An hour of my life I won't get back.....

Tonight I watched the Grammys. I will forever refer to this as "the hour I won't get back".

It started with Miley Cyrus, or Hannah (I am still not sure what her real name is), singing a duet with Taylor Swift about being 15. Not a bad song, but keep in mind, one is 16 and one is 19, and I am pretty sure that neither leads the life of a normal 15 year old.

Then it moved into rap music. I know I am old...but seriously I could not comprehend a thing these guys were saying. I don't know if I simply couldn't hear them, but if my suspicions are correct, they were not speaking English.

What happened to music? It is hard to make a scale sound magical. It is hard to blend harmonies into a melodic tune that puts the soul at ease. It is hard to capture the imagination and interest of a listener using rhythm and dynamics.

It is not hard to rhyme.

Yet something named Lil Wayne gets a Grammy for "Rap Album of the year".

You want to give out a Grammy, send one to Shakopee. I know a gal there with more talent in her pinky finger then "Lil Wayne" has ever known.

Do you want to hear magic? Do you want to see someone who plays music simply because she is in love with it? Do you want to know what passion sounds like? Then go to a little church on Sunday mornings in a southern suburb of Minnesota. People at this church don't sing. It is not because they don't know the words to the selected hymns....it is because the don't want to interrupt perfection.

We will call this piano playing aficionado Kerry because, well, ....that is her name. If you want to do the world a favor, then buy her CD, and play it often. It is a Christmas CD, and it should be played year round, for it is a far more deserving "Album of the Year".

Because I know they will understand the true meaning of good music, I love my girls....

Everything I need to know, I haven't learned yet....

So, as mentioned, my trip to Canada was great, but I did learn that I have a lot to learn. Let me explain:

My first trip to Canada was approximately 7 years ago, when my bride and I went to Toronto. She was going there on business, I was going because I had never been...and hey, who doesn't want to go to Toronto.

I was under an absurd notion that in Canada they spoke some type of foreign language. I do not know why I thought this, but I was surprised that the only thing I heard was an occasional "eh". So, when we went into a bar to get a drink, and the waitress asked what we wanted, I came back with 'I'm surprised you sound just like us". Looking back, what a jerk I must have sounded like...as if the United States was the center of the earth. Terrible.

Fast forward 7 years later. I am in a Subway ordering a foot long Subway Club in Esterhazy. The sandwich artist asks me what kind of cheese I would like. I respond with "American" as that is the kind of cheese I always request when asked in the States. The employee looks at me like I am crazy, and suddenly I have flashbacks to Toronto.... Unfortunately though, I have no idea what else this cheese could be called. I only know it as "American"....My mind starts whirring, maybe they call it "Canadian"..etc... so I finally just point to what I want and pray she doesn't spit in my sandwich.

Sure enough, when I had a chance the next day to talk with a couple of our Canadian employees, they assured me that there was no such thing as "American" cheese in Canada.

For those of you interested or that want to contribute, I am now starting a Canadian to US glossary. "Creamer" is the next entry as apparently it is called "Whitener" in Canada.

Even though they probably will not want to travel to Canada with me, I love my girls.

3000 feet Underground

I am back. As mentioned in my previous posting, I went to Canada. Part of my trip was to visit our mining operations. This meant I traveled to Esterhazy, Canada and visited our mines referred to as K1 and K2. I had the pleasure of joining three others on a tour of the K1 mine. This meant jumping in an elevator shaft and traveling at 1300 meters per minute down. Here is a picture of the elevator:

Next, we traveled through 4,000 miles of tunnels that we have mined seeing everything we have built. Below is one more picture.

Yes, those are full size Toyota Land Rovers with the top's cut off (the ceilings are pretty low in thte tunnels). The walls in this shop were 4 stories tall. Need I remind you that I am 3000 feet underground when I snap this photo....amazing. The machines that we use to mine are to big to send down the shaft, so we build them underground. Did I say amazing yet?

As always, I love my girls....