Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I'mmmmmmmmmmm Back!!!!!!! Did you miss me?

For any returning dragon - mundane, magic or otherwise - there's always a moment, THE moment, of checking the den for any nefarious in absentia activity . The door swings open and ...... everything is in place. Ahh, I'm home AND I can relax. I can also thank my mail fairy for a job well done, no bills waiting in ambush, either.

Final distance: 7,228 km's. (4,481 miles for our American friends)
(In addition to the blatant imitation of a long haul trucker this includes a small amount of puttering around for things like missed streets, coffee runs, motel searches, bavarian smokie barbeque detour and dropping off at art class.)

Some things I learned, and had reaffirmed, during this driving extravaganza o’ fun and bug slaughter:

• Faster is better


• Laugh


• Always have a book handy for those times, and there will always be those times, when you're stuck waiting with nothing to do


• Coffee from truck stops and fast food joints seems to get weaker as one goes progressively east. No wonder Tim Horton’s coffee is considered good, it’s being compared to brown water that’s seen as much coffee as dry martinis see vermouth.


• Local programming on rural radio stations is awesome, slick productions can loose something in the gloss


• When reading maps a 3 and 5 look very much alike in the dark …..


• U-turns are a powerful ally.


• Busking at highway construction stops - An ideal whose time has come


• You can pick your teeth and you can pick your nose but you can’t pick when you’ll need to go to the bathroom.


• THE best scenic driving in North America is the mountains between BC and Alberta.


• Municipal cost cutting has gotten so bad that some towns are storing drinking water in their local swimming pools. Bottled water good.


• There’s no place like, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home!

Books (Started):
On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington Series) - David Weber

Deja Calgary

We pulled into Calgary around 8:30pm Mountain Time. Took my car in for maintenance just before I left on this trip. It's ready for it's next maintenance. We did a better job of balancing the days this time so no long days. It *really* rained across Minnesota. Made it a bugger to drive but cut down on the number of kamikazi butterflies we had to scrape off the windshield. (Big yellow streaks, not nice.)

Got searched at the border, again. It's a much friendlier experience with Canada Customs. We didn't have to empty our pockets and got to stand around the car as the Customs Dude (Dude is one rank above Flunky and one below Honcho) searched our stuff. Quite funny, actually. Had all of my books in a box. As he started taking them out he commented he liked the cover art of my David Weber "Honor Harrington" books, except for the one with the cat, that didn't look very exciting. When he got to my Java programming book, he took a good, hard 20 second look at the cover, blinked, looked down at the Security Handbook, and didn't bother looking any further. Without a word he set the box aside like so much stinky stuff. Shiznitz, could have hid my contraband under that next security book instead of having to crawl under the car! The worse part was holding back my smile until he was done and gone. He seemed like a good natured guy but common sense would dictate descretion in these circumstances. I definitely didn't want to give him a chance to play the latex glove and Vaseline card.

Tomorrow, Sunday, day of rest. Good. Python Miester has mentioned the words "pub", "beer" and "downtown" in the same sentence. Think this means a good day tomorrow, as well.

Mount 'em boys, day light's a burnen'!

Here today, gone tomorrow

OMG time has gone fast.

As Madison Day 4 winds to a close the Python Miester and I are getting our stuff together for an early blast off tomorrow. We're visiting an ex-pat friend of ours. The trip was mostly hanging around, catching up and checking the area. The University of Wisconsin is basically an integral part of the down town and the students definitely influence the main downtown street, called State Street. It has a very unique character being very uncommercial with not many chain stores and a lot of ideosyncratic shops. And guys, there are a *LOT* of very attractive undergrads walking around State Street and the University, though my friend says this is the summer dead time.

One of the big hang outs is called the Terrace. It's right on the lake. It's part of the University but non-University types are welcome. A person can sit outside, watch the boats and sail boards on the lake, - or - drink beer, hang out, and catch up on old times. They also bring in bands and show movies at dusk. Man, I wish there was something like this back home.

State Street also sports some of the best eating I've ever had in the States. There's a very broad range of ethnic food and you'll more often than not end up paying less than $10 for the entree. Everywhere we went was good. All this good food makes it very easy to avoid the fast food menance that usually accompanies travel. However, one should be warned. This is a big dairy state, and they love their ice cream. Of course, there's ice cream here that makes Hogen Das look like a McDonalds ice cream cone.

It's weird, but the people are very polite. I jostled with a person in a store as we passed each other and he turned to me and said, "my fault". Who are you and what have you done with the American? The only thing that truely sucks about downtown Madison is the parking. Oh, and the humidity. It can get muggy.

Outside of downtown Madison begins to look like most other cities. Burbs are burbs and strip malls are strip malls. Except they really like their trees. It's very green in Madison and surrounds, as it should be.

Danged if I didn't make the mistake of going into a Borders in one of said strip malls. They had a couple of security books I never expected to see in a bookstore. Yes sir, just hook the cash hose directly to my credit card and stop sucking at $200. Urg, wonder what the conversion rate is today.

My friend has a very sweet set up and is thriving. Has an apartment downtown, works from home, wanders to State Street when he needs a break.

Oh, in case you were curious. We travelled 1500 km's on our long driving day. We're planning on taking it a little easier on the way back. We're also hoping Canada Customs will be a little easier on us than the Americans were. Guess they don't like BC registered cars carrying one guy from Vancouver and another from Calgary because they made us empty our pockets, searched all our bags, and were really interested in how much money we were carrying. Go figure. I thought the only green they should be worried about from a BC car had high concentrations of THC!

Movies:
Jurassic Park 3 (Sucks ass bad)

Books (Finished):
Lord of the Firelands - A Tale of the Kings Blades, Dave Duncan

Drive, drive, drive. Hellooooo Madison.

We're here, I'm tired. Drove from Estevan Sask. to Madison Wisconsin in an 18 hour driving orgy. Too tired to check the odometer, but the 3 digit trip odometer rolled over once. Friends reaction worth it. He has one of those door systems tired to the telephone. *Ring* Hello? / You ordered something from Canada? / Hey, cool, where are you guys? / At your front door / No way!

Sleep good. It's 2:25am here in Central Daylight time.

Day 2 Ends

Nice easy trip, rolled into Calgary around 4:00pm. (That's Mountain time, 3pm Pacific) Road construction was blossiming all over the place, but none of the delays were particularly bad. The gas price vultures seem to be keeping the RV population down this summer, didn't have to deal with many of them, either. The second easiest drive of the trip is now over.

Unfortunately, I'm here a week after the Stampede. The project my Calgary driving partner is on slipped a deadline a little bit. We were very surprised. I mean, that *never* happens in programming - NOT! Shiznit happens. We dealt with it.

But some things refuse to stay dealt with. Although I was at his home at 4 the Python Master wasn't until 6:30. A few last minute bugs, not even his, had to be squashed. Bad, bad, programmers. Apparently they wanted to him to hang around this weekend. Bad, bad, management. He told them to make other arrangements. Good driving partner. Turns out there's a Tim Horton's about 2 blocks away and I just happened to have a David Weber book that needed finishing. Drink coffee, eat donuts and read for 2 1/2 hours, the sacrifices a dragon has to make.

Unless I find a motel with adjoining Internet cafe this dragon will be going dark for a while. But if all goes well, we'll find an Interstate with no limits! Yah, baby! This might just balance out.

Finished (books):
Insurrection, David Weber & Steve White

Day 2 Begins

Ahh, nothing greets the morning better than a hot shower. The great mental anchor for the day. Just about every place has hot water and a nozzle, so one's day can start out more or less consistantly, even at unacustom hours or locations. My sister, bless her heart, had a cappacino waiting when I got out of the shower. *big saucer eyes* THANK YOU, sister!

This morning we feature a guest blog from the person whom I evicted for my good nights rest. He may or may not be a Dragon, it's too soon to tell.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I lost my bed
now the thing that took it, is about to head.

by Mundane Dragon's nephew

Ok, so he's a better baseball player than he is a poet. But he's right, time to head! Calgary here I come.

Mundane Dragon Spotted in Vernon

Blogs from the boonies, this Internet remote access stuff is pretty cool. It might even catch on.

The easiest part of the trip is done. A mere 5 hour drive to visit my sister, who is not a dragon. Not even a straight shot, stopped at my brother's place on the way and caught a quick coffee with him and the parental units - who are not dragons either. This is visit is a hit and run. Tomorrow Calgary!

The time is finally here. It's time to go. OMG. I want to be a kid again, all I had to do was get into the car. Except driving is usually better than being a passenger, except when I want to sleep, or read.

"Are we there yet?"

There must be a fundamental law of social physics that goes something like: The social demands on your time are inversely proportional to the time you have before a deadline. Closer you get to a deadline, the more demands. Even when you're not aware the deadline exists!

This isn't in my head. The deadline is tomorrow and in the last four days I've met friends I haven't seen in a long time (2 months to a year) and won't see for a long time to come. Fate has an odd sense of humour, sometimes. Speaking of humour ...

In the things we do to keep our sense of humour department: It's recommended by HDRC one keeps a log of one's job hunting activities in case HRDC starts asking questions. (Yes Ms. Stewart, ma’am. Unlike your department I've been keeping records.) When I was in Book Warehouse I spotted it, the perfect notebook for this kind of thing. It was: A Batman journal! Every time I open it, I smile. With Batman on my side, I shall fight crankiness and retain my cheer. Now, if I only had Alfred to help me get ready before the deadline ... Bruce, I thought we were bud's!

“Mission Control, Calgary Station.”
*beep*
“Calgary, Control. Go.”
*beep*
“Control, we have personnel confirmation this location. Python Master go for roster insertion 2001-07-21”
*beep*
“Roger that Calgary. Confirm Python Master go for roster addition this Saturday.”
*beep*
“All Stations, All Stations, this is Mission Control. We have confirmation on mission details. Launch date is 2001-07-19, we are T minus 2 days to launch. Begin final preparation sequence and report. Mission Control out.”
*beep*

---
Started:
Insurrection, David Weber & Steve White

Here's a topic seldom fleshed out, what happens when a magic dragon fills the cave? With those enormous life spans, it's bound to happen to the more successful of the breed. True, their dens are large and cavernous, but in many ways this makes things worse. When the last bit of space is used, they'll have an even bigger assortment of stuff to go through. Imagine the memories, "The gold charm from the first adventurer who ever tried to kill me, can't throw that away". Perhaps they dig ancillary storage caves.

Life is definitely different for mundane dragons. In addition to the treasures we collect there's the drek of every day life like bills, receipts and pizza delivery menus. After two decades of treasure and drek collecting it's time for this mundane dragon to address the "treasure trove".

MacGiver aside, anyone who's ever fixed something, worked at a craft, or stormed a castle knows the right tool makes all the difference in the world. Organizing seems to be no different. The tools are not physical, they may more correctly be called strategies. With out them the job is as difficult as having the wrong screw driver or laying siege with nothing to breach the wall. Bring on the trebuchet!

Some people seem naturally equipped with the knowledge of organization. A certain mundane who plays dwarven clerics comes to mind. For the rest of us there's PBS and self help books. "Organizing From the Inside Out" is the latest spell book I'm trying. So far so good, I've transitioned from reading to action. The true test will be checking in a year from now. This then, is the starting gun.

And if any of you magic dragons want to let a lesser cousin in on any secrets .......

Movies:
The Score

Books (Finished):
The Procrastinator's Handbook, by Rita Emmett
The Tenth Planet - Final Assault, Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch

In suspense about the Saturday final exam? I was. Didn't know what to expect and was a little nervous. It was just like exams when I was in school full time. Some memories would be ok to forget. I did fine, but I'm not sure if I did excellent. It would be nice to do excellent. Regardless, the course was fun and I filled my brain with worthwhile stuff. Hopefully look good on a resume, too.

Class is over, back to our regular programming schedule. Opps, the class was part of the regular schedule. I just couldn't resist using that line. *grin*. The plan was: Take a breather, take a class, take a vacation. Items one and two - check. Item three - Have some people I've been promising to visit for a long time. Since it's usually considered bad form to accept a position and immediately bugger off on vacation, I need to get this done before the serious job hunting! If you're going to get laid off, definitely hope for late spring/early summer.

In the "Things That Make You Go D'oh Department":
The email link will now deliver a message to the Mundane Dragon himself, not some mail daemon who's favourite song is "Return to Sender" by Elvis. I obviously didn't test this change and I've given myself a very stern talking to. While I've promised this will never happen again I'm not sure if I should believe me so have decided to keep a close eye on myself for the next little while.

Finished:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling
Fortunes of War, by Stephen Coonts
Organizing from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern

Started:
I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was, by Barbara Sher
The Procrastinator's Handbook, by Rita Emmett

Tonight in the "careful what you ask for department": Oh my god, I'm back in school - woo-who!, but oh my god I'm back in school - arg.

It's only for a week, but it's for real marks! It's been a long, long time since I took a course I was actually going to be graded on. I mean, we have morning quizzes. Quizzes! And get this, there’s going to be a final exam!!! What a quaint idea, haven’t had one of those since I could fit a size 34 waist.

Have already had a BIG break. Seems the instructor also has an aversion to early start times. We now start at a more civilized 9am. Thank god! That 1 hour makes a big difference, especially with a quiz first thing in the morning. (A quiz! A honest to god *morning* quiz!) I was barely functioning yesterday. Day 2 has been much better, it hasn’t hurt to think and I’m not fighting to keep my eyes open.

Today was quite fun, we played with "ipchains”. (No, Lorraine, it isn't something you use to oppress intellectual property.) Tomorrow we tackle tcpdump and snort. Plus, I’m learning all kinds of Linux. Just the kind of jump start I needed. Time to go, if you can believe it in these modern times I actually have a quiz to study for!

Finished: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling

Week 2 ended and Week 3 begins. I am, of course, referring to my "sabbatical". God, it's wonderful!!!

I've been working since I got out of BCIT in 1982. In the three or four years I've felt "mildly discontent", "majorly what the hell am I doing here", and lots of stuff in between! Even my last job, as short as it was, wasn't completely what I was looking for. It was extremely valuable in as much as I learned a lot more about what I like and dislike, but I'm not unhappy it's done. Which brings me to this sabbatical.

Imagine the person who's trekked to a monastery to find peace within his or her self. You don't have to trek! All you have to do is turn off the interruptions for a long enough period of time. Not working may seem somewhat extreme, but it's working for me! I can sit and contemplate life within the environment I'm living it in. It's like I've been running since I graduated and this is the first time I've stopped for a rest. No conclusions yet, just lots of thinking and relaxation.

You often see pictures of magic dragons sitting and contemplating life, they are truly very wise creatures ....

... Who are way to smart to sign up for courses that start at 8am. (I was going to say “8am in the morning", but that would be redundant.) What was I thinking? I am happy it doesn't seem to be cancelled like last week’s course. Good morning Mr. 4 Shot Latte, so glad you could join me.

Movies: Atlantis, A.I.
Books:
- Finished: Otherland Volume 4 – Sea of Light, by Tad Williams (Phew!)
- Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling;
Organizing from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern