About Me

First of all "Who Cares ?"

Some bonehead suggested that this would be the proper thing to do, so me being the gullible person I am I agreed- so here goes. I thought, given the theme of the website, that an older style photo would be appropriate.

Anyway, when I was 17 I dropped out of school- you know fast cars and girls and all that stuff. Pretty dumb thing to do, but I thought I was smarter than everyone who tried to tell me better. I settled into a job as a labourer with the City's Water Department fixing broken water lines in all kinds of weather. I worked pretty damned hard for a lot of years until I finally decided it might be a good idea to finish school so I started taking a bunch of night courses and got my high school diploma. I was about 28 at the time and decided to carry on with University. My first degree was a double major thing in Psychology and History. I took another year and got a specialization in Sociology. Now I took all this education and got a job with the Water Department as a ( you guessed it) labourer. So what the Hell was that all about anyway? Frankly I needed the money to live, but I carried on with night courses through the Faculty of Extension and got a Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education. Once I finished that I went to N.A.I.T and completed a Certificate as a Water and Wastewater Technician. I wrote all the necessary Provincial exams and got the highest level of certification as a Water Distribution System Operator possible. Finally it all came together and slowly I got a better job in the office. So now I work in the Water Industry for a very big company, have a pretty good job, a nice little office and a really weird title - and most days wish I was back driving truck again or playing with backhoes. Oh well- retirement can't be that far off and I can assure you I will drop my pen or abandon my keyboard at the exact second I am eligible.

I was married once before and my first wife and I only had one fight- problem was it lasted about 13 years- but I figured " What the Hell" - mostly my fault for not doing exactly as I was told all of the time without question and for speaking constantly without permission. OK- I wasn't perfect either. The evidence of my second attempt at marital bliss is below.

See! - I put on my nicest suit, got a haircut and trapped Deb - an outdoors event that was on the rainiest and coldest September day in all of history. She's definitely a keeper - only ten years younger, but tries hard to keep up. I am very, very happy now ( Paid Political Message ). Anyway, I always loved visiting the family farms when I was a kid - they were such big places back then and there seemed to be no end to the land. I never gave much thought back then to the fact that I would grow up, but actually a lot of people say I never have and I think they are right.
Funny- at a certain age we all wander off trying to find our way in the world thinking that we are immune to aging, but it happens and as it does you start to look backwards instead of forwards. Now oddly it seems the land has gotten smaller doesn't it? - Oh to see it through the eyes of a child again. Anyway I loved those days and my Baba and Gido, who have since passed on, so I thought I'd try to find my "roots" - I guess I wanted to get to know my grandparents and relatives a little more.
Well- what a pain in the ***! ( If you are ever thinking about doing a project like this I want you to find the nearest telephone pole and bang your head against it several times, preferably until you knock yourself out cold. If you still feel like doing it when you come to the I suggest you repeat the process as many times as necessary until the idea has escaped your brain. ) Well it only took about twelve years of obsessive compulsive behaviour ( and the equivalent out of pocket cost of at least one two week trip to Hawaii for Deb and I ) to sort out the family- nice people though! It seems that me visiting every thirty years or so is just about right with them, and I've also met a hell of a lot of good folks for the first time. I'm finishing up a book on the family right now, but I'm apparently not busy enough so I thought I'd work on a website too.
Oh yeah- hobbies and stuff. Me rugged outdoors manly type! I love stream fishing- hiking in for miles, catching trout along the way and unwittingly upsetting bears and other poor wildlife. My best scare was being charged by a bear while alone in the fall- it stopped only a few feet short- must have sensed I would be a tough chew. ( I was not very rugged or outdoorsy at that moment and recall wanting my mommy). Problem is Deb is just about as crazy as me so she's usually with me and through some fluke of nature it seems that, according to her, larger fish are attracted to her line. I will not speak to that issue, as I am somewhat sensitive about that. Here we are all dressed up and ready to attack the wilderness.

As you can see we are fully prepared to do combat- no fooling around here! Recently we started dabbling in fly fishing. So far Deb is better at catching herself with the fly rod than she is at catching fish with it. Being the kind person I am I will use my inherent manly traits to teach her the necessary patience, grace and poise after which she will hopefully improve and I can spend less time unhooking her from her hair and clothing. In spite of this she has, to date, a higher success rate than me (again without doubt some wierd fluke of nature).
As far as winter activities go we both thrive on hibernation. Lately we do a lot of swimming just to stay active because shovelling snow, although always such fun, gets a little tedious. As I grow older I am learning to despise the cold more and more. ( Why weren't they offering free quarter sections of land in the tropics when my great grandparents decided to emigrate? ) So we try to suck up the summer months and wonder if global warming is really that bad after all. Anyway- that's me / us in a nutshell.

Norm

About Me

First of all "Who Cares ?"

Message From the Premier of Alberta