We're off!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. This weekend finds us in Carman MB, visiting with Glen & Kim. As I noted last week, I intended to leave on Monday, so we left on Thursday! We drove out through Atikokan to a truck stop near highway 11. We enjoyed the sites, and a tour of the museum in Atikokan. On Friday, we toured along through Fort Frances and Rainy River and up highway 71 to Kenora where we visited our grandson, Greg, and his wife Kiersten—thanks guys! Then, today, we drove into Winnipeg where we found out that Costco only allows you to put $200 worth of fuel into your vehicle! At least, we enjoyed a visit and lunch with Tom & Mariette—thanks! Finally, we drove out to Carman to spend the night with Glen & Kim—more thanks! We plan to continue west and hope to get to Regina on Monday or Tuesday. In these early days of RV travel, I am experimenting with different driving speeds and seeing how that effects fuel usage. We drove to a max of 80 km/h from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg and scored 20.5 L/100km. Now, I plan to test 90 km/h on the next section to Regina. An earlier test at 100 km/h cost 23.9 L/100km. We did manage to clean up somethings around home before we left, and we have a house-sitter to take care of the rest! The markets have remained Thanks Amanda! The Riders lost this week to Toronto—sigh! The Jays are playing poorly still, but we have high hopes all the same. 

Erica writes, "We enjoyed a mostly quiet week at home. Highlight was taking in the Chilliwack concert right here in PA. The bass player is from PA, so that is an interesting factoid. Liam is heading back up today and will enjoy a weekend at the lake with Eric and I and the Stenske’s. Haaken reported that his application for financial support has been approved by Community Living BC, so that will be a good safety net in place for him. We had our Rotary Windup on Monday. I passed on the presidency to another Rotarian; I’m glad to take a break from that. :)"

Kristian has nothing new to report this week. Erin has been extra busy at work as she catches up for her recent days off. The Jays have not been fun to watch lately, so she has enjoyed being able to switch over to the World Cup soccer games for some entertainment. 

Mölkky: look it up!

Travis completed the labels for my Mölkky game, and I have it along with me for the trip—thanks man! And, wonder of wonders, he has been able to retrieve his stolen car. Thanks to his posting about it on several media sites, folks were on the look out, and one noted it and phoned him one morning about 1:30AM. After confirming his action with the police, he was able to go over there and drive it home. "No damage," he reports, "but sadly, they did not fix the muffler, either!" Rosie celebrated her birthday this week. 

And that's about enough for this week! 

Here Comes the Solstice!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, and brought us to the Summer Solstice—how can it be that daylight is getting shorter already?! My doctor called with feedback on the Sleep Apnea study—I'm sleeping well, which is a bit surprising while having all those probes attached! I have completed the preparations of the RV for summer travel. I hope it serves us comfortably, even while the fuel fills fill our credit card! The electrical is not completely repaired, but the generator is working, and that's the main thing.

Luggage rack

The trailer hitch luggage rack arrived, so I got that installed. That significantly increases our storage space. Wendy still has some choir business to complete before we can leave, while I've been pointing to heading out on Monday—that won't be happening! Our summer house-sitter, Amanda, has moved in. The Orange War continues sporadically. Investors take confidence in the idea that Trump has given up and wants out. Naysayers point to the fact that it was Israel that got him into this mess, and they do not want it to end. So, the markets continue to whipsaw and are failing to gain value. The Stanley Cup playoffs have ended, with the Canes wining it all, as I was hoping. Football continues with the Riders winning in Calgary this evening—yay Riders! The Blue Jays continue to struggle along below .500, and you know that's not good, but they did win today! 

Erica writes, "Eric has started getting some bookings for therapy and learning more about the job. He picked up the truck reserved for mental health therapists, so we have two trucks for a few days. On Wednesday, I took a group from the Ministry out to the clinic where Eric works. I greeted him as I normally would, then explained that I always give the first mental health therapist I see a small kiss! [Seems to be a wise practice!] Mystery Train is playing at the local music festival, Rock-the-Ville at Albertville, so I came back on Thursday. Liam arrived on Friday; we are heading out together on Saturday. I’m hoping to have a couple of recordings to share! Haaken, Greg and Kiersten all are doing well. Haaken continues to work on the pitch bible for the show he is creating. I hope some day he can create it and share it with the public."

Erin and Kristian have been hosting Uncle Travis all week. They went to the Mandalorian/Grogu movie on Wednesday. Kristian had a work party on Thursday evening where he learned to play pool! Erin took the week off work to celebrate her only brother! But she was still pestered with work calls each day! 

Trav eating his pizza;
Kristian heading for seconds!

A good time was had by all until Friday morning when they got news that Trav's car had been stolen back here in TBay. That kind of put a damper on things. It still has not been recovered. Joanna has been enjoying having Gemma home. They, along with Andrew, were over for a celebratory brunch in honour of Joanna's birthday on Thursday. She suffered the same downer as the rest of us on Friday morning when she looked out to see Trav's car was gone! 

And that's about it for this week. 

Beautiful June Days

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. While we have watched in horror as storms raged across the prairies, the weather has been beautiful here, and we are thankful. We have been able to make some progress on several of our initiatives. The back yard fence is progressing, but much remains. The lawns are looking about as good as I have planned—my goal is to allow them to live, but not thrive so much as to require frequent mowing! The rhubarb is ready for picking. I have cleaned the firewood out of the garden area, but we have not intended to plant a garden now for several years as we're planning to be away during most of the summer. We have a house-sitter lined up for those months, who will also take care of mowing the lawns. Wendy had her concert on Monday night, so her choir practices are ended for the summer. The generator has been repaired (I hope) with the installation of a new AVR, but now a fresh concern has arisen over the house battery; it doesn't seem to hold a charge well, so, I'll have to get that tested. It was newly installed just last summer, so this is a bit of a puzzle, and I can assure you, it is not fun crawling underneath there to uninstall it! The on-again, off-again Orange War has the markets whipsawing. We hope that the fighting will end soon. The Blue Jays are getting some players back from the injured list, so, we hope they starting getting better results. This evening, the Riders had their first game of the season against the BC Lions, and won an exciting contest. The Stanley Cup playoffs are through five games and the Canes have the 3-2 lead. This week was the Canadian Open in golf, so I've paid some attention to that. 

Erica writes, "Eric and I are both up north this week. Eric has been getting settled in at Stony Rapids and his new job in Black Lake. Some locals remember their teachers, Mike Koops and Sheena Koops and are pleased to make the connection. He spent three days learning the new job and two days in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) training. It uses eye movement to connect with various parts of the brain during trauma reprocessing. I left him to fend for himself and went up to Uranium City. The place was roughly half the size of Yellowknife in the 80’s. Now it’s a few houses and buildings and a forest that you can drive through and see streets and cul-de-sacs, the remains of houses, fire hydrants and fences through the trees. In one place I could barely make out the roofline of several 3-story apartment buildings. There is a closed and empty high school. In some ways it is sad. But, in another way, it was hopeful to see how the forest has taken back the land—it was interesting to experience. I returned to Stony on Thursday to find that my quiet sanctuary has been taken over. The fridge and cupboards have been filled, and we have to make proper meals again. I kind of enjoyed my quiet evenings of popcorn and bagged salad. On the upside there was a cup of coffee by my bed this morning. That was lovely. I don’t have anything to add from the kids this week, so, I assume they are all well!"

Erin and Kristian braved another thunderstorm in Regina. It included some hail, but that does not appear to have done any damage to their vehicles or their condo. Erin has put in extra time at work this week so she can take a break for Trav's visit next week. Elly has been misbehaving by running away, so she has been banished to indoor locations only! Kristian upgraded to delivering a customer's car and bringing back their loaner. He also scored another work BBQ, and a work supper at the Keg, mmm, good steaks there! 

The big event in the Travis & Joanna family was the double graduation for Andrew and Rosie. They have both completed their Practical Nursing program, so we enjoyed their ceremony yesterday. It was followed by a lovely BBQ dinner and family evening over at their place. Gemma and Jonas are still here, so it was good to catch up a bit with them. They're back to work next week in Vancouver. Travis is set to head to Regina tomorrow to spend a week with Erin and Kristian. 

And that's about enough for this week. 

What is so rare...

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been lovely, with only one too hot day (31°) when we put on the AC and retreated to inside the house! RV preparations have continued; I got the hitch installed yesterday, and I've been working with the mechanic trying to problem-solve on the generator. We put on a new breaker switch, but that didn't produce regular electricity. We have now decided that the AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) is the problem, so we have a new one ordered, and expect it to arrive next week. I have finished the side fence, and have moved on to the back. It is higher, so I may need help moving the panels once I get them released.

Back Fence

You can see how much the ground has shrunk away over the years—it may have been fifty years since these were installed, and that gap is higher than Kali. We've enjoyed a couple of fires in the fire pit—shouldn't be long until the mosquitoes arrive! Wendy has been extra busy with choir as their Spring Concert is this coming Monday. There have been practices, extra practices, home practicing, and lots of arrangements to be completed. The markets continue their erratic way in the Orange Days of our Lives! All of them are in the red so far this month with the Nasdaq leading the way down at -5.4%. No one seems able to conclude which way to jump, except for the corrupt insider traders. Football has begun in earnest, but the Riders have this week off. The Blue Jays continue to struggle with injuries and poor performances—C'mon Blue Jays, let's play ball! At least they won today! The Stanley Cup finals are tight at two games to one in the best of seven series.  

Erica writes, "Liam is back in Caronport. We miss him around here. Now it’s back to just Eric and me and we are making plans to go up north next week. This will be Eric’s first trip and he’s doing a lot of thinking about what to take. He also had a doctor’s appointment and several tests and it turns out he’s getting old. We wrapped up the week by renting Song Sung Blue about a Neil Diamond tribute band. It was nostalgic. Greg and Kiersten celebrated their 2nd anniversary on Monday, June 1."

Erin and Kristian had a pretty much routine week. Erin is still short-staffed, so she's having to work extra to keep up. She did pick up hooks for the patio lights and hanging baskets. Now, the gardening boxes are ready for development. Kristian is not finding time to practice golf, so I'm figuring grandpa can stay ahead for one more year! 

Travis and Joanna joined us for cards and cornbread last evening. It was a lovely time, and I have to thank the women for throwing the card games in our favour! Joanna reports that she has finished off one of the African Violets, and that the others are well beyond their life expectancy by this time! Gemma arrived today for a visit. We are all glad to have her home! Puckshots has picked up the photography assignment for the girls' softball league here. 

And that's enough for this week!