Olive was quite ill on the weekend. By Sunday night, as the infrared thermometer read 40.5 degrees I became concerned. A discussion with Chat GPT walked me calmly and carefully through causes, concerns, and an action plan. This calm and unwavering AI assistant paused patiently as I interrupted with deeper inquiry, repeated recommendations with enthusiasm, and appeared fully empathetic. Her pleasant and efficient responses gave me peace of mind, and her depth of knowledge was

I spent two back to back afternoons teaching Karina’s kindergarten class.  It was obvious after the first 10 minutes that the rest of society could learn something from this experience. They were true mirrors of the energy I exuded, and I brought my ‘A’ game. Everyone was excited. Excited to see me. Excited to see each other. Excited to share about everything. They all wanted me to join them. Join their play. Join their craft. Join their lunch table. Inclusion 101. We moved o

Twenty years ago I worked as a lender for Farm Credit Canada, and attended their annual conference. The CEO at the time gave a keynote speech with the premise: “The right tool for the job”. Although he was speaking about loan products for agriculture, his message carried with me through the years. When you encounter challenges along the path of life, be assured that many people have dealt with the same issue before you. In many cases the knowledge that allowed them to overcom

Last week I flew my airplane backwards.  Relative to the earth. The airmass at 4400’ was moving eastward at 40 kts. I throttled my engine back, lowered all my flaps, and entered slow flight, at 38 kts westbound. For those familiar with integers you can see that relative to the earth I was moving at -2 kts. Technically my aircraft was still flying at 38 kts, inside of an air mass moving the opposite way at 40kts, leaving my groundspeed relative to the earth at a paltry -2 kts.

I’ve recently become obsessed with Polymarket. This ‘prediction market’ platform allows you to buy and sell shares based on the outcome of real-world events. Sports, culture, or political upheaval, Polymarket allows you to gamble on virtually anything.  The great thing about Polymarket is that the odds are a function of market pressure rather than a traditional bookmaker. People placing bets create the odds, and the price is determined strictly by market demand.  This concept

I visited dad’s farm this morning in order to help him get the feed mixer operational after its summer break. Although normally a routine farm activity, a recent health issue has limited dad’s ability to move, lift, and complete this job. So stepping away from the office for a couple hours to lend some muscle was a nice respite from the desk, and I relished the opportunity.  Completing a few simple tasks was a lesson in how much physical strength is still required for many fa

The arrival of our new Hume Body Pod last week spawned my latest wave of human performance monitoring. This smart scale, touted as a practical (and affordable) home DEXA-scan, spits out a plethora of body composition data (body fat %, muscle %, metabolic age, and much more).  As someone who trains and weighs in daily, I was tired of relying on body mass as my only means of health assessment. The inability to differentiate a pound of muscle from a pound of fat, left me assumin

Once a year my airplane, a 1975 Cessna 172, goes through an extensive ‘annual inspection’ where all critical systems are inspected, serviced, and signed off as airworthy. The inspections for this little plane can range from $1500 to $7500 depending on what items need fixing. This requirement applies to all certified aircraft in Canada, and is one of the reasons why aircraft generally don’t ‘age’. There are hundreds of aircraft from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, still flying today,

“Vegreville traffic. FDNV is nine miles North of the field at 4500 feet, passing over the airport, southwest bound for Camrose”. This was...

I try to follow a simple life rule:  “If I have not spent time working in the industry or walked a mile in others’ circumstances, it is...

Babcia and Popa have birthdays September 25 and 26 respectively. I’m not sure how Apple knows it, but on each day it shared with me two...

We are in the future.  When Hazel asked me to read her spelling words this morning, as I was trying to run off to the shower, I passed...

It had been over a week since my last flight, a twenty minute crop tour, which showed me how close to combining we were.  So as I...

Today’s blog image is taken from a tutorial video that Olive was sending to an online hacker posing as a childhood friend. Over a three...

At 45 years old, the jarring whiplash from being slammed across a boat wake, carries a bit of sting. However, when I was informed that...

I am familiar with a common municipal rhetoric:  limited time, limited budget, limited space,  no people, no capital, no way. I spent...

My closest friends and I keep a religious schedule around our 8:30 Sunday morning virtual ‘church’ service. These 30 minutes are often...

If you have had a discussion with chat GPT lately, you will notice that there is virtually no latency in the back and forth, and after a...

There are some people that carry a special energy, the ability to lift you up with just a couple words, the type of people that are so...

During shaving this week I watched a slice in the bottom of my nose gush blood, and I was extremely irritated. Costco had recently...