Very Cold Black Gold

I'm back from a weekend at Lake Louise with my family. Conditions were pretty good and the weather was wonderful, especially on Sunday. There wasn't any fresh snow, but at least they had record snowfall in November or December, so it was still pretty good. A few icy spots, but not too bad.

I didn't take my camera skiing, but I took some pictures at Lake Louise (the lake, not the ski resort) one evening while an ice sculpture competition was going on. Here's one of the lake itself:

And one of the sculptures:

And one of those only-in-Alberta sculptures (which wasn't quite complete):

Starting Three New Roles

In the near future, I'm stepping in to three new roles so I hope the learning curve doesn't get overwhelming and that I can keep my sanity. I start my new job at Sherritt tomorrow. Then on Wednesday, I'm starting up a small group Bible/book study at church. And in February, I'll probably be put in charge of the youth group at my church. School is something I'm quite good at, but all of these roles will require me to learn things that school doesn't necessarily teach very well. I'm excited and nervous about these things, so please pray for me if that's something you do.

Employment

The rumours are true. I got a phone call from Sherritt last Thursday and they offered me a job. I've accepted the job, so I start on January 22nd. I'll be a Process Control Engineer, designing and improving control systems at their plant in Fort Saskatchewan.

Following up on my last entry, that once-in-18-years blizzard sure was underwhelming, wasn't it? Yes it was cold and windy for a day or two, traffic was probably very slow, and the highways were in pretty bad shape, but we didn't get an unusual amount of snow and things were back to normal pretty quickly.

Blizzard!

If you live in Edmonton, you've probably noticed that the city never shuts down, even for a blizzard. I guess we don't get three feet of snow in a day like some places, but we're in the middle (or maybe the beginning) of the biggest blizzard in 18 years, and as far as I know most people are still at work or school today. (Although I admit I haven't been out of the house today.) The highways are bad and a lot of flights are canceled, but schools in the city aren't closing and people keep driving in the city. I'm sure traffic is moving slowly, and my brother's bus didn't come this morning, but a little once-in-18-years blizzard can't keep Edmontonians down. Can anyone remember a time when the city really did shut down?

The Penguin Chronicles: Probably the Final Chapter

The penguin I wrote about recently fell off his perch a couple of times and somebody put him back up there, but unlike Humpty Dumpty, he only developed a hole; he did not completely break. He could've been fixed with a somewhat handy person and a glue gun. No need for all the king's horses and all the king's men. (By the way, I didn't know horses could repair anything.)

But today the tale reaches its sordid end. A grader and a dump truck showed up today and took the snow pile away. Now I see no sign of the penguin out there.

But maybe the story isn't over. Maybe, like in a horror movie begging for a sequel, when the snow melts at one of those big snow-dumping lots in the spring, all that will be left will be some dirt and...a plastic penguin.

Are you scared yet?

Fun in the Snow

This is one of my most pointless posts ever, but I want to share a picture with you.
Somebody who lives near me tried to introduce a foreign species to the big snow pile in the middle of our cul-de-sac. If you look closely at the picture (click on it to see a larger version), you may notice that the penguin couldn't keep its hat on. The city claims it will take the snow pile away sometime, so someone might need to be careful not to lose this toy penguin.