What a Pain in the......Back

I've had back pain on and off most of my adult life. I think it's probably from working in a lumber yard and as a gliding instructor.

The lumber yard led to lifting a lot of heavy stuff and carrying it, often around corners and in houses where you can't always do it properly.

I have done over 2600 landings in a Schweizer 2-33 glider and nearly 2000 landings in tow planes. Not all of them have been perfect and some of them have hurt.

As of late I've been lucky. My back doesn't hurt very often and when it does, it's very minor. That all changed. I think it started about a month ago. I sneezed while doing the bench-press. My back was sore for a couple of days but it seemed to be ok. Last week-end it started to hurt while I was in Montreal but it was fine in the morning. Yesterday while doing arm curls over a preacher bench, my back slipped out. Way out.

It hasn't hurt like this in years. One of the reasons I exercise regularly is to keep my back strong so this won't happen. I guess it's not perfect. It's just annoying that this may put a crimp in my active lifestyle. I think staying positive will go a long way to getting back to normal.

I'm lucky for all the great things in my life but a back that sometimes bugs me is not on my good list. However, if that's the worst, I'm doing ok.

Everything Looks Better in the Sunshine

For the first day of Spring the weather couldn't get much better. As I walked home in the +25 degree Celsius weather I noticed that everyone seemed to be happy.

There was a lot of smiling. Car windows and sunroofs were open. The music was turned up. People were high-fiving. It was definitely spring.

It's no secret I'm not a big fan of Winter but it does have an upside, winter makes you how great Spring can be. Even the tulips in front of my building are poking through the ground.

I know everyday cannot be this nice. Next week the forecast is calling for more seasonal temperatures but for now, everyone should enjoy the Springtime weather.

Dreaming

I used to be a big dreamer. It always seemed to make more sense to ask why can't it happen then why would we try. I often looked at things that way. I wanted to try new things and was always looking forward for a way to make it happen. I'm sure it's partly why I learned to fly as a teenager. I'm also sure it's how I was done my degree in four years. I thought I could do it so, why not?

Lately, I've been noticing that I'm not thinking up such grandiose ideas. My next step doesn't seem to have an element of fancy anymore. I'm not sure why.

My first thought was I'm getting older. I have attained a comfortable living. Maybe I don't want to upset the apple cart too much. I'm still open to new adventures but if they don't come with a pay cheque or I can't keep my current job, my excitement is dampened.

I also considered that I'm becoming less risk tolerant. When you are 20, it's easy to take a chance, if you stumble, it's not too bad. When you haven't amassed too much, complete failure and starting over doesn't seem too challenging.

Ultimately I'm not sure what has taken my big dreams away. I think I need to get it back. I need to dream big at work and away from work. I may not see anything come true but if I don't start dreaming about what could be, how can I make it happen?

Automated

So, over the last couple of weeks the news cycle has been dominated by the robocall scandal. I'm not sure if the average Canadian cares or not but it sure seems to be a lot of drama in Ottawa.

I don't know if the Conservatives or any other party for that matter used robocalls to confuse or discourage voters. Honestly, I don't really care. I'm smart enough to research what each party and candidate is proposing and I always seem to be able to find the proper polling station. I can see how this could be annoying but so is all the spam I get in my work inbox.

Since there is no requirement to disclose who you intend to or did vote for, using a computer to contact people you believe will vote for the opposition without human interaction to attempt to confuse them or annoy them seems to be a very risky tactic.

If you don't know who you are contacting, if you don't know if all the members of a household intend to vote the same way, and if you don't even know if they have accurately disclosed who they intend to vote for, don't you think that using a computer to call and confuse you is a dumb idea?

I have never run a political campaign but I can assure you that if the race is close I just want to ensure that my message is out there and is accurate. Trying to get people to not vote runs too much of a risk of getting people who would have supported you to not vote.

Now it seems that someone was using robocalling. It did take around 9 months for this atrocity to surface. If it was really an issue, you would think it would have boiled to the surface a bit quicker so maybe this whole thing is blown out of proportion. Like I said, I really don't care. The constant nagging in the House of Commons looks petty but it gives journalists lots of fodder to fill their papers and airtime.

Like everything else petty, this will pass. It may turn out that someone was acting without support or maybe a key person knew about it. It doesn't matter, it's just taking time away from real issues. What's even worse is this one isn't as funny as the #tellviceverything campaign was.

Just Google It

Being able to access the Internet from your phone can be a useful tool. Getting needed information quickly helps you make sound decisions. It can help you if you are lost. It can lead you in the right direction.

For all this usefulness, being able to pick up your smartphone (I prefer the iPhone but the inferior BlackBerry will also do) has ended a once enjoyable activity.

Mobile Google has brought an end to the bar room debate.

For centuries people would discuss unimportant but interesting issues for hours over beer. Sides would be taken and an interesting discussion would ensue. Often the truth would not be found until sometime later, which would set off another interesting but non-critical debate.

This used to be the best part of getting together for beer.

Alas, it's gone. Invariably, someone will pick up their phone and Google the issue. What used to fill an evening is now answered instantly. The entertainment is gone.

I know that having instant access to a huge body of knowledge can enhance our lives, it can help in many ways, but anything with this much ability to make change, will invariably have unintended consequences. I'm not saying that the loss of the bar room debate is the first sign of the end of civilization but it is a change and it is some thing that I miss.

Butt Out

I've been dwelling on this for a while. An increase to locations where smoking is prohibited is on its way to Ottawa. Soon you will not be able to smoke on patios, beaches, parks, and at festivals on city land. As usual there is backlash from people who choose to smoke. Why wouldn't there be? This change is further limiting their ability to smoke.

The social acceptability of smoking has been decreasing over the last several years. I would be surprised if there were five people who worked on the same floor I do that smoke. With the significant cost and damage to personal health, I don't understand why anyone would even want to smoke.

There is the argument that I always hear about it being an individual's body and they can do whatever they want. The free will side of me agrees if you want to degrade their quality of life, why should I care. Well, in a nation that has universally accessible health care, there is a cost to all taxpayers for everyone who smokes. There are not a lot of people requiring long term medical care, in or out of hospitals because they have been exercising too much. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who use costly treatment and management of smoking related illnesses including lung cancer, emphysema, COPD, and heart disease, just to name a few. So, we all pay for that. The government wouldn't need all those tax dollars they collect from cigarette sales if they didn't need to expend them on smoking related diseases.

There are really only a couple of things that detract from my daily walk to and from work. One is freezing rain, the other is tobacco smoke. It's quite prevalent. It only takes one person upwind of you to foul your time. It happens every time I walk. I accept it. Overall, the benefits of walking far outshines the brief moments I have to endure second hand smoke but it is always there.

It's unfortunate that people choose to smoke. It always starts out as a choice. At some point many develop a physical addiction, then they are trapped until they can build a lot of willpower to quit. Making smoking less accessible will only help motivate someone to quit. Hopefully many people will take that step and start leading a better life.

Bad Perception

I have to get something off my chest. It's been bugging me for a while and doesn't seem to be going away.

Last fall when I went back to Manitoba for Christmas I had the pleasure of going through the new passenger terminal at the airport in Winnipeg. It's nice and it's shiny and it makes sense. My beef is people keep referring to it as the new airport.

The airport is not new.

The runways are the same. The taxiways are the same. The NavAids are the same. Moist of the buildings are the same. If you are flying as a passenger you drive down the same road to get to the new terminal is the same as the old one. So, why do people keep referring to it as the new airport?

There are two possible explanations.

It may be possible most people don't understand what an airport is. Their only experience is as a passenger so they incorrectly ass opiate the passenger terminal with the totality of the airport.

It also may be possible that the recent name change to the airport has thrown them off a bit. What was once known as Stevenson Field, then became the Winnipeg International Airport, is now known as the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

For whatever reason, people are confused and I don't understand why. If they had built the new passenger terminal on the other side of the maneuvering surfaces I could understand some confusion. You would have to drive a different route to get there. It would be easy to perceive it was a new airport but you don't. It's the same road in. In fact you can see the old terminal from the new terminal.

Maybe I'm being picky on this point but if they had built a new runway or updated central de-icing nobody would say there is a new airport but the new passenger terminal has made a lot of people thing there is a new airport and if that's how people perceive what a new airport is, we may not be in as good a place as we should be.