This porch isn’t going to build itself.
I’ve been really busy lately so I’m sorry if I haven’t been posting much lately. I’ll get back to it after the Olympics are over. I’m a big skating fan so I’ll be glued to the Olympics in the coming weeks. Exciting times indeed. I almost wish I could get over to Vancouver to have a look.
Oh boy, where to begin. So another Christmas has came and gone and it couldn’t have been better. Both Rick and Erica surprised us! It was a Christmas surprise for the books. Susan had been sure to buy the biggest turkey she could find at the IGA and I’m glad she did because Rick can sure pack it away. Oh and as for Janie and her new music player, she was so surprised! I told her to open it up so we could all have a listen, but she said she didn’t have her computer so she couldn’t load it. I still wanted to feel how light it was because the darn thing looks so small so I asked her to open it up. But she said it wasn’t the colour she wanted. Boy kids these days!
Gerald next door dropped in. I think he had a few too many of them rum and egg nogs because he was soon telling us about the Korean war. I told him that some of these stories weren’t appropriate but he just kept telling them.
We put up our Christmas tree. Susan wanted to get a fake one this year but I said over my dead body. If there’s one goddam thing I believe in it’s a real Christmas tree and Jesus.
Midnight Mass this year was quite the show. Jessica was chosen to be the Pope’s Ambassador and revelled in her duties as she blessed this and that. Made us all chuckle.
Sarah went to Jamaica with her work friend Tiffany. She sent us some pictures on the Face Books. It looked like fun, that’s for sure.
I was watching CTV the other day and saw an piece about sea lion entanglement off the coast of Vancouver Island. This is one that is concerning BC marine animal experts (and me too!). They are saying that people should not be discarding things into the ocean after a sea lion was recently entangled in rope for several days recently.
As a fisherman, I’ve noticed this kind of garbage in the past and I’m not very happy about it.
Fishing gear, rope, plastics all effect the marine life and tossing garbage over boats and into rivers is just disrespectful and disgusting.
If an animal gets tied up in something like this they will die and very slow and painful death and there is no need for it. Just because you’re lazy doesn’t mean an animal should die.
Sorry for my rant – this kind of stuff is completely unnecessary and it’s gets me steaming mad.
At least the sea lion was able to be saved last week – that’s the only good news that came out of this story.
Boy have I got a story for you. Every couple of months me and Susan head to the city to go to the Costcos to get our sundries and such. Sure is something I look forward to ever since I had one of them there Costcos Hot Dogs and free samples they give out. Me and Susan had a big list as we had to get prepared for the Christmas celebrations on hand, as Jack and the kids were flying in from Ontario to spend Christmas with us. Boy, I sure do feel sorry for those kids losing their mom like that so we wanted to make this year extra special for them.
Anyhow, Janie had mentioned she wanted one of them ipods. Sure was in for a shocker when I realized that it wasn’t a camera, but a little music player? That commercial sure could have fooled me. Anyhow, Susan sent me to do my research, and get this – the goshdarn things are over $200! Losing your mom or not, I told Susan, I am not spending $200 on some little doohickey that’s going to break or get lost (sheesh those things are small). Back in my day electronics were a thing to be cherished, and you used them till they were beyond repair. I still remember out fixing our old RCA gramophone with Pa in the barn. A couple timepiece servos, a little oil and some elbow grease and a big dollop of ingenuity and we were listening to our stories that evening. Course storm didn’t help as the electricity went out that night. Sometimes Mother Nature just don’t want you to do something and she ain’t shy about telling you. So we did the next best thing at the time. Ma got her homepressed beeswax candle that she was saving for my Aunt Karen’s wedding and we huddled around entertaining each other with stories of yuletide joy. Boy, now thats a real Christmas memory. As for Aunt Karen’s wedding – she didn’t get no traditional candle, but that didn’t stop Ma. She just went and rubbed some pinetree oil into some cold cured hide and made Karen a beautiful little set of hat boxes. You should have seen Karen’s face, and I’ll tell you, no word of a lie, those hat boxes are still in the family.
Long story short, is that Janie ain’t getting no $200 doohickey. Thankfully the Radio Shack had a little music playing thing which did the same things as those ipods but it was only $15. Can’t wait to see Janie’s face when she sees here new… hold on let me get my glasses… her new “Coby 128 MB Audio X-Treme Mp3 Stick.” Sure is small, but the sales person said they were as popular as them epods and at this price i see why. Something tells me that this little player may still be in the family in 40 years. Call me sentimental, but I know quality when I see it.
Susan was out in the garden and I ask her what she’s planting.
You know what she tells me? She tells me she’s planting grass !!
I couldn’t believe my ears. I spend all spring and summer mowing that damn lawn and spraying pesticides to kill all this grass and what does Susan do? She goes and plants some more. I couldn’t believe it. She is something else.
(Don’t tell her but I actually like the grass. It’s not so bad to look I suppose. She told me it was from a place on the mainland called Pepindale Nursery. They’ve got a cool little website too.)
This is what grass looks like:
If I get mad, I might have to grab the weed wacker!
My grandson just got back from a fishing trip in Indonesia and he sent this glorious photo of a fishing boat he saw over there. Let me tell you, I never seen a boat like that one.
The guys at the shop got a good laugh out of this ol boat! I don’t know why that boy even went over there to tell you the truth.
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As all my loyal readers know I sure do get a lot of e-mails here at nimmobay.bc.ca. I got this one the other day and I just wanted to share it with everyone.
Dear Pete,
I thought you would like to hear how much we appreciate your blog. My family and I always look forward to your quirky take on life. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to smile and it sure is nice to see someone put a little good news into the world. I’m not a fisherman myself, but I am definitely an avid outdoorsy type, so to read some of your helpful hints is definitely a blessing in disguise. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, it’s me Ronald.
Thinking of you bud,
Ronald
Well I’ll be. It’s Ronald – a good old friend from the mill. I haven’t spoken to Ronny in years. I remember one time we were on a graveyard and decided to have a little fun at the foreman’s expense. Ronny, being the joker that he is, pours a little amaretto into Jim’s thermos. Now old Jim puts so much cream and sugar into his coffee you could have put straight cod oil in there he wouldn’t have known. So a couple hours later, we find poor old Jim snoozing in his office. Seems he was a little unaware. Boy I’ll tell you what a laugh we had that night. It’s those memories that you cherish, and you wouldn’t trade for the world.
Thanks for the email Ron, if you’re every planning on coming out West you should phone me up so we can catch up. Hope Jannie and the kids are still good.
Okay, so I know that for all my shucks darn readers out there, that you know I got a pretty long rope when it comes to taking a lot of guff, but I’m just about at the end of it with these goshdarn e-mailers. I’ll tell ya, that sometimes opening up my e-mails is like seeing one of them adult picture shows. I mean jeez, I’ve seen a lot in my time, but these just ain’t something I would be speaking to Father Jacob about. I mean, why are they e-mailing me all these shucksdarn things anyways? Most of them don’t even have my name on them for pete’s sake, and if they did they sure as a heck haven’t been doing there market research, I’ll tell ya!
For example, just the other day I got one that said something about me getting some more medication at a cheap price? Well, even if I did need this medication, I think I’d be going to my doctor and not ordering it from some silly emailer. Okay, another example, these “adult” content sites? Boy, I’ll tell you, I had er’ out with Telus, and even tried to call the Google to tell them I didn’t appreciate them giving out my e-mail address out. Those smart allecks at Telus were telling me that it wasn’t there responsibility? Well then who am I signing those check to every month hmm? I’ll tell you, if Telus doesn’t smarten up soon, I may just have to look at getting a new internet.
I’ve been learning all sorts of stuff this past couple of weeks, ever since my introduction to blogging. Just a little personal note to Trevor, thanks for all your help! Trev is my grandson, and boy, I’ll tell ya, without him this whole web page thing would just never be. Trev set the whole thing up and has been helping me out with everything. He also set me up with a skype account, which is just like a regular phone, but Trev says its over the internet? What a crazy world this is. If only we had the opportunities in my day, I’ll tell you I wouldn’t be suffering from this ol’back of mine having worked in the mill for those years I did.
Alas, things change and I’m just happy me and Susan got this here computer, and are able to use the goddamn thing in the first place! Oh well, just goes to show you, you can’t get anywhere in this world without a little work! On a little side note, people keep emailing me about the nimmobay fishing resort? I asked Trev about it and he said that this used to be their “web address”? Perhaps Trev’s email will better clarify it.
Hi Grandpa,
I’m glad to hear the blog is going good. Amber is still sick, but Mom said that it’s not the H1N1, so that’s good. Mom said she reads it every day and really enjoys it. Hockey is going really good this year, we had a tournament in Summerland and did really well.
About all those Nimmo Bay emails you’ve been getting, I looked into it and it seems that nimmobay.bc.ca is the old address of a fishing resort? So people will just have to update their bookmarks I guess.
Love you,
Trev
Well there you go, so sorry if I’ve caused any confusion about this! It’s all new to me to!
EDITORS NOTE: Very funny Carol, and no obviously that isn’t me. Sheesh!
Well if this just don’t make your heart swell! Seems an angler is searching for the man who had found his custom made fishing rod. Well if that ain’t enough to put a sane man closer to the edge, but turns out it was also a custom made one at that! Well, what’s a poor fella to do? Poor Charlie Crosby turned to the local media, and made his own posters. Feeling helpless, he was resigned to believe that indeed his little fishing rod had gone the way of this fishes. But, just like one of them superheroes in the comics Charlie had his prize returned!
Now if this ain’t pulling at your old heart strings, I don’t know what would. Seems ol’Charlie boy’s hero shares something else with superheroes – no one knows who he is. Now come on there fella, Charlie just wants to give you a firm handshake to thank you as a man should. So, if you’re one of my loyal readers and you’ve recently returned a fishing rod anonymously, why not step up and get your just desserts. Lord knows you deserve it!
