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. 

Philosophy 01/31

 Do any of you spend a couple of minutes in the morning checking your breathing, etc. to make sure you're still OK regarding the virus?  Am I the only one who's paranoid?

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Just to change things up, I took the day off from the greenhouse. I decided to watch the final round of the Farmer's Insurance golf tournament - mainly hoping to see Patrick Reed lose.  He took a questionable lift and place yesterday - the second time he's been caught brazenly cheating in a tournament.  But they let him get away with it!

Unfortunately, he won going away, by five strokes.  If you're that good, why do you have to cheat?

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The wind chill weather that was forecast has finally arrived.  Another good reason to stay home.

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Watched the CNN special on Qanon last night.  Pretty scary.  I find it hard to understand how millions of Americans believe that stuff.  And they're the ones with the guns!  And they're being elected to congress!  And the other Republicans don't have the guts to call them on it.

But, before we get too righteous about it, there is the same "quality" of thinking in the far right in this country too.  So far we've been spared the Trump factor which ignited it in the U.S.,  although Jason Kenney seems to be going down that road in Alberta.

It's kind of nice to have dull, boring politicians in Ottawa.

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Back to the greenhouse tomorrow.

Stay well.