When I was working at Computer Boulevard, I discovered the totally free racing and stunt game Trackmania Nations.  We used to play in our free time (and since the business went belly up, we had too much free time sadly) and it was a lot of fun.  A couple of weeks ago I downloaded it again and Mark and I are playing it against each other.  One of the cool features is that it keeps your stats against the 4,000,000+ other players around the world, those in Canada, and the 1000+ players in Saskatchewan (or your own province/state).  Not only do you have to race each other, you have to navigate the gravity defining stunts.  Even if you are not a gamer or don’t like racing games, it’s worth a download.  Plus, since it’s freeware, the price is right.

The Americans are our best friends, whether we like it or not. -Robert Thompson, Canadian statesman, former Social Credit leader.

We worry when you look hard at us, but we are also touchy about being overlooked. -Lester Pearson, Prime Minister, commencement address at Indiana’s Notre Dame University (1963).

It might be said we all live in one big house. Welcome to the attic. -Gordon Pinsent, Canadian actor, addressing U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan at an Ottawa gala (1981).

For some reason a glaze passes over people’s faces when you say Canada. Maybe we should invade South Dakota or something. -Sondra Gotlieb, columnist and wife of Allan Gotlieb, Canadian ambassador in Washington (1982).

With the summer coming and elementary schools shutting down it means that the breakfast programs local schools run won’t be available for those that need it.  The Salvation Army Community Centre decided to step into that gap and is taking it’s breakfast program on the road to four different locations, three times a week.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, our Community Response Vehicle will be serving breakfast at:

• 8:30 to 8:50 a.m. :: The Bridge on 20th
• 9:00 to 9:15 a.m. :: 525 Avenue I South
• 9:20 to 9:35 a.m. :: King George School
• 9:40 to 9:55 a.m. :: 401 Avenue E South

This isn’t my area of the Centre (it’s a Family Services program) but I do know that they would appreciate volunteers and donations to help this program this summer.  Feel free to contact Sylvia at the Centre at 242-6833 or via email at sylvia.stevenson@salvationarmysaskatoon.org.

Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole.

And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out. The job figures weren’t the only bad news in Thursday’s report, which also showed wages stalling and possibly on the verge of outright decline. That’s a recipe for a descent into Japanese-style deflation, which is very difficult to reverse. Lost decade, anyone?

Wait — there’s more bad news: the fiscal crisis of the states. Unlike the federal government, states are required to run balanced budgets. And faced with a sharp drop in revenue, most states are preparing savage budget cuts, many of them at the expense of the most vulnerable. Aside from directly creating a great deal of misery, these cuts will depress the economy even further.

So what do we have to counter this scary prospect? We have the Obama stimulus plan, which aims to create 3 ½ million jobs by late next year. That’s much better than nothing, but it’s not remotely enough. And there doesn’t seem to be much else going on. Do you remember the administration’s plan to sharply reduce the rate of foreclosures, or its plan to get the banks lending again by taking toxic assets off their balance sheets? Neither do I.

I don’t know enough about macroeconomics to agree or disagree with him but I can’t help but wonder how much longer the United States can borrow and spend this amount of money without driving up interest rates.  I am assuming this will be a necessary evil but it does mean it will be a long and painful recovery. 

Related: Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says that Canada’s unemployment will continue rising until 2010.

Major League Baseball within the last week loaned millions to Tom Hicks, the evidently cash-strapped owner of the Texas Rangers, and will continue to offer financial assistance to Hicks until he is able to sell the team, a major league source with direct knowledge of the situation told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday.

“He won’t be running the team much longer,” the source said. “Major League Baseball is helping him through this until someone else can be put in place to run the club.”

Of course the question is what impact will this have on Liverpool FC and the Dallas Stars.  The articles talks about his massive personal wealth but when you look at the debt that he has, it doesn’t look good for the future of his sports empire.

All across western Saskatchewan and southern Alberta, farmers are scanning crop-insurance policies and calculating how short they’ll be on payments this year as one of the worst droughts on record parches their land and their bank accounts.

The dry conditions are also wreaking havoc on local wildlife, prompting watering bans and spoiling Canada Day parties.

While some regions have seen the driest June on Environment Canada records, researchers who’ve studied longer periods of prairie weather say this could be the start of something worse.

“When you look at a thousand-year record, we’ve been pretty lucky since the West was settled,” said Dave Sauchyn, a University of Regina geography professor and research co-ordinator for the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative. “We’ve had quite a favourable climate, largely avoiding the extremely dry conditions we’ve seen in the past.”

Dr. Sauchyn put together the thousand-year record of prairie water levels using tree rings. Judging by the rings, the prairie climate could easily plunge into an extended drought similar to that of the 1790s, when the North Saskatchewan River went dry.

Climate models suggest that history may soon repeat. The region has experienced the two driest seasons on record – the last one coming in 2001-2002 at a $5.8-billion hit to the national economy – all inside the past 10 years.

“We can’t possibly say with any certainty that this is a sign of global warming, but it’s entirely consistent with global climate model projections,” said Dr. Sauchyn. “All this means is it’s highly probable we haven’t seen the worst of it yet.”

Already nine counties in Alberta have declared states of emergency due to extreme dryness. The province banned all private Canada Day fireworks celebrations. Restrictions on fires and watering have been instituted all over the region.

It hasn’t been easy on the animal world, either. Parks officials have noted a large migration of beavers away from dry areas and into riverfront parkland in Edmonton.

Some dry areas have sponged up a few inches of rain since municipalities first started declaring states of emergency two weeks ago, but Environment Canada’s Drought Watch map still shows a red stain of extreme aridity covering Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and stretching east towards Rosetown and Swift Current.

In history class, in seventh grade (or as we like to say in Canada, grade seven) we learned the story of the American Revolution — from the British perspective. Turns out you were all a bunch of ungrateful tax cheats. And you weren’t very nice to the Loyalists. What I miss most about Canada is getting the truth about the United States.

The family of Dave Batters released a statement Tuesday morning confirming the 39-year-old died on Monday.

"The family of Dave Batters is grieving the sudden loss of their beloved husband, son and brother, who, sadly, chose to take his own life at home in Regina on Monday, June 29," the statement reads.

"Last fall, Dave courageously made public his battle with depression and anxiety when he chose not to run for re-election as the Member of Parliament for Palliser. He entered treatment and his family and friends hoped he would overcome his illness. Tragically, this was not to be.

"Dave and Denise’s family greatly appreciates the support of their friends during this extremely difficult time and requests that the media respect their privacy. Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also issued a statement Tuesday afternoon.

"Those of us who knew and worked with Dave will remember him as a friend and colleague who worked tirelessly on behalf of his constituents in Palliser," Harper said in a news release.

"Dave ultimately lost his struggle with severe depression, but we should use his loss as a reminder that mental health illnesses affect Canadians in every walk of life. Too often, Canadians, such as Dave, suffer in silence out of fear of being stigmatized for their illness.

6. Newspapers have to realize – but never will – that their news content is the best advertising for them. That’s what good, solid journalism is: good. It makes a case for itself. When MSM mavens hide content, people will mosey off elsewhere for news content that isn’t hidden. News is like water: it flows. It seeps out.
7. Google is the boss, not the news providers. If Google won’t agree to facilitate charging for news, that’s the end of the discussion. And Google won’t ever, ever charge: it’s contrary to its entire business model.

It’s an odd decision to make, instead of stepping on the neck of Canwest when they are down, they are tossing their entire network a lifeline.  If that is where the free content is, that is where we will go.  The Globe and Mail risks changing from Canada’s newspaper of record to being the newspaper that no one cares about.

It was a good trip.  It was quite windy and chilly on Saturday which I didn’t mind.  I finished The Kennedys by Peter Collier & David Horowitz which is a really sad look at what the Kennedy family had to endure.  At the end as I reading about Robert and Ethel’s older kids who bore the brunt of not only losing Jack but also Bobby in rapid succession, it was heart breaking.  After I was telling Wendy about how much the Kennedy’s harassed and bugged each other, she quipped that she had no idea that she had married into the family as that is a little what we are like.  We may be but none of us over pronounce our vowels or have a staccato voice.

We had planned to do some painting while up there but we never got around to it.  Mark and Maggi went for an extended swim on Sunday that eventually included Oliver, Wendy and myself.

The Treat Spot was open for the first time we were up there.  I had never been inside before but in addition to being the keeper of the mini-golf course, it also has an assortment of ice cream and pop.

We did manage to bring up a cabinet and and a simple end table that we repainted.  The cabinet is a now a microwave stand and another pantry while the end table is in the living room.  Neither piece of furniture was all of that attractive but both were painted a mochachino brown color and look passable as cabin furniture now.

The big change at the lake was the removal of the Cottonwood Lodge.  I think it was an old ATCO type trailer that was made into dorm style rooms.  It was used for a variety of things over the years and while it would have looked a lot better all fixed up, I won’t miss it now that it is gone.

The only thing that I didn’t like about the trip was that Wendy is sure that my ball glove belongs at the lake which means that I never have it at home to play catch with Mark.  On the latest trip she not only thwarted my attempt to bring my glove home but managed to leave Mark’s up there as well.

There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age – and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life.

But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence. Of course, he bears responsibility for his bizarre life. But the damage done to him by his own family and then by all those motivated more by money and power than by faith and love was irreparable in the end. He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell.

I was never that big of fan of Michael Jackson.  Thriller was huge about the same time the Walkman became popular and as kids, us discovering pop music.  Despite almost all of my friends owning his album, I don’t think I have ever listened to the entire thing.  At the same time I saw what we all did and that was a tortured soul trying to figure out life and despite all of his millions, he failed miserably.  If anything, his life is a reminder that money can’t buy the most important things in life.

If one only assumes the role of prophet, however, folks quickly will begin to avoid you. As in our congregations, we often earn the right to speak prophetically by serving well pastorally. On the morning of the 9/11 attacks, I was in a meeting at our Chamber of Commerce. The group immediately turned to me for prayer and comfort. I heard similar stories from pastors across the country. People, especially leaders in need, remember our care.

via

The bad part of the day was in talking to the parents of one of Mark’s friends.  They are moving him to Caswell School next year after he was badly beaten (it seemed to fall into the category of an asault) by yet another violent kid that was in Mark’s class.  His dad saw the attack but was too far away to stop it.  Their other children have experienced it as well this year.  I don’t blame them for doing it.  We spent most of the year walking Mark to and from school but then again, so did they and it still happened.

For Mark, he finished the day with his karate summer barbecue.  Everyone chows down quickly on some hot dogs and then they pull out Super Soakers and shoot each other until ocean levels have gone down significantly.  Lee left his ice core Super Soaker at the house when he moved out and so Mark froze it and took it over as a backup weapon.  I could hear them yelling and laughing from a block away tonight.  When he walked in he said, “I need dry gitch” which just about sums up his evening.

His summer is being spent with us at the lake and he is going to Beaver Creek Camp.  Their four day camp is about perfect for heading to camp for the first time, some of his friends are going, and it’s pretty close to the city if it doesn’t work out.  On top of that, I have gotten to know and appreciate the camp directors through work and they will take good care of him.

I have vacation booked for the last week of July which I think is my first full week off work since I went to the Bahamas in 2007.  My boss looked dazed and confused as she signed my vacation request.  We are heading to the lake and then to Mosaic Stadium to watch the Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the Edmonton Eskimos.  In light traffic we are only an hour away from Mosaic Stadium.

I am going to take a week off in August as well.  I imagine that will be spent out at the lake as well.  Wendy will be working so part of the plan is for me to take Mark and Oliver out to the lake and let her chill out while not working.  Between the three of us, we should manage okay without her but you never know.

Whatever happens, I hope it is a good summer for the family.  It’s been a while since we all unwound together.

There is a process for that and on June 16th, the Salvation Army, the City of Saskatoon, and the citizens of Pleasant Hill got together to discuss our desire for a zoning change.  While the meeting turned out really well, it did have some fun twists and turns.

Along the way, there was a mis-communication between the City and Pleasant Hill School and the school was locked when everyone got there.  The city planners were knocking on all of the doors and Councilor Lorje was thinking of calling someone when all of us realized that it was the perfect night to sit outside.  So instead of using the school’s auditorium, we used the front step and lawn.  The result was we all got to enjoy the late spring weather and we had a good time getting to know our neighbors a little better.

Wendy was there and took some photos of the gathering.  Some of them are below.  You can find the rest on Flickr.

Each summer the Centre puts on a big barbecue at Riverbend Institution.  Last year I was asked to go along and four of us headed up north to Prince Albert to cook and meet some of the guys who are at Riverbend.  For many of the guys who are there, they are on their way out of the federal prison system and Riverbend is one of their last stops until they get to a federal half way house.  In addition to this, some guys don’t do that great in a halfway house and are sent back and we have a chance to catch up with them.

Last year I took some photos.  They were cool with it as I wasn’t taking photos of the guys there, just us setting up.  Below is a photo of the four of us smoking out all of Saskatchewan Penitentiary.

This year they had us in a different location and there were always guys around helping so I never took any photos out of respect for the rules and the guys there (and let’s be honest, I was in the middle of a federal prison and I wanted to get out at the end of the night) but we had a lot of fun and yes there was  a lot of smoke this year as well.

According to our two host chaplains, we had 130 guys come to the barbecue.  About 20 of them were early enough to help us set up and over 50 of them swarmed around and helped clean up.  While it was a lot of work to put on, I was told to take a seat in one of the adirondack chairs while clean up was going on.

While last year was a lot of fun, this year I was a little more comfortable with the guys which made it a more enjoyable event for me personally.  Several of the guys came up and told me how much they appreciated the chaplaincy of the Major and several guys passed on greetings to the staff back at the Centre and even greetings for Wendy and Oliver.  While they may be frustrated at themselves, their Parole Officers, and the system, they still like us and it is good to hear stories of them getting back on track.

It was a nice trip and I look forward to coming back next year.

The Packers took in $247.9 million in total revenue, a 3 percent increase over the previous year. That figure was boosted by a 9 percent increase in money from national sources, offsetting a $5 million decrease in local revenue pinned largely on lagging souvenir shop sales.

Expenses were up 4 percent to $227.8 million. That includes $138.7 million in player costs, an increase of almost 11 percent from the previous year.

Rising player costs and sagging local revenue are disturbing trends to Packers officials. Since 2006, Murphy says 80 percent of the Packers’ increased revenues have gone to players.

And Murphy says other teams servicing significant debt on new stadiums are in even worse shape.

“I think that’s one of the things that we all hope to correct in the current negotiations,” Murphy said. “We want to reach an agreement with the players. We want a new agreement that’s fair to the players and allows us to grow the game.”

The Packers’ profit from operations was $20.1 million, down from $21.4 million the previous year. The franchise’s net income—including a substantial drop in investment income last year, plus taxes and other considerations—was $4 million, down from $23.4 million the previous year.

This is a fun fact as well

The team’s season ticket renewal rate fell by a fraction but remains a staggering 99.4 percent. That means 192 people who put their names on the team’s waiting list in the 1970s will be able to buy season tickets; most years, 75 people or fewer come off the list, which currently numbers approximately 81,000.

So if I sign up now, Mark’s grandchildren will have a chance to be Green Bay Packer’s season ticket holders.

After we tooled around a bit today as a family, Lee and a friend of ours came over for supper tonight.

I am pretty excited about the fan as the cabin takes a long time to cool down at night, even with the windows open.  Hopefully this fan sucking cool air in and hot air out will make it a little more enjoyable once it cools down outside.  It also is a lot cheaper than running the air conditioner.  Depending on how well it works at the lake, I may get one for the house.  There is nothing like a gift like this to also expose your families ulterior motives.  Both Mark and Wendy have claimed their spot for it at the cabin.  Apparently it being a gift for me means nothing.

I really enjoy being a father to Mark and Oliver.  Both pose their unique challenges as a father but it is the best decision Wendy and I ever made was having kids and we have been rewarded with some great ones.

Speaking of the kids, I never blogged about this but Mark has his yellow belt now in karate.  He worked extremely hard to get it and is pretty proud of himself.  His year end karate barbecue also includes a water fight.  We went shopping for a new water gun and suggested he tell his Sensei to “bring it on”.  Mark replied, “I did that last year.  He really did. I got really wet.”

As far as Oliver goes, he took his first step last week.  Of course when he does, he does an immediate face plant.  He obviously gets his agility and balance from me.

The average waterfront, three-bedroom cottage in Saskatchewan goes for about $300,000, Royal LePage said in its recreational property report Thursday.
Measuring 1,000 square feet on a 100-foot lot, that average cottage in Manitoba ranges from $250,000 to $360,000 and $400,000 to $460,000 in Alberta, said the report.
The national average range is $370,000 to $600,000.

Our cabin was recently appraised at $2000.  If you toss in our lot, add on another $4000.  It’s not lakefront but it’s incredibly close to it.  Paying $300,000 for a cabin seems a little insane to me.  Of course the paper lately has been full of articles and listings of multi million dollar cabins so someone is buying them.

Growing up I was horrible with my money.  Allowances were to be spent and I think I was the only kid who tried a leveraged buyout of a Star Wars action figure (I couldn’t get my banker to give me the $2).  As a teen I was just as bad.  I got a little better as I got older but eventually living from paycheck to paycheck got a little old and I started to get a lot more disciplined.

Eventually I learned how to manage our money a little better and while we haven’t always had that much of it, we have survived.  When I started working at the Salvation Army, all we had installed on the computers was Internet Explorer which meant that the homepage was set to MSN.com.  While I am not a big MSN fan, I love MSN Money, especially the home finance information.  Below are some of the articles that have made some sense to me over the last year.

1. Money in Your 30s :: Compared with other age groups, more people in their 30s have serious debt problems. Despite median income that’s 76% higher than those in their 20s, people in their 30s are more likely to be 60 days late on a bill (9% compared with 7.9% in their 20s) and nearly twice as likely to be $10,000 or more in debt on credit cards (12.1% compared with 6.4%). (If you need expert advice on debt, free help is available here.)
2. Money in Your 40s :: A majority of people in their 40s carry credit card debt, and the median balance is $3,800, sharply higher than the $3,000 carried by households in their 30s. The percentage carrying big balances is up as well: 14% of people in their 40s have more than $10,000 in credit card debt, compared with 6.4% of people in their 20s and 12% of people in their 30s.
3. A Simpler Way To Save: The 60% Solution :: I’m not saying that 60% is a magic number. It’s a workable goal for my family, and it’s a nice round number. Your number might well be a bit higher or lower. At any rate, it’s a good place to start.
4. Why You Need $500 in the bank:  This saved us a fortune in overdraft payments.
5. The real reason you are broke: I hate large car payments with a passion.
6. Don’t bite off too much house: I really would love a big office and man cave of my own but then I realize that our small house (and small house payment) has kept us solvent in tough times and I realize my corner of the basement works well.
7. Your Seven Biggest Financial Decisions :: You don’t have to live like a monk to save money. Americans are conditioned to overbuy. Shopping has gone from being a chore to a hobby, a lifestyle even. Shoppers are encouraged to define their individuality in terms of style, which for most people comes down to a matter of which mass-produced goods one chooses to buy.
8. Should I keep my clunker or go and buy a new car?
9. 5 bad money mistakes to make in a downturn :: "Retirement, then credit cards, then emergency fund." Your highest priority, typically, should be saving for retirement, since every dollar you fail to save today could cost you $10 or more in lost retirement income. (The younger you are, the more you’ll lose by not tucking money away now.) Also, opportunities to get a 401(k) match or to fund an IRA or Roth IRA are typically "use it or lose it" propositions. Dispatching credit card debt should be your next highest priority, since it’s probably accumulating at double-digit interest rates and reducing your financial flexibility (see above). Finally, an emergency fund equal to three to six months’ worth of expenses can be a bulwark against the inevitable setbacks life sends us — job loss, disability, illness, accidents, natural disasters. Having a pile of cash in a high-rate savings account can also do wonders for reducing your money anxieties.
10. Your money priorities ::
11. 16 rules of thumb regarding money
12. Save your emergency fund for the real thing :: Aside from her main emergency fund — now $25,000 (for her, that’s six months’ worth of expenses) — she has a separate account for house repairs and emergencies, another for the car, another for gifts and a regular savings account for miscellaneous expenses.
13. Why one writer is saving up $15,000 in 2009
14. What to do with extra paycheck :: Wendy gets paid weekly and I get paid bi-weekly so a couple of times a year, the checks get banked.
15. 10 easy ways to save thousands

It’s pretty American advice.  I’ll admit it, I don’t much about 401k’s but the principles have helped Wendy and I spend less, save more, and gave us a lot of fuel for thought on what we wanted to do financially as a family.

Growing up I was horrible with my money.  Allowances were to be spent and I think I was the only kid who tried a leveraged buyout of a Star Wars action figure (I couldn’t get my banker to give me the $2).  As a teen I was just as bad.  I got a little better as I got older but eventually living from paycheck to paycheck got a little old and I started to get a lot more disciplined.

Eventually I learned how to manage our money a little better and while we haven’t always had that much of it, we have survived.  When I started working at the Salvation Army, all we had installed on the computers was Internet Explorer which meant that the homepage was set to MSN.com.  While I am not a big MSN fan, I love MSN Money, especially the home finance information.  Below are some of the articles that have made some sense to me over the last year.

1. Money in Your 30s :: Compared with other age groups, more people in their 30s have serious debt problems. Despite median income that’s 76% higher than those in their 20s, people in their 30s are more likely to be 60 days late on a bill (9% compared with 7.9% in their 20s) and nearly twice as likely to be $10,000 or more in debt on credit cards (12.1% compared with 6.4%). (If you need expert advice on debt, free help is available here.)
2. Money in Your 40s :: A majority of people in their 40s carry credit card debt, and the median balance is $3,800, sharply higher than the $3,000 carried by households in their 30s. The percentage carrying big balances is up as well: 14% of people in their 40s have more than $10,000 in credit card debt, compared with 6.4% of people in their 20s and 12% of people in their 30s.
3. A Simpler Way To Save: The 60% Solution :: I’m not saying that 60% is a magic number. It’s a workable goal for my family, and it’s a nice round number. Your number might well be a bit higher or lower. At any rate, it’s a good place to start.
4. Why You Need $500 in the bank:  This saved us a fortune in overdraft payments.
5. The real reason you are broke: I hate large car payments with a passion.
6. Don’t bite off too much house: I really would love a big office and man cave of my own but then I realize that our small house (and small house payment) has kept us solvent in tough times and I realize my corner of the basement works well.
7. Your Seven Biggest Financial Decisions :: You don’t have to live like a monk to save money. Americans are conditioned to overbuy. Shopping has gone from being a chore to a hobby, a lifestyle even. Shoppers are encouraged to define their individuality in terms of style, which for most people comes down to a matter of which mass-produced goods one chooses to buy.
8. Should I keep my clunker or go and buy a new car?
9. 5 bad money mistakes to make in a downturn :: "Retirement, then credit cards, then emergency fund." Your highest priority, typically, should be saving for retirement, since every dollar you fail to save today could cost you $10 or more in lost retirement income. (The younger you are, the more you’ll lose by not tucking money away now.) Also, opportunities to get a 401(k) match or to fund an IRA or Roth IRA are typically "use it or lose it" propositions. Dispatching credit card debt should be your next highest priority, since it’s probably accumulating at double-digit interest rates and reducing your financial flexibility (see above). Finally, an emergency fund equal to three to six months’ worth of expenses can be a bulwark against the inevitable setbacks life sends us — job loss, disability, illness, accidents, natural disasters. Having a pile of cash in a high-rate savings account can also do wonders for reducing your money anxieties.
10. Your money priorities ::
11. 16 rules of thumb regarding money
12. Save your emergency fund for the real thing :: Aside from her main emergency fund — now $25,000 (for her, that’s six months’ worth of expenses) — she has a separate account for house repairs and emergencies, another for the car, another for gifts and a regular savings account for miscellaneous expenses.
13. Why one writer is saving up $15,000 in 2009
14. What to do with extra paycheck :: Wendy gets paid weekly and I get paid bi-weekly so a couple of times a year, the checks get banked.
15. 10 easy ways to save thousands

It’s pretty American advice.  I’ll admit it, I don’t much about 401k’s but the principles have helped Wendy and I spend less, save more, and gave us a lot of fuel for thought on what we wanted to do financially as a family.

Today I talked the Management Team that we needed to meet there.  Most of them hadn’t been there yet.  After a quick ten minute walk, we were there.  In today’s heat it was a great place to sit and have a meeting.  A bit to our west is the splash park and it was full of kids and their parents cooling off and enjoying the day. Despite not being close to being done and developed, it is bringing people downtown and is becoming on of my favorite places in the city.

It will be interesting to see how River Landing Village impacts the area.  I hoping that bringing down more people, commerce and energy to the area pays off.

If I was the city, I would take advantage of River Landing on one side of the river and the parks along the other side and close down Victoria Bridge on Canada Day and have all of the festivities downtown instead at Diefenbaker Park.  In a city whose lifeblood, and identity is tied to the South Saskatchewan River, it only makes sense to make that space the centre of civic life again.  There is easy access to downtown, a public transit hub, and it’s a lot nicer than heading out to Diefenbaker Park.

Being down there a lot this summer, looking at plans and ideas for the riverbank, you get the idea that the city is on the verge of something great which is exciting for us all.

As we were heading back to the Centre, we decided it was a pretty good way to raise a couple hundred dollars for a project or two once in a while.  From the responses of the medical staff, they loved the food and the change of pace from eating whatever it is that doctors and nurses eat at the hospital (I find it hard to believe they eat the hospital food but that is just me).

As far as the heart defibrillator goes, I hope we never have to use it but if we do, it will save a life.

Now I need to convince Wendy that she needs to teach me how to cook up some curried chicken and Roti for a staff lunch some day.

Many have asked if the shelter ever gets quiet or is less busy.  While winter has it’s challenges, summer has it’s challenges and it is just as busy.  For me it is a little busier as staff books off holidays and takes more days off.  While it is a little easier than last year, there is still a lot to do over the summer.  A friend of mine who is a pastor was chiding me that I needed to get away for my own spiritual health this summer.  I reminded him that most of us get holidays and that’s it.  We don’t get the luxury of a study break, extended vacation and a four day work week (Don’t give that I preached on Sunday and so I need an extra day of rest.  I did it for a decade and it isn’t that hard once Sunday rolls around and if it is, it means you have downloaded a sermon on Sunday morning and slacked for the rest of the week).  He asked, “How do you not burn out?”  My sarcastic reply was, “My mortgage payment.”  The real answer is believing that I am making a difference in the world and to be honest, I am not preaching 45 weeks a year any more.  What I do involves creativity and some ingenuity but it doesn’t require the same kind of creativity that someone who is engaged in a performing art needs every week (no disrespect meant to those preachers who read this by calling what they do a performance but I think there is an element to that).  I am not manufacturing creativity on a schedule, different situations require different solutions.  It’s a different game.

Of course all of that being said, summer around here does allow me to try some new ideas out.  A retreat for some of our longer term clients, a Canada’s Day barbecue, a CFL kickoff celebration, and a really, really big garage sale later this summer.  It also lets me figure out what we can do here in the fall and winter.  I would like to do an evangelism/discipleship class for guys who are largely illiterate.  Something quite a bit simpler than Alpha.  If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments.