Early Birds, Thursday, October 14, 2021

Brett Bain. There’s nothing quite like bringing home a new puppy. It’s a golden retriever and for now, it needs a walk outside at any hour. The other night it was 4:30 am and while puppy peed, Brett was treated to a spectacle featuring the Northern Lights. • Chip shortages are complicating the process of quoting projects.

Sean Baylis. Been enjoying Junior A hockey games in Saskatchewan - where his son plays. • Getting ready for the buying season (it is now mid October, eh). Financials looking good. And energy stocks. Mentions the 38% dividend (improvement?) at Whitecap Resources. He’s watching the Europeans as they switch to heating oil. Pent-up travellers have Billions to spend … so resorts and cruise lines and airlines et.al. have appeal. Coal has promise (though not for the Gretas). California has legislation mandating electric lawnmowers - and all power, yard work devices. (No more gas engines.) Opening yet another opportunity for your trembling investment dollar …

Paul Boucher. Wash his mouth out with lye soap! He shared a demo he voiced for a gig - in which they wanted him to be as calm and collected as George Clooney while swearing like a trooper. Client is SeedMaster and according to Paul, they are fucking awesome.• Paul spoke of CyberSecurity and his Sonic Wall firewall from Brett’s firm. They’re awesome, too. And necessary.

Matt Dart. Give the government something simple to do and they’ll complicate it … like they have for Covid testing. When Matt’s wife flew to Hawaii and back, you can double the cost, the bureaucratic nonsense and the inconvenience. 

Don Davis. Our medical system works: friend and ex-bird, Dave Read, needs a new heart valve. Diagnosed at the Rockyview, he’s remaining in his room until his Foothills operation. They’ll send him over, let the Foothills’ cutters do the deed and then bring him back to the Rocky to recover. Otherwise he’d lose his place in the queue. 

Todd Dean. Business is getting more interesting. He’s thinking of a bricks and mortar shop. As online and virtual as his business is, his employee base is expanding. They’d benefit from sharing space - and ideas and skills - in person. Besides, he needs someplace to go in his new Road Warrior chariot: an S5 fire-engine-red Audi! Zoom. Zoom. (Sorry Mazda; Audi just blew you … away.) Todd has a new client: Black Box. I might have this name wrong but did check them out a while back: good journalism still exists and can flourish with smart and discriminating subscribers.

Don Doolan. Some seasonal advice: remove your hoses from the outside taps and turn the water off. Change your furnace filter and also, the batteries in your various alarm devices. • Alice Cooper was today’s T-shirt; song was School’s Out (from 1972).

Tony Fisher. After a wellness report about some birds and their mates, he mentioned he might have a new member for the club.

*PROSPECTIVE NEW BIRD* Garry Friedrichsen. Gary is a Saskatchewan boy. Grew up in the oil town of Weyburn where his Dad was a home builder. Got a Commerce degree at U of S and worked in hi-tech until moving to Calgary with Gillette - yep, the best a man can get. (That included your choice of company-leased Volvos, Audi’s and such.) When P&G bought the razor/battery bunch, he eventually moved to the parent company. Just about everyone in Western Canada’s consumer goods biz knew him and, in the rest of Canada and Cincinnati, of him. Has two sons - 25 and 28 - and he said something very telling this morning: we can learn from these young guys’ points of view. The world is changing and though we don’t have to change, it’d be nice to understand sustainability et.al. from the POV of his sons. (I see some interesting breakfast guests in our future, guys.)

Meanwhile, his nickname for Dwayne is “Dial a CFO”. Welcome to Birds, Garry.

David Hicks. Dave reiterated: change the batteries in your alarms (and I recall his story about those push-button door locks - remember, they also have batteries!) • New electrical code changes mean we might want to call him before DIY-changing light switches to dimmers - especially for LED’s.

Dan Kennelly. A little Xmas shopping advice: do it now. Now, while there are still things on the shelf. Many containers from around the world are sitting off shore or in piles on shore. With no way of getting here in time for the 25th.

Andy Lockhart. “Become smart enough to realize how stupid you are.” You’ve heard the one about … when you’re dead you don’t know you’re dead … this also applies to stupid. • Bear this in mind if thinking of grouse hunting around Longview, where a Grizzly sow is currently fattening up her 5 cubs. • A good read is “The Perfect Police State”. How AI abuses human rights via predictive policing.

Ross Mikkelsen. It’s time for his annual ‘fireplace glass is not window glass’ lecture. Windex or vinegar and water will not work; you need a ceramic cleaner. Which you can buy at Ross’ place.• Ross also reflected on how some people are stuffing social media with fake/false videos about rights abuses by medical personnel. (Actually, his comments were more like a snarl: he’s not happy with dishonesty. At all.)

Brad Pachal. Cabinet hardware is suffering from supply chain hiccups. 

Dwayne Vinck. He’s enjoying some ‘long, slow dances’ … the kind that characterize the M&A industry. All deals are different and each has its own pace. • Meanwhile, he introduced us to Garry. 

Bob Wiggins. Email scammers need to use spellcheck. Or quit. Because Bob is not fooled. • He has the name of a good tree-cutter-downer-remover who removed his ailing spruce for $500 - all in.