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....

How The Times Have Changed

This weekend we decided to change the dining room around. As it turned out, I needed a stand for 'my cookbooks'. That meant I lost a stand in the bedroom that I was using for my clock radio and other sundry junk.

Well I found a new stand to use, but it did not have a drawer attached, so I had to rearrange my allocated 3 drawers out of 15 available in the bedroom. Guess who gets the rest?

Needless to say, I had to go through one of my drawers and reallocate the space available. While doing this I came upon a cheque book register from 1972 with some interesting details inside. Of course in 1972, Sandra and I were residing in Bermuda. Now just in case anyone can't remember back this far. Our Canadian dollar was worth a way more than a USA dollar. I of course got paid my salary while in Bermuda in US dollars.

A few entries in the cheque book registry jumped right out at me. My mid month pay for June 1972 was $310.00 US. Now, you have to remember I was also getting 'Foreign Service Allowance' at the time to allow that I was living outside of Canada. Then taking the exchange on our CDN dollar to the US dollar, I figure I was getting paid about $200.00 for about 15 days of work or about $100.00 a week. Taking that $100 per week at a 40 hour work week (how I wish), that would work out to be about $2.50 an hour.

Now you have to remember in the military you don't have such a thing as a normal 40 hour week. You work until the work is done. So of course you end up working more than 40 hours a week. You had your normal 'office' work and then you had your fire picket, guard duty, etc to add to your hours. The pay didn't increase and there was no such thing as overtime.

I then reflected that 5 years later I resigned from the military to take a job with the RCMP at a salary that was less than I was making in the military in 1972. I think the starting salary for my RCMP employment was $2.25 an hour. As well, Sandra and I had made the choice that one of us would not work until the children were old enough to look after themselves. That left Sandra as the stay at home mom and I was the one 'on the job'.

On $2.25 an hour, we managed to buy our first house in North Battleford, buy a brand new car (1977 Plymouth Colt) and generally got along just fine. Now a day, the young folks need at least $8.00 an hour to even look at a job. Preferably the new workers want at least $15 to $18 per hour before they even look at the job before they'll commit to working. 40 hours a week of actually working are just not in the realm of reality nowadays. Some folks will probably be at the work location for 40 hours a week, but there are coffee breaks, meal breaks, bathroom breaks, smoke breaks, etc to dwindle away the actual hours of work.

The cost of living certainly have increased.

Yup, the times have changed and I can certainly reflect on getting older...

New Toy

I'm a bit late with this posting as it actually occurred last weekend (March 24/25th), but better late than never...

Seeing as it was Sheila's first weekend in the last number of years that she wasn't employed by Great West, she decided the family would come up to Hanley to visit and I could bbq steaks for supper for the crew. This was going to be on Saturday night supper. Was she nervous about her new occupation? Nah, she just wanted a good steak done by the 'old guy'. Sure, sure, sure :)

For Friday night supper we figured just burgers and hot dogs. On Friday afternoon I purchased propane for the bbq, hooked it up and fired it up. Was I disappointed. The flame was just horrible. This was the first time I'd fired up the cue for quite a few months so I figured I'd better get my hands dirty and lift out the briquettes and see what was underneath. Once I had the briquettes out I could immediately see the problem was my burner element. It was totally burnt out.

I reflected for a few seconds on when I had actually bought this bbq and in reality it was not that long ago. From my calculations I feel the cue is only about 8 years old. Now you have to remember I always cover the cue when I'm finished. Of course it has sat out in the weather, but it had a cover on it at all times. Once we moved to Hanley I covered it for the first year, but on the second year I didn't. When I looked out on the deck I saw that the snow etc was not able to get in under the roof to cover the bbq so what was the need to cover it? I don't think this one year of not covering it was the reason for the burner burning out so quickly, but the possibility is there.

I had a couple of options to follow. I could dig out James bbq out of the shed and use it or I could dig out my old bbq that was purchased in the early 80's (ie 1981-82). I looked at James's bbq and then I looked at my old one and decided on mine as it had a much larger cooking area.

I pulled it through the slush and snow and got it set up on the deck with the propane tank and fired it up. This cue also needs a new burner, but it was not anywhere as bad as the current model. What's that old saying 'They don't make anything like they used to?'.

We cooked up our burgers and dogs on Friday nite with no problems. Meanwhile I contemplated my newer cue and decided it was probably best to look at a new version. Of course Sheila had to point out a current sale that was going on at Zellers. It certainly looked promising.

Early Saturday morning, Sam and I jumped in the truck and heading for Toon Town. We found the bbq section and I knew that it was our next purchase. But just to be fair, I asked Sam for her opinion. As normal she agreed with me and we purchased ourselves a new bbq. The store staff placed it in the back of my truck and we were off heading southbound for Hanley.

Once we arrived back in Hanley at about 1:30 pm, Wendell and I wrestled the huge box out of the truck and started to put it together in the garage. By 3:15 pm we were done putting the beast together so we moved it outside and installed the propane tank, fired it up and checked it out.

I definitely was impressed with it all. The new cue has 1027 square inches of cooking space on the main grill. Overall it has 84,000 BTU heating with a side burner on the left side. It also came equipped with a rotisserie for doing up roasts, chickens or anything that needs to be turned (I think small pigs would qualify).

After I powered up the cue, I turned the 6 burners onto 'high' and the temperature climbed to 550-600 within about 30 seconds. I figured maybe I could use this thing as a welder if it got much hotter! I turned all the burners down to 'low' and the heat gauge settled in at a comfortable 350 degrees F. Yup, I was impressed.

Needless to say I was able to cook up 7 larger steaks, 4 larger potatoes and 2 larger tinfoil pouches of vegetables with lots of room to spare.

As Craig hasn't had a chance to view my new toy, I thought I'd let him take a peak with a few pics. Yah I know Craig, your Habachi still works, but this beast is for serious cooking :) Craig, you are more than welcome to come for a steak supper (or any other serious cooking) anytime and see how she works.

Bring the wobbly pops or something similar !!

Kay's Update

Late this evening we received another call from Kay. She was out of the hospital however she still was not in the best of shape as far as she was concerned. As she put it, she is not certain what her face looks like (ie with the jaw surgery) and she wasn't certain that she wanted to have to live with the outcome. We tried to impress upon her that at least she was still with us and we were thankful for that. As for the rest, well, time will have to tell on that one.

Once again Sam got a chance to speak with Kay which was certainly a plus as far as I'm concerned. Of course I only was able to hear one side of the conversation, but it certainly sounded positive to me. At least it was not the dreaded news that Sandra was afraid she would hear.

We both wished Kay the best and hope she recovers and is able to carry on with her life in whatever way she wishes.

Strange Late Night Call

For a change I was in bed shortly after midnight last night. As it normally happens once you fall to sleep you usually are gone into a deep sleep. With about 20 minutes of sleep under my belt the phone startled me awake. On the other end was Sandra's sister Kay who we hadn't spoken to in the last seven years or so. Even the last time was very little spoken words as it was at their mother's funeral.

First off, Kay wanted to make sure she had the right family she had called asking if this was Dale the hubby of Sandra, etc. Once I confirmed she 'knew' us, she informed us that she was going in for some surgery today for cancer of her jaw. From speaking to her, it sounds like this is the third time she was having this surgery and she was not liking her chances of recovery.

While I was speaking, Sandra woke up and so I handed the phone to her so she could speak to Kay. Of course both parties got a little choked up. Eventually the phone was handed back to me. We said our goodbyes' with me wishing Kay the best and hoping for a positive outcome. I then disconnected the phone and got my head back onto my pillow.

As I was laying there mulling over what I just heard and trying to digest the information, I reflected on how sad the break up of the family was. These things happen though and there is not much you can do about them. For our part, we have never unlisted our phone number or tried to keep our location a secret from anyone in the family. Of course with Kay, she had made the move to BC quite some time ago with no one really knowing where she resided (her wishes). But she could always manage to find us, whether it was in North Battleford, Regina or now in Hanley as she usually gave us a call every five years or so for some reason or another. Mostly to let us know that she was still alive in the world. Never was there a phone number or an address to converse back and forth to her. She usually didn't have a phone of her own and was normally 'in between' living arrangements so didn't have an address to give us. At least she knew where to (or could) find us if she wanted to.

If the ultimate happens as Kay felt and said and she doesn't make it through the surgery, we may find out about the fact sometime in the future, but there are no guarantees on that one. That would be a choice of the other part of the family. We can't make them call us with any information. So if they do, they do and if they don't they don't.

I can only reflect on Kay's words and both Sandra and I both wish her the best and hope that she does come through the surgery okay. As always, she knows how to get a hold of us and can call anytime.

Done For Another Year

Yesterday was our windup curling for this year. It was a funspiel type of curling with the whole team staying together for the day rather than always changing after every game.

We played 3 four end games with points given for each end scored and then extra points for a win or a tie. As typical of my curling this year our team just didn't do too well.

Our first game we really stunk up the place and got totally skunked (ie we didn't score in one end). I think the final score was something like 7-0 so the score wasn't totally bad. It was just that we couldn't even get a point in the 4 ends.

The team then had an hour off prior to the start of our second set. Of course this was the noon hour so when we got back on the ice we all were ready for a snooze rather than curling. However, we managed to score in 2 of the ends, but we still came out as losers once again.

It is interesting in that we were scheduled to play all 3 of our games on the same ice which was sheet 2. After our second game we just stayed out on the ice waiting for the opposition. When the opposing team came out we were advised that we had been moved to sheet 1 to play on. This sheet had not been played on for about 2 1/2 hours whereas sheet 2 had played 3 games in a row on.

So we moved over to sheet 1 and commenced the game. Wow was the ice ever heavy. You had to throw take out weight just to get the darn rock into the rings. For the first end only 3 rocks actually got past the hog line. That's out of 16. Not a very good percentage. However, we played on and the ice did start to keen up some.

At the end of the game, we were up by a point on the last end, however, the other team had last rock. Their skip had a fairly decent shot for a take out to sit two. But he must have choked a bit and they only managed to count 1. So we ended up with a tie game.

I didn't even bother to look at the scoreboard as I knew that we had the least amount of points of any team. This was not exactly ending the year on a winning note, but at least I (and most everyone else) enjoyed ourselves.

For now, most of the members from the curling will be moving over to golf to see if they can do any better wacking the little white ball around. Many of my curling friends are trying to get me to 'go out' and give it a try. As they say, it is just as enjoyable as the curling.

Who knows, after a week or so of nothing to humiliate myself with, I just might take them up on their offer to show me the ropes in golf. I have only been on a golf course once in my life and that was probably 25 years ago or so.

Stranger things can happen.

Give You A Fright

To think you are normally surfing around on the Internet and when you click on a certain link you come upon a site that gives you a bit of the shivers. Well my son Craig had that happen to him yesterday as he clicked on Bike rider died on weekend trip.

Now you have to remember that originally the Bagnall family came from England and in particular the small village of Bagnall which is just a county east of the Wales border. It is also not surprising to have a motorcycle accident in England with a death. What is surprising to see your own name as being the deceased. Now the location of the accident is near the Wales border, but in reality it is not that far from the village of Bagnall.

What I find so interesting is that the deceased was 33 years of age. Of course my son Craig won't be 33 until this coming November. Still they are very close in age. It is interesting that different families of Bagnalls actually decided to pick out the same given name of Craig for their offspring. In my case no one in my family as far back as I could go on a genealogy search had the given name of Craig.

So what compelled these folks in England to name their son Craig the same as Sandra and I decided to name our son Craig? Damned if I know, but in a way it is a bit spooky.

On a different note, I know that there is another 'Dale Bagnall' out in the world. A few years ago a friend of mine was using ICQ as a chat program. At the time I was also using ICQ. My friend lost his contact list so was re-adding me to his list. Low and behold he found my name, added me to his list and then sent a few messages to 'Dale'. Then all of a sudden up pops more messages from another 'Dale' (which in reality was me).

As it turns out the 'Dale' that my friend had added was a female who lived in New Zealand. She would be probably about 25-28 years of age now (I can't remember how old she was when this all happened). I did end up adding her to my chat list and had a few chats with her, but there definitely was an age gap (to say the least of a total different country). It was an interesting time to say the least.

But back to poor Craig, I just wonder how many 'white' hairs he'll have after seeing his name pop up as deceased :)

Just keep it short Craig and no one will know :)

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'.