Travelin'

Ellis - 97

It has been an adventurous week as we have transitioned from the shore of Lake Superior via the shore of La Rivière Rouge to the shore of Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairies. After a favourable covid test result on Sunday morning, and in light of a favourable weather forecast and a favourable highways report, we headed west on Sunday. We got into Winnipeg in the early evening, and enjoyed food and fellowship with Tom and Mariette. Thanks folks! Then, we continued on to Regina on Monday. As is often the case, the highway was snow-covered and icy west of Winnipeg until we got to Portage. We ran into some severe blizzard conditions from Broadview to Wolseley and saw some vehicles, including two semis who had not managed to travel safely. We got into Regina in time to visit Dad on his birthday, and wish him joy in the celebration of 97 years. We moved in with David at 55 Laird, and have enjoyed the remainder of the week there—thanks, Dave! It has been good to see how well Dad is settling in to his new place.

Partying!

More partying!

And still more!

Eric, Erica and Liam joined us for this weekend, and today, we enjoyed having the whole crew visit Dad for a sing song, accompanied by Eric & Erica—good times! The weather has continued with extremes, but now they promise us melting temperatures for the next days. Perhaps, Spring is finally here! The markets whipsawed through another week around each new headline. The Russian war and the world-wide restrictions in response put pressure on commodities so both Gold and Oil surged upward, and then downward! I continue to wait for opportunities when things settle and the markets turn upward. Most jurisdictions are dropping pandemic restrictions, but infections continue, and the unvaxxed continue to die at unfortunate levels. My main preoccupation this week was the Brier. Lots of fun curling, and my three picks advanced to the medal round. However, Jacobs has lost out, Koe has advanced to the final; Bottcher and Gushue will play in the semi-final! Basketball is playing out the conference championships this week, but I haven't been privileged to watch my Jayhawks. Today, they beat TCU to win a record 12th conference championship! Rock Chalk on to March Madness! NHL teams are approaching the trade deadline and trying to decide whether and who they should be trading! Leafs and Oilers are in a desperate search for goaltender help. Pens are pretty well set. 

Melting snow has created ice dams on their roof, so Eric was up chopping it loose earlier in the week. Then, Eric, Erica and Liam joined us here in Regina on Friday. We are enjoying closing off the week with them. 

I managed to do a couple of projects at Erin's house this week. I still want to do a bit more plumbing work over there. We enjoyed watching Kristian curl, and are scheduled for more of that next week. 

Travis, Joanna and Gemma are taking care of things back home in TBay. They got a bit more snow this weekend—sorry about that! Temperatures look to surge well into the positive numbers next week, so maybe that will help clean things up. 

That's about enough for this week!