Traveling man

I write this post as I sit in the air Canada maple leaf lounge, I guess that is a benefit to flying business class on Swiss air.

Had a nice snack and a drink or two. Feeling pretty relaxed for my flight. Olivier was right, have a few drinks before the flight and you will sleep like a baby.

I just finished going through some details on the medevac project, was concerned it would make me anxious, stressed and mad but it didn't. Of the 16 dwgs we are behind on, only 3 are of concern. All of the others have legitimate reasons for being late (waiting for answers from the customer or initial certification concerns).

This should make my flight a lot more enjoyable and I will be able to get the little bit of work done that I need to and then relax.

So here is the plan:
Sunday - arrive in Zurich and wait 2 hrs for Jason (guys from Tucson) to arrive. I'll probably use the lounge there too to have breakfast and maybe a shower. Then we will drive together to Ennetburgen where our hotel is. From there, don't know maybe some sight seeing.

At 4 or so one of the guys I went to engineering with is going to try to meet us for a drink. Tom is working for an F1 racing team in Switzerland (team name is failing me right now).

Monday - meetings

Tuesday - meetings in the afternoon, work in the morning.

Wednesday and Thursday - testing

Friday - travel back.

Good thing I brought my camera and tripod, it looks pretty nice at the hotel.

Well, I should finish this drink and make my way to the gate. Miss you all (especially Gwen)!

Let the travel continue

I used to think traveling for work was fun and neat. Well, perhaps that is wearing off...

I returned to Montreal today after one and a half days of meetings in Quebec City. I got home early, at 3 which was nice. Tomorrow I will leave bright and early to drive to Peterborough for an inspection. I will overnight there so that I can get some work done tomorrow.

Next week will have me in Switzerland for a meeting and testing for the medical project. I won't be alone, the Engineering manager from Tucson will be there (and is the one who requested my attendance) along with one guy from Transport Canada and at least one guy from our Winnipeg office (maybe two, not sure right now).

No plans made for next week yet but will do that soon. I'm trying to figure out how to get from Zurich to the test facility and I need to see when others are traveling to make the best arrangements.

Well I don't have much else to say other than I'm looking forward to traveling back home for good. Hopefully the snow will be gone by then...

Email titled "Damage from Tire Replacement at CTC 6700 Cote des Neiges"

Dear Mr. Lafleur,

I was given your contact information from one of the on-duty managers today.

I recently had my car serviced at your location - replacement of my winter tires with summer tires, not on rims.

I attempted to have this completed on Saturday 20 Apr 13. I called and was told if I brought my car in the shop could have this competed by 17:00. I brought in mu car and left it for the day. I received a phone call at about 15:30 from the shop asking where my lock nut adapter was located. I provided the answer (in my trunk with the spare tire). The mechanics looked but could not find it. I received a call about 30 mins later explaining this. I took your employees word as I did have my car serviced in November at the CTC on Sources and figured perhaps they forgot to replace my adapter.

I picked up my car at 16:30 and drove it back to my apartment. I decided to check for the adapter in my trunk. Within a minute I found it exactly where I told them - in with the spare tire.

I returned my car to the shop this morning (Sunday 21 Apr 13) at 10:00 and explained that I found the adapter in the trunk. The service coordinator was rather accommodating (I don't recall his name) and told me they would have the tires replaced today and that he would provide me with complimentary nitrogen. I thanked him for this.

I picked up my car at 15:30 (Facture 20040100012804). I drove my car straight home with no issues. Once home, I was unloading the tires from my trunk and passenger back seat and noticed that there is a deep scratch and dent on the rear passenger door panel. A photo is attached - I wiped some of the dust with my hand to see how deep the damage is. It clearly is through the paint.

It appears like this dent was caused from opening the door too far when the car was still in the lift. There are no other dents on the passenger side which would indicate this is damage caused from a vehicular incident.

I am very disappointed that this was not shown to me prior to leaving. I would expect that a service centre such as Canadian Tire would own up to mistakes which cause damage to a customer's vehicle. I trust you feel the same.

Please call me when you receive this email tomorrow so we can discuss next steps to have this damage repaired.

Thank-you,


Adam Coolidge

Let's play a game

Called "who can find the lock nut adapter".

Player 1 - Quebec Mechanic - hmm, let me think. It's probably in the trunk with the spare. (Rummages around, looking). Darn, I don't see it here.

Player 2 - shop boss - let's check the car. Perhaps it is in the glove box or armrest console. (Pulling out everything, searching). Geez, I don't see it either.

Player 3 - service coordinator - I got it, lets call the owner. (Dials phone). "Hello? Yes this is Canadian tire, we can't seem to find your lock nut adapter."

Adam - "oh, that's interesting. It should be in with the spare tire, below the floor at the back end near the bumper, with the jack."

Player 3 - "ok, we will check". Players 1-3 search again.

- 15 mins later -

Player 3 - (dials phone). "Hello, this Is Canadian tire again, we can't find the adapter. Do you want us to cut the lock nuts off?"

Adam - "no. Let me call the other shop who put the tires on to see if they have it."

Adam - calls the other Canadian tire, leaves a message for the shop manager to call him back on Sunday when he is in to see if he has the adapter. Adam then calls the current Canadian tire to say he will pick up the adapter. Adam takes the metro, walks to the store and gets his car. He checks to make sure that all the tires are in the car. They are.

Adam drive back to the apartment, fuming the whole way that his winter tires are still on the car. "I wonder where the adapter could be?" He thinks to himself. (Maybe spoken out loud). "There better be an adapter, if the tires are straight lugs I'm not going to be happy. Come on, they wouldn't have called if the tires weren't secured with a lock nut. I hope..."

At the apartment Adam decides to look and see if the tires do have lock nuts. He empties the trunk of the tires and removes the spare. He looks, no lock nut visible. He removes the tire jack and the black bag that contains the coiled "wire" that is used to remove the lug nut covers, a screw driver and tire wrench.

But wait, what does he feel in the upper pouch of the bag. THE ADAPTER!

And this is why I prefer to do my own car maintenance. At least I know when I'm not competent to perform a task or if I have the proper tools...

I guess I will try take two tomorrow. Let's try Costco who doesn't do appointments. I'll make sure to get there 30 mins before they open so I can get in first thing.

Adam is still shaking his head.

Time well spent ...

Well as I write this I am going back to get my cars which still Have my winter tires on. Why you might ask? Because when I got my winter tires installed in November the Canadian tire that I went to graciously decided to keep my adapter for the lock nuts.

Now I am waiting for a call from the shop manager at the other can tire to call me back tomorrow and tell me if they have the adapter. They better.

Then I get to take my car back to can tire maybe on Monday to get the tires replaced. I will probably change this to thurs or fri as Monday will be crazy with me leaving for Quebec City.

I just love when a plan comes together...

Other than this I was having an ok afternoon. I got the work done that I wanted and was watching the jets game.

No the real question is - do I take the tires out of my trunk...

T-minus 4 weeks

It has been a busy and productive morning so far. I got up at 8:45 the sun was shinning in through my window.

I started with taking out the garbage and recycling. After a week of guests it was pretty full. I then started my laundry and took my tires down to my car so I can get them changed over and ship them back home.

I had to make several calls to find somewhere to get my car in to have the tires changed. It turns out that I could take my car to the Canadian tire about 2 miles from the apartment.

I dropped the car off, walked to the metro and made my way home. Laundry was complete so finished that and then made some lunch - tuna melts.

Now, I'm slowly coming out of my food coma and should get some work done. We have meetings in Quebec City on Tuesday and Wednesday this week which I need to make a presentation for. This should only be an hour or two. I also need to enter my time cards for this past week. Other than that, the laptop is going back in my bag and will not come out until Monday at work.

I guess I should get cracking on this so that I can finish before the jets game at 3 pm my time.

There will probably be another blog post today...

All alone again

Well, my guests have all left and (should be) onboard their flight back to Winnipeg.

We had a good weekend with Eric and Jamie.  Things started on Friday when Gwen arrived at 11pm or so. I finished laundry (waiting for the dryer to finish when I left) and then bed time.

Saturday, we slept in until about 10am.  We got up and started cleaning the apartment because I didn't have a chance last week with two "social events" Thursday and Friday evenings.  We finished by noon and then went to pick up Eric and Jamie from the airport.

Once picked up, we started our adventures with lunch at Schwartz's - smoked meat.  Then, dessert at Fairmount Bagel before returning to the apartment to drop off bags and the car.  Next, we went downtown on the metro to show off the sights and sounds of Old Montreal.

We went to the Habs Hall of Fame and spent about an hour and half there.  Then, we went to 3 Brasseurs for some beer and tea and soda.  Everyone laughed at my litre of beer.  I wasn't laughing, was rather full after I finished it though.

After 3 Brasseurs, we made our way back to the metro to go to dinner at Le Saint Bock - another pub.  The food was really good - I still don't know what I had but it was like a tortilla shell filled with pieces of chicken and cooked vegetables.  Another beer while we watched the Habs get owned by the Leafs.

Once complete, we made our way back to the metro for the third stop on our pub crawl - Hurley's Irish Pub.  The place was packed except for this one small, dark room with candles.  I figured this was fine so we jammed into the room and drank our last beer (well, Eric and I did) and then made our way back to Chez Adam.

Sunday was a relatively relaxing day.  We started with lunch downtown at La Cage Aux Sports followed by Maple Delights for dessert - I got a maple latte, Gwen with her maple tea and Eric and Jamie bought some cookies.  We then went to Marche Bonsecours where they were having their spring fashion sale.  Gwen was EXCITED!  The girls bought jackets for $50 (down from $150) - the guys stood there and looked pretty.

We then made our way to Olympic Stadium and wandered around there for a bit.  Afterwards, we went back to the apartment for a siesta and then off to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Elounda, close to where I work.  The ladies ate two lobsters and Eric and I shared an American Red Snapper.  It was delicious.

After dinner, I gave my romance tour.  We took a drive through a residential area where the single family homes were HUGE.  Gwen looked up a few homes on her phone while we drove around - in the multiple millions of $$'s and at least 3,000 sq ft of living space.  These homes were gorgeous.

We left the residential area and I showed Eric and Jamie where I work and the different plants of Bombardier.  We then drove to the look out on Mont Royal to see the city lights at night (and the raccoons out in full force).

Monday I had to work while everyone else went and did some shopping downtown.  In the evening, we made supper at the apartment (salad, boiled potatoes and lemon-dill chicken, mmm) and watched the Habs vs Flyers while we played a game of Settlers of Catan (a board game).

Tuesday, again I had to work.  Everyone else went to Biodome to see the animals.  Supper we went to Le Biftheque for a disappointing dinner - my steak was over cooked, Eric's lamb chops were under cooked and Gwen's filet mignon was under cooked.  I'm usually quite impressed with this restuarant, I don't know what was different today.

I dropped everyone off at the airport at about 8pm and then made my way back to the apartment to enter bills and listen to the Jet's game before doing some over-due blogging.

4 weeks to go, definitely on the home stretch now.