Damn it I can't wait to move away from Victoria. It's common knowledge that I'm not a patient guy at the best of times. But today got to me for some reason. I was really tired from not sleeping well and training hard. Anyway Vic is a big tourist city, lots of asian tourists who cross the road like ducks.......... one at a time all in a line. Victoria is also the retirement capital of Canada which means lots of senior citizens. To get to my house I have to drive past Parliament and some other big tourist attractions, and I live in the part of the city with the highest amount of elderly. So what should take 10 minutes to drive home takes 40 because of the huge number of pedestrian traffic compounded by the fact that there is a crosswalk every hundred feet. I went to the Thrifty's near my house to get some groceries on the way home and found it full of white-haired, slow-moving old people. Now I am a respectful guy and will go out of my way to help an elderly person. But I had barely got in the door when an old man ran over my foot in his electric cart. And what pissed me off was he didn't notice and just kept on going.
After 30 minutes of dodging senile customers to get chicken, tuna, oatmeal, snack bars, yogurt, milk, cereal, and bread I finally made it to the checkout line, albeit dodging the odd senior driving their motorized cart like the late Dale Earnhardt. All I want to do is pay for this stuff, get an americano from starbucks and go home and chill. But then the fire alarm goes off. The tills shut down, the automatic doors stop working, and everything comes to a grinding halt. We are asked to evacuate the store. F!#$(%& hell! I just drop my little basket of goods and leave before I disconnect someone's oxygen. And it's like that EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Man that posting message can't come soon enough.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
An up and a big down
Good news first I guess. My friend Coco recently received his offer to transfer to SAR Tech. Coco did the selection with me, he was the only other sailor besides myself, and is also from the same ship as I am. He was worried initially since I received my offer the 3rd of April. A month went by and Coco was convinced he wasn't getting selected. Apparently the powers that be, were sorting out some concerns about the laser eye surgery Coco had done. From what I understand there are two types of laser eye surgery. One type the doctor makes an incision in your eyeball and fixes it from the inside. This is unacceptable if you want to be a SAR Tech, pilot, diver, or any aircrew because there is a risk of something happening to your eye under increased (diving) or decreased (flying) pressure. SAR Techs experience both. The second type and the one Coco had, is a technique where they use a laser to shave your eyeball. They alter the shape of your eyeball which makes it focus differently I guess. So in addition to being an acceptable form of eye surgery for SAR Tech, it is also much safer in the long run due to the fact that your eyeball hasn't actually been opened up. Not everyone can have this surgery though since your eye needs to be a certain thickness for them to be able to shave part of it away. Also as you can imagine, it's quite expensive. Anyways the powers that be finally were happy with their findings in regards to Coco's eyes and sent him his offer. A huge relief for him for sure, but also to me as I would be going into the course with a friend I've know for 4 years.
The bad news is my girlfriend Ewa's father, Krzysztof Jan Koziol born May 17th 1955, died on Friday the 9th of May, sometime around 3:30pm. He was 52 years old. He was at work when it happened. It's unclear how it exactly happened, but it would appear that he was crushed by a falling tree. Kris (easier to say) was falling trees for the government, cutting the border between Canada and the US. It is a dangerous and physically demanding job, and only someone who has worked in the forestry/logging business can understand how hard it can be. I found out immediately and took steps to ensure Ewa, who was on deployment with the HMCS Protecteur was informed, and that she would be flown home to attend to this emergency. I then made arrangements to go to Surrey to help and support her mother and brother. If anyone had met Krzysztof they would know how much the guy liked to talk. When over at their house for Christmas, he and I were the only one's still awake the night of Dec 24th (or early morning on the 25th), and I remember him pulling out a bottle of whiskey. I got fucking hammered but I don't think he finished one glass because he was talking so much! He was a very intense individual who sacrificed a lot, and worked his ass off to get his family migrated to Canada. At the time people weren't allowed to migrate from Poland to North America. Understandably Poland has gone through it's share of hard times. Times that 99% of us can't imagine. Poland was all but written off the map by Russia and Austria from the 1700's up until the first World War. When WW1 came around there was a draft so to speak and all Poles were suddenly into the Russian, Austrian and German army. Almost all of the fighting on the eastern front in WW1 was done on Polish soil. At the end of WW1 Russia sought to conquer Europe, they fought the Polish army at Warsaw and were routed. Enter WW2. On Sept 1st 1939 Poland was invaded on 2 fronts by the Germans and Russians. Warsaw was taken Sept 17th and Poland surrendered Oct 5th. But consider that in that one month Poland caused more enemy casualties than both Britain and France combined in all of the year of 1940. This gives you an idea of what type of people the Polish are. Hitler declared that that the polish race was to be eliminated along with the jews, and Poland was the only country were aiding a jew was punishable by death. Despite all of this, there was not a single polish collaborator, unlike every other country occupied. Not one. I remember Krzysztof was very proud about that. Poland continued to fight (the term "give up" does not apply to these people) and was the only country to fight on every front in WW2. By the time the war was over, 5 and a half MILLION poles (50% christian/50% jewish) were killed in prison, death camps, raids, executions, or simply worked to death. The country lost 38% of its assets. Compare that to France's 1.5% or Britain's 0.8%. Despite "winning" that war the poles had lost. This attrition greatly weakened Polands strength, and who came knocking at the door at Warsaw ready to occupy "victorious" Poland? The now Soviet army steam rolled what was left of Polish defenses and moved in to occupy half of Polands territory. Things slowly worked themselves out and in 1990 the first non-communist Polish President was sworn in. Krzysztof was the epitome of a Pole. Hard working and determined to overcome any adversity. Around this time Kris left Poland to try and make a better life for his family. Like I said before I went off on that huge tangent about the history of Poland, you could not migrate from Poland to North America. Kris left his wife Grazyna, son Michal, and daughter Ewa to live in Greece by himself for two years. I remember him telling me how lonely he was one Christmas in Greece by himself, with nothing but a candle to keep him company. After two years in Greece he was allowed to come to Canada. He spent 5 years in Canada working to send money home and gain his citizenship which would allow him to have his family brought over to Canada. Hahaha one of my favourite stories from Ewa is her recapping how one day she was in a village of a few hundred people in Poland, and the next day she was in downtown Toronto. It gets especially good listening to her describe the event of seeing her first black person. Anyways Kris sacrificed a lot and worked his ass off to provide a good life full of opportunities for his family and I give him more credit and respect than anyone I've ever met. He loved the outdoors and never would have thought twice about working in a city. Everyone who knew Krzysztof well speaks of how he was always willing to help anyone no matter who it was. I spent Christmas at his house with Ewa and I asked why there was an empty place at the table. He explained that it was a tradition to keep an extra place in case any travelers happened by they would have a place at his table. Obviously that wasn't necessary in Surrey, but it was the idea of "taking care of each other" that mattered. If you would have known him and let him talk your ear off for a few hours I guarantee you would have walked away from that conversation with a better work ethic and sense of what it means to commit to something.
The bad news is my girlfriend Ewa's father, Krzysztof Jan Koziol born May 17th 1955, died on Friday the 9th of May, sometime around 3:30pm. He was 52 years old. He was at work when it happened. It's unclear how it exactly happened, but it would appear that he was crushed by a falling tree. Kris (easier to say) was falling trees for the government, cutting the border between Canada and the US. It is a dangerous and physically demanding job, and only someone who has worked in the forestry/logging business can understand how hard it can be. I found out immediately and took steps to ensure Ewa, who was on deployment with the HMCS Protecteur was informed, and that she would be flown home to attend to this emergency. I then made arrangements to go to Surrey to help and support her mother and brother. If anyone had met Krzysztof they would know how much the guy liked to talk. When over at their house for Christmas, he and I were the only one's still awake the night of Dec 24th (or early morning on the 25th), and I remember him pulling out a bottle of whiskey. I got fucking hammered but I don't think he finished one glass because he was talking so much! He was a very intense individual who sacrificed a lot, and worked his ass off to get his family migrated to Canada. At the time people weren't allowed to migrate from Poland to North America. Understandably Poland has gone through it's share of hard times. Times that 99% of us can't imagine. Poland was all but written off the map by Russia and Austria from the 1700's up until the first World War. When WW1 came around there was a draft so to speak and all Poles were suddenly into the Russian, Austrian and German army. Almost all of the fighting on the eastern front in WW1 was done on Polish soil. At the end of WW1 Russia sought to conquer Europe, they fought the Polish army at Warsaw and were routed. Enter WW2. On Sept 1st 1939 Poland was invaded on 2 fronts by the Germans and Russians. Warsaw was taken Sept 17th and Poland surrendered Oct 5th. But consider that in that one month Poland caused more enemy casualties than both Britain and France combined in all of the year of 1940. This gives you an idea of what type of people the Polish are. Hitler declared that that the polish race was to be eliminated along with the jews, and Poland was the only country were aiding a jew was punishable by death. Despite all of this, there was not a single polish collaborator, unlike every other country occupied. Not one. I remember Krzysztof was very proud about that. Poland continued to fight (the term "give up" does not apply to these people) and was the only country to fight on every front in WW2. By the time the war was over, 5 and a half MILLION poles (50% christian/50% jewish) were killed in prison, death camps, raids, executions, or simply worked to death. The country lost 38% of its assets. Compare that to France's 1.5% or Britain's 0.8%. Despite "winning" that war the poles had lost. This attrition greatly weakened Polands strength, and who came knocking at the door at Warsaw ready to occupy "victorious" Poland? The now Soviet army steam rolled what was left of Polish defenses and moved in to occupy half of Polands territory. Things slowly worked themselves out and in 1990 the first non-communist Polish President was sworn in. Krzysztof was the epitome of a Pole. Hard working and determined to overcome any adversity. Around this time Kris left Poland to try and make a better life for his family. Like I said before I went off on that huge tangent about the history of Poland, you could not migrate from Poland to North America. Kris left his wife Grazyna, son Michal, and daughter Ewa to live in Greece by himself for two years. I remember him telling me how lonely he was one Christmas in Greece by himself, with nothing but a candle to keep him company. After two years in Greece he was allowed to come to Canada. He spent 5 years in Canada working to send money home and gain his citizenship which would allow him to have his family brought over to Canada. Hahaha one of my favourite stories from Ewa is her recapping how one day she was in a village of a few hundred people in Poland, and the next day she was in downtown Toronto. It gets especially good listening to her describe the event of seeing her first black person. Anyways Kris sacrificed a lot and worked his ass off to provide a good life full of opportunities for his family and I give him more credit and respect than anyone I've ever met. He loved the outdoors and never would have thought twice about working in a city. Everyone who knew Krzysztof well speaks of how he was always willing to help anyone no matter who it was. I spent Christmas at his house with Ewa and I asked why there was an empty place at the table. He explained that it was a tradition to keep an extra place in case any travelers happened by they would have a place at his table. Obviously that wasn't necessary in Surrey, but it was the idea of "taking care of each other" that mattered. If you would have known him and let him talk your ear off for a few hours I guarantee you would have walked away from that conversation with a better work ethic and sense of what it means to commit to something.
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