08:14:40

Don't you love it when hotels give you newspapers in the morning? Why? What am I going to do with this?

Ok, I admit that I don't like newspapers and that many people do enjoy a cup of coffee on the patio of their hotel room reading the paper. I guess I just don't get it.

That said, however, I do learn some important things from the front page of today's Globe and Mail.

The Corpse Bride is a scream

Apparently Tim Burton's new film, The Corpse Bride, is a "scream" (IE that it's good). That's funny, because I heard that it sucked. Worse yet, the previews weren't that good either. Do people even like these weird stop-animation movies?

Terry Fox is 'more alive now than ever'

As mentioned earlier this September 1st is the 25th anniversary of the unfortunate end to Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope.

After losing a leg to cancer (at the time this was the first I'd heard that you could lose a leg to cancer) he was fitted with an artificial limb and after putting his foot into the Atlantic Ocean at St John's Newfoundland he set out to run all the way across Canada to Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean to raise money and awareness for cancer. He only made it about halfway and after 143 days of running the equivalent of a marathon almost every day (42 kilometres a day average and a total distance of 5373 kilometres) he was almost at Thunder Bay, Ontario when he was forced to stop because the cancer had spread to his lungs. He died nine months later.

I once visited the memorial at the spot where he was forced to abandon his run, just east of Thunder Bay. There's a big statue there and some maps and information and stuff about his Marathon of Hope. I was pretty young at that time, but I remember it being a very powerful and moving experience, and a bit depressing.

I was even younger when he actually making his run across Canada but I do have several distinct memories:

- I remember, as everyone does, his distinctive gimpy way of running, which we (being insensitive little fuckers, as all kids are) would mimic, running around the playground.

- I remember his weird hair. Everyone talked about what a handsome young man he was, but I didn't really get that. I still don't. I mean, he's a great guy and I have nothing but admiration and respect for him, but let's not confuse his achievements with being pretty. Then again, I don't understand what chicks see in Brad Pitt either, or that Captain Picard guy, or Sean Connery, and so on. So, I guess chicks just have bad taste in men, I guess.

- I remember that this was the first time (and last time, actually) that I'd ever heard of anyone losing a leg to cancer. Leg cancer wasn't one that I'd heard of before.

- I remember that every day on the news you'd kind of check up to see how far he'd got that day. Many days he was too sick to run and wouldn't make any distance, if any, and those were always really sad days.

- I remember that the motor home that his "team" would use to follow him had to have its transmission replaced several times because it was hard on it to drive so slowly behind him as he ran.

- I remember that he always wore this weird shirt that said "Marathon of Hope", which was one of those typical 70s shirts where you went to the store and got them to iron on your name or whatever. This was unusual for his complete lack of corporate sponsorship, but apparently that was intentional as he did not want to accept any sponsorship. But I don't really understand that because wouldn't that raise MORE money for cancer research?

'Conflict' looms over Alberta's oil wealth

This is an interesting one because due to the fact that the worldwide price of oil has gone through the roof recently, the Province of Alberta is rolling in money because of all its oil and the fact that its own operating costs have stayed pretty much the same and only the revenue has gone up.

And so, there's a plan to give that money back to the people of Alberta. Talk of cheques totalling several hundred dollars per person fill the news and conversations.

This would be good for me since I am actually a resident of Alberta... on paper.

Of course the rest of Canada thinks that the money should be spread around to them as well. Screw them, I say. Alberta is the only province without a sales tax and therefore we were the only province to not have to calculate percentages in our heads and add it to the sticker price of things every time we bought something to figure out the actual cost of things. I say "were the only province" because that was before the the fucking Mulrooney government, in an absolutely George-W-Bush-ish sneaky fucking political manoeuvre, pushed the national GST tax through the senate by using a bullshit constitutional loophole for a one-time addition of new appointed senators to tip the voting balance toward his conservative side. As a result we now have to add 7% onto everything when we buy stuff. We're still better off than other provinces who have to add 7% plus whatever their provincial percentage might be to everything, plus memorise what tax applies to what purchases because it's not "across the board". But I don't care. You stupid fuckers voted for the Progressive Conservatives and "progressed" us right into the stupidest and most poorly administered federal sales taxes in the world. And yes I realise that most of Alberta voted Conservative anyway, but Albertans are a bunch of redneck morons so we can't expect anything else from them. But without the rest of you morons voting Conservative as well we'd have had a nice middle of the road Liberal government in power like we did for 20 years before and after and they would have taxed the crap out of the stupid Albertans and their gas and NOT implemented the fucking GST and the world would have been the way it should be.

It is the responsibility of the rest of Canada to off-set the voting stupidity of everybody else. That's the way Canada works! Alberta was doing its part to off-set the BC and Ontario New Democrats and the stupid fascist French in Quebec. What happened to the rest of you in the 80s when Brian fucking Mulrooney became Prime Minister? What the hell were you thinking?!??? Didn't you see him on television singing with Reagan?!?? We hate America, remember? That's the only thing we Canadians have in common with each other!

'We will do what it takes'

This is the second day this week that I start off looking at George W Bush. What the hell is with that?

By The Numbers

Some statistics to give us a sense of where the national mood lies this morning:

55% of Albertans believe provincial resources belong to all Canadians

76% of Canadians in other provinces agree

26% of Albertans feel the province's oil bonus should be shared

That's an interesting trio of statistics, isn't it? 55% of Albertans think that provincial resources belong to all Canadians, but only 26% of them want to share the oil bonus. Maybe 29% (55 minus 26) of Albertans feel that "provincial resources" means resources coming from provinces other than Alberta? Or are we just talking about use of the resources, and not windfall profits that come as a result of having them?

And 76% of Canadians agree that provincial resources belong to all Canadians?!?? Who the hell is this other 24% that thinks that only their province should be allowed to use its resources?!?? Ok, fine. Prince Edward Island, you can have potatoes. BC, you can have trees. Saskatchewan, wheat. I'll stick with Alberta... the last I heard oil was selling better than potatoes, trees and wheat. When you got lots of money you can buy whatever resources you need. That's the fundamental truth of the modern age. That's why UN employees have such nice stuff and go on such nice vacations while the people in the countries they are stationed in don't.

61% of Canadians in other provinces think they deserve a portion

I am surprised that that percentage is so low.

37% of Quebeckers believe they give more to equalization than they receive

"Equalization"?!?? What the hell is with that? And I have no idea what "equalisation" is but this statistic doesn't surprise me at all. The Quebecois are a bunch of whiners. You'd think they were Rwandan Tutsis or Kosovo Albanians or Native American Indians or something by the way they complain about about stuff. Shut the hell up. I'm Quebecois too and you know what? There are people in this world who suffer from ACTUAL oppression. Please don't insult them by whining about what you imagine to be the boot-heel of English Canada grinding down on you and your right to speak bastardised French and eat Poutine.

85% of Canadians have a worsened impression of US society in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

This just illustrates what I ranted about before... all Canadians hate America. And if 85% of us have an even worse view of the US after Hurricane Katrina, well... all I can say is that 100% of us didn't have a very good impression of US society prior to Hurricane Katrina either.



08:35:59

So this morning we're off to do some more rushed shopping with my mom before heading out for a quick visit with Landon's parents and then hitting the road to drive to Edmonton.

Checking out of the Medicine Hat Lodge I just had to snap a picture of this studio portrait I've been walking past for three days now. This is SOOOO White Trash. Oh my god. What the hell is wrong with people when they start dressing up their kids like a Raphael painting or something. Why don't they just get it made into a blacklight velvet poster while they're at it?



08:42:08

And so we hop into the car and leave the Medicine Hat Lodge behind us for the last time.



11:04:51

And speaking of tacky.... the world's tallest Teepee.



11:32:31

And so we arrive at Landon's parent's farm.

Now, for those of you who remember last year I hope you remember Mini Mule because he was a few weeks ago last year and this year he's all grown up.



11:33:50

For those who don't remember... Mini Mule is the unholy off-spring of a miniature horse breeding with a full-sized donkey. That horse in the background is his mother, and bear in mind that she's a miniature horse that barely comes up to my waist.



11:33:50

This is Mini Mule's mother. It forget her name... Ginger, I think.



11:34:22

This is Dapper, and for those who don't remember he got kicked when he was a kid so now he's blind and deaf on one side, plus a bit slow, and can only walk in circles. This means that when he wants to cross a field he has to either walk around the outside along the fence with his good eye, or walk repeatedly in circles making a bit of progress with each rotation. Here you see him circling counter-clockwise, as he always does.



11:34:48

And that is Tobasco, who must now be separated from the rest of the mini horses because he and Mini Mule are both male and that causes problems. Sad.



11:35:02

Mini Mule has turned out kind of funny looking, don't you think?



11:40:57

Walking over to the barn we call over the full-sized horse, whose name I can't remember either.



11:41:03

The horse is followed by the less speedy donkey who is the father of Mini Mule. In the background are the unbelievably paranoid Llamas watching suspiciously.



11:41:37



11:41:41



11:42:22

Horses get so excited about eating carrots. I wish that I could get so excited about eating carrots.



11:43:30



11:44:17

For those who remember... this is part of my infamous 3D stage (a band I was once in) that I was storing at the farm and which eventually became useful around the place in various different ways, such as a house for the horses.



11:47:08

I show one of these photos every year.... this is two views of different quality of photo showing the 3D stage in action during the song Big Twinkie. The top shows me flinging Twinkies into the audience, and the bottom shows me giving a final theatrical flourish as smoke bombs go off and balloons are released into the sky.



11:47:08

Heading back to the miniature horses again.



11:48:03

Tobasco final decides to come over and let us feed him some carrots.



12:01:24

Landon's parents put on a very nice lunch for us. I feel like a mooch... all I brought was juice and some Bad Reichenhaller salt.



13:01:54

A sudden commotion can be heard outside and Tobasco goes into crazy mode and starts to race around his paddock for a while.



13:29:06

And so we must say our final goodbyes to the horses and to Medicine Hat as we head out on the road to Edmonton.



14:10:43

These taps look like a moose, don't you think?



14:56:15

And so we pick up my sister and her son (my mom and my sister's daughter will drive up tomorrow to join us). And with that we're off on our way to Edmonton.

It's a bit cloudy today, but no rain so we're still lucky with the weather. There's not much to see today except flat prairie and lots of driving so the non-sunny skies are actually a blessing.

But actually what I took this photo for was to show the really long train in the distance - 100+ cars.



16:41:43

For two years now I've wanted to get a nice photo of some of these abandoned barns and farmhouses that litter the Canadian prairies.



16:43:05

There is something very poignant and sad about these buildings.



16:44:30

I also wanted to get a picture of hay bales on this trip as well, so today is my lucky day, I guess.



17:20:14

Ugh. Lots of driving ahead still, and we've been on the road for three hours already.



17:57:48

This is Killam, Alberta. They used to have the cheapest petrol prices in the entire province, and it seems that they still do (although I later see that Edmonton has gas for slightly cheaper...).

$102,9 is about 73 Euro Cents a litre.



19:14:45

I had kind of hoped to be in Edmonton by the time the sun set, but... oh well.



20:49:21

FINALLY we arrive at the West Edmonton Mall and check into our Arabian Room in the Fantasyland Hotel. There were some problems in checking in because to my horror I have almost run out of money... which is either a mistake or I have been getting killed on exchange into Canadian dollars during this entire trip... and because of that I can't exactly pay in ADVANCE (what hotel requires in advance payment anyway?!?!??) for my own room PLUS the room for my mom, sister and her kids for three nights. But in the end we sort it out and get settled into our rooms.



This should be our final map orientation for this entire trip because the remaining three days will be spent here in the the West Edmonton Mall. That might sound kind of pathetic, but it's a big mall.



21:24:05

Dinner this evening will be at the West Edmonton Mall Phase IV Food Court.



21:41:02

And so another long day comes to an end. There's not much to do here at the mall so late at night, but you can still walk around and sort of plan what to do the next day. Even at night it's still kind of cool.

Today's Travel Information

West Edmonton Mall
www.westedmall.com

Fantasyland Hotel
www.fantasylandhotel.com
1-800-737-3783 / (780) 444-3000
Arabian Room $269
Includes 2 Attraction Passes





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