TV Day

 Mardi has taken on a temporary job as a dog walker.  She has a good friend in the building around the corner who is having some health issues, so she has volunteered for the 11 a.m. dog walking shift.

Thankfully this doesn't interfere with her more permanent job as a barber.

Needless to say, I'm on my best behaviour these days!

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After bragging about the Olympia starting first try, I have to advise that David took it out to the rink........

...but the water system didn't work.  So he flooded it by hand again.

The rink got lots of use yesterday.  And David and Ewen were out there for quite a while.  Sue reports that Ewen then spent five hours in the hot tub.  No pictures of his wrinkled body were available at press time.

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As promised, I stayed home today and watched the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the Super Bowl, with Home Town HGTV shows filling in the gaps.

The golf tournament was won by Brooks Koepka, the last guy I would want to win, but it was entertaining.

The Super Bowl was Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers dissection of the Kansas City Chiefs.  He is in a league of his own.

The half time show featuring the Weeknd was spectacular but really strange (I guess I'm showing my age).

All in all, a very entertaining day.

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I'll leave you with this gem that was sent to me by an anonymous Tromper. who was inspired by my stories about David's pond,

An elderly  man in Georgia had owned a large farm for  several years.  He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and  peach trees.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over.  He  grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.

As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing.  As he  came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young  women skinny-dipping in his  pond.

He  made the women aware of his presence and they  all went to the deep end.

One of  the women shouted to him, 'we're not coming out until you leave!’

The old man  frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.’

Holding  the bucket up he said . . . . . . .

I'm here to feed the alligator.

Some old men can still think fast.

Outdoor Ice

 After my painting stint at the greenhouse Mardi and I went for a chilly walk.

David's rink isn't the only ice that's getting good use these days.  This pond is about three blocks away from our building.

We skated there when we were kids.  A mile and a half walk, three or four hours of hockey, a mile and a half back home, and a total collapse.

Wayne and I also skated on George Lounsbury's farm pond (his sister eventually became my mother-in-law, but that's another story).  It was only a mile away, on the Dewitt plateau.

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Tomorrow I think I'll just veg out.  Watch golf and then the Super Bowl.

Take care.  Stay well.

The Olympia

 After sitting idle for two years (there was no ice last winter) the Olympia started up first try.

The tires are full.  It's ready to do its job.  But first we have to wait for today's snow storm to finish.

As an aside, if anyone is planning to come to the rink, be careful coming up the driveway.  It's a rink of its own right now.

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Not much other news.  Stay well.

We're warm again

 The temperature only dropped about five degrees overnight.  It does help when you've got neighbours above, below and on each side, plus a heated hallway by the elevators.  Just the west wall exposed to the weather and no wind last night.

The heating element had to be rebuilt and wiring replaced, plus two visits.........total $960.  But now it should be good as new, and new would have cost north of $10,000.

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Got in a couple of hours painting at the greenhouse.  

I assume the warm weather has melted the surface of the rink.  Didn't check though.

After tomorrow the forecast looks good for several days.

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Slow news day.  Stay well.

HVAC Repair

 Shipton's showed up at the back end of their appointment range, but I still got in a couple of hours of painting at the greenhouse.   That's the good news.

Unfortunately, the wiring on our 50 year old HVAC system is badly corroded.  So the decision has been made to rebuild the heating element and replace some of the wiring.  It looks like we'll be cuddling closer tonight since the element won't be back until tomorrow (is that good news or bad news?).

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Stay well.  Stay warm.

Skate Canada

Gary and Sandro came over for a skate today.

David had sent a message this morning: "When you have company coming over and tell your wife you will clean up outside"

Gary was impressed!

You all saw Barry's picture of Sven and Sandro in their skating costumes.  Today was just a training skate, so they weren't dressed up, but still impressive.

What a performance!  Poetry in motion!

I'm sure if it wasn't for the coronavirus the stands would have been packed!

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I was jealous....I don't remember the last time I was on skates.  I think it was before I broke my back, which is almost forty years ago.

That experience had a similar impact on me then as the coronavirus is having on all of us now.  We realize how much we appreciate the things that we took for granted and can't do now.

Spending six weeks on your back (I was allowed to roll over on my side to eat or drink, but couldn't sit up) made me more appreciative of my family, friends and coworkers and I looked at those relationships in a different light.  In the end that caused me to think of my skiing accident as a positive experience (OK, so I'm a bit strange) as it made me realize how special my friends are.

It also makes you more humble - having to rely on nurses to take away your bed pan and wipe your butt can have that effect.

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Tomorrow's agenda depends on Shipton's Heating and Cooling.  The annual inspection of our HVAC system is scheduled for the afternoon.  The system is 50 years old so we try to look after it as well as we can.

Whether I have anything else to report tomorrow will partly depend on their punctuality.

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Stay well.

Guest Items

David and Monica sent me items that I wanted to include in the blog, but when I copied them in they blew my margins.  Only the left half of the blog shows and you would have to scroll every line back and forth to get through it.  Since I don't want to lose any more readers I will just explain the items.

The first one, from David, shows a vaccine vial.  The label reads "Vaccine RRROLL-OUT"  and when the lid is rolled it says "Try Again".  A fitting description of Canada's current vaccine situation.

The one from Monica suggests that I copy an appliance salesman's invention of a homemade Zamboni, made from a washing machine that is pushed across the ice on skiis.  Impressive, but it would be much easier for me to just take the compressor out to the Olympia and fill the tires.

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I also received an email from Oakwood Golf Course, a course we play in Florida, advertising their Super Bowl party.  Pretty sure that masks will not be worn, and that there will be a lot of shouting and spreading of "moist air".   By the way, there were 8,000 new cases of the coronavirus in Florida today.  No surprise there!

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Sven and Sandro are planning to come to the greenhouse rink for a skate tomorrow.  I'll have the camera ready for any pratfalls.

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 Stay well.