Month: December 2018

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Last Day

It is the last day of 2018. What a year it has been! Jane and I did a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest in May. Trip of a lifetime.

Sara and Steven got married on October 12 and, at their request, I was the officiant. What an honour!
Just when you think it can’t get better, Tonya and Chris tell us they’re going to have a baby in May. How exciting!
Looking forward to 2019.
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Vice

This morning, I kept busy learning about wood burning so I could try out the kit MY Jane gave me for Christmas. I have a lot to learn but You Tube has a lot of info.

Later this afternoon, we are going to see the newly released movie, Vice, about Vice President Dick Cheney.

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Printer Exchange

Today, as soon as Best Buy opened, I took the printer I had received from Chris & Tonya in for an exchange. When I first opened this Christmas gift I couldn’t get the carriage return to function and discovered on close examination that a little drive belt had come off one of the small wheels.


It was such a tiny space and, although I could see exactly what had to be done, there was no room to enable that little belt to be restored to its proper position.

There was no problem at the Best Buy store, although they did not have the printer in question in stock. They have ordered one to be delivered at the house by January 7, 2019.

I’m looking forward to getting this printer because it’s wireless and I will be able to print right from my I Pad or I Phone.

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Do Nothing Day

Today, MY Jane and I will be taking a trip up to Georgian Mall to return or exchange a gift at the Bay. Other than that, we have very little planned. It will be a day to simply do whatever comes up. Days like those are rare for us but sometimes it’s nice to just do whatever.

Retired folk can do that.
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Roomba Rhonda

One of the cool Christmas gifts that MY Jane and I got was a Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner. Needless to say, as soon as we got home yesterday, I had to try it out in the Family Room. It was an easy set up and compatible with my I Phone. Minnie watched with great interest once it got going.

I was a little worried that might get spooked, but she followed it around with great interest.

Today I will connect Alexa to the Roomba so it can be activated by voice command. Jane has already named it Rhonda.

Love technology.

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Christmas at Chris and Tonyas

We spent a lovely Christmas Day at Chris and Tonya’s home. There were plenty of gifts all around and the dinner was scrumptious.


Steven and Sara arrived earlier in the day while Chris and Tonya attended a family tradition with Tonya’s family with Chris Matheson.
While Chris and Tonya were out,  Steve and I assembled a gaming desk and chair for Chris.
It was a great time.
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Dinner at Raha and Nico’s

Yesterday we came down to CHRIS and Tonya’s then later we went to Christmas Eve dinner at Raha and Nico’s.  Great time there.


We had a great traditional German meal and afterward, exchanged gifts.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

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White Christmas

Until this morning, I thought we would be having a green Christmas. Mother Nature decided to co-operate, though. There’s a light snow falling as I write.


Later today, MY Jane and I will head down to Toronto to attend a Christmas Eve party at Nico and Raha’s, then staying overnight at Chris and Tonya’s for Christmas Day and Christmas dinner. Chris and Tonya will leave ahead of us.
Sara and Steven left yesterday afternoon.
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Sara & Steve Arrive

Yesterday morning Sara and Steve arrived for the weekend. It was great getting caught up with them. Both Steven and Chris continued their tradition of giving their Mom a Christmas Ornament for the tree.

Minnie even got dressed up for the occasion.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of sole stuffed with crab and salad along with some tasty desserts later. Everyone pitched in to help.
Always great to have everyone together.
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Book Release

After several iterations, my latest book, The Maraca Murders, is complete and has been released on Amazon for distribution.

My next project will be to make my first book, If the Walls Could Talk, into an audio book. I am researching the ins and outs of that process with the idea that I would do the narration myself seeing as how that book is a collection of my own experiences during my 27 years in Corrections.

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Christmas Plans

MY Jane and I are looking forward to Chris & Tonya coming tonight and then Steven and Sara arriving tomorrow. This year, the main Christmas Day dinner of turkey and the trimmings will happen on Christmas Day at Chris and Tonya’s place.

We have been invited to a Christmas Eve celebration at Raha (Sara’s sister) and Nico’s place. We will stay overnight at Chris and Tonya’s and do our gift exchange there.
Gonna be fun.
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New Book

I have completed my new book, a murder mystery called The Maraca Murders, set in a small fictional Northern Quebec town of Beauchene.

I will be releasing it on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com in the next couple of days.

I want to thank MY Jane for the editing and collaboration throughout this project and also to express my appreciation to my brother Jerry and my across-the-street neighbour and friend Jenny Casey, both of whom did the proofreading.

It was a fun project.

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Grocery Shopping

Today, MY Jane and I went to Walmart instead of Zehrs to do our Christmas grocery shopping. Jane, who knows prices much better than I is certain that we saved quite a bit.

Not only that, the layout of the aisles and signage for Walmart’s inventory is so much better than our nearby Zehrs store.
We have already decided that Zehrs meat is substandard so we’re not buying that stuff there either.
I think Zehrs at Yonge St and Big Bay Point could learn a lot from Walmart.
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Brass Cleaning

There is something to be said for the elegance of brass candle holders. Especially when they are gleaming after being freshly polished. 

Typically brasso was the cleaning and polishing agent used in the past. But in recent years, they changed the formula for brasso. Probably over environmental considerations. It no longer works like it did.

We now use this stuff called Never Dull which is a jar of wadding with some cleaning agent inside. It works really well as is evidenced by the shine on the brass above.
MY Jane and I highly recommend this stuff available at Home Hardware. Quick and easy.  Just polish  then rinse off in warm soapy water then dry.


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We Are Almost Ready

This year brings a little bit of a change to our Christmas agenda. In the past everyone has travelled to our place for Christmas dinner. This year, we will be having the full turkey dinner at Chris & Tonya’s home. Everyone will be spending a few days here before Christmas Day.

We have also been invited to Christmas Eve dinner at Raha & Nico’s, Raha being Sara’s older sister. The we’ll stay over at CHRIS and Tonya’s.
Sara & Steven will meet up with us on Christmas Day.
We have all the presents wrapped. All that’s left to do is grocery shopping.
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Unexpected Visitors

Last night I received a text from Sara asking if she and Steven could surprise Jane by staying at our place overnight without her knowing. They were visiting Steve’s friend David at Friday Harbour which is only about ten minutes away.

Of course I agreed and they arrived at about 11 PM. Jane was already in bed reading and she heard the garage door so she knew something was up. She went downstairs and, to her delight, saw Sara and Steven.
They stayed over and we had a great visit today. They cooked breakfast for both Jane and me.
Steve mentioned he had the beginnings of a sty on his eye and of course Mom had to take over and insisted that a good home remedy was putting warm tea bags on his eyes.
I don’t know if it helped, but Steve said it was very soothing.

A great visit!
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Liar Liar

Apparently the creature down South has uttered over 6,000 lies or misstatements in the last 2 years and continues to lie at an alarming rate. No one seems to care. He just makes stuff up. The latest is his assertion that there recently there were 10 terrorists stopped at the US – Mexican border. Total lie.

They seem so caught up in investigations related to his administration, inaugural committee, transition team, etc. that there’s no time to actually do the business of the country. 
What a disgrace.
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You Want a Wall

Well, the creature down South May get his wall sooner than he thinks. In fact, it seems that there are four of them (walls that is) closing in on him. His fixer, Michael Cohen, has decided to finally tell the truth.

Even John Dean, former counsel to disgraced President Richard Nixon of “I am not a crook” fame, says this situation is worse than Watergate and it’s only the beginning.
Sadly, it is the whole country that is suffering. I feel sorry for the people who voted for someone else in the last election. They must be just shaking there heads.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.”
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Deceptive Packaging

Today I had a couple of cookies after lunch and just by chance, I had a close look at the packaging. At first glance this cookie package looked to be holding 18 cookies. Upon closer examination, it turns out that in fact, there were only 16 cookies.

You can see how they deliberately made the two middle indentations smaller so they could only hold two cookies stacked on each other whereas the end indentations can hold a stack of three.
Clearly, this design was done to deliberately deceive consumers into believing they were getting more.
They have done the same thing with bacon. It used to be standard that bacon was sold by the pound. Now, they package it in 375 gram packages. That’s only .83 of a pound. 
Remember back in the early 70’s when Canada switched to the metric system. Gas then started to be sold by the litre instead of gallon. People back then lost track of what they were really getting for their buck.
Then they started selling butter tarts in packages of ten instead of the traditional dozen. Same with donuts.
What’s next. 10 eggs in a carton?
Geez!
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Astounding

I have been watching with disbelief the political goings on South of the border. The most recent debacle happened right in the Oval Office where the creature proudly proclaimed he would shut down the government of the US if he didn’t get five billion dollars for his stupid wall.

Nancy Pelosi quite adroitly showed the misogynist creature what leadership is all about. His bully tactics failed with her. And she topped it off by later mocking his obsession with the wall as a “manhood” thing.
WTG Nancy. Keep up the good work.
In the meantime, Vice President Pence sat quietly looking at his feet through the whole eleven minute episode probably wishing he wasn’t there.
What a joke.
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Printers

I am exploring the idea of getting an inkjet printer that will allow printing directly from our I Phone or I Pad.  I want it to be a multipurpose one much like the one we have now.  (HP MX 870). One that can do copies and has a document feeder option for scanning.

In checking the models available on the internet, it’s mind boggling as to which would be the best for us.
We sometimes print off colour photos, make copies of documents and print documents as well.
The one thing that seems to really cost a lot are ink cartridges, so a printer that gets the best use of ink cartridges is definitely a consideration.
The hunt continues.
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Book Progress

Both MY Jane and my brother, Jerry, have been helping edit and proof-read my latest novel,  The Maraca Murders. This is a fictional story that takes place in an imaginary French Canadian town called a Beauchene. This fictitious town is based on my home town of Temiscaming.

In fact, some of the streets referenced in Beauchene have the same names as those in Temiscaming. And some of the prominent landmarks of the village of Beauchene closely resemble some of the landmarks of the town that I grew up in.
This is one of those things I’ve had on my bucket list. My earlier book, If the Walls Could Talk, has sold dozens and dozens of copies on Amazon.
A lot of people have been telling me they are getting it as a stocking stuffer for Christmas. If you are one of the ones who has bought it, please take a minute and do a review on Amazon.
If you still haven’t got your copy, here’s the link.
My latest book will be available shortly.
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Wrapping

Today I had an opportunity to try out the wrapping station that MY Jane asked me to install a few months ago.

It worked very well so I got three gifts wrapped. In the meantime, my helper, Minnie, decided to just relax upstairs.

 
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Christmas Shopping

Today, I went up to Georgian Mall to finish off my Christmas shopping. Needless to say, it was very very busy. Parking was hard to find and there were lineups to get in to some stores.

However, when you set out with the expectation that things are going to go slower than usual, it’s no big deal.
The roads were relatively clear of snow so that wasn’t an issue.
I managed to get done what I had to do and return home feeling like I accomplished something.
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First Draft Done

I have completed this draft of my first attempt at a fictional novella. This a crime story of a perfect crime. 

The title is called The Maraca Murders.
The setting is a little Quebec village I call Beauchene based on my hometown of Temiscaming Quebec.
While it is a fictional story, many of the characters are similar to some former Temiscaming peeps. Some street names are the same.
MY Jane will now edit the draft after which my brother, Jerry, will cast his expert eye over it.
Then I will self publish the finished product on Amazon.
Stay tuned.
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Finished Decorating

Today, MY Jane and I finished decorating both the upstairs and downstairs trees. We especially enjoy putting the ornaments on because many of them have memories attached to them. Here’s a shot of the upstairs tree.


And the downstairs one.

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Christmas Trees

This morning,  I went to Lowe’s to purchase a couple of Christmas trees. This year I got Fraser Firs and we,re quite happy with them. I got both of them set up in tree stands and got the lights strung in both.

Tomorrow, we’ll get the ornaments hung and then I’ll try to figure out timers.

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Lunch Date Postponed

Our plan today was to meet up with our good friends Annemarie and Jim for lunch in Kleinburg. Unfortunately, MY Jane seems to be coming down with a bit if a cold so, to be on the safe side, we decided to postpone until a later date.

I have spent a good part of the day working on my latest book, The Maraca Murders, a mystery thriller that has a surprise twist at the end.
Hopefully, by resting up, Jane will overcome this cold.
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Wrapping Presents

Today I applied a coat of varathane to the votive candle holder that I made for MY Jane a couple of days ago. Earlier, she had tweaked our annual Christmas newsletter and I printed off a draft copy for review.

After that, I wrapped a couple of Christmas presents.

I have made good progress on my second book presently titled Maracas, a murder mystery in which the perfect crime is committed. 
It’s been a good day.

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Baby On The Way

On October 28, MY Jane and I were invited to CHRIS and Tonya’s supposedly to advise them on what to do about refinishing their coffee table. At one point, Chris turned the table upside down and there was a piece of paper attached. Both he and Tonya urged Jane to open it up. Turns out it was a sonogram of their baby. Tonya was pregnant!

Needless to say, both of us were ecstatic at the news as was evidenced in a video they took of the occasion. But we were sworn to secrecy until December when they planned to announce it to the world.
This is a poem I wrote shortly after:
A Poem for Tonya & Chris
I hold a new orange in my palm,
I softly hum a lullaby song.
And think about the future ahead,
I dream of a little one asleep in bed.
I marvel at the wonder of life as it goes,
A wee tiny torso  – wee fingers and toes
Early beginnings we can already see
Another branch on the Family tree.
My heart brims over with such profound joy,
Whether it’s a pretty girl or a cute little boy.
I know for certain – and I’m very glad,
This child will have the best Mom and Dad!
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Candles On A Curve

While browsing through Wood Magazine, a past Christmas subscription from MY Jane, I came across plans for a votive candle holder. I was inspired to surprise Jane by making one for her. So this morning I put the heat on in the garage and went to work.

Tomorrow, I’ll stain it to finish it off.