Catching Up

Holy Moly! It's been almost 6 weeks since I last wrote in my blog! I'm bad. Sorry to those very few people out there who follow this thing. I guess I've just settled down here so much that there's nothing much really to write about anymore.

I came here today because I'm not in the mood to work, but I can't leave yet. I took my car into the shop this morning, and I'm worried about what the diagnosis will be. It's had a small oil leak for a while, but that's not a big concern.

What's worrying me is the fact that it's going through coolant like crazy. When I had the oil changed about a month ago, I asked them to check if coolant was leaking and they said no. When I described the problem to the shop yesterday, they said "uh oh." Sounded to them like an internal coolant leak, which could require the head gasket to be replaced, which is major work.

Not only that, but the car threatens to stall when I stop at intersections quite regularly when it's not completely warmed up. It actually did stall twice. Once a few weeks ago, right in the middle of an intersection - though it started right back up again - and once yesterday in my subdivision. Took me a while to get it started again that time...and then it stalled again right away, so I let it sit there for quite a while before trying to go anywhere. And called to make an appointment with the shop as soon as I got to work.

I've decided that I'm willing to spend up to $1000 on repairs if I think it will make the car last another year. I really don't want to have to replace it before I return to Ontario. Payments on a new car would still be more than that over a year, so I figure I'd still be ahead. Not to mention the increased insurance on a newer vehicle.

But Bruce here at work says I really have to start considering the reality that I'll probably have to replace it soon. He says too many people hang onto cars too long because they like them and are afraid they'll end up with a lemon if they change. That's exactly my situation. This car has been SO good that I can't imagine getting one that will serve me as well.

But I'm going to have to eventually.

Updating on other stuff...

I spent most of March on the Road. Was in Saskatchewan for a week. That started out as the trip from hell, but turned out pretty good after the second day. I went with Dave, who was a very agreeable travelling companion. The first day we spent 17 hours travelling. We were supposed to have a two or three hour layover in Toronto, but then they cancelled the flight we were supposed to get on and made us wait SIX hours. Six hours sitting around Pearson Airport. Blah! The only consolation was that the flight we caught in Toronto went straight to Saskatoon, rather than touching down in Winnipeg as originally planned.

By the time we got to Saskatoon, our ride was long gone, of course. Dave called her and she said she'd made reservations at a Comfort Inn for us. So we get a cab over there and they say they've never heard of us. Coincidentally, they'd never heard of the guy who came in after us either. I have to suspect the skill of their night staff with their reservations system at this point. Anyway - we got our rooms and went to bed. There didn't seem to be any internet in the rooms, which pissed me off.

In the morning we get up and there's been freezing rain overnight. Oh joy. We had planned to rent a car and drive to Prince Albert, but the highways had been closed because of the conditions, and none of the rental companies would give us a car!

It was almost noon by the time we finally left. The weather still wasn't ideal, but at least the precipitation had stopped, and the roads were actually quite good, except for a few spots where drifting had occurred.

The wildest thing was that for the most part there was no scenery! Everything was white...the ground, the sky. In a few places, there was a really unsettling wall of white outside the car that was as seamless and unbroken as the negative of a completely darkened room. Looking out the side window of the car literally confounded my brain, having no points of reference except the interior of the car. I felt kind of dizzy looking at it, like I didn't know which way was up. Really bizarre.

I hadn't had anything to eat at all since a couple of hits of juice and cookies on the two flights the previous day, so I was ravenous and couldn't think of anything but food. Dave didn't want to stop for lunch because we were so behind. Thankfully, the editor in Prince Albert had arranged for a hot meal for us, so we had some lasagna and salad when we finally arrived.

After that, the week went quite well, although we had to stay in a different hotel every night, which was rather annoying. I never unpacked my bag all week. The Hotel in Prince Albert was the best. We each had a suite, across the hall from each other, and when we got into them, we ended up running back and forth across the hall looking at each others' rooms because they were so wild. I had the Victoria Suite and he had the Prince Albert Suite. Both suites had the most horrific carpeting you ever saw - deep blue with giant red and yellow royal shields all over them. The furniture was absolutely over the top...flagrant - and in my room, it was ALL SCARLET RED - everything! There were these cool chaise lounges in both rooms, the beds had huge draped canopies over them, the mirrors were gilt, there were back-to-back full-sized tvs in the space between the sitting room and the bedroom, and best of all, in my room, there was a Shoe Chair! I'll have to put a pic of it here when I get home tonight.

After Prince Albert, we drove to Moose Jaw. The office in Moose Jaw has the coolest sign...probably 12 feet tall, neon, it looks like an old-fashioned movie sign. I loved it. Tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out very well. The hotel there was much more normal, and they had internet...finally! The place was a spa. I was on the fifth floor, and right across the street, outside over the fourth floor of the other part of the hotel, was a heated spa pool that I could see right from my window. As I'd been warned, there was no one in it but craggy old people. Eew! LOL (I should talk, eh?)

After Moose Jaw, we drove back to Saskatoon. That's about a 4-hour drive, but the weather was MUCH better, and we actually got to see some of the prairies. Dave was most impressed. It's really quite beautiful in its own way, the prairie. Stark, vast and lonely. And very, very flat. We wondered what kids did in the winter, seeing as they obviously couldn't go toboganning!

As I recall, we went back to Saskatoon simply to catch our plane back home. So another night in a hotel, the Sand Hill hotel or something like that, and then home to Halifax on Friday. Finally! It was exhausting.

But I only had one day to recover before taking off again - to St. John's this time. I'd promised to go and help Scott with the redesign of one of his products. The first part of this trip didn't go too well either!

I did get bumped to first class because the plane was so full (due to a storm in Newfoundland the previous day), so that was nice. It was super nice, actually. They fed me lunch, I had tons of room. Very comfy. I wish I could fly first class all the time!

But Scott wasn't there when I went in on Monday morning! He hadn't told me he'd be away, but I found out pretty quickly that he wasn't expected back till the next day. What was I supposed to do till he returned?? I spent the first half of the day settling in and getting my computer set up the way I like it, and then decided I could get a jump on the manual by reformatting all the text. At some point I was given some templates to work with, so I started doing that, and then Scott showed up the next day around noon and got me going in the right direction.

The whole week turned out to be a great giant ego stroke for me though. Scott LOVED the work I did for him and couldn't stop praising me right up till the moment I left. Everyone else loved it too. I got complimented so many times. It was really gratifying to me to make everyone so happy.

So nothing much to report since I got back from my travels. I've been chatting with a nice man online. I've met him for coffee once, and we may get together on the weekend for dinner or something.

The biggest news is that I'm going home for a visit next week! I'm really looking forward to it. I've been really homesick, so this is a welcome trip. Got a few things scheduled already - dinner at the Golden Palace with Tonia, girl's night at Carol's on Saturday, doctor's appointment, licence bureau. I'm there for five days including travel days, so it should be a busy trip! I'm taking the first part of the week just for myself and will sleep and rest a lot so I'm all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when I get to Ottawa. Should be a good week.