Flatlander 150

Yesterday I went for another ride with the gang I met last week. There were only three of us this time though. We left Flying J and decided to go to a town SouthWest of Edmonton. I wanted to ride the Anthony Henday,  a bypass route that is supposed to go around Edmonton. They have been building it for years, it is 3/4 finished (Edmonton is a large city, area wise). The road was nice, as all new roads are. No police - which I found weird as the sportbikers love that road and have been known to go over the 100 KPH speed limit (60MPH). Some by another 100KPH.

There are LA like interchanges though, those are the most fun. After we finished with Henday it was pretty so so. There were rain clouds in the area, but we managed to miss most of them, except one. It hit us by an Indian Reserve.

At Devon, the town we were headed to we decided to go further, to Sunnybrook. I had never been there before. It is not a town, it is a biker bar in the middle of nowhere. There were some beautiful winding roads to get there. The bar was nice. Steppenwolf and the Doors playing. We stayed there for two beers and then decided to take a circular route back. After filling up with fuel, we headed out on 770 to Genessee, a power plant. The roads near there are great. As I left the gas station Echoes, a song by Pink Floyd started playing. It played all the way to the other side of the power plant and then a Roxy Music song came on. Sometimes the iPod plays the right music.

We cam back into Edmonton and split up. I was supposed to meet my son, he was still working. I was sitting in the parking lot of the place where he works and I looked up, there were black clouds moving in from the South, North and West - I live East. I texted my son and said I wasn't waiting around.

I headed East out of down town through refinery row. At a stop light a guy in a Mustang, with some kind of turbo and a lot of noise decided he wanted to race my bike. Bike is a 1400cc and weighs under 500 lbs. I looked at him and said Really?

So sure enough, he floors it, burns rubber and goes, I didn't have my best start, but hey. He was still in my rear view mirror when I shifted to third. Next light, he does the same thing, but a Ducati sportbike  pulled up next to me. He was third, the Ducati was second. I think he got the message.
You know how when you were younger people would race for pink slips. I was thinking, and I had an hour to think on the way home. Maybe we could race for something....something that may deal with his insecurity as a male.

The Mustang was a beacon of things to come. If the RCMP do in fact have a quota system they were asleep at the Tim Horton's around 6 PM. Why? I had guys in Monster Trucks (these are GM/Dodge/Ford/Toyota pickup trucks, usually 4X4 with multiple turbos).

For the most part they had Saskatchewan plates, thus the name of the blog. They were going around 150 (in a 110). I was still racing with the rain. it was coming on strong. I was not going 150. But these guys would crowd me if I went to pass someone - it is their road.

About 75k into my 100k ride home I was riding along and I noticed the bike pulling to the right, it was nothing mechanical. I didn't feel the cross wind (from the North) but it was there. Then it started to rain. Then I noticed myself more sliding to the right, than veering. The rain was cold. I slowed right down. I was figuring one gust of wind and I was going to be part of a fence post. That was a moment of clarity, I thought for sure I was a goner.

Last Friday I had to speak to the client. He had 4 children, all with his surname and he said he was never married or in a common law relationship. Three of the children had the same 'baby momma' and the 4th was from a different 'baby momma'. I asked him what kind of a relationship is a 'baby momma'? He couldn't explain it. It just is. Now I get baby momma for one kid, or maybe two - although that's even a stretch, but 3 with the same woman and they all have his surname, yet he was not in a relationship with her. The woman's name was not even close to his. I asked him to fax in his explanation, as apparently his lawyer told him to write it out and the guy never did. It's seems like an oral argument - one that he can't be held to in a court. Oh well.

Today some BIG cases. Can't discuss but one from a few years ago is going to hit the press this week. You know that the officer did a good job when there was a complaint about my method on a site. Saying I had the nerve to research the guy. Do people honestly think that they gain notoriety in the paper and no one notices - other than perspective 'baby mommas' I guess.

BikeDay

Well after a week of rain it did not look good for a ride today. But, it happened. I woke up early, excited. Made breakfast and got all ready, it was still cool. I had to wear chaps and a hoodie under coat.

I went to start the bike and it clicked, nothing. My heart just about stopped.
I tried putting in gear and running down the street, nothing. It had been raining and there was snow yesterday, I thought battery was dead.

I wheeled bike around to garage to plug it into the charger. I hooked it all up and then I remembered the issue from last year. There is a bug in my bike's starter relay. I unplugged it, used my trusty paper clip, hidden discretely under seat grip. I plugged in the paper clip, hit the starter. Vroom

I could still make the ride. I would just have to move the Earth faster to get to the Park.

Set off. I was riding down the highway, no wind. It was a bit cool, but not bad.

Geese were out, flocking this way and that. It is great to race with them. I was going a bit faster than they were. No shit - I am sure they tried.

Made good time to the Park (Sherwood Park). But on the high way a convoy of flatlanders (aka Saskatchewan people) They were going pretty slow. Afraid of the city I think.

Got to Flying J to meetup, bikes were still there. I looked at time, I was early. Man, the Earth moved under my feet!.

I got out of helmet, I was checking out this girl and guy. Why? I recognized them, but I wasn't sure. she turned around and had a long braid of hair, then I knew.

Pam, how the hell are you? Her husband Pat was there too. I knew them from about 7 years ago. We hung out for the whole ride, a great reunion.

The ride leader was a different guy than last week, he told us the route and then we took off. Unfortunately he missed some zigs and zags and lost half the pack. Fortunately the guy at the back knew where we were going to come out.

We too the Anthony Henday along the South of the city. 20 bikers going under the speed limit. I bet Constable Powers was impressed. We headed West of the city by more zigzags. Funny, I have been out there lots of times and never knew that half the roads were there.

We got up to our destination, Onaway. It is a stop on the Alaska Highway, I was going to take a picture of the sign, but no stop.

Went to Davlyn's in Onaway and ate. It is owned by a pile of Aussies, in the middle of nowhere. Lost on a walk-about i guess. Hope they are legal.Who cares, they can cook.

We got back to the city, via Old Fort Road - it is still there, the Henday didn't kill it, as was threatened. It is a nice winding road, with ridiculously low speed limits.

Went to Earl's for a beer after the ride. I got no beer, after ordering the cute waiter appeared to forget about it completely. Maybe it was my eyes.

I had never seen most of these riders before, I asked if they were part of the TimHorton's crowd on Whyte, they said no. Those are posers.

Some of us were talking about veterans when we were stopped in Onaway. One guy, Paul is still with the Army. He served two tours in Afghanistan.We were talking about Bill Maher's show on Friday night. He had a guest on that was speaking about the US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no real support system for them when they come home. They mentioned wait times, 80 days in Spokane Washington for treatment, not the medical kind, the PTSD kind. Considering the suicide rate, you'd think they would be more on top of that.

The Army guy had to take meflaquine in Kandahar, he said i didn't effect him. He told me about the 45C degrees. I would have gone loco, i hate heat and the drug.

Nick, the guy from a couple of weeks ago has kept in touch. He is doing some art for a show in June. I think he has ventured further on his bike. Which is good. But he refuses to cross the River, he needs to follow a bike. He can only go 50 though....

WWOZ sent me a cool flag. It is hanging in front door window. I have attached a crazy map of Canada, which is more true than a joke. Some bike pics too.

The landlord is putting a garage door opener in.....sweet!!!! faster responses to fire calls.

Sick, malade, no can travail

On the weekend I started to get a cough, it occurred when I was riding around. I thought it was maybe dust in the air. Monday morning about 3 or so, I woke up with a real burning sensation in my throat. Then I started coughing for real.

I took Monday off, too some medicine and thought it would pass. Tuesday, it appeared to have. Went to work, then there was a fire call. No problems.

Wednesday morning the cough came back again, this time it was not going anywhere. My energy went away and I left work around noon. I took today off. I have slept most of it. I went to the store to get some food and now I am beat. Whatever it is has moved from the coughing part to the sinus part. Hopefully I can get to work tomorrow. There is stuff I have to do.

I have been watching Spartacus all week, it is a series which takes place in Capua. A town outside of Rome. The owner of the house trains his slaves to be Gladiators. Spartacus is one of them. This show is very homoerotic. The men are half naked most of the time. There was a gay couple on there, but they have since gone. But there are more, every time they pan over the frequent orgies, you can see men together. The story is good though, lots of drama by the owner and his wife. They remind me of the 1% play games with the lesser peoples lives, or worse John Cleese on the plane in the movie Rat Race - making bets on just about anything.

I sleep then wake and then can't get back to sleep. So I when I wasn't watching Spartacus I was reading on my iPad. Books from Amazon are super easy to get. I read a gay romance novel yesterday and finished it today. I kind of identified with the main character. I guess we normally do identify with a character in fictional book, makes the enjoyment of it more fun.

This guy was a private detective who always seemed to fall for the wrong guy. It starts off with him trying to get away from an ex-lover. They were in a relationship for over a year and then the main character ended it. The other guy didn't want it ended. It was part of the story, how the ex was screwing things up. I don't have one of those, anymore. I have a guy like that in my life about 5 years ago. On the TV show Coupling they called them an unflushable, an ex that doesn't get it when you are breaking up with them.

Anyway he meets a new guy, who is no out. It showed the relationship developing and the ups and downs for the baggage. It was well written a woman wrote it but she actually had some surprising insight into the way men think.

The best part of this week was the election on Monday night. The polls showed that were were supposed to be headed for a majority Wildrose Party Government. They were leading for most of the campaign. Last week they faltered when the Edmonton homophobe Hunsperger said the Edmonton School Board should stop its anti-bullying campaign. He also said something about a lake of fire, which is where are gay people go when they die. Then not to be outdone by an Edmontian a Calgary guy, for the same party piped up that as a Caucasian he was better suited to represent the district. This guy actually apologized.

The leader of the part was challenged on this and she said basically the statements were made a year ago (Husperger), they were actually made in October. So she was telling a little fib. But she said the government would not be legislating contentious social issues, so it was a non-issue. This party ran on a campaign which suggested referendums for everything. How long before Hunsperger would have got enough signatures to take away gay rights in the province?

Anyway, the Conservatives won a majority government on Monday. The pollsters were wrong. One guy kept saying we weren't as wrong as the other guys! But he was wrong. There was a 12% shift in the intentions of voters in the last week. That is unheard of. I was expecting the Wildrose Party to come out and sue, they figured they had a shoe in.

There are now issues on the polling and excuses. They could not explain how polling in Ontario was more accurate and they have the same population make up i.e. a lot of young people with only cell phones. They are hiding the fact that the only people they spoke with are retired people who answered their phone, all the predictions were made on one small group. So when the rest of the population saw what was going to happen, they didn't vote according to script. Now pollsters can join weathermen.

Helmet or Burqa?

So I just about died today, it would have been quick and I am sure one part of me would have wondered what happened.

I was at the Southend of the High Level bridge, on my bike. It is two lanes all the way across with a veer to the left at the South end.

I was behind a Ford F-something, it was a crew cab 4X4 an jacked up. As the road veered left, he stopped. There is no stop sign and no reason to stop. I stopped, as he did, the vehicle behind me....well he went with logic, there is no reason to stop. I just made it to the right lane in front of another car. I think he saw the impending carnage.

I yelled an expletive at the driver of the Ford. I think he wife has never heard expletives before. I was gone.

So yesterday, I met up with Nick from last week. I asked if he wanted to go for a ride on the back of the bike, he did. We did, we went for a ride for about half an hour. Then we went to Remedy for coffee.

We spoke about all kinds of things, his art. My writing. I need a cover for my book. I think it is one of my artificial barriers to getting on with publishing it. Anyway...Nick, art - he is taking graphic design. We talked about love and hate - I believe hate is a feeling, so it is not the opposite of love. Apathy is the opposite. Nick was asking what the opposite of hate is. Will have to ponder that.

We talked for about 2.5 hours and then I drove him home. It was a no phone kind of chat. Well there were a couple of interruptions, but no checking the phone every couple of minutes. Good times.

I went to Woody's afterwards to have a beer and something to eat. Thelma wasn't coming into town, I think he wanted me to go to Gibbons. Nothing going on there, so I went home.

It was ok in Edmonton, but it got cool on the highway, really cool. But I found there were pockets of warm air. I also found that the faster you went, the warmer you got. Is this reverse physics, the friction of the air on your body creates warmth? Well anyway, I was pretty warm when I got home.

The burqa thing...well I got gas at a Shell station, on the East side of town, I stop there a lot. Normally a guy of Indian or Pakistani origin is working. Last night a woman was working. I had the helmet on, earbuds and was listening to music. I went to pay and paid, then she said I should have removed my helmet, it is a law.

I said what law? She said head covering is against the law. I said I am not voting or swearing citizenship, so no it isn't against the law. The cameras had my plate number. It is a lot of hassle to get helmet, balaclava and earbuds off, just for a 1 minute transaction. I had already taken the gas, it appeared that it was pretty stupid to put a barrier up for paying for it. I guess if I asked for her work permit the politically correct police would descend from the roof, by rappelling, tackle me to the ground, cuff me and then arrest me. One could wish.

I got back to Vegreville and went to the bar out the front door for a beer. I was there for several more. I love that I can walk there and back home.

Today I took the long way to the city, via Lamont (the wrecked limos), Manland - the quads, and then to TimHortons - the bikes. I am at Starbucks now, writing. But it is 17C here and nice, hardly any wind. I was overdressed for once :)

Saturday Ride

Well it happened! The weather was finally nice enough for a group ride. I joined a ground of riders via a website called Meetup. The ride, ironically enough was to Mundare. So I had to ride to the city to meet up with some guys to ride 3/4 back home. But hey!

The ride started at Tim Hortons in Shrewood Park at the Flying J. There were about 20 of us. It was still a bit cool, but the wind was blowing from the West, we were going East.

The ride took us South of Cooking Lake to Tofield. On the way there, there were lots of people on road bike (and spandex, heavy on the spandex). There were hardly any 4 wheel vehicles. Some of the pedal bike riders waved at us, we waved back. The trees have no leaves yet, I forgot the route we took was there. It makes a good alternative to highway 16.

At Tofield we stopped and had coffee. We then were supposed to head out 14 to Holden and then go North to Mundare. The lead was following his GPS, it brought us around in a great big circle back to Tofield. We took the road straight North to highway 16 and then to Mundare.

The restaurant we were supposed to go to was closed. They are open on Saturdays, i think it was a sudden closure, due to bikers. They probably bitch about no customers.

We went to the Mundare Pub, which kind of sucked as a guy brought his 12 year old son. They wound up eating someplace else then leaving.

The lead deferred to me to take us back to Edmonton. He didn't trust the GPS and I knew the long way.

It is different leading, always checking to make sure your pack is behind you.
I actually did the speed limit. All the way.

We went through Elk Island Park, the claim to fame is a large buffalo herd. We saw no buffalo for most of the ride. Then there was about 30 of them on the road. I took livestock training with the FD. They told us about buffalo, they said stay alert.

One of the guys had loud pipes, thats all it took! All of them started running, no towards me thank God. They headed East. But there were some hiding in the bush, they headed East too. Man can they move! 0-60 in about 10 feet. They have no fear of changing direction, they just do.

I was going to take picture, but camera was not handy. We headed back into Edmonton. They continued West on Yellowhead. I had to use can and take a picture of a Wildrose Party sign.

Later, have to take a moped rider for a bike ride.

Humanists

There is this Facebook group called Global Secular Humanists, I follow it. I'm a human.

This morning I read this quote, albeit, re-written in the poster's own words 'Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the World? Epicurus, as quoted in 2000 years of Disbelief.

I read that and wrote, "I am not stuck in the argument, God gave us free will and the ability to learn. God cannot tell a group not to follow a person as he may be bad. The group would question God, not Adolf Hitler." I received a lot of crap for that, I thought this was a logic discussion group, my bad.

But, upon further research, there was discussion on the above paragraph.
This was not posted. So they in effect, took an outrageous statement and left it out there for guys like me to come and respond to. And the lady that equivocates natural disasters to evil.

So Mr. Hume, who they cited says after the Epicurus post 'God's power we allow is infinite: Whatever he wills is executed: But neither man nor any other animal are happy: Therefore he does not will their happiness. His wisdom is infinite: He is never mistaken in choosing the means to any end: But the course of nature tends not to human or animal felicity: Therefore it is not established for that purpose. Through the whole compass of human knowledge, there are no inferences more certain and infallible than these. In what respect, then, do his benevolence and mercy resemble the benevolence and mercy of men?'

So I guess I have moved up to a higher level. I responded without controversy, unless using Adolf Hitler on a humanist board is bad, but I was looking for an example of evil. We can agree on that, can't we, Haiti lady?

Well I just went back and read all the rest of the posts, there were some good thoughts. Some people have been pondering this since they were 17 - i.e. becoming a monk. I personally don't think that God wanted us to sit in a monastery and ponder all of our lives, but if that's what floats your boat.

Maybe, the monasteries and convents were set up for the people that did not fit in. Were gays and lesbians put in there, as it was obvious that they were not going to reproduce and perhaps, the church thought they'd produce more gays and lesbians if they did.

Not much at work, Day 2 on the fricken deposition!. Arghh

Have been doing pushups everyday for 10 days at home.

The guy in Berlin sort of introduced me to another Canuck. Nice of him. Maybe he will introduce me to him.

Off work tomorrow, going to a seminar on Extreme Weather. This global warming thing, that isn't happening has caused more tornadoes in Alberta. The seminar is for response by first responders.

The Fire Department is pissing me off. I was on a course for hazardous materials. They dumped me, I have 4 courses left to do to be completely trained. This course may not be offered for another 2 years. My intention was to bear down and complete the 4 this year. I guess there will be a lot of trips.....

Twosday

Normally I don't dislike lawyers, they are just there to make your job more interesting. But argh when they go to the Fox News school of facts arghhhh

Worse off, the two lawyers knew what they were doing, the one for our side and the one for the other side. In the finding of facts, my lawyer was hounding me to respond to the other lawyers Fox-like facts. And then, a whole house was built on these facts and my error in law was not addressing them.

Addressing what? There was nothing to address. There was nothing to allow procedural fairness on. Natural justice, requires a case to define the parameters, when you conjure a case out of thin air - there are no parameters. Finally it is ironed out, the Judge will decide on the mysterious case that never was that caused my error in law.

I just about got killed three times on my short ride home. Old people are exempt from common sense and traffic laws. How they get from one side of town to the other without being in a serious MVC is amazing. Stop signs, there was no sign there back in the day and nothing happened, why should they stop now?

There is an election in Alberta, the province. We have a party that has been in power for 41 years, running for a new kick at the can. There is a new party, the Wild Rose Party. They are right wingers too, further to the Right than the current party. The new party was leading in the polls. However they are getting cocky. Enter Reverend Alan Hunsperger (can I say assberger?). He is after the Edmonton School Board because they have a no tolerance policy for bullies. The bullying he is talking about is gay bullying. He says being gay is a choice and then he wrote 'you will suffer the rest of eternity in the lake of fire, hell, a place of eternal suffering. Now at this point I am not judging, I am simply stating a fact!'
The leader of the party says that she has no problem with this as the party will not be legislating on contentious social issues.

But that was on the weekend. Other loonies in her crew have taken the baton...

Dr. Ron Leech in Calgary, who was a senior leader of a Calgary Church for 30 years, a congregation of over 500 said 'I think as a Caucasian I have an advantage. When different community leaders such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader speaks they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian I believe that I can speak to all the community."

Danielle Smith, leader of the party hasn't identified being a church leader.....yet. Has now taken to canceling press interviews.

Well the media brought me back to churches, here is a thought. All churches have some validity, well they all started off trying to relate God to the common man/woman. Some just got lost along the way. Let's take the Scientologists, to the Religious Right that is an oxymoron as science is anti-religion, unless it were to prove Genesis.

So they believe in some kind of aliens (thetans) or souls that have lived on other planets before living on Earth.
I am not going to go nuts on this, but lets step back a bit, maybe L Ron was confused when he heard the theory about a star dying for you. Or maybe he discovered a way to make a lot of money. Put magic underwear on these Thetans and you take on another religion.

So the new religions were founded as people felt that the existing religion did not suit there needs, there is no better example of this than King Henry XIII. He liked to marry over and over. The Roman Catholic Church did not agree with him. Henry created his own church, proceeded to kill a lot of catholics and burn down churches and came out with the Church of England.

I once owned a house in St Albert, North of Edmonton. It is a catholic community. When you go into to register for taxes you identify what school board you'd support. The default in St Albert is the Catholic School Board, the exemption is the Protestant one. By then I knew I was not supporting the Catholics. i said protestant to the young guy behind the counter. Obviously he was told to ask for more. "What denomination?" to which I replied Anglican (Church of England), he said "It's the same thing!" and he was proceeding to mark me down for Catholic School Board. I asked him if he had ever heard of Henry XIII. He said they had resolved their differences. I said 'Protestant and This discussion is over.'

I would think that a new study researching the beginnings of most religions may reveal some startling things. It would bring validity to my theory that your relationship with God is just as equal as the Pope's and Imam or the Dalai Lama. In fact, you may have a more pure relationship with God as dogma has not clouded it.

The massage was great, I am not as sore as I thought I would be. Have to go again.

Well Sunday night is here, it was a good weekend. Yesterday I headed into Edmonton again later in the afternoon. I ran five miles at the gym. I am reading The Black Banners, the history of Al Qaida. It is on the Kindle app on my iPhone. Pretty interesting read, a complaint is the redacting. Working in a job where I want stuff redacted, I am not bothered by it.

When I go to the city, I went to Woody’s – I heard nothing from the guy from Friday night. I know, I could have phoned. Later.

After a beer at Woody’s I went to the Junction to eat. The Bear Bash was as the bar next to the restaurant. The restaurant was close, but I could eat at the bar. I was not sure if I wanted to do this as I would be there for most of the night. But I did.

I walked in an sat at the bar, there was no table to sit at. Chris one of my readers came over and said Hi. He asked if he was going to be in the blog now. Chris owns a farm and is planting Canola this year. That led to a brief discussion on Monsanto. I am not a Monsanto fan; they act like a school yard bully.

Watching Scandal as I type this, they are reviewing a madam’s papers. Female Lawyer 1: I don’t understand half of this, what does hardwood floors mean? Male Lawyer: ‘It means no carpeting.’ He blushes and continues ‘as in carpets match drapes’. Female lawyer: ‘What does sunny day mean?’ It means no raincoat.

The food came pretty fast, a bacon mozza burger with home cut fries. It was good.

I like to patronize this place, it is part of the community. After I was finished I played around on the iPad for a while. I tried to write a different short story but I had no inspiration. I packed up the gear and put it in the trunk of the car.

Eventually some more people showed up. Bears, for those of you that are not versed in gay terminology bears are well larger men (not all) they tend to be hairy, not long hair. But a lot of hair. These are the opposites of twinks. Twinks are hairless and tend to be skinny. The bear type guys are gay men that most people would not know that they were gay. Anyway, I am not a bear, but I am definitely not a twink. The bears are closer to whatever category I fall into.

Thelma was coming too, as was supposed to be there at 9. He was late. As the place filled up, I really was not into being there. I think this was left over from what happened Friday night. Anyway, Thelma showed up, we got beers.

We said hi to a couple of people, it really is better being in a bar with a friend. We were standing near the end of one of the bar lines. A guy showed up with a jacket that said Lone Wolf on the back. I asked him if he was a member, he said not, he just wanted to cover up a logo on the back of the jacket. I asked if he rode a bike. He said he had gone for the test and stalled the bike 6 times, he didn’t pass. He then went an bought a moped. He was a good looking guy – I am not sure how old. Anyway, he stayed around and we started talking, a lot. Thelma was talking to him too. His name is Nick and he is a student at Grant McEwan in Graphic Design. He kept looking around every once in a while and I assumed he was waiting for someone.

Eventually Nick too off wondering around and Thelma and I picked a place, we met several friends and talked. Nick came back a couple of times, would say a couple of things and then take off.

The date form Friday night showed up, I told Thelma as I was ducking. I knew he was thinking of going to this event, he said he wouldn’t be due to the abscessed tooth. But here he was. I manned up and said hi to him. He went to the bar and then went and stood with some people we know in common.

When we were fighting the fire on Thursday we got trapped in smoke in the woods. We were down wind and it was really hard to breathe. I know where the term ‘smokeeaters’ came from. I don’t smoke cigarettes and haven’t for 7 years. Where is this going? Friday night and I kissed, more than a couple of times. After a while, my mouth was reminded of the smoke on Thursday.

I didn’t care that he smoked, and last night I saw him walk regularly to go to either the washroom or outside for cigarettes. I don’t think it was all tiny bladder.

Nick started to spend more time talking. He smoked too, so he would come by on the way out and then stop and talk, mainly to me on the way back. Thelma has impeccable timing. We talked about coming out and how that was. He told me all about school, he hated Art History. I hated Art History. Nick said his friend did show up, it was just a friend, not a date. His friends were younger and were hanging out by the dance floor. Nick was not into dancing, he wanted to talk about bikes and leather. He came back to talk to me. I switched to drinking water, Nick didn’t drink and I figured I needed no more. I knew I was driving home later.

Thelma took off and the night wound down. Nick’s friends were headed to Denny’s. I figured I would give him a ride over, he was ok with that. I had one foot on the brake pedal, his friends from school were obviously a lot younger than I am, and Nick. So I figured this was just some guy to hang out with.

In the show Scandal a bunch of law makers are coming to the law firm in connection with a request for an interview. The Male Lawyer is getting them alone and saying ‘Hardwood floors’ ‘Sunny day’ – the camera catches the shocked man’s looks.

We went to Denny’s I was going to sit with them and then I decided I would head back home. I left and was walking back to the car and Nick came out to talk to me.

He told me it was great hanging out and he wanted to do it again. I asked for his phone number he gave it to me, he then had his phone out to get mine.

We talked some more, his friends had not shown up. I asked if he was in to older guys and he said he wasn’t sure. But he did like talking to me.

The friends showed up and they asked me to sit with them. We talked about various things. Ironic it is some of the stuff I have been thinking about. I told them about Neil Degrass Tyson, the Astrophysicist and his theories on the universe. They loved the line, A star died for you.

Eventually it was time to go home. I was headed home, Nick was off with his school friend to watch The Fifth Element (it was related to the Dr. Tyson conversation). Nick hugged me before they took off.

I made it home; I was beat, really beat. I went to sleep at 04:30 and slept for a long time.

The rain that had been falling all day had turned to snow, the drive home was kind of dicey all the way to the end of the Park. The highway was clear from there to Vegreville. The snow picked up again in Vegreville. I just about nodded off a couple of times. 

It is what it is

Well I am back home, this is not where I was supposed to be.  This is going to be going into a lot more gay issues than many of you may want to read. But I can't ignore it. I thought it was going to be a short post too....

On the iPhone and other 'Smartphones' are apps - they are for gay men to find other gay men. They use the GPS functions of the phones. Now I have a different way that I think these apps should work, I should market my own. Anyway,  there are several, GRINDR, Scruff, GROWLR - if you have an iPhone go to APP Store and look them up, they pretty much explain their purpose.  I have a love/hate relationship with these apps. A guy has a profile which states what he is looking for, like any dating site. Your sign in to the app and if you go some place it shows other people with the app on their phone, and how far away thy are. This leads, or could lead to a lot of casual sex. Newsflash - gay men meet up for sex, and then never see each other again. This is the picture the Religious Right has and this where they want to keep gay men. The opposite of this is gay men meeting and getting married and not doing this.........the Religious Right does not want this. Who would they blame for Earthquakes, AIDS, etc. One comment on the AIDS thing, the group least likely to contract AIDS are lesbians - this is like a basic flaw in their argument, a faulty foundation. 

So anyway, I don't use these apps for the casual sex. If I get a 'Hey' and then a 'How big is it?' I just don't respond. One guy in Edmonton does this, and then asks how big your feet are - oh well. 

So I have a profile that basically says some stuff about me and that I am not looking for casual sex. Most of the responses come from people so far away that nothing would ever happen (unless you were to drive to New Orleans - not that anyone I know would do that). BTW when I said let's go for coffee to various people in various cities along the way, well lets just say there were a lot of 'grannies dying'. 

So last week, Thelma and I were at Woody's. The iPhone had GROWLR turned on. The GPS sent out a signal and I was pinged by a couple of people, as I was in the 'Nearby' category as opposed to 'Online' (could be anywhere in the World). One person started to have a conversation. I responded, over the past week he has been asking how I am. He made sure he messaged me a couple of times a day. Even with the fires, he was checking up on me. So Wednesday he asks what I was doing Friday night. I said I had planned to head to the city on Saturday for a party at Junction. He said we should meet up on Friday. I said I’d let him know on Thursday, little did I know I would be fighting a fire all night. Anyway, when we were cleaning hoses, I sent a message I would go into Edmonton.

Friday, I went to work, I was still beat from the fire the night before. After work I came home and had a nap. I was starting to have those second thoughts, you know the ones….my grandmother died or something like that. I finally said to myself, you can’t bitch about not dating if you never show up.

I messaged him from Starbucks, I said I was writing, I actually was – yesterday’s blog was written there. He said he would meet me there. I looked through music on iTunes on the iPad and he showed up. This is a good start.

We went to O’Byrnes, an Irish bar on Whyte Avenue. I told him we would not be going to a gay bar if we went out. He was ok with that. He drove there as he parked in a place where he’d get a ticket.

I  had a couple of Guinnesses and he had some Traditionals, both dark beers. We chatted and looked around. I was checking the layout of the bar as the short story I am in the middle of writing starts off there.

This Pub is full of people of British origins. I overheard a conversation about work permits spoke by someone with a thick Irish accent. It is a mixed crowd, a lot of men. Ladies go there to get picked up. It is not really a gay place….or so I thought. Our bartender, Paddy, who knew, and guess what, he was Irish too! Well he was a happy go lucky guy and always seemed to be in conversations. I wasn’t sure of the correct protocol to get another beer, calling out didn’t’ get his attention. I did the Irish thing, held the empty glass up. Well anyway, at the end of his shift, which ended about 10, I guess. That was weird, but what was weirder was the bar manager, a red-headed bespectacled guy coming over and giving him a hug and a kiss. This was not quick, the hug lasted about a minute and they were talking to other people.

Things have changed. The bar was crowded and not one peep of negativity.

The date and I decided to go back to his place. Well actually it was a foregone conclusion, he offered me a place to stay when he was messaging me (he has a spare room).

We went back to his place, which is ironically in the same place my Mother used to live. We did a lot of stuff I will not go into, basically we were in the bedroom.

Things were going great, first base, rounding second, headed for third when WHAM tagged Out by the speedy shortstop.

The date had an abscessed tooth worked on earlier in the week and it was still sore. He was on Tylenol 3’s – his jaw got sore – No not from that! Just from kissing. Well once it started it got progressively worse. I tried to console him, but that didn’t work. I asked after a half hour of this if he wanted me to leave. He said not. But about 15 minutes later he said I should go.

I get dressed and when I got the phone I saw that Toby had texted me and said she was going to the Alberta (the bar out the front door at home). I said I was just leaving Edmonton. I knew I had to motor to get a beer. I made it with time to spare.

Toby has a new guy she is seeing. He was sitting next to her when she asked how was my night; I did a brief rundown of the above, not gender neutralizing it. She looks at guy, and then I said, BTW I’m gay. He said he figured that.

We had a good night, he is into motorcycles, owns three. We closed the bar and I came home.

It was not all for naught. I learned some things, I did nothing wrong in this. I put myself out there and was open. I didn’t try to make it fail, just the opposite. I did however not want to go all the way on the first date, I think he did. I will make that clearer.

I learned that I can go to O’Byrnes and it doesn’t matter about who I am interested in. This is a good thing, because the gay bars in Edmonton are like a bad addiction.

I learned you can meet people on the apps, but perhaps the old tried and true is better.

Tonight is Bear Bash, it is a party at Junction. I am going. I don't think the date is going, but if he does. Oh well. I am prepared to roll with the punches. 

Life's what you make it. 

the 13th

Happy Friday, hope you weren't jinxed.

Best wishes to a friend who may have pneumonia.

Wow, what a week that was! Short but busy. There was another long fire call yesterday. Someone had flicked a cigarette butt and well the wind and the dry grass/bush did it's job. We were there for 6 hours, then cleanup. Just as we cleaned my tanker another call came in. Someone had fired a flare and it lit up a long section of highway. Luckily I didn't have to go to that one.

We were a good crew, some new people and some old. I was officer on the truck, but I also operated the pump. We were on a lighter truck with four-wheel drive, we were putting out hot spots in the field to the West of the fire. Then we went to cover the bush from the South side. The smaller tankers are great, when you learn their idiosyncrasies.

There was one asshole tree, grrr. It was like a torch when we sprayed water on it. Once the flames were out though, the inside of the tree was still hot ambers. This was like a squirrel condo, it was hard wood too. I had a new guy on a porta-pack and i was chopping places for him to spray. it was fun. Raining today, so I am sure the fire is out. Fires in the bush are different than fires in a house, they get into the peat moss and smolder for awhile.

Two nights this week I didn't have to cook supper. After a certain amount of time working a fire, dinner is billed to the fire. Pizza - it goes down great when you are starved.

I am even sorer that the other day. I have booked a massage on Monday, never had one....at a massage place before. I booked an hour.

Remember on Palm Sunday I mentioned the Catholics streaming out of the Church in a procession? Well I found out from a person who has been to a certain island nation, that this is common at Easter. Little impromptu parades everywhere at Easter. It causes a traffic disaster of epic proportions. They laughed when I described it. All the person in Edmonton from that island nation go to the Basilica to cleans their souls after a week of sinning. The basilica is like a power flush.

I have a date tonight, I think. It is more of a first meet, this guy hit on me on the net and he is coming soon to meet me at Starbucks. I have decided it is what it is. Headed to O'Byrnes for a Guinness.

Zen is the path to Enlightenment, some people confuse Zen and Buddhism. Zen is The Way (Tao). It can be a part of Buddhism, but it is not the only part and not all Buddhists are Zen Buddhists. Confused yet? Taoism is probably the oldest religion or way that there is. The rules are similar to all religions. The goal of 'The Way' is to find enlightenment in it's many forms. The attached poster with Bishop Tutu would be a Zen saying. Ecclesiastes 3 in the Bible is a zen saying 'To everything there is a season.....'

The Baha'i have combined this with Prophets. they look for potential prophets on the planet at any given time. Prophets can be found by their Zen sayings, I believe. Although that is a dangerous supposition, a truth can be a negative as well. So a person like Rush Limbaugh could manage to utter a zen saying - Yin/Yang.

Maybe I will do a theology program, so I can get a degree in it.

I spoke to one of the people that was affected by the chopping, he is thinking of opening his own immigration consulting company. We have worked together for 2 years, he is at a higher level than I am and we work together well. I know it could screw up my pension, but, immigration consultants make at least 2 times my salary and I can live wherever I want. Just thinking.......

Chop Day

Well the big conference call was today. As a result of the budget, the departments had to cut staff. Our department had to achieve 5% savings. a lot of people were nervous, we are dealing with a big thing on the hierarchy of needs. Anyway, I work in information and our department stretches across the country. I was pretty aware of the cuts before they were announced at our office. We were not effected as far as I am aware. There are some in the human resources and finance department that might be. Some good people that I work with that live other places are effected though.

I found out that they are desperate for foreign assignment guys. I want to go for 6 weeks, not sure about 2 years. If it were 2 years, it would be Ankara. Apparently it is going to be a place that is looking. The Syrian and Irani issue will keep it hopping.

It has not been a quiet week. Yesterday I was at a fire call for 7 hours. A farm fire, when we got there a shed was fully engulfed in flames and sitting next to it where two large propane tanks. The fire was licking at them. We immediately had two lines focused on the shed and the tanks. We stayed low in hopes that if the tanks (15 feet away) blew, we'd be ok. We got er done.

At the same time this fire was going, we had three other fire calls. We had to lend a truck from our scene to one on a highway. The Chief and Deputy were the crew on the fire in town. Nine calls in all in one day.

So after it was all done, I left the hall and made it home. I was knackered. I went to bed immediately, my back was sore as hell. I cleaned up at the fire hall, I was black. The picture is of my jeans which were under my bunker gear, soot is pretty fine and goes through fabric. See the outline of my iphone.

I haven't been doing too much. I am glad that Trayvon Martin's killer has finally been charged with something. At least there is a chance at justice.

Rick Santorum is out, poor guy. Such a loving person, if you are straight and xtian. Is there something to be read into pulling out at Easter?

Scott Walker is proceeding to rape and pillage Wisconsin. He has rolled back equal wages, as women don't need to work as much as men. He was fiddling with taking visitation rights away from same sex couple in hospitals. He is up for recall in June. I am waiting for him to recommend Bashar al Assad (Syria) for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I am thinking of going for a massage now, well I have to make an appointment. You know what'll happen, I will be going once a week until the Health Plan stops covering it. I think there is six in a year.

Well later. The fire radio has been quiet today....weird. It is dry as anything out there. I am recommending a $5000 fine for anyone that tosses a lit cigarette out the window of their car.

Easter Monday

At Tim Hortons in Vegreville. There is no other coffee shop open in town. I would go to Edmonton but it is coolish and I am on my bike. I got some gas and made a run to Mundare, the sausage, yeah, that's a sausage. It's in Mundare. I took a pic and then blasted back here. The bike is running good.

So we last met on Saturday, I was picking up car after a night out. I came back to Vegreville from Edmonton, wen to the gym and ran 5 miles. About 5 I rode bike into city. I had a date. It was windy and Edmonton was a lot cooler than town. When I got in the city I went to the Tims on Whyte Avenue and stood next to brick wall, in the Sun was warm as were the bricks. Around 6 I headed to Woodys to meet up with my date. He was supposed to show at 7, I was happy to be seated someplace warm and I continued with the short story I started writing on Friday. Around 7, no text and no show. At 7:30 I decided he wasn't going to show. I would have stayed in the city, but there was a draft blowing into the bar and I was getting cold again. The prospect of riding back home was scary too.

I made it home in good time. I was going faster than the speed limit, but I wanted to get home. The wind that was in my face on the way to the city was at my back on way home.

Got home and watched Finder on TV, I made it about 20 minutes before I passed out.

Sunday I got up, did some more cleaning and chucking stuff. I am tempted to hire a maid for once or twice a month to come in and get the place ship shape, maybe then it will be neater.

I texted Thelma to see if he was going to go to Easter dinner at a bar in the city. It took awhile for him to respond, he then invited me to dinner at his sister's place. I decided to go, he wanted someone to speak with other than a pile of kids.

I drove the car there, the weather was really cold overall this weekend. I had Thelma's address in Gibbons programmed into my phone, it showed me the different ways to get there.

I took a different route than I normally would, but I wanted to explore some places for a bike trip. I went to what I call Manland, it is an off-road haven. It wasn't too busy, normally there are dirt bikes and quads all over the place. A pic is attached. Across the road from Manland is the end of one of the best kept secrets in Alberta. A twisting winding paved road. I heads to Shell Scotford Refinery from where I was. Will be going there often this Summer. Have to sweep it first, lots of gravel on the corners - it is about 10 kms long.

Supper was good with Thelma and his extended family. The kids were mostly over 16 - there were two that were under 10. The picture is of Thelma and his friend from Toronto, Anita. She has now moved to Alberta permanently. We were joking about her applying for citizenship. It was cool being with a pile of people that didn't care about sexuality, they would joke about it.

Since I had the car I went and got the gift basket that I won a week ago at Flash. The one with all the hair care stuff and other stuff. The women went nuts, it was like a feeding frenzy, the stuff evaporated. I got a good meal, laughs and a beer glass.

Last night I went out, not much happening, I was a dancing fool.

I am trying to decide on the vacation plans, I want to go to Los Angeles for the Sons of Anarchy ride at the end of August. But it could be expensive. Brendan will be 21 this year and he wants to go to Mardi Gras. I think it would be a good thing to do with him. If I start saving now, it could be a really good trip. I told him to start saving too, hopefully he does. If I don't go to LA I will ride down to Minneapolis and Madison. I need to see the Frank Lloyd Wright houses on the inside. I also left a paid of jeans at Greg's place in Gotham, WI. There's an excuse for a ride.

I am thinking of taking an AED with e on my next date. I will probably need it if the person actually shows up. I'll just fall over. AED's replace someone doing CPR.

Well my hot chocolate is gone and Tims uses air conditioning to control the length of a person's stay. My fingers are getting cold.

Saturday Morning

Well, this was not a scheduled update. I was in the city last night, writing. I started writing again and the characters got carried away with themselves.

I was writing at Starbucks, sitting in at a table at the end of a string of tables. To the left of me were some Turks, Albanians and a Macedonian - only in Canada, or Germany.

There was an armchair on the right side of me. The armchair was empty most of the time, but finally a guy sat there. He sat down looked around and saw I was writing. Then he started to read what I was writing. Not just a brief glance, he was reading. I adjusted the iPad, but then it was facing to the Left. The Eastern Europeans made it known they were not gay friendly, they kept looking over too. I finally bailed, it feels like you are being violated.

Some may say why do I write in a coffee shop? Well every once in a while you need a new character, guess who they are? Next time you see a guy typing like mad on a computer in a coffee shop you maybe working your way into a book.

I went to Woody's and continued writing again. In the 15 minute break, the story changed. The characters started writing the story, I was just going along for the ride. This sounds weird, but try it sometime. Just start writing a story, shift your reality to be a character. The character's need are supplied by you the writer. As the character has more needs the story develops.

So anyway I continued writing in the bar until Thelma showed up. I can't wait to start writing it again to find out where it is going.

Thelma, OK this is hilarious, my Mom's name was Thelma, so his drag name is really hard for me to say, and type. But he introduces himself by that name. So be it.

My brother in law explained the Last Supper and Passover and their relationship, well now. Nice segue, Council of Nicea, how to tie Judaism and Christianity together. Sort of set up the marriage of Christianity and the Sun religion.....you know, why Christmas is on 25th of December instead of when it really was. Hint, Pope/Emperor Constantine was not a Christian until he converted, in order to buy his conversion, there was some negotiation.

Anyway, Thelma showed up. He bought a new phone and I had to help him set it up. Well I didn't have to, but hey.

A few beers later and I wound up at Buddy's. My friend Brian showed up with some other friends and we wound up at Flash. It was a mess of epic proportions. I wound up grabbing Brian's keys to stop him from driving.

He stayed at the hotel of convenience and I stayed at some friends. Before going to sleep I sent him a text saying I had his keys. When I woke up there were a while pile of text messages.

I took a bus back to where my car was parked. There was no ticket! I am not sure if the Fire Department sticker helps, but I was surprised there was no parking ticket. I was parked on Jasper Avenue in a metered spot.

Years ago I suggested to a cop who is a friend of mine that there should be an amnesty on cars parked by bars, say till noon. This would take away the 'I gotta move my car' urge from the potentially impaired driver. I'd like to think that it worked it's way up the chain. Anyway, this is the third time I have come back to my car and there was no ticket.

I dropped Brian's keys off and came for coffee.

I'm a binge cleaner

Lay in this morning until 10:00 - a four day weekend. w00t! I had to get up, although I didn't want to, I could have spent the whole day in bed.

Anyway, popped out of bed, made coffee - lots. I have this thing I have to do on days off. I have to clean before sitting down to watch TV or get on the net. This is not negotiable, I have a day planned before I get out of bed, only to have it wrecked by some event on Twitter.

Today I knew I had to clean kitchen floor, do dishes and fold laundry. The laundry was priority one. I am normally busy, I have no problem washing and drying clothes, it is folding them and putting them away. Even though it only takes about 10 minutes, it sucks.

The last three washes were all in a basket awaiting folding (Elisabeth smirk all you want!). I have a lot of tshirts and underwear & socks. so technically I could go for a long time without doing laundry. Anyway, I sorted the tshirts into piles, Fire, Travel and Team (tshirts that are not appropriate for work.

The bedroom looks a lot neater. I had to take the duvet cover off. It is one of those Ikea models, that you stuff the duvet into. The duvet had bunched itself up and that left a lot of flat cover. It was a real fight to get the duvet to spread back out.

I went in to the kitchen and started cooking breakfast. I had called my Dad earlier, it is his Birthday today. He managed to call back when I was cooking - 82. While I was talking to him on the phone, I swept the floor and tended to cooking. We chatted about a lot of stuff. I don't think he was prepared for privacy, polygamy and security issues - I remember when he would talk about work and I was feigning interest. Kids do get their parents back...lol.

So I finally looked up what Passover was, I am generally up on religious stuff, but Jewish Holy Days are a mystery. They appear to have a lot of them. So anyway, Passover is to do with Exodus, when the Jews left Egypt a long time ago. I think this is before Masada. To me it does not appear to be a religious thing, more of a movement thing. Don't let the catholics start getting holidays for when they were persecuted! Anyway, it took me 56 years to notice Easter and Passover occurred at the same time. I can't figure out why Easter moves, Christ would have died on a day, in a calendar. The one that ended when he died - just like Christmas, it is on on the day he was born....oops, the day he was born - two weeks. I think the reason for the timing of these holidays is connected to Winter and Spring more than religious events. Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter to conserve food in the non-growing season. Remember they didn't have freezers in the old days. That's my opinion and of course that dilutes the significance of both holidays. But I get 4 days off work.

After eating breakfast, there was a fire call. I got shit. I am not going into details as it concerns a major issue.
I was on dispatch and had to call the police to the scene, per my Chiefs instructions. We have the station line, I figured it was faster calling it than 911. Others have done it. So I tell the officer that answered the phone the details, three times. This call was recorded and another firefighter was listening.

When the Chief got back to the hall he asked why I gave the wrong address and told the guy it was a car accident. A) I don't use the phrase car accident and B) I told him code three times.
Lesson learned, next time I am going to let 911 deal with police.

So I came to Edmonton after the call. The weatherman was wrong about the temperature, in Vegreville. We were at 6 after call, the high was supposed to be 4. I was going to take mountain bike to the city with me. The wind however jinxed that, 44 kph gusts. No fun on a bike.

Elk Island Park is a big park between Vegreville and the city. It is it's own eco-system, it is 10kms long on the highway. To the East of the park, no snow. About 9/10 of way through the park - snow. A lot of it! The road was clear, but there was snow all the way to Edmonton and in the city too. In the last post I said we were supposed to get snow, the pic with my car is what the sky looked like in the morning. The one with mailbox is when the snowfall warning was lifted.

Update, the blog is called Whew I's Over as it has to do with my coming out. The 'over' part is my closeted time. I haven't been as in your face as it would have appeared way back in December, but I am not hiding it.

Somethings about me, I am shy, I mean I am terminally shy. I always wonder why someone would want to know me. It takes a lot for me to talk to people in public. My heart rate goes nuts. To change this I do things like Toastmasters, chair committees at work, become a subject matter expert . Job interviews, exams and anything where I have to do something in front of someone cause terror. I can back up a vehicle confidently, but get a pile of guys watching and joking and I am a mess. Funny though, dressed as a firefighter or immigration officer and doing something that I have to do, I can do it. Reality, what a concept.

I was thinking about all this during my drive. Now to work on it.

Oh what does the binge cleaner mean. Well I am pretty busy that things get into disarray easily, and stay there. Then I turn into Mr Clean and clean. It started with car yesterday, I am going to charge Canada post rent for all the flyers that wind up in it. Today, I cleaned the house. I will tip toe around and be good for about 4 days and then the disarray will start again. No one ever comes to visit, so why bother, right?

We are getting snow, just like Sunday

I got to 19 yesterday and 11 today. The wind is cool, I am not feeling the Spring, yet. Tonight we have a weather warning for snow. Yesterday they said we were going to get 25cm, they have revised that to 10-15cm. But the warning says it will be in the Western part of the region. So everything West of Sherwood Park, which is East of Edmonton is getting snow. We are getting, well we'll see.

Yesterday after the blog we went into fire mode. There were grass fires all over the place, one actually touched our reason, but the wind was blowing West, so the next department over handled it. We assisted on one to the East of us. There is a complete fire ban in the region now....have you ever told a farmer he can't burn something? What's worse is when one of his neighbours calls it in and we go put it out. They charge at us with heavy machinery. I am happy in my yellow hat. The red hats can handle the b.s.

I found my glasses! Last week, when I was leaving work I put my glasses in my lap as I drove home from work. I was headed to Edmonton on the bike,and I knew I would need them for the trip back. This old guy has an astigmatism, light gets all wonky.
The glasses disappeared when I came home. I searched the car for 40 minutes and then said f-it and went to the city anyway. It's not like I am blind.

So today, I was headed to the bingo hall to do a head count for volunteers and i saw some glistening in the grass by the car. The glasses were there. They are flex frame so they didn't break.

Today, Nick from Germany posted a link to a blog, danoah.com. He said he cried. So I went to read the blog, I couldn't. This blog is blowing up it's servers. There is so much traffic the servers can't handle it. I did manage to get through the first page, in it a mother is blasting a teacher at a 15 year old's school and the writer of the blog. Apparently there is a print version of the blog called 'I'm Christian, unless you're Gay'. The gist of the post is a kid came home from school with this story. He had to read it and write an essay on how it made him feel. His mother saw the story and went ballistic, she didn't read one page, just the title. She threw it in the garbage and her son took off and went to his room. Background, they live in a community where to be gay is to be unloved by everyone. Because it says in the Bbile and blah blah blah. There is a good video in which President Bartlett from West Wing destroys this argument. Watch it, if you haven't seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXJzybEeJM

Anyway, the mother cooks supper and then she calls her son, he doesn't come. She goes to his room, opens the room and finds him gone. Some texts go on and she reads the booklet.

This is a video version of what she read. This is powerful, probably more so than the Kony video. This is something that you can do to make a change in the world around you. I watched it twice, the introduction makes more sense after you have watched the whole thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH5AnqdIbB0

Now to some real comedy - there is an election in Alberta. I would pay attention to it, but how can you? The current rulers have been in power since 1971 - they are running on renewal, how Alberta needs a change from the same old same old. Conservatives really think people are That stupid. Anyway, there is a new party in town, they are more Conservative than the conservative (sic) party. These are hard asses, they are going to lower the ridiculously low taxes on the oil companies. They will probably use public funds to clean up the mess made in the Tar Sands. These guys are headed for a majority government.

Now here is the funny part, when you go to the A&W and they aren't joking about the rubber boots (don't ask). They are complaining about this and that and they always say that 'Some guy otta do something about dat' If you challenge them to vote for anyone left of centre, they almost have a heart attack. They want their handouts though. In the last election the Premier was our elected member of the legislature. He retired, the new candidate for the Conservatives is saving their money on advertising, hell, the sheeple here always vote for us, and then complain. Nothing will change, so he/she is saving money for a vacation. The Wildrose person has signs up all over the place. I hope the conservative person hasn't quit their full time job.

Well that's that. Have a good one, it will feel like Friday tomorrow.

Tuesday Afternoon

Well it is 14 and Sunny here in the land of the Egg. Egg you say, this town has a huge Pysanka as it's claim to fame (attached is a photo, I have some, but not on iPad). So after you look at it, you'll know why it is significant at this time of year.

Had fire practice last night. It is becoming very active, not everyone does the same stuff. As much as I like crawling around in searches, I am getting older. I am learning pumps (again) on the trucks. We practiced pulling up to a hydrant, hooking up, and getting water. I will be the pump guy on several weekends this summer.

The budget axe will fall next week I guess. We were supposed to find out yesterday about job cuts, but you know how the government is, it was probably the upper echelons that found out and they had to digest it. Our department should not be hit that bad. Well I hope not anyway.

I joke that if it is, I will open a consulting business and make the real money. I am sure I will be treated with the greatest respect by my current co-workers.

Has anyone noticed that people who are texting or talking on a cell phone have priority over everyone else? When I was in West Edmonton Mall a guy came out a store and walked right through a crowd of people without even acknowledging their existence, texting all the way. Just a bit further down, a girl stopped at the bottom of an escalator to text her message. Are we going to have a distracted walking law soon?

Moved from religion to hand guns in discussions. Not so much the Trayvon saga, as it is still underway. Yesterday a pissed off student took his weapon to school and the silicone chip inside his head was turned to overload and no body's gonna go to school today....

I can't believe the gun mania in the USA. The NRA has people tweeting and blogging about President Obama and the possibility of taking guns away. Obama has never said this. But the Right are using the First Amendment to say things which threaten the Second Amendment and all the people that don't read, but watch Fox, believe they have to hunker down. I don't get it, if everyone is good, why do you need that many guns to protect against bad people? Handguns to boot, not the other ones. Oh Well.

I honestly think that when Canada's founders were meeting in Charlottetown (1867)and making the plans for the new country, they looked at the US Constitution and decided to stick with the British one. They had to do it fast though, the Civil War (1865)had just ended and the ruling President had embraced the policy of Manifest Destiny (1839) which basically included modern day Canada; that we would vote to be part of the US. Well I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Canada went the other way on militias, we didn't set up our own. The West was won by the Railroad, the Mounties and a pile of people from Scotland. There were some rebellions, Frog Lake and Riel, but for the most part it was a more peaceful building of a country than was occurring to the South.

Tonight I am at the first meeting of the recognition committee for the fire department. There are five of us, the Chief is going to give us his vision.

Nothing planned for Easter Weekend. Maybe a ride, but it is supposed to be colder.

Thelma (the guy in the cowboy hat) will probably want to do something. Maybe I will go to his place and set up his iTunes, iPhone and computer. He is 68 years old and no we are not dating, we just hang out. He used to be a flight attendant with Air Canada. Now he gets to travel a lot, for cheap.

Well going to the gym to burn some calories.

Palm Sunday

The Catholics were pouring out of the Basilica in downtown Edmonton, holding their fronds. They came out just as the sun is setting, it takes awhile yet. But if you are driving West on Jasper, the Sun is in the middle of the windshield. Most of the patrons of the church are small. I did a u-turn on Jasper and took a different road. They appeared to be walking in procession.

Saw the Hunger Games. I went with my son. He has been working for the past three weeks, I had to set up a date. We were going to see a movie, no other ones appealed to us. I was willing to see 21 Jump Street again.

Anyway, Ayn Rand meets Battlestar Galactica, meets what I think the Twilight Series is like. Donald Sutherland was surprisingly evil.

Saturday, well first the bike stuff. I left Edmonton via 97th Street North. This took me to the new Anthony Henday Drive (remember I was going to go home via Lamont). The new road is great, called a 'ring road' as it is supposed to go around the outside of the city. It took them so long to build it, the city has gone outside it. Edmonton is one of the larger cities in the world, land wise. I headed East to Manning Freeway where it ends. Then it was an unexpected pleasure, a biker must have designed the Fort Saskatchewan exit. It zigzagged and went up and down. I am sure the police will have radar permanently set up there - for bikers.

Good choice taking highway 15 home, it got warmer the further East I went. I was going a little fast.

Continuing with this theme, I came into the city this afternoon. I was trying to find out if the snow, which hit Edmonton, was a problem. Well don't trust twitter on April Fool's day. A woman posted it was a blizzard, to all the sites. It was raining where I live, not the 10-15 cms of snow which the weatherman promised. Anyway the ex and my son live in the West End. I drove all the way across the city on the Yellowhead. I got off at Anthony Hendy in the West End. It's finished too! More loop de loops and sloping curves, I was in the car though. A Ford Escape driver appeared to be going to fast for conditions as he was turned around on a ramp.

Attention SUV and MiniVan drivers - your vehicles are not motorcycles. They cannot turn like a bike can, leaning over does nothing. Gravity has a rule about the higher off the ground your centre of gravity is.

So yesterday, I was supposed to go on a date. LOL - The guy was on a site that said was looking for a relationship. He hit on me. So I asked why he was in Edmonton, it was to see his girlfriend. Needless to say, I didn't meet up with him.

This morning I got involved in a religious conversation. It happens, not intentionally, but it happens. Today's topic is Atheism.

I have no problem with Atheists, they do have a 'glass is all the empty' way of looking at God though. I am versed in religion and faith, but I am reserving a bit of space for the existence of God.

Oh and I think God is in everything. So he is not one big spaghetti monster in the sky. But he is found in everything, possible the size of a photon or electron - sounds crazy but, that is my latest theory. It replaces the Father (Mohamed), Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit (Buddha) theory. One of these days, I am going to work my way through a theology degree. Thanks Mom. Thanks to the participants in the discussion.