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.