Summer!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. Summer projects have the house and yard looking great, and we wonder why we are heading out on a summer trip instead of staying here to enjoy the place!

The House in Summer

Deck, Back Yard, Yard Girl! 

Gemma will be taking care of the place while we're away, and we're glad to have her manage that. Wendy has completed the staining on the lower deck, and done lots of weeding. I have rebuilt the picnic table, but there's still some trim work to do there. The markets have continued to be troubled, but late in the week took a green tack as a new thesis has taken hold: it holds that the rate increases and monetary tightening by the FED will drive the USA into a recession, so the result will be that they don't raise rates so much after all! In sports Colorado has Tampa Bay on the brink, but the Bolts are still fighting—game six coming up on Sunday! The Riders took a beating in Montreal on Thursday night, and lost a key receiver, so there'll be some regrouping needed there! Jays are playing pretty well, but no one can keep up the Yankees so far this season. 

Eric and Erica had another busy week in Prince Albert with late evenings. They've managed to duck around all the thunder and hail so far! Headline for this week is: Eric is preaching on Sunday! So, we'll be catching that on-line. On Monday, Sask Lipedema has a meeting with the Minister of Health! We hope this results in some action and support. Liam continues working at Cypress Hills Camp for the summer, Haaken and Greg are also doing well.

Kristian is working his way through exams at school; that is now completed successfully! Congratulations Kristian—on to grade 11! Erin is managing her work and household. The cats are now tolerating each other. 

Travis completed his pet-sitting assignment as Joanna has returned from England. As often is the case, travel sometimes has hiccoughs, but we're glad they have successfully negotiated them all and made it back to us. We went out with Travis one evening to mark Father's Day. First time to Boston Pizza in a long time. The changes to the menu did not impress us, but we had a good time and a good meal anyway. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Happy Father's Day!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather was cool, windy and showery for the first half of the week, but has switched to sunny and nice for the weekend!

Our new front door!

The big saga of the week here surrounds the purchase of a new front door, and involves more than one week! Wendy has been wishing to replace our old, solid core wooden door for about (let's see, how long have we been here?) twenty years! Originally it was at the end of a short, dark hallway, so I got rid of the hallway, which necessitated moving the light switches (gang of four) so they were now behind the door! As you may well imagine, this did open up the hallway, and reduced its length to about 1 metre, but did nothing to removing the desire for a new door that swung the other way, and had a window in it! As we walked around the nearby (and not so nearby) neighbourhoods, she would delight in pointing out the windowed doors that evoked her interest. Finally, she settled on a half-light door; she wanted fancy glass that let in light, but didn't allow one to see through. And, she found one—at Home Depot! Well, sort of—it showed up in the online listings, and in their inventory, but not in the store itself! It was a virtual door! The workers there assured her there was no such door in the store. They opined that it may be on a customer's cart, and just hadn't gone through check-out yet! (I could have advised them that such an excuse would not fly with Wendy!) During the entire episode, we took numerous trips to the store. No, they assured us (in person, not just on the phone) there was no such door. There were also many phone calls—that virtual lady who "answers" the phone cannot be trifled with either! Wendy ordered one on-line (it'll arrive mid-July while we're in Saskatchewan!), but she was undeterred, (Do you understand that faintly resigned-look I wear on my face?) and finally, last Saturday, Wendy found the door. It had been "misfiled" among a batch of other-sized doors! It was up in the top storage area, but not out of her range of search. Ah, they agreed, we will sell you that door. So, she bought a second door; it, they assured us, would be made ready for pick up tomorrow. And so it was that Sunday afternoon, we cleared out the back of the Santa Fe in readiness for the new door, drove over to Home Depot, presented ourselves at the pick-up desk, and, the helpful clerk (also an apparent rarity!) there checked through his inventory, and assured us there was no door! He prepared a "pick order" for the folks in millwork, who, we knew, had no idea where the door was. In undue time, a fellow from millwork arrived to get the pick order, and Wendy went to supervise over there. Soon, she beckoned me to come over there. The door had been brought down, but the latch-side jamb was broken. The threshold is attached with two screws to the bottom of each jamb, and the wood (MDF) was broken off where the screws should attach. Ah, they agreed, this is not good! Ah, they assured, HD will reduce the price by about $20 to $30 and sell the damaged article. Ah, I'm thinking, for a $100 reduction, I'll take it. So, on Monday we were back to HD to try to discuss with someone in management what kind of reduction we might be offered. But, by this time, there was someone helpful in millwork who assured us that would never happen. They do not sell damaged goods, he explained. The door had been dispatched to trash, by which he means Habitat for Humanity Re-Store! At this point, Wendy had paid $650 for each of two doors and had neither! This kind of discrepancy does not sit well with her! She cancelled the in-store purchase of the non-existent door, and we made our way to Re-Store, but alas, there was no door. The helpful clerk there informed her that she should phone in regularly, and could thus find out when the door arrived from HD. On Tuesday, she advised us that the cube-van had been dispatched for commercial pickups, so we headed back to Re-Store. Sure enough, as we peeked through the window into the processing area, we could see our door. But no, the unhelpful fellow there informed us, it would not be processed today—better come back tomorrow. Back to the helpful lady strode Wendy, who after some consideration, processed the door, and assessed a value of $260. After some examination to assure ourselves it had not been further damaged in shipment, we bought our door, loaded it in the Santa Fe and took it home! Sigh! Some epoxy and screws repaired the broken area, and I installed the door on Wednesday! Looks good, I think, and the surrounding story is even better! Other news: Golf good! Markets bad! Hockey good! Riders good!

Erica writes, "Not much happening around the Bailey household this week… we got our summer tires on! It rained, a lot. And Eric is working on figuring out some new programs at work. All is well with us!"

Kristian's classes have completed, but he is heavily into yearend deadlines and exams. This week, he decided to give his bike to a Ukrainian refugee family—nice touch, buddy! Erin has scheduled the RAV4 for hailstone dent repair, and arranged a loaner. They are also getting our room ready! 

Joanna has been away in England this week, a bitter-sweet week to be sure. We look forward to her return next week. I got the bookcase re-assembled over at their place, making the final delivery of shelves today, and picking up the rest of my tools. It looks serviceable. 

Rebuilt!

And that's about it for this week. 

Heating up! Turning red!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather continues to heat up, and we're enjoying it so far. We only decided to use the central air one day. The lawns are growing too quickly and I'm already tired of mowing! Fortunately, my new-to-me battery-powered lawn mower works great. I am able to do three complete mows of both lawns on a single charge. We have continued work on the back deck. Wendy likes the process of installing three boards, then she applies a final coat of stain, and after that dries, I can install three more boards! Besides, by the time I drill pilot holes, and screw down three boards, it is pretty much a day's work for me! We have completed the decision-making, and issued a contract for new shingles, fascia, soffits and eavestroughs. Wendy has also ordered a new front door with a half-light, but we're not certain of a delivery date yet. I would like to install that before our summer trip. Wendy is not experiencing much difficulty with her shingles, but the vision problem still troubles us. The markets have turned red again as inflation fears lead to interest-rate-hike fears lead to recession fears! Pundits and investors alike have twisted themselves into knots trying to decide how to play this. We had almost recovered enough for my charting system to give the buy-signal, but now we're back to the waiting game. In the Stanley Cup playoffs the Colorado Avalanche finished off my Oilers and have moved on to the final series. They will be playing Tampa Bay Lightning. This is my first round of picking 100% correctly, although I hated to see my Oilers lose. I'm picking Avs to win it all. The CFL has begun, and the first week of games is complete. My Riders played Hamilton tonight and managed to start the season on the right foot—yay Riders! The Jays are playing well in baseball. I have too many options for what to watch next!

Erica writes, "Eric and I returned from Vancouver on Monday night. Vancouver is so busy—I don’t think I want to live there. Liam is busy working with a camp in the Cypress Hills area near Maple Creek. His work has expanded to include social media content which he enjoys. Haaken and Greg are doing fine."

Erin and Kristian carry on with their usual routines in Regina. Kristian has received good news over his application to Clearview Camp. So, he'll be there two weeks as junior counsellor, and then attend another week as a camper. That means we'll miss some of our expected time with him this summer, but we're also delighted that he's getting this camping opportunity. Erin is finally getting her vehicle booked for last summer's hail damage. Today, she let the cats get together—it did not go well. 

Joanna has flown to England with her sister and her step-mom. They are returning her father's ashes to his ancestral home. I'm sure it's an emotional trip for them.

Digging under the Fence!

Trav has been taking care of the pupsters while they try to escape the yard! Gemma has flown down to Toronto to take care of the home and dog down there while Grandma is away. 

And that's about enough for this week. 

What is so rare...?

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been comfortable, but not as warm as we expect for this time of year. At least it has been conducive to making progress on the deck building, and Wendy has been keeping up with the staining. Wendy has been diagnosed with Shingles, however whether it's our vaccinations, or the early intervention with anti-viral meds, she is not suffering much so far. She is experiencing vision issues in her right eye, so she was referred to an ophthalmologist over that. I also have a couple of indoor projects on the go as I'm rebuilding a book case for Travis, and doing some electrical work here at home. We are determined to get some major roof repairs done this year, and I've been getting quotes for shingles, eavestrough, fascia and soffits. In line with the latter, we've decided to add some pot lights to the front of the house, so I'm drilling the holes into the old plywood soffits, and will fit them into the aluminum once that is installed.

New Soffit Lighting

Also this week was the provincial election. I worked as a Deputy Returning Officer in charge of tabulating the votes. That went pretty smoothly, but the turnout was dismayingly low. We set a record for the worst voter turnout ever, so as it played out, 18% of the voters gave Premier Ford another majority government! The markets remain difficult, but have been steadily improving recently, so I managed to make quota in May—first month this year! In world hockey it was Finland again beating us in the final to win the gold. Another round is complete in the NHL playoffs; I managed to pick just one winner of those four series. I'm picking Avs and Lightning this time, but cheering mightily for Edmonton. I hate to be right about this prediction, however, my poor Oilers are down 3-0 in their series. The CFL has completed the preseason, so regular games are beginning next week—Go Riders, Go! 

Erica writes, "This week was busy with work. We got the car back on Monday with a new rear window and continue to do research on whether our lot has enough space to build a garage. On Friday, we headed for the coast. A good friend is getting married, and we managed to find some really cheap Westjet tickets! We look forward to celebrating with them. Liam has moved down to a Maple Creek area camp for the summer, where he is working. Haaken continues to work at Costco and on developing his animations. We pray that an opportunity in animation comes for him soon. And Greg is making wedding plans."

Erin and Kristian had a quiet week in Regina. The new cat is settling in nicely; the old cat? Not so much!! Erin keeps them separated during the day.

Great work!

Kristian's school club, Deaf Crows, but together an informative presentation titled "Deaf Shame, Deaf Same". It is being hosted at one of the Regina libraries until June 25th.

One of the displays

The hot weather in Regina even has them running the Air Conditioning already. 

Travis and Joanna had a celebratory week.

And smart, too! 

Gemma's convocation was on Friday, and we got to watch that on livestream. Her Honours B.Sc. with first class standing in Biology and Chemistry should provide some open doors when she decides how to continue her education. Travis and Joanna took a brief trip across the border for an early celebration of Joanna's birthday—nice! 

And that's it for this week.