What a dump of Snow!!!

Alberta has just had a massive snow fall. Just when you thought it was all over; the winter just drags you back in. This time though the ground is warm and with the sudden rise in temperature today it is melting fast. Everybody sump pumps are filling up; and I can only thank good fortune for not building my house on the other side of the road. That side is open to a massive field and the water runs off it towards the houses, unfortunately putting them in harms way.

I will be going outside in a bit to dig the snow away from the walls of the house, so that as it melts it does not run down directly against the structure. ( The further away from the house the better).

Good news for work this week. I have a run down to San Diego. Ca. It is a bonded load, bound for Mexico, which will see me get a good two days driving in, right off the bat. With a bit of luck the reload will be for Alberta and that will bring me home next week as well. The last two weeks were not very good earners for me, so hopefully I can get a good few weeks consecutive earnings in and try and catch up.

I am looking forward to the kids having their summer holidays, as I am not seeing them a lot lately. Then it won't matter that I am having my days off in the week.

Its less than two months now until the first set of Grandparents turn up and just under three for the second set. We are all really looking forward to this; and what with the warm weather coming, I am predicting a really good summer....

Leaky Truck

I'm currently sat in a factory in Oregon waiting to unload in the morning, listening to the constant drops of water coming out of the roof of my truck into a strategically placed bucket. I hope the rain stops before I have to go to sleep, because the drip, drip, drip is already driving me potty. Here's hoping they bin this truck soon and give me another....

The morning after....the big break...

Happy face and stern face.. All the emotins in 3 quick photo's...

Jake's 9th and Lauren's fall.....

Today was a really long day. It started at about 0730, with Jake getting up and us all singing "Happy Birthday" to him and ended at 0030 with Lauren coming back from hospital with arm in a pot..

Jake received some nice presents off of everybody. He opened a couple of hockey sticks (one so Dad can play), a new net to score in, a SOCCER ball as he calls it, a new controller for his Xbox and a new game for it as well. Quite a good haul I think. He also had a couple of his mates around for a sleep over, and they brought a couple of gift cards, for the local game shop with them. (Both with a very generous $20 on each card.) His plan is to spend them on Saturday when, everybody comes to pick me up from work..

Jake and Lauren walked to school and I started to build the net, ready for when they got home. At about 1400 we received a phone call from school, asking us to come and get Lauren as she had fell and split her head open. Sarah went and got her and we all went to the Doctors for the first time in Canada. After a few lengthy minutes of filling in our details to the computer, she went inside and had her head glued together. When we got back we picked Jake up from school, went home and prepared the food for the BBQ we were going to have; and the kids went out to play.

After a couple of hours the kids were back inside and the steak was sizzling. Sarah asked Lauren what was wrong with her arm. She said she had hurt it, but didn't elaborate. She could move her fingers and had minimal movement at the wrist, so doctor Tom put it down to a bad sprain.. Sarah didn't believe my assessment and took her to the hospital where it turned out she had fractured both the Radius and the Ulna bones.. (This was done after we had had our dinner and Sarah got in trouble off the doctor, as she had let her have something to eat, when there was a possibility she would need to be put to sleep. So Sarah added that she had also let her have some sweets for being a good girl a couple of minutes earlier, which was met with more disapproval. What a bad mother she is!!!!) She was put to sleep, the bones were set and the cast was put on. (Seems I was not cut out for a Career in Medicine)

She is sat now, on the settee, enjoying her day off school and is fine. She just looks a bit beat up.

Coolies..

After a heavy night on the pop, we went for an investigative trek down into the coolies.. The plan was just to go down to the river, but we found a couple of parks for the kids to play in as well. It was a really good day out. It's great to have time off at the weekend, so that we can do stuff as a family. Days off in the week just involve sitting around normally as the kids are at school. Role on the summer, as it won't matter what day I get home as the kids are off for 12 weeks..

We parked the car just of the side of the Crowsnest trail and walked off towards the giant railway bridge that spans the coolies. On the way we came across a nature building which we are going to go back to, once we get rid of the dog. It looks like it will be good for the kids to learn about the local habitat. We walked along side the river, went under the bridge, to a spot were I could teach the kids the art of skimming stones.. They lost interest pretty quick and taught themselves the art of dropping boulders through the rapidly thawing river ice. The dog went ankle deep in the river, but soon got out once she felt the temperature.

We walked across to the park and the kids went up the climbing wall and played on the slide. After a good hour we walked back to the car and went off to find a restaurant for our dinner. This was courtesy of Grandad Wall and we gave the choice of venue to Jake. He chose Boston Pizza. He has been bobbing on about going there for the entire 6 months we have been here. It was nice and we stuffed ourselves silly.

I think the summer will be great, if today was anything to go by.. Especially with both sets of Grandparents coming.. Goodbye the snow and role on the heat.....

Vancouver 2010

From Laredo to Vancouver, 2500 miles.. This has been quite a good earner, all things considered. I am sat waiting to unload at 0800 in the morning.. I was hoping to get the envelope Teed-off tonight, but it looks like these miles from Texas will go on next weeks allocation..

I have a plan from here back to Calgary already lined up which is good, so I hope there are no hold-ups unloading.

This trip was pretty uneventful, but I can now add New Mexico to my "have been to list". I have also been on the "Devils highway". This road road was originally number US 666, so you can see why it got its name. The locals did not like this, so it was changed to the US 491. It has however retained its nickname and apparently is well know amongst the truck driving fraternity.

Canada lost their game against USA today in the hockey, so there are a few glum faces walking past my truck this evening. It was a good game by all accounts; I would have enjoyed watching it.

Texas

This is my second trip down to Texas and I quite liked the drive down. It takes three days to get down to the Mexican boarder and now that I am here I am regretting not packing any shorts. Its 22 degrees Celsius and is a vast difference to the -13 when I left.

I tried to get unloaded this morning, a day early, but the guy told me to come back tomorrow. So I am just sat at the truck stop, squeezing in a reset of my hours, ready for whatever job the satellite brings me. I think you have to be a special sort of person, to be able to sit around waiting for "tomorrow". I think I would be better suited to Team driving, as it is high octane non stop stuff. Trouble is though, you need somebody that wants to rush around like a blue arse fly, and I haven't met anybody like that yet. Everybody seems to like the, put your feet up lifestyle.

The first days driving involved 700 miles of Montana and Wyoming. The roads were quite slick most of the way, but I eventually made it to the Wal-mart in Casper. This is where I called it a day, once I had done my shopping, and I got a good solid six hours in my pit. Once I was up I sat staring at the clock, waiting to go. In America you have to have ten hours off in one block. I prefer the Canadian system where you only have to have eight.

The second day my Tom-tom showed me the way to Amarillo. The roads were much better and I was flat out all the way down through Colorado and the little bit of Oklahoma you go through, to get into Texas. Both days were thoroughly uneventful and some might say boring, but I like driving, knowing your bank balance is growing by the mile.

The third day was solely in Texas. It is a massive state, that reminds me a bit of Holland. The only difference is they have cows instead of flowers and boots instead of clogs.

According to the film "Full Metal Jacket", the only thing to come out of Texas, are Steers and Queers. I have now seen the Steers and if good fortune continues, I can carry on avoiding the Queers.

Lets hope I go east from here and clock up some good mileage.

"The New BBQ"

On Wednesday we purchased our new BBQ.. On Thursday we had our first BBQ of the year. There was the problem of building it in between, but we managed it and the result, as you can see was successful. We bought it from Canadian Tyre and the make is Napoleon. We chose it not from a professional BBQer's point of view, but solely on the way it looked and the fact that it didn't wobble when we shook it. It is a Canadian make and has a lifetime guarantee.

It took seven hours from the first screw going in, to the first taste of the prime Canadian steak. Best buy of the year... We have took out ribs and chicken for the BBQ dinner tonight and Sarah is going to make her own burgers.. Its February and the temperature outside is +6c, who says Canadian winters are bad..role on the Summer for more days like these.

Residency

Last week I had a meeting with my boss, to discuss our plans of permanent residency in Canada. The result was that H+R are going to sponsor us and we can apply as a family right away. The prospect of endless paperwork is somewhat daunting, but I'm sure we are up to the challenge, just like all the families that have gone before us.

We have decided to do the paperwork ourselves and not employ the services of an agency. Our decision to do this, is purely a financial one. It helps that we have friends who have gone through the process already and will share their experiences with us so that we might learn from any mistakes that they have made.

Our first hurdle is to download all the paperwork from the Internet, fill it out and submit it by March 31st. To have a deadline so close is our first element of pressure, which is not made any easier by the fact that the new printer we have bought is not playing the game. Or should I say playing games with us. (Either way we need to rectify this)..

Toronto Trip

I left for Toronto last Saturday, after spending best part of the day waiting for the trailer. It was a horrendous first 2 days as I traveled across SK and MB. Visibility was not good and at times I couldn't see further than the end of the bonnet. Once the first 1000 miles was out of the way, it was plain sailing the rest of the way, if you consider compact ice driving plain sailing.

The trip was 4400 miles in total. A good earner. I wouldn't mind doing 3 or 4 of these a month. Above are some of the pictures, I took.... (Future posts will become more detailed, once Sarah lets me buy a notebook and I can write in the truck)

Frost or Snow???

I took these pictures yesterday; which are from the view from the back of the house.. Its hard to believe that it hasn't snowed for a while and this comes from a serious frost..

Grandparents on the Skype....

All the kids got to speak with their Nanna's and Grandad's today, when they got back from school. Its was good for them all to catch up and get to see each other. Here's what we saw..

Crabs and lobster....

Sarah picking me some sprouts, for our Sunday dinner. It will be a smelly house later on..

I was pretty impressed with all the fresh stuff in the supermarket, but I didn't realise it also had live crabs and lobsters. Quite expensive, but maybe Sarah will treat me one day..

Ice skating on the frozen house plot..

Under the thumb!!

I don't think so. Under the arse maybe....

Truck is at the doctors...

Rang in today to see when I could get back to work and was told that my truck is at freightliner having a new rear end structure to the engine. (something to do with the oil leak I have) Its a two day job so with a bit of luck I will be back on the road Thursday.

I got to take the kids to school this morning as a result, which was good, as I don't do it very often. Days off when the kids are at school, are not ideal, but it does give Sarah and I a day without the kids. ( I wonder what we'll get up to?????)

Yesterday we went to town and bought a web cam for the new computer. It took a bit of time to set it up, but I think its ready to go now. Think being the operative word, as everyone we know to test it on were 7 hours ahead of us and fast asleep. Hopefully today we can test it out..

Above is a picture taken from the said web cam. In time I might get a bit more exotic and do a dance for you all.. ( As you can see I am sat on the floor typing this, so any table donations would be greatly appreciated.)