Yes, Calgary is still here...

Yes, Dave has fallen of the face of the Earth. Oh. There. He's back again...

While the rest of the country gets hammered with snow, we just get the cold. The long range forecast calls for a warming trend, but by the time the long range turns into the short range, it continues cold. No justice.

Pre-Christmas activities are rampant. Much secret preparation is underway, and not appropriate for publicating in this medium.

Natalie finally lost one of her top front teeth, and is thrilled to have a GAP. For some reason, thisis desirable.

Speaking of teeth, I now have a date for the removal of my braces: Jan 7th they come off. That's the good news. The bad news is that my teeth still aren't finished moving yet, so the orthodontist is going to employ another device called a POSITIONER. Sort of like a full upper & lower retainer, but instead of keeping my teeth where they are, it continues to force them into the place she ought to be. It's a neat idea: they took new moulds of my teeth last month, and from the castings, the create a form of what my teeth look like now. Then they send it to a specialized lab who reconstructs the teeth into the position they really should be. then they build the positioner based on the ideal positions. So I clench on this form for 4 hours per day (and all night) for some number of months until the teeth move to thier final destinations. Only then do I get the retainers. Fun, wow...

We're getting ready for the Christmas season at the Church, and the contemporary music group will be doing the 7:00 pm Christmas eve service, with a total of about a dozen songs. It'll be the first time we play in the church proper, instead of the adjoining Gym, were we have our usual Sunday morning services.

We picked up the christmas tree at Ikea on the weekend, and for $20, with a $20 off coupon for next january, it's a good deal.

Halloween

Halloween saw Natalie as a BAT and Benjamin as a Cereal Killer.

There's another strike brewing at the CPR. The CAW, to whom the Car shop employees belong, has finished negotiations and has entered conciliation with the railroad. The management staff have begun strike preparedness training. After spending the better part of a month in Salmon Arm in May, I've told the company that I'd be happy to work the strike, but that I need to stay in Calgary. They've told me they happy to accommodate me. So we'll see. It'll be the end of January, if it happens at all. My job will be servicing locomotives: cleaning the cab, changing brake shoes, filling the oil and water reservoirs. Not rocket science, by a long shot. And Buzz Hargrove has MANY years of negotiating, so I really don't think he'll drop the ball on this one.

As for the Rudolph quiz, I got only 1 wrong. Without Googling. There's a book of Rudolph facts which I read last year, and it covers most of that stuff.

More soon, I hope.

dave.