Let's try

I have had a number of thought racing around lately. How to put them down concisely? I'll give it a whirl.....
Last week was a sad one for Canadians. Jack Layton -Leader of the Opposition passed away. The timing is what really gets me. He had just taken his New Democrat Party to a record number of seats in the House. More than 100 in fact. Most of that can be attributed to the stunning collapse of the Liberals ( the Natural Governing Party of Canada) but Jack's no small part of it either. He had a way of connecting with people. He fought for the working class man. But enough of that.
After some thought, I wonder what becomes of the NDP now that they have become a legitimate player in Canadian politics? Well, I will just rail down some of my crazy thoughts on the matter. No particular reason, maybe a little hope, as I have to admit that I am a casual observer, not an expert. I guess it would be time for the left to unite in some way. Much like they did on the right of the political spectrum years ago. The Liberals are in disarray, and might be open to the idea. The NDP are without an obvious successor. Makes sense. The Libs also have some more star power.
So we have young Trudeau..... hmmmmmm. There's Bob Rae but he's hated in Ontario. I really don't know. I can't present any names from the NDP. So in some war room somewhere out East I bet Jean Cretien (a real Canadian hero) is pulling the strings and trying to orchestrate this. Hahaha
But the right-leaning Libs will jump ship to the Conservatives and further strengthen Harper's grip. I don't see them wanting to join with the Socialist NDP. But there has got to be a way to challenge Harper and the Conservatives....... I think somewhere they are talking more and more about joining forces on the so-called left.
Let's just hope they do it in time to save my job at the Post Office.

Another visit to Calling Lake

We had another chance to head up to Athabasca country and do some fishing over the August Long weekend. This time we were lucky enough to bring Alvin along. The fishing was much slower than last time we were up in mid-June. We kept enough to have a nice fish-fry on Saturday night, and the weather was perfect. We decided to get our lines wet on a blustery Sunday morning and this is what I hauled in before we were rained out. This Walleye was 66 cms long, and weighed about 4.5 lbs. Can't say I've caught many Wally's that nice.... and of course he went back in for next year.

And on a totally unrelated note, the Edmonton Folk Fest is over for another year. Four days packed with incredible music and great company. Uncle Wal, and his buddy Hal came from Seattle on the motorbikes, and my mom and Devyn made up the troops for this year. I don't think anyone went home disappointed. Highlights for me included Sean Rowe, Lyle Lovitt, Tim Robbins (yes that Tim Robbins), Chris Smither, Noah and the Whale, among others. Pictures should arrive shortly.

Does it still matter?

Sitting here thinking of whether or not to post anything.......
I want to write on this more often. Every so often one of my dear readers will comment that you've seen something you liked, or tease me for not posting more regularly...... but then I think about it, and find something else to do.
I'd like to make sure my uncles and aunts, cousins, and friends can stay informed once in a while. It's cool to look at my uncle's blog and see his boat getting sold, or sailing pictures from some exotic place. I love checking in on Sarah's to see how beautifully she writes. An incredible story-teller.
But I'm too lazy to upload my pictures from my cameras. I guess that's it. A month ago I was fishing at Calling Lake with my dad. It's bound to become our annual father's day fishing trip. Just like last year, we were laughing while throwing 64 cm Walleye back in the water because they're too big! Hahahahaha! Seriously! And catching our limit in 4-5 hours and going back to the cabin to eat fresh fish for supper. I even like the fish up there!
But why no pictures yet? I will admit that we would really be better off with a new computer. This old laptop tends to get a little bogged down when dealing with pictures and things. So I just kind of stopped playing on the computer.
So look out. When I decide to go pick up a new computer, there will be posts galore.
There aren't even pictures of the five-month-old new car yet! And what a car it is! It's beautiful. We love it.
And the yard...... holy cow. I could have pictures of our perfect grass, our huge tomatoes. the lovely garden. There are countless posts just waiting to happen.
So I will try to do more writing on here. I feel it might be a bit old-fashioned. Maybe Facebook and Twitter have changed the old way of thinking. I can tell you in 140 characters what I am doing ALL the time. Does anyone need to know that? I don't use Fb too often, and I have never been on Twitter. That being said, I can see the benefit of using this blog and I am going to continue to update this and put some of those pictures up. And post the new ones of all the awesome things we have been doing this summer. Gotta get out and enjoy the weather while the sun is shining. And we have been doing that!

Have I reached the perfect age?

I have been thinking lately that I might well have reached THE PERFECT AGE! Could it be? Maybe I had more energy years ago. Perhaps I didn't require as much sleep. When I am older, I might learn a thing or two.
Right now though, things are about as brilliant as I figure they can get. Why this train of thought? I was sitting in the pub waiting for the mechanic to call me to tell me the car was ready to be picked up (a story for another time). I had a seat in the corner of the bar, and a cold pint of Pilsner in hand. I was reading my Maclean's magazine about Harper and whether we would be going to the polls. But my ears were trained on the conversations going on around me. There were three older guys sitting to my right talking about granola, birds, and their toys. Three things I really like. I spend a good deal of time watching the birds flutter around my various feeders. I have also been looking for a really good cereal/granola/flax sort of thing to eat in the mornings before setting out on my walk. And who doesn't like talking about the toys they have or plan on getting?
To my left was a group of young kids. 3 girls and one dude. They were decked out in their U of A clothes, and funny hats. I happened to love hearing the, "dude" or "like" every couple of words. Seems like it is a filler when they use when they don't know what they want to say next. Well, they were talking about music, and snow boarding much of the time.
It all leads me to believe that I have found a balance between the generations where I can understand things like fishing, bird watching, and eating enough fibre. But snowboarding, and top 40 music is still all over my life. Either I am the oldest cool guy, or the coolest old guy. I'll

Holidays

It's amazing how quickly a week can get away from a guy. Friday tomorrow! It's been a superb week off work, and this picture of the fish I got yesterday is about all I have to show for it! I've not really done much other than drink coffee, visit, watch movies, and hang out. But this was a good chance to get out and drill a few holes in the ice. Luckily dad got the auger going and we were able to get out there. This is actually a pretty nice little fish, that would've made a decent meal, but I tossed it back as usual. With some luck, I'll get another chance to haul a couple more out over the weekend. Cheers to holidays!

What a winter!

I know the mailman doesn't get a lot of sympathy when it comes to the hours I work. But this has been a winter for all winters. We have had snow, ice, melting, freezing and yet more snow. It has been my toughest winter of the four I've worked at Canada Post. The pictures below will show you the snow banks on the side of my driveway.
But first the most exciting news is my new car!!!! I was able to sell the little red Ford to a friends son, and I am the proud new owner of a 2003 Honda Accord. I just put this picture of the old girl for sentiment. I don't really miss her at all!
Pictures of the new car will have to wait for another day. Thanks to Uncle John for helping facilitate the deal through one of his pals.
But you have to take a peek at the snow. Totally insane!

The backyard must have two to three feet of snow because those railway ties are almost covered with snow. It looks brilliant, but today touched the mid-minus 30's with wind chill. I don't always like to include the wind, but when you are walking outside, it counts! Let me tell you! Tomorrow is March, so hopefully spring is on the way.

Feeling Motivated

I'm not sure where the inspiration came from tonight, but I have uploaded some more photos. I wish I could ease you in and have some sort of flow, but this is the way the photos showed up on the screen. And we all know what a royal pain in the butt it is to play with the positioning on Blogger.
Here's Alvin and Jason taking some target practice in the garage. Jason bought me this BB gun for my birthday. No, not my fifth birthday....... my 31st! You'll recognize the gun if you've seen the movie, The Christmas Story. It's the 70th Anniversary Edition Daisy Red Ryder.
These pics are from our Christmas party. Notice the festive Santa target.

Here's Devo fooling around with my redneck coat on and the gun.

And then a shot of the backyard as it looked in the fall. As you can see, the grass really came a long way from when we moved in. We had so much fun working out in the yard and doing the suburban stuff.

What is with this guy?

Wow,

July this time. Well, I have a decent excuse these days. For months we've been having problems with our computers. The tower is toast, hasn't been turned on for months. And the laptop was working only part of the time. I thought it was a pain in the ass to get on the computer and wait half an hour to write something.

But thanks to our wonderful neighbour Troy, who is an IT guy at NAIT, the laptop is back up and running. Beautifully, in fact. So I thought I would go in and look at some of the pictures I had taken in spring of the backyard. Maybe put together a before and after type of thing. So I will post the pics from the spring when the yard was in rough shape.

There we're all kinds of ruts and dips and valleys in the back, most of which we've fixed. And the dead patches have all filled in nicely.

Here's the little garden we dug in the spring. And what a wild success it was. Cucumbers, peas, carrots, lettuce and beans were abundant.

Here's my little Jalapeno plant. The best part is that I actually still have that one so I can show the results. Everything else is pretty well out of the ground now. So I can only show the grass and some leftover results of the garden.

If I were only a week or so quicker I could show what it looks like today. There was a trace of snow this morning so things aren't exactly looking their best.

The best part of the summer in our yard was the potatoes, and we planted those in the front flower bed!!!! They were incredible. Thinking I should dig up some more of the front yard and put in a while bunch of potatoes.

So my plan is to go out and take a few shots when the sun comes out so I can show my legion of faithful readers the yard as it looks today.

Stay tuned for that one.