Sony A77, John Conley, Mexico, Lake Chapala
Getting ready for our trip. Trying to organise my blog and posts. Stay tuned...
Trip to Europe - Spring 2011
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Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Prepare for Mexico
OK so we are going to leave Wednesday morning, very early, off the Chicago, then Huston, the we have no problem but head to Mexico from there. 
I am testing how this works, I hope it's ok, and maybe I figure out how to wrap around so to speak. Si?
I am testing how this works, I hope it's ok, and maybe I figure out how to wrap around so to speak. Si?
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Just Got Back from Paris France
If this was a bucket list item it was a darn good one. I certainly looked at the trip with apprehension, my balance, legs, and the fact I inhale things I shouldn't were a real concern. I had just had a bout of aspiration pneumonia, and my faithful Doc Bob decided I should take a course of anitbiotics with me 'in case'. Good decision. I was only 4 days in and something went in the wrong way. Next thing I've got that old feeling, a certain spot in my chest, a persistent cough and out came a weeks worth of pills which worked just fine. Too bad I'm a perpetual moron that way and some mixed nuts looked so good so sitting in a bar with a beer why not? Well, for a guy who can't manage to lick something off his finger, a mouthful of small pieces that will ot go down turned into sucking a bit of some nut into my lungs. Nice, I came home with the old feeling in my chest, and have just beat that. Now to find out what can I do about this long term. Stay tuned I guess.
Back to band practice with the horn last night. Well the Shriner's band is getting old, and even I had to replace the baritone horn with an alto, it's much lighter. I never played it before and was surprised I did so well. Now another band is asking me to come out so I guess this afternoon I'll give it a whirl. The Wednesday night Dutch Legion Band is also asking. Something to do.
My experience in Europe leads me to want to head back asap. What a great time. I loved everywhere we stayed and everything we did even if it killed my legs and feet on a daily basis.
Peripheral Neuropathy secondary to Cisplatin therapy is nasty. It comes and goes, burns, lets imaginary water run over you, cuts, and makes your fingers and legs numb. I'm lurching. Better than dead though, I guess.
It's very hard after spending every moment with someone you love deeply to suddenly come home and face the daily separation. The joy of discovery, of things being different was certainly a momentous occasion. Traveling from London to Edinburgh to Islay, Colonsay, Skye, Inverness, Amsterdam, Vienna, Saltzburg, Geneva, Staussburg, and Paris opened my eyes to new things. New attitudes. And an appreciation of the impact of the age of enlightenment. I think the fact that untreated my head and neck cancer was terminal, and the fact that they might not be able to cure it propelled me to reflect on many things. Can a value be put on one's life and it's contribution? My travel agent was the victim of a fire when I was an investigator. So I knew him before the fire, and he's a member of the Shrine as am I. However that was a bit of a defining moment for me.
I remember the call, about 8 p.m. on a cool late fall evening. Fire in an old section of Richmond Street. It was really not out when I arrived and I helped a bit with supervision of the overhaul and was left in charge of a crew. The fire had extended to the next structure's roof, and that was Jack's travel agency. He arrived on scene, but there was too much smoke so he couldn't come inside. He remarked just the other day at how much smoke I took, and how that might have caused cancer. But it was just one of probably 10 fires I investigated in the county that week, as was usual. Some very small. Others like this, much larger. I remember the initial discovery of the place the fire started, the basement of a church office. But it started on a desk, and there was no lamp. In fact no computer. But there were Playboy magazines and other stuff in the one open drawer that gave me concern. A witness saw the guy who's desk it was leave the building just before the fire, and what was he doing there on a weekend evening? I sealed the place up and put a police guard on it, made notes as to the point of origin and called in the detectives and when the smoke was clear they came in and I gave them the quick walk through and put together what we needed for a search warrant.
That scenario played out, an arrest was made. A conviction followed. But the real story was the travel agency. The roof was a huge hole. The firefighters had done the thing right, 'raided' the offices, putting all the computers and printers and phones on desks and covering them with tarps. There was water all over the first floor, but the far side of it was pretty good. I let the restoration people in and they moved all the electronics to their warehouse and got the dryers going in the room to get any moisture out. They sealed up and cleaned the far side of the building, where 4 agents sat, and all papers and tickets and stuff from the office was pretty much intact. That was Sunday a.m. and I had them bring in an electrician and we isolated the damaged second floor wiring and got the one side of the place back in operation. The computers were brought back and by Monday noon they were up and operating at half capacity, the rest of them working from home. I think at first Jack thought I was giving him special treatment and when a Chief came by he found out it was part of the 'service'. The fire department has a mandate to save things, people first, but get your business back running. This turned out to the start of the frustration to follow.
A building permit was required, and I knew how to do that. But the fire had damaged the hvac system, and the building division at City Hall refused to let work be done to fix the roof or systems until an architect and engineer submitted plans. I countered and ordered the roof closed in with a Fire Marshal's order and we stared all out war, they saying I could not let the roof be rebuilt to the old standard and I saying that it was required for the stability of the walls. I won, but got bloodied by my Chief who insisted I back off. Too bad for him that in reality once the order was written I was an assistant to the Fire Marshal of Ontario and it trumped him. Man was he upset. However, to this day Jack the travel agent holds the fire department in general in very high regard, they saved his paperwork and computers and phones, and I assisted him to get back running with a minimal loss. The hvac system and roof eventually took 9 weeks to get repaired. The perp got 3 years plus time served. He was trying to cover up the theft of funds and he later got some fraud charges to top things off.
So, there are a lot of those memories. I walked into band practice and a leading mason was sitting there, he was the chief electrical inspector and he started talking about an arson we did together out in the county. It seems like every other day I run into someone who I dealt with in one way or another. I know I should write some of those experiences down, perhaps it's my wee legacy.
Back to band practice with the horn last night. Well the Shriner's band is getting old, and even I had to replace the baritone horn with an alto, it's much lighter. I never played it before and was surprised I did so well. Now another band is asking me to come out so I guess this afternoon I'll give it a whirl. The Wednesday night Dutch Legion Band is also asking. Something to do.
My experience in Europe leads me to want to head back asap. What a great time. I loved everywhere we stayed and everything we did even if it killed my legs and feet on a daily basis.
Peripheral Neuropathy secondary to Cisplatin therapy is nasty. It comes and goes, burns, lets imaginary water run over you, cuts, and makes your fingers and legs numb. I'm lurching. Better than dead though, I guess.
It's very hard after spending every moment with someone you love deeply to suddenly come home and face the daily separation. The joy of discovery, of things being different was certainly a momentous occasion. Traveling from London to Edinburgh to Islay, Colonsay, Skye, Inverness, Amsterdam, Vienna, Saltzburg, Geneva, Staussburg, and Paris opened my eyes to new things. New attitudes. And an appreciation of the impact of the age of enlightenment. I think the fact that untreated my head and neck cancer was terminal, and the fact that they might not be able to cure it propelled me to reflect on many things. Can a value be put on one's life and it's contribution? My travel agent was the victim of a fire when I was an investigator. So I knew him before the fire, and he's a member of the Shrine as am I. However that was a bit of a defining moment for me.
I remember the call, about 8 p.m. on a cool late fall evening. Fire in an old section of Richmond Street. It was really not out when I arrived and I helped a bit with supervision of the overhaul and was left in charge of a crew. The fire had extended to the next structure's roof, and that was Jack's travel agency. He arrived on scene, but there was too much smoke so he couldn't come inside. He remarked just the other day at how much smoke I took, and how that might have caused cancer. But it was just one of probably 10 fires I investigated in the county that week, as was usual. Some very small. Others like this, much larger. I remember the initial discovery of the place the fire started, the basement of a church office. But it started on a desk, and there was no lamp. In fact no computer. But there were Playboy magazines and other stuff in the one open drawer that gave me concern. A witness saw the guy who's desk it was leave the building just before the fire, and what was he doing there on a weekend evening? I sealed the place up and put a police guard on it, made notes as to the point of origin and called in the detectives and when the smoke was clear they came in and I gave them the quick walk through and put together what we needed for a search warrant.
That scenario played out, an arrest was made. A conviction followed. But the real story was the travel agency. The roof was a huge hole. The firefighters had done the thing right, 'raided' the offices, putting all the computers and printers and phones on desks and covering them with tarps. There was water all over the first floor, but the far side of it was pretty good. I let the restoration people in and they moved all the electronics to their warehouse and got the dryers going in the room to get any moisture out. They sealed up and cleaned the far side of the building, where 4 agents sat, and all papers and tickets and stuff from the office was pretty much intact. That was Sunday a.m. and I had them bring in an electrician and we isolated the damaged second floor wiring and got the one side of the place back in operation. The computers were brought back and by Monday noon they were up and operating at half capacity, the rest of them working from home. I think at first Jack thought I was giving him special treatment and when a Chief came by he found out it was part of the 'service'. The fire department has a mandate to save things, people first, but get your business back running. This turned out to the start of the frustration to follow.
A building permit was required, and I knew how to do that. But the fire had damaged the hvac system, and the building division at City Hall refused to let work be done to fix the roof or systems until an architect and engineer submitted plans. I countered and ordered the roof closed in with a Fire Marshal's order and we stared all out war, they saying I could not let the roof be rebuilt to the old standard and I saying that it was required for the stability of the walls. I won, but got bloodied by my Chief who insisted I back off. Too bad for him that in reality once the order was written I was an assistant to the Fire Marshal of Ontario and it trumped him. Man was he upset. However, to this day Jack the travel agent holds the fire department in general in very high regard, they saved his paperwork and computers and phones, and I assisted him to get back running with a minimal loss. The hvac system and roof eventually took 9 weeks to get repaired. The perp got 3 years plus time served. He was trying to cover up the theft of funds and he later got some fraud charges to top things off.
So, there are a lot of those memories. I walked into band practice and a leading mason was sitting there, he was the chief electrical inspector and he started talking about an arson we did together out in the county. It seems like every other day I run into someone who I dealt with in one way or another. I know I should write some of those experiences down, perhaps it's my wee legacy.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Storm March 11
This is a test of the blog and what I hope to do while in Europe. There will be pictures. And news.
I hope the pictures appear.
I hope the pictures appear.
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