Sadness

 I am feeling a bit sad. SWMBO has decided to go with friends to Hawaii for Christmas. The Millwright’s wife won’t let him come over. The Golfer wants some time down, so his boys won’t be over till maybe the 27th and maybe not till the next week. No Christmas for us this year. I am hoping to get to some Advent programs. Going to be quiet. At home, we never celebrated Christmas. We were too poor. Mom only had what money she got from chickens and that was only from late spring till late fall. Dad never gave mom a cent of his pay check. It went to drinking. I think that is why I feel sad. I wanted to always make a good time for my kids and grands at Christmas. To read them the first couple of chapters of Luke, bake some goodies and make sure they received a gift. Now, I am back to the way it was. Oh well, there will always be another get together once the Birthdays start.

I’ve been knitting and walking Oakley. People are still mowing.

I am at a stand still with my weight. I need to walk more. The way I eat is good, just a plateau. I feel cold more this winter, so am not inclined to go to the provincial parks to walk. 

(Friday)

Took Oakley for grooming yesterday. Met daughter in the city and bummed around with her. She needs some stuff for her trip. She also needed a new item of exercise equipment. I found some new 5lb weights. My BIL took my previous ones. She needed an X-ray of her back so did that. Oakley still wasn’t done so I went to the local fish and chip place. What a mistake. It was awful. Hadn’t been there in 13 years. It use to be good. Then headed back to the groomers, picking up dog food and a toy for you know who lol. Then Oakley and I headed home. He walked, slept, ate, walked then went to bed. It was a long day for both of us. 

Today, we got a skiff of snow. To the west was hit hard and now they are predicting another big storm to come through. Will be interesting to see if we get any on the east side of the province. 

J

Still Warm

 November 12th and still warming. We hit 9C today, but the wind was brutal. 45-75km/hr. Mr. Oakley  could pass for the dog in the Never Ending Story. His ears were flapping. I thought the ind would pick him up a few times.

SHMBO called. She had a few hours between appointments, would I come to town to look for a new Christmas tree. We searched high and low. Nothing cheaper than $400. Yup the prices are bad. We have a strike on both ends of the country. This means no containers are arriving or being unloaded, so not much Christmas stock around. She decided she would set up both trees she has and see how she can selvage one. The other one will go to The Golfer. That was my day out. It was nice to see her though. I mean I haven’t seen her for two whole days. 

She visited The Grad at work. The grad did not like that. She got rude and snotty. It hurt SWMBO feelings. The Grad takes her work seriously and doesn’t want us to go shopping there when she is working. It reminds me of some books I read where a gal had psyscofrenia (sp). The town gave her an old navy uniform and had her direct traffic around the town monument at noon time. She wouldn’t talk to anyone as “she was working and everything has to be regulation. Taken from the Mitford Series written by Jan Karon. I think that’s how The Grad feels. Also, her granddad worked for the same company just a different division. I think she wants him to be proud of her.

I made stuffing balls this morning. Now resting in the freezer to add to meals. I also made beef vegetable soup. It all smells so good. Am looking forward to this freezer meals. Tomorrow I need to make a salad.

J

Remembrance Day

 My father was too young for the WW1 and too old for WW2. I am not sure if any of his brothers/sisters went to war. He was the youngest of nine.

On my mother’s side, I do not know if any went to war. My BIL was in the Canadian Army and was posted to Egypt during the 50s.

 When he got posted to Calgary, I remember being conscripted to go to the Remembrance Day at the armoury. All military family were to line up outside, wait for the service to be over then provide a crowd as the military marched out. It was a beautiful warm day. We took along light jackets but did not need them. A beautiful sunny day. 

My husband grew up in a family where peace was taught in the church. I do not know if any of his family went to war. If they did, I am certain they would be kicked out of the church. However, they did have a boys army group in town in which my husband was part of. He has one cousin that was in the war in Iraq. He was in the bomb search, clean up section. He said it was horrible with all the oil fires 🔥. He has had health problems since then. My husband wanted to join the military, but had $200 in debt, so he gave up on that dream.

Where I grew up, a large number of men signed up. I am not sure how many did not come back, but a large contingent made it home. I do not know if there were wives who helped out in some way. I am sure there were.

To me, Remembrance Day is not a significant day family wise, but I do remember all those who gave up their lives for freedom. May we all take time to be thankful and remember today.

November 9th

 The Canada geese are still here. Went to a small city yesterday and there they all were. They will leave when they don’t have enough food or it gets cold. We have now gone 205 days with no snow. It is pretty nice to be having such a mild November. It is windy though.

I made curry noodles on Thursday. I finished eating the last today. Of course, as always, I wish I had put some in the freezer.

October was another month of going over in the spend department. I was so low on groceries that I added some in over the month. I ended up being over for the month. Saving grace is that in August and September I stayed out of the grocery stores only going in when something was on a real deal. I ended up with seven cans of tuna that were 0.97 each. The usual is around $3.50 ea. I also scored 10 cans of smoked oysters. They also are up in the upper $3-4 range. Each can cost me $1.77. Yes, I know they aren’t as healthy as regular fish, but I do enjoy them and each can will do three meals for me. The costing will be .59 ea. I am happy with that. 

This month I have gone into two different stores. No bargains yet, but I did get most of the items for Christmas baking. 

Today I will finish off the last sleeve for a sweater I will be gifting. Tomorrow I will put it together and get it blocked…that is if I can find my Tpins.

J

FOG

 Without any warning we were hit with thick fog. There is a highway that goes around the city and it was closed most of the night and this morning. Lots of accidents. One had 28 vehicles involved. There are numerous overpasses and bridges so slick as all get out. Daughter and oldest grandson went to the hockey game last night. She lives about 45 minutes northeast of me. She drove grandson home, then headed home. She said it was slick but okay. Then she hit about 15 miles away from home and it was so bad she couldn’t see the white lines let alone the yellow ones. She couldn’t breathe either. She found out that in addition to the fog a peat fire had started causing even more chaos. The peat will burn until it burns itself out. The firefighters will be there watching. The fog has just lifted but it is still slippery out. 

While they were at the hockey game, they found out youngest grandson was also at the game and seated in the same row but a couple of sections over. Too cool.

J

No Littles

 We had no kids come for Halloween. I am not a fan of Halloween. I did not go out as a child. My older brother did. When our own kids got to the age, it was a tough decision. My husband did not go out either, but we did feel pressured to participate. It all worked out in the end. Either the kids would go to just a few houses or decided not to go. My grandkids though, are a different matter. They all went till they aged out. I do see a change in Halloween though. The stores are making the decorations to be more Thanksgivingish or more fallish. The houses that do the scary stuff are getting to be farther apart. It would seem that it is changing to be more of another fall celebration. Still not sure it is needed though. Someone did do fireworks though. I always thought that was a UK thing. So no pictures.

I have new neighbours upstairs. Today was move in day. Hoping they are quiet. I haven’t seen the boys today. Maybe someone is looking after them. 

They painted our apartment doors a couple of years ago with what we used to call apartment paint. It is flat and when washed the paint comes off. The original doors had good shiny paint. Guess it was a more expensive fix. Anyhoo, I found out that rubbing alcohol works really well getting scuff marks, crayon, packaging colour off. It took me about 15 minutes. I may just do the hallway door too. The powers that be say that plain toothpaste also works. I haven’t tried that yet. I also used WD40 on the hinges. No more squeaks. WD40 is product made from fish oil and some other ingredients. It works well on a lot of things.

We have a chance of snow coming on Wednesday. In Alberta the ski slopes start opening this weekend. I hope the season brings a lot of snow as it is still rather dry. 

J