canadian cash?

[muldoon]

so I have been in canada all week, mostly good. in fact, between the weather and the scenery it;s been great. went out again tonight, had a grand time. Started off at the whiskey, which was truly bad. hip hop music and skanky nasty girls,we left and went to a place called cowboys. I was standinging in line for this nightclub, and was told to wait. I informded the gentleman at the line that it was rediclusous for a man with a Texas ranch who runs cows to wait in line for a bar named cowoys. He looked my texas ID, and houston livestock show and rodeo exhibitor hat and let me in on the spot.

Once inside, what a letdown. A bunch of punks and girls. I drank my beer and drank crown until i met up with a some guy who self proclaimed himself the johnny cash of canada. Needlesss to say I was skeptical. But then he busted out with some Hank and Merl and nailed it. Then some George and then Garth, In fact he was really good.  we wound up talking about martins and gibsons for an hour.  turns out we both love the martin D28 dreadnought. 

Anyway, I gave him some drunken advice about ignoring women and holding onto his passion, ignoring those who will wear him down. In turn he poured 3 or 4 tequilas down my throat and then we shared a few crown and cokes. Heres to you Tommy Mueller, hope you make it to the big show. 

[peternap]

Why muldoon...shame on you

Sounds like your having a great time.

[MountainDon]

I thought this was going to be about money.    Or exchange rates.   

Glad you had a great time!   

Whereabouts in Canada?

[Alasdair]

LMAO

[benevolance]

Cowboys is in Calgary

Yeah it has become a  nightclub.. not really a bar, bar

[desdawg]

Calgary always impressed me as being one of the cleanest cities I had ever seen but I haven't been there in years. Is it still that way Muldoon? Of course I was just a country boy from northern Montana and hadn't seen a lot of cities at that time.

[benevolance]

Calgary is nice...It is getting big and growing so fast it is out of control there...I have not been there for a few years... but the growth is insane... the Gas and oil fields... the tar sands... going to get even more crazy when they open up the tar sands and natural gas fields in Saskatchewan within the next year

[desdawg]

The Calgary Stampede was a big rodeo back then. I would think a Texan with hat and boots would fit right in.

[benevolance]

Stampede is a big draw to the city no question!

[MountainDon]

The weather is also pretty good for a Canadian city. Close to Banff/Jasper as well. No sales tax last time I was there, except for the federal sales tax.

[benevolance]

no sales tax and alberta residents get royalty checks every year.. there is such a huge surplus from the oil revenues (alberta controls their royalties not the federal government like in the rest of Canada) that they divide up the surplus by the number of residents and send out the bonus checks... Pretty sweet

[StinkerBell]

Sounds like Alaska Benevolance.

[benevolance]

Alberta really got their act together way baqck when oil was discovered...And they control their royalties from the oil companies. so the money stays in Alberta instead of going to the federal government in Ottawa Ontario for them to decide how it is spent.

when I was a boy they started to develop massive natural gas fields off Nova Scotia...When I was in college my Brother worked offshore for a few years welding platforms and they built massive pipelines to New England...And they are pumping and ungodly amount of gas directly to New England and the price of the Stuff has tripled in the last decade...And Nova Scotia gets almost nothing... The Federal Government gets the Royalties and only throws a penance back to the people of Nova Scotia.

To say that Alberta got it right is an understatement! The rest of Canada is upset that the money from their natural resources goes through the federal government and Alberta is Exempt.

But because of this Alberta has more money than they know what to do with... Literally

[muldoon]

yes, I was in Calgary.  Very clean and nice town.  Also, no billboard at all in fact I dont think I saw any form of advertising.  The city is booming big time.  I think I spotted 6 or 7 high rise buildings going up in downtown, one right next to where I was working.  Many cranes on the horizon.  The weather was perfect, roughly 70s in the day and high 50s at night.  You couldn't help but walk everywhere just because it was so pleasant out.   Cowboys is a nightclub more than bar, college bar or so I would call it.  Lotsa drunk youngsters making a fool of themselves and I joined right in.   

It was fun, and I'll be going back up to calgary next year as this project gets underway. 

For now, I'm just glad to be home.