January 11th, 2009: Quite a change in the weather; it’s only about -8°C as I write this, but overcast and snowing lightly, with a light wind. That is about as warm as I would like to see it get until late March, not that my desires have much to do with it.
While at coffee Friday afternoon, I ran into Jim Berg, who was on our bus tour to Mesa two years ago, and Gordon Blair, who we knew when he and Verna lived in Porcupine Plain. They owned Blair’s Funeral Home there. They moved to Nipawin quite a few years ago, and ran a funeral parlor there for years. I forgot to ask if he was living in Saskatoon, but assume he was. Blairs were friends with Herm and Irm Duerksen and we met them through the Duerksens.
We also met Judy Michaluk, who ran a boutique in Preeceville for a number of years. Her husband, Dennis, was a photographer at the same time I was. I believe he is no longer taking pictures, but is still running the farm near Sturgis. They have a house in Saskatoon and Judy lives here most of the time. Dennis manages a day or two at a time in the city, then gets antsy and heads back to the farm.
Trouble in the Mid-East again – I suspect it will never end. The Israeli action may seem a bit extreme, but what do you do when someone keeps sniping at you? It seems strange that Hamas screams that their people are being killed, and at the same time keep shooting rockets into Israel, which is what brought on the Israeli attack. They decry the death of civilian women and children, yet hide behind those same women and children while playing with their fireworks. Israel has no option but to keep up the offensive until the Hamas rockets are stilled.
I believe the above is an opinion shared by most of the people I visit and coffee with. Out of curiosity, I Googled “Gaza Economy” and read a number of opinion pieces that blame Israeli heavy-handed policies ever since the 1967 War for keeping the Palestinians in Gaza and, to a lesser degree, in the West Bank, in grinding poverty. So, who do you believe? Thank God we live in Canada, where all our politicians are upright and truthful people.
Not long before we left Greenwater, our old water heater sprang a leak. We weren’t surprised – it was over twenty years old – but it happened late in the day. We phoned Barry Leier and by nine o’clock the next morning he and Bill Tvait had a new one installed and running, and they took the old one away. At a very reasonable price too, I should add. Our water heater here is about the same vintage – if the same thing happens, what do you think our chances are of getting similar service in Saskatoon? Not good, I’m afraid.
It has taken me all day to write this little bit. Just before e-mailing it I glanced out the window and there is a full-scale blizzard raging out there. The snow is horizontal and we can hardly see across Berini Drive.
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