A Visit to the Doctor....Part Two

In the first installment, I talked ( whined ) about my visit to the Sunshine Coast to get a physical. In that story, I bemoaned the loss of connection to the local small town doctors, who for years provided caring and personal service.Last week I made the trip again, from Vancouver to the Coast to get my results.
It went like this.
I arrived at Horseshoe Bay an hour early for the ferry, so I went over to Troll's restaurant for a late breaky. Just a few minutes after arriving, an old Coast friend and his buddy arrived with the same idea. We sat together and yucked it up, getting the latest gossip and stories. They had come into town to look at purchasing an older classic vehicle, but the negotiations on price versus condition didn't get far. They turned the deal down and were returning home.

One of the bright spots in the conversation that restored my faith in humanity for a few minutes, was this simple gesture. The fella that had the car for sale, had to drive it quite a ways to meet the boys closer to Horseshoe Bay. When the deal didn't go through, my friend paid the the guy 200 bucks for his time and trouble.

You don't see that happening much these days...one human being considering another in the "do unto others" fashion. Mostly it's the "fuck em " attitude that rules the deal world. Hard asses would proclaim him a sucker...the more Karmically oriented would just nod in approval

Halfway through breakfast, the vehicle owner calls back and offers a 30% discount if they take the deal now, before everyone scatters. A brief negotiation ensues, a couple phone calls out into the world for more opinions...and then it's agreed...a done deal. The boys zoom out to get the new treasure, and get back to the ferry in time to drive right on.

I know, this is a tale about visiting the doctor, I'm getting there.

On the ferry, a guy that I have been trying to contact, walks by. I call him over and we talk the whole trip about lost and abandoned logging machines that he has discovered in his travels as a logging contractor. We agree to talk more at a later date, so that I can get the details on where all these treasures are, and then I can go to photograph them. Perfect.

Off the ferry, I make my way up to Sechelt. It's a bone chilling January day, overcast and on the edge of snow. The receptionist at the medical clinic is a friend from school and the old neighborhood. Another friend from days gone by, walks into the clinic and we start up again on the subject of forgotten old machinery. Because this is the Coast ( everyone is connected in some fashion or another ) the guy that I'm talking to is buddies with the fella I talked to on the ferry. It just kinda works that way up there. When we struggle to remember a detail about some tidbit of the past, another Coaster sitting in the waiting room, pipes up with the answer. The name we were looking for was his dad!....connections...connections.

With my head full of ideas for expeditions to steam yarders and rusty logging trucks, the nurse calls me into the doctors office. ( finally...the doctor part )
Same doctor as last time, different attitude. This time warmer and smiling, a bit more engaging. The results showed a few interesting things.
For the first time ever, my cholesterol was slightly elevated. I'm going to mark that down as an effect of 9 months of night-shift work/12 hours at a crack and the crappy diet that goes with that lifestyle. ( packaged sandwiches, corner store meals, a Tim Hortons habit and upside down sleep pattern. )

The flip side was that my "good" cholesterol was "very" high. It was decided that it was a result of a diet change that I made about a year ago. A professional conditioning coach ( Paul Valiulis, Precision Nutrition ) that I met in the gym turned me onto high doses of liquid fish oil. I studied the available info online and dived headlong into the program. My doctor agreed that the liquid fish oil was the reason for the higher good cholesterol count...and that it helped to counteract the bad. ( do your own research, ask your own questions, consult your doctor or nutritionist. )

Here is another interesting point. In the physical, my height, weight and waist measurement was taken. This is used to help calculate the risk of heart attack from a body type of angle.
The problem here is that I'm a gym rat and a runner.... and the height/weight scale doesn't fit. So my 6 foot tall, 225 lb body is not the same soft gooey body of a desk jockey that gets his exercise bending elbows at the local bar.

My own internal reasoning aside, the medical report calculations showed an 8% risk of heart attack. This was the result of stirring in the cholesterol count with height/weight and age ( 52 ) Blood pressure is at the low end of the scale and resting pulse is 60bpm.( low )

My dietary downfall these days is regular consumption of soy or rice ice cream....or taco chips and salsa/guacamole. Not the worst snack food in the world, but something to keep and eye on, all things considered. My poison of choice these days is yummy red wines rather than my old martini habit of days gone by. Red wine is purported to have some heart health benefits ( all things in moderation )

My doctor ( friendlier and warmer than last time ) informed me that slightly modifying the diet now would be far far easier than trying to fix a cholesterol problem later. Point taken.
So, officially...color me skeptical about the 8% risk thing ( no family history of heart disease )...BUT...seeing that my life plan is to grow old by fighting the aging process on every front...I will reconsider some of my diet choices by trying to tame the snack monster that lives within.

To perfectly end the story.
I walked out of the clinic and ran smack dab into my old doctor, Denis Rogers ( yes Denis...not Dennis )  We go way back, as doctor/patient and as friends. It was a warm greeting on a cold day. He asked me what I was up to. I replied that I came up to get a physical...and was disappointed that he wasn't still working.
Denis took a step back, eyed me up and down, and declared.."You look fine my boy, why on earth would you want a physical?

That's my Denis. That's my old home.

Singer/Songwriter Lisa Chase....Live Performance Feb.1 2012

Lisa Chase will be performing at the reception for the screening of the documentary film " Pink Ribbons Inc ".

The Denman Cinema, in Vancouver's West End is the place to be on Wednesday, Feb.1 . Lisa will be entertaining the crowd from 630 to 730pm. Snacks and beverages will be served in the lobby.
The film starts at 730.
Bring your wallet...or anybody's wallet for that matter.... and enjoy the music and movie.

tix 15.00 in advance...covers the music, a glass of wine and the movie ( bring extra dough for the tip jar )

Buy/pay at  http://www.firstweekendclub.ca

Or phone 604 983 5373     16.00 at the door     12.00 for students with ID   Pre-purchase recommended

Ask about complimentary parking when you call

The West Ends best kept secret, the Denman Cinema is the perfect setting for an up close and personal evening with the talented Lisa Chase
Lisa's website is here    www.lisachasemusic.com

here is the trailer for "Pink Ribbons Inc"

http://www.nfb.ca/film/pink_ribbons_inc_trailer/

This is Lisa Chase singing one of her fantastic original pieces...

Frank's Boat is for Sale

Boathouse kept up in Secret Cove BC. Very well maintained. For full info contact Frank Nickel ...

fireball3@shaw.ca

Drill Bits and Dynamite...Part Sixteen ....Cut 7 and 8

Cuts 7 and 8 on the Sea to Sky improvement project were challenging in their own unique ways.
 The one tricky bit of cut 7, was the steep side-hill below the cut, that lead directly to the highway below. All the rock that needed to get blasted away from the lower side of the cut...automatically wanted to roll all the way down to the road below. The other part, that was both a blessing and a curse, was that the cut 7 rock was the softest rock on the site. This means a couple of things..one was that the soft rock would jam up the drill bits if you tried to drill too fast. On the other hand...if you had the drill rig all dialed in and paid attention...you could make record time on drilling each blast hole.

 The rock on Cut 7 was so soft, that after each blast the 385 excavator would just keep on digging and tearing it's way past the limits of the blast pattern. Instead of drilling and blasting every second day...we would have to wait for the 385 to hit harder rock that was drillable...this could take 3,4 or 5 days.
On the plus side, the soft rock didn't want to fly very far when it was blasted...so the guys could load it up a bit more and get fantastic breakage...but very little dangerous flyrock.

All the blasting at Cut 7 and 8 required the closure of the Squamish highway below us...to maintain the safety of the traveling public. Getting flyrock down to the road was almost impossible, given the conditions ( not completely out of the question though ) Rolling boulders, thundering down through the trees on the other hand, were very likely to happen. 

Getting a blast done and closing the road looked like this.
An estimated time of the shot was scheduled with the traffic control people and earthworks crew. ( we had to reserve a 966 loader and operator for possible clean-up on the highway )

The managers would let the M.O.T. ( highways ) people know that we were blasting and needed to close the road.

The blast was loaded and the wiring pattern checked by me and one other blaster to make sure it was all connected and timed properly.

As the time to shoot got closer, I would drive down to the highway below to monitor the road closure process...and be the eyes and ears for rolling rocks and debris coming down towards the road.

The traffic boss ( usually Felicia Lewis ) would manage the closure of all access to the highway. She had to work around strict guidelines on how long traffic could be held at any one point.

When the ready signal was given, the road was sealed off, and Felicia would zoom down the closed highway to confirm that there were no stragglers inside the closure. ( tourists would often pull over to take photos...not knowing that they were in a closure )

When Felicia gave the "all clear "...the blaster would sound the 12 warning whistles, and then shortly after push the firing button. ( we had an exemption to the standard blasting regs...we could fire the shot after a 20 second wait...instead of the usual 2 minutes )
.
My job was to stay the heck out of the danger zone below, but be close enough to see if any debris hit the roadway. With the strict limits on closure times, it was important to locate problem areas as quick as possible.

When the rumbling stopped and we declared the blast zone to be safe, Felicia would drive through the entire length of the closure looking for any spots where rocks could have reached the roadway.

When we were all happy that there was no risk to opening the road back up, Felicia would radio her crew to open up all the closures.

There were several times when we had to have short road closures, when the guys were digging in the blasted rock and ran the risk of losing rocks down to the highway below. Several times we had to go into the treeline and deal with boulders that got hung up against the trees on the steep slope below the work area.

Cut 7 blast getting dug out and loaded to an articulating 6 wheel drive truck

Long view of Cut 7 getting mucked out...the tip of Bowen Island in the background...and farther out is Vancouver Island

Fog in the early days of working on Cut 7

Digging out a Cut 7 blast...looking towards large fill area

If you squint and use your imagination...there is a blasting crew getting a shot ready...you can see where things want to roll down hill to the highway once they get going

Cat 385 excavator working on Cut 7....Bowen Island in the background

Smiley Wayne in the 385 Hoe

Photo image of the very early stage of a Cut 7 blast

The main part of Cut 7 is on the right of the photo....a smaller section is on the left . ...the road above is the original access road that existed before the project started

Working on the large fill between Cut 7 and 8

In this pic...a lot of the Cut 7 work is done...you can see where the debris path was...where everything wanted to take off...rolling down to the highway

The fill between Cut 7 and Cut 8

The view from part of Cut 8 back to 7

Loading 6x6 rock trucks out of Cut 8

Cut 8...looking across to Cut 9. This is the site of the largest blast in Segment 1...approx 16 to 17,000 cubic meters in one shot....it was delayed to pull away from the sidehill when it was fired...that magic combination of good blasters mixed with luck and skill...kept the whole shot up on the bench where it belonged. If it would have went over the bank...it would have buried the highway and likely the rail line also.

Way early days...this is going to be the fill area between Cut 7 and Cut 8

Cut 8...the hoe down in the lower section is digging out a trouble spot where we couldn't find the bottom...no rock to pin the retaining wall to....it ended up being a long ways down!

385 Cat hoe loading out of Cut 8....this area was a bit of a choke point in the haul/access road....it was so narrow and steep that there no room to get by...if a major operation was in play

Helicopter view from Cut 9 to Cut 8

Line up of gear between Cut 7 and 8

Hoe working down in the "problem" area of Cut 8

6x6 rock truck leaving Cut 8 and heading to the fill area

Stanley Park and the Sea Wall in the Rain...January 2012

As much fun as the local time portal is....you never know if you will be back for dinner