December 1st 

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 22 degrees Calgary 5 degrees Edmonton 2 degrees ” 

If you remember I struggled late in November when WordPress forced the new editor on it’s customers. I checked and they are swamped with complaints and rightly so. As I said before to change something that works good and the change is not better is just stupid.

“Memories”

At Henderson’s when JELD-WEN bought us we had a POS inventory system that worked fantastic. Our in house programmer/designer Ken Wilkie modified as we needed ongoing. JELD-WEN wanted us to switch to their “new” computer system and we were forced to. This system was so bad I had to go into the warehouse to count inventory manually before ordering anything and then check history and guess future sales based on that.  JW’s IT Department should have been embarrassed to roll this out. When you pull the switch there is no going back. We struggled with this system for at least a year. It never ever got as good as what they threw away.

It took me 3 hours today to find another work around. They are trying to force you to buy a Premium package at $360 a year to use their plugin’s if you want the old system. If I was working or a company it would be a no brainer but I am not spending that kind of money on something that I really can do without. I found a webpage that gave the plug-in to me free but working with it is still a pain. But I will continue to work with it and around their stupidity.

My phone is quite old in fact an S4 from 2014. In todays world that is ancient. But it still works great except it is now too full. Mostly pictures. It only has 16gb space. Penny & Jess had an old S10 that they gave to me.  It has 128gb of space so I should have no problem with storage anymore. It had a cracked screen so I thought I would get it repaired. $450 to repair a crack screen. Wow, it is a $800 dollar phone but to have the screen at 50% of the value is nuts. Two places with similar quotes so that is the pricing. Needless to say I will be using it with a cracked screen. I loaded the sim card in and am about half way done from getting everything to work. I need to sync google, gmail, photos etc. My mind is tired from WordPress so most likely I will finish that tomorrow.

24 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS.  This is going to be one odd Christmas.

Our insane arrogant Trudeau today says the border may not be open until March 2021. That means a cold winter if we don’t fly which I am leaning against with the risks. It makes one sad to think about missing a year. But better than being sad missing someone.

I put up the Christmas decorations on the patio for the first time since 2013 as we were in Arizona every year. Makes it look and feel a little more like Christmas. I set up the tree and installed the lights. with Jackie & I will finishing the decorating later tonight.

Thought of the Day 

Due to social distancing I will no longer shake your hand or hug.  In lieu of these things you can kneel & bow from a safe distance. Your welcome !

December 2nd

“Mercury Forecast  Mesa 20 degrees, Calgary 10 degrees, Edmonton 5 degrees”

We got everything all set up and it is looking good.

We are still waiting for our end tables and coffee table to show up. Hopefully before Christmas. The new couches and rug look great but we can’t hang pictures yet as the final placement is based on the end table sizing. Really like the looks though and we are back in the 2020’s. Not quite as comfortable as the the other set but again really well made.

I returned all of the boxes for the decoration to the storage and started to dismantle two old computer systems. One system we paid $3600 in 1993 for the girls from a friend of Al McKenzie’s that owned a computer store. He customized it for us and the girls had a super powerful desk top for years. The other was a system I bought in 1999 for Blimpie’s that we had at the store. I took them both apart and destroyed the hard drives. Tomorrow I will take them to the dump to dispose of them. They allow electronics n/c which is good.

Still waiting for UPS to deliver my Weathertech mats for the Flex.

I forgot to mention a great experience Jackie & I had. On our way home from Lowes we stopped at Popeye’s. I have never been to one here or in the States. I had heard about there awesome Chicken Sandwich. Awesome is an understatement. BEST EVER !  I love the batter, the pickle adds a punch and the dill sauce is exceptional. And they are big. I will be back. Perhaps for a meal combo for a birthday party.

I started my November budget numbers but will finish it in the next couple of days. The reno expense will blow up the budget ( I think I am Trudeau) but we knew that and used our saved money from our cancelled cruise that we didn’t get to go on.

Thought of the Day 

You get all excited when you receive a text stating your package is out for delivery. Then you wait and wait and wait. Left the warehouse at 2pm and 8pm now and no package.

December 3rd

“Mercury Forecast  Mesa 18 degrees, Calgary 16 degrees, Edmonton 5 degrees”

Unbelievable to hit 16 or greater in December with no chinook. It is like summer. What I do like is that it shortens the winter as we know it is coming. Kids were outside with tee shirts on, I saw people in shorts and the sun’s heat you could feel on your skin. Just perfect !

I loaded up the Jeep with the two computers I was getting rid of. The landfill takes these n/c but still wants to weigh you which I thought odd. It is nice that the dump is only 15 minutes from our condo. Then Daisy and I headed out to Oasis to unload the Jeep of tools. I put all of these in the shed for now and will organize again in the spring. There was no one out there. Absolutely beautiful for a nice walk Daisy and I took around the park.

Drove back to Calgary and took Jackie’s clubs in for new grips. She really only needed a couple done but having the complete set looks better and is consistent.  The clerk say to me “You know we have our grip sale on in January” My response ” That is why I am here now” You save a few bucks but you have long wait times and when they are overloaded like they are every year the quality and selection isn’t as good.  Jackie’s will be ready tomorrow as it was his only set to work on. Nice !

Jackie and I along with Daisy went for a stroll in the warmth for her lunch break. Very nice with Daisy meeting multiple dog friends and people. After the evening news we went for another long walk which was after 7pm and it still was 7 above. Wonderful.

I wrapped up the ShopVac and put it in the storage. We will use it for car cleaning in the future.

I have to say UPS isn’t the delivery service that excels. Numerous different delivery dates that never happen. They want you to download their app for precision tracking by the hour which I refuse to do. I never pick them as a service as the Canada Post system is so much better. With the webpage tracking my mats are still out for delivery now for three days. Pretty bad driver. How much do you bet he comes when we are not home. LOL

I paired up my new phone to the Jeep. I had to read the instruction book. Darn !

Covid continues to wreck havoc with people lives.  I am sure now Christmas will be very different. I love Christmas time gatherings. This year if the rules stay the same we won’t be seeing the grandkids inside. Hopefully the weather is like right now which would be awesome for getting together outside as long as we are less than ten people. Waldies-3,Hickens-4,Willards-2 and Craven-1 so we can make this work perfect.

Thought of the Day 

Next time when at the checkout and they ask you ” Did you find everything you were looking for?”  Respond ” Why are you guys hiding stuff ?”

December 4th & 5th

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 18 degrees, Edmonton 4 degrees Calgary 16 degrees ( set all time high) “

It sure is nice having the warm weather. Every day like this in December makes the winter seems shorter. Especially this year as we are so limited as to what we can and can’t do. One can become bored very quickly. Even golf simulators are household members only. Even eating out is household only.

Jackie and I thought we may as well go shopping to get a few presents before the real rush. Even on Friday the stores were quite busy. The “experts” are now stating this is a concern for spread as so many people gather indoors or lines. We are always careful including our own hand sanitizer but as you can’t see this hideous Covid you just never know.

MaryAnn our sister in law was so far ahead of the game with carrying hand sanitizer. She has done this for years and I used to tease her but now I understand as I feel naked “dirty” without mine. You have to think so carefully about scratching your nose, eyes or eating with your fingers.

Jackie was spot on in finding gifts for a large portion of the group we need to buy for. One day of shopping brings down the list substantially leaving just a couple of hard to buy for people. The issue is some people just don’t have enough interests in different things to make buying easy. I could give a list of 20 items instantly that I would like from inexpensive to costing a lot.

My list would include:

• Socks- thin dress socks, black, blue, brown and golf socks
• A black golf cap- Callaway, Titleist, Ping logo but has to be a black cap
• Golf balls- I like any ball as I do not believe there is a significant difference.
• Golf gloves
• Golf tees
• Multiple fishing rod case – hard side
• Leaders, hooks
• Pistol grip two piece rod
• Mini Kota electric boat motor
• Set of wood oars
• Golf shirts, no white collar ( size Large)
• Garden Centre gift certificate
•  Western themed garden ornaments – wagon wheels, hand pump, Texas star, horseshoes,
• 12 volt cooler
• Polishing rags
• Car wash certificates

Anything golfing, fishing, gardening, auto related and I am a happy guy. As time has gone along even Jackie is getting harder to buy for.  One thing about this year is we are going to spend a lot less for a couple of reasons. Even the Christmas dinner will go from $200 down to about $50 without the big turkey and side dishes.  It will be a Christmas with a lot less fun but it is only one year.  I pre-bought a few Christmas dinner items as they will be gone in another week .I had to put my dried bread crumbs in the freezer as the expiry date wasn’t long enough. I have the turkey already.

A few walks with the dog makes her happy and gets us out in the warm air. She sure does love meeting people and dogs.

I put away the Shop Vac into storage. I used a large plastic bag over it to protect it from dust. It is visible so sets itself up for theft but with the car parked close to the gate makes it  little difficult.

I noticed the gentleman I have rented my parking space to over the winter is parking on the street. I know 4 couples  in our building that have decided not to go south.

I had to have a conversation with UPS. I have had deliveries from Amazon, Fed EX , Canada Post, and even furniture companies that have excelled at deliveries. UPS not so much. Poor communication and poor drivers. We were home when  a driver left a note on the glass as final delivery. Hopefully after my conversation with their customer service rep the driver is taught proper procedures and the company makes sure to follow it’s own policies. I asked for it to be delivered to a depot and i will pick the parcel up. That maybe my default from now on with UPS. Funny thing my mats are in Calgary at their distribution center and it takes them three days to deliver to a pickup location. They do not allow pickups at the warehouse.  Just one of those things. At least the mats will arrive before our next snowfall.

I have one error ( few will notice it) but it bugs me everyday on my flooring and I am stumped to the fix it without making it noticeably worse. It is one of those things that in hindsight I wish I would have done different but not dealing with flooring often I missed it. Darn !

My new humidifier filters arrived and I switched it out. I think the tiny white particles in the air should be minimalized.  The humidity in the condo goes up and down like a new brides pants. I can’t keep it consistent. I keep it on the lower side but it is fluctuating between 23% and 30%. The main reason is the opening of the door in the daytime and turning off the unit at night. Calgary is the driest city by far within Canada mainly due to winds over the mountains and prairies. Humidity has a huge impact on temperature feeling, moisture of our skin, static electricity, headaches and nose bleeds.

As previously stated first year with outside lights. Even though I went minimal it does look ok.

HSBC just announced mortgage rates below 1%. It is a remarkable time for younger kids. Basically no interest so the principle drops much faster. I remember our first mortgage being at at 22% and the government coming up with a program to bring it down to 15 percent. This was after years of paying the higher rate. At that time we also needed 10 percent down versus the 5% people need today. It is very good opportunity for people to purchase a home and or to pay down your debt much faster than ever before.

At this point in our lives I would love to see the interest rates sky rocket up. When mortgage rates are high so is the interest rates on savings etc. Don’t see that in the near future though.

A wonderful walk again in the warmth.

We picked up our lamps today and now only need the end tables ?  I hate the wait. LOL The lamps were remarkably expensive for a piece of porcelain and fabric. I guess it is what the market will bear. I really like them so can live with the costs. We have checked numerous places so to finally get something we like at a livable price is nice.

Tonight I actually felt sad. I drove to Boston Pizza in Seton to pick up our supper. I love their Smokey Mountain Spaghetti. I left a 20% tip for the staff on our pick up order as my part in helping. Here is why I felt bad. Some guy invested at least 1 million dollars ( separate stand alone building) in a Boston Pizza Franchise and there were 10 people tops  sitting in the restaurant at 6 pm on a weekend. Typically there would be a line up outside the door and at least a 30 minutes to get in. Here is guy that stuck his neck out financially and due to no fault of his own he could potentially lose his life savings and worst. We have this poor guy plus thousands of other small business owners struggling along with 400,000 people unemployed in Alberta  and our Alberta unions won’t accept a 4% pay cut. The highest paid doctors, teachers, nurses and overall govt workers in Canada and they won’t accept this when 400K people could lose everything. We have hockey players making 5 million a year refusing to accept a shared reduction with the owners by taking a 25% pay cut temporary. I JUST DON’T GET IT.

This group could easily bite the bullet for the good of everyone. I believe 100% you get back what you give and more. For years I would write personal cheque’s to my key employees at Christmas time as they were not part of the company bonus program. I felt it was the right thing to do. I personally paid for retirement gifts to my key staff again as it was the right thing to do and I felt the company had a responsibility to them and I didn’t want them to leave with a bad taste in their mouth. And then I see what the Alberta union mentality that is backed by NDP agenda and it is maddening.

A letter to the editor below sums it up:

I never thought I would see such a sickening lack of caring for the people of Alberta as is shown by (Rachel) Notley and the NDP. They spend their entire day spreading fear and garbage. They must hate the people of Alberta as much as they hate the current UCP government. During this pandemic, they have not come up with one statement or idea to help people. Doom and gloom is all they promote. They will say and do anything to get back in power with not one thought about people suffering through this horrible pandemic. I would rather vote for Ralph the Dog than for this morally bankrupt bunch of NDP losers. I have only one word to describe their behaviour towards the people of Alberta during this pandemic: Disgusting!

I would add you one thing to this. Kenny you have to cut expenses now. Cut hard and deep, take the flack from the naysayers but know those same people will be the first in line for pay raises when the province turns around. Another year or so at this level of activity we will be a have not province which isn’t good for us or Canada.

On tonight’s agenda is charging all of my batteries. I have two 18 volt Makita’s, two 20 volt Black & Decker, one 18 volt Mastercraft, and two special golf cart batteries.  Get them all charged now then again come spring. I keep them in the condo versus leaving them at Oasis in the cold. I really don’t know which is better for them.

I see we broke another record in Covid and our numbers were even higher than Ontario’s with 3 times our population. Not good. Luckily the weather is fantastic otherwise the winter could be very long.  Arizona hits record also with 6700 cases which only has double our population. With their ICU’s at capacity you don’t want to get sick down there.

I love Turtles. I bought a small box when shopping and they are GOOD. Too good. LOL

Jackie found another box of tree ornaments and put them on the tree. These balls are fantastic looking. No more Christmas decorations to put up. I like the look of Christmas.

We are watching a series from Telus Presents called Wrong Girl that is very well done. It has two seasons with about 20 episodes of which we have watched half and have enjoyed each show.

Thought of the Day 

How do we know Santa is a man ? He shows up late. Eats your cookie. Empties his sack. Comes only once. Calls you a HO and then leaves while you are asleep. 

December 7th

” Mercury Forecast   Mesa 26 degrees, Edmonton 9 degrees, Calgary 14 degrees”

Another unusual warm winter day.

We organized the gifts we had bought to check what else we needed. Didn’t get much wrapped today but as they say there is always tomorrow. I think we have everything bought except for Jackie’s Mom and my Mom. My Mom is exceptionally hard to buy being in a down.

I did a bit of touch up here and there on the painting and closet spacing on the drywall to flooring gapping. Looking good.

The water was off today at the condo so I had to whip over to the Esso to use the bathroom. The plumbers here are awful slow workers. I do have to say the water coming the taps after the fix is hotter than it has ever been. That is good !

I arranged a couple of gift certificates and bought one today. I will pick up the other two tomorrow.

Had a very nice Covid safe gathering with Jeff & Wendy Grace today. Jeff set up his firepit on the side of his garage. This is an excellent firepit that his students in welding class did as a project. It looks fantastic and works very well and even includes handles and wheel to make it portable. Nice job.  It was great seeing them again. Lucky for us this amazing warm weather makes it possible. I do miss the wings and cold beer at a bar though. Soon hopefully.

Notice the beautiful privacy fence. It makes for a great looking divide from the neighbors looking into their window and vice versa. Those uprights were brutal digging into the ground as the location used to have large popular trees there. I actually got the power auger stuck as it struck a root and it took us a long time to get it out. I always have wondered why they never put  a reverse gear on them. ( cost)   It’s very sharp looking especially with the solar lights and stain color they picked.  I would suggest a small cedar ground level deck between the house and arbor over the concrete for having a morning coffee along with a planter box for color. It would look great and serve a useful purpose.

A fun way to spend a warm afternoon.

I see it is looking like another round of restrictions coming up as the cases are not falling.  I would like to see a real hard shutdown from NOW until Dec 20th then a slight easing for the holidays. Bend the curve hard and quick is better than this long drawn out process.  Make sure we have the support to help the employees and business that are again impacted though.

A recent news item that I find disturbing, The Canucks fire their anthem singer for singing at an anti-mask demonstration.  I hate this that the LEFT wing politics are controlling our society lately. No one is allowed an opinion unless it matches their agenda. If he would have said I support masks we would not have heard a thing but because he voiced an opinion that is opposite of the what the far left want to hear he gets fired. Wearing masks the science says helps people  and most would agree it is the right thing to do but let others have their opinion. I think people should cancel their season tickets to the Canucks.  The exact same thing happened to Don Cherry and this is rampant in business everywhere now. I would not survive in business today as I believe opposite opinions only help a final decision become better. I enjoy discussing issues with people that have the wrong opinion. I try to persuade them different but would never hold their opinion against them in any way.  What ever happened to TRUE NORTH STRONG AND FREE that a person can’t state a personal opinion. As a society we have to be very careful of the left getting control of everything. And it is happening. Today in the news 55% of Edmontonian’s support NDP over UCP. This poor city has been lead by the far left for a way too long. It is a union town. It is a socialist thinking city and it is a city that grabs trends and flies with them without any thought of the repercussion’s. The bike paths are the joke of Canada. Luckily the rest of Alberta doesn’t see it the same way. Having said this though the Covid response is hurting Kenny. HIT THE VIRUS HARD to fix the issue and the voters will forget or forgive by the time the next election rolls around.

Thought of the Day 

“This is what I think—and I am entitled to my opinion!”

Comments like this make me pause. It is true, after all, that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It is also true that we value freedom of speech so that people can communicate their opinion without prosecution. We value the right to believe what we think is right and to express our opinions accordingly yet people are being fired everyday for voicing it and no one says anything.

What is not true, however, is that an opinion is a fact. Most humans believe that their opinions are facts. We incorrectly believe that our thoughts are correct. I mean, if we think it, it must be true, right? 

Wrong. The truth is that a fact is a statement that can be supported to be true or false by data or evidence. In contrast, an opinion is a personal expression of a person’s feelings or thoughts that may or may not be based in data. Indeed, many of our opinions are based on emotions, personal history, and values—all of which can be completely unsupported by meaningful evidence.  And this is a cause for dismissal.  The RIGHT has to start being more vocal.

December 8th 

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 25 degrees, Edmonton 4 degrees Calgary 13 degrees “

Jessica posted a picture of her, the boys and Tor in her new hot tub in the backyard. While looking at it Jackie says to me ” That clock tattoo of Jess’s looks just like Grandads clock. Looking at it closer it is an exact replica.  Jessica after her Grandad ( my Dad) died had the tattoo done. It looks awesome and either Jackie & I forgot or it didn’t click but that is quite a memory keepsake. Jackie says ” Well I guess we know where the clock is going when we pass ” Jessica responds ” Oh I guess I will get more tattoo’s of other stuff I want”   LOL    It is quite a gesture she did. Ps Dad’s name was Jesse also.  What Jessica didn’t know it was actually from my Grandad ( Dad’s Dad) and Dad had for years and years and never found the time to restore it. I glued it all together, bought new moldings from Windsor Plywood, sanded it and varnished it plus added a whole new complete clock mechanism to it. We love the cuckoo bird popping out to sing on the hour. I will need to ask if there is a significance to the time on the clock.

It is exceptionally nice as I have Grandads clock and violin. I restored the clock myself but the violin takes a specialist. I polish it with lemon oil only as it has one small crack. I took the violin to a repair shop and the guys says that is nice violin and worth about $1200 bucks. It is early 1900 vintage. So my next question was how much to refinish and repair it. $1200. LOL  The exact same thing happened with the clock. The clock guru says it was made in the German Black Forest area or Czechoslovakia in the late 1800. But the cost to repair and refinish was the same value after having it done. I am pleased with my restoration and we love the cuckoo bird noise. It is off by 5 minutes as the bird pops out at 5 min to the hour and I can’t get it to be exact but I am ok with a 150 year old cuck-coo clock being a little off. LOL

I picked up my new Weathertech floor mats today.  As I said UPS is not the best delivery service by far. I had them redirect them to a pick up location. They then drop them off at a different location from the one we discussed. But I finally received them which is good. I installed them when I got home and as usual are the perfect fit. They could have had higher edges but I am happy with them. The Canadian  Tire ones are half price but not the quality or fit.

UPS uses a dry cleaners in Legacy as their drop off point . Wow has this city grown. We have a huge shopping complex in Walden and only a mile way or so a monster complex the size of 130 Ave in Legacy with everything.  Nice to have for the residents. The poor cleaners and the barbershop beside opened too early as there was not one vehicle around the complex. Once the others open up the traffic will go up substantially.

Daisy and I went to a few places for gifts as it looks like another lock down coming this afternoon. She just sits in the truck and watches me go in and out of places. The announcement is supposed to be a 4 pm. The bleeding heart NDPer’s will have forced the hand to destroy the economy. Then when the suicide rates raise and the opioid overdoses increase they will want money spent there.  Kenny can’t win. I sure feel for the small business owner.

During my rounds today I talked for along time with two small business owners. I feel for these guys. I purchased from them not knowing if they even will be around when we need them. If I lose my money I won’t be happy but at least I know I helped support the little guy the best I could.

4pm. Some will say Kenny is the Grinch that stole Christmas. He drastically changed the restrictions but he had no choice. I feel for the restaurants, bars and barbershops.  Kenny is helping with a little relief but it is only a small token. We have no money!!  No social gatherings outside or inside is very restrictive especially during the holidays. If people would only have listened a month ago we wouldn’t be here today. Christmas is restricted to in house family members only. It will be an odd Christmas. I am still planning to do a full Christmas dinner albeit using easy recipes and on the small side. We will make the most of it. I think the worst part is the length of time we have experienced all of this chaos. I feel the most for our elder parents that are trapped and two visitors is very small. Having said that though in any senior home I don’t think nay visitor should be allowed until the the numbers come down.

Driving today I couldn’t help but notice :

We have a table full of gifts that it looks like we will not be able to hand out. A lot of gifts. A lot from the Edmonton area. I may sneak up for a car drive and drop off on the doorsteps. Weird !

Thoughts of the Day 

Train your small children to point and loudly say ” Why isn’t that guy wearing a mask ? Are we going to get sick and die ?” 

Were gonna have to retire the saying ” Avoid it like the plague ” It appears as Albertans we can’t do that.

December 9th-11th

“Mercury forecast- Mesa 28 degrees, Calgary 4 degrees fresh snow, Edmonton 3 degrees “

During our renovation we discovered a few older video tapes we had done over the years. Three of them to be exact. The Graces wedding, the girls 16th birthday and 18th birthday.

The Graces video first. Wow is it amazing how 25 years years changes people. It was fun to watch not only for the physical differences but to see the young kids and what we actually did. Jeff’s Dad Pat was at their house before the wedding and I can tell you that NO ONE could tell the difference between Jeff and Pat’s voice. They are identical.  It was a nice ceremony held at Midnapore Lake and it is funny what you don’t remember. We were getting wet with the rain. Naomi the wife of the famous Stampede Wrestling announcer Ed Whalen was the Notary. She did an awesome job. Fun to watch. I have ordered a convertor from Amazon as I am going to attempt to convert from the video camera  to my laptop in a MOV or MP4 format file to put on a flash drive.

The girls 16th and 18 birthday’s were hilarious. Jackie and I can be very proud of them as in these video’s they were incredibly well behaved even with drinks involved for the 18th. They sure did turn my stereo on loud. LOL The boys and girls were NICE kids. I know my 18th was nothing like this.  Great kids. I did notice one friend in both tapes two years apart was the attention getter. Amanda ? tried to be the center of attention at both parties.

On the 16th video I killed myself laughing as we gave them driver training courses as part of our gift. I kept teasing them they would be trained to change oil, change a tire and the course was pretty hard.  We bought them a 1991 Spirit car that I got a great deal on from my friend Larry Geddes in Med Hat. It used to be his company car. Funny story on this car as the girls drove it for a few years and then hey sold it to their Uncle Alan. Best cars ever. My second one I was lucky enough to get a V6 in it. 220kms per hour top speed out of that thing on Hwy 2 racing Tom Daniels.  They never broke down, they never had any rust issues etc. Just well made reliable vehicles.

All of the video’s were fun to watch and look back.

Sidewalks were slippery today when I took Daisy for a walk.

The weather indicates a cold snap coming. It is December after all.

Another perfect Amazon delivery. See UPS it isn’t rocket science.

Twice in the last week where the product we wanted was short in supply. I met Victoria out at Costco Okotoks to get a Christmas present where there were none in Calgary to buy. We got lucky as they actually gave their inventory over the phone to us.

The very next day a present we wanted was the same. I whipped over to Shawnessy as McKenzie store is a much smaller store. On arrival the item was all of stock. I went to the customer care desk and we checked and there were three left in Calgary and surrounding area. One in Okotoks, High River and one at Beacons Hills. As we were checking the item we saw the Okotoks one turn to zero. I whipped up to Beacon Hills which is in the complete opposite end of town SE to NW. At least a 45min drive. I checked and couldn’t find the item so had to ask a clerk. Luckily his employee reader gives the aisle and bin location. Online you only see aisle and inventory. It was buried under a hole whack of other boxes. Yes victory. In my car after paying I checked their inventory and it read zero. Koodo’s to Canadian Tire. To have a real time inventory system online for their customers is amazing. Way to go !

Today also was Keith Harry’s birthday. I enjoy harassing people about their birthdays. In todays world at work it wouldn’t be allowed with all of the sensitive people and privacy issues. He is somewhere between 63 and 67, you guess.

There is one thing that most of you most likely don’t know about Keith. Keith was an avid outdoors man that was very accomplished at fishing and shooting. He was such an avid enthusiast that he wanted to name his first born and quite adamantly, Ranger. Amanda is happy that didn’t happen. Here are two pictures that show off his skills.

The first one is his largest trophy fish caught to date and the second one showing the countless hours spent target practicing.

New travel restrictions for border crossing now pushed back to Jan 21st. I am pretty sure March maybe the first month we are allowed. We will go back early November next year and stay longer. Darn Covid. Hopefully Jan 13th the restrictions are relaxed enough to use the golf simulators. The first person I know that has Covid is my cousin in Edmonton and her family. Luckily so far only mild conditions and hopefully stays that way.

I finished up a few touchups and I am done the reno. I do want to change the toilet but I will wait until Jan I think.

It is going to be a little bit of a boring winter not only with it being winter but with the restrictions and being able to see anyone. Plus the gym and hot tub closed.

I just have to go to Shoppers to get Jackie’s sock stuffers and I am done.

You know how your phone shows you memories of the years past. This is what popped up on mine. Fred & I had a blast. This was at the Nascar event Hotel in Vegas. I promised Fred this was an easy ride as it is Nascar so we most likely just go round and round. But NOOOO we climb up a hill 1000 ft and are doing upside down turns etc all outside of the casino building. Thrilling. Fred appears not to enjoy it as much. LOL He sure is gripping the bars.

Thought of the Day 

Just close your eyes and smile with enjoyment the roller coaster that is life.

December 12th-13th

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 32 degrees, Edmonton -6 degrees, Calgary -4 degrees”

Very lows at night getting close to that -20 degrees wintery temperature.

Today was just a relaxing day. Jackie wrapped a few presents and I watched a bit of the US Open LPGA tournament. I find two big differences between the women’s golf and the PGA. The women use very little spin on their approach shots  and go for a bump and run approach. The other is the distance off the drive. They are much more accurate off the tee but are coming into the greens from far back instead of a wedge. Exceptional players. Too bad Brook had such a poor tournament.

8 years ago today Carol passed away. A way to young . She was the casserole queen making and freezing every kind you could think of. Loved adding zucchini to just about everything.

We went for a walk with Daisy and experienced the wind chill. It was cold on the face. Have I said I hate winter.

Checking on the Covid today and Arizona today has the highest transmission rate in the USA. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2020/12/10/arizona-no-1-coronavirus-spread-where-gov-doug-ducey/3885831001/

I am now positive with the way things are going we will not be going at until the fall of 2021 and that is hopefully. It is a mess. It is self induced. I don’t like it at all. I only have a couple of project that I can do to stay busy. I want to replace the toilet in one bathroom and I want this to be a full flush not a conserve water type. It makes no sense to me to have to flush twice to get the same thing done as one good flush can. I also need to clean out the second storage enclosure and fog the cylinders of boat motor.

It is going to be a long winter. LOL I can only wash and polish the cars so many times.

Daisy is such a playful yet aggressive puppy. She likes to “beat” up other puppies with her aggressive play. Such a brat.

Things have gotten so bad I am sitting here with Jackie watching the ” Sound of Music ” movie. HELP . Next thing I know it will be Mama Mia. HELP ! Doesn’t anyone care ?

Baby it is cold outside. Poor Daisy goes out and wants right back in. Having said that though she does love going for a walk and she is very tough in doing that. She is odd though because every time she sees us putting on our boots to go in the car or walk she hides in her carry bag. It takes a bit of work to get her out to put on her outfit. She loves the walks but is slow to warm to the idea. Typical woman !

12 more days until Christmas.

Can you have any cuter grandkids ??

Audrey invited us over for supper which was very nice and fits the new Covid restrictions as she lives alone. She had her place all decorated up for Christmas including the Christmas table cloth and napkins.  Later in the evening they decorated her new tree which turned out looking great. Audrey had smaller sized balls which aren’t that common and with the scale of the tree worked out perfect.

A great supper with roasted chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, carrots, gravy and a homemade cherry flan.

 

I used the remote start and I have to say there is nothing better than the heated steering wheel. Makes driving in the cold a little less annoying.

Thought of the Day

I have always said ” There is no such thing as a cold winter, just the wrong clothes” 

But I must have forgot the cold on my ears and nose as that hurts LOL

December 14th-17th

“Mercury Forecast  Mesa 17 degrees, Edmonton -11 degrees w/snow , Calgary -1 degrees”

First to be just like the media and all they want to talk about is the Covid I have to say the numbers in AZ and AB are staying ugly. At least now they can talk about an end to the issue with the vaccines hitting. It is great for as us we all should have a couple of months to see about any negative issues with it. At least 70% need to be vaccinated to create herd immunity so the other percentages don’t matter.

I went out to Shoppers Drug Mart today and the store was busy. I had to fill a prescription. I also stopped at the Depot and picked up my electrical plugs plates etc but getting them home we decided to go white instead of almond. I will return them. They were not counting people at the door like they should have been though which i found odd. The white ones just look better as the almond are just to yellow.

I spent the rest of the day wrapping presents. Like painting or wall paper this is not my favorite thing to do but I want them done. I accomplished the bulk of them. I plan to do a doorstep run in Edmonton this week most likely Saturday to drop off presents for everyone. I figure a drop at Darlene’s,  Alfred’s, and meet Kristin somewhere for Dave and herself.  I will stop by Mom’s yet can’t see her but need to look at some paperwork for her and at least wave a Christmas hello. Covid sucks.

I had a lot fun sending some interesting jokes out today. Nothing like a funny joke to make you smile.

I decided to change out the counter plugs and switches to white one today. I thought about a 1/2hr  to hour job. It turned into a 4 1/2 hr job. When replacing a plug or switch I do one at a time and check with live power to make sure everything is ok before moving to the next. A new power indicator I bought was defective so I had to be extra careful. The first plug went fine except for a couple of things. First the condo being CHEAP went with a box that was only 1 1/2″ wide versus the standard 2 inch ones. I maybe incorrect in the sizing but they are too small to use a USB plug and the wires are really jammed. So tight in fact they used push in connections instead of the screws. I had to screw them in tight to keep from hitting the edge of the box. I took and installed this receptacle 3 times with each time popping the breaker. I was lost so I used my call a friend card. Talking to Fred and he suggested I didn’t remove the connector tab on the hot side with the black and red wires being used. Like a hammer it hit me as I totally forgot about that as 3 strand wiring isn’t that common. Back in business. The tile guys covered up the bottom screw holes and they installed the plugs without fixing that. Poor workmanship. Every plug had issues like this so to change out 7 total it took me close to 5 hours. Sad !

Jackie was doing her exercises tonight with her gym buddy. Daisy loved being involved.

Daisy struggled with her sit ups though but her stretches  and rolls were second to none. Made Jackie work hard to keep up.

Today was an ex co-workers birthday so I had the fun of teasing her. Melissa was my only outside female rep I hired. I had over the years some superb inside sales female members on my team with Rita and Tammy being two of the best. The building supply industry is a male dominated industry and it was refreshing having Melissa join our team.  It took me a bit of convincing for her to decide she was right for the job and that she could excel though. Here is a small section of the heckling email I sent out to the group.

The first picture ( close up) is Melissa today taken from her profile picture and the second from a JW gathering 10 years ago.. I just can’t figure it out. NO ONE STAYS the same but in Melissa’s case her new profile picture she looks younger than 10 years ago. Perhaps brunette versus blonde or perhaps the new blue contact lenses. I think she is going to make all of us want to know her secret. I know she is shacked up with her boyfriend out near Black Diamond so she can’t be using the profile picture as a bait and switch picture on a dating site. Go figure

Happy Birthday Melissa. Here is to your new found youthfulness !   40 must be the new 20.  Stay safe and have a good one.

 

We all need to find out her secret. I recently checked the mirror and the exact opposite seems to fit my situation and so many more people I know. Time will get her also. LOL

I took Daisy out for a walk and it was wonderful as she loves the snow. She met another dog in our condo and this is only the second dog where Daisy plays the weak sister. She usually never lets another dog get the best of her but not today.

Here is a unique  cartoon and that makes me laugh.

Thought of the Day 

Beer doesn’t make you fat.   It makes you lean. 

Lean against the wall, lean on a chair etc 

December 16th 

“Mercury Forecast Mesa 17 degrees, Edmonton 0 degrees, Calgary  4 degrees”

I thought this very fitting in todays world.

Today I installed new premium kerfed weather-stripping on the exit doors. The new stuff is solid rubber without it being a foam filled plastic covered one and it appears to work better. I also installed new corner pads. ( Try finding these at a store)  After adjusting the strikes the door is air tight. A little hard to latch but the door does it job especially in the winter sealing out the cold. The second door which we rarely use I have it extra tight but next year to make it work better I have to lower the strike by about a 1/8″ inch. This is how I broke my bicep trying to align these doors a few years ago. For some reason every door was 1/8 inch out of the strike lining up. Moving it this little amount isn’t as easy as it sounds as you have to chisel out the opening, putty fill the gap and fill the holes before re screwing it on. Glue, putty and wood match sticks( or popsicle)  to fill the holes works good. It takes a good hour to get one strike done.

“MY RANT”

Safety—-  We have gone so overboard with safety on everything it is ridiculous.

• What kid wore a helmet 20 years ago and does ANYONE know someone that got hurt by not having one on.
• We never used to wear seatbelts, we used to ride in the bed of a pickup truck, we used to lay in the overhead bed of a truck camper while traveling.
• We never needed four people to drive a fork truck down an aisle. Or guides to back up a truck.
• We never needed orange or red clothing to go hunting as hunters KNEW what an animal looked like.
• It runs rampant in the pharmaceutical industry with warnings. ( that no ones reads or cares about)
• Wearing a hardhat when carpeting ! or installing cabinets. Dumb.

We created a whole new career in safety management. We as a society went nuts on this with muster points, escape plans, emergency shut downs etc. The reason this has come forward is the new tamper proof plugs I just installed. They are not kid proof they are HUMAN proof. To struggle to plug in a toaster is insane. Home Depot only had these in stock. I have removed the safety on my Skilsaw and table saw at times to get work done. They are more of a nuisance that a safety feature. I hate pill caps that are child proof. I dislike lock outs on machinery. I dislike the removal of the auto fill systems at gas stations. It has created a whole new industry and cost companies billions with no measurable result or difference. Some say ” If it just saved one live ”  and it may have done that but caused 6 billion others frustration and annoyance.

You cannot legislate stupidity out of humans.

“BUT THAT IS JUST ME ! ” 

I caulked around the cornice of the cupboards which completes them. I used putty on the sill plate of the one door to fix a dent. Just need it to dry and then paint and then I think I will be 100% done.

I bought a rca to hdmi convertor to play back old 8mm tapes. It does that but it doesn’t allow a signal from the camera to laptop to create a movie. I will wait and if bored I will buy a convertor  that is designed for this.

I whipped to Walmart and I was surprised how slow it was. Nice. I needed a HDMI cable from DVD to our new TV which I picked up and tried using it first on the convertor then connected it to the DVD. I would like the new convertor to be USB but if HDMI I will use my existing one for a bit.

I met up with a web designer today while working on the door. It was a spider. During Covid times nice to visit with anyone.

Driving around 130th Ave shopping area you can see what is to come. I will reiterate one more time. People losing their life savings, 400,000 with out a job in Alberta, and unions won’t accept a 4% wage cut !!!

Closed permanently in just this one complex:

Woody’s Taphouse

Tony Roma’s Rib house

OJ’s Bar

Muldoon’s Irish Pub

Humpty’s

Beer Revolution

And this is just one small complex. We are going to see this in a much bigger scale coming up. These 5 companies would have employed at least 300 people and millions invested that is gone. It is a little scary.

My men’s group at Whirlwind golf had their first golf game today. I miss this. We normally have 40 players each week in our group. Today they had 11 players that played. I don’t know if they should be called brave, naïve or tempting fate. I do wish I was there and I could isolate very well, still play golf and be in the warmth but I don’t want to take the risk right now.

Every Dec 17th it is Alan’s birthday. I have known Alan since he was 12 yrs old. A fun guy to tease and pick on.

Thought of the Day

2020 is like looking both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by an airplane.

December 18th –

“Mercury Forecast-  Mesa 18 degrees, Edmonton -3 degrees, Calgary 4 degrees” 

To add to this. It is not disrespectful to say Merry Christmas. Say it loud if it is your belief as we are being drowned out. There is Christ in Christmas for a reason.  

Pretty nice weather for December. I hope it stays this way for a long time. Having said that it really doesn’t matter as we are stuck in the house anyways. I am not looking forward to the months ahead if the border doesn’t open.

30 deaths yesterday and still over 1500 new cases. Hopefully the new restrictions start to help in the next bit. People just need to follow the rules. Young men died in a war for us and that is a sacrifice but to complain about a lock down ( hate it for businesses) which is a pretty minor thing just isn’t right. One month out of your life ( some will say 9 mths now) isn’t much to ask.

Nothing on my agenda today. Nothing I want or need to do which is nice. Perhaps read, play and relax only. The odd day it is nice. It is the social part that I miss the most during this Covid crisis. I like a cold beer, chicken wings at a pub and getting to talk to people.  It could be car wash day today.

Years ago I used to have breakfast with coffee with my group every morning. We all would have at least 6 cups or more. I stopped having coffee but lately have restarted to have a few cups and  I am thoroughly enjoying it. I love the taste of black coffee. I like the smell. I like the caffeine.

Another Amazon delivery as the local stores are their worst enemy by stocking NOTHING. Worst case is I don’t want to support Amazon but they are GOOD and I hate to buy from China but sometimes am left NO choice. Sad really.

Daisy & I went on a fun run today. I has dropping off Jackie’s laptop for return at a UPS store. First store in Legacy I get there and closed on Fridays. Second store in Bridlewood. I get there and it has converted to a Canada Post outlet no UPS. Third store Willow Park and 4 people lined up outside waiting to get in. That took awhile. It overall though was still and adventure for us.

Thought of the Day

Would you women please stop asking Santa for the perfect guy. I was almost kidnapped three times today.  It is getting dangerous to go out.

Feb 19th-20th

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 23 degrees, Edmonton 2 degrees Calgary 4 degrees”

Can’t ask for anything better in December.

I think the majority of people agree with equal pay and equal opportunity in hiring, promotions etc. But here is a perfect example of when sending two police officers both women, together isn’t a good idea. If the cops had been men this may not have escalated as it did. The smaller women’s first thought is to be aggressive and taser the guy.  Losing her temper with vulgar language is a sure sign of immaturity on the job, lack of training and perhaps not police officer material. Remember this is for a health violation at the beginning. This if for a guy skating outside on a rink.  In this case, my opinion is, it is poor management to have two women officers together and not be trained well enough to let this escalate as it did. I hope the judges see it for what it is. Some would say police brutality or assault and some would say the skater should be charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer . I think all of these should be dismissed or forgiven. The judge should order additional training for the officers, and a conditional discharge for the skater. He must understand even though we are not a military state we must obey peace officers. He should be charged with the public health violation though if in fact he was doing something wrong and that is questionable at this point. Both parties will have learned a lesson and no one will have a criminal charge that could have huge negative impacts over a health violation. Over a shinny game on ice outside. Get real people. It is a very unfortunate circumstance. Check it out to see what you think.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=video+of+skater+being+arreste+din+calgary&docid=13893293196807&mid=C00C50B4F934C7E5820BC00C50B4F934C7E5820B&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/319787/Video-of-man-being-arrested-in-Calgary-for-skating-has-gone-viral

Depending on the whole situation as I am sure this is just a snippet, I am leaning my support more to the skater than the cops in this case. Over jealous, undertrained and wanting to be aggressive, power tripping and allowing a health violation to escalate to violence is not professional.

On a day road trip. We left first thing this morning for Edmonton on our mission to drop off presents to everyone. The roads even though we are all supposed to be essential travel only were busy. From Calgary to Leduc the roads were wonderful. Getting to Leduc is like going to the north pole. Edmonton area is covered in snow and today hitting 1 above it was sloppy. I do have to say though driving in Edmonton does keep you alert. It is a constant dodging of large potholes to save your front end. With low profile tires it is especially critical to make sure you don’t hit one of these caverns. I did find it fun dodging them though.

Our first visit in a parking lot was with our niece Kristen. We were lucky that the timing worked out perfect as she is a professional photographer  and out on a shoot and could meet us just as we arrived in Edmonton. We had a nice visit car beside car in the lot and exchanged gifts. Our next drop was at my sister’s place which was only 5 minutes away. Another nice doorstep visit and exchange. We got especially lucky here as she made a whack of apple pies and we received two frozen ones. Never mind the gifts I appreciate the pies. My sister is nurse and due to the hospitals being a little over run they have transferred her to the UFA Hospital to help out with no choice in the matter. That is what happens when you have 40 years of experience and they need it. Our next stop was Mom’s place. I am impressed with caution of this place. No one can exit or enter with the front desk letting  you in. Only two designated people are to visit. Temperature check, hands have to be sanitized, paper work filled out stating you are feeling well etc and even a plastic shield over your mask to wear. So we had a nice visit right at the entrance of the door. I looked at some paperwork of Mom’s, visited a bit more and then headed out to Stony Plain. On arrival Dave Jackie’s brother was already there and we had another exchange and parking lot visit. A short time later Alfred and Mary arrived for another exchange and visit in the lot car to car. ODD world we live in. On our arrival at home we discover another wonderful Pecan Pie and shortbread cookies. These cookies are exceptional. Exceptional !  Then our drive home and as I said before the road was busy. I do really really like that adaptive cruise feature. Makes highway driving very easy. The biggest difference between the Buick and the Flex is the range. We could get 600 kms on a tank but with a much smaller tank in the Flex it is about 400 kms. So it means one extra stop on this trip.

I had recorded the PNC Golf with Tiger and his son Charlie. What a beautiful swing. What a golfer at 11 years old. Amazing. Amazing.

So it was a fun day. So great to see everyone albeit no hugs or being close but still just nice to see them.

I think the isolated Christmas this year for families may turn out to be a good thing. A way less pressure for gifts, no stress cooking a large meal ( even though I find this fun) and no travel. The only people I feel sorry for are the people that are in residences that are ‘locked down” like Mom’s. The upside of these is three great meals, social interaction, games, tours and housework all done for you. The downside is circumstances like we have now were it is confinement. Hopefully Mom will still have a good Christmas. At a certain age these “homes” are the best thing for a elderly person as the care is exceptional, they eat right, they should not be lonely, lots of activities to do and still can be independent. Mom drove her car up to a couple of years ago which was really nice for her. The lock down is unfortunate  but very needed to protect them.

We have one more trip to Lethbridge to fit in before Christmas but as it is only a 2 hour mini trip will squeeze in sometime very soon. Another driveway visit. Darn !

Thought of the Day 

When is FITBIT going to get with the times and give a person credit for scrolling with their thumb or finger on the computer. 

December 21st 

“Mercury Forecast –  Mesa 22 degrees, Edmonton -2 degrees, Calgary 2 degrees w/ Heavy snowfall warning”

Radar shows and the news is reporting around 1pm the snow will start. They are expecting between 10 cms and 50 cms depending on the location.

We still need to make a trip to Lethbridge to drop off presents and we only have a couple of days to fit this in. I could go myself anytime but Jackie wants to see everyone also so it has to be a late afternoon run. I am thinking depending on the snow Wednesday. Time will tell.

The whole Covid things is dumb. Now the UK is experiencing a new variant of the virus and countries have alienated them. Good thing. It is one thing to have a China Virus but now an English Virus. I am not sure but I am thinking the English version symptoms most likely just make you sleepy.

Russian hackers get into USA govt agencies and no one is upset. Unbelievable.

We have the best family doctor there is. Sunday night she phones  out of concern and we have a long talk. That is dedication. She has been our doctor for 25 years plus and all we can ever say she is the best !! Unfortunately for others she isn’t accepting any new patients. We are lucky. Telephone appointments are the best.

First day in this strange world where I have nothing to do or planned. We are in a wait and see mode for Lethbridge but we will get there for sure. Reno’s done. A way TOO much money spent. End tables still delayed. Hate that. I refuse to turn on the TV during the day unless it is a sport or event I want to see. I whipped to Shoppers Drug Mart for my prescription. Here is where our system fails. They wouldn’t fill it as I was three days early for the insurance company to cover it.  3 days !  The whole system needs to be blown up. You shouldn’t need a doctors visit for a reoccurring prescription. Perhaps once a year maybe. Oh well Daisy and I had a nice little drive about.

What a smart dog. Here is Daisy helping me do some computer work. She is not just a pretty face you know.

I polished my golf shoes and put all new spikes on them so they are ready to go. I was very fortunate as when I was working we sponsored the ATB Financial Golf tournaments. One of the sponsor giveaways was Adidas golf shoes . That was in 2007 and today after another polishing they look like brand new. To think that was 13 years ago. I still have Sundog sunglasses from the same events that I use in my car. I like spikes. I am familiar with them and the “new” system stubs I am not sold on as when they wear out and I am pretty sure it wont take long they are useless as a golf shoe then. I change out my spikes twice a year and a polish once or so and I am set to go and they have been worn on average 60 games a year so they have done well. The style today is identical to mine. Interesting review and study below:

GOLF SHOES WITH SPIKES

Spiked golf shoes came out the clear winner, with golfers of all skill levels averaging about four yards more of carry distance, thanks to a higher smash factor and faster ball speeds. Golfers added that they felt spiked golf shoes gave them better grip and more stability.

SPIKELESS GOLF SHOES

It wasn’t all bad for shoes sans spikes. Driving accuracy and clubhead speed was essentially the same across both designs, and golfers reported feeling more comfortable in spikeless kicks. This was especially true among the higher-handicappers, whose slower swings didn’t rely as much on gripping power.

Whether you prefer the spiked or the spikeless is up to you. 

Here is one leaderboard scoring where Gary White from Regal Building, George Modrzejewski from Lealta Building and myself finished in 13th place. Semi ok. Being Stapleford scoring it is a little harder to win.  http://www.golfscorecentral.com/Live/2011/Calgary/tueam/tourleaders.htm

I had a lot of fun with customers at these events. Lots of memories!

“MEMORIES”

Some amazing golf adventures with customers that were like friends.

• TPC Sawgrass in Florida with Les Schwartz from Home Hdwe Stettler. Getting to play this course the day before the tournament in a pro-am was amazing. We also played the Valley course. Amazing trip. Players Tournament
• ATB Financial tournaments numerous years. Gary White from Regal, George Modzrjewski from Lealta joined me a few times. Always fun playing with a Canadian Tour player.
• Ronald MacDonald House tournaments. Well organized and a lot of fun. I even ended up buying in auction a trip to NYC at the Edmonton one.
• Drive for Thrive tournament.  Numerous years again and each year with Ray Laberge from Totem Building and Ken Crockett from Star Building. Ken graciously paid our entrance fee each year into this Charity for a cure to cancer tournament
• Numerous tournaments WRLA, Builders, Home Hdwe ,Regal, CHBA, etc playing with Phil from HH Trochu, Gary from Regal, Les from HH Stettler, Barry, Matt, from Regal, Ray from Totem all at some amazing courses.
• Play TPC Scottsdale with my friend Bob Ferris , ( Birdie for me on the 16th)playing with Keith Harry and Jeff Grace an amazing variety of courses in Alberta and BC. This includes a HOLE IN ONE at Speargrass 
• La Quinta Resort Golf course along with PGA West in Palm Springs
• Florida trip with Home Hardware Corporate office. World Golf Hall of Fame, Lion and King courses. ( first time at a Brazilian steakhouse also)
• ScotiaBank tournaments where I have three longest drive titles ( one shared as a tie) and Jackie has one ladies longest drive.

The one game I had for years that was a lot of fun was with Ray from Totem, Brian from BPCO and my sales rep Mike Lopachuk. We had a $100 bet per person. The funny thing is one year Mike & I beat Ray & Brian but Mike made a math error and we thought we lost. Those two guys kept this a secret for a full year. Mike & I lost the following year and they said we didn’t need to pay our $200 bucks as we actually won last year. Sneaky !!  I always looked forward to this game.

At one Calgary Home Builders tournament I won the 50/50 draw of $600. On the way up to the stage to collect the crowd heckles me to donate it. ( it was a charity event). I donated it back. Darn

I have had so many fun interesting times on the golf course. Any game is a fun game.

I have lost too many times to two people. Larry Poirer and John Matheson. This is about to change.

Thought of the Day 

Wife: Did I get fat during quarantine ? 

Husband: Well you weren’t really skinny to begin with.

Time of death: 11:02 pm

Cause of death: Covid 

December 22nd 

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 20 degrees, Edmonton -5 degrees, Calgary -3 degrees SNOW “

3 More Days

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. At least 10 inches last night and still lightly falling. Good thing we missed getting the wind or it could have been nasty. It does look pretty but I prefer green grass. LOL

The first year since retiring I am not liking the free time. I think it is because I know we won’t be going south. If the golf screen and bars would open it would help.

“PET PEEVES”

1. Protocols- drives me nuts with the overuse of this word. Covid not only killed close to 2 million people but it also has changed our language.  Why not use the “system” or “procedures” instead of this “IN” word.  It doesn’t make you sound smarter by using a trendy word.
2. Like– Started off as valley girl language and now is main stream. To me it sounds like the person is lacking in language intelligence and needs a filler. Very similar to people using swear words as nouns, adjectives and verbs. It just sounds dumb and unintelligent. Let me correct that. It doesn’t sound unintelligent, it is.
3. Clarity– If you are dumb enough to say this out loud you deserve to remain in the dark. If you need something “explained” just ask for it, don’t whine that you need clarity. The use of this is usually from insecure people.

BUT THAT IS JUST ME!

We have the poor me people whining and complaining about the restrictions. Just consider these hero’s and what they did for us and stop your complaining. To be “stuck” at home isn’t a lot to ask. It may only be one Christmas out of your lifetime you have to be out of the normal sequence. That is what is annoying about the rule breakers. Not only are you putting yourself and your contacts at risk you are putting everyone’s hard work at isolation in jeopardy. You can’t have multiple people gatherings, you have to wear masks, and you have to keep your distance. It is a simple concept. I do believe the rules can be bent a little but safety overall has to be the priority.

Watching out my window I witnessed and enjoyed the ultimate stupidity in driving. This old fart got stuck turning the bend. He then rocked it a bit and was finally able to drive in reverse. This is when he had a brain fart and drove all the way into a snow pile and was stuck even worse. Why we don’t teach people how to get out of these situations in driving school is beyond me. Simply rocking back and forth but turning your steering wheel as far as it can go in both directions in most cases if not high centered will let you work your way out. Don’t be afraid to step on the gas hard. Eventually you would have worked yourself down to pavement. LOL  I was impressed that a city worker stopped to help push him out. Good on you !

Next time buy a Jeep or a SUV/truck and there would be no problems. It was a fun time watching the event through the window though.

There are pros and cons for living in a condo. This is one huge pro.  I get so much enjoyment out of watching the neighbors struggle with lawns and snow removal. Makes me smile !

The husband and wife on the left side will take at least two hours to get this done at their pace. The mothers and kid took about an hour so far but have gone inside now. They are only about half done. I would bet there are nice scratches in her Toyota truck. She used the shovel to clean it. Half way ayways.

I can see every kid being told by their parents to get outside and shovel as they are all out of school. My brother always loved shoveling snow. We lived on a acreage with a driveway perhaps 200 ft long or more. He would do all this with precision piling and hated if anyone wrecked the clean look. He also would make a path to the garbage burn can which was another 100 ft away. What we did get to do as I am sure years ago we used to get a lot more snow was to build “forts” in the piled up edges. These piles some years were 5 ft high or more.

The Kenny government did two wonderful things today. First he warned if people did not abide by the rules for Christmas there would be dire results and more restrictions. He also changed the single person rule allowing a single person now to attend another’s home for Christmas . This only makes sense as a single person would usually travel rather being the host. Good thinking ! And the cases have dropped considerably today. Hopefully the trend continues after Christmas.

Be careful skating outdoors of the police though they have been known to be Covid crazy !

Jackie has been getting emails from her golfing ladies league at Viewpoint. It appears other than the few Americans most of the Canadians in the group are not looking at going south this year. Darn Covid !

Well we had Dumb for the first car to get stuck now we have Dumber 2 . If you get stuck in the middle of the road with just a little pile of snow you shouldn’t have a license or perhaps instead of driving a Toy buy a vehicle made for Canada. I guess again he never heard of a gas pedal. Plow thru it, don’t gently wait to be high centered.

It’s all fun games out there. LOL

Thought of the Day 

Snowmen are from heaven.

They fall from the sky unassembled. 

December 23rd

“Mercury Forecast  Mesa 23 degrees, Calgary 3 degrees, Edmonton 0 degrees “

They figure the hottest part of the day is 4pm. Warmth like this is good but it does cause it to ice up.

Had to punch another hole in my belt as my pants keep falling down.

Heading down to Lethbridge this afternoon. Roads should be cleared and ice melted hopefully by now. Taking the Jeep a vehicle made for snow, not so much on ice but great in snow. LOL  Perhaps I should drive in the ditch the whole way.

The drive down was semi ok. Ice covered highway as again Volker is not a great road maintenance company. I am sure they sign a contract then “cheapen” out on salt and grading. It is just certain sections that are not taken care of. Overall very livable winter driving conditions with caution.

One section that was unbelievable though was the Granum road. Solid ice with no pavement showing thru at all.

We didn’t hit wind until Lethbridge then it was blowing viciously across the road.

We made it to Raymond in 2 1/2 hours which is not bad at all.

We had a great “safe” visit with Jess, Pen and the boys. They do grow up quickly. One mistake was letting Atti see the presents as he wanted to open them NOW as any youngster would want to. It was a very nice visit. Have I said I hate Covid as normally it would have been so much better. I checked out Penny’s fireplace she did and I am impressed. With the limited tools and building experience she did fantastic. I looks very good.

We left Raymond at 4:30. We did not get home until 9 pm. I have driven in numerous conditions, white outs, snow covered, slippery, fogged out etc and years ago when I put on 50,000 kms in a year sales travelling you encountered every condition there is.

I have to say today the road could only be described as treacherous. The iciest I have ever driven on. Taking 4 1/2 hours , double as long as normal shows the conditions. Wind blowing snow across the highway, the build up pulling you over a glazed service due to the wind and temperature changes. We were going from -9 degrees to plus 3 degrees on different sections. Between Claresholm and High River we saw 15 vehicles if not more in the ditch all with occupants still in them. Half of them semi’s. And these guys are professionals. One trucker passed me and 2 miles down the road he is jack knifed in the ditch. Each incident has the potential for a single death or multiple deaths if another vehicle is involved. Our speed averaged 70 kms per hour as was the bulk of the traffic. I had one very scary close call with a movement of the Jeep caused by uneven road and we were just about spinning circles. Very lucky I didn’t touch the brake as we would have been gone. One small tap of the gas and we straightened out after back and forth swerving. We were within inches of losing it and all this while Jackie was talking on the phone and didn’t even notice how close we came to being in the ditch. All I felt was a tap on my arm.  Short wheel based vehicles are difficult on ice compared to longer ones as they have a decency to want to swap ends. Yet if snowy they are the best. Out of my mouth was a ” Holy Crap” as I struggled to maintain control. I dropped down to 60 kms per hour. This on a highway rated for 110 kms. Very few people were brave enough or dumb enough to pass. Scary !!

I LOVE driving in adverse conditions but pure ice on pavement isn’t fun.  The perfect combo, wind glazing the roadway, snow drifts, wrong temperature as the frost was brought to the surface and no salt to melt it. If the temperature is below freezing the tires heat up the surface and then it freezes right away again causing ICE.

We figured Daisy would wake up real early as all she did was sleep but we got very lucky this morning.

Coffee and I have a story here. I started drinking it regularly again and then after the fact I find out I am drinking Decaffeinated. What !!  I want the caffeine as that is the best thing about coffee well besides the smell and taste. It is a stimulate which isn’t good for a few people but as a central nervous stimulate it will help you lose weight, and feel refreshed and awake.  Caffeine decreases the risk of oral and throat cancer, decreases suicide rate by 45%, and it keep one regular.

A quick trip to get real COFFEE and a few other things from Sobey’s and we are ready for Christmas 2020 as weird as it is. Below is a link related to coffee and it’s affects.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/nutrition/dangerous-side-effects-of-drinking-decaf-coffee-according-to-science/ss-BB1coNwO?ocid=msedgntp#image=1

We met Tor, Corey, and Jackson at MacKenzie Lake parking lot. Jackson is all excited about Christmas and rightly so. We did our gift exchange. It is an odd Christmas.

Thought of the Day 

Nothing is more mean than giving a child something useful for Christmas. 

December 25th

“Mercury Forecast    Mesa 18 degrees, Edmonton -3 degrees, Calgary 1 degrees”

First thing this morning we video chatted with the Waldie’s.  Jackson was super excited and a very lucky boy. He received some wonderful gifts and was very appreciative. Even though it is a very very weird Christmas it is nice for them  to be able to spend all day together without the difficulties of needing to travel to different places. So very nice in a way.

We then had a video call with the Hicken’s. The boys are having a wonderful Christmas. As usual numerous gifts that they are enjoying. The girls are enjoying the time, the down time and get to cook their turkey dinner at their leisure. Again a odd one, a different one, but unique and fun doing a family thing.

Jackie & I opened our presents together. It was quiet. Some great gifts. I received a wonderful hard fishing rod case that is going to come in very handy. I also received a Adidas shirt and golf pants which are very nice. Jackie received Nike jogging pants, shirt and a special wind rain jacket. Beside the smaller sock gifts so it was a very nice Christmas morning.

Jackie picked up Audrey to spend the day with us. Nice presents we all received which is always nice.

We decided to have our turkey dinner later in the afternoon so I didn’t have to start cooking until noon or so. Nowhere to go or no rush so pretty easy this year. Plus the fact three people versus 15 or so is a lot easier.

We had a nice visit via Duo and Messenger. The girls were on Messenger when Darlene video called us on Duo which worked out great.  Super timing as the girls had a visit with Mom and we had a visit with them . We put the two phones up together. It made it the best possible Christmas we could have considering the situation. Jessica, Victoria, Darlene, Mom, Audrey  and us on two phones miles apart but still being able to “visit”. It was nice and fun.

For this late afternoon’s Christmas supper we had: Turkey, Ham, dressing, peas, corn, carrots, mashed potatoes, mashed butternut squash, gravy and buns. To give the finer details on each as follows. The mashed butternut squash was roasted with butter and a brown sugar coating. The carrots were done as a brown sugar and honey glaze. The ham was a maple syrup glaze. The veggies were all standard as were the mashed potatoes. The buns were homemade by Mary and were amazing. A homemade pie and ice cream finished it off. Everything turned out just like I thought and if I have to say myself was very delicious. I didn’t want to use our blender for the squash to make it a puree so next time I will need to come up with a different idea on this. I love turkey suppers. The best.  Even the chilled wine was exceptional but both Audrey and Jackie are party poopers in this regard.

Travelling on the road I always ordered the hot turkey meal at diners. It is still one of my go to meals at a restaurant.  I have hot turkey, hot beef, Salisbury steak, and BLT as my favorites.

We had a nice evening sitting around talking and enjoying the time.

Another Christmas done. A odd one. Nice in some respects though. I do think it will be remembered as unusual by most for years.

Thought of the Day

“Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us — a time when we can look back on the year that has passed and prepare for the year ahead.”

December 26th-3oth

” Mercury Forecast   Mesa 18 degrees, Edmonton -4 degrees, Calgary -4 degrees, snow showers”

Woke up this morning to snow again and 3 hours later still snowing. Very lightly but it just adds to the poor driving conditions.

It will be interesting to see how busy the stores are today with the restrictions. I am hoping people smarten up and start thinking a deal isn’t that good if you get sick.

I am also hoping everyone FOLLOWED the rules on Christmas to get out of the lock down as soon a possible.  Our girls bought us a family portrait session with a professional photographer for Jan 24th so we need the silliness to be done. The professional is our niece Kristen Huggett which owns her own business in Edmonton. So if you are looking for a session check her out.

https://www.kmhforte.com/

I am looking forward to my left over Christmas meal tonight. I am looking forward to the Canada Juniors game on TV at 4 pm. Other than that, not a lot on agenda for today. I would love to be a bar having wings and beer but not this year.

By the looks of it New Years Eve isn’t go to be much different unfortunately.

The game was great. I miss going to bar at 6am for a game or beer & wings later but JUST to watch a hockey game that I enjoy was awesome. I feel for Germany though being a weaker team than having Covid take away half of their team for the event. They deserve credit for not giving up or becoming nasty. If they can get their team back before they are gone we will see the real team. The Canada team with 19 out of 24 players being first round NHL picks is a great team. But in this tournament EVERY game must be a win.

Jackie picked a NETFLIX show to watch for tonight. I lasted for about 10 minutes then had to leave to the TV in the bedroom. How ANYONE can like a musical is beyond me. Momma Mia was bad but Prom is horrible. It is odd as they had some high paid actors in it like Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, and Tracy Ullman . Perhaps they did the movie for free based on support for a cause as it has only earned $187,000 dollars so far in revenue. Reviews also were pretty bad. Women !

A little more snow last night again.

Click the link below. It is very odd but it the only way I could make this work. It will ask you to download and you can watch. It is Daisy’s life from day one when we got her to this Christmas.

Daisy’s life so far

Well Team Canada had a scare. It can happen very easily and lucky for us it was near the beginning of the tournament and we still were able to pull out a win. Hopefully it brought the guys back to reality.  It was a fun game to watch. Two games in a row where the waitress was so poor she forgot to bring my wings and fill my beer. Bad service !!

Two in a row would be nice.

We started a 1000 piece puzzle. Boy are those pieces small and tricky. LOL Can you tell I am starting to get a little restless but I do know I find this puzzle making process a little mundane. I will try harder. I will never be a old puzzle maker.

Too early for the Christmas take down. So a little restless not yet bored but would like Covid to be gone .

Ours boys did well. It was a very well played game. It started off a little slow but the flood gates opened. Sweden and the USA should be our only true test in how good we are. I am looking to the New Years Eve game against Finland which is a great team.

UPS delivered my Weathertec rear mats for the Flex. Still not the perfect from UPS. Late and out for delivery for three days and the driver never phoned again. I was lucky that someone let him in when they weren’t supposed to he knocked on our door.

Daisy and I had a long walk today. Cooler but not cold but in the deep snow her paws froze up and I had to warm up her paws. This little dog will not leave me alone. She play bites my hands and feet all day.

I made a plan to take down all of Christmas decorations on Jan 1st just in time as our end table and coffee table are supposed to arrive on the 4th now. I say supposed to. LOL

We had to arrange a lump sum withdrawal as our RV lot is going from a private owned 35 year lease structure to a member owned non profit organization. This is good thing for a number of reasons. First as a voting member we control our own destiny. We can’t be bought out by a new investor, we remove any risk of insolvency, and the land values rather than depreciate each  year with the lease term lessened but will appreciate as owned land values traditionally do. Plus now we own the land indefinitely unless we sell it rather than lose our investment after 35 years.  We have to trust the board has the experience to manage a larger company with long terms goals and financial expertise to amortize and plan for unseen circumstances. Similar to a reserve fund held by a condo

I was watching a view Dusty Lumber Utube shows when this link below pops up. This is Victoria’s maid of honor speech at Jessica’s wedding. This is from 7 years ago the year before I retired so I don’t believe I ever used this. It is hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QUqohCwzOQ

I did my exchange today at Golftown and it was nice as very few people in the store. I had to choose a different kind of pant but I am still happy with the new ones. My new ones where 40 percent off so I have a a nice gift card that I think I may buy another outfit.

I picked up my pills at Shoppers with none one in the store so it was a good to visit.

I installed my back Weathertec mats in the Flex. They are nice but I would say they could have had them come up on the back and sides more but still makes for great protection of the carpet.

Daisy and I had a long walk meeting numerous dogs and people when out. We played with Barkley, George, Sadie, and Tucker. She is over friendly.  I am sure she could adopt another family in hour and forget about us. Too friendly. LOL

Cleaned up some pictures and deleted files on my laptop which I like to keep relatively clean. Pictures in particular as they get stored in three spots. Photos, downloads, and saved pictures with a lot being duplicated when I shrink them for my blog.

The Covid numbers are not getting any better with us staying close to 9% positivity rate and the Christmas surge is still to hit. I am sure even though we had rules there were larger get togethers that are going to affect us. Thing is one trip to the grocery store could be the day you catch it you just never know. Overall I am impressed with people’s resolve to get past this.

We had the Chinese Virus that started this mess and now we have the UK Virus changing the game . Keep it to yourselves. !! Mutations are common with viruses so no surprise but it would have been nice to get it under control before it decided to mutate.

I want as many people as possible to get the shot so we can get back to being semi normal.

1000 piece puzzle is going very slow. Jackie has done extremely well finishing off the entire circumference.

My Dad would have been 99 years old today if he was still with us. I was so lucky to have such a wonderful person in my life. He was one of a kind and I know a lot of people say this but it is real that everyone who met him would agree with.

Funny as in the older days things, due to distance, being on a remote farm and lack of access, things got screwed up. First the government screwed up his birth date but I believe it was a mistake between when he was born and when he was registered.  It caused a problem with his CPP and OAS as they thought he was born in 1922 instead of the 1921. Then perhaps due to bad writing or a person making a mistake he was listed as Weller not Willard. Yet our Grandad had the same mistake done. No one is telling me but we could have been under the witness protection program. My Mom, Dad and sister as she was under 18 yrs old all had to legally change their last name to Willard.

I paid my Arizona electric bill today. Smallest bill for December since 2007. A cooler month and no Christmas lights on makes a big difference. Normally even we came home for Christmas I leave the lights on a timer. The fridge must be the only draw and uses a small amount.

Thought of the Day 

Are you as bored as I am ?  Read that backwards and it still makes sense!

If you are worried about a midnight kiss at midnight on New Years Eve as you are alone just think Valentines Day is only 47 days away and you most likely will be alone again.

December 31st 

“Mercury Forecast   Mesa 15 degrees, Edmonton -4 degrees, Calgary 1 degrees “

A beautiful sunny day. A sunny winter day though but nice and bright. A great way to end 2020. I went thru my normal routine, smoothie, then coffee then sending out email jokes and checking the news for any big events that may have happened overnight.

It is funny as the impression I am given is people think just because we turn the page on a year and it is 2021 everything is going to be ok. Let me be perfectly clear. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. We will be dealing with Covid for at least 6 more months unless the vaccinations are handed out faster than I believe. Even then masks will be used perhaps for years. What I do like is the positivity around the possibility of next fall going south will be no issue.

We left our cribbage board and dice out at the lot as we loaded up the motorhome in September for Jackie’s birthday. So Daisy and I greatest adventure today. She loves sitting on the console looking out at people and cars. The resort does look wonderful in the winter but not a lot of people. It took me a while to get into the motorhome as the snow had blown up and it froze on the sill of the door. Took me a bit to get it open without causing any damage. De-icer would have been nice. I found our stuff right where I though it would be. I inspected the motorhome and lot with everything looking perfect.

I drove over to our pond to see the skating rink. Great job with a nice sized rink and even a hockey net for the kids. Nice to see. While Daisy and I were walking around a lady and her dog came for a visit. Daisy was tentative at first as the dog was a bit bigger but after the initial shivering on the ground she was up and doing the shoving. They had a lot of biting ears and pushing with a lot of running. Daisy is full of energy and had a blast with these dog.

I drove to Calgary. The lake on the side of the road had at least 25 or people with tents and groups ice fishing away. Funny if there were 20 vehicles at least 15 of them were pickup trucks.

I headed to Sobey’s but it was a ZOO. I would like people to get back to work. I passed and contacted our favorite Chinese place. Mighty Mango has been our go to for 20 years. Talk about busy when I ordered they gave me my lead time to pickup. 4 Skip the dishes drivers waiting outside. When I went in on the desk they had at least 100 pickup delivery food slips all organized. The young girl that helped me was exceptional. Love their food. The hockey game starts at 4pm and I know how busy they get normally so I picked up early and will reheat to save us the trouble. Good thing.

I dropped everything off and then headed back to Sobey’s. I ended up putting the Jeep in 4 x4 LOW and climbed a mountain of snow to find a parking spot. Ridiculously busy as everyone is gathering food for tonight stay at home party and drinks.

Daisy is sound asleep with her tiring day . She is a brat but a very fun nice dog.

So our night will be watching the game. Eating our wonderful Chinese Food. Watch a movie and then Seacrest until midnight. Does beer go with Chinese ?  How dumb, beer goes with everything.

Next time I write it will be 2021 and even though we know it will be slow to start hopefully will be an awesome year.

Thought of the Day 

Ring out the old, ring in the new. Ring in happy bells. This year is gone and don’t be blue.  Ring out the false and ring in the true.