Hanley Ends Involvement With Vigor Biopharma

It would appear that the town has decided to end their involvement with Vigor Biopharma after a meeting last week as per the entry at Saskatoon Homepage.

That news is too bad as there certainly appears to be a current and a future demand for the product this company would have produced. Of course the company of this size moving into the community would have had a huge impact on the town as well.

Only time will let us know whether the town's councillors decision was the correct one or not. Sure hope so. I know there will be some folks that are happy with the decision and some people that are not happy with the decision. However, that is why we have elected officials to meet and decide what is best for all the residents of our community.

Good Deeds?

The bro-in-law dropped by on Wednesday just prior to departing town for work. He mentioned a vehicle parked down the street between his place and our house. Something didn't sit right with this vehicle so he asked if I'd take a look at it when I was out on 'walk about'. No problem.

Just after dinner I was going to go out and check the mail and also check the Legion Hut to ensure all was well there which I check every couple days. My travels took me past this vehicle (a van) that James was enquiring about. The Legion Hut was fine so onto the vehicle.

The vehicle was parked nice and legal on the far right hand side of the road, but it was in a location that I've never seen vehicles park before. The vehicle also is not one that I recognized from town. On closer look, the driver's window was open and you could see where the rain had gotten in. I then walked around to the passenger side and I could see that the ignition was pulled off and there was a drill bit sitting on the seat. My hunch was that this was a stolen vehicle, so I copied down the licence plate and headed for home.

I fired up my trusted computer and headed over to CPIC Search to see if I could ascertain anything on the plate as to whether it was stolen or not. Sure enough I got a positive hit on the licence plate and was advised to contact the local Police.

I then called the local RCMP Detachment for Hanley however, I was transferred into Saskatoon as the local office was unmanned. I explained to the receptionist who answered my call that I suspected a vehicle was stolen and that I had queried the internet and received a positive reply. Her reply was that she didn't think a private citizen could query CPIC for licence plates. I assured her we could and I had however I suggested she 'run' her own query through her official CPIC system.

In a second or so she came back on the line and advised that the plate was actually stolen a day or so ago from the city of Saskatoon. The gal then asked that I wait and she'd check with the members to see if they would attend the vehicle or not. Within a few seconds she advised they would and then took down my name and phone number and thanked me for the call.

About 3 to 3 1/2 hours later a police car showed up in town and attended to the vehicle. This unit was actually a Vonda Detachment car (about an hour away from town) which explains the lengthy time arriving on the scene. Mind you there was no urgency to the call as there was no one in the vehicle and it wasn't going anywhere. That is what you get when the RCMP went to the hub Detachment setup. When the local Detachment members are not on duty then one of the other Detachments in the hub get to take the calls. The units can be a lengthy distance away from one call to the next so it can take some time for the members to arrive on scene. At least the member did attend, called a tow truck and the vehicle was hauled back into the city for return to the owner.

I was talking to a couple local people a day or so later about the vehicle and was surprised that many people had seen this vehicle sitting on the side of the street. Originally the vehicle had it's lights on (with no one around) and was running. The vehicle sat on the street with the lights on for many hours until presumably the vehicle ran out of gas and shut down and eventually the battery ran down so the lights would not show up.

I find this odd that people actually saw this for a length of time and took no action. Or possibly they did call the local Detachment and were transferred through to Saskatoon after 5 rings as happened to me. Then if the Saskatoon office was busy, they could have conceiveably received a message manager after 5 more rings or been transferred to the DOCC Saskatchewan number. If it was DOCC, then due to the workload, it could be 2-3 or even 5 more rings before they could answer. You have to remember these are not 911 calls, but still they are police calls. Maybe folks just gave up and hung up in frustration? If the persons that found it odd that this vehicle was sitting with it's lights on and didn't do anything, then that is troubling. Some people just don't want to get involved or unsure of what to do.

As well it must have been our local Detachment members days off or something as you would think the members would find it odd that a vehicle sat on the side of the street for any length of time with it's lights on and no one around. They most certainly would query the vehicle thru the CPIC system. But as the locals were not on duty, the town must have been switched over to one of the other hub Detachments. Either these hub members were too busy to attend to patrol through the town or had other duties to keep them occupied.

That sure doesn't give you the warm and snugglies . . .

Some Work Getting Done

Even with all the rain the last week or so, there has been some progress on the new Seniors Housing project although it is a bit behind schedule. It seemed just as Jim and crew got a handle on one part of the project, a new wrinkle was thrown into the mess. Of course you can't really do anything with the building until you can get the darn thing set up on the lot. To do that you need footings and to get footings you new concrete. Of course you also need the concrete to setup and cure. As the pictures from last week show, the concrete was being poured for the footings and then left to sit and cure.





Once the footings are all in, then the first part of the building can be moved into place. The matching half of the building is sitting out in the field near Kenaston waiting to be moved into Hanley. I would imagine once the first half is moved in, then the movers will use the beams etc and truck the second part into town. These two halves make up the 12 apartment units of the complex.

The third part of the building will not be available until October or so. Once available it will also be moved into town and moved into position. This part of the building will be housing the common rooms (ie laundry, boiler, etc).

There are many people that are anxiously waiting this new complex to be completed so they can move into their new digs. The other benefit is that there should be a few openings for houses or other apartments in town for other people to rent. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be done before any occupants move in though. The insides have to be converted to the 2 bedroom apartments, electricity, water, blah blah, blah.

Still all and all it sure sounds like a win win situation though . . .

Air Show

After himing and hawing for the last week, we finally decided to go to the Canada Remembers Air Show on Sunday rather than the Saturday performance. As it turns out, this was not a good choice. Mind you on Saturday it was blowing and raining and not a real enjoyable air show, but at least the folks got to see some of the show.

After getting up early this morning, I headed off to the city to meet up with Craig and Fred for the air show. The plan was to hit the show at about 11:00 am which would give us plenty of time to view the static exhibits and then get ready for the opening ceremonies at 12:30 pm.

When we arrived I turned into the parking lot and there was no one manning the gate. Strange! But then I remembered last year we had to take a jog through a line of trees and the ticket booths. This time when I took the jog, there was still no one around and not another vehicle in the lot. The lot was a bit muddy and any of the low spots still had lots of water on the ground. It wouldn't be a real nice walk through this field I thought.

I did see a security fellow over nearer to the roadway so I headed over and asked him what was up. He then advised me that the show was cancelled for today due to the weather and the conditions of the parking. What can you do? Not a darn thing other than turn the truck around and go on home. You can't beat mother nature no matter how hard you try.

It is sad though as there will not be an air show next year in Saskatoon as the runaways are getting redone. So the earliest we will get to see another show will be the summer of 2009.

I dropped Fred off and headed for home and arrived just in time for lunch. Nice Sunday drive, but sure didn't accomplish anything...

Visit Is Over

The household seems to be overly quiet tonite even with the Saskatchewan Roughriders playing on TV. However, it is just getting back to a normal level as the grandkids went home this evening.

We had a great visit with the kids even though the weather didn't totally co-operate with us. We were able to get out and visit the community on our walk abouts though and generally had an enjoyable week. The kids were just great throughout the whole week and were on their best behaviour.

I did manage to grab a picture of the darlings before they departed for home this evening. We'll definitely miss them until their next visit.



Sheila and Wendell took them into the city today and they purchased their supplies for school which starts in a week and half. That will put them on cloud 9 for a day or so just looking at all the new supplies to be used this year. I'm sure they are anxious to get back to school and see their friends and get into the swing of the school year once again in their new grades.

I hope they enjoy their time as looking back on it now, it just goes by a way to fast.

Fall Is Coming

If the movement of the purple martins is any indication, then fall is on it's way. As of Thursday August 16th all the martins in town have departed town and are presumably heading southwards. This is about normal for the martins as they normally depart about the 15th of the month. This year I think the martins took a bunch of their friends with them as the bird population is almost nil right now. I haven't seen any gold finch, purple finch or just normal finches, or even robins for that case, around in the last couple of days. Heck even the sparrows are in hiding.

Now we'll have to wait until the fall and winter guests show up to entertain at the feeders.

Bone Scan

Boy times flies. It seemed like just the other day that I had to visit the RUH and get a bone scan for a possible broken bone in my pelvis area. That was September 2006. The doctor that interpreted the scan felt that I was good to go and had no problem at the time, but he wanted to do a follow up a year later. So on Friday I went to the RUH for another test.

Last year the scan was just gruelling with having to drink so much water and getting pictures taken of my whole body for almost an hour. So of course I wasn't looking forward to the retest this year. At least I was familiar with what was going to transpire, so I attended the hospital a lot better prepared. First off I knew that I had lots of time to waste so I stopped by the library on Thursday and picked up a pocket novel to read. Then I filled up some water containers and got them chilled in the fridge.

On Friday I headed into the city a bit early as I had to report to admitting at 12:45 pm which would be the hospital lunch hour. I felt maybe the admitting office would be short staffed during this time and I was correct. Even so, it didn't take me long to get admitted for the day and told where to attend next, ie Nuclear Medicine. I checked and the office was still in the same place that it was last year, so I was good to go. I found a comfy (isn't that an oxymoron with hospital equipment) chair to sit down and commenced my novel.

Just prior to my scheduled time, I made my way over to Nuclear Medicine and reported in at 1:05 pm. I was about 10 minutes early, but I had my book so I didn't really mind. Lo and behold I was called in right away. This part of the test is where they inject a radioactive isotope into my arm to allow the cameras to get better pictures. This went off very well and then I was free until 3:30 pm. The gal giving me the needle advised that I should try and drink about 3 or 4 glasses of water. I queried her on the 3 or 4 glasses thing as last year I had to drink 8 litres of liquid. She assured me that 3 or 4 would be fine but about 5 glasses would be better.

I departed the lab and headed out to the parking lot to have a sit down for a couple hours. I had my cooler of water (way too much now) and got comfy with the book once again and drank my water leisurely. Last year I had to chug down the water to try and get it all down in the allotted 2 hours. Five glasses is nothing.

I did make a trip into the hospital to use the facilities and then back out to the truck to continue to wait. As the time approached 3:15 pm, I headed back into the hospital to use the facilities once again. After drinking the water, you want to ensure your bladder is empty prior to the tests.

Once again I reported in at about 3:25 pm and within a couple minutes I was taken in for the tests. The young gal set me up on the track and I got settled in as best I could. Remember this track is about the size of a 2 X 10 piece of board and feels about the same. There is almost nil padding on the track but I did get a pillow for my head and for my knees. The operator set up my feet in the proper position and taped them together so they couldn't move during the test.

She said that the test would only be about 15 1/2 minutes long which really surprised me after last years hour test. Once she got the camera set up about an inch from my nose we were off to the races. True to form, within 15 minutes I could tell the camera as just about finished doing it's thing as it was just over my feet. When the timer went off to signal the test was over, the operator headed out to check with the doctor to interpret the pictures. She was back in a couple minutes stating that we were all done and I was free to go.

This was great news as far as I was concerned so I got off the track and immediately felt that my back was hurting big time. Even the short stay that I was perched on the 2 X 10 and now I had pains in my lower back. Of course it didn't help that I was very tense with the camera thing just an inch from my nose. But I managed to walk out okay and headed for my truck and then home.

I'll find out in a couple days from my doctor what the scan found and see where we go from there. The interesting thing is that prior to this test I have been feeling great. NO pains anywhere on me and especially none in the pelvis area where the broken bone was supposed to be. Now 2 days later, my lower back is still hurting and I have pains in my hip area (both sides). I'm hoping it is just the way I was perched on the 2 X 10 in a tense position and that things get back to normal soon.

Time will tell.

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Times

For the long weekend we decided to head up to the lake to have a semi family get together. Sandra and I made it to the lake just prior to noon and got the area set up with water etc for the arrival of the rest of the crew. Rob and Elyssa next arrived about 9:15 pm followed closely by Pat & Ron and Bob and Belle in Pat and Ron's 5th wheel. James and Johanna arrived late Saturday evening.

Throughout the weekend we did almost all of the cooking outside on the BBQs and ate all of our meals outside. We did get a bit of rain a couple times, however, it came down during the night or early in the morning so it really didn't effect us at all. There certainly was more than enough food and everyone probably gained 5 pounds at least.

Originally the plan was for the crew all to leave on Monday after brunch (noonish) with Sandra and I staying at the lake until Tuesday. Rob and Elyssa had to depart Sunday evening due to work commitments on Monday. However, when everyone was pulling out at 12:30 pm, it just was so quiet that Sam and I figured we'd pack up and head south ourselves. We had to be in Saskatoon on Tuesday for a medical test, so we felt it would be nice to get home on Monday and then head back to the city for the test. So within 2 hours, the truck was loaded and we headed for home departing at 2:30 pm.

We ran into some very heavy rain on the way home, however, even though I was pulling Ron's boat, we were still able to make fairly good time and pulled into town about 5 pm.

We did manage to get the 8 of us to stand still long enough to take a group photo.



The weather wasn't too warm/cool and we did have a bit of wind at times, but for the most part, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and had a very enjoyable long weekend at a super location.