Brrrr!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The golf courses have closed, and the temperatures are hitting freezing values most nights. I have cleared away the summer stuff from the yard, and dug out the snow shovels. There is no snow here yet, but the forecasters are threatening it! We had a wonderful trip to Minneapolis this week with Travis, Joanna and Minnie. We drove down on Monday, attended the hockey game on Tuesday, and returned home on Wednesday. The fall colours were lovely on the drive. We stayed in Radisson Blu at Mall of America, so there was a lot of walking around the mall, more so for some of our party!

A wild Oiler fan!

The hockey game did not go the way I wished, and McDavid is injured, so the star attraction was not there at all! Still, we enjoyed ourselves a great deal—thanks Trav & Joanna for putting this event together. Otherwise, we had community choir on Thursday, and I had a CT-Scan this morning, following up on an earlier ultra-sound on my kidneys. We'll get results in a week or so—"If there is a problem, the doctor will call you." Wendy continues to cough some, and has a doctor's appointment next week. I am contemplating building one more Fast Track game in circular format, but have decided to build a large compass first. We continue to suffer under the triple whammy from the USA: the economy is just too strong (running at almost 5% GDP gain); inflation is higher than expected, and the Republicans continue to produce chaos in the House, so the markets continue to suffer. October has turned out to be even worse than September. I was running at quota to the end of August, but two red months have left me cheering for the Santa Claus rally to begin immediately! TSX and DOW are now in the red for the year, sigh! The world of sports has left me little to cheer about either as the Riders missed the playoffs, and the Oilers are floundering in the early NHL season. Leafs and Penguins are doing just okay. Jones won the Women's Slam event, while Retornaz took the men's side for Italy. At least the Rangers won their series (despite my cheering!) and have advanced to the World Series! #6-Oklahoma lost to Kansas today, so that'll be the end of their high ranking. #7-Texas improved their ranking, but are not in championship consideration which is what I was expecting of them. They enjoyed a strong win today over BYU. 

Garage (not a garage!) in a Box

Erica writes, "Exciting news! Our gas line has been moved, making space for our not-a-garage storage building as well as for a back door on our house! Greg has procured a cloth garage for us so we have coverage until we can build our not-a-garage, but the box is in Kenora, ON and we are in Prince Albert, SK so we are trying to figure that out. Eric had his Marriage & Family Therapists' AGM in Saskatoon on Friday and I am at the Sask Lipedema booth in Saskatoon for a wellness symposium. Hopefully, we will get the word out to more people! We are making a weekend of it so that is fun. But, maybe Eric should just drive to Kenora! LOL"

Millennium Falcon

Kristian has completed another Lego-Star Wars project, and Grandma was busy looking for missing pieces at the Lego store in MOA. For now, he has just substituted pieces as needed. Kristian has been commissioned to design a display wall for some of his projects and for the cats to climb on. On Tuesday, Kristian had a tour/introduction to Sask Polytech and is considering options for his post-secondary education. Erin is feeling better again, but is not accommodating her new BP meds well. It leaves her feeling drowsy and nauseous. She has another appointment with her doctor on Monday, and we hope the meds are adjusted to something that works better. 

As mentioned, Travis and Joanna fired some more projects into the mail and travelled with us to the Mall of America and the NHL game between the Oilers and the Wild. It was a great time despite the Oilers loss! They are fully into hockey photo season, so are keeping very busy. Joanna couldn't keep from shopping for new ideas for her store while she was at the mall. 

And that's enough for now. 

And there it is then...

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, and we are well established in the usual autumn weather with single digit overnight lows and struggling into the teens during the day. The golf courses will be closing soon, and I have not even managed one round of golf here this season. We got both our latest Covid booster and our annual flu shot, so our shoulders have been a bit sore. I have managed a bit of progress on the window treatments for the dining room and kitchen. We've decided on a stool and apron application there, but we're concerned about using wood above the kitchen sink. I have PVC material for the stools, but only have MDF for the apron, so we're still assessing the possibilities for the kitchen window. Maybe we should just use the backsplash material across there below the stool. Wendy continues to improve with her dry cough, but it's still around. Still, she is able to keep up with her choral work. This week, we decided to join a community chorus for the Christmas season. Wendy is already booked for the Sweet Adelines Christmas concert, and the community concert is earlier, so it doesn't complicate any potential travel plans. Wendy had phone troubles this week, but managed to get it repaired and is back in business. On Friday morning, I had a consultation with the spinal surgeon. He recommends I continue with physiotherapy for my back issues, but advises that I can push it as hard as I wish to build up capacity for more walking, golfing and curling. That was encouraging—I intend to try curling in the next week or so. I have increased my target for walking each week. Today, we had a foot clinic at Confederation College; this was my first ever pedicure–a ticklish experience! A combination of factors continue to cause market distress. The USA economy just keeps doing too well, so investors are afraid the FED will raise rates, and the Republicans continue to mismanage their own congressional responsibility, so investors fear they will not manage to fund government before the November deadline. Then, the wars in Ukraine and Israel are destabilizing as well with both Russia and Iran are threatening crude supplies. Anyway, it was another red week for me, sigh! In the world of sports the league championships continue in baseball, but while the Rangers won the first two games on the road, they have now lost all three home games! C'mon Rangers! The Riders played their final game of the season this afternoon, they led most of the way, but gave up a TD in the final minute to lose to Toronto. In the early NHL season, my Oilers are not doing well. Leafs and Pens are winning about half of their games, and that's below expectations as well. My #6-Sooners won their game today, but not impressively. The #8-Longhorns got a similar win. The big event of the week was the first Grand Slam curling event of the season. My guy, Kevin Koe, did not qualify for the playoffs, while my gal, Kerri Einarson, did, but lost the semi. Tomorrow, it'll be Lawes vs Jones for the women's championship, and Bottcher vs Retornaz on the men's side. 

Erica writes, "I’m excited to see the Canadian Lipedema Association coming to life! It’s good to see more people moving this forward. Check out the Lipedema Canada page on Facebook. Next weekend, I’ll be manning a booth at the Wellness Symposium to share information on Lipedema. Eric and I are joining the worship team this Sunday. It’s fun to join in with the worship team without having to organize it! Liam got his mid-semester marks and he’s is doing well!" 

Another happy customer...

Kristian rejoiced with the arrival of his new XS iPhone from Uncle Travis. It comes with multiple skins, so he can dress it up for each school day of the week! Erin enjoyed watching her Jags win the Thursday night NFL game as it's a bit rare for them to be on TV. Otherwise, she has not been feeling so great, and is taking it pretty quiet this weekend. 

Travis and Joanna keep very busy, and we have not managed a game night this week. Of course, they're also trying to get ahead of the game since they have a trip to Minneapolis planned for next week. We're looking forward to that since they've invited us to go along! Yay!

And that's about it for this week. 

One to go...

Thanksgiving 2023

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We have been enjoying a visit with Bern & Alicia, but they left on Wednesday. It was great to have them here, and show them some of the sights there are around here. We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with them and the family here. Wendy, Alicia and Joanna prepared a fine feast!

Nice pic of Terry Fox by Bern

My appointment with Dr. David Puskas, orthopedic surgeon, set for Monday has now been cancelled, so I'm back to the waiting game concerning my back. I've been pushing things this last week involving long hikes with Bern & Alicia. This has brought back the neuropathy in my feet, along with some discomfort in my back and butt, but has, overall, been an encouragement. Wendy seems to be fully recovered from her cataract surgery, and after her fresh haircut, she's both looking good and seeing well! Wendy has spent most of the rest of the week with laundry and turkey leftovers. It appears we'll get to enjoy Cheesy Turkey Casserole several times in the next weeks—yum! The weather has remained favourable and I've mowed the lawns, hopefully for the final time this season.

Hexagon or Circle? 

I have completed another FastTrack game board, and have another in the works. I'm still working with Travis on an effective design for the centre area and the fast track. We played numerous games of FastTrack, along with Dummy Rummy and School! The markets ran well for the first part of the week, but faltered on Thursday and Friday. I managed a green week, but didn't make my quota. The main negatives are the Republicans failure to operate government in the USA, and the resultant drop in consumer confidence. C'mon man! The world of sports has been mostly disappointing again this week. The Riders put up another pitiful outing in Calgary and were unable to clinch a playoff spot—now, they're looking for help! The Jays are gone, so I've switched to the Rangers (sorry Ranger fans!). They'll be playing Houston in the American League Championship Series. The NHL season has begun. My teams (Oilers, Pens, Leafs) have now played two games each, and the Pens played a third game tonight. Oilers and Pens were lame in their opening game losses, but have played better since, but Canucks beat my Oilers for a second time tonight—sigh! Leafs were lucky to win their first, but put up a solid win tonight. After their big win last week the #4-Sooners pretty much switched places with the #9-Longhorns, but both have this week off.

Erica writes, "After sending Greg, Kiersten and Liam on their way, we had a short, busy week. This weekend, we went to Saskatoon with friends to enjoy a musical. Eric has a hockey draft, so, we are staying the night and have a planned visit with the Saskatoon Baileys. On the Lipedema front, I’ve been finding that a combination that rotating, stretching and using a leg massager/pump is helping to maintain my mobility. Unfortunately, the pump I have doesn’t do the knees, so I have some edema starting to build up around my knees."

Erin has been enjoying poor health, and has had to miss some days of work. She seems to be on the mend finally, but it's been quite a spell. Her consultation with her doctor has led to further investigations. It seems her blood pressure issues are rearing their ugly head once again. Kristian is maintaining his usual schedule of schooling, youth group and waiting for curling to start. 

Alicia, Bern, Wendy, Bill, Trav, Joanna

Travis & Joanna remain busy. We were glad they got to spend some time with Bern & Alicia while they were here. Today, Trav stopped by to get the refurbished chair racks with the chairs they use for hockey team photography. It's the the first of many team photo shoots for this season. 

And that's enough for this week. 

One down...

and her new right eye!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We have had a range of weather from using the AC to using the fireplace, but mostly the weather was great! We have enjoyed touring Bern & Alicia to some of our favourite spots around this end of the lake, and have even chatted about the possibility of doing the Lake Superior Circle Tour at some time. This week we ranged from Ouimet Canyon in the northeast down to Grand Marais to the southwest. It was a great and busy week. Thanks for your wonderful visit—we still have a few days left! Wendy went in to the hospital on Monday for cataract surgery on her right eye. They gave her a new lens, complete with a serial number! I suppose that will help them match it properly when the time comes to repair her left eye. So far, that eye is doing well, and the newly repaired one seems to be getting better each day as the surgery heals and the vision clears. I stole some time to work in the shop and got another Fast Track board completed. The markets continued to run on fear as the MAGA Republicans decided to defy wisdom and oust their leader for the first time that has ever happened! This lead to panic selling the first few days of the week. Then, the continuing strength of the US economy caused investors to fear the FED will raise rates even more, and they sold some more, sigh! Fortunately, the jobs data came in Friday morning much stronger than anticipated, and they finally had to relent and agree that sometimes "good news is good news" and we ended the week with some solid green. Uncle Joe's strong economy continues to be a mixed blessing as it keeps the spectre of inflation on investors minds. The world of sports provided more surprises than usual and some were decidedly unpleasant! The Blue Jays played poorly in their playoff series against the Twins and are now out of the playoffs entirely—a very disappointed season in the final analysis. The Riders put up a lousy and losing effort tonight against Hamilton and suffered another ugly loss—c'mon Riders. They are still in playoff contention at least. The #12-Sooners surprised both me and the #3-Longhorns today! Boomer Sooner! 

Erica writes, "We have most of our chicks back in the nest. Greg and Kiersten arrived Thursday night. Liam arrived on Friday. Today, we will head out to Prince Albert National Park for some roaming around and hiking. Liam is planning a beautiful spatchcocked Turkey for tonight and we have gluten-free apple pie and pumpkin pie. Haaken elected to stay away from this northern climate. We did get snow on Thursday so maybe he knew something. Happy Thanksgiving!"

Erin and Kristian are also suffering with the untimely demise of the Blue Jays, and the poor play of the Riders. I don't know what she'll do with her sports watching time! I guess she'll have to console herself with her adopted football team, the Jacksonville Jags. 

Travis & Joanna are keeping very busy with work and the dogs. Today, they joined us for an excursion to Grand Marais where they introduced us to puffy tacos at the Hungry Hippie Taco shop—they were delicious! 

It's been a good week.