Philgrim's Blogress » Miscellaneous

Nathan for Saskatchewanderer

Phil — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:46:23 +0000

Ten candidates have been short-listed in the Saskatchewanderer competition, and I’m sure that any of them would do a fine job of travelling around our province and promoting it. However my vote goes to Nathan Thoen, and it’s only partly because we know the family and that he’s the only candidate from Prince Albert. No, it’s his ability to come up with lines like, “you see this province is a part of me – it literally runs through my blood like the North Saskatchewan River itself, nourishing and sustaining me in every way.”

Voting begins March 23 at the Saskatchewanderer website. Drop by and give Nathan your vote.

UPDATE: Apparently Nathan has been disqualified because of inappropriate comments that he made in a YouTube video clip.

This didn’t make me smile

Phil — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:11:02 +0000

This was the view from our back steps this morning.

A couple of days ago we were eating our supper outside and the kids were jumping on the trampoline.

I do appreciate the precipitation (there weren’t any grass fires or forest fires in the area today), but at the risk of seeming ungrateful, I’d have appreciated rain more than snow.

A pedestrian-unfriendly city

Phil — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:26:49 +0000

I usually walk the shortest route to and from the office. However today when returning home I cut through Gateway Mall for a bit of variety. I waited for a red light on the northeast corner of Bishop McLean Crescent and 15th Street West, then proceeded south across 15th Street with the walk signal. Several cars were waiting to turn left from Bishop McLean Crescent onto 15th Street eastbound. Two of them hurried to beat me, with the second cutting just a few feet in front of me. The third car braked for me, but gave me a blast of his horn.

I wonder if they even realize that pedestrians in a crosswalk have the right-of-way? Probably not.

I’ve seen enough of this P.A. driver attitude that I generally just shrug it off. It’s when I see young children risking their lives trying to cross the street that my blood pressure rises.

I generally like Prince Albert as a place to live, but I wish it was a bit more pedestrian-friendly.

(Thanks for letting me vent – sorry if I’m reinforcing the impression that blogging all about angry middle-aged guys complaining about stuff)

Anno Domini 2009 – Happy New Year

Phil — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:57:33 +0000

The 2,008th year AD is history. May this 2,009th year of our Lord be a good one.

Busy week

Phil — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:24:20 +0000

It seems like this week has been even busier than most. Part of the reason is that I’m getting ready for a short (2-day) Antlerless Mule Deer hunt with the muzzleloader. Ken and Charlie have a good area where they hunt most years. They started hunting today, and Eric and I will drive down to the area after work tomorrow, and will hunt Friday and Saturday. It’s in Wildlife Management Zone 14, close to the South Saskatchewan River near Kyle.

Yesterday was particularly busy, since I’d scheduled an “Energuide” home evaluation which took a chunk of the afternoon. I also made a batch of goose jerky, and racked two batches of fruit wine (chokecherry and saskatoon) that were finished their primary fermentations.

Janet has this unreasonable expectation that since we both are working full-time now, perhaps I should do a bit more of of the cooking than I have in the past, so tonight I cooked supper. We’ve had some ruffed grouse taking up room in the freezer for a year, so that was the meat. It went over well with the kids.

Now I’m waiting for the maps of the hunting area to finish uploading to the GPS. I’d like to get a newer model with USB interface … 24 MB of map data is taking about 2 hours to transfer over the serial connection on my aging Garmin GPSmap 76S.

(After writing that last sentence, I checked the progress, and found that there was an error communicating … “please check the connection …” Can’t spot anything wrong. Re-started the transfer, and will leave it running overnight.)

At least I think I’m pretty well packed for the hunt, the tags have been purchased, etc.

Enough rambling. G’nite.

Metal detector to borrow or buy

Phil — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:06:39 +0000

On my next visit to our “bush quarter” at Shell Lake, I plan to look for the legal property corner markers. I believe that when the land was surveyed, many decades ago, the surveyors would have marked the property corners using metal stakes. However I understand that many homesteaders found practical uses for the iron, so they may be long gone.

Even if the markers are still in place today, I don’t know if they would be at ground level, driven below ground level, or extend above the ground. Assuming that the corner posts are still in place, a metal detector would come in handy. If someone in the P.A. area has one of those gizmos cluttering his/her basement or garage, and would be willing to loan it out or sell it at a reasonable price (i.e. cheap), please fire me a note.

Fire extinguisher training – as much fun as Nintendo Wii

Phil — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:31:34 +0000

I spent most of yesterday in a compulsory safety training session. Part of the course included hands-on fire extinguisher use. However instead of using a real fire, we used a fire simulator. With the appropriate name “PyroSoft“, the system included a large rear-projection screen, with modified fire extinguishers that point a beam of light at the movie playing on the screen, and compressed air providing authentic sound.

Poor technique, such as directing the propellant at the middle of the flames instead of the base, or not sweeping fully to the sides of the burn area, result in “re-flash”, and a poor time.

So how did I do? Let’s just say that for some reason I was able to put out the “cabinet fire” a lot faster than the fire burning in a pool of gasoline. Based on my time, no fire department would hire me. No career change for me.

However it was kind of fun.

War casualties

Phil — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 05:32:14 +0000

Tonight while browsing the online news websites I came across an article about the Remembrance Day service in Ottawa, that gave some statistics on the number of military casualties in five wars that Canada has fought in since 1899:

244 in the Boer War (1899-1902).
66,655 in the First World War (1914-1918).
44,893 in the Second World War (1939-1945).
516 in the Korean War (1950-1953).
71 soldiers and a diplomat in Afghanistan (since the mission began in early 2002).

source

Those numbers made me marvel again at the amazing sacrifice made by Canada during WWI and WWII, and the high level of support for the war effort among the Canadian people. The rosolve was there because most Canadians believed that the cause was just.

It also made me wonder about the readiness of so many Canadians, including federal party leaders Dion and Layton, to abandon the people of Afghanistan, the majority of whom seem to appreciate the Canadian Forces’ efforts to bring stability and peace to their country.

Another of those weekends

Phil — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:00:12 +0000

At least it’s just rain and not snow.

Where’s my $102,000?

Phil — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:32:58 +0000

Man says he was ‘tortured’ by dentist
Janet French , CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, October 01, 2007

SASKATOON – After he did more than $16,000 worth of unnecessary dental work on a Saskatoon man – including seven root canals in one day – a city dentist has been suspended for two months and must pay at least $102,000 for legal costs and educational upgrades.

In June, the College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan found Dr. Lawrence Ho guilty of professional misconduct and professional incompetence for performing the root canals, and pulling two teeth without enough evidence to show the extractions were necessary…

… via

When I still lived with my parents in Saskatoon, our dentist retired. Can you guess the name of the young dentist who took over his practice?