German Coast Guard

This post is for the benefit of those unfortunate souls who may have called my cell phone. What you will hear is a piece of the following clip which I think is one of the funniest things that I have heard in a very long time.
Here is a link to it so that you can form your own opinion:


My son, Eric was the one who originally showed it to me. We both could not stop watching it. Now, when I need a good laugh, I just call my cell phone. It is just one of those things that I can't explain, I love it because it is so silly. I hope you enjoy it at least half as much as I do.

Mount Finlayson

It is Spring Break for the kids this week so yesterday Laura and I hiked up Mount Finlayson. We had a great time! It was fun to get out of the city and back to nature. We took lots of pictures and also made a movie of our trip.




We were a little worried when we were driving to our destination because the mountain was covered in cloud. By the time we started hiking it cleared up though and turned into a very nice day. The hike was rough to begin with as we have not done anything that energetic all winter. It was so good though, we just took our time and stopped for a lot of water breaks along the way. It was very cold at the base but once we got about half way up, the temperature got a little better. The peak was freezing and we could hardly stand being up there.

We hid behind a rock wall on the South side to have lunch (PB&J sandwiches which Laura made, some trail mix, bananas and water). The rock face guarded us from the wind and cold. After that, we braved the North end of the peak to take some pictures of the train trestle. We also saw some Turkey Vultures while we were there.

Our descent was much smoother and about twenty minutes quicker than the ninety minute climb. By that time there were a lot more people on the trail.


I really enjoyed our time together, we talked a lot and had a good visit. I hope next time the boys will decide to come with us.

I have a few of links below so that you can watch the movie of our trip (hopefully). Please excuse the amateur film crew. If you feel sea sick, just look away from the screen for a moment. You will see what I mean. I hope you enjoy the show.

Tribute to my Grandfather

June 19, 1976. I was six years old and my Grandfather was 56. He died after a battle with lung cancer. I barely knew him but I have many great memories of him.

He was a farmer and a fireman. He also served in WWII with the RCE as a Sapper. When I knew him, he worked at Buckerfields. I remember him showing me the cats that lived there. I always knew when we were at Buckerfields because there was (and still is) a large hedgehog sign for a deli right beside it.

He died much too young. I wish that I could have known him better and longer. I remember my Mom coming to my room early one morning to tell me that he had died. I remember the funeral. I stayed at the house down the road with my sister and Grandma Whitehead. She told me that it was only for the adults. I could see the procession out the living room window.

I don't ever remember visiting the grave site without my Mom so the last time was when I was still a kid. I remember the Weeping Willow tree (there's a story there somewhere).

Last summer I went to visit his grave, just after the 30 year anniversary of his death. It took me a while to find his stone and I could see where the tree was. I straightened up the markers, Grandad's, his Dad and his Mom also. I wished that I had brought a brush or something to do a better job of cleaning them up. Next time. I got all choked up as I stood there remembering. There is so little time to spend with the ones you love. I am thankful though, for my memories.

Receipt

One thing that's important to remember when you buy anything is, keep the receipt. I discovered this the other day when I had to return a watch which I'd received for Christmas.

The second hand on the timer is supposed to point to the twelve when reset. One day I reset my watch and the second hand pointed to one second before the eleven. So, from that moment on, if the timer was not running, it looked stupid. It is not a big thing but it bugged me. If you buy something and it does not work properly then you have a responsibility to the manufacturer to let them know.

We dug out the receipt and I took the watch back to where we bought it. I was just expecting them to send it away to be fixed because it was past the 90 day mark. To my surprise, they just gave me a new one. Now I have another brand new watch. Nice!

Driving

There is something that I really enjoy while driving and it happens in Victoria more often than one would think. I get a good chuckle out of it every time. The event I am talking about is when someone drives up to a traffic light and they overshoot the sensor. They sit there wondering why the light doesn't change, until someone comes up behind them or they just run the red light.

One day I pulled into a left turn lane behind someone with Saskatchewan license plates. They didn't pull up far enough forward to change the light. When the light didn't change for us, I had to get out of the car and tell him to move forward.

That was kind of funny and he was a good sport about it. I didn't think that making him feel stupid was necessary as some rage filled drivers would have.

While I am on the subject of traffic, I was driving home from Wal-mart yesterday and was waiting to turn left onto Tillicum Rd (yes I was on the sensor). There were two kids about 14 years old playing on the side of the highway. One of them had a unicycle and was riding it on the concrete barrier, right beside traffic. I called 911 right away after imagining a tragic accident. Those barriers are something like two or three inches wide at the most on top. Crazy kids! As I was on the phone with the police, they told me that they were also getting other calls about it as well. At least I know that I'm not the only one who cares.