Road Information

Quite a few people travel back and forth to Saskatoon via Highway 11. In the winter months, you are always worried about travelling through the Blackstrap valley. The Department of Highways takes good care of the roads through the valley, however, it does take them a bit to get to the area to sand and plow. So it would be nice to have a bit of advance knowledge.

Yesterday I was advised of a tool that can be used to check out a part of the highway right in the valley. This is a camera and it is streamed online. The camera also updates every 30 seconds, so you can get a basic idea of what is happening in the valley at any particular point in time. Of course it can't show great detail of the road, so you can't actually see black ice, but you can see snow, blowing snow, etc. As well you can see the vehicles travelling through the area.

The camera can be watched at the following web address:

Blackstrap Camera

Used in conjunction with the Highways 'Road Information', you can make up your mind whether to travel through the area or not. The Department of Highways road information can be found at:

Saskatchewan Winter Road Conditions

Check it out. . .

PS: There is also a camera being setup at Davidson, however, it is not operational as of yet. The link for this camera is:

Davidson Camera

Do Not Call List

Canada's new 'Do Not Call' list doesn't appear to be doing what it is supposed to as reported by Global TV on January 14th, 2009. Surprise, surprise.

I did register my phone on this list and I do think that my calls have gone down.

However, as a general rule what we follow in our household. We just don't answer any calls that show 'Unknown Name' or 'Unknown Number' unless we recognize the number only. I realize that a lot of people don't list their cell phones when they call, but if they call me they just very may end up with my message manager. If they leave a message I'll give them a call back, but don't expect me to answer the call. As a matter of fact you can have SaskTel block your telephone for you and the caller with 'Unknown Name/Number' gets a recording stating that the caller doesn't answer calls with unknown details. You need at least a number to get through. Now some of the telemarketers are using bogus numbers to get through to this setting. That's why I just don't answer the darn things unless I recognize the number. If you are a friend or acquaintance and you only show a number you'd better hope I have a good memory. The wife answers absolutely zero of these calls as well.

The same goes for '800' numbers or numbers with area codes that we don't normally get calls from (ie any code other than 306). We just don't answer the phone and 3 rings later the caller gets our message manager. They can then leave a message. If the caller doesn't leave a message, I just delete the call and forget about it. If there is a message and we are at home, I'll listen to the message and if warranted, return the call. No message, no talk to me.

I was getting calls from an 800 number that looked like it was from Sears (according to a look up on the Internet). I do deal with Sears, however, they showed 'Unknown Name' so we didn't answer the call as it could very well be just a telemarketer. The same number called almost every day for a couple weeks and not once did they leave a message. Now we seldom receive calls from this number any longer. My thinking is that any reputable company/business would want to advertise their name. If they don't, then don't expect me to answer on spec.

Now whether it is just a coincidence that our calls have decreased after the implementation of the 'Do Not Call List' or our refusal to answer these unknown calls; all I know is that the number and frequency of the calls have drastically declined and that is a good thing :)

Idiots Out There

I made it through the morning papers and the drifts of snow. Then it was off to the curling rink for the morning game. Due to some sickness we were short a player, however, we recruited a 2nd from another rink and got the game under way. Sadly, we ended up with a big 'L'. Oh well, there is always next week.

After the game we headed for home for a quick bite to eat and then headed for the city for Sam's INR check up. After last nights semi blizzard the roads were actually in decent shape. The passing lane had a bit of snow and ice, but really not that bad. I was able to travel near 100 to 105 Kph.

About half way into the city I looked in the rear view and saw a car coming up quite fast. There was a single occupant in the vehicle. As he zoomed by me I just had to shake my head. The idiot was reading a book or magazine as he was driving. He had the magazine situated in the steering wheel and was reading and changing pages. I would estimate his speed at somewhere near 130 to 140 kph so he was in quick order out of sight.

It is hard to believe someone would be so stupid to travel the roads in the conditions we had. I can only speculate what this guys response would be if he either had an accident or caused an accident. Likely something like, "gee, I was just driving along minding my own business". Yah right, and you don't have one clue :(

You just have to shake your head at the stupidity of some people . . .

Time Just Flying

It appeared that I just got over the Remembrance Day ceremonies and then I was getting prepared for the Legion bonspiel on January 2nd, 3rd & 4th. Trying to get bartenders lined up (impossible task), ordering the liquor & beer, picking up the orders, purchasing items at the store, etc. etc.

Before I knew it, Friday the 2nd was here. I started going just after lunch and picked up all my orders and got them delivered to the Hall. The fridge stocked up and got everything ready to go for 5:00 p.m. This year I really didn't want to curl as I just run out of time as it is. Having to curl at least 3 games only impacts the time shortage more. But, because of the weather for the weekend, I did indeed end up curling. We had hoped for 32 rinks, but had to settle for 24 (ours included). This is still a respectable number of rinks though. I did hear that a town east of Regina also had a bonspiel scheduled for the same weekend as Hanley. They could only muster 7 rinks. It certainly is hard to run any kind of a bonspiel with that few rinks.

Back to our spiel though. At 5:00 p.m. we got the bar open and everyone was getting ready to curl. Our team had to hit the ice at 7:00 p.m. so I got a couple guys to man the bar and out I went. Of course we got our butts kicked, but we scared the other team for the first couple ends when we scored. After that we just were not strong enough to keep up. Go figure :)

Then it was back to helping out in the bar area, picking up more beer, etc. All in all I got home at 3:45 a.m. Saturday morning. My head hit the pillow at 4:00 a.m. and I tried to get some rest. At 5:45 a.m. my alarm went off and I was up and at em to do my papers. Of course it had snowed and blew overnight and the temperature was sitting near -55 C when I headed out. Slogging through the snow just about did me in. Within 3 blocks my legs felt like they had lead weights on them.

However, I did manage to get the papers delivered. Got home and took a few hours of rest and hit the hall again near 11:00 a.m. We curled once again and of course got severely beaten. That meant we had to curl again at 9:00 p.m. Saturday night. We were able to get in a great roast beef supper though. This was in between watching the bar and sitting at the door selling tickets. But the supper was delicious.

The team headed out for our 9 p.m. appointment and immediately felt we were in away over our heads. Chalk up another loss. That's three strikes (games) and your out. So it was back to the hall and watched/listened to RJ & the Boys. We got to close the place up earlier than Friday though and we were home by 3:30 a.m. The nice part was no papers on Sunday so I got to snooze a bit longer. Even so, we were back at the hall shortly after 11:00 a.m.

Throughout the whole weekend, the cold was just brutal. I really appreciated all the people that came out and curled, watched, or just visited. Without them, the bonspiel would not have been a success at all. Sandra and I made it home right around 9:00 p.m. A whole lot tired, but not overly so. As I said earlier, it had blew and snowed all weekend and of course I did not find the time to shovel or snow blow the driveway out. I was dreading trying to plow through the drifts when we got home. To my surprise, one of my great neighbours had snow-blowed the sidewalk and the driveway, so it was clean driving into the garage. You just have to love super neighbours like that!

Monday morning of course is the senior's curling, so I was up early doing the papers, then down to the rink and some more curling. At least I ended up on a winning rink for a change. Prior to heading off for curling I had already received 8 computer repair calls though. After lunch I returned my supplies to the various stores and fixed up two computers. Then I got to rest at home for a bit. Of course I had laundry to do, but heck that is just loading up the washer and then folding after drying. Nothing too tasking other than time.

Onto Tuesday and off we went to the city so Sam could get her INR checked. I also had a computer to look at in the city and a new HD TV to hookup for a fellow. Got that all done and home by supper time. Success both with the TV and with the computer.

Wednesday I got a couple more computers done and not much else. Thursday the same.

Then the weekend hit and I could hardly believe it that here I sit typing and it is already January 11th. Half the darn month is just about gone.

Seeing as today was a nice quiet day I got back to doing my normal laundry today, and decided to clean the oven. It had gotten a bit dirty from cooking over the holidays. Of course yesterday I finally got around to taking down the Christmas tree and putting the decorations away. As I was pulling down the tree, I must of turned the wrong way or something as I must of stretched something in my back. It hurts like all get out. Every time I rolled over last night in bed I woke up from the pain. It almost seems like a 'stitch', so I'm hoping I can work it out. And actually after reaching in and doing the oven it does feel a bit better. Hopefully that is a good sign.

Tomorrow, we have curling in the morning and then as expected we have to head back to the city for Sam's INR. With last weekend being so screwed up, her levels are out of wack, so we have to go in and get it checked again. Hopefully they are back in sync once again after a more normal week.

I normally don't make any New Year's resolutions as you just never seem to keep them up, however, I do want to try and hit the blog a bit more often this year. I have been trying to set up a new blog for the Legion (which seems to be working fine) and a web page for the town. The town still hasn't decided whether they want to go with what I set up or not. If not, then maybe we can get something else set up for them. I told them I was no pro, but I would do what I could for them. We'll see.

Even with the month tearing by, I do seem to be finding a bit more free time. Heck, I actually sat back and read a book for a couple hours the other day. That doesn't happen too often as I just don't seem to get the time. So maybe we are on a roll and I'll find a bit more free time to spend on the blog.

Hope so :)