Did It Ever Pour Last Night

   It was just about the supper hour when they sky opened up, and the rain came down. By the time it was over, anywhere up to an inch or more had fallen in less than half an hour. It turned streets into rivers, and parking lots into lakes in Yorkton.
    Not far away in Melville, a gusty wind blew down trees and even partially toppled the scoreboard at Pirie Field, which is the home of the Western Major Baseball League's Melville Millionaires. It also scrubbed their season opener against Swift Current, along with several other ball games.
   This is just one of the trees uprooted by the storm in Melville:

   One of the people I work with lives in Duff, and says water was seeping up through his foundation. Not the walls, the actual foundation itself, poor guy.
   If that wasn't enough, just to the east of us in Manitoba, there were people taking to social media with pictures of hail stones the size of eggs. I just hope it didn't wash away too many crops that had just been seeded.
   We got off lucky where we live. We're up on a hill, meaning the majority of all that rain simply flowed away.
   I'll be making a few calls this morning to find out just how much damage was actually done. at least we didn't get a tornado from it all.

TTFN

Supper In The Field

   The 3rd "Supper in the Field" of spring was last night at the farm of Keith Ruf near Ryan. One again, it was a wonderful evening and a great crowd. We had darn close to 30 people, when you factor in sponsors, GX94 staffers, our chauffeur Glen and guests. It was one of the largest turnouts I've seen. Thankfully, there was enough catered food for everyone. With one burger left over.
   The winner of the weekly contest gets the catered meal, prizes and two "Supper in the Field" flags to go along with it.

   And we're hard to miss. We roll in to the winner's yard in this:

   The GX94 motorhome. Next week..who knows where we'll be, but I'm already looking forward to it, having made it to all the suppers since I arrived in Yorkton last August.

TTFN

Do We Really Need The Sequel?

   The SyFy network is indeed coming out with a sequel to "Sharknado", the made for T.V B-grade horror film about sharks being lifted by a waterspouts and dumped on L.A, flooding it with shark infested seawater.
   "Sharknado 2" will, apparently, take the same premise to New York City, wreaking havoc on iconic landmarks. They don't say which ones. And don't think this is going to be a cheesy one-nighter. On, no. SyFy is doing a whole "Sharknado week". It'll include movies like `Sharktopus versus Pteracuda,'' ''Mega Shark versus Mecha Shark`` and ''Sharkmania: The Top 15 Biggest Baddest Bloodiest Bites.`' The week wraps up July 30thwith "Sharknado 2: The Second One".
   I didn't watch the first one, and I'm pretty sure The Second One will also get a miss. And maybe I shouldn't be posting this, but here's an idea for "Sharknado 3: The Wrath Of Kong". A giant killer shark battles King Kong for control of the Empire State Building.

TTFN

Brad Wall Might Have A Great Idea Here

   It's certainly not a new idea, though, first promulgated in 1917. It would see the Caribbean Island nation of Turks and Caicos become Canada's 11th province. And why not? A chance for a sunshine destination within Canada in the winter? Our own version of Hawaii? Who wouldn't like that idea.
   Apparently, the Canadian government. The current Harper government was approached by officials of the island, who pitched the idea of the merger. Only to be told "no thanks". The former Chretien government also thumbs-downed the proposal.
   Enter Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. He's suggesting (perhaps with tongue in cheek, but then again maybe not) that our province annex Turks and Caicos to form what Mr. Wall calls "Saskatchewarm", adding that would mean the end of the "easy to draw, hard to
hard to pronounce" quip about our province.
   Personally, I think the idea should be taken seriously by the Feds. Yes, there would be a cost involved, but just think of the economic spin-offs. Plus the fact we've just come out of one of the coldest winters in decades. That alone should be reason enough to give it serious thought.
   But I must admit, I do like the idea of Saskatchewarm.

TTFN

Say It Isn't So!

   It's a staple at hockey rinks all over the world. The Zamboni. But now, the future of the machine, along with their drivers, is in some doubt. I read an article on-line this morning saying an American inventor has created a robot machine that'll clean and resurface the ice in less time than the traditional Zamboni.
   Watching the Zamboni drivers is almost as big a part of hockey as the game itself. In fact, there was even a song written called "I Wanna Drive The Zamboni". But if this comes to fruition, kids won't be able to wave to the driver as he makes those circling passes up and down the rink.
   It really is an integral part of the game itself (people seem to love watching them during intermissions), and has been since it was invented by Frank Zamboni in 1949. Prior to that, crews would have to scrape, wash and squeegee the ice.
   And while the new "Ice Jet" robot machine is just in the prototype stage right now, it probably won't be long before we say "farewell" to the Zamboni and their drivers, and "hello" to the GPS guided robot resurfacer.

TTFN

A Great Gag

  And I must thank GX94's Agriculture guru Rod McDonald for passing it my way. I told morning man Danny Ismond that I'd been working out, and proceeded to let him in on my regimen.
   I said it's for people over 50 (which includes me), who firstly must find a comfortable place to stand.
   Then extend your arms while lifting a 5lb potato bag in each and hold as long as you can. Once you get to the 1 minute or longer mark, move up to a 10lb potato bag. It might take a week or so to get there, but keep trying.
   After you've managed the 10lb bag, move on to the 50 (which could take a month, maybe 2), before going to the 100lb bag. Which is where I am.
   I then told him once comfortable lifting the 100lb bag for a few weeks comes the hard part.....adding potato's to the bag!
   We had a good laugh.

TTFN

We Got Off Lucky

   That tornado hit near an oilfield camp in western North Dakota yesterday, injuring 9 people, one critically. The twister damaged trailers used to house oilfield workers. It could be seen from several miles (kilometers) away, and, according to one witness, was on the ground for about a minute.
   I've been lucky. I've never seen one of those "live and in person". Nor do I wish to. Not to say I haven't been close to one. The night my 2nd son was born, a tornado touched down just 4 kilometers from the hospital we were all in. And once when I was in Helena, Montana, there was a hailstorm the like of which I'd never seen. And I've seen some pretty good hailstorms. And, like an idiot, I bolted for my car and drove off. For all I knew back then, that storm could well have preceded a twister. It didn't.
   And North Dakota wasn't the only location getting severe weather. Just west of us in Saskatoon, a supper hour torrential downpour turned roads into lakes and rivers and caused some flooding. In fact, the rain came down so hard and so fast is popped the covers off manholes.
   I've seen it rain that hard before, when we were in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It poured so hard, the windshield wipers couldn't keep up with it. Luckily where we were, there was no flooding.
   Through all of that, we in Yorkton just got a little smattering of rain, and a bit of a gusty wind.
   Just reinforces the power of nature.

TTFN