denisgoeshome.com

My flight in Montreal has been cancelled at the last minute but I was able to get booked on a later flight. So I have a few hours to waste at the airport, hence the new BLOG entry.

I feared missing a day in California but I am going to miss only 3 hours. Since those are three hours during the night, it does not matter much; you can’t see around anyway. If it was warmer in California, that would be a way to differentiate with Montreal but right now, it is 10 degrees C in Montreal and 5 in Folsom. Does that mean it’s twice as warm in Canada?

If you said yes, you probably skipped the Thermodynamics 101 course. You have to use the Kelvin scale if you want to compare temperatures that way.

5 degrees C is 278,15 Kelvins while 10 degrees is 283,15 K. We can thus see that there is not much of a difference, scientifically speaking.

That’s 41 and 50 in Farenheit.

On the positive side of this delay, I can make more use of my $10 WiFi fee!

Blogging is not in my genes!

Here I am, after a long silence, announcing I am going to California once again. Nothing since my last trip!

Here things have not changed much since the last time. I moved back to Canada to take pictures full time; I took a few dozens pictures since then probably! My loft is getting a little bit better and I will have more pictures of it in a few weeks.

The weather here is crappy; it’s too warm for this time of year and the record-breaking thick snow that surprised us in December is melting away! It’s grey and hazy all around and rainy. I thought I would get better weather in California but today that Folsom had the same temperature as Montreal! Six degrees Celsius! That’s not far from freezing point. What the duck!

Anyways, I am flying tomorrow morning to Sacramento for a 10-day vacation. I hope to see MacWorld as well as the guys and ex-guys from PowerSchool. I should be at the office around lunch on Thursday.

I am also going to ride my bike as much as I can.

See you soon,
Denis.

October 1st finally came and I moved into my “new” loft. It is in the same old building where I lived for two months last Summer but this time, it is on the second floor.

It seems I inherited some furniture from the previous renter, including some art pieces.

There are a few things to fix but that place sounds good to me. It has lots of potential. I am planning on having my bedroom on the mezzanine; there is a small room where a kid used to live. That will be kind of an interesting challenge. It’s five feet high! The cold weather will be a challenge too!

The bathroom is the third challenge; it needs a bath and some changes, including plumbing that actually works.

In a month or so, I am going to show the progress I made.

The pictures are HERE.

… have been greatly exaggerated!

I have been lazy in keeping this blog up to date but I got some time to write and stuff to write about so here it is.

First, AAPL! It closed today at $137.73! Nothing can stop it! We may have to use nuclear force!

Second, the iPhone. Here in Canada, we heard about it but can’t get our hands on one. We don’t even have a time frame when we are going to be able to spend our Canadian dollars on that industry-changing toy. Apparently, the only cell network using GSM is greedy and asks too much money for data plans.

Third, I found a place where to stay. My own place I can call home. For the next two months. I have never thought I would live in an old industrial building. I rented a 2000-square foot loft for two months. The renter is a French artist going to France for the Summer. She left her things in there and I brought my own electronic army in. It is not a renovated loft; it is the raw deal, the plain home-inside-an-industrial-building kind of thing. The windows are original; the skylight is leaking; the stairways are smelly; the homeless lives down the hall.

I feel at home… but I still decided to had a second lock on the door.

I am still working for my friend but I took a few days off to setup my stuff and open a bank account.

I have responsibilities now! I have to water Aude’s plants!

You can check a few pictures of my loft. This is before I put some order in; my boxes and things are all over the place. The bathroom are pretty unusual because of the above-the-floor plumbing. Taking a shower is scary!

The pictures are HERE.

I woke up one morning last week and found this:

I booked a flight to California!

I am arriving on Thursday evening and I will be around PowerSchool at lunch time on Friday. May I remind you that this will be Friday the 13th. I am staying in Folsom for 13 days.

Time is passing by and I still have not written the ending to my trip back home!

I decided I needed to write it in sunny California. I am flying to Sacramento Thursday morning and I will be in California till March 26th. My schedule will be filled with lots of biking, photography, having lunch with the PowerSchool friends (as well as Lee!) and doing things I usually don’t have time to do like build a decent web site and learn Photoshop. And write a conclusion.

Time is passing by and I still have not written the ending to my trip back home!

I decided I needed to write it in sunny California. I am flying to Sacramento Thursday morning and I will be in California till March 26th. My schedule will be filled with lots of biking, photography, having lunch with the PowerSchool friends (as well as Lee!) and doing things I usually don’t have time to do like build a decent web site and learn Photoshop. And write a conclusion.

You are going to have to wait for the conclusion of my trip. I am quite busy adjusting to my new life back home or at least my temporary new life.

I had a long day at work and it is cold outside. Apparently, we broke an old record for lowest temperature for this time of the year. Spring is still far away! The temperature was around -11 degrees F. With the chill factor, it was more like -38! I walked to the restaurant at lunch and that 5-minute walk is all I could do.

Tonight, I was leaving the office at the wheel of my friend’s Nissan Maxima. I was going toward a red light so I put my foot on the brake pedal in order to stop but there was no slowing down! I moved my foot on the pedal and tried harder but nothing was happening. The pedal felt like a block of concrete and it was not moving! The intersection was coming fast and cars were starting to cross it. I thought fast and took a right turn. I was lucky enough nobody was on my path. I worked the pedal more and it finally started moving and the brakes were back!

That was a bit scary but for the outside bystanders I probably looked like the average French Canadian driver, not stopping at the red light! I must say that it has been only a year or two since we can do a right turn on the red light in Quebec.

These days, I am on a steady diet of hot dogs and greasy French fries! And I do a minimum of exercising. I am going to investigate what I can do about that.

The conclusion is coming! Real soon now!

I did not have had time to write the conclusion of my trip yet but answering popular request, here are the pictures and movies from the farewell picture showcase.

Once again, thanks everybody at PowerSchool for that great farewell. I was so honored to see all of you come to the event to wish me well and shake my hand for a last time.

Pictures - Movies - Maps

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Je n’ai pas eu le temps d’écrire la conclusion de mon voyage mais voici les photos et films du party d’adieu.

Encore une fois merci tous le monde à PowerSchool pour ce bel événement. J’étais tellement honoré de vous voir tous me souhaiter vos voeux et serrer ma main une dernière fois.

Photos - Films - Cartes

NOTE: Yesterday, I experienced problem with the wireless internet at the hotel. I could not post the BOLG entry yesterday. Tonight I found out the computer needed a restart else it could not see the wireless network.

I left Newburgh this morning at 9:30AM. Finally, Montreal is listed on the road distance panels! The destination is getting closer!

The drive was up and downhill, with a cold blue sky over my head and more snow on the ground. The state police is quite busy trying to get some money for the people speeding. They are everywhere! The limit is usually 65, sometimes 70. I was trying to stay legal.

My mind was set onto getting to the destination! I had seen too much asphalt for my own good. I stopped at a Subway, right before crossing the Hudson River. I ordered my usual tuna sub from a young high spirited redhead. She could teach some lessons to the so-so waitress who served me at South of the Border!

I noticed that the restaurant had wireless internet. I thought about you all my readers and tried to publish the previous day BLOG entry but to no avail. There was no signal on my laptop. I was pretty sure the laptop was at fault now.

Back to the wheel! I was getting more anxious now to get home but the miles seemed to be longer than usual. The signs Canada was near appeared quite early, as early as 50 miles before the border. The road signs had become bilingual (in part). Then came the Canada Customs sign. I did not have to wait much at the border and I was questioned by the guy at the gate. Then I had to go to the office and fill up papers. They wanted a list of everything in the van! I gave them a list of the main items, hoping they were not going to check. They also wanted the van title, which I did not have. I called the sales rep and apparently, it’s coming in the mail. The DMV should send it in a few weeks. Anyway, in the meantime, that only stops me from registering in Canada. And getting insurance.

I was given the OK and I drove the last miles to Montreal. You can see a difference in weather with the US right at the first pictures with the (little) snow on the road! Check the picture with the word “FIN” on the road sign (toward the end). How fitting! That was the end of my trip!

My plans changed a little bit and I am going to Quebec City tomorrow morning to see my parents. It is an easy 3-hour trip. I can rest now!

Tomorrow, I will write a conclusion to this trip. It should be more interesting that tonight’s entry.

The pictures are HERE and the updated maps are HERE.

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NOTE: hier, j’ai eu des problèmes d’internet à l’hotel et je n’ai pas pu publié mon entrée de BLOG. J’ai trouvé ce soir que mon portable avait besoin d’un redémarrage sinon il ne pouvait plus voir les réseaux sans fil.

J’ai quitté Newburgh ce matin a 9h30. Finalement je peux voir Montréal sur les panneaux indicateurs de distance. La destination approche!

J’ai fait beaucoup de montagne, le ciel était bleu et il y a avait de plus en plus de neige sur le sol. La police est pas mal occuppé à pourchasser les personnes qui vont plus vite que la limite. Il y en a partout. La limite est habituellement 65 ou 70 MPH. J’essayais de rester légal.

Mon esprit était concentré sur la destination! J’avais vu trop d’asphalte. J’ai fait un arrêt au Subway juste avant de traverser la rivière Hudson. J’ai commandé mon habituel sous-marin au thon d’une jeune fille rousse toute de bonne humeur. Elle pourrait donner des leçons à la waitress qui m’a servi à South of the Border!

Je me suis apreçu que le restaurant avait internet sans fil. J’ai pensé à vous mes millions de lecteurs et j’ai essayer de mettre à jour mon BLOG mais ça n’a pas fonctionné. Mon portable ne captait aucun signal. J’étais pas mal certain que mon portable était le problème.

Retour sur la route! J’étais de plus en plus anxieux d’arriver mais les km semblaient plus long que d’habitude. Les signes que le Canada approchait sont apparus tôt, comme 80 km avant la frontière. Les panneaux routiers étaient maintenant bilingues (en partie). Puis vint le signe Douanes Canada. Je n’ai pas attendu beaucoup à la frontière. Après quelques questions, je fut envoyé au bureau. On me demanda d’écrire la liste complète des choses dans le camion! J’ai listé les plus importantes en espérant qu’ils ne regarderaient pas!

Tout était OK et j’ai ensuite conduit les derniers milles me séparant de Montréal. Vous pouvez voir la différence en météo avec les EU dans les premières photos montrant la (petite) neige sur la route. Checkez la photo contenant le panneau routier avec le mot FIN inscrit; c’était la fin de mon voyage! Mes plans ont changés légèrement et demain je descend à l’île pour voir mes parents. C’est un petit voyage de trois heures. Je peux me reposer maintenant!

Demain j’écrirai une conclusion à ce voyage. Ça devrai être plus intéressant que l’histoire de ce soir.

Les photos sont ICI et les mappes à jour sont ICI.