MAY 1ST Well the furnace issue should be fixed. A whole new complete system for 5K installed vs the 14k quoted earlier. A complete repair,test and modify for 2K. After talking to Mom it was decided to pay for the repair as the system will be fixed and why spend the extra money if she is planning to sell. I was planning to come to Edmonton on Friday but I have the AGM meeting at Turner on Saturday I want to attend. So I think we may go up Sunday and stay a couple of days to clean up a few things. Jackie’s Dad was put into the hospital again last night as he leg is very swollen and is seeping. They need to pay a lot of attention to this so the seniors home felt they needed to get him some direct attention. Jackie has been go around in circles making sure everything is correct for him. Went and put the batteries in the motor home, started it up, started up the genset and everything else. May have a a/c issue which I will get checked out. Discovered that again the mechanic left off the oil cap so had to order a new one from Ford direct. Now will need the oil changed again as I don’t know when it was left off. ( no one would steal it you would think,lol)  Next week will work on the plumbing etc to get it ready. Came back to the house with a cut hand, a smack on the side of the nose that bled and sore muscles lifting those 3 batteries into place. Jessica arrived home but had to go to the doctor again today as her stomach is still burning. She says she knows another lady that had the chicken on the same flight . I didn’t realize this but salmonella is contagious to people. Learn something new everyday. Was walking into the condo to get ready for a golf game with Jeff this afternoon when one of the older guys in the building  shouts out  “a little earlier to be getting off work isn’t it ?” I replied smugly ” I don’t have a quitting time anymore “and laughed. One hour to fill before golf, what should I do ? Blog, read, watch TV,eat,nap,exercise. The options are so great. I am working on a birthday wish for tomorrow for my good friend Fred who is turning the big 60. I have quite a few old friends, Gary L, Gary W, Brian E,Bob K, Larry G, Rob M, and Murray B all which are older than 60. I must like the maturity level of old guys. Funny because all of the women I know are all young. ( oh that is because so am I, LOL)

Fred probably can’t remember this ( the old age excuse)but I had to help him land this fish as it hooked right as he was having a nap. He is holding it right after standing straight up to attention in being awaken. I am sure that is exact how it happened. LOL He did give me a new camouflaged hat to wear while we were in Phoenix.I will use it next time in the boat as the fish don’t even know you are there trying to catch them.

MAY 2nd        Well the rain and snow for later today is here now. Finished off the books this morning, entered the golf score from golf last night ( 86 with two triples,darn) and a few rounds that Jeff had. Going to pick up my new oil cap and then work a bit in the house today. Will wait to summerize the motor home as we are expecting -4 as the lows for the next few days. I am late in saying this but I wanted to make sure if anyone ever needs any finishing materials you buy them from REGAL Building Material http://www.regalbuilding.com. in Calgary. Jackson our sweet grandchild had a accident and broke his babysitters French Door which Tor and Corey had to replace. Regal was able to help us and then  Regal did more ( way more)than helped with this.They are amazingly nice people I have known  for over 20 years and they are the best company you could find to deal with.Any doors, moldings, locks etc they are the go to place. Jackie visited her Dad in our new south campus hospital today.Disappointing where our health care is going. Hopefully our new Wildrose gov’t in waiting will start changing the cycle of top end spending , severances etc and not caring about patient support. The whole way of thinking has changed in medicine. Nurses are above changing shitty shorts or asking for pain meds right away. It is someone else’s job.Years ago it was about the compassion of another, the feeling of wanting to help and care for others. Now it is about the money and how little work can  I do but still look busy. My sister has been a RN for over 30 years and I know  for a fact as an old school nurse she would be there to help,not delegate.Today the nurses are much different in thinking, trained  differently and  health care policies are much different.It was extremely frustrating when my Dad was in the hospital and with Peter now in the hospital I see the exact same attitude. He is in for CVI and is on antibiotics. His legs are swollen and have weeping sores on them due to the poor circulation. They have his water pill strength so high he can’t think. A nurse assistant changed Peter’s sheets but didn’t even wash his hands or change his underwear after a small accident.Jackie had to take them home to wash. His bed was flat instead of having his legs raised which is meant to help him.The nurses never made sure to encourage my Dad out of bed to get him moving and Peter is being left to lay in bed the same way which isn’t helping blood flow to his legs ,and him having a damaged heart will cause water to be in his lungs. He has been in a hospital for two days  now and when asked how was his blood work they don’t even have the reports back yet. We need to come up with a different approach to medicine. There are some amazing people within the industry at all levels, however how do we attract the people that are the “caring type” versus getting people that like the high wage and benefits only. We need to have the proper staffing levels first of all. We need to find a way to attract the right kind of person, get rid of the union  and go back to basic patient care with true caring be the only concern. Talked to the boiler expert at Mom’s house  this afternoon and I am confident that her furnace is now right. New gauges, controls, cleaned, new bladder tank and adjustment make it like new again.Find the right guy with the correct knowledge and is concerned about doing the right thing and it is amazing what can happen. I would highly recommend Pro Solutions Heating in Edmonton as a plumbing company. Their tech Keith was fantastic. Great Job !! All fixed for 2K. Yahoo.I am sure my Mom will sleep tonight without worrying about CO2 or no heat. Her sump pump is repaired so she should be all set for a bit.  Sunday we might head up to Edmonton to fix a few more things. May long weekend looks like it is progressing perfectly. This year we have 18 people camping with us and 3 kids. I have the potluck meal all organized , will set tee times in about a week and have a few contests this year to add to the fun. Will let you know and with pics how it goes. We are at the Raven Resort near Rocky Mt House for the weekend and online the place looks great.

MAY 3RD    This is Calgary on May 3rd. We received 6 inches of snow last night and have a temperature of -3 degrees. Today was supposed to be my opening tournament at my course. They cancelled it for a couple of weeks but due to timing I won’t get to play in it. What has happened to spring ? This is May and we have had one day close to 20 above and the rest have sucked. Hopefully Jackie will agree to stay down south longer next year.I prefer green grass and 90 degrees.lol   Oh well we will get a few things done around the house. I see Jackie bringing out the vacuum cleaner. I will pretend to be asleep and hope it goes away.LOL  Ok, today will be house clean up day.  I have my grandfather clock refit project to work on which is a couple day project that I may start. Good news from the hospital as Peter is doing ok but will be in until late next week. The doctor actually phoned Jackie at home which is fantastic. ( good person with good intentions)  and gave us an update. They have a battery of tests for him lined up so hopefully we can find a solution that will allow him to walk some without pain. (they finally gave some pain medication to him)  So things are looking up there.  I was up early this am as our course had their annual AGM meeting. The course is well managed and positioned very well to grow, improve and impress. A lot of new renovations on the club house and a lot of changes on the course. Switched up 9 and 18. #14 new green is done. That hole still is a odd hole design but is a way better than having a bowl green. Trees have been planted and bushes have been removed. I like it !

May 4th to 6th Drove up to Edmonton to see what was going on with the furnace repair as Mom phoned Atco again and they shut down the furnace. We all slept in extra covers and used electric heaters that Alfred dropped off. I might add this is supposed to be May weather. I was there when our repair man showed up.Keith did a full inspection of the furnace, checked chimney draft, checked for gas leaks and CO2 leaks. Even checked the hot water tank to make sure nothing was coming from there. Mom says she felt dizzy and called Atco. The Atco guy came and gave a report stating high Co2 emissions and LEL % excessive. (note detector did not go off) . Anyone would be scared with such as report . Keith and I waited, and kept checking the furnace and we had zero emissions of C02 or gas. The valve where Mom showed me the counter was going off is water value.The report from Atco is like out of the twilight zone. Keith tried contacting Atco to get an explanation of what was going on but just kept getting the run around. It is one of those mysteries. A furnace one moment can’t be emitting C02 and gas leaking and the next not. I installed a digital reader that measure the ppm of C02 right above the furnace and we have NO issues. ATCO should not be sending out untrained personnel to the site. I can make a counter go off by breathing on it with my carbon dioxide . This guy must have had real bad breath. Jackie and I did some repair to the living room wall, boys, bedroom wall and the kitchen ceiling. Jackie then painted the entire ceiling, touched up the living room and painted one wall in the bedroom. Jackie also sprayed a small mark in the ceiling in the basement and changed out a difficult t light bulb in the basement. Next visit I will repair Dad’s wiring in the cold room. look at spraying the ceiling there, move the chair from the living room and bedroom downstairs. Mom has finally decided to sell so if you know anyone that would an acreage setting 15 min out of Edmonton or Spruce Grove give us a call. Should list for June 1st.  Talked to the seniors home Mom is looking at . It is a fantastic place that has a lot of activities she will enjoy. She may even be lucky enough to have our old neighbor move in also. Mom may get a few Nay Sayers twisting her a bit on moving into this place but Jackie and I  have done all of the financial calculations and she can afford it no problem what so ever and have plenty of money do other things.I am trying to organize times for real estate evaluations for this weekend to keep thing moving.

MAY 7TH Picked up my new Tohatsu 5 hp motor. Bought it online. Tohatsu makes all of the Nissan outboards and all of the small horsepower Mercury engines and just puts different covers on them. It is a well respected outboard motor company that due to marketing costs and perceived value by brand names sells for a lot less than those said names. Should be a lot of fun this summer ( if we get summer,LOL) Jackie went visiting her Dad in the hospital again. Slowly he is making progress. My cold seems to want to hang on so I haven’t went to see him as of yet.  Watched American Idol last night and again with my new phone I couldn’t get a picture off fast enough. I was trying for a selfie with Jackie and Calob but ended up with a 1/2 of Ryan and her. Next time. LOL

 MAY 8TH  Worked all morning on the motorhome cleaning and organizing. Checked out everything but may need my a/c serviced. It doesn’t kick over from the furnace and the furnace has no heat. Rushed out to golf the afternoon and had a off game. 4 -3 putts and a triple. Oh well things happen !! Course was great . I hate the higher scores now but next time a low 80’s and all will be forgotten.

MAY 9TH Slept in today as today was the first day we had no real commitments to make. I went off to work on the motor home a bit this am. Jackie picked up her Dad out of the hospital and got him settled in back at his home. I came home for lunch and actually feel asleep on the couch. This is very very unusual. Must be the man cold !   We picked out most of land excursion online today for our Sept New England Cruise. Hitting all of the hot spots including Peggy’s cove, Bay of Fundy, Freedom walk etc. Tried to stay away from museums and old building tours. Booked the Cabot Trail tour but maybe on the waiting list. Also booked all of our tee times for the May Long weekend get together at Raven Meadows Resort. We have 23 family and friends attending this year which is the biggest attendance we have had to date. Potluck supper is arranged and i am sure it will be a feast. Jackie and I are supplying my Mom’s ( and her Mom’s) potato salad and my special concoction Chili. All we need now is for summer ( or at least good spring weather to help us) . Heading up to Edmonton first thing in the morning.

MAY 10TH Got on the road early to Edmonton. Had two meetings set up with  realtors and a site visit to the Lewis Estates Retirement home. Ready up the place a little and met with our first realtors. Nice couple, in touch with current media outlets, good ideas on communication and I believe would work hard at selling the property. Issue came up with them pricing it a level we didn’t like. Two reasons for it. First they use a computer generated suggested list pricing. This system can be accurate but can be very skewed when dealing with unique properties and situations.  The land value of Mom’s acreage wasn’t in the consideration as she is in a prime location and they didn’t account much for this. Second their comparable properties where to far removed to be accurate. Again the location didn’t come into play. I believe they can be very good agents but for us due to the above reasons we couldn’t use them.  The second meeting again was very well presented but more  accurate in comparable’s by using sold in Osbourne for the last 5 years and a lot closer proximity to Mom’s acreage. There were a few “sell” points brought up that also helped.I just need now a confirmation from Mom to go forward.  We then also visited the retirement home  and all I can say it is first class and a place that anyone would love to live. Mom deserves it. She just needs to put her hold payment in place even if her friend backs out of her commitment.Jackie has visited a lot of these places when she was looking for her Dad and this one is by far the nicest and offers a lot of extra amenities. It is a lot to sell, consider moving, radical downsizing but the end result will be worth it.I hope that she go forward with it. Travelling back and forth to Edmonton I didn’t realize or care about it before but now it matters. It costs me over $100 each trip for gas alone. I will need to have better planning.

MAY 11th Happy Mothers Day- to my Mom, to my wife, to my daughter and every other Mom in the world. Mom is a special job and deserves any reward it can get. We all went to Alan & Maryann place for lunch. 11 of us in total for a great lunch and gathering. It was very nice. Jackson had a great time with Danielle’s new boyfriend that wore Jackson out . As soon as he left the house Tor emailed a picture of him asleep. Victoria also gave us some fantastic business cards. We love them and will use them. I love our new job of “Re-engaging Consultant”  Ps. Today also is the birthday of  Terry Key’s. As she is married to a senior now and Terry being so much younger I am sure she will have a wild celebration of Mothers day and Birthday. Fred really robbed the crib here . Happy Birthday Terry. Enjoy your youth with all of your young friends.

MAY 12TH                 Jackie had to get up quite early for a dentist appointment.  I didn’t. LOL   I enjoyed the relaxing morning all to myself. Went to a couple of auto body shops to get an estimate for the door ding. ( I hate door dings) One quote for $500 from the Dentless repair and another for $1100 for complete new paint shop on the door to fix. We are going to try the less expensive method to see what happens. I had a golf ball mark repaired on my Dodge hood which turned out fantastic from Dentless so hope for the same. Did a few things around the house and headed to golf in the afternoon at Turner. Again not a stellar round. Played quite well just a few to many mistakes. Blame it on the cold. Got  home just in time to watch the Voice sing off. These contestants are incredibly talented. Really pushed the limits and stayed up all the way to midnight.

MAY 13TH First day of the men’s league i joined. The whole process was unorganized chaos. Players were switching partners as friends wanted to play with each other and the pro shop and starter didn’t know what was going on. It ended up myself as a single player started the last time of men’s with three woman. These three woman were amazing golfers. Long drives, great chips and putts. I thought “Oh no another loss to a bunch of woman” Luckily for me they fell apart on the odd hole. I scored a 88 which was enough but very close. Yes you read right. Senior Men’s league and I golfed with three woman. I will give the league another try next week after the long weekend and hope they are better prepared. I did have a lot of fun though today. Three 60/70 year old women are a lot of fun and take golf serious.  Got home and let the one Realtor know we won’t be using them. Have the name of a couple water proofing companies to see the cost of fixing my Mom’s basement so when we get an offer we know what we have to reduce it by only. Still haven’t heard from Mom if she is moving forward which isn’t good but hopefully she is still pondering. Meeting with our financial planner tomorrow to move my Standard Life money to ScotiaBank. Voice eliminations are on at 9pm tonight. Hope everyone is enjoying our new spring like weather finally !! But, I see the long weekend isn’t looking perfect. No fire ban which is good but a 60/80% chance of rain on one or two days. You just never know though.  Below is picture that I couldn’t help take. This is on the road to my golf course. It is beautiful and not to many cities can boast such a skyline.(ie Edmonton,Saskatoon, Winnipeg,Regina,etc) Calgary area is beautiful. Enjoy !

MAY 14TH It was a great day today. Worked on a the motor home a bit  fixing things up for the weekend.Met with my a/c furnace guy at the motor home for a yearly service appointment. Later that afternoon met with our financial planner at Scotia Bank  as I had to transfer from ScotiaBank to the division we deal with of a TFSA. I  also needed to fill out the paper work to transfer from Standard Life my JELD-WEN employee RSP. Every thing is place now for the first year of finances to run. Hopefully our projections, estimates and their returns all are close to our budgeted numbers. As the money doesn’t come in the accounts anymore and only leaves it takes an adjustment. LOL  You definitely need to watch the dollars as all new retirees will discover. Yet I love that minor worry over the daily issues of dealing with work. Jackie and I then headed to the Wholesale Club for the larger purchases of the food needed for the long weekend and potluck dinner. Some great  deals here as it is the place all of the smaller local restaurants and service stations etc go to to get their products. It is like Costco but specific to the restaurant business and is a true bulk food warehouse style store.

MAY 15TH  All loaded and heading for our camping, golfing, visiting long weekend. Weather is fair but very very windy.Us along with every larger trailer, motorhome etc were like a small tugboat on the ocean bobbing around in the wind. It is about a 3 hour drive to Alder Flats. Arrived at our location all safe and sound. It is a “quaint” hotel but a nice campground. Set up everything and just relaxed for a few hours. Read this fantastic book by James Patterson ” Swimsuit Model” which is probably the best murder mystery book I have read. A little “sick” with the murders but extremely well written.

MAY 16TH – MAY 19TH Had some great times camping with family and friends all weekend. We ate, we drank, we slept, and we golfed. This course would be a nice country course if the greens were in good shape but they had horrible winter kill. So our golfing experience was tainted a bit.We golfed three days over the weekend. Not only was the course not great but I didn’t golf that well either. Oh well. I only had one:

We had a great potluck supper with loads of food. We had three different Chili’s each tasting a little different but all very good. Plus all of the other fixings it was a great meal. Had a lot of food left which is odd with so many people. It turned out even bigger this year as we had :Harry family – 8 people, Keys family – 4 people,Willard family-7 people, Bishop family -4 people,Huggett family- 3 people, and the Grace family 2 people. Keith made us all Caesars for supper. These were the best Caesars I have ever had. Garnished with a pickled asparagus, pickled bean and a hot pepper and mixed perfectly. Should have made a 5 gallon jug of these they were so prefect. I made one myself after the first one and it wasn’t near the same. We also got to rub the old age thing into Fred a bit with it being his 60th birthday.

Alan, Jessica and Jeff all stayed at the hotel. It came with mixed reviews but overall served the purpose for a short stay for those without RV’s. It saves them having to drive any distance. It is quaint, a little rustic but would be a 5 star in Country ratings LOL  People get spoiled with 5 star hotels. Nice to bring it back to old fashioned motels.Fred had to leave a little early as his company being American arranged a meeting in Reno which meant Fred having to leave on Sunday night. They don’t recognize Canadian holidays. LOL. Jeff  left early also which is to bad as he missed a very unique hail storm  that started right after us finishing our round.Just look at the picture of the hail on the ground. May long week traditionally has not had great weather so sort of was expected. I would bet if we camped 30 May long weeks we have had 25 with some bad weather. Just adds to the fun trying to clothe and adjust to the cold or wet.Just look at how prepared Jackie was. Just look at the amount of hail we received in such a short time. We all had to rush and shake or lower our awnings as the weight of the hail and water was ready to break them all.

The weather couldn’t keep anyone indoors as the fire never went out and rain suits, umbrella’s and awnings kept most of us relatively warm and dry. Each day we golfed we were at risk but only had a few sprinkles which was great. The new owners of the campsite and golf course were a little lax in their rules but overall it was a fun time not wrecked buy excessive loud music or people. Only one incident on the course where it was a 5 hour round with some party people  stopping for group hugs, a toke and drinks after each shot. Lucky we were all in the relax mode so it really didn’t matter but it was a long game. The campsite delivered small trailer loads of firewood for us to feed our fire for $10 which is a deal. Sitting around the campsite, having a few drinks, playing golf, ladder golf and 20 questions made for an enjoyable time. The 20 question game gets to me after a while as it can drag on with a mundane obscure item to guess. I thought I may pay back a little and used Brainwave for everyone to guess what it was. Below are a few campsite pictures but the one I like the most is of Keith with the Calgary Flames beer can I provided to him. He is a loyal loyal Oiler fan so it was nice to see him have to suck it up if he wanted a beer.

Notice all of the heavy clothing. And these guys aren’t wimps.Hardy campers and a fun group. Not one was worried about makeup, hair or smell. LOL All good Canadians need a toque to camp with . How about the long row of chairs to sit around the fire. Just like a couch.   I wish I could buy cases of these beer to just to bug all of Edmonton friends. You had to finish better than third last to get your name on a beer can. Sorry Edmonton. Jason’s truck had a starting issue. Fred got it running the first time by holding the butterfly’s open to dry up the over filling of gas. It wouldn’t start the last day again. I was very impressed with our young tow truck driver ( we thought it would be towed) got it started. He pulled off the distributor cap and cleaned the contacts. The engine then fired up. Excessive moisture didn’t help the cause with the dirty contacts. Hard to get at distributor and cap and the young guy did it very quickly.

MAY 20TH  Up this morning and did a few things around the house. Talked to Mom and she is ready to sell and even put a deposit on her new retirement home. We don’t have to move anything really just a little organizing and cleanup. This is good news.  Moved the boat from Victoria’s house to our storage lot. Washed the Jeep. Getting ready to take in the Jeep for a recall and a/c issue. Have a tee time booked with my friend Jeff and Paul Bortoluzzi an ex rep of mine at Speargrass men’s night which should be a blast as Paul is an amazing golfer. Shhh ( I secretly really want to beat him. I will need a low low 80 score to have a chance.) Received some very disconcerting news about JELD-WEN Canada today. I will expand a little later.

MAY 21ST A busy day today. Had to set the alarm to get the Jeep into service for 8 am. Have a recall and the a/c just isn’t blowing cold like it should. Stopped at the motorhome to pick a few things up. Visited the Dentless Repair to have the door ding removed. Picked up  our touch up paint at Jack Carters to match exactly the paint. The Enclave has a metallic flake in it which makes it more difficult. Drove to the auto detailer to have him apply the paint. As he indicated from 10 ft away it is invisible but close up you still can see the spot. But to his point we save $900 and when ever you remove door panels with a lot of electrically in them you are asking for issues. So we are content and can live with the small scar. We sent the information to the lady that did the damage so time will tell if she send us a cheque or not. Spent a lot of the time on the phone getting Real Property Report quotes and waterproofing quotes. Have this just about completed. Went golfing with Jeff and Paul. It was a fantastic evening with it being over 25 above. The mosquito’s though are making their appearance already. Sad to say I lost to both Jeff and Paul. Paul as usual was sick. His first game and he scores 81. Jeff played the best I have seen him play for a long time. Very few errors other than a few missed putts. I am not displeased with how I golfed just the score. I took a 10 on hole 10 and lost three balls so if I remove those I would be looking at about a 83. I was the only one to get a birdie and in fact got two, got quite a few pars and  a few boogie’s. Have to put the positive spin on it. LOL   Got home just in time to see the crowning of the new American Idol. Caleb won but wasn’t my choice. Gena is a better singer and I believe will sell more records. Hard rock today I believe isn’t as popular yet Caleb won. I think it was his charisma and stage presence that pulled in the votes. Both should be successful.

What is happening to “my” JELD-WEN of Canada It is odd as I am no longer part of the group but when I see what is happening with the company it still upsets me because it’s about the people.  In my opinion it has become a company with no leader, no direction, reactive management and puppet management.  Someone has said they need to cut costs and the Canadian group is going extreme. You never cut sales people if you want to increase sales. You pay bonuses to improve moral, excite sales and increase business. You don’t pay severances instead of bonuses and expect an increase in sales, good company moral and employees that are motivated and not fearful of what is to come. Here is what JELD-WEN of Canada (and Alberta only) has lost in the last little while. Time frames maybe off a bit:

• Senior Vice President Steve Sheasby ( 30 yr employee)                 dismissed  1 ½ years ago
• Vice President of Sales  Santa Cigana ( 25 yr employee)   mutual parting    1 year ago
• Coordinating General Manager Jesse Hawthrone ( 10 yr employee)  resigned  6 months ago
• Regional Sales Manager Larry Willard ( 27 yr employee) retired  3 months ago
• Territory Sales Manager Paul Bortoluzzi ( 20 year employee) resigned  2 months ago
• Vice President of Operations Lou Valeriata  (27 year employee) resigned 1 month ago
• Territory Sales Manager Ken Reid ( 20 yr employee) dismissed   last week
• Territory Sales Manager Larry Geddes ( 32 yr employee) dismissed this week
• Territory Sales Manager John Tooley ( 5 year employee) resigned June
• Territory Sale Manager Ryan Knisely ( 5 year employee) resigned

The uniqueness of JELD-WEN was their staff longevity. You can’t maintain sales when you lose these long term employees that have business relationships that go back 20 years plus.  Just look at the loss in the last three months alone. It is a shame that my beloved JELD-WEN is going thru this. I am glad not to be part of it. Someone needed to stand up, protect the employees, engage them so no more good people are lost, and explain to corporate the common sense rationalization instead of just taking the easy way out by saying “look what we did to cut costs” without considering the impact on the individuals life and the resulting inevitable sales number reduction. In my opinion, to cut alone will not accomplish anything and it is a huge step backwards. This will be my last comments I make on JELD-WEN. I LOVED the company, it is not the same as it was and I don’t want to spend any more time thinking about them, the situation that the staff are dealing with and in what direction they take. I will make every attempt not to know what is going on as it will only upset me again. Most of these people were friends, co -workers and all good people.I do know it is a huge company that will continue to sell a lot of product and will work through any situation as it arises. Best wishes to them.

MAY 22ND Picked up my Wrangler from the shop. The a/c wasn’t completely filled at the factory and is  why it had no cold air. Must have been a late Friday truck. The recalled lines were fixed and everything is good. It is a fun vehicle to drive. Put the insurance on the boat and motor today and removed the business portion on our other vehicles.They wanted to sell me forgiveness accident insurance for a my fault claim. I haven’t had a my fault claim since a teenager so I declined. Jackie on the other hand. LOL  I declined for her also.  Agreed on a survey company to get the real property report for Mom’s acreage. So all is progressing very well. Most likely head there on the weekend to finish off our stuff as I have important things like Monday night golf, Tuesday Men’s league golf and Wednesday night Men’s night golf and Jackie has two doctor appointments set up for her Dad and we need to be in Lethbridge on Friday night for Jessica’s gala. Victoria and Jackie had an evening Tee time booked but Victoria got hit with a major migraine around noon. We picked her up at noon from work and drove her vehicle back home for her. Her migraine was so strong she puked a few times. These headaches are hard to deal with. So I took her place and Jackie and I using our special power carts played a round at Mackenzie Meadows.The recovery of this course after being decimated  from our floods is remarkable. The greens were fantastic and the course overall is in great shape.  There are so many nice people in the world. We met this very nice couple that golfed with us and had a drink and snack after that were a lot of fun to talk to. They have a place in Arizona. They liked camping ,golfing and were just friendly people. Their business that was for sale is supposed to be finalized this weekend so they are in very good states of mind. Very enjoyable meeting people like them.

MAY 23RD Jackie’s Dad Peter has been sent to the hospital again today. The poor guy just can’t catch a break. He has contacted a flu virus at his home which has had him quarantined for the last few days. The retirement home phoned this morning as they feel he would be better looked after in the hospital again as they fear he may get dehydrated. He needs a couple of weeks of good health to get his strength back as laying in bed and with his legs the way they are he weakens quickly. Hopefully this time they will get him well enough to get up and start moving. Had a great lunch with a good friend which was very nice at a new restaurant on 130 th ave which was great.Jackie and I had a nine & dine date at Turner Valley golf course which was a lot of fun. The course was in unbelievable shape and it only took us about 1 1/2 hours to golf nine and we were walking. We both golfed great and as usual the odd error stepping in to wreck the score. Tonite I ended up in every sand bunker there was but still golfed below 45.  We then will head to Edmonton for the Saturday and Sunday to help fix up Mom’s house a bit and get the sales contract signed. Beautiful weather today hitting close to 27 degree’s. Finally spring is here. Just looked outside and our May day tree is in full blossom so we aren’t that far behind as it bloomed in the right month. Here is a picture of our family home where Mom has lived for over 50 years. A nice home on 4.4 acres 15 minutes out of Edmonton among the trees. Move in ready even though most people would do a few reno’s to it. But you could live there without doing anything if needed. The basement would require a gut and re-do.  The perfect location to raise a family or just to be out in the country and only 15 min away from the big city. Location, Location, Location.

MAY 25-26TH Worked all weekend getting it ready to list. Did a lot of little fix it up things, a lot of organizing, cleaning and moving stuff. Cleaned out both garages and filled a trailer full of stuff ready to take to the dump. Planted a new tree , put flowers in the well, and we should be all set to go. We will have the listing go into effect on June 7th and hope for a quick sell to lessen the impact on Mom. The house overall is in perfect shape other than the basement .Once it is sold then the work begins big time with moving furniture, getting rid of stuff ( garage sale) etc. That will be a big chore that no one is looking for. It also will be very difficult for Mom to decide what she wants to keep to bring to her new place , what she wants to sell and what she is giving away or donating. Got home relaxed a bit , put our stuff away and Jackie headed to the hospital to see how her Dad is doing. Quick thought !! I haven’t said in a bit ” What a pleasure it is to be retired.” I see/ hear what is happening at my old company ( shake my head) and am so glad we made this decision. I will tell all of you that the days really pass by quick and seems most days there is not enough time but the feeling it can be done tomorrow is extremely nice. Busy week coming up for us but will be loads of fun. Don’t wait to be to old to enjoy !! This weeks agenda: Stone picking for Victoria’s garden, Dig dry river bed in front yard at Victoria’s ,Golf on Monday evening with Jeff, work on outboard motor carry box, Golf  Senior Mens League Tuesday am at Turner Valley, stain fence weather permitting,Golf Wednesday night Men’s league at Speargrass, babysit Thursday evening so that Jackie and Victoria can golf, test drive boat just to name a bit of the things.

MAY 27TH  Went over to Victoria’s place to start digging the dry river bed in her front yard. Dug out the bed and headed out in search for some larger river rocks. Ended up in a new neighbor hood near the river and gathered quite a few nice sized stones. Laid down our landscaping fabric and placed the larger rock in the needed spots. Went for a trip to Burnco and picked up 500 lbs of washed gravel in the back of our Cherokee on a tarp. Shoveled all of the gravel into the bed and it’s starting to look good ! Headed out to golf with Jeff at Turner Valley. A beautiful evening and only took about 3 1/2 to complete. I played quite well ending up with a 85 but Jeff just couldn’t putt well enough to keep his score down. Maybe Wednesday. Had our usual social gathering while watching the hockey game. MAY 28TH Got up early as I had an a early morning tee time for the Senior Men’s League at Turner Valley.If you remember before I joined the league I was hopeful it would a great way to meet some other golfers at the club. The first time didn’t turn out to well as I ended up golfing with three ladies ( yes as a men’s league member) but it still was a lot of fun. Well my luck didn’t get any better this time. The “clicks” of guys that the pro shop allows to move tee times around bumped me again as a single as they wanted to golf together. The pro shop again apologized but that doesn’t quite cut it. They suggested ( remember every club is concerned about speed of play) that I golf as 5 some.  Oh well, I cancelled my membership in the league, got my money back and will golf when I want any other times that are free. I will try the leagues again next year hopefully with better results.Headed home , ate lunch and went golfing with Jackie at Mckenzie Meadows. First hole a par 5 and I missed my albatross by inches but still got my eagle. I golfed very well making a 40 on the nine we played.

  Again just a gorgeous day, very few people on the course during the day and the course was in perfect shape. After golf headed back to Burnco for another 600 lbs of washed gravel and unloaded finishing the river. Victoria arrived home and we headed out for more large river rocks. Found a bunch inside the gates of the Prov park. Felt like stealing but does the park really own the rocks on their land. Hopefully not. Got some very nice rocks that were washed up due to the flooding. Headed off to the garden center  and picked up some  plants to finish of the yard. Corey got home and helped us lay more fabric and another trip to Burnco were we picked up 300 lbs of black mulch. Unloaded everything and  finished it all. I maybe biased a bit but they have the nicest front yard on the street. Home now just relaxing. Boy this retirement thing means busy. Fun busy and love it.

Just waiting now until they can give me a few bucks as I have a great pergola idea for the back yard that has: 2- 12 ft cedar posts, lattice, design ended cross beams, designed ended top cross bars, two train lanterns and couple of plants to provide an accent and privacy element to the back yard. Perhaps they may provide the stain for the fence first. We will see. MAY 28TH Started working on my carry box for the outboard motor. Measure , re-measured and drew the plans for it. Then talking to Jackie she came up with a even better idea so I had to go back to the drawing board. I will create a wooden crate that will allow the motor to be carried upright so we don’t have to worry about oil or gas spillage. Went to the Home Depot and had all of the plywood cut to size ready for assembly tomorrow. Got ready and headed out to play golf. We have been so looked after in the weather for golfing.Tee time was 5pm and at 5:05 the sprinkles stopped and we had a wonderful evening of golf. Paul as usual golfed a 81 again. He hits the ball a mile. He just seems to hit every sprinkler head and bounce another 20 yards straight ahead. Can’t figure out how he does it. This men’s night they had us eat our supper that is included after nine holes and then carry on. Was sort of nice. Unfortunately the meal was an awesome burger and fries. This the day before my cholesterol testing.I figure one burger can’t make that much difference especially with the 5 months of being relatively good. We will see .

MAY 29TH  Slept in a bit as it is raining out. My project for the day is the carry box which is in Victoria’s garage. I will work on it after my blood work testing at noon. Won’t complete it today but should get a good start on it. Jackie’s visit last night with her Dad was good news as he is finally starting to feel a little better. Eating apple sauce and soup. Hopefully the trend continues as he works at getting his strength back.Had an email and phone call from the golf club and I will try a non-club sponsored men’s league. The invite suggested I was put on the victim list so I may need to make sure to bring money each week. LOL   Looking forward to see how this goes. Started the box and so far so good. Test run tomorrow to see how easy it is to put the motor in and out. Jackie spent the day cleaning her Dad’s home as his issues caused quite a mess. She wore gloves and washed her hands numerous times. The blood work nurse attempted to get a side vein which didn’t go over well. Beside hurting more the vein collapsed while giving blood but she got all of the flasks filled. I am not good at giving blood as my veins are difficult, I don’t like the pain and two many times the vein has collapsed, turned or missed by the nurse. Updated my RCGA handicap which is now sitting at 16. Hopefully lower by summers end. Jackie also worked hard at cleaning out the outdated medicine, pills,lotion etc. Threw away two brand new under arm deodorant Old Spice. Who wears that. It smells like an old fisherman that hasn’t bathed for a week and it is supposed to be nice. Gone. I like Axe but I can’t figure out why the elevator event just doesn’t happen to me. MAY 30TH –    Worked all day building my plywood box to carry my outboard motor. Made out of 5/8 plywood with two sides opening to allow me to put my motor in standing up and not scratch it. My plan came together very well. The motor mounts to a cross 2×4 and is held in place so it can’t go anywhere. Worked till about 4 pm and then had to head to Lethbridge for Jessica’s Fantasy Hair Show. Jessica organizes this, emcee’s  it and manages it. This year it was held in the Enmax Place upstairs which was nicely decorated. They had a nice sized stage and a runaway. Wish the runway had been longer. We had a great time, beer, nachos and amazing hair designs done to a theme.The turn out was great. Remember this for next year as $20 gives you an interesting insight into the life of a hair stylist. Very talented young girls being taught at Purely Inspired Academy of Beauty. Here are a couple of shots of the winners and contestants. Ps Jessica was amazing as the emcee with a calmness and good sense of humor.

 

After the show we went for a late supper to the Fireside Restaurant. This place has unbelievable  food. They will pick you up at your home and drop you off if you want a date night. But the best thing is the FOOD. When in Lethbridge go there you won’t be disappointed. We stayed the night at the Coast Hotel while our other daughter stayed at Jessica’s house.

MAY 31ST Had our Timmy’s breakfast and then started to do a bit of work at Jessica’s place. I installed a new faucet in the kitchen. To install new stuff in a 100 year old home is never easy which I soon found out. Got it all done finally after a lot of  monkeying around. No sink clips on the back which is unfortunate but it sits very well. This took a long time. Changed out some light bulbs and then took apart a lot of the raised beds in the back readying it for her friends to come and help in a a few weeks lay sod etc. Piled them near the deck as we can use them to save money to expand her deck. Penny was cutting Jackie’s hair while I was working. Awesome job with the color accentuating the grey and a great layered cut. I like it. Hot Mama. Went out for a late lunch on the patio at Hudson’s which is always nice. Cold beer,bar food and sun you can’t go wrong. Then headed home as it was starting to storm outside. Had a healthy popcorn supper as we were not hungry after eating late.