First let me say in my defense, even though I look fat in this picture, it's not quite so. I hear my friends in Thailand smiling and saying: "four month Stevie...Four month" referring to my state of pregnancy. But the fact is my body is contorted here as I pull 140 pounds of luggage behind me. I thought I was allowed to take two bags weighing up to 70lbs each on the Plane. As it turned out, I could only take 44lbs total. Thanks Vivyan and Dorian for saving my bacon by sending my bag to me by freight.
When I arrived at Pearson International Airport, near Toronto, Ontario, there was an incredible lightening storm. Just after I arrived in the departure lounge I heard an intermittent siren, indicating that the Airport was shut down in a state of code red, meaning that no ground vehicles were allowed on the tarmac. I saw bolts of lightening striking the runway every few seconds for a while. Then there was a driving rain.
Soon after this (around 2pm I think), I saw a crowd forming at the large windows overlooking the runway. I looked out and saw a plume of smoke and a group of emergency vehicles sped down the runway.
My Flight was with 'Sky Service'. The desk agents never said a word to us though. All they said was that the Airport was shut down from the storm. We waited for seven hours for news on whether we would actually be flying that day but all the Sky Service Staff would tell us was that they didn't know anything yet. The truth was that our Plane had been rerouted to another airport hours earlier and our flight had been cancelled all along. Finally at 9pm we were told our flight had been rescheduled for the next day and that we should all go away until 5am the next morning. Passengers started converging on the Flight desk, demanding free accommodation or at least some kind of financial help for their trouble. There were a lot of families with small children and nowhere for them to sleep that night. I actually thought our lounge might turn into a mob scene for a while. Finally, around 10pm, people started to calm down and I left the airport to spend the night with Vivyan and Dorian, nearby in Etobicoke.
As I was waiting for my bus, I met Joseph, who had just got off his shift as a security guard in the Arrivals lounge. He was on duty when the Air France Plane skidded off the runway. He told me he didn't actually see the plane but he saw many of the people who were waiting for friends and relatives from that flight. He told me: "people were freaking out when they saw the smoke. They thought everyone had died." Joseph and I talked about what a miracle it was that all the passengers actually survived such a terrible fire.
Here is what the Air France Plane looked like by the time the fire was put out. I do find it amazing that no one died.
The following day when I arrived at the Airport, there was a voucher for each passenger worth seventy-five dollars towards a future flight. Our flight did leave on time, at 7am, Wednesday morning. This is the view I had of the City Centre of Calgary as I arrived four hours later.
painting of a faerie under a shimmering waterfall I immediately thought of her. She looks very much like this painting. Living with Kahlin was wonderful. Our life together was balanced and peaceful and very healing for both of us. I looked forward to coming home from work every day just to be with her. I remember thinking that our life was like a Dream I was afraid I would wake up from; And how true that turned out to be. After living together for two and a half years we chose to take the relationship further. On April 1st, (talk about an omen), I proposed to Kahlin on the balcony of 'Lougheed House'; a hundred year old mansion built by the grandfather of Premier Peter Lougheed. I was a lead carpenter on the renovation crew. One 
day I even met the Premier on the site. When I asked him if I could take his picture, he replied: "Not unless you're in it too". So here is the picture that was taken with the Premier and me together. I proposed to Kahlin next to a spindle railing I built around the second floor roof. You can see the railing in this picture of the 
mansion. When she said yes, we both signed a written version of the proposal and and put it inside a corner post of the railing, as a Time Capsule. It is there today. But as the summer progressed, she told me she wasn't sure when she wanted to get married. I thought she was just leary because her first marriage had been difficult. But what she was really trying to say to me was that she was having second thoughts about being with me at all. Then, seven months later, near the end of October, everything changed.
I don't know what I would have done. I had the strongest feeling of deja vu' at that moment because when I drove out West from Ontario, 29 years before, the same thing happened with all the same circumstances. You can read that story in my Post 
I noticed there was a Service Center nearby and it turned out to be the only Oldmobile dealership for several miles and it was only a few hundred yards away. I was able to drive the car and trailer to the Service Centre. When I got there, the mechanic, Mike, told me he couldn't look at my car for several days. But when he realized my predicament, he put his other work aside and helped me out. He said that my transmission had become so hot that a plastic shield had caught fire and that's what I had seen burning under my car. He also said that the reason it overheated was because I had driven in overdrive on the highway with a trailer. He told me I should never have done that. He put some new coolant in my rad and said my car might be all right if I drove carefully. I was overjoyed. I went from thinking that my car was done for, to feeling everything was going to be okay again. 
We ended up talking to 'Yan' who said he couldn't tow my car with a trailer on it because it was illegal. But when I told him my story he just did it anyway. When we got back to his service station he even put the U-Haul in his impound yard to keep it safe; and all for just fifty bucks. Next, 
I took Nancy for dinner while I phoned to find someone to buy my car. I talked to Brian, who is a auto broker. When I told him my situation he said there was no way he could even look at my car for at least two days, 
and then only if I could get it towed to his lot in Winnipeg. But when I told him my car was in Elie he said: "I live in Elie. I'll look at it right now." Just after this picture of Nancy and me in the restaurant was taken, Brian called me back. He said that all he could pay me for my car was two hundred dollars. I agreed to his price and we went back to the Service Station and did the deal. This is Brian standing beside my U-Haul just after we finished the paperwork. 
Just as he was about to leave, I noticed he had a hitch on his truck. He agreed to take the U-Haul to Nancy's as part of the deal. This is the last picture I took of my car at the last time I ever saw it. What you see is the sun setting through the windows of my Oldsmobile.The next day, 
Sunday, Brian delivered my Trailer and I emptied the contents into Nancy's garage and repacked them for movers to take away later. The next morning; Monday the 15th, I went to the Greyhound Bus depot and bought a ticket to Waterloo Ontario for two hundred dollars. This is me sitting with my bags in the Winnipeg terminal, reading a book I borrowed from Kahlin's daughter, Cara-rae. You can see I'm wearing the Saint Christopher's medal that Kahlin gave me. The trip took twenty-two hours. The bus seats were very cramped but the Bus showed movies all the way through Ontario.
Waterloo and I'm staying at my Mom's now. My life is like 'A Tale of Two Cities'. It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. It was twenty-nine years ago, that I left Ontario for the West. Now that I'm back I am renewing ties with my family. My sister 'Melbah Toasty' was fourteen when I left. She and I are like Siamese twins now. She's one of the wisest people I've ever known. It's one of the greatest blessings in my life to spend time with her. We get laughing so hard that our relatives are considering intervention. My Mom is my best buddy. She fixed up a room for me. We go running at the Rec Centre every morning and she makes gourmet meals for me every night. My brother Mike invited me for Christmas. This is a picture with Mike 
and his family on Christmas morning. I lived in a Dream Bubble with Kahlin for the last three years so I fell out of touch with everyone else I knew. I found it extremely painful to suddenly not have a partner to talk to every day. I never knew I would miss that contact so much. I have a very dear friend who I totally lost contact 
with when I began dating Kahlin. She and I have renewed our connection and now we talk almost every night on the phone. Between her and my sister, I've laughed more than I have in a long time. One of the greatest blessing that came from being with Kahlin, was the bond I formed with her two daughters Cara-rae and Sharah. I have kept up contact with both girls. I was deeply touched recently when Sharah said: "Steve, you are a Dad to me." And I feel she is my daughter. Cara-rae and I are in touch by email less frequently but we know we love each other just the same.