The Granite Newsletter

published September 2, 1998

Back to School

That magical time of year has arrived for those of us that happen to be parents. All over our region, kids are donning their brand new clothes (for many 3 sizes too large), filling up their backpacks with crisp notebooks, honed pencils and cool binders and heading back to that second home they call school. If you're out driving in any of our towns during this daily trek, please DRIVE CAREFULLY. These kids are way more concerned about their friends and their Nikes than they are about those passing motorists. If you're a little older and heading back to school a (with a little less exuberance, perhaps) in your own or parents vehicle, please stop to think of the kids before you speed down the street. Just remember what you're speeding towards and slow down for the little guys, please. If you see the school buses out there, remember the rules of the road here as well.

Back to school does mean a little more than kids just meeting up with friends and wearing new clothes, though. It means school projects and research for many of the kids. The Internet is a great tool for researching school projects. Almost all of the students in the Eastman region have access to the Internet at school. This should be viewed as a major accomplishment for our local school boards. Many of our customers routinely need to enlist the help of help of children in conducting searches or using e-mail - and these children have learned the skills at school. Manitoba children will be ready for the future because our school boards are forward thinking and investing funds wisely. Do you remember cutting up you parents National Geographic magazines to include pictures in your school projects? Today those pictures are a right-click of your mouse button away and our magazines stay in one piece.

While the Internet is an incredibly valuable resource for information for your school age child, caution should be used with younger kids when they are surfing the net. Supervision is a must for the younger crowd. Internet Explorer allows you to enable a Content Advisor that will require the user to enter a password when entering sites that may contain inappropriate material. This feature can be adjusted to give access to different types of sites. Experience with the Content Advisor so far has not been great. There are too many sites out there with no ratings so the user is constantly entering the Supervisor password. This may be a passing glitch as more sites are rated, but for now there is no better security for your child than supervision. Kids are clever and find the most interesting sites and you'll have a lot of fun sitting down with your child at the computer and surfing the net.

Pan Am Games - July 23 - August 8, 1999

The Pan Am Games are coming to Manitoba! Is it too early to start thinking about them? Not if you're planning to attend or operate any sort of service business in Manitoba. While Winnipeg will certainly be the major centre for the games, the visitors our province is going to see next summer will have wide reaching benefits throughout the province.

Many of those visitors attending the Pan Am Games from around the world will either be travelling through Manitoba to reach the games, or will be planning to extend help of viswhilehle here to visit the many amenities our province has to offer, so the time to prepare is now. For more information about the games visit the Netreader's Pan Am Games site. For advertising information on that site call the Granite office at (204) 753-2071 or e-mail the webmistress@granite.mb.ca.

Fall in Manitoba

The summer is almost over and the Farmers Almanac has some pretty scary predictions weather wise for our region. We can all expect the first snowfall this month - yes you are reading it correctly, the first snowfall is scheduled for on or about September 24 - 26th!

With an early winter predicted, it may be time to bring in the garden and put all those vegetables to good use. Here's my personal favorite recipe for using up a lot of those vegetables.

Garden Beet Borscht
Ingredients:

Grated Beets
Grated Potatoes
Yellow Beans
Peas
Beet Leaves
Vinegar
Whipping Cream

Fill the biggest pot you own half full of water and add enough grated beets and potatoes to produce a thick consistency. Simmer this over medium low heat for a couple of hours. Add cut yellow beans and peas and simmer for another hour or more. Add shredded beet leaves and vinegar to desired sourness - the soup should be squintingly sour at this point. Simmer until dinner time and add 250 - 500 ml whipping cream just before serving. This soup will last a week nicely in the fridge, but it can also be canned or frozen. When canning or freezing, omit the whipping cream and add at serving time.

For more recipes and detailed weather forecasts for our region as well as some you might want to travel to this winter, check out the Farmers Almanac on the net.

Upcoming Events

This is the season for Fall Registrations, Annual General Meetings, Fall Suppers all all sorts of other Upcoming Community Events. Community volunteers are always looking for some free ways to advertise their event. There are two Interactive Events sites available for the Eastman region: the Interactive Events Calendar on the Pinawa Homepage and the Interactive Events Calendar for the Whiteshell Provincial Park. These are great sites to advertise your event. You can add events on your own through the Internet and you can even go back to edit your entry should something change. Check these sites out to find out what's happening in your region this fall.

In The Humor Department

This is the transcript of the ACTUAL radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland.

Canadians: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
Americans: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.
Canadians: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.
Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, I SAY AGAIN, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER- MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.
Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

Network Manager’s Report

August was a busy access month with few problems to report. An upgrade to our modem pool has become necessary to support newer modems and should be completed shortly.

Check out our previous newsletters:

Canadians:	Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
Americans:	Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.
Canadians:	Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
Americans:	This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
Canadians:	No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.
Americans:	THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, I SAY AGAIN, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER- MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.
Canadians:	This is a lighthouse. Your call.