Month: October 2024

Today, to take advantage of the mild weather, I decided to put up some of my exterior Christmas lights. I won’t turn them on until after Remembrance Day, but they’ll be ready.

This way I can avoid doing it when it’s cold and things are so brittle.

After that, we went out to get Halloween candy for the trick or treaters tonight. Unfortunately most of the bulk candy has been so,d out at both Shoppers and Zehrs.

I ad already bought some earlier, but had avoided getting any Chocolate because both Jane and I would have eaten it all before the kids came.

Update: we had 24 trick or treaters.

This morning I did one more raking in the front yard in time for yard waste pickup tomorrow.

There are about 14 bags full of leaves from the front and back yard.

Tomorrow I will begin putting up Christmas lights on the eavestrough to take advantage of the warmer weather. It’s not fun trying to do it when it’s very cold.

This morning, right after breakfast, the rain began. It was a light rain, though, so I decided to do my walk anyway. But as I progressed, the rain got heavier. I kept on walking.

By the time I got home, I was soaking wet. But just before I arrived I thought about changing into warm dry clothes and having a nice hot chocolate. It sure tasted good and hit the spot.

Then I went to Barrie Glass and Mirror and picked up a custom cut piece of glass for the top of the sitting room console.

After that I picked up some replacement furnace filters and changed the one in the furnace.

Today I made another pot of Shouldice soup which is part of my effort to lose weight. I want to get close to the weight I was at when I had my hernia surgery a couple of years ago.

The Shouldice hospital dietician had given me a recipe for soup and a diet to follow which was very good. In fact, by following it I lost about 80 lbs.

However, since the surgery, my weight has been creeping upward and it’s time to address that.

When we first bought this house, we had a Delta touch faucet installed in the kitchen. Fast forward twelve years later and the touch feature is malfunctioning.

The user manual had a complicated procedure to bypass the touch feature, so I decided to check ChatGBT. That resulted in a suggestion to simply disconnect the battery pack under the sink.

I tried that and, voila. Problem solved. Yahoo.

Yesterday we arrived at Chris and Tonya’s around four thirty and at about 5:30 they left for an evening at Steve and Sara’s. We ordered wings for supper and had salad with it.

After supper Max was showing Grandma how proficient he was with nunchucks while in his parents bedroom. His hands were sweaty and they got away on him and smashed into the TV. Grandma couldn’t see any damage but talked it over with Max and they agreed to tell Daddy today.

When Chris turned the TV on, he discovered two big cracks in the screen. That’s it for that TV and the nunchucks for now. Poor Max felt really bad, but accidents do happen.

After lunch Tonya met up with her sister to visit their Mom Linda’s gravesite on the two year anniversary of her death.

Jane, Chris, Max and I headed over to Michael’s craft store and then Toys R Us before getting to Max’s skating lesson.

He did really well with this lesson and looked really good in his new Maple Leafs jersey.

This afternoon Jane and I headed off to Chris and Tonya’s to stay with Max while they go to over to Steve and Sara’s for a Halloween get together.

Tomorrow we’ll go to the rink to watch Max skate.

For the last several years I have been weighing myself every Friday morning to monitor my weight. A couple of months ago I noticed that I had gained too much since my hernia surgery two years ago. That’s when I was at a very good weight.

So I undertook to begin walking at least 8000 steps every day and I have lost about 16 lbs.

But last Fridays weigh day I only lost .2 lbs from the previous week, so I have been watching food portions very closely the last few days.

We’ll see what we’re at tomorrow.

For the last three months I have been going on a daily walk or sometimes more than one walk to lose some weight. I have different routes that I use depending on how many steps I need to reach my goal of at least 8000.

Today I took a bush path and sidewalk route and today it was interesting to swish through the fallen leaves on the bush trail.

And once I got out of the bush and back on the street, it was interesting to get a glimpse of some of the Halloween decorations like this house on Crimson Ridge road.

Although the leaves have not finished falling, I decided to do a little raking this morning to get a head start.

I filled five yard waste bags by doing both the front and back yards.

Of course, I will have to do more once the trees are bare.

Our first game was to see who could colour this picture on our IPad in the fastest time.

Jane beat me hands down by about 5 minutes.

Crokinole was our second game on the board I made a few years ago. She beat me in that game too.

I made a comeback when we played the third and final game which was Rummy 500.

A fun night.

Later this morning we got our flu and Covid booster shots at our pharmacy.

Tonight, instead of watching TV, Jane and I have decided to have a Games night.

We will play crokinole on the board that I made a few years ago. Then we’ll play Rmmy 500 and lastly, we’ll have a colouring competition using the exact same image on each of our I Pads.

Tomorrow’s blog will have the results.

Since August 8th I have been doing a daily walk in order to lose some weight and so far, it seems to be working. I have lost 16 pounds in that time. The walking, along with portion control, is paying off.

And I have begun making the Shouldice soup again which is what I was eating prior to my hernia surgeries a couple of years ago.

I have a daily target of 8,000 steps and as of 1:30 pm today, I have just over 6,000 steps in.

I’ll do another walk later to meet my goal.

Today we decided to take a spin up some back country roads, mainly to view the colourful leaves.

We followed the shore of Lake Simcoe as close as we could drive and we did get to see some spectacular colours.

After getting back home, I did a second walk to reach my 8000 step goal for the day.

Done.

This morning Jane did a little bit of yard work i.e. pulling out the last of the Impatiens and doing a little bit of trimming.

The rest of the winterizing process is complete. Drip irrigation system is drained, water is shut off and patio furniture and cushions stowed.

The front and back yard maples look splendid with the colours as depicted below.

We’re ready.

This morning Jane and I headed over to the middle of the city to search for a geocache in Lacie’s Bush.

It’s hard to believe that this large tract of unsettled land and natural forest is right in the centre of town.

We located two geocaches, one of which is depicted below.

I logged both as being found on the geocache app.

This morning I put all the patio chairs away and covered the table with a tarp to be ready for winter snows.

The two glider chairs are in the shed along with the cushions and umbrella.

On another note, the Dyson vacuum cleaner, which is battery operated, quit because the battery died. This is the second time; the first one was replaced under warranty, but this time it was going to cost $175.00 for a replacement.

Instead, we opted to purchase a Shark corded model and after trying that one, we are going to keep it and see if we can sell the Dyson.

These days it’s beginning to be cooler in temperature so, before going on my daily walk, i have to dress appropriately. I use that age old method of dressing layers.

I put on my Muskoka hoodie first followed by my insulated vest. Then I don my windbreaker and cap and gloves.

it makes for a comfortable walk. And today I ordered heated gloves to be ready for when it gets really cold.

We celebrated my birthday along with Thanksgiving and Steve and Sara’s sixth anniversary at Chris and Tonya’s. They made a delicious dinner for all of including turkey (delicious) mashed potatoes and gravy (delicious) candied yams (delicious) and homemade pumpkin pie (delicious). I barely had room for birthday cake (delicious).

The grandkids made special birthday cards for me and the big kids chipped in and gave me a telescope which totally surprised me and thrilled me.

I couldn’t wait to try it so I got it all put together and experimented with it on the deck. As soon as we were home.

If it’s clear of clouds tonight I’ll try to take some pictures of the moon.

You’ve heard of “working smart”. Well, today we are going to “celebrate smart”.

Today we are heading down to Chris and Tonya’s for Thanksgiving Dinner where we will be joined by Steve and Sara who are celebrating their sixth wedding anniversary.

And of course, the three grandkids will be there….Max, Roxana and Royce.

Looking forward to getting together with all of them because it’s been awhile since that’s happened.

Well last week we went up to Wasaga Beach to see if we could catch the Northern Lights, one of Jane’s bucket list items. We had no luck.

Then, last night, after watching a movie, I checked Facebook and to my surprise there was a post seven minutes earlier saying the Lights were visible in South Barrie. it was about 10 pm.

I told Jane and we immediately jumped in the car in our pyjamas and headed down Dock Road to the lake. There were other people there already with the same idea.

Success! Cross this one off the list!

I started doing a daily walk about two months ago and after a few days, I set a goal of doing 8000 steps a day and just today I noted that I have a 26 day streak of meeting or exceeding that number.

Since I began my daily walks until now I have achieved the stats depicted below.

This morning, while out for one of my daily walks, I was startled by a very loud noise which turned to be two fighter jets.

They circled overhead at low altitude and the headed South.

Later I began shutting off the outside water and covering the waterfall for the winter.

This morning we took a spin up to Georgian Mall so Jane could have one of her Mom’s rings repaired.

We walked around a bit and then had a coffee at Tim Hortons.

On the way back we stopped at Metro and Jane ordered a birthday cake for me.

After lunch I went for a second walk even though it was raining. I wore my foul weather raincoat from my boating days, so I was dry and warm.

Then I treated myself to a nice hot chocolate.

This morning I had a regular follow up appointment with my family doctor.

Good news. I am down 12 lbs from last visit about which he was quite pleased. Also my blood pressure is normal, something we had been looking at and my blood sugar is at 5.7.

All very good results which I think are in part due to my walking and watching my diet.

In fact, instead of going back for a six month checkup, we agreed that nine months from now would be good.

I had purchased a pair of shoes online with a company called Temu. I really liked the style.

However, when I tried them on, they were too tight on the left foot, so I returned them.

Jane and I went to Designer Shoe Warehouse and I found a pair that were similar in style, so I got them instead.

Well, it looked very promising early in the evening. The sky was clear and the stars were shining.

In the end though, the clouds moved in and no no Northern Lights were to seen.

We chalked it up to another adventure and satisfied ourselves that at least we tried.

Maybe next time.

This has been on Jane’s bucket list for quite awhile, so tonight we are going to stay in Wasaga Beach and hopefully get a look at them.

In the photo above, the dark red covers the zones that have the strongest possibility of seeing them.

Our next door neighbour gave us a wheelbarrow full of nice topsoil which I spread out in the side flowerbed.

The Virginia creeper on the back fence is starting to change colour although it continues to cover up the wood which is what we want.

Tomorrow we’ll trim some bushes and split one that’s in the front flower bed.

We had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Ing at Sunnybrook so he could check the stitches on Jane’s eye.

She was the very first patient to be seen this morning, so we were able to get back home before lunch.

She has another appointment a month from now and in the meantime some medication to be taken daily.

She is relieved to have the surgery done.

Last night Jane and I stayed at DVP and 400 Suites to be closer to Sunnybrook Hospital for her 6 am surgery appointment.

We got to the hospital in plenty of time, registered and Jane was in surgery around 8 am.

Surgery was complete by 10 am and, after picking up a couple of prescriptions, we went back to the hotel.

Dr. Ing wants to check stitches in Jane’s eyelid tomorrow morning.