Road Trip

It has been awhile since I have traveled by plane.  However, I am fortunate enough to be invited back to Kitzbuhel for the 71st running of the Hahnenkamm.   HP was kind enough to let me have time off to attend this event even though I started with them at the beginning of December.

Having long since lost my Elite status for Air Canada, I was forced to travel in cattle class.  Working the system some, I did get an exit row seat, but the next time I should order the seat that has heat.  I was wearing everything I own about halfway through the flight.  I swear the air temp was about 15C or less for over half the trip.

I did watch the Social Network on the way over.  If you are a Facebook user (over 1/2 a Billion people are), you do need to watch this.  I wonder how much of it is true.

Since I am not in a rush today at all to get to Kitzbuhel, I sat down to wait for my bag to show up.  Yep, no Elite status with Air Canada, yet my bag is the first out.  Go Figure!  A few years ago, with my bag tagged priority I counted the number of bags ahead of mine.  It should have been in the first 20 or so.  Mine was 187.

While having breakfast here in the terminal, I was able to watch the first half of the Super Combined from Wengen.  The course looked pretty good and the Slalom race is later today.  The big DH at Wengen is tomorrow.  This is the longest course on the circuit and the guys are just exhausted at the finish.

In the center part of the terminal, Audi has a display (or is it store), complete with a mountain you can drive up and down on.  They didn't seem to like my Ontario driver's license, so no test drive for me.  I tried to see if I could take it home, 'duty free', but that didn't work either.

It also looks like the internet is becoming more available here.  Even Starbucks has free Wifi.  Just last year you'd have to pay for it.

My train to Kitz isn't until 12:44pm local time (6:44am for those you back in snowy Toronto).  It is warm here... about 10c.  Not good if you are doing the largest ski race in the world.

While purchasing my train ticket, the agent seemed to have trouble with my credit card and kept re-swiping it.  Apparently she charged me 3 times for  my ticket, and then immediately apologized.  She said it was easier to just give me cash in return, so being half asleep, I said sure.  Then, I remembered some scam about this sort of transaction showing up on my visa as a cash advance, which would not be a good thing.  I will have to call Visa when I get to the Villa Mellon just to be sure.

The cost of Hydro (Power that is)

I have lots of things that just plug into the wall (or require batteries that require charging).   That means that they consume energy at some point, with the end result that it ends up on my Hydro bill.

Over the summer, I saw that my canoe trip partner, Barb, had a cool device that sits on her kitchen counter and gives her an instant reading on how much energy she is using at any time.  And, it shows it in dollars and cents if you like.  The geek in me knew that I JUST had to have one.   In the past, you had to run outside and  just see how fast the Power Meter wheel was spinning.  New Smart Meters don't have that of course.

After a bunch of internet research, I found something called a TED 5000 from the Energy Detective.  You can also read more on their web site on just why and how.   I mentioned this to my friend and owner Angelo at Radio World here in Toronto.  He thought they were pretty cool and decided to stock them in the store.  Even National Geographic thought this device was so important that they mentioned in one of their news articles.

I liked this one as it actually clipped on the hydro lines (the BIG lines) inside my breaker panel (which required a little advanced hookup --- most of my friends would do this on their own).   Others should call an electrician.  There are other units that work by clipping onto your power meter, but I learned that they were hit and miss if they actually worked.  Even Walmart sells one from Black and Decker.  You'll need to see if it is compatible with your Hydro meter.

The instructions were excellent and the unit worked right away.  After using a computer to program it with the rates from Power Stream, I could see that it costs about $0.15/hr to run the house at peak dinner time.   I did have to grab my Power Stream Hyrdo bill to see what my On-Peak, Mid-Peak and Off-Peak rates will be.    Off-Peak is about half of what On-Peak is.  This is why we now use the dryer after 9pm or before 7am.

Then, I turned on the Oven for a test.  Wow.  We are now at $0.54 per hour.  Just for fun, I turned the dryer on as well.  Now, we are up to over a $1/hr.    Now, I will be able to watch just how expensive it will be to do the Christmas Turkey.  Or, I could do it on the BBQ or deep fry it (don't knock it if if you haven't tried it). Of course, the model I got that allows me to watch it online from my iPad or just about any computer if I wish.

We are fortunate that our Hydro in Canada is so inexpensive and we do take it for granted, but it does help for us to all thing just a little greener (except when it comes to snow :)  ).

Now, I need to get it integrated into Google Power Meter.  

My return to Canoe tripping

This trip report was totally written on my iPad, just to see if I could do it.

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July 2010 Canoe Trip - French River - Hwy 69 to Wolsely Bay

July 8th, 2010

This is the first trip for me in over 30 years. After having a 1948 Peterborough Champlain canoe refinished, it did deserver to be taken on a real trip. That brings us to today. Barb Schering (McKenny), Ken Smith and his son Keagan join me on this trip. Barb used to trip with me when we were members of the Chippewa Outers Club at Chippewa Seconday School in North Bay, Ontario back in the 70's. Ken has been a very close friend since high school and was the person responsible for my love for Ham radio (and technology). If it has electrons moving in it, then we have likely played with it.

The canoe was refinished by Headwater Canoe in Buckhorn Ontario. Dick did an amazing job, and although Buttercup was yellow in a previous life, she is now the classic canoe red and she is beautiful. Yes, she is still canvas, and yes, she will get scratched, but she is designed to be paddled. The canoe is owned by the Philps family and Carolyn (my better half) allowed me to have it refinished.

On the Thursday night before we left, we met at Ken's house in North Bay. As I had never tripped with him, it is important to make sure you take what you need and try not to carry any duplicate items, especially in the kitchen department. Barb, who loves to cook, had prepared the menu and all the major meals for us. This really helps if you have bad weather or a long day.

July 9th, 2010

We met in Sturgeon Falls for breakfast at about 6:30 in the morning. Ken's wife Holly provided vehicle support. From there we travelled to the French River trading post, dropped off the canoes, packs, etc. and picked up our French River park passes. While Ken and Barb got organized, Holly and I headed back to the end point to drop off my car (Wolsely Bay). About an hour round trip, and I was back to the start with the rest of team.

There has been very little rain or snow in this part of Ontario since about October of 2009. Lake Nipissing is down over a meter and it drains into the French River. The French, which is part of the Voyageur canoe route, is down about 2 meters (depending who you ask).

One thing you learn about the French is that when you can, you paddle from West to East, which is upstream. The French is a deep river and has slow currents. The wind however, blows from the west and that can make for a very easy canoeing day (something that was reinforced in our late August 2010 trip--more on that later in another blog entry).

As we approached our lunch stop, I had just given Keagan a lecture on being careful, don't get hurt and try not to cut your feet). I was trying to keep my sandals dry as I got out of the canoe at lunch and immediately slipped on a rock and cut my foot. Not good, as I do need this feet for portages.

There is a lot of cottages in this part of the French, so you will find lots of boat traffic to deal with. However, there is no power in this part of the river, so lots of cottages (or camps as you call them if you are from Northern Ontario) have alternate sources of power. The wind was building from the west through the day and we watched many other canoe groups struggle westbound while we enjoyed a relaxed paddle to the east.

New to me for canoeing is a GPS (what a surprise). I get rolling detailed maps on my Garmin GPS76, and I can see how fast we are really moving. What I learned during the summer is that you can plan on an average of about 4kph from the time you leave your campsite and reach your next campsite. This takes into account lunch, wind and portages.

As we set up for our first night out, Ken caught a nice looking Pike (which he released). I guess no one wanted to clean it.

We had a great dinner of Beaf Stroganoff at about 5:30pm (thanks Barb). Even then, it was about 24C and the 15kph winds from the west helped to keep bugs away (if there was really any). We all retired to our tents about sunset. I was just about to call it a night, when I looked out and was able to see the tail end of a great sunset with Venus very bright in the western sky and a great reflection on the water. So, I ran out, got eaten alive by mosquitos and in about 30 seconds, captured a great night photo.

July 10, 2010

We crawled out of bed about 5:45 am to a wonderful sunrise and a breakfast of Oatmeal and Baegels. It was a lazy morning and we left the campsite about 8:30. About 20 minutes later, my left foot started to swell (this is the other foot from the cut). I suspect that something bit me (spider?), and it was getting worse and feeling weird. We pulled over to open the pack and Barb pulled out some Benadril. That seemed to really help and about an hour later, I never really noticed that I had a problem in the first place.  Lesson 2 why you have to protect your feet.

The last time I was at any of the rapids was over 30 years ago and since the water was so low, they looked very foreign to me. Some rapids didn't exist, some we were able to paddle up, some we were able to walk up and a some still required a portage.

Our next campsite was at Blue Chute, which still looked like Blue Chute. However, the Ladder part was dry which you can normally paddle right up to.

The campsite is on top of the island and comes with a great view. But, if you want water, you have to walk down about vertical 50ft with your containers and water filters (we use one of the MSR pumps and it works great). But be careful, they don't float if you drop it.

It took awhile, but at this point, we finally had no cell signal at all. This does now take us fully off the grid with no Faceboo, etc.  Life did not end at that point and we didn't fall off the world.  

Blueberries were ready to be picked and in a very short time, we had lots for meals and a pie (that apparently has not been made yet as the blueberries are sitting in Barb's freezer).

July 11, 2010

Holly was to meet us at Wolsely Bay about 3pm, which was not 'that' far away. We didn't have to rush off the campsite at all. It was another very hot day and with the wind out of the west again. Before lunch we had navigated the rest of the swifts, lifts and portages to end up on the same body of water as Wolsely Bay. We stopped for lunch about a 40 minute paddle from the pickup point. Here, you could also see just how low the water was. This was our first time we had a headwind to deal with at times, even though we hugged the west shore to keep out of the wind. Lots of cottages here and we passed many people just out floating in their water toys trying to keep cool.

It was great to get back on the water in this way after being off it for so long. If you are a camping type of person, and haven't done a canoe trip, find some time to go. It makes for much more enjoyable trip if you go with someone who had done it before. Remember, that when you are packing, to divide things into 3 piles. Essentials, nice to have, and luxury. Take all the essentials (toilet paper is a great example), none of the nice to have and 1 of the luxuries...you will have to carry it at some time.

The entire gallery is here.  Some (if not most) of the pictures have GPS data on them, so, if you click here, you can see where each picture is on google earth.

Last, but not least, many thanks for Carolyn for letting me escape for 3 days in the woods!  What would I do without her!

Customer Server --- My A**

Having worked in Customer Service most of my life (if not all).  From the guy who takes the calls, who visits customers, talks to CIO, CFO's, and manages guys who talk on the phone, I figure that gives me the right to complain once in a while.  After all, I do have the T-Shirt!  :)

Let's talk Telus.  Up until 2 weeks ago, I really liked Telus.  But, I had only used their data services (one for my air card and 1 for my iPad).  So, based on that, I decided to trash Bell Cellular and move to Telus for my phone service.  I got a great deal.  Almost twice the services I had before for about the same price (still the most expensive cellular plans of anywhere in the world).

And, after 10  years of using a Blackberry, I decided to jump to a Motorola Android Milestone.  After all, technology is my hobby, so why not.   This phone took some getting used to.  However it has some amazing features.  In a large number of cases it is leaps and bounds better than a Blackberry.

Until 2 weeks ago.  It started doing weird things.  First off, it doesn't have smart dialing.  (You blackberry guys know what that is--if you need to add 1 in front of your phone number it does it automatically).  Great if you have over 2000 phone numbers in your address book.

About 50% of the time, you can't seem to dial the number you want.  Even if the number is in memory.  You get a Telus message "8UT2 - the number can't be completed as dialed".  So, you try 8-10 times and it eventually goes through.

The final straw is it starts to play music on its own.  Nice at 3am.  :)

So, I call Telus (again).  They've never heard of this problem, yet a simple search shows hundreds reporting the problem in North America and the UK.  Telus transfers me to Motorola.  Guess what?  They've never heard of the problem either.

After 2 hours of being on the phone, the short story is that Telus/Motorola want me to send my phone in for repair?  Repair?  Just send me new software.  (Did I mention that Telus replaced this phone once.  It was to be 10 minute visit to the store, but some reason it took over 2 hours do the exchange).    Even Rogers is better than that!

To add insult to injury, I can't return it now or exchange it for a Blackberry unless they agree it is a Lemon.  To get that status, it has to be sent in at least 3 times.  You've got to be kidding!

Not to sound so negative, there is good out there.  If you've noticed that most of my pictures are GEOTAGed with GPS coordinates.  I have a special device attached to my Nikon D300 (essentially a GPS) from the great guys at Di-GPS.  It gets abused some (hence the reason I use nothing by Nikon).  Lately, the special 10 pin connector that plugs this into the camera has started to become intermittent.

After emailing Di-GPS in Hong Kong, I get an email back a few hours later.  CM tells me that if I can solder (can I solder??? Of course I can), that he will through a cable in the mail to me.  No charge!  My hats off to Dawn Technology.  Many thanks guys!

As an aside, I did squeeze in a 3 day canoe trip on the French River a few weeks back.  I owe a detailed update, which I will do shortly, but here are some pictures.  And you can see the GPS mapped pictures here.

French River

Just about to start a 3 day canoe trip. :)

Happy Canada Day

Today is Canada Day.  Today we get to celebrate yet another new Tax in Ontario.  Good thing it isn't Ontario Day!  :)

Like I wrote in a previous blog about a year ago, I will spend some parts of today working the Radio Amateurs of Canada Ham Radio Contest.  Yes, some of us call that fun.  To me, it is about the technology and how I get all these things to play well together.  For most hams, all their equipment is on the table(s) beside them.  For me, it is all far away.  That means I have to be able to control things via remote control.  For the most part, it works wonderfully.

For you technically inclined, this is what my computer screen view looks like:

You may want to click on the picture to see it clearly (or not).  :)

Have a happy Canada Day!

What a sad day to be a Canadian

Today is the G20 in Toronto. I'm someone who really isn't in to politics. I don't really agree with all the laws, taxes, etc., that are in place, but, I love my country, the true north strong and free. The G20 is an event that has to happen (I guess). But then, what why can't they just all use GoToMeeting? Certainly a lot less than the $1 Billion that was spent on this event. But you can't always fit city hall.

But, today, I am embarrassed to be a Canadian. Certainly, everyone has to have their say, and if you wan to protest, fine. And, for the most part, it seems that 99% of those protesting just want to be heard. However, the rest of the cowards out there that have to wear masks to push the envelope, and damage both public and private property can just get back on their bus and head to some far island. These can't be Canadians that have this sort of attitude, can they? (Wait, don't answer that).

My contribution to the G20 Summit was to NOT be around it. I spent the day at the cottage in the Kawarthas. It rained most of the day, but who cares. The skies cleared about dinner time, so after dinner, I jumped in my 1948 Peterborough canoe and had a very wonderful paddle over to some wet lands.

Not by accident, I had my Nikon D300 with me and the 300mm f2.8 lens. I was rewarded with some great shots of some loons and some serious close ups of the Ospreys. That, made me proud to be a Canadian. The Osprey was radio tagged (go figure, that I find the only animal round with a radio on him. Maybe he was working ARRL Field Day!).

As for those idiots and cowards, maybe that need to listen to "The Cherry Beach Express" by Pukka Orchestra.  52 Division must have had it right.

So, enjoy the pictures.  This is how you spend a Saturday being a Canadian!  More photos on my gallery.