Sitting in an Airport...wotta yawn.  Got the laptop perched on top of the valise. (anybody want to buy a hard sided display case suitable for sales samples or WarHammer figurines?  It's Air Canada certified for carry on.)  All told, my vacation with the Folks has turned out well...until now.  Arrived one hour before departure to be informed that owing to "maintenance issues" my flight would not be departing at 7:45...but instead at 11:25 PM.  This has since been updated to 11:48; or "midnight" as we English speakers would have it.  Latest update on the story of this flight was that it was out of Halifax, NS bound somewhere southern-like (Carribean?, I've no idea), and there was a medical emergency that necessitated a return to Halifax.  This aircraft is now inbound from Halifax to Calgary.  I got a couple of "meal" vouchers from WestJet (for a whopping 16$)...I think I'd rather have a 50% discount on my next trip...or an upgrade.

Got to see Karen and the niece and nephews...except Evan.  He decided on Friday to stay with his Dad past the weekend and was unable to make Xmas at Grandma's.  Karen was a little ticked that the Rundquists didn't say anything about the change in plans until the last minute on Xmas eve.  Classy.

Got Mom's new (to her) desktop set up. Transferring the files between the Dell and the new HP was a little tricky; when I tried to mount the Dell's hard disk in the HP...it crashed.  The HP has been acting a little un-stable since.  I can see I've already got a maintenance call ahead of me in the Spring (or Summer, whenever), when I go back for a visit.  I set up the Dell with the spare monitor and keyboard the Folks had kicking around, so there are now two PC's living on Mom's desk.

Mom and Dad are in California on Art's (dad's boss) dime.  They were unable to make it to Disneyland as there was some unseasonably WET and WINDY weather in LA (more than typical in California in December, I mean).  Too bad; Mom still hasn't been on "Soaring over California".  The reason I mention it is because Mom was profoundly stirred by the "America Sings" presentation in 1976.  That building, in Tomorrow-Land, has since been re-purposed.  "Soaring over California" is the new "America Sings".

Going back to C.B.I. for physio on Monday...and I have to drop by the HBC offices in the morning, or Tuesday morning, to get some vouchers signed off.  Also must remember that tax information form for WSBC so they know how much to keep paying me before my "early and safe return to work" plan kicks in.

Next on the Agenda is to set up the remaining HP desktop unit + goodies for Susan.  She'll be without a PC come the new year 'cause her ex took theirs with him.  She's got a work-from-home gig coming up and she NEEDS this unit.  All good to me, 'cause it means I can empty one of the storage bins that are crowding the project table that Colin and I want to build Rockets on.

Got to see Keith.  He's living just north of Lethbridge, and working for the GEEK SQUAD of the Lethbridge Best Buy.  He ROCKS this gig.  We went to dinner on Friday eve and I was supposed to get him at 6:30 for his end of shift.  Instead, I arrived late to find him poring over a macbook pro that had apparently run out of hard disk space.  Wouldn't boot, wouldn't do anything.  Watched as Maestro Keith did a command line re-write of the drive and convinced it to dump about 2 gigabytes of superfluous log files and backups.  30 mins later, the mac is working brilliantly and the customer happily paid the 104$ OS install fee.  That's not what he did...but that's what they decided to bill it as.  What he actually did is the kind of thing you would normally send a unit back to the national service center in Toronto for.  A manufacturer-level fix.

Speaking of manufacturer-level fixes:

Since I've got the time, I'm going to tell you how I got that mainspring back into the pull starter on VJ's echo line trimmer.  Newer models have a sheet metal "keeper" that holds the spring even if the pulley that holds it inside the housing is removed.  As I mentioned before, this early model trimmer lacks that refinement.  SO: the problem is to keep the spring wound, and immobile long enough to get the pulley in place over top of it, then bolt the whole thing to the starter housing.  At the factory, this is done with a jig, and a special press.

I don't have those.

Winding the spring was no problem; put a couple nails in a scrap of wood and use the fitting on the center of the pulley to wind the spring up until it is slightly smaller than the diameter of the pulley.  Keeping it wound is no problem either; use 3 zip ties (in a sort of triangle configuration) to hold the wound spring around its circumference.  Getting it back into the housing with the zip ties around it ... that is a problem.  The zip ties around the circumference of the wound up spring make it too big to fit into the housing.  Even if you could slip the spring out of the zip tie "keeper" and into the housing, there is no way to keep it in there.

I used three copper paper clips, tapped and formed with a kraft hammer and using a door hinge pin as a tamper.  The clips slipped into the spaces provided by the three zip tie clasps (at each corner of the triangle, as it were), and once wound tight and formed around the spring , they held it in place and allowed me to remove the zip tie "keeper".  The clips were only a couple of mm thick, so the spring fit quite easily into the housing.  Next step was to use two 4" c-clamps to hold down the spring while I cut the clips.  I backed off one c-clamp just enough to cut away and remove the first two clips; then re-tightened it and loosened the other c-clamp, then cut away and removed the third clip.  Now: how do I remove the clamps and get the pulley back in there without the spring flying out of there again?

I froze it.

I used wax (thanks, Babybels!) to plug the hole the starter cord comes out of, then filled the housing, c-clamps and all, with water - up to the top of the fitting for the pulley.  After a couple hours in the freezer, I took the assemblage out and fired up the old 65 Watt soldering pencil.  I melted the ice around the foot of one of the c-clamps, and removed it.  I re-filled the melted hole with water and stuck the starter housing back in the fridge for a couple more hours; then removed the remaining c-clamp, re-filled, and re-froze.

So now I've got the spring wound up, in the housing, held in place by a 1/2" cake of ice over top of it.  I removed the wax plug, and melted the ice immediately around the fitting in the center of the housing where the pulley attaches.  I bolted down the pulley...and waited for the rest of the ice to melt; tightening the bolt a little more every few minutes while I waited.  After the pulley was bolted down completely, I treated the starter with compressed air, aerosol part cleaner, and WD-40.  Installed the pull cord and VOILA' - good as new!

I'm just that good sometimes.

There are times when a major inconvenience can be a blessing in disguise.

Our most recent move, for instance.

Grant and Kathy got their move out of the old place done by the 27th of October.  All their worldly goods had been moved out of the old place and crammed into the new.  This caused some logistical problems.  I had a few larger items: the TV and cable drum it sits on, my couch and my waterbed.  I gave Grant until the 31 to clear me a passage through the garage in the new house so I could get at my door and get these items moved in.  He did so.  I arranged for help on the night of the 31st and the 1st to get the items moved and give myself time to clean the carpets, counters and the kitchen appliances.

I got up at the usual time for work on the morning of the 31st, and made the usual trip to the bathroom for my morning communion with the water-closet...

...to find an inch or three of standing water in the bathroom, and more coming from under the kitchen counter.

My bedroom, with the still-full queen-sized waterbed bladder (sitting on a flimsy particle-board sub-frame), is between the bathroom and the kitchen.  I realised I wasn't going in to work...as I had to get that waterbed drained before the frame got soaked and collapsed under the weight of the bladder.

That took two hours, by which time the water did soak the sub-frame and rendered it unusable.

S'Okay.  I had no room for a queen waterbed in the new place anyway.  My lovely waterbed, with its now-damaged frame, went to the landfill.  I'm sleeping on a brand new loft bed with a brand new foam mattress.

We suspect the flooding is a result of the property owners refusing to pay to have the foundation drainage of the house connected to the new storm drain line the city installed a few months ago; after which the city also filled in the drainage ditch on the west side of the property.  That house didn't have terrific drainage to begin with, and the flooding in the backyard, the garage, and eventually the house, (which is still on-going as of this writing) seemed inevitable.  It made some hurry for Grant and Kathy to get their stored stuff out of the garage before it all got waterlogged.  Ironically, they had just got finished cleaning the carpets downstairs the night before the flooding started.  I, of course, didn't bother cleaning the carpets in my place as they were going to have to be replaced anyways.  The landlords still made me clean the oven, fridge, and counter tops (splish splash) and would not release the Hastings' damage deposit until I had done so.  Some people, I tell ya!

With the closure of the Annex I had hoped to be back to work as usual in the Central Stock department at our main building.  Not a chance.

Central stock has gone from 2 shifts (down from three) and 16 staff; to 1 shift and 8 staff...or less.  Wade, Barry, Heather, Mike, Sanjee, Gurmej, Marv, and Amresh.  All of whom are higher on the seniority list than I.  For all practical purposes, this means there will be no further vacancies in Central Stock until someone retires...or dies.  All other W2 staff formerly associated with the department have been "loaned out" to other departments.

This is how I found myself in Major Home Fashions ( the department formerly known as Big Ticket).  My day now consists primarily of wrestling mattresses and humping refrigerators...

That's not a pithy witticism...that's what I actually do all day.

Or rather, that's what I did all day: up until November 6th, when I tried to haul a walkie battery weighing several hundred pounds with a crate hook - sideways - and succeeded...in straining my lower back.

We've been here before, haven't we?

Lucky me; because of the previous experience with Lower Back Injury, I know now that one does NOT wait a few days while the discomfort and pain get worse and worse before doing something about it.  I went and reported the injury immediately, and got Dave to put some ice on it at the First Aid station.  They sent me home in a cab, which I had drop me off at the clinic on Scott Rd and 84th, after which, I got Grant to take me home.  My car had to stay where it was for a the next 5 days.  Armed with doctor's orders to rest, and a prescription for Naproxen and Benzaprine; I did my best to stay "off" my back for a few days.

Of course...our HR department at work started jonesing right away about their "Safe and Early Return to Work Plan".  Huzzah.

After a week or two, WorkSafe BC got involved (the department formerly known as the Workers Compensation Board).  I now have a case worker / nurse whose first bit of advice was to immediately find myself a physiotherapist.  I did so, in the person of Coral Bates of the Scott Road Physio clinic.  She's a real sweetie!  Easy on the eyes too...

Alas, my Physio Nirvana was not to last long, because HBC ran out of modified duties for me to perform at work.  (I was doing six hour shifts hanging garments in Put To Store for the Top Shop project.)  I was put on layoff for a couple of days, at which point my WorkSafe case worker informed me that as I was on layoff, I had to enroll in Occupational Rehabilitation Therapy right away...or they couldn't keep paying me.

Both my Doctor and Physiotherapist felt OR Therapy might be a little premature...but not to worry; by hook or crook, I've managed to delay the actual onset of the WCB Health Club for Broken People for a few days and the financial downside hasn't been bad at all.  So: next week (after a follow up with my MD to get my blood pressure checked - oops!, I forgot that last time!) I begin daily sessions of physical training and exercise designed to build me up and equip me with the knowledge I need to maintain that physical level so I DON'T get another back injury in the future.

Know what else would prevent me getting hurt at HBC?  Finding another job that doesn't require wrestling mattresses and humping refrigerators!

I'm going to discuss scheduling with my OR Therapy clinic tomorrow.  I want to take a day out next week for a Career Development Seminar at LDS Employment Services.