Reporting From Princeton, West Virginia

 We had a good drive today.  Cold and blustery, but the snow was plowed from the roads and they were dry.  And the sun shone!

Mardi was obviously content with the quality of Ewen's driving.

My wings will be clipped when Mardi finds out that I've posted this picture to the blog!  Life was good while it lasted!  But I was past my "best before" date anyway😎.

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Did a shop at the Grove City Discount Mall.  Pants and shoes for me.  Sneakers for Mardi.

Otherwise just drove and filled the gas tank.

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Tomorrow - Florida!

Stay well.

On The Launching Pad

 Sadly, our Optimist Club has lost, at age 60, one of the best Presidents we have ever had.  Shelley D'Angelo was a non-stop community volunteer who somehow managed to keep our Club functioning at a high level despite the pandemic.  The Club and the community have lost someone special.  She will be missed.

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David and Sue invited us today for dinner and a birthday celebration for the twins.  Sarah-Jean attended virtually.

She even blew out the candles, with Ewen's help.

Their actual birthday is the 30th.  We'll have to do this again in Florida.

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Today seemed to last forever.  We are packed and impatiently waiting to get away. 

Stay warm and well.

A Waiting Game

Today is grandson Kyle's 31st birthday.  Haven't seen him for a few years - he went grandma's way when we split up.

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Last night we completed our travel insurance arrangements.  Total cost for the two of us is $5,810.30, which covers Covid and multiple 33 day trips and is a hell of a lot cheaper than Costco or CAA for similar coverage.  Got it through Medipac - thanks for the lead Wayne!

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Finally got the windshield chip repaired.  The main players were all booked up until February.  Found a little guy who did a good job.

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I'm going to wear my mask with Canadian flags on it, in the hope that it will start conversations where I can point out that we live four plus years longer than U.S. folks, and why.  

I hope that they aren't carrying guns which might spoil my longevity advantage!

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But, my arguments may fall on deaf ears.

It's more than a constant now.  It's pervasive!

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We're mostly packed.  Just a waiting game now.

Stay well.

Getting Ready

 Nice view this morning as the rising sun (behind us) lit up the western shore of the lake.

Afterwards, we saw six squirrels fighting over the nest in the top of the tree.  One protecting it and the other five challenging, but not winning.

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We took Mardi's plants to the greenhouse.  Sean has volunteered to look after them while we're away.

While we were there, I checked up on Monica's fern baskets.

Oops.  Wrong one.

These are better!  Trust me Monica!

They'll be blocking out the sun by the time they're ready to sell.

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They're redoing the trench under the door to the underground parking here and there will be no in/out access from 9 to 4 on Wednesday and again on Thursday.

So, we'll be parking above ground on Wednesday in case we need to do some last minute errands.  We'll pack the van Wednesday night and bring it back underground.  As long as we meet our plan to head out for Florida by 7 a.m. on Thursday we'll be OK - we'd better get up on time or we could be delayed by several hours.

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Just read that the most important sex organ is the brain.  At a certain age it's the only sex organ!

Smile, and stay well.

La Quinta

 Today is A.J.'s and Michelle's anniversary.  They have flown to Houston to celebrate the event with friends.  Best wishes!

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A quiet day today.  Got our golf clubs, luggage, cooler and "Florida box" (it contains kitchen knives, spices, and other necessities) out of storage.

Got the van washed and discovered a small chip in the windshield.  That will get looked after tomorrow.

And then we watched PGA golf, as I'm sure some of you folks did as well.  I actually played that beautiful La Quinta course many, many years ago when we were staying in Palm Springs.  It was in the middle of the summer and temperatures at that time were typically well over 100 degrees.  But they had a "cold spell" and it was only 94.  I had the course to myself for a very reasonable $42.

I got to the 17th island green and had a brain cramp.  All that I could see were the huge boulders in the water around the green.  So, naturally that's where my ball went.  Don't remember what my score was (none of my scores are very memorable) but it was a neat experience.

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Watching golf got Mardi's juices running.  So she got out the weighted practice club for a few swings.

Four days to go.  Stay well.

Moderna

 Some people are refusing Moderna shots because of concerns about side effects.  Interestingly, this comes just as studies show that Moderna provides better protection against breakthrough infection than Pfizer.

Mardi and I have both had three Moderna shots.  Plus I am pretty certain that she has had Covid and is a long haul victim of its symptoms.  So, we feel relatively safe for our trip to Florida.

Mardi needs to get away and get outside to build up her strength.  I need to get away because I'm tired of staying warm by standing in a 90 degree corner 😇.

We'll avoid crowds and continue to be Canadian cautious.  Because of Mardi's energy issues we won't be playing a lot of golf. Most likely spend time at the practice area, at least for the first while.  And for the first week, just making sure that Ewen has a good time while Mardi continues to mend.

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Yesterday I mentioned that I had hoped that Mardi would return to her "young" self.  And lo and behold, I got my wish!

Yeehaw!
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Matt and Maureen joined us for cards and dinner today.  Don't like to brag, but the champions had their picture taken.

Yeah, I know Sven.  You recognize the trophy.

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A day without laughter is a day wasted.  Charlie Chaplin.

Stay well.

Florida

 I'm glad to report that Mardi is back to feeling more like her old self (actually, I was hoping she would be back to her young self - a guy can dream can't he?).  She's still building up endurance and has her moments of discomfort, but she's progressing.

So we invited Sue and David for dinner last night.  As it turned out, Ewen was also able to join us.  Although his first semester at Guelph was academically good, his university experience was not.  He was staying off site, with on-line classes and little fraternizing.  He had planned to move into residence for this semester, but the university wouldn't allow anybody into residence when the semester started early this month.  So he is going to take a break from the program and hopefully go back next semester.

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Mardi and I have found a more reasonable travel insurance source and have decided to head for Florida for the last half of our original booking.  We had previously invited Sue and David to join us, but the week they chose was this week.  So we asked them if another week would work for them so they could still join us.

Unfortunately, Sue's very best friend is about to have major cancer related surgery.  Sue wants to be around to support her so she has begged off on the trip.

But, Mardi saw a light in Ewen's eyes and asked him if he would like to join us for a week or so and share the driving with me on the way down.  She has been concerned about her ability to share much driving although I told her it wasn't an issue.  Surprisingly, we got a positive response from Ewen 😀, so the plan is for the three of us to leave Thursday morning.

Don't know what is going to happen when his twin sister, Sarah-Jean, hears about this.  We may have two guests!

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Question of the day.  Will glass coffins become a success?  Remains to be seen.

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Keep your sense of humour.  Stay well.