Life's good

Today, February 21st, is Family Day here in Canada. For office employed staff this means a, paid, day off. So far so good.  The morning was pretty cold, -24 but in the afternoon it soon warmed up to -3 with a partially clear blue sky and some great sunshine. Thus the garden chair came out accompanied by a nice and cold Molson Canadian beer (like they advertise: Made from Canada) and sat down in front of the garage wearing a t-shirt reading the morning news-paper, where I was joined by our dog Fox. When outside Fox always does the walkabout first but eventually settles down around the house, temperature permitting; below -20 he starts barking at the kitchen door. It was nice and warm and the day kept being good.

And then there were two.

So after Thursday December 9th 2010 we are back to two again. Emma and Johan left Canada to live their lives in Holland again, quite emotional to say goodbye at Calgary International Airport. It's quiet here in rural Alberta with them gone now, but in time we will get used to that. At moments like these you start doubting the decision you took a coupe of years ago. We should have gone 10 years earlier, our kids could have developed their lives here. Other milestones, driving back to Edmonton, in your live also spring to mind; looking back there is one decision I deeply regret; I did not have the balls to take on the adventure of switching jobs to a steel-fabricator in my birth province. Even in hindsight it would have been the better move as steel-drafting was shifting to the fabricators who were being saturated with 3D solid modeling software. Some 12 years later I do have the balls to cross the pond to Canada at age 50. I wonder. On the other hand we probably would not have moved here.

Dear Canadians....

Please do not start throwing German words at me when you ask if I am Dutch. I understand you are trying, but really there is a very large difference between Germany and Holland, size wise and language wise. But maybe we add to the confusion ourselves: The Netherlands-Holland-Dutch all the same but where is the correlation? Canada-Canadians, America-Americans, Germany-Germans, The Netherlands-Dutch, see what I mean. Not much of a post but I needed to get it off my chest.

Nice background, eh?

For those of you who have no clue on the background picture. It are Pink Floyd album covers. Beautiful isn't it? The rest I will leave to your imagination...... Personally I favor "Wish you were here"

Huh???

Mavis, Chad, grooming shop? Maybe some explanation? Yes please. Mavis is one of Joka's co-workers. Both of them go along very well, personally and professionally. So well they decided setting up or buying their own grooming shop. And Chad? He is Mavis her boyfriend. Both of them are in their early twenties. We are, lets just say, considerably older. Nevertheless we all go very well together and age hardly has any relevance here in Canada; experience on the other does matter. The four of us are the proud owners of HollyWoof Inc, where Joka and Mavis are the directors and Chad and myself are, as we choose to, the collateral damage so to speak. We have a shop in our eyesight that is for sale at the perfect location to combine business with the boarding kennel from the previous post. We have made them an offer, a month ago, but it was declined being too low. Still there are developments that raises hope we can purchase the shop in the near future. Victor O is helping us out here, we are too eager and would probably pay way too much. And he is very good at what he is doing. So the next few weeks (days?) we are hoping to make some really good progress on this endeavor in the second half of our professional life.

Opportunity knocks

Saturday a week ago I had to go to Victor O to settle some financial matters. Dropped Joka at the Petsmart, drove the Whitemud-WinterburnRoad-Yellowhead-Range Road 15-Cole Anne Heights to his place. I got out of the car and at the same time I'm on my butt, slippery as hell. And it hurts. Guess what; nobody home except the cleaning lady. So now what? Standing there asking myself what to do I see Jutta's car approaching. "Are you telepathic?" she asks me. It turned out she wanted to call me on some dog grooming matter. She talked to a boarding kennel who want to do grooming too, as we are in the market to set something up, Joka and Mavis want to start their own business. This kennel also does rescue dogs and as it happens they were at a grooming-shop in Edmonton to promote this. So I went there, made an appointment for the next day. So we, Joka-Chad-Marco-(Mavis had to work), paid them a visit. It's a big boarding kennel with no room to do the grooming but we agreed we could accommodate them by starting up our own shop and set-up some kind of transportation service as they get many grooming requests. So this opens a real nice business opportunity as we can feed off their clientèle too. One problem, we have to find a place where we can start. Or buy an existing one.

+6 to -31 in 4 days

Last Thursday we had a comfortable +6 degrees. Very nice. Today, Sunday 20:00 it is -31 below. Temperatures are like a jojo this winter. Also we do not have very much sunshine and thus no clear blue skies. The sunshien and clear blue skies make the wintercold very bearable. But the last couple of months we have had a lot of snow, some 60 cm. And very cold temperatures that came with it. An odd combination; usually it's cold and sunny or warmer with snow. The really really condsnaps of 40 and below have stayed away for the now, we have had one at the start or winter -37 in the morning. Next Wednesday the forecast is +3.

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.

Stumps

On request here are some pictures of trees we have dropped the last couple of weeks; it is not really the clearcuts but there are some areas that are more open now. Basically we only removed dead trees and a occasional live because I did not pay attention. Johan taught me a lot about treefelling, he is quite the expert, espcially on the direction of the drop. Not much big fellable trees are left, if any. As you can see autumn has taken over, last weeks snow already disappeared. It is a nice 12 degrees today. If you ever have to remove a tree stump you can use Stump Not or you can do it the redneck way. When you stack your firewood be sure "the space between each log is large enough for a mouse to run through, but tight enough to prevent a cat from chasing it". Look here for the complete guide on 'How To Stack Firewood'.

Oilsands and asphalt.

The Oilsands not only propel your motorized vehicle, they also provide the bitumen to produce asphalt to drive your motorized vehicle on. Bitumen is the carefully refined residue from the distillation process of selected crude oils, Wikipedia says.
Why it is called the tarsands by some is unclear to me, as tar is produced by the destructive distillation of coal. Nothing to do with crude oil. So the Oilsands are not only providing gas, it provides the glue for roads also and generates a lot of jobs, hence a positive impact on the economy. I agree the Oilsands companies should also minimize their impact on the environment. As for killing birds this is a nice article to read. If you don't like it you can read another one here. The first article states wind energy companies are (I feel wrongfully) not procecuted on bird deaths. On the other hand when 300 ducks fly, land and die in a Syncrude waste water pond the company gets sued and fined a couple of million. Wind energy is so called clean. How much energy is needed to produce those windmills? Mining the ore, transporting it, producing and deforming the steel, welding it, transport to site and erecting it. Is it really neutral? What about the landscape? Horrible I say. May its better to work with instead of against the Oilsands companies. Who knows are the results, a positive impact on the environment, far beyond expectations. If you are dead-against the Oilsands anyways, take a look here.

Sharing your life on a blog.

It is fun to do, most of the time. Biggest "problem" I have is the fact you almost never get a response. This despite deliberate blunt and stupid remarks, or posts, on my part. Only 1 or 2 people respond regularly, and I do appreciate that. Maybe even because of that, who knows. But generally people do not take the time to write something down I guess. This is based on the emails I get where the last line often is something like: "I will mail you back later as I have to ..........." (do some work related task) or "I'm so busy now I will respond more extensively later". And no this is never followed up with said email, and that's a pity. So sometimes there a gaps in the blogflow (word reminds me of something :-) ) or numerous posts in a short period of time. Are people really interested in the endeavours of a 52 year old, new Canadian landed immigrant? Currently I don't care but sometimes I just wonder if I want to continue. There should be people out there who are thinking on a move like we did, even if you are "old" like us. It makes your life really interesting and it is by no means only joy and happiness; as you have to take big and difficult life changing decissions. Family-friends-son-daughter. But it is rewarding, that much I do know. And maybe a blog like mine can offer some help. Working in Canada and the way M&D looks at the drafting world made me realise there is a vast global business and drafting world where you can be a part of. And there is very much to do out there, you only have to find it. In that respect it is a pity we made this move so late in life. On the other hand you could argue we were not ready yet. But the second half will be worth the walk, for sure.