Sunday, June 19, 2016

What, no internet! How can I get my work done?


This has been a relatively calm week, which is good as there were times when we didn’t have internet access. We have had work teams in our building for the past couple of weeks running wiring in our overhead spaces for a new telephone and internet system. Despite having to work and step around the workers, everything went pretty well until Wednesday evening when we had to shut our computers completely down. Early Thursday morning the IT people were in to hook everything up, but all did not go as planned and we were pretty much off the grid until Friday morning while they worked out the bugs in the system. The biggest problem proved to be connecting to the printers. They would successfully get one computer to be able to print, only to mess up connectivity to another computer. And so it went through much of Friday morning until finally all the pieces fell into place and everything began working.

So much of what I do with the cars and car files requires being online, but not being able to work online provided me with time to sort through a bunch of stuff left over from former fleet managers and get rid of outdated and duplicated stuff. I truly feel nearly caught up now; I say nearly because there is still considerable stuff in the computer files that needs to be cleared out also. Hopefully I can work more efficiently so that I can have time to make this happen. 

We purchased a single cherry tomato plant a few weeks ago and have it setting on our patio where it gets plenty of sun. It seemed to struggle for a time but now is blossoming and doing well so we may actually get some cherry tomatoes before the summer is out. The weather this past week has been delightfully cool so some hotter weather to come should stimulate more growth.

Kathy began coming down with some head cold symptoms on Friday and didn’t feel much like going out yesterday on our P-day; I took advantage of this to do something I have been wanting to do that I knew would likely be boring for her. Our travels frequently take us past the military museum here in Calgary. Except for seeing the seemingly airborne F-5 jet on display there, which is right off Crowchild Trail, much of the outside displays are pretty much hidden by an earthen berm. The F-5 jet shown below was once in the Canadian Air Force fleet. It is the same jet flown in U. S. Air Force pilot training, the T-35, and by the Air Force Astronauts. When I was in pilot training, it was affectionately known as "the white rocket" as it is capable of supersonic speeds and the pilot training versions are white in color.

Anyway, as I was saying, I knew I would probably want to spend more time going through the museum than Kathy would like to spend so off I went. The museum is wonderful and so huge that, after 4 hours of touring and reading, I decided to save the rest for another day so I went outside where I took additional pictures of the F-5. I will include another of it and some pictures of some of the displays inside.


Since I am retired military I was admitted for free. The security guy at the front desk turned out to be a Canadian military retiree and so we had a nice discussion of our various jobs while on active duty. He took a special interest in me and periodically sought me out in order to call my attention to some of the more obscure things he thought perhaps I had missed (and most of them I had missed). One of them was a picture and medal of a WWI Canadian POW who had been awarded the Bavarian Cross of Military Merit while a prisoner. As you will see in the following picture, it was for saving the life of a young German girl from drowning. 



One thing was apparent through much of the museum, - so much of what the Canadian Armed Forces have been involved with has been in support of U.S. and British (naturally) war efforts. We are truly joined at the hip, so to say, with Canada, and their support and contributions have provided much to our military efforts. One surprise was a room devoted wholly to Canada’s support of United Nations projects. The picture below is part of the Canadian Navy display.



As mentioned, I will look forward to returning again to the museum. I still have the Canadian Air Force and the Army areas to tour as well as the other parts of the museum that are in separate buildings or on open display outside in the weather.

Today, Sunday, was our Stake Conference where we heard from a multitude of speakers including Elders Nash and Priday of the Seventy. All of the talks were outstanding. Kathy and I sang with the Stake Choir so we had a seat right up front. We came home and Kathy (who is doing quite well with her cold symptoms, BTW) prepared a wonderful dinner of BBQ spare ribs, baked potatoes, green salad, fresh pineapple, etc. Yum!

I hope all you father’s out there who may be reading this blog entry had a wonderful Father’s Day. And may we be eternally grateful for the Father of us all who loves us, who cares for us, and who has provided the way to return to Him according to His Plan of Happiness for us. (If any of you who may be reading this don't know what is meant by the Plan of Happiness, I would be happy to tell you of it.)

Have a great week!





No comments:

Post a Comment