January 23rd, 2011:
The temperature is supposed to get into the plus single digits today; if the sun stays out that should burn off some of the ice that plagues the city streets. It seems that just about every day a street is blocked off by emergency vehicles because someone has hit the ditch. The off-ramp at Attridge and Circle Drive seems particularly bad, possibly because drivers are speeding up for the merge onto Circle Drive and overdo it. Lots of collisions, some of them pretty serious.
An article in the Saskatoon Sun features Joan (Marquette) Wagner who has started her own business helping people organize their spaces and their lives. We checked out her web page at saskatoonorganizingservices.ca and found it to be a very attractive and high quality site. She offers help in:
- Space Planning
- EstateOrganizing
- Downsizing
- Moving and Relocation
- Family and Household Management
- Kitchen Design
- Closet Design
- Home Decor
- Assistance for those with disabilities or personal challenges
- Residential Organization
Joan is the daughter of Connie and Maurice Marquette of Perigord. We recently were able to visit with Connie, Joan and Celeste while visiting Maurice in hospital.
Speaking of Perigord, watch for notices about an "Evening in Paris" at the Parish hall February 12th. It is in aid of arthritis research; I believe Holly Marquette is in charge, and it sounds mighty interesting. If we weren't away on a bus tour then, we would have seen you there. We are donating a photo enlargement, if we get it back from the processor in time. It will be used in a bucket raffle or some such event. Watch for it!
Silly things make me mad. On the radio this morning, we half listened to an animal health program, with a moderator and four veterinarians. In talking about preventive medicine, every one of them used "preventative" instead of "preventive". Do you suppose they think that making the word longer makes them sound wiser? I looked both words up in my Canadian Dictionary under "preventative", it just says "See preventive" from which I gather "preventive" is correct. Is it just me?
Two of my favorite columnists are Les McPherson, in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, and Ken Noskye in the Saskatoon Sun and occasionally in the Star Phoenix. I find McPherson very funny, and when he occasionally gets on his high horse, I often agree with his viewpoint. Noskye is a serious writer, but his columns make sense. I guess that is what makes a writer good – if he agrees with me!
When we lived at Greenwater, I took a lot of pictures in the winter – not as many as in summer, but a lot. Now I rarely venture out with my camera. Of course, the city isn't very photogenic in winter and that is one of the things we miss about the park. That is just an excuse – the real reason is that I have grown fat (ter) and lazy. We get some lovely hoar frost, and some misty scenes over the river that are worthy of a stop, and even the traffic can be interesting on a cold day. But my hands get cold, or the camera battery dies, or I need a tripod and left it at home. Disgusting. I need motivation. Do you suppose a photography class would do it?
We bought ourselves a new toy – an e-reader. It is about the size of a 5" x 7" photo, a half-inch thick, and holds thousands of books. A month ago, we declared that we had no interest in an e-reader, but now that we are embarking on a bus tour, it makes much more sense than toting a dozen pocket books. With it, one can enlarge the type at any time, which could be very useful if the light is bad, or the bus shaky. A battery charge is supposed to be good for 10,000 pages, and to re-charge, we just plug it into our computer, which we always have with us. It came with a hundred books already loaded – classics, mostly, but Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn deserve another read. When we got it home, I went on line and downloaded two more books that I have had my eye on; they cost about half what they would in the store, and we can read them on the e-reader or on any of our three computers. Of course, it isn't as cheap as buying books as we usually do – at garage sales – but we do have a choice. There is even a way we can borrow e-books from the local library. |
