It's too early for this shit!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow........


...yeah right, to hell with that!

After the crappy summer we had, Mother Nature appears to be ready to stick it to us again with one of the earliest ever significant snowfalls that I have seen in Kenora. Usually Halloween is the demarker of snow in these parts and sometimes we even make it into the middle of November before we see the white stuff.

Not this year.

On Saturday October 9th it began to snow and it didn't stop until about 20 centimeters or so fell on this fair city. As you can see in the photo below, even the damn halloween ghosts are wondering what is going on. It's hard to look scary when you're freezing our ass off!

Yes snow is pretty and all that but when you think that if the snow that fell a few days ago stays, we won't see grass again until late April - almost 7 months away! You know all the BS you may have heard that Canadians are "hardy" when it comes to climate, the cold and wintry weather?

Well for the most part that's all bullshit! Only a complete moron would want to see snow this early in the year let alone having it stay on the ground. The kids are happy - as you can see from the picture below - it was the "first" snow of course - but even they were kinda grumbling about being cold and wet. My 12 year old son Matthew is seen here about to whip a snowball at his Dad's head - he just missed....


The dogs don't seem to mind too much though as you can see from the pic below, my Golden retriever is in heat and seemed more interested in answering Mother Nature's reproductive call than playing in the snow.


When I think of the months to come, I dread those continuous -30 days for weeks on end that are sure to come and all the shovelling, car problems and related headaches that winter is sure to bring.

In the end I only have one thing to say about it all:

FUCKOFF WINTER!

D-Day Anniversary a Reminder to Everybody

The 65th Anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion to liberate Europe from the Nazis came and went this past Saturday. I was watching a number of documentaries, read some news articles and thought lots about the men who lost their lives on those beaches so long ago. I think war can be over glorified at times and sometimes, this is done for the wrong reasons but D-Day is not that at all. It is a focal point in the history of mankind, an event of such monumental scale and sacrifice that what happened there should and must be remembered. If only for the reason something like it doesn't have to happen again.

Unfortunately, mankind is always the agent of his own demise. As a species we just can't get along and history clearly shows that because of either politics, nationalism - and in the case of Hitler - genocide, ours is the most violent and uncontrollable species on the planet. Thankfully, like on D-Day, there are enough humans out there across the globe to do something about it.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s and it seems we are getting further away from the goal those soldiers died for at Normandy. I mean we still can't get along. The Middle East has been a disaster for the entire globe and American Foreign Policy has also created problems where none existed before. Take a look at the news and there are still a variety of wars going on at any one time,

I wasn't there but if I had to guess the men that fought and died on the beaches on June 6th, 1944 would say that we should remember why they did what they did and don't forget the fundamental values they fought and died for. What was at stake that day were the fundamental under-pinnings of modern societies - democracy, rule of law, human rights and freedom of speech. As we march on as a species, I hope we continue to remember what those guys died for.

We can't afford not to......

The Moon is cool.....

I took this image of the moon a couple of years ago. It show some of the surface detail. This was shot using a 300 mm lense. I read the other day that the foot prints of the astronauts who landed on the moon will remain intact for thousands of years beacause there is no weather on the moon - no atmosphere. Talk about leaving behind something for the future eh :>)

Testing

I'm just trdting out the "blog this" feature on picasa 3. It look's like it works....

Cold is a relative term.

As I sit in my house out of the -40 celsius weather, I wonder what the term "cold" means to people around the world. Cold to me is death to someone say, who lives in the tropics - they just could not deal with what is outside there today. For someone say in the U.S. Midwest, it is much colder than they get most of the time but still, they have probably felt this weather at least once in their lives.

It's -40 celsius here.... BTW that is also -40 Farenheit - (with the "wind chill" factored in) and by any definition, I think, that's COLD!!!!

What does cold mean to you?

Puppies are a lot of fun.

My golden retriever had 8 puppies on Wednesday October 15th. They are awfully cute little critters. Halley their mother is doing well and is an excellent care giver. Very attentive and caring dog. My kids love it but always want to handle the puppies - too small for that just yet. Here are some photos.

Restoration of the Argyle II

I am the Secretary-Treasurer on the Argyle II Restoration Committee, a group of people from the Kenora, Ontario area who have dedicated them selves to the salvage and restoration of the old wooden boat Argyle II. This boat once plied the waters of the Lake of the Woods as a transportation vessel - essentially a "water bus" that took people who could not afford their own boat out on to the lake to enjoy its natural beauty and recreational opportunities.

One of the major trips was the excursion to Coney Island Beach, just a 5 minute ride from the Kenora Harbourfront where you could spend the day swimming, playing on the beach and enjoying a beautiful summer day. I went on the boat at least once when I was a child and perhaps more - I can't remember exactly how many times to tell you the truth.

Regardless, I do remember what a thrill it was to step on this boat's deck and watch as we pulled away from the dock and embarked on the short trip to Coney Island. The fare was around $1.25 per person or something ridiculously cheap like that. The boat was manufactured in 1936 and plied the waters as a commercial transport for almost 5 decades. It was sold to private interests in the mid-1970s and the folks who bought it used it as a cottage on the water for several years. However, the boat eventually fell into disrepair and the owners had planned to scuttle it in September of 2007. This is what the boat looks like today.

After looking at this image, you may be thinking I and the other people on the Committee are crazy - there is nothing to save. Hardly, the superstructure of the boat is still in fairly good shape and the steel ribbings on which the carvel wood plankings are attached is in very good condition. We do realize that it is and will be, a monumental effort to restore the boat and that it will take tons of sweat equity, time and money to do but what the hell, anything in life that is worthwhile is usually challenging - otherwise it would not have been worthwhile in the first place.

Our first task is to prepare a business plan for the salvage of the boat and present it to and have it accepted by, the current owners. We have to float the boat from its current location on Channel Island on Lake of the Woods to a drydock location at Kenora Forest Products in Keewatin. Once accepted by the current owners of the boat, we plan to execute the salvage phase of our plan between May 1 and May 14,2008.

As a Committee, we are in the process of incorporating as a not-for-profit entitiy and we hope to also obtain charitable status so we can provide tax receipts to people who give donations towards the restoration effort.

We are in need of cash right now however - and have raised about $6000.00 so far - but we estimate the salvage effort alone will cost between $10,000.00 to $12,000.00 to pull off. So if you agree this is a worthwhile endeavour, why not consider sending a donation to our Committee? Cheques can be made out to the "Argyle II Restoration Fund" and mailed to the Argyle II Restoration Committee, c/o Box 647, Kenora, Ontario, P9N 3X6.

As a token of our Committee's appreciation, anyone who makes a donation of $250.00 or more will receive a limited edition, 16x20 inch signed and numbered print of the Argyle in her hey day taken by re-knowned Kenora photographer Tom Thomson. There is a value to history and to preserving things from the past so why not consider lending us a hand?