If you've gotten to this newsletter through another part of my website, you would have seen that some of the things on the site have changed in a major way. In an effort to make the website look a bit more professional, I've removed a number of the images and links to other websites. If you miss seeing those items, or were looking for the past weather information, I apologize. I'm going to try and save those items on my computer at home, and may add them back at a later date.

As for my job, I've been working full time at Novi for the past month or so. I expect my full time hours to be cut back though, once the work that I've been doing is finished. I apologize, but I can't go into detail as to what that work is. I'm aware of a job that was advertised down town that I am interested in, and am hoping that someone else hasn't already been hired for the position. I've been having some trouble finding the place though because of their address and location. I'd been trying since last Tuesday to find the office, and was finally able to find it yesterday. I went there this morning and found that they have some strange hours for the type of business, but I'd be willing to work those and could also still help out at Novi.

I also was considering The Green Shuttle as a possible job choice, as the owner is selling for some reason or another. The Green Shuttle is one of the shuttle services that travels daily between Yarmouth and Halifax and charges $50.00 per person. I've was able to check with my insurance company about what it would cost to insure such a vehicle, as I had found the amount that the current owner of the company had given me hard to believe. I may also want to discuss this further with the current owner.

As for my volunteer activities, I'm still involved with the same groups, for the most part. Two weekends ago, the Wedgeport & District Fire Department had a firemen's breakfast at the fire hall, and ended up serving about 315 people. As for the Red Cross, I'm involved with the Emergency Response Team, and they're always looking for new members. If anyone is interested in joining that group, they meet on the first Tuesday of every month, at 6 PM at their office in the Dayton Mall. As for the Care Clowns, the clown that I sponsor hasn't been clowning for almost 2 months. He and another fellow are suppose to be clowning this coming Saturday morning, and I'll be going to the SPCA after that. It's been a while since I've had to put on a clown face, so hopefully I'll be able to remember how to put on that face. I've been asked to prepare a website for the Care Clowns, and I may post a link to that in my next newsletter once the website is completed.

As for the pets, they're still fine. Yesterday morning Tyson was acting like a fool, trying to get a ball out from under the couch. There's this cute little tortoise shell cat named Mia at the SPCA that I like, but I don't think that Tyson would take as much of a liking to her. She's very vocal and that could be annoying after a while. (She's the cat in the photo to the left.) The dog is fine too, but will soon need a bath and to have her nails clipped.

One thing that I wanted to mention was that at the SPCA, they ask for people to donate pet food, litter and other pet needs. Well some people will choose to sponsor a dog or cat, instead of donating pet food or supplies. You may be wondering what it means to sponsor an animal. Basically if someone has sponsored an animal, they have paid a portion of, or the entire adoption fee. In effect, an animal may be adoptable for only a portion of the adoption fee, or it may be free of charge. The cat photographed to the left has been fully sponsored, and is presently free of charge. A family had adopted her, but ended up bringing her back cause she wasn't a good cat for the kids to play with. The cat seemed to be happier laying around. If anyone is interested in adopting this cat, stop at the shelter and fill out an application form. If you're approved, you'll be able to bring the cat home.

Note: The sponsored cat in the picture above and to the left was advertised in the Vanguard newspaper a week after I posted this online, and she was adopted soon after. As for Mia, she was also adopted soon after this newsletter was posted online.

As for the love life, I've had a gal on plentyoffish that I've been sending e-mails back and forth to. My only complaint so far is that she says the same thing in every e-mil that she sends me. I'd been busy and hadn't had a chance to respond to the last e-mail that she'd sent me. So she'd sent me another message yesterday, saying the same things that she'd said before. If I were to become friends with that gal, I have a feeling that things could get boring very quickly. (LOL) As for my personal ad, I no longer mention my disability in my profile, and hoped that it may have caused more gals to make contact with me. I'm debating if and when I should tell this gal about it, or allow her to find out if and when we meet in person...

As for my parents, I have a number of things to mention. For starter, my mother had just returned from Cuba this past Friday. She and a bunch of other people all took a trip down south for a week and to my knowledge, they all had a good time. On their last day my mother had gone for a horseback ride on the beach and forgotten to grab her suntan lotion. She ended up burning her ears, forehead and chest. My mother knows that I collect coins, so I asked her to bring me some money from there. The photo to the right is of their paper version of one dollar, but it's called a Peso down there. In the photo is their version of a loonie, as well as a Mexican quarter and a dime. I've included a Canadian penny in the photo so that people can compare their sizes. Their dimes are larger than ours, and are more comparable to our nickels.

At some point in the past few months, my mother became sick with the flu. She was contagious and my father and I also caught the flu from her. As time went on, my father and I got better, but my mother did not. She continued to be sick each morning and ended up going to the outpatients department at the hospital to see what was causing her to be so ill. She ended up being admitted to the hospital because she was so dehydrated. Some tests were run while she was at the hospital and they found that she had the next step down from the Norwalk virus. She's still been a bit on a sick side, and may have caught C difficile from the guy that she was working with in the restaurant at the store. (She's asked me to look up the symptoms on the internet. I'll have to show her the details on the website that I've provided a link to here.)

As for good news about my mother, she's recently gotten her first brand new vehicle. She's always driven older vehicles in the past, but now has a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan. (See the photo to the left.) Her previous vehicle was a 2001 Caravan which my father had bought for her in 2003. She now has that van for sale, for $1,500.00 or best offer.

As for my father's health, to my knowledge, he's fine. He's got a doctor's appointment in Halifax at some point in May, and from what I've been told, he and mom were going to drive up there in the camper/bus and then take a trip to Ontario from there. They're going to visit friends and family living in other parts of the country. Hopefully they'll have a good time. I may have to put Tyson up at a cat kennel or something if I want to go camping while they're away. My sister should be able to take care of the dog though.

Speaking of my sister, she's doing fine. She's met a guy from somewhere in the Tusket area, possibly Surette's Island. He had the same first name as an ex, so there was some confusion when the guy went to add me as a friend on facebook. I'd had never met the guy, so I thought that her ex was adding me as a friend. I was mistaken. Anyway to my knowledge, Tracy is still working at the store.

Speaking of the store, today is April 01, 2009 and the store is closed for part of the day so that they can do inventory. The store is to open at 4 PM and the customers will then be able to come in and meet the new owners. From what I'd been told, some of the Irvings around here are being taken over by some people from Quebec. The guy who was running the Milton Irving is losing his business, so he made an offer to my father on the store in Wedgeport. The store was not officially for sale, but after considering the offer, my parent's decided to sell, and the new owner was to take things over on April 01, 2009. Why they chose April fools day, I have no idea. Once the store is sold, my parents may do some work on the store that they have in Pubnico, in an effort to sell that one as well.

I`ll end this newsletter by saying that I had commented on the idea of restarting my blogs on another website. With my job and the volunteer activities that I'm involved in, I haven't had time for the blogs. Hence the blogs that I have prepared will not be published online, and new ones will not be typed up at this time. I'll end by saying that I hope everyone has a good Spring, and hopefully they'll be some nice camping weather on its way.