18 Long Years

On this date in 1989 we lost in my estimation a 'One in a Million' in the loss of Walter Frederick Mayers.




I only had the privilege to know Wally for approximately 24 years and the first 3-4 years I really didn't say too much to him as he had such an imposing personality and scared the bejesus out of me. But as you got to know the 'true' Wally, you found that he didn't have a mean bone in his body and would give his shirt to anyone at the drop of a hat.






It's true that Wally smoked too much, weighed too much and definitely drank too much. But those vices happen to a lot of folks in the world and you learn to live with their vices.

I wasn't around when his children were being raised (other than the young ones ie Kay and Jamie), so I can only reflect on how he treated his grandchildren. He loved every one of them with no reservations. It didn't matter if the grandkids were just dropped off by the parents for a short visit or for a longer scheduled holiday at the lake with them. He loved them all and treated them all with as much love as he could give. Yes, he smoked and drank a bunch and was opinionated as all get out, but that was Wally.

It's funny in one aspect that all his son-in-laws saw the good part of Wally whereas some of his own sons only saw his faults. That is their right, however, I feel they missed so much of the great latter years of their father. Their loss and my and my family's gain.


To most in the family, we had a couple places we would normally find Wally, either at 726 6 Street East or at the Lake. In the summer months after his retirement, you would only find him at Christopher where he manned the kitchen table watching out the window/door for the time when one of the 'kids' drove up. Yup he would normally be found with a shot glass cupped in his huge hand with a 'touch of the good stuff' in the glass just waiting for you to come through the door.

My only regret is that Wally just didn't get long enough to really enjoy his retirement. He had joined the Navy as a youngster and served during WWII. On his return to Saskatoon he found employment with the Dairy in July 1945 and served with one Dairy company or other for the next 40 years until March of 1985 when he retired after his 65th birthday.

His favourite place in the world after his retirement was his cabin at Christopher Lake. I remember driving up in the winter with him to 'just check the cabin' whereas I knew he just wanted to see it one more time as he missed it.

Sadly he only got to enjoy 4 years of his retirement prior to being called 'Up Above'.





I'm sure anyone that ever was at the Mayers cabin at Christopher Lake will remember the name on the above picture. 'Fat Albert' was his CB callsign, but Wally didn't take offence that he was a bit overweight. He knew we called him Fat Albert with the love that we had for him.

I and everyone in my family misses you Wally. May you 'Rest In Peace' and watch over us.

We miss you ever day!

So Slow

Yesterday I was over at a customers house doing some work installing a video cam for them. They wanted to use the cam with MSN or Windows Live so they could set up video chats with their extended family.

This was fine and I felt probably about a 30-60 minute task. Little did I realize that they were still on dial up. So of course I had to download Windows Live for them prior to setting up the cam. Now this is not a large program as it is only 17.2 mb in size.

Prior to departing for the customer's house, I had downloaded the Windows Live on my laptop to ensure I knew what to do at the other end. As I said it is a 17.2 mb download which took about 70 seconds at my house. However, with dial up, this same 70 seconds took 2 1/2 hours to download. Just watching the download creep down was just so painful.

I actually was going to zip home a couple times, burn it on to CD and then head back to the customers. However, I used my time to update a few other programs on the computer and get everything ready for the vid cam.

After what seemed like hours (well yes I guess it was 2 1/2 hours), the file downloaded and I got the Live up and running. Then I set up the audio and video and all was working just fine. The only problem was that the customer had never used MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Live or any chat type program. So of course I had to do a quick tutorial in the opening/using of the program.

After I figured the customer had it down pat, I headed for home with instructions that I'd give them a phone call back and we could then go for a trial run from my house. Once home I fired up the laptop (which zooms right along after the recent format/reinstall), opened up Live and then made my phone call.

Now you have to remember the customer used their phone for their internet, so I had to wait a few seconds for them to hang up the phone, fire up the dial up internet and get logged on. I was impressed that within a minute or so the customer was online in Live. I immediately sent out a text message to show that we were both up and running and then advised it was time to go for the audio/video.

Once again, I was impressed with the customer as they had the camera right up and we had a quick video chat to ensure all was fine. There was just a bit of adjustment with the camera to get the picture centered, but other than that all was just fine. With that all taken care of, we closed out and I watched to ensure the customer had followed the instructions to close out Live by actually 'exiting' and not just closing down to the 'task bar'. This was all done, so I was a happy instructor for the day.

As I sat back and thought about how things went for the day, the dial up slowness certainly made me thankful for a high speed availability. But then I thought back to when I first started this 'computing' thing back in the early to mid 90's. At that time SaskTel wasn't even in the internet field. I used Prodigy as my internet ISP. My closest access was Edmonton so of course I had to use long distance to sign onto my account. If I remember correctly I normally only used the 'net' at night after midnight when the cheaper phone rates were in effect. It cost approximately $10.00 per hour of use. Let me tell you, you didn't do a lot of sitting around on the 'net' playing games etc. You got on to the 'net', found what you were looking for and signed off.

Oh yah, I had a blazing fast modem at the time of my Prodigy use. It was a 2.4 kbs dial up modem. Yup the top speed was 2.4 kilobits per second. Now a days of course the dial up modems run at 56 kbs with Flex or V90 protocols, but most setups hardly get quite that high. Case in point is the customer from yesterday computer dial up was running at 45.2 kbs. That still is a long way from 2.4.


Like the old saying 'We have come a long way'.

Ugly City Trip

We departed town at about 8:30 a.m. yesterday morning. The sky was a bit overcast but nothing too serious. The roads were just terrific all the way into the city. As I said I would, I took along my camera to see if I could get a snap of a few of the deer along the highway.

We did find the deer where they have been for the last while, however, it must have been too early as they were all sitting (laying) down in the snow. There didn't seem to be quite as many either so I decided to not stop and waste the time trying to get a pic.

I had a doctor's appointment at 9:30 a.m. so we just kept trucking along to the city and figured I'd try on the way home. At this time the weather was still very nice although a bit overcast. After I had finished with my doc we headed towards the mall to have a java with mom and Fred. Just as we pulled into the mall parking lot a few snow flurries started to come down. As we got out of the truck I sure noticed there was a definite bite in the air. The temperature seemed to have dropped about 10 degrees in less than 30 minutes. But maybe it was just that the darn wind had picked up so much.

When we got inside the mall I noticed that mom and Fred had already arrived and were sitting down having a bit of breakfast. I grabbed a couple of coffees for Sam and myself and joined them at the table. We shot the breeze and got a few things organized for Fred's income tax that he is taking to an accountant on Friday. Before we knew it, the clock was showing 11:30 a.m. so we decided to depart the mall.

As I was departing the mall I noticed that the snow was definitely a lot heavier now but nothing too serious. I figured I'd hit the car wash and get some of the mud off the beast. I normally use the Husky wash that is just north of the Lawson Mall so I drove over that way. As I was waiting to get into the stall I gave dad a call to inform him that we had actually made it into the city today and we'd be over for lunch.

After lunch I figured I'd take a peak at Andy's computer as she has been having a bit of problems of late with it being slow. So dad and I went over to her house and I got to work with 'Crap Cleaner' and 'Spybot'. In all we were probably there about 90 minutes and then departed. By this time the snow was really coming down. Once I got back to dad's I picked up Sam and were 'outta there'.

Then we had to stop off at both WalMart's to pick up some prescriptions and then we headed southbound for home. By this time the snow was really coming down but the roadways on the highways were okay. At least they were about a thousand per cent better than the roads in the city which are sheer ice. At times the visibility dropped to almost nothing, but at least the roads stayed fairly clean and we could make good time.

On the approach to the area where we normally see the deer feeding we were presented with a field with probably 200 to 250 deer grazing. This is probably the most I've ever seen in this one area this year (or ever for that matter). The weather wasn't the best but I figured I'd pull over and see if I could get a pic or two. I just wished I was on the other side of the highway as we were quite a distance from the herd although they were fairly near the ditch but on the other side of the highway.

It is interesting in that the deer were not perturbed with the vehicles whizzing by at all. However, once I stopped their heads immediately came up and you could see they were nervous. As we sat and I tried for a few pics the deer actually started to move off further towards the tree line. Now I was just sitting in the truck across they ditch and then across a four lane highway and they still got skittish. I guess that's why there are so many of them around at present. They know when to take a hike from danger.

Anyway, here a couple pics I grabbed of part of the herd. As I said, the weather wasn't the best and I was a fair distance off. But you can tell they are not cows :)




After taking the pics we continued southbound and arrived home safe and sound just prior to 5 p.m. I have no plans at present to travel northbound in the next week or so, but if I do I'll be taking the camera and hopefully be able to get some shots from the east side of the road. Mind you the way the deer acted today when I stopped, I'd better be quick with the camera or all I'll see is their rumps heading off into the sunrise :(

No Curling

As tomorrow is Monday, I was gearing my mind up to the second last curling game of the season. However I received a phone call from the fellow who is looking after the league and he advised that we were going to have to cancel the draw this Monday.

It appears there is a funeral in town and the hall was going to be used. Mind you he also said that there were already 12 people that had called to advise that they would not be able to curl at any rate. I'm not sure if they are sick, away, or just what. Only that they wouldn't be there. It is darn hard to run a league when that many people are not going to show up.

So our next (and I believe) last draw will be held on March 19th. However, if I remember correctly, last year we also had a sort of funspiel type of thing. But I could be getting it confused with some other curling. At any rate with the weather turning a whole lot nicer of late, I'm sure that most people are going to turn their minds to other things than cold ice and sweeping.

It is always sad to finish up the year though as it is a very nice way to get a bit of exercise and also get out and mingle with a few of the towns folks. Oh well, it is only 9 months or so until next December when the league starts up again.

WOW! What a Lot of Deer

For the last month or so every time we drive into or out of the city we have been presented with a huge herd of whitetail deer in the fields along the side of the highway. Whatever the local farmer planted in the field sure must taste good to these deer as they are always browsing when we go by.

Now these deer are staying in the fields and are not coming across the highway so they certainly are not bothering me (or the other travelling public). Well at least when I have gone by they are nice and comfortable in the field. Of course I don't do a lot of driving during the late evening/night time. In the evening/night there could be a lot more movement across the highway, however, there is not a lot of dead deer along the ditches. That is a plus as normally you always see 8-10 dead deer on the side of the road in the 60 km or so stretch of highway into the city.

As we were driving south this afternoon we were watching for the deer and they were exactly where they always have been this last month. I'm definitely going to have to take along my camera and try and get a few shots of the herd. Most folks just wouldn't believe there were that many deer so close to the city. Just as a rough estimate I would say there has to be between 100 and 150 deer in this one little field. This is just what you can see from the road. How many more are in behind a bush or over the next hill, etc.

It is just amazing and the really neat thing is that as the deer browse they'll look up as the traffic goes by and they don't even move an inch. It's as if they know they have nothing to fear while they are up in the field and away from the highway.

I'm heading into the city again on Wednesday so I'll definitely be taking my camera along to see if I can get a shot or two.

One Happy Daughter Today

Finally the news that the family has been waiting the last year or so came into being today. The start of the story was early today when I phoned Wendell to speak to him about the grandkids new computer. The computer I had fixed up for the grandkids was acting up and I felt it was probably a stick of RAM that I had put in the machine. So I called Wendell and talked him through removing the offending stick to see if that fixes the problem.

While I was on the phone, Sheila comes on and advises that she finally has received her security clearance and will be terminating her employment with Canada Life tomorrow (March 9th). She then starts her brand new career with the RCMP Training Academy (Depot) on March 26th.

This employment is the end of almost a year of Sheila taking exams and then waiting for an opening that she wanted to take. She was offered one position last fall however she decided it was not exactly what she wanted so she turned it down. Of course she second guessed herself almost every week if she had done the right thing or not. I volunteered that with the new year coming there would be more positions available.

Shortly after the new year came around she indeed was offered this new position and she accepted it. Then the waiting came into being as the RCMP had to do a security clearance for her prior to her actually starting work.

Well today the Inspector called her and advised that her clearance was through and the Force was offering her employment and when did she want to start. Sheila of course wanted to give her current employer 2 weeks notice so she will be handing in her resignation letter tomorrow. Then she has to anxiously wait for the 2 weeks to pass so she can start her new occupation.

There is still one other detail that is a bit humorous in all of this though. Last year when Sheila took the exams she passed the CR3 level and only missed the CR4 level exam by 1 mark. A person can only take these test ever so often and there has to be a waiting period between attempts.

Well last Sunday Sheila again took the CR4 exam and she is hoping that she indeed picks up that missed mark and then a few. If she indeed passes, then she would be eligible to apply for any CR4 positions (which is also a rather large increase in pay from a CR3 position).

Sheila probably won't know for another month or so if in fact she made the cut off for the exams. By that time she should be in place in her new position at the Training Academy. The nice part is that at least her security clearance has already been done. If she indeed is offered a position that strikes her fancy then it would be just a transfer to the new position and not a brand new hire.

You can bet that Sheila is anxious about starting her new employment. It has so many unknowns for her at this point in time. However, I have the utmost confidence in her abilities and I'm sure that she will do a terrific job once she is up to speed on the position.

Well done Sheila, may you have a long and varied career with the RCMP.

Another Big W Beside My Name

We tried our hardest to give it away today at the Monday curling draws. We kept letting the other team fill up the house with their rocks. The only good part was that we were fortunate to only allow them to score a single point for the most part.

On one end we did fall horribly apart and gave them a 4 ender. It looked like our luck was fading away, but we fought back and got a 2 ender the next end. The following end we then stole another 2 to get our 4 points back.

It took us to last rock and then our skip came into the house and knocked out one of the opposing teams rocks to allow us to count a 4 ender. We ended up winning the game on that shot.

The nice part was I was playing against the lady that was just a shade better than I was in the standings. With this W under my belt, I can move into second worst curler rather than just the worst curler. But then heck we still have 2 more games to go so anything can (and likely will) happen.

For now I'm just going to savour the extra W beside my name. At least until next Monday.

Bored or What ???

Frik I must be bored.... Out of nowhere I decided that I would stick in my 'Restore disk' on my laptop to see what would happen. No you have to realize that I know what a 'restore' disk does. Duh! It formats the hard drive and reinstalls the operating system back to when you purchased the computer.

Knowing this I still went ahead and 'restored' my laptop which has been running fine for the last 5 years. Yup, it wiped everything off the hard drive and we started over again. Now this is not as bad as it seems as I have a backup DVD of the hard drive and I have backups of the important information on my main computers.

But it is darn interesting to see what you have when you start over from scratch. You know what, the darn computer sure runs a way faster than it has been of late. It doesn't have all that garbage of programs on it, so zip zap and away you go.

I must admit the laptop is about 75% faster after the reformat. When I click on the IE button I'm connected to the home page a way faster than ever before. Well that is not quite correct. When I first purchased the laptop it was very responsive and the IE would load up quick as all get out. Of course over time I added different programs and the computer slowed down considerably.

Oh wouldn't it be nice to not add any programs and just use the computer with just the basic IE and maybe an EMail client. Overall it sure would save you time throughout the day.....

Busy Times

We were pleasantly surprised to hear the door open and Sheila, Wendell and girls walked in Friday evening. They were just here a couple of weeks ago so we didn't think they would venture up this way for awhile yet.

The trip was for pleasure as well as for a bit of help for Sheila. She is taking an exam today to apply for the next level of employment and wanted a bit of assistance in interpreting some of the questions. There are practice questions available on the Internet along with the answers so she had an idea of what to expect. I believe she says the test is normally 75 questions and you get 90 minutes to complete the test.

No doubt there is not a lot of time to doddle on the questions but you definitely have to really read the question and of course the answers which are multiple choice. As Sheila went through the practice she marked questions that were giving her trouble. Then I took a look at them and tried to interpret to her the 'why' and 'how' of the correct answer.

After almost 40 years working with the Government, I should be able to figure the questions out it was thought. I was thankful that 'yes' all of the questionable 'questions' I looked at, I was able to correctly answer them all. That is not to say they were real easy, but I could definitely see the so called 'trick' part of the answer list fairly easily.

I tried my best to explain the reasoning to Sheila and hope I helped her some. This test is for the same level that she missed the cut off by 1 point about a year ago. We are hoping that she will be able to bring up her correct answers by at least the 1 point (and a few more for good measures).

With getting past this level it does open up a whole lot more opportunities for Sheila for employment. We definitely have our fingers (and toes) crossed for her and wish her the best. As I always say, you give all your best and try your hardest and nobody can ask for anything more than that.

Good luck Sheila, we are rooting for you !

Vista Compatibility

It would seem that the majority of people in the world are not taking the giant leap and upgrading to Microsoft Vista. There are a variety of reasons for not upgrading not the least being the cost of upgrading. As well the possibility of your existing programs not running on Vista is a real concern. This is a very valid reason for many as there are many programs that refuse to run in Vista (or cause problems).

With that in mind, Microsoft has put out a list of programs that are 'Certified' for Vista and those that 'Work' with Vista. You can view that complete list at Applications that have earned the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo or the "Works with Windows Vista" logo.

The Wins Keep Rolling Along

It's a Monday so there was curling once again. The long and short of it was that we had the game in the bag but allowed the other team to come back and tie it up eight all on the 7th end. We had the hammer for the 8th but it was not looking too good coming up to skips rocks. The other team was able to tuck a rock in the four foot and then surrounded the darn thing with other rocks.

Our skip was going to try a 'TV' shot but we really didn't think he would be able to make it. Even he didn't think so. But as it happens in curling at times 'Plan B' came to the forefront and bing, bang, bong and we were sitting with a counter sitting on the edge of the four foot and their rock had moved out of the four foot. We also had lots of surrounding stones guarding the button. The other skip tried his best to get a rebound and knock us out of scoring, but he came up a couple inches too short.

Our skip didn't even bother throwing his last rock (in case we hit something we shouldn't be hitting). The final score was 9 to 8 for us. That means another big 'W' for me in the standings.

I just didn't have the will power to look at the other curlers to see how they made out today. If the other curlers had prevailed and won their games, then I would still be sitting on the bottom with the worst record. Mind you, I just may have the worst record, but at least I don't know that at this point in time.

I think I'll just savour the win for another week before I actually look at the individual listings for the players.

Reality will be here soon enough :(

Trucker No More

Well it is official now. James has hung up his 18 wheel steering wheel for the time being. He is now going to see if he can climb towers without falling off. Just prior to starting the recent job hauling super B trailers around he had applied to 'Your Link' to work on their tower crew. This is the same company that 'Uncle Ron' works for.

James went in for an interview last Thursday and he found out on Friday that he had gotten the job. That meant that he had to hand in the keys for the Kenworth and dig out his woollies to keep warm on the new job.

I guess he has to go in to the office on Wednesday and fill out some papers and then he's onto tower climbing. He's been told to pack a bag when he reports on Wednesday so he will likely be working out out town for a couple of days.

The nice part of the job is that it is essentially Monday to Friday and weekends off. The pay isn't bad either and there are benefits. Definitely sounds better than jambing gears back and forth. But then it can get a bit cool out there in the winter time. Especially if you are a hundred or so feet off the ground.

Worth a try for sure and the best of luck to James in his new endeavour.

WhoooHooo It's A Win!!!

Even though it was a holiday in Saskatchewan today, we still had our curling go ahead as normal. I played the late game today, but was at the rink early as I was on lunch detail. When there were no customers waiting for lunch I got to looking at the curling board and the wins/losses of all the members.

As I glanced through the list I saw that I probably had the worst record of anyone who regularly curls. I have only had 1 win under my name since we started curling. I did notice that one other lady only had 2 wins under her belt. She was curling the early game and it looked like she was not going to get another "W" beside her name. So I had some hope with our upcoming game.

We actually had a very good game going for us even though we had given up a 3 ender to the opponents. On the 7th end we actually scored a 4 ender and tied it up coming home. Of course the other team had the hammer, but we were going to give it our best.

Lo and behold we stole 2 on the 8th end and we were victorious. That also meant that I got another 'W' beside my name. I was just thrilled as all get out, but then I looked over at the other lady to relish that we were even in the standings. Wow was I deflated, her team pulled off a tie today so she was now sitting at 2 W's and 1 T with the rest being L for losses. My total is still only showing 2 W beside my name with all the rest being L.

That means that once again I have the worst record for all the main curlers in the Senior Curling League. You know, I just might get a complex soon. But I do have 3 more weeks to go so hopefully I can pull out at least a tie to add to my list. A win would really be great though :-)

Interesting Computer Repair

On Tuesday I had an appointment to look at a fellow's computer in town. This is an older PII 266 computer with 160 megs of RAM that had been running fine up until recently. The fellow doesn't use it for much other than surfing on EBay and the odd email message.

When I sat down in front of the keyboard I immediately saw there was a problem of lack of hard drive real estate. The computer has two hard drives installed. One is a 2.3 gig model and the other is a 512 meg model. Now that adds up to less than 3 gigs of room on the hard drives and the fellow was running XP Home.

I did look around in the computer and found that someone tried to help him recover some room by deleting certain unused programs. Of course they just used the 'delete' key so the registery was a total mess.

After prodding around for an hour or so I advised the fellow that the best thing he could do (other than buying a new computer) would be to reformat and start afresh. I told him that I could do it for him but it would take a day or so to get it all back up and running. He was agreeable with that so I unplugged the tower and headed for home.

Once home I reformatted both 'C' and 'D' harddrives and commenced installing XP. Oh yah, the fellow couldn't find his own XP copy but he knows he had one somewhere. No problem as I had a couple CDs I could use and just needed his Product Key. I have a full version of XP so I started the computer with it and commenced the install process. The process went fine and was booting just ducky. I then got a new version of AVG 7.5 antivirus and put that in the computer so we could keep out some of the nasties that show up every now and then.

It was when I put in the AVG that I realized that the amount of room on 'C' was going to be critical. So I installed the program onto the 'D' drive. Of course you still get all kinds of DLL files etc that programs insist must go on 'C' so I did loose some space.

With that all in place it was time to look for some updates. When I checked on Microsoft I found it needed at least 73 updates. So I started downloading the required files and watched the hard drive get less and less room to play. Eventually all the upgrades were down and the beast was still functioning fairly well. Then I looked and realized that XP was still sitting at SP1 and needed some more upgrading to get up to SP2.

Well I started downloading the update but the computer immediately started to balk at the size of this puppy. A stand alone download of SP2 runs about 266 megs of space. However, the update download is a bit smaller than that, but it still takes up a lot of room.

About half way through the download I could tell it was not going to work so I cancelled everything. I then reformatted the computer and started over with an Upgrade XP SP2 disk I had. This went better as Microsoft had at least fixed the 73 upgrades that were needed from the original XP disk so I didn't need to download the files.

I continued on and also installed the AVG over on the 'D' drive. I also installed 'Crap Cleaner' on the 'D' to assist with cleaning out some of the extra update files once I was done. This worked out quite well and once I had the XP all up and running and updated I still had close to 940 megs free on 'C'. This isn't a huge amount of room, but it would probably work for the way the fellow used his computer.

Then I figured I'd go whole hog and install the new IE7 for him. After downloading and getting the program updated I was fast running out of room on the hard drive. The program was complaining that there was not enough 'free space' left on 'C' and that the program needs at least 200 megs to function.

I looked around and there really wasn't a lot that I could remove that wasn't needed. The fellow stated he wanted email, be able to browse and to be able to play solitaire. I did have a bit of room sitting over on 'D' so I then figured I'd move the 'Page File' over there. This worked just great and did free up some needed room over on the 'C'. I had over 450 megs of free room left on 'C' which is plenty to allow for temporary internet files and the odd email that was expected.

I tested the computer out and surprisingly it worked fairly well. Now remember this is only a 266 computer with 160 megs of RAM. But it was definitely peppy enough on opening up the browser or the email. The solitaire worked just fine as well.

After running a final AVG scan and finding everything was clean I bundled up the computer and headed for the customer's house.

Once I got it all hooked up and purring right along, the guy says 'Oh yah, I have this 'All In One Printer/Scanner' that I would like installed". So I grabbed the CD and started installing. As I watched the files fly into the computer, I knew the free space was fast declining. But I continued on and ensured everything worked just fine.

I took a peak at the 'Explorer' to see that there was about 350 megs free on the 'C' drive and about 250 megs free on the 'D' drive. But the printer, scanner, fax machine now worked just fine. Well not quite fine, the customer hadn't used the printer since last summer sometime so of course the print cartridges were dried up. But the printer did go through the printing process as well as scanning in a document, etc. So it appeared everything was good to go. The customer was going to pick up a new black print cartridge to ensure he could print but he was satisfied that everything was in order.

I wasn't sure it could be done on such a small hard drive, but at least now I know, you can have XP Home with all the recent updates installed on less than 3 gigs of hard drive real estate.

My final comment to the fellow before I left was to ensure he kept his 'Temporary Files' cleared out and don't be saving huge attachments in his email messages. Oh yah, keep your eye out for a good deal on a new computer. PII 266's are getting fairly long in the tooth and you never know when it would decide to die a silent death.

Road Trip

James was hired by a local fellow to drive his semi to haul grain. This of course means learning how to handle 'super B' trailers which essentially are two full length semi trailers hooked together. This does make for an extra long unit to be driving around and does take extra care in turning corners. Backing up the unit also is quite a bit more complex than a single trailer unit.

Anyhow, James had a dry run on Tuesday to get familiar with the rig and then he got the trailers loaded up with a load of lentils that were destined for Wilkie, Sask. Now seeing as Wilkie is the town where I was born and lived for a few years, I thought it would be a treat to travel out that way with James as a passenger.

The plan was to depart Hanley at 7 a.m. and to return somewhere around 3 p.m. James and I got to the truck just before 7 a.m. and we ran into our first problem. The fellow that was showing James the ropes set the preheater to come on but he neglected to set the darn thing to the right time. So the preheater came on at 1 a.m. and ran for two hours (ie until 3 a.m.). So at 7 a.m. when James turned the key, the Kenworth just grunted a few times and that was that.

James turned the preheater on to start warming things up and then he got hold of the owner to arrange a tow truck to come and boost us. The truck was parked at one of the local garages and it opened up at 7 a.m. so at least we could slip inside and have a coffee while we waited for the tow truck to do it's magic. When the tow truck hooked up the cables to boost the semi, it had to just leave them in place for awhile to get the batteries warmed up enough to take a charge.

At 8:30 a.m. (give or take a few minutes) we pulled out of Hanley heading towards Wilkie. By the time we got to Rosetown, both James and I had to hit the washroom from all the darn coffee we drank. So after a quick pit stop we were enroute once again.

We finally pulled into Wilkie around noon and proceeded to get in line to unload our lentils. By 1:30 p.m. we were done and 'on the road' back to Kenaston for another load. All went fairly well and we strolled into the house at 6:30 p.m.

Let me tell you the walk up from the garage was brutal. The wind was coming right at us and we were almost frozen to the bone in the short walk home. But we did make it safe and sound.

Vista Programs

Today I had some good news and some bad news. The good news was that NOD32 is now Vista compatible and so I should be able to install the program on the new computer with no problem. The bad news is that ZoneAlarm PRO is not yet compatible and ZoneAlarm themselves advise against installing it until they have got a Vista compatible upgrade available.

Then I read a few other spots on the net and there is some question as to the actual need for a further firewall as the Vista firewall is much better than the previous XP firewall. Vista's firewall does check for outgoing connections from the computer whereas the XP version did not. That was one of my main aims for using ZoneAlarm. It prevented programs from accidentally being downloaded and clearing the virus scan and then installing themselves and sending out information from the computer (ie Trojan programs). So if the Vista firewall does in fact do as good a job as ZoneAlarm, then I would wonder why I would in fact need ZoneAlarm.

I still have the 60 days (57 now) Norton Internet Security version up and running on the Vista computer for now. I'll be leaving it installed for a few more days until I can read up a bit more on the firewall program installed through Vista. As my time counts down for the end of the Norton's then I can install my NOD32 program (which has been paid for) and go with the Vista firewall until ZoneAlarm comes out with an upgrade.

Other than that the Vista computer is humming right along and I have most of my files (that I wanted on the new computer) copied over. Thank goodness for routers and the ability to network the computers together. I've not run into any more programs that do not work on the Vista operating system yet.

One of these fine days though, I'll have to get Sandra's computer transferred over. She inherited my old 2.8 Intel tower and we'll replace her 800 Duron. I've tentatively transferred programs, but I just haven't gotten all of her emails, favourites, etc transferred. I keep telling her soon just after I finish doing something on my computer...

Sometimes I don't really think she believes me though :)

Eyes Are Falling Out

I haven't been on the blog of late because I've been working in the computer room on a couple new computers. Lo and behold I've had 2 Vista computers in the office to play with. Of course one of the computers is my own new HP Pavilion Media Center with 2 gigs of RAM, a 400 gig hard drive and a AMD 5000+ processor. The other computer is an Acer system with a 3800+ AMD, 250 gig HD and 1 gig of RAM. I've been working on the systems for so long my poor eyes are having a bit of trouble focusing of late.

My first impressions are that Vista is different but nothing earth shattering.

Let me tell you though, I don't think I'd be running Vista with only the minimum of 512 megs of RAM. The computers I'm working on are brand new and have only had Vista Home Premium installed on them so I haven't tried an upgrade just yet so I'm not sure what can of worms the upgrade would bring into it.

For my own system I had the computer up and running in a few short hours with most of what I had on my previous computer (ie Email, Favourites, etc). It did take me a couple hours to figure out how to network them all together so I could go back and forth and transfer favourite programs, pics, tunes, etc. Looking back at it now it was a relatively easy task. The major stumbling block was the firewalls (ie ZoneAlarm Pro and Norton Internet Security not playing nice). But after I got them sorted out, it seems to be working quite fine.

On my own system I have only found one program that is causing a bit of problem. That is the EPrompter Email notifier program that I use. It takes it's updates from the Windows Help system and Vista does not use this Help system at all. So of course my program won't update so I can't receive notification of my Windows Live account. This is not a great problem as I don't really get very much email through this account anyhow. I haven't tried switching over from the supplied Norton Internet Security to my preferred ZoneAlarm Pro as of yet either. I've read that there 'may' be a problem with ZoneAlarm and Vista. I don't foresee this as a large problem as I'm sure ZoneAlarm will have a fix out quickly. I do get 60 days to play with the Norton Internet Security before it dies. As well I haven't installed my preferred NOD32 antivirus either. I'll tackle that in a couple days and see what transpires. Once again I'm sure that if NOD32 does have a problem it will get fixed quickly. As a side note on the other computer I did install the free AVG antivirus and it works quite fine.

On the second machine I did run into some problems with the printer however. The fellow had bought a brand new HP Photosmart C3180 All In One printer just recently. There were no drivers available for this printer for Vista so I had to go to the HP website to get some. Even at the website HP only had basis drivers available so the full function of the 'All In One' will not be able to be used until the drivers are updated. But for now the printer does print as it should.

Overall I would have to say that the largest difference I've found between XP and Vista is the file system and where each operating system stores their defaults. Another thing with Vista is that the program pops up dialogue boxes questioning if you are actually doing a certain task or not. If you are, you click on 'allow' and away you go. In one way it seems to be a little more security conscious that XP was.

I'll play with the system a bit longer to see what other problems may occur. So far so good though.

One is a Lonely Number

This is Monday so it was curling day once again. As per normal the team I was on gave it a valiant try, however, we came up a couple points too short. It was 7-6 for the other team going into the last end. We had the hammer which should have allowed us to at least tie the game. As per normal, the team didn't bring it to the forefront and we gave up a steal of 1 in the final end. The final score being 8 to 6 for the other folks. Mark that down as one more 'L' beside my name.

That makes it 7 L's and 1 W for my record in the league so far this curling year.

But of course it is all for fun and exercise, so I certainly don't take it personally. When you are playing with different people on your team every week, anything is possible. In my case it is just a bunch of L's beside my name.

So be it :)

It Figures!!

As I was sitting here moaning my sore nose and chest from all the coughing I've been doing, my neighbour Ernie calls me up to see what I'm doing. "Oh nothing much other than half-way dying from a cold". Sorry to hear that he says, but he wanted to thank me for clearing out the back alley and his yard so he can park next to his house and plug his car in. Hey, it doesn't take too long and gives 'big red' a little more running time.

After a bit of small talk, he then pops the question whether I would consider curling for him in the Thursday night league. Now this call was about 5 pm and curling started at 7 pm. My first thought was if he had actually looked at my win/loss record from the Senior League or not, but I kept that to myself having a bit of pride you know. I did question him on the calibre of the curlers noting that I'm not up in the Brier League just yet. He assured me it was more a fun thing than anything else and I would fit in just fine.

I then thought about my cold and all the coughing I had been doing. I was tempted to decline the invite but of course he embellished the story that someone had walked off with his curling gear and one of the other team mates was down holidaying in Florida. This means they would be down to only 2 curlers and you can't have a game that way. So being the softy I am (or is that masochist) I agreed to replace Ernie in the game.

Once I got to the hall and saw some of the curlers showing up I definitely had second thoughts about my decision. These were darn good curlers showing up for the draws. After a few minutes a few other folks showed up that I wasn't familiar with, so I figured I'd already said I would, so I might as well follow through. I explained to the skip that I was only a last minute replacement and I definitely was not a 'Super Curling' type curler. He assured me it would be okay.

We headed out to the ice to get ready to play. Great start, we lost the flip and got to throw first stones. The end went by okay with lots of rocks in play and me sweeping up and down the sheet almost dying from a lack of oxygen. At the completion of all the rocks there were 2 yellow stones counting. I had to rub my eyes though at first and give myself a pinch as our team were actually throwing yellows rocks so that meant we were up 2 to 0.

The second end completed and we had 3 more counters sitting in the rings. This definitely was a GREAT game going on as far as I was concerned. In actual fact, the other team wasn't doing so swell even though they have played together for a while. The rocks just were not going where they wanted them to go this evening.

The score after 6 complete ends of play was 12-0 for our team. At this point, the other team conceded and we got to depart the ice surface. Now I'm not usually one to just throw in the towel when some good exercise is available, but I was all for it this night. I had drank down about half a glass full of cough medicine (none of those sissy little teaspoons for me) before the curling started and I hadn't done too badly coughing thoughout the game, but the reserves just weren't there. I was plumb tuckered and more than willing to call it a night.

We shook hands and everyone retired to the local watering hole to quench their thirst. Sadly, I was not one of those that attended to 'Buck's Bar' that evening. Sam and I got in the truck and we headed for home. Enough was enough. I needed some rest and fast. It was either that or I was going to fall down from exhaustion.

Too bad I can't use this game for my 'Senior League' curling. Two "W's" are a way more impressive looking than just a lonely one "W" to my thinking.

For Sale - Very Cheap

I knew my luck was not good enough to hold and keep me from catching Sandra's cold. Of course she is now on the mend and I'm suffering big time. The only good thing is that so far it just is a cold and there is no flu type symptoms. I would say that I have to mark that down to us both getting our flu shots in early December. But if anyone wants one slightly used cold, by all means give me a call and I'll send it off to you free of charge.

Of course this is the weekend we had planned to celebrate Janessa's 8th birthday. Sheila, Wendell and the girls showed up last evening, but I'm not in a real celebrating type mood. Sheila and family headed for the city today to visit the Lakeview water slides which I wouldn't be going to at the best of times anyway. That left me a few hours to get horizontal and try and recuperate a bit before they get back.

The idea is that we will have bbq'd hamburgers and wieners for supper and then a piece of cake and ice cream. I'm not certain that ice cream is appropriate for the weather that we are having right now, but of course with young people, they will want it for sure. Yours truly can probably do without anything cold at the moment as I'm shivering enough.

Achoo !!!

The Snow Keeps On Coming

We have had snow and blowing snow for the last couple of days and I'm getting a little tired with it all. We were in the city on Tuesday to do a bit of shopping and ran into snow on the way into the city. While in the city the snow increased and then the winds started to pick up.

I had a few stops to make before we could make our break for the country once again. Of course my eye was watching the impending blizzard conditions with a bit of trepidation. However, I'll gladly exchange the slippery city streets for some lower visibility driving out in the country.

I think the city of Saskatoon is trying to save a few bucks or something as the roads are just atrocious. These are not the side streets, these are the main roads such as 8th Street, 33rd Street, etc. However, in all honesty it is hard to keep the roads sanded when the snow and blowing snow is just moving the sand around all of the time.

We did make it back home safe and sound although it took a bit longer than normal, but then it is winter and you expect the sub standard road conditions. The wind continued to pick up throughout the evening and we had a mini blizzard around 11pm or so. It was nowhere as bad as it was with the full flown blizzard a week or so though.

So Wednesday morning I fired up 'big red' and cleared out the driveways and sidewalks around our house. It normally takes about 60-90 minutes to get it all done which is good exercise as far as I'm concerned. But this week I've caught a bit of a cold so it isn't the best situation to try and fight the snow.

Then last night as I was sitting watching the boob tube, the darn wind started to pick up and then it started snowing again. Once again we had ourselves a mini blizzard. After I got up this morning, I sat and looked out the window at the driveway and was tempted to say 'to hell with it' and let it sit. But then I thought a bit more and decided to head out into the weather once again.

Brrrr, it was a lot colder out there today as the temperature was sitting near the -25 point and then a fairly gusty wind on top of that. But 90 minutes later I got to park 'big red' once again. My world was at peace once again, and the driveways, sidewalks, next door neighbor's driveways, etc were all nice and clear and ready for the next onslaught.

As I'm sitting here typing this, the darn wind is picking up once again. The forecast is calling for 'light snow' in our area, but the forecasters are warning of blizzard conditions south of us in the Regina area. Those forecasters have been wrong before, but I'm hoping that they aren't this time.

I looked in on the fellow from Tomkins, Saskatchewan who predicts weather by chewing on Pig Spleens to see what he had for a forecast. It doesn't look good as far as I can tell, but the only consolidation I have is that I hope he is talking about 'southern Saskatchewan' and not for us folks that are little bit north of Regina. Afterall, we do have at least 1 or 2 trees up in this neck of the woods to block off some of that darn wind.

We can always hope, can't we?

Wish Came True

It appears that someone has gotten their wish to come true for them. James made it back to the Saskatoon area last Thursday and then spent the day in the city on Friday the 26th. He then had the weekend off to do as he wished.

The only problem was that the boss never called to get him back to work after the weekend. Finally James made his own way in to the city and found out his truck was going out, but he as sitting at home. A little deja vu floated to the surface as far as I could tell. As per Another Day, No More Dollars It seems that one of the senior drivers needed a truck as his clutch went out on his own truck.

The next thing James knew he was advised to clear his gear out of his truck. This was from the senior driver and it appeared to be a 'sacking in progress' from my point of view. James tried calling the boss/owner to find out his status, but as of today there has been no returned calls from Roger.

Of course he doesn't know what the heck is going on, but it could very well be that he did get his wish to have more time back home in Hanley. The only problem is that he won't be out on the road in the near future. Without actually having spoken to the owner of the company, it is hard to figure out just where he sits though.

From my point of view, it seems that the 'parting of the ways' has been coming for the last month or so. James didn't seem to be happy with what was happening by being out on the road all of the time as a long haul trucker and the boss was getting a bit unhappy with the amount of downtime required in Hanley.

Too bad, but that is the way things go every now and then. Hopefully it will all get settled out in the next bit and all can get on with their respective goals in life.

New Customer

Just as I was sitting down to watch some fine TV viewing tonight with 'Prison Break', '24' and 'Heros' the phone rings. The caller was having some computer problems and wanted to know if I could help. As she sounded a bit frantic I sensed that she wanted some immediate help. So I said I could be right over.

I was over at the residence in a minute or so and found the problem appeared to be with the printer. It had been working fine, however, it just stopped working with this particular program. I went to the manufacturer's web site and downloaded the correct printer driver and did an uninstall and reinstall of the printer driver.

The driver went in fine and all programs were working fine except the program that was needed to print a report. I felt that it could be the actual program that got a glitch and needed to be reinstalled. Of course nowadays most computers come pre-installed with all the programs they need. The backups are on a 'Restore' disk which is a pain in the butt to use to reinstall just a single program.

I was fortunate in that I had the program at home on a separate disk. I drove home and got the disk, returned and reinstalled the program. All was well once again with the program and the printer. However, while I was doing the printing I noticed there were some errors in the report. The report was created by using a spreadsheet and there were errors being shown where the equations were not working properly.

With a bit of searching I got the errors fixed up, but then found some more errors. It looked like every line of the report would have to be gone through with a fine tooth comb. Sadly the owner was not a spread sheet expert, but at least she had the report all printed out. She could go through it and see if she could fix up the errors on paper.

While I was working I was speaking to the folks about slowness of their computer and how they should be maybe looking at some anti-spyware software, etc. Then I asked if they had cleaned out the junk (extra files) out of the computer lately. Well yes, they had the computer in to get cleaned only a year or so ago. I then quickly downloaded Crap Cleaner and did quick check. The computer only had 670 megs of junk sitting there so we cleaned that up for them and recovered the real estate on the hard drive.

I then re-explained about spyware and whatnot that they should be looking at. I could tell that we were overshooting the knowledge base on this one. So I asked if they would rather have me do the installing and cleaning. This was definitely a better plan than them doing it themselves. So now I have a date to go work on their computer on Wednesday.

Gee, word of mouth in a small town is great :)

Curling Day

As today was a Monday, I had curling again. Of course last week was a first in that the team I was on actually won the game. This wrecked my perfect record of losses though, but then I thought I might just be on a roll.

Just prior to the start of the game the skip came up to me and told me I was going to be the 3rd today. I normally play the 2nd stones and know diddly squat about what a 3rd does. With the flu going around, the 3rd decided 10 minutes prior to the start of the game to call in that he was sick and wouldn't be coming. Of course this didn't leave us any time to call in one of the spares, so we went with only 3 players for the game. The lead and myself got to throw 3 rocks each end instead of the normal two.

The first end came together quite nicely and we scored 2 points (almost had 3). It looked like we just may have a chance of staying in front of the other team. On the 2nd end we scored another point to be up 3-0. However, on the 3rd end, they scored 3 points. Then on the 4th we scored another point and the score was 4 to 3. On the 5th end there were all kinds of rocks in play. Darn if at the finish of the end there were 4 counters. Sadly it was for the other team. So now of course we were in a big hole at 7 to 4 for the other team.

We oned them on ends 5, and 6 and they scored one on the 7th. The score was 8-6 going into the last end with our team having the hammer. We put our rocks right where the skip wanted them to allow us to get extra scores, but sadly we only ended up counting one on the end. The final score was 8-7 for the other team.

But at least I feel better now that my record is back on track. It was bothering me to have that one big 'W' under my belt. My hat was getting a bit tight and all that so it was gratifying in getting back to where I belong, 6 Losses and 1 Win.

Boy did I have a short roll, however, being that we were one team member short meant that we had to sweep harder to get the same result. That meant more exercise for me and of course that is the whole point of going out for curling.

Exercise and fun, that is the reason for the 'Senior Curling League'.

The Hype is On

It seems that everywhere you look in the last couple of days, all you see is ads for Microsoft's new operating system Vista. This system is going to be a bit different in that it will have more flavours than we are currently faced with in the XP version.

I have been searching around and doing some reading on the pros and cons of the system. On the surface, the system sure does look nice, but then tell me one thing that doesn't look nice when it is a brand new?

For anyone that hasn't yet checked their system out to see if they can actually upgrade to Vista, here is a link to check Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. You need to download a 6.7 mb file and then run the program to install it.

Once installed, you run the program and it checks your computer for any glitches it may find as it pertains to Vista. I have read that it most definitely does not find all the problems you may have with hardware and software on you systems. So those that are contemplating upgrading, do some homework first. As well Microsoft says that you need as a minimum 512 mb of RAM. From what I'm seeing, I wouldn't even be thinking of upgrading without a minimum of 1 gig of RAM. 512 RAM is about the minimum amount of RAM that you need to run an XP system with any proficiency. The system will run with less RAM, it's just that with all the upgrades etc, the system has a tendancy to run like a snail.

If you want to get the 'hype' on Vista from the horses mouth so to speak, you can go to Microsoft's own site of Windows Vista and read all about it.

Trip to Calgary

James departed Hanley yesterday afternoon enroute to deliver his load to Calgary. At about 8:15 p.m. last night he called to advise that just outside of Hanna, Alberta he smoked a deer. There was damage to his bumper and driver's side fender but other than that no problems with the truck and he was continuing on with his trip.

One interesting thing was that James called 911 to report his accident. In Saskatchewan we don't report accidents with wildlife as long as there are no injuries, the animal is deceased and the vehicle can be driven away from the scene. Mind you hundreds of folks do still call and attempt to report the accidents every day. The folks down in Regina have it down pat answering that 'no if there is no injuries, deer is dead and your vehicle is drivable, you do not have to report to the RCMP. You just report to SGI and they take it from there. There are just too many deer accidents everyday to have the police respond to these type of accidents that end up essentially being SGI reports. I wasn't aware that Alberta did not have the same policy, but I guess not.


Of course the operators in Regina have to ensure that the deer is off the road and not a traffic hazard. If not they advise the caller to remove it to the side of the road. The operators can then advise the Department of Highways of a deer along the side of the road for pickup. However, from my travels into the city I would say the Department of Highways leave the carcasses for the most part to the coyotes and ravens to clean up. Mind you these animals may be from the result of accidents that happen and are not actually called into the Regina Communication Center RCMP.

Anyhow when James called 911 from his cell phone to report the accident. After he hung up he tried to call someone else and his cell phone would not work. He got a notice that his phone was 'restricted to emergency calling' (or something similar). What he had to do was actually power down his phone and then power it back up and the phone would be back in business. Now I'm not sure if this is a phone specific thing or all cell phones that call 911 are restricted in the same way.

It's funny, but I have never had to call 911 in my life. I've answered thousands of the calls, but I've never actually had to call one in myself. In actual fact most people have probably never had to call 911 in their lives. Then there are some people that seem to have the number on speed dial as they use it 4-5 times (or more) a day. When I was working we used to call these folks the 'frequent flyer' callers. They misuse the 911 system for everything from minor thefts that occurred weeks (years ago) to stupid calls such as 'their 10 year old kid won't go to bed' and wanting immediate police action.

Of course all calls have to be answered and dealt with as you don't know what the call is going to be until you have actually spoken to the complainant.

Finally A Win

As it is Monday once again I had curling this morning. Lo and behold I finally get to show a 'W' beside my name. Mind you, the game certainly was not won on my skills today. I couldn't get my weight down at all. One rock would be too light and then the next rock would be too heavy. It just wouldn't come together.

It was 7 to 6 for our team on the last end. We had the hammer which was a good thing. On the 8th end I finally was able to place both of my rocks where the skip wanted them. We ended up scoring another point on the 8th with our skip not throwing his last rock.

I just could not for the life of me get things going today. But now my perfect record is broken. 1 Win and 5 Losses. I guess I'll have to give it another try next Monday to see how the wind blows. Who knows, I may be on a roll now...

I doubt it, but you can always hope :)

Busy House Arranging

Just after speaking to James, I had a call from Wendell. I guess Sheila, Wendell and the girls are heading up this way to visit with us this weekend as well. We'll have a full house this weekend. It also means that I had to do a bit of cleaning up downstairs and set up a semi bedroom. That means moving boxes in my work room around to allow for a bedroom to be created out of the room. There is a bedroom downstairs, however, James has dibs on that one.

I know for sure that come this summer, there is going to be a lot of junk that either hits the garbage or at least gets repacked and moved out to the shed. I'm getting tired of moving everything around whenever visitors come for a visit. The idea was that I was going to sort through it all after we got settled in and get rid of what we could. Any of the saved articles that we wanted and could be, would be moved out to the shed. That way I could have a nice bedroom in the basement for visitors and also I could have a small work room that I could putter around in.

I lost the bedroom to James and I never did get around to sorting the boxes after we moved in. Then before I knew it I ended up with a couple truck loads of James belongings. When Craig made the move back north I also ended up with some of his extra boxes. They also ended up in the basement.

Hopefully I can get some of it sorted out this summer to allow some extra room downstairs.

Out of the States

James is steaming northbound attempting to get out of the US prior to the next big storm coming through. I spoke to him at 10:40 a.m. this morning and he was just entering North Dakota. According to NOAA, there is a large snow storm moving into South Dakota today however, James will be long out of that area prior to the storm hitting. Mind you, the majority of his trucking time is down into that part of the country, but for this trip he has safely traversed the ice and snow.

If all goes according to the plan, James should be up in this neck of the woods by about 5:30 to 6:00 pm tonight. It depends on whether he is going to take his unit right into the city and let it sit there until Monday or stop here in Hanley for a day or so and then carry on. The load is destined for Calgary and James was scheduled to take it all the way for delivery early Monday. Of course plans change.

The idea would be that he would take the load up to Calgary, pick up something else and make it back to Saskatoon for Thursday. He would then get a few days off at home rather than sitting in a foreign place such as Houston. Mind you as he sits, his mileage stays at zero which means less dollars. But I don't really think that the monetary reward is where his thoughts are at this stage of the game.

And He Is Off

I had received a call from James this morning and he was still sitting waiting for the go ahead to depart. It would appear that there were a few more hoops to jump through prior to his permits being in order.

The bad part was that even with the permits the weather in north Texas is horrible. Ice storms are coating the highways and snow was in the forecast. From what James had heard from other truckers, the highways north towards Dallas were being closed down due to the unsafe driving conditions. The talk was that the roads were going to stay closed until about Saturday.

James was seriously thinking of just walking away from the truck and catching a flight back to Canada. Just sitting doing nothing is wearing heavily on him. The boss advised him that he would reimburse him somewhat for sitting last weekend, but with the weather being an act of God, it is unlikely there would be any payment for lost miles since Monday. So once again just sitting making no miles strikes at James pocketbook.

At about 1:15 pm James called back to say he was finally on the move and heading northbound. He has no idea how far he can travel before the road conditions shut him down, but at least he is moving a bit. I did do a search for road conditions in Texas and Oklahoma and it definitely does not look very promising. The rain falling is freezing and coating everything a couple inches thick. That does not bode well for the roadways themselves. The temperatures are right around freezing at around 30F so the ice is not likely to melt right away. I'm not sure if they actually use salt on the roadways or just use sand. If it is just sand then of course it won't be helping with the melting.

I'm just hoping James doesn't get stuck out in the middle of nowhere or worse yet parks in a ditch. Sometimes a little patience goes a long way to getting to your destination.

Another Day - No More Dollars

It would seem that in Texas trucking is handled a bit different than the other States. The State allows everyone to enter, however, to load up and depart the State requires extra steps that the other States do not require.

In James case, he is overweight and possibly over height. In the other States you get a permit and pay your money and away you go within the limitations of the permit you acquired. In Texas you can't just pick up a permit and pay your dollars for the right to drive, you must get a broker and then still jump through a bunch of hoops. The end result is that James is sitting in Texas for another day. He is hopeful that maybe tomorrow he can leave, but there is no guarantee.

As he sits in the parking lot he noticed that there were 6 trucks with Saskatchewan plates parked there. On speaking to a few of the other drivers he certainly found out it is not worth the hassle of being overweight or height. The hassles are just so complicated. The other drivers are loading up with their legal loads and departing back to the Great White North.

So James gets to sit another day and of course seeing as he is sitting and not making any miles, he is not making any money. On a normal day a trucker can drive for 11 hours. If the speed limit is maintained the trucker would be making somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1100 kilometers or 687 miles. At 41 cents a mile that works out to be about $282.00.

In James case he as been sitting since bright and early Friday morning, so for 4 days. That works out to lost revenue of about $1130.00. Mind you if he takes his weekend off (even though it was not at home), then he only has lost 2 days or $564.00. That is still a chunk of change. I don't believe anyone would like to just loose $564 off their paycheck for the week. However, that is the life of a long haul truck driver. If you have to wait for a load or whatever then usually the boss pays you some down time, but it no way adds up to your lost revenue.

Seeing how James was away from home for the weekend, he wants to take a few days off when he gets back to Canada. That may be during the week, so he will again loose a couple days pay when he takes those days off due to not driving. Whether the boss will put another driver in the truck and try and recoup some of the lost income from the truck is another matter. After a few times of replacing the driver with a replacement, maybe the replacement driver gets to take the loads and the original driver gets to sit waiting for an opening in the driver's seat.

I'm hoping this doesn't happen to James, but from the track record of the company he works for nothing would surprise me.

Stuck in the South

When I got home from curling I had a message waiting from James. He wanted me to give him a call when I could, so I returned the call. He did get loaded, however, now he is over weight and needs permits. He is now sitting on the north edge of Houston.

The boss was trying to line up some permits for him to start trucking again and hopefully would have them today. It was interesting that the boss suggested that maybe James would be able to leave this evening sometime. That gets me to thinking... permits and evenings.

To my thinking, most of the scales are closed in the evenings. So if he is wanting James to travel in the evening/night, then maybe the permits are not actually there, and he wants James to bypass a few scales. That doesn't sound too cricket to me.

James did comment that he was tired of driving at night and wanted to do some driving during the daylight hours. Some truckers like driving at night, and others prefer the daylight hours. I know that James was looking at another job where he would be just driving within a 2 hour limit of home (or so). As well it would be just a Monday to Friday driving job.

It would appear that he is comparing the two jobs and leaning more to the one around home (if it actually materializes). He wouldn't get to see as much country, but hopefully there would be some stability in his life.

My thoughts are you don't throw away something without first having a heck of a good replacement first. Hopefully it all plans out for him.

Perfect Record

I was up bright and early this morning so I could head down to the curling rink for the Monday curling match. This was to be my fifth game since we started curling on December 11th.

Today we started out great guns with a 4 ender in the 2nd followed by a 3 ender and then a single. It would seem that the game was going our way. But as it normally happens, the plan fell apart and we just couldn't make any shots for the rest of the game. They didn't beat us too terribly badly, but the other team did come out on top.

So that makes it a perfect score for me. Five games played, five games lost :(

Of course the curling is just for the fun and for a bit of exercise. Actually I find it is such a wonderful way to meet fellow citizens of the town and vice versa. I don't really care what the score is.

I do have a few games to go prior to the end of the season, so I'm hoping I will be able to come out victorious in at least one game for the year.

Time will tell.

Houston, We Have A Problem !

The problem is that there is one extra long haul truck driver parked just outside Houston in the small community of Brookshire (just west of Houston) with nothing to do. Yup, it is James and he has been sitting in Brookshire since early Friday.

Originally James was to get loaded Saturday morning and then head for home, however, the company needs a crane to load the trailer and there were no cranes available until Monday at the earliest. With no real other choice, James gets to sit and bide his time until Monday morning. The sitting idle has not pleased James too much, but then he can't really zip home for the weekend and then back again for Monday morning as it is nearly 3000 kms to Houston from Saskatoon.

James has amused himself by watching a bit of TV, a couple dvd movies and he even went for a long walk. While he was out walking yesterday it started to rain. However, he was able to make it back to the truck prior to the real downpour. He got a bit damp, but nothing too serious.

I talked to James Saturday night and he was pretty bored with the whole situation. He was able to find another truck stop that sold cheaper wobbly pops though than the one he was parked at. If I remember correctly what he said, he could buy 6 king cans of Keystone Lite for about $4.80. He had picked up a movie, some Chinese food for eats and 6 king cans and was settling in for the evening.

He still has all day Sunday to go, so you could fairly well say he has had about enough of south Texas. I took a quick peak at the temperature in Houston just prior to starting up this blog and the temperature was sitting at +22C. Then I looked at my temperature gauge and it is showing -29C. Let's see, where would I rather be?

The one good thing about sitting in Houston for the weekend is that most of the ice storms that are going through the north of Texas and into Oklahoma should have moved on prior to James travelling northbound. From the weather reports from the south, the ice was snapping off telephone poles as it coated everything and then the wind was so strong. From the weather reports, most of the storms should have dissipated by late Sunday. There may be the odd icy section on the highways, but nothing like what it was like late Friday, early Saturday.

As of yesterday, James was not certain where he would be heading when he leaves Texas. He thought the load was destined for Calgary and was hoping he could take it all the way there to unload. With another quick run to the States (down to Iowa or Missouri) and home and he should have enough miles for the month that he could maybe get a couple days off back in Hanley.

The boss may have different ideas though so we'll have to wait and see what transpires.

Down in the Banana Belt

I spoke to James just prior to 6 pm tonite and he had cleared Victoria, Texas and was enroute to Houston to pick up his next load. The bad part was that he would be arriving in Houston tonite however, he can't get loaded until Saturday. So he will get a whole day in Houston with nothing to do. I told him to play tourist and just bum around. Afterall, it is not every day you get to visit Houston.

The weather down in Texas is in the mid 50's, however, the locals are finding it cold. James was walking around in a tee shirt and was sweating a bit. I filled him in on our weather and told him to enjoy what he had. He could have been up here driving (or should I say parked in the ditch) in freezing temps.

It is unknown when James will be back into Canada, however, if he loads on Saturday, he could probably be back early Monday. It all depends where his load has to be delivered to.

We Survived

That definitely was one heck of a blizzard that blew through this country yesterday. I can honestly say that I haven't seen anything near this bad since I was last up in the arctic in the mid 70's. The last official blizzard that was supposedly worse than this one was back in 1955. At that time I was living in Drayton Valley, Alberta so I missed out on it. About all I can remember back that far was that we had a huge snow fall that year with the snow banks almost up to the telephone/power wires.

We didn't seem to get an over abundance of snow out of the recent storm though. Sure the snow was blown up into drifts, but there wasn't an awful lot of extra snow around. Mind you I took out the snow blower and cleaned up the driveways and sidewalks around the house this morning and it took me 2 1/2 hours where it usually only takes about an hour.

The reason that it took so much longer to snow blow was because of the snow drifts and the snow was packed in very solidly. Along the side sidewalks the drifts were over the top of the snow blower (3 1/2 feet or so), so I had to be a little more careful.

It also took a bit more work trying to move the blower around today because of the packed snow. The cold weather certainly didn't help at all either. I didn't find it too bad outside as I was dressed for the -30 C temperatures. However, my lungs let me know later when I came in that they had been attacked by breathing in the colder than normal air. My lungs usually act up with the cold weather and it brings on fits of asthma for me.

So for the rest of the day I've been coughing trying to clear out my lungs. I do have an inhalor that I take which does help when this happens, but it still takes awhile to get back to normal once again. I'll probably finish this blog off and then take a few puffs on the inhalors and hit my pillow. Hopefully by morning I should be back to normal.

But we made it through the blizzard no worse for wear. No I think with the cold weather we are just going to hibernate for a couple of days. There is always the boob tube to watch, the internet to play on or just read a book or two.

Travelling Southbound

I spoke to James at 5 pm and he was just going through Newton, Kansas. This is just a bit north of Wichita. So far the roads are great, but he has run into some wind today.

Actually the wind was so strong that it broke his driver's mirror in half as he was driving so he had to stop and get another one installed so he could see out the back. It's a good thing he isn't travelling up in the Saskatoon area as he wouldn't need a mirror at all. He just wouldn't be able to see out the front, to the rear or to the sides with all the wind and blowing snow we are presently facing.

James is hoping to make it to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma tonite before he parks. The distance from Newton to Oklahoma City is about 300 kms, so he is going to have to boogie before his 11 hours of driving time is up. But he is travelling on I35 which is a 70 mph road, so he should make it okay.

WOW! Is This a Blizzard or What?






You sure have to hand it to the weather folks this time. They nailed this blizzard right on. It has been blowing and snowing since about 8 pm last nite here in Hanley. At least last night you could still see down the streets a bit. Today it is just unreal.

I had to go to a customer's house for 1 pm today. It is 3 blocks and seeing as I was taking a brief case with disks etc in it, I decided to drive. I made it to the house at the scheduled time, however, when I went to depart at 3:30 pm the weather had really deterioated. I was driving down the street and you couldn't tell where the street ended and the sidewalks started.






I just crept down the street hoping that I was staying in the center of the road and praying that no one else was coming towards me. I caught the sign post for the corner for a second and turned otherwise I would have continued right into a fellows yard. At this turn I was turned around and heading for home (3 blocks away), but you just could not see the road or anything else.

I finally made it one block closer to home in about 5 minutes and turned down the street so at least I could see a bit. Thankfully after going down the block I could make another left turn and the houses were blocking a bit of the blowing snow so I could creep home.

Three blocks took me over 10 minutes to navigate home. I was certainly felt a ton of relief when I turned into a driveway and found that it was actually my own. There should be no one out on the highways in this. If it is this bad in the town, I can only shudder to think how bad it would be out on the highways.


All three pictures were taken out of the garage doorway at 4:30 pm. today. The first one is looking across the front yard towards downtown and the other two are the houses across the street.

Where's the Trucker?

As of this past Sunday James headed back to work. He had to drive through the horrible weather and road conditions on his way to Edmonton to pick up a load. He was back in Hanley this morning at about 7:00 a.m. and departed at about 7:30 a.m. heading south bound.

James called at 8:00 p.m. tonight to advise that he was approaching Jamestown, North Dakota, but he had a few more hours of driving to go before the day was done. He is enroute to Rhome, Texas (just north of Dallas/Fort Worth) and is supposed to be there by noon on Thursday. In Rhome he gets to drop part of his load and then continue on to Victoria, Texas. There supposedly is a load to be picked up in the area and then he gets to head back north. Mind you, I doubt whether he'll make it back up this way until probably Monday or Tuesday.

Hoping James will have blue skies and clean highways on his travels.

Still Living

I sure haven't been around the computer for the last week or so. As it turns out, we ended up with 24 teams for the Legion bonspiel. That is a way better than the 7 teams that we had a week ago Sunday. Mind you, that is still down from previous years, but even in the cities they are having a hard time getting people out to curl this year.

So with some last minute running around on Friday, we got the 'spiel going Friday evening. That meant getting to the bar and getting our liquid refreshments picked up and then stocking the fridges, etc. After it was all said and done I got home at 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning. It was a very long day. I don't think my eyes felt that gritty since I last worked a night shift in Regina.

I was up at 9:00 a.m. and down to the community center to get the bar set up for the Saturday festivities. We opened up the bar again at 1:00 p.m. with the local curling club manning the bar, however, I was in the area at all times in case they needed something. Of course I had to run to the hotel and replenish the beer and ice supply every now and then.

On Saturday night we had RJ and The Boys come in and play for the evening. As per normal, the band was excellent. Our crowd was down from previous years. It seemed after the great roast beef supper we had, most people went home or in some cases over to the local watering hole. With about 30 minutes left in the dance people finally started to get up and dance. The only problem was that the crowd had thinned out considerably by this time. It was decided that we wouldn't extend the band for an extra set, so the band wound up playing at around 12:30 a.m.

The bar stayed open until 2:00 a.m. with yours truly manning the counter once again. At 2:00 a.m. we still had about 8 people sitting sipping and swapping tales, but at about 2:10 a.m. they were gone. I was able to clean up and restock the fridge etc and headed home to work on the expenditure figures. Once again it was right around 4:00 a.m. when I finally found a pillow.

I got to sleep in a few extra minutes on Sunday and was back at the hall by 10:30 a.m. to get ready for the Sunday crowd. Actually Sunday was a good day for the sales at the bar (thanks Larry :-) ). Much better than Saturday was for sure. It was looking darn right glum at the end of Saturday night, but with the Sunday sales we might actually make a profit on the 'spiel.

We were able to close down everything by 9:00-9:15 p.m. and head for home. Once again I got to play with the numbers to see how we were doing. I finished up just prior to midnight and took a walk down to the bank to make my final deposit. It is nice that the bank is only a block away from the house so it didn't take too long. A nice little 3-5 minute walk and a quick deposit and back home again. I immediately crawled into bed and was fast asleep within minutes.

I had to get up early once again on Monday as I had to curl in the senior's league. Prior to heading to curling I had to make up a loaf of sandwiches for the noon lunch as it was my turn to supply some food for the lunch. I figured I'd serve the noon lunch, do my 2 hour curling game and then start on cleaning up with returning the unused liquor, beer etc. Thankfully one of the other Legion members was in the hall having a morning coffee and he offered to handle the return of the beer bottle empties, return the unused beer and liquor and return the extras to the Legion Hut. Man did I jump at his offer.

I helped him load up his truck with as much as we could and helped out in the kitchen until my game time. By the end of my game at 2:30 p.m. all the returning was done and I was free to head home which I certainly did. It was sure nice to just sit down on a comfortable chesterfield rather than a hall chair for a couple of hours. In between answering a few phone calls about how we made out at the 'spiel, etc, I got to actually watch a bit of TV once again.

As I was sitting watching the boob tube I only fell asleep 2 or 3 times before I got smart enough to find my pillow for the night. Both Sandra and I got to sleep in until just around 9:00 a.m. and then we got ready and headed into the city. With the oncoming blizzard coming our way, I wanted to get to the city today so that I could replenish the fridge as well as pick up our prescriptions for the oncoming month.

The roads in and out of the city were just excellent today. I didn't see one bit of ice on either side of the road. The blowing and drifting snow the last couple of days didn't stick onto the highway which was great. With the strike of our SGEU highway workers going on at present, I'm sure hoping that the next couple days will be a repeat for the highways. However, I did hear on the news that the union was going to allow the highway workers to return to work if the blizzard actually started to cause problems. Nice of them to think of the traveling public with the strike going on.

With the trip into the city behind us, we are ready to hibernate for the next couple of days as the blizzard and then the cold sets in. I do have a computer customer to visit tomorrow (Wednesday), a few more bills to pay from the 'spiel, but nothing too taxing. Of course I can walk to everything so I don't have to worry about driving around.

It will be nice to sit back and catch up on a few books I've been reading but haven't had a chance to open lately, maybe read some of my numerous email messages that I have acquired, and just generally get caught up with what is happening in the world. I think just sitting back and just taking it easy for a couple days will be great.

Then it will be time to head out and tackle the snow on the sidewalks, driveway again. Oh yes, just as I'm about to publish this blog I looked outside and the snow is starting to come down quite heavily. I'm ready for it so bring it on!

Another New Year Starts

Happy New Years to everyone!

Our household quietly brought in the New Years last evening. As per normal, we had a nice bbq steak for supper yesterday evening. I was a bit worried that I would run out of propane prior to the supper being done, but the worry was for naught. I definitely will have to get the tank refilled in the not too distant future though.

We had a leisurely supper with James and Johanna and then just basically sat around shooting the breeze for a couple hours or so. Sandra fired up the boob tube and watched a bit of TV from Newfoundland and then at about 10:30 pm we hit the pillows. James and Johanna were off to do their thing and Sandra and I just retired to slumber land.

The whole town was fairly quiet last evening from what I heard. From what I gather this is the first year in quite some time that there wasn't a New Years eve dance in the hall. I guess folks just are not that interested in dancing anymore. Mind you, when I have been out walking the last couple of nights, I noticed that many many homes in town were in darkness. The folks had apparently gone away for the holidays. So I'm just not certain if it was just that the people were away or just there was no interest.

Another problem is fast approaching with people though. The local Legion has their annual curling bonspiel set to go next weekend (Jan 5-7). Of course we had to get a liquor permit, line up the food, order the liquor, etc. The one huge problem we have is that as Sunday afternoon we only had 7 or 8 teams signed up to curl. Normally this bonspiel has 20-24 teams. It would be darn hard to really have a decent bonspiel with so few teams. So now we are sitting in the spot 'do we cancel' or 'do we go ahead'?

There is a Legion meeting on Wednesday, January 3rd, and I imagine we'll have to make up our minds at that time. But of course we can't wait until then to order up the food which has to be ordered before hand. The same goes for the beer and liquor. Mind you, if we cancel at the last minute, I'm sure the hardware and the hotel will be able to reuse the liquor and beer. But for the food, we normally can't return that.

It does seem to be coming down to just a lack of interest by folks. Nobody wants to get involved or commit themselves. I believe out of the 67 or so folks in the Legion, we probably have about 10-12 that show up at meetings with any regularity. Of course the other folks still pay their dues and that certainly helps. It is just that the active members have been carrying on the branch for awhile and some members are getting tired and wanting others to assist. There just are not that many new people around that are interested in joining and assisting.

With more and more of the actual veterans passing on, there appears to be less of a reason to keep the Legion going. Hanley is not the only branch that is having problems. Legions all over the country are going through the exact same problem. In our area we have had a few Legions actually fold up over the last couple years and I'm sure we'll see more in the future.

The Legions have certainly done their bit to assist with returning vets throughout the years. We do have our members in the military serving in combat areas at present, however, even the ex-members of the Canadian Armed Forces are not signing up in the Legions. It is just a different world out there now and people are not quite as active in clubs and what not. It is a sad thing to see, but you certainly can't force people to be part of an organization and you can't force them to be active participants in the organization even if they do join.

Possibly, the Legion and other clubs have done their service to our returning veterans and it is now time to move on. Time will tell.