It looks like, could possibly be, maybe, spring is here. Yeah we been fooled before and it did snow on Wednesday. And there has been a chill in the wind but it was sunny and warm today so it could be that spring is here. At least the plants think so. They are starting to bud out.
The Saskatoons look like they will be loaded with blossoms this year too. For those who don't know what they are, Saskatoons are a small blue berry that is native to western Canada. And the northwestern states too but I think they call them service berries. It doesn't matter they make a great pie if you can get enough.
It is a struggle here though. Belle discovered Saskatoons last year. I could not figure out why all the lower branches had no berries. I thought maybe a low frost got them. Or some sort of bug. Well it was a parasite alright a fat little beagle. I came out one night and there she was grazing. She cleaned the branches off as high as she could reach. If she had stood on her hind legs we would not have even got a taste. If they look like they are going to be a good crop this year I am going to fence the bushes off. I will fight with the birds for them but Belle is supposed to be on my side. It could have been worse Dixie is taller and smarter than Belle and she would have figured a way to get all of them if she had know what Belle was up to.
But I digress. Spring is here! Shh not too loud. Old man winter is probably not out of earshot yet. He can always make a return visit. Just our luck he likes the scenery round here. Every time we think he's gone he comes back for a short stay. He's like Peter Falk in the old Columbo movies "Ah Just one more t'ing!" He hit us twice in the last couple of weeks once just in Calgary a 12 inch dump and then a week later all over the southern half of the province. We thought the Calgary dump was a good omen for the Flames because they won when we got a late dump of snow in the playoffs. Yeah right another old wives tale bites the dust. We need the moisture. That is true but the snow comes and then a Chinook comes and it all runs away. I'll settler for a good 3 day rain later in May.
I have had enough of winter. It's May. According to song in Camelot winter exits March the second on the dot. Old man winter has overstayed his welcome by two months if that is the case. I just hope he is gone till November. But as I recall he came for a visit to the Stampede one July and then was late for Christmas the same year.
But despite his persistence the grass is getting greener and the leaves will be on the trees soon and Belle will be munching Saskatoons before you know it.
Its spring ... pass it on.
Randy
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Could Have Been Worse
It was a bad weekend or so it seemed at the time. On Saturday morning we were driving over to a new place for breakfast and enroute I lost power steering, the temp went up and the charge light came on all on a van less than a year old. First reaction was that the belt had failed and broken. But I had not heard it go. So suddenly breakfast is delayed and we're on our way to the dealership to fix the belt. Well the girls and I get up well before the service tech at the dealership and it is an hour or so wait until we can even get the car in, then they don't do service work on the weekend. And what is wrong with the van the alternator fell off. It sheared the bolts off and depending on what they find in two days it may or may not be covered by the bumper to bumper warranty.
I phoned Enterprise rent a car and they came and picked us up at the dealership and we rented a van for an unspecified duration. Enterprise were the first shining light in what was shaping up to be a dreary weekend. Very professional and friendly, I have to recommend them for all your car rental needs. They go over and above.
Now it is three hours since we set off and we have the rental and are on our way back for breakfast. On our way there we see the traffic lights are all out. The south end of the city is having a major power failure. The restaurant is closed. So we had to find an alternative and we finally get our breakfast at noon. Not an auspicious start. We wanted to run some errands so we thought that we would take the cell phone because the way things were headed we might need it and the battery on it was dead again. The battery had been charged just two days before but was not holding a charge. A replacement for it was $70 so we went back to Telus and we wound up getting new phones, one for me and one for Ellen.
Sunday was uneventful, considering that Saturday certainly had been this was a good thing. Now with only the van to worry about I started to relax.
Now it is Monday. I phoned Courtesy Chrysler (still one of the best Dealerships in town for nearly 20 years now) to find out the bad news on the car. Turns out that it was a warranty item and it would be ready later today. I went home to see about the upgrade to my security system. They were able to do it by just replacing my keypad at the back door. No charge as long as I signed up for another 3 years at a lower monthly rate than I am paying now. Winner,
Then Courtesy called my car was ready and at no charge. So I took the rental back and they gave me a ride to the dealership and I got my car back, The rental was only $180 for three days including full insurance. Which was the full cost of the weekend.
Sure I have a new cell phone plan and an extra charge there but we were planning that for a while because we knew the old phone that worked fine could not get a replacement battery. The car well things happen and what can you do? The service manager said that the alternator that was replaced was noisy but he had no idea why it sheared the bolts off. But they fixed everything and it was all covered and they were quick. All in all I got good service from everyone I dealt with.
What could have been seen was a bad weekend turned out to be not too bad at all. Good service from Enterprise, Courtesy Chrysler and Telus all helped make the pain go away. Thank you everyone.
Oh and the breakfast place, Cora's was open and busy on Sunday but we got there before the rush and it was terrific. Lots of real good food and good service, Just remember to get there early or you will be waiting. We'll be back.
Counting my blessings...
Randy
I phoned Enterprise rent a car and they came and picked us up at the dealership and we rented a van for an unspecified duration. Enterprise were the first shining light in what was shaping up to be a dreary weekend. Very professional and friendly, I have to recommend them for all your car rental needs. They go over and above.
Now it is three hours since we set off and we have the rental and are on our way back for breakfast. On our way there we see the traffic lights are all out. The south end of the city is having a major power failure. The restaurant is closed. So we had to find an alternative and we finally get our breakfast at noon. Not an auspicious start. We wanted to run some errands so we thought that we would take the cell phone because the way things were headed we might need it and the battery on it was dead again. The battery had been charged just two days before but was not holding a charge. A replacement for it was $70 so we went back to Telus and we wound up getting new phones, one for me and one for Ellen.
Sunday was uneventful, considering that Saturday certainly had been this was a good thing. Now with only the van to worry about I started to relax.
Now it is Monday. I phoned Courtesy Chrysler (still one of the best Dealerships in town for nearly 20 years now) to find out the bad news on the car. Turns out that it was a warranty item and it would be ready later today. I went home to see about the upgrade to my security system. They were able to do it by just replacing my keypad at the back door. No charge as long as I signed up for another 3 years at a lower monthly rate than I am paying now. Winner,
Then Courtesy called my car was ready and at no charge. So I took the rental back and they gave me a ride to the dealership and I got my car back, The rental was only $180 for three days including full insurance. Which was the full cost of the weekend.
Sure I have a new cell phone plan and an extra charge there but we were planning that for a while because we knew the old phone that worked fine could not get a replacement battery. The car well things happen and what can you do? The service manager said that the alternator that was replaced was noisy but he had no idea why it sheared the bolts off. But they fixed everything and it was all covered and they were quick. All in all I got good service from everyone I dealt with.
What could have been seen was a bad weekend turned out to be not too bad at all. Good service from Enterprise, Courtesy Chrysler and Telus all helped make the pain go away. Thank you everyone.
Oh and the breakfast place, Cora's was open and busy on Sunday but we got there before the rush and it was terrific. Lots of real good food and good service, Just remember to get there early or you will be waiting. We'll be back.
Counting my blessings...
Randy
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Ten Digits
Yesterday I learned that we in Alberta are going to ten digit phone numbers from 7. Not that dialing an extra 3 digits will kill anyone but along with that come extra costs. Like the nearly 100 dollars I have to outlay to up grade my security system so that it can call home when some cell packing dirt bag breaks into my house. And what's more my system is old almost 7 years old so that makes it over the hill. And I have to upgrade that at a cost of God knows what.
Seven years old does not make something obsolete. Except for electronics I guess. So I am on the hook or unprotected. And the girls don't count. In fact if you look the Beagle up on the Internet I am sure that somewhere it says protection: NONE. ('Cause I seen it!) If someone broke in Belle and Dixie would wonder over tails a wagging to see what treats the intruder brought. Anyone could clean out my place for the price of a couple of milk bones or a rawhide chewy if I was relying on the girls to protect the place.
So why do we need the upgrade? Simply put Cell phones. Every one has a cell phone or two. And a land line and a blackberry etc. The province has a population of 4 million tops why do we need 40 million phone numbers? Sure you need your home phone heaven knows the telemarketers need someone to call at suppertime. And there is your office phone, and your office cell (So you can get interrupted in that meeting, and so on and so on.
But what really pushed it over the top are kids. Kids as young as 10 or 12 with cell phones. Kids whose Idea of a good time is sitting on thier butts on the couch text messaging to their buddy in the easy chair next to them. Kids who think they ahve to be in constant contact with their friends. Even during school when thy should be paying attention. Kids from 10 to 25 who can't leave home without their electronic apron string. How did we survive the 60's or get out of the fifties alive without having a cell phone.
Do I hav a cell? Yes. I use call forwarding to link my home phone to my cell when I am out of town for more than a few hours. I don't carry it with me all the time. And it is about 7 years old too, it doesn't take pictures play games or surf the net. It makes phone calls. It could text message but it makes phone calls and does not need to text message. I can call someone and they don't need to be able to read alphabet soup I can talk to them. But I don't need to be in contact 24-7.
The idea that you have to be at the beck and call of all your buddies all the time is absurd. That you need a phone on your person all the time is ridiculous. No one is that important. If you believe that you are that important you are suffering from delusions of grandure. That belief in the old days would have labelled you a nut. If you live to have people call you on your cell and cannot make it through the day without one maybe you are a nut. But you have plenty of company. So much that we need 10 times as many phone numbers as we have people. And what ticks me off is your insane need is costing me money.
Just sitting here waiting for your call....
Randy
Seven years old does not make something obsolete. Except for electronics I guess. So I am on the hook or unprotected. And the girls don't count. In fact if you look the Beagle up on the Internet I am sure that somewhere it says protection: NONE. ('Cause I seen it!) If someone broke in Belle and Dixie would wonder over tails a wagging to see what treats the intruder brought. Anyone could clean out my place for the price of a couple of milk bones or a rawhide chewy if I was relying on the girls to protect the place.
So why do we need the upgrade? Simply put Cell phones. Every one has a cell phone or two. And a land line and a blackberry etc. The province has a population of 4 million tops why do we need 40 million phone numbers? Sure you need your home phone heaven knows the telemarketers need someone to call at suppertime. And there is your office phone, and your office cell (So you can get interrupted in that meeting, and so on and so on.
But what really pushed it over the top are kids. Kids as young as 10 or 12 with cell phones. Kids whose Idea of a good time is sitting on thier butts on the couch text messaging to their buddy in the easy chair next to them. Kids who think they ahve to be in constant contact with their friends. Even during school when thy should be paying attention. Kids from 10 to 25 who can't leave home without their electronic apron string. How did we survive the 60's or get out of the fifties alive without having a cell phone.
Do I hav a cell? Yes. I use call forwarding to link my home phone to my cell when I am out of town for more than a few hours. I don't carry it with me all the time. And it is about 7 years old too, it doesn't take pictures play games or surf the net. It makes phone calls. It could text message but it makes phone calls and does not need to text message. I can call someone and they don't need to be able to read alphabet soup I can talk to them. But I don't need to be in contact 24-7.
The idea that you have to be at the beck and call of all your buddies all the time is absurd. That you need a phone on your person all the time is ridiculous. No one is that important. If you believe that you are that important you are suffering from delusions of grandure. That belief in the old days would have labelled you a nut. If you live to have people call you on your cell and cannot make it through the day without one maybe you are a nut. But you have plenty of company. So much that we need 10 times as many phone numbers as we have people. And what ticks me off is your insane need is costing me money.
Just sitting here waiting for your call....
Randy
Saturday, March 15, 2008
View Master
Do you remember view masters; little toys that you put picture reels in and saw everything in 3D? Well It turns out that my wife's grand father had a Stereoscopic Camera for taking those kind of pictures. And most of the family photos were taken and mounted on the reels. I think my brother in law has the camera and paraphernalia for mounting the pictures on the reels and all. But it is a really fussy process to create them. Anyway it looks to be a dying technology because you can't easily get the reels or cameras anymore except on EBay maybe. And hasn't Kodak even gone digital?
Anyway the camera had two lenses set about eye width apart and t00k two images at once with just a little different perspective. The images were taken on slide film and when mounted the different perspective gave the 3d effect. The biggest problem was that if a picture adds ten pounds the 3d being two pictures added twenty so women didn't like it!!!! Also it was a manual fiddly process to take the uncut slide film strips and cut the images into little tiny chips and mount them in the reels. If it had been more popular today's crack users could really get into a career tweaking view master reels but who knew?
In any case, another brother in law has decided to get all the pictures scanned from the reels and I am going to touch them up as put them on CD for everyone in the family. I have done this sort of thing before when I made up slide shows for the in-laws and my parent's 50th anniversaries. Al is doing this for a birthday present for his mom. I think its is a great idea and the fringe benefit is that we get a copy of all the old pictures.
There are a few things to remember when you do this kind of work however. First you are going to see somethings that well are pretty darn funny (ok scary too but mostly funny). The fashions and the hair styles are great for a laugh but don't. Especially not out loud. Some of those pictures may be your loved ones and having lived though it will not see the humour. Remeber they think those pictures are ... normal! They think that people really looked like that can you believe it, ha!
The second thing is that when you are discussing the subjects do not use adjectives. For example do not say "Hey who is that homely kid with the big honkin' schnoz?" because again some of those pictures may be your loved ones (in some cases your wives). They may not have thought of themselves as homely or their schnozes as "big honkin'". Those type of comments will get you a guaranteed reservation in the dog house. Trust me this is the voice of experience.
In spite of that I am looking forward to it. I like old pictures and in case my wife reads this I hope to see lots of pictures of her as a baby. She must have been as beautiful baby 'cause baby look at her now!
Sucking up for all I am worth...
Randy
Anyway the camera had two lenses set about eye width apart and t00k two images at once with just a little different perspective. The images were taken on slide film and when mounted the different perspective gave the 3d effect. The biggest problem was that if a picture adds ten pounds the 3d being two pictures added twenty so women didn't like it!!!! Also it was a manual fiddly process to take the uncut slide film strips and cut the images into little tiny chips and mount them in the reels. If it had been more popular today's crack users could really get into a career tweaking view master reels but who knew?
In any case, another brother in law has decided to get all the pictures scanned from the reels and I am going to touch them up as put them on CD for everyone in the family. I have done this sort of thing before when I made up slide shows for the in-laws and my parent's 50th anniversaries. Al is doing this for a birthday present for his mom. I think its is a great idea and the fringe benefit is that we get a copy of all the old pictures.
There are a few things to remember when you do this kind of work however. First you are going to see somethings that well are pretty darn funny (ok scary too but mostly funny). The fashions and the hair styles are great for a laugh but don't. Especially not out loud. Some of those pictures may be your loved ones and having lived though it will not see the humour. Remeber they think those pictures are ... normal! They think that people really looked like that can you believe it, ha!
The second thing is that when you are discussing the subjects do not use adjectives. For example do not say "Hey who is that homely kid with the big honkin' schnoz?" because again some of those pictures may be your loved ones (in some cases your wives). They may not have thought of themselves as homely or their schnozes as "big honkin'". Those type of comments will get you a guaranteed reservation in the dog house. Trust me this is the voice of experience.
In spite of that I am looking forward to it. I like old pictures and in case my wife reads this I hope to see lots of pictures of her as a baby. She must have been as beautiful baby 'cause baby look at her now!
Sucking up for all I am worth...
Randy
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Springtime
"Bald eagle's back in the Cottonwood tree,
Old brown hills are just about bare"
That is a lyric from Ian Tyson's song Springtime and it applies this year. At the risk of angering the weather Gods I think spring is here. Maybe the ground hogs were right. It was 10 degrees celcius here today. I was able to take the girls to dog disneyland (the off leash dog park) in just a hoodie. For those of my generation just a kangaroo jacket.
Snow is almost gone just a bit left in the shady spots. That is going fast. At least here in the city. We were up to the trailer last weekend to show it to Ellen's mom who was visiting, There seems to be quite abit of snow there yet. We had to walk in or risk getting stuck. And there was a few inches of snow around. But it was warm and that was going too.
It was a mistake to go up there. I was reminded of what I am missing and now the wait until the park opens for the season and we can stay up there is going to seem really long. You know the feeling. Remember when you were a kid and saw the first Christmas decorations of the season and how they made it seem Christmas was sooooo far off. Well that was the effect the quick wisit to the trailer last week had. I guess I will just have to wait. The warm weather is not making it easy.
Oh well nothing can be done about it. Like they say everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. And I can do nothing about it either. But with any luck it will warm up and we will be able to get the park open early. April is not that far away, 30 sleeps? Just like we used to do with Christmas eh?
On the edge of my seat waiting...
Randy
PS Happy Anniverasry Dixie she's been a member of our pack for a year today.
Old brown hills are just about bare"
That is a lyric from Ian Tyson's song Springtime and it applies this year. At the risk of angering the weather Gods I think spring is here. Maybe the ground hogs were right. It was 10 degrees celcius here today. I was able to take the girls to dog disneyland (the off leash dog park) in just a hoodie. For those of my generation just a kangaroo jacket.
Snow is almost gone just a bit left in the shady spots. That is going fast. At least here in the city. We were up to the trailer last weekend to show it to Ellen's mom who was visiting, There seems to be quite abit of snow there yet. We had to walk in or risk getting stuck. And there was a few inches of snow around. But it was warm and that was going too.
It was a mistake to go up there. I was reminded of what I am missing and now the wait until the park opens for the season and we can stay up there is going to seem really long. You know the feeling. Remember when you were a kid and saw the first Christmas decorations of the season and how they made it seem Christmas was sooooo far off. Well that was the effect the quick wisit to the trailer last week had. I guess I will just have to wait. The warm weather is not making it easy.
Oh well nothing can be done about it. Like they say everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. And I can do nothing about it either. But with any luck it will warm up and we will be able to get the park open early. April is not that far away, 30 sleeps? Just like we used to do with Christmas eh?
On the edge of my seat waiting...
Randy
PS Happy Anniverasry Dixie she's been a member of our pack for a year today.
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