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....

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!