…can Spring be far behind?

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The polar vortex has broken, and we have returned to single digit highs and even above freezing one day. Lots of slush on the streets as our salt loads take full effect—yuck! We had a couple of snowfalls with the change in temperature, so we were back on shovel/snowblower duty. Wendy keeps busy with her choir management duties, and has also spent a fair number of hours this week on her accounting project for a local business. She continues to recover from her cataract surgery but so far, she is disappointed with coordination of the vision between her new eyes. We had choir practice on Thursday morning—it’s quite a challenge to learn eleven new songs. I have been to the dentist twice this week as they prepare my new partial plate. I hope to have final fittings next week. The markets continue to fluctuate wildly with the chaotic activity of the Melon Felon. The USA economy is suffering a lot of job losses; we’re also losing jobs here. Some of this is because of the USA trade wars, some of it is due to changes in the job markets due to Artificial Intelligence applications. Crypto valuations have dropped about 50%, and even Gold pulled back almost 20%. So, it’s a tough environment in which to make investment decisions. The sporting world is turning a large part of its attention to the Winter Olympics. We’ll be cheering on Team Canada with particular attention to Hockey and Curling. The NHL is on hiatus; Pens headed to the break on a solid rally. Leafs and my Oilers are not playing so well, but at least the Oilers are in a solid playoff position at this point. My #11-Jayhawks keep winning, but they have some highly ranked opponents on the horizon including #1-Arizona next week! Last Sunday, it was my team, Kerri Einarson, who prevailed to win the Scotties. They executed a phenomenal angle-in hit and stick to tie the game in the final end, and then stole a point in the extra end to secure her fifth Canadian championship. 

Erica writes, We honoured two birthdays this week—Liam on the 4th and Haaken on the 7th. I’ve been working on wrapping up my work at MNP. I will be working this weekend, too, and I finish on Monday. The PA Raiders have clinched a playoff spot and we have clinched playoff seats! We are looking forward to some great playoff hockey.” 

Erin and Kristian are enjoying a break in the weather in Regina with temperatures surging well above zero. As a result of the warmer temperatures, Kristian has returned to his regularly scheduled work, but he’s still waiting for his uniform. Erin has been busily engaged in the year end reporting for 2025 at VW, but she also has a monthend report to do—busy times, but good times. The cats are coping well despite their servants being away all day at work! 

Travis and Joanna came over for a visit on Sunday evening. We played some FastTrack—that went well! The dogs seem to have come down with some kind of cough. They mentioned this on Sunday as the thinking behind not bringing any over for a visit with Kali, and it has persisted. The boys are fighting their way through the illness, and the Poms are being treated with antibiotics. At least Trav and Joanna seem to be doing okay, and are planning a warm vacation later on. That’s a nice thing to look forward to—we’re doing the same, but ours is called Summer! 

And that’s enough for this week. 

It’s a slippery game...

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The polar vortex has broken here, and we’re back looking at daytime highs in the single digits of frost. We have been threatened with more snow, but so far—nothing! And, after ninety-seven days, January is finally over!

Let the healing continue!

The big action here was Wendy’s cataract surgery—both eyes are done now. The painful part seems to be over, now we wait for the healing to be completed and vision to stabilize. She will continue to meet with her ophthalmologist to supervise the healing and to decide what to get for reading glasses. The markets ran badly all month as the Melon Felon kept things in a turmoil. Despite that, I got to quota this week, but then Thursday and Friday happened, so I fell short! The Trade War is wreaking havoc all around the world, and, while USA is suffering the most, we are not escaping scot free. The NHL is playing out their tightened schedule before the Olympic break. Oilers and Penguins are doing well. Leafs are in last place in their division. #14-Kansas was moved up again in the rankings. They played #13-BYU today, emerging victorious and raising the expectation for another rankings hike. My main preoccupation this week was Scotties Curling with three games most days! My favourite, Einarson, has fallen to the semi-final tomorrow afternoon where she will face Sturmay, hoping to advance against Lawes in the final. 

Erica writes, “Big news out of PA this week: I have accepted a new job with Athabasca Health Authority. I will be visiting Stony Rapids once a month and working from home the rest of the time. Eric and I meet tomorrow to review January and how far we got in our plans to make progress on the house… in summary, some progress was made, but not enough. Greg is back home in Kenora after a small stroke and surgery to repair. The doctors say he has a condition where his blood is too thick. We hope the new medications will help. I am making plans with my friend, Tina, for a mom’s trip to BC to see our kids. We leave on Valentines Day. Nothing to add from Liam.”

Erin and Kristian are handling the deep freeze in Regina. Kristian's diesel car managed to operate all week, so that was another positive. He got his first pay cheque this week—impressive! I recall my first official job where I was making about $2.50 an hour building machinery in Kipling—times have changed! My first paying job was stooking sheaves, and I made $3 a day, but I saw that as six boxes of .22 shells! 

Travis and Joanna are struggling through a long January with the rest of us. Now, we move on to the shortest month, and prospects improve! We’re now over a month past the shortest day, so we’re starting to enjoy the longer time of sunshine. 

And that’s about enough for this week. 

Polar Vortex

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. It has turned cold, very cold as a polar vortex has taken over the weather maps of the continent. Even here, south of the 49th, we’re feeling temperatures into the -30° range, with windchills into the -40° range. It’s supposed to break over this weekend. The frigid weather seems to keep the snow from falling, so we’re relieved from snow plow duty at least! Wendy has her regular business work for Sweet Adelines, and this week she added her yearly assignment of cleaning up the books for a local business. She enjoys that stuff! I worked on repairing the bed frame for the guest bedroom down stairs. The markets continued to flail in the face of the Melon Felon’s demand to take over Greenland. However, the TACO play eventuated as he backed off, and investors gained some confidence. Still, the S&P500 has suffered its worst two weeks in over two years, and I am suffering as well! In the NHL, my three teams struggle along. The Pens had a good week as they also slaughtered my Oilers in Edmonton—c’mon man! The Leafs hosted a former star who they had traded away, and suffered a solid beating! Scotties Curling has started, so I will be fully employed for the next week! Our local team has qualified again, so we cheering for her, but I’m expecting my usual favourite, Einarson, to be a strong contender. She has opened with two wins. The #19--Jayhawks were not rewarded to the level I thought they deserved, however, bit by bit! This week they won two road games which are always tough, and I expect a further positive move on the ranking. 

Erica writes, “It’s been a very cold week, but we’ve managed to stay alive. Eric has spent a few days back in the schools doing some counselling. I spent a bit of time this week helping our neighbour get medical and school records for her son; that has been interesting. Greg was in the hospital—we keep telling him to stay healthy and he keeps disobeying us. Parenting is tough! We’ve also been enjoying the Raider games in PA. They are having a good season. There is nothing new from Liam or Haaken.”

Kristian and Erin have hunkered down under the deep freeze in Regina. Kristian’s car could not manage to start some days despite being plugged in. That’s not a surprise with diesel cars. It was also too cold for his usual work of detailing vehicles, so he moved on to the assignment of doing the walk-around with customers who were dropping off their cars for service. He took note of all dings, scrapes and scratches with them. Today, he got a fresh haircut. 

Dude!

Travis and Joanna joined us for supper on Monday—that was nice! Their cars have misbehaved in the cold here, as both refused to start on Thursday.

Hey, it worked!

They live in an area where they are required to move their vehicles to a different side of the street each day to accommodate snow-clearing (which the city never does!), or else they will be ticketed (which the city rigorously does!).  They are running again now. Otherwise, work continues for both of them pretty much as usual. 

And that’s enough for this week! 

Another Wild Week!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been wild with temperatures up to +3° and running water in the streets followed by -20° and snow on top of the ice! Not good for walking or driving. I have been back to the dentist and they’re now making me a new partial plate to replace the one I got last Fall. It turns out, they ground it too thin, and a piece broke off, allowing food to migrate between the plate and the roof of my mouth—yeah, that’s not gonna work! Wendy’s Sweet Adeline choir restarted on Monday and Our Silver Sound Choir restarted on Thursday. We have a batch of new songs to prepare for the Spring Concert. I think the theme is Forever Young, so we have that song as well as When I’m Sixty-Four, Imagine and You’re My Best Friend. There are a total of eleven songs this season. We got some significant snowfall this week, but thanks to the shovels and snowblower, we got the driveway cleaned up. I started up the camper—I’m trying to run it each month through the winter. It ran fine and warmed up nicely, charging up the batteries properly as well. The markets whipsawed this week as folks questioned where the USA is going through all the turmoil. In hockey, my Oilers are in second place in their division, Pens are in third place in their division, and even the Leafs are only two points out of a playoff berth! The Jayhawks lost their ranking after last week’s action, but put up two impressive wins including taking down #2-Iowa State, this week. I’m expecting about a #16 ranking, but those voters often disappoint me! I’d like to see them get to single digits before March Madness—Rock Chalk boys! Curling continues to declare provincial champs as we near the Scotties and the Brier. My guy, #21-Koe, has repeated as Alberta Champions. The conclusion of the Players Championship was last Sunday. Two Scottish teams vied for the men’s championship with #5-Whyte defeating #10-Waddell. #2-Tirinzoni (Switzerland) beat my gal, #6-Einarson, for the women’s title. 

Erica writes, “This was a pretty typical week in the Bailey house for Erica. Eric has had a stressful week with changes at work and supporting teammates through trauma counselling. One thing we are trying to do is work on going through boxes. We made a pretty good dint into the middle room, but we still have boxes left there. This weekend, Eric and I are attending a sound mixing workshop. That’s about it for this week.”

Kristian has enjoyed his first week of work detailing vehicles at Taylor Toyota. One vehicle was all yellow with a SpongeBob licence plate—nice to have a sense of humour! It hasn’t been all fun, as he’s trying to get used to his work boots while being on his feet pretty much all day. He thinks the boots are okay; we hope it’s getting better. Erin failed to enjoy the snow hurricane there on Friday. One weather report I saw showed winds off 77 with gusts to 90! I could also do without that! She’s looking for a beach! 

Travis and Joanna keep busy enough. It’s a bit of a slower time for Bucket Decal orders, so that eases some pressure there. Joanna’s work is short staffed, so she’s had extra hours, which looks good on the pay cheque, but doesn’t feel so good on the weary bones! Travis came over one evening for supper, but Joanna just needed to rest. We look forward to resuming family meals on an even more regular basis. As least everyone seems to have recovered from the Flu, or whatever it was over Christmas. 

And that’s enough for this week. 

Passages

Another week has passed and we have returned to the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We opened the week in Regina, comfortably ensconced in Erin’s basement. On Monday, we celebrated the life of Don on Monday with a choir of enthusiastic singers providing great support for the family. On Tuesday, I managed a repair on a light fixture at Erin’s. Then, we enjoyed our traditional Western Pizza supper at Erin’s—yummy! Dave and Lynn joined us for that one. Liam drove over on Wednesday for a games night, during which Wendy and I decimated Liam and Kristian!! On Thursday, we drove over to Winnipeg. We enjoyed a visit with Bill & Angie in Brandon, and with Manas & Navie in Winnipeg. While leaving their place we had an accident as I slid into the vehicle in front of us while trying to stop at an intersection—that was unfortunate! Then, we continued on to Tom & Mariette’s for a delicious supper and a restful night—thanks folks! On Friday, we completed the trip home, arriving here about 6pm. It was a good trip, but it’s also good to be home! The markets continued their manic ways as the Melon Felon continues his mania. This week he invaded Venezuela and captured their president and his wife, and brought them to the USA where they’re being charged with various crimes. The real story is that he wants to control Venezuela’s oil, and sell it for his own profit! [you are quite correct, this is not normal behaviour] Of course this has roiled the price of oil, as Trump announced that USA oil companies had put forward $100 billion to help him with this. However, this story also fell apart as he met with a bunch of petroleum company executives on Friday, who informed him that there were no billions forthcoming, and that Venezuela was “uninvestable”.  Meanwhile the USA economy continues to suffer under his regime and jobs growth has been stunted compared to what Biden put up. Some think this will force the FED to cut lending rates even further, and the markets love that idea. In the world of sports, my #22-Jayhawks dropped in the rankings, and split their games this week—things are not going great! Many provinces are holding curling playdowns in preparations for the Brier and Scotties. The Grand Slam event this week is in Steinbach. True to form the international teams continue to show impressive quality. Two of our women’s teams qualified for the playoffs, and it will be my gal #10-Einarson playing #2-Tirinzoni in the final. None of our men’s teams qualified for the playoffs. It will be two Scottish teams in the final tomorrow, with #11-Waddell playing #5-Whyte. In hockey, my teams are doing a bit better. Pens and Oilers are in solid playoff positions just now. 

Erica writes, “We started the week celebrating Don Elsaesser’s life in Regina, and reconnecting with family. I spent the next two days in meetings in Saskatoon while Eric took care of things back home. Mystery Train had a gig on Friday night at the Army & Navy and we had a strong attendance of dancers right up to our last song at 11:30. It was a lot of fun. Life moves on. Also, I finished my latest Department Q book—book 10 in the series. It appears to be the end of the series.”

Erin took a day off, so we enjoyed spending the extra time with her. Then, she hosted the traditional Western Pizza Meal with Uncle Dave and Lynn. That was a good time. On Thursday, we left on our long drive home. Kristian applied for work at Taylor Toyota, and had an interview after we left on Thursday. He was offered a job there, and has accepted. He is scheduled to begin on Monday, washing and detailing cars. We’re happy to see this step forward for him. 

Travis and Joanna have been taking very good care of our little Kali while we were away—thanks guys! Still, she was excited to greet us on our return. 

Home again!

And that’s about enough for this week. 

Departures!

Happy New Year! 

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior, but we have traveled west to the shore of Lake Wascana, in the middle of the prairies. Our family has been leaving post-Christmas, returning to their own situations. Erin and Kristian flew out on Monday morning early—a 5AM flight requires a very early trip to the airport! Then, Eric, Erica, Haaken and Liam began the long drive west. They stopped in Winnipeg the first night, and then continued to Regina where Liam retrieved his car and drove to Caronport. The remainder drove home to Prince Albert. They took Haaken to Saskatoon on New Year’s Day, and he flew back to the warmer climes of Victoria. Our cousin, Don, passed on Christmas day, and I was honoured to be invited to sing at his Celebration of Life. We drove out on Wednesday to Winnipeg, and continued to Regina on Thursday, where we have moved back into our comfortable room in Erin’s basement. The markets have been very thin in recent weeks due to the holidays, but I had an excellent 2025 year, my second best ever at 29.3%, and, on Friday, we enjoyed a good start to 2026. In the world of sports, we’re enjoying Junior Championship hockey. Our guys have advanced to the playoffs and are scheduled to play Czechia in the semi-final tomorrow. Sweden plays Finland in the other semi, then the winners play the championship game on Monday. Go Canada, Go! In the NHL, my teams have been doing much better. Oilers are in first place, but they’ve lost the last two games. Pens have climbed into a playoff position, and Leafs are only 3 points out. Conference play has begun in Basketball. #17-KU traveled to Florida for their first game today, but fell short—sigh! Rock Chalk Jayhawks! 

Erica writes, “We returned home to PA after a week of Christmas with family. I’m told it was wonderful. Haaken and I were sick all week and spent most of the time in bed. I coughed hard enough to pull something in my side, and so, I spent the drive back medicated and snoozing! We rang in the New Year with our friends, Tina and Guido. Haaken flew back to Victoria on Thursday. So, it’s back to just Eric and me. We caught up with the PA Raiders on Friday night. Go Raiders Go! This weekend, we plan to head back south to Regina for Don Elsaesser’s celebration of life.”

Erin and Kristian flew home on Monday. They enjoyed first class treatment in the plane, but were so delayed out of Thunder Bay, they almost missed their connection in Toronto. Thankfully, the plane was held for them, and helpful staff came to escort them to the next gate and on board! Now, we’ve caught up with them in Regina. Kristian is back on the job of hunting for a job! We inquired at Costco today, and got the information on how to apply there. Most things are done on-line these days.

Kristian got a windshield cover for his car—that should protect from ice storms and fresh snow that would otherwise interfere with the start of the day. Erin got one also, but apparently you have to install them to make them effective—who knew?!

Travis and Joanna have taken over the care of our little dog. Joanna crocheted a Pom Cave for her little girls, but apparently it also fits Yorkies! 

Hey, that’s my Cave!

Kali has visited and stayed there before, so she easily makes herself at home. Joanna is another of the family who fell sick over Christmas, and now Gemma is under the weather as well, so she gets to have mommy take care of her! 

And that’s enough for this week. 

Family Time!

It’s Christmas time, and we are feeling very blessed as all the family have come home. Eric, Erica, Haaken and Liam arrived on Monday. Erin and Kristian on Wednesday. Gemma and Jonas flew up from Vancouver, so with Travis & Joanna living here, and also Andrew and Rosie, we’re just missing one grandson! Our house and hearts are full!

Blessing of Family

The weather has been consistently mild all week, but we did have some substantial dumps of snow. Fortunately, Haaken and Liam helped with the clearing of the driveway. We enjoyed a feast around the roast turkey with all the trimmings, as they say. Along a spaghetti supper, a charcuterie special, and assorted leftovers, we’ve pretty much been feasting all week long, .In addition to the presence of family, there were plenty of presents, with the central ones being Saskatchewan Roughriders Championship bling! The markets were thin and volatile this shortened trading week, and we expect more of the same next week. The sporting world adopts a specialized schedule around the holidays, and features some special events like the World Junior Hockey Championship, so I’m getting plenty of TV watching. The Grand Slam of Curling event ended on Sunday with the Swiss teams of Schwaller and Tirinzoni sweeping to the gold medals! In the NHL, the Oilers continue to play well, and have ascended to the top of their division, while Pens and Leafs have descended near the bottom of theirs—c’mon man! In Basketball, the #17-Jayhawks did not rise as I expected, but they put up another strong win, and are now set for the beginning of conference play. 

And that’s enough for this week!