September 1st   Will post when I return !!

Sept Long weekend  to Sept 9th

A busy 10 days. A very fun 10 days. Too much food. Too many drinks. Not enough exercise. Great laughs and fun times. Have I said being retired is the best. Sorry !

As we left Calgary earlier on Friday we missed most of the traffic on the highway. Pembina Prov Park takes us for some unknown reason close to 5 hours every time. I have tried numerous different routes and when you add up the gas stop, the Tim’s stop or construction issues it comes in around the 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

We knew where our pre-booked sites where as Keith had booked them and let us know. The bulk of this group are Mayfield community residents prior, and present. Our first house we bought was in Mayfield in 1979.It cost us $63,000 dollars and the sale of beautiful 1967 RS/SS Camaro to get the down payment. Jackie had to sell her 1969 Beaumont which was extremely nice also for the deposit. I had a company car so our plan was to use that. That plan lasted about a year before I bought my Corvette. Anyways, all Mayfield people with Keith and his family being involved with them in sports living vicariously through their children. Nice group of guys and ladies.

The dynamics of the group has changed quite a bit as the children now are all young adults with children and come out also. The main focus was the ladies floating down the river after drinking paralyzers and the guys golfing. Now the kids are a big part of it. I sort of liked the old concept. LOL

The smoke was heavy all of the way up and continued with the extra accumulation caused by campfires.  We should all get together for a class action lawsuit against BC and their damaging smoke.

We had the bottom part of the park again. This is a very nice provincial park all with power sites only but it has some major drawbacks. First the bottom sites are all open with no trees in between each site. The majority of the sites are individual fully treed sites. This concept works great for a group though as everyone is together and the playground is close. The sites need a lot of work though. They are incredibly unlevelled.  I hate to have my tires lifted in the air so I use blocks and others struggle with their fold down jacks and boards trying to get their units level. A campground should try to have as level of sites as possible. The worst thing about this campground is the cement parking blocks used on each site. They are tire killers and body denters to the extreme. I know the why as they attempt to keep idiots from parking on the grass but a simple tree placement works better. We moved them at Keith’s site for his unit. I had to jiggle back and forth numerous times to try to make ours work. Got it all in and when I went to open the door the steps wouldn’t drop as they hit the concrete so moved again.

Got all unpacked and set up and headed to the golf course with Keith to see what we could do. The course was in pretty good shape and luckily Northern Alberta has had it’s fair share of rain this year so the fairways and greens were good. The rough was kept too long though as our balls hid in it, too many times. Not a bad game with Keith ending up with a 95 and myself with a 84.

Getting home we were lucky enough to be invited by Amanda to enjoy her Chili supper. She made enough chili to feed a tribe. ( the Harry family is just about a tribe). Delicious chili with a couple of unique  items in it like Chick Peas. ( don’t try to make chili healthy, LOL)

I picked up some items on the way back from the course and grabbed the Edmonton Sun to read. Off subject but I am convinced Mayor Iverson is leading a propaganda campaign that is bordering on the radicalization of the Edmonton population in them believing they are the best. Now Edmonton has always had an inferiority complex towards Calgary. This could be a long paragraph so I will try to keep it short. They are starting to believe :

1. They will get the Amazon head office
2. They will win the Grey Cup this year
3. They will win the Stanley Cup this year
4. They have the nicest beach in city limits
5. They have a better climate than Calgary

All figments of their imagination and perpetuated by Iverson in the media and newspapers. The radicalization of the Edmonton population is a threat to society as the up and downs of emotions they are experiencing are more often than a new brides pants and affects will be long lasting. I will correct some of the “imaginary” beliefs they have. Amazon wont be in Edmonton- no skilled labour, way too cold of climate to operate in, not a real international airport, horrible roads to deliver product on, and high taxes due to Iverson spend and burn policy. Grey Cup- the poor Edmonton population had their hopes so high with a 7-0 record until reality set in and now they are in second last place. They have no defense or top receivers. Won’t happen this year. Stanley Cup this is the worst case of over selling I have ever seen. Spend all of your cap on two guys and have no one else to put on the ice. I am sure the fans are going to love to see Mc Happy Meal skate all by himself now for 10 years without a hope of winning. I do love seeing the disappointment again rear it’s ugly head. Like the Eskimo’s the Oilers will use the excuse they are hurt and injured. Suck it up. Beach- a freak of nature happens and it is the talk of the town. It is sand by a dirty river. Please . Climate  I have to do some research here but I will state right now there is a HUGE difference between the two cities with Calgary almost being called tropical. I will look into the real facts. I will give Edmonton a couple of kudos though. Great ice rink ( tax payers nightmare ) Nice foot ball field and complete ring road albeit so busy you only travel at 20 kms hour.

Back to what I was saying. I was reading the Sun when I came along a very interesting article. A DR Gifford Jones had an article on Cholesterol. What was most interesting here is a licensed doctor that after having a major heart attack 20 years ago refused and is still refusing to use a statin. He has researched as a doctor would and had concluded the use of these drugs is really poisonous and extremely hard on kidneys and muscles.  In his research he concluded that as a species we are all Vitamin C deficient. Vit C is the holy grail that actually reduces plague in the arteries.  One sentence of his article I like is ” Cholesterol is part of every cell and if you start to tinker with nature there’s always unintended consequences. Any one that has followed my blog will remember the numerous articles about this. This is the first article where someone has living proof has given a possible solution though.

While we were golfing the paralyzers and ladies hit the river for their float as it was quite warm bordering on hot. They came back to the site looking and feeling just fine. They had fun !

Keith and I had a few crib games and I earned my name back again with a 2 win 1 loss record.

Started to pour around 7pm which is the first rain I have seen in months of any volume. Not only did it sound nice it helped knock down a lot of smoke.

A cooler day all day today. We had a relatively early tee booked and hit the course. I played semi ok but had two blow up holes ending up with a 84 which was tied by Keith. Normally I keep and record the score as a tie but we had enough time we thought we would have a one hole playoff. Keith won the hole and the tie breaker.

A few beer and rums and then the ladder golf tournament. Had lots of fun with this. Team Harry/Larry went undefeated beating all opponents. We had one close game with Jackie/Amanda combination but managed to win on the last throw.

I set the furnace at 65 degrees and it ran a fair bit all night long. A person sure can sleep good with dark, cool and fresh ( smoky) air. You sure can tell fall is coming.

At 2 am someone’s truck alarm went off and it took a while for the guy to find the keys.

Jackie and the girls were out golfing early this morning. The temperature was only 10 degrees on Jackie’s cut line but she took off. They had to dress for it for sure. Fresh fall type weather.

Had another few games of crib with Keith coming out the winner this time 2 to 1

Another wonderful day and night out camping.

Jackie headed home relatively early but as I said it does take at least 4 1/2 hrs or more to get home and she has a contract starting Tuesday am.

Keith and I went for our last golf game and the temperature was quite warm today.

Another wonderful September Long weekend completed

After getting everything together I headed over to PineRidge RV Resort to meet up with Fred. Sat around a bit then decided the best thing was for us to head to the clubhouse for supper for our early exit in the morning. Fred’s new chip in his cart sure makes that thing fly. What a supper we had . Both Fred and I ordered the Turkey Dinner special. Amazing food. I loved the butternut squash that came along with the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and dressing. Great !

We decided as the paving crews were coming in first thing we would be out of there by 8am. Set the alarm for 6am to get everything done. I parked in Fred’s spot and we loaded up the boat and 5th wheel for our trip. Just as the crew arrived we were all set to head which turned out great. We started to head to Pinehurst Lake. ( too many Pine’s ) Pinehurst is about 4 hours northeast of Edmonton. Rustic provincial no service campground on a beautiful lake. Clear water with no algae was nice to see. We had about 10 miles of gravel to travel on which is very very dusty. Last time we were there Fred marked on his GPS a different route out which cut our gravel in half but still dusty. We found a great spot only feet away from the lake and in the shade which was great. Got everything set up and decided to launch the boat a couple of hours of fishing before supper and dark.

Loading up the boat I backed into the water with Fred’s truck and trailer. It is difficult to see the trailer and the tongue makes the trailer react quickly so backing up this unit takes a little practise but I managed fairly well.  Fred does a remarkable job of lining up the boat and using the motor to push it on the trailer. He does this perfectly every time which isn’t easy. Funny thing happened though.After backing up I set the parking brake on the truck and went back to clip on the boat and winch it tight. When I went back to the truck I couldn’t find the release for the brake. I had to ask. Fred doesn’t use the parking brake and was quite worried it would stick. Two different trains of thought. He doesn’t ever use the parking brake and I always use the brake. I feel the brake removes the stress on the internal gears of the tranny and it is usually just a cog to hold the weight. I said I will do some research on this and send it to Fred. I never used the brake again on his truck. LOL

https://www.yourmechanic.com/article/why-you-should-always-set-the-parking-brake

If you think about it a 5ooo pound truck and a 8ooo pound trailer all held back by this little cog called a pawl. How many of you have driven on a slanted driveway and put your car in park and have it fall back and clunk. That little cog holding all of the weight. Put on the parking brake before putting it into park. Remember when these used to be called the emergency brake?

First day fishing was slow. We ended up with only three fish. One for Fred and two for myself. Fred’s first fish was nice one at 7.5 pounds. My first was nice at 6 pounds . We thought we were in for a few good days of fishing. Especially with  the lake being so calm and the weather being so beautiful. We always laugh stating whose counting but it is built into me,I have to count.

DAY ONE

LARRY 2 FISH

FRED 1 FISH

LARGEST FISH FRED and the largest of the trip.

Back at the site we started to feel the wrath of the mosquitoes. We drove to get our free firewood and loaded it up even though it wasn’t the best by any stretch. It didn’t burn very well at all but Fred had some dry stuff in his truck we inter mixed it with. Wonderful Pork Burgers made by Johnsons with cheese and bacon in them I believe along with corn on the cob. Excellent supper.

Made our plans for tomorrow over drinks. Plan to spend a long time on the water and get those elusive 20 pounders to our boat. Bear warning signs and bear poop right beside our campsite. More drinks and discussion around the campfire as it was a warm night.

Who said a rustic campground without services and a fishing lake area is unsophisticated. We had gin & tonic’s to drink. The natural instinct is to raise your pinky on this drink. I always thought gin & tonic was a girls drink as we used to refer to them as ” panty removers”  but they tasted very nice. Two guys camping though I couldn’t see the gin fitting in. Liked it !

Over the course of the night it cooled down. It was a full moon night which was incredible as during pee breaks in the middle of the night it was as bright as midday.

Lucky to have my Toby Keith paper cowboy hat along as we hit the water in the morning in the full sun. Backed up and unloaded and loaded without using the parking brake on the steep incline. Fred had a new knot he taught me to use. Polymer knot. 10 times easier, faster and holds perfectly compared to my old knots especially on the spider wire line. I will use this knot every time now.

The lake was dead still and sun full hot. Amazing day and this is September. We hit every hot spot and trolled over 30 miles of shoreline and not one large fish today. We caught 21 fish today but who was counting.

 

I forgot another funny thing happened. Fred needed to talk to his real estate agent , wife and a business deal he was working on so we drove 5 miles to high land trying to find cell service which we finally did as the campground is a dead zone. As we were unloading the boat a bit later his phone connects to the radio in the truck and he misses a call. We unload and while waiting for me to park the truck and trailer and jump into the boat he get cells service on the lake. Go figure and a strong enough signal to make everything work. Bonus.

The new jaw openers are great. Safe on the fish and easy to use. Thanks to Fred as he gave me a pair and I used them a few times.

The campground we are staying at is most likely 90 percent full. All older retired guys with lots of them bringing their wives out. September and full is amazing but luckily lots of guys and gals knowing what they enjoy and relaxing and enjoying it.

Tonight’s supper was homemade meat loaf. I asked Fred to send me the recipe as it was one of the best tasting I have had and I love meat loaf. Less or no tomato paste in it which I think was the biggest difference plus the pork burger added.

DAY TWO

LARRY 13 FISH

FRED 8 FISH

LARGEST FISH LARRY

Another great day. Sunny and no dew. First day with a small breeze which will keep it a little cooler. From our site we hear the waves lapping the shoreline. Near us the old fart almost dead guy get up at 6:15to start his generator. Why ?

For us we go up a little later with no rush and had our sausage and egg breakfast. We were on the water by 10 am . A slow day fishing and we spent a lot of hours on the lake. No big fish again today.

Just as we were docking my hat blew into the lake again but we recovered it and Fred made a hat reshaping form on the table for it. LOL

DAY THREE

LARRY 9 FISH

FRED 4 FISH

NO LARGEST FISH  as none were picture worthy.

We had perfect BLT sandwiches , some rum, beer and scotch for the Irishman and another great day done.

I didn’t get my big one again but it was a blast of a trip. Great lake, nice campground, wonderful food, fun conversation, radicalization intervention, learning new things and enjoying ourselves.

WONDERFUL FUN FISHING AND CAMPING TRIP. Great company and having a wonderful cook along is a definite benefit.  Awesome food . UNTIL NEXT YEAR when we get the big one !!!

We had a good drive back with no issues.  Got everything all squared away at Fred’s place and I headed on the highway. I took the range road and HWY 20 back which had very little traffic on it but with a stop for gas etc it still took me 4 1/2 hours to home. Nice to be home after 9 days away. Calgary is till smoky though.

Thought of the Week

FISHING – An acquired skill that involves, casting, baiting, trolling  and jigging while at the same time, cussing, sweating, swatting, and drinking.

September 10th

Great to be home and sleep in my home bed. Nice Jackie is in it beside me. Funny after 37 years you miss having that hot body next to you. I am sure she might miss the snoring also.

Well today was an unusual day. It ended all fine but it was unique. Jackie arranged to have everyone here for a get together to celebrate Peter’s birthday.

We had arranged to have Audrey & Michael visit with all of the kids before Peter was being picked up.  Everyone started to arrive. We had at our condo , Jackie & I, Victoria ,Jackson, Penny, Jessica, August, Audrey, Michael, Alan, Maryann, Danielle, Kennedy, Shelton, Carter, David, Kristen along with Olive and Talo.

The one missing headliner Peter the reason for the gathering. Jackie left to pick him up and things went wrong. When he attempted to get in the truck he sort of got stuck. Jackie actually wrenched her back trying to get him into the car. It required his home care workers help to fix him up and after the ordeal he wasn’t up to visiting and wanted to return to his bed.

I headed out to pick up the KFC i had pre-ordered as Jackie was late. We also in the treats and snacks put out some of Fred’s canned pickles, beans and carrots. They were ate so fast i had to keep refilling the bowls. I love KFC for events like this as one you get over 16 people it is much easier than having to whip up a  large meal. A hectic time in the condo with a few glasses of pop spilled,

few glasses of water spilled, two pee stains by the pups and one broken ornament.  The combined laughter and louder voices made it a smile day. So in honor of Peters birthday we had great food, a wonderful marble birthday cake and we even sang happy birthday to the guest of honor and video’d it for him to watch. Hopefully he doesn’t think he was here and can’t remember it. A fun day for sure though.

I had an issue today for the longest time  with EDGE. I tried every trick and even uninstalled the last updates which were the issue. It was going to be a take the machine to the repair shop until I tried to load Chrome and as luck would have it I managed to make everything work except losing my bookmarks and favorites. I gave EDGE four years and was happy with it but if you aren’t going to perform it has to go. Think about this Microsoft gives a download to “fix” their programming and it results in a crash. I end up paying to fix their mistakes. Not cool but then again they are the ones that say “just restart ” or Control Alt Delete. I saved a few bucks but caused a few hours of setup work for myself. Oh wait I am retired I have the time. Before the Mac people reach out and say you should buy Apple let me say this minor hiccup compared to having a operating system that isn’t even the same league is an easy take.  In the world over 1.5 billion use Microsoft versus 55 million using Mac.

I did my research and was very surprised on the difference in temperature between Calgary and Edmonton averaged over 12 months being only 2 degrees. Shocking really. Global warming must be real. LOL   But I will say this. If you were a glass of water at 34 degrees you would be a fluid running liquid. Two degrees cooler and you are rock hard and a solid frozen piece of ice.  Which would you rather be ?

Thought of the Day

All i can think about is the guy that shook the family tree and all that fell out was a bunch of nuts.

Sept 11th 

We all remember where we were when the towers fell. It was hopefully a once in a lifetime event. The memorial museum we visited in NYC was an incredible tribute to the lost lives.

On a happier note today is Peter’s birthday. I hope he knows he had a great birthday party in his honor. Jackie will be seeing him today with a piece of cake and a present.

Happy Birthday Peter !

Looking at the upcoming weather it is like going from summer to winter. High’s in the single digits and lows close to zero for the week. Darn I hate cooler weather. I could have 24 degrees all year long and be very happy. That is asking for a lot . LOL

By now the two straight losses, AGAIN, to the Stamps must be setting in. It is so nice to be in a city with heart, grit and skill not just media hype. The Esks will again lick their wounds and carry on but at an entire different level. I would have loved to see the reaction of the crowd in the last 35 seconds of the game.

Picked up my new saw at Lowes today as they had a fantastic deal on a 12″ dual bevel mitre saw. Saved $250 from retail list  and was $350 less than Home Depot. This is a beautiful saw and will last me until I cant use one anymore. At 65 pounds plus the stand it is a little awkward to move around but size matters when you are cutting 5 1/2 crown or 6 x 6 timbers. Love the saw and as Tim the Toolman says “AGH   Aghh”

45 reviews and 5 stars from  42 of them. No laser light was the only negative comments. While nice sometimes inaccurate and hard to see in the day light anyways. What ever is wrong with a pencil mark ?

First use for this will be Fred’s table or Jessica’s privacy screen and outdoor kitchen project. Hate to spend the money but if you want to do something right it requires the needed equipment.

I had a golf game set up with Jeff tonight as looking forward the weather isn’t going to be good. Tonight other than being smoky was hot and wind free. I great night for golf.  Not golfing for while had a small impact but still did ok not stellar like i hoped. But that is the game of golf.  I have been stuck in that 82 to 87 scoring range mostly due to one or two holes were I lose a ball. Had a wonderful stir fry for supper so the night was capped off well.

Thought of the Day 

On one hole I remember exactly my putt and I didn’t miss the putt I just missed the hole.

September 12th- 14th

Lousy sleep last night, the first in along time. Thinking too much which used to be a work thing. LOL . Had my normal schedule thrown for a loop as right at 8 am the fire alarm and the flashing light testing happened in the condo. Don’t they realize people are trying to sleep. lol

I took the motor home in for it’s oil change and service. Everything is like brand new.  I pumped up the tires to the max and increased the air suspension by 20 more pounds. I think this may be the ticket as the sidewall roll was a way less and hitting a few bumps was fine. Time will tell. Went out and picked up a few groceries from Sobey’s  and then back to pick up the motor home. I tried to adjust the door and tightened the bolts and in the process squished my finger bringing a tear to my eye.

I have spent quite a few hours on Fred’s table. My grandiose ideas have made this quite a project. My fault taking a simple concept table and making it one of a kind. I know it is going to be by FAR the nicest table they have ever seen. I spent 6 hours yesterday sanding alone. It is starting to come together and looking awesome. Tonight the plan came together for the benches as this was complicated to make the sizing, spacing and new concept work out. I am happy with the look. No pictures until done.

Two nights in a row with a lousy sleep which is amazing as this is unusual. Oh well !  Up early this morning for my men’e league. Most of the guys didn’t show up. It was about 5 degrees and drizzle when we started. I golfed with another Larry about 70 yrs old and a wonderful golfer. I wasn’t cold at all. I had my Under Armour shirt on, covered by a Adidas Clima-warm pull over and a rain proof jacket. The only thing cold was my hands which I had a remedy for. I had pocket warmers from Canadian Tire which are incredible. Squeeze these for a bit and they give off a lot of heat. I used them in my Nike winter golf gloves and I was fine. We had a few holes of fairly heavy rain but still had a fun day golfing. Had a few beer and a bite in the clubhouse which made for an enjoyable day . First time in a long time I never kept score as it was a doesn’t matter game. I even had a birdie today which would have paid me money if the group had come out.

Went over and worked on the table from 3 pm to 8 pm with Corey helping out the last couple of hours. Everything is so much easier with two people. Loving the table ! Corey will finish the last seat and hopefully I will complete the seat supports and beams for the last side tomorrow. The carriage bolts caught me by surprise with their pricing. In fact today a birthday card did the same thing. I was kidding with the clerk and she whispers to me ” I know, my family buys them at the Dollar Store”

Thought of the Day 

If we weren’t meant to have midnight snacks why did they put a light in the fridge ?

September 15th

Another cooler day. Another terrorist attack. Another Korea missile launch.

MY RANT

“Pennywise Tips”

Salesmanship, marketing, calculations, bordering on deception, profits, mismanagement.

I guess this could describe a few organizations but today my rant is on the Federal Government in conjunction with our banks.

The government has set up rules and regulations governing RRSP’s. If I asked most people the bulk of them would say it is a  good thing. They were created in 1957 right when the baby boom was happening but nearer the end of it. The government recognized the population wasn’t saving  enough money for retirement and created these as a vehicle to use. There was no CPP until 1965. The rules of both programs have changed over the years . The biggest change to the CPP happened in 1996 when the program was under funded and the potential to run out of money was happening. Today the CPP program as far as funding goes has no issues. The banks jumped all over the concept and created some exceptional marketing ideas ie Freedom 55 and promoted this program as a means to a “rich” retired life. The main concept of the RRSP was not only to help you save money but also to reduce your taxes while earning more and then when you withdraw be at a lower tax rate.

Here is my beef. The tax rates need to be adjusted to make sense and to make the RRSP a good thing.