#Klondike

Just finished watching Klondike. It aired on the Discovery Channel January 20th, 21st, and 22nd. Six exiting hours of TV watching. We enjoyed the show. Apparently, it was made after true events.
As the name implies it was about finding gold in the Yukon, in Dawson City. Great story and done well. It shows you again how people act when there is no law and what greed does to people.

Well worth watching. It can still be found on the internet for downloading.

#Captain Phillips

Last Saturday we watched the movie Captain Phillips, staring #Tom Hanks as the captain of a transport ship that is hijacked by Somali pirates.

What a great movie. Of course, with an actor like Tom Hanks how can you go wrong.

I’m not going to tell the whole story here or reveal the ending. It is actually a true story, but nevertheless it is exiting and nail-biting. The actors that played the Somali pirates were also extremely talented and made the story quite real. You just want to grab a gun and shoot them and my wife and I said jokingly several times, “Where is Steven Seagal when you need him?” Actor Steven Seagal, of course, is the Martial Arts expert who played a Navy Seal in the movie Under Siege where a ship was taken over by terrorists. Also a terrific movie but not a true story.

However, Captain Phillips was not that kind of a movie. What made it so much more frightening is the fact that this actually happened, and is still happening in that part of the world, the Indian Ocean. For the last couple of years efforts are being made to stop the piracy and it seems to be moderately successful.

There are believed to be four ships and 108 hostages currently being held by pirates in the region, who have made millions from what is effectively armed robbery and kidnapping at sea.

If you are interested in reading more, just click on the highlighted portion above. Another interesting link is below:

http://news.sky.com/story/1058494/battling-somali-pirates-in-the-seychelles

Omar Khadr

  

Some things just bug me. Apparently, Omar Khadr, the guy who was held in Guantanamo Bay for killing an American soldier is suing Canada for 20 million Dollars, because Canada did not help him to get out of prison.

How is this even possible? Here again is a perfect example how terrorists and other criminals take advantage of our ‘Western Ways’, our right to freedom and certain other human rights. This is where the ‘Bleeding hearts’ shine, because they even condone such behavior.

The Khadrs have openly declared to be an ‘al’Qaeda-family. The father, Ahmed Khadr, was killed in 2003 by Pakistani Security forces. His brother Abdulkareem Khadr was severely wounded in that same attack, and it left him a paraplegic. Our Canadian government brought him back to Canada, because he is a Canadian citizen. Now he is most likely taking advantage of our health care system.

His other brother, Abdullah Khadr, spend five years in a US prison. In 2010 the Ontario Superior Court ordered him released on the base of shocking and unjustifiable human rights violations. I’m sure Abdullah was innocent and just a victim of mistaken identity.

I still remember Khadr’s mother and sister as they were shown on TV, dressed in their traditional garb, their faces covered, and screaming. We must remember his sister was born 1979 in Ottawa, Canada, and yet, she did not accept our Canadian ways, denounced them even by refusing to dress the way we dress. And this has nothing to do with religious freedom. Talk about spitting in the face of your host.

Omar Khadr was born in Canada, a Canadian citizen, but he decided to join a terrorist group in another country, denouncing his country of birth. In a sense he rejected our country and our way of life.

And yet, his family is taking advantage of our health care, our welfare system, and all the other good things our western ways offer. And the guy has the nerve to sue his own country! Of course, that is nothing new. One of our own Prime ministers did exactly the same thing, but that is another story.

Only in Canada, eh?

We should have given that whole family a one-way ticket to Afghanistan or Pakistan a long time ago, since they love that way of life so much. Just my opinion and my right to express what I think about it.

I didn’t make any of this up. All the information can be found on the internet. Here is one link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr

Will it ever end?

It's been snowing for the last few days. Today I took out my snow-blower and cleaned the driveway, even though it was snowing. I hoped it would stop, but it hasn't. Now there is even a weather advisory out. On top of the blowing snow it is also friggen cold with windshield temperature up to minus 40 C.

I was at a meeting tonight. The speed limit on the Hwy I travel is 80km/hr. I drove 75 because of the slippery sections. Of course, there was one guy in a truck who figured it is still summer. He passed me at such high speed I thought I wasn't moving. He must have been driving at least 100km/hr. I almost expected to find him in the ditch, but I didn't.

When I drove home at around 9:30 pm it snowed a bit heavier and I drove at around 70km/hr. A few cars passed me. Every time they passed they left a cloud of snow in their wake, snow that lay on the passing lane. It drifted in front of me creating near whiteout conditions for me and the drivers behind me. I consider that  careless driving. Beside the poor visibility it was also slippery. They never learn.
When I was on the road yesterday I saw a few cars in the ditches. Drivers who thought they were safe inside their cars and accidents only happened to others, according to their thinking.

Well, I guess I'll have to clean my driveway tomorrow again.

Will it ever end?

Let it snow...let it snow...

Here we go again. Another snowstorm. All the roads around Winnipeg are slippery and the visibility is low because of the blowing snow. We were supposed to babysit tonight but had to cancel because of the bad road conditions. I'm not going anywhere with slippery highways and all those idiots on the road. Right now (4:00 pm) it is near minus 10 C, but the forecast calls for around zero, with rain or possible thundershowers. Great...and this in January!

The barometer has dropped quite a bit since this morning and I can feel it in my bones and head.  All I need is a nosebleed the way I get them in Spring and in Fall when the weather changes and everything will be perfect. Why was I designed to be a biological barometer? No wonder older people like to go south for the winter.

I can just see the accidents happening again today. It seems people never learn. In December there were, apparently, over 6000 claims. Don't people ever watch TV and listen to these statistics? Every time I'm on the road and the conditions are bad there are still those drivers who need to pass me. Are people really so stupid and believe they are safe in their cars? It seems so. I don't even want to mention the riders of snowmobiles. There were already a few fatal accidents involving snowmobiles. I could never see the attraction of racing in the ditch.

Call me an old fuddy-duddy, I don't care. I will slow down and drive according to conditions. Unfortunately, those impatient drivers involve other drivers in their accidents, sometimes with fatal consequences. Most of the time it is the innocent, careful driver who dies. The bastards who cause the accidents live.

Even though the weather isn't great right now, I'm still considering myself lucky to live in Manitoba. When I see on TV how things are in the East or even to the South I'm glad I'm here. This morning I filled 4 containers with water just in case the power goes out, but we've never really had to worry about that. The odd times we lose power but only for a short time. I have a generator in case the power is out for longer, but so far I haven't had to use it. It is there for peace of mind.

The only time I've used that generator is when we go hunting. That's right. When we're in the bush we have electricity in our trailer. We even run a light to light up the area around our camp. All the comforts of home.

To come back to the snow and icy road conditions, here is something that isn't actually funny, but it still makes you laugh watching it. Just click on the link.

 http://www.youtube.com/embed/xKy2lLNQYrI?rel=0&iv_load_policy=3&showinfo=0

Is the #harsh winter over?

The deep-freeze is finally gone...for a little while anyway. Temperatures are moving up. We’ll be having single digit numbers for a week or so. Tomorrow it is supposed to reach minus 4 C. However, today it is quite windy and cloudy. They are even predicting snow. Yesterday was bitterly cold but sunny. What is better?

There is already quite a bit of snow on the ground. Maybe it is good for skiing and snowmobiling, but not good for our animal friends. For hunters like me this winter is not good news. Our Whitetail deer population is down from previous years because of the bad winters we had. Deep snow prevents the deer from moving around and the cold is not good, either. Winters like this year cause many animals to die. We may even have to close some areas to hunting. I hope our native hunters who can hunt all year without a license have the good sense to follow this practice. If we don’t practice conservation we’ll end up with no animals to hunt or for the non-hunters just to enjoy.

People who are against hunting don’t sometimes understand and realize that the hunters are the ones who make sure there is sufficient habitat for the animals. That is achieved with the money that comes in through hunting permits and even donations. Hunting and fishing creates many jobs and brings in millions of dollars into the economy. There are many spinoffs that are not obvious to most people. The number of animals that can be harvested is strictly regulated. That is why so many of us are against the unregulated hunting our native population enjoys. It is difficult to control something if one segment of society is exempt from regulations. But that is a political issue I don’t want to get into.

This year I left a narrow slit open in the lattice that keeps large animals from hiding under our sun-room. It is warm underneath because of the warm air from the dryer and the exhaust fan. The narrow slit allows birds to seek refuge there. It gives them a chance to survive the cold. And the feeder is nearby. We like to do our bit to help our feathered little friends make it through the winter.

We keep one of our feathered friends in a cage. His name is Eddie and he is a canary. We bought him last year. He is still young and has a mind of his own. Actually, he is a bit strange for a bird. He doesn’t care much for flying. We let him out of his cage every day so he can stretch his wings and exercise, but he is so reluctant to leave his cage. We practically have to evict him. Yesterday, he walked around on the counter, too close to the edge and consequently slipped off the edge and dropped to the floor. Instead of flying around, he came up again, like a helicopter, and promptly walked to his cage and jumped back into it. That was the end of his excursion.

Today he actually jumped in and out a few times, but stayed close to his cage. Perhaps he is afraid we may not let him back in if he strays too far? What a strange little guy. But he sings nice and keeps us entertained.

I managed to snap a couple of pictures. Here they are:

I like my life behind bars

Freedom is overrated

The Stormy Season

Here we go again. We haven’t even gotten used to writing 2014 and already we’re hit with another snowstorm. We’ve had below normal temperatures with the thermometer hitting up to minus 40 C. Today it warmed up a bit, but now it is snowing. Some parts of Manitoba even have blizzard advisories. Visibility is poor on the highways and travel not recommend.

We just finished cleaning our driveway and the snow is already piling up in front of the garage door. We want to go grocery shopping tomorrow instead of today, the way we usually do, but the weather changed our mind. However, trying to get out of the garage  means blowing snow, and I’m still not quite over my cold. It seems to linger on. Going outside, taxing my tired body by doing physical work and breathing the cold air, is not really helping me getting over this cold. But I’m feeling much better already. There is hope.

Yesterday we had our friends R. and H. and my cousin M. and H. over and that always lifts the spirit. There is no better therapy than spending time with good friends and people you love, to joke and laugh and to forget about ailments and other sad things that invade our lives to make us miserable.

The start of a new year always means time to reflect and to count our blessings. Time to realize how lucky we are to live in a country that isn’t torn apart by violence and death. The only things we worry about are the usual scum that live in every society, the ones who break into people’s homes, the ones who rob people, steal cars, the ones who don’t want to work but still desire to possess what honest working people accumulate through hard work.

Friends of ours have a problem with their credit card. Some lowlife charged $12,000.00 to their account by buying an airplane ticket to some place in Arabia. They had that cleared up, now somebody bought $5,000.00  worth of airplane tickets in Winnipeg and charged it to their account. They don’t even live in Winnipeg, so how could they buy tickets here? There isn’t enough punishment for people who get caught committing these crimes, or any kind of crime. Too many bleeding hearts and unscrupulous lawyers out there defending them. Perhaps the Shakira law isn’t so bad after all. Unfortunately, the people who believe in that kind of punishment commit larger and more heinous crimes against the rest of the world. So much for that.

Anyway, I’m staying home today and I’ll be wasting my time on the computer, instead of wasting it outside freezing my butt off. I might even watch my fish swimming in the aquarium and dream of frolicking in the ocean in some warm southern country and afterwards lying on the beach soaking up the sun. And in the evening going for a walk with my wife down a gravel path under tall palm trees, listening to the sounds of a romantic Latin song...Oh, oh, I was wrong. It is loud Western music blaring from the speakers down by the beach...

Oh well, not all dreams are perfect. I think I’ll put a CD into my player, a CD we bought in Cuba last year, featuring a piano player by the name of Ishmael. He played wonderful classical music. I wish I was there right now... 

Happy New Year

Welcome 2014

Well, here it is, the year 2014. Let's hope it will bring good times. Most of us just want to live and enjoy life, but sadly there are always those living among us who are not happy unless they can inflict pain and misery onto others. It is difficult to understand those kind of people. They have their own reasons for doing it, be it to please their god or be it hatred toward those who don't believe what they believe, be it jealousy, envy, greed, or just plain sadism. We can only hope that we are always far away from the places they single out to commit their awful deeds.

I'm talking about those suicide bombers that are targeting Russia right now. Their goal is to create chaos and to disrupt the Olympic Games, and to keep people from visiting Russia. It is such a wonderful thing to have people from all over the world come together in peace and watch athletes show off their skills. But these terrorists are not interested in world peace. All they are interested in is their own agenda. How they can even justify what they are doing is difficult to understand. Violence only breeds violence. You can't expect to reach you goals by committing violent crimes toward others. Why anyone would want to kill himself (herself in extreme cases) for some cause is beyond me. I can't get my mind around the fact that anyone can be brainwashed to the extend that they want to commit suicide. It doesn't even make sense. Strangely, it is never one of the leaders who commits suicide. Only the poor suckers they can convince that it is the right thing to do. What do I care about the world when I'm dead? Why kill yourself so others can have a 'better' life, whatever form that life is supposed to be? Do they actually belief that their reward will be to have sex in the afterlife? Such thinking blows my mind. If you want to have sex, have it here, in this life. There may be nothing after this, anyway. It's all hearsay. Nobody knows anything, even if they try to convince their followers that they do.

So my wish for the year 2014 is to have some sort of peace in the world, for people to put their energy into spreading love and kindness instead of violence and pain, for people to give instead of taking, to do the job themselves instead of demanding others do it for them, to show love instead of hate. I like to close with this little #poem that I wrote:

Smile instead of frown

look up instead of down

Laugh and do not cry

Live, pretend that you will never die

Appreciate the things you have

and face each day with a hearty laugh

Enjoy the company of your good friends

For it brings great dividends

Be positive and have no fear

Have a wonderful and a Happy New Year

                                                                        Herbert Grosshans