Cows on the highway!

Blog for March 5, 2017

Cows on the highway! See below…….

We have had a very busy week, even spending some additional time in the office yesterday, -- our usual preparation day, all in an effort to keep caught up.

As nice as it is to get new cars to work into our fleet, each new car that arrives requires a significant amount of work even before it is placed into service. I have mentioned some details about this in the past so won’t do so again except to say, for each new car introduced into the fleet, an older car must come out of the fleet. Each older car then must undergo a process of inspection, arranging for needed repairs, oil change and tires (if needed), detailing, and pricing at which time the cars can then be advertised for sale. The advertisements trigger phone calls regarding the car’s details (even though the details are provided in the initial announcement), people then wanting to come to see and drive the cars, keeping track of keys, and then the actual sale process. The process of selling off the older cars is important as the money from the sale goes back into the pot of money the Church uses to purchase the newer cars.

The process of car replacement works reasonably well for the vehicle managers in each of the missions, but it is only one aspect of the job. Keeping up with all that is involved around missionary car accidents is another huge chunk of time. The more cars in a mission, the greater the number of accidents that happen, and, as I have previously stated, this mission has more cars than any other. Our winter weather conditions factor into this as well, being much more intense this year than last winter.  The problem is not just our missionaries being at fault, but others sliding into our mission cars. Each accident, regardless of who is at fault, sets in motion a process which often involves weeks of oversight until the car is back into service.  Sometimes this necessitates driving a temporary car out to a set of missionaries while the repair is underway. Such was the case this past week for Kathy and I; we had to take a loaner car out to Sparwood, British Columbia, where we met a pair of missionaries who were driven in from Cranbrook by another set of missionaries, also assigned in Cranbrook. We were able to treat them and the missionaries assigned in Sparwood to lunch and then see them on their way back to their areas. We have made this trip to Sparwood a number of times and love to take a secondary road through a beautiful stretch of road paralleling the Canadian Rockies. On our return trip, we encountered a herd of Red Angus cattle being driven along the road. Many of the cows were obviously pregnant and none had calves trailing them so I suspect they were being driven to a brood pasture where they can be monitored. During the trip we passed a number of pastures where there were many new calves so, “tis the season”.

Cows on the highway! Nanton, Alberta

Friday night we made our usual trip to the Calgary Temple with the Elder and Sister Peppinger. Afterward we went to Red Lobster and enjoyed having dinner with them. We will have one more week to enjoy this weekly event with the Peppingers as they will be leaving for home. We will surely miss them and will certainly miss having them in the office. Our workload will shoot up as soon as they leave as there still are no replacements in the pipeline for them (or for us in May).  

Several local people have told us about a great breakfast/lunch restaurant called, Cora’s. Yesterday morning we decided to give it a try and it was well worth it. Cora’s is apparently found all over Canada. The menu is quite varied and the food is so well presented. We had to wait in line for 20-30 minutes. Once inside we couldn’t help but notice arrangements of fresh fruit as one might do floral arrangements. The food was delicious. Kathy’s fruit and granola bowl was huge and she ended up bringing much of it home. I had apricot crepes with a kind of custard sauce; I had no trouble eating all of it! Oh, I nearly forgot; as customers leave the restaurant, there is a container with a piece of homemade fudge to take as a treat for later. 

 

Have a great week!