Tag Archives | Snow

Pretenting to be something your Not, Can be a Good Thing

By on November 5, 2008 in Journal

images5.gif Who are we? Who do we want to be? I find it funny when you find yourself pretending that your some one famous. Its not really pretending because I just silly at this age, but more like inspiring to be that person. We have had a lot of snow lately here in Yellowknife and the roads are a mess (and we all know how I feel about them but anyways) with snow all over them and with the ice underneath that. That makes them very slippery and dangerous for that fact. As I was coming to work this evening I was the only one on the roads and I was in that mood where I felt like I couldn’t be touched, the truck was full of gas, it was warm in side and it was riding really nice considering the conditions. With all that put together it for some reason it made me relax and actually enjoy driving for the first time since I got back. So enjoyable that I get the idea in my head or more or less the inspiration that I could be Mario Andriette! I wouldn’t brake so much going around corners and using the advise of Doc from Pixar’s Cars “Sometimes to go left you need to turn right” I would give it a little more throttle to go around those turns and let the back end slide out ever so slowly and all in slow motion I would drift the corner. Quickly correction it back to straight I would go on my way waiting for my next bit of thrill.

Please Note* That I did this while no other moving or parked vehicles were around and I had complete control of the truck the whole time. And to any batty old women who may be reading this and criticizing me for being reckless let me ask you this! Do I criticize you when you doing something you love and have a passion for?

I will leave you with this quote from Richard Robert “I want to go fast, Because if your not first your last”

images5.gif There are many other people that inspire me like Sir Richard Branson. When I’m looking in to getting a truck to only flip around for a profit or trying to find someone a good deal I always think of guys like him that just like me started off small. Branson start printing his own Magazine at the age of 16 and started to become so successful he didn’t finish high school. I’m not saying that if your smart don’t finish, in today’s world no one will even look at you if you don’t have a High School Diploma. But look where Branson is now one of the smartest or not the smartest Business Men around.

Note* English Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as a person who attempts to profit by risk and initiative.

I can go from one end of the spectrum to other like that. There is a man, Guy Grieve. You probably have no idea who he is and what he did. I don’t think many do but I think his story is amazing and he has been and will be my inspiration for the winter coming. He’s a man from Scotland who worked for a magazine who got fed up with a desk job and having to travel far distances everyday to work, always missing his family. He needed something extreme to shack up his life. For months he planned and considered with his wife about going on a adventure to save his life from becoming a drone like bore.images5.gif So for one year he took off to the extreme of Alaska into the interior just along the Yukon River where with the help of soon to be close aboriginal friends he built a cabin and learned to survive by his own means. Hunting, trapping, living in the remoteness of his cabin with just his dogs for company. I read through his book dreaming of going out to the cabin this winter, staying out there for couple nights at a time. Living off the caribou meet I stoke piled over the summer. But I’m afraid of the loneliness that comes with it, the longing for companionship. I mean heck sometimes I long for that right here in town, how would I last out there! Guy repeatedly said that with out his dog and respect toward Mother Nature he would have gone crazy and probably died and its proven. A lot of macho men head out into the land and try and prove there manliness and just end up killing  themselves from starvation, freezing, or by making the stupid mistake of trying to out smart Mother Nature. I just don’t know what I am to do. Someday I will take off the mask I put on and actually admit to my issues and do something about them.

images5.gif One of my favorite quote is one by a man who changed the way we look at life’s joys “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Walt Disney created a kingdom out of a dream. The man was more than a cartoonist, more than a producer or a movie maker. He was a leader. He wanted to improve the quality of urban life in American so he designed the development of the “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow”. I bet you have never heard of that, but you have you just don’t know it. It is the place we all know as the EPCOT center in Disney World. Did you know it had a deeper meaning than for our amusement while we are on vacation? If nothing else I hope at the end of my life I can look back and think of this quote and know that I fulfilled its meaning.

When I started writing this, which was a couple hours ago I had a specific topic in mind and as I look back on it I think I may be gone off path a bit, you could say I went down a New Path.

Thanks for Reading.

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Theres a Bump in my Road.

By on November 2, 2008 in Reviews, Travels

Okay I have a question for you. Have you seen the road in Yellowknife? Have you? I have and I can’t really believe them. Let me share with you what I am saying. Three days ago it snowed, not to much but just under a foot enough for it to stay on the roads and there it stays. The problem is that it is still there, I have no idea where our snowplows are, oh wait yes I do. We don’t have any. Now on a side note when I came back to this town at the end of October I wanted to have a positive attitude towards it but so far I have failed that. For some reason this city of Yellowknife doesn’t have snowplows, they let the snow pile up on the roads until the spiring when that pretty much close off the roads and use a heavy duty loader and dump trucks to remove the thick hard packed snow from the road. During the extent of winter the most they do is gravel and grade.

Graveling the road works to some extent, what normally happens is the gravel bunches up with the snow and creates horrible bumps which is Not good for any vehicle, car, truck, van, new or old. It all causes breakage of struts, shocks, tie road ends, ball joints and suspension.

Grading can be just as bad, yes they get rid of the majority of the big bumps. But for some reason they use blades with slots in them. Its like using a giant comb. Why are we coming our roads. All those slots do is create ripple effect on the road, which you guessed it, is not good for your vehicle.

Then if we do ever for some reason get snow plows, there is the walkers and there loving sidewalks. They’ll wine and complain that snowplows are pushing the snow on to the sidewalks or it creates a dangerous place for them to walk, but you know what I don’t care. There are more vehicles on the road that people on sidewalks!

But I suppose there is that other alternative……….. SALT. The dreaded salt. Some days, which is more like everyday in my truck, I am sliding all over the road because it is pure ice and I can’t stop or turn I would trade the no rust on my truck for salt on the road. I know salt does eventually wreck vehicles but it would take ten years to show effect and Yes I do know that salt doesn’t work after -15 but hey its not that cold out there yet. So don’t complain that the roads are icy and that protest when someone suggest putting salt down.

Let me know what you think about are roads and leave me a comment

Thanks for reading.

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Noverber 1, 2008 – 31 Days to Go.

By on November 1, 2008 in Travels

November is now upon us, and it is now it is almost full on winter. We have the snow, we are just waiting on the lakes to freeze so that we can embrace the full of winter. With our ice fishing, snowmobiling and going to the cabin. Thats my big one, once the lakes freeze I can get out to that paridize I have been making in my head for the last couple months. The place where I can escape Yellowknife for a couple of days and try to enjoy a simple life of hard work and survival. BUT until any of that we have to wait, and wait for about 31 days of boring crappy weather. Driving around on the icy roads, going to Tim Horton’s sitting waiting while drinking our coffees.

Buh Humbug, Grumpys Back.

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Okay, Here it is.

By on October 29, 2008 in Travels

Okay here it is. That beautiful fluffy white stuff, that we all have a little spot for in our hearts. Its here now though so we should embrace it, it what we got. Month from now will all be jetting around on our snowmobiles. The road were horrible so I had to throw the 4 wheel drive on and off I went  ……….. I’m stumped what to say about it, I’m lost of words how to describe it so here are some pictures.

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My Drive Home, Part 2, To Yellowknife

By on October 28, 2008 in Journal, Travels

Okay so your wondering what I ment when I said a Frozen Hell. After I crossed over the it started to cloud over and snow started to appear in the ditches. It all went down hill from there, the road became pure ice! After sliding around going at 110km/h I used what wisdom I had and slowed down to 80km/h. As I headed in to Enterprise the conditions got no better so I thought it would be safe to top up with gas and so I could gain back some confidence. For the next 2 hours I slowly gain speed. When I came to the Ferry there was imence construction happening and it was pretty cluttered. Already there was little bits of ice building up on the mightly river. Once across I the road were alot better I was able to travel at much better speeds, UP UNTIL RAE. Why is that road so bumpy, it was horrible. I was all over the place. A couple of times the sled really bounced in the box, but after a good hour of that bumping around I finally made it to Yellowknife. My home of the north…..for now.

Thanks for reading.

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I didn’t lead a boring life on Friday

By on October 27, 2008 in Journal

The last few days are now a blur and I can’t even remember what I did on Thursday.  So knowing that I will have to start with Friday, which was the day the truck had to go back to town. Bev and I left the house around 9am and arrived in Dawson about 9:45 and were able to quickly go get a chain and blade for one of Ken’s chainsaw. By the way never have I seen more Northern metallic Stores in my life there were about 5 different ones (all for different things) with in seconds of each other. It was confusing to say the least. By the time we finished there it was time to take the truck over to Fountain Tire to get them to fix the alignment, so that I could drive straight once again. It took them just under 2 hours to do that and in that time Bev and I walk down to Tim Horton’s where I enjoyed a Bagel Belt and Bev had a Double Toast Blueberry Bagel. I quickly had to go to Canadian Tire afterward to get some decal stuff for the truck which I will not be able to put on unless I get it into a heated shop because it is apparently cold here in Yellowknife now. Anyways we walked back up town and proceed to see if the truck was done, which it wasn’t. We continued on to VHQ and as we did we saw my truck leave for the test drive, so after we finished at VHQ we made our way back to Fountain tire where I got my truck back. Which drives in a straight line. We the hit up Co-op building store for electrical wire staples, and then to Peavey Mart. Which is now my ultimately favorite store, enough said. The store has it all. Its pretty much a Farmers dream, a hardware/clothing/princess auto store! I was able to get 2 pairs of bib-pants one being insolated for almost half what you would get charged at Marks Work Warehouse (previous favorite…). After we retired to Robins Donut Shop, the most relaxing place in town. I personally think it is a few notches slower than the rest of the town, which is nice because no one is ever in a rush to get in and then out again. The place is normally full of old farmers, who are there with their buddies enjoying life. It’s awesome. While we were there I took my truck over the Swervin Kervins to get the Thermostat fixed. I dropped it off at 1pm and he told me it would probably take just over an hour, so I went back to Robins and we sat talking there for another 45 minutes. Just as we were about to leave to go walk around downtown some more I got the call from Kervin saying my truck was done already. That was amazingly fast and I am very grateful for all of his help.  We got home, as Ken was finishing work, as we did we found out about the wonderful new that the power was off Yet again.  We as a group, DECIDED to go cut some more firewood. As we were driving out to the spot, I think some one lost some ambition. ….. Not going to name any one, Ken. But the lack of ambition and the fact that it did start to snow were both factors in the decision to go back home. Upon returning from the drive, we found still no power. After a quick discussion and a change of plan we left for dinner in Dawson. We had originally planned on pressure-cooked rids for super and then to Grand Prairie for super on Saturday.  Tony Roma it was, but for some reason it just wasn’t as good as pressure-cooked rids.  The power was still not on as we returned and did not come back on until 11pm that evening. The cause of the constant power outages was the 80km/h winds we were getting in the area. The trees would fall and would instantly short out the power wires. Friday was Eventful!

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