RADON

A few weeks ago I received my utilities bill from the City.  Along with the bill comes an information sheet.  On this sheet it stated that Yukon Housing will provide free of charge radon testers for your house.  I thought, if it's free, why not.  So off I went to get my house tested for Radon.
Now, I didn't even know ANYTHING about radon - what it was, what its effects were, should there be a concern or not.  I knew nothing.  Thinking I would do this and everything would be fine I took the testers home, set them up, then 10 days later returned them to Yukon Housing.    One was placed in my crawl space, one in my bedroom, two floors up.  The crawlspace tested at 78.8 Bq/m3 and my bedroom was 220.9 Bq/m3.  Hmmmmm.  What does that mean.  Over 200 I was advised to talk to Yukon Housing.  So, before I phoned them I googled RADON.  I learned that exposure to Radon causes LUNG CANCER in 1 in 20 people and if you are a smoker it is 1 in 3 chances of lung cancer. Health Canada says a safe level is 200 Bq/m3.  I was over the limit.  The odd thing is that radon is radiated from the ground and my ground level was minimal while 2 floors up the level was over the limit.  Another concern was that although Health Canada gives safe readings, The World Health Organization and the USA Health Department give safe readings at 100 Bq/m3.  Another Hmmmm.  So now I am doing a 2nd reading on my house.   Above is a map of the Radon Testing results in Yukon - apparently the 2nd highest province/territory of radon.  According to this map, 1/2 of the houses in Whitehorse have radon levels above the safe level with 1/4 above the Unsafest level, i.e. the level that reads, do something or you will die.  While at Yukon Housing I looked at a map of Whitehorse only and saw that there are subdivisions in Whitehorse that are 100% above the 600 mark.  100%!!!  In fact, I was told that some of the readings were at the 3,000 Bq/m3 level-  WOW!!! I asked if realtors show that on housing ads!  Porter Creek, if you know Whitehorse, is 1/4 over the 600 Bq/m3 mark.  Wish I could show you a map of Whitehorse but cannot find one on the website.  So, what do you do?  According to Mike Holmes:

If you have a radon problem, it can cost $1,500 to $3,000 to fix it. You need to call in a contractor who has experience in dealing with radon mitigation. You need someone who is certified in radon mitigation by the National Radon Proficiency Program.

(from what I can gather "mitigation" is the steps you an take to seal you house from radon leaking in)

In Yukon we do not have ANYONE who is certified in random mitigation.  NO ONE.  So if you are above the safe level we are advised to do things that are listed in the CMHC/Health Canada guide but looking at all their arrows as to where this radon may be leaking into our house, if we do anything in any one spot it is all guess work.  We are not experts and mitigation is not only costly but necessary to ensure health (which is priceless).

So, in Yukon we have complimentary testing available, but after that, you are on your own.  Is that right?

I lost my camera.  I had lost it for a good week or so.  I looked upstairs in the office, I looked on the hot water heater, I looked in the woven bread basket that I sometimes put it, I looked on the side table in the living room, I looked ... Then I though, I'm sure it will turn up somewhere at some time.  Went to Earl's the other night and dug through my purse looking for my wallet and guess what I came up with.  So I took a photo of my 2 friends sitting on the other side of the table from me.  Luckily I have friends who don't mind having a camera pointed at them.  Thanks friends!

I took this photo after our first small snowfall.  I was hoping to get there prior to snow cover but oh well, you'll just have to believe me.  For 4, 5, 6, 7 ??? years, there were road markings at this corner.  They were yellow diagonal lines inside a sort of large yellow semi circle directing you to the right hand side of the road.  There was also a sign that said "keep right".  If you obeyed the road lines and the sign, you would land on a sensor that would quite quickly turn the red light to green.  It worked just dandy.  A couple of weeks ago I drove up to the stop lights at I have done for years and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited ....  There was a truck behind me.  Finally the truck appeared on my driver's side (on those yellow warning lines), the driver got out and began to explain how the City had moved the sensors.  He bent down and pointed to the pavement where one could see sections newly paved so I figured something he said was correct.  I think he was going to tell me to drive through the red light but before he could say anymore, a cyclist rode up, pushed the pedestrian button, the light changed to green and I said to the man, thanks for the info but I must go now and away I drove.
A few days later I was driving by this intersection, but on the main road and I watched a car slowly driving a bit forward, a bit backward, then a bit forward then a bit backward, apparently trying to find that da*# sensor.  So, I wasn't the only one having trouble there.  I phoned the City.  My query was passed on and a few days later someone did phone me back.
YES, they did change the position of the sensor in the road.  Did I not notice that the "sign" was gone?  I said I couldn't remember if I did notice the absence of the sign or not, but still I followed the yellow lines on the road.  "Oh", he said, "we hoped that those line would have faded by now".
So, instead of covering over those lines, the city is just HOPING that they will FADE enough so no one will follow them.   The snow if now covering those lines, but regular/occasional users of this road KNOW the lines are there under the snow.  I expect there will continue to be long waits at that intersection.  Whatever happened to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  It's not like the City has nothing else to do.

November

The kids are back and I missed them and missed Lily and Timber as well.  Timber, the pup, has grown since I last saw him.  Here he is pictures above with his new hat on.  And like that monkey on that TV commercial, he didn't like the hat, took it off and chewed it.

And this is what I always look like when having to put together an Ikea product.  I try to buy assembled things now as I HATE assembling.  But when you have Ikea pieces spread out on the floor in your living room, you have no choice but to soldier on.  Oh well SR, looks like your half way there.  Just need some shelves and a back now.

Christmas is Coming

November 2nd, Hallowe'en has JUST passed and we are already attending Christmas Bazaars.  Went to two today and although we were not too too impressed, I did end up purchasing an Xmas gift.
Ended our shopping experience with a coffee at Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters for a delicious cup (I had Guatemalan) of Java.

Last Wednesday, as I was getting my coat on and then looking for my keys, I came across my camera,  so I pulled it out and took a quick pic of the Golden Age Society, the place in which we do our Line Dancing every Wednesday afternoon.  In this photo I noticed I caught Freda in the frame - she is on the left hand side walking towards the camera and she is one of our fellow dancers.   Before our dancing had started, we had chatted and I discovered  that she is 90 years old!  Way To Go, Freda!!!!