Christmas time is here (Blog 14 of 30)

I finally went to Moose Jaw and towed home the Christmas present that Sara got me this past year: a 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger.

Now, it needs some work (ok - maybe a lot of work) but it has proved to be very popular already.

When we got back to town, my buddy Dennis and I headed straight to the gas station to fill up his truck.  Within seconds, five teenage boys gathered around the car on the trailer and started asking all about it.  One of them even asked if I would take an offer on it right then and there.

When we pulled up behind our house to unload the car, my neighbour's Dad (whom I had never met) and another guy came running over to ask about it.  After we rolled it off the trailer, another dude stopped his pickup truck and asked all about it.

Then I went into the house for a few minutes and when I came back out another two guys yelled, "Is that your car?  What year is it?"   After I answered all their questions the one guy said, "You can just leave the keys in it for me!"

Now, as I said, this thing needs a lot of work, but it seems to be very popular.

A tip for the ladies:  If you want to meet 17 guys in 15 minutes (literally), drive through town towing an old car. 

I will not vouch for the quality of men you will meet, but I guarantee you will get quantity.

This coming Sunday - May 1st (Bonus post)

Here is what we are talking about this Sunday.  Feel free come and be part of things.

Mmmmm (Blog 13 of 30)

 So I was sitting in my office this afternoon when one of the church members came through the door carrying a coffee for him and a bottle of orange juice for me (I usually don't drink coffee in the afternoon).

Then, 10 minutes after he left, another church member came in carrying a strawberry sundae for me.

I work in the right place!  :)

This will be fun (Blog 12 of 30)

One of the cool things about Estevan is that we are involved with "Stars for Saskatchewan" which means we get access to some cool concerts.

One of the concerts that we have been looking forward to since it was announced last fall is "The Leahys".

If you know anything about East Coast music, then you know the name Leahy (Natalie MacMaster is married to a Leahy). This is a new mix of the family members and they are playing a few more contemporary songs, but I am hoping to hear a lot of jigs and reels.

Anyone want to go?  Tickets are still available.

And - even if you are not that interested in traditional music - you may want to show up anyway because it will be the first time that Sara and I have been on a date with our girls when they have brought two dudes with them!

A triple date.....that should be....... something!  :)

Random Ramblings (Blog 11 of 30)

A couple of random things to get you caught up.....

1.  Katie is back.  We moved her home yesterday, so in some ways that feels like the start of summer.  Now if only the weather would catch up.

2. Megan left.  We still only have one girl at home as Megan went with a buddy to Comic-con in Regina.  I may post some pics if she sends some.

3.  I don't feel great and I am not sure why.  I am not really sick - I have no real symptoms - but I am tired and my throat hurts a bit.  The real sign that I am not well is that I could have gone and worked at the "Clean up day" at the speedway today, but stayed home instead.  When I don't feel like going out there, I know something is wrong.

4.  When we were in Regina yesterday, Sari convinced me to buy an air mattress for tenting. Therefore I am getting closer to having all I need to go on my motorcycle camping trip.  I just need to figure out how to carry everything on the the bike now.

5.  Despite my previous rant about how I was not watching the first round of the NHL playoffs, I an watching the Blues/Blackhawks series.  It is really open, up and down the ice hockey.  So all is not lost on that front.

Ok - that is about it.  There are lots of other things going on but nothing worth recording here.  Thanks for reading!

Yaaayyyy for Sara and Friends (Blog 10 of 30)

The "Women of Today" awards luncheon was held today and much to Sara's joy and relief.... she did not win!

Seriously - she was super happy about this.  No speech... no spotlight... no pictures in the paper.  On the other hand..... super nice friends.... tons of fun..... a good meal..... a little recognition for a lot of hard work.

It really was a nice day.  I would highly recommend taking in this event next year.  It is a joyous and upbeat thing supporting a lot of people who do a lot of good.

Thank you to those who nominated Sara and to all those who came to support her - that was the best "win" of all.

PS.  About 300 people showed up.  This picture shows about 1/3 of the crowd (See if you can spot Megan's and Sara's heads)   :)

A Fake New Addition (Blog 9 of 30)

It is with fake pride that we announce the newest fake member of our family..... a little circuit board embedded plastic baby girl named "Sara" (seriously it is).

This fake blessing was delivered sometime this afternoon (I am not sure when because I was not there) at the Estevan Comprehensive High School (granted - not the most sanitary place to enter the world) by a very real psychology teacher.

Here is the fake mother with her electronic bundle of ....... something

We will send out fake invitations to a celebration of our fake joy very soon (Bring REAL presents!!).

For the moment, Megan seems to be ok with this new fake relationship (she did complain a bit - but I think she is faking).  We will see how pleased she is when this fake blessings really wakes her up at 2 am and again at 6!

Sometimes I really like high school projects!  Revenge can be fun to watch!  :)

A Spring Tradition Ruined! (Blog 8 of 30)

One of my favorite parts of spring is the NHL playoffs..... specifically the first round.

I love the first round because there are tons of games every night and anyone can beat anyone else on any night.  Upsets are common.

Even more fun are the overtime games.  There is nothing like sitting on the couch till 1 am wondering who is going to score and when.  It is super fun!!!!

Until this year.

As most of you know, there are no Canadian teams in the playoffs this year.  Now I know that there are lots of Canadians on the remaining teams but here is the thing...... I don't know those other teams.  I do not watch them all year long and so I don't really know the players or what their team is like or who plays what roles, etc, etc.

Granted, I could watch San Jose or someone else play and learn those things, but at this point I have no emotional investment in any of the teams so it is hard to motivate myself to sit there and watch.

If you do not have a team you like and a team you hate, there is no point.  Without that, they are just teams...... and sadly to me this year they are just teams.  :(

So one of the best spring traditions is ruined!

On the other hand, it leaves me more time to read, think and work on improving myself..... and I hate that!  :)

Another sign of spring (Blog 7 of 30)

Yesterdays sign of spring = Majestics car show.

 Today's is........

Oh - Ah Never Mind (Blog 6 of 30)

"Megan it is 8 o'clock.... you better get up!" I said knowing that Megan had to work today.

After at got out the shower - still no sign of Megan - so I went downstairs, burst into her room and said "HEY!  GET UP!  IT IS 8:20!  YOU NEED TO LEAVE FOR WORK IN 10 MINUTES!!!"

Megan sat up in bed with that look of dread that can only come when adrenaline and fear start coursing through your veins at the same time.

"What time is it?" she asked again.

"IT IS 8:20!!!!!!!!!" I said emphatically.

"Dad......... I don't work till 10!" she said even more emphatically!

"Ummm - what?"

"I work at 10..... I don't have to be up for another 40 minutes!!!

"Oooooohhhhhh!!!!!!  Well..... then...... go back to sleep!"

She somehow seemed less than thrilled to find out that she could sleep a little longer!  Teenagers.... there is no making them happy!!!  :)
____________
Why was I up early on a Saturday morning, you ask.  Well, one of the sure signs of spring came about today..... the Majestics Car Show in Regina.

It was a lot of fun not only because of the cars but because of all the people that I ran into from Estevan and more specifically from the speedway.  I could hardly walk 5 feet without visiting with someone.  It was great!

Anyway, here is one picture I took.... a bunch of Lamborghinis and Ferraris together (not a common sight on the prairies).

 

Ba Ha Ha!!!! (Blog 5 of 30)

Katie is home, so she went with us as we walked the dog tonight (Megan was at work).

As we walked, Katie told us about the education gala that she went to last night (basically a night for ed students to get together and mingle). 

One of her observations was how you could tell which girls were used to wearing high heels and those who were not, because some were quite graceful and others weren't.

In the course of the discussion, I asked her why she did not wear heels more often and she said, "Well, I feel that I am tall enough that if I wore heels it would just be awkward.  And then........."

And then she tripped over her own feet!   Like, I mean almost fell flat on her face! 

So I guess there is that too! 

Ba Ha Ha!!!!! 

I just about killed myself laughing.  It could not have been timed any better. 

Sometimes life works out to be more funny than anything you could have planned.  :)

Sari in the Paper (Blog 4 of 30)

Sara has been nominated for a community award.  If you would like to read the whole article from the newspaper, click here and then go to page 27 (I will post the full story on this blog once it is up).

She keeps saying that she does not care whether she wins or not and that she is even a little embarrassed about being nominated..... but I am not so sure!  

I think she is just playing nice until closer to the end when she is gonna go all "Donald Trump" on this thing.

I may be wrong about that.  :)

PS,  We are super proud of you and your kind and giving heart!

Is this progress? (Blog 3 of 30)

Those who read this blog regularly will know that I am planning my first "Motorcycle tenting trip".

(For the record, I have gone on many camping trips and many motorcycle trips - just not at the same time).

Now - I don't blame you if you rolled your eyes when you read that first line and thought, "Why is he writing about this stupid tenting thing again???  Is he obsessed?????"

The answer is "Yes!"

In fact, it was my brother who pushed me over the edge today when he said the words .... "Pup tent" ....  As in  "I have not owned a pup tent since we were kids".

You see, every year we would go camping and every year our mom would buy us a new, reddish/orange triangularly shaped tent.  I LOVED those tents, but they had a few issues.....

1.  They were called "Three man" tents..... but there is no way you could get even three small children in these things.  The only way this could truly be called a "Three man tent" is if it took three men to make it.

2.  The walls always sagged in on your face and almost suffocated you.  This was especially true when it was windy - this structure than the tensile strength of a wet klennex.

3.  If you touched the sagging walls when it was raining (which it was impossible not to do - see point #2 above), the whole thing leaked.  I mean, it gushed so much water in that you could be convinced that you were tenting beneath under Niagara Falls. And, somehow, there was always way more rain inside the tent than on the outside.  It could drizzle for 3 minutes and you would come out in the morning looking like you just crawled out of a washing machine.

4.  No matter how many blankets or sleeping bags you had, you froze for the first three hours after going to bed.

5.  When you woke up, you were drenched in sweat because the sun heated the thing up like a greenhouse.

6.  The "Insect resistant" screen did a good job of keeping out everything but insects!!  For example, it did a great job of keeping water buffaloes at bay (I never saw any of them in my tent).... However, every night the thing filled with mosquitoes.  In fact, in order to go to bed you first had to hunt around in the dark for the can of "Off" and then spray yourself with it until it ran down your arms and dripped on the ground.  Otherwise you would not survive the night.

7.  Eventually the zipper would break or a string loop would tear which would necessitate the purchase of a new tent the next year - which always brought about new hope that this pup tent would be better.

Other than that, it was perfect!  :)

Why am I still planning to go then????

Because it will be super fun!  As I said, I LOVE camping and I LOVED those pup tents!  I think it is super cool that you can bundle up your entire sleeping quarters and throw them into a bag.

And the best part:  My new tent is reddish orange too!  :)

A Walk in the Woods (Blog 2 of 30)

I don't read many books just for fun (lots of motorcycle magazines - but not a lot of books), but I just finished reading "A Walk in the Woods".

You may recognize the title as the book was recently made into a movie - starting Robert Redford.  It is the story of two older dudes who decide to hike the 2000 + mile "Appalachian Trail" of the eastern US.

I only problem.... now I want to go hiking!  I want to sleep in a tent!  I want to cook over a little camp stove and have no cell phone service.

I think that sounds great!

Now - in July - my brother and I are going on an eight day "Ride on the plains" (sort of like "A Walk in the Woods" only get rid of the trees and insert motorcycles instead of hiking..... the two "old dudes" remain a constant)..... and I am getting excited about it!  

So I think there are now only two options.... (A) Start planning a big hike somewhere or (B) Stop reading books!

This is cool (Blog 1 of 30)

(Obviously I need the pressure of "30 blogs in the 30 days" to motivate me to write - so I am starting again.  Please come back, read and comment along the way).

At times in my life I have felt sorry for myself that I have not been able to travel like many of my acquaintances.  While it seems that everyone else is going on "hot holidays" or to Europe, my family is usually headed to some place like Bismarck, North Dakota (Side note;  Bismarck is quite nice with a beautiful river and a nice zoo - you should check it out).

That is not to say that I have never been anywhere. Thanks to Sari, I went to Israel.  I have been to a NASCAR race in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I have seen almost everything between here and the West Coast of Canada and - even from childhood - I have spent a lot of time camping and loving it.

But I still - sometimes - feel like I am missing out.

Then Sari bought this book.......

It is all about cool things to do if you have 36 hours to spend in various places across North America (Strangely, they missed Estevan somehow).  I think she bought the book partially because it looked interesting (and because it has pretty pictures in it), but as I flipped through it the other day I came to a conclusion.....

There are TONS of cool places to go and things to see.

In fact, there are so many cool places that even if I won the lottery tomorrow, quit my job and hit the road, there is no way you could see all of them.

And many of the coolest things were in places that I had never even heard of.

And that has made me feel better!

And here is the other thing:  No matter how much I see or do, when I get to the end of my life there will still be a ton of cool stuff that I have missed out on.  In fact, I will miss exponentially more than I will ever see - and that is ok.

Some of the stuff that I do get to do is actually super cool.  When I tell people that Sara's aunt has a cabin in Montana and we often go there and hike from the top of her mountain to the stream below and back - they say "wow!"

Or when I tell some of my buddies that I am going to go on a week long motorcycle/tenting trip, they get a far off look in their eyes that says, "If only......".

So here is my conclusion:  The trick is to do whatever it is that you are interested in.... and to be interested in whatever you are doing.

In that way, you will always be in the coolest place ever!

Can We Make a Rule Against This?

A popular Canadian web site (lets call it something like.... I don't know..... The Weather Network) posted this survey question today......

One of the biggest debates in the scientific community over the years has been about whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded, like lizards, or warm-blooded like mammals. What's your guess?  

•  warm-blooded
•  cold-blooded
•  tepid-blooded

What is the point of this question????  

If the people who know more about these things than anyone in the world do not know the answer, what is the point of me guessing?  

Like what shot do I have????

"Well, let's see...... this doughnut that I am eating has a red jam-like substance in it that sort of looks like blood..... and I certainly would not describe it as being warm..... so extrapolating from that....... I am going to say that dinosaurs were cold-blooded!"

What good does that do?????   How is my guess going to advance this discussion??????

It is sort of like the radio call in shows that say things like....... "Experts say that too many Tetrahydrotoxins in the air is bad for you.........  but we want you to have your say.... call us at..........."

Why should I get to have "my say" about about something I know absolutely nothing about?????  What kind of intelligent comment could I add to any conversation about Tetrahydrotoxins ??????  

And - just for fun - lets assume I could come up with something that sounded even half intelligent..... why would anyone listen to me instead of somebody who actually knows what they are talking about????????  

"Well you know, the guy who did the environmental study went to Harvard and he spent 43 years of his life researching the subject........but that Tim guy from Estevan said that he went to school with a guy who looked just like David Suzuki...... so I really want to hear what he has to say!"

Even more to point:  Why would I want to listen to what you have to say about a topic that you know exactly nothing about?????

A pooling of ignorance is not intelligence!

We ought to propose a new law against this sort of stupidity! (Even though all the experts say it would never be passed).   

Just respond to my survey or call in and give me your opinion!  :)

Kinda Famous - sort of - but not really (Blog 30 of 30)

One of the things that I like about living in a small city is the fact that you are always running into people that you know.  Take last Wednesday for example....

I decided to take advantage of the advance pole for the provincial election.  As I was walking to the office door someone yelled "Hey, Tim!!!!"   I turned and looked and there was a guy from the radio station.  His name is Danny and is always fun to visit with, so we chatted about a bunch of different stuff.

As I was about to go, he said,  "Hey, I need to interview someone for my story about the election.  Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions and put you on the news tomorrow?"

"Why not?" I said so I answered the questions, said goodbye to him and went inside.

To my surprise the line was huge!  I thought that I was just going to walk in and walk out and be done in five minutes.  However, there must have been 30 people in line and more coming, so I settled in for the wait.

As I looked around, I kept seeing people I knew.  "Hey.... Hi.... How are ya??.... Etc" was the conversation as more and more people came in and we acknowledged each other's presence.

When I finally got to the place where they check your ID and sign you in,  the guy looked up at me and said, "Oh you are the author".

"Pardon me" I said.

"I recognize your picture from the newspaper.  I read your article every week."

"Oh, that is nice" I said.  "I am glad to hear that someone reads it!"

Then to top it all off, the lady sitting beside him says, "Well, of course you should know him.... that is Tim Pippus".

By now I am starting to think I am kinda somebody..... and then the she added..... "He is Sara Pippus' husband!"  :)

So there you go..... I was a minor celebrity for like 2.3 seconds..... only to find out that I am actually married to a much more well known minor celebrity than me.

Oh well!  There are worse things than being known as Sara Pippus' husband!

(PS.  You will notice that we have reached the end of this stretch of 30 blogs in 30 days, but I am still having fun doing this so I am going to keep going.  I don't think I will number the blogs - unless I start falling behind and need a challenge - so just keep checking in once in a while to see what is going on.  Thanks for reading!)

So this happened to day (Blog 29 of 30)

She does not have to wear them all the time..... just when she wants to be "Nerd cute".  :)

Better Late than Never (Blog 28 of 30)

What you see in this picture is a cheque from General Motors.  A cheque that we almost did not get.

It all started a few summers ago when the transmission cratered on our GMC Acadia while we were on summer vacation.  A bit of a hassle and then a phone call to a buddy from church who has a car trailer got us and the stupid Acadia back home.  A trip to the transmission shop got us back on the road.

Fast forward to this past February.  GM sent a recall notice for something that is wrong with the lift gate at the back.  As I am visiting with the service manager - a lady I know from the speedway - I find out that there has been a special service bulletin put out regarding the transmissions in this year of Acadia.

Oddly - no one let us know about it (though we got the lift gate recall letter).  Fortunately - we were able to get in under the wire.  The program was set to end in two weeks.

Anyway - Sara had kept our receipts and everything, so I took them in and made a claim.  Then we waited.... and waited..... and waited...... and (well you get the idea).

Yesterday we finally got a cheque that covered about half the cost of the new transmission (GM paid out what they would have paid to fix our old one.  We chose to go with a rebuilt one).  So I was happy with that.  The money was spent and gone, so this was just bonus anyway.

So there you go!  It only took 3 years and having some connections to get it - but GM at least admitted that they built a faulty part and backed it up (sort of).

It is almost enough to make me love GM again and never tell this story to anyone else ever again.

Almost..... but not quite!  :)

Women of Today article (Blog 27 of 30)

Click on the picture to read the Estevan Mercury story re. the "Women of Today" awards.