Grey Cup Weekend!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been lovely, and we’ve enjoyed taking Kali for walks and working in the yard preparing the camper for winter.

Just fits!

No extra room!

I managed to get the gates switched to outward opening, and they’re working properly, so the camper is now parked out back. All systems seem ready for the layoff, and it has electricity available. I also managed to get the generator working properly. It was running fine, but not putting out electricity. I had not heard of the concept of flashing the generator, but YouTube has, so I tried flashing it with my angle grinder, et voilà, we have current! I have also been working on the awning. We have only the mechanical parts for the awning, but we have worked on those, and we’re pretty much ready to apply new awning fabric, although I want warm weather for that, so it may wait until Spring. We keep working on our choir music, preparing for Christmas concerts coming at the end of the month. The markets continue to be difficult with the USA economic turmoil leaving all their indices in the red so far this month. The Continental Cup of curling ended on Sunday with #1-Homan coming through for us on the women’s side, while #1-Mouat prevented our sweep, overcoming #2-Dunstone in a shoot-out. College football featured big games for my teams as they try to get in position for the playoffs. My #11-Sooners travelled to #4-Alabama and rode four turnovers by their defence to victory. That’s like two wins: Sooners won, and Alabama lost! #10-Texas was also on the road, at #5-Georgia, but they were not up to the task. Now, we wait to see the new rankings. Of course the big football action is tomorrow in Winnipeg as the Riders face Montreal for the Grey Cup. Go Riders! In hockey, nothing much is changing as my Oilers continue to flounder, although they won tonight, The Leafs are really on a downer, while Pens are playing well, but losing some games late, sigh! In basketball, KU was dropped to #25 after last week’s action, but replied with two wins this week—Rock Chalk boys. 

Eric and Erica have spent the week touring Montenegro with their neighbours. They have enjoyed seeing them find their old neighbourhood that they left 36 years ago, and reuniting with family over there. 

Kristian called one day with an electrical problem. It was not straight-forward, but with the facility of FaceTime, we worked our way through it! Erin keeps busy with work. Kristian helps nicely around the house, and continues with his drug trial. He needs a job! Currently, he’s working with the DHH folks on his application for SAID funding. The cats are doing well. 

Travis and Joanna are busy with their work and the new dog. Trav brought Jasmine and Marigold over one day to get acquainted with Kali. That was a good visit. 

And that’s about it for this week. 

RIDERS!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. Temperatures continue to drop, and nearly every night is dropping below zero, and only a couple of days rising to double digits. We hear reports of snow at higher elevations away from the lake, but nothing here yet. As teased last week, I flew down to Toronto, and out to Niagara Falls on Tuesday morning to check out an RV. It checked out, so I made the purchase, completed the paperwork and headed for home. The trip went well despite the alarming levels of fuel use by the V10 Ford powering the one-ton unit.

Sleeping with the big rigs!

I overnighted at a truck stop just west of Sudbury—there were three campers, and about 30 semis! Then, I completed the trip on Wednesday, arriving here in time for supper. We are pleased with the condition of the vehicle, and Wendy is already planning a trip for next summer. It will facilitate travelling with the dog, and every night spent in the camper represents a tank of fuel. There is work to be done on the unit, as the awning needs repair, and the generator doesn’t generate! Normal activities of the week in our choirs still took place. The markets were a disaster as the Orange economy continues to decline as they can’t even manage to keep their government operating, so didn’t get an official job losses for the month, but a private firm did track layoffs, and noted that in the last month, USA lost 153K jobs—the worst in 22 years, for a total of over 1 million jobs lost this year. AI can only carry the economic load for so long. So, it was a lot of red this week. Meanwhile, we increased our payrolls by 67K—good work! In college football, my teams (#12-Sooners, #11-Longhorns) were resting, but there was plenty of CFL action as the conference finals took place in Hamilton and Regina. Riders scored late to beat BC and advanced to the Grey Cup game against Montreal. In hockey, the Penguins continue to impress near the top of the league and with Crosby leading the league in scoring. Leafs and my favourite, Oilers, continue with mediocre results. The big curling event this week was the Grand Slam event in Lake Tahoe NV with the top 16 teams in both men’s and women’s competition. On the women’s side we had three Canadian teams playing, but only #1-Homan advanced to the playoffs against two Korean, two Japanese, two Swiss and one Swedish team. They’ve kept winning, and advanced against their long time rival, #2-Tironzoni in the final tomorrow. On the men’s side, we had six teams there, with four advancing to the playoffs. It will be #1-Mouat from Scotland vs #2-Dunstone. So, I’m saying, there’s a chance we win both sides! The Basketball season has begun, and my Jayhawks opened at #19. They split their games this week. 

Erica writes, “It has been a busy week of getting projects done and preparations completed for our trip. This Saturday is our Rotary’s Wine Premiere and the theme is Chile. We had a few evenings of making colourful flowers and lantern decorations. Eric and I leave for Montenegro Sunday morning.”

Erin and Kristian are facing the advance of the seasons in Regina with cooling temperatures and a few flakes❄️! Kristian is working with the DHH folks on a disability funding application. He may also be learning how difficult it is to find a job, let alone work for a living! 

Jasmine & Marigold

Travis and Joanna flew down to Ottawa with Marigold to pick up their new dog, Marigold’s sister. That adds up to four dogs in their household, which may be as many as four too many in my books! Jasmine is a bit smaller than Marigold. Moxley and Darby are much heavier. Otherwise, they’re just as busy as always! 

And that’s about it for this week. 

Camping? This time of year?

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has continues to cool with most days struggling to get to double digits, and a few frosty nights. I have managed a bit more yard work, raising the front landing, and changing the hinge direction on the back gate in anticipation of a possible camper purchase.

2004 Gulfstream Ford

Wendy has been lobbying for a camper for years, so here we are! We have made a tentative purchase, subject to it passing inspection—more on that next week! Otherwise it’s been a pretty usual week around her with choirs and meetings for Wendy. We had only 31 trick-R-treaters last night, so I have quite a few chocolate bars to clean up! The Continental Cup of curling ended with a surprise as #1-Homan fell to #12-Wang of China. #4-Jacobs won the men’s championship comfortably over #14-Shuster of USA. College football saw #20-Texas beat #9-Villanova, so they should move up in the rankings. #18-Sooners beat #14-Tennessee on the road—surprised me! Their dominant defence with 4 sacks, 2 picks and a scoop-and-score carried them. In the CFL it was the division semi-finals today. Montreal beat Winnipeg to advance to the Eastern final against Hamilton. BC held off Calgary to advance against the Riders in the Western final—go Riders! The excitement all week has been the World Series where the Blue Jays and Dodgers have put on an entertaining match up, including an 18-inning game! The series ended today in extra innings in Toronto with the Dodgers repeating as champs. Hockey continues about ten games into the season—not much time to watch my teams yet with all the football and baseball playoffs. 

Erica writes, “This week we took the 6 Types of Working Genius training and assessments at work. I’ve done a few of these over the years. This is the most useful one yet. What I found out is that my two not genius, or “frustations” are Tenacity and Galvanizing. In other words I derive no pleasure from simply completing tasks, nor do I particularly enjoy trying to rally the troops. I found this information so interesting that I got Eric to take it, too. And therein we discovered a problem. Eric’s two frustrations are also Tenacity and Galvanizing. No wonder our 10 year reno needs an extension! Neither of us are personally motivated to get stuff done, nor do we want to motivate each other. Yikes! My working geniuses are Invention and Enablement—coming up with ideas and being there to support others. That computes. Eric’s are Discernment and Enablement. I told him I’m glad because now he can support me by making all the decisions! This weekend, I’m off to Margaret’s house with the girls for a fun weekend. Eric and the rest of the guys are going to the Raider game back in PA. Next weekend, we have our Rotary Wine premiere fundraiser, and then, we leave for Montenegro.”

Kristian has begun work on work! He has revamped his resume and started sharing it around. Now that he has a car, he’s more available for work, but he also needs work to put fuel into the car! Erin has plenty of struggles around this situation as well as her regular work commitments, and is thankful for the distraction of watching the Blue Jays in the World Series. 

Travis & Joanna continue to be very busy with all things work and dogs! They didn’t have very many by their place for Hallowe’en (20 or so), but it was enough to make the dogs frantic! 

And that’s about it for this week.