The drive over to Edmonton was short, but a bit painful because of my sciatica. Before I arrived in town I stopped at the tourist information at the border in Lloydminster, and ate lunch and washed up. The Australian woman working there told me to avoid construction on the ring road by going south on the 21 first. Then I picked up the 14 West and I was soon negotiating the tangled suburban roads until I found my friend’s house.
It was nice to catch up after so many years, although the eating was slim until after dark because of Ramadan. I still ate breakfast, but didn’t eat throughout the day. I spent the days hanging out with the kids and watching the youngest, who is also at 15 growing up quickly, play soccer. I also spent one who day fixing computers. I was briefly concerned with Ismael’s car, which has battery issues, but soon we had that working better. The computers were a different matter. Out of the three desktops, I put together two working ones, and then removed three thousand pieces of spam from their main machine. When my friend came home from work, we started in on the two broken laptops. I got them working, and then we went on the tour of the gasifier where my friend works, at the landfill.
His project is considerably more involved now, and they are building the pilot plant based off what he learned from his test plant. Soon they will be able to turn trash into ethanol or methanol.
My sciatica was even more painful, although I did the yoga moves. I wonder if this will continue to bother me on the entire trip.
