Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been frosty, as befits the time of year. Daytime highs are rarely struggling above zero these days, and we’ve even received our first skiff of snow. I’ve done a bit more efforts covering the camper for the winter, but now Wendy has determined that we should buy a special cover for it, so that’s on the way. I’ve also ordered the replacement material for the awning. I’ve done a bit more work on the FastTrack boards, and Wendy is back to painting in the side entry. She has also bought a new bed for the extra bedroom downstairs as we prepare to host the family for Christmas this year—looking forward to that! It has been a busy week on the musical front as both Wendy’s chorus and ours are in final preparations for Christmas concerts. Our concert is tomorrow afternoon, while hers is Monday night. She will have a few more concerts, but our Silver Sound is now done for the season. In January, we’ll start preparing for a Spring concert. The USA markets have been bad all month as their economy struggles under the weight of Trump Tariffs. He seems to be relenting a bit under pressure from the populace, so we’ll hope for better times to come. Our PM, focused on building world-wide trade, has our economy doing better than expected. The Olympic curling trials have been running all week and I’ve been enjoying the coverage. #1-Homan came through as expected, and will represent us well. My gal, #9-Einarson made the playoffs, but surprisingly fell to #27-Black. Homan made quick work of her in the finals. On the men’s side, by guy, #31-Koe, performed very well, but in the end it was the usual suspects in the playoffs, with #2-Dunstone facing #3-Jacobs in the final, although Koe beat both of them! Jacobs won in two games and will represent us well. Hockey is disappointing so far as my Oilers and the Leafs play around .500, although both won today. The Pens are doing a bit better. In college football only the top twelve teams make the playoffs. The #16-Longhorns had a big win over the previously undefeated #3-Aggies, and may sneak into the playoffs yet. My #8-Sooners struggled against LSU, but eventually won it, so their playoff positioning should be secure. In Basketball, the Jayhawks have fallen from the top 25 rankings, but they had a great week with three wins including over #17-Tennessee, so they should bounce back up the rankings once again. 

Eric wrote, “It’s been a week of getting back into the swing of things. We had work all week, Erica went out of town for work one day. Eric had a few meetings around work and planning for the next year. We had a Christmas party Tuesday night that had fun things like a Jeopardy game between the tables. On Friday, Erica’s band played a gig. They had fun. Saturday, we went to the Raider’s game but they lost. We are doing music in church tomorrow."

A cover charge? They must be good!

Erin is not enjoying the impending winter, although they don’t have much snow in Regina yet. Kristian has accepted the nomination to the forklift training program, and now we wait to see if that comes to fruition. 

Travis and Joanna keep busy, and added a PuckShots assignment to their work this week. But the big event was Trav’s birthday on Thursday! We enjoyed the evening out with them to Wacky’s. Very loud, but good grub! Wendy and I provided some of the entertainment by taking in a Virtual Reality experience. It made Wendy nauseous, and provided laughs for the rest of the crew which included Andrew and Rosie. 

Who’s having a good time!

And that’s about it for this week. 

Still Green!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my home town. We have seen a few snowflakes, but it’s still green outside as befits the week where we celebrate the Grey Cup Championship! It happened last Sunday—we revelled in the Rider victory over Montreal! Our first championship since 2013. Yay Riders!

Riders win! Riders win! 

The usual events of the week—a lot of choir business for Wendy and music practices for both of us played out well. Our choir, Silver Sound, is in the final stages of preparation for our concert on October 30th. Wendy has returned her attention to our ten-year reno project—she is painting in the side entry. Yay! On Friday, she took our old friend, Rauni, out for a 94th birthday celebration! The markets have been terrible all month, and all indices remain in the red to this point. The difficulties lie in figuring out what the reality is with the USA economy, and then guessing what his Orangeness will do next. This week his personally installed “experts” tried to tell us that 119,000 jobs were created in September when all other indications were that much fewer jobs were created, and that it is likely that jobs were lost! This is what the experts have been reporting, but he didn’t like that, so he installed his own experts to tell him what he wanted to hear—yes, it does sound like North Korea! In college football, the reranking went pretty much as expected. Today, my #8-Sooners beat Missouri to maintain their playoff position, while #17-Longhorns blasted Arkansas to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. In basketball, #24-Jayhawks put up a spirited effort, but lost to #5-Duke. The big event for me now is the Olympic curling trials. #1-Homan is the clear favourite on the women’s side, but my favourite, #9-Einarson, will challenge. On the men’s side, #2-Dunstone and #3-Jacobs lead the way, but I’ll still be cheering for my longtime favourite, #29-Koe, who is probably playing in his last hurrah! #6-Epping is playing well, and of course #19-Gushue always plays tough! In hockey, my Oilers and the Leafs continue their mediocre play, while the Pens are struggling along under injury issues, but being quite successful. 

Erica writes, “After very little sleep and an early morning start, we made our way back from Belgrade to Prince Albert! We had a good trip, enjoyed some wonderful hospitality on our two-day side trip to Italy and a few driving adventures. The more we travel, the less foreign new places feel. We hope to spend some time living over seas, maybe for six months, when we retire, so we can do more traveling without the big flights. It’s getting harder to recover from the swelling the flight causes. And, as we were driving back to Belgrade from Montenegro, I marvelled at road signs that said Vienna and Budapest and thought if only we had time and money, we could just keep exploring. Elizabeta enjoyed seeing her daughter, a younger brother and brother in law and other family members. It had been over two decades, which is hard to imagine. And yet, that was the reality for my own grandparents and great grandparents who immigrated to Canada. It is good to be back in our own beds!” 

Erin and Kristian are continuing to enjoy the green in Regina as well. Erin spent the week with work-work-work! Kristian is working on his job applications, and has been offered an opportunity to train as a fork-lift operator—sounds like a good option. 

Travis and Joanna are still busy with work and four dogs! Trav also took on an extra contract to make me a new set of labels for the monitor station in the camper—you can see how it has deteriorated over the years. He made two sets, one with colour, one just black and white. I haven’t decided which set to use yet—Thanks! 

And that’s enough for this week. 

Grey Cup Weekend!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been lovely, and we’ve enjoyed taking Kali for walks and working in the yard preparing the camper for winter.

Just fits!

No extra room!

I managed to get the gates switched to outward opening, and they’re working properly, so the camper is now parked out back. All systems seem ready for the layoff, and it has electricity available. I also managed to get the generator working properly. It was running fine, but not putting out electricity. I had not heard of the concept of flashing the generator, but YouTube has, so I tried flashing it with my angle grinder, et voilà, we have current! I have also been working on the awning. We have only the mechanical parts for the awning, but we have worked on those, and we’re pretty much ready to apply new awning fabric, although I want warm weather for that, so it may wait until Spring. We keep working on our choir music, preparing for Christmas concerts coming at the end of the month. The markets continue to be difficult with the USA economic turmoil leaving all their indices in the red so far this month. The Continental Cup of curling ended on Sunday with #1-Homan coming through for us on the women’s side, while #1-Mouat prevented our sweep, overcoming #2-Dunstone in a shoot-out. College football featured big games for my teams as they try to get in position for the playoffs. My #11-Sooners travelled to #4-Alabama and rode four turnovers by their defence to victory. That’s like two wins: Sooners won, and Alabama lost! #10-Texas was also on the road, at #5-Georgia, but they were not up to the task. Now, we wait to see the new rankings. Of course the big football action is tomorrow in Winnipeg as the Riders face Montreal for the Grey Cup. Go Riders! In hockey, nothing much is changing as my Oilers continue to flounder, although they won tonight, The Leafs are really on a downer, while Pens are playing well, but losing some games late, sigh! In basketball, KU was dropped to #25 after last week’s action, but replied with two wins this week—Rock Chalk boys. 

Eric and Erica have spent the week touring Montenegro with their neighbours. They have enjoyed seeing them find their old neighbourhood that they left 36 years ago, and reuniting with family over there. 

Kristian called one day with an electrical problem. It was not straight-forward, but with the facility of FaceTime, we worked our way through it! Erin keeps busy with work. Kristian helps nicely around the house, and continues with his drug trial. He needs a job! Currently, he’s working with the DHH folks on his application for SAID funding. The cats are doing well. 

Travis and Joanna are busy with their work and the new dog. Trav brought Jasmine and Marigold over one day to get acquainted with Kali. That was a good visit. 

And that’s about it for this week. 

RIDERS!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. Temperatures continue to drop, and nearly every night is dropping below zero, and only a couple of days rising to double digits. We hear reports of snow at higher elevations away from the lake, but nothing here yet. As teased last week, I flew down to Toronto, and out to Niagara Falls on Tuesday morning to check out an RV. It checked out, so I made the purchase, completed the paperwork and headed for home. The trip went well despite the alarming levels of fuel use by the V10 Ford powering the one-ton unit.

Sleeping with the big rigs!

I overnighted at a truck stop just west of Sudbury—there were three campers, and about 30 semis! Then, I completed the trip on Wednesday, arriving here in time for supper. We are pleased with the condition of the vehicle, and Wendy is already planning a trip for next summer. It will facilitate travelling with the dog, and every night spent in the camper represents a tank of fuel. There is work to be done on the unit, as the awning needs repair, and the generator doesn’t generate! Normal activities of the week in our choirs still took place. The markets were a disaster as the Orange economy continues to decline as they can’t even manage to keep their government operating, so didn’t get an official job losses for the month, but a private firm did track layoffs, and noted that in the last month, USA lost 153K jobs—the worst in 22 years, for a total of over 1 million jobs lost this year. AI can only carry the economic load for so long. So, it was a lot of red this week. Meanwhile, we increased our payrolls by 67K—good work! In college football, my teams (#12-Sooners, #11-Longhorns) were resting, but there was plenty of CFL action as the conference finals took place in Hamilton and Regina. Riders scored late to beat BC and advanced to the Grey Cup game against Montreal. In hockey, the Penguins continue to impress near the top of the league and with Crosby leading the league in scoring. Leafs and my favourite, Oilers, continue with mediocre results. The big curling event this week was the Grand Slam event in Lake Tahoe NV with the top 16 teams in both men’s and women’s competition. On the women’s side we had three Canadian teams playing, but only #1-Homan advanced to the playoffs against two Korean, two Japanese, two Swiss and one Swedish team. They’ve kept winning, and advanced against their long time rival, #2-Tironzoni in the final tomorrow. On the men’s side, we had six teams there, with four advancing to the playoffs. It will be #1-Mouat from Scotland vs #2-Dunstone. So, I’m saying, there’s a chance we win both sides! The Basketball season has begun, and my Jayhawks opened at #19. They split their games this week. 

Erica writes, “It has been a busy week of getting projects done and preparations completed for our trip. This Saturday is our Rotary’s Wine Premiere and the theme is Chile. We had a few evenings of making colourful flowers and lantern decorations. Eric and I leave for Montenegro Sunday morning.”

Erin and Kristian are facing the advance of the seasons in Regina with cooling temperatures and a few flakes❄️! Kristian is working with the DHH folks on a disability funding application. He may also be learning how difficult it is to find a job, let alone work for a living! 

Jasmine & Marigold

Travis and Joanna flew down to Ottawa with Marigold to pick up their new dog, Marigold’s sister. That adds up to four dogs in their household, which may be as many as four too many in my books! Jasmine is a bit smaller than Marigold. Moxley and Darby are much heavier. Otherwise, they’re just as busy as always! 

And that’s about it for this week. 

Camping? This time of year?

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has continues to cool with most days struggling to get to double digits, and a few frosty nights. I have managed a bit more yard work, raising the front landing, and changing the hinge direction on the back gate in anticipation of a possible camper purchase.

2004 Gulfstream Ford

Wendy has been lobbying for a camper for years, so here we are! We have made a tentative purchase, subject to it passing inspection—more on that next week! Otherwise it’s been a pretty usual week around her with choirs and meetings for Wendy. We had only 31 trick-R-treaters last night, so I have quite a few chocolate bars to clean up! The Continental Cup of curling ended with a surprise as #1-Homan fell to #12-Wang of China. #4-Jacobs won the men’s championship comfortably over #14-Shuster of USA. College football saw #20-Texas beat #9-Villanova, so they should move up in the rankings. #18-Sooners beat #14-Tennessee on the road—surprised me! Their dominant defence with 4 sacks, 2 picks and a scoop-and-score carried them. In the CFL it was the division semi-finals today. Montreal beat Winnipeg to advance to the Eastern final against Hamilton. BC held off Calgary to advance against the Riders in the Western final—go Riders! The excitement all week has been the World Series where the Blue Jays and Dodgers have put on an entertaining match up, including an 18-inning game! The series ended today in extra innings in Toronto with the Dodgers repeating as champs. Hockey continues about ten games into the season—not much time to watch my teams yet with all the football and baseball playoffs. 

Erica writes, “This week we took the 6 Types of Working Genius training and assessments at work. I’ve done a few of these over the years. This is the most useful one yet. What I found out is that my two not genius, or “frustations” are Tenacity and Galvanizing. In other words I derive no pleasure from simply completing tasks, nor do I particularly enjoy trying to rally the troops. I found this information so interesting that I got Eric to take it, too. And therein we discovered a problem. Eric’s two frustrations are also Tenacity and Galvanizing. No wonder our 10 year reno needs an extension! Neither of us are personally motivated to get stuff done, nor do we want to motivate each other. Yikes! My working geniuses are Invention and Enablement—coming up with ideas and being there to support others. That computes. Eric’s are Discernment and Enablement. I told him I’m glad because now he can support me by making all the decisions! This weekend, I’m off to Margaret’s house with the girls for a fun weekend. Eric and the rest of the guys are going to the Raider game back in PA. Next weekend, we have our Rotary Wine premiere fundraiser, and then, we leave for Montenegro.”

Kristian has begun work on work! He has revamped his resume and started sharing it around. Now that he has a car, he’s more available for work, but he also needs work to put fuel into the car! Erin has plenty of struggles around this situation as well as her regular work commitments, and is thankful for the distraction of watching the Blue Jays in the World Series. 

Travis & Joanna continue to be very busy with all things work and dogs! They didn’t have very many by their place for Hallowe’en (20 or so), but it was enough to make the dogs frantic! 

And that’s about it for this week. 

Frosty

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been cool and rainy with most nights down into single digits and temperatures struggling into double digits during the day. We have also had a few nights dropping into negative numbers—frosty! We have done a bit more Fall yard work; and, I’ve been back to the shop, preparing it for winter. We have our usual music practices; there’s only a month left before our Christmas concert.

Curling last weekend concluded with the two #1 teams prevailing as Mouat beat Dunstone on the men’s side, while Homan defeated Tirinzoni for the women’s title, and an unprecedented 19th Grand Slam championship. This week, the big event is the Continental Cup in Virginia MN. Our teams (#4-Jacobs and #1-Homan) both made the playoffs. And, after winning their semi-final games, they will compete in the championship final tomorrow. Jacobs will face USA, #14-Shuster. Homan is up against China, #16-Wang. In college football, #14-Sooners lost to #10-Ole Miss while #22-Longhorns managed to overcome an unranked team in OT. It seems that for both teams, their chances of making the playoffs are slowly leaking away. Riders, having already clinched first place, played out the regular season against the Lions tonight. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays have defeated the Mariners and moved on to the World Series against the Dodgers. They won the opening game and lost game 2, so they head to Los Angeles for the next three games. In early action of the new NHL season for my three teams: Pens are doing well, while Leafs and Oilers are playing below expectations. 

Erica writes, "We had a pretty normal week in PA. Eric had a conference in Saskatoon on Friday and today. I’m trying to get some work done, so I don’t fall behind with our upcoming trip.We have finalized our plans to take our neighbour to Montenegro to see her daughter. We leave on November 9th and will be back on the 21st.”

Kristian has decided that the Machinist program was just too tough, so he has quit school and is currently looking for a job. We are all saddened by this development, but wish him well in what he chooses next. Erin has been learning a new software management program for tracking the deals at VW, so that was an extra work challenge for this week as well as the turmoil with Kristian. 

Travis and Joanna have announced the adoption of another dog—their fourth. The new gal will be another Pomeranian and actually the sister of Marigold. Travis is scheduled to pick her up in early November. Otherwise, they both keep busy with work, and joined us for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner this week. Hey, when you’re old you can celebrate things whenever you want!! 

And that’s enough for this week. 

Clipped

We’ve had a rainy week here on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, but at least the temperatures have been comfortable. We enjoyed an evening at Trav & Joanns’s on Sunday as we celebrated Thanksgiving with a wonderful meal, and a good visit. Andrew and Rosie were also there. On Tuesday, we enjoyed taking a Tucson for a test drive. It pretty much checks all the boxes for us as we continue the search for our next vehicle. Best of all it sports excellent fuel economy, and an expected range of 900km on a tank of fuel. Our 2014 Santa Fe continues to serve us well, but it is over 225K now, so we’re looking!

On Wednesday, Kali got a haircut. She has noted the cooling effect of the hair loss and we often find her under the covers with us! Wendy fasted in preparation for her updated bloodwork on Wednesday; that returned much improved numbers and she is encouraged. The markets had a bad week as Trump was back on the trade war path against China. He threatened 100% increase in tariffs, but finally relented on Friday when he noted that 100% increase was unsustainable, and seemed surprised that anyone had suggested such a thing! (You can’t make this up!) In the world of sports, I’ve had a big week of curling in the Tour Challenge. My long time favourite, #26-Koe had a sponsor’s exemption into the field, but it seems his crew is not up to it as he failed to make the playoffs. My gal, #6-Einarson made the playoffs, but fell to #1-Homan. Homan will play #2-Tirinzoni in the final, while #3-Dunstone takes on #1-Mouat in the Men’s final. In baseball, the LA Dodgers have swept the Milwaukee Brewers to advance to the World Series. The Blue Jays dropped the first two, but have come back to force game six tomorrow in Toronto. (So, you’re saying there’s a chance?!) After the Riders clinched first place, they rested many of their starters but still held the Bombers down for most of the game last night. The early season in the NHL is also running, but I’m struggling to find time to watch much. In college football, the expected re-ranking took place. Today, #14-Sooners had an impressive win to improve to 6-1. #21-Horns snuck by Kentucky, in overtime, to improve to 5-2.

Erica writes, “It’s been a busy week—band practise on Monday for both Eric and me, as Eric came to learn the sound board, Rotary on Tuesday, Bingo for me and Elders meeting for Eric on Wednesday, Gig at Mr Mikes on Thursday… on Friday, we got an invite from a friend to watch the Rider game and declined—our social batteries were done! We have been making plans for a trip to Montenegro with our neighbour. She and most of her family were refugees from the former Yugoslavia. However her oldest daughter was getting married at the time of their departure and stayed behind. So, our neighbour hasn’t seen her daughter for 26 years. The last few years, her daughter has been very sick and our neighbour is worried she is running out of time. So, we accompanying her to go visit her daughter. Please pray for a safe trip and for our plans to come together.”

Erin’s Thanksgiving Feast

Erin prepared a Thanksgiving feast that lasted through several days. She has had a good week at work, but her home life is not so smooth as Kristian is having difficulties in his Machinist courses at Saskatchewan Polytechnic. We hope they will be able to work out a plan for the way forward. 

Travis and Joanna hosted the Thanksgiving meal—thanks guys. After supper, we just enjoyed a quiet evening of visiting and playing with the dogs. Trav is keeping very busy, and is glad that post office deliveries have brgun again. He is also following his Penguins in the new NHL season. We often chat about that. And, like the rest of the country, they are living and dying with the Blue Jays! 

And that’s enough for this week.