Monthly Archives: August 2008

The weirdest thing happened last night.

My wife had gone to be with my parents in Rosetown.  My sister and her family, where my parents live, were headed on vacation to Waskesiu. 

While there, Jill had prepared meals.  As the day ended she went outdoors with my sister’s dog.  The dog did it’s business, Jill was about hers (two very different businesses!).  They returned to the house.

Trixie, the dog, began to eject things from both ends.  Vomit and poop.  And convulsing.  Jill called me and thought the dog was about to die.  She checked with others and tried to contact a vet.  They were all away for the weekend.  A vet clinic would phone back.  Others were called and some possible remedies suggested.

Trixie continued to convulse, then pant and finally became perfectly still.  In human parlance, she died.  I think it was in around two to three hours after initial signs of sickness appeared.

What do you do with a dead dog?  Especially when the family is away!  The decision was made to bag the dog up, put it in a friend’s freezer and let the family deal with the remains when they returned.

Not my idea of a great way to start five days away from home.  Jill is doing well — I wish I could say the same for Trixie!

At 92 years of age, Cecil Ditson passed away this morning, Thursday, August 14, 2008.   The funeral will be held Monday, August 18, at 1:00 pm at the Kindersley Alliance Church.

When I returned to Kindersley a few years ago, Cecil and Mary invited me to their house.  He took pride in his garden and I had a quick tour through the back yard.  I had to figure that anyone who still bows down to feel the soil and smell the life of living plants at the age of 89 still has a touch of life left in him!!

Now that life is with Jesus — I wonder if there is a garden Cecil is ready to tend there??

Funny thing to say — “I’m back in my seat!” 

For the last six days I’ve been involved in my father’s 90th celebration.  Getting ready, experiencing and winding down.

So today I was back to my office.  A few calls asked how I was, and I replied that I was back in my seat.  Each time the appropriateness was there — I talk sitting down!  And each time I was reminded that the seat holds certain responsibilities.

First was a call telling us that one of our seniors is dying.  I had visited him earlier last week and there were some indications of his weakness.  But he had been in and out of hospital on other occasions that were much the same.  This time he will not come out.  The reality of death and the need for someone to share it is welcomed by the family.  So my wife and I headed off to the hospital.

Another few calls were to check up on others whose health is not great.  They seem to be in good spirits although their bodies are withering away.

A call to Prince Albert to work on a possible work group.  A call to someone to play piano.  Other calls followed.  Each from my seat.

How does it feel?  Good to get things going again.  At the same time there is much to do. 

“All good!” as one of my friends would say. 

My brother, Murray, had once proclaimed that he would never use computers.  That was, until he required them for research, and email, and other miscellaneous things.  Once a Luddite, not always a Luddite!

Monday, Murray and I looked over a machine that Jill uses constantly.  Unfortunately usage was low, in fact non-existent.  We tried a new power unit.  The fans whirred, but the monitor did not light up.  We hooked another computer to the monitor.  That worked just fine.  We tried once more and nothing, not even the BIOS settings, appeared.

Conclusion — the motherboard was fried.  A quick talk with our local “Radio Shack” (now “The Source by Circuit City” – could you come up with more circuitous name) guy revealed what we had thought.  Buy a cheap new machine instead of trying to make a new motherboard work with an old machine.  Thankfully they had a cheap machine (actually, it was cheap and quite usable).

We transferred over the old hard drive (with all the data safely saved) and a DVD drive.  The rest of the evening was spent in setting up programs and getting things running so Jill could use the machine.  This is my first experience with Windows Vista, and so far the results are working in my favor!

Today’s task?  Finish off my last day of vacation (I took from last Thursday – this Tuesday for my Father’s 90th Birthday celebration).  I’m sure there will be some more quirks to the new computer, but other than that, a bit of relaxation will be in order.