last warm day for a while

Tomorrow we start going seriously north. We've been stalling our departure here in Mesquite but we're going to have to admit that our escape from winter is temporarily over and get back into it. The forecast for Helena isn't good - if we didn't have appointments to keep in Alberta and Saskatchewan it would be pretty easy to talk ourselves into another week.

This satellite coverage has to run out at some point too. We're still on SatMex 5. I'm going to leave us on it just to see how far north it really goes. The footprint of this satellite has a big bulge into the pacific northwest so maybe it will extend up into southern Alberta as well. The speeds on this one are so much better than G99 that we don't want to go off it until we absolutely have to.

I've enjoyed watching the US primaries from this side of the border. Billary looks to be done but won't give up. The Repubs must be praying she keeps on keeping on. The campaign is getting dirty. She has to beat up the black guy in order to have any hope of winning herself. That in turn is good for McCain. By the way "the black guy" isn't a racist slur - the campaign has never been any deeper than "the black guy" against "the woman". Although when you think about them the black guy is only 1/2 black and the woman is too old to have kids so doesn't that make each of their campaigns fundamentally a lie? Maybe when you're a Democrat that's more like a qualification than a character flaw.

At least McCain stands for something - flawed and aged though he may be. I'm afraid he can't overcome the Bush baggage though. It won't hurt if Billary hangs in until the convention. Maybe someday the American public will wake up and realize just how shallow the black guy's campaign has really been. The voting public isn't known for being smart so I'm not holding out much hope for that.

I got published in the last issue of Grainews. I haven't seen the article in print yet but I knew it was out because I got a phone call from some moron at Crooked River. In his broken Ukrainglish he wanted to know what he should rent the farm out for. Then I couldn't get the stupid SOB off the phone. The article was about unit cost of production - cost per bushel - so I don't know how we went from there to what he should be renting the farm for. I expect he was just a lonely old fool who likes phoning people he doesn't know because the people he does know won't talk to him. I got another call this morning from an old customer at Nipawin who seemed amazed that the phone could find me in Arizona. Some people don't get out enough. Marilyn says I should be careful what I write here because somebody might read it. I tell her that in the first place it is extremely unlikely that anyone will see themselves here and in the second place some of them should see themselves. And besides I've got enough friends already.

Look out Alberta - here we come!