Christmas Stuff

Today Mardi and I sorted and delivered half a van load of toques, toiletries, etc. to the Hamilton Native Women's Centre.  Tomorrow a similar load, aimed more at men, will go to the Wesley Urban Ministries.  Feel good moments, but I came away a bit melancholy thinking about why these efforts are necessary.

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Fortunately, the Optimist Club had its Christmas meeting tonight and that brightened things up.

After dinner we had some fun games.  Like opening a present with oven mitts on.

A good time was had by all!

We'll be back at the club on Friday for the Turkey Roll.

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Tomorrow night it's the Theatre Aquarius presentation "Home For The Holidays".

Stay well.

We're Done

 Finished cleaning the Lily bulbs at 2 p.m.  But it will probably take the troops into tomorrow morning before the planting is completed.

 Matt's explanation for why he and Maureen helped:  We get extra points at "the home" for volunteering.  If that's the case, they get a ton of points!  Well done and thanks!

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Merry Christmas from the family of U.S. congressman Thomas Massie.

On the first night of our trip to Florida at the end of the month we'll be staying in his state of Kentucky.  Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy!  Certainly makes the coronavirus seem like less of a threat!

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'Tis the season.  Stay well.

Success Again

 You know, there's no explaining why some of us like pain so much.  Which is a way of saying the volunteers worked on the Easter Lily planting again today.

The three volunteers and the old guy put us over the top again.  We were sent home at 1:30 today because we were so far ahead.  The rest of the folks have to put in a full day.

In the above picture, Mardi is talking to David, but the real workers are Jake and Sean, who both took a break for the picture.

Tomorrow should see the completion of the planting, or at least the completion of the bulb cleaning for the volunteer troupe.  Feels good!

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Stay well.

They're Coming Home!

The Ti-Cats won the Eastern Conference final against Toronto thanks to a great second half from quarterback Dane Evans.  Fun to watch.

Grey Cup - here we come!

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 Here's a Christmas tip:

Wrap empty boxes and put them under the tree.  Every time your child acts up throw one in the fireplace.

I can just hear Al Knapp ask: "What if I run out of kids?"

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Tomorrow it's back to Easter.  Stay well.

The Christmas Spirit

 This morning, Maureen and Mardi, together with Monica and a few other Junior League members, got together to finish filling the backpacks for the human trafficking victims.

A lot of effort was put into this noble project.  Well done ladies.

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It appears that all four of the old people who helped yesterday with the Easter Lily planting have survived.  I think we all feel better physically than we had expected - especially the old guy who tripped over the corner of a lily crate and ended up sprawled on a wooden skid.  They figured I'd be an invalid today.  Instead, just a lazy old fart!

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Stay well.

Happy Easter

 A couple of days ago I commented on "playing in the mud".  This picture shows you the scene.

David had a young lad dig this area out because the drain line appeared to be plugged.  Had a guy come in, cut a section of the drain line out and then blew the line out.  Intention was to clear a blockage so the water would flow away.

As you can see from the water flowing from the drain line, it didn't appear to be completely successful.  

What I did while playing in the mud was to repair the line.  We'll see how this plays out.  I really don't think that this place is going to dry out until next July!

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Today we got at the Easter Lily planting.  Last month they ran 55,000 pots through the line and partly filled them.  In the picture below those pots are coming in from the left.

That's Matt placing the bulbs in the pots.  As they travel to the right the pots will be filled to the brim with dirt.

But first we have to unearth the bulbs from the boxes they came in (from Oregon) so they can be placed in the pots.  That's Mardi with her back to us.  Donna and Ken posing for the camera.

And this is our two other volunteers, Maureen and Matt.

Many thanks for your help!  

Actually, the four of us were so efficient and got so far ahead of the line that they sent us home at 1:30.  Fortunately the bar opened soon after we got there!

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Just got a call from the bathroom that the tub is now available.  Hope to get rid of the dirt and the aches and pains.  Talk again tomorrow.

Stay well.

Aging Gracefully

 Our first order of business is a shout-out to Dave "Doc" Jewett, who is celebrating a birthday today.  A toast to our good friend and Tromper companion.

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As advertised, we headed to the Aberfoyle Mill to join our Tuesday golf mates as we and our ladies celebrated the Christmas season.

Sven outdid himself with the arrangements and the green marker gifts that he made for each golfer.  We had a wonderful day with very dear friends.

And the Mill did a fine job on the meals.

But, one thing we did notice.  In the past the discussions at an event like this would be focused on our kids, our work, sports or movies.  Today it went more like this:

- how many pills do you take each day? (the record was 17)

- how are you seeing after your cataract operation?

- how are your hearing aids working?

- isn't it nice that we can make eye appointments again?

and, finally, - how much height have you lost as you have aged?  

I don't want to look down on anybody 😉, but a couple of individuals were sensitive to that last question.

In my case the answer to the last question is about an inch and a half - the inch happened when I blew apart a back vertebrae and the half is due to old age.

I suppose the good news is that we are still around to talk about such issues.

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A highlight for me was the unexpected presentation of the annual Quoits trophy, which I received from the past champions.

Unfortunately David, my partner, couldn't make it today since the planting of Easter Lilies has commenced.  I'll deliver the trophy to David tomorrow when Mardi and I, together with Matt and Maureen, will do our part to help with the planting.  And, just for the record, David and I plan to repeat as champions in 2022.

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Enjoy your old age.  Stay well.