Thursday, September 21, 2023

A Foggy Day In London Town

 A bit of a change with the second eye operation.  I now have my new left eye but, post operation, it was like looking through a heavy plastic sheet.  I could make out colour and shape, but no detail.  The eye was a bit swollen apparently.

Now, day two, it's at the fog stage.  Things are starting to come into focus, but still not clear detail.

If the left eye now follows the trajectory of the right one, over the next couple of days things should sort themselves out. 

And a week from now I will regain some of my independence.  By then, it will have been a month since I had to quit driving and depend on Mardi for my mobility.  I have the feeling that she's looking forward to that date too!

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A lot of attention being given to the Manitoba government's refusal to dig into the landfill to search for missing Indigenous women.  A huge cost and no guarantee of success is their rationale.

But, it makes you wonder.  If it involved missing white women?  If one of them was a politician's wife?

Seems to me that they know the rough dates that the women went missing.  And they should also know where the landfill boundary was at those times.  Maybe not so much cost after all.

Or, simply shut the place down, declare it a cemetery, erect monuments to the women, and signs explaining why nothing appropriate was done.

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Interesting timing on Trudeau's claim that the Indian government was implicit in the killing of the terrorist living in Canada.

Do you suppose he's trying to take attention away from his floundering support?

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Stuck indoors today and nothing exciting is likely to happen so I'll publish early.

Stay well.


Friday, September 15, 2023

Satisfaction Revisited

Completed cleaning up the front gardens today.  Now I just need to get the lawns cut before Monday morning when I get my new eye.  Can't wait - the first cataract operation was a fantastic success.

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A couple more pictures to show why I get so much satisfaction from the work that I do at the greenhouse.

In the picture below, the Juniper that stretches from the rock on the right to the left of the picture began it's life as one of several plants in a 12 inch planter.  At the end of the season the planter was unsold and the Juniper was all that was still alive in it and it was about the size of a saucer.

As you can see it has grown a lot since then!

And in the picture below, there is a Chestnut tree in the foreground that squirrels planted in Mardi's garden on Gateshead.

Behind it, two Oaks that squirrels planted along the greenhouse driveway under the Pines.

All of these were shorter than a foot tall when I transplanted them.

Watching all of them grow has been, for me, like watching your kids mature and thrive.  Very satisfying!

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Speaking of kids maturing and thriving, we had a nice visit with Kathryn and Anna tonight.

First off, we had dinner at the Banana Leaf Restaurant.

Then, back to our place where Anna crushed us at the dice game.

😢

Next week Kathryn, her mother and her siblings, head to Europe for a river cruise - plus.  Have a great trip kids!

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Stay well folks!

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Satisfaction

 Money is not an issue Jim.  There are three other reasons that I do what I do.

1 - The satisfaction of seeing the results of my work, including watching Charlie Brown trees grow into something special.  
This one started out four feet tall with five spindly branches.

This whole area started out as a pile of rubble.

2 - Spending time with four of my grandkids, including Sean who is now my boss.
 
😅
3 - Staying in decent health and not driving Mardi to drink by being a couch potato (oops, too late for that - yes, I'll have one too dear).
😉

Don't tell Sue or David, but if he stopped paying me I'd still show up for garden duty, heart and eyes be damned.  (Sue, if you're reading this, credit poetic license please.)

Life is good my friend!  Even though I'm spending half my time with one eye closed (eight days to go).
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This afternoon we attended the annual Shoreliner BBQ.

Burgers were great, and the desserts were awesome.
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Left the BBQ in time to watch the final innings of the Blue Jays game.  If you saw the inning where Espinal hit a squeeze bunt to score Varsho, who was pinch running for the lumbering freight, Kirk, you saw some special baseball.  
Suddenly, the Jays look like the team we thought they were, and they're back in the playoff hunt.  Hope that they can keep it up.

Stay well folks.

Saturday, September 9, 2023

Dobbin

 As predicted, Dobbin was anxious to get back into harness.  So anxious that he spent an hour getting soaked cutting grass in the rain.  Felt good!

Also enjoyed a coffee break chat with Sean.  Nice way to spend time!

 Hopefully, better weather conditions will come to allow the rest of the grass cutting. Still an hour and a half left to finish.

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While I was sitting around I decided to do some market research.  Mardi and I had stopped at Home Depot yesterday and while there I noticed the prices on their Mums.

Would you rather pay $14.99 for the 12 inch Mum planters with Purple Fountain Grass like these at Trillium Hill.........................


.....or $36.99 for these at Home Depot?


Or, $11.99 for these at Trillium Hill..........


...........compared to $17.98 for these overripe ones at Home Depot?


Crazy!

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The Bar-B-Que at the Shoreliner, scheduled for this afternoon, was postponed until tomorrow due to the rain.  Allowed us to watch the Blue Jays, who played a good game today.  Hopefully they keep up the pace.

Stay well.


Friday, September 8, 2023

A Good Day

 Got a clean bill of health from the heart doctor today.  As the doctor put it, "your post and tube wiring is back in good shape".  For an old guy, that's pretty good news.  

Scheduled back in for a wiring check next July.

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Tonight we headed to the Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover to see "Opry Gold".


A real toe tapping evening!  They told the history of the Grand Old Opry with their songs and stories.  Excellent musicians.

The show continues in Port Dover until the 16th and moves to the Roselawn Theatre in Port Colborne from September 20 - 24.

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Tomorrow will be a lawn cutting day.  Can't wait to get back in harness.

Stay well.

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Garden Club

 My right eye is excellent.  Clear and focused.  

But, the left eye is fuzzy and, it's hard to describe the feeling, but using both eyes makes vision "uncomfortable".  So Sean gave me a short term fix.  My pirate phase.


You're looking at the long distance arrangement.  For working on the computer I have to block the good right eye and wear my old glasses.

Just eleven more days before the left eye gets the fix.  Can't wait.

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We've started a garden club here at the Shoreliner and on Wednesday I took the ladies for a tour of the Mums at Trillium Hill (Mardi drove).


Today we made our first purchase.  Set up four individual planters, and then the ladies added some six inch plants to a couple of bigger planters.


Next up, the club will be getting some planters near the entrance prepared for winter/Christmas display.

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Tomorrow, Mardi takes me to a follow-up appointment with the heart doctor.  Kind of forgot about that stent issue with the eye thing going on.  At this point everything seems OK there too.  Of course I've basically been a drone because of the eyes and haven't done any heavy lifting.  We'll see what the man says.

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Stay well.  I intend to.

 





Saturday, September 2, 2023

Hit And Miss

 Escaped again!  Today the boss took me for a nice visit with our friend Barb Gallina in Dundas.


Barb is recovering from a recent operation and is doing very well.

Enjoyed the day!

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But tonight was a different story.  Jays blew the game against the lowly Colorado Rockies.  I won't be surprised if they miss out on the playoffs this year.  Sad display.  

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Stay well.  Enjoy the holiday.