Another week has passed, and we have travelled from the shore of the North Saskatchewan in Sherwood Park to the shore of the North Saskatchewan in Prince Albert to the shore of Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairies. As the last weekend turned, we were enjoying a family reunion in Sherwood Park, featuring much visiting and fun, and three rounds of golf! I enjoyed it all immensely thanks to the planning and preparation provided by Scott, Dolly and Tori. Great job, folks! We are already looking forward to the next reunion being considered for Dallas. We closed the weekend with a sloppy round of golf on Monday. The course had endured 35mm of rain on Sunday, and often required a lengthy trek to get out of the casual water. It probably should not have been played on at all, but we matched the course with some sloppy play of our own, and still had a good time! Then, on Tuesday, we drove over to Prince Albert to adjust the front and back gates, only to be greeted by other issues! The city (no fault of the city, thank you very much) had got sand into the water supply, and it had plugged up several lines. It seemed whichever lines that were used first after the sand incident were plugged. So, the upstairs bathroom sink had no water coming out of either the hot or the cold side; and the washer had no supply from the cold side, and limited supply from the hot side. I was able to open up connectors and get the lines cleaned out. Then, I cleaned out the screens, and all were working well when we left. Then, on the drain side, even bigger problems. It's an old house, and we've seen issues with the drain lines before. It seems the plumbers forgot one of the basic rules of plumbing, "It doesn't run up hill!" The upstairs bath sink drain was plugged when they first moved in. Turns out it had drainage capacity about the size of a pencil! So, that's been replaced with a catch bucket! This time it was the kitchen sink that wasn't draining. We suspected the sand may be interfering there, but it turned out it was exacerbated by an uphill drain there, too! We did manage to get it to flow part way, but the old iron part of the line was completely clogged, so I cut it off, only to have the sewage water flow back at us! Yuck, that's not supposed to happen! So, I built a new connection for that into the 4" drain from the main floor bathroom. Now, it's running happily again. The plumbing work was unanticipated, but sorely needed.
I planned to check the gates I installed last summer, and make adjustments. Both were rubbing a bit, so I adjusted them, and they're swinging freely once again. We had less success on the garage building front. The city claims the back lane that's been in use by the city for over 60 years, is not, in fact, a legal lane! The city says it's property of the lots behind the Bailey house, and they won't give a building permit that involves driving over someone else's property. Stay tuned! On Wednesday night, the Bailey's took us out to eat. It was a meal unlike any I've ever anticipated or experienced—truly fit for a king! I am unable to recall how many courses there were, nor the number of items for each course. It was at a place named Mabel Hill in Nipawin where they focus on farm-to-table menus. I recall wings, ribs, steak, new potatoes, green beans, arugula, many sauces whose names I've forgotten. It ran on for about three hours and was capped off by coffee and two desserts! Wowsers! Thank you, Eric/A—it was certainly an over-the-top experience for us! On Thursday, we drove down to Regina, where we are now hosted by Erin & Kristian. Investors are at a stage where good news is bad news, and thus they responded to the excellent jobs data from the USA by selling stocks, as it raised the fear that the FED would feel free to raise interest rates by 0.75%! So, it was not a good week overall, but the TSX has come in on my charts, so I'm working on a shopping list of stocks to consider next week. The Riders have this week off to lick their wounds; we hope they come out firing next week. The Jays are doing well, and added some players at the trade deadline, so we anticipate their good results will continue.
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| I can see some light! |
I planned to check the gates I installed last summer, and make adjustments. Both were rubbing a bit, so I adjusted them, and they're swinging freely once again. We had less success on the garage building front. The city claims the back lane that's been in use by the city for over 60 years, is not, in fact, a legal lane! The city says it's property of the lots behind the Bailey house, and they won't give a building permit that involves driving over someone else's property. Stay tuned! On Wednesday night, the Bailey's took us out to eat. It was a meal unlike any I've ever anticipated or experienced—truly fit for a king! I am unable to recall how many courses there were, nor the number of items for each course. It was at a place named Mabel Hill in Nipawin where they focus on farm-to-table menus. I recall wings, ribs, steak, new potatoes, green beans, arugula, many sauces whose names I've forgotten. It ran on for about three hours and was capped off by coffee and two desserts! Wowsers! Thank you, Eric/A—it was certainly an over-the-top experience for us! On Thursday, we drove down to Regina, where we are now hosted by Erin & Kristian. Investors are at a stage where good news is bad news, and thus they responded to the excellent jobs data from the USA by selling stocks, as it raised the fear that the FED would feel free to raise interest rates by 0.75%! So, it was not a good week overall, but the TSX has come in on my charts, so I'm working on a shopping list of stocks to consider next week. The Riders have this week off to lick their wounds; we hope they come out firing next week. The Jays are doing well, and added some players at the trade deadline, so we anticipate their good results will continue.
Erica writes, "We started out the week in Edmonton at the Ulrich reunion. We made a motorcycle trip of it and clocked over 3000 km. By the end we were able to do up to 2 hours at a time! We made it home on Monday, just in time to get ready for some family. Mom and Dad stopped for a two days and upon their departure our kitchen sink, bathroom sink, washing machine, back fence gate and maybe front fence gate are all fixed. In addition we have started a minor fight with city hall! Imagine what could be accomplished in a week! We also enjoyed a wonderful meal at Mabel Hill in Nipawin. Liam had a specialist appointment this week and found that many of his levels have returned to normal but he still has a lot of inflammation in his bowel. We had a quick chat with Haaken and he has applied for another animation job. We hope he gets it! Please pray for his success. Greg continues his program of healing. He is working on writing a novel and drawing, both of which he enjoys and also help him recover from his brain injuries. We hope and pray for his continued healing."
Kristian is home from camp this week and next, but then plans for a fourth week at Kenosee for the Creative Camp beginning on the 15th. We plan to begin heading east then, so it works out well. He is at the Exhibition today with the school group for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing. It's nice that they keep sponsoring social events for the crew. Erin has been very busy with monthend accounting after a holiday Monday put them a little behind. Today, she and her mother went shopping for plants and flowers for the back yard and to take inside for the winter. They look good!
Travis has rebuilt his main speciality printer, so he's up and running once again. Andrew continues to ail, and is a concern for all of us, especially his mother! Gemma is caring for our house and yard, wrapping up her time in Thunder Bay and preparing to move to Vancouver. Busy times for all of them!
And that's about enough for this week.
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