Jennifer Has Graduated

Louise left early this morning to fly to Ottawa where she will connect with Jennifer and then the two of them will begin the long drive back to Saskatoon. Jennifer has now graduated from law school with a JD Law degree. (Juris Doctor Law) So congratulations to her as it has been a lot of hard work with many, many long hours of study put in. We are very proud of what Jenn has accomplished.
I was hoping to go to Ottawa with Louise and then all drive back together however I now have a pre operation consultation ( 5 - 6 hours long) with the surgical team on May 3rd. Unfortuately I would not have made it back in time for that and then would have to go back on the waiting list for surgery. So now my surgery date is set for
May 10th.
So I am praying that God will put a hedge of protection around Louise and Jennifer and keep the little Cavalier from having any mechanical difficulties. It is a long drive with many long hours each day making it a challenge to stay sharp and focused.
They may make it back in three days but more likely it will be four.
Soon summer will be upon us and it will be fun to have family bar b ques with Jenn being back in Saskatoon and with Tim and Karla joining us.
On another hot topic as I drove to work today I heard the local talk show host say four very scary words. Prime Minister Jack Layton. Oh please Jack say it isn't so

Alaskan Cruise

Another Easter has come and gone. On Good Friday evening our church put on a Tennabrae Service. It was very well done and really helped you focus on the death of Christ and then the resurrection. The distinctive ceremony of Tenebrae is the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms are chanted or recited. At the right moment the church was put into a total black out which gave meaning to Christ's death on the cross and all the events that went along with it.
Easter Sunday we went out to brunch with friends and that was very enjoyable. We also managed to get the majority of our yard work done over the weekend. So many leaves to rake up and just general stuff lying around.
Over the weekend I got my pond opened up and now all my fish except for two are out of their winter habitat (a freezer filled with water in the garage and ofcourse not plugged in). The fish go dormant in the winter and actually go the whole winter without being fed. I try to fatten them up as much as possible in the fall with the right kind of food and then when the weather gets cold they go to sleep. It's interesting watching them as they float around moving their gills but are pretty much asleep.
Then the exciting part of the weekend. Louise booked an Alaskan cruise for us which we will take in July as part of our 35th wedding aniversary. We are really looking forward to that. We watch the Gaithers quite regularly and a couple of programs highlighted their Alaskan Cruise and the scenery behind them was just spectacular.
Really looking forward to seeing it all first hand and booking some excursions.
I guess you don't want to rush summer but July can't come fast enough because I am really looking forward to that cruise.

Power Outage

Was sitting down last night getting ready to enjoy game three in the Western Hockey League series between the Saskatoon Blades and the Kootenay Ice when the power went out. The power went off at about 7:20 pm and didn't come back on till nearly 1am.
Meantime the Blades in Cranbrook experienced a power failure of their own losing 3 - 0 to the Ice and now trail 3 - 0 in the series. For all intents and purposes you can put the Ice on this series. Only one time in the history of the Western Hockey League has a team fallen behind 3 - 0 in a series and come back to win. In addition the Blades have another piece of history working against them. The Blades have not won a second round playoff game since 1994 and that negative streak now stretches to
0 - 13. You wonder how much statistics like that play into the minds of the players. They will tell you that they don't pay any
attention to that sort of stuff but I really wonder.
It just goes to show you that all the regular season statistics, player accomplishments, individual awards, records against the other team mean nothing when it comes time to the playoffs. For instance the Blades won all four games against the Ice this season, had never lost more than two in a row and so forth but now the Ice have won three in a row and of course the Blades have lost three in a row.
The Blades had the best record in the league, have some of the top players including Brayden Schenn, gave up some high draft picks for and yet they are on the verge of elimination. If misery indeed loves company the Blades can get some comfort from the
Red Deer Rebels. The Rebels had the second best record in the league and have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in their lineup, who in all likelihood will be the number one NHL draft pick in June, and yet the Rebels now trail the Medicine Hat Tigers 3 - 0 in their
series. Many predicted a Saskatoon - Red Deer Eastern Division final but statistics and history now defy the odds of that happening. Last year the Montreal Canadiens finished eighth in their division but beat out number one ranked Washington plus the powerful Pittsburgh Penquins before losing to Philadelphia in the Stanley Cup final. So again it shows you that every thing accomplished in the regular season is absolutely meaningless in the playoffs.
Too bad. Thought this might be the Blades year and was looking forward to a long playoff run but for Saskatoon the season
could end tonight in Cranbrook.

Confused Gophers

In the central part of the province the gophers are emerging from their holes with most of the fields clear of snow and are again standing along the side of the road. Kind of fun to take a little run at them with the truck, opps I guess I'm not supposed to say that. PETA will be banishing my site. In the south the fields are still covered, as a result of a pretty good snow fall last Saturday, and no gophers. They must be kind of confused and don't know whether to come out of their holes or not.
Lots of snow in the south and lots of concern about flooding. Also heard an interesting story on the radio today. According to the report the excess moisture is apparently pitting neighbor against neighbor. The media have a tendency to over embellish and sometimes make up stories where there are none but the reporter outlined a scenario where one neighbor is channeling water off his land by directing it onto his neighbors land. Be interesting to know if that is true or not.
From what I saw the farmer would have to do his channeling with a spade because the land is far to wet to take a tractor out on to.
Never the less it will be an interesting scenario to watch. Hopefully all the excess moisture is just the first step in bumper crops for our Saskatchewan farmers.

Fields of Water

In Saskatchewan again this year the South has caught most of the storms while the North has had snow falls but not really any kind of storm. Well perhaps one storm.
Consequently there is a lot more snow melting in the Southern portions of the province spawning fears of a quick melt and
flooding. In addition many of the fields as of this date are lying under water. So the moisture content should be pretty high for the farmers although I'm sure none of them want flooding. Tomorrow I travel even further south almost down to the American
border and through Assiniboia and Weyburn where they have significantly more snow. Today I passed some pretty saturated fields and took a picture of some of them.

Today Louise and I spent part of the day converting the room above our garage into kind of a office/suite for Jennifer. She is going to live at home for a bit until
she gets more settled into her law job. Will be nice to have her close again after three years in Ottawa.
Things seem to be always busy. Louise is busy at work having finished RRSP season and now working on wills and estates as well as other things. I am spending more time on the roads in hotels as we parted company with our Regina sales rep and now are experimenting going with two sales reps instead of three. Will have to see how that works. And of course I am still waiting for kidney surgery. Was told it would be no later than February but that has come and gone. Would really like to get it over with soon as Louise and I are planning to take an Alaskan cruise with friends in July.
It has always been a desire of mine to sing in a quartet. Since I didn't have anyone knocking down my doors asking me to join theirs, I decided to start a male quartet. We are trying to practice every Monday night and see how it goes from there. We have James and Callin on tenor, Ross at bass and myself doing the baritone. We also have Elaine as our pianist and people tell me she is one of the best pianists there is. Already she has introduced us to some new music and we are sure glad to have her.
Drove by the site of the plane crash today. It is amazing how quickly they cleaned it up. The only visible sign is a hole in the sound barrier fence where the plane crashed into it.

Blades 8 Raiders 0

It was pretty one sided tonight as the Saskatoon Blades pounded the Prince Albert Raiders 8 - 0. The Blades scored five power play goals and scored six goals in the second period. You wonder how a team that won games by scores of 8 - 0 and 8 - 1 could only be leading the series 3 - 2 but I guess thats the beauty of sports, you just never know whats going to happen. Game six is sunday night in Prince Albert.

Plane Crash

Last night Louise and I attended the Stephen Curtis Chapman concert and on the way home we passed the tragic site of a plane crash right in the city of
Saskatoon. The plane, a fairly good sized one, experienced some kind of engine failure. The pilot tried to land on the roadway but cars were in his way so he
crashed into a sound barrier wall. Unfortunately their passenger was killed and the two pilots suffered non life threatening injuries. It could have been a whole lot worse as the plane crashed just in front of a major grocery store on one side and residential areas on the other side.




The Stephen Curtis Chapman concern was excellent. He performed along with his two sons and Geoff Moore. We really enjoyed the concert and espcially Geoff Moore. He has just a great voice. Very powerful. They really gave you your moneys worth performing for a little over three hours. They talked a lot about the adoption agency they are involved with, their own adoption experiences and the tragic death of their little daughter three years ago. It was a great night.
Louise bought the tickets as a gift for me and it was an awesome choice. Really enjoyed it.
Tonight it is off to the Saskatoon Blades vs Prince Albert Raiders playoff series.
The Blades had the best recond in the Western Hockey League but the eighth place Raiders apparently are not impressed by that as they have the series tied at 2 - 2.
Just goes to show in sports the regular season means absolutely nothing. Hopefully the Blades will prevail as I would like to take in more playoff games. I think the Blades are also the only team that has never won a league championship in their history so it would be great if they could do it this year.

Time Really Flies

Well it is April 1st. Hard to believe that in less than a month Jennifer will be finished university in Ottawa and returning home to work in Saskatoon. It seems to be only yesterday that we were leaving her in Ottawa and heading back home with out her.
That was hard as we expected we would not see her until Christmas time. I ended up making two trips back to Ottawa before Christmas and Louise making one trip back to help her move to a different apartment. Her first apartment was infested with some nasty little Pharoah ants that got into everything and seemed to prevail despite the apartment owners attempts to exterminate them. i'll never forget opening her dishwasher and seeing those things all over the inside. Fortunately the apartment managers agreed to let us out of the lease and with either luck or providence we found another apartment only five minutes walk from the University. Mostly the memories from Ottawa are good. I love the city with all its history and culture. It was neat to tour the Parliament Buildings, the war museum and travel across the bridge and instantly be in Gatineau, Qubec.
There are other memories as well. Like the Christmas when West Jet could not fly out of Saskatoon due to extreme cold weather.
Flight after flight ended up being cancelled. Jennifer had to be back in Ottawa on the Monday morning so the three of us
drove to Calgary where she caught the midnight flight back to Ottawa and Louise and i drove home all night and had some
interesting experiences with a gas tank getting dangerously close to empty and no gas stations open or at least very few
open all night. But we made in back safe and sound with enough fuel to get home.
Now it is another phase in our lives. Jennifer back and living in Saskatoon and Tim with a really good job with the Provincial
Corrections in Saskatoon. Looking foward to some family bar b que times and I imagine for Louise and I, Saskatoon will remain home for sometime to come.