Pandemic Rages!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has continued dry but cold with freezing temperatures over night, and struggling above zero each day. We are still waiting, but not eagerly, for the snow to arrive. I am still making it out to the shop regularly and working on a few projects. I have now made and discarded two attempts at a jig for sharpening my chisels. One worked well enough that I got the chisels sharpened—I press on! Wendy has suffered some ill health most of the week, so her work on the side entry has been interrupted. She is feeling better now, but she has shifted her focus to decorating for Christmas. We assembled the new china cabinet.

Africa China Cabinet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It will be installed in the living room and will feature our African dishes. We're still trying to figure out how we'll secure it to the wall. (Interpretation: I have a plan which Wendy does not accept!) Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to rage around the world. Yes, it's worst in the USA, but we're not doing so great ourselves, and thus all travel is currently proscribed for us. Our current Christmas plan involves only our family bubble (Trav, Joanna and kids), but we're planning the full meal deal at least! We enjoyed a brief visit with Dave and Heather as they drove back to Saskatchewan and stopped overnight on Sunday. We sent the luggage racks with them on their way to 55 Laird, as they were continuing to Regina on Friday. The markets have continued their rally in the comfort of the Biden election, and I managed to make quota again this week. In the sporting world, the NHL continues to negotiate on a variety of options for a season beginning in January. It appears that curling will take place mainly in a Calgary bubble for several championship and other bonspiels—I look forward to that! College basketball has burst onto the scene. My Jayhawks were dropped to #7, but won their three games this week. All three of my college football teams played today. #11 Oklahoma won their game, clinching a spot in the championship game. #18 Oklahoma State had a tight game against an unranked team, but lost, so they'll get dropped some, possibly right out of the rankings. Unranked Texas had a wild offensive game but won easily; they may get back into the rankings!

Erica writes: "It’s been a pretty quiet week in the Bailey household. The excitement this week is that we tried out a mail meal plan. We ordered some low carb meals from Good Foods. That’s about as exciting as it gets these days. Liam and Haaken are working on Christmas card designs for us. And Greg sent me a box from Colaneri Estates, so that was exciting."

Kristian has continued with health distress. Erin feels it is mostly allergies, but the school tends to interpret coughing, runny noses and eyes symptoms as concerning, when you take this into the context of only attending half-time anyway, it has increased his stay-at-home time. Lucy is enjoying her first Christmas, as cats are wont to do, by attacking the tree!

Trav & Joanna continue to struggle along under the pandemic restrictions. It is not easy to try to maintain a job or run a business in the current climate. Thankfully, they have some governmental support programs that help out a lot, however, it still takes a bit of jumping-through-hoops to access those. At any rate, they're continuing to do okay, and got some hockey team shoots done before the most recent restrictions due to covid-19 infection levels in the region.

And that's enough for this week!