Gerald Schmidt:  

Life Lots to tell, for sure. My life has certainly been a full cup. Some of you won't recall the "before" photo. I joined the HS wrestling team at CHHS in... what?... 1971? WOW. It's been so many years. My wrestling continued on for several years and I was invited onto Team Canada for the Olympics and then... well; wouldn't you know: Canada boycotted the Olympics because Russia invaded Afghanistan. Anyways; the before photo is from my wrestling days at CHHS & UofC and even after that 'til about maybe '79 or so. And then: Well....... Been to so many places - GAWD! - the book(s) I could write. Venezuela, Mexico, Switzerland, Greece, France, Spain, Germany, Malaysia, Turkey, I-can't-count-the-number-of-states-in-the U.S.A., but I did call California "home" for a couple years and Hawai'i "home" for several more, then; Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand for brief periods. Malaysia in November of '06 > I went there to work for exactly 2 hours. Almost 60 hours of travel and two days of futzing around to work two hours. LOL I married really late in life for the 1st time. Big surprise to everyone - myself included! I met my wife on the N.E. plains of Thailand; we were both lost at the same place at the same time. Karma/fate/Deux ex machina. It's a Buddhist thing, I'd guess. It was like (and still is) I'd won a lottery! We have two boys, now. Our youngest will graduate high school a couple months after I retire - you do the math. We have a garage full of BMW motorcycles; when the boys graduate: Tierra del Fuego - here we come. We have an online and virtual business - and we ship bird guano (supplies and stuff) all over the world. And, over the many years; I have become an internationally known crane (not the bird kind - but; actually that, too), expert. Currently, I am an Occupational Safety Officer with WCB and inspect job sites for safety in the Lower Mainland (Vancouver area) in B.C. We have a nice 2-acre piece of land in Thailand on which we plan to build a log home made of pine beetle killed trees (lumber) and set it up in a kinda eco-friendly way with solar panels and an underground heat sink for AC. Update: September 2008. The boys are back to school; I seem to recall having longer school hours. I think we started about 8:20 a.m and going to 3:20 p.m. Now; it's 8:40 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and I think they get an hour and a quarter for lunch plus a couple recess periods. I'm glad we had them reading and writing before they got into the public school system. December: 2009 Asanee & Atid have won the B.C. Provincial Judo Championships in their own respective weight classes. They are both ranked with the Canadian Federation of Chess and can play a pretty mean game. Last summer they passed Level 5 in swimming and both learned to water ski > up 1st try. We have a Norwegian Elkhound puppy in our family now: Maddie from Wisconsin. Years ago; I met a breeder there and was able to get a puppy from that lady even though we had to wait for a bit more than a year. I was back in Calgary for a bit of business and I'm surprised how much has changed; particularly the size of the city. Some things have remained the same, of course; but: WOW! The size is simply astounding. Peter's is still the palce to go; much more expesnive than when Kim Davies was selling double burgers with cheese for $2 a burger but it's still the bomb. Give a shout or e-mail if you think you remember me. I've had 250+ of you all clicking the button to tell me you were here. Don't be shy after all these years. Get them fingers lubricated and limber and pound out a few keys; send a note. Updated -> NOV-2010: Geeze! Married 15 years now., this month. The boys are growing (funny how that continues; was hoping they'd kinda stay one size for a while so we could enjoy them longer). Took the boys to see the Calgary Stampede and parade this past summer. They were duly impressed. No kidding! Calgary has gotten so big. I do recall when it had less than 200,000 human beings within the city limits and probably more cows than that on the outskirts. Certainly more gophers for sure. Lucky the city planners had some road issues thought out beforehand and lucky they thought of the LRT back in the '80s, too. Anyways: life is still bustling and busy for us. Updated -> May-2011: As always; life with 2 boys is busy, busy. Asanee came through the year winning the Provincial Judo championship and is the Western Canadian Wrestling Champion. He also came 1st in inter-school badminton. Atid won the SFU War on the Floor tournament and the Collingwood invitational in Wrestling and the Western Canadian Judo Championship. He opted out of badminton and chose rugby. They are 10 and 12 this year. Now that the tournaments are over; a couple months reprieve and then waterskiing and swimming start. They are both still ranked with the Canadian Chess Federation since they continue to compete in chess tournaments. We moved the JUST for BIRDS store to Langley; almost doubled the square footage now; Siriwan has had the store for 12 years. I continue trying my darndest to impress upon working folks what they should have learned in Grade 9 Science: that physics will do them serious harm. So: that's it for another year (almost). Updated -> June-2012: Our eldest son has gone undefeated in wrestling for two seasons now. Our youngest son has won several prestigious judo & wrestling tournaments. They both compete inter-provincially now; a step up from provincial and local tournaments. Asanee qualified for the Judo nationals this year due to his age. We're pretty proud parents. I have a sideline/evening "business" to keep me out of trouble. I have some specialized equipment that cleans metal; my customers are folks who restore motorcycles. One of the pieces of equipment is like a huge dental tool cleaner. The other; blows baking soda onto parts; the baking soda "explodes" and removes rust, etc. Kinda fun chatting with all these guys with their prized collections that are generally a result of some memory from their teens. Or: guys who couldn't afford their dream machine when they were younger and now can. Siriwan & the boys are off to Thailand. Atid & Asanee took almost 300 books to donate to a Thailand elementary school library that they have started. Updated -> 2013: I now find myself as the local high school wrestling team coach. 27 eager hopefuls showed up in early October; this has dwindled to a meager 3 girls and a sometimes guy. I organized & hosted the 1st ever Surrey City HS female wrestling clinic and my 3 female wrestlers are doing very well considering they are all 1st-year wrestlers. They are either 3.5 or 4.0-grade students as well. My HS wrestlers tied for 4th place out of 17 schools competing; pretty good for having only 3 girls left on the team. Updated -> 2014 Our son, Atid, won the Provincial Club Wrestling Championship at 60 KG and was invited to an exclusive training camp in Calgary on the May long weekend. At...Expand for more