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Backyard Happenings

June 7, 2014
Rainwater

Some photos from the backyard recently. Angela and Claudia were playing badminton and Chloe was watching (waiting) for the birdie. As soon as it hit the ground she would grab it and take off.

The girls are pretty good now, so the birdie doesn’t hit the ground as often.

 

Our lilac bush has finally bloomed and with it has attracted the bees and butterflies.

The bees were busy.

The Region of Peel offers free landscape consultations to residents. It is called Fushion Landscaping. During the consultation they show you ways to create a modern, environmentally-friendly space and give you a personalized garden plan and plant list. They also give you some free stuff. Since we took the play structure down we have been thinking about how to make some changes to the backyard. Stay tuned.

Delayed and Cancelled Flights

June 6, 2014
Work Posts

I was down in Champaign, Illinois this past week for work.  I had flights booked from Toronto to Chicago to Champaign for the Monday. My 8:00 flight on United was delayed almost 3 hours due to unavailability of a flight crew, the plane was there, but the previous nights flight was also delayed and therefore they had to wait for the crew to get their required rest.

 

I had to re-book my connecting flight through our corporate travel centre, in April we switched to a new supplier and they are still working out their growing pains, which results in long periods of being on hold. I managed to re-book for 13:10 out of Chicago.

The cartoon above was pretty spot on. I got to my gate and it said we would be boarding in x number of minutes, well that time passed and they made an announcement they were waiting for the flight to land. A storm had gone through the O’Hare area and there were delays. Eventually they came on and said the flight to Champaign was cancelled. It was a smaller regional jet and due to the time it was holding to land it probably had to turn around due to low fuel. I got in line to re-book, I had a seat on the 18:45 flight to Champaign…the next day…Tuesday! Champaign is about a 3 hour drive from Chicago, so I headed to the car rentals. I managed to rent a vehicle, got to Champaign for my meetings and cancelled my flights to and from Champaign.

Voting For The First Time

June 1, 2014
Rainwater

Gillian and I went to the advance poll this morning to cast our votes in the June 12th Ontario Election. I will be in the Northwest Territories that week and Gillian is not on the voter’s list, so it was better to get her on now rather than wait for election day. Here is Gillian after voting at the Returning Office.

Happy Birthday Claudia!

May 28, 2014
Rainwater

Claudia celebrated her birthday on Wednesday. We were able to have cake after her soccer game and picking up Mom from her night meeting. Gillian made a marble cake that was delicious.

What’s you working to?

May 23, 2014
Work Posts

I spent the week out in Newfoundland for work. I flew into Gander and was picked up by one of the regional techs out of St. John’s. We then headed to Head of Bay d’Espoir.

The forecast for the week was cloudy and showers everyday, but as always wait 5 minutes and the weather will change. Wednesday turned out to be a great day. The evening ended with a nice sunset.

At lunch one day the cook came out from the back and asked us “what’s you working to?”, it took a few seconds for me to process it to english, to figure out she was asking ‘where we were working’.

It was a good trip for wildlife, I saw a moose on the highway down to Head of Bay d’Espoir, a black bear near the site, and some caribou on the way back to Gander.

I drove back to St. John’s with Brent to catch my flight to Toronto. It was a good drive, only a few showers along the way. While in Newfoundland I only encountered 4 traffic lights, one in Gander coming out of the airport and three in St John’s, not bad considering I drove close to 800km. After three weeks on the road, I’m back for a week, before heading to Champaign, Illinois in a couple of weeks.

Things I remember…

May 20, 2014
RainwaterWork Posts

When I was a kid, I remember Dad going to Winnipeg. When he had the roll of film developed, there were probably pictures of relatives, but the one I remember is the picture taken out the window of the wing of the airplane.

These days I take between 30-40 flights a year and usually choose an aisle seat. This week on my way to Gander I was seated at a window. Upon looking out the window I saw the airplane wing and the first thing that came to mind was Dad’s picture taken almost 40 years ago. As a kid airplanes were such a mystery, and my only encounters were what you saw in the sky or when we went to the old Terminal 1 at Pearson to meet arriving relatives.

I didn’t fly on an airplane until I was 15 years old, now I take it for granted and just consider it part of my job. Here is my photo of the CRJ-200 wing of Air Canada flight #8862 from Halifax (CYHZ) to Gander (CYQX).

Chloe Chasing Laser

May 19, 2014
Rainwater

Claudia was teasing Chloe with the laser pointer.

Dancing Usher

May 18, 2014
Rainwater

When we were at the last Blue Jays game the usher (not to be confused with rap artist ‘Usher’) near our seats was really getting into the music between innings.

Island Falls, SK

May 16, 2014
Work Posts

This past week had me up in northern Saskatchewan for work. I was doing an installation at our Island Falls, SK site with two other guys. The site is located at the Island Falls hydroelectric power generating station. This is the view from A-dam.

Most of the ice is off of the Churchill River.

There was a groundhog (Marmota monad) that kept showing up at the same time of the day near our building, makes me wonder if one of the operators feed it.

Making a run for it.

The copper smelter was closed in June 2010.

Before heading to the airport we stopped at the local tourist park with the statue of Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, a science fiction character from the novel “The Sunless City” by J.E.  Preston Muddock.

Flinty is 24 ft tall and was constructed in 1962. It was designed by cartoonist Al Capp.

To get to Island Falls, it is either an 8 hour drive from Saskatoon or a 1 hour flight from Winnipeg to Flin Flon and then another 3.5 hour drive from there.  Here is the flight path from Winnipeg to Flin Flon. Calm Air is the only airline going there now that Bearskin Airlines no longer has daily flights. While we were waiting to board our flight a RCMP jet came in with a prisoner to make a court appearance in Flin Flon. The provincial court sheriffs were there to take custody of the prisoner. When they are arrested they are shipped to Prince Albert to await trial and then flown back to the local community.

Sleeping Giant

May 5, 2014
Work Posts

I was up in the Geraldton area for a few days. It should be the last time for awhile as I have turned the site over to one of my junior techs. I always stop in at the Terry Fox Memorial whenever I go up.

The Sleeping Giant.

There was still a lot of ice on the lakes, but the snow was gone. A map of the flight path from Toronto to Thunder Bay. Geraldton is another 3.5 hour drive north-east of Thunder Bay.