5 Minutes with Jim Mikulec

Now I realize that Jim Mikulec has very little to do with my 8 year old GMC pickup truck. But the headline '5 minutes with GMC Engineer' still caught my eye when I received the most recent GMC Network Magazine.

You see, in 2002 I purchased a brand new truck for my business. A simple pickup truck - no frills - to get materials from my suppliers and deliver my product to my clients. My lease was almost up on the vehicle I had and it was a dilemma for me to decide 'lease vs purchase'. But my local GMC dealer said there was the perfect truck for me on their lot so two days before the Canada Day Parade I went to see it...with NO intention of making a decision right away.

The minute I saw the simple black two person Sierra all shiny and new - 11 km's on the odometer - well....call me fickle - I drove it home and have loved it ever since. Until winter.

The first cold day - did I mention I live in Canada - at zero celsius I noticed a tick. So now Otzi (he became the iceman for many reasons) is 6 months old. And upon a cold start - he ticks. Better get that checked.
Bulletin G00076785 issued December 2001 ( 6 months before I purchased Otzi) states that 'some of the above engines may exhibit an engine knock noise that begins in the 19,000 km of use. Most often noticed during startup and typically disappears within 30 seconds.' (which is does)...and it went on to say that this noise has no effect on the longevity of any of the engine components.

I agree, it didn't affect the ability for this little truck to get the most amazing gasoline mileage any vehicle we have owned ever has. An 8 hour drive to my daughters house was only $70.

The noise however would deter any potential buyer from looking twice at the truck. As the temperature dropped to -20 celsius (not uncommon here) the startup became quite orchestral to say the least. If I was ever to sell this vehicle it would have to be in the summer!! (when I purchased it)
When I brought this issue to the attention of GMC, mentioning that I am in business and people don't pay me for damaged goods, and that I would like to stop paying for this until we fix it - I was informed that that would simply result in them repossessing the truck and destroying my credit rating. Ah - decisions decisions...pay full price for damaged goods or destroy my ability to buy a house or get a credit card in the future.
??

But all that soon became irrelevant as I fell in love (or as much as one can with a vehicle) my little truck. We bought camping gear and designed a sleeping platform for a trek to the Yukon and the next summer to the Queen Charlotte islands. Opening the back hatch while wrapped in our sleeping bags and watching the waves roll in on the misty beach .... breathless.


It walked over Pine Pass in Northern BC where others were laying in the ditch...it floated in a hailstorm in Edmonton but got us off the dreadful Whitemud and safely to a parking lot where we watched other vehicles float by in the swirling ice. (iceman explained) This truck tiptoed past sliding semi trucks on the Trans Canada on its many treks to get me to school.

And it never failed to start - it would groan and maybe hesitate - but it always started. 8 1/2 years with the same battery, the same windsheild - in Alberta!

But alas, during a blizzard last month - it didn't get me home. I left the workshop at about 11pm, drove 1/2 km and the 'check oil pressure' lamp came on. Ok - only 1km to home and I will check into the mechanics in the morning. It's 30 below and almost a whiteout and I didn't wear my boots.

Within less than 1/2 km all lights went out and Otzi coasted to a peaceful stop - I am still 1 km from home in a blizzard. Small towns being wonderful places to be - I flagged down a ride within minutes and arranged a tow truck to get my faithful black 5000lbs of recycling off the road.

Now I know a 8 1/2 year old truck may sound like its time to upgrade...but this gem has had constant 5000km oil changes, annual spring and winter tuneups...all necessary repairs, never driven in a city and has all new steel from the hail damage. It has only 170,000km on it. All driven by me.

I know that things don't last forever. So I knew the news would probably not be good. And I was right - this gem of a little travel/work truck has cracked heads. The engine was done. And strangely enough GMC has a bulletin for that too! Apparently this make and model MIGHT have cracked heads, reads a report from 2007. (remember now - I have been doing service maintenance religiously at a GMC dealership since 2002 and this could have been caught 4 years ago?)

2007 - less than 5 years from my purchase date...still under warranty. Yet I was not informed of that possibility. And because I am north of the border I was not aware of a class action suite against GMC for this very flaw. I know they know I have this truck...I get these great GMC magazines, I get GMC certified oil changes and services, yet, after they received my $35,000 the conversation was apparently over.

The largest recycling dilemma I have ever had was what to do with an old TV. This large black piece of steel in my driveway (looking good even after 8 years) taunts me with what is the right thing to do? Get a rebuilt engine...get the engine rebuilt? Get a new vehicle. Get an old vehicle.

So as I read my GMC magazine 'Custom Truck Event, get up to $1500 in chrome accessories' and I look at my GMC that has been treated so well but is not even worth $1500 right now... I would like 5 minutes with 'Jim Mikulec' or any GMC engineer!

I hope as a GMC engineer Jim is watching the details. No ticking cracked engines should ever leave a facility without some kind of recourse.

Thanks for listening to my rant. It hasn't fixed the problem...but has made me think more about what I have to do to get back on the road...the Yukon (not a GMC Yukon ironically) is calling once again.

Dust off those 'pics and shovels'!

I just got home from the land of the Gold Rush…and if the local news had been written on older paper with heritage images I might have thought I was still there!!

Its not 1907 – but the rush is on in Alberta, oil exploration, gas wells and now a pipeline is planned to run through our small mountain community. Complete with the need for accommodation and food. With this potential onslaught of workers (well paid don’t forget!) you can almost feel the heat from the hands rubbing together.

But haven't we seen the ensuing problems with a uni-dimensional economy? Have you been to Fort McMurray? Or even spent an afternoon in Edson? There is nothing sustainable or forward thinking about what is happening in those communities.

"There are strange things done under the midnight sun..." but I doubt if there is anything stranger than having a National Park approve such a blatant disregard for what the Park is meant to be. On the one hand I'm dusting off the 'pics and shovels' to sell to these 21st century gold diggers and on the other hand I'm thinking this has to be stopped!!

Inside sources tell me that a battle with a corporation as large as the one putting in the pipeline would be futile. The right to upgrade the pipeline was granted when the original one went in over 40 years ago. Now if you or I purchase a business (the original pipeline company is no more and the actual pipeline has had a few new owners...) the deals made with the original owners are usually open for discussion - but I would think that after 40 years any original deals would be subject to discussion.

And times were very different in the 60's. The big car manufacturers were pumping out the largest 8 cylinder big block vehicles they possibly could. Very different times. The big push now in car manufacturing is the use of bio fuels and hybrid engines...even if there are only a few places to actually purchase these alternative fuels (a blog for another day). Homes are slowly being built with these changes in mind too, geothermal and solar systems are becoming more common.

And why is the pipeline going through the National Park and the Rockies to the West?? Surely there is a possibility that pushing it straight down parallel to Highway 2 Edmonton to Calgary would make more sense?? A piece of Alberta already denuded of wilderness?

And what is worse, is the way these issues split communities. Last weeks locale paper's letter to the editor slammed the 'Green Shakers and Movers' in town for not doing something about such a devastatingly large environmental issue. Thought being that the environmentalists here only harp about the small things - like bikes on trails - while bulldozers are heading for the Park. Poignancy and ignorance all in one comment. (Not worth the energy to press the keys to respond!)

I'm a Libran. I think all things are possible. I believe everyone is entitled to their beliefs. So while I completely disagree with the archaic thinking that goes with the pipeline upgrade through a National Park - I'm probably going to go dust off those 'pics and shovels'. Cause we all know what happened to the prospectors who got there to late to stake a claim!

Oil, Filmmaking and a lost password rant

Two blogs ago I was concerned about the fact that Alberta's government body for filmmaking had been enveloped into the dept of Economic Development. My concern would have been better saved for the most recent dept shuffle. This spring Alberta filmmakers were lumped into the dept of Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture.

And as if that wasnt enough of an insult to all of the artists and storytellers and 'keepers of the culture' - Alberta's past Premier Ralph Klein was recognized as a Friend of the (filmmaking) Industry in 2007. This is the Premier whose regime was responsible for the decline of cultural programming after the famed Lougheed years. His time as a Premier saw a lot of the industry leave the province to maintain a livelihood as they had known under previous governments.

But some people would say that I have a cynical side to me. I seem to always find the darker side of an issue. So I asked the folks, who gave Klein that recognition he most certainly did not deserve, why?...their response was:

"As you may recall, in an effort to balance the budget, funding incentives for Alberta’s film and television industry disappeared in the 90’s as part of the government’s policy not to be involved in the business of being in business. However, a few years later, a new strategy, based upon Alberta expenditures, was created and became the Alberta Film Development Program (AFDP). Although, at the time, some of the government Ministers resisted, the AFDP was “green-lit” by then Premier Klein and since that time, the Fund has steadily grown each year and now contributes $14.5 million dollars annually to assist Alberta producers and co-productions. We maintain that the current funding is inadequate..."

This ability to destroy a program - revamp it and reinstate it to its infancy is something every Albertan should pay attention to.

But attention is not something many Albertans can spare unfortunately in 2007. Alberta is presently moving at mach speed. Jobs jobs jobs...building new highways and homes - I think the most recent stat on Calgary homebuilding was 3 new houses a day. (based on several hundred a year) Its booming!!

And here comes the cynic - a boom means a bust is on the next wave. So what will become of the thousands of mortgaged mcmansions all over Edmonton and Calgary? How will all those high paid young folks make payments on their Hummers and SUV's??

Which brings me to the photo above. (I do have a method to my madness) The mosaic above is our revered Mr Klein. The government official who allowed the province to get to its present state of unfettered 'greed'. Complete with the possibility of a nuclear power station to power the oilsands industry...but that is another rant. If you could look closely at the mosaic you would see that Mr Klein is created from oil rigs, SUV's, smokestacks and heavy machinery images.

So this is the 'rant' that has evolved after 3 months of not being able to find the password for this site. Next Sunday I get to see the results of a stone mosaic that I made by hand! The concrete should be dry. Its a bit of a personal milestone - creating by hand vs creating by technology.

I will leave with this thought - I found a quote last week by another Canadian politician. She contemplated the fact that artists and storytellers have been our source for identity for thousands of years. With the influx of technology and our ingestion of so much cyber product - are we going to lose the impact that artists and storytellers have had on our sense of identity? Are we going to lose our storytellers and artists?

CN Strike

Its interesting how a CN strike can mean so many things. This image was found when searching for pics of the strike. (thanks to www.hemmy.net/.../lightning-strike-on-cn-tower/ )

While beautiful it is not what I was expecting to find. The recent walkout by Canadian National railway conductors has little to do with lightning. And unlike the CN building - the problem originates south of the border.

The CN family in our little mountain community, Jasper, is a big one. (and a supportive one! see YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoWc-AVDNrg )

The town itself would be a much different place if it were not for the railroad, one of the main reasons historically that the town exists. And this years Family Day is marked with moms and dads walking the picket line while management scrambles to fill the gaps in administration and running of the railroad.

The beauty in this strike is that while management is not at their desks - their chairs are being filled by others up the line - in this case employees and co-workers from south of the border. And while management are not at their desks they are out on the trains - away from their families - working the shifts of those on strike. Nothing breeds respect like walking a mile in someones shoes - or in this case riding for miles in a noisy dirty engine - never sure when you might get home.

Fishing, Farming and Filmmaking

Two of these things belong together

Two of these things are kinda the same...

Earlier this year the Alberta Film Development Program was moved from being administered by an arts organization, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, to the offices of Alberta Economic Development. As an artist (first) I was hesitant to accept this move as I felt that the only real reason AED wanted the industry under their umbrella was because of the influx of high profile filming coming into Alberta (Hollywood North) - and I felt that the artistic side of filmmaking would suffer under a dept with the word 'economic' in its title.
WELL
This week Alberta got a new premier. The new premier got rid of the Dept of Economic Development and threw Alberta Film (and culture) in with Parks and Recreation. And what is even better is the new Minister in charge of Parks and Recreation has 27 years of experience - in agriculture. He even likes to farm and fish in his free time. My skepticism was so unfounded!

Two of these things belong together

Two of these things are kinda the same

Can you guess which thing is not like the other

Before they move arts and culture again!

Pine Beetles, Marijuana and Space Weapons

On Tuesday last week, the Harper government cut $60 million from youth employment programs, $11.7 million earmarked to fight mountain pine beetle, $5 million in Status of Women funding, $45 million from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 11.9 million from adult literacy programs, $4- million from medical marijuana reseach, and $9.7 million from volunteer Canada initiatives.

Yikes
Slashed youth programs
Slashed womens programs
Slashed adult literacy programs
A free run for the pine beetle, no help for new home owners and nothing to smoke when you get sick from all this!

The same government also announced plans Tuesday to give a U.S. firm a $24 million contract to find further efficiencies in government. (Makes sense really - why would they hire illiterate Canadians? One in 3 Canadians are illiterate)

While during the same week news came of the push by the Canadian Senate to spend more money on things like the American anti-missile weapons in space program, and an increase in our military spending of 6billion (thats a b) dollars. This same Senate report said, "There is nothing inherently evil about weapons, and there is nothing inherently sacred about space."

I wonder if this applies to the space between their ears!
Yikes

Autumn Thoughts Turn to Travel

Its that time of year when we start thinking about traveling.
This is a story about a man named Ed who lived for traveling. Not like the traveling people do today - not Thailand and Europe. Although, his combined miles would probably go around the globe many times.
Ed started driving at the age of 14 in 1938. Being 6foot2 at the age of 14 usually meant you would have to make your own way in the dirty 30's. Driving cab in the city got him away from the farm and gave him an opportunity he'd never even imagined - meeting people. You see, next to driving Ed's favourite pastime was talking. Probably the result of years of having no one to talk to but the horses where he grew up.
After a few years of this he found a wife (in his cab) and started a family (hopefully not in the cab!). Cab driving was soon upgraded to driving transport truck - the big 18 wheelers were soon regularly parked outside the humble bungalow. Most befitting of a man of his stature. Since Ed was a common name in the 1940's his nickname soon became Big Eddy to discern him from his brother in law or neighbour Ed.
Driving 18 wheelers was time consuming as the routes were often highway traffic dependent. This didn't deter Ed from buying his growing family a new house - with two floors and two bathrooms! It was after all 1966. Keeping up with the Jones's was a must.
Summer vacations varied between handyman work on the cottage or - you guessed it - driving the family out to western Canada to see the Stampede, Toronto for family or Quebec for Expo 67.

But driving truck takes a toll on the body so after years of being a Teamster, and driving the repetitive Toronto Montreal corridor, Ed decided to take a softer seat - driving Coachline buses. The big comfy armchairs of the coach bus meant Nashville and Fort MacMurray were easy drives. New York City and Florida were places a farm boy could only dream of going in the 1930's.

With age Ed downsized - drove school bus, drove handicapped children to boarding schools, did newspaper runs...until one day it was time to retire. Something he never let on that he was looking forward to but I am sure he thought it would be a great way to do some traveling. And when he wasn't traveling he was probably planning a trip. He was unassuming to look at - but anyone who ventured to strike up a conversation would soon learn a lot about travel trivia. He could tell you exactly how far Wawa was from Kenora and how long it would take to get there traveling at this speed...he could tell you where to stop for the best slice of pie or cheapest hotel... Often this information was given whether you wanted to know or not!
The next 20 years saw many variations of minivans and trucks and comfortable sedans. Ed had one last favourite pastime - vehicles. And he was always in one. Usually on his way to Alberta. Ontario to Alberta was his annual escape 1987-2005, he drove it over 20 times.

He gave me my nickname 'Roadrunner'. I hope I can live up to it - big shoes to fill.
Ed passed away Sept 18 2006 at the age of 82 after a few days of illness. He always felt guilty for all those years when he was not home closer to his family - hopefully spirits have no guilt and he is free to travel as much as he wants now. Ed was my father.