So at about 10am this morning you could find me sitting at my desk knocking back a Starbucks black with a shot of baileys. And my friends, that's why we get so much done in the TV business!! somebody decided that it was pertinent to have a small social get together with starbucks and liquor in the EPI office as a celebration of the fact that... well... it is Friday.
Anyway, you won't find me complaining.
Though you might find me sleeping.. at my desk.
Good ol' discovery channel. If there's one thing I'll miss, it's the fact that they have office parties for almost everything.
Corporate Email: 'Hey everybody, we just finished Forensic Factor Season 4, so everyone come out and meet us all at the Keg for a Lunch on the company dime, this Friday!'
Corporate Email: 'Hey everybody, we just finished the second episode of the 4th season of Forensic Factor so everyone come out and meet us all at the Keg for a Lunch on the company dime, this Friday!'
Corporate Email: 'Hey everybody. Melissa, who has been media logging for us for the past 3 weeks, is leaving because we don't really pay her much. We know you don't know her... we don't either. We think she's the little blonde haired girl who sits behind all those boxes in the production office logging footage we aren't going to use, day after day. Anyway, she's not coming, because she doesn't know any of us, and she lives in Barrie, but regardless, everyone come out and meet us all at the Keg for a Lunch on the company dime, this Friday!'
Corporate Email: Hey everybody. I just won Solitaire. Took me all morning too, but I finally got it where all the cards zoom across the screen until the whole thing is covered. I didn't play with the timer on, or with points, cause that always makes me a little nervous. Oh, and I also changed the settings so that it would only flip one card at a time. Makes it a little easier. So anyway, everyone come out and meet us all at the Keg for a Lunch on the company dime, this Friday!'
Oh, and so I spose I do have some exciting news. When I say 'that's one thing I'll miss', I say it in truth, as I will be making my graceful exit from Discovery Channel by the end of April (probably the third week in April actually). I'm moving over to CTV to work full-time for the audio team. It will be much like what I do when I work in audio right now, but every day. It's an exciting move for me, as I'll be doing what I love, and back in a position to grow and learn, and be around the people who speak my language. As opposed to being around tapes. All the time.
So anyway, I'm in the process of wrapping up my projects here, and tying up all the loose ends. Sooner than later I'll be training whoever they bring in to fill my position.
And then it'll be 'goodbye' to the library and the spreadsheets, and 'hello' to ProTools and microphones.
:)
J
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Update
As an update to my previous blog:
Wally, ya, well I don't know that we'll have an SVT. What we WILL have is Jimmy's 5-string Stingray, which is gold, and the amp that he uses at church. And I have no idea what that sucker is, but it has great tone. It's one of the 1x15 type of deals with a really tight sound that'll work great for tracking. Sometimes it's nice to avoid big fridges when it comes to tracking.. too much to deal with... especially with the sound we'll be looking for.
Also, an addendum to my offer on Australia. Bail. I can only get it on BetaSX, and assuming you don't have one of those VTRs lying around in the apartment...
Good things on the horizon.
Later,
J
Wally, ya, well I don't know that we'll have an SVT. What we WILL have is Jimmy's 5-string Stingray, which is gold, and the amp that he uses at church. And I have no idea what that sucker is, but it has great tone. It's one of the 1x15 type of deals with a really tight sound that'll work great for tracking. Sometimes it's nice to avoid big fridges when it comes to tracking.. too much to deal with... especially with the sound we'll be looking for.
Also, an addendum to my offer on Australia. Bail. I can only get it on BetaSX, and assuming you don't have one of those VTRs lying around in the apartment...
Good things on the horizon.
Later,
J
Monday, March 17, 2008
Re-Centering
It's good to be back after a fantastic weekend. I had a lot of time to think this weekend, and I managed to arrive at clarity on a lot of things that have been on my mind lately.
The guitar recording was a total success. Unmitigated. :) I'm wholey sold out on Vox amps, for the record, following a full day of getting to know one. I really haven't ever found an amp that I truly loved. It always seems like they're good at one thing, but not another. A fender something or other does such a great job on those warm clean tones, but anything over-driven sounds choppy and unpolished, which I don't like. And then some big monster of a JCM or something is incredible for that massive drive, but if I'm working on something more toned down, I have no real options. Enter the AC30. It was a lot of fun just playing around with it. I managed to arrive at all kinds of different tones and sounds just within the amp itself.
It was also great to have several guitars. Thanks to matty, glease-bag, and chuck for lending me their beauties. When you're looking to track guitars, and you're staring down at a Les Paul, a Fender Tornado (ya.. you try and find one! I'd never heard of them, but it's a great guitar! sortof like a Tele, but darker at the top end, and a little less open), and an American Tele, you're doing pretty good!
I started at around 8:30am on Saturday, and tracked straight through till about 6:00. Sunday gave me time for a few touch ups and re-records. I managed to plow through all 13 songs, and it's looking as though I've got everything I need!! It's incredible to hear the songs taking on their actual form now. While I know that bass and backing vocals will make it clearer, I'm starting to have a pretty clear picture of where each song is going, and what the energy points are. It's such a cool experience to have that unfolding as it is.
As well, Jimmy and I have chatted, and he'll be playing bass on the record. In fact, it's altogether likely that he's currently holed up in his room practicing to temp mixes on a peavey t max as we speak! (http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/114539/MAX(R)%20126.cfm) a true warhorse...
Anyway, it's a good thing, too, cause it'll be nice to have some extra input on each song, and have a nother set of ears helping to decide what sounds best.
The balance of the weekend was spent chilling. Church on Sunday morning was so great! Leah reall worked it in the music.. the guys did a new song that I've never heard, and it was huge. And then Greg just took the whole thing and made it all relevant and applicable.
The overriding idea behind the whole service was that regardless of your circumstance or situation, God's not finished working with and on you. Greg was really trying to help us to see that we cannot see the end of the road. It was so great to hear that, and be reminded of that. That today's circumstance is part of a greater plan, and the greater plan involves God fulfilling in you that for which you were created.
That changes the outlook on the coming week and months, and it has me looking towards Easter with anticipation, right and proper.
Talk soon. I have to go downstairs and harass the TSN archives guys about getting me a DVD copy of that F1 season opener. I'm selling copies for $8.00.... any takers?
J
The guitar recording was a total success. Unmitigated. :) I'm wholey sold out on Vox amps, for the record, following a full day of getting to know one. I really haven't ever found an amp that I truly loved. It always seems like they're good at one thing, but not another. A fender something or other does such a great job on those warm clean tones, but anything over-driven sounds choppy and unpolished, which I don't like. And then some big monster of a JCM or something is incredible for that massive drive, but if I'm working on something more toned down, I have no real options. Enter the AC30. It was a lot of fun just playing around with it. I managed to arrive at all kinds of different tones and sounds just within the amp itself.
It was also great to have several guitars. Thanks to matty, glease-bag, and chuck for lending me their beauties. When you're looking to track guitars, and you're staring down at a Les Paul, a Fender Tornado (ya.. you try and find one! I'd never heard of them, but it's a great guitar! sortof like a Tele, but darker at the top end, and a little less open), and an American Tele, you're doing pretty good!
I started at around 8:30am on Saturday, and tracked straight through till about 6:00. Sunday gave me time for a few touch ups and re-records. I managed to plow through all 13 songs, and it's looking as though I've got everything I need!! It's incredible to hear the songs taking on their actual form now. While I know that bass and backing vocals will make it clearer, I'm starting to have a pretty clear picture of where each song is going, and what the energy points are. It's such a cool experience to have that unfolding as it is.
As well, Jimmy and I have chatted, and he'll be playing bass on the record. In fact, it's altogether likely that he's currently holed up in his room practicing to temp mixes on a peavey t max as we speak! (http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/114539/MAX(R)%20126.cfm) a true warhorse...
Anyway, it's a good thing, too, cause it'll be nice to have some extra input on each song, and have a nother set of ears helping to decide what sounds best.
The balance of the weekend was spent chilling. Church on Sunday morning was so great! Leah reall worked it in the music.. the guys did a new song that I've never heard, and it was huge. And then Greg just took the whole thing and made it all relevant and applicable.
The overriding idea behind the whole service was that regardless of your circumstance or situation, God's not finished working with and on you. Greg was really trying to help us to see that we cannot see the end of the road. It was so great to hear that, and be reminded of that. That today's circumstance is part of a greater plan, and the greater plan involves God fulfilling in you that for which you were created.
That changes the outlook on the coming week and months, and it has me looking towards Easter with anticipation, right and proper.
Talk soon. I have to go downstairs and harass the TSN archives guys about getting me a DVD copy of that F1 season opener. I'm selling copies for $8.00.... any takers?
J
Friday, March 14, 2008
More thoughts on Questions, and Madeleine
I'm reading a book called 'and it was good', written by Madeleine L'Engle. I often find myself reading a good book and feeling as though it would be so good if people could read this... if others could be introduced to this incredible thought or idea. It's the way it goes, I guess... you have to find things for yourself. That said, this is an honest encouragement. If you're looking for something good, maybe haven't read a great book in a while, one that changes you and pushes you to think new thoughts, grows you, then find some of Madeleine's books. She writes novels as well as non-fiction stuff, and I'd suggest the non-fiction stuff. It really is a thought-based thing. She goes back into her journals and writes books about a lot of the deepest thoughts she has been carrying with her throughout her life.
The one I'm reading now is great... again, called 'and it was good.' I'd also really recommend 'A Circle of Quiet' and 'A Two Part Invention.'
One of the points she made in the last chapter I read (called 'Protecting God'..) has followed me to work today. To paraphrase, she asked, 'what is the point of reading books that agree with our current train of thought? In what way does it further us or better us as humans, as friends, as pursuers of God, to continually ingest that which presents those ideas which we already believe in?' I found that to be an interesting and revealing thought. It's important to be continually exposed to new perspectives that challenge your own. If you're pretty sure about something.. about an ideal or a belief, then it's probably your best bet to find somebody who believes the opposite and dig into their thoughts. The result is going to be either an adjustment in what was your position, or a refining of it. But regardless, it's a method of testing your grounds, and furthering your understanding.
It isn't the way we opperate, as humans. Take politics. Kar and I talk alot about our frustration with the concept of 'political parties'. Two sides (or three or four). The main goal (it seems at times), first and foremost, is to ensure that the world knows that, without exception, WE disagree with THEM. We'll tell you what we think the Federal budget should look like, but first, let us confirm and emphasize the fact that we DO NOT like the one Flaherty presented, and we think that he is running this country into the ground.
It's a lock-in. The decision is made, and we're not changing. Now... moving on to what we think is wrong with everything...
So then you have Liberal radio shows, and Conservative radio shows. The Liberals call their show, and the Conservatives call their show. Or, I suppose, the daring ones will cross-call, but the intention on both sides is far from open and mutually beneficial discussion.
That isn't constructive. It isn't growing, it isn't 'big-picture'. It's arrogant. Right? It is subscribing to the notion that 'we know, so much so that we have nothing more to learn about it..'
So how do I do that? What do I need to work on? I think I need to see discussions and media... books, movies, songs, etc., as opportunity for growth and improvement. I need to listen to the CBC, and try to figure out WHY the left thinks the way it does... WHY do they believe what they believe, and what do they see that I don't.. what can I learn? I strongly suspect they are not all wrong. Rather, I suspect their thoughts come as a result of their collective personality, their 'wiring', if you will.
WHAT do the different groups of people that make up our society have to say about any and all things? What is it in their situation that dictates their patterns of thought?
Above all, I go back to another Madeleine L'Engle quote, and it sums up my thinking:
"Infinite questions are often destroyed by finite answers..'
When we stop asking and start answering, which is to say... when the answers become the focus, and that to which we cling... what are we protecting? Ourselves? From what? Eternal damnation? Will God turn his back, cast us off, if he finds us getting too curious? Of course not. Are we protecting ourselves from 'falling away?' This is an oft discussed concept in the church community. Perhaps we've blurred the lines between that which is contrary to our current belief and that which is simply intrinsically negative. To be sure, one who involves themselves in those 'worldly' things, which can have no positive bearing on a human life, is headed for trouble. But one who involves themselves in the pursuit of truth is headed for a distinctly different end.
Are we protecting God? Are we afraid that a God who is different than the God we know now is simply a God we cannot fully know, and thus a God we cannot trust? Is it about that power? There is power in knowing. We're comfortable in a situation that we understand. We prefer to stand in the corner, back to the wall, everything out in front of us. We can see it all then, and we can evaluate everything for what it is. Then make our decision. But then, that isn't really God we're protecting, but only ourselves again. From that free-fall.. the vulnerability of admitting powerlessness.
That's what's so incredible about this whole thing to me. We CAN'T evaluate it. At least not from a position of knowledge. I think that's why the concept of EVANGELISM seems so weird to me sometimes. Because we come at it from a perspective of knowledge. We try to put ourselves in a position in which we're ready to answer all the hard questions. And yet, I know that I can't. I know that if somebody says, 'How do you KNOW. How do you KNOW that God is real?' I know that I can't effectively answer that. I know. But I know for me. And I cannot describe how you'll know for you.
I wonder, on days like today, if the original plan (I mean.. following the ACTUAL original plan, which was direct community with God..) was that all of us would be moving together towards that truth, and growing together into the versions of ourselves that we were intended to be. As opposed to the idea of some of us arriving, and then turning around to help those others who had not yet arrived. In C.S. Lewis' 'The Great Divorce' (another fantastically challenging book), he pushes this concept of continuous salvation... an existence in which we never 'arrive', but are always 'arriving.' And in a sense, that 'arriving' is to 'arrive.'
Anyway, as always, take this as my current train of thought, and do with it what you will.
And Sabrina, if you read this, and made it this far, can you 'invite' me to you and Ken's blog, cause every time I try to check it out, it says I'm not 'invited.' Unless, of course, that is intentional....
See some of you soon.
J
The one I'm reading now is great... again, called 'and it was good.' I'd also really recommend 'A Circle of Quiet' and 'A Two Part Invention.'
One of the points she made in the last chapter I read (called 'Protecting God'..) has followed me to work today. To paraphrase, she asked, 'what is the point of reading books that agree with our current train of thought? In what way does it further us or better us as humans, as friends, as pursuers of God, to continually ingest that which presents those ideas which we already believe in?' I found that to be an interesting and revealing thought. It's important to be continually exposed to new perspectives that challenge your own. If you're pretty sure about something.. about an ideal or a belief, then it's probably your best bet to find somebody who believes the opposite and dig into their thoughts. The result is going to be either an adjustment in what was your position, or a refining of it. But regardless, it's a method of testing your grounds, and furthering your understanding.
It isn't the way we opperate, as humans. Take politics. Kar and I talk alot about our frustration with the concept of 'political parties'. Two sides (or three or four). The main goal (it seems at times), first and foremost, is to ensure that the world knows that, without exception, WE disagree with THEM. We'll tell you what we think the Federal budget should look like, but first, let us confirm and emphasize the fact that we DO NOT like the one Flaherty presented, and we think that he is running this country into the ground.
It's a lock-in. The decision is made, and we're not changing. Now... moving on to what we think is wrong with everything...
So then you have Liberal radio shows, and Conservative radio shows. The Liberals call their show, and the Conservatives call their show. Or, I suppose, the daring ones will cross-call, but the intention on both sides is far from open and mutually beneficial discussion.
That isn't constructive. It isn't growing, it isn't 'big-picture'. It's arrogant. Right? It is subscribing to the notion that 'we know, so much so that we have nothing more to learn about it..'
So how do I do that? What do I need to work on? I think I need to see discussions and media... books, movies, songs, etc., as opportunity for growth and improvement. I need to listen to the CBC, and try to figure out WHY the left thinks the way it does... WHY do they believe what they believe, and what do they see that I don't.. what can I learn? I strongly suspect they are not all wrong. Rather, I suspect their thoughts come as a result of their collective personality, their 'wiring', if you will.
WHAT do the different groups of people that make up our society have to say about any and all things? What is it in their situation that dictates their patterns of thought?
Above all, I go back to another Madeleine L'Engle quote, and it sums up my thinking:
"Infinite questions are often destroyed by finite answers..'
When we stop asking and start answering, which is to say... when the answers become the focus, and that to which we cling... what are we protecting? Ourselves? From what? Eternal damnation? Will God turn his back, cast us off, if he finds us getting too curious? Of course not. Are we protecting ourselves from 'falling away?' This is an oft discussed concept in the church community. Perhaps we've blurred the lines between that which is contrary to our current belief and that which is simply intrinsically negative. To be sure, one who involves themselves in those 'worldly' things, which can have no positive bearing on a human life, is headed for trouble. But one who involves themselves in the pursuit of truth is headed for a distinctly different end.
Are we protecting God? Are we afraid that a God who is different than the God we know now is simply a God we cannot fully know, and thus a God we cannot trust? Is it about that power? There is power in knowing. We're comfortable in a situation that we understand. We prefer to stand in the corner, back to the wall, everything out in front of us. We can see it all then, and we can evaluate everything for what it is. Then make our decision. But then, that isn't really God we're protecting, but only ourselves again. From that free-fall.. the vulnerability of admitting powerlessness.
That's what's so incredible about this whole thing to me. We CAN'T evaluate it. At least not from a position of knowledge. I think that's why the concept of EVANGELISM seems so weird to me sometimes. Because we come at it from a perspective of knowledge. We try to put ourselves in a position in which we're ready to answer all the hard questions. And yet, I know that I can't. I know that if somebody says, 'How do you KNOW. How do you KNOW that God is real?' I know that I can't effectively answer that. I know. But I know for me. And I cannot describe how you'll know for you.
I wonder, on days like today, if the original plan (I mean.. following the ACTUAL original plan, which was direct community with God..) was that all of us would be moving together towards that truth, and growing together into the versions of ourselves that we were intended to be. As opposed to the idea of some of us arriving, and then turning around to help those others who had not yet arrived. In C.S. Lewis' 'The Great Divorce' (another fantastically challenging book), he pushes this concept of continuous salvation... an existence in which we never 'arrive', but are always 'arriving.' And in a sense, that 'arriving' is to 'arrive.'
Anyway, as always, take this as my current train of thought, and do with it what you will.
And Sabrina, if you read this, and made it this far, can you 'invite' me to you and Ken's blog, cause every time I try to check it out, it says I'm not 'invited.' Unless, of course, that is intentional....
See some of you soon.
J
Thursday, March 13, 2008
AC30
It's thursday. Here's the game plan:
Heading home on Friday night for a weekend of recording. Electric guitars are on the schedule. I'm heading over to Long and McQuades tonight to pick up a Vox AC30 for the weekend.
AC30s are the sound of a lot of records that I tend to like.. they're used a lot when it comes to that silvery smooth overdrive or warm clean tones... U2. That's basically what you need to know. The Edge uses AC30s. Oh, and Jim Adkins.. Jimmy Eat World.
So I called, and apparently they've got a 2x12 AC30cc with Celestion Blubacks. I guess that's good. I'm somewhat new to the world of 'classic guitar amps', but I gather that those speakers sound fantastic, so that's cool. Sounds like I'm going to be able to get my hands on Gleason's guitar (not sure what it actually is, now that I think of it..) and his pedal board, which has a compliment of options, as well as his 4x12, and then Chuck's Les Paul, and Hopper's JCM head too. Should make for a bunch of options in terms of sound. I'm excited to hear a bunch of these tunes with a more filled-out sound. Minus the bass tracks, I'll have a pretty clear picture of the everything as far as where each tune is headed.
I'll check back in when I get back.
Later.
J
Heading home on Friday night for a weekend of recording. Electric guitars are on the schedule. I'm heading over to Long and McQuades tonight to pick up a Vox AC30 for the weekend.
AC30s are the sound of a lot of records that I tend to like.. they're used a lot when it comes to that silvery smooth overdrive or warm clean tones... U2. That's basically what you need to know. The Edge uses AC30s. Oh, and Jim Adkins.. Jimmy Eat World.
So I called, and apparently they've got a 2x12 AC30cc with Celestion Blubacks. I guess that's good. I'm somewhat new to the world of 'classic guitar amps', but I gather that those speakers sound fantastic, so that's cool. Sounds like I'm going to be able to get my hands on Gleason's guitar (not sure what it actually is, now that I think of it..) and his pedal board, which has a compliment of options, as well as his 4x12, and then Chuck's Les Paul, and Hopper's JCM head too. Should make for a bunch of options in terms of sound. I'm excited to hear a bunch of these tunes with a more filled-out sound. Minus the bass tracks, I'll have a pretty clear picture of the everything as far as where each tune is headed.
I'll check back in when I get back.
Later.
J
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
found and finding: meet reality
i had a good drive in this morning. i was able to do a fair amount of heavy thinking... i have to re-evaluate what it means to live love. it's something that i haven't been deliberate about in the past while, and i feel it showing. i have the phrase branded on my body for goodness sake, and it's everything that i want to be about.. but it takes a measure of focus and intentionality to make it happen consistently.
i'm helplessly swept up in the pace of life if i'm not careful, and i find that general 'niceness', being good to the people around me, known or unkown, becomes a liability.. a nuisance. i don't have time to say thank you, to ask how somebody is doing, to consider them before considering myself. because asking means listening, and listening means waiting, and waiting means patience, and i can't afford that.
i've been made aware of the fact that.. when you're bumped, it's what you're full of that spills out. well... i've been bumped a few times in the past month or so, both literally, and figuratively, and i'm somewhat ashamed of what came out of me on those occassions. i can develop such an unbelievably strong sense of protectiveness and caution about my life, my situation, my comfort.
i want to see inconveniences as opportunities. i want to see accidents as accidents, people as people, and each day as an experience i'm lucky to have.
i want to, at this time in my life, stop travelling and start arriving... in the sense that.. when i find myself pushing others away in an attempt to better set me up to achieve a goal, then i know i have a severe lack of balance and perspective.
man.. as i write this, i've got a smile on my face because, in reality, i would do well to listen to my own songs.
J
i'm helplessly swept up in the pace of life if i'm not careful, and i find that general 'niceness', being good to the people around me, known or unkown, becomes a liability.. a nuisance. i don't have time to say thank you, to ask how somebody is doing, to consider them before considering myself. because asking means listening, and listening means waiting, and waiting means patience, and i can't afford that.
i've been made aware of the fact that.. when you're bumped, it's what you're full of that spills out. well... i've been bumped a few times in the past month or so, both literally, and figuratively, and i'm somewhat ashamed of what came out of me on those occassions. i can develop such an unbelievably strong sense of protectiveness and caution about my life, my situation, my comfort.
i want to see inconveniences as opportunities. i want to see accidents as accidents, people as people, and each day as an experience i'm lucky to have.
i want to, at this time in my life, stop travelling and start arriving... in the sense that.. when i find myself pushing others away in an attempt to better set me up to achieve a goal, then i know i have a severe lack of balance and perspective.
man.. as i write this, i've got a smile on my face because, in reality, i would do well to listen to my own songs.
J
Monday, March 3, 2008
It's a record buying extravaganza!!!
If you were to have about $100.00 in Future Shop gift card money, and your wife (or husband) were to tell you 'it's cool.. you can spend it all on CDs', what records would you buy? What records would you take the opportunity to purchase with this once in a lifetime, no guilt, no limitations, no downside, no nagging uncertainty opportunity??
Please comment with your suggestions and advice.
J
Please comment with your suggestions and advice.
J
Baby you can drive my car..
Not last Thursday, but the one before that, I got in a car accident. I was just getting onto the bottom end of Hwy. 8 heading North towards Waterloo. It was really snowy, and slippery, and everybody was driving very cautiously.. except for the guy behind me. Which was unfortunate. When everybody slowed down, I slowed down with them, but the guy behind me was too close, and going too fast. He jumped on the brakes, which sent him completely sideways and into the car beside him, which then slammed directly into me. My back right side was handily shmucked.. bumper and side panel and hatch, and i was spun around, at which point my front right side received a good schelacking as well.
Mike King at Louie's in Leamington did a fantastic job on the body work, and in no time I was out the door with what looked like a brand new set of wheels.
On Friday of last week, I was just exiting onto Hwy. 8 heading North towards Waterloo. It was really snowy, and slippery, and everybody was driving very cautiously.. except for the guy two cars behind me. Which was unfortunate. When the car in front of me hooked a wheel and got sideways, I had a good 50 meters between him and me, and slowing down was no problem. The semi-truck behind me had left a good distance too, and he easily slowed down when he saw the problem. However, at the exact same time as the guy in front of me was completing his 180 and ending up in the left lane of the exit ramp facing the wrong direction, a car behind the semi was getting impatient. He whipped by the semi on the left lane, and then, naturally, noticed that there was a car in his lane, facing him. His reaction, of course, was to swerve into the right lane. Unfortunately, I was in the right lane. We were all, by now, going approx. 20km/h. Except for the guy who was going approx. 60km/h.
Man, what a bummer. problem is, there is nothing you can do. There is no more helpless feeling than that of looking in your rearview when you have to slow down in the snow, and seeing a guy bearing down on you from behind at 'way too fast' km/h. You just know, and you can't move, or turn, or stop. You just suck in your breath and wait for that big noise and the annoyingly helpless sliding and spinning feeling. And a part of you wonders if the semi is going to be a third party in this whole ordeal.
Anyway... so here's the moral of the story. When it snows, and when there is snow on the road, it's slippery. There's nothing uncool about driving slowly, and driving safely. There's nothing annoying about leaving 5 car lengths between you and the guy in front of you. And may I also mention... 4 wheel drive is about the go, not the stop. If you have an SUV, and you have 4 wheel drive, you are blessed with the ability to get out of a ditch more effectively than I am. You are not any more capable of stopping. If you're driving 100 and the guy in front of you brakes, your four wheels are sliding.. not driving.
And finally, if you run into the back of another car because you were driving too fast, and you weren't paying attention, then it is highly unlikely that the driver of said other car will be interested in having you personally do the body work on his bumper so as to avoid going through insurance and having you pay for a professional to do the work.
Mike King at Louie's in Leamington did a fantastic job on the body work, and in no time I was out the door with what looked like a brand new set of wheels.
On Friday of last week, I was just exiting onto Hwy. 8 heading North towards Waterloo. It was really snowy, and slippery, and everybody was driving very cautiously.. except for the guy two cars behind me. Which was unfortunate. When the car in front of me hooked a wheel and got sideways, I had a good 50 meters between him and me, and slowing down was no problem. The semi-truck behind me had left a good distance too, and he easily slowed down when he saw the problem. However, at the exact same time as the guy in front of me was completing his 180 and ending up in the left lane of the exit ramp facing the wrong direction, a car behind the semi was getting impatient. He whipped by the semi on the left lane, and then, naturally, noticed that there was a car in his lane, facing him. His reaction, of course, was to swerve into the right lane. Unfortunately, I was in the right lane. We were all, by now, going approx. 20km/h. Except for the guy who was going approx. 60km/h.
Man, what a bummer. problem is, there is nothing you can do. There is no more helpless feeling than that of looking in your rearview when you have to slow down in the snow, and seeing a guy bearing down on you from behind at 'way too fast' km/h. You just know, and you can't move, or turn, or stop. You just suck in your breath and wait for that big noise and the annoyingly helpless sliding and spinning feeling. And a part of you wonders if the semi is going to be a third party in this whole ordeal.
Anyway... so here's the moral of the story. When it snows, and when there is snow on the road, it's slippery. There's nothing uncool about driving slowly, and driving safely. There's nothing annoying about leaving 5 car lengths between you and the guy in front of you. And may I also mention... 4 wheel drive is about the go, not the stop. If you have an SUV, and you have 4 wheel drive, you are blessed with the ability to get out of a ditch more effectively than I am. You are not any more capable of stopping. If you're driving 100 and the guy in front of you brakes, your four wheels are sliding.. not driving.
And finally, if you run into the back of another car because you were driving too fast, and you weren't paying attention, then it is highly unlikely that the driver of said other car will be interested in having you personally do the body work on his bumper so as to avoid going through insurance and having you pay for a professional to do the work.
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