Abby with Walter Gretzky

this picture is of Abby ( on the right ) and her friend Melissa .. with Walter Gretzky... taken at our church in Brantford, in November.... Walter is such a kind man.....

More Gold City photos

GROSSSSSSSSS

Hard to imagine that this slimy thing is out sunning itself in MARCH.....

Pretty neat for Ontario!

April Showers Bring May Mud

so March Thaw brings MARCH mud ........... GROSS! Had to drag my behind all the way up this lane today... It crossed my mind to come back later in the spring, but I figured people would think me lazy ( or worse.. They'd find out how truly lazy I really AM! ) ....

so up the driveway I went.... I'm gonna ask Farmers' Mutual for an amphibious vehicle for lanes like this!

More from the Discovery Network....

ok, this is SOOOOO cool... some guy over in England has built an amphibious car.. that will go as fast as 120 miles per hour... and can do over 30 on the water.... MAN is it cool....

Sorry for the quality of the red car photo... I took the pictures of the car while the show was on tv.... BUT HEY... the car was FLYING across the water!!

The "guy," by the way, is Alan Gibb.
Here's the link to his companies website

Burleigh Falls

If you have ever seen the movie " Cheaper By The Dozen" , then you may already know that it was filmed in this little village, North East of Lakefield.... a very pretty place....

It was therapeutic, to just stand there, and listen to the rushing water....

A very close second, in therapeutic value, was that butter tart at lunch....!

Today's photos

Well today was a wicked long day ( to quote Adam Sandler ... who, according to Tim Bailey, sings with the Gold City Quartet! )

Anyway, we are finishing up the last of the inspections for the present brokers, and today's route was all over Kingdom Come.... first appointment was 7:30 in Fenelon Falls ( took this picture at 7:26 from the top of the hill on Francis Street East in Fenelon ... pretty eh?? ) ... then from there, I went back to Lindsay, picked up Ivan " the new guy " and we headed to Bobcaygeon, Buckhorn, Burleigh Falls, Norwood, Buckhorn ( again ) and then back to the office... was gone 12 1/2 hours... 418 kms....had a great day, but tonight, I'm whooped.... I'm not used to working!!!

In other news, Montreal Canadiens are presently in a 3 way tie for 6th place.... would it be wrong of me to say Thank you Jesus?? perhaps if I said it in French, it would be more appropriate.....

Merci uh....
HAYSEUS??

oh PAULLLLLLLL :S

Gold City Quartet

Dad and I went to Kingston last night to hear Gold City Quartet... man are they smooth... and slick.. and GOOD...... sigh... when I grow up... thats what I want to do........

C'est La But

I'm not 100% sure, but I THINK those words are French for :

Go Habs Go

Mean Machines

well I just watched "Mean Machines" on Discovery Channel... MAN I LOVE THAT STATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tim Hortons

Well... they officially went public today..... they Inital Offering ( almost sounds like church eh?! )
came out at $27.00 Canadian ( $23.16 usd per share on the TSX )....

at the close today, the canadian value was $33.10 ( $28.17 on the TSX )....

bottom line, if you invested $100,000 this morning in Tim Hortons ( 3703 shares ) .... by the close of the day, your investment would be worth : $122,569

not bad eh??? 22% growth in one day..... sounds like a nightmare diet!!!

Cigar Smoking

I did an inspection today, for a 94 year old gentleman ... While we were in the basement, inspecting the panel, I spotted a chair beside the furnace, with about 3 packs of cigars....

His pattern, was to sneak to the basement and smoke Cigars....

When he spotted me looking at the cigars, he kind of giggled and said :

" My Doctor told me that every cigar I smoked, took 30 minutes off my life....
( keep in mind, he is 94! ) .... I figure that its a good thing I smoked them, otherwise, I'd probably live FOREVER!"

cute eh?!!

Hockey Night in Montreal

.....Since Montreal is in Quebec, it's questionnable if you can call it Hockey Night in Canada, at least for tonight! LOL!

So.... for the next two games ( tonight and Saturday ) , Toronto is visiting Montreal ... the city where I was born...

So much for getting any paperwork done TONIGHT!

My buddy Steve, that I work with, is a staunch Toronto fan... I hope he still loves me tomorrow if Montreal wins!!

Spring is Sprung

well... I saw my first True signs of spring yesterday.... some tiny little perennials
poking their heads up through the soil.... what a neat sight... and what an exciting feeling... WINTER IS OVER!!

.... and TODAY.. it actually felt like spring out there.... Spring is not my favourite time of year, only cause I can't stand mud... but I love the feeling that spring brings...

"the old has passed away, behold, All things are become new!"

Maple Trees all look the same to me....

Brian and I inspected a farm last week.... in the course of conversation, the farm owner was telling us about his Maple Sugar operation ..... He'd only boiled one day so far, said it was too cold most days... As you know, for sap to run, you have to have freezing temperatures at night, and above freezing during the day....

The only other way you can make sap run is to say to a sentimental fool: LAST ONE THERE IS A ROTTEN EGG ( oh brother ) ..........

anyway.... the farmer said to us : I'm not sure how well we'll do this year, we did something that may turn out to be foolish... we let our children tap the trees.....

Today, I inspected a property and took the above photos... Am thinking that maybe THEY LET THEIR kids tap... what do YOU think?????!!!

Snow Birds

Two years ago today, we were in Ohio, on our way back from my very first trip to Florida . We stopped in Lima ( they are famous for beans, apparently... who knew ) ....

After a week of 70 degree Farenheit temperatures, with our long pants buried somewhere in the trunk, the next morning Ohio woke up to 30 degree temperatures ...... UGH!
I kept saying to myself.. WHY did we come back so soon!!!

Yesterday morning, as I was driving down Highway 7, I saw some geese likely quacking the very same thing...
They were sitting beside a big man made pond that was completely frozen... not a stitch of open water..... and there they sat... shivering!!!

For some reason, it reminded me of BEANS!

Beware

when the sign is bigger than the dog!

Genesis 22:13

Genesis 22:13 " Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram ..."

End of an era

Well.... I'm officially no longer a "Chap" .... After 3 years as a member of the Chapelaires,
I am no longer a part of the group. It is bitter sweet, because for the most part, I enjoyed it immensely. The singing and most of the camaraderie became a huge part of my life...
But all of the other stresses, not to mention that most of the 46 times we sang last year, were in Western Ontario, eventually took its toll .

I returned my Chapelaires ties and shirts this week, ( we DID match, you know!! ) and it was honestly sad... sad to think we won't be singing Whispering Hope accapella again... sad to think of how many people could relate to the music we sang...

I will truly miss that......

sigh

Some Cool Snow Drifts

Saw these snow drifts this week... way cool drifts... which is ironic, given that there is hardly any snow left in Ontario!

Can I use your phone?

no, thats not a quote from Peter Sellers in Pink Panther... it's a quote from my "across-the-road" neighbour in Brantford....... sigh..... here's the story....

When I moved to Brantford in June of 2004, one of the few people I met in the whole town house complex, was a young couple across the road.... kind of a rough couple.... tattoos, piercings all over the place, not really the kind of people I hang out with ( well think about that for a second...... I don't really hang out with ANYBODY .. but if I DID ..... it would not likely be them... )

I rent my townhouse, from a guy named Andy; he owns 4 of the condo's/townhouses in the complex... and I live right next door to the one he lives in, ( so quite obviously, I BEHAVE!! ) ....anyway... first week I moved in, I was in the front yard, talking to Andy's fiance.... the young couple across the road came over to borrow a ladder from Andy... but because Andy is a contractor and has expensive tools etc etc etc, his fiance wouldn't let them borrow his ladder. I felt really bad for them... and since my ladder is a $39.95 Beaver Lumber special that I bought in 1988, I figured there'd be no harm in letting them borrow mine.....
two days later, when the ladder still wasn't back, I began to wonder if I'd made a mistake....

To make a long story short ( which I rarely do ) .... I got the ladder back, but I made an impression.... more than once in the last two years, they knocked on my door, to ask for money, or to sell something to me, probably to get money for cigarettes....
I hate being a sucker, but I have had hard times in my life, so I feel bad for people like that......

A few months ago, the boyfriend moved out.... which has put Jodi ( I just learned her name last week ) in some serious financial straights..... it wasn't long after HE moved out, that her phone got cut off..... and she started coming to my door, asking to use the phone.... not often, maybe 1 or 2 times a week.... here and there.... Since I'm not home much, i figured I should just live with it.....

Two weekends ago, when I was so sick, there was a knock on the door.... I was feeling lousy, and didn't feel like hosting a phoner ( I made that word up ! ) ... so I told her I was really sick and that she wouldn't want to be around....

...a few more knocks later that week, some of which I answered, but most I didn't.... after all, I PAY for my phone right? I keep the bill current, don't I ? Shouldn't she have to do that too????

sigh....

the kicker came Saturday morning last weekend..... 7:01 AM .... door bell ringing, frantically... my kids had been up in the night, anna had a head ache and was awake until almost 3 am .....So a ringing door at 7 am was not something any of us appreciated....

I slept through the first few rings... finally Taylor came down and said : DAD, answer the door... somebody is at the door...

I ripped the door open, snapped at her that EVERYBODY was sleeping, and now was NOT a good time...

OF ALL THE GALL? right??

sigh..... the kids and I talked about it often over the next few days, how big an intrusion it was, that this JODI character would knock so often, and ring the bell at SEVEN AM .......


Well, last night, she came to the door again..... I opened it, and started into a long tirade about how it really wasn't convenient, and that....

..... her apology interupted me....

She was sorry for ringing the bell so early on Saturday... her new boyfriend had beat her up, and did all manner of things to her, not to mention barrng the door and keeping her from leaving....
She apparently snuck out just before 7 Saturday morning, hoping to call the police....

gulp.....

the new boyfriend is now in jail, charged with assault, and several other things, she said..

" and you won't have to worry about me using your phone any more.... I'm moving in with my gramma...."

***** I don't know whether all of that really happened with the new boyfriend... I do know two police cars took somebody away from her condo Saturday afternoon,

..... and her condo is now for sale....

I don't mind telling you, I feel like a very poor representative of Jesus .... a long time ago, I set out to be kind, and loving, and to give, until I had nothing left to give... I wanted to be as close to Jesus as I could, with my attitudes, and actions....

but when it came to showing Jesus to Jodi..... I failed...

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night....

London Photos

Taylor and Jacob playing Air Hockey... and ( above ) Carol being the back seat driver for David!!

I played that car driving game on Monday night....Abby and Taylor watched over my shoulder.... at one point, after I'd crashed the car three times, I heard abby whisper to Taylor... HOW did Daddy EVER get a drivers license!!

Brat!!

More London Pictures

Even More London Pictures

Way awesome waterslide.... went down this thing 7 or 8 times yesterday..... scared the little children waiting at the bottom but who cares!!! It was fun!!

March Break in London

Two years ago, we took the kids to Florida.... Went with my parents, and my sister and her family.... Last year, we went to Kingston for two nights... Without my sister.... Travel with them to Florida, and you'll KNOW why we didn't invite them to Kingston with us! LOL I am ONLY kidding....

anyway... This year, Carol and David and their kids invited us to come with them ( they're much nicer to us, than we are to THEM! ) .... To London.... We are on our second of 2 nights at the Lamplighter Inn..... It's almost as picturesque inside as Florida..... It has been really neat..... We have been swimming a lot, ate out a couple of times, blew a roll of quarters ( or two ) at the games room, and spent two glorious hours shopping.... One at Dollerama, and one at Forest City Surplus.... That store is just INCREDIBLE... I didn't buy a thing, but boy was it fun shopping there....

Tonight, we ordered pizza from Eastown Pizza ... GREAT pizza... We ordered two large pizzas, and four panzerotti's ... Not one of us could finish the panzerotti, and there's half of both pizza's left.... LOTS of breakfast, if you can stomach pizza that early in the morning......

Tomorrow, it's back to Paris with the kids... and after supper, I'll head back to Peterborough... Back to work, to pay for this lavish lifestyle I've become accustomed to!!

Hot Water Blues

well..... yesterday afternoon, after doing dishes for the umpteenth time this weekend.... I ran out of hot water..... not a drop....ugh

the water heater is gas, not electric, which means that it heats up quickly.... and doing dishes should NEVER have used it all up....... I was pretty distressed..... so I did what I usually do when under immense duress.... I went to bed for a nap......

woke up, still no hot water..... ugh...... so I phoned my landlord... something I hate doing, cause I'm not that kind of complainer... but since I've been fighting flu/cold/sore back for almost 2 weeks, I really didn't have much fight to take on Union Energy, OR a hot water tank....

So my landlord comes over..... we dug out the rental bill, and he phoned Union Energy... found out that the tank isn't rented after all, but OWNED.... and has been paid up since 2000... so much for asking Union Energy for a replacement!!

anyway, to make a short story long, ( which is a gift, don't you kid yourself! ) .... he checked the tank out... found out that it was firing, and that it SHOULD be heating up......

in the process, while in the back room, we discovered two things......

[1] That the hot water and cold water were looped ( tied in together into a 'T' - See photo above ) .... which means that when you put hot water on, you get hot AND cold.... miracle plumber must have hooked THAT up.......... there are shut off valves, that don't work any more.... tsk.....

[2] I could hear running water in the drain..... I thought that seemed weird, given the fact that nobody was showering... I limped upstairs, and found out that the toilet in the upstairs bathroom had been running for who knows how long... hours... maybe days........ the little chain had broken off, the one that hooks onto the handle... tsk.....

Anyway.... I adjusted the chain to a different spot on the handle..... and the running water stopped.... waited a couple of hours... and what do you know.... I had hot water again....

CAN YOU IMAGINE!! I ran off an entire tank of hot water through the toilet..... jeepers...... only me...

now I know why I would get that nice warm feeling every time I used the upstairs bathroom!! it had HOT WATER in it.... for crying out loud...

So the landlord will be fixing the loop problem later this week.... and we'll be back to flushing with cold water... like every NORMAL house in the world....

jeepers!!

Remembering Murray Sutherland

well..... our family lost a friend today.

Murray Sutherland died today... from a brain tumour.


Murray was a family friend, for a lot of years. He was quiet, humble, calm.... he played the piano and organ like very few could.... Murray was the kind of person that would impact your life, but because he was so quiet about it, it would take you some time before you realized how much he'd impacted you....

One story from my youth, sums it all up:

When I was in high school, often during the hot days of summer, we kids would PLEAD with my parents to take us swimming....... and often, after supper, we'd coerce my parents to phone Murray and Marg Sutherland, and "invite ourselves over" to swim in their pool....

many times, in my childhood, after supper on a hot day, we'd go over to the Sutherlands' pool and swim.... at some point during those hot evening swims, my dad and Murray came upon the idea of beekeeping..... "wouldn't it be neat if we both got a hive of bees, and kept them together " at the Mackay's house.....
and they did..... Two bee hives, sat side by side, for years, at the back of the 2 acre lot we had on the 4th of Thurlow.....
And often, on Saturdays, the Sutherlands would come over: Rob and Tim would play with us kids, Marg would visit with my mom, and Dad and Murray would go to the back of our lot and "keep" bees... whatever that meant!

On one particular Saturday, as vivid in my mind as if it was yesterday..... Dad and Murray were "keeping the bees" ..... I don't know whether Marg or the boys came that day... all I remember was that it was my dad, Murray and me.... at the back of the lot, keeping the bees.....
As I remember it, my dad was the only one who owned "gear" .... you know the gear I mean, the thick, i mean THICK white coveralls, chain mail denim! with the big screened hat, and the gloves that went from his hands to his elbows.....
and he had it all on, on that particular saturday... I guess he and Murray must have been moving the hives, or something.... cause dad had the smoke thingy out.... you know the one I mean.... the little pitcher, that had burning baler twine inside, to create smoke.....
Dad was using it, he said, for calming the bees.... but... it wasn't!

For whatever reason,...................... the bees swarmed....

and there we stood..... Dad, the stalwart, in the chain mail denim, ........

and Murray and me, in our shorts....

If I shut my eyes, and think about it.... I can still hear Murray ..... behind me.....running ..... trying frantically to outrun the bees......

I, on the other hand..... didn't uh...
I ... sigh...
I didn't have to outrun the bees.....

I only had to outrun Murray......

and I was Seventeen..................... and I could......................

and..

I did.

I remember vividly..... in a complete frenzied panic..... reaching the back door of the garage, just a few steps ahead of Murray......

I don't know what, in that moment, made me slam the door in Murray's face.....

and I don't, to this day, know why I locked the door..... but I did!

And when I shut my eyes, I can still see his scared face pressed up against the screen door mouthing the words : UNLOCK THE DOOR, PLEASE UNLOCK THE DOOR.

and there I stood.... trembling, unable to do anything but breathe....

Murray walked...er...rather .... ran around the house to the front door, and without saying a word, came into the house.....

sigh.....

I don't remember how many bee stings Murray got that day, because of me......

what I do remember are two very vivid things:

First: the shame, from my cowardice, that has remained, for more than 25 years .....

Second: the graciousness of a man, who came silently, that day, into the house, and who remained in my life as a friend, and who, after dozens and dozens of times I've seen him and spoken with him in the years since, has mentioned that incident ... not ever once.

Security Dog

yup, scared ME off......