March 7th, 2010:
Spring is here – at least for a little while. Temperatures well above freezing, and only getting down to about zero at night. Lots of sunshine and not too much wind makes it pretty pleasant outside. I'm glad I didn't bother washing the car, though – the streets are pretty wet with melted snow.
Yesterday, after breakfast with the Sunseekers, we went to Prairieland Park where the Sport and Leisure show was on. It used to be held at Credit Union Place which it filled, so it really filled Prairieland Park. We thought it was a very good show, certainly would appeal to the sports and leisure-minded people. It was well-attended, too – we were there for four hours and it never slacked off. When we left, cars were lined up on Ruth all the way to Lorne Avenue.
What really impressed us was the number and types of docks on display, from simple, floating platforms to very elaborate systems incorporating huge boat lifts. When we bought our pontoon boat in 2001, there was a limited number of docks available so we made do with some home-made wooden sections we had had around for thirty years.
And boats! Real Cadillacs of the water and priced to match. Very little in the way of small, rowable family boats, though there were a few inflatables that would work. I only saw a couple of sailboats.
Town of Porcupine Plain and Green Hills Golf Course shared a booth, very actively manned by the Carpenters, Hipkins and Reuthers. Nice to see such enthusiasm; often municipal and government booths are very lackadaisically run.
Allan Serhan had a good booth and we had a visit with him. So did Elwood Prybylski and Susan Jones, selling those ten-acre lots in Woody's Acres at Greenwater. Some provincial parks had booths; I didn't see one for Greenwater, but I'm not sure I saw everything. Regional parks were well-represented. I saw booths for fishing trips in the Queen Charlottes, and for African safaris, and both had attracted some visitors.
We saw lots of my photos, too – Greenhills was using a slide show I had made for them, and Woody and Susan had some photos I had taken there last summer. Nice to see them being used.
Another successful Telemiracle – it raised over four million dollars this year. Isn't that a record? Or is my memory just weak?
We had another family get-together this morning, but only seven of us this time. We had lunch at Johnny Boy's, a very nice restaurant on 42nd Street and Faithfull Avenue. It was a delightful time, though we missed the little kids. Afterwards, we went to check out a house our granddaughter and her partner had bought, and we were suitably impressed. It's so interesting watching the changes that take place in our family's lives.
I went over to the Stor-All compound the other day to start up the motor home and check on the batteries. Even though I had to wade through two feet of snow to get to the door, there was a powerful itch to take it out for a little run. Good thing the license was expired as I might have tried it. Two and a half months until our first camping trip of the season. Can I wait? |
