Flyfishing in the Pitt River

Saturday, June 26th, 2010 took a jet boat to the headwaters of Pitt Lake. It is a wonderful, wild place less than two hours from Vancouver. The fishing consisted of sating a large fly - fish imitation, upstream and after mending the line letting it drift with the current until it had swung around. A slow retrieve was often when the fish would hit. I went with two other fishing companions and between the three of us we landed more than 20 Dolly Varden. A spoon on a spinning rod was the best ticket but I stuck to the fly. Spectacular scenery and well worthwhile. We fished with Matt, a guide from the Pacific Angler shop on Broadway.

War on Junk - Day 25

The junk war has slowed down a bit but no truse has been declared. Here is the day's haul:

1. An octagonal glass jar
2. A stainless steel water bottle sans lih
3. A small glass jar with a lid
4. A small plastic container with a lid
5. A plastic candy divider box
6. A package of anchors for a car
7. An accessory for a defunct dustbuster
8. Tears for Fears CD
9. HP DeskJet 5900 CD
10. A Rockin for Research music CD (we got 2)

War on Junk - Day 23 A Trip to the Dump

Huge junk invasion over the weekend. New TV and home theatre system resulted in a massive pile of cardboard boxes, styrofoam and other packing materials. It required the junk war nuclear option - a trip to the dump. The dump is no longer called a dump, it's called a transfer station. For the privelege of driving to the dump and unloading our garbage, we get to pay a fee. In addition, garbage goes to one location, paints and metals to another and recyclables to a third. They are all in proximity but it seems that the process could be streamlined. For example, to get rid of the paint, you can drive directly to the paint station from within the garbage facility. The collectors were there but wouldn't accept your paint cans until you drove out of the facility, back onto the steet and then turned back into the same facility ten yards down the road where you were met by the same collectors at the same station who would now accept your paint. Not quite sure why we had to do it that way but we did.

What we got rid of today:

1. A cardboard box from the TV
2. Styrofoam from the packing crate
3. Multiple boxes and cardboard inserts from the home theatre packing crate
4. ANother cardboard box
5. A lenght of copper pipe
6. A rotten 2x4
7. A small piece of plywood
8. A drawer from an old piece of furniture
9. A 5 gallon paint container
10. A large ceramic tile

War on Junk - Day 22

Now I'm getting in to the tool/hardware section of our junk cornucopia. Some of this stuff might be useful, but hasn't been used for 20 years, is redundant or has an unknown function. This will be a rich source of crap!

The list:

1. A Prestone lock De-Icer, never used but defunct
2. A vintage pair of pliers
3. A President's Choice jam jar in which I found a piece of lapis and rutilated quartz - bonus!
4. A brass pot
5. A clamp for a specific but unknown purpose
6. Another clamp - ditto
7. A package of toggle bolts 1/8 x 2 inches
8. A package of 2 brass tap seats
9. a plastic box for earplugs - no ear plugs
10. A dual clamp for something - never been used

War on Junk - Day 21 A New Year

It is now 2010. Who knows what this year will bring? My hope is for peace, prosperity, good health and good luck. I watched Dick Clark last night doing the countdown to the New Year. Dick, it's time to retire! He is is an ancient man with a plastic surgeon's deft touch all over his face. He doesn't look old but he sounds like he belongs in an assisted-living retirement home. I digress.

Today's haul:

1. A pair of Italian scissors - not used
2. A redundnat tape gun by 3M
3. A broken plug plate
4. A door stopper
5. A nylon thingamabob.
6. A washer
7. A plastic reservoir cover
8. A light bulb, plug converter
9. A plastic chair leg whatchamacallit
10. A plastic plug plugger

War on Junk - Day 20

Two hundred pieces of junk down! The holidays have been distracting - so many better things to do than look for junk, but I must remain vigilant because new pieces of junk creep in daily. It takes about a hundred items to fill the tote.

Today's list:

1. An American Eagle Sweater
2 and 3. A pair of Swazi candles made in Africa
4. A bundle of tubes
5. A defunct lighter
6. An Ikea attaching device
7. A fridge magnet
8. A Dustbuster attachment
9. A plastic vial
10. A paint brush

War on Junk - Day 19

After a Christmas hiatus, during which a lot of future junk made its way into our house and the war on junk was temporarily suspended, I'm back in the trenches. There are entire stores full of garbage that people foolishly flock to. They're called Dollar Stores and they sell exclusively stuff which will be in the garbage within two weeks of purchase. The only attraction they seem to have is price. However it's not restricted to the dollar stores - my mother-in-law, who is not mechanically inclined, purchased a flashlight this week. She brought it over and handed it to me, because she couldn't get it to work. Thats' not unusual, however this time, there was good reason for her difficulties - it was an unalloyed piece of junk - poorly made, poorly designed, instant garbage, all manufactured in China, blister packed, shipped overseas, stocked in the hardware store, purchased and then discarded. A total waste of resources, energy, time and money.

Today's Junk.

1. A Macanudo Cigar box
2. A cigar cutter - cheap and nasty
3. An aluminum cigar tube
4. A Macadamia Royals chocolate-covered nut tin
5. A lighter
6. A Cortland Fly Line Cleaner - never used and not needed
7. A blade from a sword-shaped letter opener
8. A plastice vial containing iron pyrite flakes
9. A glass jar
10. My Abu-matic reel, given to me by my dad on my 10th birthday. A few years back I disassembled it, then couldn't figure out how to put it back together. Not junk but no longer useful.

War on Junk - Day 18

One of the side benefits of declaring war on junk is that in the 5 minutes I spend selecting the days 10 pieces, I will occaisonally come across something useful. Like today I found my Nikon Coolpix 4500 Guide. I have been looking for it for a couple of years! That's one of the insidious things about junk - it obscures the useful.

Today's Junkorama

1. A Japanese fan box - empty
2. A box containing lacquered paper bows
3. A Kenwood Portable CD player
4. An empty film canister
5. A charging device for something
6. A booklet - Growing Children: A Parent's Guide
7. A bag containing coin tubes.
8. A set of Sony headphones
9. A cord for a computer or printer
10. A plastic round box top

War on Junk - Day 17

Will it never end! There is a lot of this stuff and it's everywhere - in drawers in cupboards, on shelves and in closets.

Todays junk:

1. A Halloween 'hockey mask' - scared the bejesus out of my wife with it yesterday.
2. A cheap flashlight - it would never work if you really needed it
3. A Sony Digicube radio
4. A Gillette Mach 3 Turbo razor handle
5. A pair of earbuds.
6. A pait of Halo Heel shoe inserts
7. A role of Kodak 24 exposures 200 ASA film - expiry date Oct 2004
8. A really cheap and tacky wristwatch
9. An electric razor cleaning brush
10. A plastic monocular

War on Junk - Day 16

Today I emptied the turquoise tote, which was full to the brim. We are now 150 items lighter in the junk department. Another wave of junk is about to come ashore however so we will start to re-fill the tote.

Junk Menu for Today:

1. An unexposed role of Kodak 200 ASA film. Kodak couldn't dodge the digital bullet.
2. A car cell phone charger
3. An ex-mouse
4. A battery charger unsued for many years
5. A plastic electronic device
6. Nick Manoloff's Spanish Guitar Method instructional book- copyright 1935
7. A congratulation for for being Today's Sparkler given to our eldest son in elementary school
8. A drawing of a snowman by one of our kids
9. CD stomper Jewel case insert set
10. A charger for an unknown electronic device

War on Junk - Day 15

One hundred and fifty pieces of junk are now captured and being held prisoner in the turquoise tote. There is no end in sight!

More Junk:

1. An obsolete charger for a cell phone
2, A broken plastice salad server
3. An old tooth brush
4. A lady's razor handle
5. A cork form a bottle of Graham's Port
6. A plastic bag with 4 pennies
7. Half a pen
8. A cord for some electronic device - unknown
9. A sachet of flower food
10. A pewter bob with a west coast native image (Bear?) and the word strength on the back

A Tribute to Paul McCartney

Buy Buy
Says the Sign in the Shop Window
Why Why
Says the Junk in the Yard

Paul McCartney

I have always found that there is a Beatle song for every topic and although "Junk" by Paul McCartney was not a Beatle song, it was written by a Beatle, so close enough. Anyway, to take break from junk to the sublime, I wanted to pay homage to Paul McCartney, a musical genius of incandescent brilliance who has performed a large part of the soundtrack to my life. I just watched "Good Evening New York City" - a DVD about a concert Sir Paul did in Citi Field in the summer of 2009. It included 33 songs, 31 by Paul, one by John Lennon and one by Geaorge Harrison. What is staggering to contemplate is that he could have performed an entirely different collection of 33 Lennon/McCartney or McCartney songs and it would have been just as amazing. I cannot think of another living soul who has such a vast, global reservoir of love and good will among people throughout the world.

Thank you Paul, for creating so much joy and pleasure In My Life. And thanks too to the other 3 Beatles, the dearly departed John Lennon, George Harrison and the indispensible Ringo. You'll Never Know How Much We Really Love You.

War on Junk - Day 14

The banality of this blog is starting to annoy me. Seeking out mundane and useless objects is not as much fun as say - looking for lost treasure. In fact this is pretty much the opposite. We'll see how long I can keep it up.

Junk du jour:

1. A flyer from the municipality
2. A hand-made birthday card
3. A tourist's map of Vancouver
4. The handle to a Schick razor
5. A plastic top for a round container
6. A set of unknown keys on a ring
7. A moustache comb
8. A cleaning brush for a non-existant electric razor
9. A plastic tweezer
10. A nail file

War On Junk - Day 13

A large bolt of fabric showed up in the junk tote. By volume it takes up a lot of space. Then there is the usual culling from various drawers around the house'

Todays' Junk:

1. A bolt of fabric
2. Two obsolete keys on a ring
3. Another obsolete key
4. An eraser
5. An orange peeler (I think we can live without this)
6. A strawberry huller
7. A plastic gizmo
8. A Radio Shack Enercell AA battery
9. A chrome bolt with a washer for something very specific - don't know what!
10. A plastic bag with 2 pennies, a nickel and a US dime.

War on Junk - Day 12

It still only takes about five minutes in my office here at home to identify 10 pieces of useless crap. I have filled the tote at this point, so I will now have to separate the contents into the 3 piles:

1.Garbage
2.Recycling
3.Charity

Here's today's assortment:

1. A black three-ring binder
2. A green scarf
3. An ink pad for a non-existent stamp
4. An obsolete Motorola car cellphone charger
5. An obsolete charging device
6. Another box of bookplates featuring the Ural Owl
7. A block of wood
8. A plastic bag with 2 pennies, two nickels and a dime
9. A useless green bolt
10. A club key

War on Junk - Day 11

A mundane collection of junk from various drawers in the house.

Today's list:

1. A wooden knife
2. A wooden fork
3. A plastic thing
4. A padlock, formerly on my trailer hitch, run over by my wife
5. A fancy string
6. A strawberry huller - who knew such a thing existed?
7. A bolt
8. An unknown key
9. An obsolete key
10. A useless key

War on Junk - Day 10 - A Christmas Special!

Day 10 - One hundred pieces of junk consigned to banishment! It hasn't even made a dent in the chaos, but it does feel good. It was Christmas tree time on the weekend and like every other year, a string of lights no longer works. When I was a child we had the screw in, flame-shaped, multi-coloured lights. If one of them went out, you could replace it. Today's miniature, cheap little twinkly lights are garbage as soon as one light goes out. On my website for Rare and Precious.com, I have a gallery dedicated to the well-made object, items I have owned for decades that are still useful and functional. http://www.rareandprecious.com/

Todays Christmas list.

1. Miniature artificial tree
2. A string of christmas lights
3. A wreath of twigs
4. A cluster of fake cherries
5. A blue glass globe ornament
6. A pink glass globe ornament
7. A red glass globe ornament
8. A white and gold christmas tree ornament
9. A round white plastic attachment for a massage tool
10. Two more of the above

Strictly speaking that's 11 items - we'll call it a Christmas bonus.

War on Junk - Day 9

I have mentioned this project to a few people and it seems to have struck a nerve. Upon hearing that I am eliminating 10 pieces of junk a day some have said "I'm going to do that!" We could call ourselves the junkinistas. Any way, I got rid of some bulky junk today.

Here is the list:

1. A CD for a Samsung computer?
2. Cardboard box for my Blackberry World Edition
3. Cardboard box for the Nikon Macro Cool-Light SL-1
4. Nikon Guide de demarrage rapide for the Coolpix 4500
5. Nikon French Instruction manualfor the Coolpix 4500
6. Nikon multi lingual instruction manual for the Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
7. A plastic black felt tip pen
8. A broken zipper pull.
9. A Nikon Quick start guide for the Coolpix 4500
10. A cork stopper from a Martell Cognac

Ironically, the one thing I really need of all the Nikon stuff is the English instruction manual for my Coolpix 4500 and it is nowhere to be found. I did find some useful accessories for my Blackberry that I didn't know I had - like a car charger and some earphones. The war on junk is having some useful side effects. Who knows what else I will discover once the junk is out of the way?

The War on the War on Junk - Day 8

It turns out, the war in junk is not as popular as I expected. In fact, in some quarters it has been met with scorn and derision. I will however persevere, for I believe it to be a noble and worthy challenge.

Today's Junk:

1. A vintage address book (way before e-mail)
2. Michael Jackson's rehearsal glove
3. An impressive plastic device, precisley made for a very specific and unknown purpose
4. A plastic bag with 1 screw and 1 pencil tip
5. A Nikon Coolpix 4500 French manual
6. A Nikon Battery manual
7. A charging converter for an obsolete device
8. A highliter in a case
9. Telus maual Our Privacy Commitment to You
10. A JDRF folder

War on Junk - Day 7

So today there was one decision that took a little bit of thought. Do I get rid of the box of book plates featuring Hiroshige's Great Wave of Kanagawa? I've had it for more than a decade but I kind of like the idea having bookplates in my books. Bottom line is I like the idea, but not the doing so - 'they're outta here!'

Today's outstanding crop of junk:

1. An Audiologic Portable CD Player with Virtual Skip-Free Protection
2. A CD Stomper for labelling CD's
3. A Telus USB Hub
4. A King of Diamonds playing card
5. A Crayola Super Tips orange felt pen
6. An encore vinyl eraser (we have 3 - never used)
7. A plastic bag containing 2 Canadian dimes, 2 American dimes, 2 Mexican twenty centavos coins, a Maltese 2 cent coin, a Playland game token
8. A box of Hiroshige "Great Wave" bookplates
9. A Rio Grande Tools & Equipment catalogue from 2003
10. A set of 4 obsolete keys