Volleyball and nuclear weapons: A day in Red Deer

We spent the day in Red Deer yesterday watching my nephew's Christian college team play in a volleyball tournament. It was very interesting at times watching a bunch of Christian colleges play volleyball - no swearing, no taunting, and at one point, the opposing team's coach informed the referee/judge that a ball the ref had called in was, in fact, out, and that cost his team a point. Honesty. Gotta love it.

There was a bit of sporting culture shock when the tourney started. I was unaware that they had tweaked the rules of volleyball so that there is a point awarded off every serve, and not just for the team serving. That makes the games go a lot faster.

But the big news - at least to me - was that one of those "Welcome to Red Deer" type signs on Gaetz Avenue proclaimed that Red Deer is a nuclear-weapons free zone. It's good to know that when the bombs start to fly that Red Deer can hold its head high and say, "No thank you!" before being vaporized into radioactive ash.

But it begs the question ... what does Red Deer know about who in Alberta has nukes? Calgary, I'm looking at you!