Big Cliff

Well, I take a deep breath (right after I have downed a scotch rocks) (just kidding about the scotch rocks LOL). First of all congratulations on a couple of things, the new addition to the family; the starting of your own business; and moving on up in the world. Most of us started off much like you are, small but willing. You are going to make mistakes, LEARN from them don't let them get you down. Just remember that every day is the first day of the rest of your life. You are going to loose customers from time to time no matter what you do, you will never be able to please everyone! Try to understand their positions too though, if they have gone out of their way to give you a chance and your attitude is "well, I have my own problems so.....". You just made your problems theirs! Keep in mind that the people you build relationships with today are going to be your friends tomorrow. Treat them as you would want them to treat you and you will be fine!

OK, so are there any reports? Usually by now someone has posted pictures and stuff. I realize that the weather didn't exactly cooperate, we just got home from Sudbury and passed a lot of accidents, roads were really slick! But as I told Sue "you are in the hands of a professional driver, here, hold my beer and watch this"! Seriously Tyler reports Please.

State Farm Agent told me "there is no idiot clause in your policy". You pay for ALL perils, you are covered for ALL perils.

Post the name of that dealer because they did very well by you! Any other shop would have charged you at least double what you just paid. It is nice to see that there are still honest shops out there!

My buddies thought so, I didn't!

I have a lucky hat; well, actually I have had several over the years, I keep loosing them

Garage/Man Cave is fine right where it is! Motion detector lets me know when wife is coming up the driveway so we can hide beer cans and talk about how lucky we are to have such fantastic wives . In our previous house garage was attached, wife walked in one day (I didn't realize it) while I was telling my buddies how I got a shirt, socks, and some tail for Christmas and they were all two sizes too big. Then she piped up and told my buddies she got the same things and they were all three sizes too small. I like the current setup much better!

Not that it really matters anymore but they were a "pull up" diaper so somewhat similar to under pants and perhaps only used for night time. The sad part of this is that this poor little boy died cold and alone and there is very little that anyone could have done to forsee this. Who would expect their three year old to get up at 4 am put on his boots leave his appartment, make his way to the lobby and exit the building on one of the coldest nights of the winter. One can only wounder what he was looking for.

There is no "one size fits all" solution. Sleds are good at some things, ATVs are good at some things. I do find that I get a lot more use out of an ATV than I ever did out of a sled and as long as you don't get an ATV hung up they will dig their way through a lot of crap. Put a plow on it and you can even handle the deep snow, you don't have to plow right down to bare ice, just close enough that your wheels still contact it.

Have you ever seen the signs "Smile you are on candid camera" or "This property is monitored by Video survalience". What do you do? Well you look for the cameras don't you? Dogs are great. But if they try to tell you that it was two guys about 6' tall that looked just like the kids down the street that broke into your car and stole your stuff. Well something gets lost in the translation! The camera will tell you exactly what they looked like, what time they were there, and in many cases what they took.

Now there is the man you want to talk to!

$220.00 and you better have deep pockets if you want to win this one! I have fished with Simon before!

Two things you can always count on: Roy helping and Joey's beautiful smile!

Not true! I have seen a scared cat out run many a good dog. Dogs are a good deturent but they have to be able to get to the area you want to protect.

My heart goes out to you! I too have been there many time, perhaps too many. My only advice is that you don't worry about forgetting, that won't help but time will. Always keep a place in your heart for those special memories!

My Garage is 72' away from my house LOL. My garage is insulated but I have to be honest, at my age I'm not going to go out in this weather and fire up a heater to try to warm things up unless it's to help out a friend in need!

Sorry, I won't build one for you, I already have more than enough work to do. I'd have been more than happy to HELP you build one but that doesn't seem to fit with your needs right now. Best of luck! Cliff

That is very true Art but I have heard so many horor stories of people having to sell their homes and everything they own just to pay a loved ones medical bills in the US. I know our system isn't perfect and there are times I do get frustrated with it but no matter how poor you are you can and do get really good quality of care in Canada. I can tell you right now that if it wasn't for our current system Sue probably wouldn't be with me today and if we had to pay for the medications she has to take everyday we would have trouble putting food on the table never mind a roof over our head. We just tried to get health insurance so that we could head South for a few weeks, the underwriters didn't even want to give us a quote for Sue and when I pushed them for a price I was told it would be at least $1000.00/day because of her current issues and even then there would be restrictions and limits to the coverage! Guess there are good and bad things on either side of the coin.

Well, since they are getting paid to do it I don't see it as freezing their butt off for Target, lots of us work outside in the cold/heat/rain, if we are getting paid for it, we are doing it for our familes or ourselves the way I see it. At the end of the day if someone gives you a pay cheque for whatever you have done then the slate is clean.

I did a lot of research a couple of years ago on different systems because we had a few things go missing. I got some really good information from members of this site on the different systems and then on top of that I contacted a professional company to come and give me a quote. The long and short of it was: A professional system with monotoring was going to cost me way more than it was worth to me. Wireless systems are easier to install than wired systems but not as reliable. Wired systems can be expensive (and difficult if you are not experienced) to install. For what I had to protect a wireless system with a recorder was the best value for $s and the best place I found to buy it was Costco. The quality was excellent and the support was excellent. Price is going to vary all over the place depending on what you want to do with it and how many areas you want to cover. Lastly, don't bother trying to "catch" someone ripping you off, try to prevent it from happening in the first place so lots of signage "Monotored by Video" signs will do a lot to prevent someone from taking the chance even if (no, espicially if) they can't see the cameras.

Well, I live up in Lindsay so start scrounging and get a set of skies, I can't do much until the weather warms up a bit, my shop isn't heated but I do have all the tools we'll need. As I said, shouldn't take us much more than an hour. I have some 2X4s and 2X6, we can pick up the hardware here in town. let me know when you have the skies. If you do want to put wheels on it we'll have to scrounge some of those too but that can be added later.

Not a smart idea, it is hard walking out there right now, you will get stuck!

Well, if you can scrounge up some old skies, we can put one together in an hour or so depending on how fancy you want to get with it. We could even put a set of removable wheels on it (that might take us a little longer and you'd have to scrounge up 4 wheels). Where do you live?

And I right there beside you my friend! I know our system isn't perfect but when your loved one is hanging in there.... sometimes I ask myself, could it be better? I think yes! Perhaps I am just selfish.

I hear you all, and I sure am glad we do have the health care system in place that we do. As frustrated as I do get with it, we are still far better off than if we lived in so many other countries in the world. And I agree with you Lew; if we had to pay for the medications that Sue and I have to take every day out of pocket there is no way we would be able to afford it so I guess in the long run we wouldn't be here to complain anyway LOL. It just doesn't make sense to me that it takes three + weeks to get the results of a test from Toronto to Ajax when I could have walked them there in less than a day.