And Snow Again

Since my last post, it has been either rain or snow. From the photo I am adding, you can see that the snowbank on the side is a little larger. It would have been a lot larger, except for the rain. One day snow, the next day rain. The photo is from Sat. when it snowed. On Sun. it rained. And today it is snowing big time.

I had a Planter's Wart on my foot. So I figured that the next time I go to the doctor, I will get him to cut it out. Then someone told me to put duct tape on it. I guess this is something everyone knows except me. Had that on for about a month and good-bye wart. Amazing eh? Another use for duct tape.

With Christmas dinner and giving extra turkey to my single brother and one of the neighbours, I only had one turkey sandwich. Eating the turkey is usually a three day effort.

Have not been walking lately. This is not good. And with that snow, there won't be any today.

I have to go to the Post Office , so I should do it now before it gets too hard to drive.

Happy New Year!!

From Nova Scotia

Snow

Well we had a snow storm yesterday. About 6". I didn't bother shoveling the driveway because it was supposed to turn to rain after midnight, rain all night and most of the day. It is 08:00 and as I look out the window, all I see is snow falling. The snowplow went thru during the night leaving me a mound at the end of the driveway. Since it was wet snow, it is now probably frozen.

My neighbour across the street has a property that is about 4' below the property behind her. So when it rains, she gets all the water. That gives her a water problem in the basement. A couple of weeks ago, she had a trench dug between her house and the next door neighbour. This is so all the water can flow out to the sewer. So this week she brought in topsoil and sods to cover the trench. A truck came and dumped a ton of topsoil on her lawn and two pallets of sods. She only required a small amt. of topsoil for the trench. So there was a lot of soil left that she had to get off the lawn. Another neighbour and myself could take as much as we wanted. She wanted that dirt gone. My wife, my son and I must have hauled about 100 wheelbarrows full. When I was finished, my hands were so sore, I couldn't make a fist. I put it all at the back of my yard, because it gets wet there in the spring. The next day my neighbour gave me all the sods that were left, which was about a pallet and a half. Covered the topsoil. Have to wait till spring to straighten it all out.

Got all the leaves raked up. Took five more bags.

Had to fix two light sockets in two ceiling fans yesterday. Both are about the same age. Programed to fail. My wife said that we are lucky I can do that. An electrician would have cost probably $100.00. A fringe benefit from my Air Force training.

Still snowing out. Big time now. A good day to work on my ebay store. I have Canadian Tire money to put in. People do collect it. You wouldn't have to buy a lot to keep it up. Not like stamps.

I decided to take a picture of my snow. Now you can see it. I should have waited for the picture. Now we have a real blizzard out there.

Leaves

I am some glad that we bagged the leaves last Friday. Because on Sat, we had a snow storm. Not a big deal, but the leaves would still be there. So we ended up with 17 bags from the back yard. And that's mulched. Still have to do the front. The leaves are still on my neighbour's tree. Today we have big rain and wind.
God helped me do my cryptoquote the other day. I was doing that and watching TV. Wasn't doing too well. Name at the bottom started with an O. I was watching "Supernatural" and the guy said something to the girl and she answered, "That's very Oscar Wilde of you." Looked at my puzzle, counted the letters and" Boom", finished in a couple of minutes.
Had to get my van repaired the other day. For the safety check. New brake lines and shocks. All rusted out. There is a couple thousand $'s gone. Rust is a problem here. That's why cars don't last long. On the way home, the shocks were worse than the old ones. Called back the next day and he said bring it in right away. Turned out one of the new shocks were bad. I have a private mechanic, so he loses when something is brought back. We had to wait for new shocks from the dealer, yada,yada,yada and now all is good.
My daughter had a birthday on Wed. 35 yrs old. Bedridden all her life. We have to make a big deal for her on birthday's etc. She can't walk, talk or do anything. Has to be fed by a tube.
Visited a friend yesterday. They had a tape stuck in the vcr. And it wouldn.t come on. So I took it home to look at. Has a blown fuse. Had to take it all apart to get at it. Now I have to pick up a fuse.

Hurricane Like Winds

Hurricane Noel dropped by last week. The pre-storm build up on TV is much more exciting than the real thing. 50 to 75 mph. is not a big deal. That happens every year. It didn't even blow all the leaves of the tree. I have two photos of the leaves before they fall. If I just rake them and put them in a bag, it will take about 40 bags. But with a leaf blower it will be less, because it cuts them up so fine. Started that job yesterday. Have to go to the hardware store to-day. Need weather stripping for the doors. During the four winter months, I will have to fill the oil tank about six times. And that was about $600.00 a shot last year.Found a new site to put my ebay items on. Called http://www.loudfrog.com/ . It doesn't have auctions. Everything is Buy It Now. So it is like owning a store. The only charge is 1% when you sell something. No other costs, except Paypal of course. You can put in as many articles as you want. And just leave them there. This is great for people who have articles for sale but don't want to open an ebay store with all the expenses. It doesn't get much business because not many know about it. So maybe in time. That ebay is one expensive site.

New TV

The weather here is chilly. Only 4 C/44F. Still have to cut the grass one ore time. Sometime this week.
My son bought us a new TV the other day. A 37" Flat Panel. Very nice. A lot different than our other one. He bought speakers last year, so watching a movie is quite an experience.
My daughter was sick for a month during Aug. and Sept. She now has Colitis. She will be 35 next month and all in a wheelchair.
Had my second opinion on my furnace. It was the same as the first, need a new one. So that is now done. They charged me $600.00 less than Sears. So I paid $3400.00. At my age, it will probably be the last furnace I will buy. The other one lasted 23 yrs. It sound a little louder than the other. But he says you have to give something up for efficiency.
In my other furnace, I had a water heater coil installed about 20 yrs. ago. And this is a coil that holds water and is installed right in the furnace. That does away with the hot water tank. Sure saves on the electric bill. This time around, the heater coil comes already installed. You can choose to use it or not. I think that if you don't know about it , you're not going to be told. Eliminates plumbers work. No new water tank every ten yrs. The coil lasts as long as the furnace.
Since I got new windows last year, I wanted new doors this year. Along with an updated kitchen. Bur that will have to wait till next year. Another thing I still have to do is get my carpet stretched in my living room. Installed five yrs. ago, it has developed a few wrinkles.
And that's how it is in this house.

Here Comes the Judge

It has been very hot for the last week. What makes it worse is the humidity. The temp. was around 35 C/95 F and the humidity made it 40 C/105 F. Perspiring all the time.
Bought a new camera the other day. After 8 years, the button on mine wore out. Too expensive to fix. To look at it would cost $50.00 and then you would have to pay for parts and repair. The new one only cost $100.00. A Kodak C653. Haven't read the book thru yet. And it takes little movies too. That's new to me. Had to try that right away. Did a pan of my back yard. And the first thing I learned was not to pan so fast.
Got a letter from the law courts yesterday. Called up for jury duty selection for the Supreme Court. That will be in Sept. It could have been for my son, since we both have the same first name. There was no middle initial. Told him I would do it. I'm retired and he is a computer consultant working for a U.S company. He travels back and forth all the time.

Tall Ships

Just about everyone knows what an Airshow is . And a lot of people have seen one. We have one here every Sept. and they fly over my house. But we also have something here that most people don't see. And that is the parade of tall ships. These are like the ships from the old days. The replica of the H.M.S. Bounty is here. Pictin Castle is here. This is the ship they use on the reality series "Pirate Master". I think there is about 25 altogether. The fee is $25.00 for a day pass to tour any or all the ships. There has been no rain for the last two days so they have a good turnout.

Speaking of rain, which it is doing right now, I heard on the news about five days ago that for the past 56 days, it hadn't rained 9 days in this area. So some days I couldn't go on my daily walk. Other times I did and got caught in the rain.

Tomorrow will be five weeks that I started doing Tai Chi. Well, at least attempting it. It's on tape and the whole routine takes just over an hour. You have to start with stretching etc, etc. So at this point in time , I am up to 42 Min. Figure it will take me a year to learn this.

Last evening , one of my neighbours came with a half wheelbarrow of cement. He had been putting in clothes line poles and this was left over. It was enough to finish off around my back door where I had that leak. That is where they wanted $1600.00 to make a new drain thru my basement. I cured the problem with cement filler, which I think was $5.69. And now it is covered with cement.

Still working on whether I need a new furnace or not. Can't believe what everyone tells you. Especially if you're a senior. They think you are an easy mark. My son is better at this . If you try and sell him something, you better not lie. If he doesn't already know the truth, he will find it out. When he goes to buy something, he first checks on the computer what everyone says about it.

Just had dinner. Scrambled eggs and shrimp. One of my neighbours received 20 lbs. of shrimp from someone and gave me 10 lbs. So into my freezer it went.

My last item is that I have a pear tree with no pears. Because I have only one tree and there must be none in the area. No pollination.