-Haul tandem trailer exacted the same fuel penalty on a trip to Ottawa.)
An ongoing debate on Rennlist.com has dealt with whether a Cayenne is car, truck, or other. Up until this point my comments have favoured “car.” With this photo, though, I may be entering the “truck” tent.
The weigh-scales guy loved Ruby. This tag shows the gross weight of Ruby and the trailer at 3780 kg, or 3.78 metric tonnes, as the quarry guys prefer. That’s 8333.5 pounds to me.
Ulp. That means Ruby weighs 5383 pounds! And the fuel tank was nearly empty. The trailer weighed 2950 lb.
About that Vox Pop survey
December 7, 2016
For non-Canadian readers, electoral reform is a big deal in Canada after the man we chose as Prime Minister promised during the campaign that the 2015 election would be the last one with First Past The Post voting.
Word about a survey popped up last week, primarily due to the Prime Minister’s decision to send every Canadian of voting age a postcard inviting them to complete the online survey the government has sponsored as part of the electoral reform process.
For me so far, electoral reform has been the activities of others, of intense interest to the interested, but external to my inner thoughts. But it’s an important decision, and as individual and intimate as one’s time in a voting booth.
I understand the ridicule directed at what I came to consider a well-structured survey. Someone called it a push-poll, but couldn’t articulate its point. I’d suggest the point of the Vox Pop Labs interactive online survey was to push laggards like me into beginning our internal dialogues.
I can march along with the Liberal band without a lot of daily thought. Be nice to others, look after the environment, pay one’s debts, make contributions when they ask — standard stuff.
But do I want government to consist of endless compromises to accomodate every single-issue group in Canada? No, I chose a strong majority on the survey. Do I want to be able to boot the wretches out? Not on a daily basis. Once every four years would be fine.
The crunch came when I had to choose whether to use the electoral process to concentrate power in my own cultural tribe, or distribute it “fairly” to all of the other tribes. That’s where I drew the line. I don’t want to give up power at this stage in life.
The other decision point was easier: I don’t want to vote for a party list. I am not a Leafs fan. I want to know the man or woman who will represent me, and I’ll make up my own mind. Proportional representation is out because it has too many working parts. Sorry, Lizzie May, I like you but I don’t like PR.
To my surprise I realized my likely vote in a referendum would be FPTP or Ranked Ballot. Subject to other inputs. Vox Pop forced me to start the internal dialogue. Creepy, especially for those who prefer to keep their politics on the outside.
Update, 7 December
My friend and correspondent Tom Stutzman asked what I meant by “keeping their politics on the outside.”
Tom:
You never know how it will work…
December 5, 2016
Would-be Conservative leader Dr. Kellie Leitch’s latest kick is to legalize pepper spray for women to use for personal protection.
Around Forfar you never know how something will get used until it gets used, and this rule will probably apply to pepper spray, as well.
So I prepared a T-shirt to go with Leitch’s campaign. The tangled syntax should fit well with statements made by Conservative cabinet ministers over the last decade. I don’t know if Kellie will like it, but…
A Subversive meme in Barney and Clyde
November 30, 2016
This Barney and Clyde strip appeared November 29, 2016. How it caused a few minutes’ anxiety for the service manager of a local Toyota dealership is a tale possibly worth recounting.
Barney and Clyde is one of my favourite Arcamax Publications online offerings. The strip often sends me to Google to track down obscure facts and theories I wouldn’t otherwise encounter.
In this strip I had a good idea that Samsung owns the notoriety associated with the exploding Galaxy 7 Smartphone, but I had to look up Takata.
The horror story of the 17 year-old girl bleeding to death from a shrapnel cut from a prematurely detonating air bag in a Honda Civic definitely caught my attention. Of course Google provided many references to track down the car models into which the potentially defective airbags had been installed.
On a US government site I ran through the family fleet. My models of Porsche, Lexus, and Toyota do not have Takata airbags. My mother’s 2008 Scion xB, a Florida purchase, was the only one which appeared on the list. I plugged in the VIN. Yep, it has the bad airbag.
Toyota/Lexus Canada is very good at maintaining contact with their owners, but this car came from a Florida auction to a local Honda dealer, and then was sold off his used car lot. I would need to register the car in Canada for the recall.
I called Kingston Toyota and spoke to the service manager. Impressive acceleration there. Over the course of a few halting sentences of dialogue while he no doubt searched his computer, he went from zero knowledge on the subject to enough information to at least sound competent and book the car for a recall a month later.
The only evidence that he was scrambling to get his feet under him was the question: “How did you hear about this?”
“It was in Barney and Clyde, a comic strip.”
Ten minutes later he called me back. Toyota has no plans yet for a recall, though that may change in the next few weeks. I responded that because I was essentially removing the family pool vehicle from service for a month, perhaps I should hold onto the appointment and confirm a day or two in advance of the date. He agreed that that would be a good strategy.
I asked how big a risk the exploding ignitor on the airbag presents to occupants of the car, and if it would be better simply to disable the device. He advised against that, but suggested that the car would be fine to drive in the interim as long as no one sits in the passenger seat. An empty seat disables the airbag.
So I left it.
Then I called my sister who has been using the car to ferry Mom around. She appeared uncharacteristically calm about my warning. She also knew considerably more about the Takata SNAFU than I did.
She owns a Honda Element. Her recall notification caught up with her last January at her winter residence in Florida. After many conversations with “a highly intelligent woman at the Honda hot-line over six months,” in early July her relieved Ottawa dealer gained access to an airbag and repaired her Honda Element. “The problem at that time was that half the airbags in the world needed to be replaced, all at the same time, and all from the same company. They were in short supply. Perhaps they have the shortage under control by now, a year later.” She further told me that she had simply shut off the airbag with the ignition key and gone about her business as usual. She saw no reason not to do the same with the Scion.
I guess you can get used to anything if you have a bit of time to adjust to it. That’s pretty much the central thesis of the Barney and Clyde comic strip, come to think of it.
UPDATE: 1 January, 2017
The December 29th recall appointment came and went. Toyota Canada still can’t provide the airbag. The service manager strongly suggested that I bring the Scion in for another recall on the master power window switch, though. I asked how the problem manifested itself. Apparently the master switch becomes sticky and some handymen spray it with penetrating oil, creating an alarming fire when the circuit is next closed in the presence of the volatile liquid. I suggested I’d keep the WD-40 away from window switches and would get both jobs done when they inform me that they have the air bag.
That’s when things got interesting. Seems I need to provide a recall letter from Scion USA, and they don’t have my address, so if I want things to proceed, I should call their 1-800 number and get on the list. Oh. I dialled, and on the third try spoke to a very helpful woman who carefully took down the VIN, my contact details, and again informed me that Toyota has no replacement air bags yet, but they’ll send me a letter when one becomes available. She further warned me about the window switch recall and we parted friends.
Ice-in reported on Newboro Lake
November 28, 2016
Photographer Maggie Fleming of Newboro reported this morning that the ice is in.
First snow
November 21, 2016
This is admittedly click-bait, but first snow is a fairly big deal up here. Let’s call it kitchen table journalism.
the Walnut Diary 