Month: November 2024

Jane went to Toronto today to attend a ballet recital at Roxana’s ballet class.

The class was held at the nearby Don Mills centre and Royce was there as well, so Jane had a little visit with him too as well as Sara and Steve.

Right after the recital, Jane headed home to beat the snow squalls predicted for the. Barrie area.

This morning I did the final entry in the Pickering Family newsletter. I will be sending it out via e-mail in a few days because if the Postal strike.

I also worked on formatting some stories put together by Chris and Max and sent it off to Chris via e-mail.

This afternoon I spent some time playing on Microsoft Flight Simulator, something I haven’t done for a bit.

Yesterday Royce had surgery on his eye for a blocked tear duct which was successful. Steve and Sara were at the Hospital for Sick Kids for most of the day but finally got Royce back home last evening.

Jane went down to stay with Steve and Royce for the day and Steve says Royce is 100% today.

I will spend the day at home catching up on some computer work and just lazing around.

I’ll put the finishing touches on the annual Pickering Christmas newsletter which will be e-mailed this year because of the postal strike.

This morning I helped my neighbour, Chris Jones, move tree limbs and branches from his back yard to the front after he hired a guy to take down a large spruce tree.

We figure this tree was probably about 28 years old.

The knobs on our kitchen stove oftentimes become coated from splattered oil from cooking. We had an instance where, after they were soaked in soapy water, the chrome-like coating peeled right off, leaving a white plastic knob.

Today, to try to avoid them peeling again ( a replacement set of five costs $79) I sprayed all of them with a clear lacquer which should allow for cleaning without damaging them.

This morning I decided to do what I call a long walk. I headed for Wilkin’s Beach which is at Kempenfeldt Bay, part of Lake Simcoe.

I took a few photos when I got there.

Since purchasing new tires about a month ago, the rear drivers side has been registering low pressure from time to time, so I took it back to Canadian Tire to get fixed.

Turns out it was a leaking valve stem and nowadays there is a pressure sensor included which connects with the on board computer.

Bottom line was it cost $160.

At least now I won’t have to keep inflating the tire every few days.

This morning Jane and I finished decorating our Christmas tree. We had already put the lights on the other day.

We are quite happy with the result and in the next several days, we’ll be putting gifts under it after they are wrapped.

Productive day.

Today we took a trip to Newmarket to take advantage of Black Friday sales at Mastermind where we bought gifts for Roxana and Royce.

We had already purchased presents for Max, so we are in very good shape this year.

Today I was fitted with brand new Bernafon hearing aids fully paid for by Workman’s Safety Insurance Board.

They are similar to the Oticon brand that I used on a trial basis for 30 days a few months ago.

I am eligible to get new ones every five years for life, all at the expense of WSIB.

I go for a follow up in the New Year in case there are any other adjustments to be made to the setting.

This morning Jane continued with decorating the dining room and sitting room while I did the Nativity Scene in the niche.

Then we moved to downstairs and I set up our little whimsical village on the buffet.

I brought in the artificial tree which we decorated in the afternoon.

This morning we began doing Christmas decorating inside the house. We started with getting all the bins down from the loft and sorting things out.

Jane focused on the main floor while I worked on the Family Room.

Jane has been frustrated for the last several weeks with itchy eyelids. The ophthalmologist, Dr. ing, who did surgery a few weeks ago did not know the cause.

So this morning, Jane had an appointment with our family doctor, Dr. Morin, and he quickly diagnosed an infection and gave her a prescription.

He seemed pretty confident with his diagnosis, so we’re hopeful that the problem will be solved.

This morning we are heading to Toronto to visit Roxana and Royce and then Max later today.

We will time it so we get home before dark because neither Jane or I like driving in the dark and the sun now sets at 4:50 pm.

I now have an appointment next Thursday at Hearing Life to get fitted with brand new hearing aids to be paid for by WSIB.

They will not be the Oticon brand but instead will be a brand approved by WSIB that will be comparable.

They will also have features that can be controlled through my IPhone.

Today I set a new personal best for number of steps.

I’m very pleased with that especially since I am down 1.8 lbs from last weigh day.

And to make the day even better, WSIB approved my claim for hearing aids and will pay the whole amount of about $7000.00. And besides that I am eligible for Non Economic Loss which means they’ll pay me about $1300.00.

I love Canada.

This morning, while out on my daily walk, I noticed that it was feeling much colder. It was probably because I was walking against a pretty brisk wind. Once I began walking in the opposite direction, it wasn’t as bad.

I still have another short walk to do later this afternoon to reach my 8000 step daily goal.

This afternoon my old friend, Burdie, dropped in for a coffee and we had a great chat and visit.

This morning Jane and I went to Home Depot to get some black paint and more birdseed. On the way we decided to check out a nearby geocache and quickly located it.

It was near the CKVR TV tower, affectionately known as Jane’s tower because she always used to look for it on the way to her Georgian Bay cottage.

After getting home, I went on a long walk in order to reach my daily goal of eight thousand steps.

After researching different resort venues, we have decided on Krystal Grand Los Cabo’s, an all inclusive place on the Baja peninsula in Mexico.

We’ll be going for two weeks starting February 11, 2025.

It’s been awhile since we have been to the Caribbean, so we are very much looking forward to it.

Today we are doing a deep clean and rejuvenation of our hardwood floors. This involves moving all the furniture from areas in question. It results in a short period of serious disarray.

But the resulting gleaming hardwood is worth the effort.

Today Jane tried out a new recipe using a blade roast. It’s called French Onion Soup pot roast. She did it in our Dutch Oven.

It was delicious and we have enough for few more meals.

We have already obtained travel and trip cancellation insurance, so now all we have to is figure out where in the Caribbean we want to go.

Our neighbours across the street have offered to let us use their club membership to a place in Mexico near Playa del Carmen. It’s not free, but the quality is high.

We have to do more research into that facility and check out some other locations.

We hope to do two weeks somewhere and in February sometime.

Today I began putting together our annual Christmas newsletter. I reviewed all of my blog posts for this year and select Ed one or two for each month along with photos.

There’s a lot of interesting posts to choose from, but it’s all a lot of fun.

I have found a new walk route which takes me through some forested area and ends up at Wilkins Park, right on the shore of Lake Simcoe.

This walk is about an hour long and I did over 6,000 steps, well on my way to meeting my 8000 step daily goal.

And I got to check out my latest Christmas display on the front yard when I got back.

This morning I went for a walk along a slightly different route than I usually take. This route took me through a park to Wilkins Beach, right down on the shore of Kempenfelt Bay, part of Lake Simcoe.

It was just over 6,000 steps, so very close to my daily goal of 8,000.

We also purchased travel insurance in order to book a winter trip to somewhere in the Caribbean. Our neighbours across the street have a VIP membership to a chain in Mexico, so we are looking at that because it could save some money.

We are at Sunnybrook Hospital for a follow-up appointment with Dr. Ing, the ophthalmologist who did surgery on Jane’s eye about a month ago.

It was an uneventful drive down this am but there was a lot of traffic, especially big trucks.

It seems that truckers nowadays are not used to sharing the highway with several instances of them either hugging the lane line or even crossing over.

Jane and I have turned our minds to a midwinter vacation to someplace in the Caribbean. Our neighbours across the street have a time share near Playa del Carmen in Mexico which they are not using. We will find out more this afternoon when we go over to their place.

We have also been looking at other locations including Costa Rica and other Caribbean countries.

Our next step is to get medical and travel insurance which we will do in the next day or two.

With today being rain free and relatively mild, I decided to put up more Christmas lights, this time in the front yard.

I had some rope lights that I used to put around a birch tree in the back yard, but that tree was removed this past summer, so I have used all of the lights on the big maple in the front yard.

Tomorrow I am receiving a couple of exterior timers from Amazon and then all that will be left for the outside is the little Santa and sleigh and some decorations on the veranda.

A few weeks ago I purchased a Bose TV speaker, the idea being to have the option of using a dialogue enhancement feature while watching movies.

I have it connected to our Samsung smart TV but it has been difficult getting it to work properly with the Apple TV.

So today I spent some time trying to sort things out and I think I have it working the way I want.

My plan today was to string more lights up in the back yard, but Mother Nature had other ideas. It started to rain this afternoon, so I am deferring that idea to a more suitable day.

Jane and I did go grocery shopping and Jane tried driving to test out her eye after the recent surgery she had. She was experiencing an issue when making a left hand turn, but other than that, it was fine.

Next Tuesday she has a follow up with Dr. Ing at Sunnybrook hospital and hopefully we can get a timeline on when she can get a new pair of glasses.