One step forward, two steps back - repeat

Merry Christmas! I will be in Jasper on Christmas Day and Lake Louise on Boxing Day, may head into Calgary and visit friends on the next day. 

Some things have happened, it was like a country song, ‘One Step Forward, Two Steps Back’.  This the order it happened.

On a couple of weeks ago on Thursday I found out that the NVP of the Union was actually behind the whole petition thing (see previous blog). This is the lady that got upset when I accused her of lying. The person was reliable and it made sense. I took it in stride when I heard it, but later that night the whole wound was ripped open. I replayed every event and conversation. Needless to say, I got no sleep. The remedy for this was relayed to the Union on Monday. I told them I don’t want to hear anymore about me and the union. The new President understood. Avoidance will help keep me sane. Karma can take care of the rest. 

The Saturday was a great day, I became a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Certified Firefighter (FF), certificates and all. This was a great achievement, kind of a surprise as it was a work in progress for several years. eleven courses, eleven exams - mostly two weekends for each course. The chief decided to let the whole department get a chance at the designation. So the weekend commitment was reduced, every fire practice was dedicated to working on the skills. There was a lot of repetition, but I managed to get through it all. Fire Fighters get better the more often they do something. Volunteers need to practice as often as possible. Fires, medical assists and MVC’s don’t care about your employment status. 

My car had been acting up, it had an overheating issue. My mechanic friend said the thermostat may fix it but it was most likely a head gasket. On the Sunday after becoming an FF I tried to go to the city. The car was overheating after going a fifth of the way. So I wound up parking at a rest stop and letting it cool down. I turned around and went home. 

I drove slower than the speed limit, to ensure I got home. I used my headphones and called my Dad, since I hadn’t spoken with him in awhile. Boy was that a conversation! It was like pealing an onion, finally he got down to why he was not feeling well. His prostate was really acting up, acting up so bad he hadn’t peed in a long time. I am not sure how long it was, but he required urgent draining. This led to a whole discussion on catheters, which you can discuss in a way as a FF. But hey, this is my Dad. He was on an emergency list for an operation. He was all ‘Oh well, I’ve had a good life’ etc and he had outlived his Dad. I told him to make sure I get a call as soon as anything was known. I honestly thought I’d be flying to Ottawa. 

I got the thermostat fixed, but the mechanic said the car was terminal. So I started to search for a newer vehicle. With all the stress I had, shopping for a car is not something that is fun. Especially since Christmas is one of the most stressful times for me, at the best of times. 

I found a Jeep on an online site. I put in an application was approved and Wednesday I drove to the city (the car didn’t overheat). I had cleaned her out before, as this was most likely the last time we’d be together. On the way to the dealer I had checked the online app again. They had re-listed the vehicle (with exactly the same mileage) at a new higher price. This pissed me off. 

I contacted another dealer of used cars and he looked for another Jeep. I wound up with a whole pile of time with nothing to do. So I went looking. The looking lead to my buying a new Jeep. The other dealer did not really find another vehicle. Meanwhile, the dealership that raised the price on the one I was going to buy called. I told them about the price change. she tried to say that they have a lot of people in marketing and someone messed up. They’d honour the first price. By then though, I had already decided on a new vehicle, it was $4000 more and it had a warranty. The one I was looking at was 4 years old. So I told her, then she tried to sell me a new vehicle on the phone. By then I was on the car sales assembly line. In fact the salesman saw me talking on the phone and asked me not to speak to other dealers. One time I was calling a friend, I had to end that call and say I was speaking to a friend. It was a long 4 hours. I drove the new Jeep home. 

The new Jeep had its own issues, it was Plain Jane. I wanted the bigger wheels and tires etc. The dealer said not to buy them there, it would cost BIG BUCKS. So I didn’t and I am glad I didn’t. I went to a tire shop, I was going to buy different rims and new tires. He told me the factory rims were the best ones for the Winter. The after market rims are alloy and salt and sand eat away at them. He recommended buying snow tires. I went back online to my app [and found a whole set of rims rims for my Jeep for $160. I bought them. I am having snow tires installed on them and then mounted on the Jeep. I may keep the stock wheels and rims, or sell them for around $1000 and buy after market ones. Not sure, the Jeep is the Winter vehicle, the bike is the Summer vehicle. Anyway, despite the fact I now have car payments, I have cut down on the car stress. 

My Dad called this morning, early for my time, later in the morning for his time. The operation went ok. I asked if it was cancerous, but I think they explained the details to someone else, because he couldn’t answer the questions. He did tell me about self insertion of a catheter……NOOOOOOO! 

Hopefully the Winter tires will be on the Jeep for a trip down the Jasper/Banff highway aka Columbia Icefields parkway. Nikon, Jeep, possibly my son and I on a Christmas adventure. 

Diving into Democracy

Well, it sure has been a long time. Been busy, very, very busy. Spring came and the bike came out, so I did a lot of riding. I rode 35,000 kms this year. The longest trip was 7600 kms, to Toronto an back. I learned that the Upper Peninsula route to Toronto is only 80 kms shorter than going through Chicago. The ride was great, the gas prices not so great. The gas prices were obscene, but the bike can adapt - read, go slower. 

I decided to get political at work, I ran and was successfully elected to the President of my Local of the Union. I was surprised by winning, as I didn’t campaign. The defeated President was surprised as she was going onto her third term and had been Vice President three times before that. She didn’t even have a speech. The results weren’t even close.

That lead to her not helping me at all in the job. I asked if she would, she said no. I asked her if she wanted to be a shop steward, she said no. Little did I know that she was organizing to undo the members wishes. This started 11 months of spying, innuendo and a lot of questioning of every thing I did.

I had a different style and looking back there are some things that I could have done differently, if I was getting advice. But it would appear to the component (the Union outside the office), I was a black sheep, best ignored.  Ignore they did. 

In May, there was a secret petition organized to impeach me. The ‘coven, as some people called them, wrote their manifesto and selected members to sign it. They had a narrative in which they would say a pile of stuff that wasn’t in the petition to get it signed. They received signatures from 25% of the members and then sent it by a very expensive method to the head quarters of the component in Ottawa. 

I of course hear about this through the grapevine. I wasn’t allowed to know what was in the petition and various members would say something that wasn’t true to me, they said it was true as it was in the petition. Anyway, the component did not do much with the petition. They waited till September to say it was invalid. But by then the damage was already done. My name outside the Local was mud, and they would not see the other side of the story. They didn’t even ask me. 

The last couple of weeks I have been in consultation with the President of the component. The first call was pretty good, he was open to discuss the issues. I had written a long email detailing the issues, after I had a meeting with the Region’s President (there are lots of Presidents in the component). She had no notes and proceeded to tell me everything I was doing wrong. She also had a discussion about my Personnel File. Apparently all this stuff was the result of a discussion she had with the ‘coven’ the night before. 

Anyway, that discussion did not go well. In the local I had support of one other person on the Executive. The person in the meeting spent the first half hour cutting that person down. It became apparent what they were trying to do. When i got back to work, I was all set to quit. But we decided to contact the President for advice. In the end that was a waste of time, he could only recommend mediation, which would cost the Local at least $10,000. As there is potential strike action coming, we decided that was not worth it. I had the feeling that the coven would go through the whole thing, talk the talk, but after it was over, they’d keep doing what they were doing. So last Friday I resigned as did the Treasurer. I am on a course for the next two days, so I will not see the fallout. Ii am sure that the adversaries will have a lot to say. 

One thing I have learned is that power in the union comes from the bottom. So you don’t have to be a member of any executive to be active. I have planned some activities outside of the official ones. I have ten to twenty people that will be participating. I have no interest in usurping the power of the Local Executive, they can do whatever they want. 

I felt a big weight come off me after I resigned. Knowing that I don’t have to react to a hidden agenda. I can see now why there is a 75% apathy rate in the local. In speaking with a labour organizer I learned that this is an old story, it has occurred many times before and will be replayed again and again. 

The bike is parked in the garage, I didn’t get it ready for Winter yet. Have to fill up the tank and put some fuel conditioner in it. The car, which has not seen much use in six months has stepped up for some love. It has an over heating issue. I bought a new thermostat today, a friend is going to install it. 

I have another 5 week vacation on the horizon, I was going to go to Mardi Gras again, but maybe not. I am thinking trip to Capital Reef National Park and then over to Palm Springs.  The rest of the time will be shedding stuff from the house. Time to de-clutter. I actually started the day I decided to resign. I am picking one room at a time and working it out. It’s amazing how much better you feel when you get a room to some semblance of organization. 

Completed all the 1001 course for the Fire Department, just waiting for the results of the written tests. Hopefully I will be a mostly qualified firefighter soon. There are other levels of qualification leading up to Officer. I have a great regular job which requires a lot of writing and reporting. I don’t think I need to take on more at the fire department. 

I almost got killed, twice.

I almost got killed, twice!

So I headed out a week ago from home I did 1100kms the first day, 900 the second. I left Canada in Manitoba as my bike will not make it over Lake Superior, issues with fuel distance. 

I met up with a friend in Minneapolis, it turns out after years of not seeing him he was headed to Calgary as I was heading to Toronto. We got to talk for a bit. He left early. 

I am not normally a Google Maps guy, but after 5 visits to Minneapolis and getting lost each and every time, I decided to use it this time. I found the hotel ok, after a little detour onto Dowling Avenue. Here’s the thing, when I travel I always find the part of town not to be in. I pulled off the Interstate to fire up google maps. I thought it was a good hood, a house had two motorhomes, what could go wrong??? This experience was a combination of Breaking Bad meets the Walking Dead.  I had bike off and was setting up the map and people started to come towards me. I was feeling mighty white. As I have said this is not my first foray in the the wrong part of towns (Cicero, some where in Cleveland, Winnipeg, Detroit). I fired up bike, thank God that it started and then headed for another location. 

I parked and typed in my destination. I heard a girl running with flip flops on. Just before she came around the corner a small car did. She was with them, it looks like they were taking the girl on a run. They would tease her, she’d go to get in the car and then they’d take off. It was amusing, but then the zombies came again. Google showed me a way, I was back on the Interstate 

South of St Paul Google played it’s first joke on me. It told me to get off I35 and head for 14 East. I did, when I was on 14E it told me to do a u-turn and go on 14W. I did, then it told me to get in 35S. The boys at Google must be getting back at iPhone owners. It turns out I could have taken 14 to get to where I was going as Richland Centre, WI is on 14.

Around LaCrosse, WI I was caught in a torrential downpour which soaked everything. The visibility was zero. I pulled off at a Rest Area as there were cars stopping without warning on the interstate. 

Oh, by the way I am on a Suzuki S83, a 1400cc motorcycle. It looks like a Harley, but it’s not. 

At LaCrosse I decided to take the scenic route to Richland County. I took 35 South along the Mississippi. It was a great road, it would have been better if it were not raining. I turned East at Prairie Du Chien, the sun came out. 

I had a great ride to a friend’s place. I even came down 63 into Gotham, it is a great road to ride a bike on. During the 2 days I was there I saw lots of bikes turning from that road. 

I visited Taliesin while i was in the area. It is Frank Lloyd Wright’s house and school. It is worth a visit. 

I had a great visit with my friend and dog, Bentley. I took off for my next destination, Lansing, MI early Tuesday morning. I got a bit lost in Madison, but I managed to find my way without going to Milwaukee. I stopped in Janesville to get a wrench and things were starting to get loose on the bike. 

Heading South to Chicago I thought I’d make good time. But just south of the border they had construction and a speed limit of 45 MPH. I was staying close to that speed. It was tough as semis and cars were riding me tail to get me to speed up. I saw no cops. If Illinois is looking for a place to improve revenue, a whole battalion of cops in that highway would pull in a lot of dollars at minimum fine $375. 

I finally got to Chicago, the construction lasted a long time. I decided to go to Portillo’s on Ohio Street for lunch. I got off the Interstate at Congress Expressway, headed to Lakeshore, turned left but wound up on Michigan. No problem, I went past The Bean and new where I was. I went past Portillo’s and found parking around the block on Erie. Total time for this side trip was about an hour. That was only as I knew where I was going. 

I got back on the Interstate after heading West on Ohio. The sky looked kind of iffy. It was sunny, but I had an inkling it was going to rain. When I got near Gary, Indiana, it started to pour again. It was the same torrential mess I encountered in Minnesota. I hid under an overpass. I was at the same level as big buildings, I wasn’t concerned about being flooded out. Checking Twitter, while I was there, I learned there was a tornado warning for Indianapolis and to it’s North East. I was glad I was not going the Detroit route to Toronto. 

I took off after the rain died down. I managed to keep my clothes dry (other than the ones I was wearing). I made it to Lansing about 20:45, I would have been there sooner if I had not stupidly tried to take backroads. They all lead back to Interstates. 

Lansing is well Lansing. 

I left Lansing after staying at a Days Inn, one of my worst hotel experiences in the World, including Pakistan. I got into Canada at the Port Huron/Sarnia crossing. 

After finally eating at an EnRoute by Guelph, I was ready for the last dash to Toronto. I was on the 401, Google tried to tell me to head for Hamilton and take the Gardner - Google likes the Gardner, a lot. 

Around the 401/427 conflagration the traffic was moving at 120 to 130. I like to be in the middle lane, it gives a biker two escape route for problems. 

Near Death #1 - I was riding along at the same speed as traffic and suddenly the brake lights went on for the car in front of me, I was in Left Lane. The car just didn’t slow down, it stopped. I think I was still going 30 kph when I got near the car, I lane shared and the guy in front of her, pulled over to stop me doing that. I had to go to the Right Lane. A vehicle was about 200 meters back obviously going about 130, no indication they were slowing down. I floored it, but she almost hit me. She slowed right down. My heart was up in my throat. 

So I am riding in the centre lane again, maintaining my speed in relation to the car in front. For some reason, a dump truck travelling to the immediate Right of me decided my lane was better than his, there were no issues in front of either of us. I guess he just NEEDED to be in my lane. 

I went to go to the empty left lane, but black car was suddenly there, he must have been going 140. Truck takes my lane and this guy left just enough room for me to ride the dotted line between the truck and the car. Everyone behind up slowed right down, they thought it was going to be a mess. The driver of the car was not new to me. I had no interactions with him, but I noticed that the car seemed to be driving him, not the other way around. Later on, he was in a far Right Lane and came at me again. I yelled at him, I think he pulled off to the side of the highway. He was a Diverse Driver, I learned later from a fellow biker that most bikes avoid 401 as bikes appear to be targets. 

After these events, I had to get off the 401. I saw a sign for Eglington Ave West and went that way. I needed to get to Yonge Street and I was miles away. But I decided it was better to finish trip alive. 

The last excitement before I got to my destination was in the Jane area. I saw a vehicle parked in my lane and pulled over in front of a guy driving in the left lane (as I have done in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Memphis etc). This guy had apparently purchased the lane and he controlled who drove in it. I didn’t cut him off, I was just in front of him. 

So at a stop light he decided to further display his emotions and lays on the horn, his Ford Escape was closing in on the back of my bike. I pulled up next to a little car in front of me. The car moved forward and Escape then went on the sidewalk. He pulls up beside me and yells, with an Italian accent ‘You son of a bitch!’ 

The guy turned right at the next corner, I guess he figured I impeded his progress. I think he forgot about the little car and the bus in front of it. The same thing happened yesterday on Jarvis Street, it must be a Toronto thing. 

3800 kms in all. The only issue with the bike is a battery terminal that keeps coming off. I have Phillips screwdrivers in all my packs. 

Spring is nigh

Well, again it has been awhile. I have a good excuse this time. The apple keyboard won't connect to the ipad, for some reason. I had bought an HP laptop at COSTCO in December, I would up taking it back as it was not great and it had Windows8 on it. I changed it to a Lenovo, with a touch screen and Windows8. It was ok to use, but I got annoyed with the Charms bar popping out all the time. Finally near the end of the 90 day period I took it back. I was going to get a Windows7 used computer, but it had to be fast enough to run Lightroom and well, the Lenovo did one thing right, it booted fast. So I was looking for a fast booting PC, without windows 8. Not an easy task.

I wound up with a MacBook Air - I got the 126GB hard drive version, I have a 2TB Toshiba external drive, I was hoping to use it.

The Mac blew the door off the Lenovo, they both boot quickly. The toshiba was recognized immediately. I copied the data off of it to the Mac, then I created 4 partitions on the Toshiba and formatted it (2 in Apple format and one in FAT).

Lightroom runs really well on the Mac, I am finally happy.

I really miss doing this blog, a person kind of needs to write one, well at least I do. I have been busy though. First off, overtime at work, I have worked a lot of it. I managed to save some money, get a Mac and a new camera and best of all, I have paid off a bill. I paid off $4000 in the last two months, I have a bit more to go, but nothing past April.

In January my car got hit in a parking lot. The guy that hit me fessed up to it and he arranged with a friend who owns a body show to fix it. Well that was fun, the friend was kind of busy and the repair kept getting put off. It was finally fixed, just as I was about to settle, take the money and get a newer car. The collision caused my wheel alignment to go out of whack. They fixed it and now the car drives better.

I did manage to drive the motorcycle for about a week while the car was getting fixed. But then the cold weather came back. I had to walk to work a couple of days. It was not too bad, but not something I would do everyday.

I am President of the Local for the Union. I actually would have preferred to be VP, but that wasn't an option. The previous administration and their friends did not accept the results. They have been doing just about all they can to screw me up for the past 3 months (I was elected in December). One thing they don't accept is that the rest of the members voted for me. So they have spent a lot of time trying to make my life tough and make me quit.

I guess in their thinking that means it will go back to the way it was and there'll be Peace of Earth. I think they missed the point, the membership didn't vote for them. That may be an indicator of something.

I have been dealing with Management on a lot of issues and I am keeping my own. Even 'old guard' can't complain about that. But they seem to be stuck in a rut. They don't think anyone can learn the job, it is something that you are groomed for.

Well, some things I have learned in the last 3 months. The grooming must have gone off the tracks as there were serious issues with Finances, nothing criminal (thank god!). The previous admin had a Treasurer that quit own employer and then went somewhere else. They didn't replace her, as she was a good friend. She took the job down to part, part, part-time. The first inkling was stale dated cheques. She didn't have time to go to the bank, so they had to be re-issued. I think there was one on it's third re-issue. This of course screwed up the Year End statements - so they didn't file them.

At the meeting where I was elected I asked why a payment to our local was 2 years late - we'd get this payment every year, so the next one would be late too. The explanation had a lot of 'you knows' in it. The other excuse was the person at the other office was too busy.

It was all BS. The reason for the late payment of fees was the Treasurer not doing her job.

As it appears that I am not going anywhere, my VP and Secretary are basically telling me that they no longer want to be on the Executive. The Secretary has actually stopped doing her job. I never knew Unions were so political - strange when Management is easier to work with.

I have been going on courses, one was a couple of weeks ago in Banff. That was fun, I went with my son. We spent three days there and even had a beer at the Banff Springs Hotel. On the way back, a tire blew out on Highway 2. I appears to have been related to the wheel alignment issue I mentioned before (this was before the car was in the shop). I had to drive from Red Deer to Edmonton on the spare, we got to see all the small towns along the way as we had to take highway 2A.

I have been hanging out at The Druid a lot lately, more so than anyplace else. Its great to go to a place where everyone knows your name. It makes other bars pale in comparison. At the Druid they actually take the time to get to know their customers and they come back, over and over. What a concept.

I was offered a job in Ottawa. I have interviewed for it and they were trying to figure out a way to move me there. It has been a month an nothing seems to be happening. I asked the Manager for an update over a week ago and I have heard nothing. I thought it was a good sign, but now I think the sun is setting on the opportunity.

Today I woke up and started Spring cleaning. There was a lot of stuff that I had been putting off. I was in 'Moving Soon Reality'. I had got another bed, as the house has 5 bedrooms. This was a Queen sized bed and would not go up to the second floor, I swear the house was built by shorter people, there was not enough clearance in the stairwell. That means it had to go in the second bedroom on the main floor. That was my computer room and extra dresser room.

For a month the second room has been a wreck, the mattress and box spring were on end and I had to move them to do stuff in the room. I was thinking, I am moving, no sense taking the desk, dressers etc out and set up the room. Well today I got tired of it. I have the desk out, it has to go upstairs. The computer is already up there. Two dressers have to go up there too. This is an old house, a Queen sized bed in a room leaves enough room to walk around the bed. I need to recruit someone to help with the lifting.

After doing all that, I mopped and vacuumed. the house actually looks half decent again, except the dresser is in the hall way :(

After all the cleaning I had breakfast, did a pile of computer stuff (which I would not allow myself to do until the other stuff got done). All of my photos for the past 8 years are available to Lightroom on the Mac now.

I took the new camera out to my favourite spot the other night and took some pictures. I changed the ISO to 1000 for the second one, the first one was on 200. If I go there again I will up to 3200.

I took the last one today in Elk Island Park - the bison were hiding

Fools rush in

No apple keyboard this time. Warning: 4 shots and 7 beers.

In Fort McMurray, with the group from the last filed trip (the one I got fag bashed on). 

Came up last might, up eventful ride. I have some pics, but I need to take more. This is a place I would normally not come to, let alone the people that read my blog.

Generalities, not proven, but I'll stick with the profile.  It's a city in the middle of nowhere, with a large Newfie population, in fact legend has it that this the largest Newfie City.  How to spot a Newfie, they said a whole pile of English words In a short time and it wasn't even close to a sentence. I.e. your from aways(not from here); Where ya to? -economy of words, where are you going etc

Anyways, I was at the Casino, that is why we are here, we are volunteering there for various legislated jobs. I done my shift (Newfie all day, forgive, don't hate). so we's went back to room and hung out before back to bar.

My room mate is married, kind of boring, when we went to the Casino he went and sat with staff we we're working with all day (yawn, I am getting tired writing this as it was long!!!! And slow). I bailed and went to buy beers.

A bar in a casino, with one barkeep. Lineup 12. I got cruised more than once by blue eyed guy, plaid shirt.  Got beers. Delivered beer. One of the co-workers was into the talent contest. I decided to go check it out. Wound up next to blue eyes/plaid shirt. Some of the singers were damned good, one guy sang Johnny Cash and then the I'm Your Man song, he nailed it.

(Tragically Hip playing as I write this) anyways, he finished third. The realtors was plaid shirt though. I thought he was in for a three some tonight, three hot women were in heat.  They were all over him.  My room mate even noticed. This dude had his hands in his pockets, even when the most agro girl was booby rubbing him. He kept looking at this other guy.  I figured maybe they were together.  Then the other guy was molesting a gile, in obvious Bf/GF ways.  But he kept checking me out and then looking at blue eyes/plaidshirt. He'd check me out once in awhile.  

I realized what this was. The couple were out trying to get blue eyes/plaidshirt laid. He wouldn't commit though.  It was a couple of hours of fun.  Best was, guys on my crew were in support mode. 

Just sayin. Trying to get a pic of the tar sands tomorrow 

Almost a month

I was elected President of the local of my Union. This occurred about a month ago. quiet to start but it is now eventful.

I have some courses at the end of the month, can't come fast enough. i have had a lot of one on ones with the Director. This is to the chagrin of the VP of the local. There are some people that have been burnt by management before who suggest no one on ones.  As it stands right now, the knives are out right now when I have one on ones with member, not the management.

Yesterday we had a Union Management meeting - nothing was said by management that wasn't said in the one on ones.

Today, someone started a rumour that I was taking credit for a policy that was changed. When I asked who said this, the allegator was protected. If you don't want to sign your name to it, don't say it.

The Director was saved by the union late today when one of his managers did a mass email dump of an info email. My Executive advised me to let him know. He was not happy.

But i am starting to roll with the punches. It is kind of good. The Fire Department may suffer though, I think I am taking a break for awhile. All the courses for the Union and then a new directive to re-take all the courses at the FD ....I will have no life.

Headed to Fort MacMurray in a couple of weeks for a casino.This will be fun. I am going to see what pictures I can take. Hope I don't get arrested for taking pictures - I promise I won't play any Neil Young.

I think that Windows 8 will never be introduced into an office environment unless it is castrated and made to look like Windows 7. The Charm Bar moving in all the time and freezing the screen is really fricken annoying.

Headed to The Druid with my son tonight, two weeks in a row. Working overtime this weekend. I have a goal to pay off a loan this year. Well it should be paid off anyway, but I am aiming to pay it off by May.

My son wants to go to Mardi Gras now, but next year. I am thinking of taking 5 weeks off again. Go visit Chicago and Memphis as well as New Orleans. Not sure where else I will go. Florida may be out of the question, too wacky.

I have had a hacking cough all week, I am sure it is a flu trying to set in, but I am fighting it.

Second blog update on the new computer...not too painful. But I still prefer the little Apple keyboard and the ipad.

Lac des Arcs

Writing this at home for once, I have a new laptop, an HP one with Windows 8 - I am not sure I like Win8 it is like a pseudo iOS - it tries to do a lot and winds up doing nothing. I am not sure why it boots into the startup page, where I spend my time looking for desktop to get the hell out of the rather ugly GUI. There were helpful and added a lot of preset start pages for you, like Travel and Maps etc. As I said a pseudo iOS. I am not going to be driving down road with lappy open to a map. But I think these startup apps are to train you in how to delete useless things off the startdesktop. MS has also gone out and asked for apps from vendors...there's a Kindle app - which can access your library, but don't use it. If you go back to an iOS device and read - they don't synch, you spend ten minutes trying to find where you were. And even though you hit the Next button, as in next page, Win8 takes you where ever it feels like, deja vu is most likely deja vu - as in you read that page 5 minutes ago.  The Facebook app looks nice, but it is broken into sections of the screen, to go down in a section you have to find the scroll bar on the side of that section.

If you bought a laptop with a touch screen life is easier ---- on facebook, you drag your finger and the screen will scroll down. If you don't have a touchscreen, Windows 8 and you will not be happily married, in fact you will be permanently sleeping in separate beds.

The touchpad on the new laptop is screwy too, it does what it wants to and your 'lucky charms' those things hidden on the right side of the screen will pop out at the will of touchpad.

I learned one thing today that is really a pain in the ass. If you log into your bank on the Startdesktop - your bank's page takes up the whole page. If you are trying to relay information from your bank account in an email and you go to Desktop - Google or IE page and the email, everytime you flip from the bank page to the email Windows 8 as a favour to you, logs you out of your bank account. So when you go back, you have to log in again. Microsoft has taken a gigantic step backwards in multitasking - even an iphone3 can handle this chore efficiently,

The computer has no DVD or CD drive, this is to make it lighter and more Mac like. I looked at Mac's before buying this laptop, I would have had to pay about $1000 more. I wasn't prepared to do that.
The salesman, at Costco told me that this was fast enough to run Lightroom5 (LR). After looking at Mac's for a month, I knew that this machine would be able to handle LR. A guy at a camera shop said to get the PC as it had expandable parts, a Mac is a Mac is a Mac and it will stay the same as when you bought it - especially in the RAM department.....which is where LR lives.

So I go to install LR on the new laptop. Windows 8 Internet Explorer decides it doesn't like Adobe. I could click on the download LR for a month of Sundays and nothing would happen. So I had to set up a Homegroup and use my old lap top to download the file from Adobe and then I shared it with the new laptop. The old laptop has a DVD drove so it looks like I may have to copy other files this way.

This worked pretty well. But IE still did not appear to be acting right, even after I updated all of the drivers etc.

It finally came to a head the weekend before Christmas when Win* denied me permission to do stuff. I called HP and this must be a common problem as the tech deleted a pile of stuff and wham, Win8 actually looked like it could operate fast.

I went to install my Microsoft Office 2010 - no disk drive, so I go to Microsoft's site, no download.
I may copy the disk over from my laptop - this I haven't decided yet.

But I was feeling generous and the new MS Office 365 looked like it would work with a touchscreen computer and @ $10 a month what could go wrong?

Outlook, that's what. I have 4 exchange server emails. After setting them all up in Outlook it would not get the mail. I tested it by send 4 emails from one account to another account and Outlook did not receive one of them!

I called Microsoft....I got a person in the Philippines at Tech Support, the problem was easy - it was my computer. That was it, no further discussion allowed.

I rebooted as she must have been right, right. Still no emails.

I called Microsoft again. No sense having a subscription to Office 365 when one of the programs I would use 365 days a year didn't work.

I spoke to Carlo, a girl with a guy's name. First thing she did was correct my pronunciation of my name, she thought I pronounced it wrong. She asked for all my information. When I said that I wanted to cancel my subscription she asked if I called Tech Support. I told her I did. She then said I had to agree to two things before she could proceed. 1) to destroy and delete the office 365 program from my computer and 2) promise to never use them again. She had to repeat each statutory statement several times as she had problems pronouncing destroy and delete and many other words. I asked if I bought a Microsoft Office product and installed it on my computer whether that counted and she said yes. I could never install office again on my computer. I didn't think this was right, but English was not her strong point.

She then asked for all my information again...I drew the line at giving my whole credit card number. She then asked for my email address, even thought she had already asked for it twice. I gave it to her and she said she could not cancel my subscription until I answered the email.

We waited, and waited, and waited. After 10 minutes I asked if she sent the email. She said yes she had. I asked if I didn't get the email, would my subscription be cancelled. She said she needed the confirmation from the email. I am not sure what was in the email, but I am sure that after several times requesting information that she was sure she was speaking with the person who bought the product.

Finally I asked if the email was sent. She said yes, we have to wait for it. I was not confident she had sent one, or sent it to the right place. I asked to speak to her supervisor as she refused to confirm the subscription was cancelled. She refused. I asked for her last name or her operator number, she refused to give me either of those. I finally had to end the call after I told her that I was not confident she did what she was supposed to do.

Two days later there was still no email from Microsoft saying that the subscription was cancelled. I called Microsoft and got someone in North America. She understood my issue and offered to cancel the subscription. There was no swearing on the delete and destroy, there was no code I had to relay back to Microsoft, she had all the information. When she was done I told her about Carlo. She looked back in my account and said that no-one had accessed it since I had registered it. I asked about the last name or operator number, she said that was true. But she also made sure I got an email before the call ended.

I am not sure what went on, but there maybe some people spoofing a Microsoft Call Centre and collecting people's information.

I was in Calgary when that occurred. I let Microsoft have two days as it was Xmas. I went out shopping on Boxing Day and bought a 2 TB external hard drive as HP said I had to create backup disks...with no disk drive. I had fun formatting a partition on the external drive and then copying the recovery portion to it. You can only make one copy, so I bought a hard drive and a warranty plan. Oh, the Costco warranty is great, they double it and if you buy their $99 three year plan you get 5 years no questions asked on a laptop warranty. Apple can't touch that.

While driving around in Calgary the car made a funny noise in the front end. I checked the power steering fluid as the steering got tough. It was down, I went on the net and learned it could be one of three things...the fluid was the first thing, tightening a belt was the second thing and a bearing someplace in the front end was the third thing.

I finally got ATF4 at a Canadian Tire, no gas stations had it. Google said do not under any circumstances use STP Power Steering Fluid if your car says anything else. They were mostly from pissed off BMW owners...must be a n issue with them - power steering fluid usage.

So I put the fluid in and then I was headed off to the mountains to take some pictures. I was driving down Highway 1 headed West. The mountains appeared and everything appeared to be great. Then the nose came back, it was howling. At Lac des Arcs, just outside of Canmore, I decided to turn around. I wasn't going off into the bush with a steering issue in the Winter, especially since I was going up where there was no cell service.

I turned around and headed East. The car didn't make the noise if I drove under 100 kph, so I stayed below that speed. I was kind of a hazard at that speed, but most of the traffic was headed West to the mountains, not East. At Highway 22 I headed North, I figured i'd go on a road with a speed limit I can do, 100.

The wind was blowing me a bit on the road, but not too much. I got to Red Deer around 15:00 and I was standing in line for coffee at Starbucks and mentioned my issued with speed. I said I was kind of nervous as I had to drive in the speed zone from Red Deer to the Ponoka turnoff for 2A. Cars normally go 130+ in that area.  He said I should be good as it was foggy North of Red Deer and most people were going slower.

He was right, it was foggy and people were going slower. North of Lacombe blowing snow was added to the fog. Just outside of Edmonton a blizzard had started.

If I did not have the noise in the front end I would have headed into the mountains and taken the David Thompson highway East to just North of Red Deer. I would have been 3-4 hours later than I was.

Just a couple of hours after I got to Edmonton the RCMP had advised no travel on Highway 2. I learned of semi's that were flipped over by the wind on Highway 22 - South of where I got on to it, but I did feel the wind. There were a lot of cars in the ditch that night - I am glad I got back to familiar territory when I did.

The noise never came back, the steering is still a bit stiff, but the whole front end doesn't feel like it is going to fall off, like it did at Lac des Arcs. I have an appointment with the mechanic.

Happy New Year - I have assumed a senior position in the Union at work, this looks like a lot of work. I think it was why I was considering MS Office.

This Lac des Arcs - I made sure I got one or two pics before headed East.