Winners

 What a beautiful day!  I managed three hours at the greenhouse, mostly digging.  Could have carried on, but I had other, equally important, items on the list.

For example, Gary will be scheduling the 2025 Dofasco Quoits Championship any day now, so I had to pick up my updated team Champion's shirt............

.............and to honour the partners who carried us to victory those times.

Calvin and I will be defending our 2024 title.

P.S. Gary, I'll be away from August 2 to 12 in case you want someone else to win (he said modestly😎).

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Blue Jays picked up after the all-star break with a 4 - 0 win over San Francisco.  They're now three games ahead of the Yankees in their division.  

The new batting coach has turned the team into a juggernaut, with all the players getting hits.  Fun to watch.

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Pierre Poilievre is one of 108 (so far) candidates for the Alberta riding he's running in.  Should be fun to watch,

Even if he wins, I think he will be gone in January when the party does  a review of his leadership.  His style of attack is not what we need right now.

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Stay well.

Reality Hits Home

 Two birthdays to celebrate today.  Gary Parker, the man of many names and birthdays, is celebrating his real one.  Hope that you enjoyed your day Andy.

And Irene Cousins is also on the birthday list.  Best wishes Irene.

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I've known for a long time that women were smarter than men, but this week it has become very apparent.

Monday, I golfed 18 holes in the heat - Mardi swam with the ladies.

Tuesday, I golfed 15 holes in the heat, baled on three long ones on the back nine, and was useless for the rest of the day (no smartass comments required Al) - Mardi golfed just 9 holes.

Today, I dug sod and cut grass for two hours - Mardi swam with the ladies in the morning and with our friend Jo-Anne Kempe in the afternoon.

And she crushed me at Skip-Bo.  Can I blame my eyesight?

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Although the American League eventually lost the All-Star game, our two Blue Jay All-Stars, Vladdy and "Captain" Kirk, played well, both getting hits and fielding well.  

Now it's back to the grind as they work towards playoff time.

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Stay well and stay cool.

Greg Time

 First order of business:  Happy Birthday Maureen!  All the best on your special day.

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Mardi's son Greg made a weekend visit.  First time we've seen him in quite a while.  He's been posted, plus he attended the G7 in Kananaskis and got to transport the political bigwigs to the conference by helicopter.  Greg was really impressed with meeting the Ukrainians and Zelenskyy.  They were the most efficient and prepared of any delegation.

Last night Greg and Mardi decided to attend the Ti-Cats game.  I chose to watch it at home - looking into the sun with my light sensitive eye didn't excite me.

So I drove them to Eastgate to catch the bus and picked them up after the game.  The team won, giving them a winning record for the first time in years.  A nice mom and son event.  And I watched in the comfort of our home - a nice dad event!

Greg left this morning, heading to Brantford to see his dad on his birthday.

Hope he didn't have a wet ride.  After he left I headed to the greenhouse to cut some grass, but Grimsby was in a different weather zone.  It was raining when I got there, and the forecast was for more of the same to continue for a couple more hours.

So I had a coffee with Sean and Alex and headed back home.  The grass can wait.

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Two golf days coming up.  Can't take too many strokes 'cause I have to beat the heat.

Stay well - and cool.

Crazies

 Some brilliant congressmen from Wisconsin and Minnesota have sent a letter to Canada asking us to stop sending our wildfire smoke across the border because it is affecting their summer enjoyment.

Wildfires are increasing because of climate change.  And the biggest culprit in that scene?  The U.S., which wants to burn more coal, etc. etc.

Maybe when parliament resumes at the end of the summer it could outlaw lightning strikes in Canada.  That would eliminate 93% of the problem for those folks.

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The Blue Jays lost last night, but they have already won more games (54) prior to the All-Star break than ever before.  And they still have three games left to play.

My concern is that the trade deadline is fast approaching and they are sure to make some trades.  I just hope that they don't trade away their team spirit in the process.  The current guys are really getting along well and that could be at risk.

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Wouldn't you know it.  Just when Canada manages to meet its military defense commitment, with the support of most of the public, four Quebecois idiots (two military, one ex military, one pretend military) decide to conquer Canada starting by taking over a patch of Quebec.  Now, public support for the military may significantly decline.  Great timing!

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Mardi and I enjoyed lunch today with Rada and John - well, with Rada anyway.  John asked me how my eye was coming along and I told him it's slowly getting better, and I didn't realize how ugly he was.   You be the judge!  (Sorry John, I had to do it.)

 

We got caught up to date and had a nice discussion about their trip to Scotland and got some tips for our upcoming (August 2) visit to Edinburgh. 

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Then, this afternoon Mardi and I headed to Southbrook Golf Course.  On the way we ran through a heavy rain storm, so you can imagine how hot and humid it became.  Nine holes were all that we could manage.

Fortunately, tonight a show on CBC claimed that exercise and sweat are really good for you.  Thank goodness!

As we were leaving the course, some antique car buffs were setting up a show.  Mardi stopped over to see if she could get a lead on where she might find the parts she needs to fix her convertible roof.

We'll see if that pans out.

Stay well.

Nine and Dine

 Kathryn and I headed to the greenhouse this morning, but only lasted a half hour in the heat before I called it a day.  But we each finished up two small gardens in that time.  We'll eventually get there!

Then, this afternoon, Mardi and I joined Rose and Ed for a "nine and dine" at Dunnville Golf Club.

It's been over 50 years since I last played this interesting little course.  Some Optimist members used to play there on a fairly regular basis.  It has just nine holes, but each hole has two sets of tees in different locations/distances, so you can pretend to play eighteen holes if you wish.  And it's in really good shape!  We'll do it again and maybe play from the ten through eighteen tees next time.

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In case I don't publish tomorrow, happy birthday Yancy!

Stay well everyone.

R.I.P Joyce

 Today we said our goodbyes to Joyce.  It was a very moving ceremony.

The church choir,  where Mardi met Joyce about 40 years ago, started the celebration.  And several folks spoke about Joyce, including Mardi.

One of my high school buddies, Neil Whitfield, was her cousin, and through him I met Joyce a couple of times back then.  And my friend Wayne was in her class from grade 1 to 7.

Joyce was part of the ladies golf group with Mardi, Maureen, Irene, Monica, Helen, Mary, Rose and Barb.

Fast forward to Mardi and I getting together and Joyce became a good friend of mine, as she was of Mardi.

She will be missed.  Rest in peace Joyce.

CANADA DAY1

 Yesterday, I managed to golf for the first time this year in the Cambridge Men's League.  Started well, with two pars, finished the front nine with 46, but age and heat got to me on the back nine.  Shot 56 to end up with an even 100.

The course was hit with six inches of rain on Friday and even three days later there were still several new lakes to navigate.  We had to take a long detour to get to the tee on this hole.

And Matt and the boys found three balls in this sand trap before they recovered Matt's.

But it was the annual league field day, so we enjoyed burgs after golf.  Nice to be back in harness, especially being together again with my seeing eye companions.

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I started today by getting a couple of gardens ready for Canada Day.

Even the cactus got dressed up for the big day.

But then I apparently needed a rest!

We enjoyed the opening of the Blue Jays Canada Day game and they put on quite a show.  Team players and employees helped the military with the flag.

Quite a sight!  And they won big time!

Then it was time for the Shoreliner's Canada Day get-together.........

..........with other owners, including our friends Carol and Pat.

I hope you all had a good day, celebrating our special country.

Stay well.