Al & Sue Williams 2015, In Review

Posted: 2016-01-05 Permanent Link

A lot happened during 2015, most of it good.

The year started with us enjoying our newly completed Kitchen / Dining room renovations and celebrating Emma’s (our Granddaughter) first birthday at our house. And we completed the year with babysitting Emma on New Year’s Eve (again) and enjoying our newly completed bedrooms, bathroom and hall renovations. Things are good. (Okay so we kidnap Emma on a regular basis – can you blame us?)

Sue and I continue to work for the same companies as we have for more than a decade now. Work has been very busy for both of us. Sue got put into a new job position that is demanding more work hours than ever before. Although there is currently no-end-in-sight, Sue is still positive and is looking to get things running smoothly at some point. My job responsibilities have grown to a new record and there is no way to keep up. I just do my best and hope that things will get better.

The saddest thing that happened during 2015 was the passing of our brother-in-law John Rodgers. We always liked John a good deal and we truly believe he was the best thing that ever happen to Alan’s sister Linda. Here is hoping that Linda will somehow get over John’s death and manage to resume her life…

The scariest thing that happened was losing the left-rear wheel from the truck on the 401 on way to John’s funeral service. Sue, Melissa, Amanda and I all came very close to being in a vehicle involved in a high speed accident.

I had had the truck in for service the day before to ensure that it was ready for the trip (as we would be easily driving more than 1000 Kilometers for the funeral). Unfortunately, the mechanic who performed the work, failed to properly service the truck and we lost the left-rear wheel at full highway speed. It came off during rush hour on the 401 just west of highway 25, in Milton. The wheel rolled across all three eastbound lanes and into the westbound lanes where it hit another vehicle, right where the windshield and the driver’s window meet and then rolled for several hundred meters until it stopped. We are lucky that it hit the other guy’s car where it did. The result was severe damage to his car, but no injury to him at all. 100Km wheel going one way – 100km car going the other way – they collide and the only damage to was to one car. Wow!

When the wheel came off our truck – the truck decided to roll over, however, I got the truck back under control and got it stopped on the side of the highway, without hitting any other vehicle. It fact, in spite of the crazy situation, it looked as if I had intentionally parked the truck there. Again, Wow!

There is even more to that story, but I will reserve it for verbal telling only.

While we were visiting my sister Linda (for John’s funeral), we stopped by and saw my biological mother. She has moved to the town of Cobalt ON and seems to be quite happy with her life there.

The cottage did well, this year. Everyone who used it, enjoyed it. We got more maintenance work done, by painting the exterior of the cottage and the outside of the shed as well. We also got many other improvements and maintenance work done. A special thanks to all who helped out at the cottage, because without your help we would have to pay people to do the work and thus we would not be able to afford to keep the cottage going.

The cottage now has High Speed Internet & VoIP telephone service. Another Wow!

We finally replaced our old 4 × 8 black metal utility trailer with a 5 × 10 galvanized trailer. This is a huge improvement and we should not have to buy another trailer for a very long time.

Currently my health is stable, as is Sue’s health. The senior members of the family are slowly getting older, along with all that it means when you are in your 80s, but Sue and I are doing our best to look after things. In fact, we are in the midst of planning a 90th birthday party for Sue’s dad. We are very excited about it and hope to see everyone there.

We had fantastic dinners, at our house, for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, with a lot of people attending. And we had friends and family over for many not-so-formal dinners. It is truly great to have so many family and friends in our life. We are very grateful!

Here is to hoping that 2016 is our best year ever!

Williams Cottage - Spring 2014

Posted: 2014-06-04 Permanent Link

Wow, what a winter! I can’t remember a winter as long and as hard as this one was. It is over and we are glad of it. However, in opening up the cottage this year we got a few surprises. We knew that the long hard winter would throw us challenges, but little did we know what we were in for.

Our initial visit to the cottage to see how it faired revealed little. We had been told that the roof was leaking and there was water damage, so we were prepared to re-shingle the roof as soon as practical. However, the ice was still on the lake in late April and there was little that we could do to get ready for the the cottaging season.

When we returned 3 weeks later, things were totally different. The ice was gone, the bugs were starting and the troubles became apparent. I have been cottaging at this cottage throughout my entire 53 years and this year we had our first ever BREAK-IN.

We had decided to take an extra long weekend for the Victoria Day weekend and head up earlier on the Friday. Friday was my birthday and we were going to take the day off work and get a bunch of things done and get to the cottage before the traffic. Picking up our new (to us) boat along the way.

Upon arriving we noticed that the Workshop/Shed was not secured as we had left it and things that were left in it were now on the ground outside of it. In examining the shed we found that thieves had stolen virtually all our our tools and a few other things as well. I guess it could have been worse. There was more that they could have taken. As we looked around the property to see if other things were taken (nothing else was), but we saw that the dock that was fine three weeks ago was now at a forty-five degree angle to the shore with the poles that hold it in place were damaged and no longer secure. Then we went to turn the water on and found that the main line to the pump was no longer connected to the building’s plumbing system. Time to call the plumber as well. The wainscotting on the porch was mainly ruined by the water damage and the new carpet that was waiting to be put in place was now wet and home to a mouse nest.

The plumber came the next day and we got running water again. A new dock was ordered to replace our 25 year old dock. Our friends and family helped out by donating tools to help us replace the stolen ones. The mice were removed and their entry hole plugged. The new carpet was put in place the old carpet taken to the dump. And a work weekend is arranged to shingle the roof.

What a start to summer on Ril Lake I sure hope it gets better from here on. And this was supposed to be the year of getting outstanding projects done! We will persevere and try to get all of the projects done in spite of the decidedly poor start to the year.

We are looking forward to things getting better and to seeing all of our friends and family at the cottage again this summer.

All the best,

Al & Sue

Welcome to my new Website!

Posted: 2014-05-10 Permanent Link

Alan Williams and Mocoda Interactive is pleased to announce the launch of his newly redesigned website at alanrwilliams.com. It has been redesigned to provide a more modern, mobile-friendly design.

It was important for Alan to have a modern website that represented his professional career. Alan enlisted the services of Mocoda Interactive, which was selected based on their proven experience with website design, social media, search engine optimization and ability to design good looking and easy to use websites.

It was important that the new site tell Alan’s story of experience, technical skills, and education, and provide an outlet for further publication through an integrated blog. Mocoda Interactive provided professional photography and writing services to ensure that the message was portrayed in the best possible way.

The new website has met all of the goals set out for it by Alan Williams. “My website is our primary means of communication, the website needed to be high quality and easy for visitors to navigate. Integration with social sites like Facebook and a mobile-friendly design was very important to me. Mocoda Interactive delivered a beautiful site that provides a responsive mobile experience that our clients can easily navigate on a phone, tablet, or desktop.”

For more information on Alan or Mocoda Interactive or to provide your feedback please contact us