The Hilton Chronicle

Spending a rather quiet weekend after all the activities of the past few weeks as well as being the last couple of days off before starting the dreaded "midnights" next week. Tonight we are going to take in some live jazz at a little cafe we stumbled on a couple of weeks ago. Very few places offer live music these days.
Ralph Klein is bribing, er sorry , PROMISING every man woman and child in Alberta a $400 "bonus" because we are making too much money in the oil patch. Gee, could've fooled me. We are trying to decide what to do with the money which a lot of people find an insult considering the high cost of gas and heating fuel in this province. Maybe they should kick a little of that surplus back into lowereing fuel costs. Anyway, we are considering putting it towards replacing our furnace which I guess would be our way to try and lower fuel costs.

Posted 5:42 PM by Jeff

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Garage Sale

We spent the better part of last weekend holding our much needed garage sale. The weather got off to a shaky start on Friday, the first day of the sale but fortunately the rain held off. Then Saturday and Sunday were both bright and sunny which made the event much more enjoyable. Lots of stuff was sold and we made about $300. I am always amazed that people are willing to pay me money to haul away my junk and I am even more surprised at some of the things that actually got sold. For example, someone bought my old copy of Windows 3.1 and DOS 5.1. I also got rid of my old Commodore 64 system that had been gathering dust in the garage. The stuff that didn't sell has made a new home at Goodwill and now the house and garage look a lot cleaner although there are still a few nooks and crannies in the house that could probably do for a bit more cleaning.
Nikki seems to be having a great time in Florida. She has phoned a couple of times to tell us how things are going. She is in the process of buying a car down there from a fellow in the church who is selling her a 1995 Mazda Protege for around $1200 and then will buy it back for the same price when she leaves. All she really has to pay for is registration and insurance for 3 or 4 months. Needless to say she is very excited about that.
I am without a desk at the moment so I am typing this on a TV tray in my office. I hauled my old steel desk out to the garage for the sale but unfortunately it didn't sell so I put it in the Bargain Finder for a week to see if we get any nibbles. If not, it gets hauled to the dump. It's not coming back downstairs. In the meantime I have to design and build a new computer desk for myself and for Dianne who also lost her computer work station. We most likely will shop around and buy them as getting motivated to build seems a little tough at the moment.

Posted 12:59 PM by Jeff

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Wrapping Up The Loose Ends Of Summer

Well I hope things are back to normal. The fences are finally done and have been for a couple of weeks. We still need to put a second coat of stain on them but for the most part the project has been completed. I took my last midnight shift off so that I would be able to go to Saskatchewan over the long weekend to celebrate Mom & Dad Mildenberger's 80th birthdays. This gave me 14 days off in total which I have spent trying to get a few odd jobs completed before I go back to work this Saturday. I had to completely rebuild our utility trailer which suffered some damage during the lumber transport for the fence. I have also spent a little time putting a computer system together for Lee and Angela, a long ago promised wedding present that I have finally completed. Plus a little work on the truck and a few little odds and ends and I have been kept quite busy. As well, the aforementioned jaunt to Sedley which went really well. All the grandchildren except one were able to make it out to celebrate with grandma & grandpa. I took quite a few pictures which I have yet to view as well as some video which I am hoping to make into a souvenir video for the folks (when I get around to it that is!).
Our youngest child leaves the nest, at least temporarily, this Sunday. Nikki flies off to Florida to spend about three months under the mentorship of a friend of ours who is the music pastor in a church down there. Nikki will be his assistant and will get a chance to help lead the choir, lead in praise and worship and also get some pointers on arranging and composing music, valuable tools as she prepares to enroll in the Grant MacKewan music program next fall. So it will seem strange not to have her bubbly personality bounding in and out of the house for a while. I think everyone's a bit pensive and nervous, especially Nikki as this is the first time she has gone on a trip by herself. She leaves at 7:00am on Sunday morning and has a one hour layover in Houston before continuing on to Pensacola, Florida, which by the way is not too far from where hurricane Katrina did her damage. We are just praying that the end of hurricane season is fast approaching, although our friend Randy says they have weathered four or five hurricanes since they moved down there and all seems to be well so far.
Within the next few days I hope to go through the pictures of the birthday party and post a few on the site for all to peruse.

Posted 9:18 PM by Jeff

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