Welcome to www.PottsFamily.ca !
This is the online home of the Potts
family of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
December 27th, 2011
OK, we're still here... somehow we managed to get through a homeless
Christmas. Hey, it wasn't that bad, actually. And today I stopped by
the house and found out that the contractors went back at work on
Christmas Eve; they now have all the outside walls insulated with
fresh pink fibreglass and there is a 24" tall stack of 4x8 sheets of
drywall in the living room ready to go. I'm so stoked that it's
actually happening!!!
What else... Work is busy. The 1988 Vanagon is nearly ready to go
back on the road, but with a 1.8L inline engine instead of the
horizontally opposed 1.9L it had before. It should benefit from an
increase in highway driveability and get better gas milage as well.
There are just a few minor kinks left to be worked out and it'll go
back into use as a daily driver.
December 6th, 2011
Wow. I hardly know where to begin, so much has happened recently.
OK, firstly, congratulations to new Potts Grandparents Martin and
Lesllie, as Amanda Jones and Tom Walsh celebrated the birth of Elise Vera
Jeannette
on December 4th.
Secondly; congratulations to Matthew on his 21st Birthday.,
Thirdly, we are going through some less than good times right now as
a
result of a house fire on November 6th. Luckily no-one was hurt in
the
fire but the kitchen was a total loss. We have temporarily relocated
to
the Family Homestead on Marta Avenue while we await remediation of
the
townhouse, which is expected to take a few months. And I have to
make a
big shout-out of thanks to the many friends and family and to the
members of the VW Community that have lent a hand both physically
and
fiscally in our time of need. You guys really pulled through when we
needed it, THANKS!!!!
What else? We recently acquired a "new" 1991 Jetta. We had a
great family vacation in North Carolina in July, closely followed by
a
very successful Buses Of The Corn in August. And so on and so forth.
Jan 31, 2011
First off, sign the petition against Usage Based Billing at OpenMedia.ca.
This
is a blatant cashgrab created to help Bell and Rogers avoid
competition
from Netflix and youtube. Not only should the CRTC reverse its
decision
on UBB, I think this is clear evidence it should also consider
blocking
content creators from owning ISPs. Vertical integration by
monopolies
stifles innovation and will hurt Canadian competitiveness in ways we
can't yet imagine. And while we're at it, if you're getting your
internet from the big two, consider downshifting to Teksavvy and
you'll
get the same connection at a savings of hundreds of dollars per
year.
Secondly, welcome to 2011. The one-time family Homestead at 62
Coxworth
Crescent is now standing vacant and is up for sale. There are plenty
of
cool things going on this year; I will try to keep this more
up-to-date
as time marches on.
In the VW side of things, the True Canadian Winter Bus
Campout
is coming up shortly on February 19th. Our treasured 1973 westfakia
is
getting prepped for an engine transplant, installing a 1.8L
watercooled
engine originally from a 1990 golf. This engine should boost the
available power by about 50% and increase fuel economy and
reliability
at the same time. At least that's the goal. Another goal is to get
it
running by EveryBus; that one is gonna be tight but it sure can't
hurt
to try... After that I'll also be going to BusFusion, the June
Jitterbug, High
Country Bus
Festival, and so on.
Welcome to
www.pottsfamily.ca
Edition 4.0, which is live online as of September 29th, 2010.
We’re hosting the site
LIVE from a desk in the living room. If you can read this then
apparently it’s running.
Firstly, the site outgrew the
600MB
size limit imposed by my web host. More space 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. Eventually I will rewrite those galleries and get
them
back online self-hosted.
Secondly, we finally gave up
on Rogers High-Speed internet. After 12 years on a cable modem,
the
benefits gradually disappeared. 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 wholesaler that sells me 3x the
monthly
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.
certain things.
So what's this Version 4.0 about then?
Well, the mac server is kinda old and it's getting hard to find
software for certain things. Mailserver software seems to be one
of
them. And as it turns out, TekSavvy's mail service is just a
little bit
too lean to meet our needs. So we went out and bought a little
$229
Acer netbook and loaded it with Ubuntu Linux. If you can read
this,
then the webserver is obviously working.
The next stage is to load up the mailserver app and configure
it....
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 ten at Delphi Academy in Scarborough.
- We bought yet another Vanagon; this one is a west-coast import,
basically identical to the 1987 we bought in 2008.
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
Congratulations to Brent, who graduated last
week from Humber College's Funeral Services Programme!!!
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY LISA!!! ...Lisa turned 9 years old
on May 13th.