January 1st      Happy New Year

We had a very very nice evening last night. We decided to go the Olive Garden which is one of my favorite places. As we thought the line up was long but as usual well worth the wait. I had the tri-colored vegetable penne with meat sauce and Italian sausage.Jackie had shrimp with pasta which she said was great. I love the salad and bread sticks. The restaurants around here are catching on. At the front door they had a sign saying welcome to their winter visitors and they had Bloody Caesars. I had to ask the waitress what they were made of to make sure. Funny as she didn’t know and had to check with the bartender. She assured me they were made with Clamato juice and would add the Worcestershire sauce as I said this was a standard ingredient. I will give them credit for trying. I don’t believe they used Clamato and as I said to the waitress when asked ” it is as good as any bad Caeser I have had before” Good on them for trying though. I do have to say I have a lot of poorly made Caesers even in Canada. After supper we came home and watched a good movie and then the count down. Smooch !

As a young guy it was always fun waiting for midnight as you get to kiss many women in one night. A little later on ( early 20’s) I disliked the stroke of midnight as the drunk women kissing isn’t exactly a nice thing. Slobby kissing or even drunken annoying women have always being a pet peeve of mine. I have always detested drunk women. I don’t know why but I have experienced to many of these women in my life time.

Well the start of another year. The start of some people making resolutions that they know they can’t keep and they keep making them every year. Instead set a goal and a strategy to accomplish it. If it is weight don’t just stop eating for a couple of days and expect it to last. Little steps with a plan.  The first day of the year is also a reflection day of the past year. Every year has it’s up and downs. That is life. Hopefully everyone experienced a lot of ups and few downs.

The TSX finished off the year 11 percent down. That is exactly ( 11 + 6) 17 % less than what I expect and planned for. Fear is continuation of the same and hope is a recovery of 20% in 2016. Time will tell.

Jackie and I had a great year.

1. Second grandson was born  August Lane  in July ( yes in July not an error)
2. Great camping trips to Waskesiu , Moose Jaw, Maple Creek,Park Lake, Blueberry, Brazieu Dam, Pembina,
3. Great golf trips to Waskesiu, Pembina, Three Hills, Carston,
4. Great fishing trips to Park Lake, Crawling Valley, Calling Lake, Travers , Brazieu
5. Lots of golf and still have a double digit handicap
6. Marshaling was fun
7. Audrey & Michael getting married.
8. David & Erin getting married.
9. 40th year High School Reunion.
10. Family visits, birthday parties, get together’s, Thanksgiving meal with 20 people
11. Christmas in Phoenix with the girls
12. Lots of Jackson babysitting time
13. Selling old motorhome and getting the new motorhome.
14. Finished a few projects at Victoria’s and Jessica’s homes. Arbour, fence staining, laminate flooring, doors, cleanup, yard work
15. Moved Jessica to a new home.
16. 35th year wedding anniversary

This just to name a few things that pop into my head. There are a lot more that I may add later if i remember.

Today is just a computer day as I have to do my budget for December to see how we made out as we had a few major expenses with the girls here. Food bill could be very high.

Thought of the Day 

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better person. I don’t believe anyone stays the same person their entire life. 

January 2nd

The weather has been perfect hitting another 20 (68 )degrees today with full sun and no wind. Jackie and i worked outside most of the day. We loaded Fred’s truck with tree’s that

pile at least 8 ft high in the back. We loaded Bob’s truck as full as it could go. Tied it all down and ready for the dump on Monday at 9 am. I have cleaned Bob & Pats deck everyday as the birds are amazingly dirty making a mess on it within a few hours. Jackie finished up cleaning and bed sheets etc at Pat’s place so all done. I cleaned the back yard, took down all of the Christmas decorations at both places and sprayed the entire area. Looks good. A full 7 hours or so or work today so Jackie is happy as I told her think not of it as work but exercise . I think she fell for it. Cleaned the BBQ and noticed I have a lot of yellow flame which I will need to check on. It is clean and the only thing I can think of is a bad regulator or old propane. I will look it up to see if propane loses it power.  Sitting outside on the deck tonight at 5 pm in the warmth and loving it. Chores should be done now except for my work on figuring out a cover for the BBQ. I am leaning towards a metal louvered covered just to keep the water off. Stopped by Fred’s place and brought in the Christmas decorations and showed the cabinets and flooring to Jackie. She was most impressed as the home looks fantastic. I can’t wait to see it after Fred & I finish the backslash.  Drove to Target our fav store here for some things and now just getting ready to BBQ supper. Pool, hot tub, walk on the agenda for tonight. Tim and Lorna stopped by this afternoon on the golf cart as they were playing tennis. They plan to go to San Tan Flat for supper this evening. We are meeting up with them on Fat Willy’s on Monday.

Another day in paradise and it is wonderful. Beyond wonderful it is superb, incredibly enjoyable, relaxing and i am sure adding extra years to our lives. We are very happy that Fred & Terry bought here as the crib games, dice games and the having fun are always on the agenda. It would be great if Keith H or Larry G would bring their RV down and experience the good life for a bit in the future. You can rent a RV spot for about $600 a month and enjoy all of the facilities.  Hopefully other friends will discover the good life and buy or bring their units down. It was a great decision to buy before retirement and have it paid for. It was a great decision to pick Mesa as we are surrounded by lots Canadian friendly people.It was a great decision to retire early and as I do my research on retirement I am positive  it was the right move.

Thought of the Day 

Paradise can be where you are living at, but the perfect paradise is under the sun, sitting in the warmth, cold beer in hand and relaxing perhaps the odd game of golf and crib thrown in without thinking of work and having no stress.

“Retirement TIPS”

A 50 year year old healthy male can expect to life to an average age of 83 years old today. Women a little longer. That might give you the impression you have LOTS of retirement time to enjoy yourself. Retire at 53 and you have 30 years of enjoyment. Wrong ! Life expectancy doesn’t  tell you how many healthy active years you have remaining. WHAT is the most important thing when planning your retirement is to disability  free life expectancy. DFLE . While hard stats aren’t kept on this, it can be calculated by applying the critical illness tables. Measured from age 50, the disability-free life expectancy of a Canadian male is very close to 70, a figure that is consistent with European statistics. This comes as sobering news if you plan to retire at 65!  Just something to think about seriously.

New stats are now reversing the average age of life expectancy also as cancer and dementia are growing at alarming rates. 

The newest stat from the USA states that the average male or female  in 2015 from the age of 65 has only 8.1 years of expected disease free years or death. The numbers are lowering. 

What does one do with this information? First and foremost, you should take control of your own life by making lifestyle changes. If you eat better, exercise regularly and stop smoking, it will not only increase your life expectancy, it can increase your disability-free life expectancy even more. Plus think of the money saved with smokes costing $12 a pack today.

The second action to consider is to re-evaluate your retirement plans on the basis of your disability-free life expectancy rather than your total life expectancy. Based on your DFLE, you might decide to retire sooner,spend more money in your 50 & 60s and reconfigure how you spend your time while you still have your health.The words carpe diem apply at any age, but never more so than when you turn 55 or 60.  Seize the day, live in the moment and enjoy life.

Thought of the Day 

Live your life. Take chances, Retire early. Don’t wait !. Because right now your the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you will ever be. Seize the Day “Carpe Diem”

January 3rd

Temperature hitting 73 degree’s. My face is starting to turn a little golden color. I have the 50 SPF on the top trying to protect my pre-cancer spot. I wear a hat 90% of the time but i can’t have a white top and a brown face. Sitting on the back deck in the sun is very close to heaven. Have my cold Diet Pepsi with me ( American Diet Pepsi has removed the Aspartame which is wonderful) my laptop and a nice breeze moving the nearby Palsm tree leaves. Being relaxed, cool nights and dark room along with a extremely comfortable mattress topper we have not being getting up before 8 to 8:30 in the mornings. We went for a long walk in the park which was fabulous and needed. Most everyone now has removed their Christmas lights. I guess we have few Ukrainians.  Jackie took down all of the interior decorations and tree etc while I put away our outside stuff and removed Bob & Pats stuff.  Cleaned my BBQ but still haven’t figured out why I have so much yellow flame. The birds have messed up Pat’s patio AGAIN. They are messy birds but I wouldn’t try it for anything as it is like we are far out in the country with the amount of birds we have and the lovely sounds coming from the tree. We are not planning a lot do to today. We have unloading two full loads at the dump, golf in the afternoon and Fat Willy’s tomorrow night.

Watching the news today I see Saudi Arabia quite a bit lately. First they are finally being hurt financially with the oil pricing. Perhaps we may see a reduction in production to raise the pricing. Second the beheaded or executed 48 ISIS members in one day. Now that is a government wanting to get the attention of the “enemy”. I don’t know if that makes them any better than the ISIS group but it has to shake them up a bit. I know the eye for an eye analogy but ?

I found this picture of Jackson  practicing to get ready to come with me this year

fishing and entertaining August at the same time. I just like the picture as it is a cute one.

Thought of the Day 

We live in an era of smart phones and stupid people.

January 4th

Up and ready to unload both truckloads of leaves and branches at the dump. I helped two 80 yrs plus guys unload theirs and Jackie & I finished off both of the trucks in less than 1 1/2 hr which was impressive. No deep cuts or scratches. Everything good. Had to get up a little early as the dump opens at 9 am. Cleaned up Bob’s truck and yard a bit as they arrive today and those birds make a mess. Parked Fred’s truck and will fill it with gas and wash it tomorrow.

Raining today and it looks like a cooler than average week. Especially after yesterday being so hot. I think I will cancel my golf today as warmer drier days are coming.

Jackie went out for groceries and I cleaned up a bit. It looks like a lazy wonderful retirement day.

Pat & Bob arrived and busiest themselves trying to get back to the retirement grind. Talked to them for a bit and I think they really like the gift we got them for lending us their home for Christmas.

Pat & Bob, Tim & Lorna and us headed to Fat Willy’s for the Burger Night. Everyone had the excellent burger meal. Jackie actually drank 2 full beer tonight which for her is a drunk . LOL Now Lorna nor Tim are beer people. Lorna is the only person I know that likes Jack Daniels. And she is a girl. Tim is a rum guy but with 7 Up which after having a taste I must say is not bad at all. I still prefer dark spiced Rum with coke but that’s just me. It was a fun night and then we all headed to Pat & Bob’s for a after party drink. Bob has the neatest musical play list of anyone I know with Hank William, Don Williams, Willie, Gene Audry etc. Real old country music which for me is still very enjoyable to listen to.

I still have about three pounds to get back to my magic number that is hanging on after my Christmas binge. Beer is a high calorie food. Yes a food. In fact, it should be considered one of the major food groups. Here are some reasons why: Of course beer is a beverage, as the majority of its composition is water; however, given that it’s also made with cereal grains, hops and yeast, all of this combined goodness is oftentimes a meal in itself. I rest my case.

Thought of the Day 

Milk is for babies.  When you grow up you have to drink beer.

January 5th 

“Healthwise TIP”

If any of you have followed my blog you will remember i am strongly against the use of Lipitor. I don’t believe in it, I have researched it, I have seen results of it and I have experienced it. Victoria found this interesting article that is backed by great references. As humans we love the conspiracy theory and think it is involved with a lot of stuff, Kennedy shooting, Lennon shooting, airplanes being shot out of the air etc, and Statin’s as it the largest money maker in pharmaceutical industry history is another that makes people skeptical.

Here are a few inserts from the article.

Millions of people are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins to lower their cholesterol. It’s a 29 billion dollar industry that had most of us fooled completely. Doctors prescribe these statin drugs regularly against heart attack, stroke, inflammation and other health ailments. However, despite their incredible popularity, cholesterol lowering drugs failed to prevent heart attack and stroke. Instead, they can cause cancer and other serious health problems.

between 1994 and 2006 the percentage of men aged 65 to 74 with ‘high’ cholesterol decreased from 87% to 54% … Despite this, the rate of coronary heart disease for this age group stayed about the same … Other age groups have experienced an increase in the rate of heart disease as the number of people with ‘high’ cholesterol has decreased.” ll members of the two most popular classes of lipid-lowering drugs (the fibrates and the statins) cause cancer in rodents, in some cases at levels of animal exposure close to those prescribed to humans. … Longer-term clinical trials and careful postmarketing surveillance during the next several decades are needed to determine whether cholesterol-lowering drugs cause cancer in humans. In the meantime, the results of experiments in animals and humans suggest that lipid-lowering drug treatment, especially with the fibrates and statins, should be avoided except in patients at high short-term risk of coronary heart disease.

Additionally, according to a 2011 study published in the journal Prostate, men who take statin drugs of any kind are significantly more prone to developing prostate cancer compared to other men.  Compared to men who have never taken a statin drug, statin users were found to have a much as an 86 percent increased risk of developing prostate cancer.

More Reasons to Avoid Cholesterol-Lowering drugs

• Statins Increase Your Risk of Chronic Disease. Statin drugs increase insulin levels which cause inflammation in your body, which is the hallmark of most chronic disease.
• Statins deplete your body of CoQ10. If you take statin drugs without taking CoQ10, your health is at serious risk.
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs have  been directly linked to over 300 side effects, which include neuropathy, anemia,  chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, and diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s.

• Cholesterol-lowering drugs cut testosterone rates among men.
• Cholesterol-lowering drugs can also destroy memory.

Cholesterol does not cause heart disease. Cholesterol is essential and crucial for a wide variety of vital functions in your body.

How to Lower “Bad” Cholesterol Naturally

Fortunately, there are simple strategies that can help you regulate your cholesterol.  Besides eating healthy and excising regularly, you can add these things to your daily regime:

• Eat One Avocado a Day.   Avocados are an excellent source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.
• Take Lemongrass Essential Oil. In 1989, the medical journal Lipids (study details) published the results of a study from the Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin which investigated the lowering effects of Lemongrass oil on serum cholesterol levels. (where to find)
• Use  Cinnamon.  The scientists found that cinnamon can help lower blood sugar, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. In a study on 60 type-2 diabetes patients, it was found that ¼ tsp or 1g of cinnamon was capable of reducing triglycerides by 23-30%, blood sugar by 18-29%, total cholesterol by 12-26% and LDL cholesterol by 7-27%.

My smoothies will now include the 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon a day. Liking the taste and a benefit is a good thing.

Note : Oiler’s still in last place. I take great glee in this as the season is now half over and all of those miracle first round picks are performing so well. To build up the media hype and hopes of the average fan was just mean. I really feel for the Oiler’s fans. NOT  LOL

One thing to remember this is the team that gave the greatest player ever in history away. They gave away the second best player ever in history away. Karma sucks.

6 years ago today I lost my Dad.

I know everyone says they had the best Dad but I DID have.

This man was the most gentle, quiet, giving, unselfish, loving person I have known. He is still one of the smartest guys I know. Mechanic, machinist, welder, carpenter, plumber, inventor he did it all and did it very well. He built his own homes and ran a service station. Other kids may have had a parent drive them to hockey for a bit each week, but my Dad spent countless hours on my cars every week. I mean countless hours. You just don’t realize how much one does for you. I could phone Dad and get an answer from him on any problem I was running into with electrical, car, plumbing etc. He always had an answer or if not a suggestion to help. This is man that never swore, rarely drank, and never a man to anger.I am so grateful to have his violin sitting in our living as a reminder of him everyday. I miss my Dad as I am sure most people do losing a parent but I do have to say it is one thing to lose a parent but it is another to lose a Super Dad. He was amazing and was a huge factor in how I am today as a person.

Still raining out today so another quiet day. I do have to say rain and cool is a lot better than snow and cold. Sorry guys

I have another week committed this summer visiting the province. Larry G , Anita and us will be visiting the wonderful area of Jasper, Alberta. I saw most of these things as a child but can’t remember them now. Plans are to stay in the Whistle Campground and do the excursions from there. Planned events and we will finalize later on are: All terrain tour of Columbia Ice Fields, Glacier Sky Walk, Mt Edith Cavell walk, Malgine Lake boat tour, canoe on Pyramid Lake , Jasper Tramway, Miette Hot Springs, Lake Minniwanka boat tour and sight seeing. Stop at all of the roadway stops to check things out. Will be a great trip. It’s too bad summer wasn’t a little longer and people got more vacation time.

So far this summer we have;

• May Long Weekend at the Whistle Stop Golf & Campground near Camrose booked-golfing
• June week in Jasper National Park- rv’ing and sightseeing
• Willard Family camp out weekend- camping
• July week at Old McDonalds Farm with Jackson when day care advises dates-camping
• August week at BlueBerry Hill campground – golf,fishing,camping
• September Long weekend at Pembina – golf, camping
• September week – golfing.

Tentative: Weekend fishing trip waiting for a response in June, organize fishing trips with Larry and Jeff in July/Aug/Sept, Weekend with Rob M and Larry G at Writing on the Wall,

Thought of the Day 

Dad, remembering you is easy, we do it everyday. It’s the heartache of losing you that never goes away.

January 6th

Had to cancel our golf yesterday as the rain would not stop. So I have re booked for today. It is very cloudy out but according to the weather network only 20 % this afternoon. Last night we decided to go for a long walk. We didn’t get more than 2 blocks when I could here the raining coming down hard towards us so we headed home and good thing to. We heard the rain every time we got up last night.

Funny thing as it has been 2 years since I retired and I had a dream about work last night. I was to attend a safety meeting in Regina.  The new way of thinking especially around OHS and safety isn’t my thing. We over kill everything especially this area. It is a just make work project and added expense to companies in most cases. Funny how something like this would pop into your head when sleeping.

I tried to book our campground for June and the Gov’t webpage which stated “opens Jan for booking” actually doesn’t open until Jan 13th . So my calendar is set. When I was at first checking Whistler my criteria stated no fire pits in the area with full service but luckily Larry G found a area where we have everything. That is what makes it important to book early. Great find on his part as I had resigned myself to not having a pit. Fires are camping !!

Last night during the rain I noticed one window in the Arizona room had a small leak so out will come the caulking as soon as it dries up. The desert only gets about 10-15 days of rain a year but when it does rain it is hard rain and wind driven. The caulking here dries out so fast it appears to be a continuous maintenance issue. I found my BBQ cover which I will order after i move my posts. It will look fantastic. I am going with Aluminum so that it will last for a long long time with no painting or replacement of fabric etc.  The up smoke from the BBQ won’t discolor it also.

There was a  lot of damage again in the area with the strong winds. One carport on our block was lifted off and carried away. Odd as he is fairly protected but the wind must just have got under it and as you know is very powerful with the lift. Lots of flooding around here. Flagstaff had 12 inches of snow last night. In the 8 years we had our place I have never seen it this cool day after day and with this amount of rain. The area get like 15 days of rain a year and we have had at least 4 now already with another 2 still to come.

Jackie and I golfed today and it was wonderful. Sunny and relatively warm. The skies cleared and the sun came out and shone.Our timing was right as we were right in between storms. We had to rush to get to golf as when I went to start the Buick it was dead. We must have left some interior light on or something as a newer vehicle should never not start. Not as bad a Tim’s truck though as he had in the shop here and is looking at a potential bill of $10K as the turbo is cracked plus ejector issues etc. That’s a bill and a half.  After trying to start the Buick we grabbed our clubs and carried them to the course. It is a long ways to carry them but we made it on time. Both of us played well with Jackie just a little over 100 and I scored an 80 even.I had close to 5 birdie shots within 3 to 10 ft away but missed everyone of them so the potential score could have been awesome. It is amazing to me how one day I score 95 and the next game 80. Love the game though. On the way back Jackie wasn’t paying attention and tripped on the road, fell and injured her knee.She fell quite hard and I thought she had twisted her ankle or smacked her head, Turns out only her knee but it is a large bump. Hopefully it fixes itself fairly quickly. I will continue bugging her  as though she did hit her head. I rode the bike to get the battery charger and hooked it up. The Buick setup is awesome as they have a red plastic cover for positive and a marked post on the firewall for negative. Set at 2 Amp and should be set in a few hours or so.

Chicken is cooking and chicken salad on the way. I made a huge Chef’s Salad with egg, salad and chicken strips. Awesome tasting. Getting closer but it is slower than I like as with the rain the activity level is lower. ( plus eating the odd potato chip etc while sitting around) . Down time is important and enjoyable.

Thought of the Day 

Finding things to do makes my rainy days sunny.

January 7th 

Watched American Idol last night. We have watched this series from the start and enjoy it. This year being the last year was again a great show with them bringing back some past winners. The entire show was well done and entertaining. Jennifer Lopez looks as good as ever.

Talking to the neighbor behind us and asking when the direct neighbor behind is coming down and he told us it looks their place will be for sale. This early 60’s couple is the perfect example of my disability  free life expectancy. DFLE. They were in perfect shape. Young looking, athletic looking, thin and active. He played tennis everyday and ran the tennis club. The wife had phoned to tell the next door neighbor he was diagnosed with cancer and they weren’t sure when they would be coming. Two weeks later he died of the cancer. YOU HAVE LIFE EVERYDAY TO IT’S FULLEST.  They did everything right, thin, active, non smokers, and still didn’t life as long as they should have. You have to feel for the survivor as she is still very young. If you are a older man in our area you could find a mate right away. An older woman has to fight with 20 other women for the same guy.

100 % chance of rain today. It is pouring out again and the sky is dull and cloudy. Have I said it is pouring hard again. I have never seen the rain for so many days here. Good thing we had that timing right for golf yesterday. Still I take rain and 60 degrees over snow and 20 degrees any day.

We have our block party tonight . Pizza , salad and desert and a get together which will be fun. Luckily it is organized to be in a gathering room at the North pool as the rain is expected all day. I think I can beat the old guys at the bean bag toss game. All right.Had our workout at the gym which is an excellent gym with a lot of equipment. It is always funny to come up to the weights and see where they are set. You know it was a very old guy when it is set for 5 pounds or even 15 pounds.  LOL

Wow lots of interesting and scary news. The TSX lost another 2% today in trading. It has lost 1000 points in a little over a month. That hurts big time and I am afraid it is not going to get any better right away.That is 20% below it’s peak. That is huge.China devaluing it’s dollar is to blame as their economy slows. Low cost oil is killing the energy rich countries. Trans Canada suing the US govt for 15 billion and I hope they get it. The way Obama treated Canada on the Keystone deal was unbelievable and he deserves a small slap. I sure hope the whole world’s financial situation gets better quickly. I can life with the TSX dropping as it will come back and I will be retired for 30 years plus but the US dollar exchange really hurts. It’s like getting hit with two hammers. less money to draw from and a way more expensive to pay for everything. But the good life has to cost something so I will wait for the sunshine this weekend and sit on my deck and drink aspartame free diet Pepsi and enjoy a low cost wonderful day.

We had our 800 January block party up at the North Pool yesterday. We had a guy come in and cook pizza in a oven right in the room and the pizza was great. Albeit he did arrive a hour after he was suppose to. Everyone had lots of pizza and salads to eat. We played a couple of games which were fun and quite difficult mentally.Made the brain think. LOL It was a nice social evening with just about the entire block showing up. Jackie & I are on the committee for the February party so we will need to have a get together party with our co-committee and discuss our options for our party. And the party falls on my birthday. Darn !

Thought of the Day

Dear Math, I am tired of trying to find your X.         Move on she’s gone 

January 8th 

Another dreary day and a little cooler than normal or we would like. Worked on a few things to present to the group for up coming block party and I think we have some great ideas. Bought a few bottles of cheap wine and will host a cheese and wine party to organize for the block party. Now that’s the life.  Since our party is in February and that is heart month and Valentine’s month that should be our theme. So I have a bunch of Newly Wed Game questions and a ” How well do you know  your partner ” question game that I think the committee will like. I will go thru about 40 questions for a consensus on the best ones that will be a little naughty and hopefully will be funny. Picked up a KFC menu as I think that will work prefect for the large group and save a lot of work. Too bad on my birthday though but i get to have this party and still go to the Olive Garden the day after. Yes !

Washed Fred’s truck out today which was a chore. Chevy likes to have the back raised more than the front. Try washing out the bed as the water builds up in the front. This caused a little issue trying to clean it all up.After  quite a while I have it pretty clean of leaves and dust. Filled it up so it will be ready for them when they get here tomorrow. It sure came in handy when the kids were here.

A laid back day for most of it.  Bought my Power Ball ticket and ice for tomorrow. Phoned Tim to see about Fish Friday and had to leave a message as they must not have been home. Paid for my tickets to go the Dutton’s which is a singing family show and will be a fun night out.

Thought of the Day

I have learned to meditate, relax, yoga and go mindless to block out stress. Just kidding it’s my third glass of wine 

January 9th

Wow a wonderful sunny morning this am. Clear skies but still cooler as the high will only be 12 -14 degrees. That is wonderful though. Fred texted and his flight is delayed by close to 3 hours which is unusual. We will pick them up later this afternoon rather than this morning.

I nice means I can do a few clean-up things outside today. Bring out the blower, wipe down the furniture and straighten up the storage bin. A nice day to get this done.

Smoothie today with the addition of cinnamon. I don’t think we can make it any better.

Blueberries– contain the unique, phenol-like antioxidants pterostilbene and resveratrol. Blueberries are a very good source of vitamin K, vitamin C, and manganese. Blueberries are also a good source of fiber and copper.

Cherries- contain 10.8 mg (18 percent of the daily recommended intake) of vitamin C. This vitamin is necessary for the collagen formation of bones, blood, muscle and blood vessels and helps the body absorb iron. The fruit also contains beta carotene and provides low amounts of vitamin K, vitamin B6 and vitamin A.

Flaxseeds (also called linseeds) are a rich source of micronutrients, dietary fiber, manganese, vitamin B1, and the essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, also known as ALA or omega-3. The seeds come from flax, one of the oldest fiber crops in the world

Virgin Olive Oil- anti inflammatory benefits are it’s main health benefit. Cancer fighter properties are now recognized and recommended by the medical community due to the protection of our DNA, cholesterol reducing properties and in particular HDL to LDL ratio adjustments, and improved cognitive function

Cinnamon– better heart health, blood sugar regulation,diabetes protection,better brain function and Parkinson protection.

Chocolate milk- basically a filler for taste, and color but is reduced fat compared to regular milk. Studies have shown as a after workout drink it has a greater benefit.

Bananas –provide a variety of vitamins and minerals:

Woke up this morning and felt very rich. I checked our Powerball tickets on the computer and the realization that I am rich in other ways still is my mantra.  It will be 1.3 billion USD on the next draw. I think that is ridiculous for one winner. Why not have 100 winners or three hundred winners and it would be more successful in my mind. They say they expect the sales this week to be 1 million and hour before the next draw. Think how we could cure homelessness or research or poverty.  Ridiculous is good word for it.  Oh well I will buy  my one ticket again this week. I did have one number right this time. !

Talking to Audrey this morning and she read an article in the UK newspaper. Another study confirming my belief in the negative aspects of Statin’s. Here are a few highlighted paragraphs and here is the full article.

• People taking the drugs are more likely to suffer from hardening of the arteries, a leading cause of heart problems.In addition, researchers found the drugs block a process that protects the heart.This can “cause, or worsen, heart failure”, according to a study.The lead author says: “I cannot find any evidence to support people taking statins.”
• Now Professor Harumi Okuyama, whose team studied a series of more than 20 major research papers on the drugs, says they could cause heart disease.Dr Okuyama, of Nagoya City University, Japan, said: “We have collected a wealth of information on cholesterol and statins from many published papers and find overwhelming evidence that these drugs accelerate hardening of the arteries and can cause, or worsen, heart failure. I cannot find any evidence to support people taking statins and patients who are on them should stop.”The researchers say the hypothesis that statins protect the heart by lowering cholesterol is flawed and that high cholesterol is not necessarily linked to heart disease.They also found statins have a negative effect on vital body processes linked to heart health.They discovered patients taking the drugs were more likely to have calcium deposits in their arteries, a phenomenon directly linked to heart attacks.This is because statins block a molecule needed for the body to produce a vital K vitamin, which prevents calcification of the arteries.Dr Okuyama and his team say many earlier industry-sponsored research; which show the benefits of statins, are unreliable.

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/633160/Cholesterol-drug-statins-cause-heart-disease-experts

I am disappointment in the medical field. I understand following the industry promotions. I once sold a vinyl eavestrough  that I believed was the “best thing ever”. After many years I discovered it was crap. I believe over time more and more doctors will move away from statins  and jump on the next bandwagon.

The sun isn’t shining brightly today unfortunately but still hitting 15 degrees. All next week looks great with it being 17-18 above with full sun. I think I will golf a couple times.

I have a couple of  projects to work on. I have to move a carport post, I have to extend  my deck in the back, paint a wicker couch and re pot some plants. I also need to help Fred finish his backslash.  This will keep me busy for quite a while but is also fun to do.

Still struggling to get those few pounds off from Christmas but the heater has  been fixed in the pool now so that will help.

MY COMPUTER KEEPS BLUE SCREENING. WILL BUY A NEW ONE RIGHT AWAY .BLOG  MAY BE SPORADIC

I AM BACK !!!!!

January 11th to 14th

Will after a few days out I finally have things set up semi ok. I can tell you getting a new computer isn’t really fun as there is a lot to do with set up, favorites, files etc. It will take me weeks to get everything like I want and to get to know the new system but I will like it after a while. With anything new it requires a lot of googling and searching to get anything done. My new system is a Asus laptop with 8 GB of ram, 1T   6th Gen processer 16″ screen ,USB 3 which is ten times faster , and had the Windows 10 software. I added the Micro Office 10 and Webroot security hardware and added a Cannon wireless printer. It takes a long time to set up and sync etc. I have gotten the basics down and have transferred file from my old machine, figured out favorites, home page, email converting gmail to micro mail etc. One issue I am still struggling with is compressing picture sizing and saving pictures to folder from email. If anyone is familiar with Win 10 give me a call or email any info you know about that. U tube is my best friend right now. The following events are not in sequential order as they will be random thoughts of the past days.

Real funny story. Tim & Lorna, Fred a& Terry and us went to Fat Willy’s for burger night. Jackie & I had just finished golfing and the others met us there. After a few jugs of beer and great food we left. Outside Tim is looking for his golf cart. with our help. First let me clear up we didn’t have that much to drink .LOL. We couldn’t find his unit. But very close to where he parked was a similar one a little older but same color. Tim checks his key and wouldn’t you know it worked. The other old fart most likely drunk had stolen Tim’s cart.  For two days we searched the park to see if we could find the guy. Finally on the day before they go home Lorna finds it parked in a lot just a block away. A guy took it and put into his rental pool and had rented it to Tim’s neighbor only a block away. LOL After quite a discussion and finally a threat that the police would be involved the whole story came out. Unbelievable that some one would do this and expect not to get caught. They did the exchange and everything is ok. Tim and Lorna had quite a trip. The first full week was one of the coldest Mesa has seen with rain everyday. Lorna didn’t care for that. Their park model had the plumbing screwed up on it and Fred had to do some repairs. The previous owners had left a ton of old stuff in it for Tim to remove. They weren’t the most impressed. To top off everything Tim’s truck starting acting up and after taking it to the Ford dealer was told it would be close to 6K to fix. Fred found a private garage that was able to fix it for $1600 bucks.  It is too bad they had a few incidences to spoil their trip as this is a wonderful place to be. We took a visit one day to Old Scottsdale Town which great and had a

wonderful Italian meal there. We visited a old mission and walk around looking into all of the shops. A great day and then off to pick up Tim’s truck. Fred & Terry had us all over for supper which was amazing. Fred’s does a mean BBQ and Terry fixed everything else up. It was a wonderful meal and then topped off with the guys beating the girls bad at a marble game that Terry’s Dad made the board for. Tim, Fred and Larry made a good team. Jackie and I had some good walks around the park at night which is good as we haven’t been that active as of yet. Had our Best Buy trip which took a while to find the right machine. We also had a wine and cheese meeting to organize a block party coming up on Feb 4th. The sacrifices I make to do this on my birthday. LOL It was a lot of fun. The guests were small drinkers and eaters. It was funny as one women reminded me so much of Jenny Harry and her Mom combined. She had the looks and was very similar in personality and presentation of herself. They say everyone has a twin in the world. Jackie started to paint the lounge chair in the back but hasn’t had time to finish it as of yet. My two projects (move the support post) and ( extend the back deck) as still on the burner. Time seems to fly. We still have Fred’s backsplash to do. My computer crashed the day before I need to book our sites in Jasper. Between using the tablet and the government webpage I struggled. I hit the net as soon as the site was open but struggled. I got lucky and Larry G was home so I contacted him to see if he could make it work. He tried at home but was having issues also. He ended up phoning and we got two sites side by side in Whistler’s Campground. This si how stupid camping is getting. This is January and we wanted two sites for one week In June and the campground was just about full within an hour. There must be a better system as the reservation system we currently use for provincial or national parks just doesn’t work. You basically have to commit to camping in Jan for the full year. That is wrong. A cancellation fee of the full stay unless special circumstances can be stated needs to be in place. That is planning a way to far in advance. What happened to being spontaneous and just getting in your car and camping for a weekend.   Jackie is golfing today while I am continuing to load printer drivers and software to get everything back to semi normal. Window 10 is a lot different. I like the 2 in 1 function of touch screen and keyboard.  It is just beautiful today sitting in the sun while typing on the back deck. I will write about more as I get time today and tomorrow and will be caught up.

January 15th

“Mercury Forecast”  Calgary  -4 degrees   Mesa  15 degrees

You may have heard we didn’t win the power ball lottery. Having said that my new hope is oil goes up, interest rates climb exponentially, TSX hits 16K and everything would be wonderful. Our total dollars as everyone’s has.has taken a hit and to draw from a lower dollar base isn’t pretty. If you look at the USA they are doing fine. We aren’t. Our NDP government and our Liberal government haven’t figured out the huge impact Alberta has on the economy. We are 20% of the GDP of Canada only behind Ontario at 36% which is wrong as it doesn’t take into account the peripheral businesses that when oil is down it affects. Our hurt is Canada’s. On the news I see Fox Creek had a minor earthquake. Another case where the do-gooders are going to jump on the bandwagon and blame fracking.

Watched American Idol last night which I really like. Great show. Rested my eyes for another day of fixing up the computer. I am getting to like the speed and the keyboard so am very happy. I have most things done. The new Cortana is wonderful. I am sure my Cortana could bitch slap Suri like nothing. LOL  Perhaps another bite out of the Apple will appear. One thought. For all of those Apple lovers why is the Apple share of the business world zero other than cell phones.

Not as sunny today but the weather is suppose to hit 15 degrees today. Fred came up with a good idea that I am going to add for each day as in the future I can check back to see the weather in any given day.

Todays agenda is shopping. Stop at Costco, stop at Bass Pro and Décor Floor for Fred & Terry’s tiles.

Thought of the Day

I’ll pay $19.99 for that as $20.00 for that is ridiculous.

January 16th

“Mercury Forecast”  Calgary -13  degrees     Mesa 16 degrees

Will ended up going to the Bass Pro shop first. That place is amazing as it must be twice the size of the Calgary store. You could waste a full day in their looking at all of the equipment, clothes and boats. I noticed Tracker has changed their Jon boats from the army green to polished aluminum like my Marlon boat. They look a lot better.  Fred bought some camouflage and I ended up getting a fishing rod holder that holds up to 8 rods. I only have 4 but they room will keep them from tangling. The holder will also keep them from getting damaged in the motorhome as rods are quite fragile. Next stop Décor & Floor where we searched that 100 sq ft warehouse for the perfect tiles for the backsplash at Fred’s place. Terry found a great deal and a good looking  tile with accent. We picked up the needed accessories and checked out. We decided to have a quick lunch and stopped at Fuddruckers. First time for us at this burger joint and I have to say it is pretty good. I like the fact you load your own burger with the condiments so extra tomatoes, pickles, etc for me. Great fries and overall great burger. The girls had salads that were amazingly huge and great looking. Then off to Costco. This store has about 1 million people shopping in it. Maybe a little less. After scouring the rows we decided we needed to renew our membership as they have some very good cost saving deals on a lot of the items we normally buy. We will need freezer bags though as the  portion sizing is dumb. We found a couple of mirrors we want and the blueberries and cherries we buy are at least half price. Their bacon looks amazing and the produce looked very very fresh. We bought the standard membership for right now and if we start to use it more will switch to the executive to get the rebate.

Stopped for a evening cocktail at Fred’s & Terry’s place and to check out how the tile looks. Awesome !!   We will start to tile on Sunday.  Walked home and made a great supper ( haven’t lost those pounds yet) and then watched a couple of shows and a movie that were perfect. Jackie says I am snoring more than normal. ??? I have to breathe. LOL Perhaps the drier air, the beer or extra relaxed.

For our block party I was going to make poppers so I  emailed Larry & Anita to get the recipe. I worded my request wrong and Anita sent me this long email for stuffed peppers. I felt bad explaining this isn’t what I was looking for as the email must have taken a long time but am very glad I now have a new recipe that we can use in the future. I received the new one I needed so everything good. At my Costco stop I noticed they have boxes of premade ones that I just need to add bacon to that I may look at. A lot easier. LOL

Nothing major planned for today. I am disappointed this cooler than normal air is sticking around as I love being outside in the mornings and evenings but find it just a little too cool in the desert. The warmth will be coming soon hopefully.

Fred is picking up Mel today at the airport. Mel is staying for a couple of weeks which will be great for him to relax and enjoy his place. His unit he bought is renovated and very nice so it be will be mostly a social and relaxing couple of weeks for him.

The TSX is still very volatile and has dropped and oil down to $28 a barrel and CDN dollar at .68 so that side of things isn’t going well. So what do you make of it. You could say well I am not going to the US for a vacation or stay and what do you accomplish. You miss the warmth, the fun and for only a few cents. Remember for most things you are paying a lot less so the exchange really doesn’t matter. Gas is at $1.75 a gallon which is compared to $4 a gallon in Canada .Cigarettes  are half price.I can golf for $25 a round of in most cases $45 with cart compared to $65 to $100 in Canada. A 32′ TV is $129.  You also have to remember the TSX WILL come back, it is just how far down the road. You can’t be saying” I am not going to enjoy life because of outside factors you have no control of”. Yes we all would like everything to be perfect for our situation but that isn’t life. One could also say I should have worked while this is all going on. That’s wrong as you need to do things when you want not when conditions are not always right. No regrets or real concerns. There has been some very volatile drops in the TSX over the years.Think of 1929,1987 ,2008 just to name a few.  So everyone cheer up, things aren’t bad at all, they will get better and if not. everyone is in the same boat.

Went shopping to Costco and I have become Costconized. Needed printing paper for our new printer. I now have enough to last me until I die. A 45 gallon jug of olive oil. Kidding. 10 lbs of blueberries at half price of Safeway. I will need a bigger fridge as the bacon is in 10 lb packs as is the chops. Bought to giant mirrors for the bedroom today. Funny as the pricing for a bevel edge mirror with

wood frame under $100 is amazing and it came all of the way from Quebec. The two mirrors cover the egress windows the county wouldn’t let us remove when we added the Arizona room. I think they look great. Now Jackie has vanity mirrors that will work. Hung them and cleaned all up and moved another picture and our busy day is just about complete.

Spent a while on the chat line with a Micro Soft tech. The WIn10 photo compression is a HUGE step backwards and I hope they have a update coming. To shrink the size it is extremely difficult compared to other Windows programs. Hate it and I may look at a third party compression app as Windows is now very weak in this area. If anybody is using Win10 has a system to shrink the sizing of a picture from say 3 mb to 250kb please let me know as computer spacing is being wasted and my blog spacing is wasted.

January 17th

“Mercury Forecast”      Calgary   -14 degrees      Mesa    18  degrees       

Up this morning early to head to Fred’s place to do the tiling. We started at about 9:30 am and finished around 3 pm. The tiling turned out in my opinion excellent. The selection of color,

sizing and look of the tiles are excellent. We had a lot of cutting around the plugs and switches and the upper cupboards. Having mesh backed tiles are great for spacing but are a little difficult to cut. This was one of those jobs were we had no problems or hassles which was nice. Terry seemed pleased. After a hard day of working, a few beer, we are going over for Chinese food tonight.

What a wonderful day hitting 80 degrees. Jackie, Terry, and Pat headed to the Mesa Market and came back with some unique things and even a gift for my outdoor kitchen. I will hang this when I move my post and have the awning built for the top.

The Grill N Chill is perfect as I have my beer fridge and BBQ in the kitchen and it gives it a western feel. Terry bought this under the perception I worked with Fred to help in their kitchen. It was fun and an enjoyable task most days not work at all. But thanks for the gift it is awesome.

After some wonderful Chinese food we decided to play a few games. The game of choice for tonight was “Dice” . Full disclosure before I go on. I WON EVERY GAME. Now you have to know if you played this game it is a complicated mathematical skill required game with an intense need for precise hand & eye coordination. Some may say luck was involved. I say not a chance. Is shooting a ball 160 yards at a hole in golf when that is the way it is supposed to be played LUCK if it goes in the hole to be a hole in one. I think not.  Fun night ( especially for me lol)

Talked to Alfred last night as it was his birthday. He is taking this old age thing pretty good. His favorite Keg dinner and a get together with his family for his birthday was on his agenda. It is just odd to have such a old brother.

Thought of the Day

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards or dice.

January 18th

“Mercury Forecast”    Calgary    -2 degrees                    Mesa     20 degrees

Another wonderful sleep with us not getting up until just about 9 am. Desert coolness, comfortable bed, a few drinks, and a winning night makes for a good sleep. Our plans for today include a round of golf ( using my JW cart) , taking a quick load to the dump, Fat Willy’s for burgers tonight and a long walk maybe the pool.  You have got to love it and it doesn’t get much better than this.

IF ANYONE KNOWS THE SECRET TO COMPRESS PICTURES IN WINDOWS 10 PLEASE LET ME KNOW. It appears the programmers forgot this option which is disappointing but someone may have discovered an easy way. I would rather not use an app if I don’t have to.

Had our smoothies, did a few things around the house and readied for golf. I took all of the cardboard for the large vanity mirrors Jackie bought to the dump this morning. Had our lunch and walked over to the course with our carts. Our hole again was one quite far from the clubhouse so we had a longer walk than normal to start. We were paired up with to guys from Winnipeg. Both of them were familiar with JELD-WEN. The gentleman named Keith builds about 30 homes a year in Steinbach MB and buys his JW product thru Penner Building Supplies. The other gentleman named Dave bought JW thru Home Depot and had an issue which I told him to get a hold of the Depot and ask for a service call. He bought USA made vinyl and has bad interior ice buildup and it is not humidity as he controls with a humidifier/dehumidifier due to having hardwood flooring  Hope he gets this fixed. Very nice guys and good golfers. Keith actually hits the ball farther than a lot of older guys. Today I was hitting loonnnggg.  It was a good day for golf with it being so warm and sunny and fun partners. Jackie and I both scored well with Jackie getting 100 on the nose and I ended up with a 78. Just a couple of errors and a few missed putts but overall reasonable well.

Went for our Fat Willy’s burger again tonight and as usual it was fantastic. Got to love the price and taste along with the atmosphere. Walked home in the dark and then relaxed. My back overall was pretty good but did start to tighten up with about 3 holes left to play. Volteran to the rescue. That stuff is incredible.

Bachelor is on TV tonight which we like to watch coming up in a few minutes. So just a relaxing balance of evening.  Tomorrow we have committed to a billiard alternate shot tournament. In talking to the Pat & Bob who suggested we enter I commented if I should bring my own stick. My way of throwing them off balance thinking I was a skilled player. I am not but it really is a easy game if you have eyesight and hand eye coordination. I am the youngest so should have a advantage. My eyesight is pretty good. I have steady hands. great hand eye so I am thinking I should be competitive. We will see.

Thought of the Day

I’ll always remember the day I broke eighty. I had a few beers in the clubhouse and was so excited I forgot to play the back nine.

January 19th

“Mercury Forecast”    Calgary 1 degree      Mesa 18 degree

Finally I have a system to compress pictures. Victoria asked her IT tech at work and he suggested a app called  FastStone to make this work. After using it I like it. You can load a bunch of pictures at a time and compress them to any size. Unfortunately it saves the reduced sized one and the original so you have to go back and delete. Not prefect by a long ways as you have pictures in different folders at different sizing and if you delete the main one the reduced size one is also gone. Shame on Windows 10/Office 2016 couldn’t do this as a standard thing like their versions 2003 and 2007 had.

Working on the block party paper work and printing today to get it done.

Went out shopping today to Lowe’s to pick up a few things. Picked up some dwarf ( am I allowed to say that ?) trees and our water fountain which was a gift from Corey & Victoria and a

few geraniums etc. We love the look and love the peaceful sound of the water dripping over the edge. Set up everything and Jackie moved things around to make it look great. I now have three projects on the books. Move post, extend deck and  build a planter box. If it wasn’t that these all cost dollars it would be great as I enjoy doing these types of things. I moved money to my US account and the exchange was 1.47. Ouch. But again you have to remember a lot of things are cheaper here by a lot and it is what it is. It is exchange and if you are going anywhere outside of Canada you need to do this. We all need to stop thinking about that as it isn’t going away and with our NDP and Liberal governments they are predicting a 59 cent dollar. The weather is starting to become incredibly warm and even the evenings are not bad now only going to a low of 8 above.

We went to our first billiard night last night. It was a lot of fun. We had to draw cards to determine your partner and played standard Eight Ball. I need to say  that some of those older guys and gals must have spent too much time in the pool hall as kids as some of them were good.  It was set up as a alternate shot format which helps remove the great pool players out of the equation a little. I drew for a partner and it turned out to be Jackie which was fun. We did ok winning 4 games and losing 3 games.  I was a little disappointed in my play and will chalk it up no pun intended to only playing one game in the last year. Hopefully next Tuesday will be better. Jackie did quite well and helped our team a lot. The group was very helpful with rules and tips which was great. They had one rule I never heard of and that is the ball had to hit the bumper or it became a ball in hand penalty for the other team. The alternate shot kept you on your toes to keep track of who’s turn is it. It was a different event but an enjoyable one. Pool hall rules though say no food or drink in the building which is a drag.

After our session Pat & Bob invited us over for a couple of night caps with another couple from North Battleford. We sat around drinking and talking until after 11pm. This is late by most standards around here. Nice couple that has had some major health issues at a relatively young age so their insurance has to be quite high. Luckily one of them was a teacher so her existing programs would have covered a lot of that.  It was a fun night and we look forward to next week to redeem ourselves.

Watching the news last night and saw Sarah Palin joining up with Trump. Like I said before Trump is a odd one and I didn’t care for him but as time has gone along he is now my favorite. Even though out spoken and somewhat radical some of his policies makes sense and a shake up in the US would be good. A lot better than Clinton. It does make for interesting politics. Just look at Obama’s brilliance with Iran allowing nuclear  and removing sanctions to put another 1 million barrels a day of oil in the already over supplied market.

Thought of the Day

To play billiards well is a sign of a ill spent youth. You notice I said billiards not pool. People would have brought their trunks if we would have said come play pool.

January 20th

“Mercury Forecast”  Mesa  19 degrees                      Calgary  – 8 degrees

400 point drop this morning in the TSX really hurts Luckily before trading ended we only loss about 150 points. The stock market sucks and we have to look at making a greater percentage save when we meet with our advisor in April. We need the returns of the equity market but the volatility and world economy is not making this possible. A large portion making 3 or 4 percent is better than losing 12% percent or more. Funny when you have your life savings invested how this things matter. When working you could just say oh well in another two weeks I will get another pay check and be dollar averaging up. I wouldn’t trade that for retirement but your thought patterns sure do change. We have a few larger dollar items to buy this year in Mesa and then we will go into a holding pattern a bit. I may look at really putting top end numbers that we can’t go over on the budget. As long as golf, fishing, and camping aren’t affected LOL. I do know I hate the cost of cell phones and have to figure a way to make these work better for us.

Jackie and I were planting the bedding plants and hanging the outside curtain and I needed to head to Fred’s to get some quick ties. He was already 50 % or more done installing his bottom panels for the under cupboard lighting by the time I got there. I had forgotten that I was going to help earlier this morning. I did my little bit of help and it is done and looks great. With the grouting done and the lighting panels installed the kitchen looks great.  We headed over to Mel’s place and glued and nailed his wood valance that had dropped a bit. So all good there.  Tomorrow I will remember the timing for the hot water heater lift and pan install at Fred’s place. LOL

Jackie and I headed to Home Mobile Depot to look at the awnings. I wanted the full cover one but the sizing I needed came to $950 so I settled for the louvered one  which was about $250. Once I move the post and get my exact measurements I can order it. It will keep any rain , debris etc off of the outdoor kitchen and will enclose the patio area making it seem a little cozier.

We finished off all of the plants and relaxed in the warm sun for a few hours.  Getting ready to have our second meal of our excellent tasting meatloaf with mashed potatoes.  A good day today as most are here.

January 21st

“Mercury Forecast”   Mesa   22 degrees   Calgary 4 degrees

Went over this morning to start our day of fixing up things. First on the agenda was to re-wire, re-plumb and install a spill pan under the hot water heater at Fred’s place. This was quite a job really that took us about 3 hours to complete. We had to cut the bottom of the cupboards to accommodate the lifting of the heater. We had to drill three holes threw the flooring for the inlet, the spill over and pressure release tubes. Fred installed a new electrical box and wired that up. He replaced all of the plumbing going in and out with a by pass valve and shutoffs valves. The plumbing now looks great and will good when they leave the park over the summer as it bypasses similar to what one would have on a RV so when the caretaker fills the p traps the hot water heater doesn’t have to be filled.  Fred had a good visual plan as we only needed two extra parts from Depot after starting. That is very good. Fred & Mel moved over to Mel’s place to just install a pan under the heater which was quite easy. While they did that I headed to Depot to rent a hammer drill to move my post.  They finished up the heater and moved over to

my place and we successful moved the one support post and rain gutter. It turned out fantastic and really helped show off the kitchen. Speaking of the kitchen  I have a few efflorescence stains I need to fix with acid wash. Another project. LOL  The post moving was a lot easy than I had originally thought. We used the grinder to remove the bolts and remove all of the Tex screws.  Did our measuring and re-positioned it and installed it. Glad to have it done and looking great. As soon as I get my awning installed I won’t have to deal with the efflorescence stains as no water will be sitting on the kitchen and running down.

Then Mel & I headed to the Gila River Arena. It is 60kms away but took us  at least 1 hour and 45 minutes due to rush hour traffic. We decided to have wings and beer for supper so headed to Buffalo Wild Wings. They have 50 different flavours and not one like we really like in Canada. Not to have Franks Hot Sauce is inexcusable and not to have Salt & Pepper is unexplainable. It is a different country but come on get with the trends. We ordered our wings with the girl stating mine would be really hot. They cam and I conquered. They were not as hot as normal Frank’s Hot . Mel order Lemon & Pepper which were good but not like ones we wanted. The beer is always the same and good. LOL

We headed into the arena and found our seats which were great as we were second level but

row 1 and overlooking the ice which was excellent. The game was not. Both Arizona and the Sharks played only mediocre. You pay 5 million a year to a player and they don’t try hard is difficult to watch. We went a full 50 minutes with a penalty which shows you the effort put forth. Having said that though we had a great time in a great building and always fun to people watch. This was the youngest people we have seen for a while. LOL

Just about forgot the last time we went to a hockey game the parking was free. Last night $20 which is ridiculous. You see a half full arena you would think you would try to get people to come not chase them away by over charging on things. Dumb management.

I hit up the Tim Horton’s which turned out to be quite funny. I asked for 50 timbits and she thought I meant 50 boxes of ten which was more than she had. I ended up buying 80 Timbits and then gave then to me a a nice big box. The young guy in the seat beside me couldn’t believe I had bought so many. You got to love Tim’s though. Mel & I ate a box and I gave a few boxes away and the balance I froze for future treats.

A fun evening and a different thing to do was awesome.

Thought of the Day

The players need to learn no one has ever drowned in sweat so go out there and earn your pay.

January 22nd

“Mercury Forecast”   Mesa 24 degrees   Calgary  8 degrees

Great weather forecast for both cities for this time of year. IN Mesa by the end of the week we will be in the 80’s every day for a few days.

Just thinking we have been here a month now and it is nice. Man am I happy we found our paradise and enjoying it. For the record I am sitting on my patio at 72 degrees enjoying the warmth and relaxation not thinking about any thing other than I have to put on a pair of pants to go out for supper tonight to a concert. Darn I hate pants .

Had a real busy day looking at swap meets. We went to two different ones and they have some great second hand stuff there to browse thru. Had a swap meet hot dog for lunch and continued on our discovery. We stopped at Harbour Tools as Fred needed a tool but they were put of stock so we headed to another location in Gilbert. Found our tool, I picked up a present and a rafter square for my upcoming deck project and then off to the next place. We stopped in at the Army Surplus store which has a lot of neat stuff. Nothing I needed but fun to look at.

Then home to relax for an hour or so then off to a stage show with the Dutton’s after having supper at the Noodle House. Must be a place with a lot of old guys needing Viagra.

Thought of the Day

I’m 59, and an 40-year-old lady called me old. I said, “You may be temporarily young, but you’ll forever be childish.” Then I put gum in her hair.”

January 23rd

“Mercury Forecast”   Mesa 22 degrees  Calgary 4 degrees

A slight change in the weather forecast as next week now is cooler with it only getting to 18 degrees and sunny each day rather than the 20 plus’s we have been enjoying.

The Dutton show was fantastic. This is a large Mormon family of the parents and seven children and now with the 28 grandkids joining in the production. The mother used to get the kids up and first thing in the morning was violin lessons. These now 30 and 40 year olds are amazing musicians. Most of them play multiple instruments extremely well. The put on a fantastic family music show for about 2 hours. It was one of the most enjoyable shows we have been to for entertainment. I wold highly recommend anyone coming to Mesa go to this as it is more than worth the money.

Before the show we ended going to JJ Madison’s for supper instead of the Noodle House which turned out to be a good decision as everyone enjoyed the variety of meals offered. My Pork Medallions were awesome with the mashed potatoes and gravy. Good decision.

After the show we stopped by our place for a couple of nightcaps . Fred & Mel like their drinks “stiff” so the second drink it was two jiggers a drink. I still prefer the standard amount of alcohol but the glasses were on the large size. We need a store run today to get more “treats” as Jackie ate all of the peanuts and chocolate covered blueberries. Or I. Need the food run anyways for supper on Sunday.

Jackie this morning woke up with a kinked neck. After a hot shower and a Volteran rub on it hopefully it gets better for her.

Took a short trip to Costco. I like the pricing and some of the goods but DO THEY HAVE TO make everything in bulk to buy. You can’t buy one peanut butter you have buy two. Two pounds of bacon etc etc. It makes it hard with two people to buy and save if there is waste. Hard goods like toilet paper etc is ok but food products are an issue. Save  a lot on some items though.

Thought of the Day

Waste not want not.

January 24th

“Mercury Forecast”   Mesa 22 degrees    Calgary -3 degrees (and 5 inches of snow)

We had our trial run for our block party so we had a pre party for the party to see if the party was going to work. What a party.  We went over to the neighbors ( fellow Canadians from BC) with two other couples to test our ideas on a game we are going to have at our block party. First it is a fun game that hopefully everyone enjoys. I know the conversation created due to questions and answers is very funny. Anytime you have a man versus woman contest based on knowing each other it is fun. A great group of people and a lot of laughs as we worked through the game. Great hosts and very enjoyable.  We started mid afternoon and played until supper time. Enjoyed quite a few drinks in the warm afternoon. But you know what they say ” You can’t have a good day drinking if you don’t start early”

Big day here in Arizona for the football nuts as the semi- finals for the NFL are on. I am not a NFL fan but hopefully the Arizona Cardinals win their game which will make the Super Bowl a lot more fun here to watch with the fanatical fans.

Saw Rickie Fowler win another tournament which is great. I like Ricky and it is finally nice to see him become super competitive instead of just a marketing guru. With this new win he moves up to 4th place in the world in the rankings. We have some amazing players in the top 5 with Speith, Day,and Mcilroy , and Bubba.

On the agenda for today is a relaxing morning, start to precook all of the ingredients for our Shepard’s Pie supper for tonight with Fred, Terry and Mel and have a round of golf.  Will be another fun day.

Thought of the Day

I enjoy waking up and not having to go to work. So I do it at least twice a day.

January 25th

“Mercury Forecast”  Mesa   20 degrees         Calgary  2 degrees

Wonderful day today with lots of sunshine. It is our favorite son-in-laws birthday today. It amazing how old our children are getting. They say time goes fast. I believe it goes a way way to fast. Neat to see the changes in the family with the additions and what they are doing with their lives. Corey is now 33 years old. More than half the age of standard retirement. Hope Corey ahs a wonderful fun birthday. I know they went to the Keg this weekend to celebrate it so I know they would have great food and a fun time. Our good friend Wendy is also having a birthday today. I won’t say how old she is but she ain’t what she used to be. LOL  Hope you have wonderful birthday and your celebrations that go along with it.

We did a bit of shopping in the morning and then ready ourselves for another golf game. We had decided to golf with Terry, Fred and Mel and would do the front nine of the championship course rather than nine on the executive. The ladies twosome was in front of us and we started. Jackie had one of her best games ever scoring a 44 on the championship nine. I shot a 39 which I was happy with as I just missed a few putts. It is to bad it wasn’t a full game as it would have been interesting to see Jackie’s final score. Most likely for sure under 100. Everyone even if Fred won’t admit to it had a great time.

We then all gathered to have a supper at our place sitting outside on the patio. We had Fred, Terry, Mel, Jackie and I for supper and were joined a little later by Pat & Bob our next door neighbors for drinks. I made a large Cottage Pie which I will say turned out excellent. I used 3 pounds of hamburger and 3 pounds of potatoes plus the carrots, peas and carrots. I love adding and trying new spices which turned out great and in this recipe you use Worchester sauce  .Jackie picked some rosemary from the plant outside and we added that also. Great meal, super cake that Terry brought and a very nice evening. Bob and Fred had a couple of Scotch drinks and I stayed on the rum. FUN NIGHT !

Thought of the Day

We will be friends until were old and senile and then we will be NEW friends.

January 25th

Mercury Forecast”   Mesa  22 degrees Calgary 2 degrees

Up and at it and headed to Mobile Home Depot to order my awning. Order a 11 ft x 5 ft louvred awning to use as a BBQ kitchen cover. They said it will ready in 2 days which is amazing. I think this will work. Then off to get a tube for Mel’s bike. Returned and started to remove the overhead cabinet in Mel’s bedroom. It was fairly easy which is good with only a couple pieces of molding and painting required to get it done. We then re-installed in his laundry room which looks good and provides nice overhead storage. We then started to move a louvred awning from the side yard to the backyard to provide extra shade from the sun in the back of his house. We got it all figured out and installed and looks great and works perfect. Next year he just needs a bit of lattice or screen to fill the extra space up top.

Relaxed in the sun at the back of our house for a bit and had lunch. That sun when it is full power is hot when there is no wind. I think Jackie turned a little color today.

Starting to get ready to meet friends from Calgary for supper tonight. Roger & Bonnie the owners of Regal Building Supplies in Calgary are here and we are meeting up with them and another couple for a visit. We am also going to the Barrett Jackson on Wednesday with them. That will be a lot of fun.

“PENNYWISE TIPS”

If you feel you don’t really enough money to do certain things or go on trips you would like to why do you spend money on dumb status products like fancy handbags, shoes or watches. Stop that spending and you would be shocked how much extra money you would find and save to do worthwhile experiences. An experience is ten fold the value of an asset.

Thought of the Day

Enjoy everyday to the fullest, spend your money now but wisely and do not worry what others are doing or have. Please yourself.

January 26th

“Mercury Forecast”   Mesa 22 degrees  Calgary 8 degrees

Way to go Calgary. Just like Leo said a climate warming change caused by oil production must be hitting you today. Some call it a natural phenomena known as a  Chinook.

Last night was a very enjoyable evening. We met Roger and Bonnie at Fraser & Audrey house in Queens Creek. On our way down we had quite an experience. Elsworth Road was closed due to an accident and we were detoured so like cows to feed we followed a line of cars. The GPS got lost and our only recovery to get back to civilization and pavement was to follow a no public road that was dirt and ROUGH. Huge potholes and 10 kms a hour. We laughed as we thought we may become another GPS casualty dying in the desert lost. Finally we arrived on pavement and made our way to their home. Good thing for GPS as I have never seen so many lefts and then rights thru a subdivision. Fraser & Audrey have a beautiful large bungalow with a massive yard. Very nice home complete with a pool, hot tub, waterfall, outdoor kitchen and firepit. One downfall and sort of unusual is the vass amount of grass to cut.  I suggested to Fraser that the BMO bank must pay a lot lot better than the BNS for them to have such a place. He also was a car nut with a Z06 Vette and a CST V . Nice . It was a very enjoyable night talking about numerous things and having a few drinks. We decided to go to San Tan Flats which is a great place for food and atmosphere. We had a wonderful meal with some having ribs and burgers. Although most of us agreed that Tony Roma’s has the best rib recipe. After eating and sitting talking it was time to leave. Roger graciously paid for everyone’s meal which was extremely generous of him. He has always been that type of person. He did say he did very well at the casino in Vegas on his way down. In the course of the night he also gifted us a lot of Vietnamese Dong. If any of you are aware there is a reasonable amount of info indicating a world wide currency evaluation that COULD happen that would change the current USD based evaluation to a more asset based evaluation such as gold silver oil etc. This could result in a lot of porrer countries current dollar valuation increasing dramatically. So if I get lucky it could be worth a lot of money. Some of you may be aware also that currency speculation especially concerning the dong and the Iraqi Dinar are considered a scam.  All I can say is I am grateful for the opportunity and hope the speculation becomes real. I do know there is a huge underworld pulling strings and manipulating currencies in this world that are a way above my knowledge or intellect. I do know conspiracy, manipulations, greed, corruption, and backroom deception are occurring everyday in this world. We all know the financial state of the world economies. My hope if the dam burst it isn’t until I hit at least 85 or dead as we are heavily invested in stocks and a meltdown would destroy or savings. At least if someone is working there is a recovery time to recoup.

We have made plans to meet at Barrett Jackson on Wednesday morning and spend all day looking at the vehicles on parade and the auction block. Anyone that knows me knows I love muscle cars so it may a very difficult day not wanting to buy one again. ( think previous day thought of the day,LOL )  Will be a fun day.

Have I said I continue to eat to much and drink to much. But having a blast and still able to keep the weight off having only a couple of pounds to reduce to come to my target max I have set. A few more walking golf games and when I start to increase my deck size I should be ok.

A trip to the mall to return a couple of Christmas gifts that were sized wrong and a new watch band. We also stopped at Walmart to look for a few other things we needed. Stopped at Home Depot to get a chemical for the water fountain so it doesn’t turn white and muriatic acid for my slate grout. 40 in stock according to their system and not one could be found. I will try another Depot a few blocks away.

Warmed up Cottage Pie for supper which was excellent and then off to our billiard league. What are the chances but two weeks in a row I pulled Jackie’s name as my partner. We had a decent night winning 4 games and losing 2 but not good enough to win overall. On one shot I said to Jackie to hit light as not to scratch on the 8 ball and she went into high and slammed into the corner, right in and we win. She had her own ideas I guess and it turned out perfect. LOL

I short gathering after the tournament and then home to bed.

Thought of Day

Let’s eat Grammy

Let’s eat, Grammy

Correct punctuation can save one’s life.

January 27th

“Mercury Forecast ”    Mesa 24 degrees   Calgary 8 degrees

Nice temperature in Calgary for January. Off to Barrett’s.

Barrett’s was amazing. I could never attend as I was always committed to the WRLA which falls every year on the same dates. I only missed this show once in all of the years and that was about 8 years ago. I am not positive but I believe it would be close to 39 years of shows. It used to be in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver and then back again until it settled in Saskatoon where it became a true buying show. Now Calgary again will carry on the tradition.  I do have to say I did have a lot of fun sometimes with the guys at Sterling, Henderson and JW after the show.

Barrett’s is beyond what I imagined. The scale and sizing is unbelievable. The cars amazing with the larger tent holding the pristine “do not drive” cars and the outside tents with the normal vehicles. If only I had won the power ball. I would have at least 6 cars. Some fantastic Camaro’s Vette’s, Chevelle’s and some very nice FJ40’s I would have driven away. The exhibitor booths are everywhere, free test driving of new cars and a race track for a driving test. 53′ booths of Cobra’s , mustangs and parts galore. Automobile related parts etc where incredible.

The day started off a little shaky as Roger & Bonnie didn’t arrive until later but after that everyone had a great time. We walked thru the tents, watched the auction, checked out the booths, and looked at the different related products. Even the car show gals looked wonderful. Remember we are in a retirement park so anyone under 60 has a chance to look good.LOL . A motorhome we checked out and looked through was listed at 2.1 million dollars. I thought  I was in a disco when I looked at the roof in it. Great food shacks and famous bars set up with the Gas Monkey Garage bar and the Jack Daniels ones being huge.  It was a very enjoyable day. Next year I will spend more time checking out some of the cars closer and booths for bargains. I didn’t buy a Barrett shirt or any memorabilia this year. We were picked up at our house at 9:30 and we didn’t arrive back until 9:30pm so a perfect day. We went to a very nice Italian  restaurant after the show with Roger, Bonnie, Fraser and Audrey. Leaving the park Roger flagged us a black Suburban to get to our car which was a lot faster than taking the bus and waiting in the line.  He  is the perfect wheeler dealer.Subs for lunch were $25 for the two of us. The day turned out to be a little more expensive than I had planned ( $ 175.00) but well worth it and very enjoyable people to be talking to about cars. Roger ordered a special clock but other than we as a group didn’t buy anything.

Who would have thought that going to a car auction you could be scarred for life. I was walking down a row and a old fart turned the corner and smashed into me. A hot tea I was holding for Roger went flying and a hat. This old guy ran right into me hitting me very hard with his brim of his baseball hat right into my cheek. It left a big bruise ,it sliced me and Jackie had to keep cleaning the blood off my face for about 10 minutes. The scar will be a much talked about life changing event. LOL .

Thought of the Day

“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.”  

January 28th

Up and off to the Tractor Supply to check it out. It is the American version of the Peavey Mart. Quite a neat store with some interesting products. Then off to the Mobile Home Depot where I picked up my parts and pieces and special order to size louvered awning. Another American difference in service. I special ordered it on Monday morning and it was ready for pickup Wednesday. Wouldn’t happen in Canada. We picked it up this morning and dropped it off at my house. Off to Tire store to fix a nail in Fred’s rear tire. The service comes out and looks and says they are not his tires. Funny.  Fred as he was pricing checking the different stores mistook which store he ended up buying from. So off to Discount Tire . Again amazing service where the guy comes right out and checks the tire. He had his plug kit with him. He removed the nail and fortunately it didn’t puncture the tire. No leaks. Off to the Home Depot for an exchange for Mel and for me to pick up my Muriatic acid.

We worked on my outdoor kitchen shelter and finished it with no issues. It went together very well and my measurement and system for installing everything worked out perfect. It makes the whole kitchen seem more comfy and look great.

Off to Mel’s place where we installed eaves downpipes. Working in the hot sun caused a few sweat issues but we finished the job in a fairly short time.

A couple of beer on the deck in the shade when does was much appreciated. A couple more projects off the list another full day completed. Light supper and watching American Idol tonight is on the agenda.

Have I said lately how much I enjoy being retired. Do not be afraid to leave your job. Do not think you need loads of money to live on. Enjoy yourself !!

Thought of the Day

Muscle Cars as a hobby- because golf, tennis, football only require one ball.

January 29th

“Mercury Forecasts”  Mesa 22 degrees  Calgary 5 degrees ( rain for us hitting this weekend and snow for Calgary)

Another wonderful day!   Up this morning and we had nothing really important on our agenda to do. I had a few computers things to do, a few house things and have a relaxing day.

I went to Bass Pro with the Key’s and bought a discreet camo shirt and a pair of cargo pants. Fred, Mel and Terry I am sure are all camouflaged out with the amount of clothes I saw in their arms. Pj’s shirts, pants, etc. I don’t know if Terry and Fred will each other. They may need a safety vest to see each other where they are at.  Some pretty good deals on clothes there today.

We took Fred’s truck and as I had pushed the seat forward to give people in the back some more leg room when I was entering the truck I smacked my knee on the dash. Off came the scab from my pool accident. Sore knee, sore cheek , what is going on here. Can’t be me. LOL

My commenting section screwed up again on my webpage. I used the chat line with them as they are very helpful. The young lady went into my page and tried to find out what went wrong but we ran out of ideas so I left it for tomorrow. Then as I was fooling around with things the web press editor has a comment check box in three different areas and one of them was missed as it is entered in a unusual way. I used the Quick Edit portion and now everything is working again. Funny how a little box can make things so difficult.

BBQ tonight , walk, pool , a little TV and relax will be what we do.

Thought of Day

All my life I thought air was free until I bought a bag of chips.

January 30th

“Mercury Forecast”   Mesa 24 degrees    Calgary 3 degrees

Time sure is flying as we are going to drive Fred & Terry to the airport tomorrow. Mel left this morning. It was just a wonderful sunny day so we read, relaxed went for a walk and enjoyed the day.  We went to Safeway and Home Depot to pick a few things and came home to have lunch. I installed cotter pins in my louvered covered as the clip pins I wanted were not available in my sizing. This works just fine though. I also installed lag bolts into the 4 x 4 retainer wall to hold the vertical brackets on my awning. I believe I should be ok in any wind storm. I still have to trim back the Oleander tree as I want it to be bushy and full. Sent off a reference letter for someone I know and finished off the sheets for upcoming block party games. Later this evening Fred, Terry and us are going out to dinner at a nice Italian place.  It is so nice down here as shorts and sandals are the norm for everyone. Even Fred is converted to slip on flip flops albeit camo design. LOL

Paid up all of the bills and had a discussion with Koodo. If I go off the grid it is due to cell phones. Our phone bill for January was $300.00. Now Jackie does have a problem with talking to long. We had 45 min plus calls on the bill.  We have to find a way to make this work between Canada and England and us in the States. We could use Skype a lot but our girls are behind in the technology world and use Apple products and Jackie’s Mom has doesn’t hook up to the internet when in Wales. I have to check into Magic Jack and other options as we can’t afford the phones.  Less golf and more phone talk time I think not. I will figure out something.

I love sitting outside in the warmth listening to the water fountain and enjoying the peace and quiet. It is especially nice for us with so many birds in the trees right beside us.

Our NDP party finally did ONE thing right and left the royalties basically alone. I am going to say it is a great thing. It will be interesting how the witch spins her web on the backtracking. But I do give her credit for not pushing thru ideology that isn’t right.  The stock market bounced back, the dollar bounced back and companies even though they have a low barrel price can plan ahead and not look at leaving the province. It is amazing how much damage this party has done in such a short time. Having said that I feel sorry for the States as their choices are much worse than ever were.  If Justin doesn’t bankrupt us and the Wildrose takes over Alberta in a few years we will be ok.

Yahoo I went thru the full day with out an injury. Knee is healing and the cheek is scabbed over so on the road to full recovery. Back is a little sore with the longer walk and wearing sandals but in this dry heat most aches just disappear.

Blood pressure today was 117/75 which puts in the perfect category. Got to love being retired to enjoy life and the benefits of having the time to look after yourself.

Thought of the Day

It is funny that in a Blood Pressure Test a new HIGH score isn’t a good thing.

January 30th

“Mercury Forecast”   Mesa 23 degrees  Calgary 3 degrees

We had a wonderful evening with Fred & Terry. They took us for supper on their last evening here for my birthday, helping etc. They shouldn’t have but it is much appreciated.  We ended up going to a Italian place called Buca Di Peppo the Immigrant Italian Restaurant. The outside of the building is like every other. The inside one of  kind. It is more Italian than when we were in Italy. It is huge place but divided into sections, the pope room, poster room, celebrity room etc and all of this makes for a better dining experience as it was a lot quieter than most. The décor

has to be given a 10 out 10. The service was fantastic and very attentive. Pricing is excellent and the menu is substantial. It is very unique as every menu item is a small or large. The large serving 5 people and the small  2-3 people. Due to the huge quantities on each plate even though unique the menu can present an issue if you don’t have a group liking the same thing. There are very few items I don’t like. Fish, shrimp etc in my pasta is a no no. I would prefer to order as an individual order but the idea is neat and can be fun. We ended up with Veal Parmesan, Ceaser Salad and Ravioli which was more than filling. More than filling combined with the beer. After a great meal we ended up at Fred’s place fro some three finger drinks. They got to my head quite fast. It was guys versus the gals crib night. I am glad to say Fred & I destroyed the girls beating them 3 games to 0. Not bad as we can retain champion status. Our middle name is Crib. Larry Crib Willard and Fred Crib Keys. The boys in the crib.

Drove Fred & Terry to the airport this morning as it was time for them to head home. They have someone staying at their place so they kept it ready for the visitors. Fred accomplished a lot of stuff while here and they have very little left to do. Hopefully the snow stays away for them up north and the bitter cold a little farther north. We have two cool days coming up with a storm front heading our way then back up into the 70’s .

Sitting on the deck after getting ready for another game of golf. I want to have a great today. The last four have all being under 80 so I would like to carry on with that theme. Viewpoint is a little easier as it is like McKenzie or Boulder Creek where if you are in the wrong fairway it is easy to get back instead of a lost ball. It all counts as practise to try to stay in the fairway every time.

Thought of the Day

I have  a new way of thinking. If it goes right it is a slice, if it goes left it is a hook, IF it goes right down the middle it is a miracle.