In mid-October, we travelled to Calgary to attend the last wedding among Cal’s nephews and nieces. With Richard and Lauren’s wedding, the only cousins who aren’t married yet are Steven and Aaron, not that there’s any rush there.

The wedding was in a neat location, the Lynx Ridge golf club in northwest Calgary.

It was a chance to catch up on some family visiting.  It was the first time we had seen Gord, Richard’s dad in years.

The week of September 29th to October 6th was concert week for the Deobald’s. When the announcement came out that the Rolling Stones were coming to Regina, I went about snaffling up tickets for the Sunday show (his birthday) and then when the Friday show opened up, made another stab at getting even better tickets. In the end, I was the proud owner of 11 tickets in various places and times. I was fortunate to get rid of all the tickets we didn’t need without taking a bath on them. (I sold two on Ebay for cost and four to friends for cost).Then, a week before the Stones were set to arrive, Irene’s boss announced that he had “won” tickets to Elton John from the local radio station. In actual fact, they were a peace offering from the radio station for screwing up on some of his promotional campaigns, but hey, let’s not quibble. The main thing is that he had no interest in going to see Elton John, so, in the end, he gave the tickets to Irene.

So, on September 29th (A Friday), Irene and I took the afternoon off and headed to Calgary. The tickets were pretty good ones, five rows up just inside centre ice. With the distance that the stage projected onto the ice surface, that put us fairly close to Sir Elton, close enough that we spent more time viewing the concert in person than peering at the big screen. Which is good, because that’s a bugbear of mine – attending a live concert and watching it on video.

Elton John in CalgaryThe concert itself was great. He played for over 2 hours straight, left the stage, came back out for the encore, but spend about 10 minutes signing autographs first. Then they performed for over a half hour again. In total, the concert was a full three hours long. And the old fella still has both the chops and the pipes. We were a little surprised that there were no wardrobe changes, though (he never left the stage). The best part of the concert was when he let his band have a break and he just played the piano and sang. The worst part was the acoustics in the Saddledome, which occasionally, through some miracle of acoustic distortion when the keyboard and lead guitar met on some high note, would generate a horrid screech that had the old tympanic membrane crying uncle. The other minor disappointment was that he didn’t play more of his new stuff. He did short set of about 5 songs in the middle, but that was it; other than that, it was all the classics. I would have traded in “The Bitch is Back” (Blech!) for something newer, for sure. But hey, three hours of solid entertainment for free isn’t a bad deal.

Irene found a great hotel to for us to stay at in Calgary, the Hotel Arts. It’s not super cheap, but it’s reasonable, it has some really neat decor, and it’s EASY walking distance to the Saddledome (It’s on 12th and 1st SW, formerly a Holiday Inn, I think). Warning: it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but that changes the moment you walk through the door. Highly recommended.

Exactly a week later, we were taking another half day off to travel to Regina to see the Rolling Stones. Steven flew from Calgary, only a day after having returned from a business trip to India (more on that in another post). We just had time to collect him from Irene’s sister’s house, grab some pizza, go over to Aaron’s, to meet him and Jamie, his girlfriend, eat, and take off for the concert.

We decided to drive as far as Aaron’s work parking spot downtown and walk the rest of the way to Taylor Field, which turned out to be a fairly wise choice. We were later told that the lineups to get on the shuttle buses were very long and anyone who parked close to Taylor Field didn’t get away very quickly when the concert was over.

The concert was great. We had a great night for weather. A light jacket or fleece was enough to keep a person warm, although Mick complained at one point that he was a bit chilly and went to put on a long-sleeved shirt. I can’t imagine how he was cold, given the amount of aerobic exercise he was getting. The old bugger’s in pretty good shape, I would have to say, and Charlie’s holding up pretty well, too, considering that drumming for two hours straight has to be a bit strenuous for a fella his age. Keith on the other hand … he had his first on-stage cigarette at the beginning of the third song, and many more after that. I think he pretty much sold his soul a few decades ago, but unlike Dorian Grey, it ain’t his portrait that’s aging.

Even if the band wasn’t great – and they were pretty impressive – you had to be impressed by the sheer enormity of the production. Seventy five trailer-loads of equipment makes for a big stage. And when you start to consider just how many people that must involve, especially because they have two full stages and crews that leapfrog one another from venue to venue (The stage in Missoula Montana was being torn down and heading for Chicago as the Regina stage was being assembled).

Rolling Stones Stage

And this pathetic little image of the stage, ladies and gents, is all I can show you of the concert because cameras were forbidden. I did take my cell phone with me, though, and when the security guard asked me if it took pictures, I said “no” and he didn’t question it. The irony of this is that the previous week, every man and his monkey were taking pictures at the Elton John concert, but I had forgotten my camera, and I didn’t take my cell to that event. So here are some shots I stole off the Internet (but they are actually from the concert we saw):

We set out on Wednesday, January 4 to move Steven to Calgary. Steven stuffed his Jetta, and we pulled a borrowed trailer with some furniture and odds and ends. It wasn’t a particularly speedy trip, given that our Honda Element isn’t really a trailer-towing kind of vehicle, but we managed to get to Calgary just in time to enjoy rush hour.We moved Steven in and went out for supper to The Casbah, a Morrocan restaurant just a couple of blocks from Steven’s apartment. It was a neat experience, although I question whether the atmosphere justifies the $13 price tag on a bowl of couscous and a few vegetables. It was very fluffy, but come on, folks, it’s couscous; I could make that for about $0.13 in 13 seconds at home. Ah well.

When we got up in the morning, Irene and I walked over to the Starbucks just a 1/2 block from Steven’s to get some morning coffee, but when we got outside, I noticed that both vehicles and the trailer had been towed away from in front of Steven’s apartment. As it turns out, we had failed to notice that one of the three signs outlining parking restrictions said that it was a tow-away zone from 7-8 in the morning.

Needless to say, this is one of those circumstances in which one would really like to bite someone’s head off, but since the whole thing was our fault, there really wasn’t anything we could do but take our lumps. I started calling around 10 in the morning (SK time) to figure out how to get the vehicles back. Steven lives on 12th Ave SW, and the Calgary parking Authority compound is on 39th Ave. SE, so we walked downtown and caught the train to the compound.

We weren’t particulary thrilled about the situation, but we thought we would get out of it just losing a couple of hours and a big chunk of cash – WRONG!

The hitch (pardon the pun) came with the trailer. In order to release any “vehicle” the parking authority demands that one produce the registration AND provide a letter of authorization from the owner allowing for the release of the vehicle. We got the two cars out in an hour or so, but alas the trailer was going to be a bigger problem, because:

• We didn’t have the registration, and
• I knew that Dave, the owner of the trailer, was not at home.

Irene had the stroke of genius to contact the local licensing agency and ask if they would fax a copy of the registration. Of course, that’s not entirely kosher, but this is just one of those glaring examples of an advantage of small town living over city life. Now here’s where the story gets complicated. It appears that Dave, who has more than one utility trailer, somehow got the license plates mixed up. He actually had the wrong license plate on the trailer. The plate number on the registration did not match the plate on the trailer. But after an hour and a half or so, the agent faxed the registration and we finally made it through the lineups again, all to no avail. They wouldn’t release the trailer without a letter from the owner, not even when I explained that this would probably mean another 1,000 km of driving and another $70 in compound fees ($10/day).

By this time it was well into the afternoon, and I was ready to give up and head home without the trailer, but Irene thought we should continue to try to get hold of Dave. We also considered who we might be able to call to forge the letter, but we weren’t sure who we would ask to compromise their principles like that. So we went back to Steven’s and out for lunch, and afterward, while I tried to relax and reduce my blood pressure, Irene made countless phone calls. In the process she found out that Dave would be home by 6:00 p.m. She left a message on his message manager. Around 5:00 p.m., Dave called us back. He was kind enough to compose the letter right away and fax it.

So we made another trip down to the compound, but we were still very nervous that the license plate discrepancy would bite us in the butt. Fortunately the girls behind the counter were nearing the end of their shift. The one who took our case couldn’t stop yawning. She knew that there was something amiss, but she wasn’t in the mood to examine the documentation carefully enough to figure out what it was.

In the end here is the tally (not counting Steven’s car):

• Portion of our lives we won’t get back – 9 hours

• LRT tickets to the compound – $7

• Parking Ticket – $38

• Car towing – $56

• Fee for unhitching the trailer (yup, you read that right) – $42

• Various impound fees and taxes – $15

• Trailer towing – $56

• Impound fees and taxes on trailer – $12

• Motel room in Medicine Hat (because we were late leaving Calgary) – $80

• Lesson learned as a result of this experience – PRICELESS!

On the 31st, Irene and I travelled to Melfort for New Years. On the way , south of Stewart Valley, we were treated to a rather strange sight for this neck of the woods, a cow moose and twin calves. It’s the first time either of us had ever seen a moose with twins. They marched right beside the road, but by the time I had climbed out of the vehicle to retrieve my camera from the back, they had crossed the road in front of us and made off. Fortunately, they ran right along a gravel road, so we turned down the road and were able to get a shot or two. This one is probably the best.

Mom and the Kids Make a Break for It

As if that wasn’t enough wildlife sighting for one day, we also saw a bald eagle just south of Harris. Sorry, we never managed to get a picture of this one.

We spent the weekend at Dwight and Pen’s and Mom’s. New Year’s Eve was a quiet time of watching a movie. Dwight now has about 170 head of bison, like these.

Aaron continues his studies at the University of Regina. Like Steven he is studying Computer Science. He is also in the Co-op program, which means that he alternates semesters of studying with semesters of working in his field. He expects to complete his degree this summer.During the summer of 2003, Aaron was working at a work placement at Saskatchewan Justice, a golden opportunity to experience all the infighting and politics of a government department. It was enough to convince him that he probably didn’t want to work in the public sector all that badly. However, while he was still working at Justice, a fellow from the Coop Program contacted him and asked him if he was interested in doing a work term in China that fall.

Fortunately for Aaron, he already had a passport from his trip to Italy in grade 11, so he didn’t need too much time to prepare. The company looked after all travel and accommodation arrangements, so he just needed to get himself organized and decide what to pack. Then it was off to Jinan for four months.

Of course, he had to work while he was there, so he didn’t get in as much travelling as he might have liked, but he made it to Beijing, the Great Wall, and Tsingdao/Quindao, a coastal tourist town and the home of the most famous of Chinese beers – Tsingdao Beer, now the official beer of the Beijing Olympics.

The company provided the accommodation right across the street from the office, and there was a company park right behind his accommodation, where he could go for hikes. Aaron found the work culture very interesting. While everyone worked very hard and put in long hours, they also encouraged employees to take breaks whenever they wanted; putting one’s head down on the desk and taking a nap was perfectly acceptable.

Of course, one of the things that Aaron enjoyed most in China was bargain-hunting. He bought hundreds of knock-off DVD’s while he was there and brought home a knock-off North Face jacket for everyone in the family for Christmas. Somehow he managed to cram this all in his luggage on the way home, although he had to borrow a suitcase from one of the other guys who was coming back.

After China, Aaron had some time to make up in the classroom, so he returned to classes for a full year. In January of 2005, he took on his last work term at the RCMP in Regina. Steven had also done a work term here, but Aaron seemed to enjoy it more. For one thing, the projects he was assigned were a bit more meaningful and rewarding, and he probably also had a higher tolerance for some of the bureaucracy, having been subjected to much worse at the Justice Department.

Somewhere in the past two years, Aaron has become a bit of a fitness nut. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that students have free access to the fantastic facilities in the new Kinesiology building at the University. This, of course, appeals to Aaron’s frugal side, so he has been making the most of the exercise rooms and the pools there.

He doesn’t have all that much more time to take advantage of these facilities, though. He returns to classes in the new year and should be done classes some time this summer if everything goes as planned.