This Is A Picture Frame

This is a picture frame. An empty picture frame to be exact. But it can't have always been a rotten old empty picture frame. Once upon a time it would have been a beautifully ornate carved wooden frame that wonderfully complimented the picture (or painting) held within. (And enjoy that, that's about as poetic as I get)

But that picture is long gone. Taken by the owners of the old house I found it in, torn out by previous explorers, burned, who knows. But what was it? It was right next to the front door of a house, so probably a beautiful image, or something that was very close to the people who lived there.  Maybe a family portrait, maybe a valuable painting.

There's no way of knowing, we can only imagine. We have a sign that it was there, but it's up to us to project our imaginings into it. I love to do that, it gives an idea of who you are, the people who hung up this picture frame become you.


I suppose that's why I love to explore abandoned places.

This is the view down main street in a small town called Rowley. Back in the day, Rowley was a mining town, home to some 500 people. Not much, but still, it's something.

Now there's 12 people. Most of the town has been torn down, either by farmers who want to expand their field or by nature. The 12 folks of Rowley love their town and go to great lengths to keep it looking nice. It's a bit of a tourist attraction now.

This is inside the house with the picture frame. It's small, there's a mud room, a kitchen, one bedroom, one bathroom, and a living room.

It looked like it was once a pretty house, well kept.

Now it's run down, it's tilted over to the point where you feel like you're on a ship on the ocean, and it smells like rot.

This house wasn't in Rowley. It's in a coulee a few kilometers south of Three Hills. It stands alone, tilted and rotting. By far one of the biggest ghost homes I've ever visited, there were two floors and four bedrooms. A large living room, kitchen, mud room, and cellar.

This house evidently belonged to a rich family; the house was built of BC cedar, and the newspapers that were lying about were dated to before there was a reliable way to get across the mountains beyond the rails. It would have cost an arm and a leg to get all that wood across the mountains, but this family did it.

Now it stands abandoned; the family left their remarkable home. Why? Did they, like many country dwellers, find a better job in the city? Did they own a large ranch, and at some point the new generation decided they wanted something else? Or did they come to try their luck at the riches of Alberta, only to fail, returning to wherever they came from?

We know why Rowley was abandoned; it was a Coal town. When the world shifted over to oil, Rowley's economy failed and everyone left. Simple as that. There was nothing else in the town, and so it failed.

They say to learn from history or find yourself repeating it, and sometimes I worry that we are repeating it. We are building our Rowleys (Fort McMurray, I'm looking at you), our large estates, our pillars of strength as a society. When the world changes, and it will, what will happen to these places and things? Once they have been abandoned, will our pillars of strength remain? Or will they become pillars of foolishness to our descendants?

What will they project into our empty picture frame?

Insights Into the Life of a Pilot

So I'm sitting at the Calgary Flying Club; I had to fly one of our planes down to Springbank airport for an inspection, and I'll be flying it back to Three Hills once the inspection is done.

That gives me three hours (ish) to relax and wait for the plane. The problem, is that the weather is deteriorating. The wind has picked up, and there is a storm building to the west, headed right for us.

We make plans, but God doesn't always agree with them.

Days like this are stressful, I have to figure out a lot of things on the fly (no pun intended). Hopefully the weather will improve and I will be able to fly out, I might have to dodge around some storms, but that's not too difficult. On the other hand, if the wind is too strong, I won't be able to safely take-off. Or worse, land.

There is no easy answer to what I'm going to do. For now, I can just sit tight and wait to see what the weather looks like when the inspection is done, but if the weather is still questionable, then what? Where do I draw the line for acceptable risk with the weather? I have to take into account my skill, the performance of the aircraft, and the likelyhood that it will get worse after I take off.

What's more, how long do I wait to see if it'll clear? The aircraft isn't certified for night flight, and I'm not current, so I have to make it home before dark. But it still takes a bit of time to fly out there, and I need to give myself extra time for contingencies since the weather is interesting.

And what do I do if I decide that the weather isn't good enough? I have to call someone to drive down here (one hour each way) and pick me up, which doesn't sound pleasant. Hey man, can you drive for two full hours to pick me up despite your busy schedule? Thanks! And even then, now I have to get back to Springbank to get the plane. So I could spend the night at a cheap motel, but in Calgary, cheap is a relative term, and still pretty expensive. Also, there doesn't seem to be any motels around the airport, so how am I going to get to one without spending more money on a taxi or a rental car?

So yeah, that's a small insight into my life as a pilot, and I want to remind you that these questions don't go away when you get into the big leagues, so next time your pilot delays the flight for weather, don't get mad at him, he wants to fly just as bad as you do, and he spent a lot of time thinking about his decision.


Update: I made it home on time, though I had to divert around this storm system (the weather guy called it a Super Cell!), making my flight considerably longer.

On Graduation and the Illusion of Completion

I graduated from college yesterday... and I've been thinking.

When I graduated from highschool, our commnnencement ceremony was in the middle of a school week. That made it a bit of a joke because they were telling us that we had graduated, but we had to go to school the next day...

My college graduation is similar. Because of the nature of my program, I have to continue my flight training through the summer. I do get a week off, but it was hard to take them seriously when I knew that I was going bak to class in a few days to work on my classes for this degree that they said I had just completed.

Now to be clear, I am happy about my graduation, and I am proud of my achievements, but I find it funny when they tell me I'm done when I know that I'm not. It also makes me think about the illusion of completion.

Of how many things can we truly say ''I'm done''? Sure, I'm done a road trip, but when am I done my education? These days our global knowledge doubles regularly, in a few years it is believed that it will double daily. Now I don't know if that will really happen, but up to today, the rate of the doubling of our knowledge is growing exponentionaly. I suppose we will have to wait and see.

So if we don't complete education, what do we complete? A job? When the contract for my last job came to an end, I said ''I'm done'' at least three times, my boss kept asking me to do one more odd job. Of course, some people can mark diffinitive ends to their jobs, but I would argue that even just thinking about the job means that it's not actually over.

So neither education nor employment have a diffinitive completion, but couldn't we say that life does have a completion? Again, I would argue that even the line that marks the end of life is blurred. I distinctly remember when I was talking to some friends of mine about death. One of them was a firefighter and the other a nurse. The nurse defined death as the moment when mind activity and the heart stops. The firefighter defined death as ''when the doctor says he's dead''. Both are right in their own fields, yet both are very different. The nurse's definition can have occured, but as far as the firefighter is concerned, the man is still alive. So who's right? what's more, with modern medicine we can bring people back to life! (Albeit, only sometimes) So someone's dead, and then they're alive again. So this person's life is done, then their back! again, we've encountered the illusion of completion.

So the idea of completing something is just an illusion, most any author I've ever met will agree with me in regards to their writting, but I think I've shown that it expands even farther.

If you disagree with me, let me know, I'd love to talk, I'm not sure I agree with myself either.

Five Years!

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord,

that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

-Mary Stevenson

Five years ago tonight, I made a conscious decision to follow Christ. January 22nd 2010.

Some people, when they talk about their salvation experience describe a light-bulb moment, where suddenly they could see, suddenly they understood. Mine was similar, but it wasn’t an incandescent light bulb that suddenly illuminates.

Rather for me, it was more akin to one of those light bulbs that slowly brightens.

You see, I grew up in a Christian family, but I never made a full commitment to faith. I didn't really understand Christianity. I’m not going to go into detail here, but over the course of the six or seven months preceding that day, I slowly, slowly started to understand. Slowly, ever so slowly, the lights came on, I started to understand who God is and just how much He loves me.

Finally, that night I realized that the lights were bright enough that I could see. If you’ve ever been in a workshop with those kind of lights, you know that the moment when you realize you can see is not the very initial moment that you can see, but rather you realize that you’ve been able to see for a while, and now it’s time to act.

So I prayed. I didn’t know the “proper” prayer that people are supposed to make at times like this, so I made it up.

Five years… wow have they been crazy awesome years! I’ve been reflecting on them, and it humbles me to see the times that I was stupid enough to think that I was alone, when in reality God was right there.

That poem I shared, Footprints In The Sand, is so true. There are so many hard times that God has carried me through, and so many victories that God has celebrated with me.

So here is to five years gone, and an eternity to go.

That's Life

To all my Canadian readers: Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry I’ve been quiet. Don’t expect things to change. I’ll try to write more, but I’ve been crazy busy.

<-My desk is marginally organized!

So I’m still in flight training, back in June I passed my PPL (Private Pilot License), so I was now a licensed pilot. I then spent some time learning how to fly in controlled airspace as well as learn how to handle long cross-countries.

After that, I learnt how to fly a conventional geared aircraft. For those of you who aren’t familiar with those, they are a lot more challenging to fly, though much more fun.

After that, I did some Advanced Time and Experience, in which I do longer cross-country flights (my longest was seven and a half hours) as well as night flying.

 <-Climbing above the clouds east of Edmonton.

<-The town of Red Deer as seen from the sky

Back in June I started ground school to get my CPL (Commercial Pilot’s License). To fulfill the requirements, I have to receive 80 hours of classroom time (to put that into perspective, an average college course is 32 hours of classroom time). I finally finished that last week. We split it into two courses, CPL ground school, in which we learn meteorology, general knowledge (theory of flight, etc.), air law, human factors and navigation. The second class is CPL Aircraft Systems, in which we learn about all the system in our aircraft (control systems, electrical systems, hydraulic systems, pressurization, engines, etc.).

 <-If you are unfamiliar with what a "conventional gear" is, this is the one I did most of my training in.

So I wrote the school’s Systems and CPL Ground School exams (two separate exams), I got 90.7% on the systems exam, but I haven’t received my mark for the CPL Ground School one yet. Assuming I do well on both, I will get a letter of recommendation from the school, and I will be able to drive down to Calgary to write the Transport Canada CPL written exam (CPAER). Yeah, I’m stressed.

 

 <-This guy came to visit one morning, out of the blue.

Once I’ve written, and passed my exam, I will begin ground school for my instrument rating (It seems there is no end of ground school in sight). Eventually I will get my instrument rating, which allows me to fly in clouds, with no visual reference outside.

Now for some more unfortunate news. I am sad to announce that due to lack of finances, I will not be able to go to Chad this Christmas. Thank-you all for your prayers and support. I will contact those who have provided me with financial support to discuss what they want done with their donation.

Thank-you all and blessings.

Î- In Slave Lake, the farthest from home I've ever flown.

Monsters In The Dark

Mom, you might not want to read this.

    When I was young, I was scared of the dark. I’ve grown out of that, I’ve learnt that there is nothing to be afraid of. There are no monsters hiding in the night.

    Usually.

    You see, the proper name for a storm cloud is Cumulonimbus Cloud. In weather reports, this is abbreviated to CB. In aviation circles, we jokingly refer to CBs as Cessa Breakers, because if you fly into one, you will most likely die. No matter what kind of plane you fly.

    So the other night, I was flying. Flying at night is fun, you can see all the towns clearly, and the air is usually smooth.

    But there are monsters hiding in the dark.

    On this particular flight, the weather forecasts looked good. The skies were going to be clear, and the winds calm.

    As I was cruising, I saw some clouds ahead. I didn’t mind too much, they looked higher than I was.

    Then I saw lighting. The frequency of the lighting grew and grew, and soon I was surrounded. I called Edmonton Center, and was informed that there were many CBs forming, and they were moving fast. I was stuck. No matter where I went, there was a CB.

    I couldn’t see the CBs, there was no moon, so I had to rely on Center letting me know where the storms were so that I could get around them. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life.

    There really were monsters hiding in the dark.

    P.S. In case you were wondering, I did make it home. Center did their job, and I got around the storms.

99 Days 'till Christmas!

Well, not really. I'm about two days lat. Still, 96 days 'till Christmas! (Hmmm... Doesn't quite sound the same...)

Anyways, That is a reminder, Christmas is coming soon, and though I haven't been writting much (sorry!), I'm still working towards Africa this Christmas.

But, I'm very low on funds. Please, If you are willing and able to support me, please, comment or e-mail me at dominicvilleneuve1995@gmail.com

Thanks-you guys (and gals) so much!

Dominic

P.S. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here.