I have a lot of faith in a good friend, Michelle, and her fine singing voice. I truly believe that with encouragement and help she can become an excellent well known artist. I have made a very amateurish video of Michelle singing, made with a small, low resolution camera, and no audio equipment. But it does give a good idea of her capabilities. I am also preparing to make another, much better quality video with her, to follow this one. You can also find this video on the Youtube web site by doing a search for “michelle943″.
I always like to shop “local” in the same neighbourhood in which I reside. In Oliver this has not worked out. The local merchants seem to only carry high turnover items in their stores. I can see their point for doing this as their stores are relatively small and the number of customers are probably decreasing as people find it easier to travel to Osoyoos or Penticton and be assured that they will find whatever they are after without visiting *all* of the stores and striking out. Small stores are good for specialty items but the small stores in Oliver are focused on high turnover items.
For example, the other day, I visited *all* of the stores locally, wanting to buy a tea pot. No luck. No tea pot available in Oliver without a special order, and only then will it be ordered reluctantly. I then did two things:
I traveled 22 kilometers to Osoyoos and immediately found a large selection in Home Hardware and headed back to Oliver ten minutes later.
Until a big box store is built in Oliver, and unless the small shops become specialty stores, I decided to do most of my future shopping in Osoyoos and Pentiction when my shopping list includes a relatively low turnover item.
This decision is *not* because of my *tea pot* excursion, but because this scenario is occuring as a *rule* and not an exception.
As the cost of everything goes up and income doesn’t, adjustments were necessary to cope with this situation. I moved the motorhome to a new location, still within Oliver BC. Unfortunately I still am unable to supplement my fixed income with the sale of new artwork. There is just not enough room in the motorhome for painting. I tried, and tried again to make it work. It doesn’t. A goal is still to move into an apartment that will give me more room, or to find a studio that I can use at a cost I can afford. The ache I am experiencing by not having an art studio available to me constantly annoys me. I must paint, not for the money, but as a passion.
I have never commented on a restaurant on my blog before, but today my friend Pat and I went to “Breezes” (also known as ‘Breeze Bar and Grill’) in Osoyoos for lunch. We have been there a number of times before this and every time it was excellent. Today it was exceptional and really deserves comment. It was about 60 percent full and very busy. There were only two waitresses on duty but they did an excellent flawless job that couldn’t be better, serving both outside on the deck and inside the restaurant. And the food as before was superb. There are a number of excellent restuarants in Osoyoos and I highly recommend this as one of them.
Cisco, my Papillon, my friend, my constant companion, died today, in Oliver, at the age of 13 years (91 man years). Cisco brought joy to Aggie and myself for 9 years and then brought joy to me for another 3 and a half years after Aggie died. I will miss Cisco very much.
Since I have no plans to return to live in the Yukon I have decided to sell my property in Tagish, Yukon. There are no buildings on the beautiful (just over 1 acre) lot. If anybody is interested they can obtain details from my Agent in Whitehorse: Karol Campbell, telephone 867 333-9552.
Four policemen felt threatened, and Dziekanski, maybe armed with a paper stapler, died after being shocked 5 times with a Taser. Police officials always state that Tasers are not lethal. What if an ordinary citizen had a Taser, and because he felt threatened, fired it 5 times at a policeman, and the policeman died. Could the person doing this be charged with murder?
