A Year Later

HEEELLLLOOOOOOO,

I know, you probably thought America had consumed old Josh.  You are probably worried I have forgotten the noble beaver, or the national anthem or possibly poutine.  I am here to assure you that that’s not the case.  In fact I had a poutine down here last weekend, it was made with Gorgonzola cheese, it made my stomach hurt, I miss Canada.

But I am doing very well down here.  As some of you may know I have a big bike race coming up in a few weeks, the MS150 from Houston to Austin (PS: if you want to sponsor me, drop me a note and we can get your donation to the MS society).  So, I am biking heaps and running way more than ever before in my life.  I did a sprint triathlon last fall, and since I am a biggun I was put in a weight category, not age, and my category was called clydesdale.  Wonder how I did?  See below!!

Also back in the fall Mom and my brother came to visit.  He was actually going to stay for a year, but the visa process was impossible so now he is back on the sunny beaches of Nova Scotia looking for a teaching job.  Anyone know anyone looking for a number one teacher?  While they were down we went and saw Brazo’s Bend and have a gander at the gator we saw…

So, my brother survived the gator and stayed with me for a bit, but before he left I got called away to the sunny beaches of Kazakhstan in the winter.  I was in a town called Atyrau and it was a pretty wild adventure.  I am sorry to report that in my time there, nearly a month, I did not see one Borat.  I did however see the river cutting through the town which also cut through Asia and Europe.

There are some fellas playing slide on the ice, looked like a pretty fun game.  So, while I was there I tried Russian vodka, Turkish Lunch and a whole bunch of Kazakh stews.  It was pretty delicious.

In Kazakhstan the majority of the population is muslim, so they in turn do not celebrate Christmas, but that doesn’t mean the kids miss out on all the fun.  At 11:55pm on New Year’s Eve, Santa bounds into homes and delivers New Year’s presents.  He leaves them under the New Year’s tree (Pictured below is one of their big community New Year’s Trees off to the right, also some examples of their terrible driving).  One Kazakh referred to herself as a progressive Muslim, as she ate pork and drank alcohol, it was a very interesting take on a religion we very often only see one side of.

So, after I was released from Kazakhstan I returned to Nova Scotia for christmas and saw everyone, which was terrific, then off to Quebec for a ski trip with my brother and cousins.  It was a wild time, with piles of powder.  My cousin had just got a new snow mobile and (even though it was my first time using one) is probably the fastest one ever made. ha.  The skiing was great and their lodge was amazing.

Anyways, I am rambling now.  I am back in Houston, preparing for my next adventure and still trying to figure out how Americans work.  I think I am making progress, but as with anything worth doing, it takes time.  I miss you all and am planning a fair few trips to the great white this year.  I will keep y’all posted as they get closer.  Have a Great New Year,

Josh

My times in the great white

To the start the year off with a bang I was sent on assignment to Fort McMurray, Alberta.  Some of you may be asking yourself, wow Josh, how could you be so lucky as to spend your days in the resort town of Canada.  Well, even though the television pictures try to paint a dazzling story behind this town, it’s not the holiday one might expect it to be.

Turns out it has about 80,000 people, most of which make very inflated salaries, hence everything in town is well and fully over priced.  For example, my super 8 room cost $200.00 a night (included in that is a $7.00 tourism levy).  And for the second example, lots of apartment for sale down town are asking over $1,000,000 which is coincidentally the dollar value of drugs which pass through this lovely town on a daily basis.

I was one of the people acting as a client rep on some work up here, but as I said before, I don’t wanna get into my work on the blog so back to town with a tale from a friend of a friend.

This fella was at the quaint, vinyl sided Boomtown Casino.

After winning and losing a bit he decided it was time to go home.  As he exited the casino a homeless gentleman asked him for some change.  To this he said no, and withdrew his cellphone from his pocket to make a call.  The homeless man then asked to borrow the guys phone to make a call.  To this he said no, and the homeless man then proceeded to stab him in the leg with a rusty railroad spike.  Fin

Oh yeah, he got really sick and nearly died from the infection.

So, I finished there and got to go back to Houston for a couple weeks, but sooner than later I was back up here and sent to a camp in the woods.  Now, before your mind starts painting pictures of this camp up in the woods with a small fire cooking oatmeal for us to start our day right and big tents everywhere and just good, hard working types sharing a yarn.  Take a look at one of the more than 50 wings…

This camp holds more than 7,000 people presently and next year it will be 10,000.  There’s not much more to say, big jail like building in the middle of no where.  I am in an executive room which is pretty posh, the shower has a seat in it and I can just sit and relax after a hard day’s work.  The cafeteria is not too bad at all and it has 5 gyms over all.

Oh, I almost forgot, I saw a lynx

In closing, I get to go back to Houston on the 2nd, then on to Colorado on the 3rd for a ski trip!  I hope you are all doing really well, miss you all heaps.

Snow day in Houston

Disclaimer:
Those of you from Houston, I do not mean to offend you with this blog.
Those of you from Canada, Its pretty hilarious.

So, I got in from Ft. McMurray, where I was doing a bit of work, last Saturday evening and it was balmy and warm compared to the -30 degree temperatures we had in the north.  The next day it was sunny and warm again, i wore shorts and a t-shirt and walked around the paths of Houston.  This is where Houston took a turn for the weird.

Monday at work I was warned that the storm affecting the rest of North America was going to swing by and mess Houston up Tuesday to Friday.  They said to expect snow Thursday and Friday and that things would most likely shut down.  On Tuesday it got very cold, on Wednesday there were rolling backouts across the city because the temperatures were dipping to the 0 to -1 mark.  4 times at work we were without power for 30 minutes.   On thursday some businesses shut down due to the threat of sleet and freezing rain.

But all this does not compare to Friday, aka snow day, aka work from home day, aka well you get it.

So, at 6;30 the company emailed everyone saying the office would be closed til 9:00am, then later they extended it until 11:00, at his point there was not point in packing up to work an afternoon at work.  Now, you are probably asking yourself, what kind of weather shuts down a city?  The best way to explain it is with pictures…

 

In closing, my friend Brandon and i went swimming, but I can’t figure out how to upload the video, it was cold.  That’s a quick Houston update.

The Holiday Special

On a day, not unlike the one you are having today, Josh typed in a blog and went back to showing his Mother and Tom around the city.  This marked what seemed like the end of the blogs as we knew it, but be not worried.  Join me as we recap these last couple months and maybe, just maybe, have a chuckle or two.

Much has happened since we last left our hero on the banks of the great American adventure.  As he settled into this American Life he has gained new outlooks, an appreciation for a good drawl and of course how delicious alligator is.

I spent most (I know, I changed to first person) of October in the first of what will be many training courses.  It was a two week introduction to everything that is seismic.  To the right you can see a brief summary of the course.  During this course I met a pile of terrific people and on the last day we all went for drink at little Woodrow’s in midtown where they have turtle racing every Thursday night.  In the pic below you can see them taking off.  The picture is a bit blurry, but that’s only because they were moving soooo fast.  I ended up winning once and got a free beer.

After this I went to a proper NFL game with a Newfie friend I have made down here.  It started with the obligatory George Bush Senior flipping the coin and large flag shaped like texas in the field.  Uhmerca!

Now this is out of order, but I also went to another sporting event recently, a proper good ol hockey game!  Houston Aero’s vs San Antonio something or others.  Who knows who they were, but we squashed em good and after the first goal everyone threw stuffed teddy bears on the ice for charity, was pretty wild.  Below you can see my friend Teresa launching one.  My buddy Brandon and I yelled, “Hockey!” for everything and soon we had a group of kids doing it as well.  They believe this is how all Canadian cheer for Hockey.

In November I went on a a camping trip with a pile of new hires and took all sorts of exciting pictures (with someone else’s camera) so all you get too see is one mighty stalagmite who decided to lick a stalactite and got stuck.  There is a more thorough geological process at play I am sure, but thats the general explanations.

Soo, lets see, anything else exciting happen?  hmmmmm…BRONWYN came to visit!  We drove on scary highways, saw museums, went to fancy oil parties, walked with alligators and then ate alligators, it was an alpha male kinda day, and then hit the town with texmex and drinks.  It was a stellar weekend!

There are a few other odds and end that I want to throw out there in closing:  1)  I went and ordered a large sub the other day and no lie, it was this big, and they weren’t even known for their size, america the land of the free to eat everything, 2)  When i came out of the bestbuy that I bought my PS3 at (and yes, I know, I just wanna play video games…) the car that had parked next to me had a bullet hole, 3)  The security at the Lowe’s where I bought some lumber was the RDMMC (Royal Department Mounted Mall Cop), they wish they were Canadian, and finally 4)  Not forgetting my sea faring culture, we made a ginger bread boat and came in a close second in the competition (don’t ask how many entries there were).

So, that’s it for now.  For those of you I am going to see over Christmas, I can’t wait to see you.  And for those of you who I wont, I really wish I was and I hope you have a great holidays season.  I miss you all heaps and hope all the best for you in the new year.

Christmas morning

Once again, I think we see a common theme in this blog.  They may be getting further and further apart and less new and exciting things happen.  But that’s going to have to be alright, as they say Quality over Quantity.  The reason for the title is an interesting story which should well summarize these past few weeks.

From August 28th onward, to what our hero thought could have been millennia, Josh didn’t get to sleep in.  He would arise at the wee hours of 6:00 am and trot to the local Super 8 motel in the Colorado mountains, just as the first rays of sunlight would illuminate the morning safety meeting.  He and about 40 others would discus the prior day’s safety and the expectation for that day and days to come.  This would be followed by goals their management had set and how they would achieve them.

After this every would trek up into the mountains and get a good solid day of seismic done, normally touching down at the hotel on the order of 8:00 or 9:00 pm at the night so that they could get a “good” night’s sleep to restart the following morning.

This went on until Josh McJannett and Margaux Carson decided to get hitched.  He packed up his meager possessions and began the long arduous journey to Canada’s capital.  He stopped in Boulder Colorado to reunite with his long lost pal Katie McEwen and see the smoke from the surrounding forest fire.  Then onwards and upwards to Canada.  Here he was not granted the simple joys of sleep ins and instead chose to enjoy the company of those he missed so dearly.  And before it had even started he was back on a plane headed back to the Colorado mountains with fond memories of a fantastic wedding still dancing in his head.

So, now back into the same old routine he continued with the seismic tradition until he had to return to Houston for a week of Geo science training.  Getting into town Sunday night he had the pleasure of beginning his training at 7:30 the next morning and this is when it began all that week with his evening being filled with receptions and fancy dinners.

Then finally the weekend came, but he could not sleep in since his mother was arriving Saturday morning, so he woke up early with heavy memories from the prior evening’s drinks still swimming in his head and cleaned the apartment to you could eat off of it.  He picked up his mother and her bf and took them to a terrific evening of drinks, dinner and dancing (music by the Temptations).

So, Sunday morning was finally here and our hero had hours of sleep ahead of him, until his mother came in and woke him up with the eagerness of a child on Christmas morning, saying he had already slept in far too much and should carpe dium this day to pieces.  So while they marched forth to find coffee, Josh took this moment of pause to update his friends and family of his trials and tribulations and his near sleep in on this faux Christmas morning.

Its been a long road

Whoooaaaaa, I know, Josh wrote another post.  My friend had been telling me, “I hear Josh forgot how to write”, and a coworker was telling her boss, “They say josh’s fingers all fell off so can’t type no more.”

This is not the truth, Josh has most of his fingers and can write, but as people have said, “josh, take your time and write it right.  You rush too much and your writing skills are weak!”  Now, thats not word for word, but not a bad paraphrase.

OK, ok, I know, you are wondering when this long awaited update would happen, well, it happens NOW:

When we last heard from me I had purchased a luxury car, in the in between time I have managed to put 2000 miles on it.  In only a few years I will have made the car quite invaluable, so i have decided to drive this car forever.  Things I have used this car for include but are not limited to:  Driving Tor around when he came to visit, driving to beach volleyball, driving my kayak to man made lake filled with alligators and driving to driving (golf balls).

There has been so much since I last wrote, I am all a mess in my mind in how to write it out.  I went to a wedding in Ottawa a week and a half ago and it was the saving grace of my mind here in Houston.  I think in my mind I had closed the door to Ottawa, and subconsciously thought that it was lost forever.  Knowing that I could go back and it was like I remembered it with all the friends I hold so dear brought me back to the bright side and has made me a much happier person back in America (THANKS EVERYONE and congrats Matt and Cathy).

So, as I said, Tor came to visit and it was incredible.  I think i may have spent enough money on him to convince him to move here and become a teacher.  hopefully.  but in all seriousness, I really had an awesome time and hope he moves here.

So, what else happened?  I went hashing yesterday.  This is a super hippy sport where you run through the woods chasing piles of flour for 4 miles and in the end there is beer and singing.  It was pretty fun, but I am sore today as running is not my strong point.

The best day at work happened today.  My mentor and I submitted our first start up package and our manager said we did a good job.  it may not sound like much, but it really made both our days to get acknowledged.  So, the next step is a trip to the field to do the survey, it will go great I am sure.

Ok, so this was erratic, but I think it conveys how my life is.  i hope you enjoyed the read.  I miss all of you all the time.

The prize I got

This is going to be a short blog.  I bought a car!  A luxury (lug-churry) car!

That is all.