Calgary or Bust! Part 2

     Day 2 in Calgary...
     This will be a short update to my travels, er, non-travels in and around Calgary. The office I'm working in turns out to be about 3 miles from the hotel so around 7:30 AM I drove to it with one of the managers.
     Picture where you work and now picture where you park. Picture a normal office building near the airport with normal parking for cars. Now picture this...

Hourly Parking Receipt: $8 for 8 hours

     Yes, it costs a person $8 to park in a normal parking lot and that was good only until 4 PM. Of course I was there until 6 PM but I didn't get towed. We are miles from downtown and they told me it costs $45 a day to park downtown. Unreal!
     Here's an interesting fact. All the doors to the offices have a lego looking square on the door and then the tenants name and suite number is "lego'd " to the door like the example shown below. This is what the STAIRS door had on it.

Lego Office Door Signs

     I guess they save money this way.
     BTW, the view of the mountains this morning was spectacular but of course I was driving and could not take a picture.
     After I got to the office, my company laptop somehow picked up a malware virus. I have no idea how. I never use it off the company network. I spent hours today trying to get rid of it. I finally think I got it after scanning it about 50 times and rebooting it countless times. Damn you! You virus and malware creators! You know who you are!
     Now I will show you is how the plumbing sticks out of the floor in the hotel. It doesn't go into the wall. I think it's because it is so cold here that this prevents the pipes from freezing.

Hot and Cold Water Pipes and Drain in the Bathroom

Toilet Water Inlet

     My wife told me I need to be on the lookout for a Looney Loon coin. I did a search on the Internet and sure enough they have them here but so far, I have not received one. I guess they have several versions of them.

     I worked a lot of hours today. It looks like I won't get any sightseeing or any Looney Loon looking done while I'm here.
     Oh yes, one final thing. Tonight when I drove back to the hotel there were hundreds of geese flying in formation. They were going every which way and some formations had only two flying on one part of the V and maybe 35 on the other part of the V. It was a strange sight to behold. I thought geese flew south for the winter but these must be "Canadian Geese"...Gotcha! This is a true story though. Here's a link so you can learn about the geese.
     Until my next update, see ya!

What does 17.5" mean to you?

     In a word; Comfort!
     I noticed this at a hotel on the last trip I was on and noticed it again this morning in the hotel I was staying at. Here's the poop...er, scoop...
     Yesterday was the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti, MI.

      Afterwards, we all went to our hotel to relax. I got my own room and then this morning I noticed three things:
     1. The toilet opening seemed really small compared to what I'm used to at home
     2. The toilet height from the floor was exceedingly LOW.
     3. I slammed the lid down afterwards. Wow! That really made a loud noise! I'm used to a seat that closes gently by itself at home.

The Hotel Toilet

     Crap! I could barely stand up after sitting down on it. 
     As a result, I began to really appreciate the toilets I recently installed at home. Our toilet seat opening is much larger and the seat itself is much higher above the floor. It is 17.5" high in fact!

Nose Bleed Territory! 17.5 Inches Above the Floor!

     The Hotel toilet was a "round" Kohler water saver...

     and our home toilets are "elongated" Kohlerwater saver toilets.

Kohler Cimarron Elongated Toilet

     Believe me, if you aren't as spry as you were in your younger days, install a new Kohler Cimarron elongated toilet. You will appreciate three things:

1. It is 17.5" high and very easy to stand up from. It's called a Comfort Height toilet.
2. The elongateed opening makes "things" easier afterwards...suffice it to say that there is plenty of room
3. Both the toilet seat and lid close gently on their own. No slamming down of the seat!

     The final thing everyone wonders about is whether the 1.6 Gallon or less flushing toilets will really flush down all the crap. Let me tell you, this toilet has NEVER failed to flush everything down. You actually use only 1.28 Gallons per flush but if you hold the handle down, you use 1.6 Gallons.
     So if you are finding your current toilet to be a pain in the a$$, install a new toilet. I recommend you pick the Kohler Cimarron or similar toilet. You'll be glad you did.
     If you are interested in it, here is a link to it at Lowes.

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