Blair's Blog

At breakfast on Saturday with the kids, the conversation turned to the “olden days”. Yep, the time before the internet. None of our three kids have never known a time without the web, google or smartphones – the whole of the “information superhighway” exists in their pockets. Remember the information superhighway? Even that term sounds trite and dated now.

Life without a computer with high-speed, always connected wifi is basically a concept that is as foreign to my kids as the idea of having a television is to my generation. Or access to a telephone to my parent’s generation. Today, my kids have phones with them wherever they go, but never call and talk to anyone. They have a television in the house, but have no concept of having to wait until Tuesday at 8:00pm to catch the latest episode of their favourite show.

The world wide web had been developed about 4 years before Steven was born, having begun with CERN creating the first webpage in 1991 and then releasing it as open-source software to the public in 1993. I had a webpage up and running in 1996 – exactly what it looked like is pretty much lost now, as I made periodic edits and the various versions are lost to history. However, this is what that same page looked like in 1999 when I updated it after Mark was born:

As the breakfast conversation continued, we got to talking about the early computers that Brenda and I worked with. Brenda’s first use of a computer was in Grade 11 writing simple Basic programs on a Commodore PET with no disk storage – only cassette tapes.  My experience was similar – the first computer that I used was an Apple II in about Grade 8 – I actually entered a coding competition with a friend in about 1977.  That was long before such advanced technology as the 5.25 inch floppy drive was available!

The first computer in our family, though, was a spectacularly expensive Gateway2000 486DX-33 that we purchased in 1992:

That’s $2700 in US dollars – back in 1992 the exchange rate was about $0.84 Canadian per USD so that was actually about $3225.  To put that in perspective, adjusted for inflation to 2016 that is just shy of $5000.  And what did we get for that princely sum?  Here are a few highlights from the packing list:

• 486 DX CPU running at a staggering 33 MHz
• Gemini motherboard
• 1 Mb of 70ns memory (SIMM packaging)
• ATI Ultra VGA video card
• 120 Mb Western Digital IDE hard drive
• Both kinds of floppy drive
• “Crystal Scan” 15″ VGA monitor
• DOS 5 (Gateway version)
• Windows 3.1
• Software: MS Works, Money, Publisher and Entertainment

These images are of the packing slip that came with the system – the images are big and I had to really bump the contrast and brightness because they were “Printed with SOY INK” which, sadly, has not withstood the test of time very well. 

The day that cow-spotted Gateway box arrived was a pretty exciting one and we toted that computer around through a number of moves – from the house in Cold Lake to the apartment, then to Thetis Island, Australia and back to Chestermere.  I don’t know exactly when we retired it – probably some time in 1999.  By that time we had a second computer (a Compaq laptop purchased in Australia) and it was certainly showing its age after 7 years.  The only pictures that I can find with it are from our time at Capernwray in the summer of 1996:

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Women in Aviation, International. Brenda has been involved with the Calgary chapter of the Canadian branch of Women in Aviation for several years, currently as the chapter president. Women in Aviation is a really great organization of individuals that supports and encourages women to consider being part of the aviation world – whether at the level of individual interest or as a career. The Calgary chapter is a super friendly group and includes private and commercial pilots, aircraft maintenance specialists, authors, students, instructors, aircrew, airport staff and those who just have an interest and enthusiasm for all things flying.

A month ago, the chapter hosted the day event at the Mount Royal University’ s aviation program hanger at Springbank airport. This event is coordinated around the world with international WAI chapters to occur on the same day – 24 Sept this year. About 75 chapter events were held in 10 countries from Canada to Switzerland and Australia to Zambia. The Calgary event was attended by well over 100 girls who got to chat to women with aviation interest and careers.

Another benefit of the group is that they have developed a good relationship with all sorts of groups and businesses in the aviation sector and are able to get group tours of some really interesting facilities and places. Over the past couple of years there have been tours of the new tower at YYC, Viking’s Twin Otter production facility, the YYC airside equipment center, and just this past week, the Airport Firehall. The group always opens up these types of tours to the families of the members – the joke has become that if there are trucks or food the guys start showing up!

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It’s difficult to believe that autumn began this week. It has been quite the roller coaster of a year. The economy generally has been difficult here and the job market has been abysmal – the worst employment market in 30 years, some say. Even this week, two individuals that I know were let go from their companies.

In some good news for us, though, both Brenda and I landed jobs in September, which was an incredible relief after months of scrambling for small contracts and juggling finances to keep the bills paid and food on the table. Brenda is going to be working in the information booths at the Calgary Airport that provide all manner of assistance to travelers going through the airport. This month and next are largely focused on training and getting oriented to the new international terminal building that will be opening for use at the end of October after about 6 years of construction. One of Brenda’s current responsibilities is to guide groups of airport staff on familiarization tours through the new terminal.

I was fortunate enough to bring my “unpaid vacation” to an end after 352 days off – I started on a contract with an oil company downtown just this past week. I will be reviewing the operational policies and procedures over the next 12 months and updating them where needed to improve the effectiveness of the processes and to help ensure that all of the requirements of the business and industry regulators are being met.

In the midst of all this change for Brenda and I, of course there is all the hectic back-to-school activity with the kids – it’s not to bad for the boys, as their situations and routines are very similar to last year. However, one of the sacrifices that had to be made with the lack of employment was that we had to withdraw Alyssa from her school – this year she is doing Grade 9 through a distance learning program – her classes are on-line each morning and she works independently on her assignments in the afternoons. So far, that has been working well for her.

All in all, September has been pretty eventful and, finally, in a good way.

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… for a day.

It’s not like I can even afford to ride my own bike this year with almost a year of unemployment. However, this bike, which belongs to my friend Mark, was needing a ride home. It had been in the shop for quite a few weeks getting some clutch work done and when it was ready, Mark asked if I would be willing to ride it up to Sundre for him.

I picked it up on Friday, then yesterday I rode up in the morning to drop it off. I took some back roads that I had never traveled on previously – some nice scenic secondaries up through Water Valley. In a slightly disappointing turn of events, almost all of the roads were paved, so I only managed to try out a little bit of gravel. On the other hand, I learned about some nice routes for next year’s riding.

Tags: Motorcycle

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