Oh Deer

Background to set the stage - Grandma and grandpa have been planning to go to Utah for months.   I think the original plan for for them to be there for Conference (first weekend in October).   But they had a little accident in there car in September.  Someone ran into them when they were stopped a red light in Lethbridge.  It took six weeks for them to get their car fixed.   They got it back a week ago Tuesday  and it looked great.  We left for SLC Thursday last week.
         

We started driving home on Thursday this week.   On the road between Butte and Helena we encountered blowing snow with whiteout conditions.   We followed a semi going about 30 - 35 miles an hour.   Then the snow stopped but we had snow covered roads but the sanding trucks had been through so it wasn't that bad.   On one pass however, there was shear ice.  No sanding trucks had been there yet.   It was on the downhill for us.   It was probably one of the worst roads I've driven on - ice on a hill.  But the driver in the truck in front of me was smart (or he just did what the truck in front of him did).   He drove so the tires on one side of the vehicle were on the rumble strip (the ones that wake you up if you drive over them).   I did the same and it gave us enough traction to keep us from sliding all over.    In the inside lane there were vehicles that weren't so lucky.  They had stopped because they were sliding into the guardrail on the left side.   The folks in Hawaii may not remember this but sometimes the road is so slippery that when you try to drive you slide downhill even if its sideways.   That is what was happening to them.   On the uphill side of the road even the sanding truck was not moving and there was as about a mile of vehicles just sitting there because they couldn't make it up the hill.  But we safely made it to Helena.
     

All of that just to set the stage - and to let you know that we did have some scary driving.
    

Yesterday the weather was clear and warmer.   No snow or rain.   Excellent driving conditions.  We came through the border as it was getting dark.    I was driving by Warner and a deer jumped out in front on me from the median.   I slammed on the brakes and swerved to the left to miss it.   I thought we were going to miss it but it just caught the outside corner of the car.   So 10 days after they get it back from the body shop this happens.

We called 911 and it took about an hour for the RCMP to arrive.   He said it was because they got another 911 call about the same time we called from some else who hit a deer about 2 or 3 miles from where we were.   The RCMP responded to that call first.  Plus we didn't know where we were.   We were further down the road than we thought so he had to drive further down the highway to find us.   Ironically grandpa was looking at getting a GPS when we stopped at Costco in Helena but concluded he didn't need one because he would only be going place he knew how to get to.   As we waited for the RCMP to show up we realized that the GPS would have told us exactly where we were.


Another irony is that I accompanied them on the trip so they wouldn't have to drive.  (See Wilma's blog  - scroll down to see a picture of "Mom and Dad with their faithful and loving chauffeur.")  Family members worried about them driving that far by themselves.   Family members will now have to make sure someone accompanies me when I go places so they won't have to worry about me driving.
    
The good news was that while it looks bad, it appears to be only body damage and the car was drivable. The signal lights didn't work but the RCMP officer told us just to just give lots of notice before turning.  (Hmmm.  How do you do that at night if you don't have signal lights?)   He was actually a funny guy and could have done the report in half the time but he liked to chat.   He asked all about the Prius.  He told me that he took one for a test drive and thought he was on a space shuttle.   He also showed me the new on board camera in the police car that they have to record everything except it doesn't work because they haven't turned it on yet - they won't let them until they are trained.   That all came up because the moved the dome light to install the camera but the camera is in the way so that where he has to write is in a shadow.   This could also explain why it took him so long to get to us.  He visited with the other folks too -  I know that because he told me all about that accident.
    
We made it back to PB okay.
  
Trivia:  Did you know know that there are only 2 places you need a signal light between Warner and Picture Butte?

My first on the road blog update

 

So I'm sitting in the car at JC Penny's in Helena, Montana and I'm doing my first "On the road blog update"

    

Grandpa and I are waiting in the car for grandma.  She went into JC Penny's to check out a few things.  I pulled out the computer and lo and behold - there is wireless internet access.  

I used Photobooth and the laptop to take this picture of us in the car.

  

Just to prove we are at JC Penny's

    

and we are in the parking lot

    

I love Google.  They now have video chat.  It came out this week.   I tried it while waiting and Alana was online.  I can do the Jetson video phone thing while sitting in a car in a parking lot.

I love technology - when it works.

Road Trip

Here I am in at the Holiday Inn Express in Helena, Montana.   I drove my mom and dad down to Utah to visit Wilma and her family and Alana.   We're now on our way home.

In one of Angie's recent blogs she commented that I should probably explain more about losing my job and moving in with my parents.   Yes I really did lose my job and I have spent the last week with my parents.   More on the job situation later but I'll start with some pictures from our trip.

We arrived Thursday evening.  On Friday morning, first thing we did our mandatory trip to NPS.  Its a discount store that can have some crazy deals.   Auntie Wilma is addicted to this place.   For example I bought a pair of these Docker pants  for $3.60 (Yes that's $3.60 - not $36.00).  They were on clearance  because it looked like they fell on the floor and someone walked on them.   Wilma washed them and they came out fine.    I also got a pair of these Rockport shoes for $20.

From there we headed  down to Provo to get Alana, but on the way we stopped in at Cabela's  - a superstore for fishing, camping and hunting.  Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed their visit.

There were animals everywhere.

  

The moose recognized a fellow Canadian.

   

Zoom in and look at this camper (the one in the back - not grandma). 

(Does anyone else think it looks like Pres. Bush?)

    

We brought Alana back to SLC to spend the spend the weekend with everyone.

  

She had a craving for cinnamon buns so Grandma showed her how she makes them.

I was busy with my new best friend.  We watch Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.

   

Alana joined us while the buns were in the oven.

   

The next day was haircut day.  We kept Alana busy.  

She cut my hair and also grandpa and Blades.

  

Blade found it either really boring or really relaxing.

   

Grandpa and Blade after haircuts.

Alana and me before haircut

After haircut
   

More to come - have to back up and drive back to Canada.

Another Raving Fan Story

 
I know its been a while since my last blog entry.  A lot has happened in the last week.

I lost my job.   I drove down to Salt Lake City with my mom and dad.  I'm staying at my sister Wilma's place.   On the weekend Alana came up and hung out with us.   More on all this later but first I have to share another Raving Fan Story while its fresh in my mind.
 
 

Alana brought her Macbook with her.  She's been having a few problems with it lately.  Her CD/DVD drive hasn't been working, her touch pad double-clicks when it should be single clicking and her power supply wasn't always charging her battery.   But even with all those problems her Mac still makes her smile,

 

 

 

I told her I would take it in to the Apple Store today to get it checked out.  So this morning my dad and I drove down to the Salt Lake City Apple Store 

      

What a busy place.   I felt like a kid in a toy store.  Not only do they have all the products there, you get to play with them   It was so busy that you had to make an appointment just to talk to someone about computer.  We were there at 10:45 and the next available time was 3:30.   I must admit that I left with a bit of a bad attitude because of that.   At 3:30 I returned and met with an Mac Genius at the Genius Bar.

  
 
Now before we go any further I need to point out that Alana has had this computer for nearly 2 years.  She did not get the extended warranty on this and it comes with a 1 year warranty.   So there is no warranty on this one.   I figured this would all cost between $300 and $400 to fix everything.   I even thought about ordering the parts online and fixing it myself after I confirmed that the drive was dead.

Mac Genius Terry helped me.  As soon as he opened the laptop before he even asked me what was wrong he noticed that the top bezel was cracked and he said - that's a known problem with this model and we'll fix it.   When I told him the issues he checked everything out and confirmed that the power supply had a loose connection and the drive needed to be replaced.   Then he said something I didn't expect at all.   He said that the power supply shouldn't do that so he would replace it as well.  And then the big surprise.... he said that since they had to replace the bezel and keyboard  replacing the drive would be easy because the computer would be all apart.   He said that they would cover the entire repair.   He excused himself to go check if they had the parts in stock.  A short time later he said all the parts were in and that it would take about a day to do the repairs.   They would call when it was ready.  We did the paperwork and I was on my way (around 4 pm)

So tomorrow the plan was to go get the computer when they called.   But they fooled me.   They called tonight around 8 pm to say it was ready for pickup.   So I headed back to the store.   About 5 minutes later I walked out with Alana's "new" computer.

Its hard to see in the picture but the entire keyboard, touchpad and bezel (top around keyboard) is all new.  There is a new CD/DVD drive and the power supply is new.  Total Cost in US$ = $0.00.

I find this amazing.   Granted the computer shouldn't be having problems like this, but Apple exceeded all my expectations on this one.    Even the under promising and over delivering on how long it would take.  I'm a raving fan.

(I was so happy that I was tempted to spend on the money I just saved in that store (but I didn't).)