Dad's Home Page!

Hi there! Welcome to my page. This page will let you know a little bit about me, my history, heritage and what I do for a living, hobbies and other things that interest me. I hope you like it, any comments would be welcome, good ones are great, but hey, throw me a bad one and I'll reply to it too! So sit back, relax and read on, there are many links to follow, I hope you enjoy the trip. I've enjoyed mine so far!



My History:
I was born in Scotland in 1956, to Ross and Flora Donald, just after lunch time on the 29th May. Since then I've always been late for lunch, although you wouldn't know it to look at me (thought I would get that in before anyone else did). I have two brothers Bill and Bob who are twins, born 11 months after me (my Mother says that this is proof that breast feeding is not a contraceptive!). We all lived in the Hilltown, an area of the great city of Dundee. I went to primary school at Rockwell and then went on to Secondary school at the Harris Academy.
After getting through 4 years of academia, I then was indentured (that's legal language for slavery) in 1972 at fifteen and a half years old as a deck cadet into the Merchant Marine with Denholm Ship Management. After 8 months of realising I wasn't nearly as hard as I thought I was, I returned home to change over to the Engineering side of things and became an Engineering Cadet with the same company, under another set of indentures. I went to College at the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies in the Gorbals, where aqua velva, wasn't just for drinking, some people actually used it as an aftershave, pretty rough neighbourhood at that time. There they taught me everything that I needed to know about Marine Engineering, actually they were excellent, I'm not kidding. However, I loved the way they had a 100% success rate with every class: If you weren't going to make it you were fired! I then went back to sea after two years, for a year as part of the apprenticeship them came back to finish off my final year in Glasgow.

This is when I met my wife Liz, what a great time we had during that year, she even got me to start seriously studying. Liz comes from a little town of Yetholm, which is at the end of the Pennine way in the southern part of Scotland. She was studying Domestic Science and Hotel Management. Then after I passed all the courses (some even at the top of my class!) I went back to sea to work as a 5th Engineer. When I came back after my trip I couldn't wait any longer, so I asked Liz to marry me, and her not being very smart, did. We then went away on the ships together, travelling all over the world, seeing things, her being the lady of luxury and me being the workaholic, appearing from the dark recesses of the engine room occasionally, to get cleaned up and go see some sights, what an absolutely excellent time we had.
Heres a list of some of the places we've been. I've tried to hyperlink as many as I can:

Singapore. Hong Kong. Bangkok. Trieste, Italy. New York City. Kharge Island. Dharain. Immingham, Wales. Sullom Voe, Shetlands. Gothenburg, Sweden. Hamburg, Germany. Tsing Tao (Qingdao), China. Shanghai, China. Ras Tannurah. Los Angeles. Anchorage, Alaska. Tokyo, Japan. Dampier, West Australia. Capetown, South Africa. Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Nigeria. Port Alberni, Nanaimo Vancouver, Kittimat, British Columbia. Portland, Oregon. Savannah, Georgia. Stephenville, Newfoundland and Goose Bay, Labrador.

Kids, if you ever get the chance to get a job like this when you're young, do it!! You'll get a chance at a great career and also to see the world. But be aware, it is really hard work. I believe that Georgian College in Owen Sound, Canada has a good course in Marine Engineering.

I gradually worked my way up the ranks to 3rd Engineer. Then decided that I just might be smart enough to get a Second Engineers license which I did, and also received a First Class dispensation. At that time, I was the 6th youngest in Scotland to get it and the 14th youngest in Britain to obtain these dizzying heights. I studied for this in Leith Nautical College (which is near Edinburgh). Liz and I were living in a new town called Livingston at the time.
After a couple of more years of travelling at sea and still working for the same company, I was asked by the Chief Engineer of Port Weller Drydocks, if I would like a job on the Lakers in Canada. I accepted and this started the struggle to emigrate to this great country of Canada. We arrived over here in 1981, January actually. I was asked to join the laker Canadian Olympic at winter lay-up in Hamilton Ontario, where the first job was to change a propeller blade. Well I'm sure that the first thing that the wind coming off of Hamilton bay saw, was my butt! God it was cold!! After a while with Upper Lakes Shipping, we decided to move on to greener pastures and the fact that they wouldn't let Liz travel with me, made that decision easy.
Anyway, I eventually ended up getting a job with Ontario Hydro, as Mechanical Maintainer. The first assignment for training was up in Rolphton, near the town of Deep River, miles from everywhere, but close to the site of AECL's laboratory of Chalk River. Arrived up there in February 1982, -28 degrees Celsius, now thats really cold. My old Chevy pick up truck had bias ply, glass belted tires on it and I used to bounce down the road for the first mile until the flat spots warmed up on the tires and they became round. What beatiful countryside up there.
After finishing indoctrination and training I was transferred to the Bruce Site and we bought a house in Kincardine. During this time our daughter Jennifer was born (1984) after a while we bought a farm in Kincardine Township and raised sheep (no Scottish jokes now!). While we were on the farm Alex was born (1988). In 1995 we sold the farm to the Mennonites and now we live in Tiverton. I work at Bruce "A" Nuclear Generating Station now becoming Bruce Power. My resume is available by following this link, so I'm not going into my career with O.P.G. here.
Having been a member of the Tiverton Lions for over six years (three, as Treasurer), I rather naively became the chairman of the Tiverton Arena Addition Committee. So we built a $300,000 addition on the Arena, so that we can feed our kids during tournaments, with a couple of extra dressing rooms. The support of the community has been excellent in helping the committee and myself through that. This project was completed on time and budget in 2000.
Now, in June of 2000, the Municipality of Kincardine needed a couple of Councillors, to fill in some spots left by the death of our then Mayor Gord Jarrell and the retirement of another Councillor. So, I became a Councillor, then ran for reelection and after another term as Councillor, ran for Deputy Mayor and that's where I sit now.
I used to coach under 13 boys soccer, just to round off my day. Liz (my wife) says I do this, because I get to shout at other peoples kids! The kids treat me great and most of the time really listen. The wind was let out of my sails recently, when it was explained to me that it was because of my accent, they had to listen closely to even understand what I was saying.

So thats where I'm at now.


What do I do?

  1. Well, Liz, my wife thinks its, being tired when I get home, grumpy and in need of an occasional cold beer. I love her dearly, she is the strength behind me.

  2. Jennifer and Alex think all I do, is bug them about turning the lights off behind them, cleaning up their rooms and generally I'm a real pain in the butt, in their quest to be kids and not have to do all the icky things in life, like, dishes, feeding the dog, homework and listening to Dad! But I loves them all the same, they are great kids.

  3. The Dog thinks I'm here to open and close the door for him and give him claps. He thinks its just great when I come home, anytime!

  4. I work hard, I think that anyway; at  Bruce Power. I am part of the management team for the restart of the Bruce 'A' Nuclear Generating Station. My job is to manage and coordinate all the major construction projects in the station.

  5. I am also an elected Deputy Mayor  for the Municipality of Kincardine. For my sins I do the following: 

My Interests:

I find time to be the enemy, and since selling the farm, have found more time to devote to things that I believe help the common good. I strongly believe in the commitment towards strong moral goals and that true Christians are not always those who make the loudest noises in the church. I've been an active member of Cargill Masonic Lodge, Moravian #431 A.F.A.M. in the Grand Lodge of Ontario becoming Master of the Lodge in 1994 and District Chairman of Computer Resources in 1995-96, when we produced the first district home page in Ontario. I affiliated to the Tiverton Masonic Lodge, Bruce Lodge No. 341. A.F.A.M. in 1997. Of late I was asked to continue further in the world of Masonry and joined the Lodge of Perfection in Guelph, attaining the eighteenth degree of the Rose Croix. I have now been invited into the Mystic Shrine, to become a proud Shriner.
Part of life is to help out others less fortunate than oneself, so Liz and I were invited into and then joined the Tiverton and District Lions Club, Lately, I have taken out a membership at large, due to my time commitments with the Municipal Council.
I used to coach Soccer and had an excellent time doing it.  Jennifer coaches Girls Hockey, referees soccer and hockey.  Alex plays and coaches Hockey and soccer, way to go kids. They have just lately been elected grade reps for the school!

So c'mon along and take a trip to my interests page

My Hobbies:

Well, if you ever want to have an argument in the house, there are probably only four major reasons:

Money, Sex, Politics and Hobbies!
Having been married 26 years, we don't have much money (we've got kids), don't get much sex (thats how we got kids), nobody cares about my politics (thats like sex coming from the other direction anyway). So, that only leaves us with Hobbies.
I love my hobbies, they keep me sane (well nearly sane anyway), when all the rest of the world is falling around us. I have several major hobbies, that I've made up wee home pages for:

My biggest passion is my Harley Davidson and driving it.. My next biggest thing, is collecting, specifically Matchbox toys, this is a hobby that Alex and I both do together (good bonding stuff), Liz and Jennifer collect Wade Figurines. I also collect Insulators (yes thats right) glass, porcelain, big and small. I have about 350 different types right now. I also am starting to collect brewerania for when I get my basement rec room finished (that'll be right after the downstairs bathroom, which'll be right after the downstairs bedroom, you get the idea). I also discovered the game of golf and how badly I could play it, about four  years ago. I enjoy going out with Alex for nine holes at the local courses.

Link to Interests page
Link to Hobbies page

I really hope you enjoyed this rambling of mine! If you want to contact me, send an Email, we love hearing from people, we don't mind hearing from domestic animals either, but we haven't had any so far! I guess their hooves are to big for the keyboard!

sdonald@bmts.com

sdonald@laser-imprints.com


 

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This page was last updated Wednesday, July 07, 2004

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