Back to business.

Well, enough about carbon capture and licensing patent agreements, let's get back to 1997. Now, where was I? Oh yes, back from California. A great place to visit, but I couldn't live there. Not my cup of tea and I'm a bit of a nationalist when it comes right down to it. Not that I'm not proud of my heritage prior to my ancestors coming here in the mid 1800's from Ireland among other places (another story), but I feel very close to this land and this country. I can't begin to explain it.


I continued to work for Halliburton until mid August of 98. I was let go due to some errors I made while rebuilding a tubing injector. The injector failed while out on a job up in northern British Columbia. I was on the lease when it happened. Damn scary. The well we were on kicked on us.

I have to back track a bit here.

March 15th 98

...On the location today we had quite a mess with the CTU.
I was about 50 meters from pulling the string out of the hole
when the well burped. The well was 1400 meters deep, 11.5%
H2S, and highly radioactive (NORM), not to mention full of 
hydrochloric acid. When I was near the end of my last run, the
hydraulics failed, causing the well to spit out the remaining 
length of pipe. We were all very lucky. The pipe stopped when the
back up grips caught. If we hadn't been lucky I have no doubt
that quite a few people would have died. I had the shakes for days.

Not an easy pill to swallow. There were five of us on the injector rebuilding it before it was sent north, but I guess I was the guy who had to take responsibility for the failure. I felt and still feel awful about that incident. I can only learn and move on. Back to unemployment I went.

After leaving Halliburton I worked for a short period of time with a company called Royal Services. I started working for them hauling byproduct from a grain processing factory in Red Deer. I don't see the name of it mentioned anywhere in my journals. Basically it entailed filling up a truck with the tailings from thier manufacturing process and spreading it out on a farmers field. Pretty boring work. Eventually, I ended up doing the same with another branch of the company, only this time it was pig manure. I can still smell it. I can not begin to tell you how bad it was. The guy I worked for kept saying," It smells like money!"

No, it did not. I MADE money doing it, but it definitely did not smell like money. I recall going into a Boston Pizza in Lacombe one after noon after working out in the field, and being promptly asked to leave by the management due the painfully obvious fact that many people were complaining about the smell. I still chuckle when I think about that. I had burned out my sense of odour to the point that I didn't even know I smelt that bad. Suffice to say, I was single during the entire time with that company. It didn't matter how many times I showered, bathed or soaked in a tub, the smell stuck to me like glue. Even weeks after I left I could still smell it. I had to throw out several hundred dollars worth off clothes. It was a funny time.

Shortly after my smelly departure, I took up the challenge of starting my own business. I had been into stone carving for a few years and decided to give it a go as a business. I had received a grant from the government and even attended a gift expo in Edmonton. My booth was an attempt to recreate Stonehenge. I built these huge transportable props in Okotoks in my Fathers garage and then transported them up to Edmonton for the show. I was able to secure a few stores through out Canada, but my lack of understanding the books meant that I didn't realize that I was working for around 5 dollars an hour. I even noted here in my journal that I paid for a small add in the "Enquirer". Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The product I made by the way was called "Thought Stones". Another long story involving a road trip to the west coast.

My sister, Heather returned from a trip to Europe around December of 98 and Terra was still in College.

At the end of 98, a friend from Halliburton joined me in a Polar Bear dip in Sylvan Lake. It was not the last time I would venture to jump into near frozen water. There were so many people there. I have a few pictures. Ben and I were interviewed by a news crew from Columbia. I think they thought we were crazy. They were probably right. We went in three times before we lost feeling in some rather important parts of our bodies. I asked the fire department, who were on site to help should anyone have any problems, to please mail my testicles to me if they should find them. Turns out they had merely turned into ovaries for the day.

Around the 26th of January I traveled with my Grandmother to California to visit family. No I didn't call Mikal. That was over for the most part. I thought it was best that I let that be.

 February 26 99

I am amazed yet again at the change that occurs in such
a short period of time. Perhaps it hasn't changed at all, I've 
just opened my eyes.

My trip to California was eventful. I brought back more
stories and stuff. (I did finally buy a Dijireedoo made out of
bamboo, not authentic but I liked it so it didn't matter. I took 
public transit system from Ventura Blvd. to Sunset Blvd. and
then Reseda to Santa Monica. I'm sure that I almost ended up 
getting mugged, and don't ever get the bus from UCLA to
pier 51 mixed up, you end up in east LA. Not a good idea.

I met a local while I was sitting on the beach . I can't recall her 
name, but we talked for hours.


The next day, my Grandmother, Great Aunt and a few of their 
friends and I all piled into a car and headed for Vegas.  Good
times. Great Memories. 

Around May of 99 I was fooling around at the Innisfail swimming pool and snapped a few ligaments in my right foot as well as fractured a couple of bones. It still hurts to this day as it never healed correctly. I was mostly incapacitated for about 4 months. Unable to work I sat in my apartment, unable to do much, too proud to ask for help.

May 31st 99

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth
Accept certain inalienable truths,
Prices will rise,
Politicians will philander
You too, will get old,
and when you do, you'll fantasize
that when you were young
prices were reasonable
politicians were noble
and children repected their elders.
Respect YOUR elders.
Dance, even if you have no where to do it
but in your own living room.
Live in Rainbow Lake once,
but leave before it makes you hard. 
Live in Banff once,
but leave before it makes you soft.


Well, thats enough for today. Sleep well.


Nil desperandum.