Welcome Back Nation!!!

Okay, so it has been awhile since I last gave you guys a shout out. Sorry, just a bit busy. You know, boxes, looking for a job and stuff. We are finally just about settled in here in Regina. I would say about 95 percent of the boxes are empty. The five percent still not empty being the boxes of books that we have no place to put because the movers demolished our book shelf. Yup, it was that kind of move. What else did they break you ask? Well I will tell you. They managed to damage my fish. You know the one, the 35 pound lake trout that was caught in 1979. The bent the hell out of the fins and broke one almost clean off. Nice

They also managed to put some big divits in the kitchen lineoleum when they brought the fridge in. That is okay because that means we get new kitchen lino. Oh and they broke one of our chairs. Awesome.

So that all went okay I guess. It is nice to be settled in in our new home. It is a bit bigger and has a few nicer amenities. It is all good.

So what else has happened since we last met here. Well, McKenna had her first day of school. She was quite excited. She gets to ride the bus to school. So you will not see me sitting in my car outside the school blocking traffic like so many parents I complained about in Edmonton. Man that drove me crazy. She loves school and her teacher. Apparently the school she goes to is the best in the city so that makes us happy.

What makes me even happier is Last night we were at my kids school for Pizza open house night at McNeill school. Crappy pizza, screaming kids, nice school, great teachers, you know all that stuff.

As we were leaving I saw this dude with Rider sweats gear on which is not uncommon to see in this town. Everyone has Rider gear. I looked closer to the guy and bingo, Kent Austin. Grey Cup Champion and current head coach of the Riders. His kids go to the same school as mine. Sweeet. He was outside throwing a ball around to the kids. He threw one and said to the kid "don't go to far I am an old guy" Then he threw a perfect spiral and hit the kid right in the numbers, the kid of course dropped it. I said "Looks pretty good to me." He laughed and said thanks. I so wanted to run over and push the kid down and have him throw me a pass. I sure as hell would not drop it. Stupid kid.

It is all good that we are here. Dakota had her first birthday party three days after we got here. She was surrounded by her cousins and family. It was all good. McKenna has been able to spend a lot of time with her cousins also. It is really nice to be close to family.


Anyway I am looking for work anywhwere and everywhere. I had a gig on last Monday at the CCMA's here in Regina. The Canadian Country Music Awards. I was a TVA, or Television Assistant. Which basically means bust your ass all day long doing whatever they ask you to. $220 bucks for 16 hours of work. Long ass day. The music was okay for the most part. With the exceptions here and there. The odd pick up and beer song mixed in with the my girl left me song. If you remember, Nation member, James Grandy, of the MinneApple Grandy's won a CCMA for writing with the singer Brad Johner.

Anyway, at the CCMA's I had the opportunity to talk with Dog the Bounty Hunter. That's right THE DOG. Way cool. Now I know you want to see my brush with greatness pic with the Dog, but me since I have not worked for about a month I forgot my routine. Which includes loading my camera with me. Bonehead. So I don't have the pic, just the memory. I suck. I can tell you one thing, just like Reggie White, he is not in charge in that family. Mrs. Dog is totally in charge. He did not do anything with out looking in Mrs. Dog's direction. Yes, he did have those crazy silver tipped boots and his shirt undone with gold chains on. I saw him in three different outfits throughout the day. Mrs. Dog also HAS to have major back problems, if you know what I mean. Dog is way cool though.

I was a TVA to the guy who ran the jib camera. That is the jib that crane like thing that is in front of the stage to the left. Oh and that is Shane Yellowbird singing about his truck in the picture. Nice. There were a couple of Riders there also. Cool to see those guys out and about representing.


NEXT: Now lets talk about the best thing that has happened lately. PACKER SEASON Whoooooooooo!!!!! Now we go to school Gordon, now we go to school. The Packers are 2-0 and on their way to a Super Bowl. You better believe that if Number 4 leads these boys to the Super Bowl I am going to be there. The Super Bowl is in Phoenix this year and I just happen to know a couple of people who live there, MY PARENTS, so I have a place to stay. Mitch Davis, of the Regina Davis', has already said he is in. Anyone else out there in the Nation wants to go, lets get it done.

First place in the NFC North, gettin 'er done. Favre looked great on Sunday, the Defense is the D I wish we would have had about 5 years ago when the offense was awesome, but the d sucked. Bring on the Chargers. They have not looked good this year but it is going to be a tough game. Packers going to the Super Bowl Baby. Book it!!!

Hey Queen fans, how does this taste? The best thing about it is no one gave the Pack a chance to win 5 games this year. Well, we already have two, it is about to happen. The Lions are getting a bit cocky but the Lions will always be the Lions and they will never be contenders. The Bears Still Suck and the Queens well are Queens. Look out Phoenix here we come.

What about that Bellicheat thing. Man did they get off easy. Suspend the guy and take away picks. As far as I am concerned their Super Bowls have an asterisk. Not sure if I can believe that they did it legit. Plus even after he was busted he acted like he did nothing wrong. No remorse, nothing. He cheated, and he got caught but did not want to make it right. In fact he just blew it off. Kinda sad. It also sends the wrong message to kids and coaches in the lower ranks that it is okay to cheat. I mean really what would you rather have? Three Super Bowl trophies or that one lousy first round pick? I would take the trophies in second. He should have paid a bigger price. Cheater.

I will leave you with this joke, Ivy, of the Moorehead Ivy's, sent it to me. Enjoy.....

This guy walks into a bar wearing a VIKING jersey and carrying a little dog that also has a VIKING jersey on with a little VIKING helmet too. The guy says to the bartender, 'Can my dog and I watch the VIKINGS game here? My TV at home broke and my dog and I want to see the game.' The bartender replies, 'normally, dogs in the bar would not be allowed, but it is not terribly busy in here, so you and the dog can have a seat at the end of the bar. But, if there is any trouble with you or the dog, I'll have to ask you to leave.' The guy agrees and he and his dog start watching the game. Pretty soon the VIKINGS kick a field goal and the little dog jumps on the bar and walks down the bar and gives everyone a high five. The bartender says, 'Hey, that's cool! What does he do for a touch down?' The guy answers, 'I don't know, I've only had him for 3 years.'

The time has come, AGAIN...

Okay, it has been a long time since I posted. I know I have been neglecting the blog and you the loyal readers of TundraTalk Nation. Well I have been busy. With that business comes a HUGE announcement. The Peterson Family has decided to move again. That's right, putting all my shit into boxes and moving to new city to call my own. What is this city you might ask? Well hold your britches I will tell you. Regina Saskatchewan is the city that will now be ground zero for operations of TundraTalk. Donna had an opportunity to take a good job that allows her to have summers off along with all the other holidays, I was not completely pleased with the direction of my job (and the person I worked with), we managed to take advantage of the current boom here in Edmonton by selling our house with a very large profit, very large, so we decided to take the plunge and move. This move allows us to move closer to Donna's family and my family. Plus I now am only about 4 to 5 hours from NoDak as opposed to 15. Closer to Funyuns, Dakota Kid Seeds, Leinie's, KFC's cornbread, Mountain Dew that contains caffiene, and most of all Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Oh, and to all my boys that still reside in the North Country you will be seeing me a little more often than every six years. I think that is good.

We sold our house here in less than 48 hours. No listing it, no real estate agent taking 25 grand, no nothing. Sweet. I will post here our new digits when we get them, we have a house in Regina, the pic to the left. Yes it has a great 'Man Cave' in the basement. Oh and more importantly with all that global warming going on, air conditioning. Sweet. Apparently we had AC in Green Bay also, but I do not remember that. Maybe I was not allowed to use it? The address in Regina will be 1507 Devonshire Drive. Not sure what the postal code is as of yet but I will let you know when I know. If you need to reach us the current phone number 780-434-3457 is active until the 15th of August and Donna's cel will be good for a few days after that 780-966-3457.

So that is the big news, here is the rest...

Robby DuPuis, of the Minneapple DuPuis, was working the day of the bridge collapse. He was the first camera on the scene. He sent out this email to let everyone know what was up. I thought the collective should get the insight...

Just wanted to drop a line to you guys and let you know that Chrissie and I are ok. We had many calls last night wondering if we were. I was unable to answer my phone as I was the first photog on the scene and was neck deep in chaos. My reporter and I arrived so soon that we were able to park less than 20 yards from the collapsed bridge to find only two policemen and two paramedics amongst all of the injured and scared people around. It is very demoralizing to want to help all of those people and not being able to because: there was nothing I could do for them and much less importantly, I had a job to do. It's by far the worst situation I've had to be a part of in my career and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what happened. That's all for now. Please say prayer for all of the people that have truly suffered from this tragedy.
Peace, rob.

Robby, you need to do what you can on your own to deal with it, but should also seek some counseling if you need it. I myself have seen my share of tragedy (not on that scale) and I know that you cannot do this alone. Your station should be able to help and if you want to call me to talk do it. Anytime. Stay safe.

NEXT: I did a podcast last week. I meant to do this one last summer but did not have a chance. It is Mark Sutherland a Pro Chuckwagon Racer from Calgary. You might remember him from a post a long time ago whenI was on his ranch shooting a video for a DVD. Just click the link to the right and listen to your hearts content.

NEXT: As Football season is coming up real fast, and the Camps are all in full on mode, I decided to put up some video that I found recently. It is a shot of the Lambeau Field scoreboard when they played a video of Reggie White. They used to play this during games and the whole place would go silent, everyone watching closely. Amazing the goosebumps would rise up as Reggie (RIP) sings Amazing Grace. YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS ONE.



Reggie Lives from hamiltongbp and Vimeo.

Oh and this one of Drunk Tommy Thompson....Classic...




Drunk Tommy Thompson from hamiltongbp and Vimeo.Have a great weekend and we will see you in Regina!!