Sounds like much of the same here in the lower 48. Even here is ND where the oil boom is bringing in so much money BUT everything is way too high for the average person. Just ask some of the Canadians that come south to shop and try to find a place to stay.

Skunks and highways don't mix well ... and when they've tried, usually there's a reminder for later travellers for a time. Coons don't, either. Or dogs, for that matter ... and this f c doesn't mind running angleways over the road, ahead of the car: she hasn't been trained how to manage, around cars. (Skunks, either, for that matter). I took the course that stockbokers take, thirty years ago ... but there was some downturn in the markets and brokers weren't hiring. I got on with a mutual fund broker a couple of years later ... compensation totally by commission ... but after a year I hadn't sold enough to suit the second tier guy above me ... so was "decommissioned". Some years ago a parishuioner in the post office one day thought it a bit odd that his clergy person subscribed to "The Financial Post" ... ... and I allowed as how it was my impression that bread cost me the same price that it cost him. So I worked for years as a personal financial consultant selling no financial products - folks didn't need to watch me closely, to see whether I was talking out of the side of my mouth that dealt with what was good for them ... ... or the side of my mouth dealing substantially with what was good for me. When I worked for the mutual fund broker, there was a guy there who'd been a fee-only planner for some time prior to that, and he said that was a good way to starve ... and I somewhat agree. People claim that they'd like unbiased advice ... but wonder why they should pay me ... for advice that they can get elsewhere ... for free. "Free", huh? Most financial planners are actually sales-peiople ... for insurance or mutual funds ... or, in recent years, stockbrokers, as well. I'm in London, need to get my diuretic prescription refilled, and meet the mutual fund guy in a half hour, so ... ... see you all later. ole joyfuelled

Someone asked about my carrying water from the city for drinking and some of the cooking. There are two wells on the farm. The one that feeds the house is about a hundred feet away, just this side of a lower level of ground, sometimes a watercourse after a rain, and the barn is a couple of hundred feet on the other side, with a barnyard, partly concrete, on this side of it, about upwards of a hundred feet from the well. Old uncle, in his mid-80s, had had three hip replacements, all the left one, I think, and he had bad back, bad hip and bad leg, using a cane most of the time. He'd raised beef cattle, and had several in the barn, and we suggested that he get rid of the cattle, as he had no offspring from two marriages and was well off. He said that he'd got rid of most of them, but we said that one still had to go to the barn for feeding, watering, and occasional dealing with the residue, whether one had 2 or 35 animals there. When his wife was there, if he didn't show up after an hour or so of choring ... things'd happen. After her death in February about 14 years ago, some of us were worried that if he fell into a snowbank, with no one aware, he might not be able to get out. While we felt that rather improbable, I went back to spend quite a lot of most days with him for a couple of months, till his cattle went to pasture ... and I drank the water, as he did. One day, when we went to the town for groceries, I picked up a bag of milk and put it on the checkout counter. On the way home, he wondered whether I'd like to pay him for the milk. He had rather a dry sense of humour ... and when dealing with such people, if he's serious ... and the listener treats it as a joke and replies accordingly ... it can lead to serious consequences. Actually, I laughed and said to him to not forget ... that when about a dozen or so neighbours came to help with threshing grain, filling silo or repairing a barn, etc. ... the farmer wouldn't dream of sending them home hungry. That was the last that I heard of maybe paying for the milk. A couple of years later, following his death, when the farm was to be sold, they tested the water and fond it bad for e-Coli and coliform. There's another well, on the same side of the low ground as the barnyard, but a couple of hundred feet farther down, that fed the barn, that was O.K. for e-Coli, but bad for coliform, and later the landlord ran a pipe into his shop. I drove out there, some over 10 miles, pretty well daily, for almost a year, sleeping there and making the place look lived in, until it was sold. I don't remember whether I drank the water then, but doubt it, due to the results of the testing. My landlord said several years ago that he'd drunk from it, on occasion, without bad results, and I said that I had, as well, when watering the garden with a long plastic pipe from the barn, without deleterious effect. There haven't been any cattle around for twelve years, so it'd likely be a good idea to test the water again ... but pollution in the ground has a tendency to persist for long periods. Thunderstorm this morning ... so garden's just to be looked at, for a couple of days till dry. Hope you all had a lovely, even memorable, day. ole joyfuelled

A slight reduction in the warfarin, according to my hematologist, and altered after I had some antibiotics prescribed following the camera angling into the bladder (quite a few varying camera angles, actually). Thanks for the info about the cranberry juice, as I've been using it, trying to take a glass some time before breakfast, to let it get some good work in, as well as at other times. Will have to ease off some. Some more blood since yesterday, but my retired doc. relative tells me not to worry unless I feel light-headed (no comments, please) or otherwise a bit off, for the weekend ... if so, head to emerg.. I asked her whether, if I smiled pretty, I could drag her kicking and screaming out of retirement for about 5 min. - she smiled as she said, "O.K.". ole joyfuelled ... with some fuelling help from cranberry juice