Right now I'm in Pembroke, my home town. The weather is just below freezing-- very pleasent for late December. When I told RO the temperature, he was shocked at how cold it was and repeatedly told me to stay warm and not get sick. RO was born and raised around Seattle so freezing temperatures are alien to him.

The store is doing well. We earned enough to pay our bills. Not bad for only being open for three weeks.

Christmas, RO and I spend a quiet day together. It was the first time we had a day off since Thanksgiving. We cleaned the house, sat in the hot tub, ate, visited friends and slept.

Today I flew to Toronto. I had a great flight over. As luck would have it, an old friend was the head steward. When he saw me he said "Barry! Long time now see. Let me take care of you. Go sit in 4C. And so I had 1st class service all the way.

Running a store is interesting. It's so different from my day job as an engineer. The two jobs stress my brain in different ways.

The store is developing a routine, though we still have a long way to go. It sounds like I'm the easy boss, and RO is the hard boss. Yesterday, RO needed some supplies for the front desk, but couldn't find them. He asked one of the girls (We employ three highschool girls) to look for it.

We looked together but couldn't find the supplies. I asked her to tell RO. She asked me "Can you do that? He'll yell at me."

We had a small Christmas Party at the store. About thirty people showed up. It was fun.

We had a white elephant gift exchange. It was fairly fun, but went on way too long. RO was a bit drunk and tried to rule the proceedings. But, you really can't get 30 drinking adults all be quiet and act professional.

Boone drank a lot and got sick-- he doesn't usually drink. I could tell he was on the verge of puking when he got into my truck for the ride home. I kept my eye on him all the way. As we pulling along side home, while I was still driving, he opened the door and proceeded to unload.

RO and I have been working almost non-stop. I have my day job, plus the store needs lots of attention.

We haven't caught up with the book keeping yet. I'm trying to do that, but accounting it's a lot of work. The accounting software doesn't let you correct mistakes. You have to enter another transaction to document the correction. Many of my first entries are things like "#4: Transaction #3 should be a debit and not a credit." "#5 Transaction #4 should be $3.00 not $0.03" and so on.

Saturday night we went to an X-Mas party at some neighbors. They had a white elephant gift swap. It worked out well. I ended up getting a great framed photo.

Last night an old friend told me that Tori died. Tori and I went to University together. We weren't close friends, but we did hang with the same crowd. Tori was a very ambitious and intelligent woman. The long story is under Kayak outing in Mexico turns tragic


In short, Tori and 2 friends were in Mexico, Kayaking between two islands in the Sea of Cortez. A suprize wind sqaul hit them, generating nine foot waves. The three tried to stay together, but Tori was ripped away. At 5pm an American yatch picked up the 2 friends. The yatch had radio contact with Tori. She was frustrated trying to give the searchers here location, but couldn't get sightings because the waves were so high. At 8:30 Tori made her last contact, saying she was cold. Her body was recovered Monday Morning.

The policy are running a speed trap outside my window. Every few minutes the sirens go on and they pull over another car.

It's snowing. Nice big flakes.

Where I work, there are two distinct groups of people-- those who grew up with snow and those who didn't. Those who did not grow up with snow are looking out the window, worrying about the drive home and thinking of leaving early. Those who grew up with snow are rolling their eyes and saying "It's just snow."

I grew up in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It really snows there.

I've been working a lot again. I have my day job. Then I drive to the store and help RO set up. He's hired three extra people to help him. On top of that, another three or four of our friends show up to assist. Thanks to everyone!