Hi everyone, I didn't realize that it has been almost two months since Al and I last put something up. Sorry about that. We have been pretty busy. Al put up a fence around our yard and a nice deck! My Dad came up to help Al put the finishing touches on the deck, and I even got to get out there and swing the hammer a few times.
For me Christmas is here. Thats right my store has made the transition over to Christmas. The theme this year is Fiesta Carnival, everything is in neon colours. Its kind of crazy but pretty all at the same time. Speaking of neon colours, I dropped a big sign holder on my foot the other day and now the whole think is a lovely shade of purple and green. I'm just glad its not broken!
Thanksgiving weekend has past we had my whole family up, even though Al had to work all weekend. We took the kids glowin the dark mini putt, and the guys went golfing Sunday morning and then came back to a big turkey dinner. Our friends Nik and Melissa even dropped in for a visit.
Tonight we are starting our small group here at the house. We are studying the Alpha program with some of Al's co-workers. I've cooked them a lasagna and I'm really excited that people have responded to Al's invitation.
I'll get Al to post some pictures soon.
Later, j.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
Computer Meltdown
Well on Wednesday our computer finally had enough. It started beeping loudly, and would not restart for us! Moments of panic set in as we are trying to put our extra funds aside for our deck and fence, but one day with out access to email, banking etc was too much for Jenn. We now have a new sleek silver model, but now no email addresses! If you are reading this and want to hear from Jenn - email me PLEASE!! (incase you don't have it jennclaus@rogers.com)
We are currently hiding out in the basement as there is a tornado warning for our address. It sounds like it is worse in Richmond Hill, I am wondering if I will have a store to go to tomorrow!
Its great to have it in the basement because we can watch tv on it at the same time as we are writing on our blog, or listen to the radio on it!! Too much fun.
Thats all for now. j.
We are currently hiding out in the basement as there is a tornado warning for our address. It sounds like it is worse in Richmond Hill, I am wondering if I will have a store to go to tomorrow!
Its great to have it in the basement because we can watch tv on it at the same time as we are writing on our blog, or listen to the radio on it!! Too much fun.
Thats all for now. j.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Better late than never....but that's a matter of opinion...
Yes it's been another long long wait since our last blog...but quite frankly, not a whole lot is going on here in Barrie. Everyone is just trying to stay cool in this crazy heat and I'm making half-hearted attempts to keep my grass alive. After it was so nice and green this spring, our lawn, along with most people on the street is a lovely shade of beige, with little green tufts here and there. We're looking forward to starting a deck and fence in the backyard later this month. The deck will, of course, cover the greenest patch of grass I have! 8) It'll be my first solo attempt at a a deck so wish me luck!
Jenn celebrated her birthday a couple weeks ago and we went out for an evening on the town, enjoying a fantastic dinner and meeting up with some friends afterwards. Jenn is doing really great as the new manager in Richmond Hill. She was store manager of the month for her region for July, out of about 15 stores! I'm sure that'll happen again!
Work for me is going good....after doing my 2 month rotation on the front desk I'm back out on the road. It was a nice break working the desk and gave me a chance to catch up on some of my paperwork, but it's nice to be back out where all the excitement is. In the past month we've seen a couple of shootings, a plane crash, and some horrific accidents, like the head on on the 400 the other day where an old man drove the wrong way on the freeway. One day last week I was on my way to a call through downtown when several people started waving me down screaming about a guy on a bike that got hit by a transport. I swung the cruiser around and found this guy lying kinda twisted on top of his bike right behind the stopped car carrier transport. I figured he had been run right over. After a few minutes we figured out that he had no brakes on his bike and had run into the back of the trailer. What a goof! He was fine after getting checked out at the hospital and I gave him a ticket for having no brakes. Anyways, we're all kinda looking forward to the fall when we expect to get some new recruits and when everyone is generally back from holidays. At the same time we get more officers on the road, our call volume begins to go down, so it's a bit more relaxed, if I can even use that word to describe it! 8) Our move to Barrie was the best thing we could do!
Another thing we're looking forward to is the move into our new church building. It's down in the south end of Barrie so it'll be closer for us and it's a beautiful building and lot. It's set in the middle of a pine forest and the building has a lot of glass to allow sunshine in. It's going to be a big change but it's going to be exciting as well!
Not too much else to report...Treen and Jax, we're thinking of you guys as you transition to where ever God is leading you!
Jenn celebrated her birthday a couple weeks ago and we went out for an evening on the town, enjoying a fantastic dinner and meeting up with some friends afterwards. Jenn is doing really great as the new manager in Richmond Hill. She was store manager of the month for her region for July, out of about 15 stores! I'm sure that'll happen again!
Work for me is going good....after doing my 2 month rotation on the front desk I'm back out on the road. It was a nice break working the desk and gave me a chance to catch up on some of my paperwork, but it's nice to be back out where all the excitement is. In the past month we've seen a couple of shootings, a plane crash, and some horrific accidents, like the head on on the 400 the other day where an old man drove the wrong way on the freeway. One day last week I was on my way to a call through downtown when several people started waving me down screaming about a guy on a bike that got hit by a transport. I swung the cruiser around and found this guy lying kinda twisted on top of his bike right behind the stopped car carrier transport. I figured he had been run right over. After a few minutes we figured out that he had no brakes on his bike and had run into the back of the trailer. What a goof! He was fine after getting checked out at the hospital and I gave him a ticket for having no brakes. Anyways, we're all kinda looking forward to the fall when we expect to get some new recruits and when everyone is generally back from holidays. At the same time we get more officers on the road, our call volume begins to go down, so it's a bit more relaxed, if I can even use that word to describe it! 8) Our move to Barrie was the best thing we could do!
Another thing we're looking forward to is the move into our new church building. It's down in the south end of Barrie so it'll be closer for us and it's a beautiful building and lot. It's set in the middle of a pine forest and the building has a lot of glass to allow sunshine in. It's going to be a big change but it's going to be exciting as well!
Not too much else to report...Treen and Jax, we're thinking of you guys as you transition to where ever God is leading you!
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Hot and Hazy in Barrie
Hi everybody,
I've been working some overtime lately and I now have a couple of quiet days to catch up, before the big Live 8 concert here on Saturday. I'll be there for about 13 hours on Saturday, patrolling one of the parking lots before the concert and then a beer tent with 5000 people during the show. It should be a pretty awesome thing to be a part of!
As many of you probably know, there was a horrible tragedy in London earlier this week. It involved the murder of a mom and 2 of her 3 kids. The 3rd little girl managed to escape and notify police. As it turned out, it was One Section working that night, my old shift and a lot of those directly involved were my old shiftmates. I've been able to learn more about what happened that night from some of them and quite frankly it's nothing that the folks on the outside would really want to know. A lot of it they just wouldn't understand, either. There's a married couple I worked with and the wife actually went to police college with me. This morning I read an emotional account of her experience in this...her rushing to the scene, knowing officers had been shot and knowing her husband could be one of them...and then her experience with the youngest child a 5 year old boy, who died from stab wounds. I'd just ask that you would remember the family of those murdered and the officers who will have to relive this experience for years to come.
Onto happier things, our Alberta trip was a wonderful time. We spent the first four days with Jenn's mom and dad, 2 days in Edmonton and 2 days in Athabasca. If you get a chance to look through all our pics, you'll see a Grand Am covered in mud. We took a trip up to Slave Lake and I suggested we take a more scenic route (it was on the map!!!). Anyways, thanks to Jenn's dad's driving ability (at times it was more like skiing through mud) we made it without having to call CAA. The grad was really well done and had nice touches like breakfast for everyone, personal anecdotes for every grad, and then a lunch buffet for everyone as well. For such a small university they put on a nice spread!
After Athabasca, we returned to Edmonton where Jenn and I picked up our own car (a very stylish Ford Taurus stationwagon) and we went our separate way, on to Jasper. We stayed in a cool little cabin tucked in the mountains and squeezed in a visit with my cousin Erin and her boyfriend who are working in Jasper. Up until our last day it was a little cloudy in the mountains but still very scenic! Our trip from Jasper to Banff took a bit longer than I expected and Jenn was more than a little nervous about me trying to pet the bears but it made for some great photos! We stopped at the Columbia Ice Fields and took the big bus up. We got caught in a bit of a snowsquall at first but it cleared up. I can't say I've ever experienced snow in June! We made the obligatory stop at Lake Louise (which is always very pretty and packed with tourists!) and then finished the day in Banff. We had plenty of time the next day to tour around Banff and took the gondola to the top of Sulpur Mountain. Thankfully it cleared right up that morning so we had some terrific views! We then made our way to Calgary for our last night. I managed to pull the government employee discount and we stayed in a nice hotel downtown. Right outside our window was the Calgary tower (whatever it's called) and we could see the mountains in the distance. We flew back to London the next day and got to enjoy the Westjet satellite TV and leather seats all the way home! On the way out we had to stop in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and then Edmonton and we weren't on the right model plane for the TV and seats. Thanks to Aunt Joan and Uncle Ron for dropping us off and picking us up at the London airport!
Oddly, while out west we didn't experience any of the flooding that has been plaguing them. Plus, our first night in Alberta we flicked on the news and saw downtown Barrie under water!!! Our last night out there, we watched news about tornados touching down around Barrie! Thankfully no one was hurt! Anyways, that's our trip in a nutshell...there are 240 pics up on Imagestation....link is on the right!
Lastly, I have to say congratulations to my beautiful wife on her graduation and as some of you know already, on her promotion to store manager of the Richmond Hill Pier 1. She's gone south to her sister's this weeked while I stay to work the concert and I miss her already!
Well, until next time....
I've been working some overtime lately and I now have a couple of quiet days to catch up, before the big Live 8 concert here on Saturday. I'll be there for about 13 hours on Saturday, patrolling one of the parking lots before the concert and then a beer tent with 5000 people during the show. It should be a pretty awesome thing to be a part of!
As many of you probably know, there was a horrible tragedy in London earlier this week. It involved the murder of a mom and 2 of her 3 kids. The 3rd little girl managed to escape and notify police. As it turned out, it was One Section working that night, my old shift and a lot of those directly involved were my old shiftmates. I've been able to learn more about what happened that night from some of them and quite frankly it's nothing that the folks on the outside would really want to know. A lot of it they just wouldn't understand, either. There's a married couple I worked with and the wife actually went to police college with me. This morning I read an emotional account of her experience in this...her rushing to the scene, knowing officers had been shot and knowing her husband could be one of them...and then her experience with the youngest child a 5 year old boy, who died from stab wounds. I'd just ask that you would remember the family of those murdered and the officers who will have to relive this experience for years to come.
Onto happier things, our Alberta trip was a wonderful time. We spent the first four days with Jenn's mom and dad, 2 days in Edmonton and 2 days in Athabasca. If you get a chance to look through all our pics, you'll see a Grand Am covered in mud. We took a trip up to Slave Lake and I suggested we take a more scenic route (it was on the map!!!). Anyways, thanks to Jenn's dad's driving ability (at times it was more like skiing through mud) we made it without having to call CAA. The grad was really well done and had nice touches like breakfast for everyone, personal anecdotes for every grad, and then a lunch buffet for everyone as well. For such a small university they put on a nice spread!
After Athabasca, we returned to Edmonton where Jenn and I picked up our own car (a very stylish Ford Taurus stationwagon) and we went our separate way, on to Jasper. We stayed in a cool little cabin tucked in the mountains and squeezed in a visit with my cousin Erin and her boyfriend who are working in Jasper. Up until our last day it was a little cloudy in the mountains but still very scenic! Our trip from Jasper to Banff took a bit longer than I expected and Jenn was more than a little nervous about me trying to pet the bears but it made for some great photos! We stopped at the Columbia Ice Fields and took the big bus up. We got caught in a bit of a snowsquall at first but it cleared up. I can't say I've ever experienced snow in June! We made the obligatory stop at Lake Louise (which is always very pretty and packed with tourists!) and then finished the day in Banff. We had plenty of time the next day to tour around Banff and took the gondola to the top of Sulpur Mountain. Thankfully it cleared right up that morning so we had some terrific views! We then made our way to Calgary for our last night. I managed to pull the government employee discount and we stayed in a nice hotel downtown. Right outside our window was the Calgary tower (whatever it's called) and we could see the mountains in the distance. We flew back to London the next day and got to enjoy the Westjet satellite TV and leather seats all the way home! On the way out we had to stop in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and then Edmonton and we weren't on the right model plane for the TV and seats. Thanks to Aunt Joan and Uncle Ron for dropping us off and picking us up at the London airport!
Oddly, while out west we didn't experience any of the flooding that has been plaguing them. Plus, our first night in Alberta we flicked on the news and saw downtown Barrie under water!!! Our last night out there, we watched news about tornados touching down around Barrie! Thankfully no one was hurt! Anyways, that's our trip in a nutshell...there are 240 pics up on Imagestation....link is on the right!
Lastly, I have to say congratulations to my beautiful wife on her graduation and as some of you know already, on her promotion to store manager of the Richmond Hill Pier 1. She's gone south to her sister's this weeked while I stay to work the concert and I miss her already!
Well, until next time....
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Alberta Bound
Well tonight we head out for Woodstock and then on to Alberta tomorrow afternoon for Jenn's graduation from Athabasca University. It's been a long haul for her but it's finally all done! We're looking forward to the getaway...this will be our first time out of province together. After a few days in Edmonton and Athabasca with Jenn's parents, we'll be driving to Jasper, Banff, and then into Calgary before flying home. It's been a few years since I've been out west and can't wait to see the mountains again....too bad we can't do a little snowboarding while we're there! Oh, well, maybe next time. Hopefully we'll have lots of good pics from the trip to upload when we return...I've put a few more pics up on Imagestation (see the link at the right--->>>)...a few pics from Oma and Opa's, and the weekend that we had my parents and Jen and Wim and their girls up. It was great to have us all together for a couple days! Anyways, we hope you all are well and hope to have a blog up shortly after we return!
Friday, April 29, 2005
More Pics
Hey everybody....I know I recently mentioned how I was going to try and post more regularly so forgive me for taking so long. With spring arriving, I've been busy with my grass and other little jobs around the house, and as I'm sure many will agree, grass maintenance can be a pretty near full-time job....even for the little bit that we have!
Jenn has been the busiest though, completing her final University course. She wrote her final exam last Saturday and she feels it went pretty good. This week she's been catching up with a few assignments left to submit. We're looking forward to our trip to Alberta in June for her graduation! We plan to spend a couple days in Edmonton (Jenn and her mom want to explore the West Edmonton Mall), 2 days in Athabasca for the grad, then we'll drive to Jasper for a night at the Pocohontas mountain cabins, then down to Banff for a night and then into Calgary for another night and our flight home. It's hard to believe that I was in those cities 19 years ago! Boy does that make me feel a little old or what! I'm sure we'll come back with many photos! Speaking of which, I've uploaded some of our latest photos, mostly of Easter with our families and a couple of the new wheels. My silver Nissan rocket has been replaced with a silver Chevy grocery-getting 4-wheeler, but I'm not bitter! 8) Actually we're enjoying the new Eeeek (also known as an Equinox) and especially look forward to going camping with it this summer! There's also a few pics of the Barrie waterfront from when we took a stroll down there on one of the first really nice days this spring. It defintely is nicer in the summer, but there's never a lack of people out playing down there!
Anyways, we're really happy to hear that Jax, Treen, and Nate are all back home in Canada safe and sound and look forward to seeing them sometime soon! We hope you're all doing well!
Jenn has been the busiest though, completing her final University course. She wrote her final exam last Saturday and she feels it went pretty good. This week she's been catching up with a few assignments left to submit. We're looking forward to our trip to Alberta in June for her graduation! We plan to spend a couple days in Edmonton (Jenn and her mom want to explore the West Edmonton Mall), 2 days in Athabasca for the grad, then we'll drive to Jasper for a night at the Pocohontas mountain cabins, then down to Banff for a night and then into Calgary for another night and our flight home. It's hard to believe that I was in those cities 19 years ago! Boy does that make me feel a little old or what! I'm sure we'll come back with many photos! Speaking of which, I've uploaded some of our latest photos, mostly of Easter with our families and a couple of the new wheels. My silver Nissan rocket has been replaced with a silver Chevy grocery-getting 4-wheeler, but I'm not bitter! 8) Actually we're enjoying the new Eeeek (also known as an Equinox) and especially look forward to going camping with it this summer! There's also a few pics of the Barrie waterfront from when we took a stroll down there on one of the first really nice days this spring. It defintely is nicer in the summer, but there's never a lack of people out playing down there!
Anyways, we're really happy to hear that Jax, Treen, and Nate are all back home in Canada safe and sound and look forward to seeing them sometime soon! We hope you're all doing well!
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Pics
Hey everyone...just a quick blog to let you know that we now have some pictures online (a la treenandjax) on Imagestation, now that we finally made the jump to a digital camera. We only have a 6GB harddrive so we're gonna run outta space locally real fast! I've posted a link at the right with our login and password so that anyone who actually reads our blog can access the pics. There aren't too many yet, just a bunch of our kids, Quito and Griffen, one of our house (it's the one on the left), a couple from the auto show, and some of my sis and her family and my folks at our new neice's baptism. It's a bit more of an insight into our life here in Barrie. You can leave comments on Imagestation as well. Hopefully we'll have lots more pics to upload soon...we just upgraded to a 512MB memory card. Hope all is well with everyone!
Friday, March 04, 2005
A little sadness
I have to admit I'm feeling a little low today, due to the tragedy that has unfolded in Alberta. It's hard to put into words how the death, and particularly the murder, of another officer makes me feel and the worst part is that it's multiplied to reflect the murders of all four that happened yesterday morning. God rest the souls of Brock Myrol, Lionide Johnston, Peter Scheimann, and Anthony Gordon. Please pray for their families and their brothers and sisters in the RCMP. Sometimes you need to vent a little so I just may do that a bit. So often we feel like we're the only ones on our side. Of course we get the love and support of our families but it feels like our government continues to stack the odds against us. The evil man that killed these four officers had previously been convicted of assault with a weapon, sexual assault, pointing a firearm, forcible confinement, and mischief, and likely many other criminal offences. And yet, our justice system felt that he should walk the streets a free man, no matter how many people he had hurt and terrorized in the past, he deserved another chance. It seems like no matter how much time and effort we put into an investigation, the courts just send these criminals back into the streets to do more damage. I made the choice to do this job and I will never regret that. I have to focus on the good we manage to do, despite the odds. But please pray for and support your local police. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."
Saturday, February 19, 2005
My turn
I guess it's my turn to write, a little distraction from a 12 page paper for my Human Resources -Organizational Behaviour class never hurt. AHHH school is almost over but the pressure has never been this bad, maybe its the 40 hr plus week of work, the 12 hours of commuting through snow sleet and freezing rain, trying to balance a second job (self employed retail merchandising consultant) and a great attempt to finish two courses in 12 weeks so I can finally graduate. So if you have been reading you know now why its only Al who has time to write and if you haven't heard from me in ages, forgive me my nose is stuck in a text book. I'm sorry I missed your birthday Beth. We'll get together and celebrate soon shrimp at Rosa's sound good? My final marks have to be in by May 6th, after that I will have so much free time (I should be back in the Barrie store by then too) that I'll be up to giving tours of Barrie and the beautiful bay if any of you feel like staying with us for a visit. Well I can't ignore this paper for long as I told my prof I would submit it last weekend (oops)!
Saturday, January 29, 2005
New arrival in the family
We're very happy to announce that my sister has safely given birth to her 3rd little girl, Seleah, this past Wednesday! Seleah was born at home with the help of a midwife and they now have 3 little girls under 4....I forsee lots of sleepless nights for Wim and Jenn in about 14 years....8)
Anyhow, we've been in a deep freeze here in Barrie for the last week and a half....it's finally starting to warm up now (now that I'm done my night shifts, of course)....it was pretty bitter out there, although I think back to some nights in Sudbury when the windchill was in the -60C range...makes -39C not sound so bad!
Jenn is writing her 3 last exam this morning...she's been studying like crazy for it for several weeks now! Two courses and 2 exams left before she's all done! I can't imagine what she's going to do with all the free time! Maybe some more baking....8)...like my waistline needs that!
That's all for now....looking forward to a warming trend and till next time,
Al (& Jenn)
Anyhow, we've been in a deep freeze here in Barrie for the last week and a half....it's finally starting to warm up now (now that I'm done my night shifts, of course)....it was pretty bitter out there, although I think back to some nights in Sudbury when the windchill was in the -60C range...makes -39C not sound so bad!
Jenn is writing her 3 last exam this morning...she's been studying like crazy for it for several weeks now! Two courses and 2 exams left before she's all done! I can't imagine what she's going to do with all the free time! Maybe some more baking....8)...like my waistline needs that!
That's all for now....looking forward to a warming trend and till next time,
Al (& Jenn)
Friday, January 14, 2005
Springtime in Barrie
What wacky weather we have had in the last couple of days! Yesterday apparently was up to 15C and today it's back down to -6C. So almost all the snow melted, revealing Quito's all-natural lawn treatment (now bagged and for sale). It was nice though...I took the bike down off the lift and put the battery back in. It fired up with no trouble and sounded just like it ought to....like a Sherman tank with no muffler! 8) Luckily my neighbour is very nice and he's been doing renovations over the last couple of days ( at least I hope it's just renovations), so we've been equally noisy. So needless to say, I can't wait until April when I can roll the bike out for a real season of riding, unlike last year when I had to leave it down in London. My only ride was from London to Barrie at the end of October, two days before the insurance ran out. Jenn and I are looking forward to cruising down by the lakeshore this summer!
Jenn kicked her flu in about 24 hours...turns out my dad and uncle, who we had seen a couple of days before came down with the same thing. Thankfully, I dodged it. Following the holidays, things seem to be back to normal now. Jenn is buckling down to finish her last two courses for her BA so that we can go out to Alberta for her grad in June. Not much else going on. I'm on my days off and puttering around the house, so I figured I need to update the blog...gotta keep all those fascinated people out there in the loop! 8) I'm glad there's a couple of ya still reading. Anyhow, God bless you all and till next time!
Jenn kicked her flu in about 24 hours...turns out my dad and uncle, who we had seen a couple of days before came down with the same thing. Thankfully, I dodged it. Following the holidays, things seem to be back to normal now. Jenn is buckling down to finish her last two courses for her BA so that we can go out to Alberta for her grad in June. Not much else going on. I'm on my days off and puttering around the house, so I figured I need to update the blog...gotta keep all those fascinated people out there in the loop! 8) I'm glad there's a couple of ya still reading. Anyhow, God bless you all and till next time!
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Week off....
So I'm on holidays and trying to stay busy...Jenn had a few things for me to do around the house which I've been working on...last night, Jenn was very sick, right through the night...unbeknownst to be she actually curled up outside the bathroom on the floor in a blanket at one point. It seems the vomitting is over, hopefully...I got her some chicken broth and I haven't heard the toilet flushing upstairs, so I hope it's staying down and that she's getting some sleep. She had to call in to work this morning to let them know she couldn't make it.
I go back to work on Saturday, after being off for the last set, over New Years. We went down to Woodstock and visited with both sides of the family, celebrating Christmas with everyone, just a few days late. It was nice to do it over 3 days...not so rushed.
We were with Jenn's family on New Year's Eve...we were all in bed and asleep by 11:30...do I feel like I'm getting old? Uh, yeah...
Like everyone else, we've been following the news on the Tsunami...we were greatly relieved to hear from Jax and Treen who were in Thailand at the time, and to learn that they were ok. What a tragedy, though!
It's been a lot milder over the past several days...most of the snow we got on the 23rd has melted...it's a little cooler today, but they're calling for a high of 10 on Sunday. At this rate, people around here will be golfing by the end of the month.
Anyhow, I should go check on Jenn. If there is anyone still reading, we'd love to know!
I go back to work on Saturday, after being off for the last set, over New Years. We went down to Woodstock and visited with both sides of the family, celebrating Christmas with everyone, just a few days late. It was nice to do it over 3 days...not so rushed.
We were with Jenn's family on New Year's Eve...we were all in bed and asleep by 11:30...do I feel like I'm getting old? Uh, yeah...
Like everyone else, we've been following the news on the Tsunami...we were greatly relieved to hear from Jax and Treen who were in Thailand at the time, and to learn that they were ok. What a tragedy, though!
It's been a lot milder over the past several days...most of the snow we got on the 23rd has melted...it's a little cooler today, but they're calling for a high of 10 on Sunday. At this rate, people around here will be golfing by the end of the month.
Anyhow, I should go check on Jenn. If there is anyone still reading, we'd love to know!
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