GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENTS

A few years ago you may recall, there was a van full of Chinese people that drove out in front of a truck which collided with them. There were 6 or 7 in the van that were killed in the collision.

The Provincial government in their "intelligents" decided that all vehicles must have seat belts, presumably that will stop people being Killed if they drive in front of a truck.

Two days ago their theory was tested when a van full of workers, this time, from Peru who apparently had their seat belts on, drove in front of a truck, 11 people died. I am sorry for them and their loved one.

Much to the governments surprise the seat belts didn't save them. In typical government fashion their spokesman said that he wasn't sure yet what they will do, BUT maybe we will have to make 15 seat vehicles illegal.

Presumably that means that a vehicle with less than 15 people and has seat belts in use, WILL survive a crash if they drive in front of a truck.

Some people vote for these Deep Thinkers!!

ROUND-UP TIME

Cheryl ask that we bring the Horses and Pigs in while they were at The Walk in the Trees, then they were staying at the cottage over night.

We went up a few days before for a training session, everything went well, the pigs came into their stall as planned then the horses came into their stalls. All went as planned.

Saturday evening we went up to carry out the project, on the way the Missus commented that she had forgot her I-phone, Oh well we don't need it.

As planned and rehearsed she went to the pig pen and I waited in the barn for the pigs to come in she opened the gate and in came the pigs. Unfortunately as the first pig entered the stall, the second one saw me standing in the barn and decided that I was an evil spirit or something and decided she didn't want to actually come in the barn, she took off in the other direction back out in the driveway then back to the pen, no over the the big plastic shed, no back to the pen, no I don't know where I want to go she said to herself. By this time The Missus is at the barn shaking a scoop of grain as a encouragement for her to come to the barn and I am trying to block her way as she starts to run in a different direction. The bloody fat little bugger can run like the wind, she deeks me and goes in a different direction again, Darn I said, I think, no there was something else. Undaunted I tried a different direction so did the pig.

The horses in the meantime are now getting anxious and are starting to panic and jumpy. I don't want them to go nuts but can't let the pig head into the bush we may never see her again. So I tried to divert the pig back to the barn, she heads for the pigpen for safety. We close the gate on the pig pen and then turn our attention to the horses. I open the back door of the barn and Commanchie is waiting to come in, fortunately he is not too upset by all the commotion and both horses come into their stalls and settle into eating.

The pig in the stall has eaten her food and is now started on the other pig's food so we rescue that dish then back out to the pigpen to discuss the matter with the pig, The plan is to bribe her with food to get her to the barn, she seems interested at first but apparently remembered that there is a monster standing in the barn from which she had already had to escape So she diverted in a different direction which took her on the path toward grassy narrows, if she gets there, how do I get her out of there? I decide to cut through the bush to get in front of her. She stands there watching me, but I was able to get in a position to send her back toward the barn.

She now goes around the other side of the Plastic shed where the Missus is waiting still shaking the pan of grain. After a couple of diversionary tactics the pig winds up in the pigpen once again. So we think we are getting somewhere. She then goes into her Pigloo and I think that I might be able to carry her into the barn so I go over to the Pigloo and she comes out like a torpedo, almost knocked me over then charges around the pigpen. It is now almost dark so we decide to call Cheryl for instructions because we don't want her to become Coyote dinner.

Damn, we didn't bring the I-phone, so we drive home where we call Cheryl for instructions, leave her there says Cheryl, it serves her right and she can spend the night in her Pigloo.

At 10 O'clock the Missus says "Did we lock the stall doors?" Damn I think so BUT, back up to check the doors and the Pigloo. Yes we did!!!

Sunday 6:45AM up to let the animals out, hopefully the Coyotes didn't dine last night. Upon arrival we check the Pigpen, that one is still there. In the barn we feed the horses, put out their hay then plan our strategy for getting the other pig out to the Pen without another adventure.

First we let the horses out, then, so I don't scare the pig, the Missus goes to the pigpen and unties the gate and I cautiously push the stall door open so the pig can run out without seeing me and run to the pen.

The pig stands and looks at me with a 'now what' look and doesn't move so I walk past and say "come on" and she follows me out the door then runs over to the pen and inside for FOOD.

We felt bad for having to call Cheryl and worrying her, she felt bad for the hassle we had, BUT everybody lived happily everafter.

THE END.

NO THANK YOU !!!

So some time ago The Missus got a free sample of Becel Pro-Activ something, which is supposed to be healthy for your heart and cholesteral. I used most of it for 2 reasons, 1. It was free and 2. it was supposed to be good for me.

After it was mostly gone I decided to see if Flys would like it so I set the remainder out by the recycle box where Flys like to meet. Flys wouldn't touch it there so I moved it to several other locations, still no takers. Next I moved it to an Ant Hill, same results. Well maybe these Ants are Upper Crust and just too proud, so I moved it to another Ant Hill same results. Everybody knows that Ants like to go to picnics and Flys like to eat shit, BUT after a week of trying to give it away, there was no sign of any self respecting bug that was interested in such a generous offering. So why would people eat this stuff ? Fortunately the Recycle Guy wasn't too proud to dump it in his truck.

GONE

We took Joan & Herrick to the airport on Fri. where they met up with Joan's sister and they have gone home.

We took them around to local sights not seen on their last visit and they loved attending Melissa & Andrew's wedding.

In the previous blog I mentioned that they were anxious to play 'Hearts', well we did almost every night and Herrick was the winner of the series. Both are expert Bridge players and have won all kinds of tournaments. They remember every card played, even hands in previous games.

We taught them to play Eucre and played several games where he was my partner, we won the majority of the games but we eventually had great discussions on statistics of the game, he decided that it is mostly luck that wins the game. Joan disagreed with his thinking.

He also beat me at a game of snooker and 8 ball.

We had a lot of fun with them.

BUSY TIME

So last Saturday we took Cam and the kids to K&W for the 5 Generation pics which was quite a wild time. Then on Sunday we went to Camebridge to pick up Herrick & Joan who are visiting from England. On the way I took one of my famous short cuts which in theory add extra time to the trip but we were only 20 min. late. The GPS had wanted to go via 400/401. We came back via 401 and as we turned up 400 my short cut was justified because, due to road work on west bound 401, southbound 400 was backed up to north of Finch, which I had suspected would be the case.

So far due to their restricted movements while in Camebridge we all decided to take it easy for a day or two. We have had a lot of laugh, did a bit of shopping and banking then spent the evening playing 'Hearts' which Herrick loves since we showed them the game when in Switzerland with them a couple of years ago. So far Herrick was been the big winner and Joan the loser, there should be many more games yet.

To be continued.

THROW IN THE TOWEL

So Tuesday I went back to Toronto Reference Library and after 5 hours of looking at Microfilm of the Toronto Star, from June to end of Dec. 1944, I could not find the pictures I was looking for. There appears to be no explanation as to where the original pictures that I copied came from, and there was nothing on the originals which I donated to the 48th Highlander Museum.

This is the end of the search.

NO PICTURES

On Wednesday I decided to go back to the library for another look for the pictures. I started at Nov. 16 througt to Dec.27, no luck so I headed home. After having missed the bus last time I jogged down Yonge St to the subway because the next bus departed Yorkdale at 12.25 and I knew it was going to be close, the next bus is 2 hours. When I got to the subway the train was right there, wow what luck so I jumped on it. The bugger didn't leave for 5 min. As we went through each station I kept looking at my watch and, yes I will, no I won't all the way to Yorkdale. We arrived at Yorkdale at 12.22 so I ran to the Bus Terminal. The bus had closed the door but I made it. The bus driver said " you still had 30 seconds".



At home I rechecked all the newspaper articles that Mum had cut out of the paper in 1944 and all written ones were The Telegram but nothing on the pictures gave a clue. Could it be that somebody who got the Star gave her the pictures from the Star?..I know what the next step is BUT.








Jojo asked what else I remember SO here it is.








It was probably at the CNE coliseum where it actully took place.




I was standing on a railing holding onto a post with my left hand Grandad was beside me, Granny, Mum, Ellen & Johnny were behind me at my 4 o'clock. The returning troupes marched in and grandad said I will find him, wait here. After a while I saw a Glengary Cap heading our way and I just knew it was Dad so I jumped off the railing and heard Mum yell "Tommy come back here" but I ran through the crowd and grabbed his hand he said " Hi Bud" then I asked "what happened to your finger" he said "a parrot bit it off" (It took till the late 1990's to find out what had happened) . We all got in Grandad's 1937 Chev. and went home. ( I bought the car off him in1953-4).



At home with my welcome sign Dad, uncle Tom

and Johnny.




Mum & Dad



SO that was Christmas 1944

HUNTING

I have a copy of a picture of Dad taken from The Toronto Evening Telegram, a newspaper which no longer exists. It was taken in Italy in 1944 of him preparing to go out as a Sniper, to do some work, it was taken by a newspaper reporter. I had tried in 2001 to get an original copy of it through the Sun Newspaper who have all the Telegram's old pictures, but they were unable to find it within the dates I gave them.

Yesterday I decided to go to the Toronto Reference Library to look through old papers to see if I could see the pictures, they are all on Micro Film now.

I took the bus and subway to the library and was instructed by a very patient lady on how to do it and who also almost fell over when I told her that I wanted to look at papers from June to Nov. 1944. Her only comment was that's going to take a long time them showed me which drawer to look in.

I started with June 1 1944 looking through to Nov.15 1944. I chose those dates because I knew that he was made Sargent in June and was SOS, "struck off service" on Oct.26. He had been wounded 4 times and the rules were that after 3 times you were allowed to go home.

The price of a kitchen stove at Eaton's in 1944 was $ 25.00 and shoes were $1.70.

I started at 10AM and got through to Nov 15 at around 1.30 when I quit.

I took the Subway to Yorkdale just in time to see the bus leave so got a Timmy and waited an hour for the next bus.

At home it suddenly occured to me that if the picture was taken around Oct. by the time it actually got to Toronto from somewhere in Italy via England then boat to Canada in those days could take a couple of months.

Next week I will go back and do Nov.16 to Dec 23 1944... he got home 1 or 2 days before Christmas.


WHAT A CHRISTMAS THAT WAS.

NEW TURF

As most of you know I am a big fan of Disneyworld but this year we decided to check out Texas because we had heard so much about it.

Things started out not so good. Bad road conditions on 401 through to London and we had to use 4 wheel drive just to go forward because the road was so slippery. From London to Kentuckey things were good. We stopped over night it Florence KY at the same motel we always stop at. Next morning we discovered that out Sat Dish was gone. No more Canadian news for the trip










As planned, We drove through to Memphis then south to Baton Rouge LA. where we met up with Carlsons who so kindly gave us a Happy Valentines Day balloon which grinned at us for the rest of the trip.


We left there and went to Galviston Beach for a couple of days of fun walking the beach after which we made a rather rapid trip across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona encountering several large traffic jams due to collisions.

After leaving El Paso I could not get Marty Robin's song out of my head, day after day there it was, my constant companion. Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso, etc.













We stopped at Coolidge AZ for a night where we visited the ancient Casa Grande Ruins which was a 4 story high clay building, still in reasonably good condition.


We then pushed on to Quartzsite AZ which we had previously heard of, turned out to be a nothing place. Next morning Carlsons departed and we drove to Yuma AZ. leaving the trailer at Quartzsite. Yuma is a nice city and the whole area for miles around is where a lot of your winter food comes from.


From there we drove back to Coolidge where we had stayed previously,then on Susan's advice we went to The Apache Trail about 40 Miles away. It a was spectacular drive winding through the mountians almost bumping into the back of our own truck at times. At the end of the paved road we came to a sign saying ONE LANE AHEAD. After deliberating for a minute or two we started down it. The road was narrow, rough and steep and too late to change our mind. Then a car came up the road, we let the air out of both vehicles so we could pass each other. We went down hill on this "road" for aprox. 10 to 15 KM constantly watching for passing spots and looking ahead as much as possible for up bound vehicles. On blind bends I blew the horn before going around them but fortunately never met on them. The road at the bottom was 30Km of washboard at about 20KPH. When we reached pavement I looked in my rear view mirror and saw something so I stopped and found the screws holding the LR tail light had shook out and the light was hanging on the wires, fortunately I found a couple of screws in my tool box and put it back together. When we arrived back at Coolidge, LR tire as going flat, luckily I remembered seeing a tire shop in Coolidge where we arrived 20 min. before they closed. He took the wheel off, patched the tire and put it back on the truck all for $8.00.


From there we went to Las Crusas, NM where, in an old portion of the town, there was a place which claims to be were Billy the Kid was convicted and hanged, there was no blood showing though.


We next drove to White Sands Nat. Monument where the white sand is actually gypsum but driving through there looks like driving through snow banks.


Next we went to Ruidoso NM where we met up with Doreen & Wes and their friends Anne & Brian and toured around the area where range wars were fought involving Billy the Kid.

We also experienced what we thought was a snow storm where no snow occured, it turned out to be a form of dust storm BUT it was gypsum from the White Sands Nat. Mon.


On to the City of Carlsbad and to Carlsbad Caverns which is a self guided tour and just an amazing sight but impossible to get a good picture.







The next day to a hugh water falls in the desert which
apparently never stops flowing. and the water is very cold.

We hung around here for a while because it was so spectacular to watch.





From Carlsbad we all went our different ways.

We then headed for San Antonio, stopping at a KOA in
Junction TX where the lady in charge came out the front door and waved and hollered welcome to us as we pulled up in front.






We stayed at a KOA on the edge of San Antonio for 3 nights, taking the city bus to downtown where they have a river flowing through with a long walk on each side,restaurants,entertainment and boat rides.


We then went south to McAllen /Brownville area, for 2 or 3 nights check that off the list, not going there again.


Back north to Galviston Island for 2 nights, touring and walking the beach.


Then started to head home, along the way some truck troubles which were no fun, got them fixed, visited N. Padre Island then back to Baton Rouge and another truck problem which we brought home for John to fix.

NUMBER 5 COMING UP

We went to visit Woolfreys on Sunday. Roy's leg is still one hell of a mess as a result of the chain saw thing years ago. They have an appointment at Sunnybrook still trying to find a solution to the problem. We had a good visit and as usual we played Rumoli in which I really cleaned up.

Dianne and Bob stopped in while we were there and asked me to be an usher at their wedding which is planned for on Monday July 18 at 7 PM. I of course asked Bob if he was really going to do it and pointed out that his chances of survival were not great. He said that he would chance it. His Priest had already mentioned about Dianne's track record and that if things went in the normal pattern, Bob would be scheduled to be killed...He was just joking !!!! But it is sort of a family on going joke any way.

They are having 4 ushers and around 200 guests but no banquet, I think sandwiches and light drinks no booze. I think they are using an Arena.

So there is number 5.

ROGERS IS FORGIVEN

As most of you know, I am always suspicious of company's and people's motives and methods of operation.

Today I worked up the courage to enter the time from the card I purchased as mentioned in the last blog. I had kept track of all times of use of the phone over the last month which includes number of seconds for each call and 2 long distant calls, and had $4.85 left on my account.

I dialed *611 with heart pounding in preparation for the inevitable Push Button Hell, the phone rang and the Push Button Robot said "please wait while I find your account" which she did, then said "to add to your account, enter a number" (which I have already forgotten) and I did. She then said "enter your 14 digit number" which I did and guess what, I HAVE $104.85 in my account.... I am good for a year!!!

Apparently all my previous problems were people generate and not the Push Button Robot.

Now I say Thank You to Elise from Rogers for her offer to help out. However just in case I will keep her in my 'Rogers file folder' along with all the other stuff I recorded, just in case.

At this stage of my life I just can't stop being suspicious!!!!!!

ROGERS NIGHTMARE

I decided in Nov. to switch my cell to "Pay as you go" which one would think should be easy. So I went into Rogers at the mall to enquire about it. I was first told that I couldn't do it. Then well maybe it can be done but we can't do it, you have to call Rogers. Then another person called Rogers to find out.

She handed me her cell phone, it was on speaker, and I started talking to a guy about it, it dragged on for a half hour with everybody in the store listening in and another guy about my age fighting with them as well.

I gave the guy all the info he needed to get things rolling then he finally said that it would take a week to get it done and I should call *611 on Dec.o6 and it would be done.

I then said to him "I just phone *611 and that's it, it will be Pay as you go, correct?" He replied yes.
On Nov.30 I went into Rogers at the mall to ask a question abou "pay as you go" and the switch over. Now I'm told that I can't switch without a entry number which I must buy. I decided not to buy from him and went to Walmart because I can't trust people at Rogers. So I bought a number at Walmart where I encountered 2 people who gave me more info in 2 minutes than I got from both Rogers stores in 1 hour.

On Dec 6 7AM I called Rodgers and was told that I must wait till after 8 to speak to my local office, HOWEVER, she was very quick to try to sell me on signing a 3 year contract for which I would receive a Thumb Drive worth $170.00 I asked why I would want to do that, to which she replied "use it in your laptop", but, I replied " I don't have a laptop", well she said you can give it to a friend. Needless to say no friend is getting a free Thumb Drive.

At 8AM I called again and got Gena who said there was no record of anything on my file. I gave her a mild version of my opinion of Rogers including that I think Rogers reps will say anything just to get rid of callers. Gena then took all my life history and give it to the "Pay as you go" department To which I replied that I will never hear from them again. Gena then said that I should wait on the phone while SHE spoke to them for me.

After several minutes she came back and said everything is arranged and in 3 days I will get a text message and I will have to call *611 to complete the transfer.
I said " so on Dec.9 this will happen" she said yes it will. I then asked what do I do if it doesn't happen? To which she replied "I'm sure it will" . BUT what if it doesn't I asked, to which she said call *611 and ask for Prepaid or Customer care.

On Dec.9 there was no text message.

On Dec.10 I called *611 and entered Push Button Hell once again this time I was informed that the format of *611 was now taken over by Push Button Robots who after I frantially kept pushing '0' over and over again the Robot said "I do not understand that, I will transfer your to a voice operator".

Alex came on the phone and I asked "Have I reached an intelligent person yet, he laughed and said "yes I think so". I told him that I had spoken to Gena on the Dec.6 and that I was supposed to get a message On the 9th , which never came and I now can't get past the *611 robot. He told me that *611 format had been changed. He then checked and found that I was now in the world of "Pay as you go" As we were departing but before we were actually disconnected a Robot came on and said " I am completing your long distance call" , I yelled "for cris ache Shut up" and as I was hitting the END button I heard Alex laugh.

By the way Alex asked for my E-Mail address, to which I replied " I don't have E-Mail"

In between real people, while on 'IGNORE' I listened to a Rogers Robot extolling the greatness of Rogers and advising me to contact a Rogers Representative for further information

P.S.
Believe it or not as I went to post this, the first ad that showed on the screen was:
Switch your home phone to Rogers. AS IF!!!!!!!!!!

GRUMPY OLD MEN

So today I met with Cliff and Paul whom I worked and argued with for many years at Shell. We got together at Timmie's in Uxbridge because that is kind of mutual territory in terms of each of driving to any location. It was a good time with us picking and needling at each other.

I thought it would be appropiate to get a picture so I asked a young lady at a nearby table if she would take a picture for our bucket list, which she found funny but agreed to do it.

.

After the picture taking we proceeded to go at each other , which I think is a reasonable description of our get togethers. We seldom listen to what is being said for very long, if you take a breath then the subject changes. You could say that much advise is given and none is taken.

.

The main problem is that these guys think they know everything and don't realize that it is I who knows everything. When Frank, (Paul's brother in law) was alive it was even worse because we then had 4 guys who knew everything.

.

They were even kind enough to advise me how to get home BUT I went the way I said I would go. I will take this opportunity to point that the road running WEST from the centre of the old part of Uxbridge goes straight WEST to county road 30 then north to Davis Dr then west to Newmarket.

.

It was suggested that we get together and I said it would have to be next March , Paul asked why so long and while I was saying that we may be in Texas, he changed the subject so I don't think he even heard it.

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A good time was had by all and I expect that we will do it again, IN MARCH .

.

By the way Paul is on the left and Cliff is on the right in the picture.

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I appologize for the paragraphs being jamed together the bloody computor won't let me space them out but I put in dots to try to solve the problem If that don't work---oh well

WINTERIZING

Since getting back from Kenora I had a job list of things to do in preparation for winter. Today Mrs.G went to the Royal with C & V. So I rotated the wheels on the truck then had to empty my rain barrels which I use for washing the vehicles. So I washed both vehicles. I use rain water because it doesn't leave dirty lime marks after they dry like town water does. Town water is ok to drink apparently, but it is not fit to wash vehicles. Anyway I used up the rain water then washed the barrels out in preparation for next year.

Of course I had to rake up those bloody leaves also. Well they aren't really bloody except for a few drops which leaked out of a finger injury which occured in a unusual way in Kenora. Normally I don't bother much about cuts but I have kept this one bandaged since it happened, I am trying to get this one stay stuck together and it doesn it want to. I hate bandages, they keep getting dirty and you have to replace them, then as soon as you do it they just get dirty again.

Anyway I finished up the things I want d to do and since Mrs. G is away I decided to bore people with this blog.

Also we finally got high speed internet yesterday and I wanted to play with it. So that is the real story of the reason for this story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post has been edited by FiddlingGranny.

SIDE TRIP

So we drove to Kenora which is 1900km then the next day we went with Susan,Megan,Kellon & Mekhi,in 2 vehicles for a short junket of 1050km to Saskatoon to visit with Stephanie, Matt, Kaden & Ireland for 2 sleeps then back to Kenora.

On the way to Saskatoon we had a blowout on Susan's car, put on the spare then on to Sask. The following day Steph, Megan, Thelma & Susan went to Costco and Susan got 4 new tires installed. The guys stayed home with the kids.

After the ladies returned we played poker till supper. The game ended with me beating Kellon after we had eliminated all the rest.

Sunday we left Sask. and back to Kenora passing through groups of deer after dark.

We had a great time there with all the noise and confusion and the kids were so much fun just watching the things they did and said.

One thing which I found particularly funny was, after me several times playing with Mekhi's curly hair, he wanted me to pick him up which I did. He then started playing with my hair and laughing while doing it.

Early next morning Susan & I started taking her dock apart to replace a leaky barrel which took most of the day. We then had a pizza supper with Laurence.

TIME TO GO

So today we are taking C&C to the airport, they are going home and will be missed. We always have fun with them as do all the rest of the family.

They were here for 2 weeks and we did the usual touristy things and spent time at K&W and C&J cottage now it is pretty much finished.

Clive has a ticket on a lottery in England with which he expects to win 82 million pounds when he gets back home so he is quite excited about that and he has promised to give me 10 dollars so that is exciting.

DAMN ELUSIVE KEYS

So yesterday we went with C&J to visit a friend, N&L and T&P were there also, after we left and came back to C&J's for a while. We then were about to leave their house when I discovered that my keys were missing. I checked my pockets twice, no luck, then Cheryl asked where is your coat, you had a coat when we all left here this AM. Must be at the friends house. Fortunately Mrs.G had a spare remote and there was a spare key in the truck so we left C&J's planning to call the friend's house later cause they had gone out now.

Later in the evening I called and said that my coat is hanging on the door handle, will you check the pockets for my keys, which she did, NO KEYS, and there is a hole in the pocket.

I then remembered that when we arrived at C&J's, they were already in their truck ready to go and I had jumped out of our truck and ran around the front of it and jumped into their truck. When we went to leave I walked around the back of our truck to leave. The keys must have fallen out the hole in the pocket, so we decided to go back to C&J's and look in their drive.

As I went to put on my seat belt I felt something under my left leg. I had worn cargo pants, which I seldom wear, and the keys were in the leg pocket the whole time.

I humbley called everybody to try to explain what had happened.

They on the other hand were not too kind with their comments.

CAPE COD

As most of you know while Sue& Steve were here we toured them around our part of the country then took them to Boston MA. where they were flying via Iceland Air back to England. We actually took them to Plymouth MA.where we toured around the area and to Cape Cod, including Provincetown which is loaded with strange characters with various sexual orientations and dressed it whatever the hell they wanted to and some of the getups were unbelievable. This is a good example of one of the character we met in our travels in that town.

FAMILY ADDITION

A couple of days ago JOJO gave Mrs.G a box with a Monarch Butterfly Chrysolis in it yesterday we watched her emerge. It was quite a sight to watch, now we don't know if we are midwives, parents, nosy neighbours or just clingons. Here is a picture of her, and yes it is a her.

THE CORN ROAST

We all had a great time at C&J corn roast there were many pictures taken by most people but I temporarily loat my camera. Steve took a lot of good ones but I like this one.

THEY'RE HERE

Sue & Steve arrived last night via Iceland Air we picked them up at YYZ and then stopped at Pizza Hut. It's been aprox. 30 years that we have been ragging at them to come over from England. We have visited with them several times on trips to England.
They hit the sack early after we got home.

Today we will take it easy then do the tour thing for the next few weeks. They are excited to see sights and the relatives.

THE CON MAN

On Jul.21 at 11:45A I was watching something on TV when the phone rang. I had the volume up too high to hear what the guy on the phone said clearly but heard Grandad and Grandson so I said wait till I turn the TV down. I then ask who is this. In a muffled voice he said something which made me think it was Thomas so I asked is this Tom, to which he replied in a muffled sad sounding voice, yes, I'm in trouble, I'm in jail, and need help and continued on with his story.

A friend who works for CTV gave me free tickets to a concert which included free car rental. I had a couple of drinks and got into an accident. I asked who were you with and he replied 3 friends, I asked What were their names, he replied, you don't know them so I said tell me anyway. He gave me three first names then continued. I now suspected something, but he went on, I have to pay for the repairs to the 2 cars plus a fine before they will release me. I have the money but they won't take a cheque so if you will help me out then I will repay you when I am out.

Now as most of you know, when somebody says the word MONEY to me, the complexion of things change. Before he could continue I asked "where were you born", he asked "what do you mean, where were you born" I said "It's a simple question, where were you born" after a slight pause he replied "Toronto". I then said "you were born in Toronto??". Click went the phone and that was the end of the conversation.

I then checked the phone and guess what, the number was on the display. I tried calling the number but the line was busy. I next called YRP and was given a number for Phone Busters which I called and reported the event. As it turns out, they are familiar with the number. This is a common ploy used to con Seniors and there are many victims.

Afterwards I was pissed off at me for repeating the questioning line "you were born in Toronto??" because I should have just said "OK" and let him continue on. I could have had so much fun with him, if I hadn't tipped him off.

However the main point of this blog is to advise everybody who reads it, Let any Senior you know about this con because he is very good at what he does, He speaks in a low, sad, sounding voice and could be very believable.

PHONE BUSTERS number is 1 888 495 8501: or www.recol.ca

PS If ever I get another call like this, I won't be so quick to tip him off, it could be fun.

SUPER SHOW

Last night we went with Cheryl & John, Lisa & Nick, to see Celtic Women at Rama. What a fabulous show it was. They are from Ireland and have the greatest show we have ever seen. They have 3 lead singers and it's hard to choose which you like best and are marvelous singing together. There is a violin player who not only plays but also while playing she dances, runs, jump and spins in circles. While spinning in one sets her long dress twisted around her ankles to the point that it appeared that she might fall.

When they sang Danny Boy, it brought tears to your eyes, it was so great. At least 4 times it appeared that this was the final number then on again.

They also had male backups who were great and at one point a lone Piper played Amazing Grace. He actually started up in the stands immediately behind us and marched down to the stage.

They got several standing O's through out the show then at lease 10 min. at the end, with several curtain calls.

The 6 of us went in our truck, it was a little crowded but a fun trip. If we had rolled over, nobody would have got hurt.

QUEBEC

We just got back from a Caraven trip through Quebec. There were 10 RV's in total. We left home and drove to North Gower near Ottawa where we hooked up with 6 units then on to Quebec City and met up with the rest. While at North Gower Mrs. and I went for a Quick visit with Thomas and Megan at their new house.

Next day we set off for Quebec City at a KOA. We spent 3 nights there then up through central QC to Lac St. Jean, up the north side of St. Lawrence to Baie Comeau, took the Ferry across to the South shore then up to Gaspe down the coast to Carlton Sur Mer, where we went our various ways. We and 2 others drove down the south side of St. Lawrence back to the KOA at Quebec City then we drove to visit Woolfreys on our way home. We were away for about 1 month.

We had no problems with language because we had 3 who spoke Frence, though sometimes there were times when I had to struggle with some on my own.

The rivers are amazing there, almost every one is flowing over rock so they are clear and fast with many large spectacular water falls on them. While at Lac St. Jean the sky had some smoke from the forest fires to the Ouest. We took several boat cruises on lakes, rivers and ocean.

We visited a Zoo were we rode through it in little caged trains where we saw a Mother Bear with 3 cubs and later saw a big male wondering free. At one point we encountered them again and as the male approached, she sent the cubs up a tree. They also had many other animals in hugh open compounds, but the bear encounter was the highlite.

It was a great trip and I would like to go back to some parts again---SOON.

Andrew's Party

So we went to Andrew's 30th birthday party last night. There were lots of his friends there and everybody had a lot of fun. After pressure from Devon & kortney, I gave in and joined them in "shooters" which I don't think had the effect on me that they were expecting. Fortunately I avoided a couple of drinking games which they had going and using somebody camera, recorded some of the event.

It was a real fun party with all nice people involved. When we left things were still rolling alone at a great pace.

I woke up at about 5am with a long forgotten taste in my mouth which wasn't as good as last night's party and which I haven't experienced for many years, however no hangover.

THE WEDDING

Lisa and Nicks wedding was on Sat. May 1 and it is the first wedding that ever brought a tear to my eye, well several of them. This is no excuse but there were many others who also did it including Nick, who later admitted that he never expected to do that.

Another first for me was going there in a limo with C&J. We left our house then went and picked up Linda, mother of the Bride, which caused a stir on her street. There were 3 kids watching and 1 of them walked over and asked who was in there, to which the driver said simply "John Goodman". He then went back and told his amazed friends. As we left, there was a whole group of people waving at us.

The M.C. was very good of course, but Nick did a super job of thanking many people individually for the help they had given him along the way.

Everybody had a great time at the reception, there were a couple of the expected drunks there but for the most part, while they didn't know it, people tried to ignore them, which is difficult. Been there done that.

The Bride and her attendants all were beautiful including Mikki,the flower girl.

Nathan was fun to watch as he appeared puzzled by what was going on but he kept up with the program and obviously enjoyed his part in the event.

It was a wonderful Wedding.

THE GREAT RACE

For Nick's stag John came up with the great idea of Go Cart Races. It was on an indoor track and was super fun, though some of us got motion sick from doing it, NO, let me rephrase that, I got motion sick. It started before half way through the 1st race and continued to blossom through all the races, the final one was a major struggle for me to complete. When I saw the final flag I was happy to hit the Pits and get out as quick as I could and get outside to suck up some fresh air as you might say. One unfeeling person took at least one picture of me in my moment of agony. I also got a giant bruise on my elbow and sore back but it was great fun. I was the most consistant racer of the whole group because most of their final positions varied, Andrew C. was the champion, I had gone outside when I presume they were given any final results. OH I almost forgot mention the reason I said I was most consistant, I always came last.

If there is ever another event I have figured out how I will prepare 1.I will Take Gravol 2.I will wear goggles 3.I will wear thicker shoes to reach the gas petal better 4. I will take Gravol 5. I will take Gravol. and 6. I will take Gravol.

I obviously struck fear into the guys who I rode home with because they INSISTED that I ride in the front seat on the way home.

SURF'S UP

After looking at Susan's blog I went back to 1967 for these ones.





I don't seem to have them in expected order. But take a look at the size of the board and the only time I made it in. Me in the centre below.








The pretty lady with the flowers some how sneaked into the pictures





the beach party after survival.

COLOUR BLIND

I make no secret of being colour blind but yesterday we went to M&A's new house to do some work, the colour of the front porch shocked me it was some kind of dark blue which I thought was pretty gross. The rooms in the house were worse, every room the previous owners had painted was a horrible colour. They could be classified as world champions at a colour blind convention.

We did some changes to the plumbing and moved the laundry room to the basement and Mrs.G and Nick put a coat of primer on one room which was an improvement. Then Mrs.G painted the baseboard white in the master bedroom. The house will emerge as a beautiful house and when they are finished and I think the house itself will be happy with the new owners.

To show their appreciation M&A took us out for an exellent supper then we all went back to their old house and watched Ultimate Fights, a bunch of nut cases trying to kill each other, but it is fun to watch and the combatents enjoy what they do so I don't see anything wrong with it.

Later we had Pizza and we went home bloated. It was a FUN day.

DID IT AGAIN

SO, I got paint fever, I painted the onsuite, by an odd coincident it is the same the same colour as the living room. The room is SO much bigger now. I would have taken a picture of it but the camera isn't big enough.

Maybe I'll try to turn the garage into a 2 car with the paint.

SEE FOR YOURSELF

This is the final results of the living room.





This is the happy lady



Here are the pictures of the living room. See the colour, See the pretty colour, what colour is it? I don't know !!!

NOTHING LASTS ANY MORE

So this week we painted the living room and it looks good. The old paint was put on quite some time ago and had witnessed several weddings. I thought it looked fine but Mrs. G had wanted to get rid of it for years. Finally I said OK lets do it, which was no big deal, get the paint you want and I will put it on. Not that simple, she had a personal battle to fight now. With a bunch of paint samples she began the battle. This one is good, no this one is good, no let me get some more samples. That went on for months. finally we got some samples from Home Depot that were good for 2 or 3 days then out came the ones from Colour your World, from a year ago. Thank god I'm colour blind.

We also replaced the drapes which we bought before we moved to Newmarket. So the drapes around 45 or 50 years old and the paint was newer, we did that just before Wendy's first wedding.

Nothing lasts any more!!!!!!!

HOLLOW HEAD

So the big event for me this year so far is having Polyps removed from inside my nose. For a long time I couldn't breath through my nose which creates some problems like dry mouth when sleeping, can't smell things, stuff like that.

It was a real pain in the ass, well that's not quite true but it is a figure of speech. Anyway I finally decided to go to Dr. Finklestein who is a nose and throat guy and unlike most doctors, he is a nice down to earth friendly guy.

After going to him I then had to go through a bunch of Pre this and Pre that tests and exams so he could do the cutting. No big deal!

The big day comes and Mrs. G has to be there so she can drive me home after it's over. The piss off is that at the end of the day, after her having to wait around all day while I slept, we had to pay 15 dollars parking.

Before he can start I have to get a C.T. scan and when that is done they made a C.D. of the inside of my head so he can do the job.

After I woke up we get this big sermon on all I can't do for the next 10 days. I can't shovel snow which meant she had to do it. I can't sneeze, I can't blow my nose
because my eyes will fall out or something, I can't lift anything heavy which made it awkward when I needed to Pee, if you get my meaning. Anyway my jailer (Mrs.G) now can lord it over me. She rules with an iron fist.

Next day I had to go for a check up. First Betty tells me "I'm going to hurt you but it will only be for 3 seconds" then she makes me hold a little tray,just so, then she takes a hold of 4 strings hang out of my nose and yalks out a couple of feet of packing and tells me to catch the blood. Then Dr.Finklestein takes a look and said everything looks good. He then tells me about using the C.D. and T.V,s to work inside my head. Not only that, he said with this new system he was able to come within less that half a MM of my brain. Then he turned to Betty and said he used the new equipment to do the job. She was impressed. I felt like some sort of celebrity
or something because maybe I was his first time.

It's nice to feel air go up my nose when I breath now. Yes my jailer is still giving me my orders but I guess it's for a good cause.

CHRISTMAS BANQUET

Last night we went with C&J and their offspring to Lakeside Restaurant in Keswick where we are now Honorary Wikiens. The food was really great, Mrs.G and I had roast beef which was very tender.The only problem we have is that it used to be traditional to slice the roast beef in thin slices, now every place we go serves it in huge chunks; of course we probably should ask to have it sliced properly but always forget to ask for it that way when we order it. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the food, it's the barbaric way people eat today that bothers me.



Nathan and Mikki were fun to watch as they struggled to eat it all but had to finally admit defeat.



We all had a good time and we even had enough left over for our dog.



Finally, I have no idea what this blog will look like when I am finished because I have no idea how to get the pictures in any order.

Visiting Wally

Today we are going to visit my cousin Wally and wife Pat. We don't see each other much any more. As kids we got into quite a bit of trouble together up to the time that we got married, then we kind of drifted apart. Even after that we did on occasion have a couple of incidents but for a few years it was only the wedding & funeral thing.

We last saw them at the Jamboree in August and had some light fun but agreed to get together before Christmas. I am looking forward to the visit but now we mostly revisit some of our past events. life is much easier this way.

GONE

Yesterday we took Jean to the airport and she has gone home. In total we spent about 5 weeks with her, at her house, in Iceland, and here and it was good fun. The three of us travelled extensively together. We visited with some of her friends and she with ours and there was never a cross word. She is a pleasure to be with because she is so easy to get along with and she is welcome here any time.

While she was here she even helped cut down a tree in our yard, but she did violate some Health and safety rules doing so.

My only problem was, I had nothing to Grype about.

DOG OR HYDRANT ?

Some days your the dog, some days your the hydrant. Sunday was one of those days.

We started out in 3 vehicles Wendy & Jean in one, Gryper & Mrs. in another and Jamie, Devon, Scott and Andrew in the third with an ATV and Dirt Bike. We were headed To the Dirt Bike Track to watch Jamie ride.

At Shelbourne my truck suddenly lost power then quit. I got it started then caught up to the others who were stopped down the road. I said that there appeared to be a problem but would keep going. We made it to the track but some loss of power on hills.

Jamie & Andrew got dressed in their armour and hit the track. It was really exciting just watching them and all the others roar around the track. Jamie is a very accomplished rider and we took a lot of pictures at various jump locations and had a great time. Everybody had a good time.

On leaving, Scott lead off then Me then Wendy, At Flesherton Wendy split off heading for home, Scott kept an eye on me in case I had further problems. We made it to Orangeville with no serious problems except my loosing power at times. We all went to Wendy's for supper then headed home. Because of the now heavier traffic I went ahead of Scott in case I had further problems. At Schomberg the engine quite again with a large truck immediately behind us so I had to jump a curb to get out of the way. We were able to get started again and made it home.

About 2 minutes in the house Jean realized that she had left her purse with all her money, credit cards and camera at the Wendy's. Mrs, G phoned Wendy's and got some "no mind" on the phone who took 10 seconds to decide that it wasn't there. We decided to go back over in the car and when we got there, after pushing to see a manager it turned out that the purse was there so that ended on a happy note.

On Monday the truck got a new fuel pump and is now happy.

Jean in Canada

Since Jean got here we have taken her to the usual sights, Niagara, C N Tour where she even went to the top pod and also stood on the glass floor, Eaton's Centre, Lake Muskoka and the Winnona, the Segwin was not sailing, but it was still fun, then on to The Big Chute.

At K & W the leaves are in full colour with which she is totally thrilled then on to the wolf preserve and since the lake was flat today we went out in the canoe for a trip across the lake. She was somewhat nervous at the outset but with my great instructions she was in very short time paddling very well. It was a little bit too cold for comfort but it was still fun. There is still lots to pack in and she is great fun to have here and she is enjoying everything so far.

Switzerland Trip

I do not intend to trivualize the portion of our trip spent in England because it was wonderful and we always enjoy our time with everybody there and just tripping around England. In this blog I will give you a little peek at Switzerland and Iceland.

In the first leg of our trip we flew by Iceland Air to Iceland. I was pissed off with Iceland Air because we had asked for seats near the wing and were told that we had row 16 on all flights then we were stuck in the last row and couldn't change. Then the flight attendants were not very pleasant and to top it off they gave us a couple of 2 oz. drinks of water during the whole flight. There was a questionaire screen on the TVs on the seats asking 13 questions of our opinion of their service, rating them 1 for good to 5 for bad, so I mostly gave 5.

We arrived at Iceland and had a 1.5 hour layover which we intended to use to get some food but we spent the whole time in security lines then onto the next flight which was much better but we were 3 seats from the rear SO I was still bad mouthing Iceland Air for the rest of the trip to England, Switzerland and back in England.

We had arranged for a Ford Focus before we left Canada But at the car rental I spent some time joking with the rental guy and he decided to upgrade us to a Mercedes at no extra charge which was kind of nice

We spent 3 or 4 days in Wales at Joan and Herrick's house.

This is J & H house from the street, that's our Mercedes beside the house.

Then I took our car to Birmingham Airport and we checked in on Swiss Air, flew to Zurich, took 4 trains to Wengen( pronounced Vengen) and walked a short distance to our hotel. About 1 hour later our luggage, which we hadn't seen since we checked in at the airport, arrived in our room.

This is Hotel Belvedere, Joan & Herrick's room is at the left corner of the balcony immediately above the arched window above Thelma's head, ours is along the balcony to the left from the corner.

This is from our balcony

Every day we took trains and gondola trips to various locations in the mountains. It is the first time I have ever seen trains that go up the side of mountains by driving them with "rack and pinion system" which are sprockets on the train.

Each day we went to a different area and walked the trails which were various degrees of difficulty this one was the roughest but spectacular.

The homes everywhere are well cared for and fun to see because of the pride that people have in planting flowers and even their vegetable gardens.

This is an example of what is a common sight.

This is Tea Time at the Hotel.

We went up a Gondola which went part way up the mountain then made a left turn to aprox. 80 degrees and continued to the top. At the top there was a zip line which travelled at about 85 KPH for aprox. 1 Km.

It was fun but also kind of boring, not worth the price, but glad I did it.

When we left to go back to England, we left our luggage at the desk and picked it up at Birmingham Airport, which I thought was a miracle.

We had a great time in England visiting with everybody for a couple of weeks and brought Jean home with us as a souvenir.

We left a Canadian thing in England

We left England and flew to Iceland on Icelandair and I changed my mind about Icelandair because we had much better flight attendants on this flight than the one from Canada to Iceland. They were pleasant as were the ones from Iceland heading home, however, we didn't fly to Canada, they sent us to Boston then to Pearson on Air Canada and unfortunately Jean will have to go back to England via Boston. You can now disregard my comments about Icelandair at the beginning, though we only sat in the row we had been told we would be in on 1 of the 4 flights.

Iceland was a big surprise, it was not like we imagined it would be. There were a lot of very modern buildings, lots of cars, and a lot of industry. They have a lot of trees which have been imported from Canada, Birch & Pine mostly. They seem to speak very highly of Canada and our tour guide mentioned different things in relation to Canada.

This is downtown Reykjavik.

This is our Hotel were breakfast was included

We took the Golden Circle Tour which was aprox. 300km and was a good show but to tour around the perimeter of the island takes 4 days according to a lady from Minnesota we were talking to. The island is about the same size as England with a population of 300000.

This falls appears to be about the same height as Niagara Falls. The water is from a glacier.

The 2 horizontal lines above the van are where the continents North America and Europe meet and are crashing together

This is one of several Geysers in the area that we saw on the tour.

This the end of the tour, there is much more to see but that's all you get from me.

THE BOOZE FREE PARTY

We all had a great time on Saturday at C&J's party, Well all but one person that is and she appears to enjoy being her self. Edwin was well received as an all round nice fun guy and fitted in very well. He also threw the football type THING with Nick, then under duress went into the pool to play Marco Polo which he was obviously not comfortable doing but persevered to his credit. I finally found out the object of the game but didn't play

John & I once again beat Nick & Andrew at Horse Shoes, only the second game we've played but the cream always comes to the top as one might say.

It was unusual to say the least, seeing nobody drinking anything but water or pop all day but we all survived. It was a potluck meal with great results.

In the evening John lit a fire and we sat around it feeding the mosquitoes. As usual J& C threw a great party.

Forgotten Blog

On june 25 I did a thing about GO Trains then forgot to publish it so today I found it and sent it. So today I sent it but of course it showed up as June 25 SO if you care to see it you will find it back in June.

Did I just became a time traveller??

WESTWARD HO

As most of you know we went west with K&W and Richard & Caroline. R&C left a few days before us and we were to hook up with them in Thunder Bay. We were meeting K&W at a truck inspection station north of Huntsville. As we drove past Gravenhurst I thought to myself, it would be funny if we arrived at the intersection at Bracebridge at the same time as K&W. As we approached the bridge. guess what, there they were coming around the bend which was about 30 or 40 KM ahead of our meeting place.

We moved right along talking on the CB's and stopped at a Husky station in Hearst for the night then met R&C next day in TB. The next few days were steady driving as planned right through to the mountains with uneventful stops at night. As we entered the Rockies, I had to explain about the factories that build the mountains which are visible to the right, to R&C, but that's another story. At Sicamous we left R&C and went to Abottsford were we stayed 4 nights then K&W went to visit Megan & Adam in Everett WA. and we kept Muggans for the day, no big deal, I thought at the time, till they returned and informed us that they had a private tour or the Ship that Adam is on, NOW it is a big deal!

Next day M&A came to abbotsford and we went to Fort Langley for the day, it is a restored Fort from the Hudson Bay fur days. I participated in a fur traded demonstration which was fun.

The lady doing the show asked my name and I said "Tom" then she dressed me in period costume and I was a fur carrier delivering them in a imaginary canoe. Later she asked my name again and I replied "Tom still" so she started calling me "Tom Still". Later that day M&A went back home.

The following day we went to Stanley Park where a guy on a bike said some thing I didn't like so I accidently pushed him a bit and he called me a nasty name which was kind of funny.

We hooked up with R&C and headed east to Yoho Nat. Park on the way R&C had engine trouble so had to spend a night in Revelstoke to get it fixed and we all went on to the park and they showed up a day later.

We spent 4 nights in the park touring the sights then headed back to see S&L in Kenora then came home.

Go Trains Horns

Every morning, some where between 6am and 7.30am, as I sit at the computer, the Go Trains come to Newmarket. It appears to me that one of the requirements to be an engineer on these trains is you must be mentally handicapped.

It used to be that when trains came to a road crossing they gave 2 longs 1 short 1 long on their whistle (Here in, horn or whistle are interchangable) as they approached a station they also whistled and used other signals for messages to the train crew, before radios and intercoms.

When these guys come to Newmarket they sit here and play with their whistles for no other apparent reason than to amuse themselves and to abuse the people of Newmarket. An example of this is the old familiar " shave and a hair cut, two bits" they use or portions there of.

There have been some mentions of this in the local paper and somehow it comes out that it is for safety. Don't eat that Elmer, it's horse shit.

At this point another train arrived in Newmarket and we were theated to yet another example of their stupidity.

They don't get away with it other locations because they are not allowed to do it. Why then does Newmarket allow this to continue, there is nothing cute about it and I feel sorry for the poor bastards that live close to the tracks.

I first wrote this June 25 and never got around to sending it. This is actually July 27 But today there is no difference, the fools are still doing the same thing like little children.

The Wedding

On Saturday Thomas and Megan were married. Megan was beautiful and Thomas was impressive in his uniform.
The wedding service was very relaxed as was the Priest. There were several emotional moments which was wonderful to experience. As for me I must admit that Thomas caused me a few tears, which for me most people didn't notice or will soon forget. For Thomas, I suspect it will be a long time before he hears the end of it. I also suspect that by the time he gets back to work there will be many of his buddies wanting to discuss the situation with him in some fashion.

I believe that over the next coming decades, NO the rest of the Century, Megan will get a lot of mileage out of it. It will be little jabs just for the fun of it.

The reception was great fun and I particilarly enjoyed Homee Dad's speech, a little long winded but that's Homee Dad and he gave us advanced warning, IT WAS enjoyable and accurate.

It was nice to see Nora & Don after so many years.

It was good to see everybody having a good time and the meal was good but not too calorie wise, you could say it was filling, as you might say, but very good and I believe that nobody left hungry.

I congratulate Thomas & Megan and wish them a long and happy marriage and hope it is as good as ours has been and still is.

VICTORIA DAY

Last night we were at Shady Lanes for their annual Victoria Day party and as usual it was great fun. John had the big bon fire going and the water boiling for the corn boil. Probably the best part of the night was seeing Nick having fun without any booze in him.

We had corn, hamburgers, hot dogs and water and lots of fun. Mikki was her usual entertaining self, played soccer with Nathan, and gave Linda many anxious moments by running past the fire on many occasions.

There was some doubt whether the rain which lasted all day, would spoil things but it stopped in time for the party. The wind was quite cold especially for Lisa who came there half dressed but the rest of us dressed for the occasion, even Nick had to put on extra clothes since he had no alcy in his system to numb the cold.

Nick and Andrew were in charge of the fireworks and did a great job of it while Mikki announced what the name of every one before it was launched plus worrying Linda to death as she kept running past the fire with the info.

It was a great night, Nathan had fun playing soccer,TJ and Pam had a good time, most of the grass was dry and not burning, of course the fire was in the fire pit.

The cold wind finally took it's toll shortly after the actual fireworks.

The main thing was everybody had FUN.

BOTTLED BOATS

As most of you know a few of years ago I built a boat in a half gallon wine bottle, not in the usual way people do it by making a skinny little boat with a draw string on the mast which they then slide through the neck of the bottle then pull the mast up then claim to have built a boat in a bottle.

The first one I built was fashioned after a ship from a National Geographic article about a slave ship called Hentietta Marie which had some good pictures from which to work.

The model was 5.25"L, 1.25"W, 1.5"H not counting the mast height, the neck of the bottle had a .75" opening SO to build the boat I obviously had to assemble it inside the bottle, which I did. Somebody who saw it said "I know, you just put it in and pulled a string". Duh, he gave no thought to the boat being bigger than the neck of the bottle, which floored me because he is a smart guy. I let it go because I have no intention of telling how I did it anyway.

A few years ago I found a 1 gallon jug and I thought that I might do it again some time BUT it will be a much bigger boat. When we were on the Manitoba Trip I bought a diaghram of the ship Nonsuch that the Hudson Bay Co. first used in fur trading, with the intention of building another boat.

The problem is that it's kind of nerve wracking sorting out all the problems you encounter, then it becomes an obsession. The results were that in my mind, I have been building that boat for over a year then I started last fall preparing some material then started the project.

When I was 11 years old my Dad built a thing in a bottle which he called Jacob's Ladder. He wouldn't tell how he did it which pissed me off and I said some day I will do something better and I will never tell anybody how I did it.

Yesterday I finished Nonsuch which is 7.5"L, 2.25"W, 2.5" H not counting the mast and the neck of the bottle opening is .75".

The only problem that I forgot was to wash the jug before I started building the boat and it is in the way now.

THEY USE EVERYTHING HERE TOO

While at FG's house , I discovered this precariously perched bird next on a fallen dead branch. We are not sure what kind of a bird built it but it is made of discarded human hair and dog hair clippings. We thought it was early in the season but since there is still snow it may be a snowbird next. Besides everybody knows that early birds get worms.

We haven't seen any birds at the next yet but we were able to get this picture of the next.

WINTER JOY

Having just read FG blog I decided to do one.

I don't much like winter so what do I do for entertainment? Well when forced to do so, I shovel the snow which has been plentiful this year. We went to several music concerts in Haliburton and on Christmas Day, 3 of our daughters and their down line came to visit then we got a phone call from Carole & Clive in England.

We went to Cheryl & John's house for a New Years party which was great fun, however Wendy misplaced her camera which caused a great deal of excitement and suspicion for a few day!!!
In the past few years we have gone to FL for a couple of months BUT with the economy situation we decided to not go. Later we decided to go for a couple of weeks.

The morning of departure the battery was dead in the trailer which created a slight problem, but hooking up the truck to it solved the problem. We drove through some terrible conditions and a blizzard before we got to U.S. then the sun came out south of Pt Huron. As we approached Detroit I75 was under construction and a detour through Detroit was disasterous. We arrived in central KY but it was too cold to stay in the trailer so we stayed in a Super 8 whose driveway was all ice. The next day south of Knoxville we ran into another Blizzard which was unusual. Locals were crawlling along I75 so we were passing all of them being followed by Truckers.

Fl was pretty cool, no it was cold, but warmer than at home. With the dish, we could watch the snow storms at home which made FL seem warmer. In FL we learned about the ISS which was visible over head every night. ( when we got home we found that it wasn't the ISS)

When we went to leave FL the battery on the Trailer was again dead but the truck one worked

When we got back home I got to shovel more snow--lots of times.

That's the way it's been the rest of the time, look out the window and curse the snow and rain then go out and shovel it. etc. etc.

A couple of days ago it warmed up enough to try to locate the trailer battery problem but that's an ongoing problem.

Before I started typing this, I thought that I have done nothing since the fall.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS)

At 6.25 am I looked at the schedule for the ISS and saw that it was to go over at 6.27 with a 4 minute window. I rushed outside just in time to see it exactly as is described in the schedule.
It was 20 degrees above the north horizon and I was able to see it for a couple of min.

The best time previously was Sat. Feb.22 at 5.33am when it would have been almost directly overhead for 2 min. the problem on that day was heavy overcast.

This time it wasn't the Florida hoax.

I was hoping to see somebody looking out the window at me but I guess they were too busy with frivolous chores.

What I had for the web site was wrong. Wendy has put the correct address in the comment section

WRONG

So the story about the ISS that I told you in the last blog turns out to be a Florida myth.

The bright light which is almost stationary in the sky is actually not the ISS which we found out on the weekend. The ISS is travelling around the world at a speed of over 17000 MPH or over 27000 KPH at an altitude of 215 miles or 346Km.

The bright light is invaders preparing to attack earth. Send me all your money I will protect it for you.

ICY FLORIDA

On Sunday we got home from FL. where we spent a couple of weeks in the cold. Well it wasn't cold all the time but it seemed like it.

Most of the days it was in the high 50's but at night it frequently dropped to around freezing. Fortunately we had the dish with us so we could watch the weather up here which made it seem better in FL.

D & C were there also and D had his computer there so we could communicate with events at home (scrabble). With the dish and his computer we could keep up with what is going on in the rest of the world which is difficult to do down there. Each State seem to have a policy of not knowing what is happening outside their State so most people in the U.S. haven't any idea what is going on in the world.

The big event in Disney is always Buzz Lightyears where you get to shoot the Evil Emporer Zerg which we do constantly because it is a competition trying to beat each other for highest score.

Really there is lots to do there besides the theme parks, we bike around Fort Wilderness and travel around on Disney buses and just generally have fun. Most of all I didn't have to shovel SNOW .

Fortunately when we got back home it was quite warm.

One thing we did discover is that the International Space Station is very visable to the eye and after arriving home we found it is visable here too. If you look high in the Western Sky on a clear night there is a bright white light which is the ISS, not to be confused with a planet.

Check it out.

WE ARE PREGNANT ????

Last night while watching a program on TV, the characters said "We are Pregnant" which of course I have heard before. This got me thinking about Pregnancy back when we were having children and indeed when our children were having children.

In all cases we and our friends conceived in the same way( I think) as people do today. However when the Female portion of the relationship conceived, she became Pregnant and the male remained the same. To make it clear to today's generation that means that in our case for example, my wife was Pregnant, I was not.

At that time there was a common statement made in a joking way that went like this. If after the first Pregnancy was over, the man had the second Pregnancy, there wouldn't be a third Pregnancy. While you might find that confusing, if you think about it, it is self explanitory.

Following the birth, in most cases, the male and female then worked together with such things as changing diapers, doing some household chores, getting up to the baby at night etc.

In other words, she was no longer Pregnant and the male still wasn't Pregnant. However in most cases, not all, WE--- SHARED the follow up work load, that is when the "WE" came to be.

That's the way it use to be.

I have noticed and it is confirmed by others that the WE has taken on a new meaning. To make it clear what I have said so far is, The Lady gets Pregnant and has a Baby after which the Daily Chores are shared as in WE do the chores.

Today, WE get Pregnant then the baby is born then the WE disappears, from this point onward the Female portion appears to become unable to do anything except say to the Male portion, the baby needs changing, the floor needs sweeping, cook supper, I need some rest, etc, etc. You fill in the rest.

Now to really Piss you off, I would like to point out that Mrs. G, Wives of friends and relatives, and our children gave birth then carried on a normal life and further more aprox. 10 days after our last child was born, we moved to a new house and Mrs. G. did more than her share of the WE part of moving while looking after 4 children.

When you comment, and you will comment, please explain, what happened to WE.