not THAT cold out

Charlene and her auntie Harley play on Grandma's new Ski-doo, it's -35 outside, but these kids don't even notice. we hit -48 yesterday morning, so -35 is a major improvement and seems almost bearable. I'll be back in a bit. gotta chauffeur the kids around.

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)