
Welcome to www.PottsFamily.ca ! This is the online home of the Potts
family of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Welcome to
www.pottsfamily.ca Edition 3.0
We’re now hosting the site
LIVE from the living room. If you can read this then apparently it’s
still up and running. A bunch of things lead to the
site being self-hosted.
Firstly, the site has
thoroughly outgrown the 600MB size limit imposed by my web host. I
could get
more space, but it would cost more $$$ and we’d only outgrow it again
eventually. I could host the images elsewhere, but it gets hard
to
keep track. Facebook galleries worked for a while, but
their external links seem to have a best-before date or a traffic cap
or something. With our own server we will have plenty of space for
image galleries!
Secondly, we finally gave up
on Rogers High-Speed internet. After 12 years on a cable modem, the benefits
just disappeared. Over the past few years Rogers has been steadily cutting
corners on their service and their recent decision to start charging hefty
fines to those who exceed their arbitrary traffic limits. A friend recommended
TekSavvy.com; they are a Bell subcontractor that offers 3x the bandwidth that Rogers provides at a lower cost.
And if ever I do exceed the teksavvy cap, the cost per GB is 10% of the
upcharge that Rogers hits you with.
So then I was surfing a
surplus electrics store on my lunch break and found a PowerMac G3
desktop
computer on the rack. It was one of the blue and white models, with PCI
video
and a SCSI internal hard disk. It booted OK on the test bench at the
store, and
went home with me for a mere $35. Once I got it home I added some
upgrades from the spare parts closet and loaded some stuff on it.
I then made a $4/month upgrade to my
TekSavvy account to allow me to host a server; that part was easy.
But then I also had to migrate the mail server, which is a bit more
complicated.
But as I said before, if you're reading this then I guess it works.
What else is ne
w? Glad you asked.
- Colleen got hired by the TTC; she's now driving a city bus based out of Wilson station.
- Frances is now in grade nine at Delphi Academy in Scarborough.
- Our 1985 Cabriolet was relinquished to the province's "Retire your Ride" program. We got $300 for it.
- It was replaced with a 1990 Golf 4-door Automatic which is much more reliable and a great deal more civilized.
Some of the summer highlights from 2009 include a trip to North
Carolina for the High Country Bus Festival, a fun time for 40 buses at
Buses Of The Corn, and a great labour day weekend at the
Shelter Valley
Folk Festival.
December 22nd, 2007
OK, it's been a long time since my last update here. Things
have been busy, and my attention has been elsewhere. I have been
putting stuff online, it's just been happening at Facebook, instead of
here. Facebook has free image hosting, and this site is getting pretty
full.
So what's been going on since May, 2006? Glad you asked.
June 2006: After BusFusion, Ernest
Green sends me to Salt Lake City for training. I meet Tom I
return just in time for the June Jitterbug.
We didn't sell the
1982 westy, so it went back to its owner in Hamilton.
In July we got to Bellhaven in
Bobcaygeon, the KW Bug Out, and August brings us to BOTC, Haliburton
Scout Reserve, and Warsaw.
At Warsaw Caves we take home the
door prize for the Best "The Cars Movie" decorated vehicle. The event
was fun, but the weather was awful. But that doesn't really affect the
caving much.
In September we attend BusQuinox,
and Ernest Green sends me to Abbottsford BC for a printer installation.
The install is complicated by shipping damage and missing supplies. I
catch dinner with the local Vanagon community at a White Rock
Restaurant and catch up with family friends at brew pub in Mission, BC;
it's a very good trip.
In December I install another new
large format printer in Vancouver; another excellent west coast
adventure.
Later in December Colleen starts a
contract position as a program coordinator with the Canadian Mental
Health Association. Since she won't be driving the school bus any more,
we buy a 1985
VW Cabriolet for use as a commuter. It turns out to need a lot of
work, and isn't plated and insured until June.
In March I go back to Vancouver. I
managed to snag a mini cooper as a rental car for an unscheduled
service call in Abbottsford, in time to catch dinner with Nathan Poole
from the vanagon mailing list. Back to Vancouver for an emergency,
determine the problem (but don't have the part to fix it) and just
barely make it to the airport in time to catch my flight. Then Westjet
diverts me to Montreal as a snowstorm closes the Toronto airport. The
snowstorm then closes Montreal as well. What a week
*that* turned out to be.
April always means EveryBus. This year I conserve holiday
time and drive straight through the night to get there. It's an excellent trip, as usual.
As the weather improves in Ontario,
I decide to plate and insure the Magna V30. Insurance costs three times
what I paid in 2001. The bike is a lot of fun.
In early May I am "downsized" from
Ernest Green & Son. I dust off my resume and make some calls. Some
promising leads pop up, but don't pan out. It's a somewhat leisurely
summer.
We attend BusFusion, and have
a great time.
Greg attends the KW
bugfest and blows up the engine on the westfakia on the way home.
The engine is replaced, and after a 2 week run-in it seems ok.
Dad celebrates his 65th birthday on
July 18th.
The last weekend in July the
replacement bus engine seizes up in Niagara Falls on the way to a
campout in North Carolina. We get towed off the highway, and the engine
gets swapped out again.
We're back on the road in time for
the Holiday weekend in August, and head
up to Bobcaygeon for some boating, fishing, water-skiing and a dance
under the "White Sky".
Buses
Of The Corn was a massive success. 60 buses is a great number for
this venue, and a
good time was had by all.
The
CNE was awesome... I visited the Canadian Armed Forces Pavilion and
considered a different career entirely.
In late August I start working for Renovated Solutions, doing all
manner of renovations work. Decks, fences, drywall, doors and windows,
ceramic tile, basic plumbing & electrical, roofing,
stucco.... You name it, we do it. You want a house built from the
ground up? We can do that too.
The Peterborough Bus Volks festival was
a BLAST. The combination of campout, pub crawl and music festival
is simply unbeatable.
Warsaw Caves provides yet another excellent
Labour Day weekend, after which the kids go back to school.
BusQuinox happens at Valens again.
The park warns us 4 times about the noise; we
have a good time anyway.
Westies at Watkins was a LOT of fun.
The
scenery is incredibly beautiful, and putting the bus on the racetrack
for three laps was great fun.
Halloween was cool, we partied
with our friends and decorated our
garage with a coffin. It quickly becomes a local landmark, and
doubles our attendance.
May
27th, 2006
Holy cow? An update after only 10
days?
Well, it's not all that often we turn 65. So Grandpa wrote a webpage
using his new Macbook Pro
laptop. Here's the pics he shot of Grandma's Birthday Celebration.

May 17th, 2006

Hello again to our listeners in cyberspace. We're back on the air after
a few months with too much to do... It's been "stupid-busy" since fall
and it doesn't seem like it will be getting any better any time soon.
If it wasn't for the
fact that I'm sitting a Charlottetown PEI airport awaiting a delayed
flight home to Toronto I might not even have had time to post this.
Hopefully I will be back by the time you read this.
So what's goin on with the Potts' clan? Plenty!
Winter was short and not all that cold. I've been crazy busy installing
and serviceing Mutoh Inkjet printers at locations from Edmonton to PEI.
Colleen is still driving the school bus, and the kids are busy at
school and with Venturers/Pathfinders/Guides.
We recently returned from an awesome spring vacation, travelling
from
Toronto - Erie, PA - Winston Salem, NC - The Outer Banks of NC -
EveryBus - Home. The Outer Banks was an excellent place for a spring
vacation; we all had a great time on the beach and will be going back
for sure! Read
the blog I wrote about the trip, it also has links to the pics I
took.
Here's a cool VIDEO
CLIP of the trip from Greensboro-Toronto, it'll take you a lot less
time than it took us as the video is accellerated to 3,600 MPH!!!
Coming up sooner than you think: BusFusion,
Buses By The Falls,
and Buses Of The Corn!
September
22nd,
2005
"Every
day you'll see the dust, as I drive my baby on a Magic Bus!"
Finally
it's time to share some info about "Project: Yellow Ribbon". Back in
July we took custody of a bus belonging to a
Canadian soldier serving in Kabul
Afghanistan, and we while he was away on duty we
pimped his ride!!
When it was brought back to him last weekend he DIDN'T EVEN RECOGNIZE
IT!!!
Read all the gory details here.
A huge thank-you to all the people who attended BOTC and donated their
time and money to the effort. |
August 17th,
2005
"The
nights are getting longer and it won't be long..."
It's been
a busy summer, and plenty hot as well. We started with EveryBus,
then BusFusion,
Blenders By
The Falls, a business trip to Phoenix AZ, a
Family Reunion in
Bobcaygeon, Buses of The Corn,
and Dixie Bus
Gathering. Enjoy the pics.
March 6th,
2005
Colleen has just returned from an excellent Girl Guide camp
up at Musselman's Lake. They had a great time. Meanwhile, Martin has
been busy with the welder modifying a pedal-bike for
Aaron. I think he's getting a bit carried away, but I can't say I
don't like the results. I may just have to build one for myself.
Six more weeks to EveryBus, the best
damn VW campout in the east.
February 12,
2005

Apologies if some of the links on the site are broken.... We
were having a bit of trouble with the server, and I had to back up the
entire site and re-upload it. If any mmail is bouncing, please let me
know here. The pic to the
left is from this morning's adventures to Dagmar, where I was able to
learn to snowboard without killing myself. I'm a bit sore, but had a
great time.
Next weekend: the True Canadian
Winter Bus Campout.
January 22nd,
2005
Happy New Year!
What have we been up to? We did a lot of travelling, with trips to the
Warsaw Caves, the Fall Tour and John Brown's Buses with the Bug Pack to
a trip back to Warsaw with the 470th Scout Troop. And Marg and Gord
flew to Seattle back in October to bring back a 67 Westy for our good
friend Steve. We also painted Colleen's bus... now it just needs
brakes, transmission and ball joints. Christmas and New Years were good
for everyone and we hope you all enjoyed a safe and happy holiday.
Since Christmas Dad also bought another Vanagon, and he and Mom are
already packing for Florida.
Now I'm gearing up for the True Canadian
Winter Bus Campout in February and setting things straight for the
annual pilgrimage to Greensboro NC for EveryBus.
We interrupt this family-oriented page
for a Shameless product
placement plug: Apple just introduced a nifty new Mac
system at the lowest price ever. If you're sick of spyware and viruses,
you should have
a look at this thing, it's extremely cool, and for $629 there's a
lot of bang for the buck.
August 18th,
2004
Buses
Of
The
Corn saw 60 buses this time around, and a very good time was had by
all. And after that we took the westfakia down to Mt Vernon Ohio for
the Dixie Bus Gathering with the Auch Family, which was a really great
week. BOTC Pics
are
here,
and my Erie
to Dixie Bus
Gathering pics are here. It was a 1011 mile return trip, and the
bus averaged 20 MPG while towing the westrailer.
July 12th,
2004
It's been very busy lately. BusFusion
was
fun. Greg turned 40. Blenders By
The Falls was good. Martin turned 35. Family friends Jerry
and Karen got married
in Vegas. The European
Interest car show went well. And Buses of the Corn is just around the corner....
April 25th,
2004
Still
waiting for summer.
The buses rolled south to EveryBus last weekend, and came home with
1648 more miles on the odometer. We had very little trouble along the
way and got some great pictures.
Greg's Pics
Gord's Pics
Our next campout won't be until June, when we travel to Almonte
for BusFusion.
March 8th, 2004
Welcome to Spring. Almost.
Winter is winding down as we approach the six week mark since that
albino rat in Wiarton cursed us once again. Mom and Dad are back from Florida
and the BugPack has had a very successful winter
campout near Cambridge.
Next on the Agenda: EVERYBUS!
January 17th,
2004
Hello again, and Happy New
Year.
So far 2004 has been a real roller-coaster as far as the weather has
been concerned... The first weekend of the year saw the temp hit 11
degrees C, warmer than Palm Springs. And then this past week thhe wind
chill has been below -30 for much of the time, go figure.
Here's the latest pics... A Scout
camp last weekend, and a Family
cross-country ski trip in NE Scarborough this afternoon.
December
14th, 2003
Winter
has arrived with some force. No monster storms yet, but enough snow to
remind us what winter really looks like.
Today
the clan gathered at 29 Marta Avenue, where we
trimmed the tree and enjoyed a wonderful dinner together.
Last week at Scouts the group built a 20'-tall tripod tower, so I
posted the troop leader's pics here.
November
24th, 2003 
Well, here we are again, it's months since I put anything on this page.
We've had birthdays, campouts, school is back in session and now
there's
black ice on the road at night.
Recent family trips include a Fall
Colours Tour in Eastern Ontario and John
Brown's
Buses in West Virginia. Since then we've been catching up on yard
work and other stuff.
Colleen
recently changed employers, picking up a better route and
support staff driving a 72-passenger for Student Express.
June 30th, 2003
We've done a lot in the past 6 months. EveryBus 2003 was
a great time as usual. Our Westfakia took the "People's Choice"
award at the Greenbelt SpringFest and Colleen got a 77
Sunroof Automatic Bus for Mothers Day. Scout camp at Dorchester was
a
lot of fun, with 4500 scouts in attendance. Greg went to Boston
for a week. The boys went on a boat weekend to Bobcaygeon. Summer is
here again!
Upcoming: Buses of the Corn is August 8th - 10th in Whitby. Read more
about BOTC here.
If you don't have a camper you'll wish you did!

December
28th, 2002
I almost let a whole month go by without an update. It's been very busy
around here both at work and at home. The family had a great Christmas,
gathering at Alford Crescent for the afternoon.
Since I haven't unloaded my digital camera yet you will just have to
wait to see the pictures. There aren't many anyways, as I was too busy
playing Santa to take pictures.
November 16th, 2002
We gathered today at Martin and
Lesllie's to
celebrate Aaron's second birthday. Despite the cold weather and the
start of the season's first major snowfall, there was a good
turnout and a fine time was had by all.
"Pictures?"
...I thought you'd never ask.
November 5th, 2002
November is a
harsh month in southern Ontario. And it's only just started. But Greg
and Matthew went camping with the 470th Agincourt Scout troop this
past weekend at Woodland Trails near Ballantrae, and a good time was
had
by all. You can see the pictures here.
In other news, Martin has now graduated from Durham College and has
completed his formal training as an Advanced Care Paramedic.
Congratulations Martin!
NEW: October 21st, 2002
We got home last night at Midnight from
"John Brown's Buses", a campout run by our good friend Jamie Auch. We
drove all night Friday to get there, and arrived at 7AM Saturday.
Then I slept until noon, got up and enjoyed the gang. We met up with
EveryBus friends and met some type2 members we hadn't seen in person
berfore. On Sunday there was a tour of Historic Harper's Ferry, which
was quite spectacular with the Fall colours and classic colonial
architecture. We piled into the bus at 1:30PM and headed back to
Toronto.
As usual, I took lots of pictures, and you can see them here.
Happy Thanksgiving!!! (Columbus Day to our American Neighbours and
"Anti-Columbus Day" to those of a First Nation Heritage).
Saturday and Sunday we went for a
drive with our Bus Friends, following a route along the Niagara
Escarpment from the 401 northwards to Collingwood and West to Own
Sound. It was a great route with spectacular colours and some great
diversions like caving and waterfall-climbing. Awesome. You can see
the pictures here.
September 28th, 2002
It's with a sad heart that I post yet another memorial to this page.
Yesterday at 5PM Gran passed away.
The last remaining "Potts" of her generation, she left behind her
sister Betty, children Elinor, Gordon, and David, 8 grandchildren and
15
great-grandchildren.
I have posted a memorial page
which includes
details of funeral
arrangements.
September 11, 2002
R.I.P. Trevor Humphrey;
May 24, 1964 - August 26th, 2002
|
Trevor was a friend of the Potts' since childhood, and will be
dearly missed.
Visit his
memorial page, which is a work in progress.
|
It's been a busy summer. Now it's getting dark
early again.
Buses
Of the Corn went off flawlessly. Over 40 buses showed up, the
weather was perfect, and a good time was had by all.
We also travelled to Killbear
Provincial Park,
and finished up
spending most of the labour day weekend at the Warsaw
Caves.
July 16th, 2002
The Family Celebrated Grandpa's 60th Birthday tonight at Sisters
Restaurant in West Hill, ON. It was a great meal, followed by a social
visit at 29 Marta. Check out the pictures here.
Last weekend we attended the 6th European Interest Car Show, and our
73 Westfakia was awarded 2nd place in the "Late Truck or Van" category.
It was a great show, with 160 cars from Jaguars to BMWs, Citroens and
Rolls Royces, Austin Saloons and Land Rovers.
Have a look at Greg's pics here.
July 3rd, 2002
Happy 33rd
Birthday to Martin!!
To celebrate the family built a deck onto the back of his house this
past weekend. Click on this thumbnail to see all the pics.
June 8th, 2002
Congratulations to Brent, who graduated last
week from Humber College's Funeral Services Programme!!!
If you know someone hiring a Funeral Director, Contact Brent here.
This past weekend the family VW's travelled to Buses
By the Falls in Niagara Falls, ON, Followed by the June Jitterbug
VW
show. A good time was had by all!
.
June 8th, 2002:
Last weekend the VW-equipped Potts' attended "BusFusion 2002"
in Ottawa. It was a great weekend, and you can see Greg's trip
report here.
In other Bus-oriented new, Greg has updated the website for "Buses
Of The Corn" and the "Westfakia"
site.
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY LISA!!! ...Lisa turned 9 years old
on May 13th.
May 4th, 2002:
Lots of news in this update. Alyssa's
birthday party, Greg's business trip to
Alberta, and Everybus
2002 Pics are finally online.

February 24, 2002: VWtrends
has
printed the email Greg sent to thank them for running the pic of the
Westfakia. Read
it here. Matthew's Cub-Car came in 6th at the local Cub-Car
rally this weekend, so after a tune-up he'll be taking it to the
Regional Rally. See the Cub-Car pics here.
The index on the left leads to pages devoted to the Potts people and
events, and will be developed as the Potts' info-centre for event
planning, news and links to info on the things that matter to
us. On the basebar below are icons which load pages
dedicated to the Potts' many hobbies, including ATV's, Boats,
Motorcyles, etc...
Feedback, suggestions and complaints gladly accepted here , please let me know what I
can do to make the site more useful for you.
This site is managed by Greg Potts. All images and
content (c) 2001, Gregory W. J. Potts