Month: December 2020

Now that we are on a lockdown for the Covid 19 pandemic, we have decided to try out grocery shopping at Sobeys, using their online delivery service. Chris had suggested them, as an alternative to curbside pickup with Zehr’s.

Their app is called Voila and Jane created an account and put together a list yesterday.

It’s going to be delivered between 3 pm and 4 pm today.

I have set a goal to sell 1,000 copies of Souvenirs de Temiscaming by July 31, 2021. To that end I have created a thermometer goal chart which I will post regularly on Facebook beginning in 2021.

At the same time, I will be encouraging Facebookers to purchase books and share this chart on their own Facebook pages.

The primary objective now is to raise as much money as possible for Temiscaming charities.

I checked my Amazon order for the Souvenirs de Temiscaming book project and now have confirmation that processing is underway!

There are 150 books being shipped to Dean Sparling of Ross Electric Home Hardware and 114 being shipped to me.

Both shipments to arrive mid January, right on schedule.

I am ready to begin shipping to individual contributors as soon as they arrive. I will be including a personalized bookmark and cover letter with the ones I do and Dean has agreed to pass out bookmarks to authors only who pick up their books at his store.

Looking good; I find it very satisfying to see everything come together.

We keep getting more and more snow here in Barrie. It makes for a post card type of scene.

We also had a big red truck parked in front of the neighbour’s driveway for a short time. It turned out to be a false alarm, but better to be safe than sorry.

Tonight the creature down South finally signed the long awaited stimulus bill into law, giving some much needed financial assistance to millions of US citizens.

That country will be so much better off when he is gone on Jan 20, 2021.

Overnight we had a lot of snow fall here in Barrie. We enjoy it because we don’t have to go anywhere.

Instead, we get to enjoy photos and videos of the grandkids enjoying their new sleighs.

As you can tell, they had almost as much in Toronto, perfect timing for them to enjoy the winter!

It’s a pandemic Christmas Day, meaning there cannot be any family visits back and forth. Instead we are doing Zoom visits.

We watched each other open gifts and both Grandkids enjoyed sitting in empty cardboard boxes more than anything else, lol.

Most of the morning was taken up with gift unwrapping, after which we had brunch and started thinking about a turkey dinner for two. Our turkey is more like a big chicken, than a turkey; Jane sadly commented that this was a first. We both hope that it is the last.

According to the weather forecast, we have a bit of a storm front due to roll into our area.

Regardless of that, I intend to try doing chicken shish kekab on the BBQ using an accessory to go on the rotisserie. I’m from Temiscaming, after all!!

We’ll see how that goes.

Our plans to have a full size Christmas tree this year were thwarted because of COVID. Visits from young folk and grandkids had to be cancelled.

We decided to forego the idea of having a Christmas tree at all; My Jane said that it would be too sad to see all the family ornaments, given to her and to us, so lovingly.

But after a while, and with the receipt of cards and gifts sent to us by our grandchildren, we had to find a place for them until Christmas Day.

Where better than beneath Ted’s plant.

And to make it a little more festive, I added some lights this morning. I think it looks pretty nice. Ted would have liked it but we are both relieved that she didn’t have to suffer through all this.

We are planning on having BBQ beef tenderloin tonight so I shovelled a pathway across the back yard deck to get ready.

The snow continues to fall but I think we’ll be okay.

Been a while since we had steak, so we are looking forward to it.

Lately it seems that many of my electronic devices are being subjected to updates arbitrarily made by software developers. This frequently results in requiring that I again sign in using my password for that particular app.

Of course, a lot of times I don’t have the password at hand or in my mind, so I have to go through countless hoops to get a new one.

Very annoying.

Remember the days when there were no remotes, computers, etc.? In many ways they were much better. Sometimes simpler is better.

Effective December 24th at midnight, the province of Ontario will be put into a full lockdown which means only essential businesses will be open.

There is also news that there is a quicker spreading variant of the COVID19 virus surfacing in the UK.

Several countries including Canada have moved to restrict UK flights into the country.

Tonight we had dinner for two, kindly delivered by the Jones family who live next door.

It was their idea to do this as a little Christmas cheer in the midst of this pandemic and it was very much appreciated. We decided to dress a bit instead of our normal pyjama’s or sweatshirts. We set the table nicely, chilled the wine and had a bit of a party atmosphere. First time in a long time!

And the dinner was delicious; Jane chose the trout and I took the pecan-crusted chicken. Wonderful!!!

Last night Google intercepted a security breach into my Gmail account and recommended that I change my passwords. Sounds simple.

Well it’s not. It took me a couple of hours to get all my devices synchronized so that the same password works on all of them. Today’s technology or is it me? Hmmm.

Today I got an email from our next door neighbours, the Joneses. Chris and his family had a discussion about what they could do this Christmas other than exchanging chocolates and wine. Especially during this pandemic. In the past, we have usually gotten together with them and the Casey’s for a libation and Christmas cheer.

So what they plan to do is order a dinner for two to be delivered to us this Saturday!

What a thoughtful and generous gesture. We, in turn our going to continue with our tradition of giving their two boys a gift certificate but will also acknowledge their thoughtfulness by giving the adults a complete BBQ accessories kit.

This morning Jane and I had a Zoom call with our good friends, Annemarie and Jim McDonald, who live in Glen Williams, near Georgetown.

It was suggested and set up by Jim last week and, today, went off without a hitch.

It was great to reconnect and catch up on each other’s news.

In fact, we all liked it so much, we’re going to make it a regular weekly occurrence.

We woke up this morning with the outside looking clean and bright.

We got about an inch of snow and it continues to fall. Freshly fallen snow is always so beautiful.

So it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….a white Christmas! We hope the kids and grandkids get some of it, too; such fun for them!

A couple of weeks ago I went to Pearle Vision here in Barrie to order new glasses after seeing my optometrist.

I called today to see if they were in but I was told that they had not yet arrived although the tracking shows them due to arrive this afternoon.

They said that they would call when they arrive; I am very anxious to see if they make a difference in my vision which is still not where I thought it would be.

I have been invited by Chris Matheson, a cousin of Tonya’s, to participate in a Podcast that he has started doing. He has only done a few of them so far, but they are proving to be interesting; Tonya has participated in one, as well.

It’s a general conversation type show and he would like me to talk about Corrections and any other issues I care about.

So I have let him know that January 2021 would be a good time to do this.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

The last couple of days have brought much milder weather to Barrie, enough to take a lot of the snow away. We’re not complaining, though. It’s just unusual for this time of year.

We have delivered most of the Christmas gifts to Sara and Steve’s, as well as Chris and Tonya’s. There are still a couple for Sara that we are waiting on, but we should get them before Christmas. So Jane will make another trip down, knowing that she can probably schedule the date when both grandchildren are home and awake, lol.

Jane has been working hard on organizing photo albums that go back for years. A lot of the pictures are undated so she has to be somewhat of a detective to figure out how old the boys were when the photos were taken. I think that she is a little annoyed at herself for not having kept better records.

Once that’s done, she makes a digital copy and files them by year in the Mac. Should be historically interesting for the family, which is her secret hope.

And I continue doing work on the Temiscaming book project. Today I sent a little sales kit up to Dean Sparling in Temiscaming, the kit contains bookmarks for the authors to receive at time of purchase as well as a display stand and two proof copies of the book to use promotionally.

And the news is that we are headed into a “red” zone on Monday, because of the increasing number of cases of COVID 19.

People just refuse to use common sense and to stop being so selfish.

A few minutes ago, I placed an order with Kindle Direct Publishing for 114 books to be delivered to me and 150 books to be delivered to Ross Electric Home Hardware in Temiscaming.

They are scheduled to arrive in January, right on schedule.

I am ready to ship from home to the out-of-town contributors who ordered theirs via Canada Post.

It’s a major milestone for this project!

During this pandemic, while social distancing must be maintained, something we find helps make it just a little bit easier is an App called “Tiny Beans”.

How this works is pretty slick. It allows Sara and Tonya to post daily pictures and videos of the grandchildren, so we can see them interacting and watch them develop their own personalities. There are funny posts, touching posts, and just genuinely loving posts. I can’t tell you how many times we go back and look at them, particularly the videos where we can hear them and their parents.

It’s nowhere close to being the same as personal visits, but it does ease the feeling of isolation that we are all experiencing.

And all those photos and videos can be put into book form and saved for posterity!

Yesterday I received an email from Dean Sparling of Ross Electric in Temiscaming, confirming his willingness to sell “Souvenirs de Temiscaming” at his store.

This will definitely boost profits which will be given to charity in town; it’s a win-win situation!

I will be sending him a little sales kit to display the book on the counter, along with some bookmarks and a poster for the front door, to draw customers in.

This morning was the first day this winter that the temperature was below zero Celsius. We have to consider ourselves lucky!

In fact it was 5 below. But as soon as the sun came up it started to slowly rise. It looks like we are going to get colder weather in the next few days.

Luckily we don’t have to be anywhere other than home, although tomorrow I have a Doctor’s bi-annual checkup. Being five minutes away, I should be okay to venture out, lol.

Continue reading “Below Zero”

After our wonderful visit yesterday with the family, I decided to have a quieter day. I am sometimes finding that the trip down and back in one day is a little hard on me. I know that Jane is tired by the time we get home, but she still bounces back faster than me. Price of getting older, I guess.

So I spent some time making customized bookmarks for contributors who have ordered books through me.

I am simply printing their name on the back of it, with the notation, “Author Extraordinaire”.

Unfortunately I cannot customize bookmarks that will be given to Temiscaming authors because I don’t know who will be buying the books up there; these will just be for those that I am mailing out myself.

This afternoon we are heading to Toronto, first to Sara and Steve’s place to drop off Christmas presents and have a bit of a visit.

Then over to Chris and Tonya’s to drop off presents there. And have a little visit there too! For all intents and purposes, these two short visits will be our Christmas this year.

The number of cases is on the rise once again. People just don’t get it. Or they are in denial.

Either that or they’re just plain stupid.

But one thing I have come to realize is that no amount of logic will persuade the rednecks of the world to embrace a common sense approach to serious issues in the world.

Sad.

Today I sent out a reminder to all the book contributors that the closing date is only a week away! I can’t believe that we are at this stage already!

Not long after I received several orders and queries about order details.

It seems that people are getting anxious to get a copy. That’s fantastic!!

Today I went to Lifelabs to have some routine bloodwork done. It’s part of the regular checkups my doctor does, to monitor my diabetes.

I am not expecting anything unusual. The medication I am taking keeps everything under control. I know that we both have not been eating the best lately, and some pounds need to come off; we will talk about this in the New Year.

The snow we had last night was significant but the road conditions were very good.

Definitely looking like a White Christmas.

Today I had a follow up eye appointment with the optometrist, Dr. Roberti up in Georgian Mall.

My left eye (used to be my good eye) and the one on which surgery was done, will never be 100% but it is much much better.

I will be getting new glasses so that should make things even better.

We’ll see.