Ahhhh, a January thaw! Nothing shortens a winter better than a January thaw. The days are now noticeably longer and for a change, it's not 30 below. That was some wind back on Wednesday going up to 100 kilometres an hour. I have marked the date down on my hoar frost calendar as warm and windy on July 14 and 15. We will see.
The best quote I heard on the wind situation was Scotty Wiltermuth, who is always wearing a big cowboy hat. When he came into the café for coffee with an ordinary hat on I asked him where his big cowboy hat was? He said, "Yaaah, I phoned a friend of mine in Saskatoon to see if he had seen it go by!" There were many chuckles.
This January thaw reminds me of when I was growing up in Waseca. The winter activities revolved around the curling rink. The kitchen was almost always open. Coffee was always on and there was homemade soups and pie. People would drop in to visit even when they were not curling. To determine when you were old enough to curl was when you were big enough, with both feet in the hack, you could push the rock down the ice to the other end. As a young person, you always wanted to be grown up enough so getting on a curling team was a feather in one's cap. I started curling with my dad who showed no end of patience with me as some of my throws were short of the hog line, some were way off to the side and some went sailing right through. Not many of my rocks were of much value to my rink, so when I got one in the house it was with a great feeling of satisfaction. When I made a good shot there was always praise from my long-suffering father. Most of the other kids started out the same, playing lead rocks and learning to sweep.
As we got bigger, us young guys, we really felt we were hot curlers so we lobbied hard to have our own team. We didn't want to play lead anymore. Four of us young guys got to have our own team. We were elated. One of the neighbour kids my age was appointed skip. He was the most serious. I was to play second. We were young and full of wild oats. Our game didn't have finesse but hard take out, with rocks flying everywhere. Not many of our rocks ever stayed around to count. Needless to say, I don't think our little team even won one game but we had lots of fun.
That was growing up in Waseca in the winter with our one sheet curling rink. The reason I am reminded of the Waseca Curling Rink is the January thaw we are having. We tried to hold a club bonspiel every year in January and almost every year the weather got so warm you couldn't get the rocks down the ice and we had to postpone the bonspiel for a week or so until the weather got colder. No outside players or rinks allowed. The players were all drawn out of a hat. All the skips in one hat, all the thirds in another and so on until all the rinks were chosen. The competition was friendly, but fierce. I played in every bonspiel except when I was away at the School of Agriculture in Saskatoon until the rink closed. I was on the winning rink only twice in my life. I still have those trophies.
In addition, winter in Waseca was unending scrimmage hockey on our outdoor rink on weekends, weather permitting. For me, when I got tired, it was a short walk to Grandma's house where I could get a cup of warm coffee. Grandma's kid coffee was made with maybe a quarter of a cup of coffee and the rest was warm milk and a little sugar. I had my own chair at the table. The coffee/hot milk was really good!
In Lloydminster, Hockey Day in Canada has come and gone. Celebrities like Ron MacLean and Don Cherry have gone home. The day was a roaring success. My hat is off to all those who organized it and all the volunteers who made it happen. Good job, folks!
In other news, old country rocker Neil Young has come back from California for a benefit tour to help fund the aboriginals' legal challenge against development at Fort McMurray, Alta. He says the landscape around Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb went off. The politicians weighed in with Energy Minister Joe Oliver calling the remarks "baseless and insulting." Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall called Neil Young's comments "ignorant."
My question is how did he get here? California is a long way from Winnipeg, Man. where he started the tour. Did he use some of that gasoline or diesel fuel that was refined out of that stuff from Fort McMurray? Heaven forbid! What did he use to power the tour bus to move all his stuff around? Did it dawn on him that the halls that he played in, the roads and airports he used were all paid for from oil money? I would hazard to guess that 90 per cent of the jobs here in Western Canada are related to oil money. The governments could not function without oil money taxes. Get real, Neil Young! If you want a reality check take a wagon and team of horses on backcountry prairie trails all the way back to California.
The Maidstone Airport is now functioning. The 4,000-foot runway is now paved. The beacon is going around. You could see it for 10 miles. Had to point the beacon lights up as they were keeping Bill Mclaren awake at night. If you are flying in at night, I understand you key the mike in the plane twice and the runway marker lights come on. We have had about a dozen planes land and take off, mostly oil related. The other day the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance was coming past after delivering a patient and landed to familiarize themselves with the runway. Whenever you don't need the air ambulance, it's always a good thing but if you need the air ambulance, they will be familiar with the airport. A grand opening will be on June 21. There will be a free fly-in breakfast sponsored by the RM of Eldon. Landlubbers are welcome also.
Joke of the week sent to me by Marci. An 80-year-old couple go to a sex therapist and ask him to watch while they have sex. The sex therapist watches and said he saw nothing wrong. The couple book another appointment for next week. This goes on for another month and finally the sex therapist says, "I don't see anything wrong. So why do you keep coming back to see me?" The old guy says, "Well, we are both married so we can't go to her house, her husband is there. I'm married so we can't go to my house. A hotel room is $150. You charge $50 and we get $43 back from Blue Cross. This is the cheapest place in town to have sex!" As my uncle Harold would say "Ooooh boy!!!"
