Month: October 2020

It’s a very strange one this year. With COVID still very much around, we decided to pass on handing out treats this year, the first time ever. We both enjoy seeing the kids at the door, particularly the little ones.

The news is reporting that many parents are deciding to find alternate ways to celebreate Hallowe’en, with very few kids going out.

Chris and Tonya had Max go door to door in their own house and trick or treat that way. He wasn’t sure what it was all about, but they reported that he had fun!

He was dressed up as a werewolf.

For Sara and Steve, this was Roxana’s very first Hallowe’en and Steve was adamant that he and Sara were going to shell out. He hooked up a pipe going down his front step railing and Sara picked up candy with tongs and place them in the top of the pipe; the candy slid down to the expectant child’s basket! Roxana was Baby Shark and went along with all the festivities!

And they had a socially distanced cousin’s visit earlier today. Maybe next year, they will be able to all be together for trick or treating and we can be there, too, watching and having fun!

Happy Halloween !!

Today Jane and I spent part of the morning getting ready for winter by putting our glider chairs away in the shed and taking the garden hose off and putting it in the garage. We also hung our Halloween flags outside.

We covered the climbing rose with burlap and raked up leaves once again.

Many of the leaves are raked into the flowerbeds to provide insulation and a safe place for insect critters as recommended by Master Gardeners of Ontario; My Jane trusts their advice and refers to them regularly.

To day I received a call confirming my appointment for cataract surgery in Orillia on Monday November 2nd. We will be on the road quite early, they want us to arrive at 6:30 am to register, etc.!

The actual procedure only takes 15 minutes but overall, we will probably have to spend about 4 hours up there. So My Jane will drive back home to wait for a call to come pick me up. No traffic to speak of at these hours.

Afterwards, there will be a follow-up appointment with Dr Leung in Barrie; I quite like her and feel like I am in good hands.

It was the kind of day that called for a Swiss Chalet chicken dinner.

After that, we settled in to watch Chicago Fire, a Prime video series that we are enjoying a lot.

We tend to binge watch, viewing 3 episodes at a time.

I continue to plug away on this book project. There are last minute submissions coming in which is not unexpected.

Right now I am up to 262 pages with about 120 authors, many more than I first anticipated.

Today I received a call and subsequent email from the PMO regarding my book project. Woo Hoo!!!

Today I was a little ambitious so I decided to rake some of the leaves in the front and back yards.

There was quite a few of them but I just took my time and eventually got it done.

The Japanese Maple in the front yard looks quite striking too.

Barack Obama is in Miami Florida stumping for Joe Biden and it is so refreshing to hear him speak.

He is so articulate and logical, unlike the creature who cannot put a complete sentence together.

Let’s hope that Biden maintains his lead according to national polls.

Last night the final debate took place between Biden and the creature.

It was much more civilized this time but the creature continued with his bombastic and bully tactics, ignoring the moderators instructions frequently.

In my humble opinion, Biden came out ahead in this meeting.

This time of year you hear about people driving up to Muskoka and further North to see the gorgeous Fall colours.

We however can do it right from our dining room. This is what we see. And I know that Jane likes to take a walk through the leaves, because I see her wandering around, kicking them up happily. The best will be when we can bury our grandchildren in the leaves, just like we both did when we were playing in them ourselves!

In the next few days I’ll start raking.

I checked with my Tire dealer that I have been using for the last 7 years as to what it would cost for winter tires for our new Nissan Rogue.

I was shocked to learn that it would run around $1300!

I decided to get some advice on whether winter tires were even needed with an All Wheel Drive, so I called my trusty auto advisor, Chris, and was told I should be OK with good all seasonals. Steve, on the other hand, was recommending winter tires; I think because he worries about us travelling down in the winter.

We talked about it and decided that we would forego that cost for now; if the weather is bad on a designated driving day, we won’t drive. Jane reassured Steven and I thanked Chris for his sage advice.

Whew!

One of the things I am required to do in readiness for cataract surgery scheduled for Nov 2nd is to self isolate for 14 days prior to that date.

So today Jane and did some serious grocery shopping so we don’t have to go out for the next two weeks.

We don’t want to take any chances that might screw up this operation.

I have been dealing with this vision problem for the last two years.

Today I picked up prescriptions needed for my cataract surgery scheduled for Nov 2nd.

The surgery will take place at Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Orillia.

I have already come up with a text message that I will ask the nurse to send to Jane when I’m ready to be picked up. it goes like this;

Knick knack cataract Gary’s got a phone

Come pick him up, he’s ready to go home

Just looking around our front yard is enough to confirm the arrival of Autumn.

Our glorious red maple, the largest tree on the block, is a splendid vibrant hue and the Fall flags are flapping in a cool breeze.

I raked the leaves on the front and back yards in order for the weed man to make a last application of fertilizer.

A few days ago I received a message from the Member of the National Assembly of Quebec representing Temiscaming; this is to be included in the front of the book.

I formatted it and sent the edited version back for approval. Noy only did I get the approval, I was offered financial assistance too!

No amount was specified, so I threw out a number of $750. We’ll see what happens.

I have been trying to figure out what to charge for the book that I am working on. So today I decided to initiate a poll on social media. Here’s the question and results so far.

The results are overwhelmingly in favour of the higher price of $24.95 so I think that’s what I’ll probably go with.

The deadline of November 1 for closing off submissions for the book project is fast approaching.

I have been busy planning for distribution in January along with ordering necessary mailing materials such as labels and shipping container boxes and bubble mailers.

Stories are still rolling in. We are 103 now.

I have been chasing the Prime Ministers communication people for his message as well as the publisher for Margaret Atwood.

They may not make the deadline, but we’ll still have a great product.

After a whirlwind birthday yesterday, it was back to normal today. I decided that it was time to empty out the waterfall fountain in the back corner of the yard and cover it up for the winter. I was glad that it survived all its repairs for the season. Jane wonders if it will be in one piece next year, I think it will be just fine.

In the meantime, Jane emptied the flowerpots and urns of annuals so that all that remains to be done is raking when most of the leaves have fallen.

Today is my 72nd birthday! I can’t believe I am seventy two! I remember in my teens thinking that someone who was in their forties was ancient. Yikes!

What that makes me now – I don’t know – maybe prehistoric.

What I do know is that I don’t think of myself as old (unless I try to lift something heavy).

It was so nice to get all the cards, including one from Grandson Max with his first bit of artwork. I plan to add it to my personal and very special, collection!

And Jane took me down to Minett’s Point for a McDonalds Breakfast. Not to mention all the Facebook birthday greetings, everyone remembering to say Happy Birthday.!!!

And it’s Steve and Sara’s 2nd Anniversary.!! Hard to believe it’s been two years already! And Steve played a rendition of Happy Birthday on a video call with Roxy and Sara. A lot of love coming my way, thank you, everyone!

At one point I had Tonya, Chris and Max video calling on my iphone, while Sara, Steve and Roxy were video calling on Jane’s iphone, because my line was tied up!!

Then my sister, Terry, called too, right after! I almost had to go for a nap at that point and it was still morning!

What a happy kerfuffle!

Jane is making me a raisin pie for my birthday tomorrow

The last time I had raisin pie was several years ago, one that Jane’s Mom, Ted made for me.

My Dad used to love the same pie that Aunt Mary used to bake.

There has been some conversation on social media about whether to allow kids to go out trick or treating during this Covid pandemic.

This should be a no-brainer in my opinion. Why would you allow your child to be put in harm’s way, given that there would be treats available that might have the virus on them.

Even if there was no close proximity, that should be enough reason to not allow trick or treating.

There are other options. For example, for our grandson Max, Chris and Tonya have wisely decided to trick or treat at the different doors in their house and have him knock on each one. They’ll take turns being on the other side of the door to answer and hand out the treats. Now that’s thinking outside the box!

We haven’t yet heard the plans for little Squirms, if any, but I’m pretty sure that it will be just as wise.

The creature occupying the Oval Office continues to exhibit how stupid he really is.

He continues to hold rallies putting attendees at risk. It’s just so stupid. And sad for people who listen to medical experts but are put in harm’s way because of others’ stupidity.

In fact, he is hosting an event tomorrow at the White House and another in Florida on Monday.

But COVID 19 is not the only pandemic.

There is a political pandemic happening down there too. They’re in trouble.

Last night the US VP debate took place, between Mike Pence, the incumbent, and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.

The debate was much more civilized than the presidential debate that happened a week ago. Anything with the creature is uncivilized!

Both candidates evaded some questions, but overall, Harris did the better job.

The most interesting part of last night was the housefly that landed on Mike Pence’s snow white hair and stayed there for about five minutes! Social media was having a field day about that!

Jane and I spent some time preparing a timeline plan regarding my book project.

We want to ensure that things are done in a timely and organized fashion. Because Nov 1, the deadline date, is rapidly approaching, we are expecting last minute submissions and it is important that we stay on top of things.

We are still on schedule for a January 2021 release.

I am continuing to work on my Temiscaming book project, Souvenirs de Temiscaming and things are progressing very well.

I have received stories from 90 contributors so far and expect to surpass 100 before the deadline date of November 1.

Now I am beginning to turn my mind to printing timelines and distribution logistics. I will initially take orders for out of town contributors and use revenue from that phase to order books for retail sale at Ross Electric in Temiscaming.

Today, Jane helped me formulate a project timeline so we can ensure nothing gets missed and to keep things organized.

We are on track.

I had an appointment today to get my left eye measured in preparation for cataract surgery.

I was very happy to find out I have an appointment in Orillia on November 3rd; while Covid is raging, many people are having extremely long wait times.

Later in the afternoon, Burdie popped by from picking up a brand new outboard at Bass Pro in Vaughan.

We had a coffee and a very welcome, socially distanced, visit on the deck. Thank goodness the weather was cooperating for an outdoor visit!

Steve, Sara and Roxana left this morning in the rain; Jane and I both looked at each other sadly and mused about where the time went!

Roxy gets cuter by the day and we had a lot of fun with her. Sara tried her hand at designing a pumpkin face and Steven took care of the carving, well done!!

She is a very good baby, rarely cries and smiles a lot. Lots of love went home with them.

We didn’t get to see Roxana last night because she was asleep when they arrived; Sara called us from the car and asked that we turn out the bedroom lights and not to make a fuss upon their arrival, as they wanted to whisk her directly to bed. But we got to see her a lot today!

Here she is reading a book with Daddy.

Here she is having a chat with Grandma. She was a curious little girl, looking around at everything! Jane was glad that she dusted thoroughly!

And here she is with Grandpa. A special moment indeed.

I put together the infamous high chair in readiness for Roxy’s visit. New bowls and utensils washed, and an early Hallowe’en basket full of goodies for her.

In the meantime, Jane has been cooking up a storm – tomato lasagna for tonight and cauliflower soup tomorrow!

Smells delicious and I can seriously say that I will finally get to eat again!

Jane and I continued today with preparing for Roxy’s visit this weekend. Just look at this precious bundle! We both think that, although it’s unusual, this little girl looks fabulous in black!! It must run in the family, if we were to ask Sara!

We were happy to find out they are coming Friday night instead of Saturday, so that will give us an extra day with them! A big bonus indeed!