Another visit over.

Conditions at 6:30 am - 16* and dry
Expected later- 21* and rain


It seems like he just got here, and now he's gone.
Lloyd and Jim arrived around 7:30 on Friday evening, and the weekend just flew by.
Friday night I was hoping to get home before they got here as my new stove was delivered Friday afternoon and I wanted to get everything back in place before they got here. I talked to Lloyd on the phone on my way home and he advised it would be a bit later when they got here. Perfect!
I got home and put groceries away and quickly removed the packaging from the stove and put everything in place. When he got here he looked at it and was about to make a comment and I stopped him in mid sentence - he has no right to comment on my "toys" as he has a LOT more than I do and his cost a great deal more as well. So, end of discussion. But he was totally okay with it, as we had sort of talked about it when I was in Toronto in August. Now I just have to get it hooked up. I'll call the propane people this week and make an appointment. There's no huge rush to get it done but there were a couple of times over the weekend when it would have been nice to have both working so I know it was a great idea.

He brought my new counter top down for my island. As you can see, it is perfect. I have a piece of marble that was on top of the butcher block table and it fits absolutely perfectly. Now I have the wooden top and the marble surface to work with. It was a really functional piece on Sunday night when we had company.

When they arrived Lloyd could barely move around. Every once in a while, he puts his back out and this was one of those times. He had told me about it before he arrived so on Friday I called around until I found someone who could give him a massage on Saturday morning. It was a tremendous help. It really improved after that. On Friday night I had just put supper on the table when the lights went out. So I scrambled around and lit candles so we could at least see what we were doing. While the power was out, Brenda and Bernie arrived. They had just returned home from Grand Falls. We had a drink together and after a while the power came back on. We were expecting a hurricane to possibly strike but it hadn't yet arrived.

Saturday morning dawned just like any other day. The sun was out and it was a lovely morning when I drove in to work. Gradually over the morning the clouds rolled in, the wind picked up and the rain started. By the time I was finished at 2:00 it was a very blustery day. I heard on the radio that parts of downtown were without power as a couple of trees had come down onto wires, but the power was still on at the Gahan House, where I was meeting the guys for lunch. After a couple of beers and some fish and chips, we headed home.

We spent the rest of the night listening to the wind howl, and monitoring things outside. Our biggest concern was the little shelter we'd put up for storage earlier in the summer. Amazingly enough, it held. We lost a small tree, that snapped in half, but other than that, everything seems to have survived. We didn't even lose power, although some parts of the island did.

I was making supper on Saturday night, and the guys were sitting at the table and we were chatting and I wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing and I managed to slice off half of the nail on my left index finger. Needless to say, it was a little painful. So I pressed on it for a while, till the bleeding mostly stopped, put some antibiotic cream on it and put on a couple of bandaids and continued on. But it was quite painful throughout the evening. Before I went to bed, I found a guard I'd bought a couple of years ago, when I did something similar up at Stone Tree. It helped a lot as it didn't hurt so much if I hit it on something. By morning it was much better and by afternoon I didn't need the guard anymore. It still hurts if I hit it, but not enough to send me through the roof anymore. Serves me right, I know better.

Sunday morning I called Brenda and suggested we go to Tracadie for the Pancake Breakfast. She thought that was a great idea, so she and I drove over together and Lloyd and Jim followed, and Bernie met us there. After breakfast I went home and worked on dinner. Brenda and Bernie, Richard and Darelen and Tony (our extended PEI family) were all coming over. I did a beer can turkey in the oven, and was amazed that it was totally cooked in about 3 hours. I did stuffing in the crock pot and it was a huge hit. We all sat around the table, a little bit crowded, but cozy, and we used the island as a buffet table. It worked brilliantly. A great evening was had by all, I think.

Monday was a bit of a lazy morning. Not up too early, a leisurely breakfast then the guys took the truck into Stratford Auto to leave it to get the brakes fixed. A late lunch, then a bit of a nap, then into town for some supper. It was a relaxing kind of day, not the usual "hurry up and finish a project cause I'm running out of time " kind of visit Lloyd has grown used to. I felt a little badly about bailing on the rec centre. Justin Trudeau was there for a fund raising dinner but I bowed out at the last minute. I thought I should really spend the last evening with Lloyd and Jim.

Now this morning, they've left at a little after 4:00. I tried to go back to sleep but that wasn't happening, so it will be a long day today, but I can turn in early tonight.

MOUSE WARS: 2 more caught over the weekend - total to date - 7