75°f/24°C, clear and humid again at 7:30am. Some places in ourcstatevreached 100° yesterday. Watered some plants and pots, picked 2 peppers, put down some cardboard mulch. Back inside by 9am.
My #4 son, Aaron, was in Montreal, Canada last week to do some work. I did not know that Montreal is a French-speaking city! How did I miss that? I knew Quebec was, but never realized the primary language of Montreal was also French.
Aaron had a fine time trying to read road signs and such, and of course communicating was complicated too, suncebhe doesnt speak any French. Some people he met were bilingual, but not everyone. But he was thrilled to be able to try poutine, which he gave a two thumbs up.
Aaron travels extensively in his work, traveling around the country doing repair work at various sites for a contracting company. One day he may be in Florida fixing the heaters in a bay where manatees over-winter, the next working in a plant in western New York. Some weeks he hits three worksites, others just 2, depending on the job. Today I believe he is in Wyoming, then goes on to North Carolina. Or maybe he's already in North Carolina; it's hard to keep up with him.
His stay in Montreal was short---arrive one day, work the next, and fly out on the third. He was doing some electrical work on the Mount Royal Tunnel, a 100-year-old light-rail tunnel which has been undergoing extensive renovations since about 2018, and is supposed to re-open this year. The work was slowed down early on when a century-old box of dynamite was inadvertently exploded in the tunnel. Apparently it had been left there during construction in some obscure niche. Fortunately no one was hurt.
Aaron enjoys his work. We often call him MacGiver after the TV show, because Aaron can fix pretty much anything electrical or mechanical, and is pretty good on electronics too. Which is even more surprising, when i think about it, since he grew up without electricty--- we finally hooked to the grid in 1989 or 1990, cant recall exactly, but Aaron would have been finishibg high school by then. His college degree is in Veterinary Science, but he never worked in that field; since graduating college was a lead instrumentation tech at a power plant until moving to this job last year. While there were plenty of challenges in that power plant, I always felt like he wasn't using all his capabilities. These days, I don't worry about him being bored!
Aaron and Sassy in the 1972 Mercury Aaron rebuilt pretty much from the door handles up.
A man of many talents :-))
ReplyDeleteThat is one impressive fellow! I wish I knew somebody I could call MacGiver :) And Sue I thought of you at 7AM when I carried my plastic pantry shelves outside to hose them off after doing the morning chores. I emptied the shelves in the kitchen yesterday afternoon, but just couldn't bring myself to drag them outside and scrub them until it cooled off at least a little. This morning I got a good few things done between 6 and 9, but came inside looking like I had just risen from the sea.
ReplyDeleteI left Montreal in 1962. I still cheer for the hockey team, but I never became very good in French. I have been through that tunnel. I think the train ride into the city was 25₵.
ReplyDelete...the Cougar is neat, goes the dog have a license?
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting guy!
ReplyDeleteI too was wondering if MacGyver had taught the dog to drive.
ReplyDeleteHe found his talent! I hope he enjoys traveling and seeing many parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteWhat a talented son. You should be proud.
ReplyDeleteQuite a life-style! And quite a car. I have a MacGiver here, too, very practical :-)
ReplyDeleteI thought all Canadians were bilingual! Ow, my French is like really rusty... Actually... I expect anyone to speak English. Here we learn this from grade 5 on and I am often surprised how many forgot this language, it´s so important.
Cool Car. Sounds like a wonderful son and much much more. I would like to go back to Canada.
ReplyDeleteFrom understanding the workings of animals to mechanical, electrical and technological…yep just get those parts to do their jobs - it’s all connected, isn’t it? Not that I understand much of it at all. What a talented individual Aaron is!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to have someone in the family who can fix anything! I could use one of those! We were talking the other night that one flaw in our US school system is that we don't really push foreign languages. As the world gets smaller, they will come in handier, even just going north of the border! (Or south!)
ReplyDeleteHe is a handy chap to have around! I'm sure he enjoys his work, every day a new challenge. FYI.... Montreal is not the "Capitol" of anything, the capital of the Province of Quebec is Quebec City.
ReplyDeleteYour #4 son leads quite an interesting life. I didn't realize that you lived off grid until 1990 ( or did I misunderstand?). If you did, have you posted stories of how you coped?
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty cool to have a job that affords to many different experiences. There are people who love to travel for work and then there are those who would dread it and love their cubicles. I was a traveler too. Love that car!
ReplyDeleteYour McGyver is leading a life of adventure, isn't he? It's amazing that he wound up doing something so far removed from what he went to school for. That car is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI am enchanted that Aaron took to poutine. We lived in Montreal as newly weds, and it was more bilingual back then. The present provincial government is trying hard to ensure that French is not lost and, in doing so, they have insisted that English not be used, on signs, in stores, that kind of thing. Annoying, really, as the French population all enjoys English TV, music, books.
ReplyDeleteBut, poutine is truly Quebecois, although you will find it all across Canada.
Tres amusant.