lew

Before retiring 13 years ago, I spent 32 years as a fireman in Toronto and a BIG part of the job is helping people who got themselves into serious trouble through misfortune, carelessness, accident or just plain stupidness. We'd assess the situation, figure out the best way to fix it and then do it. Never once in all my years on the job did I ever hear any other fireman, copper or paramedic say that a person should be fined for getting himself into trouble.....it's our job to go out and help them, that's why we're there and it's what we're payed to do. Emergency workers are on the job 24/7 and their job is to help people when the call comes in, not to judge them. Doesn't matter if they get trapped in a burning house, injured in a car crash or get stuck on an ice flow in Lake Simcoe. If an emergency worker sits in the station all day and doesn't respond to any calls, he gets paid exactly the same amount of money as if he'd responded to a dozen calls. It always makes me wonder where they come up with figures like posted in this story, where it cost Oro-Medonty (SP) $4300 to rescue those guys when the only extra expense I can see is the extra fuel for the trucks while they sit idleing on the shore. Personally, I think it's disgusting that these guys were fined because they got themselves into trouble and had to be rescued. But that's just the opinion of someone who was payed to help folks. And for what it's worth, I agree with EVERYTHING that Terry said.

Sorry to hear the news Jacques, condolances to all.

Greg, contact Superdad from this board for the ramp info. He was fishing the Reach just last week from his boat and should be able to let you know what's available.

Sounds like your getting hammered over your way Roy, but good to hear you guys are surviving intact. Nice being retired eh, and not having to drive around town in all that mess. We got about 5" here but it still took me a couple hours to clean everything up but that's OK, as I enjoy doing that kinda stuff.

Good to hear Santa treated you well Skip, must be that Karma thingy

Always enjoy your music Roger and have a great time in the sunny south. And the girls say "hey"

Just plain old egg nog does the trick for me, I luv that stuff, infact I think I'll go pour another glass.

Thanks Dave Me And thanks for the thoughts on Ed & Jim too Roy, that was nice of you.

Morning everyone & thanks for the wishes. Sure hope everyone is having as good as day as I am, but I don't think anybody enjoys opening presents as much as Ole Marv And Bill & Geoff, it'd be great to hook up with you guys next year.

I'd like to wish a very Merry Christmas from my family to all of you and hopes for a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year.

The good news is we're finally getting our 1st snowfall of the season and with the colder temps arriving, it may just hang around long enough to give us a white Christmas The bad news is the thieves that own the oil companies decided to raise the price of gas 11 cents a litre around here yesterday afternoon, just in time for everyone to start doing their Christmas travelling

That'll clean up just fine with some soap & water Harry

I installed my winter wheels & tires on the truck today so I'm all set for whatever the winter throws at us.

Haven't been up that way for awhle jedi, but with the colder temps coming they may be good....but don't take my word for it

Parts of Clear Lake in the Kawartha's is frozen all the way across, but other parts are still wide open. Gonna be awhile yet.

Makes $50 for a cab ride look pretty reasonable.

I've said it to you many times Kevin, I could fish the West Arm for a week and not catch anything, but still say I had a fantastic week of fishing !! One of my favorite places in the world !! Merry Christmas to you and yours Kev

That's gonna be a tough shift to get used to Gerritt with only a couple days off before switching, specially the 12 hour nights. With only 2 days between the change, your brain never really gets a chance to get into a rythm. But nonetheless, congrats on landing a good job.

If their winter tires you'll see a snowflake symbol on the side of the tire. http://tires.tirerack.com/thumb.php?f=http://www.tirerack.com/images/winter/photos/tech/severe_snowflake.gif&s=100

Doesn't matter what kind of gun your killed with, your still dead.

Looks like your all set if the snow ever arrives Skip !!

The army Major that shot a bunch of people on an American military base a year ago didn't seem to concerned about it.

This was a terrible tragedy and it's hard to even comprehend how anyone could do it, but I also think it's good to hear everyones different thoughts on it. I'm like Kemper though, as I'm sure most Canadians are too, and the thought of everyone walking around with loaded handguns is just something that's so foreign to us in this country. I read alot of the different American boards, as I'm sure many here do too, and I just can't get over their love affair with handguns. These guys are carrying them on their belt's, in the truck and some guys even carry them in the boat when they go fishing. Personally, I just don't get it. Some of the responses on the other boards are pretty scary too. Guys are suggesting shotguns be kept in every classroom, all teachers should be armed with handguns and one guy even said it should be mandatory for EVERY sane person in the US over 21 to carry a loaded handgun at all times. Can you just imagine a gunfight between teachers and whaco's in a school hallway full of children ?? Toronto is the biggest city in Canada with a population of 2.5 million people, yet only 50-60 murders are committed every year and their mostly gang bangers killing each other with illegal guns smuggled in from the States. I don't mean this as a slam against Americans, it's just that our 2 countries are similar in many ways, but VERY different in others. I MUCH prefer our system, but that's just me.

On the 3rd day of Ice Fishing, the temperature went up to 70, the ice & snow melted, the flowers bloomed and winter was over.......YAYYYY

I went through Bridgenorth a couple days back and the UltraMar was $1.12, but right across the road SHELL was selling for $1.17 yet there were still 4 cars filling up.....go figure