The Paper Pinawa, MB

It's been too long between blog entries, don't you think?  It's also been too long since we've had more than one day of sunshine!  What happened to the fabulous weather we enjoyed in April and May?  This is getting ridiculous already.

It's no secret that Canadians talk about the weather more than any other country.  And well we should - we enjoy four full seasons.  How many times do you greet someone with a remark or question about the weather?  "Hi, how are you?  Cold enough for you?"  Switch out 'cold' for 'hot' or 'wet', depending on the season and what's happening at the time.  The weather is a conversation starter that can last well past the perfunctory introductions.  We like to one up one another with our weather tidbits.  "Geez, I think we must have gotten an inch of rain last night!"  No way, my gauge said there was only .75 inches.  "Wow, my car was covered in snow this morning." Yeah, and I had to shovel my driveway three times today. "They say it's not going to stop raining until Thursday."  Well, you can't believe the Weather Channel.

That's another favourite Canadian pastime: watching and second-guessing the Weather Channel.  It's very nearly a religion for some people!  They absolutely cannot go out or plan any outing, no matter how short, without checking the Weather Channel.  And, more often than not, these same weather fanatics will challenge the forecast they just had to watch, especially if it's optimistic.

It's one thing for rain to drown out our plans for the day, but when it wipes out someone's hopes for earning a living, rain is more than just an annoyance. And I know from first-hand experience the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you KNOW your basement is about to flood.  We have been extremely fortunate so far this spring, but others in the province have not fared as well. While some provinces such as ours have had more than enough precipitation, others - like Alberta - are grateful to raise the water table to normal, with any luck.

Here's something to make you smile ... did you know that Winnipeg has the sunniest winters with the most hours of sunshine during December, January and February?  358 hours.

And finally, I leave you with the ultimate weather prognasticator: George Carlin, who said - "Weather forecast for tonight: dark."

As they say in River City: folks we've got trouble!  And that starts with 'T' and it rhymes with 'P', but I don't mean pool.

No, I'm talking about the Pinawa Club.  There is turmoil at the club; it's been simmering slowly over the past few years, and now it's come to a boil, thanks in part to a few executive members stirring the pot.  The trouble is, some of them appear to be stirring for their own sakes, instead of the good of the club.  But you can't cause controversy if everything is in order, and order has slowly eroded, it would appear.

The Club is losing money, they say.  It's not exactly clear where the losses are occurring, but the common refrain is 'the kitchen'. 

The kitchen has been a bone of contention off and on for many years. It makes money during the golf season (at least I would hope it does!), then loses out during the winter when the snowbirds take flight.  It has been suggested that one way to stop the bleeding in the winter is to close it down entirely.  Leave the curlers to fend for themselves, bar only.  And the bridge players "only drink coffee and water." And "we lose the money we have to spend on wages for a handful of people to drink an unending supply of coffee for two hours every morning". Alright, those are suggestions and 'reasons' I have personally heard bantered about.  And who is suggesting that we close down entirely during the winter?  Snowbirds!

Now I'm no genius, and I don't purport to know everything about running a kitchen, but it seems to me there are some pretty simple rules to success:

1.  Conduct an inventory at least monthly.  If you don't know what you've got, how can you budget for what you need?  You can't possibly know what your raw food costs are (pardon the pun) if you don't have an up to date inventory.
2. Draw your labour wages directly from your revenues.  Again, if you can't match your labour costs to your sales, how can you tell if you're over or under staffed?
3. Recycle revenues derived from items like bottle returns.  Put that money directly into a fund that is used for the mix, for example.  It's derived from bar sales, put it back to work in the bar.
4.  Schedule with an eye to not only Pinawa Club events, but community events, as well.  Analyze the 'down' times and come up with innovative ways to bring in customers.  Maybe it's by  extending the busy times a half hour at each end to make up for it. Or, host a special event once a month to cover the revenues that could have been realized if the customer base was there in the downtimes.
5.  Last, but by no means least, hire and train staff so that they buy into the success of the restaurant themselves, instead of dreading coming to work.  Minimum wage is going up.  Make the most of the labour dollars by having a highly trained and motivated core staff who are willing to be flexible.  Students who need to work around their school schedules are more apt to show up for work if their needs are taken into consideration during scheduling.  Have at least two people who are willing to come in to work 'on call'.  You're not expecting a group of 20 to show up, but here they are - have someone you can rely on to come in for a two hour shift, max.  This could even be volunteers who aren't looking for a job and don't want to take employment away from the people who really need them.  And it doesn't matter how good the food is, if the people greeting and serving the customers leave a sour taste in their mouths they won't come back.  ALL the employees need to be on the same page as far as how they greet and serve.  (It's not for nothing that Safeway cashiers all say the same thing, ie., acknowledging you by name, welcoming you, thanking you, etc. etc.)  And word up - it's 'you're welcome', not 'sure thing' or 'yup'.

Pretty simple stuff, but is it being done?  I don't think it's been done in a very long time.  Now we've got a new chef - Johnny - who apparently loves to cook.  If you love what you do, that's half the battle.  We need to give him our full support and keep our noses out of his business.

That's my take on the kitchen.

Another big ticket item that's draining the coffers is the cost of infrastructure.  Things such as power and propane.  Every section of the club uses those things.  The club is taking advantage of an offer by Manitoba Hydro to have an energy audit done, but I wouldn't imagine that would include propane.  Personally, it sticks in my craw that the club blithley took the word of a past manager that propane appliances would save tons of money and neglected to do due diligence to cost that out before the purchase was made.  However, the deed is done.  Have they extrapolated the cost of the propane into their revenue streams so that they can cover the expense each month?  Have they ever thought of bringing solar power into their operations?  We used solar panels to heat our swimming pool for years when the cost of propane became ridiculous.  The panels paid for themselves in two seasons!  Has the cost of the power for the charging bays for the electric carts been applied to the revenues from the cart rentals? Could solar be an additional cost saving option? Is the heat and air conditioning on timers?  Has an analysis ever been done that show what the potential savings could be? These are questions I hope to have answered on Wednesday at the AGM.

When I was on the board, every section had a budget they needed to submit to the larger board and they were held to it.  Each section was charged an assessment of their share of the maintenance costs, and while it was arguable at times how fair or unfair those assessments were, at least it was something that could be examined and negotiated.  If a section needed something that was beyond their means, they were expected to bring a solution to the larger board.  When the curling club needed a new roof, they raised funds from bonspiels and special events and sought out government grants.  They used volunteer labour and got the job done.  When tennis saw an opportunity to have their courts resurfaced and lights installed by hosting the Manitoba Summer Games, they presented a budget, raised funds and sought out grant money.  When the bridge club needed better quality tables and increased lighting, they dug into their own pockets (figuratively).  The golf section drew up a five-year plan and put costs toward each project in the plan.  They saved a huge amount of money from a passionate volunteer labour force who had their own schedule of tasks that didn't interfere with the superintendent or his crew.

Somewhere along the line - and it wasn't all of a sudden or because of a particular person - the importance of budgets and cost assessment and cost recovery seem to have gone astray.  It's not easy to see where actual costs are coming from and where the money is going.  The books are both difficult to criticize and defend.  And it may be for no other reason than the business has grown beyond the capabilities of a volunteer board. And there's a prevalent notion that the golf club can do whatever they want and spend whatever they want because they aren't the reason we're losing money.

It's all about the money and servicing the debt.  The fear-mongerers out there are saying the bank is ready to take over at any minute, so we better sell right now.  They're coming up with solutions like condos and a campground to bring in extra revenue, but that's putting the horse before the cart, if you ask me.   Like I said last time, fear-mongerers sell their own truths for their own gains.  Yep, right here in River City.

Rick Stefansson has approached the town twice to enlist their help.  They saw his entreaties as a cash grab, and were clearly not interested in even exploring other avenues.  They threw out a couple of meagre suggestions, but the message was 'don't call us'.  I can't tell you how aggravating and embarrassing it was to sit and watch that.  Rick tried to assert the Pinawa Club's importance and relevance in the community.  He should have been preaching to the choir, so to speak, because the mayor and every single member of the council either is or has been a member of one or more sections of the club (or has at least one family member who is or was).  Rick Stefansson isn't a resident of Pinawa, nor is he a taxpayer.  But he's been a member of the golf course for a number of years and is in his last year on the executive.  Even from his limited exposure to the activities at the club during the daytime and evenings he can see how vital the club is to the community.  Why can't they?  Their words say they do, but their attitude says otherwise. (I have to exclude Clay McMurren from that group - he believes the Pinawa Club should be included on the Discover the Secret signage.)

The last hot button for members is the Golf Pro position.  Many members have learned that Greg Love's contract was not renewed past the 2010 season.  This is not the place to discuss Greg's contract, but he is asking for support at the meeting on Wednesday.  One thing that should be mentioned, however, is that one of his employees was on the negotiating committee.  Huh?  Now we've learned that there will no longer be jobs for local students (the ones the adults didn't already take, that is).  Why?  Is it a knee-jerk reaction to another problem that's been allowed to percolate and boil over?  Hopefully, we'll have those answers on Wednesday, too.

So, yes, there's trouble at the Pinawa Club.  But I'm looking forward to Wednesday's meeting where we will have the opportunity to learn the truth, sort the circumstances out with intelligent conversation and leave on a positive note with an eye to the future.  Nay-sayers and fear-mongerers enter at your own risk.

I hope the title didn't get your hopes up, because today's entry isn't about any of those things ... it's about the power of innuendo, fear-mongering and deflection when we are faced with the possibility of losing something, whether it's a cause, an argument or a perceived injustice.  And, if my guess is right, some of you were intrigued enough by the title to read more.  The words I chose for the title could have covered a broad range of topics, probably all of them salacious.

Innuendo is defined as 'indirect accusation'.  I would have to say it runs rampant in most - not all - of the arguments against the Tim Hortons proposal (see my previous blog entry).  But innuendo in and of itself is not a bad thing - unless it's used to arouse fear and disguise the truth.  It has been my experience that people who choose that type of strategy to debate their argument are fearful themselves. They are afraid that their arguments don't hold water, as they say, and so they need to bolster the truth with hints of dire consequences.  This, in fact, deflects the core of the debate to something else. Oh, and my choice of the word 'rampant' illustrates my point exactly.  More neutral expressions such as  'is used occasionally' or 'winds through' or 'can be found' would have changed the way you filter my thoughts considerably, don't you think?

Getting back to the art of deflection as a tool: those of you who are parents know this only too well.  You ask a child why their shoes are soaking wet and he'll come up with every reason under the sun - except the truth, which is that hechose to jump in a puddle.  He will tell you it was someone else's fault ("they made me"), that it's your fault ("you never told me"), or even the puddle's fault ("I didn't know it was that deep").  Sometimes he won't even mention the problem.  Q: "Why are your shoes soaking wet?"A: "Why are you always mad at me?"or A: "So-and-so always gets to jump in the puddles." or A: "I could have sat in the puddle, would you have liked that instead?"  You get the drift.  But it all boils down, in my opinion, to insecurity.  The child is worried that you're going to be angry or that he's going to be punished in some way.  He won't know unless he owns up to his responsibility, so he deflects the question.

I experienced this to a certain degree when I was talking to people about their impressions at the Sylvia Lake proposal open house.  I opened the conversation by saying, "What do you think?"
A: "I think it's a terrible idea."
Q: "Why?"
A: "They were sneaky about it."
Q: "They made a statement in the paper and advertised the open house, how is that sneaky?"
A: "Well, the water's too fast."
Q: "Do you think they're going to have the campers swimming in the fast water?"
A: "Well, you can't put a dock there. There's nothing to tether it to."
Q: "It's a conceptual drawing, I don't think it's to scale.  Did you speak to one of the Tim Horton's people?"
A: "No.  Besides it's going to block off the water traffic."
Q: "If the dock were located somewhere else, would that ease your mind about the project?"
A: "Well, you can't have that many kids in one place, it'll be one big party and they'll be sneaking over at night."
Q: "The ratio of counsellors to kids is 4:1."
A: "That's right and then they'll be using our emergency services, too."

You get the idea.  And those are actual quotes by real people.  Intelligent people. Intelligent people who are fearful of what they think they will lose, and of the dire consequences that they have left unsaid.

If you say something long enough you will begin to believe it, and if you believe it then you can convince others.

But you know what?  The Tim Horton's thing isn't the only big disaster looming on the horizon.  On this side of the shore we have the Pinawa Club to worry about.  A small group of men who are only concerned about putting money into their own pockets are planning to take it over, raze the tennis courts, put in a campground and condos (on the driving range) and get rid of the pro.  Oh, and I forgot - they're going to do away with the curling club and bridge, too.  And some of these entrepreneurs are on the board of directors.  Yep, that's the scoop around the coffee tables lately.  Is there any truth to it?  Well, Pinawa Club President Rick Stefansson was pretty clear in his meeting with Council last week: they have been looking at ways to shore up their cash flow because the cost of maintaining the infrastructure is steadily increasing.  They have used the mapping services of the LGD to scout locations for condos.  He didn't say anything about the tennis courts or curling, except to say that curling incurs more cost that they are able to generate revenue for.

What he also said, and repeated time and again - was that the Pinawa Club is a vital part of the community and that he wouldn't want to see it lose its importance.  He feels that it could be utilized even more than it is now for community events. It's why he was trying to engage the town in meaningful discussions about how they could form a partnership in order to secure the future of one of the biggest attractions to the town in terms of relocation and tourist dollars.  The town, for some reason, doesn't see that and didn't acknowledge it.  They responded with a litany of recreation expenses.  They deflected the conversation and never addressed the point.  Hmm, sounds familiar.

And when Harvey Davis came calling, the Pinawa Club debated the merits of selling the club vs holding onto it for all it was worth.  They didn't debate his ideas, or his background in the members' meeting (though there was plenty of that to go around otherwise, and why not?).  And when another entrepreneur bid on purchasing the club, it was the same thing.  The members debated the pros and cons of selling. They chose to keep it. And just so there could be no ambiguity about the decision, they reinforced their constitution to ensure that there are enough checks and balances in place before ever getting to that vote again.

That's it for this time ... I have to go see if those shoes are dry.

Did you ever play that story-telling game where one person whispers a  sentence or a story to the next person, and they whisper it to the next person, and so on and so on?  At the end of the game, everyone is amazed at how much the story changed from start to finish.  Along the way it's embellished, revised and important details are often misconstrued.  But each version of the story is the truth as the storyteller knew it.

It reminds me of the story of the Tim Horton Foundation Camp proposal.  As each person tells the story, it is embellished, revised and important details have been misconstrued.  Every storyteller is telling their own truth as they know it.  Unfortunately, those 'truth's have strayed considerably from 'facts'.

These are some of the 'truths' that I've heard ...

... the Province is planning to open up that side of the river for development - why else would they pay for a road?
... the campers are 'delinquents' whose 'raging hormones' will incite them to cross the river (escape) at night so they can get up to 'hijinx' in Pinawa
... the current is too fast for swimming, canoeing
... the narrow waterway will be constricted by docks
... the property is the LGD's!!!
... the property is all swamp
... it's too dangerous for kids
... 'Pinawa people don't like their shoreline changed'
... there weren't any Tim Hortons people at the Public Information Open House
... 'they' didn't give us any notice that they were even thinking about this
... 'they're' keeping everything a secret (this was heard at the Public Information Open House)
... there is no economic benefit to Pinawa
... it will be SO noisy
... 'they' didn't have a question and answer session at the Public Information Open House
... it might start out as a private camp, but it's real purpose is to create a resort
... if 'they' weren't trying to get away with something, they would have advertised in the local paper
... if 'they' weren't trying to hide something, they would have had their information session in Pinawa
... they don't have any plans for waste disposal
... it's a 'done deal' and it doesn't matter what anyone says.

 And why are these 'truth's' out there?  One simple reason: the storyteller is trying to write his/her own happy ending.

Fact: This is not the first kick at the cat for the Tim Horton Foundation.  They have successfully built and currently operate SIX camps; one in Kentucky and five across Canada.  They didn't 'sneak' into any of the communities where they operate their camps, nor did they violate any provincial or municipal laws or by-laws. Indeed, community leaders agree that the Tim Horton Foundation Camps are an asset to their towns.
Fact: both the Province and Tim Hortons had experts and personnel on hand at the Open Houses to answer questions and explain the program and the reasons behind choosing the Sylvia Lake location.  The provincial employees did not have name tags, but the Tim Hortons personnel were all wearing Tim Hortons shirts.
Fact: the Sylvia Lake location is under the jurisdiction of the Whiteshell Provincial Park, not the LGD of Pinawa
Fact: the provincial government quite often overlooks The Paper for its advertising, because The Paper is entirely independent of the Manitoba Community Newspaper Association
Fact: the Province and the Tim Horton organization have solicited input from anyone who is opposed to the process
Fact: the Tim Horton organization does not need any input on how they run their camps
Fact: the truth can only be learned through asking questions of the people who have the answers - the Province and/or Tim Horton Foundation.  The person who lives along the shoreline (and cuts the trees so as not to obstruct their view) does not have the answers.  The person who believes this proposal will spur future development does not have the answers.  The person who believes Council is behind all this doesn't have the answers.  The person who says it's too dangerous doesn't have the answers.  The person who says they know what kids will do doesn't have the answers.

There's a certain amount of contradiction and hypocrisy that's going on.  How about debating the truths instead of creating new ones?

Our household is fully esconced in the digital age.  We have a wireless home network that connects two desktop computers, a laptop, a notebook, an XBox 360 and two iPod Touches.  Text messaging is easier and more reliable than a cell phone conversation, and we routinely store and pass our information around on flash drives.

Personally, I love my iPod touch and every day I find another useful application (commonly known as Apps) to download - most for free, but some for purchase from iTunes.  The fact that my grandson and I can play games between our iPods while we're sitting on the same couch drives my husband insane: "You two are addicted to those things!"  There may be some truth in that, but I challenge him to get as much out of his computer AND his PDA as I do with my iPod.

My morning routine begins with checking my Facebook for any updates from my Friends.  These are not personal messages to me necessarily, but public postings that keep me in the loop.  Sometimes just reading about someone else's foibles in the morning can make you feel a whole lot better about how your day is going.  The next item I check is the status of any of my Scrabble games.  Thanks to the new Scrabble app, a little number appears on the logo that indicates whether it's my turn to play.  Destination Number Three is the Huffington Post.  This is an online gathering of news and blogs that is updated in real time.  Topics range from politics and media to entertainment and health.  I love this site because it's so dynamic.  If there's a hot news story, it's updated several times a day, sometimes several times an hour.  Because it's a mobile app, it's formatted to be read on a small screen, so there isn't any trouble resizing text.

Apple's slogan - and I'm sure you've seen the commercials - is "there's an App for that!".  Incredibly, there really is.  Just ask Dan Woolley.  Who's he?  He's an American who happened to be working in Haiti when the earthquake struck.  He was injured and trapped in the rubble for 65 hours before being rescued.  Fortunately for Dan, he had his iPhone with him and it most likely saved his life.  Not because he called for help, but he used the apps he had to help himself until outside agencies could get to him.  (FYI, the only difference between an iPhone and an iPod Touch is that the phone has a phone and camera)

What did Dan do?  Well, first he used his Flashlight App to shine a light on his injuries.  Then he used his medical app (probably WebMD, but I'm not certain) to diagnose those injuries, comparing the symptoms and appearance to photos and descriptions in the app.  Turns out he had a broken foot, excessive bleeding and a head injury.  He was able to make a tourniquet for his foot and used his sock as a compress bandage for his head.  He read that shock was a real possibility, so he used the Alarm feature to wake him up every few minutes if he dozed off.  Then Dan used the camera feature to take pictures of his surroundings, and from those pictures he made a mental map of how to get to a safer location.  He hobbled his way to an elevator shaft to wait for rescue.  While he was waiting he used the Notes app to write a letter to his family just in case help didn't get there in time.  He never lost faith that it would, and the message he left was one of hope and encouragement for his loved ones.

So yeah, there's an App for that.  Okay, gotta go - it's my turn!

For years I've been an intermittent Journal Keeper.  I kept a diary as a kid (carefully scoping out my sister's first, of course!) and for many years I was pretty faithful to it.  The books became time capsules of my life: I wrote about the minutae of my days, or I used page after page as a form of therapy; working out whatever was troubling me.

Years passed, priorities changed and I spent less time chronicling my days.  Every New Year saw the start of a new journal, but by March the pages were empty.

I started this blog with the best of intentions last year, but like my journals, the entries were sporadic.  Sometimes Life gets in the way of best intentions.

So, here we are at the start of a new decade ... what better time for a new start?

It's spring, it's beautiful out, and we can finally get out and enjoy life in our lovely, lovely community.  But our joy at welcoming the new season after such a long, bitter winter has been tempered with sadness as we've lost several friends and loved ones in the past few months.  It's part and parcel of the Circle of Life, and I suppose it means that our community is slowly coming of age.   Our collective hearts go out to the families and friends of each and every one.

I learned a long time ago that life is fleeting, but Fate kept hammering it home to me.  Finally, I got the message, and I seldom let an opportunity go by now to let the people I care about know how much they mean to me.  But not only my friends and family - the people I encounter in my daily life, whether I know them or not.  "I wish I had ..." is no longer in my vocabulary.

Odd as it may sound, that's one of the appeals of Facebook.  If you've never looked at Facebook, it's a social networking website that's used by people aged 8 to 80, so to speak.  Every generation has its own reasons for becoming a Facebook user, but for me it's an opportunity to stay connected with family and friends who I don't often get to see anymore, and to reconnect with friends who I lost track of many years ago.  We share old memories and make new ones, and there's lots of LOL going on (Laughing Out Loud).

 Whichever way you connect with people - keep it up.  Eliminate "I wish I had ..." from your vocabulary; it's guaranteed to make you smile.

Don and I flew to Saskatoon for a very special family event - his mother's 99th birthday!  Dina is an extraordinary woman, and not only for her longevity.  Yes, she's 99, but speak to her on the phone and she sounds much as she always has.  Her voice is strong, her wit is sharp and her knowledge of the everyday and days gone by are boundless.

Dina lives on her own in an assisted living condo in downtown Saskatoon. She's the oldest resident, not surprisingly, and the 'go to girl' when there's a question of history.  If she doesn't have the answer on the tip of her tongue she can usually find it among her many treasured memories.

She was the middle child of 7 children born to Dutch immigrants, the first born in Canada.  Her younger sister Toots lives in BC and is in her early 90s.  Dina was widowed when her twins were only 8 years old, and set about creating a livelihood for herself and her young family.  She added real estate agent to her many skills, and took in boarders to help with the household costs.  Her resilience was strengthened and forged during the war years when her husband, a doctor and a major in the army, served overseas in two tours of duty.

She waited until her children were grown to marry again, although she had no shortage of suitors; some of whom became famous in their own right along the way.  Her second husband died after ten years of a marriage that took them all over the world, and she married for the last time at age 80, widowed again at 90.  She's had her share of heartache, but her smile can still light up a room and she loves to tell jokes and funny stories.

Dina is an inspiration to all of us who go about our daily lives, for some of us only days at a time.  She has remained steadfast in her convictions and her outlook on life and refuses to moan and groan about the advances of time.  She has only recently begun using a cane when she's a little unsteady, only uses her glasses to read, and her hearing is still comparable to her 60 year old son's.  She takes one pill a day and prepares her own breakfast and lunch then joins the rest of the building's residents for dinner.

Happy happy birthday, Dina!  We are so lucky to have you in our lives.

Arrgh.  I wrote a really inspiring blog entry Tuesday while I was at Granite printing, then I was disconnected and POOF it was gone!  Computers drive me nuts sometimes.

Anyway, it was all about the long awaited arrival of Spring.  I sure hope it lasts.  It's pretty surreal, though, when it looks so nice and dry in our neck of the woods but only a short drive away people are losing their homes to the raging water and ice.  Sigga Schofield gave us some great photos that I just haven't had a chance to post yet (hey, I'm on holidays right now!) that she took on Saturday near Lockport and Selkirk. Scary stuff.

Speaking of scary stuff ... the recent spate of vandalism and arson has a lot of people worried.  Let's hope that the fact that the perpetrators have been positively identified will end this reign of terror.  Things could have turned out a lot worse had the fire in the truck caused an explosion.  No one ever accused these guys of being smart, though.

We're in Saskatoon for my mother-in-law's 99th birthday.  She still lives on her own, rarely wears glasses and has her own teeth - we should all be so lucky.  Happy Birthday, Dina!

Now this situation, I have to admit, is wierd - even for me.  It's 4:35 pm Tuesday, and I'm printing the last page and a half of this week's edition.  That's not wierd, but the fact that I'm sitting at a desk at Granite, typing on my home computer and I've uploaded the online edition already - now that's wierd.  You've got to love technology.

It feels very odd to be sitting at WB Lewis Centre.  We (Cathy Beauchamp and I) were the first business to move into this building, back in 1995.  It sure looks different now! We did all our renovations ourselves, and I can remember our open house like it was yesterday.  To be on the safe side we sent a huge flower arrangement to ourselves and signed the card, "Congratulations, Bill!" You know, 'Bill' as in 'Bill Gates'.  We thought it was pretty funny.

Tough news this week, with the passing of Martin Bailey.  Martin was the greenskeeper at the golf club for the past several years and a friendly giant.  One of those people  who knew everyone and who always had something to chat about.  I remember when we first met.  We were hosting the last two days of the Manitoba Amateur and the 16th fairway was under construction.  Martin promised me that come July, it would be playable, but I had serious doubts.  Even just a few weeks before it looked as though we were going to have to declare it unplayable.  Of course, Martin was right and the tournament was a great success.  He knew his stuff, that's for sure.  Martin was a great prankster, too, often tossing golf balls onto members' lawns.

We will miss you, Martin.