David Usiskin lives in Edmonton, Alberta. He is 50 years old and has been driving buses for almost 7 years now. He got the job by answering an ad in the local newspaper for becoming a transit operator (bus driver).
Becoming a transit operator involves learning to issue transfers, receive fares and operate buses. A class 2 licence is requiered.
David tells me that there are 959 busses in Edmonton. There is approximately 60% male and 40% female operators.
Buses run from 4:30 a.m. to 1:45 a.m. Davids favorite part about being a transit operator is interacting with his customers.
David finished by saying "It is important to find a job that suite you, is comfortable and you enjoy it."

My Opa has been climbing for his whole life. He was inspired by climb by his older brother and his friend when he was twelve. When he was fourteen he joined the Bergwacht-Mountain rescue making him the youngest member of the club.
Opa first climbed in southern Germany in the famous climbing area Franken Jura. It was forty km. two hour forty minute bike ride from his home.
Opa's dedication and love of climbing stayed with him even when he moved to Canada at age twenty.
He climbed many famous mountains like Mt. Robson which is the highest in the Canadian Rockies, Mt. Victoria traverses North east ridge of Assinaboine, Mt. Alberta the highest peak in Banff. He has also climbed in Austria, the Wildekeiser in Meixco, Mt. Orizaba E Mexico's highest peak and Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Opa has experienced many changes in climbing. In his early days he used pitons in cracks, slings and rope latters, patchen shoes/boots, trikanese-nails in boots.
My Opa inspires me to be in the mountains.

I did this interview with Jimmy Robbins who is a Nordic cross-country ski guide and instructor at Apex/Whitewater.
Every year in the Kootenays, people are caught in avalanches. If you don’t want to be the next victim, here are a few things you should know about avalanches.
Avalanches happen when the weight or load of the snow overcomes the friction holding it in place. The location varies according to the conditions, but avalanches can’t happen on slopes of less than about 20 degrees, or on very steep slopes (where it is too steep for the snow pack to build up). They can happen whenever there is snow but most avalanches happen during February and March. Avalanches can travel at up to 200km/h. Powder snow travels faster than wet snow because it is lighter. There are 4 main ways of finding people:
1: you can often see people and drag them out.
2: if the person trapped has an avalanche beacon it will send out a signal to an avalanche beacon held by the finder.
3: dogs can be used to sniff out people buried. German shepherds retrievers Labradors and collies are the best types to use.
4: rescuers can use a metal pole called a probe to stick into the snow to see if people are buried there.
To keep the public safe, controlled avalanches are triggered on purpose where there is a build up of snow and where an avalanche is likely. This is done by explosives, snowmobiles or even skiers. This is very skilled work. You have to know exactly where to trigger the avalanche without endangering yourself.
So next time you are in the backcountry make sure you have an avalanche beacon and use an Avaluator* card to help you work out if the area you are planning to ski in is safe.
*The Avaluator is a small booklet which gives advice about how to see if an area is safe. It also has a card insert with the details on to help you to remember. The ISBN number is
0-9781741-0-0. It is also available on line at http://www.avalanche.ca/avaluator/

This week I interviewed a retired captain of the Calgary Fire Department, Al Vandersteen. He joined the CFD in 1977, the day before he turned 30. The reason he wanted to become a fireman was because he was tired of his other job as a teacher, and his brother in-law Jerry also inspired him to join. Jerry was a fireman too, he started in 1971. One morning in 1972 around 11 am a fire caused by an electric malfunction occurred at The Beachcomb Restaurant in Calgary. At 6 o'clock in the evening Jerry and his crew took the nightshift. It was a restaurant that had lots of decorations and bridges over water. At around 11 p.m. the fire got out of control. The fire started to come through the walls. Jerry and his crew put on their oxygen tanks to fight the fire from the inside. Because of all the smoke Jerry lost his partner. Jerry ran out of air and got lost in the smoke. The rest of his crew came looking for him, but they could not find him, they had to put out the fire. Around 11a.m. the next day the fire was out. They went back in looking for Jerry. But, he ended up dying from the smoke, it was only about a year since he began as a fireman.
I asked Captain Al what his most profound moment of being a fireman was. He explained it was 5 years into being a fireman. His department got a call that there was a fire in someone's bedroom. Captain Al did not have to fight the fire inside because his job was to pump the water from outside. The most profound moment for him was when he went inside after the fire had finished. There he saw a dead body, the person had died from smoking a cigarette in bed, he had fallen asleep, dropped it and it lit up his house.
During the time that Captain Al worked at the CFD, the biggest fire that he attended was at a condominium in construction. It was just made so far of wood, so it was very likely to burn down quick. It was a snowy night in March, the firemen were covered in snow and ice.
There was never a moment when he did not want to be a fireman. He retired in 2007, he was a fireman for 30 years. He is also my grand-dad.

Back in 1975 when Bruce MacNeil was 12 years old he fished flounder with his brothers for fun. Bruce grew up in a family of five kids. There was two girls and three boys. His father worked for the parks so they had to move a lot. He didn't get to play with friends very much because they moved a lot, so most of the time he played with his brothers, Ian and Pete. In Northern Newfoundland, the ocean was basically in their backyard, so that is where they fished flounder. To fish the flounder they would pound a fishing hook with a hammer until it was straightened and then nail it onto a broomstick so it was like a spear. They would get into a rowboat and row out until it was deep enough for flounder to swim in big groups but not too far away from shore. One would row while the others would lay down in the bottom of the boat and then spring up and spear a flounder. The fish never knew what hit them. They would catch 3 or 4 a day, then gut and clean the fish. Finally they would take them home for supper. Yum! They would fish because it was helpful to their family and great fun.

Thomes Lou decided to to architecture at highschool for his impressive drawing a teacher recommended he look into architecture. He did and it stayed with him his whole life. His first job was with modeling clay in Toronto. He said he liked architecture because it was a creative way of using things around you to build amasing structures.
He said he wanted to do it because he wanted to give people homes. i asked him what it meant to him. He said it was like a reflection cause how you built it was a part of your self. i asked what terrain he liked. He said cliffsides and tropical with a beach.
i asked what kind of architecture he like to do. He repleid modest simple elegant.