Plus 2! Is it really, really spring? I hope so, Big Guy. Please don’t be teasing me. At this time a small silly little poem comes to mind. Spring has sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is. What a silly little poem that is there in my head that I learned as a child. As far as the spring is sprung, we may be a little premature as we have to go out like a lion to get to April. There is no grass yet either. Other than the Sept. 1 date, I have no other rains marked. We are in the period where the weather doesn’t keep following the hoar frost and another cycle begins.
On the home front Jaco has put the sprayer through the shop and it is back resting in machinery row waiting for the spraying season to begin. Burn off will start in two months and then things start rolling. He has two augers to fix yet. I bought a blue one several years ago. It has a mover and a sweep on it. It should have been great as most of my grain is done with the elevator and this auger does not get used much, mostly for moving seed to the seed bin and into the truck when we were seeding. Somehow this thing has a broken gear box, the chain at the top needs replacing and the motor has developed an oil leak that keeps itself covered in oil and dirt. Jaco will have to fix all that before we can use it. The other auger was wounded when the snow plow tractor got too close and a wheel and frame got bent. I think that is a chain and Jackall fix. All this takes time.
On a personal note, I have spent the last week in the hospital. I have had the problem of coughing until I black out. I don’t like it but I know the stress was much worse on my wife. I have had an IV pole as a companion feeding stuff into me to combat the lung infection. I am better now and I am home with a bag of drugs.
I met many nice people in the hospital. First I had a roommate who was 74 and had some lung infection, too. He went home after a couple of days. Then I got this full of energy guy 23 years old and we have become friends. We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses when I left. He was from Calgary and he was up here visiting relatives when his blood pressure went sky high and he ended up in the hospital.
We had many good nurses. One was a little girl from the Philippines who was there the last time I was in. Next, a fourth-year student nurse from Lashburn, has no boyfriend. Then a male nurse from Newfoundland, moved to Lloydminster for the job. Another nurse raised at Margo. I even found out she was 36 and has a boyfriend here. A nurse just out of school from Toronto area, moved to Lloydminster for a job. She has a brother two years younger than her still in school. There were three female nurses originally from India who took vitals and changed the IV bag and other stuff a nurse does. They were all married. The last one was a girl from Prince Edward Island just out of school. She was so nice I asked if I could adopt her to be a granddaughter.
I asked all the female nurses if they had a big ugly boyfriend to see what their reaction would be. I don’t know if I am legally able to ask all the things I did, but I did anyway and the nurses didn’t seem to mind. Probably they felt I would be distracted and not notice they were sticking a needle in me for something or other at the time.
When I was in the last time I had three young guys from India as nurses and we got along well. This time they were not there as they had gone home for a visit. They were all from the same little area in the Punjab and knew each other before they came to Canada. I would have liked to visit with them again.
Other patients I met were a fella from Maidstone, a brother to a guy from Unwin who is passed away, who I used to sell straw to and a retired school teacher. People were coming and going all the time. After the blood checks and needles and administering the medicine, there was always time to meet and visit in the television room lounge. I have also never watched so much curling in my life. Thank you to the staff of the Lloydminster hospital who treated me very well. Also, thank you for all the people who took time to visit me.
On the news there is a lady down in Montreal who wants to wear full head covered burka when she is testifying in court. The judge in the case refuses to hear her testimony if she doesn’t appear bare headed. The lady is going to go to the Supreme Court because she claims it hurts her civil rights. Lord love a billy goat. Where does she get the idea she has the right to wear a burka in court?
If I go to court, even if I am in the spectator seats it is expected that I remove my hat and that I will do so as a sign of respect for the law. Is it too much to ask that if a person is testifying in court that you should be able to look them in the eye when you listen to what they have to say? This would be the same as me going to court wearing a long false beard, big pair of sunglasses on and my hoodie up.
I think the judge would have the right to ask me to remove those things before testifying at a trial. This is Canada where people have more rights than almost any place else in the world. Why are some people thinking they can waste court time on some stupid frivolous thing? A tip of my hat to that judge, let’s bring back some common sense.
In Alberta, Premier Jim Prentice has stepped in a bit of do do. When a reporter was pressing him about who was responsible for the financial crisis in Alberta he said the people of Alberta need only look in the mirror. The comment has not been well received. The media was all over it. The NDP were all over it. I think it is a perfectly true statement, but from a political stand point you should not say it. The people elected representatives to manage the government. Some did not do a good job. It does no good to be pointing fingers and laying blame. The situation is what it is, deal with it. What has happened in the past should stay in the past and the people should move forward. The only value the past has is to try to use it as experience and not to repeat mistakes in the future.
My good wishes go out to Jim Prentice and the people of Alberta as they struggle to balance the budget. Maybe a little quote from my late uncle William Snell who liked to say “And this too shall come to pass.”
I hope those of you who are on Alberta time like the move to fast time. The clocks went ahead Saturday night. I like this time. I wish we could be on fast time year round. There is nothing nicer than the long sunny days of March and April.
Quote of the week from landman Steve Saar: “Happiness is an inside job, it comes from your own heart.”
