Leg Cramps

For many years off and on I've had the problem of 'leg cramps' in the middle of the night. If a cool breeze happened to touch my leg while I was sleeping I would then get a 'charlie horse' in the worst way. To get rid of this 'charlie horse' I would need to stand on my tip toe and bounce a bit. It worked a way better if it is was a nice cool tile floor rather than rug, but then trying to get to the tile floor was a killer.

I talked to my doctor about this and he said drink lots of water, etc. So I tried gallons of water throughout the day. The only thing this did was that I had to pee all night long, but I still got the odd 'charlie horse'. So the doc next said try calcium pills.

Didn't work!

Then I spoke to someone and they advised that they had heard of people having this problem and they took cod liver oil pills. Now I haven't taken cod liver oil since I was about 8 years old or younger. I remembered it was in liquid form and tasted like shit or what I supposed shit tasted like not having ever purposefully eaten it. So I really wasn't all that thrilled about taking the cod liver oil. But on one trip to Wal Mart I spoke to the gal in the Pharmacy and she advised me there are now pills for cod liver oil. Hesitantly I decided to try them.

After a couple weeks I had no further leg cramps, but the odd twitch every now and then. We were improving for sure. The only problem I did find was at times when you burped you got this fishy taste in your mouth from the cod liver oil. Still better than cramps for sure.

Then I was browsing around and came upon the following write up from Snopes Oldwives Tale - Leg Cramps. I took a read on it and sort of laughed it off. Then I re-read it again and thought what the hell, lets give it a whirl.

The write up said that it didn't really matter which soap you used but I had a bar of dove soap in the cupboard so that is what I used. I took the bar out of the box and placed it between the sheets. Of course I spoke to the good wife to inform her what the lump in the bed was going to be. After all I didn't want her to find this bar of soap in the bed and wonder how in hell did that get there or figure I'd gone off the deep end. Even so, she did look at me a little peculiarly. I also ended taking the bar of soap with us to the lake where I've always had more problems with the charlie horses. This is probably because it gets cooler there at night then here at home.

Needless to say it has been a month and half and believe it or not I've not had one leg cramp since. Now I'm not sure whether it was the cod liver oil or the bar of soap in my bed or a combination of the two. All I know is that I haven't had to try and scramble out of bed in the middle of the night and stand on my tippy toes to alleviate the pain in almost 45 days.

Of course this may not work for everyone, but so far it has worked for me. Hopefully it will continue to work as those charlie horses are just not fun at all . . .

Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Well not quite, but I must admit a new innovation in our library system has made me quite a bit happier. The library system has brought in Library 2 Go which allows you to sign out ebooks from the library to your 'Supported Ebook Device'. This can be to a computer or to a mobile device such as iPad, Libre, Nook, Kobo, Sony or to many smartphones such as Android, BlackBerry, iPhone or a windows phone 7.

I use a BlackBerry Torch which is a touch screen but I have also set it up onto a BlackBerry Pearl Flip. The beauty of this is that you can download an ebook from the library onto your smartphone and read it whenever you want. Even if you are in an area where there is no mobile coverage you can still access your ebook as it is stored on your phone.

When you download the ebook you have it stored on your device for 14 days. At the end of 14 days the ebook is automatically returned to the library system. Of course if you finish the ebook prior to the 14 days you can 'delete and return the book' earlier. If you have not finished the book prior to your 14 days, then you may be out of luck, however, I have had success in returning the ebook and then resigning it out right away for another 14 days. This works as long as no one has put a 'hold' on the book you are viewing as you need to have the book available for downloading again.

Prior to downloading an ebook you do need a few things. One is you need Adobe Digital Edition Account. It is a free and only takes a minute or so to set up your account. You need the account to authorize your ebooks to be downloaded to your device. If you are using a smartphone like BlackBerry then you need to download a free app called 'OverDrive Media Console'. Once you have the OverDrive Console you open it up on your smartphone and then 'Add in a Library'. Of course you will need an actual library card number to access your individual library. You can search through and find your local library and then be able to search through the system once you have signed in with your access.

I find it is a bit easier to search for new books by using a computer as the screen is a little easier to use as it is larger than the smartphones and it is easier to use a full keyboard. Once I find a ebook I want to download, I then open up OverDrive on my smartphone and do a search through the smartphone and continue on downloading it that way. The downloads are fast as it normally only takes less than a minute using the 3G network. Using 1X is a little slower but not by much.

Once the ebook is downloaded you can start reading. Individual smartphones utilize different methods of changing pages. On my Torch I can just use my finger to touch the screen and go forward or backwards. On the Pearl Flip you can use the 'space' key to go forward or the 'p' key to go backwards. You can also use the trackball for this. Either way is fairly convenient.

In my younger days I always used to carry around a pocket novel in my back pocket so when I had a few minutes to spare I could haul out the book and read a bit. Now a days pocket books have gotten so large they just don't fit in a pocket any longer. I normally have my cell phone with me at all times I'm away from home so it is very convenient say when in a doctor's office waiting room to pull out the cell and in seconds be reading my ebook.

I've found the font on the smartphone are quite readable as well and you can actually increase the size of the font to your liking. Even reading in the dark is no problem as the smartphone has a backlight to highlight the screen. The text is only black and white, but it is sufficient and quite easy to read.

As stated, almost 'Best Thing Since Sliced Bread' but not quite . . .

Nostalgic Trip Along Hwy 16

On Saturday we had the chore of driving along Hwy 16 to North Battleford for a funeral of a very good friend of ours. The day was very nice with a bit of rain in the forecast, however, we did not run into any at all during the drive.

As we crossed over the Borden Bridge different feelings came back to me. As the bridge was the boundary for our Telecomn area for the first 21 years of my career, I had handled numerous calls for service along the highway. As each road sign came into view I remembered calls from the location. From accidents to erratic drivers to cattle on the highway to break and enters and on and on.

It was a sad drive for us in that we were attending the memorial service for such a good friend of ours. Just thinking of the person who we were going to honour made me sad but also made me smile with thoughts of good times we had had throughout the years of knowing each other. The same with travelling the highway. I had sad thoughts about towns that no longer are even there to the horrible traffic conditions that we travelled on back in 1975 to get to our home. It was definitely not a nice drive in those days. The traffic was so thick with the highway leading into Alberta in one direction and the north of Saskatchewan in another. To say the traffic was a mess would be an understatement.

While thinking of that a fellow traveller passed me as if we were standing still. I smiled as thinking back long ago that they would have likely passed on the right hand side at the same speed. The traffic was normally so heavy it was hard for those speeding types to pass as they should so they passed on the shoulders. Even saying that, it was nothing at times to have someone passing you on the shoulder as someone was passing you on your left. The local Detachment at Radisson was one of the busiest spots in those days. That got me to remembering the members that I had known who worked out of the Detachment throughout the years. The chases that ensued, the calls they had to attend and just the nature of our work in those days. This was of course prior to the advent of cell phones, so all the phoning was done by our centre for the members in the field.

In thinking back now it is likely this working with the members to assist them in their day to day work is what gave us the bond that we had. Now with every member having their own cell and doing all their own 'extra' work, I do think that the bonds have slipped a bit between the OCC member and the member in the field. It also doesn't help with the extra workload that the OCC members have had to shoulder with the extra calls due to every citizen having a cell phone and wanting to call in everything they see. All those calls need to be answered by someone which makes less and less time that the operator can be on the radio helping out the member in the field.

And that brings a sadness to my thoughts. It is progress as all things are new and better, but something has been lost that will likely never return . . .

It Is True

A lot of friends and neighbours have been telling me that we should head to the lake more often. So after work on Saturday, we did exactly that. Weather was perfect with no rain in the forecast what so ever.

I did have one small chore to do while at the lake and that was to replace the main door. Surprising enough myself and my bro-in-law got it changed with no major hiccups.

Other than that, just lots of sitting by the fire swapping tales and just enjoying the scenery...

Weird Damn Weather

What strange weather we have been having of late. Heck, this morning at about 11:30 a.m. I went into the washroom at home and 'what the hell!, the furnace cut in'. I know it was a bit misty this morning at 6:00 a.m. when I went out for my hour walk, but it wasn't that bad. I certainly didn't feel it was 'furnace weather'.

Then this afternoon I was out in the backyard with a tee-shirt on checking out if my grass needed cutting yet or not. Yup, it needs cutting. So the grass is growing already, yet we still need our furnace for heat in the house. I guess this is what the global warming is doing for us :(

Small band, big salaries

I find the pay that some of the Saskatchewan First Nations chiefs and councillors that are reported recently in the local newspaper seem to be quite a bit out of line with what happens in the rest of our province and I’m sure all small towns throughout Canada.  Using the example from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix article Small band, big salaries, a base salary of $94,977 for a councillor for a First Nation of 434 people is certainly out of line with what a councillor in a small town in Saskatchewan would receive. 

Using the example in the article for a First Nation with the population of 434 would be comparable to the Town of Hanley which has a population of 468.  The councillors in the Town of Hanley receive $100 per month if they attend a council meeting.  If the councillor doesn’t attend the monthly meeting then they receive zero.  So if the councillor attends every meeting in the year they would receive $1200.00.  For any outings that the councillor attends in the community (or other functions/duties) there is no extra pay, just the $100 for attending the monthly Town Council meeting.  Compare that to the First Nations salary of $94,977.00 and you definitely can see the problem.

Of course the small town councillor’s salary is paid by taxes by the citizens of the Town.  With the First Nation the salary comes from the Federal Government who of course gets the money to pay the First Nation councillor from the income taxes of small town Saskatchewan people and others throughout the country.  So how many First Nation people that live and work on the reserve pay property taxes?  I would say very few or probably none. 

It sure doesn’t appear to be rocket science why so many people feel there is just something definitely wrong with this situation.

Hearts A Tickin

What a nice morning for a walk-a-bout.  When I left it was –6C and the ground was frozen so it was easier to walk then in the mud of the last couple of days.  Not much of a moon out there so it was a bit darker than normal, but the stars were shining brightly.

I started out with a smaller dog come running and snarling at me within 1 minute of starting off.  Neighbour was out with his 3 dogs to let them have a pee break.  They are all smaller type animals.  One of them got loose of his leash and came charging at me snarling away.  At least the neighbour was right there to take control of his dog.   After all I sure didn’t want to put a size 12 down it’s throat so early in the morning

 

I finally got to the far edge of town and was walking up to this one house that has a lot of trees and bush around the doorway.  The streets are quite dark as well.  The owner has a homemade mailbox made out of wood and is fairly large to accommodate a couple days papers.  Just as I reached to drop off the paper his motion light finally came on and out jumped a cat that had been sitting on the mailbox.  The cat headed one way and I looked to head the other way.  Of course my heart was just a racing but at least I didn’t scream. 

I did mutter an obscenity however and had my head on a swivel for the rest of the walk home . . .

Foggy Out There

Holy smokes but is it ever foggy out there this morning.  Then add in the melting that occurred yesterday and it is slippery as all get out.

My paper guy was late again this morning due to the fog.  He also ran into a big old skunk and had a hard time driving with tears in his eyes.  He tried hanging his head out the window but then the tears just froze to his face and he still couldn’t see.  At least after my drop he is on the homeward bound leg of his night  He usually starts at about 10 p.m. and done by 7-8 a.m.

Now I actually get a night off.  My only night of the week that I don’t have to go out and clean.  Then the only day I don’t have to get up early is tomorrow morning.  I’m on a roll

It’s Cold Out There

When I got up this morning it was –14.6 C.  Thank goodness the wind went down or it would have brutal on the morning walk.  As it was the coyotes were just howling up a storm this morning.  I would say they were voiced their displeasure with the drop in temperatures.

Other than the coolness it was a nice walk this morning.  Of course it is slippery as all get out with the rain, snow, melting that has gone on for the last couple of days.  So far no falls and I hope it continues that way

This is Not Nice

Old Mother Nature sure spit out raspberries yesterday/last night.  The snow just kept coming, and coming.  Of course there is a real nice inch or two of ice under the snow so it is slippery as all get out.  The wind is still blowing quite strong which is putting a nice crust on the snow banks and slicking up the ice patches even more so.

Needless to say my papers didn’t arrive until 9:20 a.m. which makes it a bit difficult to get them delivered by 7 a.m.   While I was waiting I took the snow blower to my driveway and the sidewalks in my area.  I was going great guns until I sucked up a rock and it jammed the impeller.  That was the end of the snow blowing for the morning.  I did get the machine back into the garage and put a heater on it to melt some of the ice and snow so I could see what was wrong.  As soon as I saw the rock I knew I had found the problem.  Once I got a pry bar and a large hammer and removed the rock, then the blower was back in good shape once again. 

By the time I had the blower fixed I figured I’d better get down to the hall and clean off the walkway for the days traffic.  Lots of ice on the sidewalk so I used the scraper and got a fair amount removed.  I’ll pick up some salt today and get rid of the rest.  Right now with the wind blowing so hard there isn’t a lot of sense throwing salt on as it will just blow away.

After that I noticed my papers had just arrived so I headed out at 9:25 a.m for my normal 45 minute walk.  With all the nice slippery roads and snow drifts I didn’t get home until 10:45 a.m.  So 45 minutes took me 80 minutes today.  Of course with all the trudging through the snow, my legs feel like rubber.  I’m sure they’ll be a bit sore tomorrow.

Sandra actually had a appointment in the city today to see a therapist, but with the roads the way they are I just felt it was not worth it so I cancelled it.  I called the office and got another appointment early in November which is actually better for us.

As I’m typing this the sun actually popped out.  Hopefully it will stay out and melt a bit of this darn white stuff for us.  We can only hope anyway.  It will be soon enough that the snow will be here to stay though so we might as well get used to the idea.

Nasty Morning

We knew it was coming and that it was only a matter of time before it arrived.  We got our first taste of the upcoming winter over night.  It drizzled all day yesterday and as the day moved on it got cooler.  On my way home last night at about 10 pm I could definitely feel the bite in the air.

I was not surprised when I went out this morning at 5:45 am to find a skiff of the white stuff.  The wind was/is quite strong coming out of the northwest.  This didn’t make for a very nice last 1/2 kilometer walk home as I had to walk right into the wind.  It is snowing albeit sort of a pellet type snow, but with the strong winds the face takes a kicking when you are walking directly into it.

The weatherman says we should have this off and on all day today.  But of course it will warm up a bit and take all of this away.  It is our wakeup call to what is to come for the next 5 months or so

Foggy Morning

The fog was hanging quite thick over the town as I did my morning papers.  Of course after yesterday’s 7 mm of rain, the roads are a bit mucky, but the new gravel that was put on some of the streets certainly helps.  Another benefit of the little rain we had is that it settles the dust down.  With no rain for the last 2-3 weeks everything was powder dry and the least movement caused the dust to fly.

However, I guess we shouldn’t complain as the local farmers did need some dry weather to try and get their crops off.  There are some that will just have to wait until freeze up as the grounds are too wet still to drive on.

What a year for weather

Scary Thoughts

For the last week or so the sky around town has been full of geese. There is a field of peas just on the edge of town and the geese have found it and are delighted in filling up on the peas for their long jaunt south. Sometimes the air is just black (and white) with the geese trying to get the best landing spot checked out. Of course they are very vocal as well when they are trying to land and when they are landed and feeding.

The one strange thing I have found for the last couple of days is that when I'm heading out bright and early in the morning; I'm hearing chick-a-dees chirping away. Now what the heck are they doing this far south at this time of the year. Normally we don't hear/see them until the middle of winter when it gets too stormy in the north. We haven't even had a sniff of snow yet and in actuality the weather has been quite nice for the last couple weeks. No rain finally :)

I'm just hoping this is not a sign of what we are going to be in for this coming winter. Mind you the way our weather has been since last year, I certainly would not be surprised if we had a lot of snow and a long cold winter. Brrrrrrr

Is It A Rule?

I turned on the TV the other day and was presented with the weatherman from CTV Regina giving us the good news about the upcoming weekend. His name for those of you who don't watch this channel is J.C. Garden and goes by just JC.

So once the weather was done I switched over to Global Saskatoon to watch a bit of the sports. The sports cast announcer is Kevin JESUS.

I continued to watch a bit of national news on Global and the story was sent to 'the reporter in the field', Ross LORD.

Okay, what the hell is it with all these people having these names on the TV news?

I was tempted to channel surf around the channels to see if I could find Mary MAGDALENE out there somewhere broadcasting away, but that would be just too much for my feeble brain to try and digest at one sitting.

I did come to the conclusion that it must 'Be A Rule' to have a funky name if you are on the TV news, weather or sports.

It's Getting Better Every Day

It's not even the end of March yet and I saw and heard my first couple of robins this morning while out delivering the papers. They were just a singing away from the treetops. Mind you they may be singing to complain about the ground being too hard (ie frozen) yet to get any worms, but at least they are here.

After I saw the robins I took a good look around and holy smokes, the snow has almost disappeared. It is just unbelievable how fast the snow has melted. The other thing is that there is not that much water left around. That would gel with what I thought. We just didn't get very much snow this past winter and what we had didn't have a very high water content. I've already heard that sloughs that are normally overflowing at this time of year have hardly a trickle of water in them.

It could be a dry, dusty summer! But of course if we get some rain in the May/June timeframe it will change everything.

Not a darn thing you can do about it though, so you might as well just go with the flow :)

Still Not Spring Yet!

We went from +16 C yesterday, March 17th to -3 C (-9 C with the windchill) today. Believe me the wind seems to just blow right through you. Of course half the population is already switching over to lighter coats/jackets, no gloves, etc so it seems even colder than it really is. At least with the higher winds, the snow cover is disappearing quite quickly.

This morning while I was delivering the papers the puddles were not totally frozen as I so eloquently found out. I had to cross the ditch at one customers house and I stepped on the ice only to sink in over my ankle. This was just about the furthest out on my route, so needless to say I had a wet and soggy cold walk home for the return trip. At least the roads are drying up a bit.

Soon we will be complaining about the dust blowing around :)

Getting Close To Spring

For the last couple of days we finally have been getting a bit nicer weather. The sun is actually coming out and warming up everything. The snow is melting and the roads are getting muddy.

But today I got another first of the new spring year and that was while I was doing the papers this morning a lonely goose came flying over the town just a honking away. Now this isn't too unusual as there are geese that stay around the province all winter, just normally not in our neck of the woods.

This goose that winging by this morning was heading north at a good clip. So maybe it knows something we don't :)

Crappy End To The Year

With the announcement of 4 Slain Soldiers Identified the count for killed military members in Afghanistan rises to 138. This time there is also the additional death of a journalist to be reported on.

It is sad enough that our military members are being killed. They are serving their country and doing what their government tells them to do and go where they are told. However, the journalist personally chose to travel to Afghanistan and put herself in harms way. Lang's intentions were great and noble as she wanted to get the soldiers story out, however, Afghanistan is still a war zone and no place for civilians to be outside of the wire, journalist or not.

For myself, 2011 can't come soon enough. I don't really see that in 10 years time we in the West are going to see any difference in Afghanistan than there was prior to the start of this war. As soon as all the military leave, the Taliban will be right back in power and reverting to their revolting practices and way of living. I guess we in the West didn't learn anything from the Russians attempt to 'take control' of Afghanistan in the past.

Number 134 :(

Sadly Canada has lost another of our soldiers in Afghanistan as reported by the CBC in Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan.

This is the 134th military person to be killed in this conflict.

What a waste.

H1N1 Shots

Like a lot of people, I was betwicked and between whether we should get the H1N1 shot when it was available to us. Yesterday I had printed out and filled out a couple of consent forms and took them along when we went to the city today just in case. We did have some spare time so I drove to Prairieland Park and noticed there were not that many vehicles in the parking lot, so in we went.

With our forms all filled out, we scooted right through the initial line. Then you get to sit and watch about a 6 minute video on the H1N1 flu shot. From there you then got in line to await your turn to get your actual needle. This line took us about 45 minutes before we actually got to sit down and get our shots.

When we finally did get to the table to get our shot, the forms were scrutinized once again for correctness before we were given the shot. The young lady also wanted to ensure we didn't have the flu, or were sick in any way.

It was a bit funny in one aspect. On the 'Consent Form' you are asked "Are you/your daughter pregnant?". I of course checked off "NO" I am not pregnant. I also advised the young lady that I had no idea if my daughter was pregnant or not. It really isn't any of my business. But I did assure her that I was not pregnant in any way, shape or form.

With that all settled, the nurse gave us our shot and filled out our card. She then advised us that we both got the 'unadjuvanted' H1N1 flu shot. And here I thought that was the shot that was to be given to pregnant ladies. So maybe it wasn't all settled at all ?

We then got to sit and watch another video on the H1N1. You are supposed to sit and wait 15 minutes to ensure you don't get any side affects from the shot. From what I noticed, many people didn't wait 2 minutes and out they went. You can only hope they don't get a reaction once they have departed the building. We did in fact sit and watch the video and chat a bit and waited our 15 minutes before we departed.

All told it took just over an hour for us to get our shots. From some of the horror stories I have seen on TV lately, Saskatoon Health Region had planned very well for giving the shots. There were lot's of guides to show you where to go and what to do and all we came in contact with were very pleasant. Hats off to all the people involved.

Now if I can just get this pregant thing straightened out :) . . .