These Are Going to be Great!

(Watkins Independent Associate ID#369469)



















New this month...

Watkins Coconut Milk & Honey Hand and Body Lotion. AND...

Sugar & Shea Body Scrub. To top it off if you buy the Body Scrub you get the Body Lotion at half price!

How many can I order for you?

I try to shop locally but...

I’ve noticed this before but never understood the differences beween Amazon.com and Amazon.ca pricing.

I’m in the middle of a course right now and having a paper copy of the Napoleon Hill book “Law of Success” would be a big help. I’ve got the online version and the audio downloads, but I just find that I absorb a lot more from the solid "hold in your hand copy" than by reading pixels on a screen.

This is a good example of what I’m talking about…



See what I mean? The US new copy is $24.95 and the used is $12.04 while the Canadian copy is $79.88 for new and $67.79 for used. I’m all for supporting our great Canadian market but why should I be penalized over $50.00 for doing so?

I'm Waiting for Bullwinkle to Show Up....

We’ve had a new visitor lately, a Flying Squirrel that of course I’ve named Rocky. (You’re old enough to remember why, right?) He (or she) appears just about every night between 9:45 and 10:00 and only stays long enough to fill his cheek pouches with sunflower seeds just once and then disappears until the following night.

I haven’t seen one of these things in years and it’s quite a novelty to me. It has the complete opposite attitude to the daytime red squirrels that used to drive me crazy before they learned to stay away or else. Those characters would just keep hauling seed until it was all gone and were always nervous for some reason… heh, heh, heh. This little fellow will watch us, looking in through the windows while we watch him looking out through the windows. If I open the door to the deck he takes off fast enough but as long as we study him quietly he appears to be doing the same to us.

I hope he hangs around a while as he fits in quite nicely with the neighborhood. He's quiet, not greedy, minds his own business and is just a good friend so far. I hope it stays that way.

I Never Kid About Money...

“It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses… hit it.”I once worked up an entire presentation on proper planning for the Lions Clubs based on this quote from The Blues Brothers. Their methods were a little out of the ordinary but who wants to be bored and stick to the same old routine anyway.

You see, this is the time of year when I traditionally set out some goals for the period to come. I have to admit that I didn’t hit my 2010 targets but I guess I can’t complain too much… for a change. We helped some people make some extra money and made a couple dollars ourselves and that’s generally a good thing on the old balance sheet right? I had planned on moving up a rung on the ladder in my business but instead actually took a couple steps back. This was a bit of a surprise but still an accepted reality and there are no regrets because I know that this is one of the best businesses in the world to be in and just keeps on getting better all the time.

I worked for the same company for thirty-five years and have no regrets about that either but the reality is that if I’d started doing then what I’m doing now I could easily have retired in 1978 instead 2008. These days I set my own hours, determine my own salary, take vacations when I want, stay home all day if I want and at the same time I get to help other people move ahead in their lives.

So… what do we set down for 2011? I’m trying out a couple new advertising avenues that are really working out well. They are much cheaper and I’m getting just as many prospects coming into the chain as through the more expensive methods. I’ll be scheduling more time and effort to help others advance and will be concentrating less on my own bottom line and more on theirs. Their victory will also be mine and can you say WIN-WIN?

Anyway, regardless of who you are or what you are doing if you haven’t got some definite goals written down and preferably stuck up on the wall somewhere to be seen every day well… you just have yourself a nice routine year.

As for me… I’m moving ahead. See ‘ya there!

I thought I'd gotten away from this...

Just sitting around the market waiting for customers and trying to stay cool. With all the rain a couple nights ago there is still lots of mud outside it's very muggy.

We're going seven days a week now and I'm not too sure what my schedule is going to be. I jumped at early retirement to get away from those hours and I don't really want to go back to them in my old age. Maybe a four day week of Thursday to Sunday would be OK... we'll see how it all works out.

First Glitch...

My preferred location of blog writing seems to be the end chair of the waiting room of Manitoulin Chrysler. That probably explains my lack of entries over the last few months since I traded in the Liberty, I just don't get over here much anymore. Not that the Jeep gave me any serious problems but it was always an oil change or tires or tie rod end or some other sundry thing.

I'm here today because I've just had my first problem with the Journey. When I got home from the market last night it refused to stay locked. No matter what I did after three or four seconds up the locks would pop again on all doors and of course the flashers would flash and the headlights would come on.

Pulling the door lock fuse didn't make any difference so I ended up disconnecting the battery for the night and now I'm at the shop while they try to figure out what the problem is.


My theory is that the key fob is putting out a constant "unlock door" signal but we'll wait on the official word and I'll keep you posted.

I Wish I Had Time To Read...

It seems the only time I read anymore is while I'm at the garage with one vehicle or the other, although this will change with the replacement of the Jeep. (blog entry and photo to follow soon) There I sit waiting patiently for the mechanic of the day to finish up so I can be on my way again a few dollars poorer.

It's not like I have full time work keeping me away from the books either. I "retired" quite some time ago but still can't settle into what I imagined retirement life would be like.

Am I not supposed to be sitting in the sun with a novel in my lap, sipping Planter's Punch while investigating how many hours I can make a good Cuban cigar last?

Instead I find myself up and making the morning coffee anywhere from 6:00 to 7:00, checking emails over the first cup, updating my websites and Facebook farms. I learned quickly that there are so many games... sorry, I mean "educational tools" on Facebook that you can easily fill up a 30 hour day just keeping up with only a few of them. Now I try to restrict myself to a couple farms and a restaurant that is probably going to get dropped any day now.

Somewhere in between crop rotations I squeeze in at least a couple hours for my Summit Group home business. This latter is something I really enjoy as I get to help people become financially independent and I wish someone had told me about it years ago.

If you enjoy working for someone else keep on... if you want to set your own hours, determine your own salary and have the time and freedom to do the things you really want to do then head over to my web site and we'll get you started. See you there!

Help me out here…

The original estimated cost of the 2010 games as forecast in 2004 was $1.354 billion. Actual costs are now estimated to be $6 billion with $580 million coming directly from taxpayers. Just for the fun of it I checked, and the number of Canadian taxpayers appears to be in the range of 22 million people who are of working age. This means that a whole $26.36 of my tax dollars went to pay for approximately 2,262 people to play games… competing for 86 gold medals in 15 categories.

(Actually $26.36 is a lot lower than I thought it would be and I guess I don’t mind making that token donation, but it would have been nice to have been asked first. I might have even donated more if I could get a receipt to claim at least a portion on my taxes. I can also think of many places I’d prefer my tax dollars to go like clean water or decent housing for a lot of the northern communities, or how about a cure for potholes! Why, a single tie-rod repair on my Jeep is about to cost me $360 so I’d be more than happy to donate to road repair if I knew it would save me more than that over a period of time. But I digress…)

So using the figures above the cost is about $400 million per category, or $2.65 million per athlete or about $428.5 million per gold medal won by Canada. These are just the costs to Canada… I wonder what the world wide cost comes to.

Alright, so maybe the Olympics make sense as a business proposition but I don’t see any other use for them, and it only benefits a very small location within the country. I wonder though, since the total revenue flowing into the Vancouver area is expected to come to around $10 billion… can I apply to them for my $26.36 refund?

In no particular order…

First fish
First bike
First lie
First death
First par
First strikeout
First strikeout
First loss
First solo
First win
First flight
First job
First alone
First responsibility
First kill
First award
First regret
First realization
First truth
First kiss
First base
First strikeout
First song
First love
First child
First car
First home
First business
First epiphany

Each one a chapter for the book, and so very many more to come… which will tomorrow bring, and what are yours?

Security Seeker or Fossil?

I was thinking today that it’s a little bit strange that I’ve worked for several of the oldest companies in the country.

I started in August of 1973 with the Hudson’s Bay Company which was chartered on May 2, 1670 making them 340 years old right now. The division of stores that I worked in was sold to a group of individuals and run under a couple different names until they finally rejuvenated The North West Company, which dates back to 1779 so they are 231 years old. TNWC was actually giving HBC a serious run for their money back in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s because of a quicker transportation system and a head office that wasn’t located on the other side of the Atlantic and the two companies amalgamated in 1821 under the HBC name.

Before becoming an apprentice clerk with the Handsome Boy’s Club…. sorry, the Hudson’s Bay Company, I worked several summers in the pro shop of The Old Lennoxville Golf & Country Club which was founded in 1897 so is now 113 years old. By the way, this was and still is my favorite golf course in the country for a few reasons, most of which will have to wait for the book if I ever get up enough nerve to put it together. (Oops) I also worked part time for Canadian Pacific Express and as you know the good old CPR goes back almost as long as Canada does.

In my retirement years I’ve now become an Independent Associate with the Watkins Corporation dating back to 1868 which makes them 142 years young. Does devoting most of my life to these 826 years of combined retail history (plus the 129 years of CPR transportation) mean that I’m a security seeker? Or does it just show that I hate change or maybe have a fear of anything new?

Probably the latter as I refuse run out to buy the latest gadget as soon as it hits the market. I don't have a plasma or HDTV. I still have an Intellivision, Atari and even a Pong in the basement. My Palm Pilot was out of date several years ago. I drive a 2004 Jeep that I bought at least second hand. I still prefer books on paper to a Kindle. I smoked hand rolled cigarettes when I used to have time to smoke. My laptop is ancient by computer standards with the finish starting to get worn off, two of the keys missing and a couple more that stick half the time. I’ve only had a cell phone for about a year and that’s all it is… a phone, no fancy built in camera or web surfer or music or anything else. I needed a phone, not mindless entertainment.

I don’t even have an IPod as I see no use for them. I turn on the radio in the Jeep, but only for the news and information programs and I turn it off when music comes on… except for CBC Radio Two Jazz sometimes when I’m driving in the evenings. If I’m walking in the woods I want to hear the sounds of the outdoors, not canned music. If I’m walking down the street I want to hear the traffic and world coming at me, not that soulless hip-hop or crap music… oh well.

You can call me a fossil I guess… but they say in order to see the future you have to know the past which means I do serve a purpose so there, here’s to me!

The Grand Tour...

How do house wives do it? (Or is the term “house wife” still acceptable or even exist?) I’m slowly (quickly) going nuts around the house in my retirement years. I’ve got the Summit Group business and the Watkins business and the web page business and lots of little (neglected) chores that I get to very slowly but the routine of sweeping, dusting, cleaning and all the other little things are getting very monotonous. I’m glad we live where we do because if I was stuck in some little city apartment like this it would be very hard to handle. As it is here I can go sit on the deck and watch the wildlife or tour the largest fresh water island in the world. One of my goals is to eventually hit every little back road on the island and I add a few new ones whenever I can. Let me know when you want the grand tour. Hmmm….. maybe start a little tour business next summer?


Yes, a tour guide… pick-up at the various camps and lodges, or the ferry… do a morning tour and stop at one of the many local restaurants for lunch with a leisurely drive back to the places of origin late in the afternoon with pauses at various gift shops and sight-seeing spots? What do you think?

Late Night Ramblings...

It’s fun being me… is it fun being you? (Denny Crane – Boston Legal)

She makes my friend smile… that’s all that’s important. (Alan Shore – Boston Legal)

Sometimes you’ve got to do something bad… just to prove you’re alive. (Chris Stevens – Northern Exposure)

Time you enjoyed wasting, is not time wasted. (T.S. Eliot)

Midway this way of life we're bound upon I woke to find myself in a dark wood where the right road was wholly lost and gone. (Dante)

Had an epiphany the other day, what a rush… and relief. It’s nice to realize a truth. Have to put it in the book someday. Hmmm…. maybe not.

If the men on Biggest Loser have to take off their shirts for their weigh-in how come the women don’t ?

How many chickadees would I have to eat to offset the cost of the sunflower seeds I’ve been feeding them?

I defy anyone to drive under the speed limit while listening to Tom Cochrane playing “Life is a Highway” on the radio. How about Lighthouse and “One Fine Morning” or just about any Tiesto arrangement bouncing off the insides of your windows.

How can anyone who lived through the 60’s not like Jim Morrison? And didn’t the 60’s only last like 5 or 6 years anyway? At least, that seems to be about all I can remember of them... All hail Janis and Jimmy!

What idiot made the Blue Jay a protected bird?

Lord, what fools these mortals be… (Puck)

Another Old Timer Gone…

We lost a curling pin trading buddy this week. Lorne lived in the Ottawa area and used to travel to all the major bonspiels across the country. We knew him well from the Briers and I don’t know how many lapel pins he had altogether but he traveled with about 10,000 of them and set up his display with the permission and gratitude of the event committees. They knew that spectators would remember all the sparkles and rarities that Lorne would have on show and be the topic of many a conversation. He was also great publicity for whatever was going on and I can’t think of any time where he didn’t make the local newspaper with an article and photo of his displays as all the reporters knew what a treasure they had right there in front of them.

It didn’t matter what club or event you asked him about… he always knew exactly what the pin looked like and any variations that it may have. If you walked up with one of your own club pins, even a brand new one he would take a glance at it and say “Sure, I’ve got one of those” and walk you right over to the exact spot on his boards where it was displayed. I don’t know if anyone ever showed him a pin he didn’t already know about but I know I could never beat him, and I would have felt bad if I had.

Lorne, we’ll miss ‘ya buddy... and send me a pin from your new club, would you?

I admire you…

…who can blog each day. Oh I could easily write regularly but I think it would just be rambling, most of it negative (I call it reality) and I’m sure you don’t want to hear about it. However… since it’s been so long since I’ve posted you’ll just have to take what you get this time.

Have you ever noticed that you’ll find some of the worst car parkers in downtown Manitowaning? I’ve driven in places that have some crazy drivers…Toronto (get out of my way, I’m special), Montreal (Red lights? Hah! Pedestrians? Hah! Laws? Hah!), Saskatoon (very narrow streets with most of the signs hidden), Sudbury (What speed limit?), Sherbrooke (Montreal is just a bunch of pussies!). Anyway, parking… I’ve noticed it many times and just the other day four out of five cars at the Post Office were parked illegally… two facing the wrong way, one in the handicapped zone, one beside the fire hydrant with its butt sticking out into the side street. In front of the grocery store? Two out of four illegal… one beside the fire hydrant and one on the sidewalk. Ahh… what do I know.

Oh, and just to mention Sudbury again… I’ve decided never to go there again if I don’t really have to unless I can be absolutely certain that the painted lady from Canada’s Worst Driver has moved far, far away.

Everyone has been screaming about some adopted Canadian citizen who is sitting in a foreign jail. What’s the problem? If someone from the other side of the world committed a crime here would we not expect them to be subject to our laws? What’s the difference?

Now on a positive note… the sky is clear, no snow to shovel for several days now and Gloria made a big batch of butter tarts today… life is good.

Ain't that pretty?

Feel free to add your comments to this, one of the finer things in life.

I wasn't quick enough...

So I'm sitting here checking my emails and doing a little surfing and just happened to glance out the window. This is basically what I saw circling up the lake shore...


Unfortunately this isn't my photo as I wasn't quick enough to get out the door with my camera so I thank the photographer and you can find the original photo posted HERE under "Creative Commons" license at Flickr. Good thing the neighbors cats were under cover as one of them would have made a nice lunch for this fellow.

I haven't been pulled over in weeks...

And no, I don't mean for speeding (who, me?) or any other moving violation. Could it be that my Jeep is almost identical to some "vehicle of interest" to the local constabulary?

Since the day I got it last summer I have been regularly followed by both cruisers and unmarked cars, sometimes for miles. Now tell me... if you are driving the speed limit and a police car comes up behind you how long does he stay there? As soon as you hit the first straight stretch he's gone around you right? These guys would ride my back for the longest time and you could almost hear then calling in the plate number to check me out. By the way, this never happened with my previous vehicle so I can only assume they are not looking for me personally. :-)

The other day I saw this cruiser with a motorcycle pulled over beside the road and the officer is just getting back into his vehicle. I slowed way down and moved over into the other lane as is required and the officer waved me by. A couple miles farther down the road I see him coming up behind me and yup, the lights come on. Law abiding citizen that I am I immediately put on my blinker and moved to the side of the road. The nice officer comes up to my window and says "Oh, just wondered who was driving because we couldn't see through the tinted windows." It seems to me that if they were looking for someone else then running the plate would tell them it's my Jeep and not some other persons. There could also be other differences like no cover on my spare tire and there is on his?

Anyway, it's nice to see that the local force is out there doing it's job and I'm sure I'll see them again and that we'll still be on friendly terms. Yes sir, I'd be happy to buy two tickets to the policeman's ball and thank you very much!

PS: The person in town who has the almost identical vehicle to me was nice enough to say "Thank You" later on. Anytime buddy!

I've got to sell a lot of pepper...

It's been an expensive couple weeks. First there was putting the winter tires on the van for $72.00 Then the same for one of the SX2. Now I just put four new winter ones on the Jeep to the tune of $901.49 taxes, installation, balancing and the government imposed stewardship fee. At least I saved the $3.00 per tire disposal fee as I took them to our local tire dump instead for free. I could have gotten a better deal a week or two earlier but of course I left it just a couple days too long and the less expensive models were sold out.

Anyway, I’m sure it will be worth it as the summer tires that were on the Liberty when I bought it were getting pretty bald and lately I’ve been all over the place on the gravel road to the house. This new “Arctic Claw” rubber just refuses to spin or slide at all and they will for sure save me from a ditch or two or three that I would be in this winter without them.

No snow yet but most of the leaves are on the ground around the house and the bird population has changed. The Chickadees are staring in the window full time if I haven’t put the seed out yet. The Snowbirds are circling, a couple Sparrows I haven’t seen since last spring are back along with the Purple Finches, Juncos and a Cardinal spent the day today munching on the sunflower seed I put on the table out on the deck. Even "Woody" stopped by to see what I was offering!

Haven’t seen my families of Geese or Loons for a few weeks now… come to think of it I haven’t seen the Geese since hunting season. I miss my hunting days when I used to disappear after work or for entire weekends into the bush. Sometimes I’d hunt with the rifle or shotgun and sometimes just with the camera. I don’t even have a license anymore and it’s probably not worth the trouble of getting one again. A good “sakabaun” would be really great right now though and I can just see the fat dripping off the bird twirling on a string over the campfire. That’s it…. I’m hungry, guess I’ll settle for a peanut butter sandwich for now… sigh.

Time to let go you think?

I’ve now been retired for 1 year and 25 days and I still track the company aircraft on a daily basis, still keep in touch with former workmates, still say “we” when talking with pride about the people and stores… and still in my heart know that for a brief time (35 years, 10 days) I was a small part of this country’s history. I was an apprentice, a fur trader, carving buyer, manager, leader and a trainer of others in the oldest company in the country (dating back to May 2, 1670 to be exact)… and it’s still very hard to let go and move on.

Maybe it’s time I take down and burn that map that hangs above my desk serving as a reminder of it all… that map that I gaze at for a few minutes each day re-tracing the lines… remembering the sights and stories of each one of those communities…

Yes, I gave up many things when I headed north… but look at what I gained in return. From Mistassini and Chibougamau to Pangnirtung, Igloolik, Baker Lake, Old Crow, Yellowknife and dozens of others I’ve seen all three of Canada’s coasts many times, met thousands of people and learned a few words of Cree, Inuktitut, Dene and Odawa. I’m truly one lucky guy for having the life I’ve had and even with the occasional uncertainty, hassles and all that freight to move…I wouldn’t have traded one minute of it. Guess maybe it’s time to sit on the deck and get that book started…

Could it be a plot?

I don’t know about you but ever since grocery stores stopped giving out free bags at the checkout I’m shopping more often. I certainly don’t mind bringing my own bags and I admit that I always felt a little bit guilty about all the plastic I used and discarded before, but I can’t help but wonder if there is a hidden and secondary agenda to this growing practice.

Before now I would go to the store and fill up a cart with what we needed plus a couple of the special bargains and deals on display. We’d sail through the checkout and come out the other end with 10 or more bags and flimsy or not, they would still have a landfill, roadside or lakeside life of a thousand years or so. Now I go shopping with an idea of what I need to take us through the next couple days, trying to be careful to not pickup more than will fit into whatever cloth bags I have with me at the time. Of course I still check out and pick up a few of the extra sale items that we don’t necessarily need but are just priced too good to overlook.

There lies my suspicion… Before this I was only getting one or two sale items at a visit maybe once a week. Now that I am shopping every couple days I’m still picking up one or two sale items but you’ll note that it’s now maybe three times a week. So you’ll calculate that the two or three items we didn’t really need before have now become six or seven. It makes me wonder that since the stores know that we’re now shopping more frequently have they decided to take advantage of our thriftiness to tease us with all these extra sale items on display. It’s a plot, I tell you!

Seriously now… I don’t mind taking my own bags and I happy to not contribute to the landfills unnecessary plastic that will stay there just about forever. I also don’t truly think that the stores are in a conspiracy to push items on us that we don’t really need… or are they? 

PS: Ever start into the store and realize that you left your bags at home? Do the store managers giggle when they see shoppers enter without an armload of empty bags because they know we'll then have to add to their bottom line by purchasing even more? I wonder…