I'm not sure if the blogger god is going to let me put up pics seems to be pretty slow. Cold today -44 this morning at 11a.m. -47 for tonight.

I spoke to the pilot from yesterday's accident, she's fine and should be flying again soon. It's very satisfying to know that you had a hand in a successful outcome to something like that.

But we train for it. and practice it. I'm constantly running little "table top" excercises in my mind.

Oh, there's the pic, some dude walking out in the -41 weather. When it gets this cold there's this haze around. It's mechanical fog from all the vehicles and furnaces, you would think it stinks; but it doesn't.

what a day...

Well people like me try and go through a whole career without having to do it. But today my number came up. We had a plane crash today just off my airport.
If you scroll down you can see the one that was involved. That will probably be the last pic of that plane. There were three people on board and all are fine. One was an infant. It was -40 this morning. Needless to say I was amped! less than an hour later all were in the health center.
The mom and baby had already lost 2 degrees core body temp. Hypothermia was a very real possibility.
I can proudly say that I handled my part in typical top form and all emergency response personnel were singing my praise by this afternoon.
I smell an award! or a commendation letter at least. The RCMP in particular were impressed.
(one officer stated that I was the only one who seemed to know what to do). I'm not sure why,but the more reason there is to get excited, the calmer I become.
In emergency reponse, this is essential.

back in the deep freeze

All weekend it's been cold, -36 to -40 and saturday morning a peak windchill of -46 it's -38 outside right now, but no wind, so it's not too bad. Just kidding, IT'S BRUTAL !

here's a pic of dawn on the highway to Hay River, about 9:30 a.m.

And a pic of Coleman and Cardigan sleeping off a bottle. Miranda weighed him today- not quite 4 months and 17lbs.

there goes the neighborhood

Cell phones have arrived in Fort Simpleton. Indeed they have even made it into our home.

I don't like them, grumble grumble. To be honest(as some of you already know) I didn't even have a regular phone until Miranda and I got together.

I'm reminded of Jeff Goldblum's line from Jurassic Park "just because we can do something, doesn't necessarily mean we should".

Here endeth the lesson. Oh you weren't talking to me? sorry didn't see the cell phone tucked in yer ear hole there.

Hay River, here we come

Miranda and I, that is to say Melinda and myself are going to Hay River tomorrow to get the truck serviced. It's about 400 km away, so we'll leave around five or five-thirty in the A.M. I'll take the camera in case we see anything other than trees and snow. And we'll probably come back right away that night.

Here's a few pics from the last few days.

One of Simpson Air's Cessna 206s lands safely at Fort Simpson Island strip. Although this strip is located right in town(behind my house)-the airport I work at is 7.5 miles SW of town(14km by road) I'm still responsible for Air Traffic Services for Simpson Island.

My Station is unique in that we have Two airports, Three seperate Helipads and a water aerodrome(float planes) in our Area Of Responsibility. It gets very busy. Anyhoo, enough shop talk(Beckers says I'm a work-a-holic).

Pic of Coleman in here somwhere gorfing on his fist. And of course, me and the dad look that can stop a four year old dead in her tracks!

Holy Cow! minus 6 degrees!!!

Last night at midnight it was minus 2 and this morning minus 6, Global Warming I guess.
Doing some outside work today, picking up my kicker from the old place and moving the company car over to our new house.
Frank, you got that right, I should post a then and now pic, the aging I've done in the last five years is scary, doctors attribute it to the shift work, and yeah the aging gene.
last I saw the Grizzly Adams gene was dominant in you(the beard)

Coupl'a' pics for ya

Here's a few pics, Charlene says "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."

Me and Beckers and of course the Cool man Coleman.

I have a week off. In the last three months, we've had a baby, the Holidays, bought, painted and moved into a new house; while at the same time putting 60 plus hours a week in at the airport. So I took a few days to recharge my batteries.

In response to your question, the University of Calgary along with NASA and the CSA operate a GBO in Simpson GBO=Ground Based Observatory. I currently look after one of those and have been involved from day one with site selection.

The University of Calgary Department of Physics and Astronomy are the project managers for this and another very similar project that utilizes an ASI (All Sky Imager) designated Rainbow Two. NASA and the CSA aren't involved with this one though it basically does the same thing. Just studying the northern lights folks! nothing important going on.

I actually got my first look at it on Saturday(the ASI). the one benefit to this one is it's located in a self contained building WITH HEAT! whereas the NASA one works better, you gotta be outside to work on it. I'm not sure when I'll find out if I'll be actually taking that one on, but it makes sense to have me do as much as I can, so those guys don't have to fly up every time there's a problem.

Saves them a bucket load of money and puts a little extra in my pocket. Plus it's nice to be able to find creative solutions to difficult problems.

Here's one of Coleman with Cardigan the Giraffe. Charlene comes up with the strangest names for stuffed toys; she has one named Cornea and she named Coleman's Giraffe.

Charlene's uncle Johnathan made her a snow cave in a drift.

I'm starting my own business and came up with a cool name: CHARCOLE Remote Site Services, It's a play on words, obviously made up of half of Charlene's name and half of Coleman's. I'm still working on a logo. I'll be doing some more stuff with the University Of Calgary, so it seemed like a good idea. i also bought a new digital camera so you guys will be sick of me pretty soon!

It's about flippin' time!

Coleman in all his half-grinning glory. He is huge! a sleeper meant for a six month old looks like a sausage casing on him. Well that's it for today, I was outside all day today working on the GBO(NASA thing) and it was like -27 most of the day, finally finished at about 9 tonight and I am Exhausted!!!

We are back on line

But one of the kids broke Miranda's camera just before christmas so no pics. We start moving in to our house tomorrow. It looks nice in there. the missus did a good job picking out the colors..especially since she didn't decide until about twenty minutes before we started painting.
Coleman is getting huge-I feel bad for no new pics. Rebecca is back with us again and we oredered her a new camera for xmas should be here soon, so pics coming.(I was gonna get Miranda a new camera for xmas and she said don't bother) shoulda.
We'll be offline for a couple of days while we move but normal ops after that.
Oh yeah, I recieved an award for outstanding contribution for that project I look after for NASA and the Canada Space Agency. I'll scan it in and post it. Hand signed by the CEO and president of the CSA. When the end of the world comes they are going to let me on the escape ship. But I'm not supposed to say anything about that, yeah we're just studying the northern lights folks nothing to get excited about...go back to what you were doing...forget I said anything.