Simon says...

I'm just home in Ajax from my second leg in Whistler. Before I go any further, I have to tell you about our trip back. We (Jeff P and I) were originally scheduled to leave on the 9:30pm bus which would have brought us to Vancouver around midnight. Kind of a waste of time to spend in our Richmond hotel room since I had to leave early to get to a 7:00am flight. At that hour, I would miss the complimentary breakfast and also a whole night of sleep worrying about sleeping in and missing my flight! So, Jeff P and I changed our Pacific Coach bus trip to Vancouver so we could both at least enjoy a reunion with some of our Bell team staying at the Executive Suites hotel in Vancouver. The van driver arrived promptly at 5:30pm and took us down Blackcomb mountain picking up another group (they were leaving for Australia on a midnight flight) for a rendezvous with the main bus at the Fairmont. When we turned up the driveway of the Fairmont we were met by red and blue flashes of light. Since it was snowing, our immediate thought was that the snow plough was clearing the drive. Of course that story would not be blog-worthy. It turned out that our bus driver was being arrested on a bench warrant by the RCMP! So much for getting into Vancouver at a decent time! Now most of you know that I have just been going with the flow since arriving in Whistler but I was a little concerned about our travellers to Australia. They had to be at the airport no later than 9:00pm which in retrospect seems to be cutting it pretty close anyway since the Sea to Sky is known to be treacherous in a snow storm! So, Jeff P immediately got on the phone with Pacific Coach to see when the next bus could be expected. It seemed that the person on the other end already knew of the situation and explained to Jeff P what his company was doing about it. By this time, the father of the Australian contingent had called Pacific Coach but was on hold. So with father on hold, the rest of the family was eager to hear of any developments with Pacific Coach. They naturally asked Jeff P what was going on and I'm not sure if he planned this but we all had to chuckle when he announced, "Simon says they have a driver just south of Whistler..." Without missing a beat, the father from Australia was taken off hold and in a loud voice on the edge of uncontrolled laughter said, "Hello Simon, ..."

I have been told by a few people that have been reading my blog that it sounds like we are having a good time. I am not going to dispute that! I reassure you that we are also doing alot of work. It's hard for me to post anything about work because firstly, it's work and naturally not blog-worthy. Secondly, I don't want to be the person that divulges too much about the security nor the new technology at our venue. It really is amazing and I will be disappointed if there is not a special Olympic report from Ron McClean or whomever.

On top of "working to give the world a flawless games," the Bell team have also been busy at Whistler, fund raising. Through the efforts of Jean (we call her Jeannie) and Brian of Bell, we have raised funds to sponsor a Whistler family for Christmas. I have also talked about our trips to Squamish. In one of those trips, we were driving off the main highway and were frustrated to find the road closed with all three essential services present (fire, police and ambulance). An eight unit condo had literally burned to the ground and all so close to Christmas! We were shopping for Olympic stuff later that day and were happy to find that our store (where we were getting the "Paesano discount") was giving away $250.00 of essential stuff to the families in that fire. We met several of the families that day at the store and found them all to be in a state of shock. They had lost everything. One man was explaining that he didn't even have a wallet anymore. It was lost in the fire! Jeff P was so overcome that he pulled out all the money in his wallet and gave it to the fellow. Jeff P couldn't even stay there to hear his "thank you" for the lump he felt in his throat. That event became Jeff P and (paesano) Joe's goodwill mission! So they began collecting money for those victims and the rest of the Bell team responded again as we did for our sponsored family. That just makes me so proud to be associated with this Bell Olympic Team! I encourage all of you reading this to consider sharing what wealth you have to help ease the burden of those finding it harder to give their families an enjoyable holiday. On that note, I want to wish you all a Happy Christmas and I hope to see you in the New Year.

Free Food Friday & the Paesano Discount

There is no better feeling when one is on a per diem than to get a free meal! Now we normally have breakfast at our hotel every morning which I am told has been discounted from our per diem cards. Some people here don't like the breakfast here but I'm okay with my coffee and bagel. That's what I would have at home anyway! Your other choices are "fresh" canned fruit salad, bananas (or apples or oranges), cherry sauce (supposedly for the unsweetened yogurt) with your choice of raisins granola, etc to further embellish the yogurt. Then there is the typical cereals (ie. bran flakes, froot loops etc) and a giant vat of instant oatmeal. Powdered scrambled eggs round out the warm breakfast items although if you didn't mind waiting you could make your own fresh waffles. I just hope my per diem doesn't discount $15.00 for my bagel breakfast because I think I'm missing a daily eggs benedict! Now my roommate Laurent is really getting ripped off because his daily breakfast includes a plate of cherry sauce that he forks into his mouth. Anybody that sits with him for breakfast always looks at him with the "What the..." face.
So today we are told that the chefs would be attending our venue to put on a luncheon for VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee). One of the questions the speaker at this luncheon asked was if this was the first time that everybody had eaten at our massive dining tent. None of us on the Bell team put up our hands because we were already guinea pigs the first day the chefs tested their equipment at our dining facility. We now know first hand that the athletes will be eating very well.

There was a little mishap this past week and unfortunately Laurent was in the middle of it. I can't say that it was the last straw but just another item in a laundry list of issues we were having. Because we were tired of waiting for Laurent to finish his texting and emailing to get back to work after lunch we decided to let him walk to the area that we were working. In retaliation Laurent decided that he would try to hold on to at least one vehicle key. Not quite sure if he was texting or what but he didn't realize how close he was and backed into a garage door of one of the units. There was minimal damage to the door but the force was enough to damage the drywall on the other side of the door. (All the garages were made up to look like bedrooms so most garage doors were covered on the inside with drywall). I'm not sure if he isn't sleeping in the condo because I know I have caught him dozing at work. He just seems out of it and he still has that damn cough. None of us could believe that he got stumped at the TR2 with a phone that was double corded to a switch. Our whole day is spent putting phones in. None of us have ever put a single phone into two data jacks! I think he should stop running outside in his underwear! At any rate, we all had enough of it and letters were written, meetings were had and at 11:30, Laurent was voluntold to stay home after Christmas. It wasn't easy for any of us to be involved in getting somebody "voted off the island" but we lost all confidence in him. We were babysitting him more than counting on him. Life's too short!

The nice thing about having VANOC around is that they bring cool Olympic Stuff with them. We all got a chance to touch the Torch and pose with it. I'm not sure which torch it is but we started a rumour that it was the final torch that lights the Olympic cauldron. As I ate lunch (turkey, ham, scallopped potatoes au gratin, carrots and caesar salad), I wondered where all these people came from. In our own little Whistler Athletes Village world, we are aware of about fifty people. I will say that our fifty Whistler people were duplicated by fifty Vanoc Vancouver people that wanted to come and visit this site. I know the rest of the people had to go through some kind of security so they must have been invited but I swear it was like bears to a picnic. These guys could smell the food from highway 99 and they jumped the fence! I didn't see any security staff at the tables, so I think this throng took them out. We'll know for sure when the "missing persons" reports come in! Nobody came out of the security check when we left the venue for the end of shift so they were missing at that time!


Our evening dinner of pizza (and byob beer) was supplied by our Bell management, I think. The aroma of twenty one boxes of pizza in our "Love Lounge" (as Bill puts it)was totally enticing. I might have been walking into somebody elses party but it was like I had blinders on. Pizza! Beer! Pizza, Beer! Must have! Now! I know I had a large lunch but what's the harm in one slice of pizza. Okay two! Three! It wasn't like I was at the trough! My good buddy Jeff admitted to four slices and I'm sure he went up for seconds at lunch! The beauty of free meals on a per diem card!

With all of these "parties," there was an inkling that Christmas was coming. This week wasn't any different from any other work week. We installed countless administration drops, phones and Panasonic TVs. We would go home, eat, have a few laughs in the Love Lounge, sleep and do it all over again the next day. But in all that mix we got ourselves a couple of boxes of Christmas lights which were meant to decorate our trailer. While we were down in Squamish (which we all call Squeamish now), we happened to see a vehicle which was decorated with very similar lights. We had to do it too! After all, we work with DC voltage all the time! It's nice to get smiles from people as they watch us go by (and not because of the weird occupants of the Christmas Patriot). As I write this now, we are the only trailer at Whistler Athletes Village to be decorated for Christmas!

Everybody knows that Christmas brings presents and presents require shopping. I thought I had met the best bargain hunter/negotiater when Laura and I were on the beaches of Mexico with Dani from Jazzercise. She was the inventor of the "quarter turn manuever" which was her feint to have the shop keeper reconsider and lower their price or lose a customer. Compared to what Joe can do, I think Dani's negotiating was easy because the shop keepers and beach vendors in Mexico were used to bartering. Joe walked into a shop in Squeamish, assessed the situation and walked out with what he calls the "Paesano discount." Now before you start thinking that's a different name for a five finger discount, think again! It turns out that one of the ladies behind the counter is a sergeant at arms with "price not negotiable" practically diplayed across her forehead. Joe gathers intel to find that the other lady is actually from my province of Campobasso or in his words a "paesana." That was enough for her to not only get Joe the discount but to get all his friends the discount too! The last time I shopped there with Joe was this last Friday night. We went on a midnight madness type thing where the store advertized a 25% discount on all items. When everything was said and done, I calculated that I got a 66% discount! I'm not sure what the rest of the guys got but we brought a total of six shoppers! Jeff was just shopping name brands like American Eagle, Aeropostale etc. He didn't care what size it was, he just threw it over his shoulder! That really was a good Friday!!

Free Fallin'

The weekend has come and gone and I have been a little lax about getting to my column. I needed the rest! A few weeks ago I went to the top of Blackcomb mountain to ski on the glacier. The snow was great and I had a good time so I tried to get back to that spot on the mountain. I went up the Glacier Express lift and silly me, who knew that there could be different places to ski on Blackcomb Glacier. When I got to the top of the chair lift I thought it looked pretty different and maybe I had skied on Whistler Glacier the last time. Once I had convinced myself that it was indeed Blackcomb Glacier I decided to try to go up the T-bar lift to see if that brought me to the same spot. At this time I noticed that somebody was fishboning their way from the slope up and onto the T-bar lift. He had probably just went up the T-bar and had just skied down. I'm thinking that was far more work than I wanted to do on my way down. Now the smart thing to have done right at that moment would be to turn around and ski down to a spot where there was a map but Laura wasn't with me so I just went up! Now I was in for a penny.

It has been years since I was on a T-bar but this one was one messed up ride. I remember being able to fit T-bars under my knee and riding comfortably all the way up any slope. The slope was so steep and the rope for the T-bar was so short that it got stuck up under my butt and I swear it was ready to pick me up so I could go for a swing. Now if I was smart I would have just let the T-bar slip under my arm like the guy in front of me but I was still wondering what part of the glacier I was on. I was thinking at this point that I should bail on the whole T-bar thing and just do the "ski of shame" off the side of the lift but you had to be a ski patroller to duck out to the right or left. I was now in for a pound! Now I got up to the top and thought this was a good view but it wasn't where I had skied before. I noticed that some of the skiers were making their way higher (by climbing) and some skied down to where I thought you had to fishbone your way back to the T-bar or just continue further down to a map. It must have been the altitude because a few minutes earlier I didn't want to fishbone my way up to a T-bar lift but now it was okay to climb an extra fifty feet, in my ski boots like a lemming on his last leap of faith. So I loaded my skis onto my shoulder and used my poles to steady my climb up into God knows what. I knew there was a chance of avalanche in this location because I read the sign but hey, now I was already "all in!" When I got three quarters of the way up I understood some of the troubles mountain climbers have. I had to unload my skis from my shoulder and rather than descend in a "walk of shame," I used my skis and poles as crutches to help me up the rest of the way, panting! Right about now I started hearing John Pinnette saying, "I payed my fifty bucks, they should carry my ass up there!" Now I'm at the top of this cliff and believe it or not I have to walk up another slight slope to get to a point where daredevils jump off cliffs to make their extreme skiing videos. Again, John Pinnette is in my head saying, "At no point was my butt touching slide! That was a free fall!" Obviously, I made it down but I will be carrying maps of Whistler/Blackcomb from here on in!

Talking about free falls, Joe, Jeff P (not my new best buddy Jeff, but a good guy nonetheless) and I went down to Squamish on Sunday so we could stock up on some stuff. Along the way we went hiking up some trails to Brandywine Falls and Shannon Falls. The views were just incredible. We also made our way to Brackendale to see the bald eagles and the eagles did not disappoint. It was hard to see them at first but we spotted a pair of them. Our last stop on the way home was very near our Athletes Village venue. We went past the military post I may or may not have talked about and I could not guesstimate how many trailers were housing all the armed forces that patrol the backcountry in the Whistler area. It must be nothing short of a battalion. (I don't know what a battalion is but I like the way it rolls off my tongue when I say it) The trailers are not like the regular ones you see at a construction site. They have the same length as your longer construction trailers, but the width of them approaches the width of a school portable. I didn't feel the need to go in and enquire where they got these trailers because we had one more place to visit.


I am going to say this right now. There is no way I am going to bungee jump off any freakin' bridge. I don't care how many bombs I get fed from Michele or Jeff or anyone. It was all I could do to walk on the floor of this see through bridge. I was trying to walk on the strongest part of the metal because with each step you could feel the metal give way. I took a video of the walk on the bridge and after looking at it, it still does not give you an appreciation of the height nor how flimsy the metal is you are walking on! I figure that if they cheap out on getting their customers to the point where they actually jump off a bridge, what's going to stop them from cheaping out on bungees, bungee anchors, weigh scales, trained staff smart enough to know when you're cheating on giving your real weight? I didn't see any bodies down there but Whistler does have bears and coyotes right! Is there a better way to get rid of your evidence?

Dr Evil & his Underlords

All of the Winter Games venues just went through a giant learning curve. We had a week (okay 3 days) of Dr. Evil and his many Underlords creating havoc at our venue. It was called "TR2" probably because they had a TR1 already! The underlords just went around turning things off, unplugging fibre and T1 lines and just making a giant nuisance of themselves. I suggested that we just consider them all as "Level 1" security risks! That way, I could tackle them and put them out of commission! I never did of course, but some of the other guys were talking about watching them enter the "Port-o-potty" and parking their vehicles in front of the door to lock them in so we could just catch up to all the work they were creating for us! We all seriously considered it when we were told that "something was wrong with your network! Now go out and find it!" Our network here contains about 3,000 drops where each drop is attached to a TV, phone, computer or phone going to a computer. We have thousands of meters of cat 5 cable, coaxial cable and glass fibre cable. Never mind all the rest of the hardware at the other side of the cable! I have to say, looking for that trouble was like looking for a needle, not in a haystack but the whole barn, dung heaps included! It was alot of fun though because we had to simulate "Games" time! It was funny to watch people come in and role play as delegates/athletes of different countries that were having problems with anything from computers, cellphones, radios, faxes or TVs. The funniest was when somebody came in as a Spanish reporter. Our help desk attendant, who is fluent in Spanish was asked to deal with this person. It turned out that our attendant only had to utter a few words in Spanish to have this evil underlord say "Oh, never mind! Speak english already!" There was always a meeting afterwards so that made for long days! The nice thing about all this is that we will be treated to a lunch by the Olympic Athletes cooking staff. I can't remember if I posted a picture of the "Dining Tent" but three or four hockey rinks would fit inside it side by side. Let's just say three hockey rinks because all you guys know how much I like to exagerate. The back of house includes freezers, meal prep and dish wash areas and seating for
all WVL (Whistler Athlete's Village) workers. This area would fit into the first hockey rink where most of the space is split between seating and freezers. The middle hockey rink includes a full sized McDonalds and the buffet cooking area. The last hockey rink is split between seating for athletes and small cooking kiosks where athletes can order specialty meals (similar to Marche). We were told to come hungry!

Talking about food, I was invited to eat with Werner and Donna twice for dinner. This all came about because Werner was shadowing me during our TR2 workout. Werner advised us that Donna likes to cook! Let's just say that I gained all the weight I had lost after two meals at her condo. Maybe if I go back to bread and water for a while!

Peak to Peak

I got another chance to go skiing this past weekend and I learned a few things. Since arriving in Whistler, I have experienced wet and cloudy weather where the temperatures are warm. However, I just had a week of sunshine but the temperatures were frigid. Good thing I'm a Canadian! I don't mind the cold as long as that means sun. Anyway, back to skiing. I really enjoyed the skiing because most of the hills were groomed but they were getting a bit icy since it has been a week since our last snowfall. (Snowfall would be good, but only if we can get it overnight when it doesn't interfere with the sun.) My skiing party was stuck on skiing the green runs but once I got to the Blackcomb glacier, I looked down the run and found it too enticing. I let my skiing party go on ahead on the green run and went straight down the blue run. It was glorious! I could feel the snow spray off my skis with each right and left carved turn. I sprung for the $15.00 sharpen/wax at the top of Whistler and found that as usual, Laura was right! It does make a difference. Sharp skis help you carve your turns.
You do get more "traction" in snow with sharp skis although it really doesn't make much difference on ice. Maybe if I invent retractable blades! I could probably only sell them in Ontario though! Doesn't that sound as if I'm such a skiing snob now!

So we skied Blackcomb in the morning and then took the Peak to Peak Gondola to ski Whistler in the afternoon. Now that little trip didn't faze me but one of our party really doesn't like heights. I can't really blame him as the distance between the lowest towers of Whistler and Blackcomb (which is the longest span) is just over 3 km.


The other thing I learned is that I can handle the skiing and of course, the apres skiing! I should just let the younger folk enjoy the apres, apres skiing, especially if I try to keep up with Michele or Jeff! To get a little off topic, many of the techs here are enjoying my Blue Collar Comedy tour DVD's. "Larry, the Cable Guy" has a line where he says he dreamt of drinking the worlds largest Margherita. He then finds himself waking up next to the salted rim of his toilet! To get back on topic, I think I lived that dream! Between Jeff and Michele, I really think they're both trying to kill me! One of them is feeding me a Jager bomb (shot glass of Jagermeister dunked into a glass of Red Bull) and the other is feeding me an Irish Car bomb (shot glass of Irish whiskey and Baileys dunked into a glass of stout). I was fool enough to drink them because "Oh, I bought four of them! You don't want them to go to waste!" Now I'm not saying that they had me pinned to the ground and I wasn't having a good time, but I can tell you that I heard my stomach say, "Right, we've had enough! One more drop comes down here and we're going to lay waste!" Oh, I listen to Jeff and Michele, but will I listen to my own stomach?! So Jeff, Michele, Mike (Michele's cousin) and I close down the clubs in Whistler and we are having such a good time that we think we can survive some more drinking in Mike's condo. I know I passed out on the step above Mike's sunken living room and in the early part of the morning Jeff gathers me up and we make our way home up the mountain. It takes two seconds in the screaming cold to sober us up. We're about a 30-45 minute walk up the mountain and it's close to 25 below with the windchill. Don't we see a coyote on the road and now I'm starting to think they're circling 'cause they don't think we'll make it either. There is not a soul on the road but somehow Jeff feels that if we call 310-TAXI they will send one immediately. I ask Jeff where he thinks the dispatcher will send this taxi if he gets through. "Don't worry, they have GPS and they will be able to track us!" I'm not sure if it was GPS or pure dumb luck but didn't a taxi just about run us down on the road. Of course, Jeff was doing his best imitation of a rodeo clown wrangling a bull in front of the moving taxi (on a icy slick roadway). I think the taxi driver had called it a night but he felt sorry for these two dumb drunk bastards walking down the middle of the road in the screaming cold being circled by an equally frozen coyote!


Sunday was a quiet day!! Me and my stomach were not on speaking terms that day. A couple of pieces of buttered toast and a Brita jug full of water. It was a penitentiary diet! I was supposed to go skiing again that day but I decided to do laundry instead. I learned that there is no need to worry about listening to Jeff or Michele at the apres laundry or apres, apres laundry party!

Perspective

Wednesday morning started out just like any of our other regular work days. Today however, Bill and Laurent were sick. Bill had the sense to stay in bed but Laurent decided to go to work to give us all a chance to get sick. I told him that he had to try to stop coughing at us and maybe wear a mask if he was going to work with us in close quarters. Something got lost in translation because that meant he should wear a scarf which only partially covered his mouth when he was coughing on us. I guess that meant we would only partially get sick. It was time to increase all my vitamins and practise, no not practise, perfect good hygiene. Anyway, we normally get up no later than 6:30am and try to beat the traffic down to the lobby for our 7:00-7:15am breakfast start. It seems that most days it is just the Bell group, but we have found lately, especially with American Thanksgiving that there are many other people around with the usual wailing of children wanting Fruit Loops instead of oatmeal or Cap'n Crunch instead of powdered scrambled eggs. Who can blame them, it's their vacation too?!

On this morning, my good buddy Jeff poured himself a coffee and the second he hit the tap on the coffee urn, the power went out! We heard from a bunch of the other guys that said they flushed the toilet and the power went out, they turned the water tap and the power went out etc. We had to respectfully disagree. We pretty much decided that it was Jeff's fault because none of the other instances could be substantiated. There was a room full of technicians that observed Jeff hit the tap on the coffee urn and boom! No power at our hotel! Now you can't argue with that logic can you!

So the instant the power goes out at our hotel a generator kicks in and we are all left eating in a perpetual "Brown out" situation. I immediately think back to the time that Laura and I were in St. Martin and we were sitting on the balcony, feet on the railing, glass of red wine in hand, bottle of red wine close by to recharge our glasses, watching the lights in the cityscape turn up and shut down. (Another funny story is that we met a bride later that week that said, "This is the honeymoon from Hell!" It's all in your perspective.)

So when 7:30 rolls around, the techs that have the furthest to travel, jump on their horse and decide that it's time to go to work. Good thing too because another early birder put his key into the ignition and you guessed it, the power went out, but that can't be substantiated! Problem was that our vehicles are behind electric gates and our eager beaver is stuck inside a now completely dark parking garage. Right about that time, the fire alarm goes off! So, we are all left eating breakfast in a good ol' Californian brown out with the fire alarms going off. I didn't see too many chairs moving to exit the building in a hasty but orderly fashion. I did hear many people comment that at least we couldn't hear any babies wailing this morning though! Once we finish all the coffee in the urn, we decide there's nothing fore it but to find a way to get our trucks out and get to work. Bill will just have to find his own way to get some rest and/or some coffee while the firemen find a way to silence the alarms!! Good thing we didn't see or smell smoke!! Those of us with full freezers may have found a good way to preserve meat! By smoking it! You see, on top of everything else, Joe is a shopaholic! Maybe that's not the right word. He's more of a bargainaholic! He will find things on sale and if the discount isn't good enough he will barter to the point where the salesperson will say, "Take it, and go!" (That's right, Russell Peters was talking about Joe getting the bargain)

Living in Ajax, I have become accustomed to many power outages. They don't last long usually! This one did! We were informed at the end of our shift that we were to report to our hotel with flashlights to retrieve whatever belongings were required to spend the night at the Westin. So I packed up enough clothes for a one night stay and also included my I-pod complete with the cheap little battery powered travelling base station Laura and I bought for the beaches of Portugal. I played soothing tunes especially for the front desk staff that seemed to be a little harried by a complete hotel to hotel move. We all got a chuckle out of listening to music in all this bedlam!

So once again, a night of heavenly sleep! But before that, it would be remiss if we didn't try out their eucalyptus steam bath, their jacuzzi or their indoor/outdoor heated pool! When morning came at the Westin we were all trying to find a way to claim an illness so bad that just the mere thought of moving us would have led to dire consequences! I just called it "Perspective!!"

Noah!? Yes, Lord! (Bill Cosby routine)

I'm just home in Ajax for the weekend and I have had time to think about my first leg in Whistler. I love it out there except things are lonely without my family and everything seems to be "drippy!" My training week in Vancouver was the worst because of the rain and because my Bell family was not around either! It seems that if it's not actually raining on you, you're dodging drips of water from melting snow on the roof. Cold water dripping down the back of my neck is beginning to feel like home. From the time I arrived in Vancouver until the day before I left, you could measure the amount of sunshine in hours! I was seriously considering having to double or triple my vitamin D dosage. I was going to post pictures of some of the artwork at the Athlete's village on this blog. I changed my mind when I found the brilliant sky and the absolutely stunning vistas on my trip to the Vancouver airport. That day was filled with sunshine from just after the time I got up until the time I caught my flight.

I posted a picture of a scenic view just outside of Squamish on my last post. At the time, I just did it to show that only 30 minutes away in Whistler, we had about a foot of snow on the ground. In full sunshine that same picture is stunning. They say that the trip to Vancouver from Whistler is much better than the other way around. Despite having to endure twenty days of rainy weather, I felt lucky to have experienced that glorious trip to the Vancouver airport in full sunshine.
Maybe the point of all that rain was to set me up for that trip back home on the Sea to Sky highway (which might be called Snow to Ice highway for the Olympics).

Twenty days and nights of rain (or snow). That's half the rain that Noah got! I was waiting on the call and considering the expense of a 60 x 30 cubit yacht. I'm just not sure what a cubit is and how much wood that would entail!

Skiing above the Clouds

Jeff B, my new best buddy called me while I was in Vancouver to report that there was a dumping of snow in Whistler. I think he mentioned 150 cm. I know that when I last checked, the mountain was reporting 500 cm. Since Jeff P. drove down from Whistler for his training, he left me with the use of that vehicle to drive back alone. Now having to drive on my own from Vancouver to Whistler, I started imagining avalanches, road closures and heavy traffic all the way up, especially because it was a weekend and the local ski buffs would be heading for a weekend of skiing. I can't say that I was disappointed to find only rain until believe it or not, Squamish, which is about 30 minutes from Whistler.

I took this picture on Saturday on the way back to Squamish, as it was a scenic lookout. We were getting ourselves ready for a year of skiing. We stopped in Function Junction to try to outfit Bill and Jeff P with skis and poles etc. Jeff P ended up paying $35 for skis and poles (165 cm Elan skis with Tyrolia bindings) and Bill as usual found boots that were free. The boots were only 5 years old and they were Salomons. A little side note about Bill is that he says he takes directions very well. We will have to verify this with his wife though. In his defence, he did walk into the local IGA one day and walked out to find a pair of skis with a note on them saying, "Take me, Free." He ended up with K2 skis which were about 165 cm. I have never been to a ski resort town where you find used ski equipment which is free or next to nothing! I believe that since we found this place in Function Junction, you would be better off just buying your equipment here, rather than going to the expense of shipping it to the mountain. These skis are cheaper than renting and it's easy to find a decent pair. I'm envious because I don't think my equipment is as good as this free stuff! Anyway, we ended up going to Squamish because Bill thought he could find a better deal. He couldn't but I ended up finding some great Olympic stuff. I think I will wait until after the regular games to load up though because Bill says they will be giving it away, so please tell me if you would like me to buy you something.

The roadway in front of our hotel is filling up nicely with snow. Believe it or not, a good chunk of this snow melted by Friday night because it rained up here in Whistler as well. Somehow rain on the "Wet Coast" doesn't surprise me anymore! I just can't believe that not 30 minutes south of Whistler, there is so little evidence of snow! The nice thing about having so much snow on the ground here though is that the "Bombing" sounds have subsided a little as the snow on the ground dampens the loud thumps of falling snow. When we only had about six to twelve inches of snow, the water laden snow from the roof would slide off and hit the ground with a huge thunk. You would swear you could feel the floor shake. Some of the guys are in part of the hotel where there are roofs which jutt out below the main roof. Apparently, when the lower roofs get hit with snow you think the sky is falling! It wasn't so bad when it happened and you were awake, but in the middle of the night, I was awakened many times. Or maybe it was the jet lag!

So, both Jeff P and Bill got outfitted (I still spent more money in Squamish on other stuff) and we decided to head back to Whistler and buy lift tickets. They have something here called "The Edge" pass. It works out to about $55/lift ticket and you can buy them in 3, 5 and 10 units. The nice thing is that you can refill this pass and still pay a discounted price. The price depends on what time of year you refill. Regardless, it's still cheaper to ski here than it is to ski at Blue Mountain or Mt. Tremblant. So if you like to ski and you have some air miles and can build yourself a bear proof igloo...

I took a few more pictures at the top of the mountain today and unfortunately, they just don't do the view justice. As you might be able to tell, we were skiing above the clouds. Basically, we took the gondola to near the top of the mountain(to get higher there is another chair lift where you ski in a bowl). We then skied down to the one/third station (they sometimes call it the midway station, it really isn't). This station is down below the cloud! Now, we did have a little problem today with Bill as he has never skied before. I tried to teach him as best as I could but the snow was so deep and heavy and I am not a ski instructor, that he tweaked his knee on a turn. He said that he could feel his knee pop. We left him in the good hands of the ski patrollers and he told us to just go out and enjoy our day, but you can't help worrying. When we got back to the hotel we found him on the "hot tub and beer" regime to recuperate. It is customary for the Bell team to start their apres ski party in the hot tub even though it is generally all male. I have to say that I felt really old when a young lady looked at me in a rather puzzled look when I was talking about the Calgary Olympics. She said she wasn't even born yet. (350 dogs years!! Yeesh) Bill then retired to the "love lounge" to play some video golf, drink, watch TV, drink, play poker (with a round totalling about 15 players) and of course drink. Another choice would have been to go to the Irish Pub which you have to go to at least once (but not many more times for me because of all the fiddling that goes on). The GLC is another choice and again 350 dog years! Although we were witness to somebodies bar tab that try as he might he could not reach $1000.00. Bet he was doing laundry the next day! Merlins is another choice and this became Joe's favorite only because he could watch UFC with a room full of other fans of blood and broken bones. We had a discussion in all this drinking (as you're want to do) that we thought it was harder on our wives than it was for us being away from home. Yeah, it was but we all still did miss 'em. Anyway, I think Bill is going to play it up tomorrow so he won't have to climb any ladders!

I took this video just outside of the mountain top chalet. It starts with a look at the Olympic Ilanaaq. Now, I have always called them Inukshuks but I guess we are speaking a different language here. To the left of the Ilanaaq, you get a glimpse of the gondola coming up from Whistler village. To the right, you get a glimpse of the Peak to Peak gondola which is now under maintenance repair. We watched a guy pull himself up to a Peak to Peak gondola from the ground and suddenly I didn't feel so bad having to climb ladders. Although you can't see it at the chalet, there is a wooden deck which you are supposed to see. It is covered in snow and obviously service pending.

Go East Young Man

I just got back from a full week of training at our Bell facility in Vancouver. Now I could try to make a joke and say it was more saltines and rock salt but it actually wasn't. I also wish I could say that I am now an expert on our 5500 switches but I think that will come once I take down the Olympic network a few times. Hopefully, "they" will let me play with the switches before the actual games start. There's no better feeling than to have a switch go down during a competition and make the repair without feeling the pressure of the world and the eyes and cameras of the media. Some of you may have already experienced the joy of following that reality TV series for weeks (where hockey players don figure skates), only to see the blue screen of death for the last half hour of the series. Apparently, there was a power failure or something at our favourite cable company in Toronto and many of the affiliates out west missed the finale. It had nothing to do with my 5500switch training by the way. Should you hear complaints from our Olympic athletes, then you can start pointing fingers.

Now you might wonder why there are no pictures in this post. Mainly because I didn't want to get my camera wet. My boss was kind enough to drive me down to Vancouver on Tuesday morning as he and his assistant had a meeting in the same building as I did. So why is this blog worthy? It is natural for the driver to get a fairly good understanding of where he came into a new city or at least know where north is. I was the passenger however! I was just looking out into the grey and wet oblivion on my trip into Vancouver. I looked at my travel arrangements that day and saw that I was staying at the Westin. "Oh great," I thought, "I will get a heavenly sleep!" My boss did tell me that I wouldn't need a car and that the Westin was just a few blocks away. So we parted ways with me carrying my laptop bag and the smallest rolling suitcase that I had in Whistler.

Once I found my "Goldrush" room at the Bell building, I stowed my luggage in the corner and we all introduced ourselves at the meeting. Everybody was impressed (and some envious) of the few pictures I had taken of the snow. Lunch came quickly and many of us went to the Keg which was just around the corner. Once our first day of training was over, I asked the instructor for directions to the handy dandy Westin. She proceeded to draw me a picture on the white board and, with the Bell building and Keg as my only reference, I grabbed my rolling suitcase bag and shouldered my laptop and headed out to my "heavenly sleep."

It took a few blocks before I started to feel like a twenty-first century bag lady. I was looking for a good shopping cart but I think they were all taken! My directions were to walk a couple of streets one way and a couple of blocks the other way. On the white board it looked like you would have to go south and then east because everybody knows that south is on the bottom of a drawing and north is on the top of a drawing. I pulled out my handy GPS we all call Maggie and was worried that I hadn't given it enough time to charge. Didn't matter, there was no signal anyway! Now I could have jumped into a cab and suffered the stare of some foreign driver because my trip would have been a couple of blocks but I decided to call somebody else that is famous for his "short cuts." My father-in-law Hugh! Thank God for the 10-4! I called my handy dandy travel guide and was asked which Westin I was booked in at. "You mean there's more than one" I asked? You'd think that since most of Vancouver is on a flood plain, it would be fairly flat. Just try wearing your Whistler approved "Wet-Skin" jacket, toting a fully loaded rolling suitcase with a laptop strapped to one shoulder and a cell phone stuck to your ear with the guy on the other end asking "Well, where are you? I think you have to go east." You find out quick that there are enough inclines, especially when you've been going the wrong way and you have to go up and down them twice.

I had a lovely dinner with Catherine on Thursday night at the Burgoo restaurant. I thought it would be a nice treat since I had the use of a vehicle. I pulled out my handy dandy GPS Maggie and wouldn't you know it! Same thing, I was driving in ever increasing concentric circles around city blocks to try to find a decent satellite signal. Now I was a twenty first century bag lady driving a car with no clue where I was going, just like your typical cabbie anywhere. When I told Catherine about this adventure she said that I should just remember the mountains are always due north. Only on a clear day!

It's been nearly two weeks now that I have been in BC. I can count the number of times I have seen the sun on one hand and still have fingers left over. I definitely have not seen the mountains as a backdrop for Vancouver and my GPS "Maggie" must be upset with me! My Gillete Mach 4 razors are starting to look pretty good on my wrists! I've told all the guys that I'm still not sure that I'm in the mountains! I could be anywhere! The sky is always covered in a grey mist so you don't see much of anything beyond a couple hundred feet. I've got one week and I will be going east, as long as I can find the airport!

Olympic Fever

Okay, so this weekend I was on vacation. It started out with a birthday party at Sachi Sushi (say that fast 3 times) where I met Michele to celebrate her friends birthday. Now before the phone calls start to Laura, you could say that Michele is related to me. We grew up on Howland as neighbours and became related when her sister married Laura's uncle who happened to be my best friend. So now my best friend is also my uncle. You can't make this stuff up. I think it was hard for Michele to spend time with her party and also entertain me and my party of six but we all had fun trying. Of course some of us from my party where not heard from until Sunday (from the ruckus at the other table, Michele might have found the same thing), which is too bad because I bought myself a day pass to go skiing at Whistler which conveniently enough opened early. Once people found out that Whistler was to open on Saturday, they waited in line from about 5 pm Friday. I don't think I like skiing that much!

I know that skiing in the mountains is not like skiing in Quebec or Ontario. Luckily, several people that don't ski or others that haven't skied in a long time decided to back out because on this day, the green runs were challenging enough. There was alot of snow and Whistler management decided not to groom on this opening day. So basically, once the hills were skied on a bit, we had the makings of some pretty good moguls. My ski buddy Brian had also not skied in a very long time and dressed for weather on Mont Tremblant, Quebec. He was utterly soaked by the end of the day from several falls and all the exertion trying to get back up and just plain skiing in warm weather. He got pretty loose as we neared the midway station gondola to bring us back down and ended up in the virgin snow. He was leaning forward as you should on groomed runs and kind of landed on his side. He buried his pole trying to find solid ground to right himself, the snow was that deep there. This fourth picture was supposed to be a short video for Christine but the batteries on my camera died and I had to settle for a picture instead. The green run on the right was easy enough but the cliff on the left leaves new skiers wondering and doing the "pizza slice." I never heard that before but I guess it means "snow-plough." There were many skiers who were fans of downhill, but on the whole it was not as crowded as the hills in the east. I'm now looking at getting an "Edge" pass which will get me on the hill for about 30% less. I'm not sure if I will get the 5 or 10 lift pass because apparently after you use up your pass, you can still buy more lifts at the discounted rate.

I found out from Norm and Anne that their daughters would be in Whistler on the fourteenth. Now I have to tell you this story and I hope that it doesn't come out wrong. Fiona (or Ona as Kristin called her) and Catherine were Kristin's baby sitters at one time. Catherine inherited the job when Ona got a real job and the transition was seamless. Kristin loved both of them equally. So in my mind, both of these women are still the cute and well behaved teenagers. Well, one of the guys from the Bell team asked me what I was doing for the night and I responded that I had declined going out for a drink with my "baby sitters." He just looked at me and said that was "wrong on so many levels." Anyway, everybody here is amazed that even here, so far away, both Laura and I have friends that mean so much to us. Now before I get too far, I have to say that Catherine asked if I would like to join them for a wine tasting party on Saturday night. It was really a great idea, but I will admit that another night of drinking might have been too much. Although I didn't drink enough on Friday night to miss skiing on Saturday, I might have been over my limit with a wine tasting on Saturday night. We agreed to meet for brunch and I am glad that we did. I had such a great time hearing from them and meeting their friends and Catherine's fiance, Jeff. They are all such great sports for taking the time to brighten up what would otherwise be a lonely weekend.

To continue with this story, once we met up, we all got to talking right off the bat and the waitress asked us in the nicest way to order. She also mentioned that she was under pressure because she was expecting to get the Italian and Austrian Luge team in for breakfast. Now as you know, my mission is to get autographs of athletes on my Canadian flag without becoming a stalker. I asked the waitress if she would be kind enough to ask for me. She found an 8 1/2 X 11 and turned it into a card, which was so thoughtful. The picture proves that she got the signatures for me but I have to say that I didn't want the autographs for myself. One of the guys from the Bell Team (Remo) saw the Italian team practicing when he visited the Sliding venue and thought better of trying to get a photo and their autographs. All the teams are paranoid of other teams learning their secrets! Anyway, his dad in Italy is a great fan and I know it means more to him than it would mean to me.

So the topic got around to the Olympics and the locals are talking about moving out for the month. It is of course going to be traffic pandemonium. Everyone needs a permit to travel the Sea to Sky highway (I'm thinking they should change the name to Rain and Snow highway). I told them not to forget the Paralympics right after and I also mentioned that these were the exact same arguments I had heard with the Calgary Olympics. When the Calgary Olympics finally came, they turned out to be the most memorable, unifying and satisfying thing that had happened to that city. I can't recall what happened to the nay-sayers. Did they catch Olympic fever or did they truly move out for the month? I think most caught the fever because I know I did. It is the reason I considered coming to Vancouver. It is the reason Laura pushed me to come to Vancouver. I think BC and Canada will love these Olympics! The locals just don't know it yet!

On a Clear Day...

One work week has gone by and I can't tell you how exhausted I am. I don't know what kind of mix-up there was that a building (ie. hotel) can be built for athletes where there is no provisioning for TVs in each room! Now you might say that the Americans are very demanding to want a TV in each room but let's just take a second here! These rooms will be sold as rooms/condos after the medals are safely stowed in garage drawers and the only buyers that will be interested are Taoist monks and convicts because two days worth of sweat and copper will be torn out and recycled. Just wanted to get that off my chest! I'm tired and I feel like I'm always at work. In these few days all I have done is sleep, eat, go to work, return to the hotel, eat, have a few laughs with the guys I work with and start the cycle all over again.

It might be the weather because it just seems to be cloudy and dark or just outright snowy these days. We had one day of sunshine which really brought everybodies spirits up. I don't know how the guys that have been here for a longer period could stand all this gloominess. It is probably the few days or hours of outright brilliance when you can finally catch a glimpse of the mountains. Now I know all three Lim girls will want a few pictures of mountains, so here are a couple just to satisfy their craving and maybe make up their minds to visit.Now before you start saying that I'm just here on vacation, the first picture was taken on our way out to work. Please notice that all the clouds just opened up and I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Okay, so it cleared up that day and the second picture was taken when we went down to "Function Junction" for lunch.


The sunshine did not last for long as the third picture greeted me out the front door on the next day of work. I get a kick out of the conversation during our morning meetings. You would hear things like, "I'd like you guys to go the USA and do such and such, you guys go to France and do that" etc. If a stenographer copied all this you would think that we are all world travellers. Today, I personally went to the USA, Latvia and SVK (Slovakia, I think).

During the Games, this Olympic village will be heavily guarded by our RCMP and augmented by our Armed Forces. But for now, the only augmentation to security are these coyotes. According to Blaise, one of the security guards, these coyotes show up every day at about 7 am. He jokes that when they're late, he docks their pay. I have to admit that on this particular morning, we were all bushed from pulling coaxial cable for the American's TV viewing pleasure on the day before.
All of us had only seen the gloomy weather outside or the pipe filled, impossible to move ceiling tile covering a twelve inch ceiling space. We asked that a few minutes were granted to familiarize ourselves with all the buildings that comprise our venue. That is when we ran into our canine security guards. Who knew that the training I received for wild life encounters would actually come in handy at our venues. The rest of the guys want to see a bear (me not so much)! This venue was built on top of a garbage dump and many provisions were put in place to ensure that methane gas does not pose any problems for the athletes. The wildlife however still remember it as a feeding ground.

At the risk of spoiling the big surprise for our Olympic athletes, since I don't really know any, I will try to get as many candid shots onsite. Our Bell Team will shortly consist of about 70 people at this hotel. I have to say that I am envious of some of the pictures they are able to get of the athletes training. I am told that everybody feels that way so we have decided to share our favourite pictures. I am awed by a few of these pictures I was able to take, inspired by the sights worth remembering and hopeful that I can see some of the sights my team mates have recorded.
I will be skiing tomorrow but only after I can sleep in (but no later than 9:00 am since that's when breakfast ends). I promised Christine that I would record a run, so I hope the weather holds up.

First day of work

Well, I'm here, in Whistler! At first blush I thought this trip started with a 10-4 call from Jeff while we were travelling to Mont Tremblant. But getting on a plane and enduring a take-off and landing, from really good weather to really good duck weather got me to thinking about what the heck got me here.

I think this trip started with my wife on Barranca Beach in the Algarve. Like many beaches in the Algarve, there are many rocks or large stones along the sides of the beach. For those of you that know me well enough you know that when the mood hit me, I used to be in the habit of piling stones. Before I go any further I will say that I am not responsible for any of the Inukshuks or rock piles along the 401!! At any rate, the mood hit me at Barranca Beach that day. I saw a bunch of stones laying there and assembled them into a pretty good replication of an Inukshuk. Then we went back to our favourite restaurant and tried to explain to our waiter what an Inukshuk was and how it was the icon of these winter games. Okay, that's lame but it's pretty late (in my body time) and I think I have a good case of jet lag.


When the shuttle bus from Vancouver dropped me off at the front of "Blackcomb Suites" (and not really knowing if I was at the right hotel) I basically tackled the first guy I saw with any Bell paraphenalia. It turned out to be Brian who was my neighbour across the hall. He let me know that I was in the right place and it was at this point that I let the bus driver go! I met my roommate "Laurent" from Montreal shortly after. He didn't let me know it at the first meeting but I was saying his name wrong. It is supposed to sound more like Lawrence than the way I was saying it. I just kept thinking "Oh God, it's the whole Mont Tremblant, Mont Blanc thing!" If anybody meets a local from the St. Jovite area, they have a particular way of saying Tremblant! Where I would say "trembl'on't," the local St. Jovite people would say "trembl'eh'nt!" So my french roommate's name is actually pronounced like "Loren." I just hope I never say "Low rent" because that is the way I try to train myself to remember it. Anyway, it turns out that Laurent is a marathon runner. Good for him! However, he keeps his running shoes and his spandex running gear (I call them underwear, 'cause they look like shiny long john drawers) in the closet next to our entrance door. He tells me to not worry and hang my coat in that same closet and when I slide the door to hang my coat, "STANK!" My best buddy Jeff put it best. He said it smells of "ass." I take my belongings quickly to my room and decide that I will use my double sized bunk bed to store my stuff. I have to say it took a couple of nights to get used to the idea of sleeping in a double sized bunk bed. I was always worried of getting up with a jolt and sitting straight up. This of course would have resulted in a concussion from the bottom of the bed above which would have knocked me out. I wondered how many times it would be safe to go through this nightmare-concussion ordeal. I sure wish my boss let me go earlier so that I could have at least come to some agreement with Laurent about taking the king sized bed with the ensuite bathroom. I decided that since Laurent's running gear were stored in the closet directly opposite my bathroom at the front door, that would at least put me in the right mood for my morning bowel movements!

Everybody here on my crew said that because I brought my skis, I also brought the snow. For the most part, it was raining for the past few weeks, almost every day. With all that rain I think I would have started building an ark! Nonetheless, I got excited to see the snow plow/salter go around our traffic circle on my first morning in BC. It seems to melt though and then it starts to accumulate again. I learned today that it has to do with the frost line and its movement down the mountain with day time heating. Just a matter of time before the frost line is well below us. Lift tickets are about $1500 for the season, so maybe if I don't eat for a month I'll be able to ski.

I jumped right into work today and sitting in our trailer you would think that we are zipping around the world. You would hear things like "I did this something in France. I did that something in Poland" etc. There are many other companies here as well working away, doing their thing and it kind of reminds me of being on a movie set. Everybody is happy and peppy and positive. I also got to know Joe at the worksite today! I can't say that he fits that happy, peppy mode. Of course he was having a "friendly" discussion with Laurent over the amount of time it took him to activate ten IP phones. He was starting to get the reputation of being addicted to the "crackberry." Additionally, with Laurent being from the Montreal area, he is used to the more structured work habits of the Quebec union local. At 10:30 sharp he's looking to have a coffee break. At 12:00 pm sharp he's looking to have his lunch break. Since we skipped coffee to have an hour break at lunch and then delayed lunch to finish what we were doing, we all expected Laurent to be ravenous. When he ordered a coffee and carrot cake for lunch, we all just turned to one another and said, "What the ..."

I got my last piece of luggage today courtesy of Michele, more commonly known as Mickey. I would say she is pretty happy and peppy and positive so maybe its something in the water. I know they seem to see enough of it!

The Big Send Off

The late mother of a dear friend of mine taught her son (whom now resides in Labelle, Quebec) to just say “Thank you.” Instead of risking the feelings of the donor and possibly cheapening the thought behind the gift, she would scold him with, “Just say thank you, but say thank you, gracefully!” So when David found himself the recipient of a thoughtful gesture he thought, “Ah, you really shouldn’t have! I don’t deserve this! This is too much!” But he did what his mother had taught him and he said, “Thank you, gracefully!” That’s my David!

I won’t say that I hate birthdays, birthday parties or the tag of officially becoming a year older. If I don’t have to be in the limelight and I can hide in the corner, I will eat, drink and be merry at any party. But when the spotlight shines on me and I become the centre of attention, then it truly becomes uncomfortable. That being said, I thought that I had gotten through another birthday with the usual fanfare that I am most comfortable with; small intimate party with a minimal amount of gifts. Maybe it’s a lack of self esteem or a lack of confidence thing surrounding birthday parties. Our family really never had huge birthday bashes growing up complete with a multitude of gifts, so I never really had that kind of experience!

Yesterday, be it because I was turning an even 5 decades (I was told 350 in dog years, yeesh!) or because Laura wanted to give me a great send off, or a combination of the two, I was treated to a party in my honour. Despite my feelings of dread, it was great to see so many friends and family coming together in celebration. My wife Laura is really the “party girl” in this family and you just have to love her for that. Some people were under the impression that it was a surprise party but the last surprise party in my honour didn’t turn out that well. It’s like me and giving blood; bad things won’t happen if I give myself a chance to get used to the idea. (On a side note, I tried to tell the nurse that she should lay me down to take blood and she agreed with me once she observed the 200 lb. man convulsing in her lap. I really haven’t gotten over the needle thing so its God’s little joke to inflict me with a hypothyroid and the need for regular blood testing. My hearing is good though! The vampires, as I call them, always yell “Crash cart” as soon as they recognize me)

Many friends and family attended and those that were invited but could not come, sent their well wishes. Many brought gifts (although I know they were instructed not to) and had to endure the big oaf in the limelight opening them. Maybe that was the point!? Then in the sweats of opening gifts, one last gift was opened and it was more than I could have ever expected. I always thought that the trio on the card and myself could have played at least one game of golf together, so on a personal note, you had me at “From Terry, David, Hugh.” I have felt blessed and my family has been blessed just to be among the “conoscenti.” Then today, I have received many well wishes from people that didn’t know about the party and again from people that were at the party and all this has left me speechless and humble. I wish I could verbalize my feelings now in a way that everyone would truly appreciate but all that comes to mind is “Thank you, gracefully!”

No time left

Just as expected, time is flying by! Half the reason I decided to start this blog was so that I could try to verbalize this roller coaster ride. I'm not quite sure how I am going to fit an entire winter wardrobe with it's natural bulk, my ski stuff and oh yeah, I guess I need to bring my tools since there is some required work stuff I need to do! I could really use Irene's help on rolling up a ski suit to fit into a size 10 shoe! I'm also trying to get in my dental appointments, medical appointments for prescription refills (and no I'm not on hallucinogens, I'm just naturally this way). Of course, let's not forget the visit with my personal groomer, Suzanne. I would also like to try and get one more adjustment in with Amanda (Dr. A). Now that is just another typical day for my wife Laura, but "I am, just a man!"

I just completed my online training on this side of the continent. It consisted mainly of a brief description of the technology and hardware nomenclature we will be using throughout the assorted venues. I'm still spitting out saltines and rock salt. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that there was testing at the end of each module. A pass was 80% and if you failed in the first attempt, you were only given one more attempt. Nobody ever really explained what would happen if you failed in both your attempts. Maybe that was meant to be a non-verbal type threat! "So I finished the testing, Yadda, yadda" says George from a "Seinfeld" episode.

By now everybody has figured out that my venue will be the Athlete's Village in Whistler. They are already skiing at the top of the hill but I guess they do that all year long. My concern right now is that the ski season starts on November 29th. I just feel this is going to be one very long winter since my new best buddy Jeff is telling me that Whistler has already had one dump of snow to the tune of 15cm. I am starting to wonder about this best buddy thing!

You see, I have given up Sunday night old timer hockey so I wouldn't hurt myself and ruin my chances at the Olympics. Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I have been playing year round hockey (until very recently) and opting out of winter hockey has not been done since I first started playing competitive hockey. I had a chance to ride the Oshawa Competition Motorcycle Club (OCMC) "Club Enduro" this past weekend and decided against it, firstly because I didn't want to ride in the rain and the cold (which turned out to be cloudy but pleasant) and secondly so that I wouldn't ruin my chances to get to the Olympics! So what does this have to do with my new best buddy Jeff? He says that he has me scheduled for zip-lining and bungee jumping! I guess I should just get in line now, with Christine and Paula and get that parachute jump out of the way, just for hoots!

The Call

I received a 10-4 call from my new best friend Jeff on October 6 (who's already in Vancouver) asking if I was still interested in working at " Les jeux Olympiques" chez Vancouver. I really didn't consider it a question! Oh, and by the way, happy birthday Laura (Oct. 7). I originally promised Jeff a beer the next time I see him but then I reconsidered and thought the best bottle of his favorite libation more appropriate.

Now some of you might be asking why am I using some french. It's only because I was going to Mont Tremblant with my family (on my summer vacation), closing out the golf season with our dear friends from Labelle, David and Michele. The trip could have been the worst one possible (although how could it be when you play golf 5 days out of 6) but as I told Jeff, that news made my holiday. Oh, and by the way, I did have two scores in the low 90's. That is pretty good for me even though David would qualify that as 93* and 94*. That's our inside joke for a couple of foot wedges we may or may not have used.

We are just now on our last night at Mont Tremblant and I feel that I need to get ready to leave for "Les jeux Olympiques" even though it won't be until November. Laura and Kristin said I would be going. My boss and my co-workers said I would be going. I guess I wouldn't let myself believe I would be going. We are all of us now just pumped!

I will be in Whistler at the Athlete's village. I'm thinking I would like to collect autographs from all the athletes I encounter (as long as they don't think I'm a stalker)! I just don't know what I should use. Kristin suggested a Canadian flag which I think is a pretty good idea, especially if it could be included in the closing ceremonies! I just don't know if I could carry it around with me all the time and if I could part with it for the closing ceremonies. Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself. There's probably a code of conduct regulation for autographs, Canadian flags and even this blog!

I would really like to hear from you if you have a better idea, but for now I think I will have to go with the Canadian flag and losing it to make it's round at the closing ceremonies!