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On late Friday evening, the toilet bowl handle mechanism in my bathroom broke. This meant that if I wanted to flush my toilet, I had to take the top off the tank and then manually pull the lever. Needless to say, this is a huge hassle if you wanna flush the toilet.

A combination of being lazy and having to get ready for my niece’s birthday party on Saturday meant that I couldn’t get a replacement part on that day. On Sunday, I had much more free time, so I managed to get the part in the afternoon, even though it snowed heavily in the morning.

I thought I had lots of time to do the repair, so I left it until after dinner time. It was at that point I realized that I didn’t have a wrench big enough to remove the existing but broken mechanism. At this point, I wasn’t about to go outside again in the cold and snow to look for a new wrench.

I’m about to go bed and I just urinated. I’m still having to take the top off the tank and pull the lever to flush. I better get that new wrench tomorrow.

I’m taking some extra time off for the holidays, so I officially have one week left of work before the break. My last day of work for 2022 is next Wednesday and I’m predicting a lot of people will be checked out next week. A lot of meetings have been cancelled for next week, so it seems like it will be a laid back three days.

I scheduled a lump sum payment towards my mortgage today. Next Friday, $10,000 will come out of my bank account to pay down my outstanding balance. I’m on a variable rate mortgage and stupidly, I didn’t lock into a fixed rate mortgage several months ago when it made sense. In the last year or so, the Bank of Canada has raised the prime interest rate steadily. It’s at the point now where doesn’t make sense to keep my money in a savings account because the interest rate on my mortgage far outstrips what I get in said savings account.

I haven’t made a lump sum payment in many years because it made more sense to keep my money elsewhere, where it could make more money for me. With the higher interest rates now, paying down debt has a higher priority. Even if the prime rate stays the same, I am likely going to make another lump sum payment in 2023, probably before the summer.

In a year or two, we might be getting into the territory where I think about paying off my entire mortgage if I liquidate a few investments. I hope I can be so lucky.

I have been told that the above video needs to be watched with closed captioning on if you do not speak Finnish.

There is a Facebook group for people who live in my building and two recent posts were from people asking if other had seen their FedEx packages that had been delivered to their door. FedEx had sent them pictures of the package in front of their door but when the resident checked, both packages were gone.

I found one of the packages in one of the stairwells. The box had been opened and the contents were gone. It was clear that both their packages were stolen. This isn’t the first time packages have been stolen in my building and it won’t be the last. What is interesting is that these packages were taken from directly in front of a resident’s door. First, it’s alarming that whoever is taking these packages has access to certain floors. Every floor is supposed to be secure and can only be accessed via fob in the elevator. The only exception are the crossover floors which can be access via the stairwells. One of the packages was not located on a crossover floor, so how they got access is a mystery. Second, this thief appears to have realized that the mailroom has cameras and is much busier than say a typical residential floor is. There unfortunately no cameras in the residential hallway floors like there are in the common areas.

This is just a reminder that it is much safer and secure to have your packages sent to a drop-off point. Depending on who you are buying from or what shipping company they use, this can be a Canada Post outlet, UPS Store, or some authorized shipping outlet. These places require an ID, which thieves won’t have. Personally, there isn’t really any excuse for me. Amazon packages can be sent to a Canada Post outlet, which is just downstairs for me. I also have a UPS Store located just five minutes away by foot.

I know it’s tempting to have it conveniently delivered to your door or the mailroom downstairs but unless you can pick up your package immediately, it tempts fate.

I had a McDonald’s quarter pounder burger for dinner last night. Yes, I know, that’s not a great choice for dinner. I didn’t get any fries nor did I get a sugary drink though to be clear, I just got the burger.

I have never been a big fan of the quarter pounder burger product from McDonald’s. It’s just so bland compared to their other offerings and burgers from other competitors are easily more appealing than the quarter pounder. A Big Mac, a Teen Burger from A&W, or a Whopper from BK are all superior choices compared to a quarter pounder.

I think the only reason I chose the 1/4 lb burger last evening was that I hadn’t had one in years. After consuming one last night, my opinion has not changed, it remains a very pedestrian and average product at McDonald’s. I think it’ll be many, many years before I’m tempted to try one again.

It’s now less than three weeks until Christmas and I can’t wait for the holiday break to arrive. This year, we get a full week off, plus a day for New Year’s. It’s not a whole lot of time off but I don’t want to use any extra vacation time. I’m relying on a lot of other people taking extra time off so that the days before and after the break are easy, quiet, and allow me to get lots of work done. If I have to work, at least it can be really productive days.

I am in the market for a new cast iron skillet. The current one in my kitchen has been in my possession for probably over twenty years now. I’ve cooked a lot of meat in that skillet but it’s showing its age now. The bottom of it is flaking off for some reason. Flakes of cast iron come off the bottom so easily now that the drawer I keep it in looks like it has black snow in it constantly. Luckily, the actual cooking surface remains in good shape but the skillet is literally losing mass every time I handle it and it makes a mess.

Cast iron skillets can now come pre-seasoned from the factory, so that’s quite convenient. I remember seasoning my skillet and over the years, that thing has become naturally non-stick. It’s quite amazing. One thing I still haven’t figured out is what do to with this skillet once I get a new one? I don’t think my local recycling program takes cast iron. I also don’t have a smelter where I can melt it down. It’s in a condition where it can’t be donated either. I need to figure this out.

Well, I lost internet access about five minutes ago which means I can’t write a real post tonight. I’m typing this out on my phone and it’s slow. I wonder if my internet dropped because of the snow. It didn’t snow again today but did the existing snow on the ground cause this somehow? Who knows. I’m going to bed.

A major snow storm hit the greater Vancouver area today. It started snowing about 1pm and it didn’t stop until well into the evening. In my area, I heard it accumulated anywhere between 12 to 18 centimeters but it could have been more.

I live about ten blocks from a major bridge in the area. It spans the Fraser River and on an average days thousands of vehicles cross that bridge. From my apartment, I can see the main road that feeds into the bridgeway. Around 2pm traffic started to really back on that road though it was still moving. At about 4pm it crawled to a standstill. It got to the point that there was no discernible movement of any cars. It stayed that way for hours.

At around 11:30pm, I went for a walk just to see how bad it was. It was like a parking lot essentially for as far as I could see. Many people had shut off their cars and were just waiting, looking at their phones. Someone was on foot, going car to car, handing out granola bars from a large box of them. If I had to guess, some of these people had been waiting in their vehicles for five or six hours now, possibly even longer.

I read on the city’s official social media accounts that the bridge was closed for hours due to stalled vehicles and unsafe road conditions. A further update after midnight indicated the bridge was not open in both directions. It’s now well after 2am and I can see there is still a massive lineup of cars waiting to get onto the bridge. It looks like it’s the peak of rush on a long weekend out there and it’s 2am.

There is another major bridge near me but five or six kilometers away but I can see the red lights of stopped cars waiting to get on that bridge from even where I am. These cars are so far from the bridge.

I cannot imagine how many experiences of hardship occurred tonight. People who are tired and hungry, stuck in their vehicles for nearly half a day. They have my deep sympathy and I wish I could have done something to help.