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Saturday, December 27, 2008
Total Geek
Taking technology geekdom to a new level I sit here typing this from my living room couch on my new iPod Touch, a Christmas present from Dianne. And for a device I realy didn't think I needed or wanted, I sure have had a lot of fun playing around with this thing. It is quite an amazing piece of technology, if I do say so. We went out yesterday and bought a wireless router for the computer network so that I can now go online with not only my laptop, but also the iPod which has built in wi fi. I can now surf the Internet from anywhere there is a hotspot such as an airport or Starbucks and can make Blogger entries from anywhere. While all this is fabulous I still have yet to come up with a practical use for this. But now, at least, I have somewhere to store and listen to my meager music collection, and what may be an even better deal is that I can store videos on it and use it for business purposes to demo my wedding videos at the drop of a hat to anyone who is interested. So that may be the justfication I needed to buy this rather expensive toy. Christmas was rather quiet around the Hilton Homestead again this year. Angie, Lee, and Chris joined us for supper on Christmas eve before we went to the Christmas eve candlelight service. Then on Christmas morning we waited until Angie & Lee came over from his parents and we opened gifts and then had our Christmas turkey dinner, which was scrumptious as always. We have been taking it easy since then, just watching a few movies, doing a bit of shopping and eating more turkey. Angie & Lee flew off to Pheonix on Christmas day to spend a couple of weeks vacationing at Lee's parents place down there. We just had a couple of Chris' friends over for supper last night for more turkey. It has been so nice having all these days off, it's given us a chance to relax a bit, although I'm still chugging away on a long overdue video project. So, between doing that and playing with my new toy, I've had an enjoyable few days. Merry Christmas to all and all the best in 2009. Friday, December 19, 2008
Freezin' It Off
Cold! Real cold! I guess because we didn't ease into it gradually but just plunged into double digit minus temperatures we are in a just a wee bit of shock. Just a wee bit. We are expecting the same kind of weather for most of next week, -27 as a high. As a HIGH! AArgh! Well I guess that's what being a Canadian is all about, being able to survive in a huge walk-in freezer and love it. Is it just me or did someone change the rules? More and more these days I see people making left hand turns through an intersection from the left hand lane into the right lane. People this is illegal! Or is it? I'll have to check. Maybe they did change the rules. You have to watch them. If you are in front making the same turn, the right way, into the left hand lane and then signal to move into the right lane, sure enough here comes one of these guys scooting around the back of you doing it wrong, right into your path! Really bugs me. Sunday, December 14, 2008
Winter Wonderland?
We have been reminded once again why we hate winter here in the Frozen North and again we question why we insist on living here. The temperature has dropped to -30, well -28 to be exact but for the purpose of dramatic impact saying -30 is more...well, dramatic. So along with the snow we got last week we can officially say we are into our Alberta winter. Of course we are not used to it at all and having that extra month of great weather doesn't help, but it was sure nice. Nonetheless, it's here and there's not a thing we can do about it so we must just get on with life and wait for spring. We're getting into the Christmas mood here. The tree is up, the Christmas lights (new LED ones) twinkle outside every night on the timer. The out of town gifts and Christmas cards are mailed out and all we have left is to clean up the house, get the odd one or two things for each other and the kids and we're done. Dianne got her Christmas present a little early this year in the form of a new desk for her office which we put together yesterday. She was so envious of the nice red mahogany desk I got for my office that she decided she wanted one for herself. Hers is a little smaller as she does not have as much room in her study but it looks very nice and beats the old white desk thingy she had in there. And speaking of Christmas songs, can somebody tell me since when did "My Favourite Things" have anything to do with Christmas? I hear this song ever increasingly around this time of year and I wonder why somone thought that this song from "The Sound Of Music" was Christmasy or even Wintery. I can see "Winter Wonderland" or "Jingle Bells" as being kind of appropriate, although a bit of a stretch, but each one talks about stuff to do in winter. But talking about "dog's biting" and "bees stinging" is a long way from "visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads". Seems kind of odd, that's all. Thursday, December 04, 2008
Winter Arrives
Winter has come at last here in the frozen north. We had a small snowfall yesterday that put a nice icy glare on all the roads and the temperature dropped quite a bit. So it is finally here to stay, but we are so grateful for that extra month of mild weather with no snow. The editing suite is working quite nicely now that I have installed the upgraded software and have had a chance to get used to the changes. I just completed a wedding project and have just started the last one of the season. Hopefully I can take a little break after that and do some housekeeping projects in the next little while before the 2009 wedding season hits. We already have a wedding booked for July. However, I do need to put together a demo reel for prospective clients and also create some sort of web presence so that will be something I will be working on. So for now we are getting ready for Christmas, doing the shopping, getting the Christmas cards sent out with this year's Christmas edition of the Chronicle, which is still being written and the typical hectic rush. Thursday, October 02, 2008
Welcome To Studio H    I have finally finished the edit suite and here are a couple of pictures of the finished product.It's not totally up and running yet as I am now waiting for the upgraded software for the editor and a few of the other graphics programs. I have preordered the Adobe Production suite CS4 which is due out this month and I cannot download it until around the 14th. So in the meantime I am trying to tweak everything to make sure it is working properly. As you can see there are two 22 inch Samsung Syncmaster monitors in front and a 32 inch Samsung LCD TV in the back and above. That will be used to preview the program that I am editing whereas the two smaller monitors will hold the applications, multiple ones if need be. On the floor to the right is the Dell workstation and my older Pentium 4 machine is over on the left. Beside the black keyboard is a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet which will make drawing and doing graphical work a lot easier. It is taking a bit to get used to that. The two units with the orange stripes are external USB hard drives. One is 250 GB and the other is 500. I have installed two 500 GB drives into the Dell along with the 160 GB system drive and I just installed a Pentium Core 2 Quad processor and 4GB of RAM, so it is quite a powerful system. I shall still use my old computer as more of a utility system for going online, doing email and the like while the workstation is more dedicated to the editor and the support graphical applications. I am very pleased at how the desk and chair are working out, both are very comfortable and way more roomy than my previous setup, which is good as I plan to spend a lot of hours in this room. Overall I am very pleased with how it turned out so far but the true test will be how well it performs with the upgraded software. Eventually I will be able to edit HD on this system. So that's my little tour of my new toys. We are enjoying some unseasonably beautiful weather at the moment. It has been getting up into the mid 20's all week and has been downright hot! Plus we have the added bonus of the gorgeous fall colors on the trees which are still turning. Hopefully that will last a bit longer too. This weekend we are heading down to Calgary for the wedding of one of our nephews and we are looking forward to getting away and having a chance to visit with family a bit. Then next week, over the long weekend and then some, Dianne and I are planning a little road trip to the west coast for a little getaway together and to visit Mom & Dad in Parksville. That will be the third weekend in a row that Dianne will have been away as she was in Saskatchewan last weekend helping her Dad move into a new place and going through a lot of the old stuff in the house for him. Monday, September 22, 2008
The Autumn Leaves
Seems like we just turned around last week and all of a sudden the leaves had turned to their autumn colours. I thought it was a bit early as I don't usually expect to see this until we are in to October. Perhaps the hot days in July and August made them turn a little sooner. Nevertheless, they are beautiful and until a windy day comes along they will be a pleasure to see as I drive around the city. Of course it means that fall is upon us and within a month or so snow will be on the ground. A dreadful thought. But, in the meantime, we will enjoy the nice weather, and we certainly have had some of that in recent weeks. Last week it got up into the 30's and was quite summery. Today it is raining and quite cold so perhaps our fair weather has departed. I have only two more wedding videos from the summer season to edit and at the moment I am taking a bit of a break as I put the new edit suite together. I am writing this from the new "command central" as I transferred my old system and the complete network into the new facility over the weekend. I am just finishing off a few structural things on the desk, like wiring and power supply and will be continuing to set up equipment for the next few days. The new work station arrived last week and I did have a chance to fire it up briefly. It's a Dell T3400 work station and once we finish upgrading it will have a quad core processor, 4 Gb of RAM and over a terabyte of hard drive space. It will be running through two 21 inch Samsung Syncmaster monitors and a 32 inch Samsung LCD flat panel. The new desk looks pretty spiffy with all the new gear on it and I can't wait to start editing on it to see how well the system runs. The work station will be dedicated to only the Adobe Production suite software and all my internet and utility computing will be done on my older Pentium system. So it is pretty exciting to see it all come together. We called Sandi last night who is currently in Vietnam until Wednesday and then heads back to Bangkok. From there she will be heading to Singapore. She is doing well and enjoying herself although she took a three day tour that did not seem to well organized and caused a lot of frustration. It seems they don't put a lot of care into the product they sell over there and once they have your money they are not really too concerned about how well you're treated. Dianne and I are planning a little road trip around the Thanksgiving long weekend to get out to Vancouver Island to visit Mom & Dad. We haven't had a chance to get away together for so long so we thought this would be a good opportunity before winter socks us in. Monday, September 01, 2008
The Long Hot Summer
Tomorrow is the first day back at school and I was thinking today of when I was in school and how the last days of holidays were always a bit depressing. The last Friday before the long weekend is the official last day of holidays as you would get the weekend off anyway. Then the holiday Labour Day Monday is kind of a "bonus" day. But tomorrow is Tuesday the 2nd of September and it's officially over. I still remember the feeling I used to get as the new school year drew near. For in those days of my youth, the summer days languished on forever. Day after day of hot sunny weather where we just lounged around or went for day long bike rides with no other cares in the world. And then life came to a halt as the Labour Day weekend grew near and the dreaded "first day back" loomed on the horizon. It sort of feels like that now with the approach of every Monday morning but not to the same extent. Nowadays, the next Friday is just a few days away and those Mondays just keep coming around and around. But there is nothing like the summer holidays of my youth. Life was good and there was plenty of it. It's been a busy summer and now we look to the beginning of September and the coming of the fall. I have been busy all summer with the video projects which are progressing along nicely. Our final wedding shoot for the summer was yesterday after doing one on Friday afternoon. So both weddings are in the can waiting to be edited. I am just in the process of editing the one we shot in July and I am about half way done. The pressure is off slightly so I think I may concentrate a bit more on getting the new edit suite up and running. I have decided on what equipment to get and just need to order it. I'll report on that a little later as it starts to come together. Before that I have a bit more infrastructure work to do on the room. As an update on the activities of our kids, I can report that Sandi is enjoying her travels around Asia, now that her contract in Japan is over. She has moved out of her house and sold her car and has gone off exploring. She went down to the island of Okinawa for a few days where she was able to do some scuba diving. She then flew to Bangkok Thailand and had a chance to ride an elephant as she did a little sightseeing around Thailand. Currently she is in Cambodia and will be leaving at the end of the week for Laos and Vietnam. After a couple of weeks there she plans to try and get to Singapore before heading back to Bangkok and the next leg of her journeys. She hopes to get to Malaysia and Brunei before ending up in Australia. She has no definite timeline for all of this so we are not sure when we shall see her at home again. Nikki and Chris are about to make a major move. Chris has finished his tenure at the mission in Crestview Florida and the two are now in the midst of moving to Montgomery, Alabama. They will be renting a house there as they find some work. The church that has invited them up there will be training them for ministry positions for the future. Lee and Angela just returned home from a rather monumental trip. They had flown down to Tampa Florida to pick up a motorcycle that Lee has bought. They then rode the bike all the way home to Edmonton, stopping in to see Nikki & Chris along the way as well as a few other relatives. They had a lot of fun and arrived home safe and sound but tired. So it's back to work tomorrow after another long but busy weekend. The only consolation to that is thet it will be only four more days to the next weekend. Sunday, June 29, 2008
Lugubrious Weather
Well. it's been an absolutely fabulous weekend and we have been trying to take advantage of it all the way. I finished my wedding video project on Friday, other than a few tweaks and adjustments and I decided to take the weekend off to enjoy the weather before starting in on the next project. Yesterday, Dianne and I drove down to Ponoka to take in the rodeo at the Ponoka Stampede, for something to do. It was a fun afternoon as we took in a bit of the rodeo and then had a wonderful barbecue supper at the parents of some friends of ours who live in Ponoka. Today we just took it easy and after church came home, made a quick lunch, which we ate outside and then spent the rest of the afternoon just lounging in the back yard. We are waiting till it gets a little cooler this evening to go for a long awaited bike ride. I have to go to work tomorrow and then get Tuesday off for Canada Day. We haven't decided what we are going to do on Tuesday yet, but hopefully if the weather is nice we may do a bike ride into the river valley. Sunday, June 22, 2008
Rainy Day Sunday
Another busy week has passed and here we are facing another Monday morning in just a few hours. Anyway, I had a chance to do a little work on the suite this week. The last two pieces for the desk came in on Monday from Staples so I went and picked them up and put them in place. I also installed the pieces that I shortened last week and even with cutting two inches off it was still a tight fit. That desk is not going anywhere soon. I had to put that project on the back burner for a while as I have to get a video project done by July 12 and so I spent the rest of the week getting a start on that. It is a reception video for the son of some friends of ours. We also shot our first wedding of the summer yesterday and all went pretty well. So once I get the reception video done I have to get cracking on cutting and packaging this most recent one. Then we will be shooting the wedding on the 12th. So it's a busy time once again. As usual we had a disappointing weekend with the weather. It was sunny and hot, almost 30 degrees yesterday and we thought we were going to have a glorious weekend, but we woke up this morning to dull skies and it has been raining for most of the day. So much for cutting the lawn. Good thing the wedding wasn't today. Well, I guess we have a long weekend to look forward to next week. We have no plans to do anything yet, but I'm sure it will be a busy weekend nonetheless. Sunday, June 15, 2008
Happy Father's Day
We have yet to get a decent weekend, weatherwise. We may get a nice Saturday and then rain and cold on Sunday or vice versa. But so far this year it has been very disappointing. Because of this and also the fact that we are always so busy, we haven't been out on the bikes as often as we would like. There was a lull in the weather tonight so we took advantage of it and logged 10k as we investigated a new housing development to the south of us. There's still a lot of new houses being built even with the glut of for sale homes on the market. Did a little work on the edit suite this weekend. I had to shorten one side of the desk by 2 inches so that it would fit in along one wall with the storage cabinet. I didn't hack it up too badly and I think we will get away with it once it is finished. I am just going to run a phone line and a couple of network cables into the room before I cut some access holes in the back of the desk and move it into position. Once that is done I will move into the room with my existing equipment and start enjoying the space. I am slowly putting together the shopping list of equipment I need to buy for the editor and it's getting quite exciting to be building another system again. This one will have to last for quite a while so I am planning ahead for future development, especially as we venture into the realm of HD television, not too far down the road. This means a special video card, beefier CPU and a lot more hard drive space. I will also be going with a three monitor display setup which will look pretty fancy. But we are still keeping busy with the video stuff, even during renovations. We shot some footage last weekend for a wedding in July and this coming weekend we have a wedding shoot to do. So I will be trying to juggle three projects at the same time. We will see if the new suite will help make things go faster. We celebrated Father's Day by BBQing some steaks for Chris, Angela and Lee who came over after church. It was pretty tasty and required us to have a nap later in the afternoon despite the fact that I wanted to do a bit of work. Anyway, Happy Father's Day, Dad. Chris, Angie and Lee came over a few nights ago to show us their Japan pictures. They had a great time, didn't want to come home and would love to go back. They did pretty well getting around by themselves in the airport, train stations and hotels, thanks to Sandi's diligent planning. They got to Sandi's on schedule and spent a few days hanging around her place and seeing the sights before coming home. Sunday, June 01, 2008
Weekend Renos
A new month is upon us, where has the time flown? As we go into June the weather has improved..somewhat...although it is still not what I expect it to be for this time of year. Still, it is nice to be able to go to work on a daily basis and not have to wear a jacket. Chris, Angie and Lee are presently on their way home from their trip to visit Sandi in Japan. All reports indicate that the trio have had a wonderful time and have traveled to many places while in Japan, thanks to Sandi's excellent 35 page itinerary. She had them booked into hostels and provided train schedules, flight times and all kinds of information on what to see in the various cities they visited. While they were there they stayed two nights in Tokyo, visited Hiroshima, Kyoto and several other places closer to Sandi's. We will be picking up the travel weary trio tomorrow night so will have a chance to hear first hand about the trip. Renovations on my edit suite are well under way now. I have taken over the basement room that is directly below the master bedroom which we used as our workout room and have moved everything out of there. Last weekend I stripped off the wallpaper and painted the entire room with a nice sandy color. Last week the office furniture we ordered arrived and I spent a few nights putting that together. Today we did some shopping for a few odds and ends and over the next few evenings I will be replacing the ceiling tiles and painting the grid, installing some new track lighting on a dimmer and installing a venetian blind over the small window. Once that is all done I will start shopping around for equipment and plan what needs to be done in terms of running cables and building the infrastructure. Then once the equipment is purchased and installed I can then set up the editing software and start using the suite. I am not sure it will be ready by the time the summer wedding projects roll along, though, so I may have to do a few projects in the the old location in Nikki's bedroom. But I am quite excited about finally getting a decent space to work in with some nice furniture and equipment. Sunday, May 11, 2008
Cherry Blossom Video
I have been working on a highlight video of our Japan trip which I just finished the other night. I had about three hours of footage which I managed to edit down to a 45 minute program. Here is an excerpt from it entitled "The Cherry Blossoms" and features the beautiful blossoms in bloom that we saw in many parts of Japan during our travels. We have finally had some spring weather here which enabled me to get out and do some yard work yesterday. The front lawn was in dire need of a cleanup and I also mowed the lawn in the back. Hope everyone had a pleasant Mother's Day today. We had a quiet one as all our children except one are out of the country. Sandi is still in Japan, Nikki is in Florida and Lee and Angela left yesterday for a wedding in Mexico, so Chris came over for a steak barbecue by himself. Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Big Thaw of 2008
Well after 4 days of blowing, cold, blizzardy weather we have finally seen the sun. It came out today and the temperatures rose and the snow started to melt. Now we have a massive slush fest on our hands that will, I am sure, take at least until the weekend to dry up. But the forecast for the weekend is for warm temperatures so at least we do not have the threat of another blizzard...yet. I had the final checkup visit with my orthopedic surgeon on Monday and the bottom line is that he is very pleased with my progress. To have as much mobility and range of motion for such an injury in such a short time is amazing, in his opinion. I had the same response from my physiotherapist on Friday as I had an assessment session with her. So it seems everything has healed up well and I am slowly gaining strength back in the arm. Work as been going well with no limitations so far. I get some pain occasionally when the arm is bent and force is exerted at an odd angle, but it soon dissipates and causes no lingering discomfort. I am in the midst of editing down the three hours of video we shot on the trip and so far it is proving to be a very challenging project. I am only about half way through the trip and I already have forty minutes of material. Mind you, it is only a rough cut so far and will have to be whittled down considerably for the final production. Nonetheless, it is great fun going through the footage and reliving those moments on the screen. Thank goodness for technology. Sunday, April 20, 2008
Pictures To Peruse
We are in the midst of a brutal winter storm here in Edmonton. It has been snowing and drifting since Friday night and the forecast is for more snow until Tuesday. Very miserable indeed. I am not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Well, finally, after two weeks of being home from our Japan trip I have some pictures up which you can link to here. There is also a link on the left under the Picture Gallery heading. There were so many good pictures it was hard to choose just a few to highlight the trip. But, as you will see there is an abundance of cherry blossom pictures as they were just spectacular everywhere. Now that I have cleared a couple of projects I had on the go I am working on editing the video of the trip. There is three hours worth of footage to edit and I am hoping to make a short version that I will post to YouTube in a few days. The longer version will be mastered to a DVD so that we may view it nostalgically from time to time in the future. Now that I have been back to work a couple of weeks, things are becoming a little more routine. My arm is feeling very good although it gets a little painful at times and I still don't have full strength, but I am still able to put in a full days work. I will be seeing my orthopedic surgeon tomorrow for a final check and I'm sure he will find everything OK. Now if only we could get a little spring!!?? Monday, April 07, 2008
Home Again
We arrived home last night around 11:00pm tired but glad to be home. We had a great trip and it was very hard to leave Sandi and Japan. We just loved the country. We had a 10 hour layover in San Francisco on the way back so we checked all our luggage, hopped on a subway and spent the day strolling along Fisherman's Wharf. We got the obligatory shots of the sea lions, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge and managed to get a couple of new paintings for our "we bin here" wall. We had a greasy hamburger in a greasy 50's hamburger joint and after the sushi and what not in Japan, we loved it! We got back to the airport in plenty of time for our connection and before we knew it we were landing in good old Edmonton (with a foot of snow on the ground. Figures!) I now have three hours worth of video footage to assemble into something with some semblance of entertainment value and about 880 pictures, most of them of cherry blossoms. Yes, we saw cherry blossoms. We had cherry blossoms coming out of our ears. So over the next few weeks I will put something together to give you a taste of what life is like for Sandi in Japan. I am heading back to work tomorrow after two and a half months away and I am not looking forward to it, but I guess it's gotta be done. I think the arm is in good enough shape to do most of what I'm supposed to. I will just have to be careful when it comes to heavy lifting. It went pretty well while we were away. I tried to do my exercises every day but it was hard when we were on the road for most of the trip. However, slogging through airports and train stations with luggage and backpacks gave it quite a workout and sometimes it was pretty sore. I still don't have 100% strength back but that will come with time. For now it's back to work and into the routine and time to get cracking on a few projects waiting in the wings. Friday, April 04, 2008
The Trip Is Almost Over
It's Saturday morning and sadly our visit here in Japan is almost over. He have had a very busy week and I have not had any chance to do any posting. We have basically been on the road traveling since a week ago Thursday and other than being home this Thursday we have been all over the place. In our travels we managed to make it to Nagoya, Takayama, Hiroshima, Miajima, Kyoto and a quick day trip to Tokyo yesterday. It has been great although the constant walking and maneuvering around train and subway stations has taken it's toll but we have had a wonderful time and have lots and lots of pictures and videos. Today we are going to take it easy here at Sandi's. Our main priority is to get packed for our trip home tomorrow and with all the myriad of souvenirs we have accumulated it may be a challenge getting everything into the three suitcases we brought. We are supposed to be taking a bunch of Sandi's things back but some of that may have to wait to be brought home by subsequent visitors. Sandy has another friend from Canada coming in a few weeks so maybe she will have some room to transport something. But we will be taking the bulk of it including Sandi's snowboard that some other friends brought here around Christmas time. I am just wondering how we are going to managed three suitcases, two backpacks and a snowboard around the train stations and the airport. Sandi will be driving us to a train station which has a direct link to the airport so perhaps it won't be too bad if we only have one train to take. We will be up early tomorrow to get the process started and our flight out of Nagoya leaves around 4:00pm. We fly to San Francisco where we have about a 10 hour wait and then fly to Edmonton arriving still on Sunday with all the time changes. It will be a very long day. So the next post will probably be once we get home unless I have a chance to report anything tomorrow before we leave. Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Soaking In The Onsen
We have been having some interesting times on our trip here in Japan and learning a lot about a culture that is so truley different than our own. I'm not sure that two weeks is even remotely long enough to even start to get a taste of what Japanese culture is all about. Sandi has, fortunately, been able to get more of a handle on it and it has been helpful to hear things from her perspective. The people here are very friendly and have a quiet sense of honor and helpfulness that is so uncommon in our western society. They love to go out of their way to help you in any way that they can and their dedication to service is commendable. Yesterday we had a chance to tour one of the schools that Sandi teaches at and saw her in action. We had a great time talking to the students and watching them practice their english on us. We had a meal with them and it was great. We also saw them preparing for their graduation ceremony as it is currently the end of the school year here. Amazingly they will get a week off and then start the next term. Tonight we attended Sandi's last adult english class and we had such a good time. Sandi certainly has a way of getting people involved and it was a joy to see all the students joining in with the activities and games she had come up with. But the people are not the whole mystique of the orient. There seems to be such a quiet efficiency about the place. Everything has a place and everything is in it's place. Everything from the condition of the highways and roads down to the individual houses seems to be immaculate, but you never see anyone working on stuff, it just seems to be here. And there is such an efficient usage of space. There are things tucked away into every corner of the country side. Of course, everything here is much smaller. Many of the cars are very tiny, to fit on the tiny roads which wind here and there through the town and up and down the mountainsides like wayward vines. At the end of the day yesterday we were able to relax in the onsen or hot spring. This is a favourite pastime of the Japanese and for good reason. Soaking in nice warm mineral spring water is very soothing and warming. We are planning to go back. So far the trip has been very relaxing as Dianne and I have had a chance to just lounge around a bit while Sandi is at work. This weekend things will heat up, though as we plan to take the train to Hiroshima and then to the island of Mia Jima. On the way back we are going to stop in Kyoto to do some sight seeing and a bit of shopping before returning to Sandi's. Towards the end of next week we are trying to figure out a way to get to Tokyo before we have to head back to Canada. Sunday, March 23, 2008
First Post From Japan
It's a rainy Monday morning here in Japan, a great time to get caught up on a bit of housekeeping. Sandi is away at work and Dianne and I decided to lounge around in bed a bit to try and shake off the jet lag from Friday. Everything went well with the flight, we caught our connection OK and other than being a very long flight we survived it intact. We arrived in Nagoya at around 2:15 local time and Sandi was there to greet us after we went through baggage claim and security where they fingerprint you and take your picture. We had some challanges getting out of Nagoya as Sandi was a little unsure of the route and the tollways here are insane. It doesn't help that the highway signs are all in Japanese either and the maps are just as useless. Nonetheless, we managed to find our way home and arrived at Sandi's cute little Japanese house as it was getting dark. After unloading the bags we relaxed with a cup of tea before finally falling into bed. Yesterday, Sunday, we were up early and headed off to church for Easter Sunday service. The service was in the house of a pastor and we were the only congregation. It was a lovely service, though, and we were treated to a traditional Japanese lunch provided by the pastor's wife afterwards. It was back to Sandi's after that where we met up with a few of Sandi's friends who were dying to meet us and we all drove to a little town called Takayama for coffee. We had a delightful time getting to know everyone and before we left that town we went to a Japanese equivilent of Canadian Tire where some of the girls bought some tropical fish. It took a couple of hours as we were introduced to the Japanese way of doing things, what the girls call the "process" where in order to do anything, you had to first plan it all out, decide who was going to do what, when and where and then proceed to replan it all over again. After circling through the tool section for the third time I finally saw that they were ready to go and so off we went, with plastic bags full of goldfish and happy smiles on the girl's faces. By the time we got home, had a bite to eat and viewed some video of Sandi's trips we were beginning to fade again, so we called it a night and as the rain pouned on the roof we dropped off to sleep. So now we are just showering and getting ready and we will decide if we are brave enough to venture outside on our own. Thursday, March 20, 2008
We're Ready To Go
Here's a quick posting before we head off on our trip. It's now Thursday evening and I think we are ready to go. All the bags are packed and weighed and I believe we have taken care of all the last minute details. I suppose it would be a good idea to get to bed pretty soon as we have to be up by 4:00 tomorrow morning in order to be at the airport by 5:00. Our flight leaves around 7:00 so we have to be there a couple of hours early. We had a chat with Sandi last night and she was telling us how excited she was and all the things she has planned for us. Anyway, we are finally going and we are totally looking forward to it. I had my last physiotherapy session this afternoon and will be returning to work the week we get back from Japan. I have to go and see the physiotherapist once more after I have been back to work about a week to assess how the transition is going and I may require two more assessments after that, depending on how things are. But that is down the road a ways. Right now we are just going to concentrate on having a good time on our trip. Tuesday, March 18, 2008
I Think I'm Turning Japanese (I Really Think So)
It's Tuesday night and only 2 more sleeps until the BIG TRIP! Everything is falling into place and we are just about ready to go. The Yen arrived from Calgary and the rail passes arrived from Vancouver and I am picking them up tomorrow and even the car is fixed and we will pick that up tomorrow too. I have two days left of physio and tomorrow my therapist is going to decide if I'm rehabilitated enough to go back to work and we both figure I am so after my two week holiday, during which I promised I would be a good little boy and diligently do my exercises, I will be back at work. I will probably go for some reassessments down the road but for the most part I think I am good to go. Sandi posted a video on Facebook telling everyone we were coming and how excited she is. Of course we are very excited to be seeing her and all her friends and students as well. It sounds like it will be a busy time as everyone wants to cram in as much traveling and sightseeing as possible and now that we have the rail passes that will be all the more possible. The passes only cost us $277 each for 7 days which is very reasonable. The train trip to Hiroshima alone is $300. So if we make it down to Tokyo or at least Kyoto the passes will have paid for themselves. We have some long flights ahead of us so I crammed the 2 gig memory card on my Blackberry full of podcasts and jazz CD's, so I am set. Dianne is taking her iPod with her with all her podcasts and favorite music so we will be a couple of tech junkies as we land in Japan, technology heaven. I will try to post reports on the blog from Japan as our adventure unfolds and will even try to get some video on. So stay tuned.... Saturday, March 15, 2008
Counting Down
So here is the update on the last week or so. I went to see my surgeon on Tuesday and he has given me a clean bill of health. He says the bones are mending nicely and that I have done a good job of recovering my range of motion. I am basically fit to go back to work but I have to take it easy and continue working on getting my strength back in that arm which I am doing with my physiotherapy and my at home exercises. We are less than a week away from our big trip. This time next week I will be writing to you from Sandi's house in Giro. Preparations for the trip are coming along although we have run into a couple of snags. Two weeks ago we went to our bank to order $3000 in Japanese Yen which has to be sent from Calgary and therefore takes about a week. I went in this Tuesday to pick it up only to discover that they had made a mistake in Calgary and had only sent us $300 worth! I was pretty irate as we are leaving on Friday. They got on the phone immediately with Calgary and made arrangements to have the remainder sent up as soon as possible which will be Tuesday. Cutting it fine! Then we had decided to purchase rail passes for Japan as we would be doing a lot of traveling around and the trains are expensive there. We went to AMA today to pick them up only to discover that the passes have to come from Vancouver and that they were closed today. So first thing Monday morning I have to go back and order the passes and will probably have to pay extra to have them couriered here in time. Don't they do anything locally anymore??!! Nonetheless, we are getting pretty excited about going on our newest adventure to a strange country. Of course, the biggest highlight will be seeing Sandi, in person, again. There is no word on when the car will be done but I am going to give them a call on Monday as I think they have been at least looking at it. The estimator called last week to say they had to add an item to the parts list as he had overlooked some damage to the cowling when he did the estimate. So with that and some other running around we have to do it looks like it will be a busy week. Dianne is going to be working two days and I have physio every day so Friday is going to come in no time. Our flight leaves just before 8:00am so I think we will have to be at the airport by 6:00am, an early start to what promises to be a very long day. Monday, March 10, 2008
Spring Thaw
So I took the car in for the estimate on Thursday and it turns out we have a $1400 repair bill on our hands. That's to replace the hood, hinges and hood latch, paint, undercoat and clear coat the hood and blend the fenders. We are not amused. The earliest they could book it was after Easter but after a bit of hummin' & hawin', they decided to take the car right then and would try and sneak it in during a lull in the action so that it wouldn't be sitting around in their lot until after we come back from holidays. Since the car was not drivable I agreed and left it there. Now we are trying to make do with one vehicle until Dianne starts her holidays which means I have been having to drive her back & forth for work as I have needed the car for physio. We thought about dragging the truck out from behind the garage but after looking at the banks of snow we would have to clear to get it out we decided it was not worth it and we could get by for one more week. Dianne is off all next week so it should work out OK. Tomorrow I go for my next and hopefully last appointment with my orthopedic surgeon to see how things are progressing on the bone mending front. Hopefully things are going well unless I've managed to yank ten pins and screws and a caterpillar dozer blade out of position in my elbow. I am hoping he will release me from wearing my arm brace which is driving me crazy (when I do wear it). Things are going well with pysio and I have almost all my range of motion back. I'm about half an inch from being able to touch my shoulder with my left hand. It's still a bit tender in places and is a bit achy when I push it too hard, but I am getting my strength back and can do most things normally. I have one more official week of therapy after this one and then we will have to assess if more is necessary when we return from Japan, but I don't have to worry about showing up for work again until we get back. We are really starting to get excited about our trip and have started to make our list of stuff to pack. Sandi has booked us into a hotel for an overnight trip to Hiroshima on the weekend we will be there. We are also thinking about what other excursions we might want to take and are looking into perhaps buying an unlimited rail pass for a week. The snow is almost gone from our south facing front yard and the temperatures have been very balmy. But we know better than getting too comfortable just yet as it is only the beginning of March and there will probably be another good dump of snow before everything is said and done. Monday, March 03, 2008
It's time for another quick update before I dash off to physio. This weekend we went to the bank to order the Japanese Yen we will be taking to spend on our trip. Yes, you have to order it and it takes about a week to get here. They don't just have that stuff hanging around. We then went out and found what we think will be the desk for my new edit suite. Yes, I have decided to buy one instead of build one as I can't seem to get my act together to do the building and besides, I really don't have time to build. I need to get this edit suite up and running as soon as possible. So we have found a desk and once we prepare the room we will order it. I also bought a new office chair and it is sweet. It is a nice black leather high back chair that is very comfy. I have decided to move my office to our workout room as it is a bit more roomy and has a window (and heat).So we will be repainting it ASAP and putting some new lighting in before we get the desk. I am just waiting till my income tax refund comes before I go and buy all the equipment I need for this project, but it will be a lot. Starting to get excited. Dianne had a little problem yesterday. She accidentally left the hood of her car unlatched and as she was driving to church it caught the wind and flipped up into the windshield. She was able to stop OK and didn't hit anything and thank goodness the windshield didn't shatter. But she had to limp back home with a bent up hood that was attached to the car by only one hinge. Today I went to get an estimate on the damage and get it booked in for repair but the body shop is so backed up that I had to make an appointment for Thursday just for an estimate! Goodness knows how long it will be before we can get it fixed. I think I'm going to phone around to a few more body shops tomorrow to see if we can get it in sooner. Well, its less than three weeks away from our departure for the land of the rising sun. We are starting to get an idea of what we need to take but have not yet started to pack. But it's starting to get exciting. Saturday, February 23, 2008
Friday, February 08, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
X-Ray Vision
Click here to see some shots of the x-rays of my elbow with the plate, screws and pins in place. *This link contains scenes of excessive hardwarage. Viewer discretion is advised.* Monday, January 28, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A Blustery Day Monday, January 21, 2008
Video Test Sunday, January 20, 2008
A Great Start To A New Year
This will probably be a lengthy post as I have not written anything since the beginning of December and so we have a bit of catching up to do. Christmas and new years has come and gone for another year, the tree has been put away and the last of the Christmas baking was munched down some time ago. Christmas at the Chronicle was a bit quieter this year. With two children out of the country it was not the traditional exciting Christmas morning affair that we normally have. Angela, Chris and Lee didn't show up till after noon so we slept in for most of the morning. Our Christmas day dinner was quieter than usual, too, as we only had the family here. But it was nice to have a few days off work and relax a bit. It was the same for new years, Dianne I just settled in to watch a movie and we both fell asleep until just after midnight. We woke up, said happy new year to each other and then toddled off to bed. And so starts another year. We spoke to Sandi several times over the holidays. She was having visitors from Edmonton at the time and it was fun to talk to them all and see what Christmas was like in Japan. Christmas is not the big holiday it is here and, in fact, Sandi had to go to work on Christmas day. They make a big splash on new years, though, and that is when families all get together and have the big meals and it is much more of a big celebration. When Sandi's friend's, Miles & Melissa came home, we had them over for supper as they had brought home our gifts from Sandi. We watched the video they had shot while over there of all the places Sandi had taken them and they even had footage of Sandi opening our gifts to her which they had taken over. This weekend Sandi is in the Philippines on a scuba diving trip so we haven't heard from her for a while. In this fastball game we call life, you are often thrown a curve ball and if you are not careful one of those rouge pitches will come up and hit you in the elbow. One of those pitches hit me last Wednesday as I managed to fall over at work after reaching for some equipment on a shelf. I landed on the concrete floor on my feet, but the rest of my body kept going ending up in a near face plant, crushing my left elbow beneath my body. I didn't hear any snaps or pops, but I new straight away that something was dreadfully wrong. I rolled over onto my back clutching my arm against my chest and just lay there as waves of nausea and shock rolled over. When I was finally able to get up, all I could do was sit in a chair and sweat profousely. My left arm had gone completely numb, but I could feel the pain setting in. My department manager bundled me into his van and headed off for the hospital and after about an hour and a half wait in emergency they finally wheeled me down for x-rays. That was an ordeal as the technicians were trying to bend my arm in directions it didn't want to go in order to get the right angles for the shots. They finally got what they needed after an excruciating half hour and I was wheeled back to the waiting room. Then came the bad news. The elbow and arm bones were broken pretty badly and I was going to need surgery to repair them. They knocked me out temporarily while they tried to push everything into place and then I was bandaged up tightly over a large metal splint. They had to transfer me to another hospital in St. Albert, just north of Edmonton, to have the surgery which they were able to do that night. The elbow joint bone was shattered in several pieces and they had to screw them together with a metal plate and screws. Either one or both of my forearm bones were broken right near the joint also. I spent the next couple of days there on an antibiotic IV to combat any potential infection as the skin at my elbow had been pierced, possibly from a bone shard. On Thursday they replaced the bulky heavier splint with a smaller lightweight one which I can slip on and off each day to do wound and skin maintainence. This splint keeps my arm bent at the elbow at 90 degrees and prevents me from rotating my wrist. I have an eight inch incision from my elbow down my outer arm. Dianne brought me home Friday night and I started to get used to trying to do things one handed. The pain is still pretty bad but we are keeping it under control with Tylenol 3's every few hours. So it looks like I'll be benched for the next few innings of this game. The doctor is saying six to eight weeks for recovery and who knows how much physiotherapy. By then we will be into March and our trip to Japan is booked for the last two weeks. I don't think we will have cancel our trip, thank goodness, but it may get a bit awkward if I still have my splint on. But I definitely won't be back at work real soon as even the lightest jobs require some lifting and at least the extension of my elbow. So I will be looking for things to do at home for the next few weeks, which shouldn't be hard. But a lot of things I had planned on doing will have to be put on hold or canceled. I had a few gigs with the blues band lined up which will now never happen. But one thing I will try and do now that I will have a bit of time on my hands is to update this website, so stay tuned for updates on my progress as I head down this unexpected bumpy road.
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