a week off? you gotta be kiddin" !

Well, when we come back from Yellowknife, we will be announcing the sex and name of the baby. Over the last few weeks I've heard a lot of different opinions, and I guess at least half of the peoples predictions will be validated, (The I told ya so crowd) even a broken clock is right twice a day tho, it should be remembered.
When you live in an isolated area, it's a really big deal to go to Yellowknife (the big town)
I mean all the fast food, canadian tire, all the stuff that you southern folks take for granted traffic lights! hard to get used to that. It almost makes the 8 hour drive worth it!

I remember when we were kids, mom would dope us up with a gravol pill before a long drive.
That car door would close, and the world got fuzzy-poof! we would wake up in Lawrencetown when we stopped for supper, another gravol fix and the world got fuzzy- poof! we would wake up in Halifax! mom said the gravol was so we wouldn't get car sick but Mike and i were easier to control and more behaved when we were comatose.
Dad told me once that when I eventually took my kids on long drives there would be tv in the cars and the car would know how to get to places on it's own, and if you needed help someone would talk to you through your radio. Sounded like science fiction then, now it sounds like DVD, GPS and ONSTAR. It's not as buck rogers as when I imagined it as a kid talking to dad, but it's still pretty cool.
Any hoo, if you are hoping for boy/girl you will hopefully know when we get back. bye

no pics, not much going on...

Still haven't put the boat in yet. Although everyone else has. I'm just too busy at work. But there is a gal at school now who will begin her on the job training with me at the station when I come back from my river trip at the end of june. A pilot friend dropped off a big feed of fresh pickeral the other night. It would have tasted better if I caught it but it was still good.
The bugs are getting pretty bad now, our little dip below zero wasn't quite enough to do any real damage. And we've been getting just enough precipitation to make sure there are lots of the hungry buggers.
It got up to 27 degrees here the other day so that means the thunder bees and hair eaters will be out soon. These are some of the grossest bugs god ever put on the planet. Seriously, a big (1 to 2 inch) gross shiny black beetle with long antennas, velcro feet, that you guessed it land on you and EAT YOUR HAIR! and thunder bees....nuff said?

charlie brown demonstrates the ability to go cross-eyed. I can move my eyes independantly of each other and it looks like she can too. (yes mother, I know they can get stuck like that!)

Land of the almost midnight sun. Miranda took this pic of the sky a couple of nights ago just going to midnight. We gain about 4 minutes of daylight a day now.

Cousin Jon by' has quit smoking and I want to say way to go. when you are ready to quit and want to, it just kinda falls into place. I always thought I would have to strand myself out in the bush for a few weeks to quit smoking. I had a dream about two weeks ago that I smoked a cigarette, and when I woke up, I felt dirty and guilty like I had done something wrong. I guess the demon nicotine can't crack my iron will in my conscious so it's trying to sneak in the back door of the sub-conscious. dirty pool nictotine. I have a day off today, and the wife is trying to tempt me to put the boat in the water. Believe me, I want to, but I want to do some work on it first. This year will see three new swivel seats, a new propeller, a hydrofoil, a sonar(fish finder)

and a souped-up CB radio. I'll be spending a lot of time out by myself this year, because of the missus being preggers; so she wants to be able to call me when I'm out. (last year I went out by myself in mid september, went up river about 50 km,lost track of time, and ended up having to come back in the dark. Needless to say, the old lady had a worried look on her face when I got home.)

my new e-mail, and yeah snow again

Well after an abscence of about 4 years, I am back on the roles at hotmail. My e-dress is timothy.w.brown@hotmail.com so if anyone out there feels the need. I apologize for the glaring lack of pics in my posts. But I got Miranda a nice new 60gb hard drive vid cam for mom's day and since then the still cam has been feeling left out.
There is one time of the year when I am REALLY happy to get snow...and this is one of them.
It has been snowing for the past 15 hours. Take that! you *&%&$#@# mosquitoes! The forecast is calling for more snow and temps falling below zero. After the first two hatches of bugs, if you can get a good freeze it basically means a summer with very few bugs. Three years ago it happened and I went the whole summer and never used bug dope once!
I have booked my first two sets of holidays for the summer with one week at the beginning of june and one at the end of june. The first week of june I'm going to take the wife over to yellowknife for some shopping and her ultrasound appointment.
The last week belongs to me. Me and my co-worker Steve will be going on a river trip for about a week. Well night shift again so it's time for coffee, and a shower.
Sis, that would be awesome! We really wanted to come down this year; but it's not in the cards.
Spring of '08 for sure. Miranda said she would prefer to travel with a nine month old baby, as opposed to travelling when still pregnant.

A belated happy birthday to Michelle, as I have been only recently returned to terra cognita it may take a while to get bdays and the like uploaded to the old biological hard drive. So expect a few more "belated", as they go by me. Sis, I had yours pegged cuz I have a method, my bday is on the fifth so yours "MAY" be on the 6th. I hate being a stereotypical GUY in that for the most part those days escape my memory. I got married the day after my birthday to make sure I would remember our anniversary, Yeah right.. as I get older, I try and forget my birthday on purpose, so that didn't work out. I always have to ask Miranda when Charlene's birthday is.
It's funny, for some things my memory is almost edetic (photographic) and for other things it's almost non existant.
which reminds me Mike, wasn't it actually Purdy's name on the building despite it being Henshaw's auto body, then it got painted that teal color shortly before Earl Goucher bought it and operated it with Steven Harris as S&E auto body. Any body ever drive down through Deep Brook? I would love to see any pics from there; new or old.

Well I am looking for another job and have applied on a job with the justice department as a probation officer (Look up IRONY in the dictionary). I know, priceless! But I need something with regular hours that pays roughly the same and still lets me feel like I am doing something worthwhile. Historically, I've gotten every job I've ever tried for; so here's hoping that holds true.
We might go Grayling fishing this afternoon so hopefully some pics tonite. Ha Ha my stomach actually just growled very loudly when I thought about...mmmmm..Grayling..slobber. drool.

We would like to say a Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out in blogland, Hope you all have a wonderful day!

tears in my eyes

Mike I stand corrected, it was indeed Henshaws auto body, and I believe the chicken soup lady was Phyllis Henshaw/Harvey - I laughed like hell when I read about the chicken soup, it all came back to me like the details of a horrible car wreck. Didn't she do perms and stuff too?
Oh man it's good to laugh like that, thanks Mike. God the smell, you could tell from a half mile a way when Phyllis was at the house.

happy birthday sis

A big happy birthday to my big sister Margaret. Sis, you sure haven't changed a bit. A fountain of youth in upper clements perhaps? Country living must be it. Have a great day Sis. I have a day off today. So I'm going to take Charlie Brown flying toy planes today, I'll put up some pics tonight.
Love ya Sis, Happy Birthday!

My neighbour, proving just how drunk you

can get if you try really hard. The water is only about four feet deep; so he's not in any real danger(but you can drown in a mud puddle right?) However, someone dies every other year doing this on lakes or the river. Yes, I have done it once and no, not on purpose.

The ice is pretty much gone on both the mackenzie and liard rivers. I hear on the moccasin telegraph that the ferry might go in the water on monday, fingers crossed for operations by friday.

I would like to give a shout out and big congratulations to my niece Michelle and her family on the impending renovations to their family.

Klinger? Wow! I never woulda thunk it! I honestly thought back then that you were kinda gung-ho. Frank, You were larger than life for me when I was a kid.(don't worry, you are normal sized now!) I remember thinking how cool to run around shooting Germans.(uh, I was like 5, o.k.?)

I remember what I was thinking when this pic was taken...I was going to ask Sis for a snoopy sticker, when she finished taking the pic. Frank went to basic shortly after this was taken I believe. Was that the reason for the pic? You can see Dad and Frank seem to be looking at the T.V. anyone remember what was on?.....NO? O.K. I'll tell you, It was the news.

Although the ice moved out on the river, I never thought to bring the camera. I'll take it with me when I go to work, and post some pics tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's an old pic of dad from when he was in the paper once; getting a promotion or something. It lists on the bottom all the ships dad served on. I actually remember when that was in the paper. We were living in the white house in deep brook, across from Purdys auto body. I even remember our phone number from that house; it was 638-8400. How's that for a memory? Once, after we moved to Dartmouth ,I went over to the Naval museum in Halifax and looked up the crew pictures in these big books and found dad's pic aboard some of those ships.

When I was looking at some old pics of Dad and Frank in uniform the other day(Miranda was making a themed photo display) Charlene walked up, looked at the pics on the desk, pointed at Dad's pic and said very seriously "He's the Captain" then she pointed at Franks pic and said, "And he's the first officer!" Miranda and I laughed it was so cute. I don't know where she gets some of the things she says.

Sis, when we find out the sex of the baby we will probably tell everyone. I'm just starting to adjust to the fact that we are having another baby. Miranda is 5 months and doing o.k. (no sickness or nothing) but lots of emotional stuff, lonely all the time because I work so much.

But her brother is staying with us for awhile; so I'm off the hook there. Well speaking of work, I am on my way out for another 12 hours of overtime... cha-ching!

twofer tuesday

Had some time to pass before work so decided to try upload some more pics. Mackenzie river, meet Mackenzie drive. A Britten Norman Islander departs runway 13. And of course, me and Charlie Brown.

Sis, the missus wants a boy, but I don't have a preference. Girls can be just as much fun as boys. (I tend to tomboy them up a bit)

But, Miranda definitely wants a boy and says she wants to know before hand, and will be having the ultrasound within a couple of weeks.

river update

First off, I would just like to say that there is no rivalry between me and Frank. I have been posting under the banner of reparteè or banter. I certainly never meant to offend Frank or anyone else. And if I have, I sincereley apologize. Perhaps without being able to see the smile (or cheeky grin) when things are written and read; something gets lost in translation.

Besides, his kung-fu must be very strong, how else would he know I'm sitting down? (too easy Frank?)

To answer your question Sis, being in touch with you guys again is awesome and comes in a VERY close second to having another baby. I spend a lot of time telling Beckers(Rebecca) and Melinda stories about you guys and growing up back home. (No, not as punishment! they seem to enjoy it!)

The pics. No movement on the river yet. It's holding stable at the bank edge. In places, it's climbing up onto the road.

Charlene and mom came out to work last night and play a little soccer to pass the time. I work between 60 and 80 hours a week, yeah a week. So sometimes they come to work for the night.

Apparently blogger is saying enough, so no soccer pics today.