Posted by Jonathan Wise on Nov 03, 2007
Let me tell you a story about a vacation… not just any vacation, but possibly the most ill-fated vacation ever…
As most of you know, we’ve never been on a vacation before. We did go on a honeymoon, which my parents paid for as a wedding present, and it was very nice, but we’ve never said “you know, we’re tired, we should go away somewhere nice.” So I’ll admit that maybe we didn’t really know what to expect. We certainly wouldn’t have gone if we knew what we were getting into.
It started, as I mentioned earlier, with my back going out — suddenly and painfully — on what was basically the day before we left. Our plane flew out at 6:30 in the morning on Monday, and we got to the airport at 6:03. My pregnant wife carrying all the luggage, because I couldn’t carry a match stick, much less a suitcase.
We would have canceled the trip if we could, but there was no way to do so without losing our money, so we decided to push on anyway. We had bought a package which included hotel, airfare and a rental car — or so we thought. The rental car actually ended up costing $150 more than what we’d already paid — once insurance and tax was added in.
Our sweet convertible with GPS!
Still the car ended up being one of the few bright spots of our trip. Check out how hot my bride looks in a convertible! I wasn’t even put on the rental as a driver because it would have cost extra to have two drivers, and since I was planning on spending most of the trip on drugs (painkillers, of course) there was no point in paying. I did, however, get to play with the GPS — which admittedly was another bright spot. That thing was so cool. Anything we wanted to do, we just asked the GPS and it told us how to get there!
The hotel was also quite nice to be honest, and we did get a great deal on it. However, I guess we went during off-season, because it was desolate…
The ghost beach — when it wasn’t raining
I’m not what you’d call a “people person” — and by that I mean, I don’t like people. Crowds make me grumpy, but even I found the beach depressing. Even the guy who rents beach chairs for ridiculously high prices wasn’t manning his station.
It turns out, though, that the beach wasn’t of that much use to us, seeing as how it RAINED two out of the three days we were there!
Our vacation package also included two tickets to Universal Studios — which we discovered later is a 2 hour drive from our hotel. Still, we were determined to get our money’s worth, so we set the GPS and started driving.
We were both initially concerned when our vacation package arrived in the mail, because there was no tickets or vouchers included for Universal. But our fears were allayed when we called the travel company, who assured us that the park would have our tickets at the gate. Boy was that a line…
The closest we got to Universal Studios
Universal knew nothing about us, and certainly had no tickets waiting for us when we limped up to the gate. I pulled out my iPhone to show them the confirmation e-mail, and they eventually agreed to let us in — if we could provide a printed copy of the e-mail. Neither of us had a printer on us, so they suggested we walk to the nearest hotel and use the printer there. Obviously they weren’t aware that it had taken me nearly an hour to hobble from the car to the gate.
It proved to be a moot point, however, because the “ride guide” they provided us basically told us that a pregnant person and a person with back problems had no business going on ANY of their rides. We took some pictures, did a little shopping, and watched a movie instead.
Fortunately, we knew about most of these problems in advance — or at least suspected they would happen. The weather reports leading up to our departure were even more depressing than reality, and my back problems were made very obvious. So we’d come prepared with the entire season 4 of 24 on DVD. We spent a significant amount of our vacation lying in bed watching Jack Bauer save the world, once again. And we found plenty of excuses to eat well.
Neither of those things are something we couldn’t have done at home, although we did get a tiny bit of beach and pool time, but to be honest, it doesn’t matter. It was just nice to get away. I had a computer with me, but we only ever used it to video chat with Benjamin back home in Canada, and to watch movies. And we both agreed that we needed the escape, and that we’re going to have to get away again some day.
Here’s hoping the next vacation goes a little smoother.
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Nov 03, 2007
Canadian Dollar sets new record above $1.07 US as unemployment rate drops to 5.8 per cent…
Man it sucks being a Canadian in the States right now!
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Nov 01, 2007
Rather than try to fill in all the details of the past week or so right now — which I may do via posts and pictures later — I think I’ll just report on where we’re at right now. Its just easier.
Nicole is on her way to Canada, having dodged the cops twice now with her crazy speeding (not literally dodged, but she’s had a couple scares — I knew I shoulda put the radar detector in the car for her.) She’ll be there the rest of the week hanging out with Benjamin and the rest of her family and friends. Ben had his first Halloween last night, and I know some people are opposed to the tradition for religious reasons, but for us its just about how cute he looks in a costume — and how much candy we can get out of the deal. Unfortunately we didn’t see him, as we were on an airplane, but I’m hoping there were some pictures taken.
Nic and Abi are both still doing well. Abi is moving a lot more, and the belly size is continuing to get more noticeable.
I am at work, slowly setting up a new computer. I’m following ObiShawn’s lead and moving all my daily work into virtual machines (VMs) on a pretty hefty host computer that does nothing but run Windows and VMWare. I’m sure there’ll be details on this experiment later on the geek blog.
I’ll also be migrating the Macs at home to Leopard this week while Nic is away.
Last week, after 4 hours of flying followed by 9 hours of driving, I ended up with a slipped disk, that put me on the floor while changing a diaper. From eMedicineHealth…
The disks are protective shock-absorbing pads between the bones of the spine. Although they do not actually “slip,” a disk may split or rupture. This can cause the disk to fail, allowing the gel to escape into the surrounding tissue. The leaking jellylike substance can place pressure on the spinal cord or on a single nerve fiber and cause pain either around the damaged disk or anywhere along the area controlled by that nerve. This condition is also known as a herniated, ruptured, prolapsed, or, more commonly, slipped disk.
Its extremely painful — especially given that following the rupture I had to drive another 9 hours home, and then fly for another 4 hours down to Florida. I drove straight from Canada to the Urgent Care clinic, who stocked me up on some painkillers (Lortabs, of course) and muscle-relaxants so that I could survive our vacation.
I can walk almost normally now (by that I mean, like a normal 80-year old man), and I’m trying to be really careful as I move computers and luggage around.
In other news, we’ve settled on a new church home — at least for now. After much deliberation and consideration, we’ve decided to attend Grace Fellowship. It’s no Northway, but it has its up-sides. The facility is very comfortable and organized, the people warm and welcoming, and the teaching is very Biblical and challenging. We will miss the adventure we’ve left behind, but feel this will provide us some closure on that chapter in our lives.
Despite the frustrations that came along with our vacation, we are feeling somewhat refreshed and re-focused after it. And life carries on…
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Oct 31, 2007
Yes, we are alive — although we’ve been healthier! We’re leaving Florida shortly, so more news later…
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Oct 24, 2007
Green Bay folks are quite proud of this place. I gather other people like it too. Apparently the Packers are quite popular — although I looked them up on Google, and they’ve only won one Super Bowl since like 1912 or something, so they can’t be that great. Nonetheless, I went there with the gang from work and ate lunch. No football was being played, but it was impressive anyway.
I’ve also played Wii with SuperJason and ObiShawn, gotten mad at the Albany people, ate numerous meals paid for by someone else, gone swimming pretty much every day, followed by a soak in the hot tub, and purposefully gotten lost in the rental car, just to see if the GPS could get me back to the hotel…
Some parts of the trip haven’t been as productive as I would have liked, other parts have been more useful than I expected. One more day, and then another day of traveling. I miss my family!
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Oct 22, 2007
It starts pretty mundane: you and a hundred other people shuffle down a hallway and load onto a cramped metal tube, jamming your possessions into tiny bins and taking your seat next to two strangers who are no more comfortable than you. After a seemingly pointless wait the tube begins to move — like a rickety old city bus, except on only 3 sets of tiny wheels. You roll along quietly for a few minutes while a bored voice drones some instructions that no one listens to…
But then things change.
Suddenly the metal tube jumps to life. Like a race horse jumping free from the gate at the sound of a gunshot, giant engines spin until you can feel the vibrations in your chest. The whole machine surges unstoppably forward, mechanical gears whir as flaps extend and the docile ‘bus’ adapts itself for a totally different purpose.
Then, just when you think the vehicle won’t be able to sustain its own incredible power, something magical happens. You and your travelling companions leap into the air… and you don’t come down. In fact, you keep climbing higher. The whole world begins to shrink as you watch. You are flying!
Sure there are annoying parts of the experience. As I tap this out on my iPhone’s poor excuse for a keyboard, my legs are longing to stretch out straight, and I can’t get to the bathroom without squeezing my butt past the face of two strangers who probably don’t deserve such a close-up. But those things are inconsequential, because I’m in the air! In under 2 hours I’ll have traveled from New York to Chicago.
And despite the draconian security in this country, and the horror stories you hear of violated rights by airport security, I’ve always found that a genuine smile and a polite and pleasant demeanor have made the process of getting on the plane very simple. And its easy for me to come up with a genuine smile, because this is fun! I’m soaring through the air in a jet plane, sipping a tomato juice (with ice) while my iPhone reads me a book… This is a much nicer morning than one spent in my cubicle!
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Oct 21, 2007
I’m just realising that its SO much hard to go away on a business trip now that we have a baby boy at home! Not that it’s not hard to leave Nic, but I know she’s not going to change much while I’m gone. Benjamin, on the other hand, seems to learn something new every day.
Oh well, hopefully he doesn’t say his first word or something while I’m gone… Green Bay here I come!
Also, Aunt Pammy was here to visit this weekend. We had a picnic and went pumpkin picking. Pictures coming in the sidebar shortly…
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Oct 09, 2007
I complain a lot about the US$. I thought today I’d explain why.
When we first considered moving to the States — easily 4 years ago, the prospects were great. Not only do US employers pay significantly better, but they pay in US dollars, which meant we could make even more on our money!!
This was the assumption upon which we lept southward. Although the first part was true — my pay in the States is a good 50% better than what I was making in Canada — the second part is sounding more and more foolish.
Although we are most liquid here, we still have plenty of liabilities in Canada: two car loans, life insurance, and student debt. These payments must be made monthly. Did you know there’s no easy way to transfer funds between countries? In the movies the bad guys wire each other money with the click of a mouse and an animated ticker counts off their millions as its deposited. In real life, its nothing like that.
The reality is that once a month, Nicole heads down to the bank — during their ridiculously limited business hours — and writes up a wire transfer. This takes anywhere between 3 and a billion days to go through. Meanwhile the US bank charges for the money order and shaves their share for doing the currency exchange. Then the Canadian bank charges for the transaction and shaves their share for doing the currency exchange.
When we first moved here and the exchange rate was hovering near 1.15 CDN$ per 1 US$ we still managed to make (Canadian) money on the deal. We’d meet our Canadian obligations, and tuck a little money into our account for savings and for trips home.
Then the exchange rate dropped to 1.07ish. We stopped making money on the transfer, but at least we were still breaking even. Yes, 1.07 is the same as “at par” when banks are involved.
Then the exchange rate dropped to 0.98 US$ per 1 CDN$.
Dear US Currency: welcome to the short bus. For years you looked at the Canadian dollar as if it was your retarded little brother. Now the rest of the world looks at you the same way.
Even after a slight recovery, putting the US$ back on top by fractions of a cent, we’re still hemorrhaging cash. We’re going into the hole each month we transfer money back to Canada.
I’ve gotta be honest, if we were to take an objective look at our foray into the States right now, the results that come back would not be optimistic… The economy continues to crumble, the war shows no signs of ending, and most of the reasons we had for moving here are gone.
On the plus side, shopping is still better here. Did you hear they want $799 for an iPhone in Canada? Am I the only one that’s noticed that the Canadian dollar should buy as much kit as the US dollar right now?
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Sep 28, 2007
I love to travel. Its one of the things I enjoy most in life. You might not think it if you’ve ever been in an airport with me — I may appear to be very stressed or pressured, but neither would be true. I really just have my game face on. Travelling is not something to be taken lightly, and an airport is like a battleground. You have to conquer it! An airport requires a combination of skills… In fact, far be it from me to draw a sports analogy, but I imagine it must be like a football game…
You need strength and a quick wit to push through the lines of defense (in this case, retarded travellers, milling around and bumping into each other, trying to block your path to the goal line).
Composure and charisma to present yourself well to the critical audience (the TSA and other security officials, who are only too happy to turn on you if you make one false move (like trying to bring a bottle of water onto the plane, or reading a potentially inflammatory book.))
And of course, strategy and planning to make sure the whole game day comes together in your favor.
Its fitting then, that my almost 2 year hiatus from air travel ends in October with a trip to Wisconsin, the home of the Green Bay Packers. I’ve heard that, aside from the football (if you’re into such things), there’s not that much else that’s exciting about Green Bay, but I don’t care. I get to board a plane, rent a car, and discover a new part of the world. Plus, I get to meet some of my colleagues who I work with every day, but have never actually seen in person.
And literally as soon as I get back from that trip, we hope to be off on vacation. This flight, rental car, and hotel at our own expense — but infinitely more valuable. We’re $200 away from booking our trip, with a full 10% of the cost having been covered by the wonderful people who hit the Donate button to send us on our first vacation in 6 years. We’re staying in a 4 star hotel, on a beach and with 2 pools, renting a convertible, and driving it to a day at Universal Studios. And its just gonna be the two of us (well, us plus the baby in the belly — we were unable to find anyone who would be willing to host our fetus while we went away).
I’m very much looking forward to traveling again (by plane, that is — a little sick of the 8 hour drives)! October is gonna be a FUN month!
Posted by Jonathan Wise on Sep 12, 2007
Well this is awesome…
