Promise Yourself...

 ...to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.  Kind of hard to do that when our trip is still up in the air though.

We've tentatively rented out our underground parking space for the three months that we hope to be away, with the proviso that if the border is closed the deal is off.  I'm waiting to hear from the travel insurance guy to make sure that we would still be covered now that "non-essential travel" is frowned upon.

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Dropped in to the greenhouse to say hi to the folks.  Took a couple of minutes to repair a mirror frame while I was there.

That was the easy job.  Kent and Sean were working outside in the rain replacing a plastic wall section.  Wished them a merry Christmas and got out while the getting was good.

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Stay warm.  Stay well.

Look On The Sunny Side Of Everything

..........and make your Optimism come true.

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Happy 7th birthday to Mardi's nephew Julien Couture.  Just soon enough to avoid having his birthday swallowed by Christmas. 

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The following item is for my golfing buddies.

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Gave my personal hair stylist a break today and went to the Stoney Creek Barber for my haircut.  But Mardi's packing her tools for the Florida trip.

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Tonight we had guests for dinner.  Matt and Maureen and Bob Reid shared an evening with us.  Our last chance to touch base before we head south.  The salmon was great Mardi!

Photo Credit: Matthew Donaldson

Matt and Maureen stayed on to play cards.  In a complete reversal of our usual performance, the boys won!

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Look on the bright side.  And stay well.

The Beatles

 Our highlight today was "Beatles, Burgers and Beer" at the Innsville. 

Big Al arranged the evening and he and Liz enjoyed their fourth visit.

Gary/Sven/Andy/etc. and Jill also enjoyed the evening.

The "Beatles" did a fine job.

It didn't matter what Beatles song was requested, they took it on.

"Dancing Pam" had a good time too.

A great evening.  Good music, good food, good friends.

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Enjoy life.  Stay well.

Grey Cup Day

 I connected the compressor to the water lines and blew them out today.

Would have been a lot more fun if I could have talked somebody into standing in front of the valve before I opened it!

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Union Gas has torn up a section of lawn to connect their line to the house being built across the street.

I assume they'll replace the sod come spring.

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And then it was time to get out my Grey Cup accessories, a Tiger-Cats hat and a rye and water.

An exciting game, but the Cats came up short in overtime.  Oh well.

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Stay well.

Down Day

 Stayed home today to avoid being blown away.  Nasty weather, but not as bad as what the folks in Kentucky and surrounds had to put up with.

My big activity for the day was building a bologna and cheese sandwich - not toasted or burnt of course.  A secondary feature to my day was helping to make the peanut brittle.  And helping to test drive a couple of pieces of the finished product.  Busy day!

Tomorrow it's back to the greenhouse, to blow out the water lines down front.  Then the Grey Cup.

Stay well.

Turkey Roll

 A couple of follow-up items from yesterday.  First, a picture of Mardi and the ladies at the YWCA after delivering the 50 backpacks.

The performers in the show we saw last night were all Hamilton folk, including Hailey Gillis, who cut her singing teeth in the Stoney Creek United Church choir with Mardi.

The show was terrific.  Some traditional Christmas songs, some more modern songs, and each person told their family's personal stories about Christmas.  Even called out a couple of Oskee-Wee-Wees!  Well done!

Double vaccine doses were required for entry, masks were required to be in place for the whole show, no intermission (to avoid crowd contact), but there was no spacing between seats unless the seat wasn't sold.

It's been 21 months since there has been a live performance at the Theatre.  Over two years since Mardi and I attended.  In that time our favourite parking lot has become a high rise building.  But we discovered another lot behind the Amity Goodwill building.  Cash in the machine the only option - two loonies does it.

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And finally, tonight was our Optimist Turkey Roll.  Pleased to advise the winners on the cards Mardi and I sold.  The "turkeys" are $30 PC gift cards.  Congratulations to Maureen (2 turkeys), Jo-Ann (1), Steve (2) and Rada (1).  Thanks for your support!

In between draws we had some turkey races.

I won $4.  Mardi lost $7.  

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Stay well.

Good Samaritans

 Mardi joined Monica and the Junior League ladies as they took the filled backpacks to the YWCA this morning.  She followed that up with a visit to Wesley Urban Ministries to drop off the donations for them.  I do love that lady!

Then she had lunch with Monica while I vegetated at home.  OK, so maybe the love got tarnished a bit 😢 but she's still cute.

Tonight we're heading to Theatre Aquarius.

Stay well.