Red Sky in the Morn...

Edmonton Sunrise Oct 19 2010

Gunned Down in Scarlet, Coldest Blood...

"When Mayerthorpe, she cried, as her four horsemen died"

I'm happy to hear today that the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman will serve the remainder of their sentences. Both men pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter in the shooting deaths of RCMP Officers Peter Schiemann, Leo Johnston, Anthony Gordon and Brock Myrol. 

I believe that what these two men did was reprehensible and feel strongly they must accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions. 

James Roszko, often referred to as a psychopath, was a well know locally as a criminal with a history of violent, armed offenses. It is unlikely that any rational person who knew him would have allowed him the benefit of doubt or not take seriously his stated intentions.

In addition to driving Roszko back to his farm and providing him with a firearm and ammunition, both Hennessey and Cheeseman admitted that they knew Roszko was planning on murdering "as many RCMP officers as he could." While they considered alerting police, they decided against it.

THESE MEN COULD HAVE SAVED FOUR LIVES.

Instead they chose to remain silent and that choice allowed these events to unfold as they did. I believe they had a duty to make a different choice that day, to take action to protect life.

Of course, I do feel that our system failed terribly in this regard, to this day I am astonished that a man like James Roszko was not incarcerated in some fashion. But that's a whole other topic.

Looks Like the Summer is Over...

It seems even the trees have given up on summer

In the northern hemisphere summer ends September 23 at 3:09am GMT and then we begin the season of autumn. However, lately in Edmonton it has felt as if summer might already be over - particularly disappointing since many who live here might remark it hardly seems summer ever got started at all.

As much as I look forward to transitioning to fall (and the wonderful colours it brings), it necessarily comes at the expense of summer and sometimes I have a hard time forgiving it for that. I live for the summer time, daydreaming of summer days is what gets me through the winters here.

Awaiting Erindale

As I ponder the changes that are coming to Empire Avenue next week in the Erindale iteration and how it will affect not only my stock but also those of my investments, I was pleased to see this recommendation from (e)ANGLER on his blog, eavproblog.com.

However the rumours are true, yes they are. Peter Dutton has an amazing flickr influencer score of 46. Check out his flickr profile HERE.

Flickr has long been one of my favourite Web2.0 sites. For more than five years my photo's have been part of the community there and I have easily spent more time there than any other social media site. I'd be happy if you could pay it a visit and if you use Flickr, please feel free to add me!

The Right of Way

CFB Wainwright

We spent last weekend in the bustling Alberta town of Wainwright, there to visit Wes for his birthday, which conveniently coincided with a leave pass weekend. Before we went we had compiled a list of "attractions" in Wainwright and the surrounding area, all of which we finished/saw/did on the first day. The biggest attraction for sure was the Trestle Bridge (literally) and the town's Buffalo statue was a close second.

It was great to see Wesley and hear his stories. He has grown up so much in just two short weeks. It was good also to see the base again, although a lot has changed since my time there - for example they now have fancy barracks to sleep in (we slept in these tiny "H Shacks" with shared showers... ah, memories).

You can see the pictures of the Wainwright trip HERE.

The Bear Necessities

Duncan's Black Bear

This past weekend Duncan and I traveled south to visit a town called Canmore. Canmore is a small mountain town, nestled in the Rockies, which is close to almost everywhere you want to go in the Banff National Park area. Duncan and I first stayed in Canmore about three years ago and since then we've been steadily drawn back time and time again. We look forward to our next trip there and sometimes even talk about moving there. It's fair to say that Canmore is very much a Duncan and Allie kind of place and we've become quite enamoured.

This past trip saw Duncan as a speaker at a conference so I had a day in Canmore largely to myself and then the rest of the time we spent together exploring the area around Canmore. The day we left to go home we drove from Canmore south along the Spray Lakes Road into Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (in Kananaskis Country). We've never been all the way along this road and I must say it's some beautiful territory. I can't wait to get the pictures online. We saw loads of wildlife, including this black bear (pictured above), who literally appeared about 2.5 minutes after Duncan said "I hope we see a bear on this trip." Soon the pictures from the trip will be viewed here.

Happy Easter Weekend!

For Easter long weekend Duncan and I went to Jasper for a mini vacation. It was the first time in a long while that the kids were gone for a weekend to visit their Dad in Calgary so we thought it was the perfect opportunity for a spring road trip!

Canada's National Parks are beautiful in all seasons and I love exploring them at every chance. April seems to be a wonderful time - everything remains frozen but it's not too cold to enjoy yourself. This year we actually have a Parks Pass so I am hoping to get in as many trips as possible to Jasper, Banff, Elk Island and perhaps even Waterton.

Here we are standing together on the frozen Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, one of the most beautiful places in the world. A passer by was kind enough to take our picture for us.

You can see more pictures from the trip HERE.

The Olympic Flame

The Olympic Flame arrives at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, Alberta on its way to the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

The State of the Nation

I have long been, perhaps more than, a fan of the Enlightened Savage. I, like many others in Alberta, enjoy his contributions to our political dialogue and find them to be always relevant, of a high calibre, honest and fair.

I've been considering all of the differing opinions in this anonymity debate going on in the blogosphere right now regarding the true identity of ES and I have decided that whether or not ES is anonymous has no bearing on my enjoyment of his postings. I wish ES continued blogging enjoyment (for my reading pleasure) and regardless of the outcome of this debate, I remain a proud member of the ES Nation.

And you too can show your continued support by purchasing and wearing Alberta's infamous SavageWear, just in time for the fall fashions.