Saturday, October 29

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been fine, Fall weather, and we've been enjoying the colours. We've had a few showery days, so I haven't been out golfing, but I'm hoping for at least one more round before the end of the season. The World Series ended in disappointing fashion and we're into the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" season. Rangers surely shoulda and coulda won the series in game six! The Riders continue playing out the string; they handily beat one of the playoff teams this afternoon. We have to enjoy what little victories we can get. It's been a good week on the markets. We hope this is the start of a multi-month rally to close the year. I've almost finished my bus-driving stint; I was informed that the regular driver will return on Monday. It's been a good run. 

Wendy continues with Walmart. She has completed arrangements for our Fall travels, I think. She has continued to work on Kristian's Lego collection; I'm guessing she plans to buy more when we get to Legoworld at the Mall in Minneapolis. That's fine, because I know there's an Apple store just across the hallway! 

Erin has been working on Kristian's Speech Therapy issues. She's making limited progress so far, and she continues to work on it. She's in contact with an advocacy group called VOICE. It's a busy time with Hallowe'en activities. We were out pumpkin hunting last night, and we are planning on pumpkin carving tomorrow afternoon! Kristian's doing better at school after a few heart-to-heart discussions about his responsibilities. 

Trav is busy with hockey and work. The team he coaches remains undefeated, and his Penguins are in first place in their division of the NHL, so hockey is going well. He's finding his work pretty busy and pretty successful as well. He's even thinking about adding some office staff, and I've made a recommendation! Joanna is moving this week, so she and Trav have been pretty busy doing that. She is looking forward to having more room; Andrew and Gemma are looking forward to having their own rooms. 

And that's about it for this week. 

Saturday, October 22

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been cool and rainy most of the week, but has turned beautiful for the weekend! The Riders continue to play out the string, losing last night to Calgary. The World Series continues with St. Louis up a game over my Rangers after blitzing them tonight. I'm still driving the school bus; management asked me if I've heard from the driver I'm replacing about when she's returning, but I haven't. I'll just keep on driving until she returns, or until it's time for us to head south. She was supposed to return the day after Thanksgiving, but we're still waiting! I've had another above average week on the markets, so I continue to recover. TSX is still off over 11% for the year, so I hope it can continue to gain value for the rest of the year. I haven't been out golfing, although today was a good day for it. I've given some deep watering to the cedars and got the lines blown out and put away for winter. I picked the final batch of beet greens, so the garden is done for the year. 

Wendy has kept busy at Walmart, but has also been working on final arrangements for our trip. Then, she got notification of auto insurance renewals, so that took some time as well. She will be retiring from Walmart as we head out on our holidays. I hope that if she wants to continue working after we get back, she finds a different job. 

Erin continues with her work and motherhood. She's been frustrated this week with issues over Kristian's speech therapy. That has changed since he turned six, and not for the better! Kristian has also been giving her a struggle over his lack of cooperation at school. Children make life so interesting! 

Trav's hockey team continues to be undefeated in the early season. His Penguins are doing well also, and are tied for first place in their division of the NHL. Work continues to develop on his own business, and somedays he finds it a bit overwhelming as the wheels of progress seem to turn very slowly. Joanna, Gemma and Andrew all joined us for supper and the evening yesterday. That was nice. 

And that's about it for this week. 

Saturday, October 15

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We had gorgeous weather for the Thanksgiving weekend, such that we almost were able to accept the dismal Rider performance on Monday. What a sad football season they are having! It's been a good week on the markets such that even though it was just four days, I gained more than I expect to get in a month. I am thankful for that since it's been nothing but decline since May. Bus driving has continued to go well. I keep expecting that one of these days the actual driver will be back, but so far, so good! I have started another round of teeth cleaning at the college. We have student dental hygienists work on us as part of their training (and part of our penny-pinching!) so it takes several hours. It also includes a checkup with a dentist there, so it works out well for us. The weather has turned windy, wet, and cool toward the end of the week, but I did get out for a round of golf with Erin on Thanksgiving. It was her first round on a full course, and we just played nine holes. I was no longer playing excellently, but it went fine and I was +5 for the nine holes which is about what I feel is a satisfactory level for me. In the last couple of years, it has been closer to +9 for nine holes until I had that unexpected result two weeks ago. Another remarkable part of that result was 12 greens in regulation, whereas this week I hit one out of nine—more like the real Bill, I'm afraid! Baseball continues to demand attention, as I have one of my picks, the Rangers, into the final with their win tonight, and tomorrow we'll see if the Cardinals can join them. I had a small disaster with my old Cougar this week; I was driving it back from my dental cleaning when something went wrong under the hood, and it was on fire. I cruised to a stop about a block from home and opened the hood. I was trying to smother it out with some rags from the trunk while someone called the fire department and another ran to get me a pitcher of water. Once the water arrived, the fire was soon out, although the firefighters insisted on tearing the insulative blanket off the hood and dousing it with water as well. It appears it started as an electrical fire above the distributor, so we'll see how long it takes me to get her running again. 

Wendy has continued with irregular shifts at Walmart, and cleanup around the house. This week, she is specializing in Lego. She has managed to rebuild several of Kristian's projects, and continues to work on and enjoy that. She has begun the teeth cleaning as well. 

Erin and Kristian continue with work, school and day care. Kristian has been pushing buttons at both school and home, testing out the limits and having a lot of fun doing it. I always say there's a problem when the teachers are unhappy and the parents are unhappy, but the child is happy! I recommend that they maximize their efforts to change that last condition! 

Trav's team has started the regular season in hockey now. They won their game the other night 2-0, so that was good, although Trav wanted them to score more! His Penguins are also doing well despite missing their captain. Crosby has now been cleared to practise with contact, so, we are hopeful he will return to action soon. Work is going well for Trav in his own business, except that his phone is not working consistently—must be time for a new iPhone 4S. Joanna continues to be busy with her blood-letting! The children are busy in school. 

And that's about it for this week. 

Saturday, October 8

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather is unexpectedly warm, even hot. After that one hard frost last Saturday morning, we've returned to summery weather with frequent morning fogs. Work has been going fine, but I don't know how much longer it will last. When it started, the expectation was one month of recovery time after the knee surgery and that's almost run out, so we'll see how much longer she is off work. This week I finally have the entire route learned; I'm still working on names. The markets have continued their crazy ways, but I've managed some good recovery this week. The Riders don't play until Thanksgiving Monday; we can only hope it'll be something to be thankful for! Baseball completed the first round of playoffs and I picked three of the four winners. Now we're down to the final four. That round started this evening with a big win by my favoured Rangers. I got the garden shed cleaned out and repaired; we're getting stuff put away for the winter. I was back to my oncologist this week. He affirmed that my PSA levels have improved, but that they're still elevated against what's considered normal. Then again, we've also heard this week that checking of PSA levels is useless! Who knew? 

Wendy has been busy this week preparing pumpkin pies, pumpkin loaves and zucchini cake. Thanksgiving dinner is planned for Sunday afternoon. Regular and irregular shifts (7AM? Give me a break!) at Walmart have continued. She also worked the polls on election day. 

Erin is enjoying her new work, and getting fully into it. We're planning to go golfing sometime this weekend. Kristian was down with a cold one day and missed school, but he's been working to catch up since. We had the wrong spelling list for this week, so his practice time was not effective. We were able to recognize the test words in his attempts! 

Trav continues with his new business. He has picked up a few more good contracts this week with Deepak something or other—nope, not Chopra! He continues to work with his hockey team as they prepare for the season. Joanna and Andrew were over Friday evening, and we expect the whole crew for Thanksgiving dinner. 

And that's about it for this week. 

Saturday, October 1

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We've had nice weather the first half of the week, but it's turned chilly lately. It finally froze last night, so we have a batch of green tomatoes trying to ripen in the kitchen now. Work has been going well, and I have the routes pretty well learned. I started the week with a memorable game of golf; now I'm afraid to go out again in case I return to reality! The Riders played this afternoon against arch-rival Calgary and it wasn't pretty! I think that moves us into next year country. Baseball has started the playoffs, so that attracts a lot of our attention for the next while. The markets have continued to be in turmoil from one day to the next. I managed a small gain this week, but sustained a loss for the month. 

Wendy continues to be busy with Walmart, but she is also into Spring cleaning this Fall! She's been trying to get things developed downstairs for Kristian's room in her spare time! 

Erin has now switched over to her new job, and she's liking it. It gives her more comfortable hours, so she gets more time with Kristian in the evenings. He's busy learning sight words, practising for spelling tests; it is hard to imagine how quickly he is growing up! 

Trav is busy with his work in his new office. He's also begun the hockey season and his team had a very impressive 7-1 win this week. Joanna must be too busy, because we haven't seen much of her this week, but we do get to talk on the phone from time to time, and she joined us for dinner today—a nice family potluck as they brought rice, salad and veggies to go with Wendy's chicken parmigiana. 

And that's the kind of week it's been.