Old Friends

In the years that I have been living here in the Bow Valley, I have met many people. I guess in my role as the activity guy at the chateau - many people got to know me too. So it isn't surprising that if I am walking around Banff, that I might meet up with someone I know... or think I know.

The fun is trying to figure out "where" I know them from.

I had one of these great occasions on Monday. It was lunch time and Kathryn and I were trying to decide where we would head off to for lunch. We were thinking of Sushi, or Coyotes (a nice restaurant), or subway, or eddie burger... well, we hadn't really made up our minds when we turned the corner onto Banff Ave.

There, crossing our path were two ladies, and Kathryn gave an interesting look at the one girl. I figured that Kathryn must know her and half expected her to say something. But, it turned out that she just liked the ladies skirt - so she apologized for the stare and was about to carry on. That is when this lady and I locked eyes...

It was instant recognition.

Do I dare say something? NOOO... I can't think of where I know her from... Does she know me? I can tell by her look that she is thinking the same thing...

she speaks up... "do i know you"

we realized that we looked familiar, so she asked my name...

Michael.... Geertsema....

well, she knows me! I still don't know her???? Who is she? I feel bad that I don't know her...

Her name: Brenda Stevens!

K.. so the last time I recall seeing Brenda Stevens is... by golly I don't remember... but somehow, almost 17 years after going to school with the lady (grade school mind you, and she was 2 grades ahead of me) we still recognize each other. I think it was more that she recognized the Geertsema facial features!

Well, David - She says to say Hi.

Got to love Banff.

and Kathryn says I know too many people. (this happens more than I'd like to admit)

Hypoglycemia

So.....

I'd like you to recall all those time that I fell asleep in church... all those times I fell asleep in school, all those afternoon naps that I just had to go for...

well, turns out that it isn't my fault! HAHAHA

It's a medical condition... I have Hypglycemia

I guess I always thought I just got a little food coma, but more recently I started to think something was a little wrong. I started thinking that maybe it isn't normal to almost fall asleep every day after every meal...

so, I talked to the doctor about it a few weeks ago and after a few tests we have found out that I have reactive hypoglycemia. Now.. more tests... but at least it's narrowed down.

ps. This does not mean diabetes, at least... not yet. Hypo means my blood sugar drops too low after a meal, the cause of which is currently under investigation.

Cheerio!

And summer begins

Up here in the mountains, it takes a little while for the summer to show up. I think I can finally say that summer, well, maybe spring has arrived. We have warm(ish) weather, the snow is gone(ish - well, it's gone from lower elevations) but more importantly, softball started this past week.

I think that is the truest sign of summer.

My friends and I decided to place a team in the Lake Louise league this year, even though we live in Banff. This is because the Banff league runs from now until October, and is scheduled on every single Sunday for the entire summer. As most of us would like to have our weekends to ourselves, we decided that Lake Louise was a much better option. The Lake Louise league plays on tuesday-wednesday and thursdays, but you only play 1 or 2 games a week. It is also a good chance to catch up with old friend from the lake.

Our season started this past week. we had two games and we won them both. It looks like we'll have a pretty good team this year!

So...

Two months later, is that an appropriate amount of time between blogs?

I thought maybe now would be a good time to write something down. I realized today that a lot has happened in the last month that is a little interesting.

So this past Friday I ran a rather large event. You may wonder what I do for work, as many people do. Well, last friday was the culmination of about 4 months of work. yes... it took that long to pull this event off! I've done similar events before and found that you truly need a number of months to properly prepare for a charity auction. And all that planning really did pay off.

anyway, the end result was an event that took place on February 4, It was a special event in that all of Lake Louise was invited to attend. (there is a big rift between villagers and the chateau staff in Lake Louise, so this was quite odd) we chose to support the local hospital for the purchase of an infant warmer. that piece of equipment is worth $30,000+, so setting such a goal was quite high.

When donations started arriving, I thought we would make around $13,000-$15,000. But, in good fashion, the people who attended the event were very generous and bid high on all the items until we had made $25,000!!! (that's after all of our expenses!) I can't believe how much we made!

Sadly, in the time that it took us to plan this event, the Alberta Government decided to fund the infant warmer - but, 3 days after the Auction, the Heart Monitor for the emergency ward broke. A Heart Monitor just so happens to cost around $25,000... so if any of you end up in emerg at the Banff Mineral Springs Hospital, you will be hooked up to a machine that I raised the funds for. :)

what else,

Back Country Skiing.

As you can guess, venturing into the land of avalanches is quite dangerous. It just so happens that the best skiing happens on slopes that are 30-45 degrees, which also happens to be the prime angle for avalanches! any more steep and the hill will shed regularly and won't build up enough to avalanche. Any less of an angle and it won't really move at all.

so, recognizing this, and the thought that I really like being alive - but also recognizing that it really is awesome skiing, I have decided to get as much training as possible so that I can do this activity safely.

This year I picked joined the Alpine Club of Canada to take part in their BIT course. It's Back Country In Training.... this course helps bridge the gap between classroom training and real life experience. The sad fact is that this past weekend when we went to go for a ski - we had hoped to get up into the alpine region for some turns - but on the tour in we realized that the avalanche risk was too great! I couldn't see the mountain as it was the cloud cover was to low, but during the 2 hour tour in we heard 4 avalanches! so we decided to stick to where tree's are and that meant that we didn't get to do any turns. :( maybe next week.

oh, if you are wondering - avalanche danger runs in cycles. typically you get snow, then a cold night which will create hoar frost on the snow, (this will become a weak layer) then you get new snow (aka Loading) when the loading builds up you get a trigger - be it more loading, heavy wind, or maybe a skier cutting through the top layer to the weak layer... that's when an avalanche happens. thing is, it works in cycles. so you get a load of snow, then it will shed and stabilize and build up new snow again.

the trick is knowing where that weak layer is, and how likely it is to shed. so it's fun trying to figure that out. but it also means that the avalanche danger will change from day to day and week to week depending on what is happening with the weather.

hmm.. well that's all for tonight.

I'll try to get on her a bit more often this week. There is more to let you know about!

Back, by popular demand

well, it's been 10 months or so... or maybe more since my last post.

what to say? I don't know. There is plenty to mention about my last year of life...

I'll try to fill you in using short sentences... If you want more detail; you should comment and ask about the specific situation.

So, my last post was that I was in Maui.

Maui was awesome!

Went home for Christmas

Flew back for the Holiday Party Season.

Had fun at the Banff Centre Christmas Gala as Mark's Date

Went skiing on Christmas, didn't get new snow for another 50 days :(

Went into the Back Country to the Bow Hut for a weekend

travelled to Panorama for a ski weekend

Travelled to Vancouver to drop a friend off as she left Canada

went backcountry skiing and looking to do more!

Climbed a few mountains

Learned to White Water Kayak

took 3rd place in the Softball League

Broke up with Ashley

Moved to Banff

Playing Curling

playing hockey - team is pretty strong this year.

Have a new girlfriend, her name is Kathryn and she's British, been dating a couple weeks now.

have tried to learn how to play the guitar, but haven't gotten very far with that.

Locked my keys in my car today, took 30 min to break into it because it was so dark this morning!

picked up a part time job making the outdoor hockey rink in Lake Louise.

well... that's all i can think of right now... I hope you are up to speed on the last year....

Cheerio

Michael

Maui

Hi Everyone..

So in case you haven't heard yet; i have made a sudden treck out of the country. It is somewhere i had hoped not to go quite yet, but here I am... In Maui.

I always said that i didn't want the USA as my first stamp in my passport, and i had hoped that they wouldn't stamp it... but they did.

But now that i am here, I don't really care.

so, long story short - Melissa and I had planned to go somewhere warm together this winter. We figured that we would take my Fairmont deals and her westjet deals and go somewhere and not have to spend a lot on the trip.

Turns out that Mels family decided to come to Maui for their vacation and because we had planned to go somewhere together she invited me along. I found out about this about a week before the trip. My next working day I requested the week and a half off! and it was granted to me (i don't know why!!!, like really - who would give me a week off with only a weeks notice?) but - I worked hard to pull it off and get 2 weeks work done in one.

I flew out at 7am from calgary on saturday and after a confusing trip through the vancouver airport, we managed to get on a flight bound for Maui. A measly 6 hour flight later and I was in +25 degree weather!

Now, i had talked about doing my scuba a little bit before and i decided to take advantage of being here in a tropical wonderland by getting that item scratched off my to-do list.

Walking into the dive shop on saturday, they laughed at me when i said i wanted to get it done before thursday! "it can't be done" well, someone how they managed to make it happen. It took a one day session with a guy named Kioni, and then 2 days with another lady named Rachel.

so, let me tell you about going under the water the first time.

See, i had put sunscreen on, and when i first put on my mask i tasted something well..., salty... I thought about my sunscreen and how i just got my face wet and thought that i was tasting my sunscreen... so - i started spitting!! but i could not get rid of the taste! it was gross... yukky.. goopy... but after all that spitting it was still there. I decided to just deal with it. I put my mask on and got ready for the decent under water.

I got myself "sorted" and decended under water. I couldn't do it - but i refused to go back up to the surface. I was trying to get on my knees on the bottom but i couldn't breath right! Kioni was looking at me wondering if i was going to get the hang of it. I knew all i had to do was calm down and take a nice breath and i'd be good. But... let's see you take it easy breathing out of some strange tube thing! really - it is not easy! well, it is... but it is quite the mental hurdle to get over!

Finally, after a few moments i managed to get my breathing under control and the rest was simple. Even clearing the mask was easy! well, not easy - but not nearly the challenge as getting myself to just breathe!

it's now been 3 days, and 5 dives and i'm feeling pretty comfortable under the water. Tomorrow I am going to Molokini, it's the remans of a volcano and it's just a cresent moon shaped island. Promises to be an interesting dive! I am pretty excited.

Oh, and i really hope to get the pics, but i saw a giant sea turtle today on my second dive... the turtle was a mere... 30cm from my face!!! ya... was about to high five it! but you aren't supposed to touch them! ($10,000 fine!)

hmm, what else... well, i'll tell you more when i see you this weekend! should be flying into Toronto friday afternoon around 5pm. (i know, traffic, but it's the earliest i can get there, and i'd rather wait in traffic then in the vancouver airport)

Cheerio!!

Michael

Oh.. that taste in my mouth... the "sunscreen"

i'll say these few words..

it tasted "salty"
this is "Maui" aka... Ocean...

ya... SMRT!!! :)

More on stanfields

Emily,

Yes I did know that stanfields was made in Nova Scotia, The bike tour actually took us past their factory and we peaked in as we biked by, but maybe a good tour would be fun if i can ever get out there for a visit!

So, In my last blog i mentioned that i was going out for halloween. I dressed up as Woody from toy story. I got really lucky with the value village i visited and found everything i needed for the outfit, save a good pair of cowboy boots and a vest at one store. I eventually found a vest, but ended up creating my own from an old white t-shirt. and Just before i headed to the pub i was looking up quotes for the "pull string" and realized that woody came with a guitar.... and guess what i had lurking in my closet... a $0.01 guitar i bought of e-bay! so i went to the pub and pulled off a 2nd place in the costume contest! i'll try to post some pics on facebook tomorrow so you can see!

I won dinner for 2 at the walliser Stube!!! Sweet!

oh, David. I wasn't home today - went to canmore to play volleyball.