It's a very blustery day!

Conditions at 5:30 am - extremely windy with horizontal rain and 3*
Expected later - more of the same

The wind is howling this morning like I don't think I've heard it before, and we've had LOTS of wind over the past few weeks. The drive in to work should be interesting. But amazingly enough, through all of these wind storms, we've never lost power. (Hope I haven't jinxed anything by saying that!)
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Last night my friend Donna and I were treated to a lovely supper prepared by Lloyd. It was such a treat to come home and sit down in the living room and sip on a glass of wine while our meal was being prepared, then simply get up and go to the table, and be served. It was a delicious meal even though it was, as Lloyd put it "simple fare". We had  a warm spinach salad, as an appetizer, meat loaf, cheesy scalloped potatoes and fresh green beans for our main course and a really interesting dessert. It was homemade banana bread that was sliced, dipped in an egg and milk mixture and fried like French Toast, then topped with ice cream, caramel sauce and whipped cream. It was quite the treat.  All in all it was a lovely evening, although we did miss Brenda.
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Speaking of Brenda, she called around 10:00 to let us know they made it home. I'm so glad that she did because I was expecting they would be coming home today and I was concerned it might not be a great day for traveling. And with the wind this high, there is a real possibility they may close the bridge to all traffic, as they did a couple of weeks ago. But they are home, safe and sound.  Welcome back everybody. I'm looking forward to hearing about Bernie and Caitlin's adventure.
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The other travelers called as well. Patti phoned to tell us that they will all be arriving on the 23rd. The flights out of Toronto are quite busy but so far it looks like they should be able to get a flight to Halifax late on the 22nd so they are going to all fly there and stay overnight and catch the first flight over in the morning. So Lloyd will meet me at the airport and then they will have both vehicles as there's too many to fit in one. Then Patti will come into town to pick me up and we're going to do some shopping and then go out for something to eat. Lloyd and Greg and the kids will be on their own but I think they'll get well fed - Chef Papa will be in charge!
It will also be nice for Patti and I to spend a bit of time together without all the other 'distractions' because they always have lots to tell me. I'll pick up a birthday cake and they can have that for dessert on Thursday night.
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Yesterday was a very quiet day at work. I suppose people are finally clued in to the fact that Christmas is just days away so they are only coming in if really necessary. No one needed a ride in the morning. I didn't drive anyone until after lunch. But I did have a lengthy project I was working on for Craig so it was nice to be able to just keep working on it rather than be constantly interrupted. In the afternoon I took the car in to get the decal put on the sides. Now it is easily identifiable again. The sign shop is right around the back side of the plaza that houses Value Village. So while I was waiting I wandered over there to check out their Christmas decorations. I found a tree on display, 7 1/2 feet tall, that was actually very nice. So I bought it for work. Pam and I talked a bit about trees on Saturday night. They usually put up a real tree in the showroom but now that it's this late, we're not going to bother. She suggested that we look for an artificial one on sale after Christmas to use next year. But this one will be quite nice once it's decorated and the plus side is it was only $25.00. I've looked at the trees there before but usually they are all in boxes but they had several set up so you could see what condition they were in and this one will do the job quite nicely. So I had the boys in the shop put it in storage for me till the beginning of December next year.
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