Happy New Year!

Another week, and another year have passed. We have begun the trip home, moving from the shore of Lake Wascana to the shore of the Assiniboine River on Friday, and finally today, ending the year in Dryden on the shore of Lake Wabigoon. I have received calls confirming two MRIs for me back in Thunder Bay with the first being on my spine for late Monday night. We hope this will allow them to complete the diagnosis of the pain in my lower back and legs. For sure the Piriformis exercises prescribed by Dr. Tom have brought a lot of relief, but discomfort and weakness remain. At least I've been able to avoid painkillers the last two weeks. We have enjoyed another week of family time while living in Erin's basement.

Some of our presents! 

Wendy has completed her regular regimen of oven cleansings—sure knows how to have fun! I have upgraded the mantle to nine stocking pegs, and then dismantled (see what I did there?!) and put it away until next Christmas. The weather has wreaked havoc on travel around the city and on the highways as a winter rain coated vehicles and roads. Another long time family friend has passed and when her funeral was scheduled for Friday in Virden, we decided to make that part of our schedule, too. We enjoyed catching up with many more friends as we celebrated Evelyn Muller's life. Then, we spent the night with Bonnie and Charlie in Brandon—thanks folks! Today, we drove only as far as Dryden as it was getting dark and we didn't fancy challenging northern Ontario moose, or New Year's Eve drivers! The markets closed off a troubled year with a bit of green on this short week of trading. This was the first quarter of the year where I managed to make quota, so while I made a bit of money to the bottom line, I fell well short of my quota—I shall have to work harder! We do hope for better market action in 2023. This year concluded with all indices that I follow, badly in the red. TSX: -8.7%; DOW: -8.8%; S&P: -19.4%; Nasdaq: -33.1% In my world of sports, it has been a mixed year. The absolute high was my Jayhawks winning the basketball championship! Rock Chalk! They have another good team this season. They are currently ranked #4, and completed a thrilling comeback today after a 15 point half time deficit. In hockey, all my teams made the playoffs last spring. Sadly, none of them won the Cup, but all three are in playoff contention once again. Go Oilers! Football was a definite downer as my Riders failed to qualify for the playoffs. My Sooners, and the other teams I follow in college football (Oklahoma State, Longhorns) all lost their recent bowl games. C'mon man! 

Eric & Erica celebrated their 29th Anniversary on Tuesday—congratulations! Erica writes, "We enjoyed a week with family and a couple of friends over Christmas and the following days. We even had a hootenanny at 55 Laird. We said good-bye on Friday morning and caught up with Neil and Darcy in Saskatoon and Chris Lock in Warman. This Sunday, Eric, Liam and I will be part of the worship team, so I’d better pick out some songs and get organized. Happy New Year!"

Erin returned to work on Tuesday, but the rest of us continued to holiday most of the week. Kristian and I have unsuccessfully attempted to get his new game working properly. We took it back to Best Buy, but they wouldn't touch it. They offered a replacement, but that didn't work either. An on-line chat revealed that Meta was well aware of the problem, but they continued to sell the game anyway—disappointing! I worked on Erin's door bell problem. The front door bell recently quit ringing as workers were installing siding repairs around the door button. They declined responsibility, but the facts remain that we're getting power to the button, and through the button, but it doesn't get back to the door bell while the back door bell transfers the power successfully. I'm guessing they broke one of the wires somewhere within the door frame, but that becomes an impossible task at this point. 

Travis, Joanna and crew worked through much of the holiday week, but also took time for family and pet celebrations! We look forward to catching up with that action next week! 

And that's enough for this week!