JohnF

Don't hit the brakes too hard. It'll add a new meaning to the term rotorooter. JF

Nah! Stretch out the forecastle and the back deck thingy and you can add another 6 feet to the overall length. JF

Couldn't a solar charging system be implemented using a deep charge battery? JF

Can you brace a mast with a cross arm and swinging ropes out on the ends of the arm? Kids like those. What about a moon pool for getting back aboard? Kids get a kick out of swimming under things as long as they don't have to swim far. A rope ladder on the outside. Sounds like a fun project. JF

My wife doesn't let me frequent bars with poles. She says they make me emotional. JF

All my friends tell me it must be better than working. JF

Because of location it's a tossup between the Comfort Inn and the Best Western Mariposa. I should be able to walk to work every day from either, and I understand there's a Timmies handy. Life is good. JF

Over 33 years of selling real estate. These days I'm busy starting up a real estate business for my son and teaching folks who are working on getting their real estate licenses. It's the teaching part that takes me to Orillia for two weeks in March. I'll be spending a lot of weeks in Hamilton doing the same thing over the next six months so if any of you are aspiring to a career in real estate sales we may well meet up one of these days. JF

I heard there'd be a bunch of weenies at the show. JF

Sure. Just be out at the end of yer driveway at about 9pm Friday. JF

Dayum! I drove right by there a while back. If only I'd known. JF

That's probably why he limps. JF

Not likely to need any welding done as I'm just teaching a real estate course. And I'm sure he doesn't want to be compared to Indian Larry. Seems to me I heard he'd died a while back. He was a pretty wild looking individual. JF

TMI JF

Those pretenders probably waited to hear what Wiarton Willy (the real furry prognosticator) had to say. He also saw a shadow. Ergo, more durned snow. JF

This probably doesn't matter because of the location but the FishingStore in Stratford has it in stock, and Byron, the owner, says it's great line. Actually, I believe the word he used was "awesome", but he's a braid guy, so he probably doesn't use it anyway. JF

That was the one I was kinda leaning toward. Any good bars in the neighbourhood? Not that I drink a lot but I may have folks dropping by to say hello, I hope. JF

I'm gonna be working in Orillia for a few weeks in March and need some recommendations for a decent hotel, preferably with good restaurant services in or close to the place. My work location will be on Progress Dr. so it would be great to be in that neighbourhood. Any help much appreciated. I'll buy the beers some night. JF

Sounds like pretty good training for the post education years. It's ironic how so many of us couldn't wait to become adults, and once we got there we wished we could be kids again. Some of us have managed to make the reversion. JF

Does that thing make anyone else think "Buck Rogers"? JF

Kinda playing devil's advocate here because I don't know Mr. Mackie or any of the details about this case, but for what it's worth, consider the following: You work hard for years, saving money diligently, doing without toys & vacations you'd dearly love to have, but finally you are able to buy the home of your dreams. You shop carefully and make the offer, doing all possible due diligence to ensure that you may enjoy your new home to the fullest for as long as you want to stay there. You have a lovely treed lot to one side and a ravine with a babbling brook and trees across the rear of your property. The homes on the other of your lot and across the street are well kept and consistent with the style and price of your own castle. Life is good. Then one morning the trees beside you are being cut. Soon an excavator arrives and starts digging a hole, forms go up and concrete gets poured. You think the foundation has a funny shape for a house and it's right up against your property line. Then a masonry company arrives with palettes of concrete blocks and starts building high, very high, walls right up against your property, mere feet from your bedroom windows. You discover that it's to be an abattoir, a small scale slaughterhouse for piggies, that's going to be processing as many as 20 or 30 little piggy carcasses a day. One day a month will be sheep day when they slit 25 little sheepy throats and skin 'em, leaving them looking exactly like smallish greyhounds. Or a less extreme example, you buy the home of your dreams and a few months after you move in the houses next door are all torn down and a strip mall starts construction. That happened to one of my students a few years ago. They hadn't bothered to check the zoning before buying. A small amount of foresight would have saved them the grief. We have a Planning Act in Ontario, and Official Plans and Zoning-By-Laws for municipalities, to protect us from those kinds of things happening to our properties. Municipalities are required to make far reaching plans for the municipality's development and growth. If they don't stick to the Official Plan for their area there's no protection for the property owners who have entrusted their investment and happiness to the protection of these regulations. Allowing variances from the plan is only done after careful consideration of the effects, and folks who ignore the Planning regs are generally treated roughly, at least in their own view. There would be too many very unhappy property owners if Planning regs didn't exist or were allowed to be flauted by anyone and everyone. There are always stories like this current one of folks who seem to have been treated harshly, but it's really about consistency and the protection of our investments and standard of living. Perhaps the person who initiated the complaint was an earlier victim of the same tough regulations and doesn't want to see anyone have what he couldn't, and perhaps there are extenuating circumstances that will help Mackie to get some satisfaction or relief. I run into situations like this all the time. Most of the time we are early enough to give the right advice to the property buyer or owner so they don't get into trouble. Occasionally they choose to ignore our advice and invariably they fall afoul of the regs and the bylaw enforcement types. Respectfully JF

The stores are only as good as the owner/managers make 'em. In Stratford I think we get treated pretty well there. I've never had a problem that Bill (a manager) couldn't resolve to my satisfaction. As for skates for kids. I don't know about the newest generation of skates but about 20 years ago when I had boys playing a lot of hockey (and I mean a lot) I discovered that the boys were happier (i.e. - skated better) with the used skates that were nicely broken in than the brand new ones. The boots on the top models were too stiff to break in easily and often the kid wouldn't get a whole season out of one size. Even playing 50 or more games a year and practicing several times a week the skates didn't get comfy until just as he outgrew 'em. It wasn't a money thing cuz heaven knows we hockey parents just threw our credit cards on the counter and let the sports stores have their way with us. It was in fact at one of the local sports stores that the used skate thing was suggested by the owner. He was a pretty smart retailer, also from a big hockey playing family. JF

I've emailed a friend of mine who lives there. He mentioned a while back that he was working on a rental place that would be available soon. I'm sure it would be pretty nice. I'll let you know. JF

The way my fishing was last summer it was usually "What the hell?". JF

"Some fishing" is perhaps a reach. I got to make a few casts is more the case. But at least I tried it. I spotted this young feller wading in the surf in front of the resort yesterday and wandered over to see what I could find out. he was a nice young man who spoke no english, at least he spoke about as much English as I spoke Spanish - nada. "Dos cervesas por favor" doesn't get you far in a fishing discussion. As near as I could tell from his sign language he had caught two 24" fish, probably Snook from his description and the location, but I didn't see them. He was using a battered Quantum reel on a meaty kinda stick with seriously heavy mono line. He appeared to have fabricated a sort of heavy leader of the same material and had double looped it to a heavy jig with a stainless hook close to the size of my bass worm hooks and was using a reddish coloured sharky looking plastic about 5" in length. It was pretty well chewed so i believe he has caught fish with it. Here are pics of my young friend and the tackle. He offered me the rig to try a few casts, which I did. That heavy mono is pretty awkward to cast and there was a pretty good on shore wind blowing in our faces so we didn't get much line out on a cast. The technique seemed to be to throw it out as far as possible and then immediately start to retrieve at a moderate pace. The trick was partly in gauging the crash of the wave so you didn't get knocked over during a cast. Some of the waves splashed up around our shoulders so I stayed up closer to the beach to take pictures where I could elevate the camera above the salt water. Apparently there is pretty good flats fishing just a few miles south of our location, between here and Moon Palace for those who know the territory. I can actually see the lagoon from the top of our building. JF