The Hilton Chronicle

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.

Posted 10:33 PM by Jeff

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!!??

Posted 6:32 PM by Jeff

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.

Posted 9:32 PM by Jeff

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.

Posted 6:55 PM by Jeff

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