Noteworthy things

So it has been a couple weeks since my last post, and i thought I would write about a couple things that I noticed, and not necessarily events, although I would like to talk a little bit about remembrance day first. I am still surprised that Remembrance Day is not a national holiday. I know all levels of government take it, but not everyone does. I think that it should be considered a national holiday as it has no religious affiliation, has no geographical affiliation, and has no ethic affiliation. It relates to every single free Canadian and person living in Canada. It is to honor the people that have served, and are serving, to guarantee your right to do and be whatever you want. This year it also included all the first responders which was kind of cool. After saying that, I must say I was impressed with the how empty the streets were on remembrance day indicating that more and more are taking it as a holiday, and I was impressed on how full all the ceremonies were across the city, province and country. I know a lot of this has to do with the fact that Canadian Soldiers are dying in Afghanistan and the awareness is there, and I would be curious to see what the ceremonies would look like, if we were not in Afghanistan. I myself had the honor of attending Remembrance Day in the Town of Evansburg with a friend. He laid a wreath his father. During the ceremonies, I was amazed that the whole town was there. I looked around and noticed people smoking, and people dressed in jeans and sweat pants, but this did not offend me as they were there, unlike many that simply use it as a day to sleep in or shop. I like the fact that a lot of stores remian close until 1pm to allow the staff to attend ceremonies. I guess if we can't have the whole day at least having the morning is good.

You ever notice how we are creatures of habit in the way we shop for food or things for the home ,as with many things in our lives. I noticed that I am a 2 and 4 person. Very rarely do I buy one of anything. When I picked up salad dressing, I bought 4, when I bought chips for the house, I bought 4, when I bought dip I bought 2. When I bought the individual ice cream I bought 4. Last time however they only had 3 ice creams left. Instead of buying the 3, I bought only two….weird eh..I started noticing that I was doing this more and more. Anyone else do that or notice that? Take a look in your cart next time and see if you are a numbers person. I know my mother is VERY much like this, she will buy 1 for herself, and then 2-3-4 more for others. Very rarely one thing goes in her cart. Maybe that is where I get it from.

I am starting to get into my new role at TransCanada. I don't think I like it, nor dislike it. It feels more like a class I am taking as I am learning more each day. The work is not hard, just the getting to know everyone and finding whose who in the zoo. I do however notice that working back in a pack instead of alone or I guess being the one in charge, is not my favorite, I work with some young up and comers, and sometimes they want to show how dumb you are to show how smart they are. I have one person liek that now, that has rubbed me the wrong way a couple times, and I have had to explain to him that A) I don't work for him and B) if I did, I wouldn't work for him. I think he is a smart lad and will end up at the top of the heap, unfortunately, he may not have as many friends once he gets there.

I have 2 weeks until I apply for my work VISA for the USA. I am looking forward to getting that out of the way, so I can make some plans for at least 6 months to work and live in Houston. I can get a place to live here and get some normality back into my day to day life. Traveling and living in a suitcase sucks at the best of time, doing it for 6 months really sucks. It also doesn't allow me to get in a routine, and to try at least to be healthy with my eating and living habits.

I just finished taking my 95th flight. That’s right, 95 take offs and landings this year. Well, thats not true, it is actually higher than that. The 95 is only with Air Canada, my flight total is at the 99 mark. I have now achieved my "Super Elite" status with Air Canada for next year. What that means is I get lots of upgrade certificates, I get preferential treatment for upgrades, for stand by, free lounge access, and a host of other small perks. I have had this staus once before and it was quite nice. One nice benefit is the fact I have access to more reward seats meaning I can book aeroplan miles on just about any flight which is nice when booking flights for family etc. I have had Elite status(one step down) for a few years shich is still pretty sweet especially when you need a little extra. I figure I have at least another 8 flights before the end of the year, and I should end the year with over 100,000 miles flown on 115 flights. That’s a lot of traveling.

I am looking forward to the Christmas holidays this year. having two weeks off and most of that with no plans feels nice. I think I have had too many things going on this year, and it is starting to pay a toll.

So I have 3 goals for the next 3 months, first is to get my VISA, 2nd is to try nad loose 10% of my body weight and 3rd is to get my Scuba Diving certification done before my next holiday in January. I really want to get a few dives in Punta Cana Dominican republic in January. We will see if I can achieve this.

Panamanian Insaniam!

So again I am way behind in updating my “daily blog” I am actually content if I can get 1 entry in a month. I thought that this entry I would just talk about my recent trip to Panama. I was in Panama from the 11-18 Oct with Dave and Linda, old friends of mine whom i have known for 30 years. This is our 2nd vacation and 4th time getting together this year. We traveled to Curacao in the Caribbean in February, a long weekend in June, a couple days in Cape Breton this summer and of course this trip to Panama. We are also traveling together to the Dominican Republic in January for their son’s wedding.

I flew to Montreal to meet up with them so we can fly together from there to Panama, but I first flew to Toronto to spend the weekend with my parents before I left. It was a stressful week before I left of course with so many last minute work demands and finding out the day before my Holidays that My project in Oakville Ontario was canceled. I actually first heard that from a friend while I was at the Airport waiting for my flight to Toronto. I was not impressed. I however decided I didn’t want it to spoil my holidays. SO I flew to Montreal to meet my friends which was kind of silly considering that the flight from Montreal was actually stopping in Toronto before heading to Panama, but it was fine as I got to spend an extra day with my friends and guarantee a seat together with them. I think it helped set the tone for a fun vacation. We were up at 3am and off to the Airport for 4am, checking in 3 hours before our charter flight, then a one hour flight to Toronto to pick up more passengers, an hour layover in Toronto, and finally off to Panama. Once we actually left Toronto for Panama, it was only a 4h50minute flight to Panama. Then we had a 2 hour bus ride to the resort. As you can see it ended up being a very long day. We got to the resort, checked in, and got our room keys and wrist bands. The resort was really large with over 1000 rooms. Most of the rooms sat up on top of a hill and you had to walk down 7 flights of stairs. This place was not a great place for the sick lame or lazy! It was also a very tough resort on some of the older folks as well.

The temperature at the resort was around 30 degrees when we got there, with 100% humidity. I was sweating my buns off as I still had my jeans on. Dave Linda and I went up to our rooms where our luggage was being delivered. We did not get our adjoining rooms as requested but we were at least in the same building. They were on the 2nd floor and I was on the 3rd floor. When I got to my room it was boiling and the Air Conditioner didn’t seem to be working. I called the front desk immediately and they said they would send someone up right away. Needless to say 30 minutes later no one was there yet. I went to the lobby and again explained that my AC was broken and was guaranteed that someone would be there in 15 minutes. 1 hour later, still no one. I figured that they promise 15 minute intervals as they really have n clue as to when someone is coming to fix it. I was really hot cranky, tired and hungry at this point and called the front desk and laid into the poor young lady there. I went down to Dave and Linda’s room and had a shower and changed there before we headed off to the buffet for dinner. The buffet was good and the food was ok, but the service was excellent I found. Before coming down to Panama and staying at the Royal Decameron, we had read on trip adviser reviews from other guests and one think they seemed to complain about as a constant was the poor service or how the people would not serve you if you did not speak Spanish. We found just the opposite, and were very impressed with the level of service there(except for the AC debacle). We ate the dinner and wondered around the resort some more amazed at the sheer size of it. It had 2 buffets and 8 a la cartes. This was impressive. After stopping at one of the cafe/bars and having a drink we headed back to the rooms, where low and behold, I had AC again. We chatted and watched a movie and basically took it easy for the night.

On our first full day(2nd day on vacation)We decided to get up around 8am and head down and book our 3 a la carte meals, get our towels and find a spot on the beach. After doing this we grabbed a nice breakfast and lay out on the beach. The beach was very large and sandy and very wide which was good considering the size of the resort. It also had an area for water sports including parasailing, fishing boat rental, booze cruise to name a few. At 9:30 we headed up for a briefing with the tour operator to learn about all the things we could do at the resort. Many of the tours seemed interesting but involved a lot of travel or time. Prior to coming on the trip Linda had already booked a private tour with a fellow the 3 day of our trip, so we could see as much as we wanted and get a better experience while doing so, We all agreed we did not like the cattle mentality while touring around in foreign countries. As it turned out we only booked one thing, and that was the booze cruise on 43ft fishing yacht for the Thursday (which ended up being Saturday). We then hung out on the beach and enjoyed the warm temperatures and sandy beach. Panama has two seasons, Rainy Season and dry season, we were there during the rainy season(low season) and we had got a steal of a deal on the trip, about $650 all inclusive INCLUDING taxes. I can’t even fly home to Halifax for that. Because it was rainy season, the resort was not full, and we had no problems on the beach. The surf on the beach was very rough and the tides change in Panama every 6hours. It was actually fun to go out in the ocean and play in the waves, although some days the waves were so rough they would shut down the beach because of the undertow and the risk to the children. I should also mention that Panama, as most people know, splits the Atlantic ocean from the Pacific and thus is the why the canal was built there. I will tell you more on that later. Where we were staying was actually on the Pacific Ocean side. The first day was sunny and we never had any rain, which would not be the case the rest of the week.

The next day we were up and at ‘em at 6am. We had to meet our private tour guide at 7:30, and we needed to shower and have breakfast beforehand. We met our tour guide Bernard in the parking lot and headed off to Panama City. Bernard was great and took us to the city and the Panama Canal and showed us a lot of historic places. Some of the things I learned that day;
Panama has about 3.2million people of which about 1.5 million live in Panama city. A low income earner is around $400 a month with a middle class earner being about $6-800 a month. They use the USD as their paper currency and the Balboa as their coins however US coins are treated the same as we do in Canada. The main businesses for Panama are the Canal (obviously), banking, and tourism however Panama is taking off as a tourist destination especially considering what is happening in Mexico. Panama is more secure and under the watchful eye of big brother (USA). Tourism is going to be a contender for number one I think in the next 5 years considering the amount of growth happening there now. The Panama Canal was run built and run by the Americans for 100 years. The US had an area in the Canal area that was called the American zone. No Panamanian people were allowed to live in this zone. It encompassed a 5 square mile area around the canal area and included several military establishments. Between 1980 and 2000 the US turned over all the properties and finally the Canal in 1999. However back in 1989 the US invaded Panama ousting the infamous General Manual Noriega. During this siege they killed around 3000 Panamanians and left some 20,000 homeless. 23 Americans were killed as well. They are currently expanding the canal adding more locks to double the sea traffic. In Panama it costs $1 for 4 pineapples.

The day was a very informative day and I really had a great time. We visited the canal, the churches the bombed out area of the city, all the former US installations, and several other things I can’t remember right now. It was well worth the money spent hiring Bernard. We arrived back at the hotel around 5:30 a little bit tired and a little smarter.

The rest of the week was spent around the resort relaxing, sun tanning or burning (depending on who you chat with) and of course eating. We didn’t really do a whole lot. We planned on doing the para sail but the boat broke down.

So we decided on going out on a Booze cruise on the Saturday, basically a little bit of snorkeling, a little bit of fishing, and a lot of drinking. There was about a dozen tourists on the boat, a few of them Canadians from Toronto. The snorkeling part was not very fun for me. We went out to the island off the shore where there were some caves, but the water and tide was so rough by the time I swam to the caves, I was dead tired and rather than be a hero, I called the guy over on the jet ski to take my big butt back to the boat as I knew I would not be able to swim through the tunnel and back to the boat. Once back on the boat I picked up where I left off drinking. After snorkeling we headed out to sea looking for whales, unfortunately the only whale we seen that day was my fat ass which was being rescued by the Jet Ski. So the captain dropped a bunch of lines in the water and we drove around for about 90 minutes trolling for fish. I was the only one to catch a fish and it was just a Spanish mackerel, still fun to reel him in. The day ended with us heading back to shore and showering and having dinner.

Sunday we rented a car and took a drive up the coast looking for shops and touristy things. There was not much around the area. Some of the scenery was nice but not much else.

Monday we packed our stuff at the resort at 7am, and headed to the bus at the lobby. We boarded the bus and was off to the airport. The flight back was uneventful and was actually on time considering we left 45 minutes late from Panama. . Once we arrived in Montreal we had a drink said our goodbyes and crashed for the night as I had a flight to catch at 8am, and we didn’t get in til midnight. I headed back to Edmonton on the Tuesday morning and prepared myself for the upcoming work week in Calgary.

In summary it was a nice cheap week away again with some old friends. I am hoping to do more of these in the future with more friends.

Blogging not my job

So if Blogging was my job, I would be fired by now. I am not very consistent in keeping this thing up to date. My last entry had me leaving the hospital, and heading home. In a very short paragraph, I will explain my recovery. It went really well. the 2nd day home I was very ill in the morning, and pretty much slept most of the day away. By the afternoon, I had some sleep, and some ginger ale and dry bread and was starting to feel a bit better. I had slept the reclining love seat as it provided me a comfortable position sitting back while sleeping. Through out the day I slept on and off. I had a delivery from work, a bouquet called edible bouquet. It was so cool, it was a flowers made out of fruit. needless to say that I chowed down on that for the next week. I loved it cause it different and thoughtful. I also received some flowers from my SCM group in Energy Project, which was nice, that and a card PLUS additional cards from a couple of the girls there. Cathy was by to take care of me yet again the next day, and lecture me on the walk don't run theory of healing. Us men have often heard of this theory but really never had experienced it.

By the 3rd day I was off the pain killers except for bed, and I actually slept in my own bed as well. I slept through the night which was nice. I woke up on the forth day feeling even better as the wounds were healing, and the the pain was minimal. I still had the odd twinge as well but not bad. Also during this time, my employer TransCanada had assigned me a nurse and they were checking in on me every other day. Although I wanted to get back to work in 2 weeks, they wanted me to rest for at least 3. By the end of the 1st week, I was feeling about 70 per cent better. The pain was minimal and I was sleeping through the night with no pain killers. My body was also adjusting to itself with one less organ and I found although I did not have any emergency bathroom rushes, I was going more frequently.

By day 9 I was at the driving range hitting a couple buckets of balls and trying out a new golf swing.By day 11 I was golfing and (3 days in a row). I was definitely on the fast track of healing. By day 14 I was ready to get back to work and headed off to Houston.

The over all experience taught me a few things, our emergency medical system is second to none in the world, the people are dedicated, professional and upbeat people that have a tough job, when your down and out you find out who your closest friends and family are, I was impressed and surprised by some, and not impressed by others. It really helped me rearrange the friend ladder, some moved up and some moved down, the body is an amazing machine in how it works and how it heals. Taking care of it will be come a priority for me going forward as I get older. I like to think I started that 9 years ago when I quit smoking, but there is much more to be done...and no Cathy...and I will not visit your homeo-pathlogiocal-witch-doctor!

Hi Everybody...Hi Doctor Neeeek!

So I am behind as usual in my blogging. It is a good thing I don’t get paid for this or I would be one poor man!

So where was I ….oh yes heading off to the surgery ward…so along comes a porter with a bed to take me to the surgery ward, and I am just waking up, trying to put my things away, Quaing the nurse is putting needles in me, and the porter is trying to get me into the portable bed. It kind of looked like a Laurel and hardy Comedy…or maybe the three stooges.

So I am lying on the bed and rolling down the hall, and I am watching the lights on the ceiling whiz by, and all I can think of is, this looks just like the movies when they are wheeling someone around in a hospital bed. We finally make it to the ward and I am placed in the line up. It kind of looked like the line up at a Nascar race, 5 beds across 2 beds deep, “Gentlemen start your IV’s!” A nurse then comes over and starts chatting me up, asking me questions, the same questions the doctors ha asked and the young surgery intern had asked, and the chief surgeon had asked. I was feeling a little more confident that they all asked the same questions and although this information was all written down already, they wanted to make sure I didn’t forget anything. After about 10 minutes the one of the anesthesiologists that would be in my surgery came over, and shook my hand and introduced himself. He then asked me all the same questions the nurse had done. He assured me everything should be fine and not to worry. I must say I wasn’t really worried at this point, just relieved to be finally getting this pile of pain out of me. After another 5 minutes or so, they rolled me into the operating room, and I had this funny little Simpsons saying pop in my mind when the Doctor Walked in…”Hi Everybody…Hi Dr Nick!” So they put me on the operating table which is cold on my bare ass and they start messing with IV and stuff. Then the head anesthesiologist comes in a lil late because someone forgot to tell him we were starting. Anyways, everyone is great, happy go lucky, friendly. I was feeling quite relaxed at this point. The Doctor gives me my first blast of anesthetic through the IV, which makes me feel funny, and then a minute later he gives me the rest and …….when I woke up I was in the recovery area about 40 minutes later.

A nurse was there with me and taking my vitals and chatting to me and asking me how I am doing. I am actually feeling pretty good(and high still) at this point. We sat and chatted for about 15 minutes or so and they called one of the porters to take me back to my room. It had been just under 90 minutes since going in for surgery. As they are rolling me up the hallway to my ward, I spot this person sitting in the chair in the waiting area, “I know that guy “ I bellowed, it was my buddy Marv sitting there waiting for me to come back from Surgery. He was surprised I recognized him with my glasses off and all hopped up on happy juice. He joined me in my room and we chatted a bit as I checked my email and phone messages on my phone. I had a message from a recruiter looking for a reference check on my buddy Rick who was waiting for a job offer from these people. I know what it is like to be waiting so I calle the recruited back right away and proceeded to give her a reference. I did explain I just came out of surgery. I don’t remember much about the reference but Marv tells me I gave Rick a pretty good reference!

I must say I actually felt pretty darn good at this point and happy to have that gall bladder out of me. I felt a little bit sore but not too bad. I don’t remember too much the next while as I think I may have slept for a bit. I do know Cathy and Brian came and visited me again and then right after my nice and BF came and visited me. I had my dinner, the first solid…well it was Jello….which was solid for me…anyways my first meal since Saturday, and I was scarfing that Jello and soup down. I highly don’t recommend this meal. After a couple hours of guests, I watched some video on my laptop, and fell asleep in the sitting position as that was the most comfortable position I could get in. I slept til around 2pm where I was able to get some more T3’s to help with the pain and then slept through toil the morning.

Ok I will end it here and pick up the next day on my next entry!

Heading in for the surgery.........

So as I revisited my first night at the Hospital, I did confirm that Marv had come and seen me while I was still in the emergency ward. He brought me some magazines and sat through my morphine induced ramblings and help me live some of the most painful moments in my life. Not long after Marv left later in the afternoon, they wheeled my limp useless carcass up to the 3rd floor ward 34, and gave me a semi private room. The nice thing is, it was a slow weekend so I had no roommates. So as I got into my new PJ top and my custom fitted super duper turbo charged bed, which had more buttons than my TV remote control. As they rehooked me up to a new IV and gave me a styling hospital garment, I settled into my new digs. The pain started to come back with a vengeance and the nurse came in and offered me some more of that wonderful pain medication called morphine. This time I asked for a double! Problem was , in the emergency ward, they injected my morphine right into the IV which gave me the instant high I was coming to know and love. On the wards they could not do that, and they had to stick me yet again with a needle. On further inquiry the reason was explained to me – in the emergency ward there are always doctors present should something go wrong from a direct injection, and on the hospital wards they were not allowed to administer the ejections through the IV. Also the nurse explained that the morphine in the IV was fast but didn’t last as long, which I agreed, and the injection into the arm was slower pain relief but lasted longer, which was good as my injection would only come every 4 hours, instead of every two which again I had come to know and love. So I got my usual morphine with gravol to ensure I would not be sick. Around that time, as I don’t remember much, Cathy and Brian returned with my belongings, PJ, bathrobe, and most importantly laptop, so I would go online and post all my whoas and get the sympathy factor on facebook! I curled up into the fetal position again and went into another morphine induced slumber. I awoke a couple hours later to the nurse taking my Blood pressure and my temperature. I was really hungry at this point as I had not eaten in two days. Because of my condition and impending possible emergency surgery I was afforded only a wee glass of apple juice. Ironically, my pain had also subsided to the point of being a dull throb in my lower rib cage. My 40 hour gall bladder attack was ending. I drank my apple juice and savored every lil drop of it. I logged on to my laptop and checked my emails and updated a couple posts and then settled back in for the night. As it was around 10pm, and I had not slept the night before , I was looking forward to a few hours of non drug induced sleep. I even turned down my happy morphine shot, for the sake of two Tylenol 3’s. I figured I didn’t want to have to go through an intervention when I got home!
It was around 2am when I woke up and grabbed my wash basin and threw up. I remember reaching around in the dark and things crashing to the floor. The last thing I wanted to do was throw up in or on myself in my bed. I managed to hit the basin, and at the same time push the call button...and push the call button and push it again for the nurse – little did I know the call button I was pushing didn’t work and there was an actual separate button from my souped up bed remote control. None the less the nurse heard my heaving and came into help me out. All I remember is I had nothing in my stomach except bile and a wee glass of apple juice....I miss that apple juice...anyways, I finished my pity display and the nurse got me some more gravol to help with my nausea. I declined any more barbiturates as my main concern now was would i just throw my gall bladder up and avoid the surgery! Finally I rested having been glad I had no roommate that night with my typical patient like display.
Around 6am I heard the hallways come alive as all the doctors were doing their rounds visiting all the patients and discussing their prognosis with the young interns. In came 3 young doctors, the resident, the intern and the chief surgeon for the general surgery department. They were super nice and treated me with the uppermost respect and talked to me and not down to me. They poked and prodded and decided at that time that although my attacked had subsided, and the ultra sound did not look all that bad, my gall bladder was still pretty sore and tender, and that surgery was the best option. I would be scheduled for emergency surgery that very day, and barring any influx of more serious patience, I would be in surgery before 2pm. Of course that meant no food again, no drinks except a small amount pf water with my new best friends T3’s. The day nurse came on, a young Asian guy named Quang and he was nothing short of amazing. This guy loved his job, and took care of me like my own mother (minus the yelling and screaming and being grounded). I was able to get a shower and get a new outfit(hospital gown and feel a little human again. Once I was done I settled back in for a nap. Then about 2 hours later, Dr. Shiller came in, the guy that would be doing my surgery. He told me all the risks and explained what he was going to do, and even sat down and scribbled on a piece of paper what the surgery entailed. I felt really good and confident that this guy knew what he was doing and I trusted him. When he left i felt pretty good about the surgery. I fell asleep again, and then call came, time for surgery! Quaing woke me and hustled me along to get ready and to pack all my stuff up, which Cathy and Brian would grab for safe keeping. On a side note, I guess a lot of things get stolen in a hospital from patience which is a pretty sad state of affairs for someone to do that. None the less, I packed everything up, and had to remove my under garments and receive my post surgery shot and get into the new bed with a porter who would escort me down to the surgery ward. Ok I am a pretty solid guy emotionally, but around this time, I must say I missed having someone there that I knew, and that I was a tad bit scared.

Ok I promise to get the rest of this done this week. I have been traveling so much my time has been eaten up.

What a Weekend...Day 2

Ok So I know I said I would update this the next day, and I have received several comments to that effect. Unfortunately the next couple days I had some major issues with my body adjusting to functioning one organ shy of a full deck. So here is the next update better late than later......
So I was lying there in my morphine induced semi happiness waiting for my friends Cathy and Brian to show up to get me to take me to the Royal Alex Hospital DT. As the ER came to life, all the non church going sick people were filing into the waiting room, several more doctors and nurses had come on duty and the whole ER was bustling like a school bakery on a Monday morning. I was lying there enjoying the afterglow of my new best friend Mr. Morphine finally finding a comfortable position on the narrow hospital bed, and Cathy and Brian showed up. The nurse removed the IV but left the needle in me considering the time we had putting the needles in the first place. I prepared myself for the journey to the van and eventually to the Royal Alex Hospital. Brian jumped in my BMW and was taking that home for me as we didn’t want to leave it at the ER, which although is attached to a Police station, still brought a lot of people through the parking lot at all hours. No sense tempting fate.
Cathy and I headed to my place to pick up Brian as he dropped off my car and then headed to the DT core of Edmonton. It is amazing how out to lunch one can be while on morphine yet still be able to notice the 673 bumps in the road from my house to the Royal Alex.(but who’s counting).
Now haven’t experienced sitting around a waiting room for hours the night before and having being referred by the North East ER I figured I had paid my dues and was entitled to a bed right away as soon as I arrived at the Royal Alex. That was not the case. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even have a seat as we had to stand in a line to see the triage nurses. As i stood there in a hunched over pitiful looking stance, I realized as my morphine was wearing off I had something in common with the incredible hulk at that point, we both were around people with white coats, we both could not control the changes our bodies were about to go through from the pain and anger, and I was going to change to a nice green color as the morphine wore off.
As Cathy and I waited, my transfer paper in hand, I figured that I still should be able to jump the que, as I contemplated this, several more people joined the line up. I am thinking why do you not at least have a numbering system so people can sit down, as this thought passes through the fog in my head, the nurse comes out of the booth and asks us all in line to step back as we had encroached into the area where teh lucky patrons were being served, of course when you move a line back, and the first guy moves first, its inevitable that he will run into the second guy, so as the healthy looking guy in front on me stepped on my feet, it brought me back to the now. I am normally polite in situations like this but saying excuse me after being in pain for 20 hours straight was not on my mind, a slightly louder “Watch it” seem to work. I finally make it to the front and of course and ambulance arrives and my turn is stalled yet again. We were fast approaching the 11th hour of which my ultra sound was booked for. Cathy had mentioned this a couple times to the hard working emerge staff, but I guess in the emerge , time is but a number, of which the only two matter than is the start of the shift, and the end of their shift. Finally having made it to a nurse and handing off my envelope, she looked at me and said have a seat. It was at this time I fully realized there would be no queue jumping here, there would be no favouritism, or extra points for having sat at the other place. Here I was back to square one in the emerge. How I longed to be back in a skinny lil bed lying in a fetal position with an iv in my arm, those were the good old hours. I then had to see teh lady at the registration counter. She prepared a new wrist band and noticed my NE emerge one which now needed to come off. I was in the big leagues now.....the Hospital Emerge! She grabs my wrist band , slips her scissors under the band and promptly cuts off the old band, along with my live strong wrist band. As she realizes what she has done she starts to laugh not knowing that, in 6 years I have never taken off this wrist band it was special to me. Sometimes people don’t realize that the lil things sometimes do matter. I was not happy but in too much pain to really make an issue out of it.
I went back and sat in the waiting room, looking around and seeing a couple familiar faces; The Mexican fellow sitting under the no cell phone sign talking a mile minute on his cell phone, the girl with sore foot, just to name a couple. After what seemed like hours (and was only 7 minutes, I heard my name being called between labour pains along with 3 other members of the Royal Society of the Waiting Room Patrons. The porter lead the way as we all fell in behind him, heading to the ultra sound area of the hospital. My next observation was the people on front of me were not in as much pain as me, or they were hiding it better. Within the first 100 meters I had fell behind the pack by a good 20-25 feet. As we rounded teh next corner they were totally out of sight at this point. Cathy trudge along with me and I kind of looked like an old china man the way I was walking, you know short lil quick steps. One more hallway, and one more turn and we were now in the ultra sound waiting room. I realized at this point that this hospital had more waiting room chairs than hospital beds! Although coming in last in the amazing race to the ultra sound area, I was called first to have the ultra sound. I went in and removed my shirt and trie to get comfortable on this ultra sound bed. The technician started her procedure and put the cool jell and warm instrument on my belly and started. For the most part the ultra sound felt more like a massage of my abdomen area with a couple sharp pains every time pressure was applied to my gall bladder. The ultra sound took about 20 minutes and several hundred beeps later, the tech announced that the doctor would come in and review it with me in a couple minutes. She then ran off to another room to perform the next one. Again I wa amazed how to me the whole emergency room and hospital looked like organized chaos, yet these people were maximizing their time and equipment to meet the needs of the hundreds of patients flowing through their doors daily. Dr Doogie Howzer then shower up...ok...really..I am not being funny, I thought I was in the children’s ward when this kid sat down and started to do a couple checks on my belly and introduced himself as a doctor. He looked like he was 17. Ok back to me, so the doc explained that I did have gall stones but my gall bladder did not look all that bad. He said he would give the pictures to the emerge doctor and they would decide what to do. I was not sure whether I was relieved or pissed off. If my gall bladder was looking good, why was it being so mean to me! So I left the ultra sound place and shuffled my way back down to the emergency room with Cathy to my right. Once in the emergency room it didn’t seem very long before again my name was called and was brought back to another little waiting room in the observation area where several doctors and nurses were located. Cathy and Brian were no where’s to be seen at this point, having stayed out in the main waiting room finally, back in bee hive! I sat there for all of 2 minutes and in the distance i heard the Attending doctor talking about me, he knew everything about me, he was updated by the NE emerge doctor, and was waiting for me. Here, I thought I was just another new face when I arrived at the Royal Alex. My level of confidence and admiration for the emergency services of our hospital system was surging at every step of my adventure. As I sat and waited for my next interaction, after only about 3 minutes, I was promptly moved to a bed in the corner. They did my vitals and hooked me up to an IV. The first nurse chatted me up a bit and then the emerge doctor chatted to me about my gall bladder, and some options they may consider. Suddenly Cathy and Brian reappeared having paid someone off I am sure to sneak back where I was. I must admit at this point again many things were foggy and the pain I was in was occupying quite a bit of my waking thought processes . A new doctor appeared and he was from the surgical department. He started asking me questions and prodding me and poking me, and at point decided it was time for a prostate exam. Now I was in no mood at this point to have someone’s finger in my bum however my second thought was the pain I was in at that moment was pretty intense and this was probably the right time as I probably wouldn’t even feel it........I was wrong...anyways. Again he mentioned that the ultra sound showed my gall bladder being ok, and it might just be a stone and they may treat me and release me and have me come back...or they may operate. He would let his bosses decide that. In the meantime, they were going to admit me to the hospital. With that being said, they moved me three doors down, in front of the nurses station to keep an eye on me, and to wait for a bed. AT this point, it had now been 24 hours since the pain started. The good thing with my new status was I was now given some more morphine and my life was going to get better again for a couple more hours. At this point I was mentally and physically exhausted. As I settled in Brian and Cathy headed home for a couple hours before going to my house and grabbing me some stuff, and I sat back and relaxed and tried to sleep a lil bit while the morphine was doing its job.
After a couple more hours, I was chatting to the nurse there and really was impressed with him and how he handled this irate daughter of a patient. She was a nurse at the hospital and was pissed off because of the process and how beds got assigned ect. He stick handled here all the way out the door and up to the ward. I mentioned to him, that I was very impressed. Suddenly the word came; they had a bed for me upstairs! I was wheeled upstairs to my new residence for the next 24-48 hours. I can’t remember at this point if my buddy Marv was with me in emerge or had come by upstairs to see me. I do know that he was visiting me there and brought me some magazines to read. He was very worried and I must say it was great to see him. Without Cathy and Brian and Marv, I am not sure I would have been able to make it through this ordeal. I was happy that I had some close friends, that took the time to make me feel better and to fill the gap of not being alone during this ordeal. I know I was visiting with Marv when they brought me some more happy juice and as I sat in the foggy afterglow, Marv had left and Cathy and Brian had showed up with some things for me. They didn’t stay long as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I figured it was going to be a rough night.
Day 3 coming soon!

What a Weekend.......

I am now updating my blog within a week of the last one, pretty good eh. I have had at least 3 people bug me about my blog and why it is not updated so I have at least 3 readers. I guess all famous writers had to start somewhere.
The other reason I am able to update this is I am lying here in a hospital bed after having emergency surgery on my gallbladder. It is about 4am and I awoke with a pain in my hip from sleeping on it all night and a slight pain in the stomach is where they did the operation. Now most people reading this blog know my sad story on how I ended up here but I will recap for the one or two that doesn’t. Saturday I had just finishing mowing the lawn at my house and was relaxing having a nice golf Gatorade G2, Red I think...two much details? Ok sorry.....and I started feeling some throbbing pain my back. Being the athlete that I am (no laughing!) I figured the pain was from the 7 mile walk I just did mowing my lawn. After about 30 minutes the pain encircled my whole lower chest are, but it was a weird pain, one I never felt before. I knew something wasn’t right. So I started to use the Google and see if I could find out what this pain might be. I really couldn’t get a definitive answer on this weird pain, and by this time it was approaching 6pm. I was chatting to Mother #2 (CATHY) and she suggested going to the medicenter, so I had a shower and put on clean underwear as mother #1 always suggested in case you get in an accident and have to go to the hospital. Apparently they can decipher between clean underwear and dirty underwear even if it is full of poop from an accident. Anyways, the medicenter #2 sent me to was closed so I texted #2 and asked for options, at the same time plugging the data in my GPS, as I started to drive to the nearest hospital #2 confirmed I was heading in the right direction. On arrival at the North East Emergency clinic, I see the triage nurse and gave her my story of pain and whoa, and she said....because of my age they would like to do an ECG first to rule out heart problems. Well I was not sure to be happy to be going in right away or insulted. None the less, this did concern me as I thought I had ruled out my heart with my 60 minute Google medical training. I must say at this point I was a little nervous that it may be my heart. As luck would have it, the ECG came back negative. I was then thrown back out into the pit affectionately known as the waiting room where moaning man and crying babies were the norm. What I noticed while sitting in the pit was most people there didn’t look sick or hurt. The odd baby crying and the odd limp, but no show stoppers it seems.
Just as my pain started to ramp up they called me in to the back part where all the experts and action happens. I realized that they had a door there to the back, not to keep the patience out, but to keep the doctors in! I am sure they had these electronic dog collars that would zap them if they tried to escape the insanity of an emergency ward. Seriously though, they were moving from patient to patient computer to station, stealth like, not taking a break. It was amazing to see these people work, being able to diagnose a colic baby, to a stroke victim to a whiney lawn mowing athlete.
Once the doctor visited with me, we assessed my pain and he felt it most likely was something to do with my gallbladder. They ordered up IV with some muscle relaxing drugs in it. It seemed to help and after a couple of short hours of being there my pain seemed to have subsided. The doctor confirmed that he thought it might be gallstones and booked an ultra sound for me on the Monday back at this North East Emerge clinic. So I thanked the wonderful staff and jumped in my car and feeling a lot better, headed home. By this time it was 12:30am Sunday morning. I had been in the emergency center for just over 4 hours.
After getting home, I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so I threw some leftover KFC in the oven and heated that up. My Friend Danni popped in on his way home to see how I was doing as #2 had informed him of my crisis. We chatted some and he left around 1am as he had a flight to catch Sunday around 7am. After he left I took my chicken and a glass of milk and ate, and satisfied my hunger and thirst.
I watched a bit of TV and after about an hour I noticed a lot of the same pain coming back, but a lot stronger. I went back to the Google to enhance my previous medical experience and looked up gallbladder stones and attacks to see what I could do. Now Attack to me indicates painful incident that has a start and an end. Now for the most part all the sites said the attacks normally last anywhere’s from 30minutes to 6hours. I looked at the clock and it was now 3am, and it had been almost 12 hours at this point but being the optimist, I decided to ride it out for another hour or so and it should go away, and I should be going back to the clinic during drunk season (2am-4am after the bars close). I then went and had another shower and crawled into bed. By this time the pain had almost doubled again. I was trying to explain the pain to a friend and this is probably my best explanation; ever get winded, you know either punched in the solar plex or fall and get the wind knocked out of you, and just as your starting to catch your breath, you have that sharp pain at the bottom of your lungs, well that’s what I felt like someone constantly punching my solar plexus except the pain encircled my body. I tossed and turned and try to get comfortable, and got out of bed and sat in the living room, and then back to bed etc. This went on for about 2 hours until finally I had tears in my eyes from the pain. I made the command decision to head back to the NE Emergency center as it was now 5:30 am and most of the drunks should be gone and none of the new patience should start showing up for a while. I went to the clinic and this time I sat in the waiting room for at least an hour, I cannot explain the pain and how uncomfortable I was. I never thought that “hey great good time to show up at the emergency clinic, no patients”, problem was there were also fewer doctors and nurses.
They then moved me into the back room and allowed me to lie down on the bed where I waited another hour, I was in so much pain at this point again, I had tears in my eyes. Finally a doctor seen me and ordered another IV with the get better juice. I figured the last time it took about 20 minutes and I was feeling fine so this should be about the same. On top of that they gave me a couple percasets, which I had never had before but had heard about through this intervention TV shows where someone was addicted to pain killers. I figured I should have this pain licked. After about 20 minutes of lying there, the nurse showed up and was preparing my IV. Unfortunately I have a hard time with needles, at least my veins do. This poor nurse was at the end of her 12 hour shift at 7am and after three attempts could not get the needle into my arm. Another Nurse then came in and after 2 attempts was successful with a smaller needle in a smaller vein. The poking of the needles did distract me a bit from the excruciating pain in my stomach, perhaps this was a ploy or some new acupuncture ...I know...just kidding....Anyways, with needle in arm, and happy juice flowing , my Percocet’s were given to me and I had swallowed them up, I figured I had a 20 minute rough time left until things got better. After about 45 minutes of no improvements, and actually having the pain increase yet again, one of the nurses that had come on recently had heard my whimpering while lying there, and was able to get the doctor to authorize giving me some morphine. So they gave me a morphine and Gravol mix so I wouldn’t get sick from the morphine alone. Needless to say that it worked and took about 85% of the pain away. The doctor then scheduled a ultra sound for me that morning at the Royal Alexander hospital in DT Edmonton. I contacted Cathy and she said they would pick up my car and take me to te Royal Alex for the appointment.

DAY 2 I will write this in tomorrow .

Better Late as always

Well I have been taking a lot of heat for not updating my blog for the last couple months and rightfully so. I have been in a state of flux the last while trying to find a place to work and live within TransCanada. My original project I joined TCPL for has been put on hold awaiting permits, which could take up to 18 months. They then shuttled me over to the first Phase of our Keystone project which was competed. My role there was to assist on the claims litigation against some contractors. Anyone that knows me professionally knows that this is not my type of work to be doing. With this role, it required me to move to Calgary. That’s not so bad except I am trying to sell my house in a very flat market right now. So I do not plan on taking a big hit on the house I built. Anyways, after working on Phase 1 for ohhh about a week, I decided that I did not want to do that., I basically have resigned myself to the fact I will be leaving TCPL. My bosses caught wind of this(because I told them) and I had a meeting with 3 of my managers and director. They all convinced me to stay and gave me a new opportunity working on Phase 2-4 on the Keystone project. I would be based out of Houston TX. I liked that so I accepted the role, in the meantime I had 4 calls in two days on jobs I had applied to. It is a good indication that he market is coming back. I was tempted by at least 1 of the jobs but decided since TCPL had shown me the love that I decide to stay.

This has created a whole different bunch of stresses for me. I now am not sure what will happen with e selling my house, and whether I need to or not before I move to Ontario ;if OGS (Oakville Generating Station)does get cancelled they will want me to move to Houston to work which means selling my house there and buying here. If it doesn’t et cancelled then I will sell my house and move to Ontario when it happens. The other problem I have with all these plans is I am not sure how my move will work as it is suppose to be complete within 1 year of my hire. So If I move after a year, is it now an employee transfer vs a move? Will they pay for it now that it is over a year? I haven’t received these answers yet, as well as the questions I have for my Houston assignment, like LOA or Per Diem, Travel, Uplift, Project bonus ect. So you can see what the turmoil has created.

On a personal note, things have been ok. With all the travel between Calgary and Houston I haven’[t seen my house much, I have completed the back yard as far as the fence and sod goes. That cos me $10k of which I will not see back in the house sale. I just got tired of not having a back yard. Now that I do I hate it as I have to mow it every week and it takes a lot to mow this Par 3 back yard.

I have been out golfing a lot this year and have been having a blast. I think I am even getting better although some days my score doesn’t show it.I think I have been out 23 times already this year. That is one thing that I think I will like about Houston is Golfing all year round. After this week though, I am not sure I want to golf during August in Houston as it is so damn hot! This upcoming week I have 3 days of golf Monday through Saturday and maybe even squeeze in Sunday.

I spent the week before in Sydney Nova Scotia visiting my brother and family. It was a lot of fun and I got to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in years, some I hadn’t met yet! The weather was perfect all week with one day of rain(not on my golf days either) I managed to get out 3 times golfing and even got to see my friends Dave and Linda Bennett from Ottawa. We managed to squeeze in a couple dinners and a night out at the Cape Breton Summertime Revue show. I took my brother Bill and his gal and they loved it as well. A good time had by all! The week went by way to fast though and I regret not booking two weeks now. I think next year will be a 2 week stay down there.

My next trip will be from Houston to Charlotte North Carolina on the September long weekend to visit my Buddy Mike Sandford and Family. It has been over a year since I had seen them. Mike and I have ben friends now going on 8 years and he even worked for me during 4 of them. We have a great relationship and I am excited to get down seeing them!

The trip after that will be Panama in October and I am going with my friend Dave and Linda from Ottawa. I will also have at least one visit to Ontario during that two month time frame to visit family as well. So I do have more plans coming so stayed tuned for more travel updates. My travel schedule for the next month is going to be busy traveling between Edmonton, Calgary and Houston with a side trip to Cold Lake for Golf.

Ok, that’s enough for today, I will endeavor again(as I always say) to update this minimum on a weekly basis. If not keep bugging me and I will eventually get around to it!

Roller Coaster ride

So again I lag in getting the next blog up due to my procrastination and various other excuses can try and sell to my three loyal followers( I am sure there are more but are not ready to admit it yet). I want to update this more but of course it gets harder with so many things going on. I am currently trying to sell my house and move to Calgary, and with the slow down in the project I was to work from home in Edmonton for the next couple months. However I have now been seconded to one of the other projects and now in Calgary working starting on Monday. I haven't really set up what I am doing, my accommodations, travel arrangements etc.

Return of the Blogger

So I have taken soooooo much heat because I have not updated my blog in 3 months. I guess when things are going (relatively) good it is harder to get motivated to come on here and ventilate! So here is the NEW update. My last entry had me in the Caribbean in February. The trip was awesome and I had a great time with my friends the Bennett’s, an old army buddy and best friend. March and April had me traveling all over Ontario and the USA visiting vendors and attending meetings. I think I was in a plane at least twice a week then. I know I have almost reached my elite status on Air Canada! The nice thing is I get to go home and visit the family at least once a month, which is probably good as my mother seems to screw up her computer that often, so I neeed to go there and make a tech call in exchange for peanut butter cookies, which I then trade to my friend Cathy to check my mail and house. So it all works out!

As you are all aware I have started working with TransCanada and I really like my job. We are building a generating Station in Ontario and we have been having a lot of resistance from the locals. Although I can understand some of the push back and feel for some of the people, I must say it is my first experience of NIMBYism. Because of this, we are experiencing a slow down on the project getting permits. Because of the slowdown, the company now wants me to move to Calgary until we are able to move the project forward.

I am a little on edge because of this as I must now sell my house in Edmonton and buy one on Calgary. Having carried two mortgages before, I do not want to buy until my other house has sold. The market is relatively strong however there are indications of a bit of a slow down. I hope I can get my home sold, and then I can concentrate more on where I want to live in Calgary and what I want to live in. I will most likely downsize for Calgary and reign in spending to try and save more for a nicer bigger place in Ontario.

The move to Calgary is all paid for by the company. It will pay the real estate fees, lawyer fees, interest penalties up to 3 months, the mover’s fees, relocation company fees, a spending account for stuff and more, so the costs are basically covered. The only thing TCPL will not cover is the guaranteed sale of my house. So that will be the most stressful part trying to price it right and price it so I am not loosing money. I think I will be able to get $580-620 for it but again that will all depend on how the market gies this month. Once I list it, we will see if I get any showings on it.

So that’s the basic update and now I will Endeavour AGAIN to update this blog AGAIn once a week time permitting.

First couple days in Curacoa

So I decided to update my blog while having my morning coffee sitting on the Isle of Curacao in the Caribbean, Dutch Antilles. I probably won’t get this posted until after I return unless, ori find internet access in the next day or two while still on the island.
It is 9am, Wednesday, and I have been here 3 days now. I got my sunburn the first day when I was out on the beach , so I have had to deal with that. My nose is probably the worse followed by forehead and head. My body has a slight tinge of red, with a constant throbbing of pain from the sunburn. So needless to say, it is still great to get sunburn in February!
Day one we did all the things required of new tourists, we booked al la carts, we went to the Sunquest briefing and we got our bearings. We went down on the beach most of the day, and my friend Dave and I went snorkelling while Linda his wife laid on the beach. The snorkelling was amazing with all tefish and aquatic life. They built a man made reef about 40 meters off shore to help preserve the beach from erosion and calm the waters for people wanting to swim. Around this reef is all the underwater life you see in the fancy aquariums, except they are within inches of you.
The resort has 3 al la carts, and unfortunately we couldn’t get in our first 2 day2 to any of them so we ate at teh buffet here. I enjoyed the food for the most part. It is not the best I have had but by no means the worse. At the end of the day, we just kicked back and relaxed in the room and chatted and watched a movie.
Day two had me at the dive shack doing an introduction to diving. I had done a dive course 15 years ago when was in Kenya, but unfortunately I have not gone diving since so I have no certification. So I took a 4 hour introduction course to allow me to go diving for the morning. We did our classroom and pool session which was the bulk of the course, and then we did 25 amazing minutes in the ocean. It was nice being underwater and just an awesome time to be out there and seeing the wild life and the crisp clear blue waters. I liked it so much I booked another escorted dive with my buddy Dave who is certified and out diving every morning. We will be going out this afternoon around 1:30 to do that. I am looking forward to it! My buddy also has an underwater camera so maybe I will be able to post a picture of me in the ocean, I may look like a very large seal or very small whale! We finished the day off with an al la carte meal at the grill. It was not all that great but hey, better than McDonalds and -15 back in Edmonton! After dinner we took in the show which was karaoke and lets just say it was entertaining. We capped off the night with a stop at the casino. It was fun, I played Blackjack and my friends played the penny machines. I won around $100 and they won around $30, so a good end to a great day.
I see Linda on the beach and Dave has gone diving already, so I will sign off for now, and go meet Linda for Breakfast. Stay tuned for more.

Daily to weekly to monthly...quarterly?

So I have been absolutely horrible in keeping my blog up to date. I even put it on my blackberry calender to remind me to do it, and alas i forget. Well I will add more reminders and take more ribbing from people I know to keep me motivated.

Soooo...where to begin...I was away the last two weeks on business, 1 week in Toronto and 1 week in pittsburg. It was fun to get out and about, and I spent a weekend at my folks place so again nice to see everyone. I even managed to bang up my rental car, by driving it into a post in my parents yard. nice thing about small towsn, is everyone knows someone who can help you out, whetehr its to buy illegal smokes, to moonshine, to getting your car fixed under the table. i figured $1600-2000 to fix the car, cost me $160! yeah you heaerd right AND I tipped him another $40 for a great job, and mister national was none the wiser!

had my work kick off meeting last week in Pittsburg. It was good, good company, good food, and of course getting some traction on my department for the project. I even managed to go see a Pittsburg Penguins game, which they losst against Ottawa, but hey, rinksie seats, lotsa eats, and a couple beers. A nice night out. I got back home of Friday night, and have been working on a couple things. I need to get the house in order before listing it and I need to call a couple places and cancel service, like WCB and Telus. Oh the life of a procrastinator!

Cathy and family are off in Hawaii for a month, enjoying themselves and in 2 short weeks I too will be in the Caribbean with friends enjoyng the sun food and drink. WHO knows, maybe I will even go and try diving again.

I spent an extra day in Edmonton to meet with some vendors and to discuss some work face planning with an old friend. I plan on flying to Calgary tonight and spend the rest of the week there. The weekends certainly fly by when your only home a couple days. Actually this last month whizzed by pretty quickly.

I need to get back to taking care of my weight again. All this travel and 5 star restaraunt food is fattening me up again lie a christmas turkey! And being home at moms doesnt help either. I know i can be more diciplin and I have a million and one excuses, but the end result is live healthy, live long and I need to keep tredging along that path.

alright time to get ready for my first meeting of the day. I will hopefully update you on this next Monday!

Cheers!

Scarlet Takes a tumble.....

Well again, I have fallen behind on updating my blog. I am thoroughly engrossed in my new job and loving it. I even have a calendar reminder on to tell me to update my Blog, and I have failed to do so. So here is the update for this week.

Have you seen the video on youtube, called scarlet takes a tumble, well here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIwTYL1fwJk

That was me this morning heading to work. I came out of the apartment building side entrance and walked down a flight of stairs, and right at the bottom as I placed my right foot down I did a body slam down on my left side on my wrist. My first reaction was wholly sh*t, and then did anybody see me and then is my clothes dirty and then DAMN that hurt. I got up dusted myself off and headed on my way into work. So as I type this, my left wrist is bruised swollen and I think I broke a couple blood vessels (or bones) Time will tell!

Beside my clumsiness, the last week was pretty good I came back after holidays and was able to jump right into my job and get a lot done. I still learning and feel lost at times, but the team here is great in getting me up to speed. My procurement boss took me out for coffee for my birthday which was nice, right up to the point where I spilt mocha cappuccino on my shirt, Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus, and Marty is a slob.

Last week I tried to take m y Jeep in for the out of province inspection that is required because I bought it in Saskatchewan. So of course the registration expired on 2 January, the day I decided to get the inspection done and register it. So I go to Canadian Tire and try to book an appointment, but I need a form from the registries, so I go to CAA and get the form, now back to Canadian tire, I wait for them til their done, an hour later I ask the status, they said that the light on the dash for tires is on, and they can’t pass me until that is out. They suggest I go to the dealer up the road to reset it, and then come back and they will check the light and I will be on my way. I am pissed. So I go to the dealer and ask how to turn the light out, when did you put air in, 1 mile, you need to drive 2-3Km to reset it. So I drive 2-3km….10-15km, still the light is on. My friend Danni suggest that maybe the spare is low, So I stop and pay $1 for air at the local rip off place known as the Petro Canada. Light is still on, so I drive to my friend Marvs place in Sta Albert to drop off some stuff, and as I go there, a pebble hits the windshield, . Now I have a small crack. So I cover it with my GPS, no one will see it.

I get to Marvs, and my light is still on. I drop off the stuff and ask Marv if he has a tire pressure gauge just to check and see if the Canadian Tire guys actually put air in the tires. Of course the rear right tire is 3 lbs under…hmmm… So on the way back to Canadian tire I stop at the local Esso and get a deal on air…only $00.50 cents here. Sure enough the light goes out. As I get in my vehicle and happy I have solved my warning light dilemma, I notice the crack in my windshield is now peaking out from behind the GPS, so I throw my gloves on the dash to further camouflage the crack. I head down St. Albert Trail, turn on 137 Ave and notice now that the crack has stretched across my windshield from end to end. Well I decide to go to Crappy Tire anyways and plead my case that the crack just happened and they seen that I didn’t have it before I left. I get to Crappy tire, and say the light is off you can check it so I can go. They tell me they still have to inspect it. Read back, they told me only the light was left and now they say they never did anything yet, so I sat for an hour and they hadn’t done anything, had I not asked, I would have sat even longer. Now I am totally pissed. I ask how long for them to do it, now there is a 2 hour wait just leave the car. Well I grabbed my keys, asked for my form and said screw you, it is no wonder I have not been back to Canadian tire in 7 years, they still suck.
The good news is I was able to get the windshield replaced and the inspection done on the Monday 4 January. My friends Brian and Cathy did this for me after I went to Calgary. In reality I am to blame for leaving it to the last minute, but that is just the way we men operate ok, its in our DNA, our blood, our past and our future. Accept it!

Ok back to me, I have been fighting a chest cold the last two weeks that started the day before my birthday (30 Dec) and it is now just starting to go away. I even stayed home the night of my birthday(New Years Eve) but I did get out for lunch and bowling, golf and dinner with my friends. That was nice to see everyone and I appreciated it all. I received a nice Edmonton Oilers pull over from them for my birthday as well.

I have been taking lots of “across the counter stuff” for my cold, especially for the mucus and the cough. Ok so the best stuff is Mucinex for my chest, which you can only get in the USA and Delsym Cough medicine which rocks for getting rid of a cough. The nice thing about Delsym is it tastes great, orangey and no bad after taste. And my cough goes away totally for like 4-5 hours. They sell it at Costco as well as at most pharmacies.

I spent the past weekend working on my receipts for my Company MSM, so I can get the accountant to start my tax return. So I took the two bags of receipts, and the two piles of paper and I spent 6 hours sorting and taping and gluing receipts to paper. I Sorted all my house bills as well lat the same time, so I am now ready to file all my house bills and almost ready for the accountant,. I still have to go online and print receipts from all my flights and cell phone bills. I was worried I could not access my receipts from Westjet as they changed their system however, I did have them in my email so I am good to go.

Well that’s enough updates for now. Hopefully I can be given a reprieve from all my blog followers(who obviously have no life!!!) and I will try and do some updates a little more often…lets say every 1 to 2 weeks……deal?