Hot Off The Line

I just got off the phone with James and speaking of 'hot off the line'. He has been sitting at the Elgin plant since 11:00 a.m. this morning. He is there to pick up a couple of sweepers for the city of Calgary. Now the company just finished putting the equipment together this morning so they are brand new. About an hour ago the company just moved the sweepers into their paint booth to get them painted. Once painted, they then need to take them out and put on the decals and other sundry things to get them ready for hauling.

At the present time, James figures he has another 4-5 hour wait before they load him. The company loads up until 10:00 p.m. so he should be okay but it will be cutting it close.

Meanwhile poor James is getting tired of just sitting around doing nothing. He has watched a couple movies and ate a ton of junk food so far:-) After finishing up talking he was going to drop his trailer and go for a sight-seeing tour in Elgin, Illinois (just driving around).

Hopefully James will be able to make it back into Minnesota prior to shutting it down tonight (early tomorrow morning)!

He definitely didn't make a lot of miles today.

Speaking of Cleaning

In conjunction with my cleaning, I got a call from James this morning. He is presently in Illinois and heading to Elgin, Illinois to pick up a couple of street sweepers. The sweepers are destined for Calgary. I guess with Calgary's growth they are needing more equipment to keep up to the demand of more roadways, etc.

James isn't sure if he will be taking the load all of the way to Calgary or just back to Saskatoon. It appears his clutch in the truck is holding, however, it does sound like it needs a bit of fine tuning as there still a few problems. So he may just bring the load back to Saskatoon and let one of the other drivers continue to Calgary while he gets the clutch tweaked.

Pink Duties

Seeing as it is still to darn wet out in the garden, I figured I'd get the insides cleaned up a bit today. One nice thing with just the two of us is that it does take quite a while for the house to get too dirty/messy. Of course with all the dust blowing around here, if we left the front windows open, we'd need to dust everyday. However, every now and then I do need to vacuum the joint and wash the floors, dust, etc. Normally it is done in less than an hour so it is not a real chore.

We use the air conditioner and leave the front facing windows closed at all times. The rear windows are normally open until it gets too warm and the air conditioner starts up. Then at night we close down the air conditioner and reopen the rear windows. Mind you I do have the air conditioner shut down for the winter now and using the furnace. It is so nice that the heat never cuts in though. That is a good thing when the monthly energy bill arrives.

I had to cut the grass the other day as it was getting long. The lawn is still showing so nice and lush and green after all of the rain. It is normally about this time that I throw on the fall fertilizer, but with the grass still growing as it is I'll be waiting a couple weeks or so for the fertilizer. The garden area is where the yard does need some work.

I was out doing a bit of cleanup yesterday and the ground in the garden is still way too wet to tiller up. Actually I just like using the new tiller and digging/churning up the garden area. If we don't get any rain in the next while, I should be able to get the garden done next week (or the following week). What's the rush, it's not going anywhere!

Finally Raised the Colours


I've wanted to get my flag up ever since we moved to town. I just never got it done until yesterday.

Sam and I travelled to Peavey Mart on Wednesday and picked up the pole and flag. Once I got home, I took down my purple martin house and erected the flag pole in it's place.

I'll leave it set up this way until next spring when I'll have to decide where I want to put the flag.

Until then, it flutters nicely in the wind.

Is Firefox Safer Than IE?

Many people are of the opinion that the browser Firefox is safer than Microsoft's IE. I maintain it is just a matter of time before the hackers start in on Firefox or Opera. As more and more people start using these browsers, the hackers will start to zone in on them. One study by Symantec states that Firefox has more problems than IE in a recent test.

Even though Symantec was once a top notch company with the programs to match, there are many now that won't touch the software with a 10 foot pole. However, they still are a well respected company.

As most will tell you it doesn't matter which browser you use. You do have to keep them updated with the most recent security and other updates for the browser to be effective.

That reminds me. Just the other day I came across a note from Microsoft that stated they were ending support for XP Service Pack 1 on October 10th, 2006. A lot of folks didn't upgrade to XP SP2 as originally it did cause some problems. It just might be prudent for those people to rethink their upgrading plans in the very near future.

Microsoft Vista

As we are hearing more and more everyday about Microsoft's new operating system Vista, I was checking around to see costs etc. I came across Vista Pricing and Release Candidate 1. I am presently running IE 7 Release Candidate 1 on my one of my computers. This gives me a bit of a taste of what the new Vista will look like. Of course these are US prices, so our Canadian versions will cost more.

I continued to do some searching on Vista and one thing that I found sort of surprises me is that Vista will only be shipped on DVD as per Vista Coming Soon. Hummmm, that means that all who have just a CD player/burner in their computers at present will not be able to upgrade to Vista without a hardware upgrade. They will either need to install a burner or go the USB route and use an external DVD burner/player, or take their computers to someone to do it for them.

Of course I do have an external DVD machine that I can transfer from machine to machine with a quick software install. However, I do think there are going to be some sad people when they rush home with their new operating system in their hot little hands and quickly insert the DVD into their CD player and find out that nothing happens. They should have read the packaging at the store, but for the most part they don't read. It is the newest and bestest thing, so they just have to have it so zip zap with the credit card and they have a Vista on DVD with no DVD player :-(

To those that can, a CD replacement with a DVD player is quite easy. But then you have to open up the computer and most folks are a tad shy of doing that. Normally there are only 2 or 3 screws to open up the computer and then 2 or 4 screws holding the CD player in place. Along with that is a power connector (that can only be inserted one way), and the main cable for hooking up the CD player to the motherboard. You take out the CD and put the DVD in it's place, hook up the cables and power and away you go. There will be some software to install, but for the most part it is a relatively easy upgrade. Well at least for some folks it will be easy.

This not saying anything about the computers ability to have the RAM and horsepower to run the new operating system Vista though.

That is another bridge to get across.

Overnite Visitor

As I was having my last few zzzzz's this morning I heard my outside door open. Of course I was up in a flash as I know I had locked the door last night. A quick look outside and I saw James' van parked out front so I knew it was him. He was just getting ready to head back to Saskatoon and was out for his morning butt. I have no idea when he crept in last night (this morning).

I was impressed though that his van actually made it into the city and then back out here to Hanley. James said it did take about 1/8th tank of gas. Now I'm not sure how big the tank in the van is, so the 1/8th could be huge. But it did seem much better than his Bronco which was taking probably 1/4 to 1/2 a tank to the city and back. I asked how it was going with the starting etc and James said he figured he is getting it sorted out now. By talking to a few people he's learnt that this year of van had some quirks as to starting.

Shortly after our chat and a coffee, James headed out enroute back to Saskatoon to pick up his semi. Yesterday they had worked all day putting in a new clutch. It is supposed to ready for him this morning. He then was to take a load down to Bismark, North Dakota and then return to Saskatoon.

I think the boss only wanted a short trip to ensure the new clutch workes properly. If all things are fine, James really didn't know where he would be off to after today.

As James left to start up the van, I did hear him turn the key about 3-4 times before the beast fired to life. But it did start and for today that appears to be a good thing.

Survey Scams

With my new found interst in surveys, I have been looking around to increase my options as it pertains to surveys. Of course with other people hearing of my winnings, they have been also looking into surveys. I just wanted to let you know of some of the pitfalls of surveys.

I received an interesting email from one survey company recommending I read another email from a company called Survey Scout. Of course I went and read it and there were all kinds of 'good' report certifications on their site. They even went as far as to put out a personal endorsement from some lady who claims she was making thousands of dollars a month.

Of course with amounts like that, the interest jumped up quite a few notches. Now I read the reports over a couple times and looked at the Survey Scout site a few more times. On the site the company stated: "As I was a logging in at a special time and for a limited time only, they would be waiving their normal $68.00 (US) fees and I could sign on for a low price of $34. (US). This was only good for the next 150 people or so.

After searching around on this site I noticed that it now showed 'for only the next 148 people' and the link for the sign up was only good until Monday, Sep 25th. Of course being a cautious person that I am, I wanted to investigate some more, but let me tell you, I was tempted !.

I closed out the net connection and let it mull over in my mind for a couple hours. I then came back to the computer and took another look at it. I was almost to the point of signing up, but still felt a nag in the back of my mind. The old saying 'If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is not true' kept popping into my mind.

It is funny because on the Survey Scout website they state to find out more on the company and how reliable they are, just do a web search and find out. So I took them at their word and fired up Google and did a search. Believe me there were lots of hits, but funny thing, I didn't find any that pro for the company. A typical report on Survey Scout Scam can be found by clicking on the Survey Scout Scam words. This was not the only site that was like this. There were many, many links showing that Survey Scout and most other companies of the like were nothing but sophisticated scams.

I did continue to read a few of the other links and did come upon a few that seemed to me to be much more forthright and beneficial as it pertains to surveys. One link that seems to have quite a few links to surveys can be found at Katies Hugs. I just did a quick view of the site and it does seem to be sincere and looks promising, however, I have no real idea of how accurate it is. I do plan on doing some more looking and if I do find anything (good, bad, or otherwise), I'll let you know.

Now as I'm fairly computer literate and a lot sceptical, I found it interesting in how close I came to 'laying down my dollars' for a scan. I can only think of how many people actually are taken in by scams such as these. Sheesh !

An old motto sure does come to mind. Be Careful Out There

Land Conversions

As a city slicker you hear the rural folks talking about land and locations such as NorthWest 22 17 20 West of the 2nd and you just figured they were taking mumbo jumbo. Of course that is not the case. They are speaking of a particular spot of land and to them it is just like people in the cities stating 'at the corner of 1st Street and Main Street'. However, just like you need to know what city you are talking about, the rural folks need to get into the correct area. That is the first number or 'section' as it is called.

Sometimes they also use Northwest, Northeast, Southwest or Southeast and other times they just drop that part. This part is a mile square divided into quarters and is called the quadrant. So the top left would be related as northwest and the bottom right would be related as southeast. Each quarter is 1/4 of a mile square. That allows you to get fairly accurate when defining a location. But if you just want a general area, then the direction preface is usually dropped (ie 22 17 20 West of the 2nd).

Now in writing this out it would probably end up something like 22 17 20 W 2 or nw 22 17 20 w 2. As stated the first digit is your section and can be any number between 1 and 36. The section number is your township and can be any number between 1 and 126. The third number is the range and can be a number between 1 and 35. The last part of the equation is your meridian and can be a number between 1 and 6, however, for Saskatchewan this is a 2 or a 3.

As stated using this format of a location is second nature to rural folks but totally gibberish to most city slickers. I decided to see if I could find a method of locating these land locations using my internet connection. I did come up with an internet site that will take your land location (ie nw 22 17 20 w 2) and convert it to a latitude/longitude description. The site says it is a Java site for use in Alberta and northern BC, however, it does do a fairly decent job on Saskatchewan.

This works if you have a road map with you as the lats and longs are normally marked on a map. It would certainly get you into the ball park in the province but really not terrifically accurate. So in our case of using the above land location I would get a lat/long of 50.4529n and a longitude of 104.6682w.

So with a wee bit of further searching, I came up with another site that would take the latitude/longitude and convert it to a location. This program is
Google Maps. When it loads up, you only need to type in the lat/long location found with Co-ordinate Converter and 'tada' you have a view on the map of where the location is. To type in the location you must type in the latitude exactly in a form of 50.4529n and typing in the 'n for north' at the end of the latitude. You then put in a space and then type in the longitude in the form of 104.6682w, putting a 'w for west' at the end.

The Google Map then zones in on your location. The good folks at Google gave you 3 types of search. You can search using map, satellite or hybrid. The hybrid section is nice in that gives you road locations as well as a satellite view.

Over on the left side of the screen you have a ladder that you can zoom in or out on your location. As well if you hold your mouse over the screen it should change to a hand. If you hold your left mouse button down when it is a hand, you can then move the whole map screen around.

Just in case anyone tried the land location I used and then put in the lat/long into Google, you should come up with a site which is in between the RCMP Depot and the RCMP 'F' Division complex. If you move the map a little north you will be right over the top of the F Division building with the parking lot to the left.

One thing I did find using the Google Map site is that you can get great definition on the cities, however, as you move out into the country you are not able to zoom in quite as much.

Now all I have to do is have my trusty laptop with a wireless connection beside me when the farm folks start talking land locations. With a couple quick keystrokes and I'll be able to quickly zoom in to find the whereabouts they are talking about.

It's Official

This morning when I got up and took a look outside I was greeted by a nice white skiff of frost on the front grass. Also, as the cars drove by, you could see where the folks had to scrape off the 'white' stuff.

I checked my weather gauge and it shows that the temperature dipped to -0.9 C last night. Mind you the gauge is mounted about 5 feet off the ground on the side of the shed. I'm sure that on the ground it would be a bit cooler.

This is only the start of many days to come with frost on our horizons. At least we now have sunshine once again. It was getting depressing with all the cloud cover over the last week or so. At least we didn't get the snow and ice and whatnot that hit the southwest part of Saskatchewan the last few days.

I'm sure we'll get our turn, but it would be nice if it held off till around about the middle of December or so :-)

On The Road Again

James made it out of town once again. He drove his van down to Kenaston and met one of the other drivers who came over from Outlook. James took over his rig and the fellow headed back to Saskatoon. I had my doubts about the van making it to the city, but Brian (other driver) said he had no problems and it purred right along.

Meanwhile, James headed to Regina to do a pickup and then he is off to Moose Jaw to get another part of his load. From there he'll make the loop and head back to Saskatoon. He then needs to swap trailers and then on to Red Deer, Edmonton and ulimately Slave Lake, Alberta.

So it looks like he will be out on the road for a few days at the least. I'm certain he is glad he took all of clothes etc when he left. He wasn't going to as he originally was only going to Regina and back to Saskatoon. As I told him, your are always getting rerouted, so you should be prepared. He agreed and thru all his clothes and food into the van when he departed. Good thinking/planning.

I did manage to get a pic of James new (old) wheels...

Municipal Elections

When I was out at a customer's house the other day we got to talking about our town elections coming up at the end of the month. I enquired who actually were the people that made up our local municipal government in Hanley. The couple couldn't give me a complete list of the names, so I decided I'd take a peak on the net to see what I could find.

After a bit of searching around I did find a listing for a map with all of the towns, villages, etc in the province. Municipality Details is neat in that you can find out who runs the local RM or who is on council in the towns. You just have to click in the local RM on the map to open up a larger map of the area. You then just have to click anywhere in the RM to find out about the Rural Municipality or click on the town name to find out a listing for the individual towns. This also works for the cities throughout the province as well. It shows the populations as well as the assessment values along with contact information for the cities, towns, villages, RMs, etc.

As a side note, I also picked up from a few people that there are some folks in town that are not totally satisfied with our local council people. It will be interesting to see if there are actually any people that will be changing hats/moving on. Mind you some of the people on council have probaly been there for awhile and may be wanting to let some others take over the load.

From my old occupation I found that you are never going to 'satisfy all of the people all of the time'. Some folks just take a different slant on life and want it their way.

Pig in a Poke ?:

James was able to get rid of his Bronco the other day. He sold it to one of his co-workers who wanted to use it on his farm down in the Vibank area. This guy had the front bumper from another Bronco with a winch and a blade on it. He'll be able to mount this on James old truck and use it around his farm. Good thing as I don't think the old Bronco would be much for driving on the highway any longer. I'd be afraid the fenders would fall off :-) From what I gather this guy (Mike) will be picking it up in a week or so when he has run through Hanley towards Regina. He'll just drive it onto his trailer and truck it down south that way.

To replace his Bronco, he bought a 82 Chev Vandura van. This vehicle has a diesel engine, however, it is a 1982 model so it is old. I question the wisdom in his purchase, but it is his money and his wish, so I hope it all works out for him. The old adage of 'pig in a poke' does come to mind though!

It appears the new van is not working quite right. I think the first indication of this was when James went to pick up the truck a couple houses down from us. The darn thing wouldn't start. Mind you it has been sitting for about the last year and a half or so, so maybe the battery is on it's last legs. The fellow he bought the van from put it on a charger for awhile and eventually it ended up in front of our house. James took it out for a spin and it worked fine. James was then out last night and this morning he couldn't get it started. Finally he came home and got his old Bronco and took it over to boost the Chev.

Meanwhile, James boss called looking for him. We missed the phone, however, could see it was from Roger. When James got here, he gave him a call to let him know what is happening with his new wheels.

New Week

At least we had a better start this morning when I woke up and found we hadn't had any more rain overnite. According to my rain guage, we had 53 milimetres since noon on Sep 14th. Yesterday we had 7 mm of rain. However, today is still staying overcast so who knows whether we'll get any more of the wet stuff.

The rain definitely is nice to soak the ground. The farmers that are not finished harvest will not be liking it though as I'm sure the fields are one big mud pie about now. Around Hanley, it appears as if most of the harvest is complete. Of course there is lot's of work for the farmers to do to prepare for next season's crops. It would be nice to get a bit of sunshine and dry things up a tad so they can finish up.

Time will tell.

Washing Windows

As I stated in earlier post, it was a nasty old day out today. However, when I was out fixing up the computer a bird (must have been a good sized one) decided to head for our front room window. The wind was probably pushing the poor bird along at a fair clip. Now seeing I wasn't here, I figured at the last minute the bird saw the window and either swooped up and over or around the house. But the darn thing left behind one huge dropping right down the picture window. Of course Sam didn't like it there and of course the darn rain wasn't coming down in the right direction to wash it off. So I got out the vehicle squeegie and put on a long handle and washed down the window.

While I was doing the one window and had this warm soapy water, I figured I'd might as well give all the windows in the front a quick cleaning. It actually worked slick as all get out, but I'm sure all the folks going by must have thought I'm loonie as all get out.

I must admit, just the 10 or so minutes I was out in the rain playing in the water and my poor hands were just freezing. Of course, I'm way to macho to be wearing gloves in September :-)

Stupid is more like it! However, the front windows are a lot cleaner than they were. I could probably give them another go if and when we get some warmer weather, but for now it will suffice. Of course we don't have the large white trail right down the middle of the window either. It did look kinda gross even to me.

Quack Quack

Well the weatherman sure has gotten it right for the last few days. We've had more rain in the last day than we've had in the last month or so. According to my rain guage, since noon on Sep 14th we've had 3.6 cm of rain. Mind you at times the wind was blowing so hard, it would be hard for the rain to get into the little guage. Thankfully the wind has settled down a might, but it is still about 31 kmph and it is now midnight.

The day certainly was a 'stay inside' type day. So wouldn't you know it, one of my customers called and wanted me to look at her computer. Nothing urgent, just that she had an error on boot up stating she had no operating system. Since she received the error on Thursday nite, she hadn't used her computer figuring she fryed something. As I knew she likes to surf, I figured I'd better pay her a visit.

Thankfully it was no big problem and after a few fixes here and there and she was back up and running smooth as silk. I do have a bit more work to do for her as I am going to transfer info from her old hard drive onto some CDs for her. She has one of the smaller desktop systems and it doesn't give you much room to add in another harddrive and play around. Whereas my computer has lots of room and I'm very familiar with it. I don't expect it to be anything to hectic to do for her. As she is not in a big rush for the info, I'll get it back to her early next week.

Doc's Report

Sam and I headed to the city on Tuesday for my appointment with my doctor so he could go over my recent bone scan. One nice thing about this doctor is that if your appointment is set at 10:30 a.m., you get in to see him at 10:30 a.m. (or even a few minutes early). Darn punctual.

The doctor had received the report from the RUH Nuclear Medicine and they say they definitely do see that where my pelvis area has been broken in the past. Further they state that possibly one of my lower ribs has also been broken in the past. This was also news to me as to my knowledge I've never had any bones broken.

The Nuclear Medicine folks want me to return for another test in 3-4 months time to see how I'm healing. Meanwhile my doctor wants to send me to an orthopedic surgeon to see what he has to think about the whole thing. He wants to find out if it is my bones that are brittle/weak or if it is another type of problem (ie cancer or somesuch).

About this time, I was starting to get a bit apprehensive though. After asking the doctor what the orthopedic surgeon would be looking at, he advised it could go a few different directions. The easiest would be for the surgeon to view the xrays & bone scan and pronouce that I was fine. Or he may have to go in for a bone biopsy to see what my bones are made from and to see if maybe there is something lacking. The ultimate would be for the surgeon to open me up and search around, etc. This didn't sound too great to me for sure. However, my doctor continued on that it would probably put me out of action for some time (ie 6-7 months) and I'd likely need therapy, etc. Of course there would be no driving.

Hummm, now I really didn't like this as of course we live out in the sticks and driving is the only method to get our prescriptions, appointments, etc. Let alone for me to get to therapy sessions 3-4 times a week for a couple weeks. So I queried the doctor and he felt that it would probably be better for us to be in the city nearer to facilities. Great, that would mean selling our house and moving out of Hanley and into Saskatoon (or Regina).

However, that is a 'worst case' scenario and I'm not going to dwell on it too much at this point in time. I'm sure it will take a bit of time to get all my appointments etc setup before we transverse to the 'ultimate'. If it needs to happen, then we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Even though I say that, one of the first things I did when I got home, was to start looking at the newspapers for condos and other accomodation in the city. I figure if we sell our house in Hanley for near to what we bought it for we will be able to pick up a condo in the city for about the same price. Mind you we'll definitely be getting out of the 'storage business' we are now in.

Another prospect is Jubilee Residense in Saskatoon. They have various options available for people that are 55+ and officially retired. We would qualify here as well, but then we'd loose any equity we'd built up in the house, etc. That would be an option, just not my first choice. But as I said, we'll worry about that a bit down the road.

Continuing on with my doctor, he decided he wanted more xrays done and gave me a slip to take to the imaging place on 8th Street. They took me right in and started xraying away. I'm sure I must glow in the dark nowadays from all these xrays and radiation they have been putting in me of late. The technician was pointing in on my hip/pelvis area however, she also wanted my supposedly broken rib area.

After about 15 minutes of xraying in every pose I was told to go out and sit down but now to put my clothes back on. As I was sitting there I heard two of the ladies going over my xrays when one remarked that it looked like I had an extra rib or something. I groaned to myself and thought to myself "Don't go there, if you find something like that they'll want to remove it to study or something stupid". Anyway, after a few minutes I went back in and got a few more xrays and then was sent on my merry (yah rite!) way.

The part that gets me is that for the most part my hip/leg have not been hurting me too much of late and I've been able to get out and walk/jog a bit. With all the stretching, yanking, and organizing me for pictures the last while the hip/leg have been extremely sore.

I normally like to take a bit of a walk around town every day or so. Of late I just have not been able to do that though as the pain was bit much. After my latest episode with the xrays the hip has hurt quite a bit, however, I was bound that I was going to get some exercise. So I have been trying to at least take a short walkabout every second day. In essense I've just been taking it easy.

So far it does seem to be helping. The hip/leg is still a bit sore, but it does appear to be getting better than it was. Now if I can just resist the temptation to go for a normal longer type walk and be content with what I have for now I should be fine.

After thinking long and hard of how I could have broken my pelvis/rib I really can't remember when I may have done this. I do know that last year when I was curling my hip was extremely sore for about a week. I didn't fall or anything and actually it hurt more when I was sweeping. I queried my doctor about this and he felt that it just may have been the what brought the problem to the forefront. As to whether I'll be able to curl this winter, the doctor was non-committal. He wanted to see how he made with getting the orthopedic surgeon involved, etc.

I almost feel I'm back in the military. "Hurray up and wait". But then I should be thankful for at least getting quick attention from the medical profession.

James Update:

I just had a call from James and I guess he is running behind as he had to wait for his load in Manitoba. He did make his trip to Ear Falls, Ont with no problems. Apparently the place he was loading was waiting for a part or something, so he didn't get to head south as soon as he wanted/hoped. On his call, he had just crossed into North Dakota and is enroute to Fargo where he has to pick up another part of his load.

The load that he has on now (skidder) is about 14 feet wide so he can only travel during daylight hours. He is hoping that he can make it to Saux Center, Minnesota tonite as they have a nice truck stop there and a good store. He would like to see what they have on sale now that the 'tourist' season is overwith.

All told James is not making too many miles so far this month. If I remember correctly he said he had only gone 3900 kilometers (now not sure if this was miles or kilometers) since the 1st of the month. It is darn hard to make any good money when you are travelling that few miles.

However, after he does his drop/pickup in Minnesota, he is then supposedly heading towards Edmonton. That would give him some good mileage. But of course time will tell if he gets rerouted somewhere else...

Lest We Forget

We in Canada usually only remember our fallen heros on November 11th, however, for members of the RCMP, this past Sunday was our 'Day of Remembering'.

I was unable to make it to Regina for this year's annual ceremony, however, it was never far from my thoughts throughout the day. By just watching the news even today I still get a little choked up.

Of course this year the day is even more special in my heart with the recent loss of Cst Marc Bourdage and Cst Robin Cameron. I knew them both prior to my retirement, however, I probably knew Cst Cameron more so as her whole career was in Saskatchewan whereas Cst Bourdage had only been in the Division for about 1 1/2 years prior to my retirement.

As this tragic occurence happened in Mildred, Saskatchewan, it is even more troubling for myself being that this was part of the old North Battleford Sub/Division area of responsibility. This was an area that I 'looked after' for 21 years and will always remain special to me.

Busy Day:

I did manage to get some work done today around the house. First thing this morning I had to head out and help the new fellow from BC. However, the weather is so nice that I figured I'd better get my wood cut up for the chiminea. I had brought a few logs home from the lake that I had cut down on my property just for this purpose. We should have lots enough for any outside fires that we may have until next summer.

We're Being Invaded

It is hard to believe, however, folks are moving back to Saskatchewan and even to small town Hanley. I acquired a new computer customer this morning who needed help setting up his email. This gent just moved in from Penticton, BC. Now the fellow is not an old geezer or anything so it is nice to see some younger folks (I would say mid 40's). I asked him 'why he moved to Saskatchewan' and he said he just needed a change. He did some searching on the internet and had a few houses to look at when he came to the province to look at houses. The one he picked out in Hanley suited his fancy and the rest is history. He now has a bit of fixing up to do, but the house is liveable as it is.

I also heard that another person just bought a place just outside Hanley. These new owners are coming from the Yukon. Also, when we were up at the lake, just about every vehicle you saw had Alberta plates on it. I guess that tells me that the 'province of plenty' doesn't have a lot of affordable camping/cottages available.

The folks that have been working out in high priced Alberta want to get a good deal for their bucks, so they are looking in our province for their good deals. From what I read, the prices are definitely a lot better in Saskatchewan for land compared to Alberta.

Even the folks from overseas are getting into the act. So many farms throughout the province are being bought up by folks from Britain, Sweden, Germany, Iceland, etc. These folks are selling little itty bitty farms in their home countries and coming to Saskatchewan and buying huge farms (in comparison). But I guess this is no different than it was back in the late 1800's or early 1900's. The people that were settling our province originally came from England, Germany or Europe in general. One nice thing nowadays is that they don't have to 'break the land'.

Another new person in our town has moved in across the street from us as well. At least it appears that someone has moved in. There has been quite a bit of traffic around the house and I did see some lights on the other evening. However, so far I haven't had a chance to meet anyone from the house. It would be darn nice to get someone into the house though. We all know that if a house sits empty too long, they do start to deteroiate.

Speaking of that, I saw that a new "For Sale" sign on a house just down the street from us went up the other day. I went to MLS to take a peak and I just couldn't help sending Sheila a link. She felt the price definitely was in her price range, however, the work needed was a bit over her limit... From what I hear, the fellow that was living in the house hadn't used the 2nd floor for quite awhile. The outside of the house tends to prove that house definitely needs some work. For someone that is inclined it may be a heck of a deal.

We better watch out or we'll have a population explosion in Hanley !

Just after I finished typing the above entry I noticed a young family (youg guy and gal & 2 small kids) waiting to go for a walk-a-bout in the house for sale. Why not? Where can you buy a liveable house for under $15,000. nowadays. Of course we are only 30 minutes from the city, so it is definitely an easy commute.

Giving the Force a Bad Name:

I'm not sure where this fellow was during his training, but from everything I've ever heard/saw, this would definitely be a no no! From reading the article the Constable was a little uncertain of these people, but I'm sure he could have found a much better way to get their attention then using a taser.

Alberta in brief

Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:51 AM PDT
EDMONTON (CP) - An Alberta police officer on trial for assault says he believed firing his Taser at two sleeping men was a safe way to wake them up. Const.

James Destination

In case you ever wondered where Ear Falls, Ontario was, I've included a map. James couldn't find it on his 'trucker's map', but then it a USA version. That probably says it all :-)

It is approximately 105 kms North of Vermilion Bay which is east of Kenora, Ontario along Hwy 17 (Trans Canada Highway).

His route is not quite as simple as drive from Hanley to Ear Falls. He actualy has to travel northeast of Winnipeg and drop off part of his load and then continue on to Ontario. From there he believes he'll be heading down to Fargo, North Dakota for his next load assignment. But of course we know that his trips can be changed at the last minute depending on where his boss can find a load.

James Latest Wheels

James was able to make it to Hanley for the weekend and then he is heading east to Ear Falls, Ontario sometime after lunch today. At least for this trip he'll get to see a bit of Canada rather than just always travelling through the States. The pic is his latest truck and as far as he knows he will be keeping it for awhile. This one has lots of power and 'get up and go' so it comes in handy on those long straight aways or climbing some of the hills he has had to travel through.

Haircut Day

Both Sam and I were getting a little woolly and decided it was time to get sheared a bit. As I was sitting in the chair at Linda's Beauty Centre I was thinking of all the times I have had my hair cut over the years. As I normally keep my hair short I usually hit the barber shop quite often. When I was involved with the Air Cadets in North Battleford I probably got my hair cut/trimmed every 14-16 days. Of course at that time I had hair to get cut. I'm not sure if the hair falls out faster than it grows or what, but I don't need to get a trim quite as often.

However, seeing as I'm retired, I'm not quite as picky about the haircut nowadays. If it gets a little long in the back so be it. I'll get it trimmed soon enough. Whereas when I was working, I always kept my hair trimmed short. This must have been a throw back to my military days as most people in my office didn't keep their hair that short. But then thinking about it, we had an office of 50 people and if I remember correctly there were only 8 males. Judging females haircuts and males are totally different balls of wax. For the most part the females did not have extremely short hair, however, most were kept in a nice manageable style. I guess for all of us, that made it so much easier to jump out of bed and head to work when you slept in or the alarm clock didn't go off as it should or you got called in on short notice for overtime. But thinking about it, even the uniformed officers don't keep their hair that short nowadays. Of course some do, but a lot don't.

Sandra and I both got our locks trimmed today. It took us about 35-40 minutes, but Linda also had a couple other customers that she was working on at the time. She had to wait while one's hair dryed a bit before she could finish her up. Normally it takes hardly any time at all and your done. Mind you that is for me and you have to realize there is not much there to cut :-) This morning James also hit Linda's to trim him up. His appointment was at 9:30 a.m. Well he was back walking through the door at 9:42 a.m. and he walked there and back. It just doesn't take too long when you know what you are doing I guess.

Oh and by the way, just for the folks in the city. The cost for both Sandra and I to get our haircut was a total of $20.00. That also includes the tip I always give Linda :-)

You gotta love small town living!

Medical Services in Sask

We all hear how slow the medical services take in our fair province. There certainly have been some horror stories in the news media in the last couple months. So far I have been fortunate in that I have received excellent service both from my doctor and from the specialists that I have had to visit.

My latest episode started in June 2006 when I went for my annual medical. Everything was fine, however, I have been bothered with a sore foot, leg and hip off and on throughout the previous year. So my doctor sent me for xrays. I had so many xrays taken I was worried about the radiation. They xrayed my foot, ankle, hip, chest and whatever else they could find. I also had to get an ultrasound on my neck area to ensure the cartoid artery was as it should be. On August 11th I got back to my doctor for the results of the tests.

Everything was fine according to my doctor. He says that possibly why I had some hip pain according to the xray was the break in pelvis may be causing some arthritis. I told him that was nice, but to my knowledge I had never ever broken my pelvis or any other bone in my body. Now as I'm getting a little older, I figured maybe I had broken something when I was young. I asked my mother and to her knowledge I most definitely had never broken my pelvis. So after telling the doctor this he figured I should get this investigated. He lined up an appointment for me to get a bone scan done at the nuclear medicine department at the RUH.

On August 31st I had to attended to the RUH at 10:45 a.m. to get myself admitted to the hospital for the test which was scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Everything went smooth as clockwork. At 11:15 a.m. right on the dot they called me in and had me lay down on a bench. The fellow doing the work told me that he first had to take a pre-picture of my hip/pelvis area to give them a starting picture. Then he had to inject me with some radiation isotopes. Bing, bang, bong and we were done. The hardest part was emptying my pockets of change, keys, etc. The fellow than advised me that I was free to go for the next 2 hours and to be back sharp at 1:30 p.m. Oh yah he says, you have to drink 4 litres of water in the 2 hours. Pardon me, but I don't drink that much water in a week. Well I could just drink any liquid as long as it added up to 4 litres. He said even beer would be fine, but with that much, just to ensure I was back on the appointed time. Now as I'm fairly quick in math I quickly did the figuring and thought that would be about 11+ bottles of beer in 2 hours. I'm not sure if I could have found my way back even if I could walk after that many beer.

I had planned to do a bit of shopping at Canadian Tire to get my articles for the lake closeup (ie mouse bait, antifreeze, etc). So I departed the hospital and headed to Preston Crossing Canadian Tire. When I drove into the lot I spied a Shopper's Drug mart, so I went in with the object of buying some bottled water. Seeing as I had to drink the water right away, I wanted cold water so I gathered up 8 individual bottles of the cold Life Brand water and took it to the till. The gal at the till said they sold this water in packs of 6 and it was cheaper. Of course these packs were not cold. I explained that I needed to drink the water right away so wanted them cold. Of course she looked at me strangely, but took my money. I did get a deal though as if you bought more than 4 bottles, it was a better price.

I headed out to the truck and sat for a few seconds trying to figure out how to go about the task of drinking all this water. I chugged down one bottle and started on the second as I drove over towards Canadian Tire. By the time I got to Canadian Tire I had downed the second bottle and opened up the third and chugged it down. Not too bad I thought so I went in and did my shopping. After a few minutes of shopping old mother nature took over and I had to start looking for the washroom. Nothing too serious yet though so I finished up my shopping and headed out to the truck and back to the RUH.

I did drink another bottle on my way back to parking at the RUH and then headed in to the hospital to use the facilities. I was half done my drinking but I only had 45 minutes left to go prior to my appointment time. Out I went to the truck and drank down a couple more bottles. I figured I was doing fine so I went for a little walk about and used the facilities again. Then I finished up the remaining 2 bottles and headed inside once again. I was actually ahead of schedule with all my water drinking, of course I gurgled when I walked!

I still had a few minutes to go so I casually strolled around the bottom floor of the RUH with one more stop at the washroom. As I knew exactly where I was going, I didn't have to rush to get back to the nuclear medicine's shop. When it was about time, I started heading towards the unit. However, just for good measure I made one more stop in the washroom.

I ended up at the nuclear medicine right at 1:30 pm. A different fellow took me right in and had me lay on a table. About the only comparison I can think of for this table is a 2 X 10 piece of lumber. It was narrow and hard as cement. However, they were nice enough to have a little piece of a thing that they called a pillow for my head. I got horizontal on the 2 X 10 and the doctor said to get comfy as I was going to be here for a while. He then got a nice fluffy pillow and put it under my knees. I was advised this was for support. I guess heads/necks don't count with this unit. But then he had me spread my ankles apart and point my toes in until they touched each other. Believe me this was not comfortable. After only a few seconds I could feel my hip, leg, ankles and foot starting to hurt. I didn't figure I could hold this position too long. However, the good doc had a solution. He taped my feet together at the toes. It was something like masking tape and he put about 10 good swirls around the toes to ensure they didn't come apart. The pain started!

The doctor then asked if I was comfortable. Yah rite! But what could I do. I then looked up and this huge piece of machinery was coming down towards my face. It was about 3 feet square and about a 1 1/2 foot high. This was the camera. There was one above me and one below me. The doctor brought it down until it just about touched my nose and then lifted it off about a centimeter. Of course I was still wearing my glasses so when I looked straight up all I could see was this big hunk of white. In an instant I went cross eyed. Did I ever tell you that I'm a bit claustrophic? A couple deep breaths and I settled myself down.

The doctor told me that this was going to take a picture of every bone in my body. It starts at the head and ends up at the toes. Of course I was not to move one little bit or the pictures would not be correct. The doctor told me not to even flex my fingers. Just lay flat, quiet and still. Oh yah, he said I could breath every now and then if I wanted. He punched a few buttons and the thing above me started to whir away. The doctor said eventually it would move along but for the first while it wouldn't appear to be moving. I wondered how I would know as every time I looked up I got my eyes all cross eyed and was unable to get any bearings.

However, eventually the contraption did start to move down the length of me. Then when it got to my foot area it seemed to stall again. All told, it took about 50 minutes for the camera to do it's thing. The good doctor raised up the camera and cut my poor feet loose but he told me to continue to stay on the bench. He had to check with another doctor to see how the pictures turned out.

He came back in a short while and said that he needed to get some more pictures. These ones were going to be 3D types. Oh guess what, I'm floating with all the damn water I drank and had not been able to get rid of before the test started. I asked the doctor if I could relieve myself and he was kind enough to allow that. It was either that or they better get some new sheets for the piece of board as the ones I was on were going to be soaked. When I tried to climb off my 2 X 10, I could hardly stand up. My whole right side was so sore and now my back was sore from being tense for the last 50-55 minutes. When I got off the bench I could hardly stand up let alone walk.

After a few minutes I got my legs under me and as quickly as I could I headed out and filled the urinal to almost overflowing with all that good Life Brand water and then headed back to the torture chamber. Once again I had lay down on the plank. Thankfully this time my feet were not going to be taped up. Nope no siree. This time my arms were to be raised over my head and interlocked and left there not to be moved for the whole test. Once again this is such a nice comfortable position to be in! The cameras were placed right next to my hips, top and bottom and side to side. The doc punched in the buttons and away the camers went. About every 20-30 seconds the cameras in unision would move about a centimeter rotating around my pelvis area. After a few minutes the doc decided he would put on some music so I could listen to something other then my teeth gritting from holding my arms above my head. I had no idea who the artist was but it wasn't too bad music. Thankfully this test only took about 30-35 minutes and then I could get down off of my perch.

The good doctor took a quick peak at all he had done on the computer and said that I was done and he and another fellow would look at the pictures and see if they could figure out what the problem was. I was free to go. You didn't have to tell me twice, I limped out of that room as fast as my poor hip/leg/ankle would allow. First stop was of course the washroom again. I finally made it out to the truck and headed for home. For the rest of the evening it seemed like I was always going to the washroom though.

Now just over a week later my leg is still hurting. Of course it hasn't been too bad for about the last 6 months, but after my ordeal on the plank it hurts no matter what I do.

So yesterday I got a call from my doctor's office and they want me to come in to go over my tests. I set up an appointment for Tuesday morning to see the doc. Hopefully he will be able to let me know what may be causing some of my discomfort.

But getting back to the orginal statement of how the medical profession is treating me, I feel that in actual fact I have had some very good service. My doctor got right on my complaints, got me xrayed, into nuclear medicine and results back for me in just over 2 months. Some folks I've talked to have had to wait 6-7 months just to get into the nuclear medicine for the bone scan.

So I'm happy so far :-)

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On this Day in History -- September 08

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Famous people born on this day:


--> 1841, Anton Dvorak, composer.

--> 1925, Peter Sellers, (not now, Kato.)

--> 1981, Jonathan Weiss, - aka Jonathan Taylor Thomas, actor, "Home Improvement.


Events on this day in history:


--> 1565, First permanent settlement in US founded at St Augustine, Florida.

--> 1858, Lincoln makes a speech about when you can fool people.

--> 1920, First US Air Mail service begins.

--> 1921, The first Miss America Pagent takes place.

--> 1924, Alexandra Kollontai of Russia becomes first woman ambassador.


And don't forget...


--> International Literacy Day.

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On this Day in History -- September 07
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Famous people born on this day:

--> 1533, Queen Elizabeth I.
--> 1860, Grandma Moses.
--> 1914, James Van Allen, discovered Van Allen radiation belts.

Events on this day in history:

--> 1880, George Ligowsky of Cincinnati is granted a patent for his device
to throw clay pigeons for trapshooters.
--> 1971, The last episode of The Beverly Hillbillies airs, (welldoggie).

And don't forget...

--> Independence Day, celebrated in Brazil.

New Toy For Dale :-)

Hotspex came through with my cheque on Tuesday which was timely as we were heading to the city on Wednesday for our monthly prescription run. As it was like found money I figured we could at least use some of it for fun. So Sam and I went shopping and we bought ourselves a new digitial camera.

http://www.nikon.ca/products/coolpixp4/

My old HP was getting a bit long in the tooth as I've had it for a fair number of years so a new model with all the latest bells and whistles is sure nice to play with. As the camera uses a Li-ion rechargeable battery I purchased a second battery. The 8.1 effective megapixels of image resolution would certainly fill up my existing 64 meg memory card so I also purchased a new 1 gig card. On normal settings the new card holds 465 pictures. At 'extra fine' setting the card holds about 290 pics. I figure that is a lot more than I have to worry about before I transfer the pics to my harddrive, DVD, CD, etc. To keep everything safe I also purchased a new case for the camera, extra battery, memory card etc. So all told with taxes and everything it was just over $500.00.

Easy come, easy go.

I've only had a few hours to play with the camera and so far I'm impressed. Sandra wasn't quite as impressed as I kept using her as the subject to photograph. She figured there had to be a tree outside or something else that needed to photographed a lot more than she did. She did get quite vocal about the whole thing so I eventually got the message and pointed the camera at other targets.

I do have two weeks to play with the camera to see if it is what I really want. If the camera doesn't please me, I can then return it and get a refund or exchange it for another camera. But as said, so far I'm happy. Lot's of pics to take in the next couple weeks to make sure though.

Gosh I like delete keys on digital cameras. I just shudder to think if I was using real film. Ugh :-(

Interesting AntiVirus Information:

http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/09/04/and-the-best-antivirus-is/

As I use NOD32 as my antivirus on my 3 computers at home I was very interested in the above link. Nope, NOD32 wasn't the best antivirus, but it certainly was sitting ahead of some of the biggie programs (ie McAfee and Norton's). It was also shown as better than most of the free versions out there. But then you would expect that something that is free is not quite as good as something someone pays for. When I purchased the NOD32 I was able to get my 3 computers covered for a price of approximately half what Norton's would cost for 1 computer. I have found NOD32 to be effective and sure doesn't appear to be the memory hog that I found Symantec Norton's to be.

The NOD32 did float to the top in the heuristic testing. Heuristic testing is extremely important because that is what gives an Antivirus the ability to catch a virus even it is not in the database. That certainly pleased me.

One thing that I found quite interesting was AOL's free entry in the list (ie Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.299). It was tied for the top spot. The fact that this program is supplied by AOL free to anyone is good news for computer people. You do not have to be running AOL systems to download and use the software. The program is put together by Kaspersky antivirus (which is sitting at the top of the heap of the antivirus programs). So it is no wonder the AOL version is getting high marks.

I did go to the link in the above story for the AOL version and found it was very easy to acquire the program.

http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp

You do need to supply a valid email address and that is about it. The email address is used by AOL to send you the activation code for the software. So essentially you type in your email address, retrieve the automatic reply and then download/install the software inserting the activation code when prompted.

I have not installed the program on any of my programs as I said I use the NOD32 on all 3 computers. However, when the susbscription runs out, I certainly may be tempted to try out the AOL software on at least 1 computer. Of course I'll probably watch the net for any information on how the software is doing after a few months of use in the wild. Hopefully AOL (Kaspersky) will keep it updated and free for the masses.

On The Road Again:

James headed out yesterday morning. He had to stop in the city and service his rig. He called about 9:00 pm last night and he was just going through Radisson on his way to Edmonton. He has to be in Edmonton by 11:00 a.m. Wednesday so he was taking it easy. His plans was to get by Lloydminster and then park for the nite.

After Edmonton the plan was for him to go down Calgary way and then back to Saskatoon. But as we have found out, his plans change from minute to minute.

We'll see.

Weekends Over

The long weekend is over and we are back in Hanley once again. This has got to go down as one of the finest Labour Day weekends that I can remember in years. However, I guess going back to when I was working, it was more than likely that I worked most of the weekends and was locked up in an air conditioned room. However, I did get the odd weekend off.

We hit the lake on Saturday afternoon after picking up Craig on the way through Saskatoon. I had done up some ribs on Friday and had them marinating in the sauce overnite. I did change the method of pre-cooking them this time. Instead of boiling them to get the fats out I put in tinfoil and baked the ribs in the oven for 90 minutes. It did a wonderful job and is sure a lot easier than boiling. One other change was in the marinate sauce. I doubled the receipe and of course it requires 1/2 cup of rum. James had returned from his recent trip south with a bottle of Lamb's 151 Rum so I put about an ounce of this in the sauce. As the ribs marinated from about 4:00 pm Friday until 6:00 pm Saturday, they definitely had the flavour of the sauce.

On our way through Prince Albert I stopped at the Safeway to pick up some corn for our supper. Of course seeing as Saskatchewan is so small, I ran into one of the OCC operators from Regina who was up at Murray Lake for a wedding. Who would think that at that particular point in time we'd both be at a Safeway in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in the produce department. Of course we had a chit chat and we got further behind our schedule, however, it was a nice visit.

We finally made it to the lake at 5:00 pm and I gave Craig the rundown on what to do to get it up and running again with Sam supervising. I immediately put the corn on the cob in some water to soak them good for our bbq that evening. At about 6:30 pm we started the cue up and got the corn going. As they were soaked in water we just cooked them right in their husks. The ribs got their turn on the cue for 40 minutes or so and we were eating. The nicest part was that it was so gorgeous out, we sat at the picnic table outside and ate. That sure doesn't happen too often either because of the mosquitoes or the wind or the temperature.

The ribs were marvelous as was the corn and we ate every last morsel.

The weather continued to be great for the whole weekend. However, did the temps ever drop at night. Along about 4:30 a.m. it was time to find some extra covers as it was downright cold. The next day though the temp was back up to about 28 or so.

On Sunday mom and Fred drove up to the lake and we had a great visit out doors. I bbq's some steaks, peppers and small potatoes and the trimmings. There were a fair number of the no-see-um types flies around so we ate indoors. We were a little late eating, but nothing to drastic. Plenty of time for Fred to get back to the city and miss all the deer that mom likes to spot :-)

We enjoyed the weekend and then got everything stowed away for the winter, emptied the water and blew out the lines and closed the cabin up until next year. As we were locking it up I thought with these temperatures it is just such a shame to be closing it up. However, with the temperatures dropping at night and who knows when we'll make it back up, it was probably the smartest move on my part. Many years I've had to try and get it winterized and it was pouring rain or other types of inclimate weather. Still it is shame with the way our September is going.

Craig and I finally got it all done and we departed the lake at 1:00 p.m. on Monday. Craig wanted to be in the city a little earlier as he wanted to move some of Steph's effects into her new apartment. But at least he got a little rest on the way home. There was still lots of time left for him to get a greater percentage of the articles moved.

Sam and I continued on home and arrived about 4:00 p.m. James was home at the moment so he gave me a hand to unload the trailer and get all the other stuff put away.

All in all, it was just a great Labour Day weekend.