Roll on out 2009

So here it is, the end of another year and decade.

Roll on out 2009 and let in a New Year and a new beginning.
My Dad always has said that every 5 years your life changes completely. When you think about it, it is true. I don’t think he meant it would happen all at once like mine has. All those changes led to me working on the West Coast, temporarily, for the last several months. It has been quite the experience seeing how things work on the Pacific coast as opposed to the right coast.
The great thing about the marine industry is people tend to move in and out of your life through the years. You pick up the friendships right where you left off. Or in some cases put them away ‘til next time. Working in the West has let me catch up on the doings of old friends I haven’t seen in too many years.

As part of this new position on the Pacific Coast, I also get to fly a lot, really a lot. My old knees are protesting it, in fact. It has been an education to see how auditing a company’s SMS system leads to a better industry. It gives me hope for the marine industry in Canada. Uh-Huh.

Like the flight from Toronto to Calgary, when the plane suddenly started to turn and drop altitude. After a bit, the pilots came on the ICS and told us they had a cracked windshield and were dropping down to relieve the strain on the remaining windshield. And, we were going back to Winnipeg because they couldn’t land in Calgary due to their thunderstorms. Must admit that it was an educational trip back across the prairies as we were almost at crop dusting levels. (Well, OK, maybe not quite that low).

Then there was the flight that we landed in Toronto during a thunderstorm and got to sit on the tarmac for a couple of hours while they waited for the tornado warnings to stop. When we did get the OK to move, the plane had lost the steering to the nose wheel. That lifted a few eyebrows, considering we had just landed on it.

Then there was the flight out of Ottawa, where we all trooped on, locked ourselves in, waited 20 minutes, then all trooped off. A radio had failed. Or the flight out of Victoria, when they came on 5 minutes before the flight was to board and told us it would be delayed because of a tire change, only there was no one to change the tire, they had to come from Vancouver. I wonder if he had to bring his own tools?

Or the flight from Victoria to Vancouver or was it the other way around, when they had a dashboard problem. Or witnessing the near riot in Toronto airport when the passengers protested the third cancellation of their flight in 12 hours. Air Canada handled that nicely by calling in the Peel Region PD bad boys. Great entertainment, if you didn’t happen to be on that flight.

Let’s raise a glass to 2010. It is like a field immediately after a snowstorm. Still untouched, the promise and hopes still there.

May the next decade bring much joy, happiness and unusual prosperity to all. (Actually I am hoping for the unusual prosperity as part of my early retirement dreams.)