Biggest Loser - Helpfull, or Hurtfull?

This is obviously only my own guess work, and totally made up... but, hear me out on this one.
Being typical Americans, don't you think that there might easily be thousands, if not tens of thousands of tremendously obese people across America who purposely gain even more weight in order to get onto the show.  That way, you're kind of killing two typically American dreams, with one stone.  Not only do you have the opportunity to be on TV without any talent at all, but you also have the chance of getting a quarter of a million dollars without having to do any work for it.  Now, lets face it, if you're only really obese, you probably won't get onto the show.  You'll have a way better chance if you're grossly obese.  As a result, you have lots of people at 380 lbs who are doing everything that they need to do (which is mostly doing nothing and eating too much) trying desperately to get up to 440 lbs, so that they'll have a better chance at being on the show.  They keep bragging, and showing people that they have been an inspiration to for losing weight, while ignoring all of those about to die due to their extra efforts being put into trying to get noticed by the show.  Am I actually the only person out there that believes that for every person who was inspired to lose weight by watching the show, there's probably ten that gained weight, on the off chance that they might get on?  I doubt it!  Agree?  Disagree?  Comment - I dare you.  Once you've thought about it, and maybe left a comment, I'll let you know how it turned out.

Stay tuned.

Assaulted By Santa?

You wouldn't believe it, but Fran got assaulted by Santa Clause Friday!  His name is actually not Santa Clause, and I may not publish his name until he's been charged, but it still happened.  This guy came in on Thursday, wanted his general delivery mail, but wouldn't show his ID from less than about six feet, so she wouldn't give him his mail.  The next day he came in again, and when asked for his ID, he started off with it about two feet away, and when she leaned forward to see it, he pushed it forward and hit her in the mouth with both his wallet and his hand.  I'm sure that he wasn't aware of the fact that one of our seven security cameras is pointed directly through the Post Office window, and that the whole thing was caught on camera.  So, I just copied it to a CD, and called the cops.  They came on down, we showed them the evidence, took a statement, and left.  So far, nothing has been done, but obviously I'll be banning him from the store, and he won't be able to get his mail at all.
I was going to interrupt this story after the second line, with my traditional showing you a picture that has nothing to do with the story, and telling you about the picture before going back into the story, but they have changed something in the system, and I can't insert any more pictures.  Boo to all of the intelligent minds that always try to do something to help you, that involves so much "rocket science", that the average person can't comprehend them.  I went to their help page part of it, and it looked to me like all of the changes that they wanted me to make, were intended to help them track what I was doing with the blog.  So, screw them!  The only down side to sticking it to the man, is that I can't install photos (until they change the whole thing again of course).  I'm going to try one more thing once I'm done with this blog, so hopefully I'll be able to fix this, and get back to what I was doing, because it was a pretty cool shot.
The game's almost over, the Yankees are losing, and I hope that they never win another game in the history of the franchise.  That would be awesome, 0-162 season after season.  That might actually mean a couple more wins per season for the Jays (they need it).

Stay tuned (hopefully for some photos).

Close... But No Cigar

I guess that I may have been asking a little too much.  It took OT, but the Eskimos did manage to pull off the first half of what we needed.  Most of today's game wasn't too bad either.  We had the lead for much of the first half, only to blow it with only a minute left.  Then after falling farther behind in the second half, a pretty nice surge at the end made it close.  Then, we did what we've been doing all season, folding under the pressure of the last minute.  Yesterday, I had said that it would take a small miracle, and we didn't get one.  But... it's still not over.  With thee games remaining, we're only one game behind both BC and Edmonton.  The only issue is that we need to be better, not tied.  This means of course that out of the three games, we need to win two more than both of them.  A lot to ask for!
Back to yesterday's being stuck in the quicksand.  I certainly should have mentioned the fact that while trying to shift the quad over, I ended up loosing one of my boots.  I didn't realize it, because it was only the liner that came out of the boot, and I thought that my boot was still on.  When I was doing the pushing from behind, my feet were stuck pretty well up to my knees.  As a result, once the machine started moving forward, I had no option but to fall forward onto my face.  Once we were safely out of danger, I totally lost my other boot (line, sock, and all).  So, I was walking around barefoot  in the ice cold quicksand, trying to gather all of my footwear.  One of those situations that seems pretty tense while it's going on, and grows by the minute while you talk about it from the warmth, comfort, and safety of your home.  There's obviously more to tell.

Stay tuned.

Four Followers!

I'm one short of a hand full.  Did you know that they've already sent me a few emails because they would like to pay me to put commercials on my blog?  Crazy!  Or, maybe they do that to everyone.  I'm sure that somebody's got a few more followers than me.  Oh well, let's get on with it then.
Rory and I went on a crazy adventure today on the quad.  We crossed two rivers, got stuck in some quicksand, and took several grades that did not look or seem very safe.  We survived, but not without bringing home a lot of muck.  We were going down what seemed to be a fairly smooth and safe section, down to a uninhabited fishing village, when suddenly... we just sunk.  I put it in reverse, and we sunk even further.  Then we got off and tried to push, but all four wheels were just spinning in loose quicksand, while the rock plate was floating.  There didn't seem to be any way out, nobody to help, and we were way far from home.  Finally I went out searching near the shacks and found a 2 by 4.  I brought it back, shoved it as far under the machine as possible, and pried for all my might.  Meanwhile, I had Rory reach over and give it the goose.  One of the front wheels got pried down far enough to hit something solid, and we slid our way out.  What a relief!  That one little story doesn't do the trip justice, but that's all I feel like saying about that right now.  Maybe later.
Sports.  I can't believe that I'm cheering for the Eskimos tonight (almost about as bad as cheering for the Riders), but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do.  For the Bombers to get the cross-over, they have to pass BC and Edmonton.  In order to make that possible, the Eskimos need to beat the Lions so that they can both be 5 and 10.  If, by some miracle, Montreal stops caring about football for one afternoon, and the Bombers manage to squeak by them, the Bombers, Lions, and Eskimos will all be tied.  With three games left after that, there should at least be a shot.  If the Lions win tonight, and the Bombers lose tomorrow, it's not mathematically impossible, but entirely unlikely.  Go Edmonton, go Bombers...

Stay tuned.

The Cavalry Has Arrived!

Well, Rory, Paul, and Karen all arrived safe and sound yesterday.  We now have enough white staff, that none of the locals at all could show up, and we'd still be OK.  Rory had his first full day in the Post Office today, so hopefully we're only a few days away from having Fran start to actually look after her job as general merchandise manager.  I spent almost all day actually catching up on all of the stuff that I've been neglecting for the past few weeks.  It also looks like Paul and Karen will look after Saturday for us, so that Fran, Rory, and I can have Saturday and Sunday off.  Just like an actual weekend!  I may have almost forgotten what that's like.  My plan is to take Rory on a fairly lengthy quad ride, to show him the majesty of the northern tundra.  We're all trying to settle in here, in the mean time.  It's not only a major adjustment for Rory to be up here in the great white north, but Fran and I have also spent several years with only ourselves, so having an extra person to share space with, cooking for three, three people in the same bathroom, it's all a little bit to take in.  Obviously everything will be fine, we'll just have to all get used to each other.
Now to sports.  Phillies and Giants - Phillies in five (that's right, the Giants only win one to Tim Lincecum's starts).  Yankees and Rangers - Yankees in six (I hate the Yankees, but can't imagine that they'll lose to Texas).  Bombers in Montreal - as much as I hate to say it... I'm sure that Montreal will kick butt.  Leafs win their first three?  I can't believe it!  And of course, what were the Habs thinking when they traded Halak and kept Price?  Still waiting for Ian White's first point of the season.  So many sports all going on at the same time, and so little space to actually go into detail on any of it.  I'm totally looking forward to a little less hectic pace once we all settle in, because I would actually like to really go into depth on any one of those aforementioned topics.  Hopefully there will be plenty more drivel to come.

Stay tuned.

Did That Just Happen?

I know that it's been a whole week since the last entry, but man has it been crazy.  I probably wasn't going to take the time to write today either, since I managed to put in at least 12 hours of work at the store and quite a few more at home on my two "days off", but that Bomber game deserves a comment.

Having nothing to do with anything, my two dogs getting a bath.  Normally big and fluffy Buddy always looks like a drowning rat when he's wet (and not too happy about it either).

I got back into the house just before half time, to see that the Bombers have a three point lead.  Then I sit down to supper, and while I'm eating, the wheels fall off.  24 points down by the time I'm done eating!  Of course there's no way that this thing can end well (unless you're a Lions fan).  Then we decide to put Jyles into the game.  I tell Fran in the kitchen while we're doing the dishes (no point in watching the game too closely at this point) that Jyles is the kind of guy that with no pressure in this situation, should manage to actually get us close before folding under the pressure of the last two minutes.  As we're slowly coming back, I'm saying "see, what did I tell you".  Then the end comes, and the only thing that can be said is "Did that just happen?"!  Who could have thunk it?  Once again, a terrible team with a terrible record is back in the playoff hunt.  Way to go CFL!

Back to work.  I said last time that it was going to be a crazy week, with very little rest.  And I was right.  On the bright side, not only will Rory be here sooner rather than later, he's actually scheduled on the same flight up from Montreal as the other couple that works here.  With the better news of - that's only two days away (weather permitting, of course).  I'm totally looking forward to having a day, sometime in the near future, where I won't have to go into work at all.  I've had my new toy for over a month now, and I haven't even had enough chances to take it out to get the 10 hours of use necessary for the first oil change.  I guess the upside to that is that by the time I get around to it, it will be time to winterize it anyway, so I should be able to kill two birds with one stone.  The bad news for all of you followers (I'm up to three signed in followers now, thanks James.  I always said that if I can get at least three followers, I'll carry on), I should probably be coming up with some extra time on my hands to get back to some regular entries.  That also means that without enough big things happening between blogs, you might get back to being subjected to my musings on random things that you don't care about.  Welcome back NHL hockey!  Sports in October alone, should be enough to keep the pages jumping off of my fingers.

Stay tuned.

Are We Almost There Yet?

What an exhausting last few days!  We had it sprung on us that we were indeed doing an inventory on Sunday, and we weren't even close to ready.  My boss was flying in, our help was flying out, and the day that he was supposed to arrive, everyone in town got cheques from the mine.  They were released about ten minutes before the Co-op closed, so everyone had to come to our store to cash them.  We had both office stations open, there were lines way down the shopping aisles on both sides, and we pushed through over 30 grand in grocery alone.  It was way too much to handle, and an inventory to do on our "day off".  There were, however, some upsides.  The inventory got done, so we don't have to think about that any more.  The bad weather today cancelled the flight out for our help, so they had to stay at least one more day.  My boss is scheduled to leave tomorrow morning, and having him come here and see how overwhelmed we both were, made it easy to convince him that we needed to offer my little brother the opportunity to come here risk free for a few months to help us out during the next few months.  Nothing is set in stone yet, but it looks like Rory could be coming up here to live with us, and help us out, as early as next week already.
Next weekend is a long one, so there should be at least one day that we don't actually have to work.  The other couple that works here should be back from vacation next week Wednesday, which will go a long way towards giving us some reprieve.  If Rory comes out next week too, we could almost be looking at shortly having two days off per week again.  Won't that be nice!
They say that it's always darkest before the dawn, and it was pretty dark this weekend.  This is still going to be a very hard week, with GST cheques coming out, and a total lack of dependable assistance.  But... we're now only seven working days away from a possible 150% increase in reliable staff, and a very good chance of having Rory hang out with us until well into the new calendar year.  I can only imagine what a mental break that will be to have some company, and a little bit of home to keep with us here in the great white north.  Of course all of these plans have yet to come to pass, so I guess you'll just have to...

Stay tuned.