It's a Pain!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been comfortable, but several nights with even a risk of frost—Autumn is here! I've been nursing a bad back all week. I don't know what happened, but I was working on the drawer unit in the shop when suddenly I had a sharp pain in the back, and was almost unable to even get up from the floor. After a day of suffering, I decided it might be a kidney stone. The doctor considered it a possibility and ordered an ultrasound to check. It turned out negative for the stone, so we're left to think it was some kind of soft tissue damage—getting old is not for the faint of heart! At least the pain is diminishing, and I've been able to reduce my application of painkillers. The drawer unit remains unfinished—I was hoping to include some pictures of the completed project in this edition, maybe next week! Wendy keeps busy with her chorus management, and taking care of me! The markets were terrible, no good and very bad! At one time this month, I had a full monthly quota gained, but now I'm needing a big week next week! As expected, the FED raised the interest rate by 0.75%, but alas, even though they did as expected, the markets sold off big time—go figure! In my world of sports, Koe lost the final of the Okotoks event last Sunday to Bottcher. This week's event was in Fredericton, and Koe lost in the quarter-finals. It'll be Dunstone vs Carruthers in the final tomorrow. The Riders have the bye this week which rates it as one of the better weeks this season! College football was completely unpredictable this week. First Texas, inexplicably, lost to Texas Tech, and then my Sooners lost to unranked Kansas State, and while this we going on, the usually hapless Jayhawks were improving to 4-0 on the season! Preseason hockey has begun in the NHL. MLB regular season is drawing to a close; the Jays have fallen back a bit, but are still pretty safe to make the playoffs. 

Erica writes, "Eric made his annual run for the border, and third time must be a charm, because he made it through. Eric is attending Family Systems Trauma recertification training. I’m along for the ride. Three years ago, he won a free stay at a cabin, but in 2020 the conference was cancelled. In 2021, the border didn’t let him through. So this year we are both enjoying the quiet and beauty of Montana. The road to the cabin reminded me a bit of driving in Zambia. First a highway, then a hard top road, then a dirt road, and finally, two tire trails through the grass. We return on Sunday. The boys are all well."

Erin and Kristian had a routine week of work and school. Today, they enjoyed breakfast out at the Ecalipurr Cat Cafe. The weather has been cool, with frost, in Regina. 

Travis enjoyed an excursion to the Big Apple this week. He just got back last night after a week of checking out pizza restaurants and taking in the latest edition of professional wrestling. Joanna has been holding down the fort at home, and preparing for her next week trip to Vancouver. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Coming Down!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has taken on an autumn chill and the trees are looking very colourful. Most nights this week the temperatures fell into the single digits, and then on Wednesday it started raining. It has rained the rest of the week, so at least I've been able to turn off the lawn sprinklers on my newly patched areas of the lawns. The turf patches in the back are taking well. The seeded patches in the front—not so much! I managed to get a bit more yard work done before the rains took hold and drove me indoors. I am working on a drawer unit to install under my workbench in the shop. It's coming along well—my first drawer unit. I built a drawer for the kitchen a while back, but the functionality of drawers in the kitchen motivated me to add a set of drawers in the shop. Wendy continues her recovery program, but fell ill this week, and was back into consultation with her doctor who prescribed some antibiotics to try to get her back on the path of healing. Today, she had a chorus event at one of the local schools, so she was off early this morning for that. Otherwise, she keeps busy with her volunteer work with the barber-shoppers—way busier than I expected! The markets have continued their topsy turvy summer, in a deeply red year. Year to Date losses: TSX: -8.7%; DOW: -15.2%; S&P: -18.7%; Nasdaq: -26.8%. So, yes, I'm beating the markets, but that's a low bar this year. In my world of sports, the Riders are deeply disappointing. Their performance against Edmonton last night was inept on both sides of the ball. C'mon Riders! So, it was refreshing to watch the Sooners turn in a sparkling win over Nebraska today. Boomer Sooner! The Jays are on another upswing, going 7-3 in their last ten games and moving into a solid playoff position. Yay Jays! We're back into curling season. This week I'm following the event in Okotoks where many of the newly lineups are getting a test. My guy, Kevin Koe, has three new players this year. They've advanced to the playoffs, so, clearly, positive results so far. 

Erica writes, "We finished up another week in Prince Albert. Liam returned to Caronport after a visit with us last weekend. I had training this week on Myers Briggs. I’ve had the test before, but I thought maybe I had discovered my feelings in recent years. Alas, I still come out as a thinker! I’m borderline Introvert/extrovert, so I come out ENTP or INTP.  Eric, in his professional capacity, informs me, this means I’m either R2D2 or Yoda. We are further along planning our family trip. We are planning to visit the UK together in November. That should be fun! We are also in design mode for our upstairs bathroom. Tomorrow we are off to Saskatoon to see tiles and bathroom fixtures at Home Depot."

Most of the week in Regina focused on celebrations around Kristian's 17th birthday. Some of the festivities have been postponed as he wanted to have Astrid and Liam over, but they're under the weather. Otherwise things are going well for them with work, school, and medical appointments. 

Happy Birthday Kristian!

Another Star Wars Machine!

Travis got a new laptop with the appropriate operating system and finally has his printers humming along! Yay! The pups are thriving, and sometimes even behaving themselves. Moxley came over for a visit one day. He's bigger than expected, but quite a teddy bear overall with a deep voice. Darby continues to ail with a bad leg, and remains much the smaller of the pair. Gemma and Jonas are settling into life in Vancouver. Andrew remains off work since his recent illness. We hope he gets back to work soon. 

And that's about enough for this week! 

Falling!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been very nice, but with overnight lows often dropping to single digits, it also portends the change of season. We're even starting to see some colour in the deciduous trees. I have been busy with the lawns, keeping them moist as the germination has been happening. Not showing up as thickly as I have expected, so I may need to over-seed. We got some showers Thursday and Friday, so that gave me some time off! Wendy keeps busy with the new student boarding downstairs, but he seems to be settling in fine. She is gradually resuming more of her usual activities, and has to be reminded to take it easy! She found me a new chair to replace my old one that was shedding all over the living room (somewhat like its occupant)! I had several appointments myself this week. We had an energy assessment on Wednesday to see how we might make improvements to the house, and qualify for some government grants. I had minor surgery on Thursday to remove some skin tags, but it turns out the surgeon missed two, so I'll have to go back to get those clipped. On Friday morning, I returned to my regular doctor to get my ears flushed. My recent hearing testing had revealed wax build-up, but she got that cleared out. Now, we'll see whether that improves my hearing! The markets are in a phase of bad-news-is-good-news! Investors see anything that might prompt the central banks to slow the rate hikes as positive for the markets. Bank of Canada pushed through another 75 basis point hike this week, and the FED indicated they would probably do the same when their turn comes up. Anyway, the markets turned sharply up, and I had a good month this week. College football was a story of coulda-shoulda-woulda for Texas as they lost a squeaker to #1 Alabama. My Sooners had an easy time of it in their game. Riders were hard-pressed in the second half of the home & home with the Bombers as several players were hit by flu, and couldn't even play. C'mon Riders! Jays had a good series against Baltimore to open up some room in their playoff push; they're winning in Texas this weekend. Canadian women won the world championship over USA in a one-goal game—well done! 

Erica writes, "Liam’s home for the weekend. He has an appointment with the doctor and he now has a referral to an allergist. So, we will see where that goes. We are getting back into fall routines, but at the same time planning for a family trip in October with all the boys. We had a good call with the whole family to throw out ideas on things to do. More to come on that later." 

Kristian has settled into the new year/semester at school—grade 11, and is turning 17 next week. Time flies! He has two new special activities. He has an early morning activity at school called musical theatre. They're doing Freaky Friday as their musical. Then, on Thursday nights he has youth group where he has activities with some of the kids he got to know at summer camp. Erin is extra busy at work as her co-worker is reduced to part time while she helps her daughter manage a difficult new baby situation. 

Travis and Joanna keep busy with Ulrich Design. Travis is still struggling to get his new printer to communicate properly with the computer. The pups are recovering well from their neutering. Darby continues to suffer with his leg problem, but we think he's improving. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Solidarity Forever!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, bringing us into September. We have been enjoying fine weather with a few showers and a couple of breezy days. I've kept busy watering the new lawns, and hoping for successful germination of the newly sown seeds. I have also engaged in more clean-up and trim around the yard, and am planning the next projects in the shop. Wendy has continued her recovery, and is doing well. She resents the forced inactivity, and chafes against the restrictions to her plans. However, she takes some consolation at the prospect of improved health in the near future and over the longer term. I had an appointment with my doctor on Tuesday over my hearing issues. She noted wax build-up in both ears, and has prescribed oil drops each day until next week when I can get them flushed out at her office. We hope this will help. The markets have continued to be troubled over the prospects of severe rate hikes. Strong economic data both sides of the border have exacerbated the issue as we are once again in the time of "Good news is bad news"! Economists here are predicting a soft landing, while USA pundits are calling for the economy to be forced into recession to combat inflation. In any case, it has made for falling markets, and I have, once again, sold out of my speculative holdings. In the world of sports, college football has started and I enjoyed watching the Sooners win their first. Riders play the Bombers tomorrow in the Labour Day game—a tough assignment for the Riders! The Jays are still not playing up to my expectations and are barely hanging on to a playoff spot. Still, they're playing meaningful games in September and that's always a good team goal. In world women's hockey, we'll be playing our arch-rival USA in the gold medal game tomorrow. 

Erica writes, "Eric’s niece, Marina, is here for a visit this weekend. My work gave us an extra day off on Friday—so I have a four-day weekend! I had a talk with the city this week about our back lane that isn’t a lane. We can organize our neighbours to agree with making the lane legal, which might mean some expense, or we can build a storage building with an overhead door. We also have a request in with SaskEnergy to get our gas line marked. That should happen next week. So hopefully we can design an appropriate storage building. We haven’t heard much from the boys." 

Kristian has begun another year of schooling. One of his classes this semester is Construction, so, I can see that I shall soon be unemployed in that regard! Erin has worked through some plumbing issues, thanks to Shawn. Her main floor half bath had developed a leak, but all is well again. 

Travis and Joanna keep busy with the Ulrich Design contracts, with the family and with the pets.

Two Sad Boys!

The boys have been "to the vet to get tutored" as Larson put it! Darby is also suffering with a sore leg, and is on medication for that—hard to see in a pup! 

And that's about enough for this week!