Feeling Sorry For The Grandkids

At 4:00 pm I walked downtown to check the mail. My oh my is it toasty outside. Walking down the street it felt like the very air you breathed was on fire. Thankfully there was a bit of a breeze to help cool me a bit. I didn't waste any time getting back home and into the house and the air conditioned air. I then felt so sorry for my grandkids in Regina knowing that they have no air conditioning at home. I also remembered my niece in Weyburn with no air conditioning as well and certainly felt for her and her family as well.

Then I thought I'd compare a few of the weather stats for Hanley, Regina, Weyburn and for a comparison (for me), Hamilton Bermuda. It certainly is warm in all places. Regina does come out on top of the heap, but not by a lot.

Let's see:

Bermuda's temp is 27 with the humidity of 79% it feels like 38
Hanley's temp is 35 with the humidity of 30% it feels like 39
Weyburn's temp is 38 with the humidity of 20% it feels like 40
Regina's temp is 34 with the humidity of 47% it feels like 43

Believe you me, the humidity of 79% in Bermuda would be a killer for most of us 'flatlanders'. Actually a 79% is fairly low for the island country. When I lived there (1972-74) it was not uncommon to have a humidity level near the 95-98% level daily. Mind you the temps didn't waiver too much from around the 25-28 degree mark. Still all in all, the humidity just saps you. Even with a breeze it doesn't cool you down like it does when you have a lower humidity.

So now I do feel badly for the poor grandkids in Regina and only hope Wendell decided he needed to check out the mall or something to give them a break. Same same for Shar-Lee and family. A nice long stroll through the mall would probably be about right for today.

The forecast doesn't appear to have much relief for the next 5 days though.

Just think though, less than 5 months and it will be Christmas :) and hopefully we'll have some nice cool white snow.

Too Hot Outside


Seeing as it is just a way too warm outside, I've been couped up in the house all day. When that happens, my fingers always want to play on the keyboard. Some days are good and then some days are not so good.

As you can tell already, I've been playing with the templates on the Blogger Blog. The old template just wasn't doing it for me of late, so I figured I'd try something new. Now whether I'll keep the current template or move to something else, I'm just not sure.

Depends on how warm it gets outside in the next day or so as to whether I get to play on the keys :)

The House Is Quiet Once Again

We had a nice visit with grand daughter Julia and her dad Craig for the last week. As a 3 1/2 year old, Julia is like the energizer bunny, just goes and goes and goes and goes . . .

On Friday we made the trip to Regina in one of the hotter days of late (aren't they all lately). We had to go right into the heart of the city in the downtown core business area so Craig could take care of some business. The temp in the truck showed it was 33 C outside and where we were parked there was no breeze. I turned the truck off after I parked, but within about 20 seconds I restarted it so we would have some air conditioning.

After 15 minutes I had to get out and replug the parking meter. I tried to convince Sandra it was her turn, but she wasn't having any of that. Julia just looked at me as if I was daft when I suggested she do it. Her poor little arms wouldn't even reach the meter let alone be able to plug the thing. But give me A for effort as I tried. With no takers I climbed out and was hit by the blast furnace. Sheesh was that warm.

With Craig's business taken care of, we travelled to the north end of Regina to meet with Nicole and do the exchange of Julia. Believe me when I say we didn't dawdle outside the truck too long.

I did manage to get Julia and Craig to pose for a pic or two, but I was having a hard time getting them in sync. One would look away just as I took the pic or the other one would close their eyes just as the flash went off. With a little effort I was able to finally get one shot that I figure I could use on the blog.

Here's Julia and her dad Craig:



I'll have to try and get a pic of the other 3 scallywag grand daughters the next time they are up visiting. Trying to get those 3 dynamos to sit still for a pic can be quite hard at times, but we'll definitely make the effort.

Warm Day for a Road Trip


I normally am not an early morning person, however, today I did make the exception and got out of the sack earlier than normal. My mother (who is 76) wanted some help in cleaning up her mother's grave and wanted some assistance. How in the heck are you supposed to say 'no' to your 76 year old mother? Why even try and why should you. I was absent enough years throughout my working career that I most definitely would not be denying mom's request.

Last week when I was in the city I had purchased some supplies and in the last week I readied the very basic supplies for my grandmother's grave (ie painting, cutting, etc).

Early this morning we headed for the city and met mom and headed westbound to the what used to be called the town of Kelfield. The town (village or hamlet) doesn't officially exist anymore as everyone has essentially moved away or passed on save for a few folks that live in the area. There is no more the thriving town of 1950's vintage. Just a few empty buildings and a couple of families that live in the former town confines.

On arrival we found that the local graveyard had been recently mowed and to my eye it looked very well kept. Kudos to folks that look after this cemetery. It is a great job that you do.

My grandmothers grave is a very simple site with a headstone. My older brother Richard, who was raised by our grandmother, had built the form to mark the grave back in about 1992. The weather had taken it's toll over the years on the lumber and the form was literally turning to sawdust. So we created a new form to replace the previous form, painted it up and placed it around the grave site.



While I was busy putting the forms together, Rick cleaned the weeds from the grave with help from my son Craig. Once put in place, it definitely seemed to spruce up the final resting place of a great lady and a grandpa that I barely knew.

I hope that both Grandma and Grandpa Penley rest a bit easier knowing that someone still cares for them even after all these years...




Rest In Peace . . .

Something Smells

The more I read regarding the recently announced plan from Vigoro, the more I find that twitches my nose to this situation. It just 'stinks'.

If you look at a news announcement from 2006, you see that a Mr. Summers is the Chairman and CEO of VIGOR BIOTICS, INC. from Kenora, Ontario.

If you look a little further back, you see in July 2005 that Mr. Summers was in trouble with the law regarding a new biotechnology plant.

Skipping forward I find the article from North Bay Nugget stating that Mr. Summers is not always a truthful person.

From what I read, I personally won't be having any dealings with this man or his company, but that is my right as an individual.

I'm hoping the Town Council gets to the bottom of this fellow and the company and makes the right decision.

Trouble With The Deal

It would appear that the recently announced new company that is planning on setting up shop in Hanley may not be all that they say. This morning, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix had a headline Questions Surround Hanley Plant which certainly brings some credibility problems to the Vigor BioPharma and it's frontman, Gordon Summers. Mr. Summers appears to be quite familiar with fraud and forgery. He actually has served time in jail for a conviction of forgery and attempted fraud from Ontario.

A company representative states that the company still plans to go ahead in Hanley, however, there does need quite a few questions answered before the plan goes forward any further.

At least the Town and people around have been forewarned about this company and what they have for a track record in the past. People are going to want to get a lot of questions answered before they will put their trust in a company with Vigor BioPharma's record.

Thank goodness it was brought to light at this early stage of the game. Thank you to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix for doing a bit of digging. I don't think anyone wants to see a building built in town to just sit there empty in a few years.

Blogger and Blogs

I have been using Internet Explorer 7 to type up and view my blog entries since August 2006. This has been working fine as Blogger does have some neat stuff that you can use. Then I opened up my blog (and a few others) in Firefox. The blog definitely needs some work as the type face are different etc. The formatting in Firefox is the same as IE, but there are other subtle problems with viewing in Firefox.

With that in mind, I thought I'd state that as well as using Blogger to publish my blog I have also being using another blogging program, WordPress. I actually started my blogging life off with WordPress and then converted over to Blogger, however, I have kept up both blogs. They have for the most part identical content, however, there has been the odd thing that I haven't been able to convert over directly. I'm working on these small glitches to see if I can figure them out.

One thing I like about the WordPress blog, is that the actual blog seems to be a more clean type looking blog. That being said, I do like Blogger for what can be done with it.

So for any of you that have trouble reading the posts in Blogger, may I suggest you try my WordPress blog. It can be found at:

Old Red Jacket Talker

The Town is Booming



With the assistance of a local real estate firm, the Town of Hanley has attracted a couple companies to set up shop in our small town.



The major company is ViGor Biopharma which is a research development and pharmaceutical manufacturer of medicinal treatment for breast and ovarian cancer as well as having medicine for side affects of chemotherapy.



The other part of the business venture is Aurum Biotech which essentially is a nursery that develops Yew tree seedlings for farmers.



Good things are certainly coming to Saskatchewan in the last while and more importantly to small town Saskatchewan. This recent development is probably the largest development that Hanley has seen for many, many years (if not decades).

I can only say, "I am so happy that I bought my home when I did". The prices are definitely on the up swing for the town at present.

New Housing For Hanley

The official sod turning for the new Hanley Seniors' Housing Project being built under the Centenary Affordable Housing Program took place in town today at 11:30 a.m.




The Government of Canada was represented by our MP for Blackstrap, Lynn Yelich. The Province of Saskatchewan was represented by Kevin Yates and the Town of Hanley was represented by Mayor Don Lynn and Deputy Mayor Daryl Grindheim.

The Seniors Housing Project is comprised of 11 - 2 bedroom units and 1 - 1 bedroom unit. The federal government assisted with a $324,000. grant with the Province also supplying funding. The Town of Hanley and the citizens of the town will be supplying their labour to convert the following unit into these apartments. The total amounts supplied (including the Town's) is approximately $800,000 plus. In this day and age there are bound to be over runs, so I would presume we are looking at probably 1 to 1.5 million before it is all said and done.



There are actually 3 of the units as above and they will be put together in a 'T' formation to enable the 12 units along the long section of the complex and the 3rd unit in the middle of the project. This 3rd unit will hold the laundry room, communal room, heating plant etc. In the future it is also hoped to build in a kitchen facility to enable home delivery of meals to the units.

The complex is already fully booked with residents waiting to move into their unit when the complex is completed. However, there is quite a bit of work to be done before I envision anyone actually moving into their unit. There needs to be a huge amount of work to clean out the inside of the buildings as they now exist and convert to individual living units. There are going to be many, many hours of voluntary labour to enable this complex to get fully developed. The citizens of Hanley (as most small towns) are noted for their volunteerism to their community. This project will certainly task us all to do our part to help.

I of course have signed up to do what I can when I can. We all need to help as best we can.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We have had quite the weather in the last couple of days. The rain and hail that went through the area the other day missed us here in Hanley, but did quite a bit of damage just north of here in Dundurn and Allan.

A fellow in Dundurn (10 minutes north of here) retrieved hail stones that were the size of baseballs. Just imagine a baseball dropping from the height of the clouds and you can picture what kind of damage they could and did do. The hail smashed windows on vehicles and houses and caused a great deal of damage to everything else in its path. It doesn't take much to believe the damage that a hail stone could do to a little blade of wheat or canola. As stated, we did get a bit of wind, but no hail right here in town. I haven't heard how close it did get to us, but even 10 minutes away is a too darn close.

For most of today we had a 'tornado watch' from Environment Canada going on. I really can't remember ever seeing or hearing of such a thing as a 'tornado watch' before here in Saskatchewan. Indeed there was a spout spotted up in the Dundurn area today, however, it doesn't look like it came down and caused any problem what so ever. For us here in Hanley, we got about 14 millimeters of rain this morning and then another 14 millimeters this afternoon for a total of 28 millimeters for the day. So that is just over an inch of rain. When it was raining, it was coming down in huge sheets of water.

Needless to say my yard is soaked with all the rain today and the previous dumping on the weekend. I was going to cut my grass today and possibly try and get into the garden to try and pull some of the weed growth out, but that just was not to be. I'll be lucky if I can get out in the garden in a couple days (if we get some sun). With no more rain tomorrow, I should be able to mow the lawn though. But with all the moisture, the weeds certainly are growing leaps and bounds. I know I planted some vegetables in the garden, but you would be hard pressed to find them now with the weeds the way they are. Just leaving for 5 little days and the garden seems to have been overtaken.

However, at least there were no tornados touching down around Hanley. We certainly can be thankful for that at least.

Lucky Day or Full House ?

I have been listening to all the hype about the luck of getting married on July 7, 2007 (ie 7 - 7 - 07) etc. Of course this is 3 sevens which is supposed to give you luck whether it is getting married, gambling (same thing as getting married now a days, isn't it?), or lotteries.

I got to thinking of my wedding anniversary which is July 17, 1971 and as far as I can see, we did a lot better than the 7-7-07. If you look at it as 17 - 7 - 71 you can see we have 3 sevens and a pair of aces (ie a full house).

A full house always beats three of a kind to my thinking :)

Seeing as we are coming up on number 36 wedding anniversary, maybe there is something to the luck of the sevens or in our case the full house.

A Picture to Remember the Past

I uploaded the bad pictures about the cabin, but then I figured I should also upload a few of the better sides of the place. The cabin holds so many memories to so many people....




Then the final shot is of the entrance to the two places. To those that haven't been up in the area for awhile, you can see that the trees definitely have grown up since 1990 or so...



It still is one of my favourite places in the province . . .

What A Shame

We managed to spend 5 days up at Christopher Lake over the July 1st long weekend. Seeing as we were at the lake, we just had to have one good dumping of rain. This occurred on Friday night, June 29th and did it ever rain. But as normally happens at the lake, within a day you didn't know it had rained.

Of course there are pools of water laying in the bush which we all know are great breeding grounds for mosquitoes. There certainly were lots of the little blood suckers around, but after I got a smudge going in the chiminea they left me alone for the most part.

One interesting thing that occurred was when we first drove into the property I noticed a power line was down between my place and the neighbours (former Mayers cabin). I of course stopped the truck and got out to take a peak. I ascertained that it was the phone line and not power, so I moved the line out of the way and continued into our spot and got the truck/trailer unloaded. As the neighbours seldom show up at their cabin, I wasn't in any hurry to report the downed line and besides I was aware the neighbours did not have their phone hooked up. Once I did get my place straightened away I did call into SaskTel and reported the downed line and I would imagine eventually they'll send out a crew to fix it up.

It was interesting though on Friday afternoon when a Sask Power truck showed up. I thought someone may have gotten their wires crossed but on speaking to the fellow he advised he was there to disconnect the power to the neighbours cabin. It was then that I noticed that the neighbours sign with their names on it was taken down. Hummmm. But then I got busy doing something else and didn't think anything more about it. Oh yah, the Sask Power guy didn't disconnect their power as he saw that they were using electricity and he didn't want to shut down their freezer. So he just left.

Then on Saturday an truck pulled up and the fellow asked if the cabin was the Hesje's cabin. When I advised him that it was, three fellows got out and started looking around. I of course asked what was happening and they proceeded to explain that the owner wanted them to fix up the foundation of the cabin. I then walked around the neighbour's cabin with the workers and saw what they meant.

For any of you who had occasion to visit the Mayers cabin in the past, you know that it was a yearly task to level the cabin and ensure that it didn't slip further back into the swamp. That meant jacking it up and shimming the beams etc. Well the new owners didn't figure he needed to do any levelling and the end result are shown in the following pictures:






On further talking to the workers, they advised that the plumbing underneath the cabin is all torn up and broken as well. That makes sense as it was plastic and it doesn't give much at all. The cabin has probably fallen backwards close to 2 feet in the last year alone. While we were talking the Sask Power fellow came back and commenced to disconnect the power to the cabin. It was either that or the line was going to be pulled down from the weight of the cabin slipping further backwards.

Just remembering all the good times that occurred at the cabin makes you want to shake your head at the waste that it has become. But there is nothing we the family can do about that now. It was sold (or should I say given away) and that is that.

Still it is a shame :(

I Thought I Was On A Holiday !

Here I am retired (supposedly); so I go away for a long weekend (ie June 28th to July 3rd) to the great north country of pines and water. My life is slow paced compared to what it was a few years ago when I was in DOCC Saskatchewan so I figured my email box would be fairly skimpy on my return to the 'connected world'.

I open up my email and lo and behold I have 545 email messages waiting for me. What the heck ! I've only been gone for not quite 5 days and I have that many messages waiting for my peepers to take a look at them. There must be a lot of crap in there I figure. So I got down to the task of rooting out the spam that I know must be there.

Gosh I tried and tried and I think I removed about 5 messages from my que. That still leaves about 540 messages that I have to look through as bonafide email messages. That is a way toooooo many I think, but then I remember just a few years ago when I was working that number would most likely have been a few higher than that.

I decided to check and lo and behold, when working I probably would have received about 1500+ messages when I was gone on such as short time frame (ie 5 days). I know I don't have to reply to about 1/3 of the email's I receive, but then if I didn't reply to 1/2 of the 1/3, then maybe my inbox would shrink even further. Maybe I would be able to actually reply to all that sent me a message while I was away that actually deserve a reply.

As I contemplated all of the above, I figured, if I decided to not reply I would likely not deserve to receive the messages from people that felt it was important enough to send me the message in the first place. Eventually my Inbox would dry up and I would not have the privilege of conversing with prior workers, friends, new acquaintances, etc, and I my Inbox would be empty.

That doesn't sound like much fun at all.

Keep those emails coming, I thoroughly enjoy each and every one.... It may take me a while to get back to you individually, but eventually I will.

I read them all and definitely thank all the folks that take the time to send me a message. If you think it is important to send it, I think it is important enough to read it.

Keep 'em coming....

Hanley Legion 2007 Zone Golf Tournament

The Hanley Branch #258 hosted the Zone Golf Tournament on June 10th, 2007. The day started out rainy, but ended up being an excellant day of golf.

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Thank you to all that golfed, or assisted with the day.

It was a very worth while day.....

The Influx Has Started

On our return from the city yesterday we saw that the first of the influx of the new families that are to be moving into town has begun.




This family is the one that is moving in across the street from us. The 'modular' home that was moved into place last Friday. Throughout the weekend there were workman working on the home. It appears that some of the siding got warped in the move, so they had to replace some of the panels. As well a few of the shingles lifted, so they also had to be replaced. The only drawback is that we were inundated with rain over the weekend. But it appears the workers did get it done (at least cosmetically). I'm not sure if there was any damage inside or not.

From looking inside the Atlas trailer when we drove up, it was apparent that this was a full house of belongings. The trailer was packed with the new owners belongings. Also as we were turning into our driveway, I had the opportunity to view one of our new neighbours. The lady of the house was walking down the street to her van with 3 little tykes in tow. Three little girls that look about ages from about 1 1/2 to about 4 or so. It sure must be exiting for these girls to be moving into a brand new town in a brand new province and then into a brand new house. I'm sure mom and dad are probably feeling the pinch of stress though with the move. I can appreciate what they are going through after going through it myself just 2 1/2 years ago. Mind you I was just moving down the highway a couple hours and not right across the country. This family is moving in from New Brunswick, so I'm sure there will be a few things different for them here in Saskatchewan.

In conjunction with the new 'modular' home moving in, I've been hearing some folks bitching that it is just a glorified trailer. In Hanley, there is apparently a bylaw that trailers cannot be set up on main street. Of course our street is the main street into town. A way back when, there was a trailer on this lot, however, once it was moved out (tore down) or whatever, the town changed the bylaw. The previous owner of the lot could not sell the lot to anyone because it was such a narrow lot. Eventually from what I hear she just gave the lot back to the town so she didn't have to pay taxes on it. Now of course we have this new trailer, oops excuse me, 'modular home' that is moved in and occupying the lot. Sure the whole cost for the trailer, land, etc is about $150,000., but it is still a type of trailer. I certainly have some symathy for the previous owner, but time changes and we have to change with them. Of course that doesn't help her pocket book any though.

As small towns do, some of the folks are 'for' the trailer and some are 'against' the trailer. For myself it doesn't really matter that much that it is a modular home (or trailer). The idea that we have 5 new people in town that will be paying taxes, shopping, going to school, etc is a much better idea than having the lot sit empty all the time. Or at the best being empty so the other neighbour can park his 5th wheel trailer on it in the winter or when he is home. Give me new people any day. The modular home is very nice looking and as long as these new people are going to keep it up and their yard, then I have no problem with it being a modular home or a trailer.

Possibly some of the negative people in town should look at a few of the shacks that are in town or take a look at the yards of some of the folks. They are a few that are like mini dumps. There is even one of these so called classy houses right on main drag. As a matter of fact the one I'm thinking of is the first house you see as you drive into town. It is a real nice palace :( I think the best thing that could happen to it is if a bulldozer ran amuck in the neighbourhood. But it is a house, so it is fine.

All I can say, "Welcome New Neighbours". Hope there are many more to come.

Boom Town Here We Come

Along with my best bud Jim and and his wife Bonnie moving to town, we actually have something like 15 new houses that are being built or moved into the town this summer/fall and into early next year. Note this is supposedly not 15 new families, but 15 new houses/families moving into town. I don't think the town has seen a boom like this since back in the 50's.

One of those houses is right across the street from us. The town and a local contractor have been busy as all get out this week trying to get the lot ready for this new house. This entailed new sewer, water lines, etc. I can vouch that 'Dusty Rose' and our town maintenance fellow 'Terry' have been working their asses off all week trying to get this lot ready as I watched them out my front room window. Tip of the hat to them for sure and it appears they did just a great job.

This evening about about 9 pm, the new 1400+ square foot house was moved into place on the lot across from us. The house was built in Medicine Hat and transported to Hanley today. The new owners are supposedly military folks from New Brunswick with a couple young kids.

There is still some setting up to do on the house, but the main thing is that it is here and on site. The wiggling and whatnot will take a day or so, but then the new tenants can take possession and we'll have some new citizens for our town.

Talking to our Town Administrator and he advised that the whole thing (house, transport, set up, etc) came to about $149,500.00. That is a whole lot cheaper than what shacks are going for in the city of Saskatoon at present.

Of course it is so nice to have an addition to our small community as well.

Bring them on :)

Knock Me Down and Call Me Dusty !

As I was out for my evening walk on Tuesday evening I happened across Al Parker out watering his petunia's. Of course I said hello to him and 'how the week was going, etc' and the next thing I know he invited me in for coffee. For anyone that is familiar with Al, a coffee is about 5 cups of the diesel kind, no decaf there.

As we chatted along he mentioned about the new people that had bought the lot down the street from us. This guy's name was Scarfe and his dad had something to do with the 'Canada Remembers' Air Show. As I was very familiar with Jack Scarfe who was one of the original founders of the Air Show, I asked what this fellows given name was. Al figured it was Jim or James. I just about fell off my chair at this point. I then asked Al if he knew what this fellows wife's name was and he thought it was Darlene or something similar but that they were from Haywarden, Sask. We immediately looked in the phone book and found a listing for a 'B Scarfe' in Haywarden.

Now a bit of history here . . .

When I was about 13 years of age I joined the militia. Yup you were supposed to be 16 to be able to join, but I lied. The next summer (ie when I just had turned 14) I was fortunate enough to take training out at Detachment Dundurn. Lo and behold one of my fellow trainees was one James Gara Scarfe. Well we hit it off and continued our relationship after we got back to Saskatoon. The next year we both ended up back at Dundurn on training and continued our relationship.

On our weekends off, we would depart Dundurn and hitch hike north. Jim would be heading towards Waskesiu and I was heading to Christopher Lake. As you can imagine we had the opportunity to walk many a mile together. Mind you we were in uniform when we were hitching and this was 1965 so it didn't take too long to catch a ride. But our relationship/friendship grew throughout the summer and then continued on to the following year when we were once again at training in Dundurn. Needless to say we did stay in contact even when we were back in Saskatoon. But I'm getting ahead of myself. That first year I met Jim was 1964 and he had very important information for myself as a fellow young male.

My new found friend Jim advised me of this family he was familiar with that had 3 young foxy ladies (now remember we are talking 14-16 years of age). Of course I had to meet these fine young lasses so Jim was more than willing to introduce us. In due course I was introduced to the Mayers family and Sandra, Patricia and Isabel. To say I was smitten would be the understatement. The long and short of the story was that I did end up in matrimony to my wife of 36 years, Sandra. Yup this would be the former Sandra Mayers.

Fast forward to June 12th . . .

About 11:45 a.m. I called the 'B Scarfe' phone number in the phone book. I of course used *67 so the person would not know who was calling (see I did learn something in my years with the RCMP). A woman answered the phone and I asked if this was Bonnie Scarfe I was talking to. Oh yah, my friend Jim Scarfe from Dundurn had married a Bonnie Cherry. So far, so good.

I then asked Bonnie if she was married to Jim (James) Scarfe and if they had just recently bought a lot in the town of Hanley. She replied in the affirmative. I then advised her that she had just made her new neighbour one of the happiest people in the world. She asked me who that would be and I replied that it was myself. She then asked who I was (remember *67) and I advised her what my name was. Bonnie's retort was "NO WAY", "NO WAY".

I assured her that I was indeed who I said I was. She then yelled at Jim that he had better get to the phone right away. I could hear in the background as Jim came to the phone, "who is this and what the heck did they want". I then went through the same scenario with Jim as with Bonnie. Same reaction of disbelieve and then when it sunk in he comment was "there goes the neighbourhood". Nice guy, heh?

Go figure that two best friends, Jim and I, have not been in contact with each other for going on 25 years or so and then we find that we are living approximately 25 kms away from each other for the last two years. Now we are going to be living across the street from each other in a town of 500 people and neither one of us has any prior connection to the town.

Small world.

To say that I'm just tickled pink that one of my best friends from my past will be living across the street from me would be an understatement just doesn't come close to what I'm feeling at this point in time. I'm just flabbergasted.

But damn do I like it :)

Are The Hanley Boys Practicing?

I just came across the attached video and just have to wonder if Hanley's Finest are out practicing to catch our locals when they go 4 wheeling :)



In this case, I'm thinking the 'Queens Cowboys' catch the bad guys!

Help For Spousal Abuse

As a further to the previous blog on the family with an abusive man in their lives, the man took the family hostage and eventually the police service came to try and stabilize the situation. The man ends up trying to slice his throat, however, wasn't very successful. Now that isn't a very nice thought to make, but it sure would solve part of the problem. At least now he is in custody and will likely face a bit of jail time. In our judicial system it probably won't be very long with good behaviour, double time, etc. However, that is the way the system works.

So now we have the mom at home with her children. However, she doesn't appear to be the best mom in the world and as a good citizen, you feel it is your duty to try and get the woman some help, but at the very least get the children taken care of. So who do you call or turn to? The police are already involved and should have an inkling that there definitely is something wrong in this house. However, maybe they are not up to speed with what the woman is actually like. So, do you call your police department and let them in on what you feel is going on or do sit back and do nothing? If you do call, are you viewed as a meddling neighbour or a concerned citizen? I'm hoping for the concerned citizen.

Another recourse is Social Services (ie Community Resources in Saskatchewan). I have heard of people that have called this department only to be told to mind their own business. I'm hoping that is just an individual that would state something like that and no way a policy of the whole department. So you call Social Services and voice your concerns for the safety of the children. However, it seems to be that the department do try their utmost to keep a family together even when it has been shown to be an abusive and unfit situation for children. I'm sure we've all heard or read of situations where kids have been taken away from a family only to be returned to the same family and tragedy results. A lot of these cases seem to be in the northern part of the province, however, we possibly we only hear about these cases in the north as they are usually sensational news items and we don't hear of the other everyday cases in the cities and southern towns.

With the police involved in the hostage end of the incident and children involved, Social Services would also be involved. Once again possibly they feel this is just a unique incident and not something that needs their ongoing help. So you most definitely could call and pass along your views of the situation that have transpired over time reiterating your concern for the children. Yes you are anxious for the woman as well, however, she is at least an adult and should have some basic knowledge of how to look after herself. Children are children and just have not developed these skills at young ages.

A third option that could be viewed as a source for assistance may be your local church. However, now a days, churches are not the power base that they were at one time, so I wouldn't really hold out a lot of success with this option. But by just talking to a minister/priest you have unloaded some of your worries and who knows, maybe these people have further options for you to take or that they can take.

After you have done all you can do within your limits, you can rest easy in that you can say you tried. You may not solve the problem, but you have at least alerted the authorities that there is a problem. Of course the problems may reoccur once the male is back out of jail or where ever he gets a holiday and the whole thing may start once again.

The final option would be for either you to move or hope, and if you are that way inclined, pray that the offending people decide to find a new place to live. After all, there is only so much that an individual can and should be expected to do. You can't live the other persons life, you can only help with what you have to offer.

Once again, let's hope that somehow the children get some help so that they can grow up in a loving family situation. Otherwise down the road we'll have more of the same when the children get a bit older and try to mimic their parents.

You Got To Wonder ?

I've been hearing the last while of a spousal abuse case that apparently has been going on for quite awhile in a small town. Everyone in the town seems to know about the abuse, but no one including the spouse seems to want to do anything about it. I would say that anyone who actually knows about this abuse is guilty of not reporting same. This means actual evidence of an abuse being committed and not just hear say. The spouse also could be chastised if she doesn't take action, but in a lot of cases it is understandable as the spouse (usually the woman) is afraid of retribution.

Coming from my background in law enforcement, I'm having a hard time believing in this day and age the spouse at least wouldn't take some action to alleviate the situation. Under the Saskatchewan Emergency Intervention Act there is definitely a very real method to control an abuser. I just have to question why the person who states they are or have been abused has not at least attempted to use some of the lawful assists to curtail the abuser.

I'm sorry, but I just have no time for anyone who abuses the other in a relationship. If the relationship is not working, then you get a lawful separation and if you are unable to reconcile, then you look at a more permanent situation (ie divorce). To continue to live in such a situation is ridiculous in this day and age. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago you could comprehend staying in an abusive relationship for the children, etc, but it just doesn't work nowadays.

Maybe I'm just showing my age, but I feel that if a marriage (or living arrangement) isn't working, then why the heck would you not attempt to move on with your life and get to a better living arrangement? Agreed, the first step is a bitch, but then what is worse, living in abusive arrangement or taking the first step to get free from the abuse?

I Think That's A Gotcha

Approximately 2 weeks ago Sandra and I were discussing what we were going to do for Sheila and Wendell's anniversary that was coming up on May 30th. As it was their 10th anniversary, we felt we should do something special for them.

After talking about it and doing a little investigation, we decided we'd get them a gift for their anniversary. Now a gift is nothing too special in the normal state of affairs. So we decided we'd try a make it a bit more interesting for them. I ordered the gift through Sears and made arrangements to have it delivered directly to Sheila and Wendell's house as a 'gift delivery'.

Still nothing too special here. . .

I got to thinking that if I was going to get it delivered to their house, I'd darn well better make sure that someone was going to be home on the delivery date. Makes sense? As stated their anniversary was on May 30th, but on May 31st it was also my birthday so my plan started to hatch. May 31st was a Thursday and Wendell gets Thursday and Friday as his days off, so I knew it was possible he could be home for the delivery. Of course I had to make sure.

On setting up the delivery I had my choice of what day and what time frame to have the delivery done. I chose May 31st and for a time frame I chose 9 am to 1 pm. So now I had to ensure that Wendell would be home in that time frame. While I was speaking to Sheila that evening or the next day at any rate, I mentioned that I would like Wendell to be at home on my birthday (May 31st) so that if I wanted to talk to someone, I knew there would be someone at home. I had made the arrangements with Wendell for the 9 to 1 slot and mentioned that I had other people lined up for other times throughout the day. I think Sheila first thought that I may have lost a few marbles in the last little while, however, she and Wendell did agree to have him at home at the allotted time.

Wendell was just about bursting with curiosity about this 'stay at home' thing so kept asking for more reasons why. I stuck to my guns and just told them as I was getting older, I may want to talk to someone on short notice, so I wanted someone to be at their phone when I needed to call. I think they first thought that this request had something to do with their anniversary, but of course they couldn't be certain.

After a week or so of reminding them of the appointed time I figured I'd better add some confusion to the pot. I got a hold of Craig and brought him into my confidence. I had him ask Sheila on their next conversation why dad wanted him to be sitting at home from 1 pm to 5 pm waiting for a phone call. Sheila mentioned that Wendell was supposed to be home from 9 am to 1 pm. Craig then mentioned that maybe I was going senile or some other such malady and played the game to the hilt. Now of course Sheila was totally confused. Good!

Throughout the remainder of the week leading up to the 31st, Sheila and Wendell both probed for more information, but neither Sandra nor I budged and stuck to my original request to only have someone available to talk to on my birthday.

On May 31st, as luck would have it, the Sears delivery guys finally made it to The Stone residence at about 11:45 a.m. and delivered a brand new deep freeze that we had ordered for them as a gift. Sheila and Wendell's old deep freeze had bought the farm and they were finding it difficult to try and store all one's frozen items in the freezer compartment of a normal fridge.

Both Sandra and I just knew that the new deep freeze would be put to very good use and was not just a trivial type of a gift. It would be enjoyed at the time and hopefully for many years to come.

I do believe our plans were carried out with precision and the gift was a total surprise for the kids and I can say it was 'a gotcha'.

Happy anniversary to Sheila and Wendell and many more to come. OH and by the way, all my marbles are still in place rolling around in the noggin as they should :)

You Think!

A couple weeks ago I commented on the pervert that was fighting his conditions on viewing young gymnasts. The article Porn collector agrees to conditions shows this guy may have some sense after all.

He's still a pervert, but at least he is smart enough to know that he was not going to elude the conditions of not attending gymnastic competitions.

With all the publicity he has garnered, I would think the last place he would want to show his face is at some gym contest with some young people competing. He might have found out about some home grown retribution that some of the moms and dads might have dreamt up.

Let's hope that the courts also insist on this dude getting his name on the National Sex Offender's registry. It would also be real justice if the the Judge actually sentenced him to a period of incaration so that he could get a bit of help with his problems rather than just letting him off lightly with a conditional sentence.

Time will tell.

Typical Media Overstating a Story

I was reading a link today about a 'Peg man gets 16 months for stealing gas and thought wow are the courts getting tough on offenders.

Then I read the actual story and yup the guy got 16 months in the 'crowbar Hilton', but it wasn't just for stealing gas. After you read the headline that the fellow from Winnipeg got sentenced to 16 months in jail for stealing gas the story states 'oh yah, "he also had plead guilty to charges of possession of stolen property, theft and dangerous driving". "He had also avoided one spike belt and stopped the vehicle prior to running over a second as he was trying to outrun the police member trying to apprehend him".

The truth being known, about the time he took off from the RCMP member and the chase ensued, the least of his worries was the theft of a measly $34.00 of gas. The media seems to always try and grab your attention with a headline, even if the actual headline is quite a bit misleading. They are I would suppose technically correct in their headline, it is just that it is so misleading. I always view the various media's headlines with a grain of salt as I know how skewered they can actually make a story at times.

However, I guess they did their job in that they got me to read their story even if the headline wasn't totally correct. I do think they could have rewritten the actual headline to more accurately reflect the situation and people would still read it. Maybe not quite as many though as those that figure the courts are getting tough for the theft of a small amount such as $34.00. I guess that is the bottom line, more people read a headline, and the media outlet garners more dollars in revenue from ads, etc. Someday, maybe people will just ignore all the headlines though as the people find that most are a little bit skewered.

I wonder what the media is going to do then, tell the actual truth for once?

Satisfaction

I know that today summer has finally arrived. As I was sitting outside watching my BBQ supper sizzling away I saw a northern oriole come have a sip from my feeder. These birds are very skittish and the least little noise sets them off and away they go into the closest tree. I did manage to get a video albeit not much of one as I think I blinked too loudly... sheesh. They are normally the last birds to arrive in the spring and the first birds to depart in the fall.


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Another visitor to one of my feeders today was a male ruby-throated hummingbird. I have seen them flitting around the yard the last week or so, but none had sat down for a sip from the feeder until today.

My purple martin house has 3 pairs setting up house and getting the yard organized. Then I have one set of tree swallows nesting in one of my bird houses in the back. Of course I have lots of American goldfinches visiting the feeders everyday to get a snack or two. Today I also had a morning dove come by for a short visit and took a tour of the sunflower feeder. Of course there are a couple robins who have set up nests in the trees along the side of the house and are forever whizzing back and forth from the lawn to their nests. I also have had some chipping sparrows visiting the feeders and checking things out. And of course I do have a family of song sparrows that have set up a nest in one of my other bird houses. I've cleaned the house about 4 times already, but they are very determined and as soon as I climb down from the ladder the birds are hauling nesting material back into the house.

As well when I was sitting on the deck trying to get a picture of the oriole, a little house wren landed about a foot from my hand on the deck railing. It took a quick look at me and decided I was bigger than he/she was and decided to make tracks for the juniper bush along side the house.

For the amount of bird action, I finally know that summer has finally arrived.

About time!

Thanks To Ron and Others

As I was reading the Star Phoenix article about YourLink numbers up I got to thinking what this really means.

First off with the recent amalgamation of Sask Wheat Pool and Agricore, it means that the brothers-in-law Ron and James have a lot of work in their future for many years to come if they so wish. I also feel that YourLink was very fortunate in finding and hiring such a great person as the brother-in-law Ron. A lot of his expertise from years of working on towers has greatly assisted YourLink to get their numbers of subscribers up.

Now the only problem is that Ron was hoping to retire at some point in the future. That was one of the reasons that he sold YourLink all his tools, trailers, etc so he could shut down his own company. Ron is supposed to be the supervisor of the fellows working on the towers, but anyone who knows Ron knows he is also a very hands on type of person. Hopefully he will be able to gradually move over to the management side of the work and let the other guys do the actual grunt work.

Then maybe he is quite satisfied in what he is doing at present. In that case, at least it is his choice and as long as he enjoys the work, why retire or change. As long as he gets to enjoy what he is doing then good for him.

Good Choice

Earlier in the week we had made up our minds that we wouldn't be heading out to the lake this long weekend. The weather conditions just didn't look to be promising in the long run. We felt there would be lots of other days we could travel north, so why freeze our butts off.

With the super nice weather yesterday, I was thinking that maybe we made the wrong decision. However, as I headed for the horizontal position around midnight I sure noted the coolness in the air. While I was searching the news on the net today I came across this article May Snow Takes Some By Surprise and knew that we had made the correct decision to stay home.

Who needs to play in 2-4 cm of snow and freeze your butt off when you can be home snug as a bug in their own bed :)

You Have Got To Be Kidding

As I was reading the Star Phoenix this morning, the story of a Man guilty of child porn possession fighting to still attend pre-teen gymnastics events caught my eye. Reading further into the story, I find this 40 year old man who has plead guilty to possession of child pornography wants to quote "is fighting in court for the freedom to continue attending gymnastics competitions for preteen girls" unquote.

Among his video collection located by police quote "were home movies the 40-year-old University of Saskatchewan employee made of himself masturbating in the back yard and his parents' bedroom while dressed in a pink girl's gymnastics uniform" unquote.

This man doesn't see anything wrong with attending to gyms and as he stated to a psychologist quote "He claimed his collection of pictures and videos stems from a "fascination" with the physiological development of young girls, particularly their breasts, buttocks and pelvic region" unquote.

Pardon me, but if that was my daughter that this dude was watching, I most definitely would be 'fascinated' in rearranging this fellows anatomy. It is plain and simple wrong.

I can only hope our court system does not find some twisted way for this criminal to continue on with his fetish of watching pre-teen gymnastic girls (or anyone else) during their competitions. If this fellow does succeed in getting his conditions changed or revoked, I would think that any sane thinking parent would be withdrawing their daughters from all gym competitions immediately as a response.

This is just not right and if our courts allow this fellow to continue on, then we are in a heap of trouble as a society.

Disgusting !

Wonderful

My morning snooze was interrupted by the Town Administrator this morning when he phoned bright and early. He wanted to know if the bro-in-law's vehicles were drivable and could be moved. I enquired if there was some problem with them being on the street as both vehicles were currently licenced. Tony replied, "That there was no problem, but we were getting the street swept this morning". He was wondering if I had the keys and could move them off to a side street until the sweeper went through. I tentatively replied yes (not knowing whether the beasts would start or not). I immediately got up and dressed and was fortunate to start both vehicles and moved both of them to the back alley. When you get the street swept in front of the house, you want the sweeper to to get it as clean as possible and cover all the street.



As I was watching the sweeper doing it's thing, I contemplated that this was the second time we have had our street cleaned in the two years (3rd summer) we have lived in Hanley. Thinking back I can only remember my street in Regina being swept once in 9 years. Don't even get me started on the winter grading that took place (not) in Regina!

It sure is nice to see my tax dollars in small town Saskatchewan are hard at work though.

Nice Drive

With nothing better to do today we decided to take a drive over to Outlook as a change of pace. The sun was shining but it really wasn't overly warm, but still it was nice to get out and see the country side. There seems to be a fair amount of water left in the fields in some spots, but for the most part, it looks like the fields have dried up quite nicely.

While we were over that way we stopped off at Barich's and got a box of potatoes. Believe me these are nice potatoes and at $10.00 for a 50 pound box you don't find a much better deal. As we were driving into Barich's I noticed all the old potatoes out in the field ready to be tilled under. These would be potatoes that spoiled or were soft, etc. That was a sure sign that planting was just about ready to start. I enquired with the young fellow serving me if they were getting near the end of last year's harvest. He affirmed they were getting low on stock so it won't be much longer and we'll have to put up with the inferior potatoes you normally get at Safeway or Extra Foods, Superstore, etc.

For now we're good to go for the next month or so with good spuds. Bring on the bbq.

What A Slow Drive

We headed to Regina this morning to pick up Julia. The trip is not the most scenic at the best of times and can get down right boring. Today was even worse than normal as of course we were driving a brand new vehicle.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of a brand new vehicle, the operator's manual states you should not drive above 90 kmph for the first 800-900 kilometres. Yup you read that right. I got to drive to Regina and back at a top speed of 90 kmph. I did cheat once when we went down the Lumsden hill, but otherwise it was on cruise at 90. Of course everyone whizzed by us, but we just plodded along at 90.

The only nice thing is that the odometer is sitting around 700 kms at present, so only one more trip south and I can then 'pedal it to the metal' and get the speedo up to 110 (or so). However, one nice thing about the slower speed is that it appears the gas mileage does improve a bit. Now I'm not sure if that is just the speed I'm going or the newer engine (with new oil, etc). Time will tell on that one.

For now all I can say is "Darn that is one long trip".

Finally New Wheels




My newest acquisition has finally arrived in my garage. After being dicked about by a certain company down Regina way, I finally had enough and 'let my fingers do some walking' and called the dealership in Rosetown. The Regina company still couldn't supply a vehicle after 2 weeks of searching whereas the young gal at Rosetown Mainline Motors was able to find a vehicle, that was probably more than what we wanted but at less cost than Regina, in about 15 minutes.

Huh?

Within calling Rosetown I had a reply back within minutes of an available vehicle. A few phone calls later and it was on it's way to Rosetown. This was Thursday afternoon. Friday just after noon, Sandra and I were on our way to Rosetown to pick up the new vehicle. By 5:00 pm we had finished all the paperwork, turned over our old vehicle and were sitting back in our living room having a cocktail to celebrate our newest purchase.

Whereas about the only real thing we wanted on our new vehicle was running boards, this vehicle comes with the following extras:

- LT preferred equipment group
- P245/65R17 On/Off Road White outline lettered tires
- Reclining front bucket seats
- AM/FM Bose Stereo with in-dash 6 disc CD changer
- 17" X 7" sport aluminum wheels with centre caps
- Sun and sound package (all controls on the steering wheel)
- XM Satellite radio built-in
- Front and rear roof mounted head curtain side-impact airbags
- Driver convenience package (rear seat headphone jacks, individual audio controls)
- Power adjustable brake and accelerator pedals
- BOSE premium sound system
- Side step running boards
- Underbody shield package(so the roots at the lake don't puncture the oilpan) :)
- Power tilt-sliding sunroof
- Tow Hooks
- Fog lights
- Built in garage door opener
- OnStar for 1 year
- Built in voice activated cell phone (with local Hanley phone number)

All in all, the vehicle is fairly fully loaded and probably a way too many toys for me to play with. But as we are finding out, the extras sure are nice and make everyday driving that much more comfortable.

After making the decision to go with Rosetown and setting up delivery, I was not really looking forward to the ultimate call from the Regina dealer. However, about 4 hours after I had everything set up with Rosetown, the fellow from Regina called. Of course he wasn't too happy with my decision to scrap his plans. I felt pretty crappy about the whole deal, but then the fellow was not really giving me much service and I told him so. Still all in all, it is certainly not the way I like to do business.

But, enough was enough !

Purple Martins Are Back

On Friday I heard some folks announcing that they had seen purple martins swooping around the area and that they were busy getting their 'martin houses' raised. While I was out in the yard on Saturday I also heard and saw a martin flying around.

This is fairly early for the martins up in this country as they don't normally arrive until mid-May. However, these birds may just be the advance scouts who search out likely areas for the main flock to settle in. The birds that have arrived here are definitely looking into building nests and what not, but as of yet there is not a lot of them.

While out working in the yard I also noted a couple of tree swallows swooping around and checking out the bird houses. Normally these miniature purple martins arrive a couple weeks earlier than their larger cousins. So they are arriving at approximately their normal time of the year.

Either way you look at it, hopefully we have some summer weather coming with the birds. So far we really have only had a couple of real nice days. Mind you yesterday and Saturday were very nice even though it was a bit windy on Saturday. It would be nice to get a little warmer though...

Still Driving an Old Truck

We still had heard nothing from Wheaton's regarding our new vehicle at the end of business yesterday (Monday). So last night I got on the 'net and did some searching. Lo and behold I found a new vehicle at Rosetown Mainline that would fit our bill to a Tee. I was determined to get up bright and early and drive to Rosetown and check out the vehicle, however, during the night I rethought the process and figured there would not be a lot of sense in driving over if they in fact did not have the vehicle in question in stock. Possibly the company didn't up date their Internet information.

So the first thing this morning I was going to phone them and make certain they in fact had a new vehicle in stock for viewing. Once I got up I got to thinking that maybe I should give Wheaton a call to see what the heck was going on. After sitting and thinking for a few minutes I decided to call Wheaton and give them a shot as I had been dealing with them for the last 3 weeks.

When I spoke to the salesman he assured me that our vehicle was in the bag and he should know in an hour or so when the vehicle would be in Regina and available for pickup. He assured me he would give a call back in an hour or so with the details. Now this was about 11:00 a.m. so I felt I had nothing to loose by waiting and felt there was no need to drive the 2 hours over to Rosetown at this point in time. Before I knew it lunch was upon us and then just after lunch I decided that I should get the current truck cleaned up a bit and wash off the winter's grit.

After washing and cleaning the truck and getting it all cleaned up for a turn in I noticed the time was just after 3:00 p.m. Still no call from Regina which didn't really please me. I continued to get squared away with putting the cleaners away and just generally cleaning up. Then I headed downtown to check the mail to see what bills arrived today. About 5 minutes after my return the phone rang and it was the salesman from Wheaton's. He assured me that the driver was heading off bright and early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning to pick up our new vehicle. He would be back in Regina by late afternoon on Wednesday.

I then enquired when the vehicle would be available for pickup by yours truly and the salesman said he wanted to check it over to ensure no damage, etc. He stated he would give me a call late tomorrow to set up a pickup time. Now I'm sort of zoned in on how this guy works, so I'm not expecting a call until Thursday morning. With that I told Sandra we would probably be heading to Regina Friday morning to pick up the new wheels.

I'm not too unhappy with being able to get the vehicle on Friday as my insurance etc are issued on April 29th, so I can just transfer everything over with little fuss. I am a bit peeved though with my whole treatment from Wheaton during this vehicle purchase though. The last time we dealt with Wheaton (four years ago), it was just great. This time their service has been a lot less than stellar. I quite honestly can not say whether I will deal with them again over their treatment thus far.

There are lots of dealers out there and if this one does not want to give great service well I'll just move onto another one that does offer better service. Mind you I shouldn't have to worry about anything for at least the next four years.

Time will tell.

Nice Day Trip

Yesterday I was able to take a nice day trip up to North Battleford to attend the Royal Canadian Legion's District meeting. Originally there were going to be 3 or 4 of us taking the trip, however, due to some unplanned for sickness there was only myself and the bro-in-law Ron who made the trip.

We departed at 09:30 a.m. and arrived in North Battleford just in time for lunch. As I haven't really been back to the city for going on 11 years, I had no idea what was or was not a good place to stop for lunch. We decided on Humpties, however, when we got to the location it look liked the parking lot was fairly full. Glancing across the road at the Tropical Inn we saw their lot wasn't too bad so we pulled in and headed for Smitty's.

It was fairly full in Smitty's due to a hockey team just arriving, but we got seated within 5 minutes and had a coffee within a minute or. We didn't order anything spectacular and within a reasonable time frame we had out food which was fairly tasty.

After the lunch we headed for the Legion to get registered for the meeting that was to commence at 1:00 p.m. We found a seat near the head table and got seated in. As I was sitting I looked around to take in the changes that had been made in my absence. Of course I was a member of the North Battleford Legion for 25 years or so. I really didn't find a lot of changes made in the place. It looked darn close to what it looked like the last time I slipped in for a wobbly pop about 11 years ago. The interesting part was it appeared the same faces that had been running the local Legion for the last 20 plus years were the same faces that were seated in the audience. It is like any organization, some folks are always stepping forward and taking charge and others sit back and don't take part at all.

The meeting was fairly informative and Ron and I were able to capture the Zone golf for the Hanley Legion for 2007 (June 10th, 2007) and the District curling for 2009. We were going to try for the District golf for 2009 but thought better of it after a moments reflection. We figured we have our hands full trying to put on the Zone golf this year and the District curling next year let alone trying for a third tournament.

After a quick bubbly on the conclusion of the meeting Ron and I got back in the truck and pointed it southbound. On departure from the Legion I took a different street than our arrival just so I could get a look around the city that I called home for 21 years. Quite honestly there is not a lot of change from what I could see. The same businesses (more or less) were still open for business and the same empty lots were still there. On doing some checking afterwards I found the population has stayed about the same. It just doesn't seem to go up or down too much which I would say is probably attributed to a lack of any large industry in the area.

We arrived back in Hanley around 7:30 p.m. and other than being a bit stiff from sitting all day found it was a fairly nice day all in all. Still it was a nice visit even though it was too short. Hopefully Sam and I can point the new truck in that direction this summer on our way north and take a little longer trip through the city and get to visit a few of our long time friends that are still residing in the city.

We'll see.

Still Waiting

To say that the search for our new vehicle has gone smoothly would be quite the understatement. After we travelled down to Regina a couple weeks ago to get a few things straightened out we thought we had it 'in the bag' with the new vehicle.

We had picked out the colour, the options and everything was a go. Of course our dealer didn't have the vehicle we wanted in stock but they assured us they could get our wanted vehicle. Then on second thought they advised they'd better call the other dealer to ensure they could do a swap. After a few minutes, the salesman came back and assured us the other dealer was fine with the swap and he'd let us know when our vehicle arrived.

A week later and the phone rings early this morning to advise that the original dealer has now decided they would not honour the swap and that was that. So we were back to square one trying to finding a vehicle that would suit our purposes and desires. Dang, but I was one unhappy camper and I let the salesman know my feelings.

However, I bit my tongue and told the salesman that I'd think over my options and give him a call back in an hour or so and that maybe we'd have to think of a different model (with a different dealer). Then I cooled my heals in the shower and had a thunk of what I wanted to do.

Originally we had nixed the idea of having a sun roof in the vehicle. After all this is Saskatchewan and who needs to be staring up at the hot sun beating down on you. So when I called the salesman back (55 minutes after his call), his first suggestion was that he had a vehicle that was near what we wanted. It was the right colour and all, but it also had a 'Sun and Sound' package installed. Now it didn't have running boards which were one of the only options that we really wanted. Sam is finding it a bit hard to climb into the vehicle of late and the thought that the boards would definitely help her. So when the salesman called and advised no boards, I was a bit pee o'd with him. He assured me that the dealer could install the boards no problem. My retort was 'yah sure at what cost?'. Well the boards run about $500 or so and then there is the charge to install them. Yup it will probably be about an extra $600 to $650. However the guy stated that for sure they had the colour we wanted (moondust metallic). I advised him to go do this thing with his manager, find the final price, availability of the boards, etc and to give me a call back. He assured me he'd call with 30 minutes.

When the phone rang and I saw it was the salesman, I let the phone ring a few extra times before I picked up the phone. After talking to his boss, the salesman assured me that they could match our previous cost price with the exception of the running boards, but the company was willing to 'eat' the cost of the boards as they had jacked us around for a week or so.

So the new vehicle will have the 'Sun and Sound' package with a sun roof, XM Radio, Bose stereo/amp, 6 CD disk changer and whatnot along with a set of running boards. Now you have to remember the vehicle is not basic model so it has quite a few upgrades already from the basic model. So even though I'm not a real fan of the sun roof, I can probably live with it. It is the colour that Sandra and I had wanted from day one, so for that we are thankful. Of course we could have searched around for another vehicle of another colour, but once you have your heart set on one colour it is darn hard to change your decision.

So I finally gave my approval to 'go ahead' with this new vehicle. When asked when I may expect the vehicle to show up in Regina, the salesman wasn't too committed to an exact date. However, he did say he was going to get right to work getting it set up for transport. He advised it could be as early as Monday evening, however, mid week would probably be a closer bet. I then impressed on him that I would certainly like a phone call when he had something concrete to advise (ie suggested shipping date) as well as a further call when the darn thing actually arrives in Regina. After all, I do have to make arrangements to travel to Regina to pick up the vehicle, get the insurance changed over, etc. The salesman stated he most definitely would be complying with my requests.

So now we sit for another couple of days waiting for the new vehicle to finally arrive in Regina.

What things some folks will do to get that 'new vehicle' smell in their lives :)

Somedays You Have To Wonder

I received a letter in the mail the other day from the Canadian Firearms Registry Center advising that my licence was expiring and that I should get it taken care of right away or I'd be in contravention of the firearms laws of Canada. Of course I immediately got ready to fill out the multitude of forms to renew my firearms licence.

After thinking about why I actually needed this licence (gopher shooting, etc) when I only have a single shot 22 rifle that I had purchased when I was up in the Arctic in 1968, I decided that it just was not worth my time and effort. I have been trucking this rifle around since 68 and it probably hasn't been fired in probably 20 years. So I figured I'd pass it along to a the local Constabulary for destruction.

I phoned the local office and had one of the members drop by to pick up my firearm and as I no longer needed my licence, I also gave him the licence to destroy. A normal person cannot destroy these licences as they are the property of the Government of Canada or so my letter from the Firearms Center advised.

When the member dropped by, he thought that he wouldn't mind purchasing my rifle and how much did I want for it. We agreed on a price and then he said that of course he would now have to get a valid firearms licence so he could legally possess the firearms.

Huh?

Yup, the Government of Canada decided that police officers did not need a licence to have their 9 mm pistols or to use their shotguns, long rifles etc as they had 'official training' in their use. The members got a blanket clearance on firearms. I found this interesting in that I know that for the last few years, the RCMP have not been training their members in long rifle use. They train them on their 9 mm handguns and their shotguns (and it is great training), but the RCMP has not had any long guns on their inventories for many years so the members have no or limited training on their use and safety. The thought was that the officers wouldn't have any use for long guns so their training was cancelled. I have heard that the Force is now reconsidering their postion on the long guns training and possession at the Detachments.

So here I was giving my legally registered rifle to a RCMP member who is not licenced to possess a long rifle. He can use his employer's firearms, but not own or possess any of his own as he didn't have a valid licence from the Canadian Firearms Registery Center. This just struck me as so odd, but then the Government of Canada works in mysterious ways at times.

However, a couple days later I was pleased to note that the Government of Canada issued an amendment to their Amnesty Period (2006) for the long rifle users of Canada and extended the period of the amnesty for another year until May 2008.

At least I now feel so much better that I know that the RCMP officer who picked up my rifle is now granted an amnesty for another year to take possession of my firearm.

For the record, I had received approximately 6 months of extensive training with rifles, handguns, grenades and other sundry munitions on my Basic Training in the Armed Forces. Then we re qualified throughout the years on the continued use and care of the aforementioned munitions. I also was qualified as a Range Officer with a fully accredited course from the Canadian Armed Forces in the early 90's and allowed to instruct cadets age 12 to 19 in the use and handling of 22 long rifles. All this and I still had to jump through hoops to have a lonely old single shot 22 in my possession. Yet, the RCMP officer did not need to have any such licence for him/her to take possession of my rifle.

Somedays you just have to question the wisdom of it all.

A Little Humour

I came across the next directions in another blog I read. I found 'Step 23' a bit humorous to say the least. . .

Fun With Google
Via Rantings of Doom


1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps," above the search bar...
3. click on "get directions"
4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type "Paris" in the second box (the "to" box)
6. click on "get directions"
6. scroll down to step #23


Don't forget your bathing suit :)

Crappy Weather

What a ridiculous spring this has been. The weather just refuses to warm up any. As I sit and type this the temp is showing -1C and it is overcast outside with the odd snow flurry and the wind blowing like crazy. It is a third of the way through April and we haven't had one decent day in the month yet.

Yup it has to be that darn 'Global Warming' that is doing it to us. Of course that is one of the symptoms of global warming (ie colder at times and warmer at others). But try and convince anyone that our planet is warming up when we are sitting with a furnaces still running in the middle of April.

I'll just have to keep telling myself that as I pull on my winter jacket to take the garbage out!

What Some Kids Will Do For Excitement






Actually I think they did a great job on their video. I believe it was a school project but then I could be mistaken.

So Far, So Good

Sandra heard from Kay once again this past week. It was nice to get an update and see that she is indeed at home and recovering. From what I gather, Kay's life is about what it has been for the last number of years (to our knowledge). That being a difficult life, but then she was responsible for making her life what it is. No one forced her to choose that lifestyle that she choose. Sure she has had some tough breaks throughout the last number of years, but then what family hasn't faced these same tough breaks.

At least it is gratifying to hear that she is trying to get back to her former lifestyle. It would appear the original call was just that Kay was feeling a bit sorry for herself and wanted a bit of sympathy. There is nothing wrong with that at all. It is always so nice to be able to pour your troubles out to someone else and receive some kind words in return. From my experiences throughout the years, it helps some people when they are able to unload some of their troubles, even for a few moments.

The main thing is that Kay is mending physically and appears to be moving towards getting on with her life in whatever direction she has chosen. With that we most likely will not hear from her too often in the future. But at least she has our number or knows how to get a hold of her sister in the future if needed. That's about all we can do/expect for the time being.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions . . .

The time has come to decide whether I should keep my current mode of transportation or go for a newer model. My present wheels, 2003 Chevy Trailblazer is 4 years old at the end of this month. When we first decided to try a SUV rather than a normal car that we had had for years, we figured we'd go for a lease. That way we could 'opt out' when the 4 years were up and go back to a typical auto type vehicle.

As things happen, the SUV has been great for us with Sandra's walker and allowing us to haul equipment back and forth to the lake etc. We talked it over and without a doubt neither one of us are ready to go back to a 4 door automobile type vehicle. However, we have talked about possibly going to a normal pickup truck. Well that isn't quite right as for the minimum we'd want a crew cab and 4X4.

Then we looked at our current Trailblazer. It is 4 years old, but has only 59,000 kms on it, so it is hardly broken in. For 99.9% of the time, I have been the driver so I know that it has not been driven hard and of course all the normal servicing has been done when it should be. I can buy the truck out for just over $18,000 or walk away from it. Purchasing the vehicle and going for another few years would not be a bad thing and I/we could certainly live with a decision like that. The truck has served us well and should supply many more years of quality service. Of course it would also be nice have a brand spanking new vehicle to drive around in.

I have been in touch with a fellow at the dealership I leased the current Trailblazer from and he has a few vehicles lined up. Then I also have done mucho typing in 'search fields' trying to find just the right vehicle.

I think we have narrowed it down to a couple choices, but trying to make the final decision is driving us up the wall. A few pics of our thoughts:

The first pic is a Chev Equinox. This is quite a bit smaller than a Trailblazer, but the mileage would be better. I would tend to say that it probably is sitting as our last choice, but then things change. The one part that I'm not crazy about is the lack of 4X4 and the trailer hitch setup. Other than that the vehicle does appear to be fine.



Our next is the GMC Canyon. I do like the look of the vehicle and all of that. My only negative is the 5 foot box. Then if I went to a full size box, the darn thing would appear to be a mile long. As well the normal pickup has a bit less for mileage due to the rear end setup. Still it could work :)




Now this next one is a Hummer H3. My first impression when the salesman suggested it was 'whoa no way, too huge and what a gas guzzler'. But this Hummer is the baby of the family and not your typical H1 that the military use. As to the gas mileage, the ratings say it should be about 25-26 mpg on the highway. I take that number with a grain of salt though. The one drawback I'm seeing with the H3 is that to get a better gas mileage, you should go with a 5 speed manual transmission. Now I don't do a lot of city driving so that is not a great concern, but I do some driving in Saskatoon and it would appear to be a pain in the butt to have to be manually shifting all of the time. It has been a long time since I actually had a manual transmission in a vehicle (like about 1977). However, there is a bit of 'Oh Yah' to driving one of these guys.



The last picture is a current 2007 Chevy Trailblazer. In all honesty there is not a lot of change in the look of the vehicle or for that matter the accessories. It appears that the engine has worked out quite well on this vehicle, and GM has kept using it. Why not, it works, so why change. While speaking to the salesman, he advised that he had a 2007 Trailblazer LT available in the colour that we would be looking at. This one also has running boards already installed which definitely would be a plus for Sandra. The other nice thing with a Trailblazer is that it is set up for towing trailers (at least for me). I'm used to the vehicle so that is also a plus. Then of course, being 4 years newer than our current vehicle is also a very nice plus.



We don't have a lot of time to come to a decision, but for my mind, I think I definitely would like to do a test drive at least. I feel we have probably narrowed it down to either the Trailblazer or the Hummer. But I do think the test drive will allow us to figure out which vehicle we will be driving in May of 2007.

It is a nice decision that we are having to make, but still it is a difficult one as you hate to make the wrong choice on anything....