The week in review...

A couple neat things to report...

Starting with last Tuesday - I post about this one every year only because it's one of my favourite contracts. This year was the 20th Anniversary of the Charity Golf Tournament for the Tim Horton Children's Ranch at Kananaskis. For the past 16 years we've provided the sound and video for the live and silent auction and reception that follows the tournament.

I've been in the habit of donating certificates to the auction. This year, because I'm focused on bringing the live sound component of the business on line, I donated an evening's production services to the camp. I thought it best to showcase the Midas console so a photo too was also in order.



Work this last weekend was all out-of-town.

Friday, a wedding ceremony and reception at the Cochrane Ranch House


Ready for the ceremony



Dining room


Saturday, a wedding ceremony and reception at Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club:


Ceremony in a tent off the... 4th. hole??


Inside the clubhouse

Lastly, on Sunday I was down in Kensington and saw this brilliant guarantee:


The new website's up, with some flaws, but they will be ironed out over time: www.monarchmusic.ca

...more later, as we carry on, carrying on.

As the thought occurs...

A brief post as the thought occurs.

I'm sitting outside the University Bookstore contemplating the day as I usually do, with a coffee after a bike ride.

Seeing the Bookstore sign reminded me of Dad and his thousands of books, not to mention his veratious love for reading.

Today would have been his 87th. birthday.

He also loved teaching and education. That may be why I'm so comfortable here.

I think I'll look for something to read in his memory.

Where there's smoke there's fire Part 2

After I finished the first post, I went back to see what was happening. I walked down the back lane and caught this shot from the back of the house:


Then from the school parking lot across the street from the front of the house:









Ironically, check out the electronic sign at the school:


While I was snapping photos, the fire department escorted the home owners back into the house to survey the damage. Apparently no one was hurt, so "safe summer" applies here, methinks.

Time to buy a lotto ticket??

Where there's smoke, there's fire

I was at Mom's this afternoon for coffee. In the middle of our visit I received a text from my friend Dave to say that N.'s dad G. was in the hospital. When I left Mom's, I went to the Foothills to see G. Turns out it wasn't super serious and he was ready and waiting to be discharged... waiting on a signature. As we prepared to leave, the Mother of all rain storms swooped in along with slushy hail. I'm thinking to myself, "...am I in for a new roof again this year??" We decided to wait out the storm at the coffee shop by the chapel. I'd parked at the church, so D. & G. gave me a ride to my van. I took the usual route home up 24th. Avenue across Crowchild Trail. As I came up 22nd Street to cut through the alley to home, I was stopped in my tracks by this:



My heart started to race, wondering if I might not be able to get to my house. Morley Trail was blocked off by emergency vehicles and tape lines.


This is the best shot I was able to get - it's the house three to the left of the alley, beside the apartment complex, beside the strip mall:


I went around behind the school and across to my place from the west. I was able to go in the back side of the alley from my place:


The next three shots show the overhead water feed from the back of the house:




Neighbours, police and fire crew were in the back alley:

I went around the block to get some shots from the school and East-bound down Morley Trail:





Walking back to the house, I wasn't quite fast enough to catch the shot - the Number 10 bus has been re-routed down Cochrane Road.


...and here I was concerned about hail damage to MY roof. Puts a new perspective on things, indeed.

The Dude of Contemplation

Everyone knows I'm the lover of all things Mac. I'm the soap-boxer-extraordinaire when it comes to tormenting those poor, misguided Windows users. However, this morning I discovered something very frustrating about my little iPhone and that is that I too have become a victim of Autocorrect.

Autocorrect is a seemingly handy application designed to provide on-the-fly spellcheck-and-correct as you type text messages or make entries in application boxes while using your phone. Unlike spellcheck in Word for Mac or other such programmes, Autocorrect doesn't just give you the option to use its 'corrected' version of your misspelled word, but rather simply dumps it in. If you're not paying close attention, you may end up saying something you didn't intend.

Case in point, this morning I rode over to the University for a morning coffee (which, by the way I made at home before leaving - saving myself the $2+) sat outside the bookstore and proceeded to check email and of course, my Facebook. (Look at me, a guy over 40 checking in with "social" culture! ;)) A couple of my friends had recently used the "Check In" feature which allows you to post your current location as well as comment on what it is you're doing. I don't often use it - in fact, practically never - but this morning I figured... why not?

So I checked in at MacEwan Student Centre, with the intended comment attached:

"Sipping morning coffee with a side of contemplation"

Pretty simple, right?

As I look down to read the post, I notice a glaring error. Thanks to Autocorrect, my clever little post now read:

"Sipping morning coffee with a dude of contemplation"

At first I was furious. After all, I'd gone to some trouble (not really) to show to the world my cleverness. Then my mind raced to blame Autocorrect for not first checking the intended connotation of my post. Then I thought, hmm... a "dude of contemplation". As it read it wasn't all that bad, really. According to this I must be having coffee with some really deep dude. I guess I could live with that.

On my way home it occurred to me that perhaps Autocorrect is smarter than I give it credit for. After all, it knew I was indeed that dude.