this 'n that...'n this?

So...good news, my friend was allowed into her apartment last night for 5 mins to gather some stuff (clothing and things she doesn't really want to lose). The engineers haven't decided what they'll be tearing down yet, so the rest of the furniture etc hasn't been removed, but the insurance company is at the ready to do what they need to do with it, assess etc. I'm fairly certain that they'll be rebuilding her part of the building at a minimum, it was a year and a half old, when this happened.

Miss the hamster is still pissed off, although this doesn't stop her from accepting treats from me, however, I'm not her mom, so she's displeased and probably pretty much confused. But FREAKING ADORABLE!

It's jam night tonight, I guess I'll go, my friend S is supposed to turn up. That should be good. Or not. I have no idea. The whole FB thing creeps me out in respect that I can see what Jam Flirts little girlfriend is up to on mutual friend's walls etc, and that makes me a bit uncomfy. Truly, I want to know nothing about this woman, first off because I don't much like dim witted people (yes that was mean, but omg she can't even spell, and her grammatical errors get written, that drives me insane, I might say "sammich" for example, but I'll usually type it "sandwich" unless I'm trying to be cute for some reason), and truly, I don't want to be too friendly because I believe her days are numbered.

And it irritates me to no end that she exists anyway.

Workwise, doing all sorts of official crap for various governmental agencies and my company, and want to tear my hair out. You dudes down in the US have so messed with everything up here, the government agencies want us to be ridiculously secure to the point of stupidity, just like it's supposed to be down there. Let's face facts, considering it's not THAT secure at your airports etc....it's all a whole bunch of hooey for which I am wasting my time...seriously, save me from the bullshit.

Ok back to work, and then lunch during which I go over tunes for my gigs. I'm learning, I hope. New song for me, suggestion of S, "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer, easy tune, I'm thrilled.....

fire!

One thing that scares the shit out of me is the idea of my house burning down.

Unfortunately that came true for a friend of mine today.

Got up, feeling a bit like hell (migraine, and another cold starting NOOOOOOOOOOO) and essentially considering going to work for a bit and coming home. In the morning after I take the 4 leggeds out, I usually look at the local news online, and did so, seeing that there was a huge apartment fire in the town next to me.

I'm looking at the address and thinking "geez that's familiar". And then I realize it's my friend M's apartment building.

So I call her cell, she doesn't answer. Then immediately calls me back, yes it was her building and yes, for now, she's homeless.

She got out with the clothes on her back, her computer, her purse, but because they have quite a few people pulling the alarm as a joke (or whatever reason someone would do that) she figured taking her hamster out into the cold wasn't a good idea. So, when she realized that it wasn't a false alarm she couldn't get back in the building to get her. I didn't know this at the time, so I of course asked how her hamster was...and she started to cry.

I told her I would take care of it for her.

So I went to work, got them to fix my VPN (so I can remotely get on the network), called my boss and told him my friend lost her home and I was going to try to get her pet so I was taking a vacation day, and started calling the police and fire departments to get info and get news there was a pet in the building (she's not supposed to have any, even small rodents - so I wanted to make sure they knew there was one inside). Police gave me a number that I called and I got the North fire department (for the northern part of the island of Montreal - again with the geography lesson) - it bounced there from the South, because it was a 5 alarm fire, they were all at the apartment building.

He was super helpful, called the commander of the fire, who said that they would go up and look, but someone needed to be on site. I had given my cell to the north fire department dude, but I had a feeling when he hadn't called me back that either he took it down wrong or I gave it to him wrong, called him back and sure enough....

The police didn't want to let me near the area, until I explained that I was going to collect an animal from the fire, had been in contact with the fire department, let me park illegally within the perimeter and off I went on foot (quite a hike I had today).

The North shore fireman had said to look for the site commander, or PC as they call him, so I got to speak to a whole whack of tired firemen, who directed me to the two guys in the white helmets. I explained, could see M's apartment, pointed to it (her part of the building only had slight fire damage, but the smoke and the water and broken out windows because the roof had been on fire and they had to, poor hammie would have died), so he sent some guys in to look, got a transmission back and another 2 firefighters took me up to her apartment.

We get there and I hear "we have her but she's biting us, what do we do?"

I get ushered to the door of the apartment, to see 3 big firemen kneeling down with grins on their faces trying to get this hamster out of her cage, to which I tell them "just give me the whole thing and that'll make it easier?".

They were thrilled that they saved something (a cat died in the bad part of the building, and unbeknownst to them, the man in the apartment that had exploded around 1:30 in the morning causing the fire) and asked what her name was (the hamster, not my friend) and off I went down the ice covered stairs back outside and to get the poor little confused thing to my place and change all her bedding/food/water etc before it killed her.

I called my friend and she started bawling. Been up all night and the stress of the situation....

My friend S and I went up to see her, S gave her a couple hundred dollars to go get some clothes etc that she needs. She was happy to hear her car was probably alright (there's a third part to the building that was unaffected and she parks near that), and I think personally that 80-90% of her stuff in her apartment will be ok after the insurance does their thing cleaning it. Water & smoke damage for the most part, but she's a caterer on the side from her real job, and has alot of expensive cooking implements, all that stuff from what I saw will be just fine, probably most of her furniture also.

She just won't have a home for quite a while. Time to find a new apartment.

So happy she's ok. And so happy I was able to be the pitt bull I tend to be and get her beloved pet for her (it's her first pet ever and she was having guilt because she left her behind). She went and got her car, unfortunately the windshield is broken, but the police on site wrote up a report saying it was due to the fire, so she won't have any problems with insurance.

I have to say, between the police and the fire department, we have some great guys in Montreal, I don't care what anyone says, they were ALL helpful, and all very kind, even when I told them that it was a hamster (I expected they wouldn't make any effort).

I was standing with wet feet for a while (feet of water everywhere and me in my little pull on running shoe boots), I smell like a fire still (can't use the tub until all the hamster cage is finished soaking), and I think inhaling it while in the building made me a bit ill....but she's happy and I hear the hamster in the cage, she is doing JUST fine, and that makes me happy.

And yeah. That's a photo of the fire itself. Scary shit. This time I stole it from CBC :)

busy busy busy

I know it's no excuse but I have no time for anything right now.

Too much to do, too little time.

I'll be checking in later and reading the stuff from you all asap....probably during work time (hehehehe)

Muah all.

splish splash

One of the little known things about me is an obsession I've had since I was a kid.

Bit of background, my dad is an aircraft technician. My mom and I didn't get along for most of my childhood for reasons really unknown to even her, so I spent a lot of time with my dad, a great deal of it in the hangar at the maintenance base for Air Canada, a great deal at the airport watching the planes land and take off, identifying the type of plane from the ground.

So growing up, I had a very unhealthy thirst for information about plane crashes. I kept a scrapbook of them, discussed them with my dad, and the discussion tradition continues today. As does the obsession.

I wanted to be an air crash investigator actually, but sadly, you need to be a pilot, aircraft engineer, aircraft technician, whatever to do that. I considered going into aircraft maintenance, but my dad convinced me not to, at the time women were not well accepted in the industry, and ended up doing electronic overhauls, I wanted to be line maintenance (those are the guys you see under the plane when you're waiting to board, fixing anything that needs doing before the aircraft departs again, or checking out any snags).

This would be how I ended up doing what I do for a living, I worked for an airline for 7 years, and I miss certain things - there's nothing quite like sitting on the ground waiting for the bird to land on the tarmac, seeing it in the air coming in, watching it touch down, hearing the ops personnel on the walkie talkie "LH470 is on the ground" and going to wait for it to be hooked to the GPU and those cargo doors to open for all the loading and unloading to begin!

Oh and when it's -50 on the tarmac standing under the exhaust line under the tail, knowing it probably causes cancer, but considering how freezing it is out, who the hell cares?

Oh sometimes I miss those days.

Anyway. So at jam Wednesday I had been talking crash, which comes up every now and again, and everyone thought I was insane with my knowledge of just about every plane crash known to man (I've read so many final reports by the air transport authorities in different countries you have absolutely no idea).

So of course, I totally get called out in light of yesterday's crash of a US Airways A320 into the Hudson River in New York. Like it's my fault that something has occured to pique my interest.

Interesting little tidbit that made me a titch worried.

When there's a problem with an aircraft an airworthiness directive is issued to all carriers detailing maintenance etc that has to be done and the urgency of this maintenance/change.

In the past month there have been two for the Airbus, one involving the software for the TCAS (Traffic Allert & Collision Avoidance system) and an update needed, and another specifically for the A320 series of aircraft (including the A318/A319) concerning double engine stalls in the CFM 56 engines upon climb (aka takeoff).

Apparently my concern has been duplicated by the engine manufacturer as they have sent someone to the crash site - which they would have to do anyway as this involves the engines anyway (usually the manufacturers of the parts are present for the investigation - if those parts were involved).

Anyway, seems that the pilot did report a bird strike, unusual that it affects both engines, there are over 500,000 reports of bird strikes per year, and most end without incident.




That being said, I have to give props to the US Airways pilot, Chesley Sullenberger III, for his incredible flying abilities, saving both people on the ground and everyone on his aircraft from what would have been certain disaster. He guided the aircraft over the George Washington bridge, clearance of only 900 meters, and ditched that sucker as gingerly as he could, it didn't even break up on landing (and kudos to the airframe manufacturer Airbus, hitting water is as bad as hitting ground depending how fast you are moving).

The pilot also didn't leave his aircraft until he was certain all his passengers and crew were out. Truly, they are all very lucky he was at the helm of this aircraft, there are only a few cases of a commercial jet becoming a glider (Air Canada 143 - B767 aka the Gimli Glider outside of Winnipeg in the 80s & Air Transat 236 which was glided into the Azores in the 90s), and the pilot did an amazing job, and from all reports, never lost his cool.

Any crash that you walk away from is a good crash. This was an amazing crash. I can't wait to find out more about it, what happened, hear the transmission from aircraft to tower, and the cockpit recorder.

Kudos also to all that helped rescue the passengers and crew, they rushed to aid so quickly, while a few people suffered hypothermia, it could have been much much worse....

not over yet? really????

I'll show you the above photo, that's Montreal in the background, our lovely gorgeous city, which is currently having issues with water main breaks due to the cold (well that and a typically badly maintained Montreal infrastructure, what a shocker?).

When there's "steam" coming off the St Lawrence river (yes, Montreal is an island, little geography lesson there...), that means cold. Means fucking cold. Means that on every bridge or elevated expressway there's black ice to a dangerous extent. They closed the Bonaventure expressway, which leads down to one of the bridges off the island (actually a major one). I'm thanking my lucky stars that I neither live down there nor are any of our export clients today located down there. That'll be a fantastic mess.

See there's a temp at which salt no longer works, and I'd say at -26C and a wind chill of between -40 to -50C, we're way beneath that.

My dogs just say no. They get out the door (and I'm not out of it yet even) and they pee on the driveway. Maybe we get halfway down the driveway before they're done and pulling me back to the house. And poop is for indoors apparently, when it's cold. Sigh. Tried putting down paper, they go beside it.

I love my dogs, really I do.

Did make the trek to jam night last night. Jam Flirt made me get up with my guitar and do some solo accoustic stuff because actually he's never heard me before. I sucked, but apparently not too badly, because his friend booked me for late March. 2 gigs. Wow.

He himself was actually very complimentary. I only flirt occasionally now because I've decided that first off no guy needs the ego massage and secondly, he needs to figure out his girlfriend is an airhead and get rid of her.

She is. If it wasn't mean (and or illegal) to post a photo I have of her, I would. I swear to you that you can see thru this bitch's head via her eyes. And the messages she leaves on FB on my friend's walls? Oh my. Spelling & grammar are optional. She's blonde, tall & thin and that's where it ends. But men are numbskulls frequently as a friend of mine tells me, and, in his words, alot of them give the decent ones a bad name. Again his words, looks last only so long. And that's so very true. But I guess I've been lucky, I have a very strange sense of what I consider to be attractive...which means I usually pick people based on what I like about their personality, and they aren't ueber attractive generally (except HF, he's the hottest thing alive, and kind, and sweet etc), so there's an attitude thing that I don't have a problem with.

Ok that probably makes no sense. However. Suffice to say, I'm not fawning over this dude, end of story. I'll flirt if flirted with and that's where it will end.

Ok back to my work. I'm sitting in my office with the temp jacked up, and yet still freezing my arse off. yahoo.

quick question

Did I move to Siberia overnight but am not aware?

-36C with the fucking wind chill.
That is insane.

INSANE!

Have to run the car for 1/2 hour otherwise you risk running metal on metal in the engine - oil is thick and takes a while to warm up. Should have hear what my car sounded like when I started it this morning.


I'll leave you with this image:




This is what one looks like in winter in Montreal.....if you brave the outdoors that is (I love my car).

Much thanks to the Gazoo (aka the Montreal Gazette) from whence I stole the photos :)

and on we go...

All I'm doing right now is finding tunes to sing, and practising. And panicking.

I'll be fine. I know I will. I think what makes me more nervous is all the work people that will be there, friends, hey maybe even some family, who the hell knows?

Oh the stress!

But, I'm loving it, I think it might be what has been somewhat missing from my life.

It's supposed to be bloody cold as of when I wake tomorrow. Yuck. Enough. And into next week. Which costs me money and makes me freak out somewhat (oil....I hate spending money on oil...)

I know I'll get yelled at but I've been feeling extremely lonely again. Sigh. Into year 4 single I go. And please note, I had 2 years of self-imposed exile from the male kind, but the past year or so, I've been ready and willing, but no one else has been ready and willing. I mean, I'm usually so freaking busy that I don't notice, but there hasn't been alot of photography recently, so I've been noticing. It's a bit of my life that is lacking, missing, and, well, I'm well aware there's nothing I can do about it, really, but just be who I am and do what I do.

Someone's bound to be able to stand me eventually, right?

Sigh. It does depress me ocasionally.

And yet again, when I am interested, apparently I don't demonstrate it. Enough. Or something.

Kerist.

To jam or not to jam tomorrow. That is the question that I as of now don't know how to answer.

I'll sleep on it. Or sing on it. Or just wait and see how I feel tomorrow.

Going to eat finally. And cook the dogs food (yes TD, I'm cooking the dogs some food to go along with their dry food....yes, the world is now ending :)