My son is SIXTEEN years old...

Jeepers... I can hardly believe that time has gone by so fast... We let Taylor decide where we were going for supper, and he picked the KEG ... I have never been to the Keg in my life ( being a good baptist boy and all, just the NAME used to scare me!! )

We had a wonderful time... Taylor got money, mostly, for his birthday... to put towards Drivers Ed ...

I, on the other hand, went with a toy...... A Crosman pump action hand BB gun..... he was pretty excited about it...

Happy Birthday Buddy... I'm proud of you!!!

Laser Tag

We went to Kitchener tonight... the kids and I, to play Laser Tag with a bunch from our church...

We had a BLAST..... we broke into 4 groups.. each group played 3 games... so we got to play against nearly everybody... The best score consistently tonight.. was by our Pastor... Tom Haines... I told him I was PRETTY sure he had some serious built up aggression!!

anyway, it was a really fun time!!

More Laser Tag photos

The Inherited BBQ

so, I blogged a while back about the BBQ that my brother gave me last fall... foolishly, I left it out all winter.. and as you can see... the uh.. burner didn't fare so well!!

First time we cooked on it ( ironically, it was the last time I've cooked on it in 2 1/2 weeks ) .... there was a huge flame in the center.... I thought it odd, at the time.. but since I'm a pyro at heart, I quite LOVED IT!

decided though, when we put 5 burgers on there, and four weren't cooked and the one was BURNED... that perhaps I should investigate... above photos show what I found....

Gonna keep it INSIDE this winter! duh!

The New BBQ Burner

WHOOOO Baby.... gonna be some GOOD burgers on this thing!!

CBA Spring Concert

I flew home ( aka... Ford Taurus at break neck speed ) to Brantford Thursday night for 3 hours to the girls Spring Concert at Central Baptist Academy. Anna is graduating from grade 8 in June, and this will be her last concert there ... She has played a Artley flute that we bought used two years ago .. it has never played very well.. and she spends a lot of time "repairing" it every time she touches it.... so feeling her frustration, I went in last weekend and put money down on a Yamaha flute... it's not a Gemeinhardt .. but it's a really good instrument just the same! I promised them I'd have it paid off by the time the the spring concert rolled around....I was half way to Peterborough Monday when it dawned on me that the concert was THIS week... oh MAN! SO I called back to the instrument store, gave them my visa # and sent Anna's mom to pick it up for her....

So Thursday night, she was sporting a brand new instrument.. and was Tickled Pink!

Time flies when you're having fun...

ok.. so remind me again... am I having fun???!! this week went by SO fast...it's unbelievable...

put on 2362kms this week, from Friday to Friday ( which of course included my loop de loop in Niagara Falls ) ... seemed like I spent the whole week in the car....

I inspected up in Cottage country this week.... Kirkfield, Coboconk, Norland, Kinmount, Burnt River... what pretty territory... black bugs are starting to come out... but not too bad yet...

LAST week, I inspected a farm for a couple near Burnt River... sweet couple... almost 70, expecting to retire from Farming shortly...... I was there Wednesday ( a week ago ) and on Monday this week, the husband was killed in a farm accident... yikes.... it's a little disconcerting, not to mention sad.

Then on Wednesday, this week, I inspected a house that seemed to be vacant... found out the next day that the owner had died just before I got there...

I wondered if maybe Farmers should WARN the rest of the people I"m supposed to inspect....:
I can see the letter now....

"Paul, our W.E.T.T. certified Loss Prevention Officer/ Angel of Death will be out to your place in the next 3 weeks... get your affairs in order..."

ugh!

The Perry's Concert

Last night, I went to hear the Perry's ... They are bar none, one of the best groups in Southern Gospel ... and pretty much my very favourite group. If you have heard the Chapelaires CD Even In The Valley, we sang two of the Perry's songs ( Damascus Road and Calvary Answers For Me )...

anyway... the concert was unbelievable.... I bumped into Tracy Stuffle ( the bass singer ) before the concert... I'd gone in, through a side door, hoping to record some interviews with the group members, for my dad's Southern Gospel Show on the Christian Radio Station in Belleville.... ( which I didn't get done, by the way ) ... anyway, I had a wonderful visit with Tracy before the concert ... he is SO funny... and down to earth, and the second best bass in ALL of Gospel Music today ( a close second to Gene MacDonald from the Florida Boys )

While we were visiting back stage, we got to talking about the Canadian Border crossing, and the exchange rate on Canadian Dollars etc etc... Tracy mentioned that their bank in Tennessee, will no longer exchange Canadian Money (that is apparently becoming more common, the farther south you go.)

They were hoping to get to the border in Niagara Falls early enough to exchange the money at the Duty Free shop .. but were afraid they wouldn't get the bus loaded in time.... I said to him : Why not send one of the group members ahead in a car? he said.. oh no, I couldn't ask anybody to do THAT ....

I said.. well I'd be glad to do it... if you change your mind, let me know...

and sure enough, they did..... it was SUCH a thrill for me.... After the concert was over, I got to drive to Niagara Falls with Tracy and Libbi's 14 year old son Jared and their bus driver, Steve Rabbit Easter ( no really, that's his NAME! )... Rabbit is a legend guitarist, in gospel Music ... he is Jeff Easter's older brother. Rabbit has played for the Oak Ridge Boys, the Goodman Family, Jeff and Sheri Easter, and tons of others...... anyway... it was an incredible thrill for me... and it was all going SO well..... until........

Let me start at the beginning...We left Mohawk College just after 10 ... and got to Niagara Falls at about 10 minutes to 11 ....with just enough time to exchange the money, and then grab a quick bite to eat before we met the bus and they headed on to West Virginia....

We found the Duty Free shop, right by the bridge .... I saw the building, and the Left Turn arrow, right in front of the building.... so I turned.... we pulled ahead about 400 feet, looking for a parking spot and realized.... this isn't a parking lot.... this is the Bridge already.. WE ARE ON THE BRIDGE .......heading for the U.S. ... oh CRAP!

SO I did a quick U turn, and headed back through this little narrow pathway, and found myself inside the RV/Bus compound of the Canadian Customs.... we drove around the building, and the gate was shut... crap again!
I did another U turn, to go back out the way I came... only to come face to face with oncoming RV/Bus traffic... coming into customs... crap AGAIN...

another U turn... This time, I parked, illegally and went IN to the customs office..... the cop guy that talked to me, came out, explained that I had to go OUT the IN, and turn an IMMEDIATE left... and go through the Customs booth, just as if I was entering Canada....

But I didn't LEAVE Canada.... apparently, I had... Jeepers.

So we head out, facing oncoming traffic, hoping no busses came in..... turned an immediate left... and pulled into the line of traffic, waiting at the booths.....

and there we sat.... coming back into Canada, with all of the other New York plates...... Jared, mean while is in the back seat, sweating buckets! American Music groups live in fear of the Canadian Custom's ... and with good reason.... they can be pretty snarky to Gospel Musicians coming in to Canada....

at this point, I started to worry.... I looked over at Rabbit Easter and he goes.... uh... My birth certificate is in my wallet, which uh.... is on the BUS ( that'd be the bus that was back in Hamilton, loading up the sound equipment ) .... oh CRAP!

So there we were, still waiting to enter Canada, me with Ontario plates, and two Americans, with little or no ID.....

I wanted to crawl into a hole and DIE..... Anyway... to make a long story short, after explaining the situation in great detail to the guy in the booth, he let us through... THANK YOU GOD!!

We got through the booth, turned left ... and this time, pulled into the RIGHT parking lot for the Duty Free Shop ........at 11:02 pm.... ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDD they closed at 11 ....
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! *****

Sigh....... I turned around in the parking lot, and went back to the gate... and couldn't get out... NO EXIT ..... oh mannnnn... why me?


We pulled up to the building and spotted an employee that was leaving :

Where's the exit?

over there....

where does that go?

onto the Bridge, to cross into New York...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! we already DID that!!
How do we get OUT of here ???????

well... you have to sit by the entry gate, where it says " no exit " .... and wait for somebody to come in... and then you dash out while the bar is up.........

so.... it's 11:05... why would ANYBODY COME IN?? YOU GUYS ARE CLOSED already.....

sheeesh.....

I back up, turned around... and spotted the gate opening.....

I hollered "HANG ONNNNNNNNN!! " ....screached my tires, and went through the gate almost on 2 wheels........ poor little Jared was in the back seat, about to recite the Lord's Prayer!! how you guys enjoyin' canada SO FAR? EH????

Rabbit is laughing, by this time and he said : " Y'all realize we done used up our EATIN' Time !!!"

who cares... I'd lost my appetite anyway!!

sigh..... so then, we headed up Clifton Hill, found a money exchange shop still open.. but the maximum they would exchange was $200 Canadian... so much for THAT idea....

As a last resort, we pulled into the Casino.... Jared and Rabbit jumped out and headed in to exchange the money..... I double parked outside... and waited... I was really starting to get frantic, I was worried that by NOW, the bus would be loaded, and they'd be waiting for US !!!

After about 10 minutes, Jared came out.... alone...

Because he is only 14... they wouldn't let him IN!!

so here I am.... waiting on the curb, with a 14 year old kid, at 11:30 on a Saturday night at a Casino in Niagara Falls... watching all manner of people coming and going into the casino.....I'm sure this is NOT what Tracy and Libbi entrusted me to do with their son!!

Finally after what seemed like AGES, Rabbit came out... smelling like he'd just smoked 200 cigarettes...... but he got the money exchanged!!!!

sigh..... I don't know if the Perry's will ever let me drive them around again or not....
I do know that I won't soon forget their visit!!!!

The Perry's

More Perry's Photos

Tracy cracks me up.... just when I was all focused in on the piano player, Tracy leaned down in so he could get in the picture! WHAT A NUT!

Concert in Georgetown

Met my mom and dad last night in Georgetown... we went to a Greater Vision Reunion concert... it was probably the one single best Gospel Music concert I have ever been to.... Greater Vision is a male trio, started in 1990 I think.... they started out with Chris Allman ( tenor ) and Mark Trammell ( baritone ) and Gerald Wolfe.... Chris Allman is now a Pastor in NC, and Mark Tramell has his own group, who were also at the concert last night...

Musically, they are about the best there is.... funny, incredibly funny, and ministry minded...

it was a very incredible experience.....

sigh... when I grow up, I want to sing in a group like this...

I said that to Mark Trammell last night.. he looked at me, grinned, and in a deep Alabama Accent said..... " C'mon eeeeeeyan.... the wotter's fannnn!! " lol

Sunset Tuesday

This is the view from the top of the city in Peterborough.... According to Dave Fisher, it's where people go to make out... he told me that, the day he took me up there to show me the place.. YIKES!!

anyway.. the view is pretty neat up there... I needed my tripod, and I should have been there 15 minutes earlier.. the sky was a brilliant purple....

Spring is Sprung... the birds are out!

Time to dust maybe??

I took a photo last night of my little collection of Ford Mustang toy cars...
to show Sean.....

I'm wondering if maybe it's time to DUST???

ENUNCIATE Your Words, Paul

so tonight, on my way home, I called to confirm an appt for tomorrow... my first inspection is in Burnt River ( personally, I'd have called it BURNED river.. but that is just ME ! ) ....

anyway... I called to make sure they'd not forgotten......

I get the husband on the line... and I say: "Hi, this is Paul Mackay ( prounounced Mackey ) from Farmers Mutual Insurance....

he, like most men.. can't stand talking to insurance people,... and he hands me off to his wife ...

I hear him holler over his shoulder....

" HERE!!! .... Come talk to this Mick KHAKI guy..... "

jeeeeeeeeeez! hi.. my name is Paul Mc-Khaki... and I .... wear Coveralls.

This place is SOOOO quiet today

After my kids go home to their mom's, this place is like a ghost town... HONESTLY!!!!!( to quote Beth Fisher ) ....

Actually, it is almost creepy.... I hate going up to the third level, where the bedrooms are, cause it's so depressing..... This must be what parents feel when their nest is empty ... My nest is far too empty today, and my kids are only 13 minutes away....

sigh....

WELL... Now that I've had my pity party for the week, I can get on to more uplifting things....

My son turns 16 on the 28th ( same day as my buddy Steve, although Steve isn't turning 16... he just acts it !! ) ....
Taylor isn't sure what he wants to do yet.... But it will likely involve copious amounts of food, and a BB Gun.....

In other news... Atlanta Thrashers lost last night to Washington Capitals, which catapulted the Montreal Canadiens into the playoffs.....WHOOOOO AHHHHHHHHHHH!!
As much as I feel bad for Toronto not making the playoffs ( and deep down in, I do ) .... I'm RELIEVED, to say the least, that the Habs are in...
the ONLY problem is this : I think they'll end up playing Ottawa in the first round....

THIS IS PROBLEMATIC...... Because #12 for the Ottawa Senators ? Mike Fisher?? I live with his grandmother.... So I have to govern my behaviour, particularly my TONGUE! I can't just walk into the house and say... Pretty cool that HASEK is still injured EH??? and I think hanging a Montreal Flag at the front of the house is pretty much NOT gonna happen.... I will, though... wear my lucky Montreal Canadien Boxers .... And every time I walk by Mrs Fisher, I'll give her that "knowing" gloat that says... I'm wearing MONTREAL paraphernalia .. And YOU don't KNOWWWWWWWWWWW it lol!

sometimes, I'm just juvenile!!

anyway... Happy Monday everybody....

oh... a thought just hit me.... most hockey players, come play off time, get very superstitious... they do drastic things... like cut their hair, grow a beard..., wear the same t-shirt every day for the entire playoffs.... that sort of thing....

hmmm ....

If I keep with THAT tradition, and wear my Montreal boxers every day for the playoffs..... even I WILL begin hoping Montreal goes out early.... !!

Perhaps I'll go buy a Montreal watch !!!

Paris

Just dropped my kids off... they live in Paris.... quaint little town with a sweet little down town...

Easter Dinner

So we had a royal feast today.... got a large 1/2 ham roast, made a glaze for it, I'd also bought a small turkey roast, ... did 4 baked potatoes, plus mashed potatoes, corn, peas, and burned an apple crisp for dessert ( which we will choke down later :P ) .... it's rare that we have a big full meal like that... even had small juice glasses with Grape Juice / ginger ale....

nothing but the best for us hey!!!

Easter

3 He is despised and rejected of men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from him;
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53 : 3-5

The Last Supper

Well I did something I've not done in a very long time.... Cooked supper on a full size BBQ ...!
Since I've been on my own ( 2001 ) , I've not had a BBQ ... Had a small picnic one, that my parents had for camping... I used it for the first year, but it gave up the ghost... Since October of 2002, I've not had any kind of BBQ at all.... My brother gave me his last fall... All I needed to do was buy a tank.... But since it was fall, I just left it til today... Bought a tank.. .And promptly burned supper... Oh baby.. It's been SO long since I burned supper like that...... mmmmm carcinogens ........ mmm!

Hey Carol.... remember this???

this is a picture of my sister and me.... we were singing at Knollwood Baptist... the OLD one, on Quebec street in London... this picture was in 1985 or 86..... sigh...

Back then... I had a lot more hair and a lot less me!!

Foggy night...

was just going to bed tonight, and I looked out... there was this eery foggy mist outside.... it was quite neat actually...

Some cool clouds I saw on the way home

More Clouds

How do YOU take your coffee??

I'd just as soon has mine with Cream... .if its all the same to YOU!

Hot Shot

so Saturday, when I delivered the BB's to my son... I took a few shots... It was kinda sweet... my son had never seen a gun in my hands before, and I don't think I ever told him that I'd been a riflery teacher at camp maaaaaaany years ago.... anyway.. he showed me how to hold the gun, how to aim, and then I took 5 shots.. and hit the can ever time....

then I started to get cocky and put the can on it's side... and shot at the end... i guess I shouldn't have gloated but it felt good to impress a 15 year old!!

Mag Lites

I guess I'm a little kid at heart... I love Swiss Army Knives and BB Guns and Mag Lite flashlites..... I own 5 of the flashlites.... from various times in my life when I couldn't find the one I owned..... I have one that was broken and has been since about 2002 .... so one of the 4 good ones is a replacement for that.... Maglites have a lifetime warranty and I've been MEANING to send it back to them.... if you look at the little diagram above, piece#8 broke in half... and the flashlight quit working.....

so Sunday, after hmmm 3 or 4 years, I grabbed the flashlight and thought... I just might as well pitch this thing..... turned it and the light came on... FULL blast.... Jeepers... you gotta love a quality product like that, that miraculously fixes itself AND charges up 3 year old batteries!!

One Final Thought

Taylor is REALLY enjoying his BB gun...... he called me Saturday from Jason's house ( about 1/2 an hour south of Brantford )

... would I mind bringing him some more BB's as they'd used up nearly all that they started with......

I was still in Peterborough, heading for Brantford so I stopped at TSC in Peterborough.....

the poor girl that helped me ( or tried to ) .... I'm not saying she fell out of the stupid tree.... I'm just saying that the day God gave out brains, she thought he said trains, and took the next one home.....
ANYWAY..... I said to her....

"Do you guys sell BB's for a BB gun?"

nope.... not any more...

"Do you know who sells them?"

you mean... now?

NO HONEY.... I mean people who have sold them over the years... YES NOW you dough head.....

sigh.... I'm getting impatient in my old age!

Neat Fence Line

I saw this on Saturday... The sun had melted all but two lines of the lovely WHITE stuff in APRIL!!! As Wendy at the office says... Snow is a four letter word.... so is rain, hail, wind,

so is PAUL, for that matter!!

Anyway... I am heading back to work after a short weekend home... Got my papers all taken in for taxes... I HATE tax time... As much as I hate hemorrhoids. ( I know....TOO MUCH INFORMATION!! )

By the way,Hemorrhoids is NOT a four letter word! ( it's 2 3/4 times a four letter word ) ....

Useless drivel for a monday morning!***pm

Oh ALRIGHT ALREADY

I hope my buddy Steve doesn't take this the wrong way ... but people are pressuring me to CATCH UP on my blog cause they were tired of looking at Steve's Niagara Falls photo... I won't name names.... but his wife is one of them!!

so I thought, since this week has been so full.... I'd post a photo of Steve's HORSES instead of him!

I'll blog more later.....

Steve WITH his horses in this one

I figured since the uh... FIRST Picture wasn't the best angle of a horse...

I'd include this one!

we had a client once, years ago... who was particularly troublesome....

one day, after a LONG rant in front of my then wife, he looked at us and took his hat off to show a very little wisp of sweaty matted down hair on a LONG forehead, he shouted :

DO I LOOK LIKE A HORSES REAR END TO YOU??

under her breath, glenna said... " well , now that you mention it .... "

it was one of her finer moments!

My Buddy Steve

would like you to know he carries a lot of weight around Farmers Mutual!

Taylor's New Birthday Gift

When I was a kid, I ALWAYS wanted a Daisy Rifle... so I could look as cool as Jim West on Wild Wild West... or MAYBE as cool as Adam Cartwright ... but I never got one... until today!

It actually isn't mine.... I got to HOLD it in the store, and transport it home FROM the store... but alas.... my life long dream to own a BB Gun is being vicariously effectuated through my son...

sigh!

Room Service

So I'm sitting here a while back, typing .... Abby had settled into my bed for a long winter's nap... actually, she was watching tv... and got the munchies...

she looks over at me and says...

Daddy... speaking of Ice Cream.... I could Really use some room service!

sigh!!

OH DAD

This morning I was being really silly with Anna ( I'm sure you can HARDLY imagine me behaving that way ) .....

Anyway, I'd said something totally moronic and then laughed diabolically....
I looked over at her, and she just rolled her eyes....

I said : " Ohhhhhhhhh Anna... sometimes Daddy is just plain Silly..."

She smiled at me and said " NO Daddy!"

I thought "How sweeeeeeeet!".... until she finished the sentence:

"Daddy....You are ALWAYS silly....."

Sigh!

The Rest of the story

I guess I didn't think to finish the part about Taylor and Keeton hanging out with those punkers... ... they stood on the street until I was done with the accident ... and we went home....

hardly worth logging back on to read THAT eh???!!

Witness

So last night, I took my son and his friend Keeton downtown..... They'd heard about this place where younger teens hang out, and where "up and coming bands" play ....there was no drinking, or so they said .....
I was pretty leary... but I drove them down at least to see:

When we got there, there were kids everywhere..... 50 or 75 of them, sitting and standing on the street and sidewalk.... rock music ( or some semblance thereof ) was blaring through the door of this little cafe....

At that point, Taylor and Keeton were almost as leary as me... but thought they might stay for a few minutes... so I stuck around...

While I was sitting in my car ( with my hands over my ears trying to drown out the horrid music ) I heard a huge crash behind me..... CAR ACCIDENT! COOL!

I jumped out and headed over to see... Debris everywhere, hub cap in the middle of the street.... it was exciting, and there I was with no camera ... sigh...

Anyway, to make a long story short... a young couple, turning left were clipped by a guy, driving a SAAB, coming up the one way street behind them....
I think he moved into the very left lane... to go around them...but it wasn't a lane... it was a parking lane... and the couple turned left in front of him..
THEY were in the proper lane... as far as I can tell..

anyway, I stuck around... the SAAB guy ( is that spelled right? ) was pretty cranky... and the young couple were really distressed... I helped them get the information, told them to take pictures of the point of impact and the debris..... and then I gave them my card.... and offered to be a witness.... First thing this morning, I called the police station and asked if I could join the witness protection program..... but so far, they've not called me back!!!

While we were all standing there, trying to piece together what happened some guy, walking along the street, somewhat inebriated, came along and wanting desperately to help, walked into the street and picks up the hub cap....

As he's coming back over to the side of the street, a Jeep Grand Cherokee rolls up to the line, and since the light was red, they stopped!..... Mr Inebriated walks up to them, and hands them the hubcap!!

I came along, and the guy in the Jeep is holding the hub cap out the window laughing...

WHY did he give this to ME?

I said " Maybe the Downtown Merchant's Association would like you to have that as a souvernir of your visit!?!?!

Anyway, he hands me back the hubcap, and I walked over to Mr Inebriated.....

As I got there, he spots me with the hubcap and says : YOU THE DRIVER??? DID YOU GET HIT????

no!

just then, the light changed and the Jeep Cherokee drove off...... Mr Inebriated looks at me, then at the hubcap in my hand, and then at the Jeep driving off and with great big eyes... says... " WELLLL .....Its a HIT AND RUN BOYS... A HIT AND RUN!!!! "

I pointed at the young couple standing beside me, and at their car parked around the corner and said uh.. sir ( and I used the term loosely ) ... This is the driver... and that is their car over there!

OH!

sigh.....only in Brantford!!

Farm Sign

Inspected a farm today in Ancaster.... loved the sign!