And now, here is for something different. The following is a short piece I wrote on Sunday, 9th February 2003 on Kuro5hin. This was six years ago.

It’s 6:30, I am half awake. The night was short. I am standing by a red truck with bright flashing lights.

I am adjusting my helmet strap, my air mask, my gloves. I take the nozzle and rush to the house on fire.

The front door is open but I can not see inside, there is black smoke from two feet above the floor up to the ceiling.

My team of three is waiting for the water to flow towards the nozzle. I can no longer see my hands which are in front of me, my flashlight is useless. It’s pitch black inside while the sun is shining outside. I am scared.

I am told that the house has been evacuated, nobody is left inside, we can perform a fast attack. I hear cracking sounds from my right. Fire is blazing and is eating the structure.

Finally, 20 seconds after kneeling at the door, I flow the water. 200 gallons (760 liters) per minutes above us, in front of us, in the dark. We know that fire is everywhere around us but we can not see it.

Two minutes later, the smoke level is down, we can see a red glow in front of us, slightly on the left. Probably the origin of the fire.

My buddies are pulling the hose with me. We are at the bedroom door. Fire inside. Good, we can see now. Fire to the left, fire above, fire to the right. I am shooting water in those directions. The beast is dying.

We enter the bedroom, my buddies are pulling the ceiling and the walls down and I am putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.

I am hot, the air from my bottle is dry. If I was unprotected, one breath of the air from that room would kill me. My knees are burning. What is left of a ceiling fan motor is red hot.

Another team enters the room, the fire is in control. 7-1 this location. No more pumpers are needed.

My mask is vibrating, sure sign that I am running low on air. Time to get out and let a replacement team continue the job for us. I need a drink of water. We were in hell for approximately fifteen minutes.

The couple who was living in this apartment lost everything but the night clothes they are wearing and the car in the drive way. I am inviting them to climb in the fire engine cab to stay warm and out of the way. I am so sad.

This was a duplex, we saved the apartment next door. We did our job.

I am a non-paid volunteer firefighter, I write software for a living, this was my Saturday morning.

Have a nice day and stay safe.

Today, a friend invited us to go cross country skiing. I had not cross country skied since the early 90s. It was in Vercors at the time.

Today, was simply extraordinary and I am so grateful for this experience. At one point, the only sound we could hear was wood pickers working hard for their pittance.

We stopped for lunch and our friend remarked that we had not seen another human beiing for at least 30 minutes. The view was simply mind blowing and the pictures only give you a glimpse of what we experienced.

Cross country skiing can really be trouble though. My biggest problem is that I have trouble controlling my speed downhill and that I have a tendency to use my downhill skiing skills which are not applicable in those circumstances. Some of the falls were spectacular and it is not fun when you hear your skull resonate on impact. But on other occasions, I stayed face flat in the snow for a good minute, laughing so hard that I believe I must have woke up a couple of bears. This is the best stress therapy known to men.

I can’t wait to go back.

What the heck is Doux Nid, you ask?

It is our new virtual child and I am proud to let you know that it came into the world late yesterday evening.  The daddy and the mommy are doing fine even though the one hundred hours labor took a toll on us.

Anyway, you can see this child at douxnid.com and I encourage you to give us some feedback in one form or another.

Please let us know if you like it or dislike it and, in any case, how do you think we can improve it. The child will grow and you can influence what it will become.

For those of you not so familiar with the language of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, “Doux Nid” means “Cozy Nest”.

Now let me go back to enjoy that Cuban cigare.

Cheers!

Here are a couple of things I have learned in the last few days where we have six inches of snow, an outside temperature of -29C (-20F) and little humidity:

• If you have a fresh layer of snow, and you are still at work, be prepared to walk because the bus service will be impacted. Forty minutes walk by -10C (14F) is not that bad even with snow.
• When driving downhill and braking using ABS, don’t expect to stop without sliding for twenty yards or so.
• Plan for a meter clearance around your vehicle when manoeuvering at slow speed because your car is bound to slide even when you do a simple three points turn in a street. This make parallel parking more interesting and obstacle avoidance more fun.
• Don’t forget to plug in your car so that the oil does not coalesce.
• If you have some single pane windows because you live in an older house, expect ice on the inside of the window.
• You may not be able to open your back door fully because of the snow.
• Be prepared to shovel snow for one hour to comply with city bylaws.
• Expect a lot of static electricity when petting your cat.
• Don’t touch snow without gloves
• Enjoy the Subaru Outback, because it makes driving in cold weather and snow so much fun and safe.
• Calgarians start to consider -20C weather somewhat cold but explain to you that it will get colder.

Overall, I found those new experiences very enjoyable and the biggest drawback is the time you have to spend dressing up and down when you leave or enter the house. Once outside, you don’t want to realize that you forgot something inside.

Right now, Houston and Calgary have the same temperature outside if you ignore the pesty minus sign.

Yes, it has been a while since my last post. Nothing much is going on here. I am guessing that routine has pretty much settled.

Last week I was in the Disney World for adults, namely Las Vegas. This was my first time there and I have mixed feelings about that town. Buildings are huge and everything is expensive if you are not a gambler. Some of the hotels are really architecturally beautiful and I have found there the best French restaurant I have ever had a chance to dine at in the whole USA. It is called Bouchon.

Anyway, we started to have some snow. In Calgary, you have to shovel your sidewalk within 24 hours of the snow fall so that pedestrians have a fighting chance to stay upright with all their bones intact while they are walking pass your house.

Snow fell yesterday and tonight I went out to clean things up. The only problem is that the snow was trampled over all day long by a lot of foot traffic and believe me, I had to remove ice rather than snow.

So, my first lesson is : Don’t wait 24 hours before removing snow on your sidewalk or the job will be more difficult.