Big Cliff

Wish I could have joined you guys but I had other obligations. Sure sounds like you guys had a good day though (not at all unusual when you two get together). How thick was the ice Bruce?

Actually he did Roy, he was really fishing out in front of the CN Tower. Nice work Dave that sounds like a day of fishing any of us "Southeners" would love to have!

Really glad to hear you got her there in time! I too will say an extra prayer tonight!

Nice looking fish though! Congrats.

For every door that closes, another one opens. You have been through this before and you always seem to bounce back. Just use this as an opportunity to move on to bigger and better things. Good luck in your new venture or career path what ever it might be!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of a visit from CCMT and his beautiful daughter Sydney, one of my favorite little people! Boy she is turning into a young lady fast! It's not that long ago she was curled up on my lap with her arms around my neck and not wanting to go home. Just before Christmas Cliff had posted an audio of Sydney singing Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and we really liked it so we had asked if Sydney could do a video of it for us. At first she didn't want to do it but since we had asked she decided she would, but only if it was just for us! Well, it turned out fantastic (I think we've watched it about 10 times already LOL) and she finished it off with a big, Merry Christmas Big Cliff and Sue. (you know how special that made us feel)! That was just the start of what turned out to be a wonderful day. Since the weather was beautiful, we decided to head out and try a little ice fishing. There was plenty of ice, a good 7-8" so we walked out and drilled some holes. The sun was shining, the wind was light but the fish wouldn't cooperate. We fished for about an hour and a half then decided to head in and grab a bite of lunch. Nothing fancy, just some BBQd hot dogs, but they did the trick. About 2:00 we headed back out to try a little more fishing. There had been a few small bands of rain blow through but just sprinkles here and there. I was kind of hoping that would get the fish biting but it wasn't to be. About 3:30 the wind had started to pick up, and it was getting colder so we decided to head back in. Sue had a nice lasagna baking in the oven for our dinner, all was good. Cliff had brought his guitar (at my request LOL) so he got that out and we sat around for a while and listened to him play and sing. I really love the way he can pick that thing. What was really funny was our beagel pup who had been a little hyper. As soon as Cliff started to play she cocked her head in amazement then promptly put her head down and closed her eyes. Every time he'd stop she'd lift her head and look at him until he started again. A little filtered try again please chat and some more songs and supper was ready. Sue had made a nice ceaser salad and garlic bread to go with the lasagna and we were all hungry, made a pretty good dent in that tray of lasagna LOL. To top it all off Cliff had made a cream pie for dessert, his mother's recipe and boy was it good! Got to get the recipe for that one! (no wonder I'm BIG Cliff LOL). Anyway a very big thank you to Sydney for making that special video for us, to Cliff for bringing us a few more of the songs that he has done, entertaining us, that wonderful cream pie, and a down right enjoyable day!

A friend of mine called last night, he spent a couple of hours trying to get his today. Finally managed to get it at CTC here in Lindsay. He was telling me that some of the retailers are really pissed off. One store had over 100 people come in to get licenses and couldn't supply them. People were leaving the store frustrated but it wasn't the stores fault. And we pay these people big bucks for what?

I have one here you can have, I use to use it when I had my GSP. PM me your address if you would like it.

many years ago the only thing we used for ice fishing pike was dead smelts, we'd just set up a drop shot rig and hang the smelt about 1' off bottom. We didn't use ice rods, we'd just cut a tree branch, stick it in the snow/ice, and hang our line off the branch. We use to catch plenty of pike that way.

Really nice job, I'll be sure to check back often!

Just trying to pay it forward my friend. If we can't help our friends that what is our purpose here anyway. Besides I know darn well you'd have done it for me if I needed it!

Hope you get this all sorted out soon! Oh, and I'm always up early too so I'll gladly act as a back up chatter if you need me LOL.

First; I am really sorry to hear you are going through all of this, living in constant pain or all loaded up with drugs has got to be really hard, I hope you do get a solution soon! Second: Several years ago Sue needed heart surgery, she lay in a bed in ICU for over a month and all the Dr. kept saying was "we are trying to get her a bed in Toronto". I finally got angry and called the ministry of health, explained the situation and told them that if I didn't have an answer back within 24 hours I was going to the media. Sue had a bed in Toronto the next day and an appointment with one of the leading heart specialists. The surgery was done two days later. When we moved to Lindsay we were having trouble finding a Dr.. because of Sue's previous heart problems she needed things to be monitered. I finally wrote a letter to the editor of the local news paper which they published. The very next day we had offers from three Dr.s and we were actually able to choose the one we wanted. Just some thoughts you might want to consider!

Well, first I have to say that I really appreciate all the feedback both pro and con. Building a good foundation is the best base any business can start with and information is power. Second, I must say that I had a very interesting phone conversation with Phil today. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your insite, observations, and input Phil. You are obviously one very bright young man and I really appreciate your input!!!! We will be talking more and maybe your idea is the solution. I checked out your web site and was quite impressed! Keep up the good work my friend! Hope to see you some time next week, we'll hammer out some details between now and then.

Got mine last year, it split the second day I had it. Never did have to use it for anything. It isn't even considered a valid form of ID with any government agency as there is no photo on it. More of our tax payers money spent on something that is no use to us. I didn't have any trouble at the drug store, just used my drivers license.

Ya, but I also gave up smoking, drinking, and women, that didn't last long either

Some excellent feedback here people, thank you so much! I am not sure if I will do something along these lines or not, it might be a bit too much for me to handle with everything else I have on my plate. Phil thank you very much for your offer, I'll PM you. If anyone else cares to add their comments please do! Thanks again! Cliff

Another story Roy, LOL, I believe he is refering to the product I asked for help evaluating last fall. And yes, from all the reports I got back on it, it will also be a big sucess. In fact I am now in talks with a major retailer to handle the product but more to follow on that in a few weeks. This is a totally different concept and not product specific related. Just an old man trying to find ways to help his friends!

All I am trying to do is plant a seed guys! Sure there are many questions to be answered but I didn't build one of the largest companies of it's kind in Canada from the ground up by starting at the top. Sure there are plenty of un answered questions but if this is going to work, we have to start somewhere. Storage isn't a problem, as I mentioned, I already have places in Ontario and Quebec that would be interested. Capitol; let me worry about that, there is plenty of capitol available for a good well thought out idea.

Here is my thinking, might need a little modification but it's a place to start. We are a group of anglers and hunters for the most part and many of us shop the sales on products. What if we were to start a co-op and start to contact manufacturers directly through that co-op. Here is an example; if I want to buy Coleman propane cylinders I have to shop the sales or end up paying full retail price. Now we all know that the retailer is not paying anything close to what they sell it to us for and Coleman wouldn't give us a deal as an individual on those cylinders but what if we had an order for 100, 1000, "10,000"? (that is only about 1.5 cylinders for every person on this board) do you think they would talk to us then? The same holds true for many products and as a group we could all work together to help each other. We have a wonderful wealth of knowledge available on this board, people with strong business, sales, marketing and customer service back grounds, web design and so much more. I already know people that could/would be very happy to act as distribution centers in both Ontario and Quebec. Now, I would propose that it get run as a non profit type of thing (naturally we couldn't sell everything at cost as we would have some overhead to cover but we could do a really good job of saving us all a lot of money with any profits made after costs were covered going back to the members). The primary focus would be on North American Manufactured products but not limited too or excluding any others. This could also be extended to many other areas, Lodges, fishing charters, baits and tackle, the list is endless and I have a lot of very good contacts in the outdoors markets that I know would be more than happy to deal with us. So, any thoughts, ideas (good or bad) would be appreciated!

The American Society of Addiction Medicine begins their definition of addiction by describing it as "a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry". I very much doubt that any of these people got up one morning and said "I think I'll go out and get myself addicted to something"! Or, I think I'll choose to live in a cardboard box over a grate and sleep on the streets instead of in a nice warm bed with clean sheets and hot food". Their thinking isn't rational compaired to what you seem to consider "normal". There are many reasons that a person can fall into the traps that lead to them living on the street and once there the climb back up the ladder to what you would consider "normal" can be nearly impossible. Try and get social assistance when you don't have an address, little or no identification, and you have to take drugs or alcohol just to "feel normal" or numb the feeling that you aren't "normal". Compound that with possible mental issues or phobias (I know it is a big word, google it, you might learn something if you choose to). As I see it, there are two important things you still have to learn in life: Number 1: Before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes! Number 2: A man has a right to look down on someone only when he is helping him to get up!

Why are some people afraid of mice, snakes, spiders, clowns, water, fire..... They all sound unreasonable to people that aren't afraid of them. Same holds true for those people that choose not to live in a house or appartment, they have their fears too. Might seem unreasonable to most of us but it isn't to them!

I'll second that one Art, Moen has always done good by me! It is one company I wouldn't hesitate to buy from again.

The next time you go to buy anything, take a minute or two to call their customer service number and see what kind of a reaponse you get. I just had a customer bring me an Eskimo ice auger, it needs a new coil. So I go to their website and they list a parts supplier in Canada, Yetman's on MB. Good I thought, I can get it right here in Canada. So I try to call Yetman's, 10 minutes later after being told several times how important my call was to them I finally gave up (my dime no less). So I waited until today and tried again, this time I had a toll free number but again after waiting another 10 minutes and being told how important my call was to them, I gave up and phoned the US supplier, got disconnected the first time but finally got to talk to a very nice man named John. He knew his stuff and offered to ship it to me by tomorrow, mind you I'll have to pay the duty but that is ok, an ice auger without a coil is just an anchor. My point is this, we go out and pay good money for a product and occasionally we need customer service, if that isn't there then too bad for us. If enough of us stop buying products that don't offer good customer support then the companies that pull this stuff will fall by the side of the road. As a service person, I run into this sort of thing all the time, people bring me things to fix, I need parts, I call the Mfg. parts line then spend an hour on hold trying to get the part I need, Now, who do I bill for that hour of my time? Would it be fair to bill my customer? Not in my books! Can I bill the Mfg.? Ya right! Is it fair that I write off an hour of my time because someone buys a product from someone that doesn't offer reasonable customer service? Well, I hardly ever make any money from my friends anyway LOL so I guess my time doesn't have that much value LOL. The point is this, if we let them do this to us, they will! If we start making phone calls and finding out what their customer service is like then supporting the companies that do still believe in giving good customer service then those companies will flurish, we all win!!!!! Come on guys, lets do something about the companies that do care about their customers and the ones that don't. It might cost you a few more bucks in the beginning but it will save you a lot in the end.

Now that was neat! Someone put some thought into doing that. From the moment I saw the air bubbles falling I figured out what was happening but it was still interesting to see what they had done with it all. Good sense of humor too! Well done