Speaking of hockey this is a story that must be told before I get involved with anything else. Bryn, Brett and I are all playing hockey on Bantams, Atom and Old Timers respectively. We all have not played in the past few years. Bryn’s first game of the season he scored two goals. He is doing fine. Brett first foray on the ice sees him fall on his face. He’s awful. I am in the stands looking at my kid who is the worst player on the team that is the worst team in town. The play is at one end of the ice and Brett is at the other. He looks like a commercial for the movie Lost In Space. The team is also being killed every game 15-0, 17-1. Brett keeps telling his coach after every game or practice "Coach put me in goal we’ll win". The Coach keeps telling him that when his skating and skills improve he will be given a shot as goalie. Finally after a month of totally devastating losses the Coach finally succumbs and puts Brett into net. Brett’s debut in goal was a stunning performance making 20 saves. The player that was in goal turned out to be a particularly good forward and the team won 8-3. The next game they play one of the better teams in the league and the score is a 3-3 tie. Brett is on a streak. The third game Brett comes out with a stellar performance making over 30 saves. Finally with only three minutes to go the other team finally breaks the wall and Brett looses a shut out but their team easily cruises to victory. He is on a streak and Daddy can now show his face in the stands.

If you want to e-mail me; winkelmansj@shaw.ca We also have a web page at;

We took possession of the house in June and fortunately, we had a few weeks before we turned over our old place to get things up to standard. The place was a disaster, which we had known from previous inspection. I found it difficult to understand how a homeowner who’s home was their dream home to allow it to get into such a state. After considerable effort, elbow grease and a ton of cash later, we basically have a brand new 2700 sq ft home with the carpeting and decorating we wanted.

I volunteered to have the kids stay over for a few weeks so we had three teenagers and three near teenagers at our place. Needless to say the ration consumption went way up. I had to make the grocery store stop a daily routine on my way home from work. The boys were good however. I had them organized into three teams and gave each team about 2-3 hours of work to do each day. This worked well as many of the little things that would have taken me time to do was completed. The system was set up so they looked after themselves. The teams had their strengths and weaknesses. The Cory – Brett team for example we quickly discovered was not well adapted for the cooking task. Cory the older one was supposed team leader. Brett tried, but Cory was totally lost in the kitchen to the extent that he was a burden to Brett. Cory however, more than made up for his lack of culinary skills at other tasks.

At the end of July we got together at Timothy Lake with my parents. In case you are wondering where Timothy Lake is it is around the 100 mile house region of the interior of BC. Bryn and I were able to get some diving in and more importantly, I passed off the horde to my sister Dadye. This meant that Cathy and I had almost the entire month of August alone in our new house.

 My current position with the military is unique. Whether it is training or an operation I am the first one in to start setting up the logistics so once the unit gets there they can get on with their job as quickly as possible without worrying how they will look after themselves. I arrived in Salmon Arm where BC forestry officials met me and they told me I was to go to Lilloet. Back in the helicopter I go. I got to Lilloet and put in two very long days setting things up. The Infanrty Unit had arrived and were now on the fire line doing their thing. I was pretty much exhausted and had just gone to bed when I got the phone call at about 0100 hrs. I was to go back to Salmon Arm to set up for another unit that was being sent there. Fortunately I did not have to leave until early in the morning or a couple hours later however you want to look at it. In Salmon Arm I again got things set up. The fire in Salmon Arm was quite interesting and of course devastating to those who were affected. A strong wind had come up and the fire jumped a 3km-valley gap and burned up the other slope of the mountain. There were a number of homes on the side of the mountain and the valley that went with it. The concern now was to stop the fire from entering Salmon Arm and the approximately 1/3 of the city that is mixed in the forest. I stayed at the forestry Camp to provide the liaison with the forestry officials. The unit was camped down in the valley. While I was there I stayed with a couple of the forestry officials in the basement of a $750k home. The people that lived there were very nice and we used their garage as an operations and briefing area. Fortunately after a few days the fire was under control and no more big winds materialized so it became a mopping up operation so I was able to go home. The trip back was a great helicopter flight from Salomon Arm to Edmonton in two hours over the mountains. This would not be my only helicopter adventure this year.

 September came along and the kids came back and started school. The first hurtle was for Bryn to determine where to get off the school bus. On his first day he got off at the wrong school despite his brother trying to tell him his mistake. After this minor setback the boys ended up settling into their routine at the right school. This month also saw Cathy take on new responsibilities with her new position as the Network Manager for the Edmonton Super Base. September, however ended on a sad note as our dog Tipper was hit and killed by a car. After five years she had become a true member of our family and is sorely missed.

In October, Mom and Dad came out before we headed to Saskatoon for the annual Fast family reunion. The format changed slightly this year as we had the dinner at the Church hall near the hotel. Instead of traveling 70kms to Rostern. This turned out to be an extremely wise move because it snowed over a foot on Sunday morning. As it was, we had to shuttle almost everyone to the dinner with Gords and our 4x4s. The kids had a great time as usual in the hotel pool and it was good to see everyone again.

I am looking forward however, for Christmas leave and getting a few more things done around the place. Our plans are to hang about and do Christmas here. On Boxing day Dadye, Ron, Gord and Mary Anne should be over as family get together. I have no plans as of yet for New Years and I will wait and see what offers come up. I know however, what I will be doing next New Years – we in the army are all working because of Y2K. I personally don’t think there will be any major computer glitches but with all the police and the army in the country working at the same time we can certainly stop any rowdy parties. Anyway take care and Merry Christmas.

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