Neighbour Business

When you live in a town you have neighbours, and at times it is hard to deal with them. Some people just have a personality that doesn't work well with others, and if you are like me you have the misfortune of buying a house next to one of those people. For the record I am not going to use names here so not to get myself in trouble, but if you know me and if you know who I live next to you will know exactly who it is I am referring to. Our neighbour had a fence that was falling down when we moved in 5 years ago. One of the first things I was assured was that he was going to put in a new fence soon. This guy is a carpenter who builds things with wood for a living yet he had the worst fence in town. 4 years went by before he decided to put up a new fence. He never once approached us about splitting the costs of a fence. Not once did he ever come by with a Presentation of costs or ask if we were interested in putting up a connecting fence in our back and front yard. And last July he tore down his fence and went to work putting up his new fence. 

One day as I was getting ready to leave for work on a Nightshift when he approached me. He asked if he could cut down a tree on my side of the fence because he was worried it would be in his way. I told him it was OK. He then asked me to help him take it down and I explained that I couldn't as I was leaving for work. The next day I arrived home to discover that not only had he taken down the tree but landed it on my shed. The shed wasn't a complete write off but there is enough damage now that water can get in if it rains. I was not happy. He then asked to take down another tree, one that was in fact rotting. We agreed to have him take it down, he would have to charge me for the second tree with all the work involved and with the damage to the shed that the final cost for the tree removal was $300. He cut down the tree and left it laying in my back yard. I assumed he would haul it away as he had with the first tree but apparently he felt that warrented a separate charge. I had to cut up the rest of the tree and haul it away myself. 2 weeks later he drops off a bill with my Wife as I was at work: Total Bill was almost $900!!! He charged me for the first tree and for hauling it away. He also charged me for labor and equipment rental. I didn't pay it of course and waited for him to approach me. By the end of August he built up the nerve to approach me and ask for his money. I told him I would pay for the $300 we agreed to because it was a deal I did make with him and I am a man of my word, even though at that time in hindsight I knew I shouldn't have agreed to anything from that shyster, but as I said I am a man of my word. He wasn't happy with that news but took the $300 agreed to. 

This Sunday I was mowing the lawn when he approached me again. He asked me to please remove all my stuff that was leaning up against his fence, since I didn't pay for half of it I shouldn't be putting my stuff up against it. Apparently he is worried that my kids toys and bikes leaning up against 'his' fence may deteriorate it. So I told my son who was standing there (with my neighbour in ear shot) to please move everything off the fence 1 centimetre so not to damage his fence. 

I have had it with this guy. I've been told he is a shady businessman and from my dealings with him as his neighbour lead me to believe that it is true. I just hope in my next home that my neighbours are good decent people. 

 

It is a beautiful fence. Too bad it has created so many problems. 

Antique Car Rally 2012: Pt II

Heres some more pics from the Antique car rally which started in Fort Assiniboine and ended with the street display in Barrhead. It was a beautiful Saturday event.

Chris and nephew Damien

Antique Car Rally 2012

Heres a few pics from the Antique Car Rally which starts in Fort Assiniboine, my former hometown and ends in my current hometown of Barrhead. Some very cool cars here. Will post more photos later.

Chris with nephew Damien in front of his favourite car: a Ford Mustang

Blog #29: Music I like

1- AC/DC
They are the greatest band in the world in my opinion. The first time I was exposed to their music was in grade 6. It was the end of the school year and they were having an end of the year "Air band" concert. The boys in my class banded together and Paul, who was an AC/DC fan decided on what song we would pretend to play. "Money Talks" by AC/DC. It was a controversial choice at the time because the song had the word "sex" in it and we were in grade 6, playing to younger elementary kids. Mr Lee's head was ready to explode but it was Mrs Dievert who gave us the green light to go ahead with our song. Paul was our lead singer, Clayton and Jon played guitar. I'm not sure what Tyler was doing, I think he was just doing flips and rolls to impress the kids and I played the drums. We kicked ass and won the competition and as our reward we got to pick a free item from the snack cart!! Wow, we were rock stars!!

"Back in Black", "Who made Who", " The Razors Edge" and "High Voltage" are their greatest albums. Anytime I've been to a bar or dance and one of their songs come on the dance floor becomes packed. They have great tunes that most people love to party to. They had some stinker albums and songs but no one is perfect. Anyway my goal is to one day see them live in their home nation of Australia, which might be a few years from now. Not to worry , the guys of AC/DC may be getting old but they ain't going anywhere anytime soon.

____________________________________________

2- The Tragically Hip
My good buddy Dennis DeGroot first introduced me to the Hip in 1996. I instantly became a fan after hearing "New Orleans is Sinking" for the first time, I went out and bought all their albums. Dennis had the greatest Grad song when he graduated in 97 with "Long Time Running" by the Hip.My cousin Lenny's grad song I believe was "Ahead by a Century" by the Hip in 1999.

Dennis got us tickets to see the Hip live at Rexall place in 1996 on either November 12th or 13th, they had 2 shows and I cannot remember what show we went to. My parents allowed me to take the day off of school to attend. The Hip was amazing to see live and they put on a hell of a show.
__________________________________________

3- Meatloaf
You couldn't grow up in our house without being a Meatloaf fan. If you hated Meatloaf in our house you were sold to the circus like my brother "Little Jimmy"... just kidding I had no little brother sold to the circus. But my Mom listened to Meatloaf so much when we were growing up you developed a love for his music. "Bat out of Hell" was the greatest album in history in my opinion. Not only is Meatloaf a great musical artist he's also a great actor. Mom and I went to Rexall Place in March 2007 to see him live in concert. Meatloaf isn't the young energetic man he was in the 70's and his Bat out of Hell songs were a lot slower now, but it was still a great show and performance.
______________________________________

4- Aerosmith
Aerosmith is a great band and deserves to be at #4 on my list. Who doesn't love "Walk this way", "Dream on" or "Janie's got a gun". Steven Tyler is easily one of the greatest singers in history.

______________________________________

5- Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is one of those bands who rocked the 80's and have continued to endure through 2009. "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Bad Medicine" and "Livin' On A Prayer" are classics that still kick ass today. They lived the rock and roll dream: hit music, best selling albums, cool hair, cool clothes and lots of women. They also did the music for the movie "Young Guns II" which is still a great movie 19 years later, in fact if you look closely Bon Jovi himself makes a cameoappearance in the film.
__________________________________________

6- Metallica
I have been a fan of Metallica since 1990 when their "Black" album came out with the hits "Enter Sandman" and "Sad But True" and later the Load and Reload albums were released and I was hooked. My friend Dennis got a group of us from the good ol' Fort school tickets to the "Reload tour" concert when it came to Rexall Place in Edmonton in May 1997. It was a great show, absolutely incredible. There was 2 stages set up and they were always playing on one stage which seemed odd to me. Then I witnessed something horrible and fascinating, Metallica died. Their stage exploded and collapsed and they appeared to have been killed in the worst disaster Rexall place had ever seen. The lights turned on in the arena and an ambulance was brought in and the arena workers began to search the stage rubble. I was freaking out and so was my buddy Clayton...had we really seen them die?  Then the lights turned out and the spot light focused on the other stage and Metallica began the second half of their show. It was awesome!!!
_________________________________________

7- Michael Jackson
A few years back the world lost the King of pop, Michael Jackson. His death was a tremendous loss to the music world. Despite all the weird stories and the weird behaviour exhibited by Michael Jackson he was a hell of an entertainer. His "Thriller" album is still the top selling album of all time after 25 years. But his death had an effect on me. I grew up watching his music videos, I own the Thriller album and when in Disneyland my family and I went to his "Captain EO movie". He was an incredible singer and dancer, his music and videos changed the face of modern music forever. Watching the story of his death played out on the news and all the people from around the world mourning his loss amazes me. Despite all the allegations and body changing procedures he went through it didn't matter. He was the "King of Pop" and his life and music had a positive effect on millions around the world. Rest in peace Michael, may you find the peace in death that you didn't find in life.
________________________________________

8- Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks is in my opinion the Elvis Presley of country music, just forget the whole "Chris Gaines" fiasco. I love to sing to his music while driving and at the bar. "Friends in Low Places" and "The Thunder Rolls" are two of his all time classics.

______

9- Queen
The are classic and really are a combination of rock and opera. I'm sure if Freddy Mercury were still alive today they would still be touring and selling out arenas. When the Oilers won all 5 of their Stanley cups the song "We are the Champions" could be heard in the background. Now every sports team that wins a championship plays that classic Queen song. Remember watching "Wayne's World" and head banging to "Bohemian Rhapsody"? They are a great classic band.
___________________________________________

10- Madonna
The Material girl is without a doubt in my mind the greatest female artist. She and Michael Jackson defined 80's music and changed it for the better. Who hasn't heard "Like a Virgin" or "Papa Don't Preach". She has always been a controversial figure and has a reputation for being a very sexual woman. She was married to Sean Penn, dated Warren Beatty and co-starred with him in the 1990 film "Dick Tracy". Her best acting role came in the movie "A League of Their Own", a 1992 comedy-drama film about the first all woman baseball league during World War II. Today she's still making music and adopting litters of orphaned African kids.
________________________________________

* The Rest of the Best (in no real particular order) *

11- Foo Fighters
12- Alice Cooper
13- Live
14- Elvis Presley
15- John Fogerty/CCR
16- The Rolling Stones
17- Billy Joel
18- Nazareth
19- The Beatles
20- Crash Test Dummies
21- Barenaked Ladies
22- No Doubt/Gwen Stefani
23- Nirvana
24- Nickelback
25- Trooper
26- Pixies
27- Everclear
28- Silverchair
29- Sublime
30- Blue Rodeo

#20 Crash Test Dummies I went to see with my buddy Ardy in 1999 at "Reds" in West Edmonton Mall.
It was a great show. The lead singer was drunk and was saying anything and everything on his mind. They are a cool Canadian band from Winnipeg. The female co-singer Ellen Reid is surprisingly beautiful, I had heard her sing "The Balled of Peter Pumpkinhead" so many times but had never actually seen her before. The Dummies have a lot of hits that you may not realize is theirs, a lot of their music is featured in several movies.

 

#25 Trooper is another great Canadian band from Vancouver, they came to Barrhead and played in the old Barrhead Inn Tavern October 2003. My Mom, Brianna and I went to see them and they put on a hell of a show. They are an older group of guys but they can still rock and sound great, they also did newer music like "Smooth Criminal". If you get a chance to see Trooper go see them you will not be disappointed. Here's a few of their hits: 1977 – "We're Here For A Good Time (Not a Long Time)" , 1978 – "Raise A Little Hell", and 1979 – "The Boys in the Bright White Sportscar".


- AC/DC is my favourite band in the world. The Tragically Hip is the greatest Canadian Band ever. And Meatloaf is a musical genius that can never be duplicated. 

The End To 'The Cola Dog'

'The Cola Dog' blog has come to an end. It's not that I haven't enjoyed working on the blog, but it just hasn't been getting the views to warrant getting the weekly attention it has been getting from me. And really maintaining 3 weekly blogs while holding a full time job (and having worked over 300 overtime hours so far in 2012) is just a bit much, so I decided to let go of 'The Cola Dog'. But you need not worry I still intend to write blogs about comic books and animation from time to time, and those blogs can be found on my 'Random Nerdness' blog. So if this is your first time checking out 'The Cola Dog' blog be sure to check out my otherblogs:

www.randomnerdness.blogspot.com

(A blog about anything and everything, especially stuff in the Sci-fi/fantasy/comic books/television/movie/beer/books realm)

And

www.trek1701.blogspot.com

(A blog devoted to the world of Star Trek) 

I have something else I intend to branch into, another form of multi-media, but I cannot say anything at this time. Look for an announcement this summer or fall (hopefully). Anywho if you are a reader of 'The Cola Dog' or have checked it out in the past allow me to say "Thank you". It has been a fun experience. See you on the other blogs!

Blog #28: School Time Again

Yet another tale from my school days of so long ago... in a time far far away....

 

Shop Class

 

Back in junior high at the Fort Assiniboine School they used to bus us kids in grade 8 and 9 to Barrhead so we could take Shop class and Home Economics. I loved going to these classes cause it was always nice to get out of the Fort school and go somewhere else. I had some interesting times there and now I'll share a few memorable and not so memorable moments from those years. Shop class was full of accidents, I accidentally sanded my finger on a sanding table while trying to sand some wood. I forgot to wear my gloves. I remember Tyler Kluin cutting his hand with a utility knife during leather working. I also remember Tyler cutting his own power cord while using a jigsaw...Tyler was a little scary to be around in shop class.

 

I remember one act of stupidity on my part. One day I was at a work table building a locker organizer out of wood for myself. Tyler had left a tape measure near where I was hammering, and he left it extended. Not noticing the tape measure I hammered the end of it, squishing the end piece completely. Being mad at Tyler for leaving his tools lying around and not thinking I proceeded to continue smashing what I thought was Tyler's tape measure. Why I did that I will never know, but when Tyler returned he informed me that it was not his but the teachers, Mr. Tiemstra. The reality of what happened hit me like ton of bricks, I was going to be in some serious shit, Mr Tiemstra had a bad temper. I attempted to hide the tape measure but it was found and returned to Mr. Tiemstra (Mr T we called him) and Mr T hit the roof. He started to yell at the whole class and wanted the person who wrecked his tape measure to come forward. I froze in fear...what the hell was I gonna do? Mr T told us he would wait in the hall for the person responsible to come out and admit their guilt or we would spend the rest of the year drafting in shop class. Mr T left the room. We took shop and home ec with a class from Neerlandia as well and all my friends assumed one of them had done it. Mike stood up and started to yell at the Neerlandian kids to admit they did it. It was spinning quickly out of control, so with great shame I stood up and left the room, Mike and all my classmates were shocked to see it was me admitting guilt. Mr T stood in the hall and seemed too to be shocked at myself leaving the classroom. "I'm sorry Mr T, I hit it by accident at first then I just acted stupid and smashed it". Mr T seemed disappointed but never yelled or lost his temper and accepted my apology and told me all will be forgiven as long as I replace his tape measure. I replaced it the next shop class and all was forgiven and forgotten. I still feel like a shit head for my stupidity, but such is life.

 

Another memorable moment was a time when Paul got into a fight with a Barrhead high school kid, and the story goes like this: Paul and Mike thought they were tough guys and prior to shop class Paul decided to pick a fight with a Barrhead grade 11 student named Curtis. Curtis was popular, a ladies man and had a reputation for being a fighter. I had actually met him the summer before, he had a crush on my cousin Irene and was trying to date her. So while trying to win over my cousin he befriended me while I was staying at my Granny Lockhart's place. He was a nice guy and I didn't understand why Paul wanted to fight him. Paul planned to pick a fight with him while Mike and Joe would be his back-up in case Curtis's friends tried to jump in, or to stop Curtis if he was too tough for Paul. When I asked them why they wanted to fight him they just rolled their eyes at me and ignored my question...Mike, Paul and Joe could be jerks to me at times in school. Anyway that afternoon during recess at shop class we all stood in the hallway and Curtis and his friends walked by. Paul started in on Curtis by asking him what his problem was. Curtis went immediately into fight mode and got in Paul's face. Curtis had about 4 or 5 large friends standing by. Paul made a comment about Curtis's jacket and Curtis asked him if Paul had been the one who spit on it. I had no idea what they were talking about but Paul said 'yes' he was the one. Paul made the mistake of picking a fight while having his hands in his front jean pockets. Curtis wasted no time and started throwing punches at Paul. He started punching him and threw Paul to the ground hard and was on top of him punching him. Paul wore tight jeans and could not get his hands out to defend himself. I looked at Mike and Joe knowing they were supposed to jump in and stop him but they did nothing. They stood there in shock as Paul was getting the life pounded out of him. Curtis's friends cheered him on and his assault got more intense and some one had to act... and so I did. I grabbed Curtis from behind and pulled him off Paul, throwing him up against a nearby wall. It happened so fast and I acted so quickly I didn't think, but I was sure Curtis and or his friends would start pounding on me. God bless my cousin Irene, Curtis was so into her that he couldn't pound on me.

"Chris, I don't want to hurt you cause I'm friends with Irene" he told me. He looked and acted like a caged tiger ready to pounce.

"Listen he's my friend and I can't let you beat the crap out of him anymore" I informed him. Curtis's friends were telling him to kick my ass too...but he simply walked away.

"Your lucky your Irene's cousin" he told me as he left with his friends.

I was a hero to my classmates and Paul thanked me for saving his ass. I was a big kid in Grade 8 but Curtis and his friends were in grade 11 and a lot bigger and stronger than me. Even though Irene was not there that day she saved my ass cause I'm sure if it wasn't for Curtis wanting to get with her he would have kicked the shit out of me that day too.

 

Good times at Shop Class

________________________________________________________________

 

Live Long And Prosper!

 

- Chris

Not going to 'Spock Days'

Sadly I had to cancel my trip to Vulcan Alberta this year due to the fact that I now have to work that weekend, and I am unable to get out of it. But I intend to go next Summer.... But I am still attending the Edmonton Pop Culture Fair, September 23rd at the Alberta Aviation Museum.