As for work, I'm currently looking for a new full time job. I have a part time job in town, but the hours are not to my liking due to the amount of hours worked each week, and also the time that those hours are worked (in the evenings). My apologies, but I am not posting the name of the business that I am working those part time hours for. If anyone has work available, and is wondering if I can do the type of work that you have available, you can view a list of the type of work I've done online by clicking here. I have a possible job available in town, and will be checking into that come January.

As for the municipal elections, I had mentioned in my previous newsletter that I was running in the election for the councillor's position in district 3 of the Argyle Municipality. Well, to sum things up, the results of the election were no where near what I had hoped they would be. The current past councillor was running in the election (again), as was another guy, a woman and I. I had hoped that either I or the other guy would be first place, and the other one of us would have come in second place. Based on what some of the other residents were saying to me, I had hoped that the past councillor would have come in third place. Based on what some of the people were saying about the woman that was running, I assumed that she would have come in last place. The past councillor was re-elected as councillor. In second place, was the woman that I had expected to see in last place. The other fellow came in third place, and I came in last place with slightly more than 1% of the residents voting for me. I was not at all impressed with that, and was in a depressed mood for sometime after that.

As for my volunteer activities, I'm still involved with the same organizations. Back in November, the Wedgeport & District Fire Department had an election of officers to elect a new chief as the current chief is done at the end of the month, due to a new job in the next county. I'm still involved with the Argyle Municipal Fire Fighters' Association, and they also had their election of officers back in November. I was once again elected as the secretary for that association, and have been their secretary since January of 1998. I've returned to the SPCA and have been going there every Saturday afternoon for the past month or more.

As for the Red Cross Emergency Response Team, I've been unable to attend their meetings due to a conflict with another activity. There was a weekend about a month or so ago where I was asked to take the group's pager for the weekend, as most of the other members were busy or would be away from the area. Due to the training that I have, I was not worried about having the pager on me for that weekend, and have volunteered to take it again if needed. As for the Care Clowns, I'm still volunteering with those folks. They usually have their meetings on the first Tuesday of the month, as does the Red Cross group, (and EMO Argyle) and that's why I've been unable to attend their meetings. The Red Cross folks discuss things going on, but the Clown folks actually discuss scheduling and who is able to volunteer on which days, so in my opinion those meetings are a little more important. On Thursday, December 18, a bunch of the clowns went to the hospital and sang Christmas carols during an event that was held to help get donations for the Yarmouth Food Bank. (See the photo to the right.) Details and photos from that can be found online at NovaNewsNow.com.

At present, the clown that I sponsor has an orange outfit that he wears, and people have commented that it looks like a Halloween costume. The hat is from a Halloween costume, but the remainder of the costume is not. I'd assume that it's the bright orange colors that are making people think that it's a Halloween costume. My mother had bough some purple pants and also a purple hat for my clown to wear, but due to the looseness of the pants, and the lack of loops for a belt, I was hesitant in having my clown wear those. Hoppy (which is the name of the clown that I sponsor) is suppose to volunteer at the hospital on the night of December 30, and if the pants aren't to loose, he may be wearing them on that night along with the silly hat that I have. I have a sort of maroon colored shirt that will go with the pants, and I recently purchased a dress jacket to go with it. The one thing that I'm missing though is hair. I need a wig of some sort for the clown to wear under his hat, as the person wants his real hair to be covered or hidden. The clown that I sponsor has also had a lot of people calling him by his real name. (If people don't recognize the face, they recognize the walk/limp, and then recognize the face.) I've got to get a name tag of some sort made with Hoppy's name on it.

As for the pets, they're fine. One weekend a few weeks ago, Tyson got into a fight with someone or something and he came in with the right side of his head soaked in blood. I cleaned him up and brought him to the the vet a few days later. They cleaned up a small cut on the top of his head. They then shaved the right side of his head and cleaned that up. Another injury was found on his right shoulder and that was also cleaned and shaved. It looked funny to see, but was easier to keep clean without all of that fur on the way. (See the photo to the left.) Over the past few days, he's scratched the spot on the right side of his head and reopened that wound. I've been squirting a 50/50 mixture of water and peroxide into that area and he strangely doesn't seem to mind it. He just sits there and lets me do it.

As for the dog, she seems to be getting senile in her old age. I can no longer pick her up without her barking or trying to bit me. That is one of the reasons why I like cats better. Their bites aren't as harmful as dog's, and they aren't as noisy and annoying to me. The cat never woke me up when I was working the night shift at the call center and sleeping in the daytime. The dog would bark and wake me up whenever someone turned into the driveway.

As for the love life, I'm still not in any rush to get into a relationship with someone else. My mood hasn't been the best lately, and I want to better that before I try and get into a relationship with someone else. As for that gal that had shown an interest in me through PlentyOfFish.com, nothing came of that. I had sent her an e-mail advising about the disability, and also that I'm not interested in dating a smoker, and she did not respond to that.

Speaking of past relationships, I had the most recent guy that was seeing an ex send me an e-mail assuming that I wanted to get back together with the gal, and telling me not to send her anymore e-mail. (I had received that after I had sent her an e-mail about an activity that she and the new guy might have had fun participating in. I had no plans of being there at the same time as those two, if they had gone to the activity). I had no desire to see the gal again, and I've discovered the reason why I have kept my head shaved into the fall and winter. That gal that I was dating told me that I looked better with hair. I know it may sound crazy but phsycologically, I'm may not want to look the way that she prefered.

As for my mother and father's health, (as far as I know) they are still doing fine. My mother had some major renovations done to the inside of the house, and the wall between their bedroom and my old bedroom was removed. Their bedroom is now double the size that it was before. The hall in the closet and the hall in my old bedroom are now part of the bathroom, and that is also a larger room now.

As far as I know, everything is still all right with my sister. She's been working at the store, and I'm not sure what else she's been up to in her free time. She'd been seeing a guy from out of province, that didn't end up working out. She has started seeing someone that she had dated before.

I'm not sure what else to say in this newsletter. I was considering starting my blogs fresh, as if I hadn't done any before come January. I was going to post those under my other website, but some people may not agree with my views on certain things. They could probably find my real name on there somehow over the internet. I may make up a name and post the blogs under that other name.

As for this website, I haven't been able to add the weather details mid-week, cause I was busy with work and other things. Once I have time to change it, I'm going to set the weather details so that it's updated every weekend, instead of on the 15th of each month, and the first day of each season.

As for VERY recent events, most of you are probably aware of the wind storm that came through Nova Scotia on the night of December 21, 2008. Yarmouth County was supposedly hit the hardest by the wind, and a number of trees were knocked down throughout the county. At home, the power went out at around 4 AM on December 22, and came back on around 4:15 PM on December 24, 2008. Around 4:30 PM the rappie pie that my mother had made was placed in the oven, and was expected to be ready by 10:30 PM. A number of relatives had been invited over to help us eat it. As for the power outage, see the photo to the right and you'll see the trees and pole leaning on the wires just as you turned into the Chebeck Road.

Anyway, I'm going to end this newsletter.. Here's wishing you a Happy New Year, and I'll see you next year.