What the Hell is Going On?

Barb hadn’t told her friends she was moving.  Our neighbours all knew by now since they had seen so much garbage going out.

On day Barb’s pickleball friend, Chris, came over to drop off some money for a tournament.  She walked into the house and saw nothing on the walls.  She immediately said, “What the hell is going on?”

Barb told her we were moving and they had a little cry together.

Helping the Garbage Men

We were throwing a lot of stuff away.  The garbage is only collected every two weeks.  So we had to save our stuff and throw it out all at the same time.

The garbage men were good about it.  One day when I was home I offered to help them.  They said it was okay I didn’t need to help them.

They told Barb they get paid by the ton.  So they like it when they can get a lot of garbage from the same house.

Barb still felt bad for the garbage men and helped even when they said they didn’t need it.

House For Sale

The whole while I was in Ireland with Sarah, Barb was at home getting the house ready for sale.  Even before we signed with the real estate agent, we had an offer on the house from the brother of a neighbour.  The neighbour had two children and the brother had two children the same age.  Their mother also lived down the road.  It was a perfect situation for them.  However, the wife was very fussy.

Barb told him we were asking $369,000.  The neighbour said the brother was thinking of spending around $360,000.  So Barb thought we had a deal.  Then the brother offered us $340,000, $30,000 less than we were asking.  We thought it was insulting.  So we turned them down.

We eventually listed the house with the real estate agent for $410,000.  I based that on what my Dad’s house had sold for in Burlington.  I thought our house was in much better shape than my Dad’s house.

London Detour

We got to London and had a free coupon for transportation to the hotel and a coupon for a free dinner.  We got to our hotel and checked in.  Then we had dinner.

I talked Sarah into going downtown after dinner for a quick tour.  I thought I knew my way around on the Express train downtown and the subway around London.

We got round trip tickets for the Express.  When we got downtown, we got day passes for the subway and a map of the tourist sites.

The first stop I decided we should see was Marble Arch.  It was crazy there because a Kylie Manogue concert had just ended and people were all over.

From there, we went to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  Then we stopped at the Buckingham Palace stop but couldn’t find the palace.

Finally, we went to King’s Cross Station to see platform 9 ¾ where Harry Potter was filmed.  Unfortunately, we never found it.  It wasn’t between platform 9 and 10.

We took the subway back to the Express.  Unfortunately, the subway stopped and we had to wait for quite a while.  By the time we got there the last Express had left the station.

We asked a nice information man how we could get back to our hotel.  He said we could take a normal train for a couple of stops.  Then get off and take a bus.  It was great that we caught him before he went home because he closed up right after he told us what to do.

We waited for the train.  Then got to the bus stop and waited in the rain for the bus.  Then took that bus and missed our stop to get off at our hotel.  We went into the airport and had to find a taxi in the empty airport to get back to our hotel.

By the time we got back to our hotel it was 2 am and we had to get up at 5 am to catch our flight back to Canada.  It was quite the Father’s Day mis-adventure.

Cancellation and Quick Action

It was time to go fly back to Canada.  My sister drove us to the airport and dropped us off.  We went through security and were waiting outside the gate.  We were waiting a long time.  Sarah got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that the sign said that our flight was cancelled.  We asked a customer service lady and she said we would have to go back to get our luggage and book another flight.

Fortunately, she opened the arrivals door for us and we were able to get back through customs to get our baggage.  Then we went to the customer service counter and we were among the first people from our flight there.

There were very few people working at the customer service.  So we had to wait a long time.  But we were able to get a flight in the afternoon to London and then free hotel accommodation at an airport hotel to leave the next morning on a flight to Canada.

We were able to go to a special check in counter and didn’t have to wait in line.

When we were leaving customer service, we noticed a line up hundreds of yards long of people who were waiting behind us.

Related to the President

Before we left Tipperary, we stopped to take a picture of us outside my cousin’s butcher shop.  It was closed but it was nice to see the Williams sign.

While we were taking pictures, a man from the pub across the street came over and asked if we wanted him to take a picture of all of us together.  He assumed we were related to the owner of the butcher shop.

He told us that we were related to President Obama because the man who owned the butcher shop was related to President Obama.

As we were driving to Tipperary, we went through a town and noticed all these American flags on the main street.  On the way home, we stopped and took pictures of the house that Obama’s Great Great Great Great Great … Grandfather on his mother’s side lived.  There was a coffee shop named after the President and there was a big picture of Obama drinking Guinness in the local pub.

Other Ivans

My Aunt Ivy told me I had an Uncle named Ivan.  He was the son of the sister of my grandfather.  He is dead now but would be in his 90’s if he was still alive.

My Aunt Ivy has five children.  One of her sons is named Ivan.

It seems so strange to me to have relatives named Ivan because I thought it was a very Russian name for someone who was Irish.

Tea in Tipperary

The last day of our trip to Ireland, my sister took us to Tipperary to visit my cousins on my mother’s side of the family.  I had never met them.  But I knew that my cousin, Pearl, lived in the old house that my Aunt Milly owned where I had stayed when I was a child.

It was a two hour drive.  When we got there we, of course, had to have tea.

Then we took a tour of the farm and saw the cattle, sheep and calfs.

When we got back, I met my cousin, Harold and a few of Pearl’s nine children.  We then had lunch at the big kitchen table.

After lunch, my Aunt Ivy visited.  She is the keeper of the family tree.  She came with lots of old pictures.  Pearl made copies of them for us.

Then we had tea with Ivy before we went back to Greystones.

Dublin

On the second day of Sarah’s and my visit to Ireland, we decided to tour Dublin.  Unfortunately, we slept in so late, it was 4 pm by the time we left to catch the train.

There was no one working at the station because it was Saturday.  At first, we were waiting on the wrong side of the tracks.  Fortunately, we asked someone and were able to run to the other side before the train left for Dublin.

We got to Dublin and asked a newspaper man about the bus tour.  We found the bus and took the tour.  We sat on the upper deck of a double decker bus with no roof.  It was cold and raining. I didn’t have a jacket or a sweater but the tour was a good way to learn about Dublin in a short period of time.

After the tour, we went to Trinity College where my Mom got her degree.  Then we bought some souvenirs.  Sarah bought me an Irish wool sweater as a Father’s Day present.  I bought some Flake chocolate bars and Cheese and Onion Crisps.

On the way to dinner, we stopped at a Tim Horton’s for a coffee and took some pictures.  We had to walk a long way to the pub where we wanted to eat at.  We were walking beside the River Liffey and stopped to take some pictures on the Ha-Penny bridge.  Sarah took a picture of me and I took a picture of Sarah.  Sarah got a kick out the fact that I took about 20 pictures of the ground and my feet and my coffee cup by accident because I don’t know how to use an iPhone camera.

We had dinner at the oldest pub in Dublin.  It was established in 1168.  I had a Guinness with my Bangers and Mash.

When we left the restaurant it was raining.  We walked to O’Connell Street and took pictures of all the statues.  Then we walked back to the train to go back to Greystones.  Again we were on the wrong side of the tracks.  Fortunately, there was a worker there to help us.

When we got back to Greystones, we had to find a payphone and money to pay for a call to Daphne’s cellphone to tell her we were back so she could come and pick us up.  After we called her, we decided to go into a restaurant for an ice cream cone.  A man came up to me and asked “are you Ivan?”  It was my Aunt Yvonne’s husband.  He was told to look for us if we came home too late to pick us up.  He was supposed to tell us to take a taxi.

We had our ice cream and in the end my sister picked us up.

Choc Ice

When we were leaving Greystones, it was rush hour and the kids in the local school were getting picked up by their parents.  My sister wanted to see if the old candy store was still where it was when we were little kids and visited Greystones.  She let us out of the car in the traffic jam to walk to find the store.  We found the store and bought three Choc Ice and three bags of Cheese and Onion Crisps.  We just got out of the store with our purchases and my sister was coming around the corner in the traffic jam to pick us up.

Sarah took a picture of the Choc Ice and emailed it to Julia.  Julia couldn’t believe that Choc Ice was a real thing.  She thought Grampa Taylor had just made out the name.

Floating in Tea

After Sarah and I arrived in Dublin, my sister brought us back to the place where we were going to stay.  My sister was staying in my cousin, Joyce’s, house.  Sarah and I were going to stay in their chalet.

My sister made us breakfast of tea, bread, ham and salads.

Then we went visit my other cousin, Helen, Joyce’s sister, for a brief visit.  That was the only place where we didn’t have tea.

We went to my Aunt Violet’s and had tea and biscuits.  From there we went to Greystones and had fish and chips for lunch on the harbour.  Next we visited my Aunt Yvonne and Cousin Billy and had more tea and biscuits.  Cousin Billy was hilarious.  He is an eccentric.

Then we went and picked up my last living Aunt Carrie (my father’s sister).  The other Aunts were Aunts by marriage.  Carrie will be 90 this year.  We went out for a drive for the afternoon and looked at grave sites.

Then we picked up another Aunt Pixie and went back Aunt Carrie’s to a big spread of cake and sandwiches and more tea.  My Aunt Carrie showed us around her place and we saw her donkeys and her horse which I think she keeps to keep the grass down.

Her daughter, my cousin Evelyn, came home but was too busy at first to visit with us.  Later when we were having tea she came over to my Aunt Carrie’s house (they live next door to each other).  My Aunt and my cousin were bickering the whole time, we were having tea and it was hilarious to listen to them.

From there, we met my cousin Helen and her daughter and went out to a pub for dinner.  Sarah and I were so stuffed with tea we couldn’t eat anything.  Then we had an early night because we were jet lagged.

First Irish Mistake

Sarah and I flew to Ireland the day before her birthday.  We arrived on her birthday.  My sister picked us up at the airport.  When we went to get in her car, I made my first mistake of the trip.  I tried to get in the driver’s side of the car as a passenger.  I forgot they drive on the other side of the road in Ireland.  That was the first of many mistakes I made in this trip.

Barb’s Weight Loss Program

Barb has been working for two weeks straight fixing up the house to get it ready for sale.  She cleaned everything so much that our real estate agent says it squeaks.  She is painting the baseboards.

She only takes time out to play pickleball.

She lost about 15 pounds and her pants now look baggy on her.

New Fastball Equipment

I thought my batting was poor because I had a poor bat.  So I bought a new bat.  When I brought it home, I found I didn’t like it.  So I returned it and got another.   The second bat that I bought only cost $49.  It was not very good either.

So a couple of weeks later, I went back and bought another more expensive bat.  Then I found the handle was too thin.  So I brought it back and got a new grip added.

Then my helmet broke.  So I went to get a new helmet.

I had all this new equipment for batting.  Unfortunately, I kept hurting my right hand when I hit the ball.  It even hurt to swing the bat.  So I took a couple of weeks off of batting and didn’t use my new equipment.

I made an appointment with my doctor to ask him if there was anything I could do to help my hand.  When I went to see him, of course, I couldn’t seem to show him where my hand hurt.  He said he would make an appointment with a sports medicine doctor anyway.

When I finally got my appointment, it was going to be a month later.  I decided I was go back to batting because it didn’t seem to make sense to not bat and let my hand get better, then see the sports medicine doctor when I didn’t have a sore hand.

Laura’s Boxes

We had cleaned out Laura’s room and put her stuff in the basement.  Then we rented a storage unit for Laura to put the stuff.  Barb was surprised to find that the storage unit place was just down the road from our house.  They sold boxes and packing tape at the storage unit place.

Barb made it my job to box up all of Laura’s stuff.  I bought a number of boxes and started packing.  I packed everything in the basement and Laura wanted me to label the boxes so she would be able to find things later.

A couple of days later, Julia came over to look through her stuff.  She asked about her old school books.  Barb said they were downstairs.  Of course, I had packed them in Laura’s boxes.

Julia was happy when she realized I had labelled the boxes.  She found a box that was labelled books.  She opened it and found her books right away in the first box she opened.

Sarah asked about the body cast she got for her scoliosis.  I had packed it in one of Laura’s boxes too.  I knew it was Sarah’s body case but I thought maybe Laura wanted to make it into an art project.  Unfortunately, I didn’t label the box that I put it in.

VHS Tapes Everywhere

Barb used to watch her favourite TV shows on the VCR.  We had about 5 VCRs.  Now that she uses Kodi on the computer, there is no need to tape shows on the VCR anymore.  So I gathered up all the VCRs and brought them to Future Shop for electronic recycling.

When we were cleaning up the house, everywhere we looked we found more VHS tapes.  Barb had collected hundreds of them.  She stored them in boxes all over the basement.  I brought them to Future Shop for electronics recycling as well.  It was embarrassing bringing box after box of VHS tapes to the store day after day.

Nice Neighbours

Barb is getting the house ready to sell.  Our real estate agent told her to clean under the hood of the oven and she did.  The real estate agent said, “De-clutter”.  So Barb took all of the dried floral pieces off the walls.  We threw out so much stuff on garbage day.  Some of our neighbours picked up some of the stuff for free but we were sad to see that more things didn’t go to happy homes.

Our neighbour gave us some flower pots and lawn furniture to spruce up our patio.  She lent Barb some gardening tools to pick out the weeds between the bricks.  Our neighbour even did some weeding herself on the front walk.

In a Strange Place

I was pitching in the Trend Arlington league and just before I threw a pitch, I saw David Waller walk behind the backstop.  Right in the middle of my windup, I yelled “David Waller”.  Apparently, he was there with his daughter’s soccer game.  There are many soccer fields beside the Trend Arlington diamond.  We are always worried that some little kid will get hit by a foul ball.  I thought it was so strange to see a coffee friend at my ball field.

What are the Chances

Barb was conducting a pickleball demonstration at a local tennis club on Family Day.  She was just finishing the clinic and she was surprised to see Julia come in to do a tennis clinic for kids.  Barb thought “What are the chances?”

Error

The Kanata Sports Club team was playing in the league tournament.  In the first game, we allowed 11 runs in the first two innings.  So I went in to pitch in the third inning and only allowed one more run in two innings.  We lost 12 – 0 by mercy rule.

In the second game, I was playing first base.  The catcher on the other team, who is a really good hitter, hit a pop fly in foul territory beside first base.  I went over to catch it beside the fence and missed it completely.  It would have been the third out of the inning.  Instead on the next pitch, he hit a two run homerun.  We lost that game as well.

We lost our third game of the round robin and we eliminated from the tournament.  It was a 10 team tournament and 8 teams made the playoffs.  We were one of the two teams that were eliminated.

New Home

Barb received an email saying of house of the model she liked was coming up for sale.  It was Friday night and it was listed on the Morningside website but was not yet listed on the real estate system.  We looked at the pictures online and decided to go for it.  Barb called her real estate agent in Kitchener but he was at his cottage for the weekend.  He said there was nothing he could do until Monday.

I left for Guelph on Monday.  While I was there, Barb put in an offer on the bungalow.  There was a little bit on negotiation but she bought the house all by herself.  We take possession on Friday, August 31^st.

We will now have to sell our house in Barrhaven.

Malik

I was getting ready to leave Fergus where I was staying during the conference in Guelph when I received a text message from Barb.  She told me that the son of a tennis friend of hers had been beaten up by a bunch of high school football players.  Malik was living in Burlington going to high school and a tennis school.  He had a concussion and couldn’t go to school or play tennis.  He wanted to come home to Ottawa to recuperate.  Barb’s friend posted on Facebook that Malik was looking for a ride from Burlington to Ottawa.

Barb volunteered my services.  It was quite a coincidence that I was driving home from Guelph at the same time that Malik needed a ride.

Barb sent me his phone number and I called him to ask where he lived.  I drove from Fergus where I was staying to Burlington but couldn’t find his house.  I drove around and around and eventually phoned him but he didn’t really know how to get there either.  So I turned on my GPS and found where he lived.

I picked him up and we drove back to Ottawa together.  It was great to have him with me because I was trying to follow the weather in Ottawa so that I could cancel the games if necessary.  It turned out it was necessary to cancel the games.  So Malik sent some text messages for me to the team captains and the league executive.

Free Tickets

One of my old work friends now lives in the Netherlands.  He is a crazy Hamilton Tiger Cats fan.  Every year he buys tickets to the Grey Cup Game and if the Tiger Cats are playing in the game, he flies to Canada to watch the game.

He posted on his Facebook page that the Tiger Cats were giving away free tickets to their exhibition game in Tim Horton’s Stadium in Hamilton.

It turned out that I was traveling to Guelph for a conference and would be in Guelph on the night of the game.  So I applied for free tickets and received two.  I was planning to stay with a friend in Fergus and invited him to join me at the game.

I had never been to the new Tim Horton’s Stadium.  So I was really looking forward to it.

Silly Sayings on Little Slips of Paper

Laura and I were in the Tim Horton’s at the airport waiting for her flight to Halifax.  Laura wanted to make an art project out all the silly things I used to say when she was young.  We wrote them all down on my little slips of paper that I carry around in my pocket to help my memory.  It was amazing how many silly things we were able to remember.