World Record!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has continued mild with some nights even staying above zero. It rained pretty much all day yesterday, so the snow piles on the lawn have sunk quite a bit. We've been able to get out for walks everyday, and that's both nice and good for us. Mariana (our new student roomer) has settled in to her nursing program through the university—that's going well. The world continues to pile up new records on the Covid-19 front. We've now lost at least two million people! The CDC were mocked when they issued cautions in early November saying the USA could hit 400,000 deaths before inauguration if folks didn't get serious about the needed precautions. Well, they've already surpassed that terrible landmark, and, this weekend, they've had to admit they actually don't have a stockpile of vaccine—what a debacle! Wendy has continued her Norwex cleanup challenge, and also cleaned up the second puzzle.

One puzzle, or twenty-six?!

Both books 1 and 2.

 

I didn't help much, as I cannot see well enough to be effective. I received a couple of books for Christmas, and I look forward to being able to see well enough to read them, hopefully soon. The surgery is still on for Tuesday despite the raised level on restrictions here in Ontario. Our flights keep getting changed; we're now scheduled to fly down tomorrow and spend an extra day in Toronto. The mild weather allowed me to spend more time in the shop again this week. I built a jig so I can do jointing in the planer, and got my boards ready for glue-up in my new set of diy bar clamps. 

Bar Clamping with Wedges

The markets have been whipsawing all week with each wind of news, especially news of how serious the insurrection plans were, so it hasn't been productive for me. I remain on quota for the month. The NHL began the regular season this week, but my teams have not been putting up the big wins so far. Oilers are 1-2; Leafs are 2-1; while Pens are 0-2. Kansas lost a tight game early in the week, and then their game today was postponed as Iowa State had a Covid outbreak, sigh! 

Erica writes, "Eric and I are on the cusp of completing the English Channel virtual race. As of Friday we have 4.4 km to go and we expect to complete that this weekend. We should have been done by today but with the ice storm we did bit venture out for a walk for the past few days. Liam is back in Caronport and has been working with RU to put out videos featuring the team members. Liam is trying his hat at being Stephen Colbert. He also had his first blackout on his own and is in the market for candles and maybe a wind-up lantern. Haaken continues his work at Costco and Greg is still in Kenora driving truck." The Baileys bought snowshoes, so their adventures no longer need follow the trails—I'm reminded they weren't following the trails before!

Snowshoeing!

Erin and Kristian suffered through a terrible Saskatchewan blizzard. It did some damage to their condo as well as there were tornado-force winds. Kristian was sent home from school early the next day as they were suffering from an electrical outage there as a result of the storm. Fortunately, they had electricity at home. His classes are now operating as in-person/on-line on alternating days. Kristian has been accorded extra support in that he walks to school to get tutoring in the English Language Arts course work for the afternoon of the on-line days.

Travis and Joanna have been over to visit before the most recent restrictions. As I understand it, we're no longer allowed a family bubble even up here in northern Ontario. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Joanna is flying to Toronto tomorrow on the same flight as we are. She'll be helping with dad care down there. Gemma is back in class, but all classes including labs are done on-line. She is finding the Chemistry labs are certainly lacking compared to in-person experiences. 

And that's about enough for this week.