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August 6, 2008 - 6:52 AM About time for an update and some new pictures, eh?  I have over 1,100 pictures from the last week or so... Coming soon!(This web page is teaching you patience. :P) Just so you know, I've got trips to Mission, to Regina, and Pine Lake to cover in (presumably) my next journal entry, no small task! It may well just be the largest single journal entry I'll have composed to date! And pictures from all of the above and more!  \ August 10, 2008 - 10:21 PM 
This weekend has been spent relentlessly persuing the accomplishment of a childhood dream - installing my very own underground sprinkler system. It's a task that I sorely underestimated, both in time
and in physical requirements. From 7:30 Saturday morning until 9:30 that evening and from 8:00 this morning until 8:00 this night I've toiled unceasingly in the persuit of this goal. And I am pleased
to say that the result has been hugely rewarding! I've got the vast majority of the system installed underground, tested and calibrated - though there is still a bit more to do on it in the week to
come after a trip to one of my new favorite places, Home Depot. Just in case anyone was wondering, that's what I've been up to this weekend. Sorry, no massive journal entry covering two weeks and 2,500
kilometers of travel just yet. But I wanted to share with you something I saw today - and I hope this will make sense. All day in my head there played a song I have not heard in years that I can recall.
It's a kid's song actually, one which I used to listen to when I was very little. I wondered if perhaps I had heard it while my computer was playing random songs the other day, but after checking just
now I've realized that I don't even have this song in my collection. It's based loosely on a Bible verse, and we used to listen to it (among many others) countless times growing up. I believe it
was Psalty, the singing song book who sang it. I cast all my cares upon You. I lay all of my burdens, Down at Your feet. And anytime that I don't know what to do: I will cast all my cares upon You. As I was driving to my parents' this evening for an hour of well-deserved relaxation and a cup of tea, I stopped at the lights of 52nd Street at Marbank Road and glanced out the passenger's side window at a very vibrant rainbow that, from the angle I was stopped at, seemed to land squarely upon the cross of a church. How appropriate, it seemed, this image I found myself observing. Anyone else looking in the same direction at that moment would have likely seen the rainbow, but descending upon one of a dozen differnet locations. What are the odds that I would be there, at that very moment, seeing what I saw in light of the day's ponderings? (And what with my camera ready at hand and all!) If that weren't enough, while I was at my parent's house, my aunty Becky phoned for my mom, who went to grab a list of Bible verses Blair had pulled out to give to her for encouragement. Wouldn't you know it, but that very verse upon which the song running through my head ALL day was based, was atop the list of verses to give to her. Coincidence? Not in my life... August 17, 2008 - 11:51 PM  Life, it would seem, is simply racing past far too quickly for me to capture the events therein with words and to do so with any kind of justice... I am just back from Lake Keho, somewhere south of Calgary, where we had two full days of water-based fun and one of the most beautiful (and picturesque) sunsets I've ever seen! I'm becoming keenly aware of how far into the background this web site has been pushed as of late - and appologize to my faithful readers for it. Life does not seem to be slowing down for me in the forseeable future - the next week or so at least is already packed from sun-up to sun-down. But fortunately it has all been captured on electronic film and therefore the memories are closer at hand than one might think and I do hope to pen some ponderings in the not-too-distant future. In the mean time, I'd better get to sleep! Tomorrow is already a full day! August 22, 2008 - 11:31 AM Well, it would seem I will never have [enough] time to sit down and write all that I would like, so here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks, with a spattering of explanations throughout to help clarify some of the more obscure ones.  A couple of weeks ago Lloyd and I went to Regina to install some card access systems in a set of newly retrofitted elevators. When we arrived there was naught but an empty metal cabinet on the wall - and upon our departure it was filled to capacity with circuits, wires, and tie wraps. Due to events beyond our control, the system could not be tested (the elevator guys weren't ready) and we will, at some point, have to go back to complete the job. But here are some pictures from that project.  Here is my panel with all the power and inter-communication wires installed. None of the elevator wires had been connected yet.  Technical photography for the geek in all of us.  Contrast this deserted downtown street in the heart of Regina's core with that of Calgary. There was a couple of guys playing football in the street, a game that went largely uninterrupted save for the occasional pickup truck passing through. Lots of patio-patrons though. Seems there isn't much to do there but sit in the sun and drink.  I stayed in the restored Hotel Saskatchewan which was quite a neat experience. It still didn't have a pool though. There was quite a sense of anchient atmosphere - you half expected to see a couple dressed to the nine's, him in a top hat and black tails, her in a large dress and bonnet, waving herself with a hand fan.  Sometime I'll have to tell you about the time I nearly got the strap in grade 3 for locking the bathroom door on the stage in the old Heritage Christian School building. That building must have been about the same era of this hotel, and this was the same style lock as what was used in that school (now demolished.) I tied a piece of telephone wire around one of the arms of the lock, closed the door and pulled the wire out - effectively locking the door from the outside. I was in grade 3 at the time.  Yours truly  Here is my panel with all the elevator wires connected loosely. We weren't going to tie everything down and make it pretty until everything had been tested and proven working in case some things needed to be changed.  ROAR! A bear.  After spending two weeks in Calgary, Kristi, the girls and I drove back to Mission.  Shot through the windshield. Some beautiful British Columbia scenery.  Once cannot drive through BC without noticing the ever-increasing spread of orange Pine trees across the heavily-forrested mountains. I had no idea this was as widespread as it is, but it is huge. Some mountains are entirely dead. And you can imagine how flammable a mountainside with dead pine trees would be! I think that's about all that can happen with these pine beetles, there's currently nothing to stop their spread and a near endless supply of wood for them to eat.  Good travelling companion.        Once we arrived home in Mission safe and sound, we couldn't wait to get out of the vehicle and once we did - it was like shaking a bottle of pop and removing the cap.   The girls love hanging around me.          In case you haven't already heard, Kristi is moving to Calgary at the end of August. She gave her landlord notice as soon as the decision had been made to make it fair for him (and to avoid paying a month's rent while she wasn't occupying the house) and he immediately put up For Rent signs on the place and began showing the house while Kristi was still in Calgary! (Well, he tried - but her alarm went off when he opened the door and he didn't have a code to disarm it. Can we say Busted!?) I drove through what once was lovingly remembered as Sandy Cove at Pine Lake, and it's changed a LOT since I last saw it. It was very disappointing, but the change comes at an appropriate time. Pine Lake is becoming too commercialized to be much of a desirable destination anymore. In another couple of years it will simply become another Sylvan. Too bad, really. Things constantly change though. We'll always have the good memories.      Ed's old trailer site.  The remains of Ed's infamous firepit.  That's all for now. Can we say Pacify The Masses? BACK to Journal Index |