Friday, November 28th - it was quite a ride - for November!

Conditions at 5:45: overcast and -3
Expected later: -1 and maybe a few flurries

Well, as we thought might happen, yesterday was a snow day for all the school kids (and bus drivers!)
It started late in the evening and by the time Lloyd got up to go to work at midnight, there was probably close to 15 cms of snow on the ground. The up side was that it wasn't very windy so the snow stayed put. By the time I got up at 5:00 it had rained some so the snow on the ground was compacted a bit and was very heavy and wet. There were icy patches under the slush on the road so driving was a little treacherous in spots. But I took my time and went in the back way so there was virtually no traffic. I picked up a couple of coffees and muffins and dropped in to see Lloyd before heading to work. The streets in town were in much better condition and just got better as the rain started again and continued. By lunch time the roads were bare and wet but then it started snowing and really blowing this time. When I got back from lunch I feared the drive home might be a challenge.I had an hour owed to me so decided this might be a great day to take it. Of course, by the time I left work at 4:00 it had stopped snowing, but the highway was snow covered in spots and the wind was very high. There were times a gust would hit the car and it was a bit of a struggle to stay in your own lane for a few seconds. I was glad that it was still daylight when I got home and that I made it safe and sound. The first few times driving in winter weather are a bit of a learning experience from the year before. But each time we head out, it's easier. The snow should be gone by the end of the next few days as warmer temperatures are on the way. The western part of the island got hit by old man winter much harder than we did, so for that we're grateful. We're not even going to talk about New Brunswick which was really battered, and many thousands of people were still without power as of 6:00 last evening.

Other than the weather, not a lot to talk about at the moment. I have a sewing project for my boss to finish tonight then I can get back on track with my own tasks.  I spent most of last evening working out in the craft room on a couple of things. My computer out there has been giving me some trouble of late, so I had the IT guy come out and look at it before he went off to dreamland. He knows what's wrong but whether or not he has a spare part to fix it, remains to be seen. With any luck, that will get fixed sooner rather than later.

The downstairs of the garage is slowly taking shape. There are racks on the walls with wrenches and screw drivers hanging about and it's all starting to look ever so organized. The cabinets he's built are holding a multitude of tools and equipment so there will soon be no excuse when I ask him to build me something! 

Wednesday, November 26th - what a difference a day can make!

Conditions at 5:15 am: 6', overcast with a light wind
Expected later: temperatures staying the same with a mix of sun and cloud in the morning, but look out!

What a strange 48 hours coming our way. The temperature yesterday was a very balmy 15' in the sunshine. It was glorious. I saw several bikes out on the highway and Brenda even saw a convertible go past her house with the top down! Awesome weather for the 26th of November, now officially less than one month to Christmas. But watch out. We're expecting anywhere from 15 to 25 cms of snow to fall in the next 36 hours or so. It's all okay though. We have a shed full of wood, a new snowblower and the snow tires are on the vehicles - BRING IT ON!

We know it's not going to hang around too long as we are expecting warmer temperatures in the next few days so we'll see what happens. Still nothing compared to what Buffalo experienced last week, so we should count ourselves in luck. Can't say I've seen a snow day in November since I've been here, but there's always a first time, and I'm sure it's happened in the past.

Other than the weather, not a lot going on. The Christmas lights are on the outside of the house, and there's even a small tree in front of the front door. Old Scrooge McDenny put them all up on Monday when I was at work. Then he asked if we had any of those electric candles to put in the upstairs windows. Okay, who is this person and what have they done with Lloyd??? Old Mr. Bah Humbug himself.  Seems he's mellowing slightly in his old age, or perhaps it's just that after 25 years, he's finally learned that he might as well join it, he can't fight it! When he was in Newfoundland his sisters told him to expect all the decorations to be up when he got back. They all seem to know me a little too well!

Always the good sport!

I picked up some embellishments yesterday for our Christmas cards and that will be next on my list of things to work on. I like doing those in the craft room because I can spread everything out all over the place and just work on it a little at a time. I have the photos printed but couldn't decide what I wanted to do with them but I finally figured that out yesterday. That's half the battle, coming up with a design. Of course the internet helps tremendously with that. Being as it's now officially less than one month away, I'd better get busy.

The two older kids had a busy weekend. They were skating in Oshawa and James took away another silver medal. Meg  also skated well but came away empty handed. No worries, the season is just getting underway, and we all know how tenacious that little girl can be!

Monday, November 24th - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Conditions at 5:30 am:  a calm 1', that will see sunshine this morning, possibly turning to rain this afternoon. The crazy thing is the temperature, that will rise to 8'  this afternoon, then 11' this evening and to 13' overnight


It's starting to look a lot like Christmas around here. It all started with Friday night. In the afternoon I was looking forward to just going home and vegging for the night. Lloyd  hadn't had a lot of sleep in the morning so he was headed off to bed by 6:30.   Once he was gone to bed, I decided I might as well attend the Christmas centre piece event at the East River Fire Department. It's a fund raiser and I decided at the last second to attend. I almost backed out as I went out to get in the car. It was snowing quite hard and I thought, what on earth am I doing. I headed down the very snow covered road and it wasn't stopping. But by the time I got to the corner, it was eased off quite a bit, so I suppose it was just an isolated flurry.  There was a good turn out at the fire hall and a good time was had by all. Fortunately there are people there with great ideas and a keen eye for design so they were most invaluable. Because it was last minute I was at a loss as to what kind of container to bring. A quick scan of the top of the kitchen cupboards revealed an old copper tea pot and lid. It worked perfectly. 

Saturday was a pretty quiet day. It was cold and windy outside so I managed to keep myself occupied inside where it was nice and toasty warm.  Laundry and sorting out some of the Christmas stuff managed to fill the day. Lloyd was out in the garage for part of the day and then a nap in the afternoon.  He did manage to get the snow tires put on both vehicles.  It was something to see, the vehicles actually inside the garage. It's great that there's a place to do these jobs inside now.

Sunday was a little nicer although I wasn't so sure at first.  The snow plow went down the road twice before 6:00 am so I wasn't sure what I was going to wake up to. The ground was covered in snow but it wasn't really too bad, just a couple of cms.  The sun was shining and it turned out to be a pretty nice day. I spent the morning baking cookies and putting them in the freezer before anyone else got into them prematurely!  The afternoon was spent putting the decorations on the tree and a few things here and there. Now I have lots of tidying up and putting away to do but that will get done. I also did a fair bit of work on my braided rug project. I only have one  more class so decided I'd better get at it. It's coming along nicely though still a fair bit to do. But now it looks like it's manageable and I might actually get it finished in time for our pot luck, when our projects go on display, next week. I do work best under pressure!

Friday, November 21st - just when we got our routine in place...

Conditions at 2:30 am: clear and -1' with lots of bright stars and a light dusting of snow, that must have been there at midnight, judging by the tire tracks Lloyd left when he went to work
Expected later: a mix of sun and clouds and the temperature pretty much staying the same throughout the day

The past couple of weeks, one of our favorite shows, Grey's Anatomy, has been coming on early on Wednesday night. With Lloyd gone to bed by 7:00, Brenda would come over after and we would open up a bottle of wine, get our chosen snacks for the evening and park ourselves in front of the TV from 8:00 till 9:00.  Now, just when we've gotten our routine established, it's off the air until the 29th of January. Seriously???  Now we have to go through the whole process again of finding a great excuse to meet up and indulge just a little. No worries, though, as I'm sure we'll come up with something to get us through the next couple of months and a cold, snowy winter.

I've been diligently working on my community school project. We have one class left and I'm a long way from being finished. So I've come up with a brilliant plan. I spend my lunch hours upstairs at work, in the boardroom. I have a lovely large table and quiet space all to myself. I take my lunch and eat it as I work, and at the same time, I watch something on my ipad.  It's working out quite nicely for me.  Gives me something to do at lunch without going outside in the cold!

Have I mentioned the Camino de Santiago? I first learned about it a couple of years ago and have seen a

movie and a documentary about it. Then recently a woman came to community school to share her experience walking the route, by herself, at the age of 67. How inspiring it that?  So I've done a tiny bit of research and have lots more to do, but I would really like to do this roughly 800 km walk, across part of France and Spain, sometime in the next 2 or 3 years. The lady we spoke with told us it took her 5 weeks to complete. I'd love to do it sooner, rather than later but fear that job commitments would never allow me to take that much time off at once. I may just have to wait until I turn 65 and am retired but we'll see. Obviously I need to do a a bit  lot of training and conditioning before I undertook something like that. I've done it before for the 60 km Breast Cancer walk so I'm sure I can do it again, if I put my mind to it. I've been doing all kinds of reading and came across this basic information:


The Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James is a spiritual journey that pilgrims of all faiths and

backgrounds have traversed for over a thousand years. The pilgrimage originally began at one’s doorstep, though modern trekkers today would find that rather difficult, particularly American pilgrims needing to cross the Atlantic. While there are a number of established routes leading to Santiago from all directions, the most popular is the Camino Frances, which crosses the Pyrenees Mountains along the Spanish-French border starting in St. Jean Pied de Port.

This Camino route covers 800 kilometers that traverses an idyllic northern Spanish countryside. By

following the yellow painted arrows marking the road, a pilgrim can expect to walk 12-15 miles a day to reach the next town for the night. At this pace, a pilgrim can reach the Cathedral de Santiago in 6 to 8 weeks time to attend the Pilgrim's Mass held at noon each day. Some take more time, others less. 


Some choose to travel by bike, and some have done the Camino on horseback. Along the way travelers encounter albergues, refugios and casa rurals that cater specifically to the thousands of pilgrims of all ages that take this journey each year,

immersing themselves in the local food, culture and history dedicated to this experience.

Pilgrims walk the Camino for various reasons. Some to seek penance, others enlightenment, and still others for a sense of adventure, yet all progress toward the Cathedral in Santiago where it is believed the remains of the apostle St. James are held. 

Most pilgrims choose to carry a scallop shell with them to symbolize their journey in honor of St. James. According to legend, scallop shells are said the have covered St. James’ body after it was found on the shores of the Galician coast. Another, perhaps more useful symbol is a walking stick to aid a weary pilgrim on his or her journey. 

Most pilgrims also carry a document called the credencial, purchased for a few euros from a Spanish tourist agency, a church on the route or from their church back home. The credencial is a pass which gives access to inexpensive, sometimes free, overnight accommodation in refugios along the trail. Also known as the "pilgrim's passport", the credencial is stamped with the official St. James stamp of each town or refugio at which the pilgrim has stayed. It provides walking pilgrims with a record of where they ate or slept, but also serves as proof to the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago that the journey is accomplished according to an official route. The credencial is available at refugios, tourist offices, some local parish houses, and outside Spain, through the national St. James organisation of that country. The stamped credencial is also necessary if the pilgrim wants to obtain a compostela, a certificate of completion of the pilgrimage.

Regardless of whether a pilgrim’s journey begins for religious, spiritual or cultural reasons, the meditative nature of the Camino offers the perfect landscape in which to dedicate contemplation. Pilgrims follow the path amidst the villages, towns, rivers, mountains and fertile valleys that have changed the lives of millions of pilgrims who walked before them.

This will be a huge undertaking and will require a lot of preparation, but I really want to have this experience. It's very high on my bucket list!

Wednesday, November 19th - November is passing by much too quickly!

Conditions at 5:30 am: -4' that feel more like -12'
Expected later: 0' that will feel more like -7' with the 40 km hour winds that will gust up to 68 km

Quite a change from yesterday morning. I went outside to put something in the garbage bin and it was absolutely balmy. The temperature outside at 5:15 am was 14'.  Course it gradually dropped all day to about 4' by the end of the work day. We had bit of rain throughout the day so needless to say, all our snow is gone.  Strange weather indeed. But we should be grateful we don't live in Buffalo, New York where they saw upwards of 100 cms of snow. That lake affect gets them every time. And just in case you've forgotten from last year, what exactly does 100 cms of snow look like? This photo was taken in Buffalo yesterday. Good thing the ladies in Ontario did their shopping excursion to Buffalo a few weeks ago.

Can't say I'm looking forward to the management part of that kind of snow but at least we'll be able to ski!
Good thing it's not quite that bad in Ontario. The Dennisons are in the cold as their furnace broke down yesterday. The fellow should be round today to fix it but in the meantime, it's likely mighty chilli. Good thing they have two gas burning fireplaces. That will help a lot, I'm sure. Their weather yesterday was very cold and windy and it appears there's snow on the ground. Not a great time for the furnace to give up.

Other than our peculiar weather, not a lot is going on at the moment. We had our second last community school class last night. One more week before our pot luck and our crafted items go on display.  I'd really better get my butt in gear and get my rug finished before then. Last night they took information on what was needed for the pot luck. I waited till the other three girls in my group had made their choices on the sign up sheet so I wouldn't have to decide. Our little group is required to bring two casseroles, 1 salad and 1 dessert. By the time the list got to me the only thing left was 1 dessert so I'll have to decided what to bring. The cake I made last weekend for our get together was a huge success so I might make one of those. If you slice it thinly you can easily get 16 small pieces from it or 12 better pieces.  I'll have to think about that one.

Monday, November 17th - the garage has been officially christened!

Conditions at 5:30: overcast and 1'
Expected later: rain throughout the day and slowly increasing to a low overnight of 9'

It was a pretty busy weekend. Friday evening Brenda met me in town and we went out for some supper. We enjoyed the Red Water Rustic Grill where we shared an appetizer and dessert, washed down with a beer. It had started snowing earlier in the day and the driving was a little tricky by 5:00 so I was glad I didn't have to head home yet. The nice part of the restaurant location, is when you're finished eating, you just wander through the underground pedway that brings you right up into the Confederation Centre. No muss, no fuss, no snow!

The production of Jesus Christ Superstar was very well done. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. For a relatively new local theatre company, they did a tremendous job. I'll never look at the fellow who reports on the news in quite the same way again. Who knew he had such a great voice!

Our drive home was much better as the snow had pretty much stopped. The worst part of the road was from Fort Augustus to home, and fortunately it's not a great distance. I stayed up till Lloyd got up to go to work, then I was wide awake. After watching something on TV I finally headed off to bed a little after midnight.

Saturday morning I was meeting Lloyd in town at Canadian Tire. I needed to pick up a couple of things and he wanted to chat with them about the snow blower I purchased last Saturday. Turns out it was on sale this week in the flyer for $150.00 off the regular price. They didn't hesitate to refund that amount to us. That was a nice little bonus, so Lloyd promptly found  a new drill that he thought he should have to use up that new found money!


After work, I picked up some veggies, and last minute things needed for our party on Sunday.  Then it was

home to put together the cake I wanted to make, as it needed to set in the fridge overnight.  Lloyd was working in the garage, cleaning up stuff. After supper he headed back out there for a bit while I cleaned up the dishes, and that was it for the night.

Sunday we were up bright and early. I had things to do for the party, gathering everything together to take out to the garage. In the afternoon Lloyd and I trucked everything out there, chairs, dishes, etc, etc. We had invited about 18 people but not everyone could make it. We ended up with a group of 12, which was fine as that's exactly how many I could sit around the table.  We were very pleased that our friend Jackie arrived with some freshly caught oysters and clams to temp our taste buds. They were mighty delicious and those who like them, really enjoyed them.

By all accounts, I think the evening was a success. We were a little disappointed that some of the others didn't make it, as the idea was to say Thank You to them, but we can always get together another time. In fact, the area worked so well, we're thinking maybe we should do something for New Years.  It's the perfect spot for it. We had chairs, and a bar set up downstairs but the numbers being lower, we didn't use that space but I can see it getting used another time. All in all, a great night with great friends! Thanks once again, to all of you.

But an extra big thank you needs to go to the ladies who did all the dishes. That was not meant to be part of the evening, but on the other hand, I'm extremely grateful to all of you, and you know who you are!

You may notice the small tree in the back ground. Yesterday was Patti's birthday, which also happened to be the day of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. That was always the signal for us to start the Christmas Season, much to some people's dismay. So now that the parade is over, it's official the beginning of the festivities!  

Friday, November 14th - Happy Birthday Patti!

Conditions at 5:20 am: overcast and 2'
Expected later: 4' and a mix of rain and maybe some snow.

Yesterday the phone was still ringing off the hook at work, as the radio was advising us to expect upwards of 10 cm of snow today. That has since been scaled back, at least as far as the weather network is concerned. So it's anyone's guess what will appear. I doubt it will be too severe. Certainly not enough to cancel our little get together on Sunday, that's for sure.

Lloyd arrived home on Wednesday evening, a little later than scheduled as the flight was delayed, but he was here by 5:20 so not bad at all. He had to work that night and it was a pretty long one as he hadn't had much sleep. But he should be back on track today. He had a great visit with family and was very glad that he went.

Tonight I'm excited to be going to the Confed Centre to see a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, with
Brenda. She had the album growing up but has never seen it performed live. I have to say it is, by far, my favorite stage play. But that may be part nostalgia.

As I was growing up, attending any type of live theatrical production was not something our family ever did. When I was in college, I had the opportunity to go to the O'keefe Centre (now named something else) with some other students to see Jesus Christ Superstar. This would have been when it first came out, around 1973. I knew a couple of the songs but I still remember being overwhelmed as the live orchestration of the familiar tunes washed over me in the darkness. Such powerful emotions, I had never experienced.  That's when I fell in love with live theatre. I have since seen productions of the same play numerous times and enjoyed then all. So I'm really looking forward to tonight's show.

I'm working tomorrow then spending the afternoon getting ready for our guests on Sunday. Lots to look forward to this weekend.

Before I forget, a big Happy 40th  Birthday to Patti on Sunday. Hope you have a great day, wherever  you end up spending it!

Wednesday, November 12th - later today will be welcome home, Lloyd

Conditions at 5:30 am: 5' and with some fog patches. It was supposed to go down below 0' but that didn't  happened.
Expected later: 10' and showers

It's been pretty quiet out here on the hill. Monday was crazy busy, again, at work  but we got through, despite being several staff short. Some had thought ahead and taken Monday as a vacation day as we also had Tuesday off. I didn't as I had no real reason to take the day off.

I had thought Lloyd was coming home on Thursday, but he called me on Monday morning to advise he was actually coming home on Wednesday afternoon.  Ooops - good thing I mentioned it in the blog, or I would have left town on Wednesday without giving it a thought that he would need picking up.

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day, and I have to say I took advantage of it. Not necessarily the best advantage, as I did finish a book I was reading and also watched a couple of episodes of a series on Netflix. I did get some constructive things done as well, but not nearly as much as I should have. I did do some cleaning, and some arranging out in the craft room, I baked a batch of Christmas Cookies and put them in the freezer, and that's about it. 

Patti called me early in the evening. She had sent me some photos via email and she thought she should check up on me as she didn't get any response. She'd forgotten that we have the day off so I wasn't sitting in front of a computer all day. We chatted for a bit about things going on at her house, with lots of drama the past few days - shopping in  Buffalo, lost dog, lost passport...

She was on her way to a Speed Skating meeting and James was going to practice. He usually doesn't go on Tuesday because of Cadets but he's had lots of cadet activity in the previous 24 hours so there was no Cadets on Tuesday night.. The cadets are involved in the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Guelph starting the night before.

The cadets do a 12 hour vigil from 7 pm Nov 10th to 7 am Nov 11th at the cenotaph in Guelph. They do an hour each but James was an alternate and ended up doing two shifts -  from 1-2 am and 4-5 am. She didn't get a photo of him at the cenotaph but these are the cadets that were doing the last shift this morning when she got there to pick him up.

Guess which ones is James? Much easier than "Where's Waldo!!

Monday, November 10th - ooops - I really need to learn how to read a calander.

Conditions at 5:30 am: 2' that feels more like -1' - especially with the heavy frost on the vehicles this morning. But the moon and stars are brilliant this morning
Expected later: 8' and sunny - not a bad day at all

Well, apparently I was a little premature with my anniversary wishes on Friday and totally messed with the heads of those involved. Our friends anniversary isn't until THIS Thursday, not last Thursday. So while I thought I was sending late wishes, I was a week early. I had poor Brenda second guessing herself about the date. She was pretty sure it wasn't till this week but then she had to really think about it. Sorry about that guys, and all the best this week!

What a crazy few days of weather we had. Lloyd left on Friday morning, and was fortunate to make all his planned flights. You just never know when you fly standby. But all went well and he arrived on time.  By the time I got home on Friday evening, it was raining a little but extremely windy. We had winds in the 80 km range and it was a challenge.  All night long you could hear the wind howling and things banging around outside. We lost several large chunks of branches off the trees in the front yard, but that's typical when we get those high winds. 

It continued into Saturday morning. I was up early and headed into town to drop off some recycling and get to Canadian Tire when they opened. I picked up Lloyd's new toys. All he needs now is some snow. He also had a rain check for a new bench sander and they also had that in stock so now he has two new things to play with when he gets home.We're very fortunate to have a neighbour who comes by with his big tractor and snowblower but that doesn't help with the snow around the house, and now that we have the garage, we need to keep the snow clear between there and the wood shed. This will make his life a whole lot easier. If we have any winter guests who insist on sleeping in the bunky, they won't have to crawl on their hands and knees on top of the deep snow banks to get to their bed this year!

The winds continued throughout the day and only subsided by late evening. There was a function at the Rec Centre on Saturday evening and it was much calmer when we left there around 9:30.  It had been very cold on Saturday but Sunday was promising to be much improved. And it was. I was outside in the morning and it was pleasant to be out there with much milder temperatures and the wind finally gone. I filled up my wood supply for the week and brought some things out to the craft room.   I even managed to bake some fruit cake while I puttered about. Now I can say I've at least started some Christmas baking!

Brenda and I had made plans to go into town to the Craft Fair at the Confed Centre on Sunday afternoon. She picked me up after lunch and we headed into town, stopping first to pick up my car. Then we made our way downtown to the  craft show. All that shopping worked up an appetite so our next stop was  the Old Triangle for  some nachos and a beer. This left us with just enough time to head over to the liquor store to bottle some wine, as we were both running low. With our cases of wine in tow, we parted company and headed home. Now all the vehicles are in the right places and all is good.

It's going to be a strange week, with a day off on Tuesday. But we'll work with it. Lloyd will be home sometime Thursday afternoon, if all goes well. I have a few more little jobs I hope to get done while he's away. 

Friday, November 7th - Happy Rainy Friday

Conditions at 5:30 am: a wet and rainy 8' that feels slightly more like 5'
Expected later: more rain and a high of 13'



First,  belated Anniversary wishes to our good friends Brenda and Bernie. I knew it was coming up but 
didn't check the calendar until this morning, when I realized I missed it! Sorry about that guys. Hope you did something interesting.  I should have at least called last night to give you my best wishes.

Hooray, it's Friday! I can say that because I have the weekend off. Then we work Monday and have Tuesday off. Not a bad week. Lloyd is off this morning to Newfoundland. Hopefully his flights will go as we hope they will. With any luck he'll be having lunch on the rock.  As for me, I have a long list of things I hope to accomplish while he's away. Some will be preparations for our little party we're hosting when he gets back and some will be Christmas stuff. It will be here before you know it. We also have a catering job at the beginning of December so we also have to do some planning for that as well. 

I was contacted by the wife of one of the fellows at work to see if I might do some Christmas baking for her. I might try and get some of that stuff done while he's away as well. Then I can hide it all before he gets back, so there will still be some when the holidays get here!

He has the balcony on the garage all closed in now. The wall is up and the openings are ready for the windows to be installed.  He's got them filled in with plastic at the moment until he gets back. There are two very large windows and when I went upstairs last night, to look out, they will work very nicely. It's not as open but now it's a really cozy space. The best part is now I don't have to find somewhere to store my chairs and huge cushions for the winter. They can just stay put. I have the infrared heater up there that I used to heat last year. I can put that out there to turn on if we want to sit out there and we can actually use it all year long now. Sitting up there with a hot chocolate infused with some Bailey's and watching the snow flakes gently fall sounds like another great way to pass the winter.

Wednesday, November 4th - Yes, people, winter is really going to come again this year!

Conditions at 6:35 am: 6' and overcast
Expected later:  mainly cloudy and 13' with a slight chance of showers

Well, what a day we had on Monday. There was some snow in New Brunswick over the weekend, which spurred a lot of islanders into action.  Our phone started ringing at 7:30 and litterally rang non-stop all day long. It was insane. I really didn't get any other work done throughout the course of the day. It was a huge wake up I suppose for some folks to discover that there was snow in the region. Everyone wanted to get their winter tires put on right away.  I didn't tell them that the temperature is supposed to go back up to 13' or better later in the week.. It was an exhausting day by the time it was over. I suppose I can only look at the bright side of things and view it as job security! 
Tuesday was much better, but the sun came out and it didn't seem quite so bleak, although the clouds were in and out all day. The panic had subsided somewhat.   Oh well, we need those crazy days every now and again to really make us appreciate the slow ones.

One of the business managers came to me yesterday and advised that today was take your kid to school day. So his 14 year old daughter is coming in today and he wondered if I had any filing she might be able to do. Do I have filing!  But I feel bad making the poor girl tackle that huge job for the day.  That seems more like some kind of punishment. Of course most of the files are her dad's, but I'm sure we'll be able to find some other jobs for her to do besides that miserable task - tempting as it is to have someone do all of it for me.  But that's just not right. 

Not a lot going on this week.  Lloyd is trying to get as much done as he can before he leaves for Newfoundland on Friday morning.  We've planned a little get together in the garage shortly after he gets back. I thought he was back sooner than he actually will be, so it will be quite tight, as there won't be a lot of time when he returns.  We've invited all those folks who had a hand in the planning and/or construction of the garage.  Just a little "Thanks for your help".  We know one fellow will be away, but I think most everyone else should be around.   Hopefully we don't have a snow storm that day.  It could happen. It's going to be on the 16th of November - Patti's birthday. I'd invite her  to join us but she's off to London England that weekend.  Poor baby!

Hard to believe it's finally come from this:

To this:

There's still work to be done but it will eventually get done. At least now we both have a great space to work in. Not bad for a bunch of amateurs!

Monday, November 3rd - no snow yet for this part of the Maritimes!

Conditions at 5:35 am: 3' but the strong winds are making it feel more like -3'
Expected later: pretty much exactly what we have right now, with no change in temperature

On viewing the weather this morning, it's looking like large parts of New Brunswick have gotten a fair bit of the white stuff, but so far, none in our forecast as yet.

What strange weather yesterday. I picked Brenda up yesterday afternoon around 2:00 and it was 7' and quite windy. When I took her home a little before 7:00, the temperature was 15' and there was only a slight breeze. Now this morning the temperature has plummeted. It was a strange night, and at one point I was awakened by a bright flash of lightening and a loud clap of thunder. No worries - we'll take a thunderstorm over snow for as long as we can for now.

It was a pretty quiet weekend.  Lloyd was working 4 to 12 on Friday so I picked up a pizza and took it over to him at work. He didn't have any clients in yet, so I joined him. It was really the first time all week we'd seen each other, save for a few minutes here and there.

I worked on Saturday morning and was planning to pick up a couple of things at the grocery store on my way home but the power had gone out in most of Charlottetown and at least as far out as our place.  Not much to do on a cold, rainy Saturday with no power, but throw another log or two in the wood stove, sit down with a cup of tea (thank goodness for the gas stove), and a good book. Lloyd had been working outside all morning so he was ready for a nap. Another great way to pass the time.  Fortunately it was only off for a couple of hours, so it really wasn't much of an inconvenience. 

Sunday morning we had some breakfast and then sat and watched a PBS documentary on the Tower of London while we had out tea. I know one young man in Ontario who will find it interesting.  Then Lloyd headed out to the garage and I accomplished a few tasks inside.

We had the annual fund raising spaghetti supper at the Rec Centre on Saturday afternoon.  I picked Brenda up at 2:00, as I mentioned before, as we have traditionally become the spaghetti and sauce cooks. She looks after the sauce and I cook the pasta. I think this is the third year so we have it pretty much figured out now. Our numbers were down this year, but the weather was pretty crumbly and I suspect that played a big part.

But those who were there seemed to enjoy and lots of compliments, especially to the sauce maker! Well done Brenda.  After dropping her off, I came home and unpacked the car of all the bits and pieces I'd taken with me. Lloyd was sitting on the couch, reading the first of the Louise Penny books that we have. So I made us a cup of tea and sat with him as I was reading the latest in the series. As of very early this morning, I've finished all of them, so maybe now I can actually get something done around here! It seems lately all I've been doing it reading, but when a good book grabs hold, you just have to persevere until it's finished. Everything else can wait - and it usually does.