PensionersRants

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Rain And A Roast Beef Sandwich

06:30 pm.
Yes, rain all day and I had a roast beef sandwich for diner. I said in my Twitter that it was better than snow and a bologna sandwich. PensionersRant happens to be the Twitter.

So I have an order in for new glasses and now I wait for Wall-Mart to call me. I found out that my last glasses were on 24 Mar. 2004. New ones almost to the day. Time passes fast.

Tried out my lawn mower the next day to make sure it worked. It didn't. Wasn't getting any gas when I pushed the primer button. Not much can go wrong there. When I put in a new gasket, I never put on any sealant. Did that and al is well.

I spent yesterday afternoon splitting all that wood I got from the neighbour. My reward for that is a sore arm. There are still a few pieces of wood around to be cut but I have to sharpen the chainsaw first.

As I have said, it's been raining all day. Same for tomorrow. Can't do anything outside but that's ok. Sore arm and all.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

New Eyeglasses Day

08:15 am.

Remember what I said about bad juju? I had taped Trauma and was watching it last night. And the medic told his asst. that you have to put everything in the right place. You have to have the same routine every day or you will have bad juju. I told you this is always happening to me. Imagine something and there it is on t.v. For now its shave and do the walk. Then its a tryout for new glasses. Which I will do first. I know my wife will have other places of wonderment to go to.

Here's my Bio on twitter
Neither famous or infamous.
Chairman of nothing.
Not a movie star,rock star or even a reality star.
Perhaps a falling star.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

And Away We Go Again

9:15 am
At exactly 9 o'clock, got a phone call that my lawn mower part is in. He was all buddy,buddy on the phone. We are of to a better start today. I will go there first. After that it's of to Wal-Mart or Cosco for glasses. That's half way to the airport. They used to be ten min. up the road but they built a new industrial park and the big box stores moved out there. Ruined the mall. All the small stores had to close and they ended up tearing down the mall. I very rarely go there so my wife will have to direct me. Supposed to be 15C/60F today. Hard to believe.

1:30 pm
Well I went for the lawn mower part but I took my wife with me. The trip took on a life of its own. After my pickup, we dropped off some clothes at a battered women's place, went to a hardware store for a lint trap, went to the supermarket for a plant for a sick neighbour and then home. No new glasses for me. That will be tomorrow's excitement. What I did learn was that my chore gets done first or it may not get done.

6:30 pm
O.K. lawn mower done. Works great. So now I have a $300. lawn mower and it cost me about $20. But there is something I don't like about it. And that is the handle. Its that double handle that you have to hold together. My hand gets sore after awhile. I would rather have a switch. Have to see what I can do about that. My wife is gone to visit someone in the hospital. So I have to look after our daughter. Put in her feeding tube and stuff like that.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A New Start

8 am.
Yesterday was the pitts. And I finished the day by doing something stupid. I went and bought a lottery ticket. Can you imagine that? With all my bad luck I had yesterday, I go and buy a ticket. Maybe my luck was bad yesterday because I started the day wrong. Normally I do my 2 mile walk. But not yesterday. Must have given me wrong juju or something.
This morning for breakfast I had coffee and a raisin bun. Not a Hot Cross bun. You make this one by putting two pieces of dough in a muffin pan. When it is ready, you can easily break the two pieces apart. I always had tea for breakfast but I found out that it gave me heartburn. So I switched to coffee two weeks ago. No more heartburn, not even during the day when I still drink tea.
Read this headline this morning. “Canadians advised against travel to northern Mexico.” I don’t think I would have to be advised. But again, common sense can be in short supply. Nothing will happen to me, it will be someone else. When you live in a country like Canada, violence is at a minimum, and you feel safe. In a country like Mexico, something can happen anytime. You take your feel of safeness with you and that doesn’t work out all the time.

6 pm.
What I noticed on my walk today was an ESSO oil truck doing a refill for someone. The first thing that came to my mind was that he was probably paying $50.00 more than I would. I get the no-name brand. The thing is that all the oil comes from the same refinery. No matter what company delivers it, it’s the same oil. Same with gas. Saves me $300. or $400. a year.
While waiting for my lawn mower part, I’ve cleaned up the mower. I’ll do an oil change when I get it back together. I have plans tomorrow to get new glasses. But you never know about plans.

Snow

Well, we’re getting our share of snow today. Must be a foot high at this point. But with the high winds, we have snow banks. But we have been very fortunite this year. We never got all those storms that the U.S. received. It was amazing to watch the weather maps and see all those storms go by us about 100 miles out to sea.
Since my first entry, I went out and did 4 driveways. One of my neighbours did four. I left my snow blower by the house because I’m sure the snowplow will be back. He was here while I was doing the driveways.
Watching the Olympics these days.

Try Again

March 15, 2010
9 am. Try again to keep this up to date. I blame it on Twitter. It gets all my sentences. By the way it’s PensionersRant
Toast and rhubarb from our garden for breakfast. The weather says 10C/50F today. I know this is someone’s else’s weather, but I don’t feel guilty. Wonder if this climate change is permanent or just a one shot affair. When you have six months of winter, there is a lot you can’t do. Everything goes on hold.
My neighbour said I could have all her firewood because she doesn’t use it. So I hauled that over last week. I have a lot of splitting to do some time this summer. Took my lawn mower apart. The broken one I scrounged. Found out it had a broken shear pin. Getting a replacement may not be easy. Not many places around that fix mowers. Most people just throw them out.
5 pm. I called a place to check out for parts. Said they had it in stock. So I drive for half an hour thru the city and lo and behold, what did they say? No, we don’t have any. Parts will be in on Wed. Give us your name & Ph.# and we’ll call you. O.K. did that. What else can I do. As I was driving away, I remembered that I had another name of a place. It was 45 min. from my house in a different direction, but I went anyway. When I got there, a sign on the door said “Closed On Mondays.” Can you believe that?
After that, I did the next best thing, I gave up for today. My wife had stew & french bread for supper. And I think that was the only good thing that happened today. See, you can have a miserable day without even trying.

Another Birthday

January 28, 2010
Yep! Another birthday. And that would be no. 67. That was on Monday. They say that I have a 50% chance to live to 85 and a 25% chance to get to 92. But time flies so fast, I should be there in a couple of years.
My wife gave me a multimeter (Broke my last one.) Glad about that. With my old one, I was only able to read resistance. My son gave me a monitor to hook up to my laptop. Love not having to minamize all the time. A friend of ours gave me a birthday cake, so I ended up with two cakes. And I had a number of calls and cards.
My wife took me out to lunch today. I had a steak and I was thinking, last week on a diet and this week I’m eating a steak. So it ended up that I paid with my credit card. Actually, we don’t have seperate bank accts. or credit cards. And it was something to joke about.

A bit Of Snow

January 22, 2010
Got our bit of snow. Just 6 ins. Did my driveway with the snowblower, plus 7 more neighbours. Two of them are sick (one has a broken wrist) and the rest were at work. So I don’t mind doing it. It’s not like I have a lot to do in the winter. Anyway, that was yesterday.
Today I had to take my wife to our Chinese Doctor. Got stuck with lots of pins. Another visit in a couple of weeks time. That takes a little over an hour, so I spend some of my time at Tim Hortons, having a coffee and doing a crossword.
It’s nice and sunny out but the temp is 0C/32F.
Saw a sign on a church today about an open house for Tai Chi in a couple of weeks. I might check that out. Guess you would call it a slow form of Karate. Took Karate many years ago and it was the best shape I was ever in. Worked well as I was in the military at the time. But I had to stop because my daughters medical problems took over. That’s the way it goes.

Dried Banana Day

January 20, 2010
And by that I mean I’m drying bananas in my Dehydrator. Been doing it for a few days. Bananas, apples and pineapples. Love pineapple the most. Just like eating candy. Got the fruit for half price.
Snowing out right now. Supposed to be getting 15 cm./6 ins. or so. Be this evening before I go at that.
On a diet this week. Called The Heart Diet or Basic fat-Burning Soup. In seven days, you lose ten lbs. If you stick to it, it works. I do it every year. In three days you lose five lbs. So I decide how many lbs. I want off and do it for that many days. Cleans out the system, gets rid of heartburn and sure drops the cholesterol.

U.S.Destinations


January 18, 2010

Saw this great cartoon in the paper this morning. It expresses my sentiments exactly.

Sunny and Cold

January 16, 2010
Right now it is 0C/32F. I have a chore for today. Most of the wood I put on the patio has been used up. So I have to restock. Lots of wood at the back of the yard. Have to get the wheelbarrow out and get at it. After lunch, when it will be the warmest.
Last week I won $20. on the lottery. That was four times in 5 weeks. Last night I won a free ticket. It would be nice to win this week, a few days before my birthday.
Last week a neighbour from my hometown died. Name was Malinowski. That was Thursday. On Friday evening I was watching Median and the cop says to the woman “Malinowski died”. Weird eh? Every week something like that happens.

Plumbing Problem

January 14, 2010
Yes, plumbing problem. The bathtub drain is frozen. When I first bought my house, it was green. No pipe problems. Then I painted my house white and the problem started. What I did at that time was wrap a heating cord around the pipe and plug it in for the winter. That cured the problem for many years. A couple of years ago, I decided to renovate the bathroom. Put in a new bathtub and thought my problem would go away with the old tub.
Well, it didn’t go away and I forgot to fix the problem last summer. Have to wait for the summer now. It freezes up when the windchill gets high. Thaws out again when it warms up.
Temperature now -2C/20F. Not too bad if it is not windy.

Car On Fire

January 10, 2010
The other evening I was looking out the window and saw my neighbour with the engine hood up. Smoke was pouring out and he was throwing in snow. Had to check that out and it was his catalytic converter on fire. I guess it was good to be parked next to a snowbank. Later on, the tow truck was there and of it went.
Later on I saw my neighbour and his wife had another car, a 2003 Buick. Don’t think he’ll be getting the Taurus repaired. He has already put a new engine in it.
At the time this was going on, I was watching NCIS on t.v. So I went back into the house and the first words I heard on the t.v. was “You do know what starts a fire in a catalytic converter don’t you”. Weird eh? But that happens to me a lot. At least a couple of times a month. On second thought, it might be more like every week.
Won $20.00 on the lottery this week. That’s four times in the last two months. Each time was $20.00.

A New Year

January 8, 2010
Well Christmas is over for another year. At my age , they come a lot faster.
Only had one snowstorm so far. So I got a chance to use my snowblower. It worked good but I think it should throw the snow out farther. That would mean changing a belt which is probably the original. It looks like it is quite stretched. That is not a job for the winter, that’s for sure. So, that goes on the list for summer projects. I don’t think I need to go searching for the same belt. One that is the same width and a little shorter should do. Anyway, worry about that later.
Another project is to raplace two fence posts. Both are broken at ground level. Have to do that job in the early spring when the ground is still wet. Easier to pull out the bottom.
Of course I still have the project of getting a lawn mower working. I am at the point now that I think the pin is broken, putting the timing off. Getting that pin out is a project in itself.
I don’t have electricy in the shed. Keep saying that I will do it, but never have. I should make that a project this summer. The main reason is because it would be nicer to use the electric start on the snow blower.
The temp. outside is 0C/32F which is quite nice. Watching the weather on T.V. and this temp. in parts of the States is quite hard to cope with. I can certainly understand that

Another Lawn Mower

November 3, 2009
Went for my walk a couple of days ago and saw a friend of mine throwing out a lawn mower. He told me it wouldn’t start, so of to my house it went. Yesterday I checked it out. It was a no start. Took off the carb. and cleaned it. Still a no start but this time it backfired. At least I’m getting somewhere. The internet says it is the spark plug or the key is stripped. (Sad that so many are thrown out because of a one dollar key.) Try the spark plug first of course. Went to Canadian Tire but couldn’t get one. That area is now mostly Christmas decorations. Have to go somewhere else. I allready know,with my luck it will be the key or something worse.
The next problem was my wife’s vacuum cleaner. It started smoking and the whole house smelled of burnt rubber. Got that all fixed up with cleaning and a new belt. Have a bunch of belts in the shed.
My wife started sucking up the leaves but after two bags it became my job. A bag of mulched leaves is a lot more than just a bag of leaves. I sucked up eight more bags. Did about three quarters of the yard and decided to leave the rest till today. Bad plan. It poured last night and is still raining. It was supposed to have been possible showers in the afternoon.
Anyway, now you know what the other people do.

Big Wind & Rain


Yes, lots of wind and rain last night. Now most of the leaves are down. Has to dry up a bit before I suck them up. It is quite a bit.
Going for my 2 mile walk lately. I guess not today. Have to use the treadmill, although I am not fond of it.
My wife took my daughter to the doctor for the regular flu shot. Next week for the other one. My daughter is handicapped and prone to everything. I don’t think I am going to get any shots. Got the flu shot the last two years in a row and still got the flu. I have increased my vitamins, especially C & D. Normally I get a lot of cold sores. Two weeks ago, I got a very small one and it was gone in a day. Gave credit to vitamins which increased immunity. Made another increase at that time.
Tore my scrounged lawn mower apart the other day. Saved some parts and the rest goes to the curb tomorrow. Someone will grab it to sell the metal. That is something I definately approve of. Those guys keep a lot out of the landfill.
Went to mass last night. The priest said definately no shaking hands. In fact, no touching anyone. Take communion only in the hand and no more drinking wine. They don’t want anyone to get sick and they don’t want to get sued if someone gets sick.
Yesterday was Halloween. We had 55 kids at the door. My wife was happy about that. She likes giving out candy etc. I remember how happy I was to get goodies. Some people turn out the lights so no one will came to the door. Don’t they remember their childhood? That was the time before they grew up stingy.
Going to rain all day.

Just made a photo of my backyard. Have the front to do too. Look like the wind carried the leaves from across the street to my lawn.

Falling Leaves

Nice day today. Not that warm but sunny.
Had to do some work on my van. The arms on the back door had some rust, so I sanded that down and put some Tremclad on it. Next month is my safety check. Safety checks used to be good for only 1 year, but they changed it to 2 years. So my next one will be good for two years. It will probably be the last one for that van. It has 82,000 miles on it and is in pretty good shape. But it’s a 2000, so that makes it ten years old. One of these days I will trade it in.
My neighbour gave me a lawnmower that didn’t work. Gave it a check over. Had spark, that was good. Carb. dirty. Cleaned that. Gave it a yank. Big puff of smoke. That was good but the recoil almost took my finger off. That means the pin is broken. At least it has a good carburetor, which happens to be the same as on my snow blower. I’ll still take it apart to make sure about that pin.
Waiting for a neighbour to call so I can pick up her husband from the hospital. He went in a week ago. He doesn’t look all that good. I don’t want to get to involved with something in case I have to leave. If I went for my walk, she would call while I was away.
Back from the hospital. Says he doesn’t feel good. Lots of perscriptions to get filled.
Went to mass this evening. Nothing to watch on tv. All repeats.

The Next Day


And so it is the next day. Same weather as yesterday.
This morning was errand time with my wife. That included a trip to The Dollar Store. It always costs me a lot more than a dollar to get out of there. But in the long run, I probably saved money.
This afternoon I sanded the filler I put in the van. Have to get some primer. The one I had didn’t work. Too old I guess. When I was near the tire, I noticed what looked like paint lifting under the lip. When I looked closer, it looked like a lot of paint lifting. So I guess I’m not finished. First I’ll finish what I am doing. At least the piece of paint will help me get a color match when I go to the store.
Tomorrow it is supposed to rain. Oh well.

Summer Is Over


It would seem that I haven’t posted for a long time. After my last post, I had visitors for a week. After that its hard to get back to my routine. One project was to add on to my shed. So I finished that and it looks pretty good. Still have to paint the trim and the door. That’s all I have to paint, thanks to siding. Another project was to learn how to repair a gas lawnmower. Done that, so now my snowblower works good.
Today it is kind of chilly but the sun is shining. Been working on my van lately. Rust around the botton made a few holes. I sanded it down and painted it with Tremclad. Have to pick up some body filler.
My son and I were away a few weeks ago. First we went to Portland Maine for a night (my son had to get his motel points validated). Then it was through Quebec into Ontario. Stayed with friends in Trenton for a couple of days and Ottawa for a day. Went to Quebec City for a day and stayed at the Chateau Frontenac. One thing about my son, he always stays at the best hotels. Walked around the old city that evening and the next day drove home.
Well, this is a start.