It's going to be a quiet weekend. I did my intro flight this morning at 8. Thats about it for the excitement.

I've been having small headaches the past few days. Ever since Wednesday. I *think* it's been stress about my hearing test. I'm a little pissed at myslef about not being worried after the U2 concert. My ears were ringing for days after. I'm just going to have to come to terms with my hearing at it's current state and be more careful in the future.

I think tomorrow, i'm going to spend some time cleaning up... what else is new?

This past weekend, I headed up to Cobalt. They have a bunch of abandonded mines as it used to be a huge silver mining town in the early 20th century.

I wonder if the citizens know what a Glory Hole is ;)

It's starting to get colder now. Winter is in the way! I cant wait to start snowboarding again.

Consider this the official announcement and launch of my new website.

Cleared for takeoff!

http://fly.blakecrosby.com/

I experienced "one of those days" last week:

The plan was to head early to the doctors office to get an ECG done. It opened at 8am, I was out the door by 8:10am.

The street near my house is frequented by cops catching speeders. Because of this, I normally only go 5-10km/h over the speed limit. Today was the exception. I realized that I was doing around 70km/h (its a 50km/h zone) - but it was too late. I see the cop pull in behind me, and even before he put on his lights, I started to pull over. He did the usual "license and registration please" routine and headed back to his car.

He came back with no ticket in hand:

Cop: "Have you ever had a speeding ticket?"
Me: (lying) "Uhmm just one, about 4 or 5 years ago"
Cop: "yeah.. I couldn't find anything on your record, so for being a good driver i'm going to let you off with a warning.. slow it down"
Me: "thanks man!"

As I continued driving I was thinking when the last ticket I had was... It was only removed from my record about a month ago! *phew*.

I head into the doctors office and the place is rammed! So much so, there is nowhere left to sit and some people were forced to stand. I turned around and headed back to my car.

I decided that I could still make the 8:50 bus unto work. I had some time to kill so figured I could pick up breakfast at a Country Style. This particular one has two driveways. The building is right on the corner of an intersection (with traffic lights).

     |   |

     |   |

     |    A

     |   |

     |   |   X

     |   |      B

=====     ======  ======

          ***************   

=====     ==============

     | # |

     |   |

     |   |

     |   |

* = Other Cars

# = My Car

X = Country Style

A = Driveway

B = Driveway

So as you can see from my diagram, I have to turn right to get into the parking lot. However that driveway is blocked by traffic going West. I could see that there was another driveway (A), so I decide to zoom through the intersection and make a right. Driveway A is an exit only. Damn! I drive further down the road, make a U-Turn come back and attempt to get into driveway B. By this time most of the cars are gone. I get in, and find the last parking spot.

I get into the restaurant and it is rammed as well! I wait in line for about 2-3 minutes, when I realize they have no Interac (and I have no cash on me). I see that there is an ATM in the corner, I leave the line and approach it. There is a notice on the screen saying the unit is out of order. By this time about 20 minutes has past since I left the doctors office. Fuck!

I head to the train station to catch my bus.

Work ends up being super busy all day. If it could go wrong, it did go wrong.

Headed to the SBC party this year. Was disappointed. It was the 10th anniversary party and it ended up being the shittiest one! I still had a good time though, as the photos can prove.

This weekend I'm heading up north to visit Melissa's grandparents. I'm going to take this opportunity to bring along my camera to get some autumn photos. Melissa promises me that she will show me around the abandoned silver mines where her dad used to work.

As per usual, I was listening to air traffic control radio chatter... two things I heard today that made me chuckle:

- There was an airplane call sign "Mike Oscar Mike" (MOM)
- One of the controllers would say "Pap" instead of "Papa"

I'm sure most of you don't find that funny at all... I'm turning into an airplane nerd.

Yesterday was the first time that I noticed the heat was turned on in the house. Winter is coming!

I was put into a very akward position yesterday. What do you do when someone elses kids are being obnoxious and rude (4 and 5 year olds) and the parents refuse to disipline them?

Obviously I dont have the right to do anything about it (even if the kid is repeatedly trying to punch me in the nuts). So I just sit there and take it. I didn't feel comfortable asking them to remove their children from my crotch.

I have been reading a lot of other journals the past few days.. All having to do with flight training. It's only made me even more excited to go. I know.. you guys are probably sick and tired of my enthousiasm .. but it's really hard to contain.

Tomorrow (I originally thought today) I will be going for my transport canada medical exam. This really is the make-it or break-it when it comes to flying. I'm sure i'm going to pass the medical - no worries.

I spent half the day helping Mark move into his new condo. It's a really cool place. I can't wait to move into mine :P

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry (the washing machine has a loose wire causing it to short out) and nerding it up.

I have to go into work tomorrow to prepare for the "return to work" of the locked out CBC workers on Tuesday.

Thanksgiving this year will be spent at Melissas place.

Quick entry.. but its off to Gords to watch the game.

Pedro, The locked out gnome, is making his rounds! He's been seen with:

George Stroumboulopoulos
Peter Mansbridge
Jack Layton
Gilles Duceppe
Vernon Wells
Tomas Kaberle

Good news is though.. that the lockout is coming to and end. Not in time for the first leafs hockey game though :(