Snow

last night was the first time, in about a year and a half that i had seen the ground completely covered with snow. It was pretty cool. I had been inside all evening dealing blackjack, which i'm getting better at but still need to practice adding 7's, they're hard!, but when i left the casino at 2:30am everything was peaceful. The snow was still falling, it wasn't too cold out, and the world had a whitish-orange glow to it through a combination of the downtown street lights and the waning full moon.

Today i had to take my car in to get new winter tires put on. Last night i got to experience both extremes of winter, my likes and dislikes. The first snowfall, the ground covered with fresh snow blanketing everything in white is one of the beautiful sights to me. However, driving in wet,snowy conditions, with all the sludge, brown snow, black ice and residue from cars in not particularly picturesque. i had been shopping around earlier that day for decent deals on winter tires because i knew that the ones i had on my car currently, i still don't officially know if they are all season or summer tires, would not be very safe for winter driving conditions.
driving home from the casino last night made that inkling very clear.

The road to our house is windy, has a few inclines and at one point does a complete U-turn. As i turned on to this road i had to slow down considerably because it hadn't been plowed yet and everything was very slippery. every time i braked the car seemed to skid because it had next to no traction in those conditions. so i slowed down as i entered a decline and slowed down even more as i hit the U-turn. as the road started to incline the car proceeded to lose traction and for the majority of the drive up the hill the wheels were spinning out because it couldn't find any grip. i ended up having to tap the gas just to keep it at 20km/hr and to give the tires some time to find some sort of grip.

luckily i made it home is one piece, i did have the advantage of driving home late at night so that there weren't other cars getting mad and passing me as i tried to make my way up the hill. that could have made things a lot worse.

but i digress...as i was waiting for the new tires to be installed, which (grandma) you'd like to hear i got an amazing deal on some higher end tires, i was having a look at the vineyards and orchards in the surrounding area and having that thin layer of snow fall blanketing them made everything look that much more breath-taking.

life in Kelowna

has been incredibly busy!
but things are plugging along and i've been keeping busy. Hence the neglecting of the regular up-dates. though that argument can be countered by the fact that in the past i've been not busy and not up-dated either. but this time my excuse is legit.
October was a month of trying to get settled, figuring out what life in Kelowna had to offer and figuring out the basics of everyday life. Time was taken exploring the region, the city, figuring out how to get around, what to do and, of course, job search.
November has involved living that life. I've had to take on a few cash-flow jobs in order to meet living needs and have been busy with those, banquet serving at the coast capri hotel and blackjack dealing at the local casino. I had my first shift last week and enjoyed it and am looking forward to my next shift tomorrow.
This past week i've been too busy with work to focus on my job search, working 16hr days does not leave room in the day for much more than working and sleeping, with a little bit of eating thrown in there for flavour.
however, this week i'm spending the days doing the job search, i have a few more leads on potential employers, and then working at the Casino or banquets in the evenings. I'm hoping more on the casino because it is more fun, i think.

ps. i also had an awesome hr long chat with some friends in the UK today and that totally made my day!

Adventures in Kelowna

I don't have any pictures to show for the first 3 weeks i've been living here in kelowna. Erin was the one taking all the pictures and i haven't had the chance to steal them from her computer yet.

Anyways, i've also been quite busy with establishing a new life here in Kelowna. Since moving here i've been busy looking for work, learning how to career search, network, and meet people in the community. After all that, there is little time left for blogging.

However, now it is sunday evening, and i'm all alone at home want for things to do so i thought i'd share some of my stories with everyone. This weekend Erin left for Montreal for her Project Coordinator training with Katimavik. She will be gone for 5 months and i'll be here in Kelowna looking for work. Hopefully i'll have some bites on my hook by the time she gets back.

Luckily for me my cousin Marcus came down from Kelowna for a visit and mangaed to full the Erin void for a day or so. Well as best he could. :P
Not only was he in Kelowna for a few short hours before the excitment started. At a quarter to 12 a red Civic honda crashed into the front yard of the house that Erin and I are renting. The car, as best we could figure, was speeding down the road, lost control and skidded off the main road. He crossed the front drive of the neighbours house, hit a fire hydrant on it's right (passenger side) then swung 180 degrees and landed right-side up in the front yard, about 5-8 feet away from the house and about 2-3 feet away from the boat parked in the front of the house. for the local news write-up of the story, go here.

Damage to the house below us.


The Car in the front yard


Mudslide into the houses below.


The Hydrant


The flow path, after the water had been shut off.




Marcus and I tried to help, we filled a few sandbags and positioned them so that they would divert the water away from the house. However, soon after we got to work emergency crews, in conjunction with B.C. Hydro, managed to shut off the water. I did manage to get a video with my digital camera.


The flowing water managed to erode nearly all the soil away from the right side of the house, fill our patio and the back yard with a ton of mud, and flood the houses that are down the hill below us. The one house's back yard is completely covered in Mud and the basement flooded with about 2 feet of water.

After all was said and done there was little damage done to our house, there is a bit of moisture in our closet and the spare room that Darren and His family use, but other than that things are fine.

Marcus and I had a great time hanging out. we did a little shopping in the afternoon, then had diner and went to catch a movie downtown. We saw "into the wild."
It was a really awesome movie and i suggest people go and have a look at it. I feel it was really well acted and the direction and cinematography were done beautifully. (That is saying a lot considering i really dislike Sean Pen).

Today i dropped Marcus off at the bus depot and headed home to just chill. I cleaned up a bit, watched me some Avatar, and then made a few phone calls.

This week looks like it'll be promising. I have a temp job lined up for mon-wed, then thurs and fri can be dedicated towards the job search and networking. I passed my Blackjack dealers course last week and will be starting a part-time job as a Blackjack dealer. This on top of my Banquet serving job will keep me pretty busy for the next couple of weeks. so don't blame me if i don't update this thing again right away. but i will try to be more diligent in the future.

Marcus and I, Sunday Afternoon


Well i'd best be going. enjoy the videos, links, pictures and other media!
Rob.