Hello From Edmonton

I haven’t been on the road much of late, but here I am, visiting the provincial capital in mid-November. I don’t mind the trip at all, even if it takes me away from my typewriters. I am here this time to visit Edmonton Police. I am walking them through stress-testing their GIS “CERT” environment so that they can be confident that the system will work well in production.

I rode up on the Red Arrow this morning. I considered renting a car when I made my travel plans a week or more ago, but I’m glad I selected the bus. It snowed last night in Calgary, and the highway was snowy to just north of Red Deer. Much less stress to let someone else do the driving.

It did start snowing in Edmonton in the afternoon, but it was on the edge of being a light rain and wasn’t sticking. The clouds were impossibly low. It felt more like Vancouver than Edmonton.

I am staying at the Coast Hotel this time, and it’s not really that noteworthy, except for what I found in my bathroom.

When I first glanced in, my thought was that it was some sort of assistive toilet for people who had trouble sitting down. But when I looked a little closer, I found that lo and behold, it was a high-tech toilet with a bidet-like function.

The first shock was sitting down: the seat was heated! And from there it was weird. Not my usual, but you have to try it once. I don’t imagine we will see one of these in our bathroom any time soon.