Falcons 31, Bills 3

The Colts lost yesterday, making my tickets to the last game virtually worthless. I will not be going and I am doubtful that I will find anyone else willing to go. Why would they? This trainwreck of a season for the Bills in almost over. Just tell me when then have a GM and a coach and a quarterback. I'm not really interested in hearing about much else at the moment.

We felt the effects of the security hype last night coming into Pearson from Moncton. Air Canada ground ops took 75 minutes to get the bags from our flight onto the carousel. That was after a 20 minute taxi to the apron where we waited another 15 minutes for a gate. We touched down at 8.45pm and left the airport around 10.30. The flight itself was about 90 minutes. On the way out, we saw a line-up of maybe 1,500 to 2,000 miserable people with bags, children and no idea if they were going to be able to fly out to their selected US destination.

We are off to Muskoka on Wednesday morning. It will be my 16th consecutive New Year's at the cottage.

Patriots 17, Bills 10

Spent the weekend in the city except we drove to St. Catharines on Sunday morning to see my mom after her latest surgery. 8 operations on her right arm alone since 2002. This was an important one and she's doing pretty well considering everything.

Siobhan has struggled for days now with a 750 word column on the latest developments in research in a journal for library professionals. She says she needs to de-politicize it or tone down the opinions in it so as not to throw off the readership with a return to the old capital/labour struggle. These are librarians after all. She reads me excerpts and then re-drafted excerpts. I say that they represent her research perspective. She says that the field of librarianship is short on Marxists right now so it's a sort of a tough audience for this kind of dialogue. Maybe I'm just used to it.

Well, the Bills last beat the Patriots in the 2003 season opening game. 13 in a row and 19 of 20 now. Moving right along then - next up: at Atlanta to face the Falcons who are also not going to the playoffs. We will be in Moncton, New Brunswick over Christmas then in Muskoka from the 30th to January 3rd, 2010, the date of the last game of the season against Indianapolis.

Bills 16, Chiefs 10

The OPP asked drivers to avoid the Gravenhurst/Bracebridge/Huntsville area on Friday morning as some areas were forecast to receive 80cm of snow in a 24 hour period. Strong and cold winds blowing over the relatively warm water of Georgian Bay made for perfect lake effect snow conditions with narrow but long bands which reached as far east as Bancroft. Jack-knifed tractor trailers had necessitated periodic highway closures and the police got the message out loud and clear. We left at 10.30am.

We reached Orillia before it even clouded over but at Washago the nasty stuff started. We had made very good time to this point, having completed all of the grocery shopping in Orillia. We hit Washago shortly around 1pm and from there, Highway 11 was a single file line of trucks, 4 x 4's and a few cars inching along through the snow. For all of the remaining hours in the day until when we went to sleep, it snowed very heavily and did not let up for a second. Washago to Gravenhurst took almost an hour but the logjam broke after Gravenhurst as many drivers aborted their journey there - but not us. We carried on and reached the Highway 118 offramp before long but there were several vehicles stopped behind a tractor trailer which was stuck. After about 30 minutes, someone was able to plow around the truck and we were on our way but the adventure had really just begun.

The left turn onto Black River Road from 118 was blocked by a 5 foot tall plow windrow so we started digging with our plastic trunk shovel. I wanted to get the car off the highway as quickly as possible so we dug until I could get most of it out of the westbound lane. Then I put the chains on and the destination was Joe Trinka's driveway - only about 100 metres along - but the snow was too deep for my low clearance car and it just couldn't do more than 10 or 20 feet without a 20 minute excavation exercise every time. A few people live along the Black River Road and before long 3 of them were lined up behind us wondering what has possessed us to even try to drive this car on this road at this time. They tried to pull us but could not. Joe arrived home from negotiating various road closures in Bracebridge in his eventually successful attempt to buy more diesel fuel. He got me out with his heavy duty tractor and plowed enough to allow me to make it to his driveway. The traffic moved, the dogs got out in the snow and we were ready to prepare for the last leg of our journey - walking in to the cottage - 6km through deep snow in the dark with as much of our groceries and clothes as we could manage.

We dragged our stuff into Joe and Amy's mud room from our snow filled car and sorted through everything, packed my old packsack (which I keep in the trunk for this very purpose) and left the rest there. We had frozen lasagne and salad and a bit of milk for breakfast. I had a headlamp. Our winter boots were at the cottage and Siobhan had only running shoes. Joe had plowed the road at lunchtime but there was another 14 inches of snow to trudge through. Our 13 year old Westie, Poppy, had to be carried pretty much the whole way. At about 20 pounds, she's a bit awkward to carry - especially for 6km. We arrived just before 7.30pm or 9 hours after we departed the condo.

Muskoka is an incredible winter wonderland right now as more than a metre of snow had fallen when we left Sunday morning at 10.30am. Outside our lakefront condo: none. It was like we had been in another world for 2 days. Needless to day, it looks like we will have a good ski season again.

The Bills have probably moved down in the draft with their 5th win. The Colts game looks like it could be a chance to see a team trying to finish 16-0. Maybe the Bills will deny them. That would be our Superbowl this year, I guess.

Jets 19, Bills 13

I traded our tickets to the game to Dennis for a pair of good Raptors tickets. Then, Brian asked me to go with him so I saw the game from the endzone. A much better game than last year's excruciating JP Losman debacle against Miami. And, I think I heard the crowd making a faint but noticeable murmur on Jets third downs - something which was absent last year. The Bills scored a touchdown for heaven's sake in this game and it was close until the last interception with around 2 minutes left. It looked to me like the number of empty seats was about the same as last year. Overall, if last year's game was a 1 out of ten, this one was a 3.5. A long way to go before it offers a home field advantage for the Bills but I would very cautiously say that it's going in the right direction.

The Bills are 4-8 now. Perry Fewell is 1-1. The Shanahan speculation has tailed off. I don't know what to think or what to hope for over the last 4 games. I still have the tickets for the Colts game on January 3rd.

We arrived Friday night at the cottage to find about an inch of snow - not enough to effect the road but enough to transform the look of the forest. Another inch overnight Saturday night and then 6 more inches in a couple of hours in the early afternoon. With the temperature around -2, I couldn't get up the driveway so it was on with the chains and out we went. Full winter conditions along Hwy 118 but no snow south of Orillia really. The biking season should be over now. I hope we have to get the skis out next time we're up.

Bills 31, Dolphins 14

Star Choice no longer provides the Buffalo network affiliates. This is why I saw none of the game live. All of the CBS and CTV affiliates I could find on the guide were carrying the Colts and the Texans. So, we exercised, watched a little basketball, checked the out of town scores and left the cottage around 3.30pm with the score tied at 14.

The WGR crew was fixated on the last touchdown - as in, were they "running up the score" when they could have taken a knee and run the clock down leading by 10. It's been so long since this has been a consideration that I think the Bills coaching staff simply kept calling plays right until the end. This week's preparations did not include a plan for whether or not to run up the score. Wins are always good - even if they cost you 2 or 3 places in the draft.

I did see the end of the Titans game and Vince Young converted on 4th down 3 times, including on the last play of the game. They could finish 10-6 after starting 0-6. Peter King said emphatically that the Colts would lose at Houston yesterday but they did not. Monday night features a great match up with the Patriots at New Orleans. And, Saskatchewan is up on Montreal in the 3rd quarter of the Grey Cup.

I have traded my tickets for Thursday's game for a pair of good Raptors tickets. I'm sure I will watch it on TV - as long as it sells out by Monday at 8.20pm.

Jaguars 18, Bills 15

The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals annual conference and expo is underway and I worked both days this weekend on our expo booth, giveaways, draws, prizes, computer/TV looping video and on happily meeting clients and others who attended the expo on Sunday afternoon. I chaired the conference planning committee for our company and I'm happy to say that everything is fine so far. Better than fine, actually. I had many compliments on the booth so I'm happy about that. On Monday, we give away the TV.

I have just moments ago seen the Youtube video of Eric Wood's leg fracture. About as gruesome as you see with these things - maybe not quite as bad as Theisman's but not far from it. A clean tib/fib break, as someone wrote, and it's now a question of whether he will play in the NFL again. The Bills number 2 pick this year has played very well on the interior offensive line and it would be a shame for him if his promising career ended today. Best wishes to him for a full recovery, starting with walking again.

Missed all of the game at the expo today. In chatting with those in attendance, I heard more than a few people grumbling about having to miss football today - which was certainly a feeling I had too. We had a TV in our booth playing a looping corporate promotional video which admittedly was of little interest to anyone. Someone said that if we were showing football instead, we would attract a large number of delegates with it. I sort of dismissed the idea at first but then it started to make sense: Driving people to your booth is a primary goal at these trade shows. And, we could carry it one step further: During the plentiful TV commercial breaks which are an unpleasant feature of NFL TV viewing, we could insert portions of our corporate video rather than the network TV commercials. Viewers would miss none of the game and we would get our messages out to a significant audience who would actually be watching at the time. Don't know what we would play for the Monday evening portion of the expo. Need to work on that.

Perry Fewell is 0-1 as a head coach. The Bills are now 3-7 on the season. Our offensive line is deteriorating with each game. Where do we go from here? I guess the answer is we go to Orchard Park to face the Dolphins and go with best team we can field and see what happens. The 2010 draft is a good quarterback draft, apparently, so it would be nice to get a high pick now that nothing else really matters.

Titans 41, Bills 17

An unseasonably mild weekend in Muskoka but it was the first one since last April where there was pretty much nobody around on the lake. No lights, no leaf blowers, no ATV's. It takes longer every fall to get to this point but we have arrived. We exercised a lot and my legs are sore as I sit in the condo Sunday evening. We went riding when Tennessee went ahead 27-17 and missed the last 2 touchdowns. Then we jumped in the lake right after. It has to be quick and you have to be hot but it's worth it.

Tomorrow begins a busy week at the office and it will begin with some big and rather unexpected news. Then, the conference and trade show this coming weekend and I'm looking forward to it being over. I hope we have a good showing. I have worked hard to put it together and we need a successful event and the momentum it would bring heading into next year.

The international news this evening after the APEC Conference is that a new comprehensive agreement on GHG emmissions is unlikely, heading into the Copenhagen Summit next month. Our Prime Minister points out that "We're in the middle of a recession" and we must keep that in mind in tackling this problem. Too bad that atmospheric CO2 levels don't seem to go down during a recession.

Well, the Bills continue to stumble their way through this joke of a season. Up next: at Jacksonville. I wonder how many empty seats there will be for that one. It now seems very unlikely that that they will even get to 7-9 so Dick Jauron will at least have produced a different result this season. And that's what's important. 7-9 would have been so predictable.

Texans 31, Bills 10

After Houston went ahead 24-10 in the 4th quarter, Siobhan and I went running and mountain biking around Clear Lake, respectively, hoping for a miracle come-back but knowing that it was highly unlikely. We were on the road by 4:30pm and home by 7pm.

We listened to the call in show on WGR 550 for a little while if only to get a break from the wall to wall swine flu coverage. "Why doesn't Jauron just quit?", asked one caller who thought that he should admit failure now and let someone else give it a try. "We need a new coach, a new quarterback and a new offensive line" revealed another - as if it were possible to rotate these in and out until we get the right formula. WGR's Mike Schope, who has to try intelligently respond without appearing to blow off every caller, tries to find someone - anyone with something constructive to say. "Owens is dogging it. Bench him and let Steve Johnson get some reps" said another and, with this, he agreed. It does seem like he gives up too quickly on some balls and generally looks like he would rather be somewhere else. Isn't Owens the kind of player you go after if you think you're one or two pieces away from being a Superbowl contender?

At least I sawed a lot of wood this weekend. We're in good shape for the winter. High winds brought down some trees on Saturday afternoon. More firewood for next year.

After 8 games, now comes the bye week. I'd rather just get on with it really. Like we need more ruminating about what changes are needed for next year. Ralph turned 91 recently. Maybe he should quit now as owner, admit that the team can not succeed with him calling the shots anymore and see what someone else can do. Or sit Owens.

Bills 20, Panthers 9

After a rather rainy three days, it cleared in Muskoka yesterday afternoon and as I sat down at 4pm to watch football, the late October sun was streaming in the southwest windows in the rich yellow colour you only see in the last hour or so before sunset. As the game progressed, I left the lights off and, as the sun set, the orange dusk slowly turned to darkness over the lake with the waxing half moon rising in the eastern sky. A beautiful evening indeed. And a football game which will not be remembered for anything much, especially by fans of the Carolina Panthers.

The Panthers outgained Buffalo 425 yards to 167. They earned 20 first downs to the Bills 9. However, they turned the ball over 4 times, missed 2 makeable field goals and lost an ugly game in the process.

The Bills have generated 10 turnovers in their past 2 games - an unsustainable rate probably, but a key factor in their 2 consecutive road wins. Jarius Byrd now has 5 interceptions over these 2 games and stands only 1 off the league lead. He was touted as a "ball hawk" coming out of Oregon in the second round of this year's draft and he is clearly showing why.

Ryan Fitzpatrick looked brutal for much of this game and completed only 11 passes. What he did not do was turn the ball over and, with quarterbacking as mediocre as the Bills have, that's a necessity. This team is not in the bottom rung of the NFL (which is pretty big this year) and has not been in the entire four years of the Dick Jauron regime. He has them just where he wants them - en route to another 7-9 season. A couple of weeks ago, it looked like things were really changing and they were heading toward 4-12. Up next: a chance to even their season record with a home date against the Houston Texans.

Bills 16, Jets 13

I rode my bike to Dennis and Cathy's place around noon on Saturday to scope out the walking distances from the Queensway and Bloor Street. I decided that Jane Station was the best option for later. Just a 10 minute walk.

The end-of-season dragonboat party was a rip-roaring affair - for me at least. Plenty of red wine and I lost track of time. The last of us left after 1.30am, stumbling down to the Queensway and a eventually onto a streetcar and back downtown. I got home around 2.30am. Thanks to Dennis and Cathy again for putting up with us. Great party!

And so we now look ahead to 2010 and I foresee a high return rate as all of the indicators are positive coming out of this past season. Everyone on our team is between the ages of 34 and 48. I'm the third oldest. I kept asking everyone about this until I got the answers.

Ok, after the Bills recorded their fifth interception of Mark Sanchez, I started thinking about how ridiculous it would be if they lost the game anyway - and they obviously almost did. But, despite what I thought was a bad call on the review of the Evans catch, Rian Lindell came through in overtime and the Bills have their first division win in ages. Next up: at Carolina.

Browns 6, Bills 3

This was the fourth Thanksgiving weekend I have spent in Prince Edward County after spending the last 40+ in Muskoka. I think I have adjusted. I have learned my way around some of the scenic parts of the County on my bike and the pastoral landscape has really grown on me.

The County is known for cycling - not for extreme mountain biking or serious racing - but for pleasure cycling. An extensive network of lightly traveled roads lead to a multitude of scenic vistas of Lake Ontario and its coves, inlets and bays which extend around the series of peninsulas where the land has been farmed for over 2 centuries. I did a 40km ride each day and took some nice photos at Little Bluff Conservation Area on Saturday and at Point Petre on Sunday in a howling west wind.

Grapes and wine are the relatively new rage in the County and an Australian fellow named Norman Hardie is a rapidly rising star who is generating recognition and credibility for the PEC wine business. His 2007 County Pinot Noir is highly regarded and available only at the winery and in a few restaurants who carry it. At $35 per bottle, I was interested enough to buy 3 - one for the Thanksgiving dinner, one for my dad and one for the cottage this fall. I really liked it but, compared to the Pinot Noirs available from the LCBO, I think it's probably about $10 too much. He has done a great job of building demand for a wine which is made in limited quantities and, hey, I'm glad that I have another bottle. We'll have it with grilled salmon.

Our end-of-season dragonboat team party is next weekend and then we'll be into 4 straight cottage weekends before the weekend of the CAAMP Conference which will require me to be in town. Fall is a great time of year. It's a busy time too - busy in the business world, busy in the academic world, busy in the city and busy in the sports world with all of the major sports in action. Few people take holidays over the next 10 weeks. A lot of stuff gets done between now and the end of the year.

Dolphins 38, Bills 10

In May of last year, when I paid the $3,500 for all eight Toronto games, I was at least hopeful that one of them would be meaningful - and sometime soon. For 2010, I'm predicting another partial refund like we had this year and I know that we will have to wait at least that long for a December game at the Rogers Centre which has playoff implications for the Bills. They will be well out of contention by the time Jets roll into town. The Jets look like they might have something to play for so that will create some sense of relevance for the game but it will be another quiet and disengaged gathering on that Thursday evening.

After the New England game, I thought that they might finally be a good team - one capable of at least playing a meaningful game in the month of December - let alone one which could make the playoffs or earn a home playoff game or a first round bye. I don't think that wanting your team to still be in the hunt for the playoffs in the last month of the season is really being unreasonable. It's now been 5 years since we've had that - when the Steelers 3rd stringers stopped our late season drive for the last wildcard spot in the 2004 season under Mike Mularkey. Does it seem like longer than that?

When Miami made it 31 - 3, I went for a bike ride and saw no more of the game. I had seen enough. Injured, young, not enough talent - the offensive line is a huge problem, among many.

Will Dick be gone if they lose to Cleveland? No. Ralph is paying him $3 million this year - whether he lasts the year or not.

Saints 27, Bills 7

Brian Moorman's annual touchdown pass to Ryan Denney, always a nice surprise, helped the Bills stay in this game. That and the defence which, until it could not stop the run in the 4th quarter, pretty much held Drew Brees and the Saints offence in check. Too bad the Bills offence couldn't rise to the occassion today. The Saints secondary was apparently their weak spot but the Bills had little success against it or in any offensive category. New Orleans literally ran away with this game in the 4th quarter.

This was the best defensive performance of the year. The 2 big interior linemen - Williams and Stroud - were outstanding and the rest of the group looked inspired and effective until the offence stalled completely and they could hold on no more. Give credit to the Saints defence. This team looks like it will contend for a top seed in the NFC playoff picture.

The Dolphins lost at San Diego yesterday. They are 0-3 now coming home to face the Bills. They know that going 0-4 is a tough hole to climb out of. They were 11-5 last year. Is it reasonable to think Buffalo can go into Miami and win? The Dolphins are nowhere near the kind of team that New Orleans is. Chad Pennington was injured and Chad Henne could be starting next week. Their third string QB is not named Chad. Either way, I'm not feeling that confident about it.

TO's streak, which began in 1996, of 185 games with a reception is over. His "press conference" afterward featured him saying "just going with the plays that are called" about 10 times in the 2 minutes it lasted. Why does he bother?

Bills 33, Buccaneers 20

After hearing from a friend about an unpleasant 90 minute wait coming back into Canada one Sunday evening at the Queenston - Lewiston Bridge last fall, I decided, along with a friend, to apply for the Nexus Card late last year. My wife objected. Apart from issues she had with me providing my biometric data to the United States government, she doubted that it would be worthwhile. We travel to the US by air usually every spring but we travel together which means that I stay with her and stand in all of the usual line-ups and go through US Border Security with her. I maintained that if it saved me an hour long wait afer a football game only once, that it was worth the $50 and whatever other potential risks existed. Last night, we saved upwards of 2 hours by finding the somewhat remote US entrance to the Whirlpool Bridge and zipping over with no wait at all. Still got home after 10.30pm - really don't like the 4pm games - but it would have been a whole lot worse without those cards.

Apart from the benefits of the Nexus Card, what else did we learn from yesterday? The Bills are better than Tampa Bay, I guess. We knew that anyway or at least we certainly hoped that they were not in the bottom tier of the NFL, as the Bucs seem to be. We will have a much better idea after next week's match-up against the red hot Saints.

The Bills have met the Bucs only 9 times since they joined as an expansion team in 1976 and this week I was racking my brain trying to remember the last time they came to Orchard Park. I gave up and figured that it must have been in 1980's. Well, yesterday was actually the very first time. They are probably thankful that this game was not played in a December blizzard and that it will be another 8 years until they return (if the league schedule follows the same methodology then as it does now).

The Bills had a good game overall. A 4th quarter touchdown toss to T.O. brought the house down and Fred Jackson proved, again, that he should share running back duties at least equally with Marshawn Lynch when he returns Oct 4th agaisnt the Dolphins. Buffalo's injury situation is grim with starting right guard Brad Butler, cornerback and kick return man Leodis McKelvin and tight ends Derek Schouman and Shawn Nelson all leaving the game and not returning. Butler's looks to be the most serious. He was replaced by 3rd year man Jonathan Scott who looked pretty good but, with him in the line-up, the offensive line consists of three rookies, Scott and centre Geoff Hangartner.

It was nice to see Donte Whitner pick off Byron Leftwich's lame duck and score easily to give the Bills and early 14-0 lead........on the visitor side, the sun was absolutely blinding before it finally dropped below the southwest stands late in the 4th quarter.......... Jackson's fumble into mid air late in the second quarter created what was potentially a 14 point swing as the Bucs returned it from one end of the field to the other and then punched it in to close to within 6 points....... I really think that Kyle Williams gets almost no recognition as the force that he is at defensive tackle. I guess that's mostly because he plays beside Marcus Stroud.

If the Bills can somehow manage to control Drew Brees and the Saints, then we can say that this team could go somewhere. Another 4pm game at the Ralph. For those without Nexus cards, get lots of sleep on Saturday night.

Patriots 25, Bills 24

On a Monday night in early October, 2007, just before the Bills snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Dallas on that emotional return to MNF in Orchard Park, when the Cowboys onside kick was successful, I said "and this is how we lose this game". In what seems to be a sort of a Monday night tradition, I said it again last night as Leodis McKelvin fumbled the kick-off return. I can't recall saying it last year against Cleveland but I am sure that there would have been a perfect time to have said it. The league should schedule Buffalo to play 3 or 4 Monday night games every year. For fans of the opposing teams or casual observers, they are very entertaining games - and in a league which features more than its share of klunkers, the ESPN gang would welcome it too.

Buffalo's offense could not have much confidence after their anemic performance in the pre-season. They were committed to the no-huddle approach with 3 starting offensive linemen who had never played a down in a real NFL game. Vince Wolfork was really looking forward to this game and a chance to pad his stats. The Bills would be down bt at least 3 touchdowns by halftime and I would be able to get a few things done around the condo.

I don't think I have ever heard it suggested that Dick Jauron's teams don't play hard. His game management is poor at times, players are undisciplined (and they could use some better players - and a real GM) but the effort is always there. Last night was no exception. They tried hard, played well above expectations in this game but were one key error from pulling a huge upset. They committed that error and Tom Brady made them pay.

How good was Fred Jackson in this game? This guy is incredible....... Can someone please show Demetrius Bell where the line of scrimmage is? ......There were at least three key dropped passes tonight..... I officially don't understand the rules around tackling a quarterback. There were two penalties called on the Patriots for roughing the quarterback which seemed questionable........ Trent Edwards looked comfortable and confident running the no huddle offense..........Dick Jauron's facial expressions and body language, however, do not convey a feeling of confidence........ Paul Pozluzny's left arm needs a permanent cast now it seems..... Jon Gruden is a great additition to the MNF broadcast team........

This wears thin over 10 years but the Bills have many positives to take from this game. The Patriots visit Orchard Park on December 20th. Imagine if that game means anything for the Bills - other than a chance at revenge.

Next up, 2 home games against NFC South teams starting with the home opener against one of the weaker teams in the league, the Tampa Bay Bucs, who also fired their offensive coordinator last week. I can't remember the last time they visited Buffalo but it has been many years. Then, a big test as Drew Brees and the high flying Saints come in for their first visit since 2001.

Another dragonboat season in the books

Early April, 2005 - I work in the marketing department of a mortgage company and my colleague tells me that he has agreed to sponsor a dragonboat team. "That's the war canoe thing, isn't it", I ask.

"Something like that. Nadia knows more about it. She pitched it to me".

"When is it?", I ask, thinking that this is a one time event where bank employees get in these war canoes, have some fun and raise some money for a good cause.

"Sounds like it goes on all summer and it's like a sport", he says.

"I'll ask Nadia next time I see her", not really giving it much more thought.

Fast forward to September 13, 2009 - We, Ronin Warriors, have just finished our season with a 21st place finish at the biggest event of the year - 3rd in the B Division Final. We're very happy with our performance. Some of us stay around and close down the beer tent. Looks like we'll have a team party sometime in the next few weeks. Right now, it's over. Tuesday and Thursday evenings are free. No more prime summer weekend regattas. We ride our bikes home one last time from the beer tent. 30 or so weeks from now, we will start again. Good.

Politics, poor communication, lack of consensus, attendance issues - these are the seeds of discontent which can fester and lead to the downfall of many competitive dragonboat teams. After co-managing a team in 2006, my second year of paddling, and almost giving up halfway through, I sat out the 2007 season in a bitter contract dispute with myself.

I came back refreshed and much more care-free in 2008 for what was a mixed (and the last) season for our team. As the season came to a close, high level merger negotiations were well underway with Ronin representatives. The merger was completed over the winter and we entered 2009 hopeful and maybe a little apprehensive. Would the merger take? Would we like it? Would we be the outsiders? Well, the season is over and the answers are in: yes, yes and no.

I think that I speak for those of us who joined Ronin this year in saying how much fun it was. Thanks to Jennifer and Kevin for managing the team so well and to Dom for his patience, perseverance and positive encouragement. This team has a pretty long history, comparatively, and I am happy to be part of it.

Hall of Fame Induction / Game Notes

Ralph Wilson grew up in Detroit, attended the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan Law School and then took over his father's succesful insurance business before acquiring a number of other business interests, including radio stations and a minority position in the NFL's Detroit Lions. In 1959, he jumped at the opportunity to join Lamar Hunt's new professional football league, the AFL, and, with an initial $25,000 investment, Wilson has been the only owner that the Buffalo Bills have ever had as they now enter their 50th season. The current value of the franchise is probably in the range of $800 million. At age 90, he is the oldest NFL owner. Ralph Wilson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday August 8th.

Joining Mr. Wilson in this years Hall of Fame class was Norfolk, Virginia native and Bills star defensive end for 15 seasons, Bruce Smith. After finishing 2-14 in 1984 to earn the first pick overall in the 1985 draft, Buffalo picked Smith from Virginia Tech and he played a key role in leading the 1990's most dominant team to 4 consecutive Super Bowl appearances. Smith became the Bills all time sack leader by 1989 and is considered one of the greatest defensive players of all time.

After Saturday's ceremonies and speeches, the NFL season kicked off with the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton between the Bills and the Tennessee Titans. Buffalo lost the game 21-18. Bills fans had to tune in early if they wanted to see the first stringers play. Trent Edwards completed 2 passes to Terrell Owens but both saw only one offensive series. The Titans scored the game's opening points on a trick fake punt play which resulted in a touchdown run by the punter.

This was the first of 5 pre-season games for Buffalo who will face Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears this Saturday in Orchard Park. Arrive early if you want to see Cutler, TO or any of the first team players from either team.

Trip Report

We're back. 3,200 km on the car, a couple of minor bruises and scrapes and lots of video and photos. It was really a tour of northern Ontario which included a 6 day Wabakimi canoe trip. We had planned the canoe trip for about 10 days and had enough food for 12 but ended up, for the second time, using the satellite phone to order an air-lift a little earlier than planned - not because we had completed the route (as we had in 2007), but due to very uncomfortable weather conditions. They changed, of course, right after we left.

One of the really interesting parts of driving to Thunder Bay is that there are two road routes to take and we have always made the driving trip a loop. The only back-tracked parts of the drive are the 240 kms to and from Armstrong and the 100 km or so between Thunder Bay and Nipigon. The outbound leg was on the "southern" route through Sault Ste. Marie which took us to Pancake Bay PP north of the Sault and then Rainbow Falls PP a little west of Shrieber on the north shore of Lake Superior. Both were excellent and we had time for a strenuous hike each day after arriving.

The Beaver dropped us at 8.30am on Burntrock Lake on a sunny and very windy Monday morning. After re-packing the canoe on a small island, the very first paddling was quite demanding - a crossing of a large open stretch of the lake from west to east with a strong north wind which required what I call "tacking" - also known as "quartering" - the waves to avoid broadside exposure. No issues with that and we camped on a beautiful island on the Palisade River after 3 portages. The weather was ideal: sunny and 21 degrees. We baked bread and made a very nice sweet and sour brown rice dinner, swam and then paddled 5 minutes back to a pool below a falls to fish for Pickerel. We caught 3 fish in rather short order: the first was a little too small so we released him; the second was a pike who pretty much swallowed the lure and suffered considerably from the removal of the hooks; the third was a beautiful Pickerel which I had on our fish stringer with the hooks removed. It got away when we tried to untangle the stringer, making us zero for three on the day.

Day 2 was another perfectly clear day and 22 degrees as we camped on a really nice site with a large sloping rock in an un-named lake west of Scragg Lake. A wall of cloud was building in the western sky as we turned in and then it rained in the night. Except for a brief glimpse before bed on day 5, that would the last we would see of the sun until the day we left the park.

Days 3, 4 and 5 were a constant mix of rain and wind with morning lows of 8 or 9 and highs of 11 or 12. Our fancy tarp from Madison worked well, as did the tent, but weather like that takes its toll eventually. We pushed hard on day 4 to make the northwestern tip of Whitewater Lake, one of the large lakes in Wabakimi. We arrived around 8.30pm and found enough dry wood to make tuna helper on the fire. We hunkered down on day 5 at the same site, continued to dry firewood and baked bread and chocolate cake. Just before bed, the sun broke through and it seemed like the nuclear winter was ending. We went to bed feeling optimistic about the rest of the trip, having endured 3 days of cold, wind and wet. The rain then woke us in the middle of the night - again.

Day 6 dawned windy and wet and 8 degrees. We made tea and set out at 8am onto the big lake hoping to warm up by hard paddling. By mid morning, I had floated the idea of an early exit and once this idea had taken hold, it gained a momentum which would not stop. We arrived on Best Island and the fomer home of noted recluse Wendell Beckwith around noon and called for the plane shortly afterward. We had lunch and toured the cabins before meeting the plane at a fishing outpost at 4pm. By that time, it was mostly sunny and had warmed considerably. The Beckwith cabins are fascinating in their design and details. They are, however, falling apart. A tree fell through the roof of the main cabin and a ragged blue tarp now covers it. This site is a fantastic potential restoration project waiting for a sponsor and funding. It is in a remote and inaccessible area (except by air) and time is running out on the life of the buildings. With a corporate sonsor, I can see it now: "Welcome to the Abitibi-Consolidated Wendell Beckwith Cabins on Best Island".

We checked into the Prince Arthur hotel in Thunder Bay at 8.30pm. It is purported to be the nicest hotel in downtown Thunder Bay - and we did not see any which looked any better - but it was quite disapointing. We later learned that the nicest hotel in town is the Valhalla at the airport. Too bad.

We shopped and poked around town before heading up the road 25 minutes to Kakabeka Falls PP, a large, well managed park with excellent hiking and views of the falls. We read the accounts of the strenuous portage around the falls during the fur trading era. The Kaministiquia River was part of the route which connected Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods and the west. Men carried two 90 pound "bales" on each trip and some apparently carried as many as four. We do this stuff for fun now. I can not imagine how demanding this occupation would have been for these voyageurs - no modern insect or water proof clothing or tents , no kevlar canoes and certainly no satellite phones or float planes to call in if the weather turned foul for a couple of days.

The next day, we logged some distance and pushed to Fushimi Lake PP, north of Hearst. It is a small park with many seasonal RV campers with motorized boats and ATV's. It's a nice big lake and is good for fishing, apparently.

Next up was Greenwater PP, outside Cochrane. What a gem this little-used park is. It features excellent hiking and swimming and four different camping loops, each on a clear and deep kettle lake but, according to the staff who do an excellent job maintaining the park, it is at risk of closure due to very low usage levels. The campsites seemed to be about 10 per cent occupied and the two hiking trails we explored were overgrown and showed no signs of use at all. We will write to Ontario Parks to share our impression of the park and recommend perhaps a name change to build interest. If it is still open when we next travel this route, we will stop there for sure.

From Greenwater, we drove to Muskoka, Picton and then home. Good holiday. We love northern Ontario and look forward to returing soon.

9.40pm Wednesday July 8th, in the condo clearing up the last few loose ends before we leave tomorrow for points north and the 2009 Wabakimi trip.

Here is our itinerary as best we can say.

July 9th - drive to Muskoka after dragon boat practice.
July 10th - drive to Pancake Bay PP - site reserved in my name
July 11th - drive in the general direction of Thunder Bay and maybe camp at Sleeping Giant PP
July 12th - drive to Armstrong and arrive at the lodge mid afternoon.

Our hosts, outfitters and really the people with the best chance of knowing our whereabouts are:

Bert and Brenda
Wabakimi Wilderness Adventures
Frontier Trail, Hwy 527
Armstrong, Ontario
807-583-2626

July 13th - fly to Burntrock Lake and start in SE direction on Palisade River
July 14th - July 22, 23 or 24th - Scrag Lake, Grayson River, Arril Lake, Whitewater Lake, McKinley Lake, Smoothrock Lake (Lonebreast Bay and Caribou Bay), Funger Lake, Caribou River, Caribou Lake, Little Caribou Lake then a bridge and a van followed shortly by a cold drink.

July 22, 23, 24, 25 - driving to Muskoka via Hwy 11 from Nipigon. Possible PP's include McLeod and Fushimi Lake or maybe a hotel.

Our route takes us past Wendel Beckwith's cabin on Best Island in Whitewater Lake. We travel generally from northwest to southeast - this might mean favourable winds and it might not. Once we enter Caribou Lake, we will have left the park.

All of the planning, shopping, organizing and most of the packing are done. All that's really left is the actual completion of the trip. It's usually the best part.

Just back from the US Southwest last night. It was even better than I had hoped. We camped the first seven nights and had only one hotel night - on the last night in Sedona.

Land travel always presents the transitions of the landscape as they flow past the window but one of the remarkable things about jet travel is that it just drops you into new and very different places with no transition at all. After landing in Phoenix, the 10 minute shuttle bus ride to the car rental "terminal" took us past Saguaro cactus set against the deep blue sky which we would quickly take for granted - along with other things like the good management and cleanliness of the state and national parks we visited and the consistent and genuine friendliness and generosity of the many Americans we met along the way.

After finding a very fortuitous alternative to what looked like a disastrous bottle neck at Fox Car Rental, we were soon on I 10 South toward Tucson and the beginning of our adventurous loop through southeastern and central Arizona and southwestern and central New Mexico. The route featured a much more diverse landscape than I had anticipated, from remnants of snow among the Ponderosa Pine in Hyde Memorial State Park above Santa Fe to the heat of the Tucson area.

Southeast Arizona is Sonoran desert country with huge Saguaro cactus, an amazing number of birds (including a certain one called a Roadrunner) and a parched, baked landscape of steep yet gentle mountains and wide sweeping valleys. We hiked for about 4 hours in Catalina State Park on our first full day and the Saguaro were both impressive and omnipresent - so much so that we agreed that their novelty would soon wear off - but we saw no more after that until the day we flew home.

We entered New Mexico and we were impressed with its landscape and its slower and more understated pace - which feels like it includes a richer and deeper mix of hispanic and Indian culture. After a brief stop at White Sands National Monument, a vast deposit of gypsum sand in the Talarusa Basin, we made our way to Oliver Lee State Park, south of Alamagordo. After camping on the edge of the wilderness at the foot of the full western slope of the Sacramento Mountains, we hiked Dog Canyon on a beautiful Monday morning. 4.5 miles one way and 3,000 feet of climbing to over 10,000 feet brought us to the top and a spectacular view of White Sands and the basin below.

We drove to Santa Fe with a notable stop at Villaneuva State Park, tucked beside the Pecos River and the sleepy village of the same name, along scenic NM road No. 3. After an hour or so in the vibrant old centre of the city, we changed our plans for a hotel night and instead headed northeast and up the hill into the Santa Fe National Forest and Hyde State Park where we had an excellent and vigourous hike, followed by a cold night in the tent. We weren't cold but it was zero celsius.

Back into Arizona then and a quick stop at Petrified Forest National Park before settling at a surreal desert campsite at Homolovi Ruins State Park. Up early and on to an outstanding breakfast at the refurbished and elegant La Posada Hotel in Winslow. It was one of the most luxurious hotels in the country during the golden age of rail travel and then as a roadside stopover on historic Route 66. But, after train travel declined and the interstate system was built, it closed in 1957 and stayed dormant for 40 years.

Continuing westward, we hiked to the top of Elden Lookout overlooking Flagstaff before camping at Pine Flats in the Coconino National Forest 10 miles north of Sedona. When we stay at hotels, we like to check in early but we set a new standard this time with our 9am check-in at Orchards Inn of Sedona. We were committed to more hiking on this our last full day so we stopped by the local UPS Store to ship the kitchen box on the way to 2 different hills in the red rocks, both overlooking the picturesque but somewhat yuppified and overly "branded" little town. The drive to Phoenix was downhill most of the way and the Saguaros re-appeared lower in the valley. All logistics were problem free on this tour in every respect.

Despite missing the Grand Canyon, the nuclear stuff at Los Alomos, the Hoover Dam, southern Utah and Las Vegas, all of which we considered to be possible destinations, we had a thoroughly enjoyable, rejuvenating and memorable visit to this part of the United States. Next time (and there will be a next time), we'll get to some of those places - and others too. Dragonboat paddling begins this week on Lake Ontario and the ice will be off Clear Lake by next weekend (if it isn't already) so we will have jump-started the spring/summer season in style.

And, finally, the Bills traded Jason Peters to the Eagles for the 28th pick in this weekend's NFL draft and, with it, landed OL Eric Wood from Louisville after taking DE Aaron Maybin from Penn State 11th overall. Let's hope they can help. And this year's Toronto game is a Prime Time Thursday night match-up against the Jets which is as good an opportunity for this game to succeed as it's going to get - and it will if they are still contending in early December.

I've never had a near death experience - not one involving my own life at least - but, this past Thursday evening, I experienced one which involved the life our little dog, Poppy. I rescued her from a hole in the ice on our lake. She's fine. We came very close to losing her though.

We drove up Thursday afternoon, fought through one of the busiest shopping days of the year and arrived around 7.30pm in fine clear weather. The road was in surprisingly good shape. We were set for a sunny long weekend. What could be better? We warmed up the cottage and ate around 9pm - our usual "Friday night" routine. I went out to prime the pump at the side of the cottage around 10.20pm. Siobhan let the 2 dogs out shortly afterward. Sally is terrified of the ice and will not go near it in uncertain conditions but Poppy, the 12 year old Westie, has no instinctive sense of danger about ice or about anything else. She usually does not venture far, and especially not in colder weather and especially not at night.

As I finished priming and turned on the pump to fill the water heater, I thought I heard splashing from the other side of the bay at our deep water dock but there are otters and ducks active as the ice melts away from the shore and then I saw Sally walk by me and she could easily have gone in the water as well but my radar sensed nothing out of the ordinary. Siobhan came out a minute or so later and asked if I had seen Poppy. Thinking that she was inside, I asked if she was sure that Poppy was outside. She has a remarkable ability to find little corners to hide in so she was probably inside. We did a quick search and saw no sign of her. I walked down to the dock to see if she was poking around underneath as she sometimes does and then I heard the noise. A grunting noise coming from across the bay but I could see nothing in the dark. I thought that it was an owl or another bird. There are lots of critters around. Siobhan heard it too. The first thing she said was "That's not Poppy". Later, she realized that she had never heard Poppy's distress noises. Westies are known for their ability to "talk" by using a variety of intonations in their voices as they "ask" for treats or a snuggle. This was a low pitched, plaintive sound - like no other we had ever heard from her.

After a bit more searching with a flashlight, I was getting concerned. Poppy is small, old and vulnerable and we are usually well aware of her whereabouts but she has nowhere to be seen. A subconscious instinct of some kind told me to run over toward the sound that this creature was making - if only to rule it out. I sprinted the 200 metres through the snow, made my way down onto the neighbours dock, shined the light out onto the lake and there she was with her front paws clinging to the ice and her little black eyes peering at me. She had fallen into a hole in the ice about 15 feet from the dock in deep water. The ice had melted, in the usual way, about 3 or 4 feet from the shore but she was another 10 feet beyond that - in a hole in the thicker ice - and she was barely hanging on. The grunting noise was very faint now as about 15 minutes had passed from when I first heard the splashing. I was convinced that she was only a minute or two from death. I yelled to Siobhan as I paced back and forth wondering how this rescue could be done without risking my own life. She arrived and screamed when she saw her precious little dog near death. I told her to calm down and hold the light. Wearing hiking shoes, sweat pants and a t-shirt, I went in. I could touch bottom for the first 4 feet or so, then it was deep water after that. I had to break a channel through the ice with my arms (and I've got the bruises and scrapes to show for it) to get to her. It was weak ice and broke away easily and I punched through in a few seconds. When I reached her, I pushed her back toward the shore as I struggled with the heavy clothing I was wearing. Her almost lifeless body was barely floating and her nose went beneath the water for a second. I got her to the dock and Siobhan grabbed her. I got out and took Poppy back. We wrapped Siobhan's jacket around her and ran back to the warm cottage. When I put her on the floor in front of the woodstove, she was completely seized up from the cold and could not stand. Siobhan wrapped her in a dry towel and held her there. For the next 45 minutes, she made the same grunting noise that she was making from the ice. With every breath she took, she breathed in and exhaled with that grunt until it got a little stronger and louder and then it finally stopped. It was two full hours until she was warm and dry. I recalled later that I didn't feel the cold at all. With the adrenaline rush, it just didn't register. I sat down and had 2 ounces of scotch. We stayed up until after 1am, reflecting, rejoicing and processing this event.

Dogs have memories. They recognize people they know. They remember places they have been and experiences they have had. I don't think that their brains are capable of reflection, however, because, as soon as Poppy was fully warmed up, she was absolutely normal in every respect. She ate a treat. She went out and peed. She curled up in front of the fire as she has done so may times before as the two of us regained our composure, recounted our luck and talked through the guilt of not having recognized the suffering sound earlier than we did. It was a close call. Very close. 15 minutes in the icy water with a body that small is about at the survival limit. Poppy, on the other had, seemed oblivious to the trauma she had just endured. Dogs live in the present. This is where I am right now. No point in wondering what might happen in the future or in looking back on events from the past - no matter how significant. We were still shaking. She was sound asleep.

What a spectacular weekend in Muskoka. Sunny every day. Good mountain biking and running. We took the ABS canoe to the Muskoka River on Saturday afternoon and paddled for the first time in 2009. We are thankful for so much. We are lucky to have our little dog still with us. Her time almost came.

I had to go to a corporate event on Friday night which would have been much more difficult to endure if Steve Patterson had not been the MC. We made sure to listen to "The Debaters" on Saturday morning. I like his positive energy.

So, we left at 7.30am Saturday after heavy rains and winds but it looked benign enough, although that would change. It has felt like spring in Toronto on and off for a couple of weeks so we weren't looking forward to snow but that's what we got after the Holland Marsh. And, going through Barrie, there was heavy slush on the road in the left lane and the traffic was moving cautiously at 75km/hr - sort of like a cycling peloton - in the 2 right lanes which were slush free. But, of course, someone had to roar up on my left and spray so much slush on my windshield that I was driving blind for 4 or 5 seconds. It was terrifying but I'm sure that it was worth it for them to arrive a couple of minutes ahead of the rest of us.

The road was soft with holes but nothing bad enough to stop us. It's king of like rally driving where you need to maintain speed in places while searching for the sink holes and ruts. It started to snow steadily just after lunch with strong winds from the NW and that's what we got for the rest of the day. It felt like November except with daylight until 8pm.

The skiing is pretty much over. I'm sure that we could walk to the Clear Creek trail with our skis and do it but I'm also sure that we won't so it's on the next season's sports. I did 2 circuits of the lake on the mountain bike in driving snow and Siobhan walked/jogged. Peddling through 5cm of snow on top of soft sand or mud is tough going.

Spring is taking hold - even on what seemed like a winter day. The south facing shore has about 10 feet of open water and most of the snow is gone. The Black River is raging. We stopped at the Falls at Vankoughnet and it was as high as I've ever seen it. The road is underwater just downstream which cuts off about 10 houses.

We were able to get all of the camping equipment out in the car. I will ship the kitchen box by ground to Phoenix on Tuesday. We're heading back up to the cottage Good Friday morning.

Sunday's cobalt sky was about as crystal clear as it ever can be. Conditions in Muskoka at 10.00am when we departed for a 2 hour ski were mid-winter cold - around minus 6 with a good breeze from the north. We walked down the big hill, across the bridge and started along the creek towards Saw lake. This particular terrain on either side of the creek is flooded and swampy from April until December and it takes the full winter snowpack to build and form itself before entering the daily thaw/freeze cycle in March to make it accessible on skis. As the sun begins to expose the structure of the snowpack, we can see underneath it in places and the alder bushes are pushed right over in clumps with the snowpack sitting on top like a lid just barely containing the pent up branches. The clumps provide a beautiful, gently undulating surface to ski on. Always a highlight, and to get it on such a perfect day as this. Then a full loop of Saw Lake at record speed on the thin skiff of softer ice and snow on top of the 2 feet of solid ice. Changing to interior, shaded terrain, we negotiated the trail to Keyhole Lake and came back to the road on the Johnson Trail. A full sampling of very challenging trails under these conditions. Siobhan has a purple bruise on her hip from Saturday morning.

March offers some of the best and most challenging skiing of the season. The snowpack is very hard in the morning and softer later on, especially in the south facing areas. There's still 40 or 50 cm of snow in the shaded areas of the bush and, when it's cold like it was today, our ski trail is like little luge tracks and falling is like falling on concrete. It's fast and unforgiving. It seems like we know, and maybe we subconsciously hope, that the skiing season will soon give way to paddling and biking in our corner of Muskoka, but I really do love the cross country skiing that we can do from our cottage door.

4 weeks to go before we go to the US Southwest. We sketched out our tentative route on Friday night and it looks really good. We'll head from Phoenix to the Tucson area and visit Seguaro National Park and then we're going to spend some time in New Mexico. There's an off-grid, hippy town called Truth or Consequences, New Mexico which caught our attention but we want to see White Sands National Park and Santa Fe so we have some decisions to make as we can't see everything in 8 days.

Hoping for big things to come, blog wise. I am going to get a new computer and probably a new video camera and I will be posting video and really taking this up a few notches. I may even separate the football from our outdoor pursuits. Stay Tuned.

For a league with a season which lasts for all of 5 months, the NFL has a remarkable ability to maintain fan interest during the other 7 months which follow the Super Bowl. March features free agency signings and multiple roster moves, as teams prepare for the April draft. Have the Bills been active in this year's free agency bidding frenzy? Absolutely. How about the signing of CB Drayton Florence from San Diego to counter the loss of Jabari Greer to the Saints? Or, C Geoff Hangartner from Carolina? Don't forget former Bengals QB Ryan Fitzpatrick who will have his work cut out for him if he wants to be worse than JP Losman. Re-signing with the team was OL Kirk Chambers and gone are TE Robert Royal and OL Derrick Dockery. RB Marshawn Lynch plead guilty to being an idiot for having been caught in an expensive car in Oakland with a bag of pot and a gun. He will likely not be suspended by the league. So, until Saturday March 7, the Bills were going about their regular off-season business, shuffling their roster - as were the other 31 teams in the league - and generating media coverage of the various no-name player visits to One Bills Drive, and generally doing little to change the team's fortunes.

I had heard, last Thursday I think, that Cowboys President and GM Gerry Jones and Terrell Owens had decided to part ways and then, on Saturday at the cottage, I heard the very end of a radio report about Owens signing a one year deal but I missed the name of the team. Probably Oakland or maybe Washington, I thought, but I never suspected what I learned on Sunday when I got home and logged on to the chattering posts about the Bills that I read when there's stuff going on with the roster. So, it's actually happened - they have signed him to a one-year, $6.5 million deal. The circus has come to town and it's not going to be boring. Even Dick Jauron will seem interesting now that TO is in the fold. I can't wait for the first OTA's next month. Maybe he will bungee jump off Niagara Falls.

So, why make this move? Were season ticket sales a little slow this winter? Was this an opportunity to energize the fan base? Will this put the small market Buffalo Bills on the national media radar like they have not been since the Music City Miracle? Yes, yes and yes but is this a good move for the football team going into 2009? Aside from the concerns about his attitude and propensity to be an attention seeking and selfish cancer in the locker room (which may be greatly over estimated - both in terms of what his attitude is actually like and in terms of how much it really matters anyway), this guy can play. Yes, he's 35 now but he can still run, get open and score touchdowns. He has always done this and he sure looked pretty strong to me with Dallas last year. Defensive coordinators will now have to defend Lee Evans and TO at the same time and they can't both be double-teamed, can they?

I remember Marv Levy being asked once about whether or not a certain player was "a good guy in the locker room". He replied by saying that he had never really understood what that meant and that the characteristics which he always looked for in a player were talent and commitment, and that success in football came from combining those with practice and execution. "The Equipment Manager - now there's a good guy in the locker room", is how he wrapped up his answer. So, will TO be a good guy in the locker room? We'll see. I don't know that it really matters though. If he is healthy, his production should speak for itself and, hey, whatever happens, it's going to be fun.

Well, spring is on its way in Muskoka. The skiing was challenging as the snowpack has lost its structure, has developed sink holes and the tracks we have worked on all season are becoming unstable. Perfect conditions for pulling a hamstring. We are reading travel books and studying maps of Arizona and neighbouring states as we go in mid April for 8 days.

Those of us in Ontario now have two Family Day weekends under our belts but I sense that the traditions are developing slowly. Maybe most of us are just happy to have a winter long weekend and perhaps even spend a little time with our, well, with our families. That's what we did. The four of us - Siobhan and I and our two dogs, Sally (11 years old - mosty Sheppard with some Collie) and Poppy (a 12 year old Westie) - headed north. Our tradition, as with virtually all holidays and most other regular weekends at any time of year, is to go to our family cottage near Bracebridge, Ontario.

Left the office shortly before noon Friday and, after a couple of stops and a drive straight up through the city, we were headed north on 400 by 1.15pm in surprisingly light traffic and, after shopping in Orillia, we arrived around 4.15pm under clear skies and a temperature of minus 3 or so. The February thaw earlier in the week had reduced the snow pack significantly (thankfully it was pretty big to begin with) and had created excellent skating conditions on the lake. So, after stoking the fire for an hour, we laced them up and skated east along the north shore with Sally in tow. Poppy had, we guessed, stayed behind to putter around as she often does. We stopped to soak up the sun about 1km from our dock when we saw her coming. A sight to behold - the Westie was running full-out through the snow on a bee-line towards us - as if she suddenly had an epiphany about her energy level and her ability to join in the fun. That was just the beginning of Poppy's energy output this weekend.

Saturday morning brought more sun and a morning low of minus 15. After some tea and an orange, we took another skate along the lake - not quite all the way around as we encountered some crusty conditions near the south shore. The dogs came along and I carried Poppy a little as we skate faster than she can run. The ice had frozen slightly unevenly in places with ridges and waves which were undectable under the thin layer of snow - but conditions were quite good overall. After lunch, we got the skis out and headed across Clear Lake to Saw Lake with just Sally as we thought that the distance and pace would be too much for the little Westie. We skied the entire length of Saw Lake and started on the trail along Clear Creek to Keyhole Lake. The snow pack was very hard but our ski tracks were well established from before the thaw which made it fast and sometimes trecherous in places. Sally could roam freely with no fear of falling through the snow. When we arrived at Keyhole Lake, we could see bare ice on the north part of the lake so we set out to investigate. A vast section - about a third the size of lake itself - had frozen after the snow had fallen, leaving pristine, bare, smooth ice with only a few waves and imperfections. Perfect skating conditions but we were on skis. Hmmm.....

On Sunday, which was a carbon copy of Saturday - minus 15 and clear, we packed our skates, cameras and water and set off for the great skating on Keyhole Lake, with both dogs in tow. Poppy fared very well as we skied the entire length of Saw Lake and Clear Creek. We skated, flimed and relaxed beside a massive white pine tree which had fallen into the lake this past fall. The warm mid-February sunshine of the early afternoon reminded us that Spring is getting closer. The video looks spectacular. We enjoyed it so much that we went back on Monday and did it all again.

There were also the rituals of sauna, wine and fine meals that we always have at the cottage. I said to Siobhan at one point as we skated on Keyhole Lake (and here's where I begin the transition to football, in case you were wondering if we were ever going to get there, with the following quote from Marv Levy, which he used to say right before kick-off), "Where else would you rather be than right here right now?".

So, since this is a Bills blog, here's a litte bit on that. This is really the doldrums for football fans. The Pro Bowl was last weekend. The Souting Combines start this week. The Bills have the 11th pick in the April college entry draft (as they did last year) and the mock drafts I have seen show them picking a tight end (Brandon Pettigrew from Oklahoma State). We'll see. I just got my season ticket renewal notice in the mail - 9 home games, including 2 pre-season. At least we will not have a $255 per seat pre-season game in Toronto this year. We will have to wait until next year for that. So, I will renew. I wonder how many will not. I am sensing a seat upgrade opportunity.