Benefits

Last week I enjoyed some unexpected benefits in my work and political connections!

Related to my work I flew up to Pickle Lake to work at our school there and enjoy lots of large, negative degrees--thirty-six of those Celsius degrees, and all of them below zero. As I got ready to leave, I connected with two others who were visiting the school on behalf of the ministry of Education and allowed them to pay for our cab to the airport. Unfortunately, they spend too much time in Toronto, so we arrived at the airport with ninety minutes to go, whereas in these small towns, fifteen minutes would have been more than sufficient.

As the taxi drove up into the service area, we amazed at how our security-sensitive types would blanch at the free access to all the planes. We saw a plane being readied for flight, and we hoped it would be ours, however, we were informed that it was a charter for the local Member of Parliament who was holding a town-hall in Pickle Lake that night. We trudged off the tarmac, carrying our bags into the terminal, and sat down to wait. In due time we heard the familiar drone of an airplane, and enjoyed the comment from the ticket seller/freight agent/airport manager/check-in clerk that our plane was early. Unfortunately, as we were to learn, it had lost some of its freight in flight--the front wheel! However, they landed without too much incident, but in short order the pilot wandered into our waiting room to inform us that the "plane had taken on a delay"! And while we tried to imagine what that might mean, he clarified that "it had gone mechanical"! What he meant was that due to the missing wheel, he had pondered and concluded that he didn't wish to try to take off! While we agreed with him, we also expressed our considerable interest in getting out of town.

Eventually the pilot returned to inform us that we were taking the MP's plane! Rarely do we enjoy such benefits from our politicians! But we enjoyed our release from the icy confines of Pickle Lake.

News Update

Greetings!

And I'm in the air this week. I fly up to Red Lake on Monday morning and spend two days there. The flight is cancelled first thing Monday morning, so I am delayed and don't get into Red Lake until after lunch. However, we make good progress there and get Maplewood installed and the web portal operational. I get back into TBay about 11pm Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday morning I'm off to Pickle Lake. This time the flights come off as scheduled and I get to enjoy -32 weather. The next morning it's -36, so that's even more enjoyable! There is a lot of work to do in the school there, and by the time I leave there is still a lot to be done. I will try to get back there again before the end of February. I have strained or in some way aggravated my right shoulder somewhere along the line. Erin gives me a treatment, and I hope it will come around over the weekend.

On Friday, I work in my office and catch up on some paperwork and even a little filing!

Eric/A and the boys arrive here on Friday. Erica on her way back from a conference for Superintendents of Business (yep, they're officially SOB's!) and Directors of Education in Toronto. Eric and the boys drive down from Kenora.

On Saturday we celebrate the birthdays of Haaken and Liam. They will be ten and seven in early February. A large crowd of children and not a few parents assemble to celebrate with the boys and visit with their parents. It's a busy, noisy time.

Erin got her marks back from last term: 87, 95 & 99 — will definitely have to work harder next term!!

Trav is developing his office and carrying on with classes. Sylvia is back in better health. Wendy has mostly stopped coughing. Life is good!

I Think I Have AAADD

I wish I could claim credit for the following discourse; and perhaps I can! If I didn't write it, I should have as I am beginning to resemble the symptoms. Anyway, I have to thank my brother, Jim, for sending it (back) to me; at least that's how I remember it happening. ;-)

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my cheque book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Pepsi that I had been drinking. I'm going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the Pepsi aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I realize the Pepsi is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the fridge to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye—they need to be watered. I set the Pepsi down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

• the driveway is flooded
• the car isn't washed,
• the bills aren't paid,
• there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter,
• there is still only one cheque in my cheque book,
• I can't find the remote,
• I can't find my glasses,
• and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail. Do me a favour, will you? Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don't remember who I have sent it to.

Don't laugh—if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!

News Update

I'm back on the road this week, driving out to Atikokan and Mine Centre. I am working to install the SMS (Student Management System) at each school. We are using Maplewood, a program I gained some familiarity with while working at Western in Dauphin for five years. The installations go well, and by Friday, I have both schools running and I head back to Thunder Bay. Snow has arrived and the temperatures have plunged to -20 degrees, so it finally feels like winter.

Trav is back to his classes at Lakehead University. He's doing an Honours Bachelor of Commerce and is completing his third year this semester. Sylvia is back to work at the University, but she has not been well this week, so while she's been at work, she hasn't been enjoying it! Trav got a new/old job, as he was hired back to work at the Centre of Excellence at the University. He worked there previously during his second year classes.

Wendy is keeping busy with Partylite as well as her usual housekeeping/cleaning/vacuuming activities! She has also taken on the task of treasurer at church.

Kristian had another doctor's appointment this week. They are still concerned over his lack of weight—not from my side of the family! However, we recall the same issues with Erin when she was an infant—yep, it's from her side of the family! Erin is back into her accounting classes at Confederation College. She is doing well in those.

What Does He Expect Us to Think?

Long prevented (due to computer failure) from commentary over the activity of Dubya (or Dumbya as he's known in some places), I have recently been biting my tongue. I was hopeful in my earlier piece (How He Got US Stuck in Iraq), and even more so as the Iraq Study Group produced and proclaimed their advice. However, recent events have pushed me over the edge, and I write again...

What does he expect us to think? And, since I suppose it would raise differing conclusions within the country, what does he expect US to think? I offer the following reasoned conclusions in response to his recent activities:

1. Democracy is for other countries. I heard what the people said in November, and I hear what Congress and the Senate are saying now, but it's only in other countries that I expect leaders to respond to the wishes of the people. [Thus he is recorded to say (with regard to the Congress) on 60 Minutes, to be aired on Sunday, "Now I fully understand they will," Bush continued, "they could try to stop me from doing it, but, uh, I've made my decision and we're going forward."]
   
2. Iraq is sovereign, but not from me. I will decide when an embassy is an embassy. Iraq cannot set up an embassy for Iran without my permission. So I will invade Iran's embassy and capture their diplomats if I choose.
   
3. I am a peaceful leader and I'm quite willing to use my military to prove it.
   
4. Diplomacy means talking to my friends, and when my friends don't agree with me, they're no longer my friends. I refuse to even consider talking with Iran, Syria or the variety of militias within Iraq. "If they will agree to everything I want them to agree to, then I am willing to talk about their agreement." [yeah, but it's a pretty accurate paraphrase]
   
5. Our military might can exert our will over the whole world. If 130,000 troops don't change your mind, I'll send in an extry 21,500. There! Are you convinced yet?! Never mind that we tried to do this job earlier with 150,000 troops, this surge will get us over the 150,000 threshold and the militias will be overwhelmed!
   
6. I don't care that the escalation will result in more casualties among our young men and women. Even though I promised no 'door to door' fighting, I'm now ordering 'door to door' fighting. Even though I promised our soldiers would never be under the orders of foreign leadership, I'm now putting them under the orders of Iraqi leadership.
   
7. Another seven billion dollars of taxpayer money means nothing to me. We've already wasted 500 billion on this misguided war so what's another seven? Besides, we're broke, so I'm only borrowing it from China.

US Senator, John McCain, comments concerning the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, "One of the most frustrating things that's ever happened in my political life is watching this train wreck."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/

2007/01/12/AR2007011202220.html

We concur. It is a sad, sad time for us, and for the US. The Iraq Study Group provided some viable options, but Dubya has refused them. America was designed and developed to be the hope of the downtrodden of the world, and it has often operated as such. Under its current administration it is a mortal menace to both the downtrodden and to us and to US.

News Update

What! Another week already gone? Impossible... how time flies... and I wasn't even having fun!

We got back to Thunder Bay in time for New Year's Eve, and got ready for Eric, Erica and the boys' arrival. Alas, they had problems... They were driving back from the left coast, and when they got to the Ontario border, they were detained. Ontario was closed! It wasn't that we've had enough of our own problems and aren't taking any more immigrants... it was a storm. The trans-Canada was impassible. So they turned around and headed back, hoping to stay in the first town or motel they came to. Alas, they were again stopped. Manitoba was now closed as well! So they sat there at the border all night. Well, that's not exactly the case either; they found they needed to drive around to warm up the car, so, from time to time, they did so—to the bemusement of their fellow strandees.

Finally they were able to drive west in the morning, and even later able to continue their trip east. They went as far as their home in Kenora, only about 45 minutes from the border, and spent the next night there. Anyway, they finally got here the next day, and we've enjoyed having them here all week. They have now headed back as the boys are back to school tomorrow, and Erica is back to work.

For ourselves, we've been also getting back to work. Wendy works as a representative for Party-lite (a candle marketing concern), and I'm back working on my MISA project. I set up school visitations for the next six weeks. Then I got a disturbing call from our doctor—apparently my PSA level is too high, so she was wanting me to get some additional testing done. I was into the lab on Friday to donate more blood, so I expect some reports back later in the week.

Erin and Kristian are progressing fine. Erin has been working to schedule more of her classes, and also babysits two days a week.