Well, here we are moving into a new month. Not only is it a new month, the name of the month is one of the most mispronounced words in the english language. The correct pronunciation for the word is Feb-ru-ary, not Feb-u-ary. I would bet that 9 out of 10 people say this word incorrectly. There are others as well.

A “pitcher” is someone who hurls a baseball at a batter or something you put liquid into. Here’s how Merriam-Webster defines the word “picture-”a design or representation made by various means (as painting, drawing, or photography). There is a big difference between the two words. Use each accordingly!

In about a month or so, almost everyone but us here in Saskatchewan will be heading into Daylight Saving Time. A lot of people call it Daylight “Savings” Time. Drop the “s” and you’ll be correct.

We all have words that we have a hard time pronouncing. If I pronounce something incorrectly, I want someone to let me know so I can change it and not sound uneducated.

As a broadcaster I feel it’s my obligation to correctly pronounce every word that comes out of my mouth. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, I’m happy when someone points it out to me so I can move on without sounding like an idiot.

This is the last blog and show for a while. We’re off on our annual Flea Market trip. This year it’s off to the Dominican Republic for two fun filled sunny weeks. I’ll be back with you on Feb. 21st.

When I return, we’ll almost be through the month of Feb-ru-ary. I’ll be sure to take a “picture” of a “pitcher” of beer I’ll be drinking so I can post it online. After all, a “picture” says a thousand words. And when I’m back, spring will be right around the corner, as will “Daylight Saving Time!”

I don’t know what it is with some pedestrians around this city, but there are some who think that they can cross a street no matter what the traffic light says!

Twice yesterday, at the same intersection, idiots decided to cross Saskatchewan Drive even when there was a green light allowing traffic to move freely through that intersection.

The first was on my way home from work at the Sask. Drive and Elphinstone corner. I was parked at a red light waiting to head west. There was a young man who was waiting at the light who decided he didn’t want to wait any longer, so he strolled out into the intersection at a leisurely pace just when my light turned green. He didn’t care. He slowly strolled across Sask. Dr. like he owned the road while drivers waited for him to get out of the way.

The other time was when I was on my way home from the Casino where I had to MC a show. Same intersection, same thing. It was dark so I almost didn’t see the guy. When my light turned green I hit the gas and noticed this guy to my right. I almost hit him. People gave him a honk, as I did, but again, this guy couldn’t care less about being in the wrong.

Sometimes I’d just love to drill someone like that just to teach him a lesson. I don’t agree with the law that gives pedestrians the right of way all of the time. I almost hit that guy last night. Would I have been at fault if some idiot was 1/4 of the way through an intersection when I have the green light? Probably.

Most of the people who walk value their lives, so they follow the walk/don’t walk signs. It always seems to be some young punk who doesn’t give a hoot that causes all of the problems. It’s almost as if they think that the world owes them everything!

So, if you’re a walker, especially at night, pay attention to the traffic signs. You’ll save yourself, and possibly me, a whole lot of trouble.

Over the weekend my wife had to run out and grab a couple of things for our upcoming trip and on the way home she stopped and grabbed a coffee and half a dozen doughnuts. She brought me a couple of Boston Cream’s, my favorites!

My wife always likes weird stuff when it comes to food. She grabbed herself a couple of maple things(I don’t know what they’re actually called) and what looked to be a couple of apple fritters. These were different though, they were actually filled with grape jelly! No thanks.

Aside from Boston Cream’s, doughnuts should NOT be filled with anything. If I want grape jelly I’ll buy some and toss it on a piece of toast. There are so many doughnuts filled with so much different stuff. What’s wrong with just having a piece of dough that’s sweetened with something? Do we really have to stuff these things like we do a turkey at Thanksgiving?

It’s the same thing with potato chips potato chips. How many flavours do we need? Do we really need a potato chip that tastes like ketchup? If I want ketchup I’ll go to my fridge and grab a bottle for my burger and fries. Have you ever barbequed a potato chip? Why do we need a chip that tastes like it’s been dipped in barbeque sauce?

Just give me a plain chip and a regular doughnut and I’ll be happy.
Why do we feel that we need to make food so complicated?

Lets stop the insanity and get back to a time when food was simple and uncomplicated.

Yesterday afternoon I had to head out to run a couple of errands for my ailing wife. It’s funny how she never needs to do anything when she’s feeling well, but suddenly has a full slate when she’s too sick to leave the house.

Anyway, during my travels I noticed a few things that I usually don’t pay attention to. I pulled up beside some lady, I’d say in her 50′s, who was “digging for gold” and apparently just couldn’t strike it rich. When drivers are digging for gold are they totally oblivious to the fact that other drivers can see what they’re doing? I didn’t watch her for long. I must admit, as I’m sure we all can, been there done that!

Then I was waiting for the lights to change at 4th and Lewvan. In the vehicle behind me I noticed the driver waving his hands around in what appeared to be an agitated manner. Then the lady in his passenger seat started doing the same thing. Her head was moving in a way that indicated she was also yelling. Wow, I was witnessing an argument. Excellent. The light took a while to change and for once I didn’t mind. Fortunately I was wearing my sunglasses so the people in the vehile didn’t notice my eyes glued to their actions. These two were really going at it.

I was hoping that my wife and I aren’t that obvious when we’re arguing in our vehicle. I think we’ll have to make up a new rule- when we’re arguing in the vehicle, neither one of us can use our hands. That’s just a little too obvious to other drivers!

All in all in was actually a nice drive yesterday. I must admit I really enjoyed all the entertainment, except for the “gold digger.”

Well, it’s been nearly 2 months since I’ve chabged my eating habits to bring down what my doctor called “extremely high” cholesterol levels. One thing I really didn’t have to change was the amount of coffee I was drinking on a daily basis. It wasn’t a necessity, but it was highly recommended, so I cut down to 3 cups a day. I have 2 cups when I first roll into work and then have another at 8. That’s it for the whole day.

One side benfit that I notice with less coffee is the amount of reading time in bed before I nod off for the night. Usually I’d read in bed for an hour or so before I’d turn the light off and drift off into a la-la land. Now, I’m lucky if I make it 20 minutes!

Another thing I’ve noticed is I seem to be dreaming more now. Many times I’ll have a dream that wakes me up at 10:30 or so. Then it’s back off to sleep until the alarm goes off. A few nights ago I was being chased by ghosts that I just couldn’t escape. I woke up and looked around the room just to make sure it was a dream. That was at 10:30 on the dot. Last night I dreamed that my wife and I were at the casino and I won $37,000! In my dream I looked over at my wife who was playing next to me and told her I won a lot of money! All she did was shrug her shoulders and continued playing her machine. That’s when I knew I had to be dreaming. My wife would have been jumping around like a jackrabbit if I won that amount of money. I woke up right after I won. Guess what time it was? Yup, 10:30 exactly! Again.

I guess you could say that since I’ve reduced my coffee intake that I’ve been sleeping like a baby. After all, I wake up a couple of times through the night. The good news is I haven’t wet the bed once!

This morning on my way to work I pulled up to the intersection of 4th and Lewvan heading east as I do every morning. It seems I never hit a green light at that intersection. There is always a wait. This morning was no different. It wasn’t different, but it was longer.

There was no traffic anywhere this morning. There are usually vehicles headed north or south on Lewvan, even at 3 A.M. The green light for north/south traffic lasts longer the east/west because there is more traffic heading in those directions. Seeing as the intersection was a virtual ghost town this morning I anticipated a short wait at the red light.

I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. After nearly 5 minutes I decided I wasn’t going to wait any longer, but I couldn’t just go through the red light because there are cameras at that intersection and I didn’t want to have to stand in front of a judge 3 months from now and explain the circumstances of why I went through a red light. So I decided to hang a right and head south to Dewdney Ave. so I could turn and head east again. That’s way more complicated than it should be for a guy heading to work without even a cup of coffee under his belt.

As I was driving I kept my eye on my rearview mirror. I knew with my luck that the light would change the moment I decided to change my game plan, but it didn’t. By the time I got to the lights at Dewdney I noticed the lights at 4th and Lewvan hadn’t changed yet.

For a change, I had made the right move. For once, my impatience had paid off.

I never thought I’d take such pride in being able to outwit a traffic light!

I was broadcasting on-location at Capital Ford last Friday and I’ll be there again on this Saturday. The place was as busy as it always is with people looking for great deals on vehicles.

As I was sitting and enjoying my coffee between cut-ins, I was just watching people and noticed something that I hadn’t really paid attention to before. I was amazed at how everybody looked so different from everybody else! It’s amazing when you think that something the size of a face can have so many different looks to it. There are more than 6 billion people in the world and, for the most part, they all look different from one another.

They do say that everyone has a “double” somewhere. I remember in high school my double was a kid named Jamie Voss. At least everyone said we looked the same. Just my luck. Everyone has a double somewhere in the world, and I end up going to school with mine.

I remember being disappointed that people said I looked like Jamie Voss because I thought he was one of the ugliest kids in school. In high school I realized that I was no Leif Garrett or Donny Osmond, but I didn’t think of myself as a Jamie Voss either! God that kid was ugly. Could I really be that ugly? I always had girlfriends and I was always popular in school. I never saw Jamie Voss with as many girlfriends as I had and, although he was a nice guy, he certainly wasn’t as outgoing or popular as I was.

I wonder whatever happened to my “double.”

I hope his life turned out be be as fun as mine has. And I certainly hope he got a little better looking!

Yesterday morning my wife and I decided to get up early and head out shopping, hoping to beat the crowd. I was surprised by the number of people in the store at that time of day, although it still wasn’t that busy. It’s nice to roam around at will with a shopping cart without worrying about running into another shopper when you turn a corner and head down another aisle.

By the time we got up to the check out counter there were about 7 or 8 shoppers ahead of us with 2 lanes open. No problem. It’s not like the 2 people in front of us had shopping carts that were overflowing.

When we got up to the cashier I said what I always say to everyone I come across in the morning,”good morning.” That was met with a “it’s not a good morning.” I was a little shocked at this ladies lovely attitude, but hey, we all have a bad day. I pressed on, “how come” I asked. “It’s just not” she said sternly. I looked at my wife who gave me a look as if to say, “please don’t say anything more. Please. Let it be.”

So I just kept my mouth shut, waited for “Miss Personality” to finish bagging our stuff and headed out to the parking lot. At this point I would usually look at the person and tell him or her, sarcastically of course, to have a terrific day. One time I was so miffed with the attitude of the girl behind the till that I told her, so all could hear, “that’s the reason why people like you will always be serving people like me!” The people behind me smiled at that one.

If you’re in a job where you deal with people directly, for goodness sakes be polite to the customers. We all have a bad day when we’re grouchy, but that’s no excuse to be rude to people. Even on my worse days, I still wish people a good morning or good afternoon. It’s called common courtesy. If you can’t seem to get a grasp of that simple aspect of life, then don’t get into a job where you’re dealing with people. Or do us all a favour and stay home

Yesterday morning Gloria and I were commenting on the ever increasing number of “reality” shows on TV nowadays.

There is every kind of war one could imagine. They have Storage Wars, Cake Wars, Shipping Wars and many more battles to come, I’m sure. I’ve never watched the Kardashian reality show and I doubt I ever will. Is anyone else out there totally sick of this family that is famous only for being famous? They remind me of Paris Hilton a few years back. You couldn’t turn around without hearing about her or seeing her face splashed across every major tabloid.

Does anybody watch Toddlers and Tiaras? To me this show is more about bad parenting than anything else. I’ve checked out Jersey Shore, but only when I want to feel a little better about myself. I must admit I do enjoy Pawn Stars. I love to see people get lots of cash for something that seemed worthless when they walked through the doors of the pawnshop. Plus, you’ve got to get a kick out of Chumlee and the “Old Man.”

There are so many reality shows out there I can’t even tally them all up.

How about Saskatchewan Survivor? We could drop some of those Hollywood types into northern Saskatchewan in the middle of February and let them battle it out. Everything is fair game, except, of course, cannabilism.

Now that’s a reality show I’d love to watch!

Some people just don’t get it when it comes to driving and using a hand held device.

Yesterday afternoon I was heading south on Lewvan Dr. getting ready to make my way to Saskatchewan Dr. There was a small green Echo to my left that was driving about 40 on a road where the speed limit is 70. I pulled up beside this female and saw why she was driving more than 30 km/hr below the speed limit. She was texting! That’s right, she was texting while she was driving. She wasn’t even looking at the road. As we both pulled up to the red light I gave her a honk to get her attention, but her eyes never left her phone.

By the time the light turned green she was finished and was now doing the speed limit. I gave her another honk which got her attention, but she didn’t seem to understand why I gave her the “what’s wrong with you?” gesture.

Oh well, people like that will do what they want to do, no matter what the law says. Unfortunately, it’s drivers like her that hike up our insurance rates