Nov 1-2nd

” Mercury Forecast  Mesa 34 degrees, Calgary 21 degrees, Edmonton 17 degrees”

Ok I  got it done. Finally I was able to to find a fix to get back to my design template and the classic editor mode which I like and am familiar with.

I hate updates. Win XP to Win 10 was a disaster. The new Gmail update sucked. Scotia Bank when they updated their webpage made it less user friendly. Very few updates have I experienced what I would say is a great change. Some may say it is the change but I don’t mind change at all, but believe a change should only be made when a update results in a better experience. This update for Word Press is a huge step backwards and took a few days for me to figure a way around the system.

Halloween- This was the first year in 8 years Jackie & I didn’t go out trick or treating with our grandkids. I love Halloween. With the Covid cases hitting new highs , the risks of going out and the potential of no kids on the street or homes handing out candy we decided to stay home. It was different but we did end up watching a good movie on  Netflix.

Auggie & Atti had a fairly normal Halloween in Raymond. First the town has no Covid cases that are known. Second they have a trunk & treat hand out of candy where the cars all park around the church and the boxes of trucks and trunks of cars are all full of candy to be handed out. The kids can hit 80 cars in about one hour. Huge haul, very little walking, and perhaps less kids more candy.

Jackson went out with his friend and Corey . Now he made a huge haul as again fewer kids and people didn’t want to be stuck with loads of candy. He has a full sized pillow FULL of candy and this time full sized chocolate bars and large bags of chips. He also went further than ever this year as in years past candy wasn’t the motivator behind his mission and he would go a few blocks and state he has enough and head home. Maybe getting a little older also helps. LOL

Great costumes , love Jackson’s “Conflicted ” costume, and you know all three of them had a blast. Atti last year was a little tentative but by the hilarious picture he is loving it this year. Next year we will get back to normal hopefully. Halloween is one of the best special days for kids and adults to have fun with. Jackie and I used to have a blast ourselves as adults.

OK TODAY IS EXTRA SPECIAL !!! For me one of the best days ever !!

Troy and Jennifer Lavallee, Fred & Terry’s daughter just brought home a new puppy. I am positive this dog will be the smartest, best looking, friendliest, most well behaved puppy in the world. That Fred & Terry sure raise smart kids.

I am so impressed that they recognize a good name when they hear it. This is awesome. I love a response from Jen to our girls ” Your next dog you will need to name it Fred”

THANK YOU Troy & Jen. THANK YOU !  The name has another owner.

Cutest dog EVER and I can’t wait to meet him.

Reno Day 11 

Yesterday Jackie & I ripped out all of the carpet in the primary ( do-gooders don’t like the name master anymore) bedroom. We cut it all up including the under- pad and stuffed it into the Jeep. I removed all of the baseboard and piled it up. We moved all of the furniture into the living room as our new furniture is about 6 weeks out.  Yes we are sleeping in the dining room in our bed for a couple of days. I undercut most of the jamb ( I say most as the next day I had to do two more)  and installed the new sound barrier. We started at 9am and worked the full day until 5pm.

Audrey invited us over for supper which is nice as after working all day you are a little tired to cook. An excellent meal with chicken thighs and roasted veggies, mashed potatoes and peas. It was funny as Audrey was raised on mushy peas and Jackie pukes of the thought. I don’t mind them at all and they were good canned peas not the true British mushy ones. I will remember to Jackie some real mushy peas just to bug here. Wonderful meal. I really like roasted chicken with a crunchy crust. Very nice !

Alfred for an early Christmas gave us Walker shortbread cookies from Scotland. A huge tin of them and Jackie & I have been devouring them. We brought some for dessert. We will have NONE left before Christmas but we will have sure enjoyed them. !!

First thing this morning Alan met us at Audrey’s and we loaded up the King bed that Audrey didn’t want. This bed is HUGE.  Great that Alan had his truck which made this easy. We got it all loaded up, strapped down and headed to Tor’s place taking the residential streets versus the freeway. We had about a 1/2 mile of freeway to take and the wind moving the mattress scared Jackie & I bit as we were following him.

Corey & Victoria have a beautiful home but the design used to save space for the main to second story staircase is bad. Two sharp turns which make moving anything up the stairs extremely hard. We managed to get everything up without any damage. Previous moves not so lucky. A few touch up required. Poor designed staircase in a great designed home.

Corey has a bit of assembly tonight and then they will be sleeping in a bed where they may think they are in different rooms it is so big. They have a huge primary bedroom ( master bedroom) so the bed fits easily and will work out for them very nicely.

Alan helped me today which was very appreciated. I am impressed with his skill level and work ethic. He makes a great partner being able to cut, measure and calculate angles, spacing etc. We had some very hard transitions to make and I am happy with our results. Very hard. Having these oddities adds hours to the process. We just about finished the room but not quite. Hopefully tomorrow after my lab appointment I can complete it.

After Alan left I cleaned up the deck. I blew all of the dust across the street and piled up everything. I tarped the equipment for the night and said finished.

But I have to drive to the lab tomorrow so I took the Jeep and whipped to the dump with another full load. This time I had 220 kgs of scraps. I am getting to know the gate guy at the dump by first name.

I then drove to Home Depot and picked up some light bulbs and TWO markers. The two markers are because during construction I lost mine and it is very difficult to see the lines with a pencil. I hate the do-gooders that forced the incandescent light bulb to disappear. These new ones I put in are only 8watt but with bright white light. I hate bright white but in a closet they sure work.

10 days straight of working is starting to slow me down. The back is sore. Soon it will be over !

Ps the condo is starting to look great albeit right now it is in chaos.

For Alberta’s prosperity we better hope Trump wins tomorrow.

Thought of the Day 

The only environmentalist slogan I like is ” Conserve water. Shower with your wife “

November 3-5th

The weather is a mixed bag over theses days. We set an ALL tine ever record of 23 degrees. We had rain, snow sleet, wind and a chinook.

At the end of today the flooring is done except for two closets that I will do  when we move the furniture around a bit as I have to empty them completely. They both have closet organizers in them that I have to remove. I figure each closet will be a day to empty, remove base and carpet and install the new flooring. And I need the room to put all of the stuff. Hopefully Jackie doesn’t see what I throw away as every closet has stuff we DO NOT need to keep.

Alan helped again which was awesome as in the office the angle walls are brutal. We have one curved wall, one straight wall and two angled walls. LOTS of angle finder and cutting to get them right.

I went for my lab work in the morning and I have to say I wasn’t impressed with their Covid rules. They allowed social distancing in the waiting room instead of using a text system to allow one at a time entrance. I did not see and chairs get sanitized while I was there. That is wrong. People would use the washroom for urine tests and NO sanitizing between people. That is real wrong. Not impressed.

The next day I had a 4 inch purple bruise from the incision. I hate needles !

I came home and took another load to the dump. I stopped and picked up some molding and misc. stuff and then home to finish off the master bedroom and walk in closet. Difficult but it turned out perfect. It took a long time as there were a lot of difficult  cuts and under pinning. I installed all of the baseboards and the room is looking wonderful. Jackie and I returned our bed to the bedroom and placed in the middle so we can work on the baseboards without moving it. Nice to sleep in the bedroom again.

Next day we finished off the office/ bedroom. This is the angled wall room. It took us all day to complete but we got it done.

I installed all of the baseboards in the office. Another load to the dump. I had 200 kg in the Jeep today of old carpet and underlay.

Installed all of the 3/4″  Quarter round. It is the finishing look and it looks great. I finished off caulking the master bedroom, filling and sanding the nail holes all ready to paint the baseboard so we can put back the rest of the furniture. Once we get that done which I am hoping for tomorrow I will start on the hallway closet while Jackie paints the office wall and trim.

A good days work but without all of the kneeling and bending. I have very flexible knees but for the first time in my life my knees hurt. 11 days of on my knees got to me. A little Volteran and I will be back to brand new.

“MY OPINIONS”

• First a little USA politics. The USA is in a mess.  Trump for Alberta  would have been a way better choice but it looks like Biden. This left winged socialist nut will get along with Trudeau great  so for Canada perhaps a better choice. Joe is wing nut and will push the socialist ideas and environmental issues to the extreme upon the USA. He is so old I am sure he will kick the bucket the first year of stress and Harris ( didn’t want you to pronounce her name wrong) will take over. I am sure this was the Dems plan.  To have a country divided each election 50/50 there is no one that can unite it. A mess for sure.
• Second a little Alberta politics. It is very annoying to see 100 people rallying ( AUPE) workers and have the media cover it so much. It is such a small minority. Why unions can’t understand downsizing is amazing. A lot of these people will get jobs with the third party contracted company. NO ONES JOB SHOULD BE SAFE.  The news tonight about the financial audit and the discrepancies is disappointing. I am hoping for more clarification before making judgement. You must never hide anything ! 
• Third COVID. Over 800 cases reported today. That is stupid. We DO NOT want more restrictions put on us. People going to work with symptoms and gathering both family and parties is just dumb. The ICU bed count is increasing and at this rate will become an issue. Hand washing, social distancing, masking, and small groups is pretty easy. I would like to see a gathering restriction of 6 people only. Keep restaurants and movie theaters and gyms at 50% or less capacity. HUGE fines and enforcement are needed for people that don’t want to follow the rules.  Remember my warning about Christmas. We better smarten up pretty quick.

Thought of the Day 

Dear Atheists- How is it that caveman survived the asteroid but the dinosaurs didn’t ? 

November 6th

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 32 degrees, Edmonton 1 degree  Calgary 6 degrees w/ snowfall warning”

Edmonton’s snowfall will hit on Sunday and will be deep with up to 20 cms. In Calgary we are just on the outside edge of the storm.

Speaking of Edmonton I wonder how the majority feel about their idiot Don Iveson pushing to lower the speed limit to 40 kms per hour. I know Calgary discussed it but luckily nothing has been decided as of yet.  The stupidity in the believe that this is going to save lives is asinine. What it is going to do is increase the fine revenue for a city already gone ridiculous on photo radar. Now people on a bike which Iveson wants only on the streets will pass the poor guy in a car going to work and being frustrated with the slow traffic. As I have said before. The limits need to be raised.  Leave residential at 50, raise collectors to 60 and 70 and raise the highway to 120. We need to adopt a system similar to a lot of other countries where the car has priority and the right of the road not the pedestrian or cyclist. If you are dumb enough to walk out on the street when a car is coming you deserve to get hit. This will result in NO fewer incidences and in fact deaths may increase as drivers become speed limit wary after a while. It is just plain dumb but expected for Iveson.  Poor Edmonton taking another hit. Get your wallets ready as you will be shelling out money like you have never seen.

Today was great. ONE room done completely. Paint, base, flooring and reloaded with furniture.

I was filling, sanding and caulking and Jackie was painting all day. The second bedroom is all done except for the base and closet. Tomorrow the base and paint of will be done. We loaded up the furniture in this room also so very close.

I plan to do the front closet first and then the office one as it is a big chore. I have to remove the closet organizers, base, carpet and install the flooring. I figure about three or four hours per closet.

I took my sample to the lab for testing and this time a whole change in Covid regulations. About time and nice to see. Right after that Daisy LarE and I headed out to the lot as I need my cordless drill set to take the closets apart. Nice drive. The lot looks so different with no one out there and no leaves on the trees. Our lot look fabulous.

Jackie worked until about 9pm on the office. It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint, color change and new flooring can do for a room.

I do have one small complaint about our condo. Just over 1300 sq ft and two storage bins in the garage even though they are dust magnets as they are not allowed to be closed in and we don’t have enough storage room. It is so difficult not having enough storage space. It is JUNK that a person just needs to let go of.  We all have this and I know myself there is an emotional attachment to stuff.

A good day.

Thought of the Day 

The only thing harder than letting go of stuff is finding more stuff and having no room for it.

November 7th

“Mercury Forecast Mesa 27 degrees, Edmonton -1 degrees heavy snowfall warning, Calgary 1 degrees heavy snowfall warning.”

Another good day done. Jackie and I started first thing on the bedroom #2 to finish it. We finished up the baseboards and touchup in the office/bedroom. Then off to the front closet.  I little bit of under cutting and difficult fitting after removing the tons of STUFF.  Amazing how we continue to hoard. We unloaded it all.  While Jackie was painting the walls of the closet I culled some stuff. Things we keep for memory sake but will never look at it again. Dumped. LOL  We got rid of a lot of stuff. After the painting etc we installed the heavy duty shelving ( tired of mdf shelving warping, bending with weight) and started the organizing. A full 10 hours working to get it done. Jackie also finished the office except for pictures. So getting very close.

ONE MORE CLOSET TO GET DONE AND WE ARE CLOSE TO BEING DONE. It is a little cold and snowy tomorrow so I may wait  until Monday to finish this closet.

 

We will need to move the desk out of the way to lower the Murphy bed but that doesn’t happen too often so no big deal. Orientating it this way just makes the office look better and gives a little more room.

We wanted to look at changing the mirror sliding doors for the closet and after I cracked it moving it we now have no choice. LOL   Here is what we are looking at.

Loaded up the Flex with stuff for Value Village. Some great stuff !

Birchwood Furniture phoned today and gave us the bad news that the material we picked for our couch is out of stock at the factory. So delayed a week now and Christmas is coming fast. We will go tomorrow and see about a substitute.

I watched the Biden speech. Joe at least is a professional speaker, has a calming sense about him and will represent the USA much better than Trump on the worlds stage BUT will fall back into the systems, trade deals, tax implications, and promote “green which will again make the USA much weaker and be taken advantage by the world. Trump was good at the reset and should have had another term except for his persona. Joe is bad for Alberta as we get kicked again. Our saving grace is Biden will be a limp President as the Republicans control the senate and wont cooperate with him. It will be so entertaining watching fearless Joe in action up against world thugs like Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Kim Jong-un of North Korea. The citizens of Canada and the U.S. with Joe and Justin as our leaders are so screwed.

Cold and snowy for our walk tonight but Daisy love it. Ears blowing in the wind she just flies.

AUPE wants 5% percent increase. The UCP government is offering a very generous 4 % DECREASE. They should have offered a 10 percent decrease. Normal union mentality.  I shake my head.

Covid is out of control in Alberta. People smarten up !

Thought of the Day 

What we really need is more unemployed politicians.

November 8-9th

“Mercury Forecast – mixed bag with sun and snow each day. Sunday was a little too cool and windy to work outside. Mesa 18 degrees, Edmonton -3 degrees, Calgary 3 degrees”

Jackie and I worked both days quite long hours. Sorting thru papers. pictures, and junk. We completely culled both closets. Two file cabinets and numerous bins and folders. Loaded up the vehicle for a donation drop off and Value Village.

We went and relooked at samples again for the furniture. Remarkable we both like our new selection better than our original. Funny how things have a way of working out.

Stopped a Lowes for one more box of flooring. 1000 sg ft of flooring and I was one board short but they wouldn’t sell that and I had to buy a full box. With the under-pad I was only one square foot too much. Impressed myself.

Two longer days but we are DONE ! with the flooring and painting. Just organizing and one new sliding door when it arrives now left.

I am sure Jackie will find more for me as it is inevitable whenever doing a reno.

I watched a bit of golf in the bedroom as we don’t have living-room which was nice.

Tried out our new A&W in Cranston for supper.

November 10th 

“Mercury Forecast  Mesa 20 degrees, Edmonton 1 degree w/snow, Calgary 0 degrees w/ snow”

Woke up this morning and it was a great feeling knowing the floor was done. Great feeling. Looking outside this morning just made me smile as I witnessed a gentleman shoveling snow like mad. That is one thing I do not miss. He had a power broom and shovel to do his work. I ran to get my camera but he quit before I could get ready. Grass and snow is a GREAT reason not to live in a single family home. No regrets whatso ever on making that decision. A villa with a HOA would have been nice but not now. Got this guy just a few minutes later.

I finished off my October budget numbers. Over budget again but expected. It was nice having the time and luxury of not having to work to get things done today. I caught up on emails, sent out some great jokes and paid some bills. Half of the day was gone before I knew it. I did a few fix up things and relaxed,.

It is amazing how far behind the States is with certain things. ie Tap to pay and e-transfers as perfect examples.  I am trying to figure out a way to pay our caretaker and it looks like a cheque. We just don’t use these anymore at all. I also need a tree cutter as my trees have gone nuts. I keep my lemon tree about 6ft tall but a friend sent a picture and it looks like over 12 ft now. I am thinking I may remove it to save the hassles of it every year. Safeway has lemons.

A good rest day for the aches and pains of 12 days straight of working. I have Amazon sending me emails constantly lately with a bunch of small stuff we ordered.  I will order my new printer cartridges today. It sure is convenient.

I hate lockdowns and agree with governments trying to keep businesses open while still keeping people relatively safe. But our Alberta numbers are at a point where the hospitals could start having difficulties handling existing conditions along with Covid.  I like the hard two week reset idea and would have no problem supporting that. I would go one step further and say EVERYONE stay home for two weeks. Building supply stores are not essential. ( unless your plumbing bursts lol)  No gatherings other than household, no salons, gyms, churches, malls, theatres, restaurants ( other than cooks for take out) ETC.  Hopefully this could reset the numbers to better manage it. I see Christmas this year being very different. Sucks

We took Daisy out for a walk tonight in the blizzard. She bounces like a bunny so she doesn’t become one big snowball. It is very funny to watch. Still big balls of snow under her belly. LOL We had to run up and down the hallways for at least 15 minutes waiting for them to melt.

Thought of the Day 

One nice thing about snow is that your lawn looks as good as your neighbors.

November 11th-12th

 

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 20 degrees, Calgary -6 degrees, Edmonton -13 degrees “

It is amazing the sacrifice so many young men and women have made for us over the years. Us as humans are so stupid to always want to fight and kill each other. I can’t imagine the fear as they go to war. Worse part is our idiot Prime Minister stating we have no more money for them as he gives every country money and sets up every immigrants family. I say look after our people that protected us and allowed us to have the freedoms we have today FIRST. Then look after the older people( plus 60) . Then hand out money if we have some left.

It is a time and effort  we SHOULD NEVER forget.

Thanks to everyone that served their country in the past and present.

I do know my Uncle Bruce was killed in action in Holland. Uncle Bruce was a ambulance driver. Dad being the youngest in the family was not required to go to war as they had a farm and my Grandad needed help. Dad never went over seas during his tenure. My Uncle Roy had numerous medals from his time over seas. My brother joined the legion as a son of a veteran but I just never got around to it. I should though.

I can not imagine fighting a war and seeing the guy next to you take a hit and having to carry on. During Vimy Ridge we lost 4,000 Canadian soldiers a day.

I love the following:

In France, at a fairly large conference, Former Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper was asked by a French cabinet minister if Canadian involvement in Afghanistan was just an example of “empire building”.Mr. Harper answered by saying, ‘Over the years, Canada has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.’       You could have heard a pin drop.

A Canadian Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the Canadian, US, English, Australian and French Navies.At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries.  Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, North Americans generally learn only English.  He then asked, ‘Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?’  Without hesitating, the Canadian Admiral replied ‘Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.’         You could have heard a pin drop.

When Robert Whiting, an elderly Canadian gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane at the French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.  ‘You have been to France before, monsieur?’ the customs officer asked sarcastically.  Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.  The official replied ‘Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.’   The Canadian said, ‘The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.’  ‘Impossible, Monsieur.  Canadians always have to show passports on arrival in France!’  The Canadian senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look.  Then he quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.’         You could have heard a pin drop.

More clean up today. Nice having Jackie work with me today as it is a holiday. We got a lot of little stuff done including Jackie painting the hutch. Great job.

Being a little cold outside I took Daisy for a run up and down the long hallways. She is fast. Stops at every door to sniff where there is a dog living. LOL

Audrey made a wonderful supper of Cottage Pie and Spinach salad. We went over for supper for a visit with her and David who came down from Edmonton. All done practicing good Covid rule following. It was a nice visit.

The Covid cases are getting a little scary. I understand NO lock down but I think we need to have stronger mandated rules not suggestions. People are just not listening !!

Today was another great day. Colder still but nice and sunny. I took the mirror doors plus a few carpet remnants, and a few cutoff planks to the dump.  I little muddy on the road going there so right after the dump load a quick carwash not only for mud but for removing salt from the vehicle.

We carried the cabinet we are giving away downstairs to make room in the place and to slowly work down to just what we need. My new dolly again came in very handy. We placed it in front of the Flex until we take it to Raymond. I bundled up all of the ratchet straps and bungee cords into their carry cases by using elastic bands to keep them all together which worked out super.

Dropped off a donation in the bin and went to Lowes. We picked out some new light covers instead of the tulip globes on the chandelier. We added some bling with sparkle globes and I really like them.

I found what I hope is a great painter to spray and lacquer our cupboards.  Going from Golden colored shaker maple to an off white shaker should really make the kitchen look new again. Styles change but a white/off white kitchen stays current looking. Can’t wait.

Jackie & I were watching the Bachelorette last night and we were amazed as they are not travelling the world this year and are staying at the LaQuinta Resort in Palm Springs.  Jackie & I stayed there for a week years ago. Very high end beautiful resort. Jackie was involved in hot air balloon crash while there. I golfed some wonderful courses while there.

Jackie is continues to cull of the paper work we have accumulated from ourselves and while she was looking after Peter’s stuff. Lots of paper to burn out at Oasis.

Thought of the Day 

There is always room for improvement !

November 13th

“Mercury Forecast Mesa 23 degrees, Calgary 3 degrees Edmonton  -5 degrees”

Covid update – Alberta 672/4.4 million= .000152      Arizona 1399/7.3 million= .000191

It is getting close to be exactly the same percentage in both places. The big difference is our hospital system and care is a lot safer here than getting sick down there.

First thing this morning I whipped to the post office to put two cheques in the mail for our caretaker for pest control spraying and tree trimming.  As I said my trees are over 12 ft tall and I normally keep them trimmed around 6ft. I may just chop the lemon tree down when we get there next. It is like a weed. The orange tree is a lot less aggressive in thorns and growth.

Trying to phone All Weather Windows to get a new operating arm for our bedroom casement. It is Truth hardware but AWW only gives a 10 year warranty.  Trying to get a hold of service for parts isn’t easy. LOL

Trying to phone Telus to switch a couple of plugs around is like pulling teeth. Service isn’t exactly an easy thing to get nowadays. We are moving the TV and need the line moved to the other side box. We need a data line moved to a different box in the office.

We hung a few pictures today in the hallway and dining room that look awesome. We can’t hang any in the living room until the furniture arrives.

Amazon is starting to get busy as a prime member my deliveries are later than expected.  I am also waiting for my WeatherTech floor mats to arrive for the Flex.

After two weeks of LOTS of work my weight is lower than I EVER remember. I do recall in about Grade 11 wanting to increase my size with food and weights to say I am 6’3″ and 200 pounds. I ate like mad and lifted weights every night for hours. I reached that goal around 18 years old.  Today back in the 180’s weight range but I do have to say with age does come muscle mass loss which is heavy than fat accounting for some of the difference. I really don’t care anymore to have a beach bod anyways. LOL

Had a good meeting with our kitchen painter. I am doing some of the work like removing knobs and hinges to keep the costs down. He figures one day painting at the home and our doors will be gone for about 5 days. Should make a huge difference in the looks.

Here is the before:

Things are happening. Now if only my door would arrive. I am quite sure I either have to cut the opening bigger or look at cutting down the slabs. A $500 door isn’t something you like to play with but cutting out drywall and finishing it again is harder. If the casing was still available it would not be bad as I could have trimmed the opening which is easy. I can’t have different casing on one door only.

Thought of the Day 

Never trust a fart if wearing a white suit .

November 14 

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 24 degrees, Edmonton -2 degrees, Calgary 4 degrees”

Gorgeous day with it being bright and sunny. It was melting like mad. Even though Covid is restrictive there is no reason for anyone to feel down when they can enjoy a day like this. Daisy was flying in the fields with the wet snow. I even got to throw a few snowballs. Nice day !

First thing this morning was to remove all of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. It didn’t take that long. Jackie was removing the door handles and I worked on the hinges. Just lots of screwing. I stacked them all up face to face back to back on the large grocery cart to take them downstairs to load into our painters truck.

Jackie continued culling paperwork as she had loads of it including lots for other people she has helped do things. Nice to get rid of old achievement certificates, pictures, books, trophies etc. To keep junk for memories sake is dumb. You experienced it, you will remember it, and it is in the past. A great week of culling.

I helped load all of the cabinets and arranged for Tuesday for the painter to come to do the few pieces in the house.  It will done soon. LOL

I decided to cook a wonderful ribeye steak supper tonight. I went Greek with roasted veggies in Olive Oil which turned out awesome. The house smelled great.

Jackie spent a lot of hours working putting things away today. The organizing is just about done.  I went into my closet and this is funny. EVERY shirt i have on the bottom row I wear at different times. Having said that my “work” shirts are becoming more than my good shirts. I haven’t looked through the top row of yet.

Covid – over 1000 cases. Come on guys get your act together as we are headed into a nightmare.  Again the bulk of the problem is younger people socializing. For a short period we all have to suck it up and remain in close contact with just your household.

Thought of the Day

The hardest work anyone does in life is to try to appear normal.

November 15th

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 24 degrees, Edmonton -6 degrees, Calgary 5 degrees”

Today was a not work day. Having said that Jackie swept the floor and deck to rid them of any residue dust. She even wiped down the windows making a huge difference.

I watched Dustin prove why he is number 1 in the world. He is GREAT. I just wish his personality and demure was a little more friendly. To tie an all time low score record for the Master’s is awesome. This year a lot of different countries had people in the top ten. The Asian golfers are starting to play well on the PGA. The LPGA is dominated by them.

I was even appreciative of the fact that Paulina didn’t try to steal the spot light this time. Wonderful golfing !

After golf we picked up Audrey for a drive. We went out to Mackay’s Ice Cream in Cochrane for a cone. That is good ice cream. Taking the new Stony Trail is nice and fast. Once it is done it will be a huge time saver to get to to Hwy 1 or to Alan’s place. Funny though as we were driving the temperature gauge kept dropping. 3 degrees cooler between south and north Calgary.

Cochrane is a neat little town. After our time there we stopped by Bragg Creek.  Nice to see the local owned businesses staying busy. I do wonder how the Esso/Carl Jr’s building got town approval though as it looks a way out of place. Not good.

It was a nice day trip to get out of the house, see some interesting things and to be treated to a real ice cream cone.

For supper we ordered from the British Chippy 3 orders of fish & chips. As usual the question has to be why fish is more expensive than a good steak. We don’t have it often but you have to love fish & chips.

A good visit with Audrey for the night with Daisy being the second best dog i know after Larry Bean.

Thought of the Day

What’s the saddest kind of fish & chips you can have ?   A battered Sole . 

November 16th

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 28 degrees, Calgary 5 degrees , Edmonton -6 degrees”

A very nice sunny day. I loaded up all of my tools other than few I need for the slider door and whipped them out to the lot. Very quiet out there. Very nice. I placed them in my tool shed and will organize them in the spring. I enjoyed walking around with Daisy which she really liked.

It made for a lot more room and another step closer. Jackie has checked with the kids to see if they want any of the other stuff we have to get rid of and if we don’t hear from them off to Value Village. Then just Telus to come to change a few data boxes.

The cupboard  facings are being painted tomorrow and the door fronts in a few days.

I had to include this as it is very interesting. First the different countries Covid rates but two other things struck me. The  Mediterranean Diet is supposed to be so heart healthy and heart disease is still number one or two for deaths in all of those countries. The other noticeable thing is the Dementia Deaths in countries like Canada and the UK. And NO ONE talks about this.

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/selected-deaths-vs-covid-19-united-states

Our Covid cases in Canada are really spiking and it is the public’s fault. TAKE responsibility people. It is NOT the government’s job to do everything.

Thought of the Day 

My memory’s not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory’s not as sharp as it used to be.

November 17th-18th

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 32 degrees, Calgary 5 degrees, Edmonton -6 degrees “

Our caretaker did a wonderful job of organizing this year. I had the bugs and the scorpion pest control done thru him and he found a wonderful tree trimmer to trim all of our trees.  We have two large fruit trees, 6 larger bushes and the neighboring trees that come into our lot all trimmed for $60. That is a deal and I will be using this guy every year in the future.

I whipped to Ashley Furniture to pick up our TV stand. I picked up this from their warehouse and did not have to sign another in receipt.  I was surprised. I can tell you I was anal on making sure we had signed receipts of delivery. Not only to prove delivery but also to state received n good order and to make sure our inventory control was in place.

Jackie is hanging in there with my heavy lifting requests. She helped me unload it and I can say it was heavy. We lifted it down on to my dolly and made our way to the condo. It was packaged quite well. Then I was surprised. Furniture is expensive but this new piece looks good but is built very very poorly. Ashley is doing themselves no favors by putting their name on this kind of quality. Like I said it looks good but can’t see it lasting a long time. Particle board woodgrain is not like real wood. In hindsight we should have went with real wood but too late now.

Daisy sure loves her cooler weather walks.  She loves the walk on the hopes of meeting other dogs and people. She is crazy.

The painter came and primed the facings and side boards of the cabinets but after he left we noticed the kick plates had been forgotten so we will make sure to get that next time. Just the primer on the cupboards alone  makes a huge difference in the looks. We are loving it. Talk about brightening up the space. We are back into the 2020’s.

Our door arrived at Home Depot so I took the Flex for a spin to pick it up. 125 pound door is hard on the back especially when it has glass in it so you have to be careful. Again Jackie was a super women getting it up to the condo.  I unpacked it all an it looks great and will definitely accent the opening and room. After some intense measuring I have NO choice but to make a big drywall dust mess. Similar to my rant on how manufacturers make a van 2 inches too tall to get into a 7 ft garage door I ask why is there different finished opening sizing for bifolds and sliders in Western Canada from the rest of the world. So out comes the oscillating saw and piles of dust. I hate drywall dust. I got the header in and was all excited to hang the doors then I discover a hiccup. Cutting the track into the header doesn’t give enough room to squeeze in the roller so I have to remove the corner bead inside the closet. Another huge mess tomorrow. It will be all worth it as the new door will look great. I think we should hire a lady to come in and spend the day dusting EVERYWHERE when we are done. It would be worth it.

I see the dumb Premier of BC is being anal again asking no one to come to his province. He is so dumb it is embarrassing for the world to hear home speak such nonsense. It raises my passive aggressive ire. I will make sure to vacation in Saskatchewan next year. He forgets between Cranbrook and Golden it is basically owned by Albertans and all of their services come out of Calgary. They would be devastated without Alberta money.

I still have two deliveries I am waiting for. I ordered new humidifier filters from Amazon and car mats from WeatherTech which are taking to long.

Thought of the Day 

You create your own fate by your actions. 

November 20th-21st

“Mercury Forecast  Mesa 32 degrees, Calgary 3 degrees, Edmonton -8 degrees”

We are getting closer. I finished off the dining closet door and it looks amazing. A simple change can drastically change a places looks. It was not an easy install as I said before with rough openings, finished openings and Western Canada’s stupidity in having odd size openings. I wanted and tried to change this years ago but you get a stubborn old carpenter complaining to the home builder the wrong size doors were sent because he used the old rough opening size. Gary at Continental Door worked with me and the builders but we had to give up as it was engrained into the both the builders and carpenters the sizing is different. Next time when you walk down a hallway and see the casing of a bifold lower ( instead of the same height) than a walk thru door and it looks funny to you understand it is only in Western Canada and we are stubborn. LOL

The dining room is complete with new chandelier globes, flooring, paint, closet door, picture hung and we are happy !

No living room furniture for a few weeks yet but at least we now watch TV in there instead of in bed. We can’t hang pictures yet as we don’t know the placement of the couches. I am still waiting for Telus also as I need to replace our digital box with a wireless one.

I do have to say I like Telus for everything except for customer service. Service is 2 out of 10 while everything else they do I would rate a 9 out of 10. Too bad but they are not alone. I know at JW we always struggled on the service side and I know dealing with AWW to get one of my windows fixed they are the same. No reason for it but it is consistent for a lot of companies.

I whipped to Visions to pick up our new TV. The had a sweetheart of a deal on a 55″ Sharp. Now Sharp is a Japan company but got themselves in financial trouble in 2019 and Hisense a Chinese company bought them. They still make them in Japan. Great Black Friday Deal. The only better deal was a Leon’s Black Friday but it was a door crasher and they only had 600 chainwide and I had to be there at 7am. Vision’s is one of those places that I like but just don’t think of when buying. Good thing for TV commercials. I whipped to Visions on Mcleod Trail. They were already sold out so they checked inventory at their other stores and Crowchild or Okotoks  still had stock. Okotoks had 9 left the night before so I phoned to verify and the sales lady says she has had a few call on these so you better hurry.

I used the new FLEX navigation system and it is awesome. All voice controlled instead of pushing buttons and will set itself up when you are driving. Very impressive.

At Visions Okotoks they had 2 left. As I was talking to the sales lady a clerk carried the second last one out. I was getting a little worried as we were taking so long to do the paperwork that someone would do a carry out.

The set up and hook up was a 5 second job. It is a wonderful big TV and hopefully lasts at least 10 years. Our bedroom one that calved was 13 years old.

Today at Sobey’s grocery shopping was a piece of cake. No one in the store. Fast easy and expensive. Groceries are ridiculously high priced. I am looking forward to my Pecan Pie tonight with vanilla ice cream.

I decided with the hassles of dealing with Telus and a $20 a month up charge I would go another route. I tried to buy local a couple of things local but had to give up. It is the stores own fault everything is going online.  I should have bought a cat 5 wiring tool as so any times I needed one. So I ran the Cat 5 wiring into the office. I tried to buy a splitter but found out only one port works so researched again and found a Ethernet switch with 5 ports that allows each port to be active. I ordered it from Amazon and it is a 2 day delivery. I hooked it up for now until the switch arrives and it looks and works good. I was even lucky that cutting a hole in a switch plate worked out perfect.

I watched a bit of the golf today.

Now here is a Alberta REDNECK at work. This guy out at Oasis has a high end $130,000 dollar 5th wheel and due to covid and not going south he did what any good REDNECK would do.  He cut a hole in the ceiling of the slide and installed a wood burning stove for heat. 

Here is a huge marketing mistake. They do say any publicity is better than none but this is pushing the limits. This is a Wear Mask sign on the BC Ferry system. Most would agree it looks like a penis in your mouth. LOL  FAIL !

Thought of the Day 

“It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.”

November 22nd-24th

I just didn’t didn’t find the time to update for the last few days. I will do better. I will say the lack of furniture does have a part to play. LOL

The weather all week has been great. Anytime in November when you have a whole week at or above zero you are not going to complain.

This Covid stuff is starting to get to me. It is getting a little annoying and I understand people not following the rules but WE HAVE TO if we want to get back to semi normal. Today in the news I read the vaccines ONLY reduce the severity of the illness they do not eliminate it. Multiple doses required which you know is a money play but the most concerning thing they  believe a vaccinated person  can still spread the disease to others. NOT GOOD. Herd immunity in this case is impossible. Our lives will be changed forever. I don’t consider this a breakthrough at all.

Covid caused or what, but the world has gone mad. Riots in cities, armies attacking citizens, anti protests and governments not having a clue how to please everyone. Everyone will agree the USA is a divided country and is in a downward spiral due to so many issues, women, race, politics, do-gooders and environmentalists.  Canada is not far behind. Our biggest issues are irresponsible youth, socialist ideology, union brainwashing, environmentalists and greed with no regard to others.

Here is another example of stupidity where the Alberta nurses are paid on average 8.1% higher than any other nurse in Canada and the union wants them to strike during a pandemic as they want a 7% percent increase with the government offering them a 4 % reduction. Asinine ! The governments are broke. I am all for COVID extra pay until such a time where the case load becomes normal but I am adamantly against ANY union requesting an increase when we have 4 million out of work and the governments are running huge deficits. As I have said before enough of being Mr Nice Guy Kenny. Cut the public workers across the board by 10%. If we lose the odd worker it will save severance as in most cases if money is the driving factor behind job satisfaction they are in the wrong job anyways. If they cannot accept the reality’s of the world they might be delusional which wouldn’t be a good thing.

I got the cupboards back from the spray painter and they look fantastic. I installed all of the hinges on them last night so just waiting for the faces to be done now to finish it off. As with Covid I am getting a little tired of renovations yet they do keep you busy. Our place is starting to look great.

For a quick exercise today I took Daisy running down our long hallways. Daisy is 99.5% trained. But after running for about 15 minutes she decided she needs to poop. No bags and NOT the place  to do this. I had to pick her poop up with my hands and run back to the condo. Good thing it was a nice solid piece. Yuk ! Dogs can be a pain in the butt. LOL

With Covid companies have had to struggle with lack of employees etc. I ordered Weathertech rubber mats for the Flex 14 days ago and hadn’t heard anything. So 5 days ago I sent an email checking on the status. No answer so today I bit the bullet and remained on hold for an hour and finally got a hold of them. The rep says they are over a week behind in emails. LOL  My mats are being made in the States is why the delay. The rep says they have the front mats in stock so I asked them to be sent them separate as in todays world no one is sitting in the back seat. I will be surprised if the guy does this but he committed so only time will tell.

We went a different route this year for golf. I still kept my membership at Turner Valley on a retainer and bought the VIP Golf package for Jackie and I. $400 bucks and you get huge discounted rates off a lot of courses in the area including BC. It should pay for itself quite fast. This year we will get to golf at a lot of different courses which is always fun. Especially with the deal at Speargrass they offer I will be doing that course quite often. My only fear is they will have limited tee times available which if happens will be the end of that deal.  So golfing will exponentially cost more than our sweetheart deal last year but for one year to golf different courses it will be fun. The deal also includes BC courses but with a lot less lucrative discounts and they are BC courses which I would prefer not to give my money to with that provinces attitude towards Albertans.

I have cleaned out and organized my closets, my dressers, the closets etc so did get rid of a lot of junk. I have the garage storage to clean up when I get the Christmas decorations out.

I received most of my Amazon packages today and I have them all in place. My Ethernet switch works perfect. Saves me from buying a new wireless PVR from Telus. Perhaps with their service I wouldn’t have ever got thru to them anyways. I installed my new USB chargers for our phones. I installed my USB 1ft braided cabling to make it look a lot better and threw away our other cords as they were becoming a little frayed.

Anyone else love FRUITCAKE ? I do, and Jackie picked up a dark one and a light one. With a piece of cheese these are awesome. I have eaten too much. LOL

“MEMORIES”

An co-worker of mine for years would bring me a fruitcake each Christmas. Brian Greebe’s wife Donna made it quite unique using Ju Jubes along with fruit and it was wonderful tasting. I miss that cake. 

My Aunt Jean made loads of fruitcake every summer and gave us some each year to have for Christmas.  Aunt Jean made hers with lots of rum and I have to say it gave it the perfect taste.

About time Jason Kenny started to stop activity. Too many individuals not following the rules and people die. He could have been a lot harder but he is a smart guy knowing a total lockdown would catastrophic to businesses. Restaurants at least can cover a portion of their costs with take out and reduced seating. Having said that the bulk of the public are getting skeptical about going out period.

I am pretty sure the December 21st date for reopening the border will not happen as both nations have lost control.

Trust Trudeau saying we won’t get vaccines until after a lot of other countries as we do not have a manufacturing facility in Canada that can do this and the other countries potentially will look after their own needs first. Then he says he will give money to a company in MONTREAL to fix this. His love and patronage to Quebec is sick.  How a government can allow this to happen is stupid. Even if it was a government corporation and cost the tax payers it would be worth to have a facility in our country but in another province, not Quebec. This is a perfect example of what Trump was saying. If you don’t have manufacturing in your own country you are hooped. Imagine trying to build a tank or plane with a steel or aluminum plant. Or save your countries population from a pandemic and NOT having a plant that can produce it. Amazing to me the the people we elect.

Black Friday sales are out and Ashley put our tables on sale. I specifically asked our rep about this and was told they wouldn’t be cheaper. Tomorrow off to Ashley to get my credit.

Is it just me or has the customer service level of most companies taken a huge hit. I have little patience with incompetency, procrastination and lack of urgency when it comes to customer service levels.

I asked the property management company for new LED lights for our patio( condo supplies as it is a common area). Three days now and no response. I asked for the glass company that takes care of the condo to install an operating arm in our bedroom window and no response. I emailed and talked to a ALL Weather rep and he promised to look after me and no response. My painter has yet to finish and receiving very little information back. I talked to and am still waiting for Ashley to correct my billing on some new furniture.  Perhaps Covid has affected people more than we know but in my mind this kind of service is unacceptable. I know for a fact when working many of my employees would get no sleep some nights as they were worried about looking after their customers. Where has that gone ?

We received a phone call from our couch manufacturer today and the couch and loveseat are ready for delivery. That is two to three weeks earlier than expected. I am sure again the sugar required to finalize the deal contributed to the rep pushing for a early delivery for us. WONDERFUL! as sitting on a blowup bed in the living room isn’t the best.

https://birchwoodfurniture.ca/

Birchwood is a well known quality furniture manufacturer. You pick your style and material and they build it to order. So you have to wait unlike say at the Brick or Leon’s but you get exactly what you pay for and ordered. The carry all levels of rub wear material. We are so looking forward to it’s arrival.

Congratulations to Alex from Birchwood on being a concerned sales rep and person that gets things done. That is great service.

Ashley Furniture just phoned and the credit is being applied to my Mastercard. As usual a 5 to 7 day window but again very appreciative of their efforts and efficiencies.

https://stores.ashleyfurniture.com/store/ca/alberta/calgary/7710000504

I may have misspoke on customer service as today companies are coming thru for me like they should. It is a good feeling when they perform and you experience a welcoming event, I will stand by my prior statement on most companies today but these two showed me different.

Someone is ready for Christmas. I can’t believe how big he is getting, He is so lucky to have that inherited good looks.

November 25th -26th

“Mercury Forecasts  Mesa 20 degrees, Edmonton 2 degrees, Calgary 2 degrees”

For all of those that are a little scared with the media and governments declaring state of emergencies and blasting negative news all day long on Covid here are some interesting facts to consider from Alberta Health.

People with three or more pre-existing conditions, such as hypertension, dementia and cardio-vascular diseases, make up three-quarters of the total number of deaths. Those with two comorbidities make up 16 per cent. People with one make up five per cent, while those with no comorbidities make up 2.3 per cent of deaths.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/covid-lethbridge-mp-rachael-harder-deaths-1.5815973

It is one of those things that once again show the media’s strength in bringing public policy to fruition that maybe over jealous.  Interesting perspective.

I whipped to Tim’s this morning for breakfast as Jackie had to make an emergency run to Audrey’s place.  You can’t beat a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.

I finished up some banking. Renovations have eaten up all of our saved cruise money but the place is looking good. Cant wait for the end though. The cupboards are taking a way way too long to get done. Couch and love seat are here tomorrow which will help and just waiting for the coffee and end tables.

Nov 27th/28th

GETTING very close now. Finally the painting is done.  Kitchen cupboards are all done. Jackie and I really like the look as it brightens up and brings the kitchen a much more modern look. Two full days of painting, touch-ups, caulking and installing doors but finally complete. It has been 5 weeks since I started and I am glad I am nearly done. I have to find a putty stick that matches my flooring as I have two very small ” mistakes” that I want to correct that no one can see except they bug me, and I have one more touch up on the header of our new door and then I will be done.

Jackie & I headed to the Depot and then to Lowes and finally settled on a very nice door knob. I was going to double drill and put the standard good looking pull that everyone uses but I like this look much better and saves me about an hours worth of work.

A lot of dusting on Jackie’s part to clean up with all of the work done but it is looking good.

And with our new furniture arriving last night we have placed the pieces in their approx. location for now as we wait for our end tables and coffee table. Then the placement will be final and we can hang the pictures. Close !

We really like the furniture except this morning we noticed they used a reddish brown leg on them and we want expresso or dark brown. We will need to get this changed.

Still no call from All Weather Windows for a new operating arm. Not good service !

Jackie and I headed to Lethbridge today as it is Atticus’s birthday tomorrow. We didn’t want to go on Sunday as we didn’t know how safe the girls would be keeping it. Plus we Penny’s Grandma’s viewing is tomorrow also. We do know they are are being very diligent here making sure only 10 people at a time are in the funeral home for the viewing. I hate viewings.

Do you think Daisy enjoyed the ride ?

Jessica had the outside firepit on high and the boys outside when we arrived. It was only 1 above and a little breezy which made it feel cold. I had to keep warming my hands on the fire. It was nice with Atticus, August, Jess and us, outside keeping warm around the fire. Atticus really liked his “Digger” front end loader/backhoe and his soft blanket. He played with his grader the entire time we where there. Daisy had a blast continually bugging Olive, play biting, running, jumping and standing up on her. I am sure Olive liked it also but did have the odd bite to warn Daisy she was getting tired.

It was a very nice afternoon. Not the typical “birthday” we have had over the years but 2020 can not be described by anyone as typical.

It was a very nice day. Great seeing the kids and Jessica again with a very short hello to Penny as she was working away inside.