The last few days would have been pretty boring in the eyes of a reader. We have done a ton of parking. Parking on sidewalks. Parking the wrong way. Parking in front of fire hydrants and in fire lanes. Parking where signs do not permit. The list goes on and on… and on… and on. You get the point.

These first 2 weeks (start of the 3rd week now) I have talked almost entirely of work. Now it’s time to look at how I, we, are coping as a family unit being so many miles away. What it’s been like for me, what it’s been like for Nicole and what it’s been like for the kids.

Obviously the first day or 2 were super hard. Going from a house full of kids and dogs and a cat and a wife. To a room in someone’s basement, suitcase in hand with a handful of clothes in it. Its a bit of a shock to the ol’ system. I should mention though, that when I opened that suitcase, 2 of my beautiful children, the eldest 2, drew me some very creative pictures. It definitely brought a smile to this lonly man’s face. Nicole also left me a little surprise. But, that’s all I need to say about that. Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.

We speak as a family every night. Usually before the kids all go down for bed. I ask each one about their day. What they did. What was the high point. What was the low point. If they are behaving themselves. Which is usually the point in time when they go silent and stare into the camera with one of those deer-in-the-headlights type of gazes. I ask if they have been listening to mommy. The usual response is, “I really am trying, buuuut….” or just a straight up “No”. At least they’re honest.

As normal humans do, they all have their own little emotions, habits and personalities. ‘A’ usually likes to ask about my day. What I have been doing. When we get to see each other again. She just sits and talks. When I ask her how she is or how her day was I get, “Fine.” Or “Good.” Or “Uh huh.” 6 going on 16 much?

Which is all completely different from girl ‘K’. She is crazy and excitable and selfless and vicious. All wrapped up in her cute petite little body. A true firecracker. I’ve always told Nicole that Grandad (my paternal grandfather) would be heavily entertained by her. She loves to chat about her day. Not necessarily the deep meaningful parts the whole time, but just everything. The show she watched, the toy she played with, the snack she ate. Just all of it. All while running around, shaking the phone uncontrollably so that I can’t tell up from down or face from foot.

Then there is Mr. ‘O’. My big bud-bud. He’s a goof. Out of the 3 of the them, he seems to be the most excited to see (video call) me. Maybe it’s just the fact that it’s cool technology? Maybe he thinks it’s funny that I am inside of Mommy’s phone? He loves to spin me upside down while on the phone. He finds it hilarious. Really busts a gut sometimes. Lately he’s been telling me about his ‘new orange bouncy ball’. Every time.

Finally I get to “talk” to boy ‘K’. The first few times I don’t think he realized that it was me on the phone. He didn’t seem to pay much attention. One day though, I was chatting to him and something just seemed to “click” and he got all sheepish and shy with a big goofy grin. Now he reaches for my face in the phone, kisses me… well, it may be head butting me, but I like to think it’s a kiss. He obviously can’t talk back yet, but he interacts.

Lastly, my wife. My beautiful, strong, loving wife. We talk when I get home as she and the kids are eating around the table. Then for a little bit before the kids go to bed and after the kids go down to bed right up to when we go to bed. We talk about our own days, what happened, what was good, bad, ugly. Usually I am the talker in the relationship, but since I’ve been away, it seems that Nicole does more of the talking. Which I love. I love her voice. I love her smile. I love that she can open up and be honest about her day and her feelings. My wife. My woman. (I can hear her now, “I’m not YOURS. You don’t own me”) I don’t own you, but you are my woman. And I love that! I miss holding her hand. I miss kissing her. I miss sitting on the couch and just being near her.

I was doing a walking patrol a few days ago and walked past a kids park. It reminded me of my kids. I walked past a pool. It reminded me of my family. I walked past a restaurant. It reminded me of my family. I miss them so very much. This is definitely one of the hardest things I have had to do – and it’s only been 2 and a half weeks.

Moral…. “Treasure every moment you have with your family. Don’t take them for granted. Try not to get frustrated with your kids when they don’t listen, cause you’ll miss it when it’s gone.”

Monday mornings. Everyone dreads Monday mornings. Well, most everyone. I wasn’t dreading it. I was happy to be getting back to work after the weekend. For 2 reasons.

1) I am used to a house full of kids, chores, errands, playing, wrestling and going for walks with the fam. I don’t have that right now. So I got pretty bored this weekend.

2) I really enjoy what I do.

So Monday morning I walk to work, as I usually do. I get to the office and get prepped for the day, as I usually do. Our boss asks us who is going to be driving the truck for the day. I don’t hesitate and jump at the opportunity, as I usually do. We saddle up and head out on the road.

Our first file is a call from the previous week. A car parked on the sidewalk. I originally wrote the warning asking the RO (registered owner) to remove the vehicle from the sidewalk within 48 hours or it would be towed and impounded. This lucky duck got 48 hrs PLUS the weekend. As we turn the corner to the street we start taking bets to see who thinks it has been moved or was still there. My guess was that it would still be there. I was right.

We called to see if the police had any “interest” in the vehicle. They did not. We towed. Well, we didn’t tow, but we called a company to tow for us. After a short few minutes a big tow truck shows up, hooks up and drives away. The vehicle gets sent to our impound yard and the owner has a specified number of days to pick it up or we get to trash it.

I don’t know what it is about Monday’s, but that was one of the easiest files for the day. The next file we attend is a call in about a stray dog. The caller found a dog and asked us to come pick it up. As we show up the caller is waiting in the yard and the dog is confined. Before we are even parked the caller lets the dog loose. Said dog runs in front of the Bylaw truck I am driving. Thankfully, by this time I am practically crawling as I am about to stop. No injury to the dog. We ask the caller to confine the dog. They looses their mind. Goes off ranting about our attitude and professionalism. We explain that it was not safe for the dog to be let loose before we were ready. Theuy hoot and hollar about calling our supervisor (who was with us), getting us written up and the whole 9 yards.

I jump out of the truck leash in hand. The dog runs right up to me tail wagging and I could nearly see a smile on its face. I leash it up and walk it over to the back of the truck. The dog is so excited to go for a ride. It jumps up but can’t quite make it so I assist getting it’s hind legs up. Then it sees the cage. Nothing crazy, but it needed a little coaxing to go in. I managed with no issues. As we start to leave, the caller is taking pictures. We can assume a call will be made.

After dealing with the dog and getting it settled into its new digs for the day we turn our attention to a parking call. We show up on site and issue a notice. We drive away. As we drive we see someone shovelling snow from their yard onto the street. We stop (as we have before with multiple other residents) and my fellow officer hops out. He explains to the home owner that we just want to make sure that they know shovelling the snow from their property onto city property (the road) is not allowed and is a violation of the city bylaw. They looses their mind. Yelling at us stating that we put the snow on their yard in the first place and we are bullying them. So on and so forth. We aren’t ticketing you. Just a friendly reminder. Clean it up. They don’t want to clean it up. We explain that if they don’t clean it up they will be issued a ticket. After asking and finding out how much a ticket would be, they storm away. We politely say we will be back to check on the road. “I’m sure you will be!” they reply. Yep. We will be.

Next file. Parking in front of a fire hydrant. We get there and no one is in sight. An easy ticket perhaps? WRONG! As my fellow officer is writting the ticket for this infraction, the owner comes out. They loose their mind. Hooting and hollering about only being there for 2 minutes. Look here, we’ve been sitting here for 5 minutes. I’m calling you out. You’ve been here longer than 2 minutes. We explain that there is a no tolerance attitude for parking in front of a hydrant. Ticket issued. Probably a dispute coming.

We decide to go drive past the snow on the road property. As we pull up, the owner is taking pictures of the snow on the road. It’s not been cleaned. Though they are out attending to the snow.. in a way. We don’t stop. I keep driving. A few houses down from that one we find ANOTHER vehicle parked in front of a hydrant. I turn around to park on the opposite side of the road. Our friend from the snow on the street property sees us, assumed we were watching them and starts to clean the road. Easy win for us.

I jump out of the truck to ticket this other hydrant vehicle. I start whipping up the ticket. Before you can say, “You’re getting a ticket for parking in front of a fire hydrant”, the vehicle owner is coming out of their house. So I say, “You’re getting a ticket for parking in front of a fire hydrant”. They loose their mind. Yelling, “I’ve only been parked here 2 minutes!”. It’s 4 p.m. you picked your kids up at 230. It took you 5 minutes to drive home. Don’t lie to me. Then they are yelling and screaming causing a scene about how there is no where to park. I ask, “What about your driveway?” They say that their kids play there. I say, “What about across the street?” They say they are dealing with some family issues. Wha…? So you can’t park on the other side of the street? I’m done arguing. I write a ticket.

We get back to the office at the end of shift and I have a voicemail message on my desk phone. I listen. Its from an earlier call during the day from someone who we left a notice while they were at work to state that they were playing music too loud during the night. No ticket. Just a notice. They loose their mind. It was the most colorful, explicit message that could have make a pirate feel embarrassed about. We called back. No answer.

That being said, after this long day full of name calling, yelling and unkind statements – I kind of take enjoyment from these sort of situations. I find it entertaining. Is it just me? I think maybe. Talking on the phone with my wife that night, she asked if it made me feel any negative feelings towards the position. My answer, “Not at all. I laughed so much today!”

People were so fired up. Everyone was! 0 – 60 in 2 seconds flat! Even people who didn’t get a ticket.

Tuesday was a bunch of paper work. No one wants to hear about paper work. BORRRIING! The most exciting thing would probably to talk about how many WPM I can type. GEEK TALK!

Moral of the story, “Try to find enjoyment in the situation. The good, the bad or ugly.”

Thursday came rolling around and started out much like the day before. I showed up to the office, got suited up and went out on the road. We didn’t have as many calls/files as Wednesdsy, but there was more of a variety.

Our first call that day was another general parking call. Someone made call to complain about a vehicle that had been parked on the street for more that 24 hours. As we drove to the location we discussed our options. Should we ticket? Should we warn? Should we inform? A lot of good options and considerations. As we pulled up to the address on which it was parked in front of, it was no where to be seen. Case closed. Probably the easiest case we will ever have. So we drive on.

Next we had an unsightly premises call. The owner of the property had been doing some renovations on the house and construction material and tools had been piling up. When we arrived we immediately saw the piles of rubbish and tools and buckets. We took notes, took photos and took a couple deep breaths to try and subdue the feeling of anxiety just being in and around the mess. I approached the back yard to see what condition it was in. It was the same story as the front. Maybe even a little bit less. As I started to snap pictures, 2 big dogs noticed me and started to howl. They ran from the patio and barked their faces off. It didn’t bother me much as I have 2 big dogs of my own. They were probably a little embarrassed of their mess and didn’t want me looking at it. I get it.

After collecting what would seem to be enough evidence, we knocked on the door. We knew someone was home as we heard someone scolding the 2 barking dogs from inside the house. The door was opened and we were greeted by the property owner. They knew why we were there. “Oh, I just put this stuff outside this morning!” Pardon me, buuuut it hasn’t been THAT cold and your dilapidated table saw is frozen, in snow, to the gound. “Oh, those tiles aren’t for my project, I don’t what they are from.” Well, I can see your nicely tiled entrance resembles those tiles quite closely! The excuses and comments these people come up with are just amazing. Very creative at times. He was left with a notice to clean and we went on our marry way.

Later in the day, still fairly early, we got a call in. Dog Issue: Dog Poop. Long story short, it snows a lot here (well, a lot more than the south) and the winters are long. People have pets. Pets eat food. Pets have digestive systems. Anyone older than 4 knows where I am going with this. So the dog went outside throughout the winter. Said dog did it’s business throughout the winter. All winter. All LONG winter. The owner of said dog wasn’t bothered to go out side and collect after the dog all LONG winter. Come spring melt, owner decides to clean up. Owner then decides to throw collection over the fence. We knock on the door and no one is home. We leave a notice to contact us. Eventually the owner calls and we explain the situation. Please clean up after your pet and dispose of it properly or we will hire a company to do it for you and front you the bill. They complied. We checked.

Friday night and the lights are low. Ok, so it wasn’t night, but it was friday! Friday was spent almost in its entirety at the SPCA. We were assigned our city vehicles and headed to the shelter. We did dog training. A lot of training. Catching, walking, calming, feeding, petting, loading, catching, handling, feeding, petting, inspecting, feeding, petting, cleaning. We practiced loading one of the dogs into a vehicle cage. He was some sort of mix, but of 2 big dogs. Big, big dogs. Picture a golden retriever, on stilts, with a stack of bricks for a head and who has a diet of cookies and ice cream. He was super docile though. A nice dog. Truly a ‘good boy’. Loading him into the vehicle cage – that would have been a sight to behold. He was a little stubborn. He may have never been in a car before. Maybe a farm dog. He was noooot having any of it. Part of the job description is picking up stray/aggressive/at large dogs though. So we had to make it work. And it did. Eventually.

It was a long day – but a good day.

Side note: If the owners of a stilt wearing, brick-for-a-head looking, cookies and ice cream eating dog are reading this, your dog misses you. Go pick him up.

Moral of this story I think there are a couple here, “if your life doesn’t allow you to be able to take proper care of an animal, don’t get one.” “If you are thinking of adopting an animal, do some research. Ask questions.” “If you love animals but your life doesn’t allow you to be able to take proper care of it, volunteer at a local shelter. They need the help.”

Semi apology for the lack of posts. Just a semi one though, cause it’s been so busy and I have been so exhausted. I didn’t commit to a posting schedule – so there.

Now for those of you who may not know, maybe I should take a quick second to explain the Northern sun. Maybe not just the sun, but the weather as well. It gets cold up here. Really cold. -47°C without wind chill in the winter type of cold. Thankfully for this ‘Southern’ boy, it’s coming into spring and I don’t have to deal with that extreme cold… yet.

The coldest I have experience here so far is -2°C. And this is where it gets weird. -2°C here feels like +4 or +5°C down south. I’m not a environmentalist or scientist or meteorologist or whatever ‘ist’ you need to be to figure this stuff out, but I think it has to do with the wet climate of the South versus the dry climate of the North. The cold down south penetrates to your core. It feels like your bones freeze and you’re cold from the inside out. You can layer and layer and layer, but the cold still sneaks through and finds your most inner being of life and freezes it.

In the North it’s different. Thankfully I was somewhat aware of this and for my first walk to work I wore a windbreaker with a hoodie type jacket under that. I stepped out into the open air and the cold hit my face. Could no feel it? Yes. Was it cold? Yes-ish. Its hard to explain. Its a surface cold. Your skin gets cold. As soon as your skin is covered, it’s fine. It would take minutes to warm up exposed parts of your body down south. It’s hard to explain. Don’t get me wrong, -47°C is cold. More cold than I want to experience. But, it’s not -47°C Southern cold.

Putting the cold aside, it is so sunny. Always sunny. I have to wear my sun glasses at 7 a.m. There are no mountains close enough to block the sun. There are hardly any clouds in the sky. No rain. No smog. Just sun. Sunny Mr. Sun.

Anyways. So I get to work Wednesday morning. My boss is there already and we chat for a quick minute until the other rookie officer shows up. We do a bit of review of guidelines and procedures and the boss asks if we want to go out on some calls. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. Yes. Yes I do. So we grab our note books, pens, ID’s, phones, everything. We hop into the biggest Bylaw truck we have (the only one that will fit all three of us) and we go.

We drive down streets that I have never seen, avenues that are unknown to me, past houses with occupants that I have never met. First call/file: General Parking. We arrive on scene and there is a car parked on the sidewalk. Ticketable offense. We get out and our boss starts going through the process. We take photos, gather evidence, take notes, check to see if the car is reported stolen – it wasn’t. The car has clearly been sitting there for days, weeks, probably more like months. Its covered in dust and dirt and grime. No windshield wiper marks on the windshield. We decide to leave a notice for removal on the windshield and give a 48 hour compliance time frame. And there it was. Our first call.

As we drive away and turn down the street – BOOM. Second file: General Parking. Another car parked on the sidewalk. We pullover and the boss asks, “What do you guys want to do?” I pipe up instantly, “Let’s give this guy a ticket!” The boss laughs and says “Ok”. Its a Ticketable offense, we can do that. Almost as fast as I fired the first time I said, “Ok, maybe not. Lets go knock on the house (the one it’s parked in front of). If someone answers, let’s explain the bylaw and ask them to move the vehicle. If they are nice and move then great. It’s a warning. If no one is home, or if they turn belligerent, let’s give them the ticket.” Again, my boss says “Ok”. Enforcement through compliance. We can do that.

We knock on the door and an older lady answers. She explains that she is from out of town visiting her daughter and that as the house was close to the corner of the street she didn’t want someone to “zoom around the corner” and hit her car. Fair enough but the bylaw states that you cannot park any vehicle on the side walk. And you could have just moved up and parked on the road. No big deal. She moved the car. She complied. Case closed. Cleaning up the streets. One bylaw infraction at a time.

As the day went on, this seemed to become a theme. Parking on the side walk. Parking on the boulevard. Parking the wrong direction on the street. Parking the wrong direction on the sidewalk. Parking the wrong direction on the boulevard. Must be a Northern thing. We don’t do that down South. Right?

As the day went on we probably attended half a dozen parking calls and half a dozen dog complaint calls. Mostly barking. One “bite” call. Once we did a little investigative work, it seemed more like a dog charged another dog and the owner got scared which they didn’t like so they called us. Besides the fact that the dog was off leash, there wasn’t much else for us to do. No proof of a bite. On we went.

Eventually we got back to the office, did our paper work and signed off for the day. That was our first exposure to bylaw enforcement in the city. It was fun and I was happy. Though, no tickets we’re given out.

I think a good moral for this post is, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”

Policies, procedures, guidelines. A day full of office work and training. Health and Safety procedures, report writing procedures, notebook ethics, aggressive dog procedures – so many procedures. The day went by so very quickly though. Which is kind of nice. We did go out a couple times to visit other City buildings. Meet new people. More people who I can’t remember thier job titles. More names I can’t put a face to. More faces I can’t put a name to. No mayor today. Maybe tomorrow. Actually, we did see her driving at one point. She seemed nice.

I am very happy that the other Officer hired is as green as me. It makes it so much easier to talk to each other about things we don’t understand or to have the ability to talk about feeling overwhelmed and mentally exhausted. He is currently my immediate ‘work’ support system. If he were a more senior Officer it wouldn’t be as comfortable as it is. Obviously I can and do call and talk to Nicole about work, but Officer P is in the same position in which he can quickly and easily relate. We are getting along nicely. We went out at lunch together today. He has also been driving me home after work. Its a short walk to my accommodations, but it’s nice to have a ride after a long day. Speaking of walking, I haven’t gotten lost yet. That’s a plus.

We didn’t get out on any calls today as we were more focused on the office work and training. Some calls came in today that we need to/get to work on tomorrow. A couple dog related calls. A couple parking calls. I am excited for those. I think we will also be touring the North side of the City tomorrow. A different demographic than what we have witnessed so far. Should be interesting.

That’s about it from today.

I have to apologize if the last couple posts aren’t as entertaining as usual. I blame it on my tired and exhausted brain. And for the lack of pictures. I will try to write throughout the day from now on as I am more fresh and “entertaining”. Hopefully it will be a bit more ‘fun’.

Moral…. Hm. A moral. This seems to be a thing I am doing with every post so I can’t not do one for this posting. How about, “it is important to keep your eyes open when doing mundane office work and training”?

Cheers.

Yesterday, after sitting and twirling my thumbs and pacing around and drinking coffee and sitting around and watching people talk to themselves and sitting around – We finally boarded our plane at 6:55 p.m. From that point the flight in was seamless. Why couldn’t it have been so easy 6 hours earlier?

I ended up sitting next to a lady who lived a few blocks from us in the Fraser Valley and worked at a local grocery store that we frequent. We had a good chat for most of the way, but she was clearly anxious about flying. She revealed some interesting traits. Coming in for landing she seemed to be sweating profusely and nearly tore the headrest off of the seat in front of her at the moment of touchdown. That made for a little entertainment.

I walked in to the airport from the tarmac and was in the luggage pickup and the vestibule for exiting at the same time. Well, that may be a bit of an over exageration. Small airport though. As I walked in I saw the friendly face of my accommodations host. For privacy sake, I’ll call him Mr. G. A nice guy, my age and a pastor of a local church. He and Mrs. G agreed to take me in me and rent their suite for 3 months while we wait for A to finish Kindergarten.

That being said, someone is currently in their suite until April 1st and are actually allowing me, a guy they have never met, stay in their guest room in the main living area of the house. They have also been feeding me, allowing me to drive their vehicle around town after work and Mrs. G has been…. making my lunch. I swear I have told her not to. And it really actually makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but she has been persistent that she wants to do it. I will do it once I am in the suite.

It was late by the time I went to bed last night, I could barely keep my eyes open. I had my own pillow, a whole bed to myself, cozy blankets and the peace and quiet of no children I haven’t had… in almost 6 years. (Sorry Nicole) For the life of me, I. Could. Not. Sleep.

I woke up half a dozen times through the night. I think Nicole and I are connected through the cosmos or something. Boy K waking Nicole up to feed 1,128 km away sent parental waves of disturbance my way. Or I was just anxious. One of the two.

I woke up at 6 a.m. to have a shower before the rest of the house was up. I got dressed. I had a banana. I walked to work. It took 15 minutes. Shortest commute of my life. I met my fellow New hire (also from the Lower Mainland), Officer. P and my supervisor B, Then the counsel, then the City manager, so on and on and on. The mayor tomorrow.

We did a lot of admin stuff. IT stuff. Got our uniforms. Toured the City a bit. At the end of the day B took us to a look out on the edge of town. It was a sight I was waiting to see. I miss the mountains. But this was a fair exchange.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week seem to be packed with training, courses (One of which is ‘Use of Force’ in a month or so) and more office duties. We do get to go out on calls starting tomorrow. I am pretty excited about that.

Moral? “find the beauty in what’s around you”.

As I arrived in Calgary I foolishly assumed that they would fuel the plane, stock the cookies and once the fog was clear, we would be on our way. I was wrong.

I had been corresponding with a couple people, one of which was supposed to pick me up at 10:47 a.m. They had said that the fog had lifted and it looked all clear. The airline clearly had other plans for us. Once off the plane, we all lined up like cattle to receive the new boarding passes that were issued and ready for us. When it was my turn I told the lady my name and she happily handed me my new boarding pass for my next flight. At 6:35 p.m. Not thrilled. That’s 4 hours away. In a kind gesture they attached a 15$ food voucher for the food court. Alcohol not included. I made sure to inquire about my luggage and that I was not supposed to pick it up myself. She assured me they would take care of it.

As I sorted myself out I have my Nicole a call to fill her in and say a quick Hi to the kids. My phone was at 46% when I got off the plane. As we were talking, my phone died. Don’t worry everyone. I’m one step ahead of such first world problem. I packed a charging cable. In my suitcase. Which is who knows where. So, before stuffing my face full of some much needed food, I had a mission. To find the cheapest charging cable In Cowtown.

Now I don’t usually get hangry. No, no typo. You know what I mean. So hungry that you start to get angry. But, I am tired. Far away from somewhere that I am supposed to be. With a phone I can’t use to talk to my fam or make other arrangements to get picked up and taken to my accommodations. So I bought the next charger I could find. So here I am. 60$ later. Surrounded by other lifeless phone owners. All huddled around the charging station. Thankfully my cable is longer than their cables. I don’t have to sit on anyone’s lap to charge.

If you’re wondering – Like a true Canadian.. I got Timmies with my 15$ food voucher. And an extra doughnut on the side to boot!

I’m grumpy so I’m not giving you an option. The moral here is, “when stuck at an airport, eat good food and do some serious people watching”.

Oh, it’s snowing.

Peace out.

Boarding was nearly as smooth as a babies bottom. Take off was so smooth I heard the Captain egotistically exclaim, “I buttered that bread, didn’t I?” Everything was so smooth that our 1 hour 45 minuite flight turned into a 1 hour 15 minute flight. Even though I didn’t get the whole row to myself, I was sitting pretty. For a while.

As we began our approach to the airport, the flight deck captain broke the silence over the intercom with the annoying nasally voice we have all learned to love:

“Gooooood morning everyone……….. it seems that there is…. there happens to be……… it looks like we will have to stay up in the air for a little while loooongerrrr…………… do to a lack of visibility caused by low lying………… low lying fog. Don’t worry. We have plenty of…………. fuel. We Thank you for your patients.” Click.

We spent a good 45 minutes flying over the airport. Circling. Circling. Circling. The captain broke the sound of silence again:

“Hello darkness my old friend…” oh wait, that’s not right. He said – “Hello again folks. Bad news is that the fog hasn’t risen. The good news is that ground control has given us clearance to make an attempt to land. We only have one shot at it though with the remaining amount of fuel we have.” Oh great. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. He continued, “during our attempt, if we don’t deem it safe to land, we will be diverted to Calgary airport. Once again, thanks for your patients.” Click.

All 78 passengers crossed there fingers, toes, arms, legs and some probably with even their eyes crossed. We began to feel the plane sink towards the ground. Slowly. Slowly. As we looked out the window we saw the the fog creeping nearer. It was thick. It was low. As we entered it, we were completely blind as to where the ground was. Seconds went by. Minutes went by. The sudden clunk and chunk of the landing gear lowering raised our hopes. Slowly the fog started to clear. 200 feet. 175 feet. 150 feet. It was at that moment that the engines howled and the force of thrust pushed us back into our seats. No dice. At 150 feet above the ground, the captain and co-captian could not see the approach of the runway and decided it was not worth the risk.

Also at that moment, the polite, well mannered Canadian passengers I was talking about earlier – turned into a bunch of foul mouthed sounding seamen/women. Though I was frustersted, my parents can be proud that I did not join in…. this time.

Being stuck up in the air circling the airport is a first for me. Being 150 feet off the ground and then having to ascend back to 19,000 feet is a first for me. Being re-routed to a different airport many kilometers away from my final destination is a first for me. I start a new job tomorrow and I’m not even sure if I will make it. It’s all part of the adventure I suppose.

What’s the moral this time? “Everyone should live up to the standards of a polite Canadian”? Or, “In frustrating and unknown times, be thankful they didn’t crash the plane”? What about, “if they offer you a second helping of airplane cookies, don’t worry about your waist line just take the stale things”?

FYI – I am currently in Calgary. Stay tuned.

Here I am. Sitting all by my lonesome at my gate ready to board my plane at YVR. To head to the unknowns. To people in whom I have not met their acquaintance. To a job I am unfamiliar with. Without my support system.

Nicole and the kids were nice enough to wake at the break of dawn to drive me in to the airport and wave me off. After check-in, I felt the love of getting long hugs from the kids – their tiny hands gripping me tight as if to never let me go. Giving kisses, more kisses and then a few more kisses. Wiping away their little tears. Then saving the best for last, Nicole, my wife, her tiny hands gripping me tight as if to never let me go.

After all the farewells, we all had to turn and go out separate ways. I took my turn to sob. Having held it back as long as I could, not wanting the kids to get any more sad or worried then they already were.

As I sit here, I realized that this is the first time in my 32 years of existence that I have ever flown alone. Thank goodness it is a direct flight otherwise… who knows where I might end up. Hawaii maybe. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Trade all the camo for a lai and an abundance of floral print. Surf instead of snow. Sit roast pig for chargrilled cow. One can dream.

On a side note, I love being Canadian. While everyone is in a frenzy trying to get to where ever they are going, be it for vacation or for work. Everyone, most everyone, seems to keep their manors, are polite and help each other out. Through security, everyone helped out putting their bins back, nicely stacked up. Take that American Airlines.

Down to the tarmac I go.

Oh great. Its a prop plane. Wish me luck.

Moral: “Always be polite and never fight”? Good words to live by. But I think a better fitting moral is, “don’t be afraid to cry in front of the ones you love”.

Seeing that I am going to be away for 3 months, Nicole feels that it is fair that I do most of the diaper changes, getting up at night with the kids, get up early with the kids so that she can sleep in, deal with the new puppy and other duties as assigned – I mean, duties that we share to run a smooth household. That isn’t to say that I don’t do these things already.. cause I do, but I’m just doing more (all) of the dirty work before it all (and I feel bad to say) falls onto Nicole’s shoulders.

Why is it then, that the night before my very last full day here, boy K seems to need to feed every 2 hours (which he hasn’t done for quite a few months), girl K needs water in the middle of the night cause her ‘throat is dry’ and then gets up an hour or so later cause she peed her bed. A total of 6 times throughout the night we were disturbed by our lovely children.

Then, boy K and O wake up early. Nicole tells me… “asks me”… to get them up and take them down stairs so that she can sleep in. I go in to get boy K and am greeted by the foul smell of solid-food-eating-baby-poop. Now listen here people. I have four kids. As those of you who are parents know, kids poop a lot. For those of you without kids, I mean, a lot a lot! So I have changed…. HUNDREDS of soiled diapers. Pee. Poo. Peepoo. All of it. Today was the BIGGEST poop I. Have. Ever. Seen. Boy K managed to get poop up into his left armpit, up to both of his nipples along the front and midway up his back. How?! Why?! WHHYYYY?!

This doesn’t really have anything to do with my journey up north. I just felt I needed to share this. On my last full day, they saved the best (or worse I suppose) for last. Thanks kids.

In good old Bloggy fashion, what is the moral of this post? Is it, “don’t ever have kids cause they are gross”? No. Never. Well, they are gross, but it shouldn’t deter anyone from having them. Or is it, “Don’t be a chump, help out when you kid takes a dump”?

Take care! Be safe! Talk to you all soon..