The Late Linda Fanning

We were at the Thanksgiving dinner which was actually a lunch.  They have it at lunch time here because everyone wants to get home to watch the football on TV.  Dave and Linda Fanning were not there yet.  The turkey came and we started eating.  Sonny phoned them and left a message because they weren’t home.  Before she started eating Diane went out to their house and found Dave and Linda just got home from a bike ride.  Linda thought the dinner was a 4 pm.  They had ridden past the club house and wondered why there were so many people there already.  Fortunately, Linda was bringing the pie for dessert.  So we weren’t missing any of the main courses.

Glen

We went to Thanksgiving dinner at the community center and sat with Diane Banks and Sonny.  Dave Fanning’s sister Ruth and her husband Don were supposed to be sitting with us but they had had trouble with their RV and hadn’t arrived yet.  So Diane had invited another couple to join us.  We didn’t know them.  After a while, the fellow said that he thinks he should know me.  He said he had met me outside his house.  I remembered meeting him on one of my walks.  He was coming out of his house to get his mail and I stopped to talk to him.  I introduced myself and to make conversation I asked him if he was going to the Thanksgiving dinner.  He said yes.  I said so was I.  Little did I know that he would end up sitting at the same table and beside me.

Medical Insurance

I get 40 days of insurance through the retired public servants system.  So Barb thought there was no rush to get travel insurance before we left Canada because it wouldn’t take effect for 40 days.  She would have 40 days to apply and pay the fees.  So the other day, she sat down to apply to Medipac, the Snowbirds Travel Insurance, we usually get.  She filled out all of the forms and just before she applied she saw a NOTE.  It said that you could only apply from a Canadian address.  I was out for my walk and Barb was at home panicking.  She phoned Medipac and they told her there was nothing they could do.  It was some kind of law.  Barb asked what she could do.  She was imagining us having to go home to get our travel insurance figured out.  They said she could phone the people that are giving us insurance right now.  So she found out who they were and called them.  They said it was no problem.  We could get insurance from them.  Barb was relieved and Medipac may have lost our business.

Cover Photo

Barb got a copy of the Pickleball Association of Ontario newsletter in an email.  She found a picture of herself and Chris on the cover taken at the Kitchener tournament that she won in October.

Found Shoe

Barb had worn dress shoes on the first day of our drive down to Florida.  On the second day, she wore sandals.  She had thrown her shoes in the back seat of the car.  However, when we got to Florida she only had one shoe.  Barb thought it might have fallen out of the window on the trip.  She was here for a couple of weeks and then she found her shoe on the shelf in the back window behind the head rest.

Library

I downloaded a few books on MP3 from the Tampa Bay library that we have access to through the Avon Park library.  Then one day the Tampa Bay library had a message saying this patron is blocked.  I thought they had caught me cheating with their electronic books and audio books.  I phoned the library and they said I just had to renew my card.  I had to prove that I was still a resident of Avon Park and paying taxes.  So I went to the library renewed my card and everything was okay again.

Silver Sisters

I met the husband of Barb’s good friend Betty on one of my walks.  I was telling him about Barb getting a silver medal at the pickleball tournament in Winter Garden.  He said that was good.  I said Barb was disappointed because she always expects to win Gold.  From then on, John made fun of Barb’s silver medals.  He and Betty are real jokers.

Walks

Every afternoon I go for a walk around the park.  I walk for an hour and then drop in to my sister’s place for a break.  Every day at dinner, Barb asks me who I met on my walk.  I usually have met someone.  People know me in the park as the guy who walks everyday at 4:30 in the afternoon.  They say they can set their watch on my walks.

Pool

I have a nice routine.  After softball if I am hot, instead of taking a shower at home, I go down to the pool and take a shower and go for a short swim.  I bring my iPod and I can hook into the wifi at the club house and read my email as I am drying off.  However, now I have to wait until after noon to go to the pool because the ladies have water aerobics class from 11 to 12.

Dryer

When Barb decided to do her first laundry she found that the dryer didn’t work.  She thought it was broken.  Then she thought to try the breakers.  She flipped the breakers at the bottom of the case and the dryer worked.  The breakers need better labelling.

Steaks

Barb found a great deal on steaks at Winn Dixie.  She bought a big slab of steak on sale and then got the butcher to cut it into inch and a half steaks.  They are great and we have a lot of them.

Golf Cart

We couldn’t get the golf cart started.  The batteries were dead and wouldn’t charge.  Tom came over with his individual battery charger because he said if the batteries are too low the regular charger can’t get started.  We charged the batteries individually and then the regular charger was able to work.  Barb filled the cylinders with distilled water.  We were able to get the cart out of the shed and around to the driveway but I had to push it at the end of the driveway.  For the next week, we kept trying to charge the batteries using the individual charger and the regular charger.  The batteries would show they were charging but when we took the charger off they would immediately show they weren’t charged.  Eventually, we gave up on the cart.  Now it just sits in the driveway and we ride our bike or walk wherever we need to go.

Dinner with Bonnie

On our first night at the park, we went over for dinner at Tom and Bonnie’s.  Tom made a big steak dinner for us.  Bonnie made the fried potatoes, vegetables and salad.  The funny thing was that Tom had to eat in a hurry and head out while we were still eating because he was supposed to play cards at the club house at 7 pm.  So we had dinner with Bonnie.

Gary

I guess we had arrived at exactly the same time as Trudy and Gary.  Trudy is Barb’s friend from knitting and sewing and Gary is my friend from softball.  Barb went out to Walmart to get groceries and ran into them.  Gary gave Barb a big hug and told her that he was going to softball the next day.  He asked if Ivan wanted to go.  Barb thought that was so cute just like we were little kids.  I didn’t go to softball because I was too tired.  But I found out the next afternoon that there was no softball anyway because of Veterans Day.

Hamstrings

The first thing I did was pick the grass out of the garden.  It had grown high where the tree trunk was.  Barb had put a lot of mulch down but the grass grew up right through it.  I guess the lawn cutters didn’t always cut the grass there because they thought it was a garden.  After sitting in the car for two days and then bending over the garden to pull out the grass I found that my hamstrings were very sore. Fortunately, Barb had taught me a good exercise to stretch out my hamstrings.  I did that exercise for a few days and felt much better.

Fridge

We got to our house and found out that the fridge had turned off.  Barb thought it was broken and we would have to buy a new one.  All of our food and Barb’s lotions were ruined.  And the fridge smelled bad because an OXO package had melted.  Barb turned on the hot water tank and flipped the breakers on and then the fridge came on.  We were relieved that the fridge wasn’t broken but Barb was mad that she had turned off the breaker for the fridge before we left last Spring. 

Red Roof

We had hoped to get to Macon Georgia in the first day.  However, because we lost 2 hours going to Flint, we only made it to Atlanta.  There was rain in Atlanta and we were going to drive through Atlanta before we stopped.  I had picked up a coupon book at the border and was looking through it to find bargains while Barb was driving.  Driving through Atlanta was terrible.  Barb couldn’t see the lanes because of the rain.  Betsy kept telling us to stay right when I knew we should be staying left.  Barb was very confused.  We finally got through and I decided we should try the Red Roof hotel.  We got off the highway and crossed the bridge over the highway and had to take a quick left turn to a side road.  But the turn we took was too quick and we ended up back on the highway going back into Atlanta.  We turned around and found our way to the Red Roof.  They gave us a non-smoking room that smelled like smoke.  So we asked for another room and they gave us a room that was moldy.  So we asked for our money back and went to the Hotel 6.  There we got a good room with a King Size bed.  We checked our email at the hotel and Bonnie invited us over for dinner when we arrived and Linda asked if we wanted to sit with them at the Thanksgiving dinner at the park.  We went to bed early and woke up at 3 am and hit the road again and got to Avon Park at noon.

Dollar

The Canadian dollar was very low compared to the American dollar.  So many Canadians were thinking twice about leaving the country.  On our trip though, we were amazed at how cheap the gas was.  We were filling up the tank from half way with only $10.  The coffee was also very cheap.  We were able to buy an extra large coffee for a dollar.  Even the cappuccino cost only a dollar for a large.  That is a lot of sugar.

North to Flint

Barb drives the first leg of our trip so I can sleep.  We got to the border in Detroit at 6 am.  There was some confusion at the border because just as we were getting to the security a guard came out and tried to get us to change lanes.  There were 5 lanes for Nexus cards and six lanes for enhanced driver’s licenses but only two lanes for passports.  And he wanted to reduce it one lane.  Fortunately, he changed his mind and we got through quickly.  When we got over the border we were supposed to look for a sign for 75 south to Ohio.  There was a three-way turn right after we got through security and we had to make a quick decision.  I saw a sign for 75 and Barb took that exit.  We drove for an hour and then stopped for gas and a pee.  We were heading to Flint Michigan.  I noticed that the sign to get on the highway after we got gas said Flint 75 North and I knew we wanted 75 South.  We had gone an hour in the wrong direction.  So I got back on the highway and we headed back to Detroit.  We had to drive into Detroit in rush hour and we got back to the border two hours after we had come through the border.  We had lost 2 hours.  Barb almost had an aneurism.

Left Early

Barb had applied to play in a pickleball tournament on the weekend after we were planning to arrive in Florida.  We were planning to leave on Wednesday but we had done everything we needed to do.  So we decided to leave on Monday morning instead.  Sarah came over to say goodbye on Sunday night and we sent her home with some food we didn’t finish.  I packed the car.  Barb closed down the house and arranged for a neighbour to look after the house.  Then we left at 3 am Monday morning.

Pub Night

They have a big party at the park called Pub Night.  Some of the people at the park get up and lip sync to music.  They wear costumes and pretend to play instruments.  It is a great party.  Helen from the office invited us to go out for dinner before the party.  We went to the Waterloo Arms in the town.  Also with us was Betty from down the street.  She is a party animal.  We got to the restaurant a little early and were sitting outside looking at the map of Eastern United States planning our route to Florida.  Betty and her friend came by and asked us if we were lost.  We all had fish and chips for dinner.  Then we went to the party and had our own table right up at the front.  Donna from the office also joined us.  It was nice to be invited to sit with the young people.  Donna and Helen also knew all the gossip about the park.  We were amazed at what goes on there.

High School Reunion

The reason we were staying in Canada later this year was so I could go to my 40^th high school reunion in Burlington.  It was very well attended and I saw a lot of old friends.  I noticed that some of the old chums especially some of the girls had gotten very wrinkled.  Also there were so many people talking at the same time that the noise in the room was very loud.  I had to lean over to hear my friends talking.  I had to yell for them to hear me.  I was hoarse for the next few days.

Ruthie the Fan

Our neighbour Ruth asked Barb about her pickleball.  She wanted to come out and watch her.  So Barb arranged for her to come out and see her play at the Badminton Club.  Ruth brought a few of her friends with her.  She got to watch a little of the games but unfortunately the guy who runs the pickleball club got talking to them and stood in front of them for an hour or so.  They couldn’t see Barb because this guy was standing in the way.  Barb says he really likes to talk.

Telephone Calls

We still haven’t sold our house in Ottawa.  We took it off the market for the month of October hoping to make a private deal with a neighbour but that didn’t work out.  So we started thinking of putting it up on the market again.  I had heard about real estate agents that guarantee to sell your house or they will buy it.  I looked a few up on the web and submitted my email address and phone number.  We got calls from all three companies.  Barb told one of the fellows to phone back at 3 pm the next day.  So I waited around the phone the next day at 3 pm.  Then a call came in and I talked to the guy and told him my situation.  I just hung up and got another phone call.  This time it was from the guy who had made the appointment.  The first call was just a coincidence that he phoned at 3 pm.

Sleeping Pills

We have had problems getting a general practioner in New Hamburg.  Fortunately, we have prescriptions from our Ottawa doctors to last us in Florida.  Barb got the pharmacy to transfer the prescriptions down to New Hamburg from Ottawa.  The only problem was my sleeping pills.  We didn’t have enough of them.  I had an old prescription but they wouldn’t renew it because the pills were considered narcotics.  So in desperation I went to the clinic in Kitchener on a Saturday morning.  I got there at 7:30 and it didn’t open until 8 am.  There were already 30 people waiting outside the office when I got there.  I saw a sign of the door saying the clinic would not renew narcotics.  So I was worried.  When I saw the doctor, I showed him my pill bottle and he asked me how often I used them.  He said once a month and I said no more like once a week.  He said that was too often and wouldn’t renew my prescription.  He said the pills were bad for me and would only give my 20 pills for the whole winter in Florida.  He said you won’t die of not sleeping.  I told him I could get sick but he wasn’t impressed.

Certificate

I read this long article on the computer over a few days.  It was about computer coding.  It was a good article and funny too.  It had a running fictional story about a manager trying to figure out what his computer programming staff were doing and why it was costing so much money and taking so long to make a website for the company.  The article also had a lot of factual information about programming languages and the software development.  As I was getting to the end of the article, I got a message saying a website wanted access to my camera.  I said it was okay.  Then when I finished the article, the website said congratulations I had read 38,000 words in six days.  It said I was incredibly slow but it gave me a certificate of completion with my picture on it.  That was why it had asked to use my camera.

Printer Fixer

The office called me to help them fix their printer.  It was making a funny grinding noise.  I went to the office and tried to figure out what was wrong.  I had to move the printer.  After I moved the printer it didn’t grind anymore.  So I moved it back and it grinded again.  So I moved it back to where I had placed it before and fixed the problem.  I am not sure why it fixed the problem or if the fix will last but they seemed happy.

Computer Fixer

Barb got a call from a fellow in the park who needed my help with his computer.  I had told the ladies at the office that I was good at fixing computers and the fellow had phoned the office to ask for help and they gave him my phone number.  I went to his house and found out that he had installed Windows 10 and now he couldn’t get into his computer.  I guess like Windows 8 you have to have a Hotmail account to sign in to the computer.  He didn’t have a hotmail account.  So Windows set one up for him.  However, he didn’t know the password for the account.  He tried all of his old passwords but they didn’t work.  I tried to get him a new password but I found out that he had to do a lot to verify his identity.  He had to list five addresses he had recently emailed.  He didn’t know anyone address because they popped up automatically when he wanted them.  He had to list five folders he uses to save his emails.  But he didn’t use folders.  It was impossible to change his password.  So I couldn’t help him.  I gave him the name of a professional company who fixed computers in the park.  They have probably seen this before.  I don’t know if he ever got his computer fixed.

Thermostat

One day, Barb noticed that there was a strange message on the screen of the thermostat.  We couldn’t figure out what it said.  So Barb found the manual that the lady before us had left behind.  She read it and found out the message said Lo Batt meaning low battery. Barb went out and got a new battery and fixed the thermostat.  We were lucky that it happened while we were still here and not when we were in Florida.

Cheese Factory

There is a cheese factory in New Hamburg.  It is just on the other side of the bridge over the river at the end of the trail that I walk.  One day I was walking into town and was getting hungry.  So I stopped at the cheese factory and bought a pound of cheese curds.  I ate them on my walk to town and back home but there were a lot left when I got home.  So Barb had a nice snack for a couple of days too.

Blue Jays

There was a controversy during the game tonight.  The Blue Jays were on the brink of elimination.  They had to win the game to stay alive.  With score tied late in the game, the Texas Rangers had a runner on third base.  The catcher was throwing the ball back to the pitcher and he hit the bat of the batter.  The ball rolled out into the infield and the runner ran home to take the lead.  They have to review the play and get a decision from headquarters but the decision was that the run would stand.  There was a delay of the game because the fans were mad and were throwing things on the field.  Later in the game, Jose Batista hit a 3 run home run to win the game for the Blue Jays.  He was so happy he threw his bat and the picture went viral on the internet for the next few days.  I thought if the Blue Jays had lost the game and been eliminated from the playoffs, there would be riots in the streets of Toronto.  Fortunately, the Blue Jays won and later went on to the League Championships.

BT Sports

I looked up a website about how to watch live sports on Kodi.  We wanted to watch the Blue Jays in the playoffs.  We found a way but sometimes the sound didn’t work even though the picture worked and sometimes the picture didn’t work well either.  The sound went off during tonight’s game.  So we tried to listen to the game on the radio while we watched the game on Kodi.  Unfortunately, the television version was about a minute or two behind the radio.  We found a way to watch the games using a British sports television station.  It was fun watching the British commercials with them driving on the left side of the road.

Phillip and Steven

One day I saw on Facebook that Phillip and Steven Hughes were in Toronto.  I messaged Phillip to ask him what he was doing.  He said he was going to Indiana to watch a NFL football game.  Then he was going to Chicago and Niagara Falls and heading back to Ireland.  I thought about it for a few days and asked him if he wanted to get together in Niagara Falls.  He said sure.  I made plans for Barb and I to meet him at a restaurant on the strip.  Then just before we were going to leave for Niagara Falls I found out that he was staying in Hamilton.  Barb asked why don’t we meet in Hamilton rather than Niagara Falls?  I messaged him and asked him if he wanted to meet in Hamilton instead.  He said sure.  So I made plans on where to meet.  I wanted him to try poutine.  I found the best place for poutine in Hamilton but it was a really small place.  We couldn’t make reservations.  So we had to wait for a place and got the only table that sat four.  Barb had a good chat with Phillip and then before they left Phillip recorded a video of us saying Happy Birthday to Carrie for her 90^th birthday coming up,

Black Eye

Barb plays some pretty vicious pickleball.  Today she got hit in the eye with a smash.  She got a black eye.  She could have been blinded because her eye lids are so flat.  She started looking for protective glasses but couldn’t find any she liked.  So she decided she would continue taking her chances.  She posted a picture of her black eye on Facebook and all of her friends were very worried about her.

Voting Day

On voting day for the federal election, Barb and I walked down to the community center where the polling booths for our park were.  We were able to bring our new driver’s licenses that we had just received in the mail.  It was all very convenient.

After voting, I skyped with Stan.  Then Barb and I watched the end of the Blue Jays playoff game which the Blue Jays won in convincing fashion.  Then we watched the party leader speeches after the election.  I was very impressed with Justin Trudeau’s speech and Barb thought Justin Trudeau’s wife was adorable.

 

Book Chapter

I had written a paper with Max for a conference.  However, I didn’t go to the conference because it was too expensive to travel to Boston.  So I offered to submit it to Tony as a chapter of a book he was working on.  The book came out in October but was dated 2016 for some reason.  The publisher sent me a copy of the book and it looked really nice.  My chapter was the last one in the book.  I will have to read the other chapters when I have time.  They also sent me an electronic copy of the book.  I thought that it was really cool.

The Football Game

I am a member of the Hamilton Tiger Cats fan club and regularly get emails from them.  Earlier in the season, I got free tickets to a Ticats exhibition game.  This week I got an email saying they were having a draw for free tickets to a Toronto Argos game that was being played in Hamilton because of the Blue Jays being in the playoffs and needing the Rogers Center.  It was a cold day.  So Barb went out to the thrift shop to buy warm clothes for us because we had gotten rid of all our warm clothes when we moved because we didn’t think would ever need them again.  On the way to the football game, we took a detour through Burlington so that Barb could stop at the IKEA store to return a shelf that she didn’t need.  The Argos lost so the Ticat fans were happy.  They hate the Argos.

Treadmill

We have a special key to the community center.  So we can get in whenever we want.  When it is raining I don’t walk on the trail.  Instead I drive down to the community center and use the treadmill in the gym.  For some reason, you have to sign in and write down which machines you use.  I don’t know too many people at the park but I know a few people who use the gym from their names on the list.

Thanksgiving

Julia came down from Ottawa for the Thanksgiving weekend.  She stayed with Sarah but she came over to see our house.  We showed her around and went for a long walk along the trail to New Hamburg.  We wanted to buy ice cream but it was too expensive at the convenience store.  So Barb talked us into walking a little farther to the Sobey’s grocery store.  We bought a box of drumsticks for the price of a single drumstick at the convenience store.  It was great because there were 4 drumsticks in the box.

Letter to Ireland

When Sarah and I visited Ireland, we dropped in on Aunt Yvonne and Cousin Billy.  Billy was not feeling well.  Yvonne thought he was depressed.  She asked me to write him a letter once in a while because they didn’t have a computer.  So when I saw an article in my science newsletter on why Guiness beer tastes better in Ireland than in other countries, I printed it out and wrote Billy a letter.  Then I walked into town to the post office to mail it to him in Ireland.

Brianna’s Questions

Daphne and Sharon and Brianna visited one day to see our new place.  I was showing them around and I was showing off my study.  Daphne noticed my turntable and mentioned it.  Brianna said what’s a turntable?  I told her it plays records.  She said what’s a record?  I tried to show her but before I could get my computer turned on and an album playing they were off looking at other parts of the house.

Record Shelf

Barb bought a stylish shelf from IKEA for my LPs and magazines. Apparently, these shelves are all the rage for holding Baby Boomers’ old LPs.  The shelf has four rows and four columns of large square cubby holes.  Barb found a YouTube video about how to put records on the shelves.  So I learned how to store my records safely.  I also found out that I had a lot of records in my collectionthat I had never listened to.  I wonder where I got them.

Chest of Drawers

Barb bought three large low chests of drawers and one large tall chest of drawers.  We assembled them together like an assembly line.  Barb got a blister from using the screw driver so much.  I got the tricky job of fitting the shelves in the racks.  The three chests of drawers fit perfectly under the clothes rack that John had raised.  Each chest had four large drawers.  They looked great and held a lot of stuff.  When we assembled the tall chest of drawers, I put the wrong piece in the lid and it wouldn’t fit properly.  So Barb got the idea of putting a towel over the lid and hammering if down.  When we did that we broke a hole in the lid.  It was only a small flaw but we weren’t happy.  So Barb took back the lid and they gave us a new one and we were more careful this time.  In the end, Barb was very happy with the closet and felt that now there was no wasted space.