          
|
June 2, 2008 - 7:15 AM    Waiting for my pants to dry, I thought I would toss a few pictures up. A few days ago Bo ran into the Gav Man and so we went out for supper, a meal that was full of reminiscing and story-telling. David was in the height of his glory as we recapped some of the funnier moments of high school. It was good to see. He seemed to be doing a lot better for himself, in fact - the best I think I've ever seen him. We'll have to find him more often. June 3, 2008 - 7:02 AM Sometimes I'm just too tired to write anything. June 7, 2008 - 8:07 PM For for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself - Radiohead  I've been listening to Karma Police by Radiohead all day, a song that seems to amply suit the day's weather-induced mood. It's dreary outside, overcast and raining on and off. Yet despite the drear outside, like the hypnotic flow of the song, it carries an aire of dreaminess and hope. For a minute there, I lost myself... I have been losing myself all day as my mind wanders to and fro, past, present, and future. I feel like I'm lost in love with Kristi as thoughts of her surround me, keeping me warm, dry and safe despite the storm raging outside. As the music flows around me, touching every part of my body I am moved. A smile creeps along the edges of my mouth as my closed eyes see her face. I love you Kristi. June 9, 2008 - 12:17 AM It's late, I've got a morning flight to Miluakee tomorrow, so here are a bunch of pictures from the last couple of days.              My little Canon is starting to glitch... this is the first real 'bad' picture it's taken - bad for the obvious hues, not for the subject matter!         June 10, 2008 - 8:58 PM  Day one of our training mission to Milwaukee, Wisconsin is nearing a close, and already this journey has had more adventure than most. Monday morning. Lloyd, my boss at Convergint, and I are sitting in the A finger at the airport, waiting for our flight to arrive so we can begin boarding when we realized that neither of us had the rental car reservation confirmation number, nor did we know even what company it had been reserved from. This lack of detail is a problem that could easily be resolved by a simple phone call - except that the person who did the booking had taken this very same Monday off work and could not be contacted. The adventure begins.  We boarded our plane and flew to Toronto aboard an Airbus A320 aircraft, flown by Air Canada. Beside me sat a well dressed elderly businessman with little to say except what could be conveyed in short, several-word bursts. We did not talk during the flight, but instead I spent the majority of the time looking out the window and watching episodes of How It's Made and CSI: New York on the screen built into the back of the seat in front of me. Between shows, I tuned into the XM Dance Music sampler but decided that I preferred Sirius's The Beat channel instead.  As we approached Toronto, the captain of the aircraft came on the intercom and announced that because of a storm slamming the Pearson International Airport in Toronto, we would be unable to land for an undetermined amount of time but would instead have to circle the area in a holding pattern and wait for instructions from the ground. We ended up circling the skies above Toronto for about an hour and a half before making a successful landing attempt though at least one other attempt was aborted. Once on the ground, however, we now found ourselves in the same prediciment as countless other aircraft, and because the storm had been so severe all the planes that were on the ground had been put on hold to take off. There were too many planes at Pearson. We had to drive out to a large section of apron where planes are usually de-iced and sit with half a dozen other aircraft - waiting for a gate to become available. But with lightning still within an 8 kilometer radius of the airport, none of the ground crews were permitted out on the tarmack and so there we sat, in the middle of nowhere, no gate to go to and nobody to unload us if we could get one. Clearly, a lesson in patience was close at hand through this situation, though most people were quite sympathetic and even complacant about the whole ordeal.  I'm sure it was close to 45 minutes before we finally pulled up to a gate. Eagerness overcame the mass of people contained within that white metal flying capsule as all on board rushed out to find loved ones waiting or to find out if their connecting flights were still running. As we were to go through US Customs in Toronto, Lloyd and I had to collect our bags before proceeding and as we were standing there around the carousel, watching as dozens of unfamiliar suitcases of all shapes, sizes, and colors glided past many weary, waiting passengers, one face in the croud stood out. Now anyone who knows me knows just how small my world is, and while I couldn't have guessed who I would have met in the baggage claim area of Pearson International, it in no way surprised me any less that I ran into someone I knew. In all fairness, knew would be a stretch as really, we had only ever been acquaintances, but here if it wasn't my cousin Jamie's ex-fiancee Racquel. Now living in New York (if I remember her story correctly,) she was in Calgary visiting for two weeks and now just returning to resume school in the States. Small world, anyone?  As things turned out, the storm that made us late also made our connecting flight equally late, and so everything worked out just fine. We made it through US Customs without incident, re-checked our bags, rode a bus to our new terminal and had a relaxing half-hour wait before beginning to board our connecting flight, now nearly two hours delayed. This last fligt of little more than an hour in duration was on a much smaller plane, and although we had no eats on board, because of the delay Air Canada was kind enough to offer complimentary alcoholic beverages to all the passengers on board. I was trying to count the number of times I heard the *Cissht!( of the beer cans cracking, but I think the percentage of beers-to-other-drinks served on board that particular flight would have supported the theory that Canadians are all alcoholics. We landed in Wisconsin just fine and de-planed in the routine manner, then proceeded downstairs to collect our bags. Things were looking up, we'd made it later than planned but safe and sound none the less, and hadn't missed anything that first day anyway so all in all, not a big deal. We stood there waiting as many more unfamiliar cargo carriers were paraded around the carousel as hundreds of people looked on, waiting to catch a glimpse of that one familiar bag. It was once the carousel stopped turning and we were still waiting that our next adventure began... Now in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a week - we had only the clothes on our backs and no idea where or when our luggage would arrive.  My first thought of course, was that Well, it was Air Canada. What did we expect? This was not the first Air Canada flight I'd been on where my luggage had not arrived. When Bo and I flew back from Sydney, our bags made it all the way to Vancouver before being left behind, then left outside to get thoroughly soaked and finally beaten up so badly that Bo's cell phone and a CD that were burried within the clothing contained inside his suitcase were both broken! How do you break a CD wrapped in clothing and packed inside a suitcase? That's a marvel of physics right there. But here we were, I'd purposefully packed nothing *irreplaceable* in that suitcase for just such an occasion and we found a desk nearby that had an Air Canada sign. The lady there, when told of our situation, handed us an Air Canada business card and a "Sorry about your luggage" card and informed us we would have to call the number thereon to file a claim and find out where our bags had gone. The card also listed the address of the Lost Luggage center... More irony? It's in Calgary. Lloyd phoned them right away and when he gave them our baggage claim numbers, was told that those numbers were not registered. The call was breaking up, we were trying to get our car at the time, so he hung up to try calling them later when less distractions were prevailing. We picked up our rental, a Ford Explorer, and found our way to the hotel. Not wanting to rack up a huge roaming phone bill, I asked Kristi if she would mind doing some phone-work and track down these bags for us. Of course she was only too happy to help and this morning had a claim filed on our behalf. We were initially told it would take 48 hours to find out where the bags actually were, so this evening Lloyd and I went to a local Wal-Mart and did a bit of shopping.   Now feeling quite a bit more settled, having clothes to change into (and out of that weren't the same thing) we had supper and visited our hotel's hot tub for some much-needed relaxation.  Our rental car is apparently falling apart. Good thing we got the extra coverage!     Our adventure continues tomorrow... June 14, 2008 - 2:33 AM Back at home, safe and sound. Of course, now that I slept for a couple of hours on the plane from Toronto to Calgary, I'm WIDE awake... Figures. We actually ran into a bit of hail as Lloyd and I were driving away from the airport this evening! I didn't think you could get hail in the middle of the night... Wierd. Anyway, lots of stories and pictures to post at some point (hopefully) this weekend. The trip went well, we both got our certificates (though I won't say who got a higher score...) and our luggage arrived back home safely. I love travelling but it's always good to come home. June 17, 2008 - 7:07 AM  What a productive weekend! I still have to write about the remainder of our Milwaukee adventure, but here are a few more scenery pictures from our training trek Stateside.  This weekend (yesterday included so maybe we'll say this make-believe long weekend) has been unusually productive. Here are a couple of things I accomplished over the past several days:
 To give you an idea of the difference between the old and the new, two pictures ought to do the trick!  Off to work! Have a great day. June 20, 2008 - 11:24 PM Convergint Day  Today was many things. The first day of Summer. The day I bought all the pipe and fittings for my long awaited underground sprinkler system. And it was also Convergint Day. For me, it was my first Convergint Day, but for some others - this was the 7th occurrence of the annual event. Basically, Convergint Day is one day of the year where all the Convergint employees, regardless of title or roll in the company, get together and donate a day to a charity of the company's choosing; which for the past four years has been William Roper Hull Home / School - a facility that focuses on the development of academic and vocational skills for students with behavioral and emotional difficulties. Our staff painted fences and structures, took care of some landscaping, installed cameras, access control and security systems throughout various buildings on the facility, all at no cost to Hull. The facility staff were very appreciative of our efforts and donations, and provided several feasts throughout the day. Of course, it was a great day of socializing with our co-workers and getting to know some people in other departments we don't normally paths cross with.     June 22, 2008 - 1:38 PM  Ever since I was a little boy, I have been fascinated by water sprinklers, and those of the underground type particularly. You see them in parks and in well kept lawns, practically inconspicuous when not in use, they pop up out of the ground when activated and spray water to irrigate lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, and sometimes even kids young and old - anything growing that requires water. About the time I was in grade 5, the church my family was attending at the time, Harvest Hills Alliance Church, was under construction and they were installing an underground sprinkler system there. As my dad was volunteering countless hours on the construction of the building, Blair and I were there nearly as often as he was - and my fascination with underground sprinklers was wetted as I 'helped' the guys there install that system. Ever since, I've dreamed of putting underground sprinklers in the houses I've lived in. My parents' house has a huge yard with lots of grass that would be a perfect candidate for such a system except that their water comes from a well that could never supply enough water to spread across the lawn while still filling flushed toilet tanks and showering the days' scents off it's residents. Of course, this meant that while I lived there, we could never water the lawn with even a conventional sprinkler! So the first day I had moved into my own house, one of the first things I bought was a hose and a sprinkler.  While doing all these renovations in the basement here, one of the (many) things I decided to upgrade before closing in the ceiling was the water line supplying the front of the house, with the express intention of doing so in preparation for installing an underground sprinkler system. That upgrade was completed last weekend, and with Bo and Maddy in Montana this weekend and the weather being what it has been, it seemed like the perfect time to tackle the project.  I went to Regency, a store I frequented around the time I was in grade 5 to collect pamphlets, product spec sheets and ideas. There was a lady there named Brenda at that time who always helped me out and got me all the latest product information. I am sure if I did some digging I could find that binder I used to collect all that stuff... Hmm. Anyway, went there yesterday, with the full intention of purchasing all the sprinkler heads I'd need to complete the installation. When I got there and requested the ones I'd need however, I was told that they only had two in stock. They had been ordered, but probably would not be in until mid to late week. Since I had to wait anyways, I thought it might be a good idea to check on eBay - and what a money saver too! To buy all the sprinklers I'd need plus spares of each, and even better pop-up bodies than I would have bought from Regency, shipped from Florida, still saved me almost $200! I'm glad they were out of stock!  I still bought all the manifold fittings and control valves from Regency, and when I got them home I had them assembled and connected to my newly-plumbed supply line within minutes. From there, a good part of the morning was spent playing with the one sprinkler I had from a long time ago, and the various valves.     Kristi, who lives in a different climate than do we here in Calgary, kept asking me at various points throughout our conversation, "Is it really that hot out there? So I took a picture of myself, on the phone, in the sun, with the goofiest expression ever to donne my face to say, Yes, it really *is* that hot out here. I got a nice tan, and even some heat rash as I worked outside under the lovely rays of summer warmth. It was fantastic.       For supper I was craving some bacon. So that's what I ate. Ahh, the joys of being a bachelor. (sort of.)  June 25, 2008 - 9:46 PM I was called in to the Airport this evening and when I arrived there, I had to pass through the main level of the ACC building, the blue one in front of the airport. When I stepped off the elevator, my ears were assailed by the sound of droning. More specifically, the drone of bagpipes. As I made my way down the hallway to the catwalk that leads from the ACC to the Airport itself, I passed by half a dozen or so normally dressed (IE: Not wearing kilts or anything like that) people wandering about aimlessly with Bagpipes over their shoulders, belting out various very Irish-sounding songs. Let me tell you, that is a LOUD instrument! Especially when you're in a confined space and having to brush the shoulders of the people playing them! And they're loud enough that when you're close to one, it's all you can hear. But when you get to about the half-way point between two sets of Bagpipes, each playing a different song, there's a sound that ranks with the likes of jack-hammers and chalkboards being fingernailed! Quite an odd little unexpected adventure, mingling with practicing Pipers at the Calgary International Airport...  The other day, Kris and I went to one of his friends' houses to look at a TV he had there that was in need of repair. Apparently, he'd torn the Spiggot off the back of it and so you could not hook the TV up to cable. It's an easy fix if you have the part, which he didn't, but deterred we were not. Adventurous and resourceful we were! And we decided that the best way to find the part he needed was to look for old TV's discarded in the back alleys of North-East Calgary. Our half hour drive yielded a total of four TV's, three of which we picked up (because it's hard to tell if the spiggot will work by looking at it from the outside. We found one that matched the one we needed, as well as six propane bottles, two fridges (one of which was advertised as Free and Working Fine, a few stoves, an upright washer / dryer set, and various other household appliances. But the one appliance that caught my eye was a Frigidaire front loading washing machine found somewhere in Applewood. It had it's cord cut and the drain hose snipped off, but when I reached inside the underside and felt for the drive belt, I noticed it felt extremely loose. So loose, in fact, that I figured it might have simply been worn out and the washer itself might easily be fixed. Kris and I loaded it into his truck and resumed our rummage.  When I got the washer home, the first thing I did was take the back cover off. I then discovered that the belt was not loose, it had come off completely! What luck! I thought, That's an easy fix! and within a minute I had slid the belt over the two pullies and rolled it back into place. Both the motor and the drum seemed to spin freely, so I thought I would hook it up and try it. And that is exactly what I did. A garden hose and a cut off computer cable later, I had everything I needed to attach it the two utilities it requires to function, and so I turned the dial to Whites and pulled the knob. Water immediately began to fill the basket, and pretty soon it began rolling the drum back and forth in a washing-type motion. I thought my hunch had been correct, and that I'd just scored the deal of a lifetime. That is, until it went to the spin cycle.  The noise was awful. A loud roar that I'm sure could be heard up and down the neighbourhood eminated from the machine as it spun the water from the imaginary load. At this point I began to wonder if maybe there was more to this washer's troubles than a fallen-off belt. I decided to try it with a real load, and from inside the house I acquired my favorite blanket which was due for a wash. In it went, detergent and fabric softner in the appropriate trays, and this time the selector set on Colors. Once again, a fill, once again, churning and washing occured inside the glass window. But this time, when it went into the spin cycle, I literally ran for cover as I half expected parts to start flying and metal to start flailing! After perhaps the longest minute ever, the belt again flew off the pulleys and the basket slowly came to a stand still as the motor kept on whirring quietly below. My fears were now realized, there was a lot more wrong with this machine than a simple belt adjustment. The bearings were gone.   I looked this unit up on the trusty Internet, and quickly learned that it is not an insurmountable job to replace the bearings on this model. In fact, you really only need to buy two parts that come pretty much assembled already and then take the time to dismantle, replace, and reinstall the new pieces. I ordered the parts from Reliable and although they had to ship one down from Edmonton, it arrived the next day and that evening I set out to rebuild the washer. First I gave the pieces that would remain in the unit a thorough scrubbing with bleach to remove the soap residue and grease from the destroyed bearing, and then I installed the new spin basket and rear drum housing.   The hardest part was the 32 bolts that circle it's circumference and hold the two pieces together, mainly because of the tight confines within which I had to work. Still, I was able to tighten them all and completed the job with no leaks. I re-assembled the washer and tried it out a second time. Even the high speed final spin was whisper quiet and not a drop of water escaped the wash drum. A complete success, and now it sits beside my still-hanging-in-there dryer, having already washed it's first full load of clothes: Whites. I don't think my housecoat has ever looked so good. It's bright. Front loaders really do a much better job of what their purpose for existance is: Washing clothes. Total cost: $351.65 for the rear housing with bearing and high speed spin basket. Total time: About 4 hours. The result? A good-as-new front loading washing machine. Scratch one off my list of wants, but probably will never haves. Ever since my days at Custom Linen I've always wanted a front loader. Ironic fact about this whole adventure: It is the exact same model as the one my parents have. What are the odds? So when the bearing goes in their machine, guess who's going to be fixing it!  After accomplishing the task set out, I ventured a ride in Rusty to drop those TV's we had collected for recycling at our local recycling depot when I couldn't help but stop and take another picture of the view from our alley. The sunsets in this city are often incredible, and despite their frequency and the human nature to take the commonly occuring for granted, I never cease to be amazed by the scenes painted in colorful clouds across the evening sky, demonstrating the awesome beauty of an incomprehensibly imaginitive Creator.  June 29, 2008 - 3:28 PM HAPPY CANADA DAY! It's been a gorgeous weekend in Mission, sun and heat and humidity and humor all around.  The girls have got their swimsuits on and we're just about to
head to the waterpark for an afternoon of fun in the sun. Is there a better way to spend a long weekend? BACK to Journal Index |