So, what's happening?

Two days into the new week after black Friday (also the Friday after the US Thanksgiving), but for me the most shocking day of my working career, things have changed. To relax myself this weekend I had a lot of beers, not my style but I had to. And yes it helped and got back a some perspective.
It's also weird you may leave the job some two hours after being laid off, a severance package and the next business-day almost your complete existence with the company is gone. It is like you see in those American series, a couple of card-board boxes loaded with your personal stuff and poeff... gone. 
On the bright side; I will never ever pick up smoking again, it solves nothing and you smell like a bloody ash-tray and your throat hurts. Drinking is no solution too, frigging misty. "One man's death is the other one's bread". It's true. The last two days I'm swamped. A whole bunch of jobs to take over, even 3 new jobs. Small ones but jobs nevertheless. All in all I'm not that unhappy currently.
This morning Husky Oil announced they have released a oil-sands mega project, some 2 billion. Waiward is bidding that one too, and if awarded hopefully we will get busy again. Read here if you are interested.

WTF.....

Regarding the events of today I even lit up a cigarette. As you can imagine it helps fuckall, so it will not happen again. So why? Actually I have no clue. It was the first thing that came to mind, to calm down. Cause my knees were shaking after the lay-off-explanation-meeting. However the picture is not that bleak. We have just gone down to the absolute minimum to serve our biggist client, Waiward Steel Fabricators, but at what expense. They are the one that kept us afloat the last 1.5-2 years, lets not forget that. Without them the doors of M&D Drafting would have been closed long time ago. I surely hope 2011 will turn around the economy. Don't get me wrong we are still in survival mode, trying to be positive. Up until a couple of days ago I had a real solid belief it would turn for the better. Now I am not so sure anymore. The "What if..." does not take over yet, but it's close.

Going to work.......

"Bey dear, see you tonight" as it usually goes when you leave to go to work in the morning. You drive your car, or bicycle, to the job, where ever that may be, say "morning" to everybody on your way in. Log in, go thru your email or whatever you have to to. Have your first coffee. Do your job, until you get called it to the boss' office. "I'm sorry to say that today is your last day here, due to shortage of work, we will pay you until the end of today". Fortunately that did NOT happen to me. But 6 of my co-workers had it happen to them today. It has been a slaughterhouse the last to weeks. 64 people gone. 2 offices closed permanently (Parkville and Surrey).
Only 2.5 years ago, May 2008, I asked on the workload (when applying); no need to worry "we have 8 years if work (80000 tons of steel) in our portfolio". How things  change, right. End of 2008 the axe came down. General comment on this was, and still is, "this is Alberta, bust or boom. It will blow over soon". Sure, but when is soon?  Currently there are about 9000 houses for sale in and around Edmonton. Still they keep building like crazy. Are they that confident it will boom again, word is it will be worse than ever before. It's hard to believe, as a simple down to earth Dutch guy. Being laid off is really that easy over here, no permits. No nothing. Somebody will take over your duties. Bey bey.... Thruthfully, it's an emotional roller coaster. Not much fun currently. I am in survival-mode, take it one week at the time. After the events of this morning I decided to ask upfront about me, the reply "Don't worry Marco, your versatile. You have qualities we can use. You said, one year ago, you're are willing to go back on the tools (read Xsteel)". Did that simple remark, a year ago(!!!), saved my butt today? Looks like it.
"Hello dear" I said this evening when returning home, still on the job. But it's difficult to see the smile in life.

Freezing Flying Ducks

Today I heard a peculiar story one of my co-workers was telling. A friend of him was driving in the Fort MacMurray area, in winter at night, when suddenly his truck was hit by something falling. Twice. So he pulled over to investigate and to his surprise the found two duck lying on the street. Their wings were frozen solid, like an airplane on high altitude. After a while he noticed the wings were thawing and the ducks taking off again. I imagine this could happen when flying high, in winter, in a damp (sub) arctic area. Whether the wings can thaw and being used again I have no clue, maybe only if the freezing is superficial.  Anyways, plausible?

Bison and a Barred Owl

Today we went for a early visit to a couple of friends whow live close to Elk Island National Park. They invited us for a coffee, including Joost who also had his Permanent Resident card issued as of November 11th. Finally after 3 years and 10 months the PR is completed. Anyways we decided to have breakfast at Tempo on the Yellowhead highway (Edmonton to Saskatoon); it took some effort to break them free from the laptops, as you can see. Steak and Eggs, French Toast, Fried Breakfast and a Denver Omelet were ordered and mastered. Meanwhile Vos was waiting in the F150 who later was joined by a new 2011 F350 Lariat. Next on the agenda was a visit to Elk Island National park for a little hike to get rid of the excess calories. Out in the open there was a nasty cold wind so we went into the treed areas; much better. Vos got very exited as he ran loose, we had to leash him as he was barely listening anymore. Too many smells. On the way out we did the bison loop, and as you can see with success. A couple of dozen bison were present and willing to have their picture taken. Quite impressive and beautiful those bison. Joost was driving when all of a sudden Johan got very exited and had the car stopped; he spotted a barred owl, another species on his list. Onward to the coffee and a lazy warm Sunday afternoon.

Approved, again

Today I was up for my annual medical check at Dominion Health Care in Edmonton. Dr. Amarjit Singh Narula is the family-physician, neatly bearded including a beardnet (or whatever it is called) which goes off when on the job, I guess.
'Good morning, how are you today?'..'Please sit on the table'..'Say aaah'; "AAAAAH", 'Look left'..'Look right' for checking the ears; 'Left arm'..'Right arm' for blood pressure, which is just a tiny little bit over the limit; 'Lie down'..at least his hands are warm while checking the nuts. 'OK, sock off'..checking my ankles for plaque-buildup; Tjak.....there it is: THE GLOVE. I had seen a box full at the table including a large tube of some kind of lubricant. Oh Oh. 'You're over 50 so on your side'..Not very pleasant when a guy is doing that to you, butt the prostate is very much okay. No laboratory tests today, the lastest showed excellent results. Medication is being adjusted slightly, back in 6 weeks to check. In the meantime Narula is updating his file, while I'm sitting almost butt-naked waiting for the next exam. 'You may dress up now' he says as I'm studying the walls, ceiling and medical equipment, again. Or is it because I start to look at his every move? Finally, I was starting to feel un-easy.
Also the "please" is gone, used here in front or at the end of (almost) any request. He is friendly but without the please, and that annoys me. Almost 50% of the consultation/examination is consumed with reading and updating my digital medical file. He sure has learned how to type, one hand operates the left-shift-key while the other is used for the remaining key-strokes. Efficient. Where did I see that before? It gets the job done though, and as health care is free of charge I don't mind.

I hate commercials....

 So what's the deal here, is he gone bonkers? 3 (!!) ads on my blog? I'm just wondering how much, if any, $$ you can generate with Google taking care of this via AdSense. So maybe it's temporary; then again maybe not.

Woodstove is working fine....

Today, Saturday november 6th, I fired up our new woodstiove at 7:15AM this morning. Soon the temperature rose to 22 degrees. In the afternoon we let the fire die to install a fan at the backside of the stove, and as the sun was shining brightly thru our front windows the temperature stayed up. After installing the fan and firing up the stove again the inhouse temperature reached a stagering 25 degrees Celcius, the stove is not even fully loaded. So I think we are good this coming winter, although it's not really cold outside tonight; only +2. Our, for over one year, seasoned poplar firewood ignites within 15-25 seconds or so where 90 seconds is the "norm". The moisture percentage is about 17%, 20% or lower is recommended. Wood dries fast here in Alberta.

Finally Free Warmth...

Almost free. At last the woodstove is burning. It is a Drolet Adirondack and a solid investment. I never got the checkered plate delivered, and being fed up with the situation I ordered a sandstone hearth pad at Future Fireplaces. 48" by 54" by 1 1/4" thick. Very heavy but it does the trick. After starting the fire the inhouse temperature went immediately to 22-23 degrees. Hopefully the gas-bill drops below $50 a month or even less. Keep you updated on the decline, if any. Some 8 cord to go. Bring on the minus 50!!

Please No More!

Just let me be Vosje, no dress puppet or puppy. I already served as a X-mas card last year, in case you forgot. That's more than enough. Click here to for a full photo shoot to see what they did to me. Fortunately the huspup stands out for me, altough he did take the pictures. I say, life of a blog-dog is not an easy one.