Do you remember life before the internet?
I was born in 1970, but my parents were nowhere near such mainframes in British Columbia. I’m guessing my mum was the first person to work with data entry and retrieval from such systems while she worked at Peach Arch Hospital (in White Rock, BC). One has to remember that computer systems like ARPNET were developed at universities and military installations as a hardened communications network. British Columbia was a backwater province that didn’t need such technology… at least not in the resource extraction sector!
I remember networked computers existing at DW Poppy Secondary (a classroom full of Apple IIe machines), where I learned BASIC programming knowledge. Those Apple IIe were built like tanks and intrigued the hell out of me. I know the Apple IIe lab had their machines networked to a common dot-matrix printer, that students were regularly jamming up. And that 2nd floor room was hot, due to poor ventilation. The offgassing electronics gave that room a unique smell (oh those volitile organic compounds [VOC] poisoning our teenage bodies).
When I was in grades 8 to 11, the teachers didn’t let us “normies” near the special, sponsored computer lab. That was downstairs near the administration office. It had a class set of MacIntosh cubes, in a double-locked, air-conditioned, anti-theft alarmed visual graphics-coding lab. They reserved those Macs for the smart kids, who were being groomed [yeah, I can acknowledge that] for lucrative and prestigious scholarships to nascent CS-programs at UBC, SFU, and far-off-in-Ontarioland-WaterlooU. That Mac-lab did have a dial-up connection to the internet service providers at the time. Compuserve. Direct access to UBC’s or SFU’s CS-department newsgroups. When I was at D.W. Poppy, I took touch typing courses across that lab. Nobody unauthorized was allowed in that room. Super secure and exclusive. An interesting sidenote (for me): I was so nervous about typing class and getting failing grades on inaccurate submissions, I veered away from computers until the mid-90s.
Once I was working at Yves Veggie Cuisine at East Georgia Street, I returned to such technology. That’s where Mavis-Beacon-Teaches-Typing taught me how to touch type with confidence. I also remember YVC sending me to BC Tel’s adult education courses for learning spreadsheet design. Once I met TS, that’s when we got our first desktop computer. Before that, TS and I had our own portable electric typewriters, with a 5-10 cm passively illuminated, calculator-type LCD and memory recall. Sometime after 1993 (when the model debuted in Canada), my now brother-in-law urged us to get a Compaq Presario 425 all-in-1. And a Compuserve account! And a 56K US Robotics modem! And the mother of all dot-matrix printers.
Once I was kicked out of UBC due to poor grades, I went to local colleges (Vancouver Community College [VCC], later renamed Langara College). And that’s where I re-discovered my interest in hiking-power-walking, personal computers, and home telecommunications. I was working by then, so I had money to put away for such toys. Intranets were being developed at both school and work settings. During one of those summers, TS and I went camping to a seaside campground just south of Tofino. That’s where I taught myself about “the internet”. It was my very first “Internet For Dummies” book that I read, took notes, annotated, and educated myself about the history of IT (both ‘it’ and ‘information technology’). That book is in its 14th edition… the version I tore apart was either its 1st or 5th edition! If you’re a newcomer to THE INTERNET, it’s still an excellent primary source. Yes, I still cringe at the series title. The “For Dummies” series uses plain language and plenty of labelled illustrations to walk readers through concepts. I have “For Dummies” books for optics, fishing, chess, DSLR photography, and electronics assembly. I studied that “Internet For Dummies” copy until it disintegrated and was used for firestarter!
TS and I have always been early adopters for new computer technologies. The internet. The world wide web. Hyperlinks. Telephone line based modems. Windows 3.1x, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 10, Windows 12(?), ChromeOS, iOS, iWatchOS, and now MintOS (Linux distribution) and even Raspberry Pi OS.
Do I remember life before the internet? For the first 10-20 years of my relationship with TS (yep, we’ve been together for 37 years as of 2026), we had a paper dictionary and/or abridged encyclopedia in every room. We wanted answers to questions. And with me living with TS… there have been questions about all kinds of things. For relaxation, we took turns reading the dictionary to each other. Before us having a virtual repository of answers, we enjoy positing all kinds of oddball “what if” questions to each other. Now? We chat about significantly more esoteric topics. And all kinds of rhetorical questions. Stand Up philosophy! (or as Bea Arthur said in Mel Brooks’ History Of The World Part 1, “oh a bullshit artist”).
The internet has answers… yes. And plenty of lies, propaganda, and bullshit. The trick now is to critically analyze the online data and internalize its baked-in bias.
I’m reminded of an incident I had with my father-in-law decades ago. I was looking at a bunch of punch cards that he had in the basement of his house. I {{cringe}} started asking him about computers and whether or not they had them at university when he was working there. He was operating computers at York University when they were still the size of classrooms, had false floors, and had elaborate air-cooling systems to keep the mainframes online. Tobey remembered growing up as a pre-teen with boxes of spent computer coding punch cards scattered around their North York home near Earl Haig SS. Heh, my question’s tone to the old bastard pissed him off. YorkU wasn’t some backwater university from back West. They were cutting edge. Pshhh, glass towers of knowledge.
BEAR BIN INSTALLATION. JUNE 2/26 UPDATE.
This was a 2025-Summer project that got delayed because of too many market obligations and me having a disastrous tangle of interactions with a family living just north of Lion’s Head (which, I regret to report is still alive and festering — I’m persona non grata in their household… it’s still painful and the memories sadden me). By the end of May 2026, we had overnight temperatures that were above 10 degrees Celsius…
…So, TS and I were able to resume planning out and scratching out a site for the bin. First, I had to deal with a maddening intermittent electrical glitch on the Polaris ATV. If there’s just one loose fitting, the whole fucking 12VDC system can fail and lock up mid-ride. That’s one of the big disadvantages of this model. The Polaris Sportsman 570 has electrically-powered everything and electronic fuel injection (EFI). When the connections are sound, it’s a wondrous piece of technology. Electric power assisted steering! On-the-fly 2WD-4WD switch over! An electric bail-out winch! Electronically-monitored automatic transmission! Comprehensive monitoring software, where once can plug in a diagnostic unit and see exactly how the EFI engine’s performing! The jarring motions inherent in ATV usage can loosen connections. Aaaaaaaand that’s where the illuminated LCD display starts going blank. And if the connections gets even more loose, the engine will shut down immediately! The automatic braking system kicks in and goes into fail-safe mode.
I didn’t make the same 2025-mistake while cleaning the terminals, fuses, and distribution hub (PN’s 2025 error). I disconnected the POS and NEG terminals from the battery posts… BEFORE TOUCHING THE HUB HIDDEN UNDER THE FRONT HOOD. It might only be 12VDC, but it can generate 1 hell of a spark when a 10mm spanner crosses the connections. Not this year.
In total, we poured concrete 3 times! The first time was with the 2 stale bags of QuickCrete we purchased last summer. It barely covered the 11 bags of gravel we used for the sub-foundation.
Overnight, TS and I recovered with Advil, THC (me, not her), and various other anti-inflammatory agents. Oh, and sleep!
This morning, we finished pour #3. TS had already been outside gardening before we mixed up our last 2 bags of concrete, and I’m grateful for her efforts. Note: it seems like each bag hydrated slightly differently and that frustrated TS’ water calculations. The bag’s printed instructions are more of a guide than fool-proof recipes. TS made good decisions and got the mix right.
While we were finishing off our job, I took 2 silly videos to capture our efforts!
Now, we have to leave the foundation alone to harden up. It’ll take about a month for it to reach its maximum strength. I’m going to add additional reflective tape on the bin to prevent me from hitting it with snow blowers or power scoops. When the bin’s installed, I’ll post an update.
BCB&B, neemtree, bdb, and blog 