Gents,

It all started with good news ( this doesn’t necessarily mean it went downhill or anything…keep reading ).

Dan Kennelly mentioned more encouraging signs in the market on the heels of similar thoughts from last week. Specifically seeing * some * action related to Trans Mountain. Dan’s company Trans Am Pipe is seeing requests for materials. Fabricators are taking up work on various projects from different manufacturers.

Dan also mentioned being hacked last week. It was completely random. If you anything looks suspicious, Dan recommended checking your Sent Items folder. He spotted emails there that he’d never sent and that’s how he knew. He contacted IT and they shut his machine down.

Tips from Paul : if you think your machine is compromised, disconnect it from the network by unplugging your Ethernet connection or turning off wi-fi. Then get your machine checked. Another tip: use a strong password and a different one for every account . If you can’t remember your last name on a good day, then use a password manager. There’s an article listing a bunch of the best options including my favourite, 1Password (It’s Canadian!). Interesting tidbit about 1Password:

You can read the whole article on the best of the Password Manager apps here on CNET.

Gerry Parcells – despite the dog wondering why the hell he was getting up – mentioned that Direct Energy had sent a friend a bill for ending a contract and switching to ATCO. He wondered if that sort of “termination” billing was legal. Dwayne , Don Doolan , and a few others sounded off and mentioned that in some instances they’d heard of friends who’ve successfully talked the new supplier into paying any “end of contract” fees. Gerry was going to take that information back to his friend.

Jim Bladon mentioned the SNC deal. The comment was that they didn’t anything wrong according to Quebec “law”. “Law” in Quebec is just the last part of the side dish you get at one of Montreal’s fine delis: coles law.

Jim’s other “gooder” was a Trump quote that it was going to be tougher to climb his new wall than to climb Everest. He actually said that. You can hear that and some other pearls of Trump-speak by clicking on the video below. The Everest comment comes at about the 40-second mark. I apologize in advance for the 50 or so seconds of your life that you’re never getting back if you click on the link. Interesting note as an ex-media person: all the journalists are taping him on their phones. Nary a TV camera in sight.

In Jim’s final contribution this week, he noted the TSN Skins curling event in Banff. Brilliantly put on, well attended. There was a $100,000 prize for both the men and women in an 8 end tournament on one sheet of ice. A lot of fun!

Mel Gibson continued the sports theme when he noted that he was heading for the Canada Winer Games that took place this past weekend. Events were scattered elsewhere in the province including Repsol Centre here in Calgary.  *Side note – I was proud to be the voice in both English and French of the TV commercial promoting the games on TSN. 

Mel’s  14-year-old granddaughter was heading to Las Vegas with her volleyball team.

JD MacDonald re-learned the truth behind this John Wagner quote:

The cold this past week meant a lot of broken pipes keeping his crew busy and he said he was just too old to be crawling under trailers to fix ’em. He also talked again about outdoor faucets. Disconnect hoses, Make sure the water to them is shut off.

Another outdoor household maintenance tip from JD : improperly installed high-efficiency furnace vents sometimes freeze over causing shutdowns. Don Doolan chimed in and mentioned that those vents come with a window screen type mesh filter attached at the end. The condensation freezes on the mesh, essentially blocking them, so some installers he knew just ripped those things out on install rather than cause a near-certain blockage in cold weather down the line.

Don picked up after JD to also add that Cirque de Soleil is coming back to Calgary and with a new show. It’s called Luzia. You can see a trailer for it below. Ticket information can be had by following the link below that.

The show will be at Stampede Park. Ticket Information here.

Ross Mikkelsen picked up on the school trip thing and mentioned that a friend’s daughter was headed to Vietnam on a school trip. He wiled away a few minutes remembering a favourite school trip of his which was almost as exciting: a visit to the Hutterite colony.

Mike Mikkelson noted that a recent change in regulation allows minors into the lounges of restaurants now. Specifically the lounge at The Keg in this instance. The addition of screaming kids to the lounge – likely the victims of helicopter parenting every.other.minute.of.their.young.lives – pretty much ruined a conversation he was having with a client. He hopes that change is reversed soon – if not by law – by restaurants wanting to hang onto customers who went to the lounge to get AWAY from kids on the other side.

Mike also mentioned the interesting story of a few stores removing their self-checkout machines. It was largely due to maintenance costs, but some of the stores have received some very positive feedback, particularly from customers with a demographic that favours dealing with people rather than a machine. Here’s the story with Canadian Tire doing it at a few locations:  https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-tire-self-checkout-cashiers-automation-1.5011981.

Don’t get too excited though; the larger trend toward automation in retail is growing by 10% a year or more according to this story:  https://risnews.com/kroger-albertsons-eliminate-self-checkouts.

and more.

They’re including concrete and steel and more traditional building materials.

Jim chimed in to mention that that sort of construction is also big in the Cannabis industry.

Brad Pachal was next with a bit of a “tangled web” story. As part of the routine to volunteer at your kids’ school these days, you need to go through a police check. Brad had to go the extra step of being fingerprinted due to some “identity confusion”. It could have been a bad guy with the same name or same birthday, but the fingerprinting was necessary to separate “ good ” Brad from “ bad ” Brad. As Brad said, it makes you want to simply opt out of volunteering.

That story prompted JD to recount the story of his niece Jennifer Ann MacDonald. She needed to get her Nexus card in the US but then needed to go to Fredericton to certify that she was Canadian. All again, due to someone else “in the system” who matched up on more than one basis from an identity perspective, and not in a good way.

Don Doolan shook his head at the trials he’s seen people go through once they’re “in the system”. Definitely worthwhile to keep out of it as much as possible, and to correct any problem as quickly as possible.

However, close to a year later, and…..not even a slap on the wrist:  https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2018/09/02/ontario-still-has-not-pursued-punishment-against-costco-after-its-pharmacy-directors-admitted-to-illegal-payment-scheme.html

Wonder if there’s ex-SNC or Bombardier people on their management teams.

An unrelated matter got more from Tony . Paul Boucher asked him if SML was in any way involved with Cineplex’ Rec Room properties, and Tony indicated their involvement was minimal. After hearing the suggestion that they might be good rooms for corporate events, Tony talked about how expensive they were. Cineplex has overbuilt these things, spending $34,000,000 on the Rec Room in South Edmonton.

Even in Calgary, the space is enormous: 45,000 square feet. You can get a feel for it here:  https://www.therecroom.com/calgary-deerfoot/info.

Gord Forsyth reminded us again of our guest speaker on March 14th, Geoff Dakin, a Calgarian who’s written a book called “The Body Mechanic’s Handbook: Why You Have Low BackPain and How To Eliminate It At Home”. George Roberts is bringing Geoff in. Goerge also edited the book – and the book is absolutely better for it. You can see the cover and read a bit more about it here at Amazon.ca. Please plan to attend and bring a guest!

Gord also mentioned that Rotary friends are looking for prizes for an event on March 16th. A fun night is planned: bingo, green beer and in bed by 11 o’clock. He acknowledged and thanked a couple of Birds who’d already donated prizes to the cause. Reach out to Gord if you can help – and feel free to spread the word to others that could.

The story is here:  https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/nrg/ntgrtd/mrkt/nrgsstmprfls/ab-eng.html.

Reader’s Digest version:

Have a good week gentlement!