March 7, 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?