Sad, sad, sad . . .
The other day I was reading the newspaper and read a letter to the editor about the paper publishing the names of children participating in sports. The writer felt that last names should never be used for children in the papers.

As I was out doing my morning walk, I was thinking about this article and remembering back to when I was a whole lot younger. If for some reason you were fortunate enough to be mentioned in a local newspaper, you wanted the whole world to know who you were. You were the local 'hero' at school for the next couple days or until another person bumped you off the list with their recognition in sporting news or other school endeavours. Everyone wanted a copy of the paper to take to their grandma and grandpa and other relatives to show them how their grandchild (niece/nephew) had won recognition by getting their name in the paper.

Of course now a days, young people have to content with bullies and others who would like nothing more than to be able to find out who you are so they can intimidate the child or do other dastardly deeds to the person. What a shame our society has evolved to what it is today where it is best that the last name of little Johnny (or Susie) who hit a home run or aced the spell-a-thon can't even be put in their local newspaper for fear of retaliation.

What a sad comment on how far our society has come in 2007 :(

Not Good For Tourists

After I heard the story of what happened to a lady passing through from Ontario the other day, I could just imagine the lady would have a very dim few of our town and our province...

The story goes that last Friday a person from Ontario was driving through our fair country and pulled into one of the local garages on the edge of town during the day. Now whether the woman was just getting coffee or coffee, gas and a stretch, I don't know. This person also had a smaller type dog (in the shitzu type of dog) with her. I take it they had been travelling for a bit and they wanted the dog to have a stretch and probably relief itself along with the owner. So the woman lets the dog out for a run on the edge of the parking lot of this garage.

Now you have to remember this garage is right at the edge of town and there is long grass and prairie at the edge of the garage's lot. It is only a short distance (less than a city block) to the highway. The dog was strolling along the grass with the woman watching and then quick as a blink a coyote jumped out of the long grass, grabbed the poor dog by it's throat and was gone back in the long grass and was high tailing it across the prairie. These are wild coyotes and as soon as the varmit grabbed the smaller dog, it was done for in one quick snap of the coyote's jaw.

Needless to the say the poor lady from Ontario was almost hysterical with the taking of her pet dog. Having owned dogs in the past I can only surmise the grief this poor lady went through. The shock of seeing her beloved pet killed and dragged off as a snack is something that no one ever wants/needs to see.

I don't imagine our fair province is going to be on the top of this poor lady's list for quite some time. I can certainly sympathize with her, but nature is nature. She could have kept her dog on a leash, but who would suspect a coyote would be that bold to be so close to a populated spot and in the middle of the day as well.

Strange, strange, strange.

Still Alive & Kicking

Boy it has been a long time since I last put up anything on the blog. There just has been a lot going on in my life of late. Not the least has been the darn trips back and forth to the city for physio. I do have a break from that for a little bit, but of course still have exercises to do at home. Some days the shoulder seems fine and other days it hurts as much (or more) than it used to. I'm just not sure what the answer is.

On October 1st I also became the newest Star Phoenix deliver person for half of the town. The young person doing the job just didn't want to do it any longer and there was not a lot of applicants for the position. I got to thinking, hey I'm out walking almost every evening for an hour or so, so why don't I give it a try. Of course the major stumbling block is that the papers have to be delivered by 7 am Monday to Saturday. Now for any that know me, you'll realize that I haven't gotten out of bed in the last 32 months or so prior to 9 am other than a handful of times. I like to stay up late and watch a movie or surf the net and then I get to sleep in. This new task would definitely impact my snoozing time.

On September 29th, I set my alarm and got up at 5:45 am and headed out with the previous delivery person to find out about any quirks in where people want their papers etc. There were a few houses that I would never have found where they wanted their papers delivered to on my own so I was glad I did go out with the previous person at least once. With my one day training, I figured I was ready for October 1st and my first day alone.

I got up at 5:45 am once again (it seems like a good time) and went and checked for my papers. They were not delivered to me yet. Great, now what do I do? I headed back in the house and sat for awhile hoping that the driver didn't forget there was a 'new kid' in town. Along about 6:10 am a van was driving slowly up the street and I had a hunch he was looking for my house. Sure enough it was the delivery person so I went out and introduced myself. He advised he was a bit later than normal because he also deliver the Sun on Mondays so it took a bit longer. He further advised that normally he would be dropping the papers off at about 5 am or shortly thereafter. With that I grabbed my stack of papers and went in the house to get them ready for delivery and then headed out by 6:20 or so. Shortly after 7 am I had dropped off my last paper and was heading for home.

I must admit it is a nice time for a walk other than it was a bit cool. Of course it is going to get a lot cooler in the weeks to come, but all in all it wasn't too bad. On arrival at home I decided to climb back under the covers and get a few more minutes of shut eye. It definitely was nice to climb into a nice warm bed after a cool walk. Shortly after 9 am I was up once again and my day went on as it normally did in the past.

Tuesday morning I once again rose at 5:45 am, went out and checked my paper box and found the bundle waiting for me. I quickly got everything organized and headed out for the morning deliveries. By 6:45 am I was back home and climbing into the rack once again.

Along comes Wednesday morning. I hopped out of bed as normal and went out and checked the paper box. Nope, no papers. So back in the house I went to wait and wait and wait. Finally the driver arrived explaining that the press in the city broke down and he was a couple hours behind schedule. I grabbed the papers and headed inside to get them sorted and found that I was going to be one paper short on top of being so late. No problem, I would just not get a paper this morning or I could pick one up at the store later in the day for my own use. Out I went, late, but better than nothing. Of course this lateness screwed up my whole day as for times, but I was hoping it was just a fluke.

Along comes Thursday and same thing, no papers, so I waited and waited. At about 6:30 the previous delivery person mother arrives in her car and hands me my bundle of papers. They were dropped off at her place rather mine. I assured her I would call in complain about this mixup and then headed out for my rounds. After I made my deliveries and had a short snooze, I did in fact call my delivery company and let them know there was a 'new kid' in town and to try and remember me tomorrow. Later in the afternoon the company called me back and advised that there was a sub driver on and the primary person didn't bring him up to snuff on the new address for a drop. She assured me it would be rectified and not happen again.

So Friday morning I up and at em and headed outside. Nope, no papers. Jeepers not again I thought. Of course I didn't want to phone over to the other person's house at this hour as she had other kids and I sure didn't want to wake them up. The other drop spot is about 4 1/2 blocks away so I wasn't keen on just going over there either. So I sat and stewed for a bit. At about 6:30 am I still hadn't heard anything from the previous delivery person, so I figured something else was amiss. About 10 minutes later an older van limped up to the house and the delivery person jumped out. I immediately went out to chat with him. I guess his primary vehicle was broke down and his secondary vehicle didn't make it out of the city before it broke down. So the fellow was on his third vehicle. I wasn't really sure if he would make it out of town let alone all the way back to Saskatoon, but away he went.

Saturday morning I'm waiting once again for the papers and they are late as they have been all week. Mind you I had spoken to a previous delivery person and she had advised that on Saturday it is always a guessing game as to when the driver was going to show up. Eventually the fellow showed up and handed me my bundle of papers. He still had his 3rd string vehicle. This vehicle is a mid 80's larger van with the sliding door on the passenger side of the vehicle. After handing me my bundle, the driver went to close the van door and the darn door fell off. The guy did some quick work and got the door back on it's track and closed and once again limped out of town. I'm not really sure if he made it back to the city or not. I guess I'll find out on Tuesday morning.

So after a week of delivering the papers I am getting into the swing of things. The morning walk is quite refreshing and it doesn't appear to be impacting my day too much. Hey on Saturday I didn't even go back to bed for a snooze. Mind you I did get a few minutes shut eye while I was watching the boob tube in the afternoon. The other thing that I find sort of neat is that I only had to wake up to the alarm clock once all week. The rest of the time I was up and at em without the clock waking up Sam as well.

Hopefully this coming week will get back to normal for the delivery driver and I can get my papers delivered prior to 7 am as I'm supposed to.

Time will tell.