Of Fish, Faith Family and Fatigue!

This past weekend was the Victoria Day unofficial start to the summer!  

YeeHaw!

On Friday, we were blessed to be able to help our friend, Heidi, celebrate her birthday in a big way!  (it's a big number, but you did not hear that from me!)  The bash was held at Mrs. Mitchells between Shelburne and Alliston.  The wild mushroom soup was heavenly!  It was a nice evening and we got to meet new folks. Our son Alex and his girlfriend, Jess, was with us, and so was JimSatguy and his wife!  (Lou and Emelda!)

Mrs. Mitchel's Restaurant

Cory and the birthday girl, Heidi!

Alex and Jess having a laugh!

We headed off with the whole gang on Saturday morning to the big city!  The Ripley's Aquarium was our destination!  I have raved about the aquarium since Rose and I went in January!  It did not disappoint.  It was a holiday so there were a lot of kids around, but there was so much to see, it made it worthwhile!  The highlight of the place for me is the Danger Reef and all the sharks!

Ya, it was crowded...go on a weekday!

Sharks!

More sharks!

A happy shark!

Help!

The place is very educational, for young and old alike!  You should go.

I had an "Ah Ha!" God moment at one of the exhibits.  There was a tank full of halibut and cod, you know, everyday eating type fish.  The kind you would get with fish and chips.  It made me thing of a scripture I had read the day before in Luke 5.  Jesus paid Peter back for the use of his boat by somehow causing a HUGE catch of fish that almost broke the guys nets!  It was a set up of course, because then Jesus said "Follow Me"!  Peter followed Him after that!  He did not have have to worry about the future of his family after seeing this miracle!  God provided!

After the aquarium we made our way to Vaughn Mills where my brother Martin and his family were hanging out after a day at the SuperFan comic con in Toronto!

Me and My Bro

After a really QUICK visit we embarked to Keswick to visit Roses cousin JP and her brother, Rob and the gang!  It was night of BBQ and laughs!

 On Sunday it was off to Simcoeside Lifepoint Church in Orillia with the LIFE Street Team!

We played our LIFE 100.3 video and took a few minutes to share with the congregation!

Sunday afternoon it was off to the 400 Market with the Alex and Jess as well as the Torchias, to explore the antiques!  Did not buy anything but had a sweet time looking around!

Sunday night it was over to Scott Jackson's place for a CD and video release party and BBQ for Luke Langman!

Luke performed with Lake Simcoe as the backdrop!  LIFE'S, Evan Duran shot a very entertaining video for one of his new songs and we got to be the first to see it!  Well done, Evan!

Well, you think we would slow down for holiday, Monday but...NO!  I covered news for the morning and then did some drywall work for a friend!  (I think I may be too busy!)

Now that I can breathe a little, I realize that it's fun to be active and get out to meet new people and have new experiences...but don't forget to rest in the middle of it!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Opportunities and Late Nights

I am still sort of catching my breath from a pretty busy few days last week.

The whole thing started with a phone call on Thursday afternoon....

*click*  "Hey, wanna go to the Jays game tonight?  TD Comfort Zone seats!"

"Uhhh...OK!"

*click*

...that's what it seemed like anyway...

I went straight home for a nap after work and then, through a strange twist of circumstances, I found myself sitting behind home plate, enjoying a gourmet buffet and watching the Jays thump the Phillies.  (Yes, I did eat way too much food.)  I had a blast....but it was a late one!

I got home around midnight and hit the hay to be ready for the early Friday on the All New Breakfast Club! The nap the day before helped and all was good, but I knew an even busier Saturday was ahead!

Saturday morning it was off to Etobicoke for a LIFE Street Team Event.  We were playing the tunes and meeting people at Richfield Baptist Church during their annual community Garage Sale.  They really bring the community together for this and it was HUGE!  They raise money for missions work in Nicaragua through all the sales but it's also an outreach to the neighborhood. There was even a prayer room set up and members of the church were on hand to pray with anyone who needed it!

Thousands came through Richfield Baptist, hunting for treasure!

LIFE 100.3 cranking the tunes!

From there it was off to Brampton for the big concert with Steven Curtis Chapman at Bramalea Baptist!
The LIFE 100.3 Street Team set up in the lobby to greet people and offer LIFE gear and tickets to the big 15th Anniversary party with Peter Furler this August!

The LIFE 100.3 booth at Bramalea Baptist!

Steven Curtis Chapman hits the stage!

Rocking out with SCC!

Geoff Moore shared the stage as well.

The Street Team with Steven Curtis Chapman!

The concert did not disappoint!  There was laughter, tears and great memories!  Canadian boy, Dan Bremnes got things going for the evening and even hit the stage at the end to help close off a great night!

...got home around midnight...again!

Sunday was Mothers Day and I have to give a hats off to my daughter, Jasmine for nailing the day with a morning breakfast for Rose that was accompanied by a video picture montage she made the week before that was designed to be a tear jerker!  Then flowers showed up from Victoria, my oldest daughter!  (By the way I took her out for Mexican food after church!)

We ended the afternoon by cleaning the yard, then an evening of my wife's favorite movie, Anne of Green Gables!

Good times!

Still Got It

Why do we hang on to some things and not others?

As we have settled into our place here in Barrie, we unpacked a lot of boxes and put things where they belong.

Rose, my wife, is amazing at this and I try and stay out of her way. 

In the process, I had to go through a bunch of  stuff that I've had in storage for a while.  My daughter showed me something that I have had for 30 years! 

This is a brass belt buckle with a large drum set.  I bought it at a mall in Chatham in 1980.  I have never worn it!

I bought this penguin in 1984 at a drug store in Wallaceburg.  His name is Opus from the comic strip "Bloom County".  He originally had a bow tie.  I just thought it was cool at the time, but not very "macho"!

My friend, Steve Roseel bought me this engraved brass letter opener at the end of school in 1984.  Steve played guitar in our short-lived Christian rock band!

This was my high school pencil case!  I have had it since 1983!  Lots of writing inside and out!

I can't explain why I still have these items after so many years.  I have had other things that I thought meant more to me and those things just seem to have disappeared!  Why do we cart things along with us through all of life's different changes.  Perhaps it's because we need a touchstone to the past.

My most treasured thing that I have had for a VERY long time is my Gideon Bible!  I got it in grade school in 1976, and I will never forget signing the declaration of faith in the back.  I had no idea what was in the bible but I knew it was an important book.  It was years later that those seeds of God's words would get down into my spirit and become real to me!  I am thankful to the two men who came by D.A. Gordon School in Wallaceburg that day and put a bible in my hands.  I don't know who they were and I wonder if they realize the impact that they had that day!

The All New Breakfast Club!

It'e been one week since Tim Maassarany and I took the helm of the morning show on LIFE 100.3!  We sat in on the final show for AJ The Wonderdog on Thursday before the long weekend and then bright and early Monday morning, April 21st we hit the airwaves with The All New Breakfast Club with Tim and Todd!

We were welcomed to the studio with a very cool new banner and a message at the broadcast desk!

It's me and Tim on the morning airwaves along with Maria Lopez with the news!

This week we got to interview a lot of interesting people!  Our first chat was with, John Ortberg on Wednesday.  John is a pastor, author and clinical psychologist based in California.  His new book is called "Soul Keeping" and we chatted about what the "soul" is and how we can have a healthy life by looking after our soul.  On Friday we talked to Marshall Burnham.  He struck up a friendship with MMA champion fighter, Chad Laprise that changed his life profoundly and left him with a few scars both spiritual and physical!

We have a line up of other guests that we are excited about, but have to be kept under wraps for now!

We had a great time at AIR RAID 23!  I got to the one in Barrie and enjoyed We Are Leo the best!  Heartbeats was my favorite song of the night!

The BIG contest on the All New Breakfast Club is the Silver Eagle Cottages Getaway!  Up for grabs is a week long cottage experience in Haliburton for you and 9 friends!  You can canoe, kayak, play beach volleyball or just relax and do nothing!  I want to win but I can't!

Summer is not that far away and there are some more tantalizing contests in the works!

It's been a busy but extremely fun start to the All New Breakfast Club with Tim and Todd!  Thanks to everyone who called in to welcome us and give a word of encouragement!

NERF Easter Weekend!

My kids are crazy.

Rose and I had them over for Good Friday dinner and it was special because we are moving to Barrie and it may be the last time that we are all together for a while.  They are all in their 20's now.  My youngest, Jasmine, just hit the double decade this year and I joked with her that I don't ever want to hear the word "Dooooon't" (Said in a whiny tone)!  She has yet to comply.

Dinner was great, Rose outdid herself.  After the feast we all played Pictionary, guys vs girls.  We had a good team since Vicki's boyfriend, Jay helped Alex and I dominate the All Play category! 

After the game was over and we had sufficiently gloated, I broke out the Nerf guns we got for Christmas last year.  I found them when we were packing our closets for the move.  We only had a limited number of darts so when someone got hit you had to hunt down the ammo in order to defend yourself.

We had previously watched some old videos of the young ones when they were all under 10 years old and I was feeling nostalgic about being the dad of small kids.  That's why it was great when the kids all grabbed those Nerf guns because it was like they were all little again!  It was chaos for a while and I was not about to say anything!  For that brief time I enjoyed having the shouts of my children fill the house again! It was worth the whole weekend!

I love you guys!

After all was said and done, Rose and I realized that we let the time go by without getting a picture of us all together!  Rats!  We found the photo above as we were going through some things earlier and I thought it captured the Gale kids quite well.

Can't wait until the next get together in, Barrie!  And in advance, we bought some extra ammo!

Happy Easter everyone! 

Hug the ones you love!

One Week In!

Well it's been a whole week of enjoyable employment here at LIFE 100.3!

I call it "work".

Why?  Because I LOVE what I do!

I don't think it will ever be chore.  Radio gets me going and I still get chills when a break just seems to click!

The team here works together amazingly and I am truly blessed to be able to be part of the fun.

It's Air Raid tonight, and that means a loud rock show!  "Work"

Today I got to host a four hour overnight show as practice.  "Work"

Today I also got to read the 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts.  "Work"

Today, I got to go to lunch with the head of the news department, the one and only, Tim Maassarany.  "Work, work, work"!

Well, gotta go...duty calls!

New Beginnings.

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks.  My phone rang on St Patrick's Day with a job offer from LIFE 100.3 in Barrie, Ont.  That was March 17th. Within days a series of events unfolded that can  only be described as divine in nature.  It was really remarkable to watch. 
I said goodbye to the great folks at KICX 91.7.  Our home in Sudbury was handled...then a place was basically sitting waiting for us here in Barrie, only minutes from the radio station! Wow! It's all falling together!
I am so thankful for the great friends who have wished us well and have supported me in radio.    You are precious folks!  Thank you God!
The work begins tomorrow as I start at LIFE.  Radio is awesome and I love every minute of it!