Bountiful, a small encalave in south-eastern British Columbia, has, for decades been home to an off-shoot of an off-shoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, or FLDS, and has been run by this guy,   Winston Blackmore. Winston's a sweetheart. Reportedly he has 80 children by 26 wives. It might be pointed out that most of the "wives" were 15 years old when married. The sect WAS run by this guy; Warren Jeffs, another polygamist. He reportedly has 50 wives, (same age-group) as Blackmore's "wives", but he's serving time in the Utah State prison, so forget about him for the time being. After decades of ignoring the 1,000+ sect in Bountiful, (even after countless complaints, T.V. documentaries, and many interviews with escapees from the cult), Canadian author... 03/08/2009

In cities all over the world, Vienna to London, Berlin to Melbourne, there's a new phenomenon happening in restaurants.  It's called, "Pay what you want restaurants". You get to decide how much the grub is worth! George Pappas, co-owner of Montreal's Taverne Crescent, got the idea from a friend who had dined at Little Bay in London, England, that went pay-what-you-want in Februarary. Everybody's scared of the recession, said Pappas, but this concept works. If you have a little less, you give a little less-there's no pressure. Sometimes they give more! More telling, the media hype that Taverne Crescent's policy has generated has increased business dramatically. In a city with over 6,000 eateries, this has differentiated himself and his restaurant from the others. Some folks might think t... 03/08/2009

 The other day, I was watching Ted Poe, (R),                                            from Texas speaking in the House. He was on a rant about CFL lightbulbs and it got me thinking about, yep, another blog! Clearly, he was making political, but he had some points! This is a CFL. Here's what a lot of people don't know. They contain mercury. Here's a true story: Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, dropped one of these bulbs. Aware that CFL's contain hazardness material, she called Home Depot and asked what she should do. Home Depot told her to phone Poison Control Hotline who, in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP tested the house for contaminants and found that there was six times the States' safe limits present. An environmental cleanup firm... 03/08/2009

Forget the forest, fishing and mining industries; B.C.'s biggest industry is CRIME! In the last decade alone, the number of gangs has grown from 10 to over 129 organizations! Despite the best efforts of law enforcement, cocaine crosses the border by the ton. Last year alone, over a billion dollars worth was seized at the U.S./ B.C. border  It is estimated that there are over 20,000 residental grow-ops and many thousands more hidden in valleys and mountains. There is not a week goes by when there isn't a drive-by shooting. Last week alone, 7 were gunned down. Most were "known" to police, but in some case, innocent bystanders were shot. Police are admitting they are almost powerless, and they are linking what is happening here to the drug cartels in Mexico. It's gotten so bad in Mexico, t... 03/08/2009

   I could easily write an essay on this subject, but this is a blog, so, I'll hit the salient points only. There's lots of information on-line; I spent about 4 hours and didn't scratch the surface!  I In 1996, GM made available "For Lease Only", to California and Arizona, the electric car. It was fast, reliable, burned no fuel or oil, and, because of its range, could satisfy the needs of  about 90% of North America's drivers!  When the leases ran out, the cars were summarily picked up and CRUSHED! After that, GM lost all their customers to Toyota's RAV4-EV! GM also owned the rights to the batteries, which it subsequently sold to Chevron. A Chevron subsiduary subsequently sued Toyota to quit making batteries. Toyota ended up paying a huge settlement and had to stop production of their v... 03/08/2009

Our taste in T.V. is as different as night and day. My taste leans more towards A&E, Biography The history Channel,  How It's Made. That stuff. Her preferences are game shows, soaps and chick flicks. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not for me- to me, that's mind mush. So the fight for the remote is always on.                                                        I also watch a LOT of news-she doesn't, but she's always asking me what's going on in the world. So every night I would give her a five minute synopsis of world events. Then, to amuse myself, I'd make stuff up, but she didn't know the difference, because she hadn't watched the news herself, and I'd make the stories more and more outrageous.... ....AND she would share what I told her with all her friends! So eventually, I had ... 03/03/2009

I am blessed to live in beautiful British Columbia which boasts some of the finest skiing on the planet. A lot of the resorts, such as: SilverStar, Apex, Grouse, Whistler Blackcomb, & Cypress.  offer world-class skiing & snowboarding for the novice, intermediate and the expert                                 and a whole lot of other activities.  We also, unfortunately.........                 ..........attract the knuckleheads!. These are the people that can't read!                                  Every single year, despite well marked warnings,  barriers and pamphlets,                                                         some idiot, just has to go out of bounds! Recently, one such incident resulted in the death of the wife of a couple who wandered out of "well-marked" out of bounds... 03/03/2009

As I said in a previous blog, I'm really good on the tools. In a previous life I drafted, so I can design the house from the foundations up and then start building. I enjoy it, but,  I'm a little long-in-the-tooth  now to do it full time. I get beat up. Designing and building-that's the easy bit.                 The hard stuff is the finishing!                           And I blame those damn                                       people who write the                                                      BOOKS! Many a sleepless night have I spent reading  the "How-To" books. I figure I have 500 of these things, but if I get  one idea from a book-it's a good book. Now, the problem is, my wife reads the books too.           And then the fun starts! She's got her ideas and I've got my ideas.... 03/03/2009

It's the finishing that almost gets me into divorce court! (That's part two of this blog).    I like building! I have designed and built 3 homes,                                   from the foundations up.                             All three were progressively bigger                                                                      and more elaborate,                                                   and better appointed than the last.                                       I made money                                  on them all and I would                               never have sold the last one, (it was a "beaut", with fantastic                                                           views down the inlet),                                                                       ... 03/03/2009

Last week the last remnants of winter melted away, the sun was shining and it was quite pleasant outside. Previously, I wrote a blog about how I was out in my T shirt raking and cleaning and trimming.  Then, last night, it happened again! Another 8 " of heavy wet snow! I live in a place where we normally don't much more than a skiff of snow........ ..........this year has been brutal.                       I just now got in the house after spending all morning digging out. Previously, I'm from the Prairies, so I know how to drive in snow. It's the OTHER guy I worry about!  I've watched idiots in their 4 x 4's, 8 feet tall and bullet-proof,                                                        zipping around on the ice and snow like                                                       ... 03/03/2009

The other day, my wife ask me if I would like to join some friends of ours and go play bingo. For anyone who does not know what bingo is, I'll give you the 2 minute primer. In a large hall, maybe 600 souls  sit at tables with a stack of bingo cards and an ink "dabber". All of them have their own particular lucky charms.         (Rabbits feet seem to be a favorite;                    in an average bingo hall, the remains of a                           small army of rabbits is evident).                           The game caller pulls numbered balls out of a cage,                  and announces the number over a microphone.                                   The players mark off  the number on their                                                 cards with their dabber.        We're talkin... 03/03/2009

 Every since I can remember, I used to listed to a lot of radio and it seemed that every night this guy came on air and told a little story. And the story always had a little twist at the end.     I admit, I was a fan. Walter Cronkite had the famous line at the end of every newscast; : "And that's the way it is..." Harvey's keynote signature sign-off was,  "and..... now.....you.....know.....the.....rest.....of.....the.....story!   Some classic Harvey. (Click on the picture) He was definitely an American fixture. 03/03/2009

 Monday, March 2, 2009 While life is lived forward, it is only understood looking backward. Numbers I can barely comprehend are being thrown around. The morning news informs me that AIG lost 61.7 billion dollars  in the 4th quarter of 2008, and will probably be going back to the federal well for an addtional 30 billion "shot in the arm". This on top of the 150 billion already received! And, it wouldn't surprise me if another 100 billion won't be needed. This stock, once trading at over $56 is now at 47 cents. I would imagine on this particular Monday, there's a lot of politicos in the Capitol going into cardiac arrest. My take? The American people are going to own AIG, and the shares will be worthless.                                                                    This turkey is coo... 03/02/2009

Anyone's who has read my previous blog on law and order knows that I'd like to see some sort of reform up here. The bleeding hearts and "rights" groups seem to have swung the pendulum to ridiculous extremes- to the point that criminals have more rights than law-abiding citizens!  Some of you, I'm sure, have heard about this guy...Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He's the sheriff of Mericopa County in Arizona who gets voted into office time and time again because he's really tough on crime! He IS controversial! There's a lot of civil liberties groups that                  want him out; but that's the topic of another blog.                                   You can get all this stuff on Google;                                                 there's tons of information on him.                         ... 02/27/2009

WHY IS IT.... Dugstores make sick people walk to the back of the store to get their prescriptions                            while healthy people get to buy their cigarettes at the front! Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and DIET Coke!                               People leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway,                                                      and fill their garages with garbage. Why is that? Can some one tell me why they have braille lettering on drive-through ATM's? How come the sun lightens your hair and darkens the skin? Why don't you ever see a psychic win the lottery? Why is ABBREVIATED such a long word? Why do doctors call what they do "practice"? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavour, and dishwashing soap made wit... 02/27/2009

 As I get older I have concerns about the typical stuff                                                                      The dreaded prostrate exam doesn't bother me............................  the one that really bothers me is the possibility of memory loss.                                                                                                   I watched my dad and several of                                                   his friends lose it towards the end and that scares the crap out of me! So, I'm always looking for ways to keep my brain sharp! I read somewhere that it helps to do mind exercises and train the brain,                                                                       basically do "brain gymnastics" So that's what I try to do.Puzzles help; I do sev... 02/27/2009

Occasionally, I get fed little snippets of information, and if          it catches my attention, I research it to death and write a blog.                         So here I am again, trying to sort out fact from conspiracy theory.                          Now, I'm NOT going to get into all the dry stuff; there's lots of information on this topic on Wikepedia etc., if you're interested, and it's an interesting read. (Just type in Bakken Formation) Apparently there is a reserve of oil that stretches through  North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan called the BAKKEN FORMATION,                                     which some analysts     calculate contains                                                                        About 5 billion barrels of oil!  Putting that into perspective, that... 02/27/2009

I spend a ton of time in my office, doing business, writing and crafting blogs. I was missing a radio and I was going to buy one. Nothing special; just a basic radio so I could listen to talk shows or classical music while I did my thing. By chance, I was getting my hair cut the other day and my barber and I got into a conversation about the new "stuff" out there. Well, he happened to mention that he bought a "Juke Box".           No, not                                                                                                                  this type.                               THIS TYPE! I'm not a shill for this product. I'm just here to tell you, this thing's amazing! It's about the size of the average pinky finger, plugs into the USB port on your computer and gets 13,000 ... 02/27/2009

                       One day a father of a very weathly family took his son                       on a trip to visit his poor cousins in the country with the purpose of showing him how the "other half" lived. They spent a couple of days on the farm.                                                                                    On their return trip, the father                                                                                                  asked the son, "How was the trip son?"                                                                                     The son replied, "It was great, Dad". "So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?", asked the father. The son answered, "I saw that we have one dog and they have four".                                     ... 02/27/2009

      Al, who owned a family run butcher shop was doing well; he was making a good living, always paid his bills on time, and put his three kids through university. Life was good! Al, always advertised his specials in a weekly flyer and passed along any discounts he received and was always cheerful and positive to his customers. And even though the country was in a recession, Al managed to hold his own and managed to make a profit every month! Al's son, who had the world by the ass, and a lot of new-found knowledge, (he was an economics major), came home during spring break, from a much needed rest from school and to help out in the family store. He was soon questioning his dad why he was advertising specials and discounting prices. "Dad", he said, "don't you read the papers and watch T... 02/27/2009