June 1st 

A rainy day today and the perfect timing to get my budget done. Paying for the deck, gazebo and furniture without drawing from RRSP money has been challenging. Luckily I cut back on golf expenses, gas, camping and a few other things plus took advantage of a no interest payment deal at Lowe’s and Home Depot. This gives me time to pay it down without changing our withdrawal plan. I worked on this, this morning. Didn’t finish as we had a guest show up as Victoria was heading out of town for work. Jackson as usual was fun, excited, good ,playful, tiring, energetic and creative. Playing “guns” he fooled me by using the second outside patio door and running from bedroom to living-room. I think I know where he gets this from. Then building a mountain out of pillows and throwing himself on them doing a 360 is always fun. One miss and he hurt his ankle for about 5 minutes. LOL   Fun afternoon !

Just relaxed and watched TV for the rest of the night.

Thought of the Day 

Jackson thinks I am the oldest thing in the world. After 2 or 3 hours I begin to agree with him. LOL

June 2nd-3rd 

Had my marshal shift today. Arrived at work and started to get ready. The TEE sheet was packed. We had 3 smaller company tournaments and one large one. Plus regular green fee players in between. Beautiful day with warmth and a small breeze. When ever you have tournaments you have people not knowing the rules of golf. Having people drive on tee boxes , stopped in the fairways where you are not supposed to be by GSP and driving erratic happens. I do have to say other than these few issues the groups were very well behaved. Funny thing though with the large tournament it was set up to have a A group of 4 and a B group of 4 on each hole tee off. Then I started seeing numerous groups golfing as a 8 some if there is such a word. 4 carts 8 people in the center of the fairways just looks odd. I broke them all up and they were on their way. After a while the group was golfing again as a group of 8. Odd as they weren’t holding up any body and they were in the middle of the groupings. Broke up again. A few holes later this group is waving at me to come over. They talked to the owner of their company about having 8 together as they were 7 out of 8 brand new golfers. I allowed them to stay as they only affected groupings would be their own guys. May as well keep the owner happy and the golfers so they come back and they again had NO ONE waiting behind them. I said go ahead but if anyone catches them they have to change. Everyone happy !

I was training a new marshal for most of the day which was fun.

After work I headed out Oasis and relaxed with Jackie on the deck. Wonderful out there. Met another new neighbor. Easy name to remember. Carrie. Made a wonderful supper of peas, potatoes and porkchops.

Our Lowe’s delivery was supposed to be delivered and Jackie waited all day for this NOT to happen. 4 calls later we found the issue and have delivery set for Wednesday with it being FREE which is a $80 dollar savings for our inconvenience. Couch, pillows, two chairs, dining table, two swivel chairs and table plus the BBQ.

Enjoyable evening.

Up again and out to the course. Today the tee sheet was normal.  Fun day meeting some great people.  I met our neighbor from the condo golfing with his kids and Jeff & Wendy for their anniversary were out golfing. We had a group of about 12 young ladies that drew the attention of the young and older male golfers. I think some may have lost their focus a bit. More guests than normal using the bug spray. Some regular  golfers.

The grounds crew were remiss in picking up the proximity markers and tables and chairs on the course. I found it embarrassing so I loaded up my cart with a large folding table, three folding chairs, two large black table cloths, and a garage can. It looked much better to me.

Visited Tor for a bit as I picked up my air compressor for Edmonton tomorrow. Trying to get a 14 x 28 deck done in two days.

Thought of the Day 

I have enough tools. Said no real handyman Ever ! 

May 3rd -7th

Lucky we got decent weather. I arrived  around 11 o’clock at Pineridge Golf Resort. No matter which highway you take it is a 4 hour drive. I had to follow a oversize load for a little while  which takes some time. Nice drive .

The material was supposed to be a a.m. delivery. Fred and I started to level the blocks while waiting. I was shocked how level the gravel pad was. It made our job so much easier. Didn’t take us long. Our delivery didn’t arrive until 3 pm.  Getting it unloaded wasn’t easy. The driver had a 30 ft Ibeam on that wanted to come off with our material. After a bit of trouble we had our stuff. Then we discover the shed material is bundled on top of the deck stuff. Fred & I carried all of the material from the front of the yard to behind the existing shed. Took us  a while.  Just as we finished it started to pour. And it poured. It actually rained a lot over night.

Nice that I was able to stay in Ralph’s trailer. I am NOT a early morning guy and with Terry still working and getting up at 5:30 to 6 am it was nice to sleep in until 7 or so. As usual Fred & Terry fed me extremely well each day.

Got up and started working about 8 am.  My new framing nailer works perfect. It cuts down on the time immensely. I discovered that 2 nails with one deck screw works best. The screw forces the boards together and the nailer saves time and has the extra down force strength as they don’t break. The frame of this deck 14 x 28  didn’t take too long. We built it as two joined decks to make it easier, straighter and plumb. Added the bridging and squared it all up. Squared up quite easily which was nice. Then onto the picture frame. Need very straight boards and good measuring to make sure everything lines up. Ended up being very plumb so I started to cut all of the boards. 70 – 1 x 6 Cedar boards all cut to the exact same size.

Done for the day.

Another earlier start starting to screw down the hidden screw system.

I love the look . Not seeing any screws on the deck boards makes it look just that much better. BUT it is TIME consuming. Fred and I timed one board. 5 mins per board x 70 equals 350 mins which is close to 6 hours of just screwing down the boards. I am pleased with the construction, love the looks, perfectly square and plumb and super strong with 12″ on centers to eliminate any bounce.

Give it a few additions of flowers, pots and furniture and it will look fantastic.

Kneeling down for 6 hours KILLS the knees. I get the normal aches and pains but after this deck my knees hurt. Hate getting older. LOL

The knee pain plus I am tired. Working all day for a couple of days wears on you. I slept well on my return home.

Up and out the door for my men’s league. A great group of guys again. I didn’t know how well i would do to today with the aches but between Volteran and warm weather I felt ok. Funny scores today. I ended up with a 89 but it wasn’t even close to how I golfed. I missed a 4 ft putt ,missed two 3 ft putts and then had 7 holes where 3 putts happened. Killed my score. It got to a point where my buddies turned their heads when I putted. LOL No money today with that performance. It really was a high 70’s to low 80’s game.

Watched the Washington Cap win the cup to night. My favorite and I am glad for Alex. He played extremely well and 44 years to wait for the Caps it is fitting. Fun game.

Thought of the Day 

Accept bad shots. It is why you don’t do it for a living.

June 8th -10th

Jackie and I headed to our lot to finish putting together our patio furniture. Jackie got a lot accomplished so I only had two swivel chairs left to screw together. Our choice of furniture was excellent. The sizing fits perfect, the colors are great and all looks like it was meant to be. New BBQ in place. Slowly getting there.

Then off to Turner Valley for a golf game. I was playing Larry P which we have had numerous bets on playing together over the years. First I will say I lost today. He earned his own money back as he played very very well and most likely the best I have seen him play. My poor tight aching muscles wouldn’t let me play. I had some ugly shots that are not typical.  That’s golf. I will get him next time. We had a tournament going on so we were a little slow today also. But the sun was wonderful and the course in great shape. Two bad games in a row. No physical work for a few days and the game should come back.

Headed to Victoria’s place where Kristen and Sheldon were in town so they went through some of Peter’s things downstairs. Tor ad Kristen  both picked fantastic looking homemade sweaters made with love from Carol and a few trinkets. Jackson got a knife.

We had a great BBQ’d rib and salad supper sitting on the deck. You have to love summer.

I have to work both Saturday and Sunday at Heatherglen. This is becoming like a full time job. LOL   Wrecks the weekends but does give free golf and a small pay check.

Babysitting Jackson tonight as Victoria and Corey head to Banff for their anniversary so we may stay out at the lot for the swimming pool and fire.

A hot summer day on the golf course. Busy today  with tournaments and general tee times. The course was moving pretty good considering. Some wonderful fun people I met.

One lady in a 4 some was wearing an Oiler’s hat. I had a lot of fun heckling her. Her partners were all loyal Flames fans. Ended up after about 2 or 3 minutes of teasing and laughter I say to the older guy playing with Flames balls. ” You know what, I like you so much I am going to make you my player of the day ” I gave a Player of the Day ball marker poker chip and he was ecstatic. Proudly teasing the Oiler fan. And this is my job . Love it.

A few groups I had to ask to make sure they kept up but the coursed was moving good. Then as usual one middle aged woman had to wreck everything. She was extremely frustrated with the pace of play. It should never take 5 hours to golf. IT IS THE WEEKEND and with a full tee sheet and tournaments on it is going to be slow.That is a public course on a weekend. Relax and enjoy the sun. I talked to her for quite a while cheering her up, trying to ease her pain but she didn’t come around as much as I would like. Always one on the course!

MY RANT 

I love music. I listened to it going to bed with headphones when i was young. I bought a LOUD wonderful stereo system for my first car and cars after that. I still listen to music all of the time when driving alone. But I never tried to force my choice of music on others and using loud volumes to “show off” ( well once when Kieth & I drove past the hookers on 97th Street in Edmonton with stereo blasting and windows down playing ” Fat Bottom Girls”by Queen) 

BUT here is my rant:

Golfers now think it is ok to play music while golfing. It is not ! It isn’t traditional, it isn’t proper, it doesn’t help anyone to concentrate and it takes away the peace and solitude of a golf course. Plus it is annoying !

Our next door neighbor at our condo wears hearing aids. He has a surround sound system he cranks and the bass pounds through the walls. Extremely annoying ! Out of respect alone NO ONE needs a surround round in a multi-family unit. ( After 10 years I finally hooked up my surround system with my bass woofer right up to the adjoining wall to blast him when he gets out of hand, lol) 

Now out at our RV Lot our closest neighbor which is a young family have speakers on the outside of their trailer and they love to turn them up. To wreck the peace and quiet of the country side in my mind is unforgivable and to listen to any kind of music at a volume that carries a long distance is not respecting the rights of others.I have an outside stereo with a large bass woofer in our motor home that I refuse to use not to impede into others spaces. They were drinking this night so perhaps a ONE time deal but we will see.

Simply- play music where you can hear it, 20 ft away no one else does.

“BUT THAT IS JUST ME”

Just a side note on this rant. Remember i said they were drinking. I am positive the intelligence level of someone who has to use a vulgar word numerous times in every sentence as an adjective, noun and verb is extremely low. The use of swearing in our society is becoming rampant as the use of alcohol and drugs deteriorates young minds and old alike. As a generalization weak-minded, uneducated individuals , low control ,feel the need to swear in an effort to make them feel important or to have an impact. Women in particular are starting to use profanity more and more. I guess every thing equal.

On my way home the course phoned and due to a 11 degree high and 35 mm of rain coming they felt they didn’t need my services on Sunday. I enjoy this job and i know i am making a difference with the amount of fun I am having with these people.

Out to our lot and when I got there a storm had just passed through. We had an early supper and then Jackson wanted to go to the pool. Lucky guy three times to the pool in one day. Funny thing is, he thought our outside pool had warmer water than the Acadia pool he took his lessons at. He had a great time at the pool as usual with a younger boy and same age girl to play with. This summer he will be a local resident. LOL

After pool time we decided to watch a movie. Two movies later we decided to hit the hay. Jackson thought it would be good to sleep in our bed with us. So the three of us huddled in the one bed. He snores. He rolls. He kicks. But still nice. I do know I woke up with a black eye and I do not know HOW it happened. Really !

We had breakfast then drove into town to Victoria’s as Jackie had arranged for most of the group to pick through the jewelry and furniture left of Peter’s. Everyone picked out the memory wishes or items that they needed or wanted and those items that couldn’t be moved today were post-it noted. Helps get rid of some stuff from Tor’s basement. We had Alan, Maryann, Danielle, Kennedy, Penny, Jessica, Tor and Cor picking through jewelry and stuff. A few chairs were grabbed , a beautiful curio, lots of neat items.

Thought of the Day 

How do you wake up with a black eye and not know who hit you ? That is one dream that is just a little to real.

June 11th – 14th

Crawling Valley is only about 1.5 hours away from us. That is an easy distance to work with. All three families arrived at the same time. Jackie & I, Larry & Anita and Rob & Sharon. Larry found us three campsite very close to one another which worked out perfect. Crawling Valley is a beautiful treed campground with level gravel pads and a fire pit along with a table. Everything is pristine, clean, and neat from our past experiences. The girls on this trip though thought the washrooms, showers could have used a bit more cleaning. I know the men’s washrooms were perfect except for the need of a new paint job on the floors.

We all got settled in , set up and organized. Funny the whole time we were here the wind blew. I think more winds are blowing than ever as we experience winds a way more travelling, camping etc. Wouldn’t you agree ?

We sat around the fire and talked about various things. It is always nice to catch up with friends you haven’t seen for a while. We will need to do this again. Great hearing the adventures of each couple. Always with the good news, some bad news is mixed in. Larry’s hip is so worn out he struggles walking. It is bone on bone and he can’t put his weight on it without it hurting him so he limps quite badly with every step. It will be a year before his gets his surgery to replace his hip. Tough guy as the pain has to be a killer. Everyone appears and seemed to be doing quite well. The ladies all looked great, Rob was the same as always as no one would guess he is 66 years old. Nice group of people that we had a great time with.

Larry installed a tarp as a wind break which did help. We had few drinks each night around the pit or fire and conversed. We all learned things from each other. We all learned Sharon has every gadget ever made and wants every new gadget they make. Anita has loads of scrap booking material downstairs in excess and Larry and now Rob do not have junk they have INVENTORY. This inventory can be used in future jobs, may need to be added to and could save a trip to the store. One more time. NO JUNK.  It is INVENTORY.   Love it

We were very lucky that with extra effort Larry helped Rob and they brought Rob’s boat. This is a beautiful boat. A full fibreglass SeaRay 17.5ft long, seats eight, quiet and powerful. Incredibly  smooth ride and loads easy.  Great boat.

Fishing is exactly that. Fishing isn’t the same as catching. We struggled catching fish this week. In fact after two days of fishing we only caught 4 fish.  That is not good. We tried every hook. We trolled, we cast ,we did everything we could but the fish just wouldn’t bite.  There was not one lucky guy or hook.

Larry with his bad hip stayed out with us the entire time. He had to take the odd stand up break to help. We had one nice temp day and one quite hot day on the water. Rob used expired sun tan oil and I think it helped the sun turn him red. LOL

Jackie & I both enjoyed the trip. It has been about three weeks of being very busy so a nice easy slow week was wonderful. Only limited drinking, not too late of nights and no early mornings was fantastic. The enjoyable sitting around talking was great and cool nights with dead quiet was wonderful.

Great trip.

We all headed home around noon on Thursday. Weather also was starting to get nasty. I lined up behind a young couple at the sewage dump before leaving.  This was their first time dumping. I give them the ” Longest Dump Award” as it was painful watching them. Scared of germs, gallons of water wasted and a 1/2 hour to do a 5 min job.

Left the motor home at our lot. Cleaned out the clothes, food etc to take back to the condo.

Caught up on a few things then we headed to the Keg for our anniversary. Our waitress was amazing, and our food, as normal with the Keg, was great. We even got our free desert. Larry Geddes and Rob MacDonald both are well over 40 years married. Nice to see in today’s world. Our 38 years seems short compared to these guys. 38 years for us seems like just yesterday yet it seems forever. I can say I loved the last 38 years. It has been fun, pleasurable, enjoyable, frustrating, sad, happy , wonderful, annoying, and comforting . Wouldn’t have changed anything.

June 14  1980

Thought of the Day

Marriage tip # 46 

A wife will not start an argument if you are in the middle of cleaning anything !

June 15th-17th

Interesting fact. You can become a millionaire if you’re able to contribute $500 to an investment account each month, assuming that you’re starting from scratch with zero savings.

• At 4% rate of return you would become a millionaire in 51 years
• At 6% rate of return you would become a millionaire in 40 years
• At 8% rate of return you would become a millionaire in 33 years
• At 10% rate of return you would become a millionaire in 29 years

Now $500 is a lot of money for a new couple but it gives you an idea. You can also see why the older baby boomers that were able to save in the 1970’s and 80’s accumulated so much wealth, as the bank prime in the 70 and 80’s hit over 20%. Unfortunately for my age group we were paying mortgages at that rate so savings wasn’t a option. The generation just before us and early baby boomers had unprecedented savings rates that grew their investments and house price increases never seen before. ( the late 1990 to 2000 saw similar increases in homes)

Timing is everything. Saving any amount is essential. Years and compounding is our friend. Canada only has 357,000 millionaires (assets not including primary home)  out of 35 million people so reaching that number is very difficult. And consider this. Having 1m in the bank only creates about $40,000 interest a year to live on. One million isn’t what it used to be as you can have that and still not be considered wealthy by any means.

Just discovered Donald Trumps birthday is the same day as our anniversary. Lucky us. LOL

Worked both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was cold, windy and rain. The course had two tournaments on which have to go rain or shine and only a few other golfers. One additional group of about 20 young guys that met in University and have a annual golf get together. They all were dressed up in beach wear, matching shorts, shirts or hats as teams. Fun bunch of guys and GOOD golfers.   At 320 yards two of guys landed on the green for their first hole. The tournament players as usual were non golfers for the most part. One older gentleman had an Oiler golf bag. Teasing the others of his group I then picked on him asking how could the others let him ride the cart with that bag. Best come back ever!  He says ” I maybe not the smartest guy ( he liked Edmonton so I knew this already) but i do know two letters of the alphabet. I know the F and the U ” He kills himself laughing and drives away.

Had a few groups being newbie where I to ask to try to keep pace so the tournament could finish in time but overall other than picking up a pile of beer cans on the course the groups were fantastic. A fun day.

Sunday the weather was amazing. The tee sheet for all three 9’s was packed from 6am to 4pm. Fun event today being Fathers Day the course hid FREE golf round cards near each tee box. I found quite a few groups that were lucky enough to find them. Overall other than just the volume the course moved quite well. The odd speed up reminder with everyone being fantastic about it and cooperating wonderfully. You sure could tell it was a special day with a lot of non golfers playing as many many groups were playing from different fairways then they were supposed to. Had a great time today ” Spreading the joy”

Came up to these 4 young guys smoking huge cigars. I ask them the kind etc and then ask if anyone of them has seen a cigar being made. None had. Perfect. I say ” Well I have. They have many very old men and women sitting in a room and as they fold the leaf around the tobacco they lick and spit it to hold it together. Most of them looked like they were possibly ill , AIDS, or at least suffered from malnutrition. But don’t worry about that as they said the heat of the fire while smoking kills all of the diseases.  ” The golfers looked at each other funny and I laughed. ” Just kidding” We all laughed. But i wasn’t as that is how they are made.

Lots of fun for me and a good laugh from a lot of golfers today. Quite enjoyable.

A 88 year old man golfing today was amazing. Nice swing, could hit the ball a fair distance and was enjoying his Father’s Day outing. I gave him my “Player of the Day” ball marker. He loved it.

We had a wonderful BBQ at Victoria’s place tonight. Jackson was a hoot. He made me a wonderful Papa’s Day card. On a video call with August who was giving me a hammer that said on it. “If Papa can’t do it no one can”  He was so happy to show it to me. Great kids and fun times.

Thought of the Day 

I love spending my day laughing or at the very least smiling. My Marshall job brings this to fruition very easily.

June 18 to 22nd 

In Edmonton helping to stain my brother’s Lindal Cedar home. High, tall, scary in the sky. On the front side I am guessing 40ft to the peak.I am hoping to get it done before Friday as I have to work again on Sat/Sun. I will post my success and the completed project when done but most likely not until Friday or Sat .

Well, got lucky as I had planned to work until noon on Friday but I was able to leave at noon on Thursday.

It is a 4 hour drive to Alfred’s place near Onoway from Calgary. Jackie and I took both vehicles as she needed to be home Thursday for a commitment and I wanted to stay until we were done or Friday at noon at the latest.We were lucky as Alfred pulled his fifth wheel up to the house for our accommodation. Nice quiet nights, private and cool with the breeze blowing thru the windows. He had the fridge on with pop, and water loaded.

To start Alfred has a Lindal A frame Cedar home. The top of one side has to be  30ft and the other side much HIGHER. Our idea was to start on the garage to get the sprayer working and get our technique down. HOLY CRAP is this going to be a HUGE JOB. Alfred and I worked for 7 hours spraying the cedar. It absorbs so much stain it is unbelievable.  Alfred had previously stained this house 20 years ago with the back pak sprayer  we were using. Putting 7 pounds of stain over your shoulders and a heavy gun just isn’t the easiest. Worked the whole day and we only got 3/4 of the garage done and we were spent. Dead tired. Heavy gun, heavy back pak and the gun only shooting a few feet in front. Alfred did the bulk of the work up and down the ladder spraying. Taping off windows and doors takes a long time also. I was Steve Urkel. The sprayer weight pulled my pants up to my chest. I had to talk in a high voice. Not exactly comfortable. Alfred with a little stomach was able to keep his pants down.

At the end of the day we were exhausted, tired, and I was concerned we would NEVER be done in 4 days. I fell asleep and good things usually happen in your sleep.

“Memories” 

One year at inventory I had a $40,000 shortage that i couldn’t find for a couple of days. In my sleep ( sort of sleep) the mistake popped in my head and sure enough next day I knew exactly were too look to find it.

At the acreage Mom had a water softener and a filter. Numerous people had tried to remove the filter and couldn’t get it off. I tried also and was unsuccessful. In my sleep I thought of a Plan B and sure enough the filter was as easy as pie to remove. Pressure controlled! 

I had previously rented a paint sprayer from Home Depot and had wonderful success with it and knew what it could do. First thing in the a.m. I headed to Spruce Grove to pick one up. To have the proper equipment is essential, absolutely needed to do good work and lighten the workload. While in Spruce Grove with the absorption rate we knew we would need more stain and Rona carries the brand. That Spruce Grove Rona should be closed immediately as it is a joke. Empty shelves. They missed out on a $600 paint sale as Jackie drove into Edmonton to pick up some from Lowe’s.

The second day we accomplished more in one hour than we did the entire first day. I saw light at the end of tunnel. Money to buy or rent proper tools versus, workload, pain,and time can not be in the same equation. The sprayer worked awesome but did it ever put down the stain. The cedar was thirsty and spray heavy so I think this stain will last years.  If this was my house I would have rented a zoom boom and with the rented sprayer been done in two days and safely.

We used over 90 liters of stain which is just about a 45 gallon barrel of stain. Unbelievable.

We were very fortunate to have Fred also show up.Anytime you can have extra hands helping it makes it easier. I loved having Jackie along not only for the sleeping partner but she was a huge help in getting us waters, food, cleaning up and painting a lot of trim and deck.Fred is a good painter and worker so was very very helpful. His fear of falling off a shaking ladder was quite obvious. Alfred was a circus performer on that ladder. You get 30 ft plus in the air that ladder shakes and shakes. I did not like the height at all. Alfred did all of the HIGH peaks which Fred and I welcomed.

Another full day. We were very fortunate that Mary was so thoughtful in bringing out Mom to visit and make supper for us. That was a nice touch and a great way to end the day. Today I felt good as we accomplished a lot. Huge amount.

Nice sleep again. Alfred’s 5th wheel does cause a few head bumps in the night getting up to go to the bathroom when you are not used to it.

Another HOT day. We sure picked a hot week which is good as the stain will cure and we didn’t have to worry about a storm coming in. Everyday hitting 30 degrees.

Fred showed up early and we started on the HIGH side. I do not know exactly how high but it is for sure well over 30 ft up in the air. To try to help reach the peak we used Alfred’s trailer and screwed cleats on it and placed the ladder on the deck to gain height. Alfred spent a lot of time a way way way up there. Another successful day.

Fred & Terry invited us to their place for supper. Their lot is starting to look fabulous. The deck stained with this special Ducks Back looked wonderful so much so I bought a gallon from Fred of extra for mine. An invite for supper for Jackie & I plus Alfred & Mary is extremely nice but to provide a feast is spectacular. You know how they always say what you want your last meal to be . I had it. Basically a Christmas dinner minus the stuffing tonight. Mashed , veggies, gravy my favorite meal. Plus a wonderful desert. A wonderful meal and visit at their new place.

We most likely stayed too late for Mary and Terry as they have an early rise due to work. For the rest of us just our own work. Having said that I don’t mind working all day but I do HATE getting up early. It is illogical to do so.

On the way home an animal of some kind jumped right in front of us. So fast I didn’t touch the brakes and no one in the car could say what it was. Good thing I didn’t hit it for the damage to the car and having a couple of drinks wouldn’t look good.

Next day rise again and started right away. Jackie left for home as Alfred and I started to remove more plastic from the windows. Removed it all including the garage. Fixed up a few over sprays on the house and garage. Caulked all of the lower windows. The uppers are high and with the cedar having the square channels extremely difficult to caulk and look great. Most of them were still in good shape. If Alfred wants in the near future with a ladder only a few uppers to be done. We then reinstalled all of the downspouts. Cleaned up a few things, moved a few things, hung up some ladders and I was done.

Time to head home again. Being away isn’t the easiest, it is tiring working all day but it sure feels good to complete a job and say “Wow that looks great.”

Things that make you smile. I was on Stoney Trail on my way home driving in the left lane which usually travels at 120 kph. The speed limit is 100 kms  but the cops only use photo radar trucks on the side or ghost ( pretty easy to see) cars to trap time efficient drivers. It was rush hour but we were still moving great. Then all of a sudden my left lane slows down to 100 kms and we have a trail of about 5 cars all following a car ahead in a line. The vehicle moves back into the right lane and we all start to pass and get back to standard accepted speeds. I look over as i pass and I see my good friend Jeff was the car holding up everyone. I honk my horn as passing and smiled to myself.  Jeff was having a nice leisurely drive home after working all day most likely enjoying loud older rock and roll. Made me smile.

Thought of the Day

Some people may say I don’t have a butt. I say I must have worked my butt off !

June 23rd-24th

Rain, rain, rain. Looked out, read the forecast and I didn’t receive a call from the course so I figured they must have a tournament on they couldn’t cancel. Watched a bit of TV and thought I may as well phone to check. Lucky as the tournament had to be cancelled and there was no reason for my duties.

Good day for research. I have concluded that I can’t make my Motostat system work so will look at Shaw Direct. First I will see how my Magic Stick works and if successful may use only it. Internet is another thing. I don’t need 100 channels of TV but I need lots of data and quick speeds but ExplorNet is another $50 a month. I hate the communications costs with TV, Internet and Cell. Jackie busy with her Dad’s stuff had $300 Koodo bills alone.

As we spend more time out at Oasis we will find different ways to cut costs on communications.

Babysitting Jackson tonight. It appears Victoria leads a young party life. LOL  We were deciding what to do and Jackson said he was tied up in the house all day so we thought we may as well go out. Incredibles 2 was full. Checked Chinook and only 4 seats and Shawnessy had 3 left. Okotoks had it running but it would be first come. Chuck E Cheese was our decision.

Ok we knew going in what our expectations were. I thought I was back in Mesa at the Organ Pizza. Lousy pizza, poor salad bar, and plastic utensils combined with exorbitant pricing. Jackson had fun with all of games and it is a kids place so I guess they accomplished that. Not my favorite by any means and I am sure most families could not afford to eat and play there. Still all in all a fun night with Jackson “winning” a nice little prize.

June 25th-26th

First thing on my list was to make the parking spot at our lot a little bigger. With the Enclave and the angle of the lot it was difficult getting into it. Harder when ever you fix something instead of getting it right the first time. Took a while with pulling out rebar and moving, cutting 4 x 4’s but it is much more efficient now.

Nailed/screwed together my left over boards for the shed base. Sprayed all of the weeds again. The store weed killer SUCKS. The environmentalist’s made a change in formula and now we pay for something that sucks. Notice how environmentalist has mental  right in it. No wonder people are using antifreeze and diesel now to get something that works. I can’t even stump rot anymore due to these do-gooders.

Cut all of the shooters, moved the chairs and power washed the lower deck. The sticky buds DO NOT come off. Started with my small orbital sander but it just doesn’t cut it. The belt sander with 80 grit and finishing with 150 grit works pretty well. Hopefully on Wednesday I can stain that deck to get at least one done. I just never seem to get my own stuff done with interruptions.

I had committed to golfing with Isaiah and Jeff so rushed off to Heatherglen.  It has been two weeks since  I golfed so I didn’t have any huge expectation. Isaiah can be a good golfer with his fluid swing and distance. Jeff played as good as I have seen him play for a long time. His lessons are really paying off. I played only semi ok. I had an 85 but left a few too many shots out there. Mostly the feel shots short. Fun wonderful night of golfing.

Very funny but scary and annoying. About three quarters of the way to golf the truck smelt funny and the temp gauge started to climb. With just about every tool I own  stored in it until i finish a shed I couldn’t leave it on the road so I carried on. Then STEAM started coming out of every vent. Steam out from under the dash, It was like a Cheech & Chong movie with the “smoke” zooming out my windows and me struggling to see thru the mist on the windshield. I knew what had happened right away. The heater core was partially blocked when I first got the truck as we couldn’t get any heat from it. Now the core BLEW apart. The gauge hit high as i had about 2 miles to go but I kept driving to the course parking lot. Antifreeze had spilled onto the floor boards and was dripping from under the truck. I golfed and before heading home I filled up the radiator and reservoir with water. I got about 4 miles away and hit hot again so I whipped into Tor’s place and let it cool down and refilled again. Made it home just as it was getting critical again. Trip to pick up antifreeze, hose connector and gear clamps. To replace a heater core is close to 8 hours labor so on most cars about $1000 minimum. I decided, to carry on using my truck, I would by-pass the core. It didn’t take long and all done, works perfect. Just need to stop driving before the cold weather starts. LOL

Had a meeting with our financial planner to go over a few things. Tor had a out of town job so Jackie and I picked Jackson up and he was excellent at the bank waiting for us. A couple of good ideas for us to implement to save a bit of taxes. RRIF’s allow you to claim the $2000 tax credit so moving the correct amount from a RRSP to RRIF makes sense.

Met Jessica and the boys at Tor’s place for supper. Tor had bought great tasting hamburgers so I cooked them up along with salad and corn on the cob. Awesome. Atticus and August both were doing well. One small cousin accident where August got hit in the mouth with a baseball bat. Left a blood blister and a crying young man plus another crying young guy feeling badly he accidentally  hit his cousin. Things happen.

I received my “special hammer” which I will hang in my shed which I love. I will take a pic and add it.

I would love three or four days of just working on the lot to get something done. I am weather dependent also as one needs at least 48 hours after staining to have no rain. Evidently !

I have worked every weekend at the course and again this long weekend i am booked for two days. Getting to be a bit too much.

Thought of the Day  

I can’t believe i work this hard to be so poor !! 

June 27th-28th

Weather forecasting is always a double edged sword. I double and triple checked and decided to risk it as i think I can get 48 hours before the rain. I had all three sanders out. My belt sander with 80 grit, my sheet sander with 120 grit and my orbital with 180 grid. It took a lot of sanding to get the sap from the trees all off. But the cedar turned out great. I then stained the deck. I absolutely love the look. This special stain Fred bought has linseed oil, tung oil and parafin wax in it. It absorbs into the  cedar extremely well and looks fantastic. I am impressed. Hopefully it lasts at least three years as the guarantee states. I will do the larger deck soon weather dependent.

I cleaned up and sprayed for the third time to kill the weeds. I hate environmentalists as this stuff just doesn’t work anymore.

I then leveled off my shed pads using a shovel and gravel.I built the base using up my extra pieces plus a few more. Yard is starting to look great and had a couple of people walking by commented on it which is nice. Still the privacy and big deck to finish.

Here is a sunset picture of our swimming pond at our RV park taken by a resident.

Watched the season opener of BIG Brother. They chose a few too many “pretty people” and athletes this time for my liking.

A later start to my men’e league today which was nice. Great temperatures and the course as usual was awesome. Our four-some played lousy. No one played great. Even our low handicapper of 7 scored well above his cap. It was my second highest score of the year. I do not know what went wrong. Everything !!  Oh well a  fun bunch of guys, great group and out in the sun, it is all not bad.

Thought of the Day

The only times my prayers are never answered is when I am on the golf course. Why is that ?

June 29th -30th

I received a call from Alfred last night that Mom was taken to the hospital again via ambulance. She has had her bad luck with health issues in last year. She still hasn’t recovered her strength after having two episodes of a stroke, clot and TIA. This time she felt out of sorts, lost feeling to her fingers and was confused which is all symptoms of a TIA (transient ischemic attack). 

She was aware enough and knew something was wrong and called for help. It is always better to be safe than sorry. To my knowledge there is no test to confirm a TIA but Mom experienced all of the symptoms. After all of their testing they kept her in the hospital over night.  That is never fun. Luckily Aunt Jean and Dorothy helped Mom out for us. Jackie & I arrived at the hospital in time for Mom’s discharge. We took her home and spent the day with her. She was very good. As I said the prior occurrences after affects still linger but she seemed quite well. We had lunch and supper with her eating very little. What older people don’t understand is that eating very little is dangerous. It throws out one’s body chemistry ( sodium, potassium,) and can cause a plethora of health issues. Here is another example of our medical system being controlled by the pharmaceutical companies instead of for peoples health being first priority. They say Mom has a atrial fibrillation of the heart. Like Ritalin and Lipitor it is another example of using something extremely common as a reason to give a patient another pill. Everyone that gets old, high blood pressure, heart disease etc may or will get a atrial fibrillation incident or condition.

Hopefully she will continue to strengthen without further issues.

Being the long weekend I was surprised the highway wasn’t  busier but it still took us 3 1/2 hours to get home. I am booked to Marshall and Jackie was going with Tor & Cor to help Jessica move.

Jackie left early in the morning. I headed to the course. A long weekend Saturday should have been busy but with the weather forecast it scared a lot of people away. Makes my job a little easier. Some very nice people out there today and as usually I had a fun time with them. No pace of play issues , few cart infractions, a couple of lost clubs and one lost phone.

I came home and was going to head to our lot to perhaps sand the top deck but got lazy and tired. Had a fast food supper and relaxed. Talked to Mom and she is doing good and talked to Jackie as they got the whole house moved. Good job !

Thought of the Day 

Sometimes you just have to accept the fact certain things will never go back to the way they used to be.