How The Times Have Changed

This weekend we decided to change the dining room around. As it turned out, I needed a stand for 'my cookbooks'. That meant I lost a stand in the bedroom that I was using for my clock radio and other sundry junk.

Well I found a new stand to use, but it did not have a drawer attached, so I had to rearrange my allocated 3 drawers out of 15 available in the bedroom. Guess who gets the rest?

Needless to say, I had to go through one of my drawers and reallocate the space available. While doing this I came upon a cheque book register from 1972 with some interesting details inside. Of course in 1972, Sandra and I were residing in Bermuda. Now just in case anyone can't remember back this far. Our Canadian dollar was worth a way more than a USA dollar. I of course got paid my salary while in Bermuda in US dollars.

A few entries in the cheque book registry jumped right out at me. My mid month pay for June 1972 was $310.00 US. Now, you have to remember I was also getting 'Foreign Service Allowance' at the time to allow that I was living outside of Canada. Then taking the exchange on our CDN dollar to the US dollar, I figure I was getting paid about $200.00 for about 15 days of work or about $100.00 a week. Taking that $100 per week at a 40 hour work week (how I wish), that would work out to be about $2.50 an hour.

Now you have to remember in the military you don't have such a thing as a normal 40 hour week. You work until the work is done. So of course you end up working more than 40 hours a week. You had your normal 'office' work and then you had your fire picket, guard duty, etc to add to your hours. The pay didn't increase and there was no such thing as overtime.

I then reflected that 5 years later I resigned from the military to take a job with the RCMP at a salary that was less than I was making in the military in 1972. I think the starting salary for my RCMP employment was $2.25 an hour. As well, Sandra and I had made the choice that one of us would not work until the children were old enough to look after themselves. That left Sandra as the stay at home mom and I was the one 'on the job'.

On $2.25 an hour, we managed to buy our first house in North Battleford, buy a brand new car (1977 Plymouth Colt) and generally got along just fine. Now a day, the young folks need at least $8.00 an hour to even look at a job. Preferably the new workers want at least $15 to $18 per hour before they even look at the job before they'll commit to working. 40 hours a week of actually working are just not in the realm of reality nowadays. Some folks will probably be at the work location for 40 hours a week, but there are coffee breaks, meal breaks, bathroom breaks, smoke breaks, etc to dwindle away the actual hours of work.

The cost of living certainly have increased.

Yup, the times have changed and I can certainly reflect on getting older...

New Toy

I'm a bit late with this posting as it actually occurred last weekend (March 24/25th), but better late than never...

Seeing as it was Sheila's first weekend in the last number of years that she wasn't employed by Great West, she decided the family would come up to Hanley to visit and I could bbq steaks for supper for the crew. This was going to be on Saturday night supper. Was she nervous about her new occupation? Nah, she just wanted a good steak done by the 'old guy'. Sure, sure, sure :)

For Friday night supper we figured just burgers and hot dogs. On Friday afternoon I purchased propane for the bbq, hooked it up and fired it up. Was I disappointed. The flame was just horrible. This was the first time I'd fired up the cue for quite a few months so I figured I'd better get my hands dirty and lift out the briquettes and see what was underneath. Once I had the briquettes out I could immediately see the problem was my burner element. It was totally burnt out.

I reflected for a few seconds on when I had actually bought this bbq and in reality it was not that long ago. From my calculations I feel the cue is only about 8 years old. Now you have to remember I always cover the cue when I'm finished. Of course it has sat out in the weather, but it had a cover on it at all times. Once we moved to Hanley I covered it for the first year, but on the second year I didn't. When I looked out on the deck I saw that the snow etc was not able to get in under the roof to cover the bbq so what was the need to cover it? I don't think this one year of not covering it was the reason for the burner burning out so quickly, but the possibility is there.

I had a couple of options to follow. I could dig out James bbq out of the shed and use it or I could dig out my old bbq that was purchased in the early 80's (ie 1981-82). I looked at James's bbq and then I looked at my old one and decided on mine as it had a much larger cooking area.

I pulled it through the slush and snow and got it set up on the deck with the propane tank and fired it up. This cue also needs a new burner, but it was not anywhere as bad as the current model. What's that old saying 'They don't make anything like they used to?'.

We cooked up our burgers and dogs on Friday nite with no problems. Meanwhile I contemplated my newer cue and decided it was probably best to look at a new version. Of course Sheila had to point out a current sale that was going on at Zellers. It certainly looked promising.

Early Saturday morning, Sam and I jumped in the truck and heading for Toon Town. We found the bbq section and I knew that it was our next purchase. But just to be fair, I asked Sam for her opinion. As normal she agreed with me and we purchased ourselves a new bbq. The store staff placed it in the back of my truck and we were off heading southbound for Hanley.

Once we arrived back in Hanley at about 1:30 pm, Wendell and I wrestled the huge box out of the truck and started to put it together in the garage. By 3:15 pm we were done putting the beast together so we moved it outside and installed the propane tank, fired it up and checked it out.

I definitely was impressed with it all. The new cue has 1027 square inches of cooking space on the main grill. Overall it has 84,000 BTU heating with a side burner on the left side. It also came equipped with a rotisserie for doing up roasts, chickens or anything that needs to be turned (I think small pigs would qualify).

After I powered up the cue, I turned the 6 burners onto 'high' and the temperature climbed to 550-600 within about 30 seconds. I figured maybe I could use this thing as a welder if it got much hotter! I turned all the burners down to 'low' and the heat gauge settled in at a comfortable 350 degrees F. Yup, I was impressed.

Needless to say I was able to cook up 7 larger steaks, 4 larger potatoes and 2 larger tinfoil pouches of vegetables with lots of room to spare.

As Craig hasn't had a chance to view my new toy, I thought I'd let him take a peak with a few pics. Yah I know Craig, your Habachi still works, but this beast is for serious cooking :) Craig, you are more than welcome to come for a steak supper (or any other serious cooking) anytime and see how she works.

Bring the wobbly pops or something similar !!

Kay's Update

Late this evening we received another call from Kay. She was out of the hospital however she still was not in the best of shape as far as she was concerned. As she put it, she is not certain what her face looks like (ie with the jaw surgery) and she wasn't certain that she wanted to have to live with the outcome. We tried to impress upon her that at least she was still with us and we were thankful for that. As for the rest, well, time will have to tell on that one.

Once again Sam got a chance to speak with Kay which was certainly a plus as far as I'm concerned. Of course I only was able to hear one side of the conversation, but it certainly sounded positive to me. At least it was not the dreaded news that Sandra was afraid she would hear.

We both wished Kay the best and hope she recovers and is able to carry on with her life in whatever way she wishes.

Strange Late Night Call

For a change I was in bed shortly after midnight last night. As it normally happens once you fall to sleep you usually are gone into a deep sleep. With about 20 minutes of sleep under my belt the phone startled me awake. On the other end was Sandra's sister Kay who we hadn't spoken to in the last seven years or so. Even the last time was very little spoken words as it was at their mother's funeral.

First off, Kay wanted to make sure she had the right family she had called asking if this was Dale the hubby of Sandra, etc. Once I confirmed she 'knew' us, she informed us that she was going in for some surgery today for cancer of her jaw. From speaking to her, it sounds like this is the third time she was having this surgery and she was not liking her chances of recovery.

While I was speaking, Sandra woke up and so I handed the phone to her so she could speak to Kay. Of course both parties got a little choked up. Eventually the phone was handed back to me. We said our goodbyes' with me wishing Kay the best and hoping for a positive outcome. I then disconnected the phone and got my head back onto my pillow.

As I was laying there mulling over what I just heard and trying to digest the information, I reflected on how sad the break up of the family was. These things happen though and there is not much you can do about them. For our part, we have never unlisted our phone number or tried to keep our location a secret from anyone in the family. Of course with Kay, she had made the move to BC quite some time ago with no one really knowing where she resided (her wishes). But she could always manage to find us, whether it was in North Battleford, Regina or now in Hanley as she usually gave us a call every five years or so for some reason or another. Mostly to let us know that she was still alive in the world. Never was there a phone number or an address to converse back and forth to her. She usually didn't have a phone of her own and was normally 'in between' living arrangements so didn't have an address to give us. At least she knew where to (or could) find us if she wanted to.

If the ultimate happens as Kay felt and said and she doesn't make it through the surgery, we may find out about the fact sometime in the future, but there are no guarantees on that one. That would be a choice of the other part of the family. We can't make them call us with any information. So if they do, they do and if they don't they don't.

I can only reflect on Kay's words and both Sandra and I both wish her the best and hope that she does come through the surgery okay. As always, she knows how to get a hold of us and can call anytime.

Done For Another Year

Yesterday was our windup curling for this year. It was a funspiel type of curling with the whole team staying together for the day rather than always changing after every game.

We played 3 four end games with points given for each end scored and then extra points for a win or a tie. As typical of my curling this year our team just didn't do too well.

Our first game we really stunk up the place and got totally skunked (ie we didn't score in one end). I think the final score was something like 7-0 so the score wasn't totally bad. It was just that we couldn't even get a point in the 4 ends.

The team then had an hour off prior to the start of our second set. Of course this was the noon hour so when we got back on the ice we all were ready for a snooze rather than curling. However, we managed to score in 2 of the ends, but we still came out as losers once again.

It is interesting in that we were scheduled to play all 3 of our games on the same ice which was sheet 2. After our second game we just stayed out on the ice waiting for the opposition. When the opposing team came out we were advised that we had been moved to sheet 1 to play on. This sheet had not been played on for about 2 1/2 hours whereas sheet 2 had played 3 games in a row on.

So we moved over to sheet 1 and commenced the game. Wow was the ice ever heavy. You had to throw take out weight just to get the darn rock into the rings. For the first end only 3 rocks actually got past the hog line. That's out of 16. Not a very good percentage. However, we played on and the ice did start to keen up some.

At the end of the game, we were up by a point on the last end, however, the other team had last rock. Their skip had a fairly decent shot for a take out to sit two. But he must have choked a bit and they only managed to count 1. So we ended up with a tie game.

I didn't even bother to look at the scoreboard as I knew that we had the least amount of points of any team. This was not exactly ending the year on a winning note, but at least I (and most everyone else) enjoyed ourselves.

For now, most of the members from the curling will be moving over to golf to see if they can do any better wacking the little white ball around. Many of my curling friends are trying to get me to 'go out' and give it a try. As they say, it is just as enjoyable as the curling.

Who knows, after a week or so of nothing to humiliate myself with, I just might take them up on their offer to show me the ropes in golf. I have only been on a golf course once in my life and that was probably 25 years ago or so.

Stranger things can happen.

Give You A Fright

To think you are normally surfing around on the Internet and when you click on a certain link you come upon a site that gives you a bit of the shivers. Well my son Craig had that happen to him yesterday as he clicked on Bike rider died on weekend trip.

Now you have to remember that originally the Bagnall family came from England and in particular the small village of Bagnall which is just a county east of the Wales border. It is also not surprising to have a motorcycle accident in England with a death. What is surprising to see your own name as being the deceased. Now the location of the accident is near the Wales border, but in reality it is not that far from the village of Bagnall.

What I find so interesting is that the deceased was 33 years of age. Of course my son Craig won't be 33 until this coming November. Still they are very close in age. It is interesting that different families of Bagnalls actually decided to pick out the same given name of Craig for their offspring. In my case no one in my family as far back as I could go on a genealogy search had the given name of Craig.

So what compelled these folks in England to name their son Craig the same as Sandra and I decided to name our son Craig? Damned if I know, but in a way it is a bit spooky.

On a different note, I know that there is another 'Dale Bagnall' out in the world. A few years ago a friend of mine was using ICQ as a chat program. At the time I was also using ICQ. My friend lost his contact list so was re-adding me to his list. Low and behold he found my name, added me to his list and then sent a few messages to 'Dale'. Then all of a sudden up pops more messages from another 'Dale' (which in reality was me).

As it turns out the 'Dale' that my friend had added was a female who lived in New Zealand. She would be probably about 25-28 years of age now (I can't remember how old she was when this all happened). I did end up adding her to my chat list and had a few chats with her, but there definitely was an age gap (to say the least of a total different country). It was an interesting time to say the least.

But back to poor Craig, I just wonder how many 'white' hairs he'll have after seeing his name pop up as deceased :)

Just keep it short Craig and no one will know :)

18 Long Years

On this date in 1989 we lost in my estimation a 'One in a Million' in the loss of Walter Frederick Mayers.




I only had the privilege to know Wally for approximately 24 years and the first 3-4 years I really didn't say too much to him as he had such an imposing personality and scared the bejesus out of me. But as you got to know the 'true' Wally, you found that he didn't have a mean bone in his body and would give his shirt to anyone at the drop of a hat.






It's true that Wally smoked too much, weighed too much and definitely drank too much. But those vices happen to a lot of folks in the world and you learn to live with their vices.

I wasn't around when his children were being raised (other than the young ones ie Kay and Jamie), so I can only reflect on how he treated his grandchildren. He loved every one of them with no reservations. It didn't matter if the grandkids were just dropped off by the parents for a short visit or for a longer scheduled holiday at the lake with them. He loved them all and treated them all with as much love as he could give. Yes, he smoked and drank a bunch and was opinionated as all get out, but that was Wally.

It's funny in one aspect that all his son-in-laws saw the good part of Wally whereas some of his own sons only saw his faults. That is their right, however, I feel they missed so much of the great latter years of their father. Their loss and my and my family's gain.


To most in the family, we had a couple places we would normally find Wally, either at 726 6 Street East or at the Lake. In the summer months after his retirement, you would only find him at Christopher where he manned the kitchen table watching out the window/door for the time when one of the 'kids' drove up. Yup he would normally be found with a shot glass cupped in his huge hand with a 'touch of the good stuff' in the glass just waiting for you to come through the door.

My only regret is that Wally just didn't get long enough to really enjoy his retirement. He had joined the Navy as a youngster and served during WWII. On his return to Saskatoon he found employment with the Dairy in July 1945 and served with one Dairy company or other for the next 40 years until March of 1985 when he retired after his 65th birthday.

His favourite place in the world after his retirement was his cabin at Christopher Lake. I remember driving up in the winter with him to 'just check the cabin' whereas I knew he just wanted to see it one more time as he missed it.

Sadly he only got to enjoy 4 years of his retirement prior to being called 'Up Above'.





I'm sure anyone that ever was at the Mayers cabin at Christopher Lake will remember the name on the above picture. 'Fat Albert' was his CB callsign, but Wally didn't take offence that he was a bit overweight. He knew we called him Fat Albert with the love that we had for him.

I and everyone in my family misses you Wally. May you 'Rest In Peace' and watch over us.

We miss you ever day!

So Slow

Yesterday I was over at a customers house doing some work installing a video cam for them. They wanted to use the cam with MSN or Windows Live so they could set up video chats with their extended family.

This was fine and I felt probably about a 30-60 minute task. Little did I realize that they were still on dial up. So of course I had to download Windows Live for them prior to setting up the cam. Now this is not a large program as it is only 17.2 mb in size.

Prior to departing for the customer's house, I had downloaded the Windows Live on my laptop to ensure I knew what to do at the other end. As I said it is a 17.2 mb download which took about 70 seconds at my house. However, with dial up, this same 70 seconds took 2 1/2 hours to download. Just watching the download creep down was just so painful.

I actually was going to zip home a couple times, burn it on to CD and then head back to the customers. However, I used my time to update a few other programs on the computer and get everything ready for the vid cam.

After what seemed like hours (well yes I guess it was 2 1/2 hours), the file downloaded and I got the Live up and running. Then I set up the audio and video and all was working just fine. The only problem was that the customer had never used MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Live or any chat type program. So of course I had to do a quick tutorial in the opening/using of the program.

After I figured the customer had it down pat, I headed for home with instructions that I'd give them a phone call back and we could then go for a trial run from my house. Once home I fired up the laptop (which zooms right along after the recent format/reinstall), opened up Live and then made my phone call.

Now you have to remember the customer used their phone for their internet, so I had to wait a few seconds for them to hang up the phone, fire up the dial up internet and get logged on. I was impressed that within a minute or so the customer was online in Live. I immediately sent out a text message to show that we were both up and running and then advised it was time to go for the audio/video.

Once again, I was impressed with the customer as they had the camera right up and we had a quick video chat to ensure all was fine. There was just a bit of adjustment with the camera to get the picture centered, but other than that all was just fine. With that all taken care of, we closed out and I watched to ensure the customer had followed the instructions to close out Live by actually 'exiting' and not just closing down to the 'task bar'. This was all done, so I was a happy instructor for the day.

As I sat back and thought about how things went for the day, the dial up slowness certainly made me thankful for a high speed availability. But then I thought back to when I first started this 'computing' thing back in the early to mid 90's. At that time SaskTel wasn't even in the internet field. I used Prodigy as my internet ISP. My closest access was Edmonton so of course I had to use long distance to sign onto my account. If I remember correctly I normally only used the 'net' at night after midnight when the cheaper phone rates were in effect. It cost approximately $10.00 per hour of use. Let me tell you, you didn't do a lot of sitting around on the 'net' playing games etc. You got on to the 'net', found what you were looking for and signed off.

Oh yah, I had a blazing fast modem at the time of my Prodigy use. It was a 2.4 kbs dial up modem. Yup the top speed was 2.4 kilobits per second. Now a days of course the dial up modems run at 56 kbs with Flex or V90 protocols, but most setups hardly get quite that high. Case in point is the customer from yesterday computer dial up was running at 45.2 kbs. That still is a long way from 2.4.


Like the old saying 'We have come a long way'.

Ugly City Trip

We departed town at about 8:30 a.m. yesterday morning. The sky was a bit overcast but nothing too serious. The roads were just terrific all the way into the city. As I said I would, I took along my camera to see if I could get a snap of a few of the deer along the highway.

We did find the deer where they have been for the last while, however, it must have been too early as they were all sitting (laying) down in the snow. There didn't seem to be quite as many either so I decided to not stop and waste the time trying to get a pic.

I had a doctor's appointment at 9:30 a.m. so we just kept trucking along to the city and figured I'd try on the way home. At this time the weather was still very nice although a bit overcast. After I had finished with my doc we headed towards the mall to have a java with mom and Fred. Just as we pulled into the mall parking lot a few snow flurries started to come down. As we got out of the truck I sure noticed there was a definite bite in the air. The temperature seemed to have dropped about 10 degrees in less than 30 minutes. But maybe it was just that the darn wind had picked up so much.

When we got inside the mall I noticed that mom and Fred had already arrived and were sitting down having a bit of breakfast. I grabbed a couple of coffees for Sam and myself and joined them at the table. We shot the breeze and got a few things organized for Fred's income tax that he is taking to an accountant on Friday. Before we knew it, the clock was showing 11:30 a.m. so we decided to depart the mall.

As I was departing the mall I noticed that the snow was definitely a lot heavier now but nothing too serious. I figured I'd hit the car wash and get some of the mud off the beast. I normally use the Husky wash that is just north of the Lawson Mall so I drove over that way. As I was waiting to get into the stall I gave dad a call to inform him that we had actually made it into the city today and we'd be over for lunch.

After lunch I figured I'd take a peak at Andy's computer as she has been having a bit of problems of late with it being slow. So dad and I went over to her house and I got to work with 'Crap Cleaner' and 'Spybot'. In all we were probably there about 90 minutes and then departed. By this time the snow was really coming down. Once I got back to dad's I picked up Sam and were 'outta there'.

Then we had to stop off at both WalMart's to pick up some prescriptions and then we headed southbound for home. By this time the snow was really coming down but the roadways on the highways were okay. At least they were about a thousand per cent better than the roads in the city which are sheer ice. At times the visibility dropped to almost nothing, but at least the roads stayed fairly clean and we could make good time.

On the approach to the area where we normally see the deer feeding we were presented with a field with probably 200 to 250 deer grazing. This is probably the most I've ever seen in this one area this year (or ever for that matter). The weather wasn't the best but I figured I'd pull over and see if I could get a pic or two. I just wished I was on the other side of the highway as we were quite a distance from the herd although they were fairly near the ditch but on the other side of the highway.

It is interesting in that the deer were not perturbed with the vehicles whizzing by at all. However, once I stopped their heads immediately came up and you could see they were nervous. As we sat and I tried for a few pics the deer actually started to move off further towards the tree line. Now I was just sitting in the truck across they ditch and then across a four lane highway and they still got skittish. I guess that's why there are so many of them around at present. They know when to take a hike from danger.

Anyway, here a couple pics I grabbed of part of the herd. As I said, the weather wasn't the best and I was a fair distance off. But you can tell they are not cows :)




After taking the pics we continued southbound and arrived home safe and sound just prior to 5 p.m. I have no plans at present to travel northbound in the next week or so, but if I do I'll be taking the camera and hopefully be able to get some shots from the east side of the road. Mind you the way the deer acted today when I stopped, I'd better be quick with the camera or all I'll see is their rumps heading off into the sunrise :(

No Curling

As tomorrow is Monday, I was gearing my mind up to the second last curling game of the season. However I received a phone call from the fellow who is looking after the league and he advised that we were going to have to cancel the draw this Monday.

It appears there is a funeral in town and the hall was going to be used. Mind you he also said that there were already 12 people that had called to advise that they would not be able to curl at any rate. I'm not sure if they are sick, away, or just what. Only that they wouldn't be there. It is darn hard to run a league when that many people are not going to show up.

So our next (and I believe) last draw will be held on March 19th. However, if I remember correctly, last year we also had a sort of funspiel type of thing. But I could be getting it confused with some other curling. At any rate with the weather turning a whole lot nicer of late, I'm sure that most people are going to turn their minds to other things than cold ice and sweeping.

It is always sad to finish up the year though as it is a very nice way to get a bit of exercise and also get out and mingle with a few of the towns folks. Oh well, it is only 9 months or so until next December when the league starts up again.

WOW! What a Lot of Deer

For the last month or so every time we drive into or out of the city we have been presented with a huge herd of whitetail deer in the fields along the side of the highway. Whatever the local farmer planted in the field sure must taste good to these deer as they are always browsing when we go by.

Now these deer are staying in the fields and are not coming across the highway so they certainly are not bothering me (or the other travelling public). Well at least when I have gone by they are nice and comfortable in the field. Of course I don't do a lot of driving during the late evening/night time. In the evening/night there could be a lot more movement across the highway, however, there is not a lot of dead deer along the ditches. That is a plus as normally you always see 8-10 dead deer on the side of the road in the 60 km or so stretch of highway into the city.

As we were driving south this afternoon we were watching for the deer and they were exactly where they always have been this last month. I'm definitely going to have to take along my camera and try and get a few shots of the herd. Most folks just wouldn't believe there were that many deer so close to the city. Just as a rough estimate I would say there has to be between 100 and 150 deer in this one little field. This is just what you can see from the road. How many more are in behind a bush or over the next hill, etc.

It is just amazing and the really neat thing is that as the deer browse they'll look up as the traffic goes by and they don't even move an inch. It's as if they know they have nothing to fear while they are up in the field and away from the highway.

I'm heading into the city again on Wednesday so I'll definitely be taking my camera along to see if I can get a shot or two.

One Happy Daughter Today

Finally the news that the family has been waiting the last year or so came into being today. The start of the story was early today when I phoned Wendell to speak to him about the grandkids new computer. The computer I had fixed up for the grandkids was acting up and I felt it was probably a stick of RAM that I had put in the machine. So I called Wendell and talked him through removing the offending stick to see if that fixes the problem.

While I was on the phone, Sheila comes on and advises that she finally has received her security clearance and will be terminating her employment with Canada Life tomorrow (March 9th). She then starts her brand new career with the RCMP Training Academy (Depot) on March 26th.

This employment is the end of almost a year of Sheila taking exams and then waiting for an opening that she wanted to take. She was offered one position last fall however she decided it was not exactly what she wanted so she turned it down. Of course she second guessed herself almost every week if she had done the right thing or not. I volunteered that with the new year coming there would be more positions available.

Shortly after the new year came around she indeed was offered this new position and she accepted it. Then the waiting came into being as the RCMP had to do a security clearance for her prior to her actually starting work.

Well today the Inspector called her and advised that her clearance was through and the Force was offering her employment and when did she want to start. Sheila of course wanted to give her current employer 2 weeks notice so she will be handing in her resignation letter tomorrow. Then she has to anxiously wait for the 2 weeks to pass so she can start her new occupation.

There is still one other detail that is a bit humorous in all of this though. Last year when Sheila took the exams she passed the CR3 level and only missed the CR4 level exam by 1 mark. A person can only take these test ever so often and there has to be a waiting period between attempts.

Well last Sunday Sheila again took the CR4 exam and she is hoping that she indeed picks up that missed mark and then a few. If she indeed passes, then she would be eligible to apply for any CR4 positions (which is also a rather large increase in pay from a CR3 position).

Sheila probably won't know for another month or so if in fact she made the cut off for the exams. By that time she should be in place in her new position at the Training Academy. The nice part is that at least her security clearance has already been done. If she indeed is offered a position that strikes her fancy then it would be just a transfer to the new position and not a brand new hire.

You can bet that Sheila is anxious about starting her new employment. It has so many unknowns for her at this point in time. However, I have the utmost confidence in her abilities and I'm sure that she will do a terrific job once she is up to speed on the position.

Well done Sheila, may you have a long and varied career with the RCMP.

Another Big W Beside My Name

We tried our hardest to give it away today at the Monday curling draws. We kept letting the other team fill up the house with their rocks. The only good part was that we were fortunate to only allow them to score a single point for the most part.

On one end we did fall horribly apart and gave them a 4 ender. It looked like our luck was fading away, but we fought back and got a 2 ender the next end. The following end we then stole another 2 to get our 4 points back.

It took us to last rock and then our skip came into the house and knocked out one of the opposing teams rocks to allow us to count a 4 ender. We ended up winning the game on that shot.

The nice part was I was playing against the lady that was just a shade better than I was in the standings. With this W under my belt, I can move into second worst curler rather than just the worst curler. But then heck we still have 2 more games to go so anything can (and likely will) happen.

For now I'm just going to savour the extra W beside my name. At least until next Monday.

Bored or What ???

Frik I must be bored.... Out of nowhere I decided that I would stick in my 'Restore disk' on my laptop to see what would happen. No you have to realize that I know what a 'restore' disk does. Duh! It formats the hard drive and reinstalls the operating system back to when you purchased the computer.

Knowing this I still went ahead and 'restored' my laptop which has been running fine for the last 5 years. Yup, it wiped everything off the hard drive and we started over again. Now this is not as bad as it seems as I have a backup DVD of the hard drive and I have backups of the important information on my main computers.

But it is darn interesting to see what you have when you start over from scratch. You know what, the darn computer sure runs a way faster than it has been of late. It doesn't have all that garbage of programs on it, so zip zap and away you go.

I must admit the laptop is about 75% faster after the reformat. When I click on the IE button I'm connected to the home page a way faster than ever before. Well that is not quite correct. When I first purchased the laptop it was very responsive and the IE would load up quick as all get out. Of course over time I added different programs and the computer slowed down considerably.

Oh wouldn't it be nice to not add any programs and just use the computer with just the basic IE and maybe an EMail client. Overall it sure would save you time throughout the day.....

Busy Times

We were pleasantly surprised to hear the door open and Sheila, Wendell and girls walked in Friday evening. They were just here a couple of weeks ago so we didn't think they would venture up this way for awhile yet.

The trip was for pleasure as well as for a bit of help for Sheila. She is taking an exam today to apply for the next level of employment and wanted a bit of assistance in interpreting some of the questions. There are practice questions available on the Internet along with the answers so she had an idea of what to expect. I believe she says the test is normally 75 questions and you get 90 minutes to complete the test.

No doubt there is not a lot of time to doddle on the questions but you definitely have to really read the question and of course the answers which are multiple choice. As Sheila went through the practice she marked questions that were giving her trouble. Then I took a look at them and tried to interpret to her the 'why' and 'how' of the correct answer.

After almost 40 years working with the Government, I should be able to figure the questions out it was thought. I was thankful that 'yes' all of the questionable 'questions' I looked at, I was able to correctly answer them all. That is not to say they were real easy, but I could definitely see the so called 'trick' part of the answer list fairly easily.

I tried my best to explain the reasoning to Sheila and hope I helped her some. This test is for the same level that she missed the cut off by 1 point about a year ago. We are hoping that she will be able to bring up her correct answers by at least the 1 point (and a few more for good measures).

With getting past this level it does open up a whole lot more opportunities for Sheila for employment. We definitely have our fingers (and toes) crossed for her and wish her the best. As I always say, you give all your best and try your hardest and nobody can ask for anything more than that.

Good luck Sheila, we are rooting for you !

Vista Compatibility

It would seem that the majority of people in the world are not taking the giant leap and upgrading to Microsoft Vista. There are a variety of reasons for not upgrading not the least being the cost of upgrading. As well the possibility of your existing programs not running on Vista is a real concern. This is a very valid reason for many as there are many programs that refuse to run in Vista (or cause problems).

With that in mind, Microsoft has put out a list of programs that are 'Certified' for Vista and those that 'Work' with Vista. You can view that complete list at Applications that have earned the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo or the "Works with Windows Vista" logo.