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.