Month: June 2013

by

A Long Good Drive

I went to sleep around midnight to the sound of pouring rain and awoke at 5:00 this morning to the same. I managed to squeeze in another fitful hour and a half of shut eye before giving up.

The rain varied between torrential and drizzling during the half hour or so it took to finish packing and load up the truck. I pulled out just past 7:00 with an ETA of 5:00 pm.

I got fuel and coffee in Assiniboia, then headed west on high 13. Just shy of Cadillac I got my sign that I really wasn’t meant to make this journey with Miranda. A truck in the opposing lane marked oversize load approached me waving madly that I needed to pull over. There was no shoulder and I made it to a country lane as a house wider than the road bore down on me. I have no idea how I would have gotten Miranda out of that lane way without having to back her onto the highway to turn around.

The weather was still miserable when I made a pit stop in Swift Current, although I had seen a few promises of clearing.

I hit Medicine Hat at noon and was looking forward to a sushi lunch, only to discover the restaurant doesn’t open till 3:00 on Fridays. Oh, well. I’m sure I’ll have another chance for sushi on this trip.

Medicine Hat’s road planners must have been drunk as the city is a bear to get through as it has service roads and odd turns. I managed to rejoin highway one, but got off almost immediately to get gas and coffee.

Just past Brooks, a massive hail storm hit. All but one driver in a long column pulled over to let it pass. This was good hail, small enough not to be damaging, but big enough to really clean the truck!

Speaking of Moya, she hasn’t had a good leg stretch since we went to Mexico in February and she’s been cranky on our few runs to town. Not worrisomely, just showing signs of her advanced age. Once we got a few miles under our belt today, she started purring. I don’t thing I’ll ever get sick of doing long hauls with her.

The Badlands soon followed and were incredibly lush, not a word I would have associated with them!

I landed in Stettler at 5:00 and found Donna and Ken’s mansion without any trouble. Note that anything bigger than a 45′ class A motorhome with full slides counts as a mansion in my eyes now. 🙂

We gabbed for a bit, then Donna and I headed out to get supper fixings. I decided to pay for and make supper myself, which meant grilling prepared garlic bread, slicing a pre-roasted chicken, opening a bottle of dressing for a prepared salad, and then doing the dishes. 🙂

Donna and I gabbed till way too late and then I availed myself of the luxurious appointments of the guest bathroom.

It’s really late and we have a full day tomorrow so I’d better sign off. I’m just so glad I’m here.

by

Another One About Cats and Connectivity

I must have been quite the picture an hour and a half ago. I had a small wheelbarrow piled high with Neelix’s litter box, bag of food, box of litter, litter scoop, and cushion. And then I had Neelix snuggled against my chest in a cloth bag with my arms through the loops, like wearing a backpack in front of me. He peered out curiously, but without any indication of wanting to jump out. Caroline laughed at me and said I could have borrowed a carrier, but for short distances like these, getting him into a bag is so much easier.

Charles helped me get Neelix settled while Caroline poured wine. Laura soon joined us. C&C are going out of town this weekend, so Laura will be feeding the cats. We had a good gab as the cats got to know each other.

Neelix and K.C. hissed at each other a bit, then Neelix started exploring the house. He eventually found a catnip-filled toy and went nuts playing with it. I have never seen my boy play before! It didn’t take long for him to be high as a kite and his initiation passed, K.C. and he started playing.

So in other words, I’m going to miss him more than he’s going to miss me. *sniffles*

In other news, I’ve discovered a hidden benefit of the Mifi.

One of the reasons I wanted an iPad was to get me out of the office in the evening and into the living room to surf and watch movies on the iPad. But to do that with my Telus stick or Verizon phone, I have to share their wifi connection through the Mac, which means leaving the power-hungry Mac on. And if I’m going to do that, I might as well surf in the office.

Yesterday, I finally drained the motorhome gas tank to the point where I wouldn’t even feel comfortable turning over the engine until I get more in there. So that left me with power concerns for today since it’s still cloudy and I had a ton of transcription to finish up.

By about 9:00 last night, the computer battery started to drain even though I was plugged in. I know that my house batteries aren’t really that low when this happens, even if I unplug and the rating is the 11s as they’ll come right back up overnight after resting a little. So I wasn’t concerned about house power, but rather having enough computer power for today. Forget charging the computer through the house batteries if there’s no sun out.

So I shut down the Mac and took it out to the truck to top up the battery so it would be fresh this morning.

Then, I came in and plugged the booster into a 12V outlet and went to the living room with the iPad and got caught up on my favourite sites before the connection decided it was time for me to go to bed. The connection is as good (or bad) in the living room as it is in the office.

I’ll be doing the same thing tonight, shutting down and packing up the office, and checking my email on my iPad before I leave in the morning.

It’ll be nice to be able to easy offer internet to my guests, crappy as it is. Perhaps I’ll have luck finding another antenna when hit civilization.

And with that, I’m off to pack for what appears to be the armageddon. I have to go grab the camp stove while it’s still light out!

by

Winding Down to Wind Up

WHEW, I have finished my transcription marathon. I could have kept working through the weekend, but I promised Ken and Donna I’ll be arriving tomorrow and I am. At some point, you have to put down the keyboard and live. I wish that 99% of my transcription work was like the hearing I just completed. I had estimated it would take 16 hours and I completed it in about 11. That makes for a really good hourly wage.

I haven’t really started to pack yet, but I do have a list and am slowly working through the to-do part of it. Neelix is heading over the Charles and Caroline’s around 7:00 and then I’ll be able to come in and out with luggage without worried about him getting out.

The truck isn’t ready for camping yet, but that’s okay since I’ll have plenty of time (and power) at Donna and Ken’s to clean it well. It is empty of all the crap I’ve been hauling all winter, so that’s definitely a step in the right direction. 🙂

I thought the seminar ended the Sunday night, but it’s actually the Monday night. So I won’t be home till Wednesday as I’m stopping Lethbridge on Tuesday to see Gary and Jody!

I’ll be camping one night between Stettler and Kelowna. Not sure where yet, but I’m going to keep an eye out for my 2008 turnout west of Revelstoke. Dang, I need to keep better notes.

Thursday night in Kelowna will likely be at the Walmart as it wouldn’t be worth the gas to drive to Summerland and back to spend the night at Amber‘s and she’s already committed to meeting me in Kelowna for dinner.

The weekend will be at Okanagan College, where I will have access to showers.

And then I’ll do a night in Jody and Gary’s yard.

The next week and a half will justify having purchased the truck because I can camp out of it!

My seminar is just about done. It needs a few more slides and to be converted to PowerPoint. I much prefer Keynote as it makes nicer presentations and is easier to work with, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to hook up my Mac to a projector, so I need a backup. I got a nasty surprise at the 2011 seminar whereby their equipment wasn’t compatible with mine, so I want to be better prepared this time.

The weekend in Kelowna is going to be so much fun. I only have to speak for one hour (actually 45ish minutes to leave time for questions) and can otherwise enjoy myself. I don’t know yet what day I’ll be speaking, but I’m hoping it’s early on.

Well, better get my Neeboo ready for his excursion. I hope he has fun with K.C. (short for kitty cat), but also that he misses me as much as I’m going to miss him. Stop guilt-tripping me with those huge yellow eyes! You’re going to get spoiled rotten!

by

Need to Send a Fax?

Even in this day and age, you sometimes need to send faxes. When is that dinosaur of a technology going to die out? Maybe when the Canadian government finally concedes that it is no more ‘secure’ a way of transmitting confidential information than is email and allows banks to complete transactions by email? But I digress.

The odd time I need to send a fax, I use Got Free Fax. I’ve been using this service for years and it has never failed me. You can fax up to three pages absolutely free, with no ads on the cover page.

I prepare the fax in PDF format and upload it to the site, bypassing their stock cover page. I then get a page saying that the fax was uploaded and that I was sent a confirmation email that I need to respond to before the fax will be sent.

The email always lands instantly. Once I click on the link for it, I get to a page saying that my fax has been queued, that I can come back and check the status, and that they’ll send a confirmation once the fax is successfully sent.

Within minutes, I get an email saying the fax was queued and then the one saying it was successfully sent.

In the fax I sent Monday, I asked for a confirmation by email that my request was processed and was told I needed to call the bank, which I did yesterday. They said I needed to sign a form that could only be faxed to me. They refused to scan and email it, citing privacy laws.

But get this, they had NO problem calling my mother for her fax number and sending it to her. They did ask how I’d get the fax and I replied that my mother and I work together and have a secure method of transmitting documents. *snickers* We hung up and I called my mother to give her a heads up and that she would need to… scan and email the document to me. Why fight red tape when you can conquer it? 🙂

I got the email this morning in PDF format, so it was child’s play to remove the bank’s cover page, insert my own, type in the name of the city and province in which I was signing the document as well as the date, then finally paste in a scan of my initials (to put next to the clause modifying the contract) and one of my signature. I saved the PDF and faxed it off. Bureaucracy conquered!

by

Tuckered Out

As of last night, I averaged 10 hours of typing every day since the first Monday in June. I have another 16 or so left to do by Thursday evening. I’m surprised I have any skin left on the tips of my fingers!

I wound up having a veeeeeeery slow morning and didn’t get into the office until about 11:30! Wow, I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t working by 7:30!

I ended up working for another client all day and I need to type tonight. I have so much to do to prepare for my early Friday departure that I’d like to quit by mid-day Thursday and then blitz through the departure list. I can’t believe my seminar is nowhere near done yet.

I had to make a phone call mid-afternoon, so I headed over to Charles and Caroline’s place to borrow theirs, but no one was home. Before driving all the way out to highway 2 (about 16KM each way) where I can get a decent phone signal, I decided to head out with the phone, booster, and stubby antenna. Lo and behold, I got a solid two bars only about a kilometre out! I put the phone in the cradle and put the whole kit and caboodle up to my ear since I don’t have a headset with mic. Worked great! So I’m starting to think that if I get a slightly bigger antenna, I’ll get the phone to work here, too.

I’m rather looking forward to heading out on Friday. It’ll be so nice to see Ken, Donna, their brood, and their new house. It’s going to be a long, but easy drive. I asked Caroline how she heads up that way (her sister lives near Stettler) and her route is exactly the one I took last summer to get from Stettler to here.

Having landed here on May 10th, I’ve been here a full month now. I’m fairly certain this is the longest I have ever gone without eating out once. I had one meal with the neighbours and that’s it. I’m rather looking forward to tasting someone else’s cooking, although I plan to spend plenty of time in Donna’s kitchen!

I think Neelix will enjoy spending my absence at Charles and Caroline’s. I think he’s lonely and they have a sweet kitten. The two of them should get along just fine. No, I have no intention of getting another cat. 🙂

I’m thrilled that July income is off to a roaring start since I doubt I’ll be making much money while I’m away next week. I’m also taking a week off in early July for my first proper vacation since I did the Chilkoot in 2009. Charles and Caroline have invited me to fulfill yet another lifelong dream and all it’ll cost me is a little gas and a couple of pairs of jeans, plus the time off. All I’m going to say about that right now is that it involves horses. You’re welcome to put your guesses in the comments. 🙂