| October 2005 log |
| Tuesday, November 1, 2005 Today was a day of planning and what to do. After being gone from home (Olds, that is) for over 2 months, there seems a ton of loose ends that need to be fixed. Add on that the thought of leaving the country in 5 days for an unspecified amount of time tends to have it's own list of necessary accomplishments. We are finding that it might be possible to drive down, turn around and apply for another work visa at the border, thus skipping the whole application process through Seattle. We are still looking into this. Wednesday, November 2, 2005 More planning and process. We found out that there are several routes that I can take to get back in. The question is: what is the most likely that they will accept? Had supper at the Kary's with Jim and Leslie as well as Andrew. Stopped in and visited with Beat and Clivia Graf this evening as well. Friday, November 4, 2005 Worked in the office in the morning, then headed up to Wetaskiwin in the late morning. John and Bill were both putting a blade on their tractors, so I got in and helped a bit. Not much I could do, but lean on a bar and run the 3/4" impact. The evening was up there too. Saturday, November 5, 2005 On the advice from a CIC officer, I headed down to the US / Canada border to re-apply for a work permit. I left Friesen's at 6:30am, and drove to the office here in Olds. After a couple hours of packing my computer and thing that I would need for a couple months in Idaho, I headed out at around 10:45. The drive down was about 4 hours from Olds. Took a break along the way for a 15 min snooze. At the border, I went out, and then circled back in. The CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) Officer reviewed my paperwork and decided not to give me another work permit. But she was nice to give me another Visitor's visa for 2 weeks, so I headed home. Made it back at around 9:30 pm, and I was beat! Sunday, November 6, 2005 At church, it was good to meet everybody again. It is always hard in one sense, because everybody asks what's going on and you have to explain things over and over again. Which is fine, - that's just life! This was the first time I've been here in over 2 months, so there was a lot of catching up going on. But the thing is that you can't get to everybody either. That's why it's hard in another sense. After church, I went home and slept for two and a half hours. I think the trip yesterday tired me out more than physically. Then was the Thankoffering at church. They have a big feast (turkey, mashed potatoes, etc, etc, etc) and then we all moved into the sanctuary and had a quick update of what everyone was doing. Then was the offering, and we watched the movie: Beyond the Gates of Splendor. I thought it was very well done, but there was a little room for improvement content wise - more of the spiritual aspect. But still a very stunning and serious DVD. Interesting - that the offering was just under $70,000. A very generous group of people. It is neat to know that when people give to the Lord, they are "laying for themselves" treasure in heaven! The giver is truly blessed more than the one receiving. (But it does help the one receiving to give as well, eh? :) Monday, November 7, 2005 We called another CIC officer to discuss our situation and find out what the best plan is. After a while, it became clear that I need to leave Canada and apply for a permanent residence. So, I'll be packing up to head to Idaho and apply from down there. There's good and bad in all this, but I do believe it will work out for the best. Now I have to decide what to take and what to leave behind - and git 'er done by next Monday. Ran to Wendy's / the bank / Canada Post / Gas Bar / ExtraMart. Tuesday, November 8, 2005 It's interesting, trying to figure what you need to do / pack / take with you when you'll be gone for up to a year. It's not like I won't be back before then - I already have plans to go up North for Christmas (well, New Years this time) so there will be chances to stop in and spend some time here with folks as well as pick up a few things. So, today was a day of loose ends. Like getting a "Letter of Compliance" from GM so I can import my truck at the border. Copying DVD's of the Bible Camp we had in Idaho a few weeks before (I made CD's, but they were missing a couple files, so I decided to start over and stick it all on one DVD.) And running through the application forms, looking them over for pieces of information that will be helpful to know early. It was Missy's birthday and Sarah's is not to far off (or visa-versa), so we celebrated over at the Kary's. Jim and Barney flew to Toronto for a SEO seminar. Roger and Renee made it back yesterday and to the office today. Almost forgot - I also burned James Hatton's "Motive for Missions" lecture onto DVD. It was already edited, so it just a matter of copying it to the HD, applying the MP2 squeeze, a little audio sweetening, importing to Sonic Scenarist for the DVD authoring, and burning 6 copies. Most of this was done while other things were being accomplished, so it wasn't too bad! Wednesday, November 9, 2005 In the evening, I put together a Powerpoint slideshow for Andy. He is a very creative guy and was fun to do this for him (an slideshow for his father that was on Powerpoint, we recorded the narration and put it on DVD.) Took about 3.5 hours for a 9 min video. Thursday, November 10, 2005 Edited a message that John Cross spoke in Coeur d'Alene Bible Church (CBC) from a few weeks back. It wasn't much to it, really - just replacing parts where he stumbled and cut a lot of things out to help smooth it out. I forget what else happened today. Friday, November 11, 2005 Today was supposed to be the packing day. Well, and it was for the most part. I did manage to get most of the equipment packed from my office (computer, MiniDV deck, mixer, archive DVD's and anything else I could think of.) Today we also set up to pack the DVD Videos. I didn't actually pack, but help get some things together. We found out that we didn't have DVD #2, so we couldn't finish the job. They'll have to mail some up from Idaho to finish. Roger and Renee took me out to the DQ for supper - which was nice. After getting things set up, I headed North to Wetaskiwin to spend the weekend there w/ Friesens. Mark and Teresa are were there, so it was a neat time to spend with them as well. Mark is Mary Ann's brother who is down from Lacrete. 10:15: Mark, John and I went to town to look at trucks. Apparently it's a tradition whenever Mark comes down. McDonalds sundays on the way home. Saturday, November 12, 2005 Up late. French toast and bacon for breakfast. We hung around this morning, trying to figure out what is the best thing to do with the day and the kids and all. I put together a CD for Friesen of (most) all the pictures I took of the fam up here, which was about a full CD's worth (600 photos). So, the kids stayed home and the rest of us went to Edmonton. Mark had an appointment at 3:00, so we stopped at Kelsey's for lunch (just appetizers) and headed out. Made it in time for the appointment (that was supposed to be 5 min. long.) 30 min later we were on our way again. For some reason, we ended up at the West Edmonton Mall (the largest mall in the world.) Oh, we walked around here for a time and a half, stopping at The Brick and LD. Leaving here, we went first to The Keg to see if we could get in for supper. An hour and 45 min wait - so we kept looking. Montana's was the next stop, so we tried there. Only 40 min - so we hung out at Best Buy till our time. Supper wasn't bad, but could have been a little better. For one I should have ordered a salad instead of the beans, but live and learn, eh? We talked about different things, one of which was home-schooling. Well, it was a long day of not much being completed it seemed. And that was nice in one sense, but sure wore you out for 'no apparent reason' which doesn't leave any sense of accomplishment at the day's end. There was the fellowship, and that is worthy. Came home to cheese cake and pumpkin pie and coffee. Sunday, November 13, 2005 The night was different. I had to get up and make sure that the younger dog's muzzle was still on. See, I put it on last night, and thought that it came off 'cause she started barking at 6:30. It wasn't a big deal, but because I put it on, I guess it was my responsibility, so I better fix it. So I did - I went out and it was still on. So I tried to get it on tighter. No problem. Still barking, though! So the second time out, I took the duct tape. I did try to get it on nice and tight, but it didn't work. I drove out to church, which started 9:30. Jack was there, a missionary from Wycliffe, who was speaking. Jo, his wife, wasn't there because she had other arrangements. But he did have some good things to share. After church was a putluck dinner. I sat with Henry Busing, Don Hudabey, and a couple other guys that I can't remember. Once I got back to Friesens, I got on Justin's PlayStation and started racing. Mary Ann and Teresa took the kids swimming, so it was just Mark, John and I hung out this afternoon. At one point, the dogs were out in the field across the way, and
John wanted to get them home. So he took his 270 and started shooting
behind them. Tyra is scared of gunfire and started running. The
other, younger dog ran home (towards the gunfire.) Just trying to
make a boring afternoon a little more exciting... Tyra ran off to
the North, so John and Mark went looking for her.
Mark drove John and I to Camrose, where we met up with the rest at Pizza Hut. It was a good deal - we bought 2 large pizzas - one hand tossed, the other deep dish. Well, they brought out 2 deep dish pizzas -- and so they got us another - for free. That was a good thing because we ate all but 1 piece. Monday, November 14, 2005 I was planning on leaving Wetaskiwin in the morning, make it home in time to finish packing my stuff in my apartment and then fill up my truck for an early drive on Tuesday. But John had a couple things to do in Wetaskiwin Proper and Camrose, so I hitched a ride for grins. The stipulation was that it should take a couple hours, but could run into 4 hour or so. Well, sparing the details, we got back to John's house at around 2:15 if I remember correctly. Stopping at Staples in Red Deer, that put me home at around 4:00. Now it was time to move Jim and Les' fridge. That took till around 7:00- it was a big fridge, going up stairs that had a turn in it. There was a half hour with no power too, but fortunately it was when we were still trying to figure how best to get it up stairs. After that, I had some time to pack up my stuff. It wasn't much really - but still hard to do being as tired as I was. Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Finished packing the apartment and moved that to the shed. The tailgate froze, so I had to stick the truck in the shed and put a heater under it (I still had to pack my computer and office stuff yet.) I think I headed off at around 10:00 AM. About an hours' worth of errands in town and then I headed south. Due South. Earlier in the day, I left a message with Rod Johnson's voice mail jail, letting him know we were coming through as well as asking if I could stop. Well, he called back about 30 min before I was to drive through Calgary. It worked out well. I got the tour of Wycliffe and Rod's job there. The main purpose was to see their video editor, but he was gone. So we talked about servers and networks and all that. We went to lunch at Earls. The rest of the drive to Idaho was un-eventful.
On this trip I finally stopped to take a photo of "The World's
Largest Truck" in Sparwood, BC. Supper at Subway, Cranbrook. The border crossing was just fine. The officer asked a lot of questions, but was very pleasant, and in the end let me go w/ no problems. Sure glad about the driving lights on the truck - they really help out a lot. With them I made it to the Leger's place by about 9:30. Wednesday, November 16, 2005 Unpack and setup. That's the name of the game for today. Got most of it done, but some loose ends need to be put away. The truck is still full of my personal stuff - not sure what to do with that yet. Friday, November 18, 2005 Took the morning and put together another Lamb Audio CD - this one without the review sections, but with the songs. Also, on this, I put an extra track break before the verses, so that one can jump to that quickly, for practice purposes. It will play through as one complete story. We received a call saying that at 2:00, a truck with 9 pallets
of books is coming. We thought it would be tight fitting them all
in the warehouse here. So, at 1:30 a truck pulled up The second shipment was The Lamb, both in English and Spanish (first time!!). After that, some packages came that had a new audio recorder as well as a Whit Muslin backdrop. So I spend the afternoon getting familiar with these things. Nobi wanted to watch Matagascar after supper. I stayed through half of it, then went to bed. Saturday, November 19, 2005 Tom and I went to Buck Knives, Inc, as they were having a warehouse sale today (up to 70% off.) I bought a discontinued model as well as a couple sharpening stones. Chuck and CJ Buck were there signing knives too, so Tom and I had
him sign a couple for us. It was interesting shaking hands with
them, as they have helped out missionaries all over the world donating
seconds / returns to us. I had one little knife I got from NTM that
he signed too. Sunday, November 20, 2005 Went to church with the Legers - CBC. Derek was running the sound, and did a good job. We went to the first service, then came home and listened to Charlie. After lunch, I headed for a nap. There was an evening service, where there was a choir and a thanksgiving service. There was also communion. It was a good time. Tuesday, November 22, 2005 Continued working on the product photography. Thursday, November 24, 2005 The day started out with a friendly game of football from the local
chuch youth group. Then we ate supper and went for a walk. Friday, November 25, 2005 Spend the day cutting a doorway into unit #7 into unit #8. It did take longer than I thought. There was an electric line that had to be moved, and learned a little in working with flexible conduit. Nothing major, just the experience working with the stuff. Saturday, November 26, 2005 Electrical day - put in a 4 way between the new door and the old and Lloyd's door. The electric was really a mess, because it was changed over several times in the history of the building. But through the course of the day I was able to fix several things. But when it was done, there was time to clean up, and thankful I was able to get it finished in time for supper. After supper, Tom and I finised up the sheetrock in the corner of his garage. Sunday, November 27, 2005 Went with Barney and Mary Ann to church - in Post Falls, ID. Daniel 11, which was very good. Monday, November 28, 2005 Work in the office Tuesday, November 29, 2005 Today Barney and I went down to meet with Marc - a local ISP provider who is helping us set up the servers from which we can host our sites, as well as others. Here Wednesday, November 30,2005 Have to check
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| December 2005 log |
