January 1/2021

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let's hope

Loved

December 1 2020

I've got the blues

I've got the blues

Everyday in the news

I've got the covid blues

People moving around

From place to place

Every one a stranger

You can't see a face

And not just a few 

It's the whole human race

Are you on the list

Do you have a pass

To visit a loved one

Behind a panel of glass

So many rules

It's a pain in the ass

I've got the blues 

I've got the blues

So much to lose 

With the covid blues

A party of five 

That's all it can be

That's only three others

Beside you and me

How do you choose

Who will it be

Physical distance

And a mask is the way

To keep people safe 

From the numbers each day

When will it end 

No one can say

I've got the blues 

I've got the blues

Everyday in the news

I've got the covid blues

Stay safe

Loved

November 1 2020

 I almost forgot about posting for Nov. 1st. I've been watching the Americans self destruct, so this month snuck up on me. On a positive note, we had twenty two little ghouls and goblins, tubes of toothpaste, witches, princesses, superheroes and even Harry Potter showed up. We set up a little table out on the walk filled with bags of chips and the little ones helped themselves. Normally we would have 30 to 35 kids, but expected very few, we considered it a successful night. Lights out at 9. Eight bags left on the table, 20 in the box. The Gustafsons and Heather are coming for brunch today, a belated celebration of Heather's birthday. There's a good chance the box will be empty by the time they head back home.

Loved

October 2020

 October 1

Heather wanted to try kayaking so I decided to take a few classes with her. Everything went fine, then we decided to do a bit of fitness paddling. This was when things went a little wrong. First class, we went out to slalom a course of buoys. My rudder broke as I rounded the first buoy. Second class I dumped the kayak, ended up in Wascana lake with all the ducks and goose droppings, I have to admit I got a good workout that night. The last two classes were uneventful, but tough, it's hard to keep up to an instructor in a racing kayak while paddling a sea kayak. Upside is, I stayed dry the last two classes and we're done for the year. 

Have a great day 

Loved

September 1 / 2020

 I have a few minutes before I go to work. Hopefully I come home today in the same condition I leave. no power tools involved today so I'm pretty safe. 

Looking forward to a good day

Loved

August 2020

Sorry I'm late. I'm blaming it on the covid blues, I've been speechless. Wait. That's not very accurate, we don't do speeches on the blog, so I'll change that to...I've been at a loss for words. Good news for Dave and Louise going home to St. Andrews, I can say from personal experience.

It's a wonderful place to be

Loved

July 1 2020 HAPPY CANADA DAY

Some of you may have heard of how passionate I am about yard work, I hate it with a passion. This pandemic thing has kind of trapped people at home so I decided to try to turn my passion for yard work around. I dug up Deanie's garden, with love, mowed the lawn and raked up the leaves, with love, and even decided to help her with the garden. Deanie had to teach me, I learned a lot. There are more than one kind of tomatoes, who knew. Then she told me about carrots, "shut the front door!" Then she pointed out there's more than one kind of everything, " what the Friday!" Last fall we took a fir tree out of the front yard and it left half the yard bare, she wanted to plant potatoes. Once again, with love, I dug it up for her and we planted 125 potato plants, yes, of course there's more than one type of those as well. The other day I asked when we would start seeing the potatoes, you know what she told me, I have to dig them out of the ground.

I hate yard work with a passion.

Have a great day

Loved

June 1 2020

There's a large elm tree that lives in my next door neighbor's yard, it's fortunate for the tree it doesn't live in my yard, if it lived in my yard it would be fuel for somebody's fire pit. I've been told I shouldn't talk about cutting down a tree, as it may trigger the Green people, so I asked my Irish friend if he would be offended if I cut down a big elm, he said not at all, he could use it for his fire pit. This big elm is shedding it's seeds and a large number of them are landing in my yard, in fact it looks like snow drifts of elm seeds. It's been a bit breezy this season with wind gusts between 50 to 70 klicks. That's windy even for Saskatchewan. A broom and shovel are out of the question so a high volume shop vac is the tool of choice. It took me an hour to clean the patio and it got me wondering just how many seeds I had picked up. I'm not that good with numbers, unlike my brother Lou, who is so good with numbers he's counted to infinity...twice. So what I did was get one of Deanie's quarter teaspoon measuring devices, don't worry, she doesn't know I put elm seeds in it. It easily accommodated 8 seeds, that means 1 teaspoon should hold 32, now a tablespoon holds 3 teaspoons, so that's 96. There are 16 tablespoons in a cup, 1536. There are approximately 4.39 cups in a liter, 6743 elm seeds in a liter. I filled my garbage container to the brim, it is 176 liters...so  I was thinking, if I said to dad, "Dad, I picked up a million elm seeds today". He'd say "Hooww many?" "One million, one hundred and eighty six thousand, seven hundred and seventy five." .....and he would smile.

Have a great day

Loved

Passion

It's a real gift to have a passion for something, unfortunately for me my passion is for a garden hose. I hate it with a passion. Deanie purchased the hose a few years ago, I didn't like it right from the get go. I went out to put it on yesterday and things went bad. First of all it's quite heavy and fairly long, it coils like a snake, a big snake, you know like one of those boa constrictors. So I'm struggling to fasten it to the spigot and the damn thing coils around my ankles and trips me up. I'm laying on my back on the patio fighting with this thing and it starts to wrap around my neck. I'll admit I got a bit carried away, I guess the neighbors heard a number of cuss words and something about cutting her up and burying her in the back yard. Next thing I know Regina's own Swat team pounds through my gate.
"Sir! Sir! What's the problem here?" Really polite to call me sir.
"Shoot this damn thing, will you!" I yell out.
They remain calm. "This situation doesn't justify the discharge of a firearm, sir. "
"How about dropping one of those guns and I'll shoot it myself."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen either ,sir."
Right about then is when Deanie comes out.
"What the hell is going on?" Oops, I've heard that tone before.
"Does this guy belong to you, ma'am?"
"Yeah, no wait, maybe, what's he done?"
"Well, the neighbors called, what we've figured is he was threatening the hose and they thought it was a couples dispute?"
"Oh, there's going to be a couple's dispute alright but you guys are good to go."
"Have a good day ma'am."

Loved

April 1 , 2020

Don't take any wooden nickels this morning, actually don't take any real ones either, unless they've been disinfected.
I'll be staying clear of the internet until after lunch, fools never like being made fools of. I was made a fool of the other day when I picked up a parking ticket, I thought I was parked far enough away from the alley intersection but ignorance doesn't give you an excuse. When there is so much kindness being shown to each other during this pandemic I think the City of Regina parking department has dropped the ball on this one. With every body asked to stay at home, residential parking is at a premium and they are taking advantage. So much for caring about how people are going to make ends meet. Oh well, that's my rant for the day.

I'm going to have a good one staying safe, you do the same.

Loved

March 1 2020

Well, March came in a bit like a lion last night. Here's to hoping it goes out like a lamb.
We just got home from a soccer tournament in Saskatoon. Lui's team didn't do so well, but, Ellie's team won the Provincial U15 Girl's Div A Championship. I've never really enjoyed watching professional soccer but it's sure exciting when your own grandkids are playing.

Have a good month

Loved

FEBRUARY 1 2020

Happy leap month.

Enjoy it

Loved

January 1 2020, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year, happy new decade, happy anything else you want to be happy about, I'll join Louise in the Happy Birthday greetings, and, happy new year's resolutions. I myself resolve not to make any resolutions for the new year......damn.....broken already.
I'd say have a great year and mean it, but it takes great days to make a great year, so let's do it one at a time.

Have a great day

Loved