Head Tale

“Indian Head is super nice…it’s not like any other small prairie town I’ve been too”

My hometown gets a couple nice compliments in a Reddit thread about best Saskatchewan towns/cities…

¶ Posted 03 November 2021 § MemoryLane § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: reddit, saskatchewan

Funeral for a Family Friend

It was being used a bit before Covid but the pandemic definitely made livestreaming a more common option for all sorts of major life events including birthdays, holidays, weddings and especially funerals.

This has come in handy a few times recently – over the summer when a former coworker died of stage four breast cancer, we were camping in Weyburn but I was able to “attend” the funeral from there instead of making a 2.5 hour round trip into the city.

Then again, when a guy I graduated high school died of Covid in Medicine Hat about a month ago, I was able to see an online archive of his funeral after a friend sent it to me.

And most recently, just this past Monday, when a family friend who farmed very near our farm, whose wife nursed with my mom for years, and whose kids I even babysat occasionally, died of cancer. Even though I wasn’t able to attend in person or even watch live, I was again able to watch the archived livestream after the fact which was nice given I couldn’t be there in person.

¶ Posted 02 November 2021 § Family § Internet § MemoryLane § Sad § Saskatchewan § Technology § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: Covid, health

Music Monday – “When I’m in the shower/I’m afraid to wash my hair/’Cause I might open my eyes and find someone standing there”

Halloween’s over but this was our song of the year as Sasha kept singing it over and over after hearing it on my Halloween playlist…

“Somebody’s Watching Me” – Rockwell (featuring Michael Jackson)

¶ Posted 01 November 2021 § MusicMonday § PopCulture § Sasha ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: holiday, music

Scary Science Facts – Even If It’s Halloween, Don’t Read This Thread If You Have Anxiety/Depression!

This thread probably isn’t a good one to read ever, let alone on the scariest day of the year!

“Scientists of Reddit, what’s a scary science fact the public is generally unaware of?”

Happy Halloween everyone!

This one is of particular interest to Saskatchewan…

If you think the pandemic was bad, this is possibly the single scariest one for me in the entire thread in terms of chaos and disruption to all human life (not counting the asteroid strikes or accidental nuclear wars that would end all life fairly instantly.)

So hard to pick a few that are particularly horrific but this one jumped out at me for some reason. The idea that millions could die because their sweat couldn’t keep them cool just seems unbelievable…

¶ Posted 31 October 2021 § Internet § List § Meme § News § Politics § Sad § Technology § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: education, health, holiday, science

Saturday Snap – All I Want For Christmas…

…is an $18,000 piece of art!

But I should back up…

After picking up Sasha for her art class (she’s decided she wants to be an artist or art teacher when she grows up), we all went to Pile of Bones Brewery intending to have a Saturday afternoon beer/soda. But it was packed so we headed to the other end of the list in terms of beverage options – the Excalipur Cat Cafe but same thing – very busy on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Right beside the Cat Cafe, there’s the Nouveau Gallery and so we decided to go in and let our budding artist have a look around, having never been before.

They had a Wilf Perreault exhibit on and it was of extra interest to me since this one had a Beatles theme to it (I’m a “super fan”, don’t you know!)

The gallery is operated by Mr. Perreault’s daughter and she was very engaging – telling us about the art, offering to take our picture, and even letting Sasha play with their resident cat which was a bonus having missed out at Excalipur.

I was particularly taken with this piece, titled “Abbey Road”, which she showed us even has a hidden detail of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road!

(Can you spot The Beatles? Look right above the fence…)

Anyhow, it pays sometimes to be pretty spontaneous – we wouldn’t have likely ended up going into this gallery if the other places we’d stopped hadn’t been so busy and/or Sasha hadn’t just came from art class.

But we turned out having a great experience, talking about art, arts funding, book publishing (Coteau Books had published a book of Mr. Perrault’s art on behalf of the MacKenzie Art Gallery) and even our respective close encounters with different Beatles!

¶ Posted 30 October 2021 § Family § Photo § Sasha § Saskatchewan § SaturdaySnap § Shea ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, saskatchewan, xmas

Friday Fun Link – Flames’ Amazing Five Game Road Trip Win Record

A week ago, I was noting that the Flames’ first victory should be celebrated as I didn’t know how these chronic underachievers that I support would fare through the rest of the year.

A week later, I (and many in Flames fandom) are stunned at an almost unprecedented road trip run…

Whether that level of play holds for the rest of the year remains to be seen but wow, I’m actually enjoying being a Flames fan the past week – a strange feeling indeed! 🙂

¶ Posted 29 October 2021 § FridayFunLink § Sports ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: alberta, history, hockey

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – City Hall Swim (August 2009)

Well, almost…

¶ Posted 28 October 2021 § Family § Humour § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo § Saskatchewan § ThrowbackThursday ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: saskatchewan

Who Knew One Year Ago Today Would Be Arguably The Most Consequential Election in #skpoli History?

Today marks one year since Premier Scott Moe led his #Saskatchewan Party government to a resounding re-election win.
At the time, #Sask had 650 active #COVID19 cases and 25 deaths, now 2,822 and 817, respectively.
Just 23 in hospital on Oct. 26, 2020 — 293 now.#skpoli #COVID19SK

— Phil Tank (@thinktankSK) October 26, 2021

As the Sask Party cruised to a pretty dominant re-election while almost taking out another NDP leader in his own riding one year ago today, there were reasons for optimism in the province:

* vaccines were on the horizon, projected to begin rolling out by the end of the year.

* Saskatchewan cases/hospitalizations/deaths were incredibly low and I would have to double-check but I think there had literally not been a single Covid-related death in the month before the election (okay, maybe one.)

* There was a feeling that people wanted stability and familiarity during a pandemic election and the long-standing Sask Party offered that.

Who knew that one year after that election:

* the willingly unvaccinated would be a major cause of a system-crushing fourth wave

* Saskatchewan’s healthcare system would be so strained, we would be requesting federal help and sending ICU patients out of province. Multiple Covid deaths would be a daily occurrence, sometimes reaching double digits!

* …and the Sask Party leadership would be a lot less familiar as they all but went into hiding after basically declaring Covid over in mid-July 2021 and lifting pretty much any and all restrictions.

After record-setting case #s, hospitalizations, deaths & now critically ill patients being transferred out of province, many voters are realising they made a huge mistake.

Next election, I hope ppl also realise having a doctor in the top seat might be a good idea!

— Jason Hammond (@headtale) October 20, 2021

¶ Posted 26 October 2021 § MemoryLane § News § Politics § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: Covid, health, science

Music Monday – “I still remember when thirty was old/And my biggest fear was September when he had to go/A few cards and letters and one long distance call/We drifted away like the leaves in the fall”

This is one of those songs that I have to rewind and listen to an extra time or two every time it comes on.

I came across this version which is arguably more poignant than the original as Ms. Carter is now singing about youthful innocence from a perspective of an older woman rather than when she sang it originally as a relatively young woman herself.