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.