Author: Life Unfolding

Effective January 1st the Province of Ontario has made it mandatory that a Carbon Monoxide detector be installed on each level of the home.

Fortunately Steve had an extra one so we picked it up at his place yesterday after Jane’s eye appointment.

And today I put in a 9v battery and plugged it in and did a test. We’re good now.

Jane had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Cheung in Toronto, so we headed down there to be in time for her 11:30 appointment. The roads were all clear and we noticed a lot less snow in Toronto compared to Barrie.

The news was very promising and Jane will have an appointment with Dr. Roberti, her optometrist, to get new prescription reading glasses. Dr. Cheung advised that Jane was okay to drive now but prescribed some eye drops and scheduled a follow up in a month.

On the way home we stopped at A & W for a hamburger in Newmarket.

Last week I sent a letter to the CEO of Tangerine complaining of the declining service in the past few years. Today I received a call from a Tangerine manager who offered apologies on behalf of the company. In addition he deposited $200 as a goodwill gesture into our chequing account.

This morning we did some grocery shopping and I returned the Eero router and cable to Amazon.

Lastly, I shovelled the end of the driveway to get rid of the snowplow windrow before the freezing rain makes it a solid obstacle.

Today, despite the deep snow, I decided to disconnect the outdoor Christmas lights in both the front and backyard. I could scarcely get out the back door because of the snow piled against it, but after some pushing, I managed to do so. While I was out there, I filled the bird feeder with bird seed.

Afterward, I explored the idea of running some cable from the new modem in the basement to the upstairs so I could hardwire a WIFI extender. I was unable to find an existing channel through the wall, so I abandoned that plan.

In the meantime I took some internet speed tests with the existing system to compare against the readings when the new wireless extender arrives later today.

This year has been a banner year for the amount of snow we have been getting here in Barrie. It keeps coming.

Our snow removal guy, Colter from next door, is working hard to stay on top of it.

Today I called Royal Flush Plumbing to have the laundry room sink faucets changed out.

I drove Jane over to her dental appointment this morning.

Today I began looking at alternative ideas for getting my annual blog, Life unfolding, into book form.

The company that I used last year is headquartered in France and this year is charging a Value Added Tax which is making it very expensive.

I will keep looking.

Three of our kitchen cabinet doors were not hanging correctly. So this morning I decided to tackle the job of straightening them.

I was pleasantly surprised to accomplish the task with no problem.

This was not my usual experience of late. I have been having some frustration lately trying to do what should be simple straightforward jobs because of deteriorating vision in my left eye.

Today I turned the Christmas lights off in the front of the house. They are still in place, but won’t be coming on anymore until next December.

Today I’ll do the ones in the back yard.

Right after breakfast we began the task of taking down Christmas decorations. We started with the Christmas tree and had that done in no time.

Then we moved on to the Nativity scene in the niche and the rest of the decorations in the dining room and kitchen.

After that we did the Family room and I put all the bins back up,in the loft.

Jane began putting out our day to day decor. Busy day, but satisfying.

It just keeps coming and coming. And the Weather Network is predicting the next several days for snow as well.

This morning after breakfast we headed out to do grocery shopping but quickly turned back because of the heavy snowfall.

Later, the snow abated, we finally were able to get to metro and get what we needed.

The end of another fun filled year.

We woke up again to another big dump of snow and it’s still snowing right now.

Fortunately for us we don’t have a need to go anywhere. So today we’ll just stay snug inside the house.

Yesterday I dismantled the double bed in the garage and retrieved our car from across the street where our new neighbours, Steve and Kristen, live. Jane had done several loads of laundry which included lots of bedding.

So today it was time to make up all the beds and re-stock the bathrooms with towels etc.

Then Jane and I went on a bit of a scavenger hunt looking for a RC Hot Wheels car belonging to Max. Jane found both the remote and the car in amongst a whole bunch of other toys.

I had a frustrating call with Tangerine this morning regarding a Credit Card payment that I made on the 26th but has not yet shown up on the CC statement. It takes forever to even get through to a person and nine times out of ten its somebody with a thick accent that makes it difficult to understand. In fact, today was so frustrating that I wrote a formal letter of complaint to the CEO of tangerine. Whether or not that will do anything is uncertain.

I had one other very little task which was to change the microwave light bulb and I managed to do that without issue despite having visual difficulty with the small screws.

This afternoon is chillin time.

After breakfast everybody packed stuff up in order to beat the freezing rain predicted by the Weather network. It was a great couple of days and everybody had a fun time, especially the Grandkids.

After everyone left Jane and I did some tidying up before lunch after which we got some laundry underway.

This morning, after a breakfast of pancakes, hash browns and fruit, everyone decided to put together a Lego project. These were all done simultaneously. Fun to watch.

Afterward, the ladies went to Canadian Tire to take advantage of Boxing Day deals.

Around noon in the middle of a snowstorm, everyone arrived in time for lunch.

After lunch we gathered in our sitting room and gave all the kids their gifts.

Then we went to the Family room and the adults exchanged gifts.

In mid-afternoon I put the farm boy turkey in the oven to be ready for a six o’clock meal.

This morning I chopped up vegetables for turkey stuffing and soup. Jane is making the chicken soup from scratch as well as the stuffing.

Afterward we opened each other’s Christmas card and gifts to each other.

And I got the bed set up in the garage where Jane and I will be sleeping for two nights while the Family visits.

Colter and his girlfriend, Alayna came over with some cookies and washcloths that Alayna made. So nice. And Colter helped me get the bed together.

A very productive day.

Today I picked up,our pre-ordered turkey dinner for eight at our local Farm Boy store.

We have had this exact dinner this past Thanksgiving and it was excellent. It comes with a detailed time schedule for hearing up all the side dishes and cooking the turkey.

We’ll be having this on Boxing Day when the whole family is here.

This morning, before it got too busy, I went to Metro to pick up some Christmas groceries. I managed to get the very last carton of egg nog in the store as well as several produce items that will be fresh for the Family Christmas visit.

I pit together a scavenger hunt for each of the grandkids if things get a bit boring for them (I don’t think that will happen with all the new toys).

We are in excellent shape for an exciting family Christmas.

I had a few things to do around the house this morning, but afterward it occurred to me that it might be a good day to try out my new HS600:drone.

So I went through all the preflight procedures and took it out on our driveway.

Everything went without a hitch although things got a little tense when a flock of pigeons started circling around it.

But I managed to evade their attack and landed safely.

Since switching from Bell internet to telMAX, some devices have been difficult to reconnect. But today I managed to re-connect the Roomba.

However I have been having difficulty getting the thermostat re-connected.

I’ll have to get Steve or Chris to try when they come up.

Because this drone is over 250g, it must be registered with Transport Canada. I did that this morning and along with that registered with NavCan which is an app that shows where it’s legal to fly as well as any restricted areas.

All I need now is some decent flying weather.

Early in December I had entered a contest on the Holy Stone FB page in which they were asking folks to post their most memorable drone moment from 2025. I was selected as a winner.

Today I received the mystery prize which was a HS600 model drone which I am quite happy to get.

Once I get the batteries charged up I’ll see how it flies, but only if it’s not too windy.

Although it was somewhat breezy this morning, I took my drone outside and did a quick flight from the driveway.

In fact it was way too windy to go very high, so I took a couple of quick videos and called it quits.

On another note, Jeff Henderson from Rockland Renovations dropped by with a little Christmas token which was much appreciated.

He was the one who did a fantastic reno job on our main floor bathroom.

This morning, after our daily two out of three Yatzy games, we went to Metro to pick up a few things that are needed for Christmas visitors.

It is very mild today with the temperature around 5C and it’s calling for rain later today.

Hopefully the snow will stick around for our Christmas visitors.

Had a very nice call with Steveranski this morning after their recent return from the Dominican Republic as a guest of the company accountant.

This year has been one of the snowiest since we moved here twelve years ago.

We will be enjoying a white Christmas this year which will be nice when all the grandchildren are here for a couple of days starting Boxing Day.

We’ll get to see them open the gifts we got them which will be a lot of fun.

Since getting telMAX internet there have been a few devices that have not automatically connected. One of them was my XBox which I use for MSFS2020..

Yesterday I spent some time playing around with getting it reconnected and finally simply reconfigured the setup option which worked.

In fact, it’s better now because telMAX is 500 mbps instead of only 50mbps with Bell.

This morning we went to Giant Tiger to get more coffee filters and to Home Hardware to get some potting soil. Jane wanted to re-pot the spider plants which have become root bound.

I did a little more work on the Barrie Healthcare Infusion project and made a Tik Tok promo on that idea.

Then it was a lazy afternoon watching YouTube videos.

This morning, over breakfast, Jane and I talked about the idea of doing a video compilation of previous Christmases. Both of us retrieved photos and videos and this afternoon I put together a video using Clip Champ.

On another note, Jane has been having trouble with dry and cracked lips as well as a burning sensation. She has been using blistex but it is not helping.

In speaking with our pharmacist, she suggested app,ting hydrocortisone cream and petroleum jelly. That seems to be helping.

We haven’t had this much snow since we first moved from Toronto to Barrie thirteen years ago. It’s been snowing off and on all day.

In the meantime I have continued to work at getting all devices connected to our WiFi network since switching from Bell to telMAX.

The other night, the power went out for a very brief few seconds. But it was long enough that some clocks had to be re-set and timers on the outside Christmas lights were messed up.

So today I bundled up and plowed through the snow to get them back on schedule.

Now we wait until it gets dark to see if they will turn on when they’re supposed to.

It has been snowing steadily all day and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.m

I am checking out how well the garage will warm up with the new ceiling heater I installed a few weeks ago.

We are staying home today.