1st assignment of 09
Hello my friends...
It's that time again...
Prepare yourselves, and your inboxes, for some stories and photos from another trip...
Oklahoma City this time... I've got the opportunity to work with the FAA, I'm stoked!
I'm also exhausted, and not packed yet. Weather permitting, (20+ cm of snow fell here today) my flight is scheduled to leave in less than 8 hours from the time of my writing this note...
Alarm is set for 03:30 and will pack shortly after it rings... cab is scheduled for 05:00 gotta find my passport before I sleep as well... hope I don't skimp on the vaccuum job in wee hours of the morning in the little red suitcase (winebottles broke on my return from Germany) and miss any tiny glass shards...
At least I know which suitcase to not put the underwear in...
For those of you I speak with regularly, you know I've been on a pretty rough emotional roller-coaster ride for the past while... and now am thrust into loads of time out-of-town... I agree with you all that this trip will provide well deserved break. I am doing OK and am looking forward to this assignment... and the following ones, with healthy enthusiasm. It might take me a few weeks to get into the usual creative groove of writing these updates...
Wish me luck and don't be shy to drop me a line...
How does it get better than this?
How does it? :-)
roy
1st assignment of 09 #2
OK.... so I'm safe in OK...
Have been getting tons of rest... long overdue... indeed...
There's been a little delay in getting our equipment onsite, so I'm a bit delayed in getting this assignment started... feels kinda strange being on site to provide a service, and to not be able to do it in the form I was sent here for...
I've been out to Zeke's. It's located about a 7 minute walk from my hotel, which is not near anything in particular... the walk takes me past a Best Buy and across a huge parking lot... Zeke's is a sports bar. You can play the horses at Zeke's or just sit and watch sports on the big screens. It's not fancy like Cage Aux Sports, just a simple American bar really...
I dropped in Saturday afternoon to see if they'd be showing the Georges St.Pierre UFC fight later that night. I had me a lunch, home-made chili and a Boulevard Wheat Ale... I got back there by 7:30PM (after a well-deserved mid-afternoon power nap, to be sure I had a good spot at the bar to watch BJ Penn take a beating... and take a beating he did...
Before the fight I was again sipping on a Boulevard and watching women's tennis... I'm sure these 2 characteristics (basketball was on most of the other big screens, and most everybody else was drinking Bud) [bud by the way is not served in a conspicuously tall frosted stein adorned with duo-slices of lemon] coupled with my unusual attire (I'm guessing kinda out-of-sorts for Oklahoma standards), made my Navajo buddy named Glen, and his buddy, a local Oklahoman named Denver, exchange glances and smirks, leading of course to the question I get asked most by newly-made acquaintances: "...are you gay? I mean it's ok if you are, and I ain't gonna hold anything against ya, cause it's a free country and all..." If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked...
My clothes still stink, as in America, smokers can still smoke inside... and smoke they do...
Sunday morning was another opportunity to get loads of rest... perfect to re hydrate from several Boulevards at Zeke's, to be ready for the 4PM yoga class with Maggie www.yogamaggie.com. That's the first time I've participated in a full lead primary class (for all you non-ashtangis, that means 90+ grueling minutes of non-stop yoga-postures with no breathing other than the breaths which go with the postures the teacher [drill-seargent] calls out) in probably over a year, or more. Wow... today I kinda feel just like I've been in a gang-fight. Well... the good news is that I won't be waiting that long again to do another full primary class, as I've persuaded Maggie to add 3 early morning classes to her, and my, week. So Monday, Wednesday and Friday's I get to do it all over again... for the next 4 weeks... oh yeah and of course Sundays at 4:30... wish me luck... luck I'll need...
I've been downloading, and am about to watch another TED talk. I've chose this one...
"Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between cerebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples."
TED.com really is a goldmine for those of you who aren't aware...
This weekend I'll be off to Pops on historic route 66.
Thanks again to Gilles for having been here before and getting me the lo-down on where to go and what to do... maybe Sunday before yoga I'll visit the museum...
Hope you're all doing superfine,
roy
1st assignment of 09 #3
They were 2 huge red-tailed-hawks...
I mean huge, bigger even than you're imagining right now...
They were the largest that Terry (one of the students) has ever seen. I can't say if I've ever seen birds that big before... We were on our way during lunch hour, to get a teddy-bear and a card for Hans. Hans is a wonderful guy, today was his last day at work before major reconstructive knee surgery. The second round in less than 2 years. God bless him...
I spotted these great birds as soon as they were in my field of perception. At first I thought they were eagles, that's how big they were. I suspect they were a couple, they were certainly male and female, one was distinctly more colourful than the other, I saw them perch simultaneously atop neighbouring power lines. They looked like they were scouting a lunch of their own. Perhaps tag-team hunting, maybe trying to find the living relatives of the road-kill racoon we were at that moment, passing... I could see their powerful talons from the pickup as we ambled by ... what a sight...
Terry, who's spent a significant amount of time with the Oklahoma natives, and participated with them in their healing ceremonies and vision quests, was conveying just how sacred and significant a creature the red-tail is...
The teddy-bears were in fact on sale at WalMart... 2 big ones for 20$. We bypassed the end-of-isle sale display to find the bears on the shelf where they normally lived. They were 10$ each. We got Hans a Panda, we told him it was the symbol of the epitome of Chinese good-luck. As far as I'm concerned, the Chinese know their way around luck...
Ricky (one of the FAA engineers) mentioned that Hans regularly brings teddy-bears to kids at the hospital after their own surgeries to pick up their spirits. Ricky suggested that getting Hans a teddy-bear was, for this reason, probably a better idea than getting him a good luck/speedy-recovery cake to be shared over coffee with colleagues. That in addition to the fact that Hans is diabetic...
We got all his colleagues to sign the card and gave it to him along with the Panda, just as he was finishing up his last bit of work for the day, he was clearly touched...
Time is flying by here in OK... I did in fact get to Pops and there's some photos up in the travel set in addition to some pix I took at Zeke's on fight-night 2 weekends ago... you can see my buddies Glen and Denver there too... also a couple of nice early-morning shots leaving CYUL from the plane, in really excellent light... While at Pops on historic route 66, I drank two Irish Creams (soda, not beer), and a root beer (again soda, not beer). These served to wash down a bowl of chili and a really tasty burger. All that prep 'd my senses for an ice cream sunday and a peanut butter cookie and a coffee... Imagine I only needed one meal that day...
I haven't been back to Zeke's... waaay too smokey... I have however been back to the Texas Roadside Grill, right beside my hotel... I've tried almost everything on the menu, it's smokey in a different way (I can imagine the reprimand that this news will generate from my good buddy Gilles)...
I am doing yoga Wednesday, and Friday mornings with Maggie as well as Sunday afternoons, and Tuesday and Thursday lunch-hour yoga with Dr. Avery, the resident PhD mathematician statistician at the FAA. Actually Dr. Avery is not the lunch-hour teacher, she is a colleague of the guys I'm working with and she's a recent yoga convert/fanatic...
Jay is the lunch-hour teacher, he's mid 50's with a background in Judo I think. He's great... the FAA is lucky to have him teaching at their gym... in any case, my yoga mat barely gets a chance to dry out before it's back in service... Oh yeah today I found a great bakery near the yoga studio which opens early enough for me to have an espresso before class and which sells really amazing baked goods (photos to come)... funny... no Strabucks in that part of town... what good is a yoga studio without a Starbucks just a stone's throw away??? What is the world coming to?
I am waking up cheery just moments before my alarm rings, that's a nice change for sure... And I'm enjoying working with the group of guys I've got on this course. I'll likely do a museum visit this weekend (if it's open on President's day long weekend)... let's see if I can get some cool images from inside...
By the power and grace of the American red-tailed hawk, and all else which is divine and sacred, may you be happy and in wonderful spirits and health!
And don't be shy, drop me a line when you can...
roy
1st assignment of 09 #4
Hi gang...
Am currently working on a new written update...
Though if you'd like to see a few updates in the mean time, the travel set has been updated.
Photos of todays lunch include an arugala salad with brie-wrapped apple, encrusted in walnut; and a sweetpotato-mushroom-spinach-stuffed crèpe with sunny-side-up eggs on top... with a duo crème-brulé (one vanilla and the other pumpkin) and a knockout espresso for dessert... not pictured was the excellent Californian pinot-griggio...
I am doing well, I am stuffed and am very busy... I have newfound strength and flexibility (from 4x yoga per week) ... despite also sporting a newfound beachballbelly... life is a dance of balance, is it not? :-)
I've post waaaay too many shots of the Chihuly exhibit, but I found the pieces wonderful and dazzling and didn't feel like resisting (by the way that tower is 55 feet tall)...
Only 3 weeks away from 2nd assignment of 09 (Italy).
miss you all...
enjoy...
roy
1st assignment of 09 #5
My students are stunned, dazed and confused.
Their manager is pleased and thankful... only in America :-)
Actually the students aren't confused at all, they're now quite capable and enthused with newfound software skills. Their manager took time to thoughtfully express his gratitude to me for my hard work and flexibility, and he indicated that he's received feedback that I've done an outstanding job. That goes sooo far for me...
Yeah, that means I'm grateful to receive thanks... :-)
It's mid-afternoon Thursday, tomorrow is the last day of the course, and Saturday I'll be leaving... on a jet plane...
Early Sunday I'll be home again...
Joe!!! Congratulations on your wedding and thanks for sending fabulous photos, they brought a big smile to my face!! You and Nat look great!!
Truth is, it's I whose a bit stunned, dazed and confused. You see, I ate at Del Rancho's today ...
We went to the one in Mustang Oklahoma. Check out the old-school style phone ordering system... really neat... That's Terry (not Vince) putting in the order. Yeah that's a fried steak burger... with a fried okra side...
My dazed state is not due solely to Del Rancho's, there's a fancy little espresso maker here on site as well, and I bought some nice beans for it and have been enjoying 5 to 6 double espressos a day... for the past 4 weeks... bbuuuuzzzzzzzzz...
Those of you in montreal, consider yourselves warned!! Our paths may soon cross...
Thanks to everyone who took some time to write back, it's good to hear from you indeed...
Hope you all are well,
Looking forward to being in touch...
roy
1st assignment of 09 #6
HOME SAFE!!!
Count-down is on... 8 days 'till I leave for Italy...
Wonder if I'll be able to get Chicken-fried-steak over there?
I Might have to settle for somethng less tastey!!
Hope you're all well!!
Roy