A Cheer

One of our local newspapers carries a "Cheers and Jeers" section where people can write in and cheer about something in town or complain about something.

Look at what appeared in the last row of the "Cheers" section this week.

The Curse Continues

I wish my first big motorcycle trip had been a complete disaster.  That way, I would have just quit right then and there and saved myself a lot of misery.

The first year my brother "Lenny" and I went to the Black Hills and it was great!  Perfect weather.  Perfect roads.  Tons of fun.  Since then we have endured eight days of rain in BC, freezing temperatures in Montana, more cold and a tornado warning in the Black Hills (part 2), and broken tent poles and being blown off the road in North Dakota.

This year had to be better, right?

Nope!

This time we thought we had a really good plan which was - no plan at all! We really had nothing to see or do, so we dubbed it the "Anything can happen tour".  We should have been more specific and called it the "Anything GOOD can happen tour".  In short, we rode for seven days in Northern Sask/Alberta and got rained on for six of them.

We even tried chasing the sun, to no avail.  In Meadow Lake, we looked at the forecast that said it was going to rain in Prince Albert, but be sunny in Wetaskiwin, Alberta.  Since we did not have a plan and since we knew there was a really good car museum in Wetaskiwin, we decided to head west toward the sunshine.

Half way there it started to rain a little.  About an hour out of Viking, Alberta it rained A LOT!!!  One hour to the east - nothing!  One hour to the west - nothing!  Where we were, where it was supposed to be sunny, 2 inches of rain.

When we got to Wetaskiwin, we found out that the hotel we booked was over a liquor store.  We asked if we could check in early and they said we could, but we would have to pay the hourly rate which was $10/hour.  Interesting that they knew the hourly rate right off the top of their head.  We stay in classy places!

The next day it was still raining, so we looked at the forecast and it said that "Cypress Hills Provincial Park" was in for four days of sunshine.  Decision made and we rode through decent weather all the way to the park..... where it was really cold and wet.  We woke up the next morning to the sound of rain pounding on the tents.

Last stop on this misery tour was a show and shine car show in Weyburn- one of my favorite events of the year.  Usually lots of cars, lots of people, lots of food and just a good time.   But it was raining so we had less cars, less people, no food and not much fun.  So I headed home, only to be caught in the worst rain storm of the entire trip!

I am not sure which one of us is doing something wrong, but which ever one of us it is, he needs to stop it!  I can't take the punishment any more!

It wasn't a total loss though.  We did manage to share some of our joy with others.  For example, as we came out of our hotel in Viking, this man approached us and asked if we were riding those motorcycles, where we were going, etc - standard stuff.   He then said that he was a farmer and that he did not mind the rain.  In fact, they needed it.  We told him that anytime he needed more, he could call as it seemed to be following us around.

As we walked away, an RCMP cruiser pulled into the parking lot, drove up to our farmer friend, grabbed him and tossed him in the back and took off.  The next morning, his vehicle was right where he left it the night before.

We thought about going to the jailhouse to apologize to the poor guy, but we thought that maybe he would get a life sentence if he had any more contact with us.

If anyone knows how to remove a curse, please write to me..... preferably before our next bike tour!

The Perfect Ending to the Perfect Week!

This past week was the 6th edition of the Pippus Motorcycle tour with my brother "Lenny".  We were gone for 7 days..... and we got rained on for 6 of them (and that is the best part of the week..... stories and details to follow.  Check back in coming days).

However, tonight we went to the fair.   I like the fair!  I like walking around and visiting with people. I like watching the little kids laughing and having fun.  I like the small town feel of the whole thing.

Most of all though.... I like caramel apples.

As usual, I waited until the very end to get one.  In fact, the girls actually stood in line and got it for me - and I was so happy!!

Then - I went to take my first bite....... I put it up to my mouth..... and the stick broke!!!!

My precious apple treat fell in the dirt and rolled 5 feet down a hill.  I just stood there in disbelief.

I WAITED ALL YEAR FOR THE FAIR TO COME TO TOWN SO I COULD GET A CARAMEL APPLE AND ALL I GOT TO DO WAS LICK THE STUPID THING!!!!

Sara offered to get me another one, but that seemed silly.

Besides, it was the perfect ending to my bike tour week!

Umm - what now?

Preparing for an upcoming camping trip, I went to Canadian Tire where I saw this.....

It is a package of sticks!!! And look at the price tag above it......

1. Compare the size of that little tag to that bundle of sticks and you will realize that the bundle is not very big and ......

2.  Someone is making a killing on sticks!   $9.49 for a pile of sticks that is smaller than what falls off my tree in the front yard on any given night???  What sort of tree-less concrete jungle do you live in if you can't find a handful of sticks outside????   For that matter, where are you going camping that you can't find kindling and have to buy it at Canadian Tire??????

Then I thought that there must be something special about these sticks.... that they had been doused in some chemical to make them burn better or something.  NOPE!  The side of the box actually says, "All natural fire starters!" 

So here is what I am gonna do..... I am going to stand in Canadian tire - right beside this display - with a slightly bigger bundle of sticks and sell them for $8.

I may have just found my retirement fund!

SundayStuff

You don't know what you got

We have a water cooler at our house, which means that every couple of weeks I have to go to the store and fill the water jugs. 

Every time I do this, I think to myself, "My Grandfather - and certainly my great-grandfather - would think I am a total moron right now!"  You see, they had to haul water all the time and they dreamed of living in a house with running water.  Now I do live in a house with running water and I am still hauling water.

The reality of how nice it is to have hot and cold running water came home to us in a different way yesterday when the main water line for our entire subdivision broke yesterday afternoon.  About a hundred houses and a school were left without water.

It is shocking how many times we turn on a tap in a day.  This really comes home to you when - for the 4869784397389th time - you have turned on a tap that does nothing but gurgle at you.

However, all is well this morning.  We woke up to running water again and we were super happy to have it.  If you did too, you may want to take a second to think about how even the little things that you take for granted are very nice. 

Sometimes, you don't what you got until it is gone.

Observations from a Motorcycle

It is motorcycle season again (yaaaayyyyyy!!!!!!!!) and in honour of this I would like to share some observations that I have made over almost 70 000 kms of riding.

1.  Everyone waves at you when you ride a motorcycle.  Little kids..... older men.... babies who are asleep in their mother's arms..... everyone waves at bikers.  Bikers even have a secret "biker wave" that they do when they see each other (I would tell you what this is..... but then I would have to kill you).

2.  Everyone wants to talk to you when you are on a bike.  Pull into a gas station in says Butte, Montana driving a minivan - no one says a word to you.  Drive in on a bike and you will have at least three guys talking to you about where you are from, where you are going, what you are riding, telling you how many bikes they have in the garage, etc.  This actually happened to Lenny and me in Butte.... and it happens all the time everywhere.

Both of those things are sort of nice.  Especially the people talking to you.  I really enjoy that part.

The other interesting thing is that the waves and the conversations are different based on gender.  For example......

1.  Men wave at you in a "Hey, buddy!!!!  I wish I was riding a bike!!!   Rock on, dude!!!!!" (Or whatever it is that the cool kids say now) sort of way.

Women, on the other hand, wave at you in the same way that they might wave at someone walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls or at a lion tamer in a cage.  It is sort of a "Ummm - golly - I am glad you think that is fun, but I don't so I hope you don't hurt yourself" sort of way.

Editor's note:  All kids,  regardless of gender, wave like the guys do..... they are just happy to see someone doing something that looks like fun.  Maybe there is a lesson there too.

2.  Men, as noted, talk about things like where you are headed, what you are riding, how long you have been on the road, etc.

Women talk about the weather..... EXCLUSIVELY!!  I was sitting at a gas station in Brandon, Manitoba when out of the blue this very nice lady walked up to me and asked, "You aren't going to Winnipeg are you?"   When I told her that I was turning north and going to Dauphin she replied, "Oh good!  There is a huge storm outside of Winnipeg!" and then she went on her merry way.

Now, what does all of this mean?  Well, a smart people would realize that one ought to pay more attention to the ladies than the men.  The ladies seem to have your best interest at heart (even if they do not know you at all) while the men just seem to be saying "Have at 'er, dude!!!"

Unfortunately, I am a dude so.........Rock on!  (Or something like that)

One small step for a man........

(Estevan, Sask)  Auto repair history was made last night when Tim Pippus performed the world's first known "mirror-ectomy".

      (Pictured above:  The donor mirror on the left and the newly replaced mirror, ready for install on the right)

"Hero is probably too strong a word", Pippus said.  "People throw that term around way too loosely in my opinion,  I will let history decide how it wants to remember me. I think a statue would allow people to gaze on it and come up with their own words" he mused.

"I have to give a lot of the credit to my father-in-law, to be honest. Many times, when he was faced with difficult situation, he would quote a co-worker who liked to say 'God hates a coward!' Those words of semi-wisdom kept ringing in my head and - in the end - it all worked out".

The procedure involved taking a rearview mirror from a parts car and replacing the actual mirror in it with the mirror from another one that was found in the project car.

"I looked at it several times and determined that the mirrors were exactly the same shape.  Having never heard of this procedure before, I was unsure whether it would work, but my team and I just took it step by step".

The procedure became necessary when Pippus determined that the mirror from the parts car part was too far gone.  "The silver was coming off the back making a bunch of lines across the field of vision.  I am getting old and my hair is getting a little thin, so I did not want to look in that mirror and see a bunch of lines on my face too" Pippus said.  "I had to do something!"

Working with very small screwdrivers, Pippus carefully rolled back the plastic edge on the found mirror and then worked to pry it off the plastic backing.  "It was glued pretty good.  I wasn't sure I was going to get it out without breaking it", he said.

Once it was out, he moved on to the mirror from the parts car.  "This one was glued in a lot tighter, so I worked even more carefully with it...... until I realized that I did not need this one at all.....  and then I grabbed a hammer and smashed it into millions of pieces..... most of which ended up in my hands!"

The next step - after First Aid - was to take the good mirror and wedge it into the frame of the one from the parts car. 

"This part went fairly well.  Truth be told, I thought about the fact that I had just smashed a mirror which some say should bring me 7 years bad luck and I was prepared to see the entire endeavor end in failure, but, fortunately, I dodged that bullet".

Summing up this momentous event, Pippus mused, "Some may read this and think, 'What a cheapskate!!!! Just go buy a new mirror!!!!!  There are like 9438678468765 of them on Ebay!!!.......  but my response is, 'Where is the adventure in that?  How does the science of car repair get advanced with that attitude?  What if Sir Edmund Hillary looked at Mount Everest and said - Bah!  Who cares?  I took a risk here and I think it paid off.......... beside, I am a cheapskate!"  :)

Pippus noted that he has cleared his entire weekend calendar to accommodate the media frenzy that he expects to erupt now that the story has been confirmed.   "I thought Jimmy Fallon had called this morning..... but it turned out to be someone asking if I wanted my furnace cleaned.  His name was James - which is a form of Jimmy - so, clearly, it is just a matter of time!"

A Day of Firsts

Recently, some friends of ours (Darren and Sandra) bought a couple of kayaks.  As we talked about that one day Darren said, "You guys kayak and canoe on the Souris once in a while, right?  We should go together some time".  That sounded like fun, so I told him to pick a day.

Well, today was "sometime" and the maiden voyage for them.  Sadly, Sara was away, so she had to miss out on this one.

As you can tell from the pictures, it was sort of cloudy and a little breezy, but all in all, it was a lot of fun.
 

As we were going along, Darren said, "Look at that guy!" and here is what we saw......



Its a huge snapping turtle.  It was about the size of a basketball (or bigger) and it had a spikey tail (you can see that in the picture) and huge claws.  We always see tons of little turtles when we are down there.  They are always out sitting on the fallen trees in the sun, but this is the first time I have seen a big guy like this.

At first I thought it was dead because it was just laying there, but it turns out that he was just cold.  Darren gave it a poke with his paddle and it started moving very slowly.  I challenged Darren to pick it up and cuddle it until it got warm - just to see what would happen..... but he refused.  Chicken!  :)

As I said, it was a little windy but a good first day on the water. Darren and Sandra had a good time too and so I am sure that the four of us (and anyone else who wants to come) will be doing this a lot more this summer. 

It is always fun to be on the river.  :)

One man's junked car is another man's treasure

Those of you who religiously follow this blog (and why wouldn't you?) will remember that my buddy Nathan rounded up a parts car for my 1973 Dodge Dart Swinger project.  The parts car looked like this......

Well, today Nathan and I went out and starting gathering things I could use from that car and ended up with this pile (and a bunch more stuff in the box that I was just too lazy to display or that just did not make it in the picture)

A perfect grill, signal light lenses, a gauge cluster, rearview mirror, all kinds of trim pieces (inside and out), tail light lenses, a steering wheel and a bunch of other odds and ends that I need now or could possibly use later.

And - the best part - this is just the first go-around.  There is a lot more good stuff out there.

Proving once again - one man's junk is another man's treasure.

Or it proves that it is good to know a guy who knows a guy who has what you need.

Or it is good to have a buddy like Nathan.  :)

Sunday Stuff

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

I (Tim) turned 48 today. 

I do not tell you that so that you will wish me a happy birthday or tell me how great I am (though the comments section is open below - just saying), but I point that out to say this...... I enjoyed my birthday this year!

In the past, I have not paid any attention to birthdays.  In fact, I normally ask, "Why would you give me gifts on my birthday?  You should be giving stuff to my mom as she is the one that did all the work.  I didn't even get dressed for the occasion!"

But I enjoyed today.

It started with nice cards from my three girls...... then I had a really enjoyable visit with my mommy on the phone..... it continued with one of my church buddies bringing me a Strawberry Sundae as an afternoon snack...... then a supper out (which my future son in law secretly paid for)..... back home for cake and a very nice gift...... I got a small portable battery charger/battery booster that I can throw in my saddlebags and use on bike trips.  I have thought for a long time that I would like to have one.... now I do!

I was going to post some pictures but our email account is having issues for some reason so I can't send them to the computer - but I will post some again tomorrow.

So the Happiness lesson for the day..... enjoy the blessings and the kind, thoughtful people in your life - not just on your birthday, but everyday.

Turns out, birthdays are not so bad after all. 

Old Photos of Estevan

I love old photos, so when I came across a site that had some old shots of Estevan, I thought I would share it.  Click here.   Enjoy!

Mother's Day/Pictures/The Happiness Project #26

It is "Mother's Day".   Around our house, we normally do not do much for either this day or "Father's Day" (cards with mushy stuff written in them etc) but I just wanted to say that Sara and I are super thankful for our mothers and all they have done for us.... and I am really thankful for Sara and all wonderful things she brings to our family. 

I hope you had a good mother, or found someone to step into that role for you, because they make a tremendous difference not just when you are a kid but all through life.

Anyway - we basically hung out this afternoon and so Sara got her camera out and took a few pictures.  I think (if I remember right) the yellow birds are Golden Finches - I think they are beautiful.  The one with the red on him is a Rose Breasted Grosbeak - just so you know.

I never really noticed birds till Sara started pointing them out to me - but they are cool (PS.  The first picture contains only flowers - no birds - so don't strain yourself trying to find one)



As I said yesterday, it is our own little "Wild Kingdom" in the backyard.  You should hear it at night.  Beautiful!

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The Happiness Project:  Use Ambition Wisely

C S Lewis once said, "Ambition! If it means the desire to get ahead of other people…then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good".

Happy people are not in constant competition.  (And I bet that I am the first one to post that today!  Wooooooooo!!!!!!!....... see what I did there?  I turned a quote about not trying to beat everyone into a....... oh never mind!)  :)



A Quick Update/The Happiness Project Reminder #25

Just a quick weekend update for all y'alls.......

Sara spent most of the last two days working in the yard.  You should see it...... it is beautiful.  Come on down and sit in a our backyard for a while and listen to the 9679376376897 birds she has drawn in back there.  It is really nice.

Speaking of birds, Megan took some pictures of some beautiful yellow finches..... I will try to get those downloaded and posted tomorrow.

Megan is enjoying her last few days of freedom before she starts work on Tuesday so she had a buddy over for a sleepover/hangout last night.

Katie and Kendall went to Regina today as they had a bunch of running around to get done (some wedding related - some not).

Sara and the three kids all went to garage sales last night.  I was going to go, but then I remembered that I sort of hate garage sales.   In fact, I went the week before and half way through, I walked home. I like swap meets where you may see some automotive stuff or some antique interesting stuff..... driving around town to look at a bunch of stuff that should have been thrown out is not that appealing to me (though I will say they did come home with some interesting things).

And me - well I spent most of the weekend working on my project car.  In fact, I cut and welded up my exhaust system up to the muffler  (I still need to buy a tail pipe for it yet - or build one) and installed it.

Then, today, I was out there and I thought, "I wonder how it sounds now" so I dumped some gas in it and ........ it was so nice!!!   In fact, hearing it has made me want to get the thing on the road as soon as possible (not that I wasn't working toward that - but you know).  Anyway, it was nice to see things coming together and feel like there may be a reward coming.

Then I did a bunch of small jobs for Sara - things that she has wanted done but I had not had time to do until now.... and that was most of the day.

It is fun to get away and see new things, but sometimes it is just fun to be home and get stuff done!
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The Happiness Project:  Reminder #25

Someone I follow on twitter posted this from "Life Advice".  If everyone did these 7 things, we would be a long way to something better.

Habits of happy people: 1 don't show off 2 talk less 3 learn daily 4 help less fortunate 5 laugh more 6 ignore nonsense 7 no entitlement

What to Expect this Sunday morning

Beautiful Day for a Ride

Turn it UP!

A fun, summer-ish sort of song. Enjoy! :)

Ba Ha HA!!!!!!

Katelyn had said "goodnight" and headed downstairs to get ready for bed, when she returned with this weird look on her face.

"Megan" she said. "I have a confession to make.... I just used your toothbrush!!!  And not just a little bit - I full on brushed everything - even my tongue!"

At which point, Megan made a sound as if she had just been kicked in the gut!

Then they both stood there shaking their arms going "Oooooh..... eeeewwwww" and stuff like that.

Then Megan proclaimed. "Its like you just made out with me!" - which made them both say "Eeeewwwww!" even more.

The moral of this story is many fold.....

A.  Sleep deprivation is real and dangerous.  Katelyn has been getting up very early lately.

B.  If you share a bathroom with someone and use the same brand of toothbrush, it is best not to leave them side by side.

C.  Having kids is the best thing sometimes!

D.  (According to Megan tonight) It is better to go to bed without brushing your teeth than to brush your teeth with a toothbrush that you and your sister have both used!

They are sweet girls..... bless their hearts! (As Sara's southern aunties would say when they want to say something rude but are stopping themselves)   :)

Weekend report/The Happiness Project #24

A warm weekend meant a lot of activities.....

- I plated my motorcycle on Friday so I took it for a ride around town and then out to Oxbow with a buddy for ice cream

- Sara got out in the yard and cleaned up a bunch of stuff.  We also built some trellises for some vines to grow on

- We had a couple of bon fires

- And the first races at Estevan Motor Speedway took place.  My brother (aka Lenny) came down for them and here a few pictures courtesy of him.

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The Happiness Project Reminder

Sara has this on our wall - I thought I would share it:  

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed.  Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude - Denis Waitley