The way I count it, this week has rushed by and we are another week closer to spring. There have been some cold nights, but for the middle of winter it has not been that bad. The only thing that has been bad is this cursed wind. I swear it has blown for 40 days and 40 nights already. People ask me what the weather is going to be tomorrow. Well, I don‘t know because I only know from the weather now is what is coming six months from now. I can tell you that after a very wet June in 2015 there is a long drought with no rain for July and we will all be sick of the wind before we are done. Keep your toes warm. We are not done with winter yet.
On the home front, after finishing the tandem truck we parked it outside and towed the F9000 up to the shop. After plugging it in all night and charging the batteries, it would start but not make air. After investigation by Jaco he found the air tanks with water frozen inside and one air hose frozen solid. After having to take the hose off under the truck in -15 C weather with a wind blowing he is appreciating the shop heater. The truck is now in the shop and it will get serviced.
Someone has bypassed the air drier on the truck. That is a “have to have” in this country. I had a truck once before that came from British Columbia and I would be going down the road and would lose air to the brake pots and the brakes would come on. Most disconcerting. The way this truck is now, it is a summer only truck. The only thing I use this truck for is to pull the water trailer for spray water. I have had it on a grain trailer when I split my super Bs at harvest. There is no point in splitting the super Bs with a one-man show. Who is driving the other truck? I bought this truck at an auction sale about three years ago. I have had used trucks all my life and the only thing wrong with an older truck is the truck drivers who think they are mechanics have been fixing on these poor old trucks for years. Some of these guys should have had their fingers cut off.
I have only had one new truck in my life and I still have it. A 1976 F250 super cab and it is retired in back of the yard. It cost $13,500 brand new. Looking back on how the price of trucks has gone, I should have bought 10 of them at the time. Of course, I didn’t have the money. The shine of a new truck fades really fast when you realize how much money they cost.
In political news, I would like to send a bouquet and a tip of my hat to Alberta Premier Jim Prentice and the Alberta Conservative cabinet who took a five per cent cut in their wages. This is refreshing after the Redford era. At the same time, I would send a brick to the mayors and councils of Edmonton and Calgary who took a five per cent raise in their salaries. This is not the time. If you are in political life for the money you are in it for the wrong reason. Now is the time for close control of the spending and not be asking the taxpayers for more money. If you still have pudding on your lips, you are not justified in asking for more pudding.
Sun Media had some interesting facts on an editorial on balancing the federal budget. The total federal budget is $279 billion. The loss from dropping oil prices is $4.2 billion. That is a loss in revenue of 2 per cent. That is all? Two per cent? There is no reason that two per cent cannot be found to balance the budget. When there is a shortfall in a budget like this there are two ways to get the budget balanced. The scientific way and the idiot way. In the scientific way you examine all the costs and every department head tries to protect his turf. It goes on and on and sometimes never gets settled. The idiot way works best. The minister just says to the department heads you are getting cut two per cent and that’s it. If we had statesmen they would say to the department heads we are taking two per cent off wages, you should do the same. We will soon see if we are loaded up in Ottawa with statesmen or crass politicians.
Joke of the week: A policeman was staking out a renowned rowdy bar trying to catch a drunk driving home. At closing time a fellow stumbled out of the bar, tripped over the curb, fell down and got up. He tried his keys in several cars before finding his own. Then he sat in the driver’s seat fumbling with his keys. In the meantime everyone else left the bar and drove off home. Finally the drunk started his car and began to drive off. The policeman was right there and stopped him. He read him his rights and administered a breathalyzer test. The test came back 0.0. The policeman was puzzled and wanted to know what was going on. The driver replied, “Well officer, tonight I am the designated decoy.”
