Juliette and I have been batting the idea of a second car around for months and with winter fast approaching, we decided it was finally time. Fuel efficiency is important to us and we don’t need too much room for cargo because we have the Mazda, so we have been looking pretty seriously at the Smart car.

I found a few online today, so I went out and test drove two. I was surprised how roomy they are inside and how well they drive. It is more comfortable than the Civic was and even has more pep. In the end, I bought a 2006 diesel convertible with only 37,700km. Hopefully the Mazda will still sit in the driveway most days, but at least we have alternatives now.

Luckily we are pretty much packed up and most of the boxes are already in the POD. We just have the heavy stuff like couches and appliances to take out and then we are done. I must say, a POD is a very civilized way to move. They drop a container in your driveway, you pack it at your leisure and then on the day of your move, it appears at your new place to unpack. There is none of the stress of the one day dash to get everything moved!

Saturday, we are having a yard sale to get rid of a lifetime of crap that has built up. The new house is much smaller, so we have already given away and sold a fair amount of our furniture. It will be nice to live with less.

This map has a transparent background, so you can load it and it will show on top of your other maps. I would recommend Garmin’s Topo US 2008, or if you want to save some money, the excellent free NY Topo. This map is for Garmin GPS devices only and can be loaded into their free MapSource software.

Thanks to Jon Sundquist for the Allegany State Park information.

Downloads

1. Installer for Windows
2. TGZ file for Mac

The Apple version of the map is untested. Please let me know if it works.

Please send feedback, corrections and updates to rob (at) prouse (dot) org. You can send new trails in GPX format, but I can handle most common GPS file formats. If there is enough interest, I will try to release the maps compiled for other GPSs.

The maps are for reference only and contain inaccuracies. Data for the trails comes from many sources and all have not been verified. Trails also regularly get re-routed, trails are closed and new trails are opened. I’m not responsible for how you use the data, or any inaccuracies.

This map has a transparent background, so you can load it and it will show on top of your other maps. I would recommend Garmin’s Topo US 2008, or if you want to save some money, the excellent free NY Topo. This map is for Garmin GPS devices only and can be loaded into their free MapSource software.

A big thanks goes out to the Western New York Mountain Bicycling Association for the data and maps that they provide. They gave me a great start on this project.

Installation

1. Download EVL.1.13.zip UPDATE: v1.14 released.
2. Copy the contents of the ZIP file to C:\Garmin\EVL
3. Navigate to C:\Garmin\EVL and double click on Ellicottville Mountain Biking.reg to install the maps into MapSource.
4. If you are running 64 bit Windows, instead of #3, double click on Ellicottville Mountain Biking x64.reg to install into MapSource.

Currently, I only have the Ellicottville trails covered. I will add other areas as I get time, probably starting with Golden Hill.

Please send feedback, corrections and updates to rob (at) prouse (dot) org. You can send new trails in GPX format, but I can handle most common GPS file formats. If there is enough interest, I will try to release the maps compiled for other GPSs. I will probably also try to create a Mac version for my Apple minded friends.

The maps are for reference only and contain inaccuracies. Data for the trails comes from many sources and all have not been verified. Trails also regularly get re-routed, trails are closed and new trails are opened. I’m not responsible for how you use the data, or any inaccuracies.

Most of all, have fun and play safe.

Juliette did the house inspection on Beach Blvd last night and everything is fine, so we have waived all of the conditions in our offer and the deal is done. We take possession on November 2nd.

While we were there, I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to the photo album so that we could remember the layout and size of all the rooms. The house is much smaller than our place on Rossmore, so we are going to have to sell or give away a fair amount of our furniture. It will be nice to make a fresh start!

The only issues with the house are some aluminum wiring and the wood stove is not to code. The aluminum wiring is all done properly, and the inspector said it should easily pass an ESA inspection, so insurance may not be a problem. As for the wood stove, we’ll have to see what the insurance company says. Worst case, we won’t use it, or replace it with a gas unit.

We are home for the weekend so Juliette could do a final exam, so I am spending this rainy day going through everything and throwing the accumulated crap away. It is a liberating feeling.

Our neighbours, Tim and Ginny had several of their kids and grandchildren down, so Saturday afternoon we saddled up the horses and took the grand-kids for a ride. We also went for a bike ride, swam in the pond, hiked through the forests and explored Ellicottville.

We haven’t had much chance lately to spend time with Lori away from the kids, so it was nice to just relax, catch up and spend some time together. I hope we get a chance to do it again soon.

The house on Rossmore is too big for us and now that we have the chalet, maintaining the gardens is becoming a fair amount of work. We love the openness and the light of the chalet. We are comfortable there, but don’t feel the same way on Rossmore. Knowing how happy the chalet makes us, we wanted to capture that feeling at home.

Monday, I was on the MLS website, searching Burlington and area for a place that suited us. I was pretty discouraged looking at all the cookie-cutter suburban homes, but then I searched down the beach strip and found a small beach cottage that had been recently renovated with big bright windows, oak and slate floors, a big open basement for our bikes and kayaks, and a reasonable distance from work.

Tecla was over for dinner, so we went for an evening drive down the beach strip to check out the house, the area and the other places for sale. I had been watching the area for years and was impressed by what I saw. The area used to be pretty run down, but things are changing. Cottages are being renovated or torn down and rebuilt. The entire area is up and coming and we loved the look of the house and the area.

Tuesday, I called Justin and told him we would sell Rossmore if the price was right and set up a viewing of the house on the beach. Just like the chalet, as soon as we walked in the front door, we knew we wanted it. We looked around, talked about it for a few minutes and put in an offer that night.

Unfortunately the offer was rejected because of the condition on the sale of our house. Well, if selling our house was what was required, selling our house is what we would do. We both came home early on Wednesday and did a whirlwind tidy and prep of the house. That night at seven, Justin brought the person who had contacted him through. At 7:20, I was meeting with Justin and discussing price.

Thursday, our buyer was arranging financing and Friday after work we had a deposit and a signed offer. We put in an offer on the beach house and left for a long weekend in Ellicottville before we even knew for sure if it would be accepted.

Saturday, I received an email on my phone. Juliette and I are soon to be the proud owners of a small beach bungalow!!!

I am going for an inspection on Friday, so I will take some pictures and upload them so you can see what it is like. Meanwhile, check out the MLS listing while it lasts.

I have uploaded the photos that I took from the wedding to an album in the gallery. Hopefully I will find some time to caption them soon, but there are many great shots of the wedding and the family, so check them out.

So far, the weather down here has been amazing, sunny and in the high teens, low twenties. Our winter white pasty look is darkening with the biker tans and our legs are feeling the thousands of feet we are climbing each day. We need to head off for dinner in a few minutes, so I’ll keep this update short, but make sure you check back for more soon. I’ve been taking hundreds of pictures. I’ll post them when I get back.

I am a strong believer that it is not an either/or argument between capitalism and communism. I believe that economic prosperity can be found somewhere between capitalism and communism. Markets need some regulation to prevent unfair competition and exploitation of workers & resources. Society needs the safety nets of unemployment insurance and health care.

Corporations could act responsibly and for the long term good of both their shareholders and society as a whole if the investors in those companies took a personal interest beyond the short term returns of their investments. We are all guilty of this. Most of us don’t even know what companies we are invested in since most of our savings are in mutual funds and RRSPs.

It is partly this disinterest on the part of investors and the focus on short term profits that got us into the mess that we are currently in. Investors and senior executives seem to only be interested in draining as much profit out of companies as possible.

In 1980, executives at large companies made about 40 times what the average worker made. Last year, CEOs made about 360 times more than the average worker.

I believe that we need to figure out how to make corporations accountable to the people and society as a whole. An excellent example is the Mountain Equipment Co-op, which is owned by the people who shop there, is very successful and socially responsible. I don’t know how we can make more corporations responsible, but I think it is an important area to explore.

If you have ideas, please comment.