This is my second day off, and as the rule goes, they seem to be flying by because of all the fun. It is actually quite a bit of a shock to the system to work fifteen days in a row and then cease and desist all work related activity. I'm not complaining, mind you, it's just a bit of an adjustment.

So I'm in Creston, and man is it beautiful here. It is literally mountains 360 degrees around us. Bee-yoo-tee-full! I am quite envious, actually. Not only is this place wonderful but the place I drove through to get here were awe inspiring as well. I mean, Fernie seemed to be lodged into the face of a mountain, and Crows Nest Pass had the bulk of their town at the foot of a ski hill (I think).

Person 1: Whatcha wanna do today? Skiin'?
Person 2: (exasperated) Again?!

Man, I'd love to ski that much that I just got tired of it. Or snowboard. A friend of mine, whom is an avid snowboarder, called skiers "wanker two-plankers." I've tried both now, and I have to say I'm pretty torn. I've spent 99.9% of my time on the hills with a pair of skis, but I have tried snowboarding once. It was awesome! I've never spent so much time on my a-, er, rear. Take my advice if you're going to try it for the first time, though. Take the wrist guards! I was chided out of taking them with my rental package when I went becasue the guy who rented the equipment rolled his eyes at me when I asked for the guards and said sarcastically, "Yeah! There sure is a lot of powder out there!" I don't even know what that means! But I declined them none-the-less.

Let me ask you something: when you fall either forwards or backwards, what do you think you fall on first? Your butt? Nope! Your knees? Guess again. Unless you've got some serious brain damage, aren't fast enough or have suffered a severe accident causing the loss of both of these appedages, you said your hands. Now let me tell you this: the day after snowboarding and falling down several times, and I mean a lot, a bunch, and too many times to count, the next day my baby nephew Luke could have arm wrestled me into submission with how sore my forearms were. So take 'em! You've been warned!

Oh, and to most people my snowboarding story is old, yet humourous, news, but I have to say that getting off the chairlift has got to be one of the most difficult things I've ever tried to do. In fact, I bet 28 out of the 30 times I tried to get off the lift I fell down causing the lift operator to slow the lift down and say, "Please clear the path!" Do you know how easy it is to roll out of the way with a freakin' surf board strapped to one of your feet? Not easy, my friends, not easy. And just for added measure, I decided that most of the times I fell I should take my friend Chad down with me. After all, it was his idea to go in the first place. Lucky him, eh?

What was the point of this? No really, I have to go back and check! Oh yeah, beatiful scenery, lovely little towns, and mom and dad live blocks away from the Kokanee Brewery and bottling plant. There's a sasquatch on the front lawn! Rylee thought he was pretty cute. I suggested he might make a good husband for her. She said that would get in the way of her many other boyfriends or something to that respect. I am reminded that I must keep working out to remain a noticable threat to any prospective boyfiends.

Oh, another point was that the kids are going to try skiing for the first time tomorrow. I will ski too. My father reminds me that I can not afford to hurt myself. I will not be doing any arial freestyle as a result of this reminder. Thanks dad! That was a close call! So I have to wrap this up quickly because me and the girls have to be up early to head for Fernie. Hope the roads remain clear.

Now comes to my embarrasing story, but looking back on the snowboarding story makes me want to call this my second embarrassing story. This story is how I tried to take down a tank with a spring. I will try to explain this in words that make me look less dumb than I felt, and I won't be using any names to protect the somewhat innocent parties involved.

As a new employee, I am eagre to get myself in there and learn as much as I can. I am also aware that at some point I will make a big mistake and be shamed and such, but I'm not sure this is it yet. There is a unit that travels out to site with us that is actually three units in one. I'm still working on getting a cheap digital camera to take pictures of this stuff so you'll have to use your imagination. It is a pumper unit, a blender and a chemical van all in one. Plus it has a command centre where all the operators hang out to, um, operate it. It's huge; massive! I do not look forward to driving it around corners.

So the day before my last field day when we were back in the shop, I offer a hand, or both hands, to two guys wo were changing out the valves on the quintiplex pump to ensure that it remained in running order for the next crew coming on. They readilly accepted, asked me to hop up and told me that it was essential that all parts that come off of the unit must remain in order.

They show me how to pop the top off the valves, how to pop off the valve covers, take the springs out and remove the warn valves. I do this and make sure that all parts that were to go back ramained near their designated areas and that I didn't knock them to the ground. New valves are supplied and dropped into place. I place the valve cover on the nearest one and while that's being banged into place I put all the springs in their designated spots on the valves of the four remaining open areas. We bang everything back together and go for dinner where we get to know each other and have a merry time. The end! I wish!

We go to our first job the next morning and I ask to be present in the command centre area to see what goes on. What goes on is this: They pressure test the lines and everything is fine! They start to pump fluid at a higher rate and the whole unit starts to shake. It starts jumping up and down! It is mad, and it is trying to throw the riders off. What the heck is happening? We try to maintain the rate for a while but it is evident that the unit will shake itself apart if something isn't done. We are informed by an individual outside that the pump doesn't sound right. My heart immediately sinks as my stomach does flip-flops because I am praying that this whole ordeal isn't my fault.

We are instructed to remove the valve covers and the culprit is revealed: there is no spring on the first one I put together. I let them know it was my fault after sweating for a bit. I feel like dirt and am told by the supervisor that this incident was my "free one." I do not go back in the command centre even though I appologize to the guys whom I helped the evening before fix up the pump. They are okay about it and even say it is no big deal. Worse, much worse, has happened before. None the less, I still feel like crap.

I wait till the next job to appologize again. I am reassured by the same individual that it's no big deal. Come back into the command centre and be merry, I am told. I am also told by another individual that it still isn't my fault. I'd never done that before. The individual who was responsible for the pump should have check over my stuff. It was 100% his fault. I say that I still feel badly that I got him in trouble. It's still no big deal, apparently. No equipment was wrecks, no one was hurt and all it cost us was time.

And just to show that it wasn't the only thing that went wrong, several trucks got stuck, the computer system went down for an hour and my supervisor damaged my truck. Hmmm! I didnt feel too badly by the end of it at all. Also, I was given a spring as a souvenier to remind me never to do that again. They even drew a dry erase mural in the command centre of a spring saying, "Please don't leave me behind!"

Sheesh! I gotta go to bed! We're skiing tomorrow. Or snowboarding. Whatever! Just know that we're surrounded by scenery with a gaspability factor of super high. It was so nice to see my mom again, but it sucked that my pop wasn't here. When Michelle and the girls travel back to the island they are going to stop back in for a visit again when he returns.

Well, night all! Hope you are all well and that you wear your wrist guards at the right times. Ciao! Oh, and please forgive the spelling and grammar mistakes. Pop has some sort of weird pop-up blocker on his computer that I am not about to get familiar with at 11pm that prevents me from spell checking. So when you come to a mistake just hum and pretend it makes sence. Or you don't have to hum. I just thought it would be nice to have some music while you read. Excuse me for caring about your entertainment!