Vancouver Sunset #13

Vancouver sunset #13
Originally uploaded by travelcedric.

Got a phone call yesterday from my friend Al.

"Whatcha doing today?"

"Not much"

"I was thinking of hiking out to Dog Mountain to take some photos of the sunset over Vancouver tonight."

"I'm in!"

Dog Mountain is attached to Mount Seymour, and is about a half hour snowshoe in from the ski area. It should be called Dog Point, because it really isn't much of a mountain. But the view is spectacular!

We got there just about the time that the sun was dipping below the horizon (partially traffic's fault, partially my fault, I am out of shape!) but what an amazing sight awaited for us. Fog rolling in from the Georgia Straight, gold rays of sunshine, pinks and purples dancing around the mountain peaks; it was breathtaking. We quickly got to shooting some freehand shots before it got too dark, then I dragged out the tripod to start shooting long exposure. Al forgot to grab his tripod, so we took turns shooting with mine. I fired off 107 shots all together, and have posted the best on my Flickr page.

The hike out was a bit more relaxing, less of a death march since we weren't in a rush. We stopped and enjoyed the stars and just being up in the mountains with the snow and the trees and the serenity of it all. Then off to the Raven to celebrate a good evening of photos with a pint of Sorrento Stout and a Raven Burger.

What a perfect evening!

Something fishy is going on...

That is one big fish
Originally uploaded by travelcedric.

Please don't eat me Mr. Fish!

Got some photos of the 737 painted up to look like a sockeye salmon now over on Flickr, so go take a look. I even remembered to take my fishing rod in and got some photos of myself and some of the guys trying to reel it in. The fishing rod made for a few good laughs, as many of the guys wanted to take pictures with it and the fish.

Go take a look at the photos, it is an amazing paint job. Thirty people over 24 days to paint it at a cost of about $500,000! All to adverstise Alaska seafood products. I think they got their moneys worth on this flying billboard!

Today's fish is salmon

Something fishy is going on at work.

Big and fishy.

We currently have a big salmon in the hanger, a "salmon-thiry-salmon" to be exact. Alaska Airlines has a plane that has an airbrushed sockeye salmon painted on it to advertise Alaska seafood, and it is currently in our hanger getting a bit of work done. It is a really neat paint job, really well done too. It looks like a freaky big salmon!

So, I am bringing my fishing rod into work tomorrow, and will be taking photos of someone trying to reel it in. I am sure that it has been done before, but not by me. Look for the photos on my Flickr account in a day or so, I will post them there.

(If you are too eager to wait for my photos, click on the title of the post and go to see someone elses photo of the plane)

W00t!

First aid exam: written 96%; practical 100%.

I rock!

Although I have struggled with this course, having difficulty with the way the instructor's teaching method worked against me, and also the mnemonics she used, I guess I have done well. A lot of what I did has come from past courses and personal experience which in the end made things a bit easier for me.

Some of the scenarios that I did involved a broken, avulsed arm; puncture wound from a hypodermic needle; CPR/AR and someone knocked down from an explosion who was having difficulty breathing. The only mistake that I might have made (but really I didn't make it, it was just something that was missed by the person acting as the patient) was with the broken arm, I wasn't told that there was point tenderness when I was palpating, but I still did everything correctly.

It is nice to have this out of the way for another two years, it is very mentally draining, and a very physical course. My knees, arms and back are going to need a few days to recover from all the kneeling, rolling people, lifting people, etc. Even CPR is physically exhausting. Imagine pumping someones chest for 30 minutes straight, could you do it? We are trained to teach a helper in how to do it, but even then you are still going to be very worn out and switching every few minutes to let someone rest a bit.

And as I tell all my patients, I like doing first aid, but I don't like to HAVE to do first aid. Be careful out there.

Oh by the way, which one's Pink?

SNOW????????

WTF? I thought this was Vancouver, lotus land, home of rain and mild winters? What is this white stuff doing back here again?

We had about 8 inches out here in the Ford, only 2 or so in Vancouver proper. The Wack got even more than us in the Ford! This global warming things is a bit confused around here.

I'm exhausted, I have been doing my OFA2 (Occupational First Aid) course this week, and being that it is very physically and mentally draining, I am lucky if I make it to 8PM before collapsing into bed. Last night I even fell asleep fully clothed!

The course has been challenging, not that I don't know what to do, but more that the instructor's teaching style is very confusing for me (and others) because we have been doing it for a long time and are used to doing things certain ways. There have been changes to procedures, but not enough to cause as much grief as what we are feeling. I have talked to the instructor about her teaching, and because she thinks that others are learning from her way, she won't change. Great, I suffer.

The biggest problem is that she likes to use pnumonics (letters that make familiar words to help remember things). I don't learn this way, and am very confused when she uses one of these pnumonics, and not the real steps. For example, she uses the pnumonic "CLASS", and even after a few days, I still don't have a clue what it means. It is probably important, but I haven't a clue.

I just hope I do well on the test even after all this confusion. I am going to try and practice a bit with some of my co-workers tonight to try and figure a few of these out.

I have also applied for a posting at YVR with my company, which if I get it means that I will probably be moving back out towards YVR so that I don't have to drive so much. This also means that I will probably be buying a place out that direction. Richmond, Ladner or something. It will be nice to be close to all my family and friends again (other than Bonnie, she is going to be upset). We will have to see, the posting closes tomorrow, and I am sure that I will have an interview next week.

Fingers crossed!

Things you say and the things you do

First and foremost, Happy New Year all!

The holidays have been busy as to be expected, running off to be with my brothers over Christmas, and then working out at YVR for the rest of the week. Followed up by First Night in Surrey watching Spirit of the West with Andy, it has been a good time.

Christmas Eve was with my brothers and my Oma, eating too much, having a few drinks, having a few laughs. It was fun, and since we don't get together as often as we should, it is a much cherished event. Christmas day was again at Allen's, but with his girlfriends family. Once again, too much food and more good times.

Boxing day was work for me, out at YVR covering some shifts for another guy. Two 12 hour days, then two 12 hour nights. The days weren't too bad, typical running around saying hi to planes, sending them on their ways. The nights, well they were long a busy. The first night shift was me spending a cold night out on an engine changing a fuel line. It was below freezing that night, so there were problems of cold fingers, cold me and of course exhaustion. But I managed to get it done a bit sooner than expected, and when the morning crew got there, they did the runs and the line had no leaks, and the engine performed correctly. Yeah me!

The second night shift was a bit easier, not such big jobs to do, but still a bunch of finicky things to worry about. Some poor passenger on one of the planes had gotten ill as well, and chucked all over the lav, the galley area and then first class (on the carpet yet!). Ummm, yuck! The groomers weren't too happy about that. Then the rest of the night was fixing cabin snags, and a much deserved break where we sat in the cockpit munching on leftovers from the galley. I found a box of home made shortbread, which I ate too much of, but I did manage to leave some for the other guys and even the other shift. The highlight of that night was when I was grabbing a coffee from the terminal, I ran into my old friend and ex-vice president of my company. He was on his way to Vegas for New Years with the family, and was boarding one of the planes that I was doing a turn around on. He was joking that he hoped the plane was good with Me and Amex working on it, and that he did not want to see us up in the cabin. As it was, the Captain of the plane was late departing, and we were sitting in the van joking that maybe Mike was going to see us up in the cabin. I thought that it would have been funny to just go up there, walk into the cabin and just look at Mike and smile. I am sure that he would get a chuckle out of that.

So, along comes New Years Eve. My good buddy Andy heard that Spirit of the West was playing at Surrey's First Night celebration, which is impressive since he lives in New York, and he suggested that we go see it. Since I really couldn't think of a better thing to do, I agreed. I got there about 10PM, and watched an up and coming band playing. They were pretty good, played to a younger audience, but I still enjoyed them. Wish I knew their name. Then, while waiting for SOTW to play, I ran into Vince, the drummer from SOTW. I like it when the band feels comfortable enough to wander around the crowd before a show. I didn't bother him, just smiled and went on my way in search of mini donuts.

It has been a long time since I last saw SOTW play, and to think that I had seen every show over a ten year period but now keep missing them. It was a fun show, directed more towards the family end of things, but the guys played well, even if Geoff screwed up the lyrics to The Crawl, and Vince nearly lost it laughing when trying to sing That's Amore to the young daughter of one of his friends. ONe of the fun parts for me was Andy and I singing to all of the songs, and having a pretty young lady standing in front of us keep looking back at us and smiling because she was enjoying singing coming from both sides.

The show finished with fireworks, really good ones too. Andy and I wanted to get to Tim Hortons, but somewhere along the way I lost him, and the Timmy's was closed anyway. So, home I came, tired but happy.

And now, time to prepare for another new year. Hello 2007.