A busy spring, ready for summer

It has been such a busy late winter and spring that I haven't posted since right after the new year!  Sorry, but this post will be a long one!

I taught 7 courses over the winter term, so that kept me very active at work. That didn't stop us from taking a week (February break week!) for a short vacation. Wendy and I took a trip towards Ottawa and stopped by for a few days to visit Wendy's brother and his family (Peter, Lynn, Spencer, and Henry. We took in a few curling games (our nephew Henry was playing) and toured around the Belleville area. Even dropped in for lunch at a fantastic café owned by a good friend of Lynn's in Camden East called Stone Corner (stonecorner.ca).

We continued our trip to Ottawa and took in a few sights along the way - mostly to take some photos for Eric's cannabis course.

In Ottawa, we stayed at Wendy's cousin's place (Sarah, Tim, and Christine). Did some shopping, met a friend of Eric's for dinner (Marcos), drove by some of Wendy's old schools and where she lived, and went for breakfast with our friends (Simone, Ken, and Kiera). It was definitely cold in Ottawa, but the Rideau Canal was surprisingly closed since there was not enough ice!

On our way out of Ottawa, we stopped by the Diefenbunker - a cold war underground military facility that is now a museum. 

The museum was fantastic! Wendy thought it was better than she expected. Reminded her of all the offices that her father used to work in. 

We headed up to Petawawa to visit our nephew and his family (Dan, Veronika, and Elizabeth). Had a great time there, toured the base, and had lunch in town. 

Although it was warmer in Petawawa, it got really cold when we headed to Haliburton! We stayed at an AirBnB in the woods outside of town. Saw a large number of wild turkeys - didn't know they could fly up into the trees for the night! We also went to dinner with our friends Carolyn and Bill, and spent the rest of the time relaxing, before heading back home. 

The crazy weather continued in March and April, with snow storms (wind chills below -20C)) and heat waves (above +30C with the humidex).  Parker bought a used car (2020 Nissan Kicks) so that he could get out and apply for jobs. The real estate company he worked for (3 years with Fair Square/Purple Bricks) closed all North American offices and he was out of work.

When spring sort of arrived again, we took Anton and Tanya to the Westfield Heritage Village for the Maple Syrup Festival! A few days later we went with them to a free concert at a church in Dundas.  

After many long months of waiting, we finally received the mechanism to repair our recliner couch. It was surprisingly cheap, but we had to rely on Adam to take everything apart and replace the mechanism on one side. Parts and tools everywhere, but it works like a charm now!

Parker did get a new job in real estate (his card is below), but he also got a job at the SnuggleBugz warehouse (high end Children's items) in Burlington to make some steady money.

Eric turned 59 and really started feeling his age.

He also celebrated 3 years in remission and had some cabernet sauvignon icewine to mark the occasion! 

Maddy went to the vet for her first 'geriatric wellness check' at age 12, and the heart murmur she had since birth seemed worse. We kept an eye on her as suggested, and just a few weeks ago Maddy started having some issues with breathing too fast.  After connecting with 4 veterinarian places on a Saturday morning, we got her seen and a few days later she had an echocardiogram. She definitely is worse and has multiple leaky valves and her heart is enlarged. We got a batch of medicines for her and she is still adjusting to them. Hopefully things will settle a bit, although it is unlikely to reverse any of the damage to her heart. 

Wendy and I started really feeling our age as we both got hearing aids! I lost hearing over the entire frequency spectrum (over the last several months it was noticeable) and Wendy lost hearing in the more typical pattern of high frequencies only.

As the term ended at McMaster, one of my students gave me a very thoughtful gift. I bet that I will feel younger when I wear them! 

Spring really hit with all the flowers and trees blooming around here.

Maddy continues to improve and even went to get her hair cut today. She was happy that she got treats, but wasn't as thrilled with the fake flower they stuck on her collar. 

Our next post will be in about a week. We are heading on an extended vacation out to British Columbia, but before we post about that, I will be posting something special here as a parting gift to my graduating students.  Stay tuned...

Two posts in one day!

After only making one post in January, here is my second post of the day!

Finally, Maddy has somewhere to sleep during the day. Our new couch was delivered today.  It arrived this morning from Brantford (Sleep N Comfort is the name of the company). The full leather couch was made in Winnipeg (Palliser). It has a table in the middle and mechanical recliners on both ends.

Slightly smaller than our old couch

...with the table down.

First week of school plus weird, weirder, and weirdest.

Now that the kids have completed a full week of school, it is time to post their pictures from the first week.

Parker's first day of grade 9

Stanely's first day of grade 12

Adam's first day of college

Parker and Stanley start at the same school in the morning, but Stanley needs to transfer to another site for the afternoon. So far, they are just getting on the bus to go to school as we wait for 'approval' to take the bus (which is not full). Adam has mostly been bored with orientation but expects to learn interesting stuff after the first week or so.



This week was a little rough although it was quite enjoyable.  I am trying to remember all the strange things that went awry, but here is one of the things that started it all off...

Wendy had to go to a meeting in Stoney Creek (far side of Hamilton) on Thursday, so Adam was able to drive her there in the morning. On the way, the check engine light came on. Thinking it was the same thing that happened in August (it was the gas cap being too loose), Adam opened and closed the cap a number of times.  No dice.

After a quick trip to our neighbourhood garage, it seems like a part in the the exhaust system had failed (charcoal filter and associated sensors). This was estimated to cost about $700 plus tax. Grrrr!

Oh well, what else could go wrong? Jinks!

On Friday, our couch of almost 20 years decided to fail us. Fail you say? Yup, I've never heard of a couch that fails (they tend to wear out), but that is what happened. Wendy was sitting in the middle of the couch and noticed that the back was beginning to lean back a little more than 'normal'. Being a recliner on both ends (but not the middle) this was an unusual occurrence. On closer examination, we determined that the wood supports under the couch had failed.

The centre of the couch is laying on the floor near the windows

Maddy doesn't mind the improved view of the street

So, we decided to go looking for couches on the weekend. We did a sketchy repair with a couple of bolts (which won't last long), so we have some time to look. We had a plan!

During the sofa surfing on Sunday (over the weekend it felt like we had to sit on every couch in southern Ontario!), Wendy noticed that my shirt appeared 'ripped'. True enough, a shirt that I have owned probably about as long as the couch took that very moment to disintegrate. OK, no big deal. We decided to go home, change, then go out to look at more sofa's. Sounds like another simple plan.

Not so much.

On the way home, I was driving behind our friend's car when, out of the blue, jumps a Hamilton police officer waving me down.  Yes, I got a speeding ticket! All the while doing the same speed as our friend's car on a downhill segment of road where I almost always pick out the speed traps at distance. Grrrr!  And I don't think Wendy's car repair, our couch issue, or my shirt ripping had anything to do with it. Cost me $40 but it didn't cost any 'points', thankfully. Seems that a school zone on a Sunday is an area that they are focusing on to catch those evil insensitive people going a few km over the limit (the ticket says 50 km/h in a 40 km/h zone).

Hopefully that is all that goes wrong in the next little while. I am sure that I will remember even more weird things, but as weirdness goes, it is kind of entertaining. So far...