Tales from the Bubble House · Its like living under the sea, except above sea.

Mystery Bunny

18-September 2010 in diatribe, Pets, things outside by jordan | No comments

Monday morning, Tonia spotted a small brown rabbit hanging out in the school yard behind out house. Our neighbourhood has lots of hares, but this guy was considerably smaller, and a totally different colour than the other guys we usually see around (Tonia calls all hares “Bruce”). It was clear that it was domestic rabbit that had escaped — or more likely been let go. Rabbits, domestic or otherwise, are not endmemic to Edmonton, and are not equipped to handle the lack of food in the winter, let alone the cold. Hares can survive the winters, but rabbits, especially domestic ones, certainly can not.

With winter, it seems, coming at any minute, we decided to try and capture him.

Mystery Bunny outside in the yard behind our house.

We spent about half an hour Monday morning trying to lure Mystery Bunny, as we dubbed him (or her), into a pet carrier with chunks of carrot. He loved carrot, but would steal them and run away instead of following the trail and jumping into our hastily constructed trap. After a few attempts at trying to corral him, he disappeared down the alley. We wished him luck and went to work.

I talked to my mom that day and let her know that this mystery bunny was on the loose. She commutes through our neighborhood shortly before we get home in the evenings, so she offered to look out for him, and try and capture him herself. She didn’t see him that night, but advised that being crepuscular, he would be out and about again around dusk. I had class Monday night, so Tonia was left on her own on bunny patrol. And, like it had been foretold, mystery bunny appeared at dusk.

Tonia sat outside with MB for about half an hour, trying again to lure him into the carrier with pieces of carrot. Being mostly dark brown, save for a fluffy white tail, as it got darker, MB was harder and harder to spot in the failing daylight as he would cott away from carrot-based entrapment. Eventually, Tonia lost track of him and retired indoors to warmth.

Tuesday morning we awoke expecting to see Mystery Bunny out and about in the yard again, but there was no sign of him. It was the first chilly morning in a week destined to have more than its share, so our first thought was that he didn’t make it through the night. Less likely, but a nicer thing to think about on the way to work was that maybe someone else rescued him, or he found his way back home. We tried not think about the obvious and probably correct thing that some local dog or cat ended him.

Tonia had band rehersal tuesday night, leaving me alone on Bunny Patrol that night. At about dusk, I kept my eyes peeled for him in the yard, but there was no sign of him. As the night grew darker, I resigned myself to the fact the MB was probably a goner.

By Wednesday morning, we weren’t holding out a lot of hope about seeing him again. We would glance out the window, try and make out shapes in the brush, but there was just no sign. He was gone.

Wednesday evening, my mom popped by to show off her new car. I told her I was resigned to the fact that Mystery Bunny was probably an ex Mystery Bunny, when I glanced outside to see him eating some dandelion nubs in the school yard. We sprung into action with a length of @citizenhops and @sophiehopsburg’s exercise pen fence, and some more fresh carrots. We chased the MB around the school yard, up the alley, down the alley, in and around parked cars, and finally across the street. Like Monday night though, the darkening skies were MB’s advantage as he could simply disappear.

There was no sign of MB Thursday morning, and I feared that sending him across the road the night before put him into unfamiliar territory, and maybe something untoward had happened; or, that perhaps he had been hit by a car. But then again, it was pretty cold that morning and he hadn’t been around on the other cold mornings. I went to work cautiously optimistic that he would return that evening.

He did.

My mom came by to hit up the community garden to harvest some of the leafier items from her plot before the predicted Friday mornintg frost. Together, with myself, Tonia and a lady from a neighbouring building, we spent almost 45 minutes trying to lure him into the corral we constructed from the x-pen, using carrot pieces, just-harvested celery tops, and the neighbours mini-carrots from her lunch. But, like every other night, MB got away as the light faded. That bastard! Clearly a different tactic was needed.

No MB friday morning — but we expected that. It was -4°C when we got up, he was most likely dead, or in his hiding spot. I was confident though that if he was around that evening, we would catch him.

We got home after our study date, to find our neighbours had just spotted him hopping around the brush just to the East of our place. This was easily an hour earlier than his usual arrivial time, but colder days and hunger I imagined motivated MB to get as much food as he could.

We had discussed the idea previously of trying to drop the top wire-cage part of our old bunny hutch on him, but the mechanics of that were a little sketchy. Instead, we opted for a more passive approach. I set the cage-top up near to the building in the school yard where MB loitered, and where we had been leaving the veggies. I propped up the near side with a length of wood, which has some string attached to it — it was just like a trap you’d see in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I piled the remaining veggies under the cage top, played out about 15 feet of string, and sat in the grass to wait. Our neighbour Christian helped to drive MB towards the cage, and once he smelled the veggies, he was drawn magnetically to them. I paused a second, yanked the string, the cage fell, and MB was captured at last.

He was not impressed. Upon closer inspection, he didn’t look to be in too bad of shape. A little chunk from his ear missing, either from a close call with a predator, frost bite, or some preexisting injury. We transferred MB and the veggies into the pet carrier and brought him inside. We set up the old bunny hutch with hay, little, pellets, more veggies and hiding spot and deposited MB inside — where he is right now.

MB’s future I think is rosier than it was, but still not great. In the morning, we are going to take him to the pound. We don’t really have the capacity to take care of a third bunny right now, and with any luck, he’ll get adopted out to some family that won’t abandon him as winter sets upon us. However, if it comes down to MB having to be put down for lack of finding a home, we’ll probably take him in.

I imagine MB’s owners thought they were doing him a favour returning him to the ‘wild,’ but it was more like a death sentence. I don’t understand the people that did this, and I hope some karmic retribution is on its way. But for the time being, I rest easy knowing MB is sitting safe and warm with a fully belly in our house.

Mystery Bunny inside, enjoying warmth and carrots.

Update, 21-Sep-2010

Timely article from 20-Sep-2010 Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/when-cottontail-doesnt-just-want-to-run-free/article1714624/

Reflections on Edmonton Winter driving.

9-December 2009 in diatribe by jordan | 2 comments

Rules for driving in snow in Edmonton:

2 lanes become 1; Similarly, 3 lanes become 1 and 4 lanes become 1.5;
please make sure to disregard all lane markings, and just guess where your 1 to 1.5 lanes are.
yellow lights are green lights
red lights are optional.
every lane is a turning lane.
turn signals are more optional than before.
loss of traction at intersections is solved by a whole lotta floorin’.
corollory: you should* gun your truck and fish tail in every intersection.

if your truck has Truck Nutz, you are required to fish tail in every intersection — if you don’t, you will have your nutz taken away

snow negates curbs.
snow negates sidewalks.
snow negates pedestrians.
Don’t brush the snow off your car. Do you want to look like a chump?
All hi-beams, all the time.
Advance into intersections, even if you aren’t going to clear it on the light. It won’t be your fault when you block the intersection (because of the snow, you see)
If someone ahead of you chooses to wait it out, and doesn’t advance into a gridlocked intersection, be sure to honk at them, to let them know they are keeping you an extra 20 m and precious minutes from your destination

I’ve seen all of these things happen since Friday. I’ll undoubtedly see even more as winter contiues, so I’ll be sure to update the list.

Snow Storm

5-December 2009 in by jordan | No comments

When we went to bed on Thursday, it was cold out, but there wasn’t much snow on the ground, and didn’t quite seem like winter. November had been particularly balmy, in a relative sense anyway. December has made up for November’s dalliances however, as evidenced by the scene that greeted us friday morning…

This is what it’s like out back:

It snowed all day Friday, and continues as I write this Saturday Afternoon. Looks like winter has arrived.

Closed. All the way.

6-August 2009 in by jordan | No comments

It’s done! Woot!

Closed. Sorta.

5-August 2009 in diatribe, old place by jordan | No comments

Well, the end is (perhaps) in sight. That said, this drama is not entirely over.

Tuesday morning, I got a call from our lawyer. Still no mortgage money from the other party. They have paid partly for the old place with the cash part of the considerations (deposit and down payment), but the majority is still outstanding, and will be until their bank releases the mortgage funds. As it stands, they are accruing interest on the balance, payable to us, calculated at the end of each day.

Now, this sort of delay isn’t totally unusual. When I bought the place in 2006, there was such a burden on the land titles office that there was a chance they wouldn’t be able to file the paperwork in time — meaning come possession day, the title might not be transferred, but I could still move in and temporarily be a tenant in that place until everything goes through. Luckily, I opted for the title insurance, which covered any costs associated with that sort of arrangement (interest penalties, mainly.)

The reason our lawyer called was that despite not having paid for it yet, the other side wanted the keys so they could take possession. Instead of the money they owe us, they provided what amounts to (I guess) a promissory note saying “we will, totally, like pay you (plus interest) as soon as we have the money, dude”

So, to recap;

Closing day was the 31st of July (last friday). This was the day they were supposed to pay us the agreed price, and our lawyer would dispense the money as required (pay our mortgage, pay the realtors, and give the ok for the land titles jazz, and then release the keys)
Closing day was missed because their bank didn’t have all their mortgage paperwork in order. At midnight on the 1st of August, the buyers were in arrears to us some serious coin, and started to owe us interest on those funds.
We’re not the only ones waiting for money — our bank was informed that our mortgage was going to be discharged by July 31st. They stopped taking the payments out of our accounts, but it certainly hasn’t stopped accruing interest. All that interest will have to be accounted for in the final payout. It should work that the penalty the buyers are paying should cover it, but still, I would rather have that large debt off our books.
The buyers, as of today (5-Aug) are *still* waiting on their bank to release their mortgage funds, and it seems the source of this delay is the time it takes to courier documents across the country. Why they didn’t get their paperwork in order in the 35+ days before closing day, I don’t know.
even though they haven’t paid for it in full, they would like the keys in exchange for a solemn promise to pay, thankyouverymuch

I didn’t decide right away when they asked us for the keys. I don’t know what the risks are in doing something like this — what if they jam out at the last minute? What if their mortgage doesn’t come through (although it should — it was a condition of their offer)? What if they flood the place after the get posession — who would be responsible for all of that damage and hassle?

Our lawyer, who’s been practicing for some time, said that this temporary tenancy arrangement isn’t uncommon. If it does go south, it is simply a matter of transferring the title back to me, and then raining a breech of contract lawsuit down upon the ex-buyers like an angry fist of god. While he’s been practicing, our lawyer has seen this kind of agreement fail only once — and that was the result of a bank going into receivership between the time of the mortgage preapproval, and closing day. Say what you will about the current financial situation, but I don’t think any of the Canadian banks (the chartered ones, anyway) are in any danger of collapsing in the next week. Also, the buyers have to carry insurance as part of this tenancy agreement, so if anything blows up, it’s on them to deal with it.

So we agreed to it. They will pay us (plus interest) when their bank comes through with their mortgage money (any day now, apparently), and in exchange, we gave them the keys Tuesday afternoon. Our lawyer will let us know when the money comes in, and will do the things on his end he needs to do at that time. There is nothing left for us to do, except wait for the day when we are freed from that mortgage.

So, it’s done (for the most part).

Closing Day. Or not.

31-July 2009 in diatribe by jordan | No comments

So, today at 12:00 pm we were to walk away free from the old place.

At 2pm today, I get a call from our Realtor along the lines of “Closing – not going to happen today.”

Turns out the buying party, in the 45 days since making the offer, and 38 days since removing conditions, failed to get all the required signatures on all the required mortgage documents, flitting between lawyers. One of the buyers is in another province — but that isn’t news — they knew about this (as did we) when the final offer was agreed upon. The ball was entirely in their court to ensure that whatever steps needed to be taken in order to fulfill their contractual and duty (to take posession and give us the money) by the date specified on the purchase contract. That hasn’t happened, and likely won’t until next week.

So where are we now? Well, the place is in the dark, as the power was shut off at noon today. I don’t know if they have made arrangements to turn it back on yet. The insurance, also due to expire today at noon has been temporarily extended until Friday. If they can’t get their act together by then, we have to purchase a new policy.

The buyers, as of noon today, started to pay interest on the money they owe us — 5.25% / annum. Seems like a lot, but by next week it will only work out to a around $100. Poor compensation, if you ask me, if we are on the hook for another mortgage payment and another month of condo fees. The next question to answer is; at what point does the situation move from being merely delayed, to them breaching their contractual obligation to (a) pay us and (b) take posession in a timely manner. If its the latter, there will be a lot more lawyering involed.

I’m pretty upset by the whole thing. After the ordeal we’ve had in trying to carry and sell it, this is just one more setback in what seemed a doomed, expensive proposition. We had a countdown calendar and everything, and today was clearly marked “0 days left! We made it!” As it stands now, it’s lying.

Smell. You. Later.

23-June 2009 in old place, yeah fuckin' wooo! by jordan | No comments

Finally, after 3 listing agreements, 201 days total listing, and precisely one-year to the day of taking possession of the bubblehouse, we finally sold our old condo. I think it had something to do with the staging our realtor Matt Barry arranged. Have a look, why not:

All these pictures come from Matthew Barry’s website: http://www.matthewbarry.ca.

It’s way classier that it ever was when either I or Tonia lived there. To give you an idea of the effectiveness of the staging, it had dozens of showings while vacant, but no offers. After staging and furnishing on the 16th of June, it had one showing, and it generated an offer. Was it the furniture? All I can say is maybe, after all correlation does not imply causation, but hot-damn, that furniture sure caused us to sell that place!

The new owners take possession on July 31, 2009. Believe us, we’ve started our countdown timer. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Busy times!!!

13-June 2009 in house by jordan | No comments

So, it’s finally spring, with 7 days to spare. In that spirit, Tonia and I started to do some Spring cleaning type things. I’m going to write about one of them.

In May, our basement was all discombobulated as a result of electricians coming in to upgrade the power to our unit. As an aside, we went from 30(!) amps to 100 amps — a pretty nice improvement. Well, our service before was more than 30 amps, but it was running through wires only rated for 30 amps. Scary!

Anyway, because the contractors needed access to the electrical panel and pretty much that whole end of the basement, we had to schlep all the stuff that had been carefully piled along that wall to new locations. By carefully piled, I mean we let stuff lay where it dropped for the most part.

Starting last weekend, after the contrators finished their work, I started the process of putting everything back. Except this time I was smart, and did a little bit of organizing at the same time. I put up shelves, organized items into areas (camping area, paint area, pantry area, etc.) and put everything into its place.

The result:

Tidy basement, with extra electricity! Click to embiggen.

A neat and tidy basement with lots of room for more stuff (i.e. foosbal table!) and other projects. I’ve rediscovered the top of my work bench as well, and I’m going to put that to use soon with some more silk screen projects, and some other handy-type things.