{"id":4292,"date":"2015-12-17T18:03:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T18:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=4292"},"modified":"2015-12-17T18:03:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T18:03:45","slug":"a-cold-canadian-christmas-gordon-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=4292","title":{"rendered":"A Cold Canadian Christmas-Gordon Long"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/15877273_large.jpg\"><img data-attachment-id=\"4294\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?attachment_id=4294\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/15877273_large.jpg?fit=750%2C421\" data-orig-size=\"750,421\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"15877273_large\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/15877273_large.jpg?fit=300%2C168\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/15877273_large.jpg?fit=604%2C339\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-4294\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/15877273_large.jpg?resize=300%2C168\" alt=\"15877273_large\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/15877273_large.jpg?resize=300%2C168 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/15877273_large.jpg?w=750 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My transportation for the Christmas of 1967 was Dad\u2019s 1958 Mercury pickup. It was one of the first \u201cfull box\u201d pickups, instead of the old \u201cstep sides,\u201d and I thought it was pretty classy. Think of the picture above with a front bumper and a two-tone paint job: white above, teal below. I was home from university, and Dad was out of the bush because it was too cold to work, so I was pretty well free to drive it around. Loggers can\u2019t work below about -30 because metal gets so brittle that equipment breaks. It\u2019s rather hard on people, too.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the Christmas of 1967 was rather cold. I came home from visiting friends on Boxing Day, and the weather report said it was going to be -60F that night (That\u2019s -51 for you Celsius types). I plugged in the block heater of the pickup and waited for that reassuring gurgle that told me it was working. No gurgle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/airbornpress.ca\/newdir\/blog\/2015\/12\/16\/12-blogs-of-christmas-5-a-cold-canadian-christmas-gordon-a-long\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Brought up in a logging camp with no electricity, <a href=\"http:\/\/airbornpress.ca\/newdir\/\">Gordon Long<\/a> learned his storytelling in the traditional way: at his father\u2019s knee. He spends his time editing, publishing, travelling, sailboat racing and writing fantasy and social commentary, although sometimes the boundaries blur.<\/p>\n<p>Gordon lives in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, with his wife, Linda, and their Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Josh. When he isn\u2019t publishing, he works on projects with the Surrey Seniors\u2019 Planning Table.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My transportation for the Christmas of 1967 was Dad\u2019s 1958 Mercury pickup. It was one of the first \u201cfull box\u201d pickups, instead of the old \u201cstep sides,\u201d and I thought it was pretty classy. Think of the picture above with a front bumper and a two-tone paint job: white above, teal below. I was home [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4292"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4297,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4292\/revisions\/4297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}