Smog

Was in Toronto on Friday last week.....

Smog Alert....

No Kidding!!

Bragging Rights

I bought mom's car in October.... October the 6th, to be exact, was the first full day of inspecting with this car.....

The mileage that day was 144,028 ....

Tonight when I parked out front, it was 200,521 .... 56,400 in just under 8 months.....

at least you know where I spend my time ( and money! ) .....

it sure is comfortable though... my home away from home

Time

Time in a Bottle.......




















Thyme in a Flower Box

Sleeper

I spent the day in Cambridge today, at a seminar for "High Value" home evaluations....

My boss, and 3 of the guys drove down this morning from Lindsay area.... I went from Brantford..... 35 minutes it took me; THEY left Little Britain at 6:40... and beat me to the seminar.... shut up Storey!!!

The morning session started late, because there were 4 people from Grenville area ( near Cornwall, I think ) who were on a tele-conference link thingy........ except that they couldn't hear...... about every 3 minutes, they'd interupt us and say " WE CAN'T HEAR YOU" ... it was pretty annoying actually!

After 3 or 4 interuptions like that, one of them said : Is there any way to make it so we can hear better?

I leaned over to my boss, and said... "take a car, fill the tank with gas, AND DRIVE HERE ...." I felt that would have done wonders to help them HEAR ....."

sigh.. I'm so cynical....

Eventually, they hung up and went home mad ( no wait, they were already HOME ) .....

anyway... things got going a little better once they hung up!! however, after a while, the morning session dragged on and on.... most of the material was so basic, that we could have taught THEM.......

Lunch time came and we were pretty relieved, figuring that the afternoon session would be more helpful and more interesting... boy were we wrong!!

After a great lunch of MSG SOAKED chinese food, we began a two hour session on high end art appraisal, which unbeknownst to us ( is unbeknownst even a word ? ) had nearly NO benefit for loss prevention at all.... yawn

There were about 30 or 40 people in the afternoon session.... all of whom, for the most part, fidgeted, giggled, snoozed, blinked, nodded, did just about anything to stay awake.... all the while, wondering " WHY AGAIN did we pay $$ to come here for this????????"

In the middle of the session, I felt a creative surge hit me...... and put my pen to paper and wrote a poem..... you KNOW it must have been boring..........

here's what I came up with....

+++++++++++++++++++

I'm stuck here on this afternoon
just like I was in school
I think the MSG's kicked in
I just began to drool!

I am not sure just what I'll do
with all this "ART" info
If only I was near the door
to BRANTFORD I would go!

I've tried to pay attention,
but here is my excuse :
Since every one is sleeping,
I ask you... Whats the USE?

I'm working though, I'm taking notes
and writing more and more
but find it quite distracting
since my boss began to snore!



If you happen to know anybody that is hiring, please let me know!!!

Weekend....

Well, my weekends seem to go by SOOO fast, when I have the kids.... this past weekend was a blur.... but a good blur!!

Friday afternoon, I left Port Perry just before 1 pm.... and was home before the weekend traffic got out of hand.... Friday night, we rented pizza and ate a movie..... ( based on the heart burn I had, it FELT like that was what we did!!! ) ....

we watched Night at the Museum.... I'm not much into fantasy movies, but this one was really neat.... it's one that I would like to buy someday....

Around 8:30 Friday night, Anna and I ran over to the mall to get her some track pants ..... then took her home, and ran Taylor over to Moose Winooskies to meet some of his friends.... I picked him up at 11:00 .. only cause I'm OLD and can't stay up til all hours on the weekends like I used to!! ( he WANTED to stay out til midnight...) sigh.. it sucks to get old!!

Saturday morning, we headed out around 10:30 to go to Muskoka Baptist Conference.... Carol invited me ( and the kids ) to come along with their praise team to help with the worship on Sunday.... It was a taxing two services for Carol... I didn't know several of the songs, and I'm an old fart, really.... no, wait... STICK IN THE MUD..... and I have this "SCOWL" look on my face when I'm uncomfortable about something.... I think Carol aged 20 years this weekend, thanks to me!

The kids had a wonderful time with their cousins.... and we got to see quite a few people we knew at MBC ... so it was a fun weekend.... thank you Carol!!!

Monday, we left Huntsville around 10:30 ... got home just before 2.... we went home for a bit, then went out to see Shrek 3 ... what a fun movie..... WE LOVE SHREK at our house.... it was a fun time....

After the movie, we made a mad dash to Ted and Ang's house in Simcoe for a BBQ ... we rolled in there around 6:30 and were gone within an hour.. nothing like dine and dash eh??!!!!

It was really hard to take the kids home and then go back to work... I dropped them off just after 8, and by 9:30, I'd been home, had the garbage and recycling out, car packed, house tidied up ( ok, we weren't home long enough to MESS IT UP! ) and back on the road to Peterborough... got to Peterborough just after 11:30 .... sigh... I love weekends... I HATE when they're over!!!
Here are some photos of the weekend.....

Reflections

Friday morning, I was inspecting on Scugog Island.... Saw this reflection after my second stop... pretty eh?

ITCHY

ever since Mother's day of 1999, THIS stuff gives me the HEEBY JEEBIES ...........

we planted 250 white pine trees right through a huge patch of poison ivy at the farm in Blessington..... the sad part is this:

The only trees that survived were mowed down by the lawn mower and I have been scratching for 8 years............

I know, TMI!!!

Sign

this made me laugh!

Across the River

Our family lost another friend yesterday.... Shirley Shaw died early yesterday morning... she and Hank are close friends of my mom and dad.... their son Kirk was a good buddy of mine when I was growing up.... Their daughter Karen is married to Hal York, pastor of mom and dad's church....

sigh........ in the last year, 6 of my close friends growing up, have lost a parent, 4 of them from mom and dad's church in Belleville..... it is starting to hit close to home....

Yesterday as I was driving in my dad's car, this song came on a cd he'd left in the car..... God's timing is pretty neat....

sigh....

Across The River
Triumphant Quartet

I've often prayed for God to heal a loved one
and I've pleaded for his touch upon their life
I've rejoiced with every prayer I've seen Him answer
But at times I've had to watch and wonder why

Why would God not choose to send His healing
to a precious saint, in their time of need?
Oh but I believe that just across the river
He's performing miracles I cannot see!

Chorus

Across the river, there is no sickness
across the river, there is no sorrow on that shore!
All the pain will be erased with one look on Jesus' face
across the river, we'll be healed for evermore!

If I live, I live because of mercy
just to serve Him with each borrowed breath of life
Oh but if I die I'll still receive a healing,
Waiting for me, over on the other side!!

Across the river, there is no sickness
Across the river, there is no sorrow on that shore
All the pain will be erased with one look on Jesus' face
across the river, we'll be healed for evermore!

Spring in Peterborough

One of the things I LOVE about spring is Lilacs.....







This is the view east from the top of Armour Hill ....












This is the world famous Peterborough Lift Lock..... Lock # 21, in the Trent Severn Waterway canal system.. ( Click here for Wikpedia's entry on this lock ) this thing is like a gigantic car lift in a garage.... it's unique for this day and age.. it was earth shattering when it opened in 1904.

Most locks rise 6 or 8 feet; this one lifts boats nearly 65 feet into the air... incredible!! I'm gonna get on an air mattress this summer and go UP the thing!!!





This is the Westclox Tower, just at the top of Armour Road.... Western Clock company began manufacturing clocks in Peterborough in 1919.... They became Westclox in 1922 and built this building that year.....
Production stopped, from what I've read, in the early 80's ....











Ok then.. enough of the History lesson for today....

Tomorrow, we are going to discuss Science and Math ( should be a short lesson!! )

More Photos