New Clothes

Laura brought her new boyfriend with her to Ottawa but she didn’t know if he would be welcome to the wedding because Dillon had restricted the guest list to the very minimum.  She asked Julia if it was okay for Brandon to come to the wedding and reception and Julia said yes.  But Brandon hadn’t expected to be able to come and didn’t have any clothes to wear.  So I gave him $60 and he and Laura went to Value Village during the day of the wedding and bought some very interesting clothes. 

Nice Cut

On the shorter walk back to Ali’s car which was parked just off Bank Street, we walked by a beer store and a scruffy guy in a wheel chair yelled at Barb “Nice Cut” referring to her haircut.  Compliments come from the strangest places.  It was not the first time. 

Another Long Walk

After the rehearsal, we were supposed to go to a restaurant at the new Lansdowne complex.  Dillon was worried about losing his reservation so he asked me to walk ahead of the others.  I also wanted to get there right away because I was supposed to meet with the owner of the Airbnb early in the evening.  I walked to Bank Street and then walked in the direction of Lansdowne.  But I had walked a long way and didn’t see it so I thought maybe I was walking the wrong way.  I stopped and asked someone and they said I was walking the right way.  After I got to Lansdowne it was still a long walk to get to the restaurant.  I got there an ordered a personal size pizza which I was told was their specialty.  I had almost eaten the whole pizza when the others arrived.  I was about to leave when Barb said she had phoned the owner and postponed the meeting until later. 

Airbnb

I had heard a lot about Airbnb in the newspapers I read on the internet.  When I was looking for places to stay for the whole family when we went to Ottawa for Julia’s wedding I compared Airbnb with hotel costs and found that it was slightly cheaper at Airbnb and you could get a whole house to stay in.  The first place I tried was already taken.  I got into the second place and the owner called herself Beautiful.  We told her we would need to get in the house as soon as we arrived to change into our clothes for the wedding rehearsal.  I was surprised when I found out the Ali had rented a fancy car for the weekend.  So we travelled in style and arrived at the Airbnb place an hour early.  We tried to reach Beautiful and couldn’t.  We left a whole bunch of messages.  Beautiful was supposed to give us the code to open the garage door.  We were texting with Barb and finally Barb got through to her.  I guess Beautiful was giving a presentation at work and couldn’t get away when we phoned.  We got the code and got in and changed our clothes for the rehearsal and got to the church in good time.  The house was quite modern but there were a awful lot of stairs.

Politics

I thought it might be fun for Barb and I to read the same books on our eReaders.  So I downloaded a series of books I thought were humorous from the library and loaded them on our eReaders.  Then we read them at the same time which was very good because the story was set in Ottawa and about an unlikely election result.  It was sort of funny in places and Barb liked that she knew many of the places in Ottawa that were described.  But I had to explain the political parts which she didn’t like.  She thought there was too much politics in the book.  So she didn’t want to read any more of my books.  Also I tried listening to audio books Barb had read.  I got through a number of Sue Grafton audio books and Barb was amazed that they could read a whole book in just 7 hours.  So I could finish a book in a week’s worth of walks.

Duke Energy

I wanted to stay in New Hamburg while Barb went to Ottawa so that I could play my fastball games.  But I also thought it would be good to have someone at home because our house deal in Florida was closing this week.  On the day the house deal closed I got a call from the real estate guy in Florida.  He said the Duke Energy guy was at the house to turn off the electricity.  Fortunately, the previous owners were still there and stopped him.  He said he would be back tomorrow to turn it off unless told otherwise from the central office.  I knew Barb had paid the transfer fee over the phone but I phoned them in Florida to find out what was wrong.  The lady said the $200 transfer fee hadn’t been paid.  I had the bill that Barb had written on and said it looked to me like it was already paid but I paid again with my Bank of America debit card.  Later I phoned Barb and she said she had set up an automatic payment.  So I looked up the automatic payment on the bank account and found out it was set to be paid on the 24^th and the house deal closed on the 20^th.

Ottawa

Barb left a week early for Julia’s wedding.  So that she could help Julia with alterations of her dress.  She thought while she was there anyway she would play pickleball with her old friends.  We were texting in the evenings and Barb was raving about how good the pickleball was in Ottawa compared to Kitchener.  I said we could move back if she wanted to but she said she loved her house in New Hamburg too much.  I said I know that pickleball players move where the best pickleball is.

Butt Dialling

Barb put the cell phone in her purse.  Then when she was out she butt dialled me at home and Alex Fysh a guy from my Ottawa fastball league.  She also locked the phone on the internet.  Luckily the internet doesn’t work on the cell phone.  We don’t have any data.  Barb thinks she should make a cover for the cell phone so she won’t butt dial anymore.

Watch Face

Barb was sad to find the face of her favourite watch had fallen off somewhere.  Then today she was searching for the Florida house keys and found the watch face in her underwear drawer.  So she got out the crazy glue to glue the watch face back on the watch.  Later she couldn’t find her iPod.  She searched the house and eventually found the iPod in the front cupboard where she keeps the tool box with the crazy glue.

Long Walk

Today was Sarah’s convocation at Guelph.  I thought I knew where I was going and parked where I normally park.  But then we found out that we had to walk for about 30 minutes across campus to get to the building where the convocation was taking place.  When we got there we found there was special parking right across the road from the building.  We saw Sarah graduate and were disappointed when the announcer stumbled over her name which was stupid because her name was the simplest name possible compared to many of the foreign students.  Afterwards we took a ton of pictures of Sarah with her friends around the campus.  Barb fell in love with one of Sarah’s friend’s mother.  She was so thin and looked just as young as her daughter.  Ali drove us back to our car so we didn’t have to take that long walk again.  Then we drove to Sarah’s apartment and opened Sarah’s birthday presents.  Sarah was so happy about the kitchen ware Barb bought her for her birthday.

Supporting Local Businesses

I went to get my haircut today.  Usually Barb cuts my hair but she wanted me to look good for Julia’s wedding.  So she told me to get my haircut professionally.  I drove around and couldn’t find the barber.  I had seen the sign for the barber shop on my walks but I couldn’t remember where.  I stopped in a parking lot behind the bank and asked a fellow walking where the barber shop was and he pointed to it.  I was in the barber shop parking lot.  After I got my hair cut I decided to try the breakfast special at a local restaurant.  They served it until 3 pm and I was just in time.  I got a haircut and a breakfast for under $20.

Classics

When I am not playing in the Church League, I often drive to Kitchener to watch the games in the Kitchener Fastball League.  They play there Monday through Thursday on two diamonds with two games on each diamond.  So tonight I was watching the Classics and my good friend Sammy Forbes was playing third base.  I was sitting right behind the back stop and when he came up to bat he said to me that I should have a Classics uniform I was at so many of the Classics games.

Elmira

I have quite a few friends who play for the Elmira Expos in the South Perth League.  Tonight I decided to drive to Elmira to see them play against the first place team the Kitchener Cubs.  I thought it would be a good game.  It was about a half hour’s drive to Elmira.  When I got there I stopped at a convenience store and asked if they knew where the diamond was.  They gave me directions and I found a diamond.  The lights were on but there were just three people practicing slow pitch.  So I went to another convenience store and asked again.  The girl at the counter didn’t know but a customer came in and said he was driving that way and I could follow him.  When we got to the diamond the lights were out and I asked the teams who were in the parking lot drinking if this was where the Expos played and they said no the Expos played at another diamond and gave me directions there.  I followed their directions and ended up back at the first diamond that I found. The lights were still on but the three guys had left.  So I drove home.  When I got home I looked up the website of the South Perth League and found out the game had been cancelled.

Truman’s Jacket

I told Daphne that Truman’s suit fit me really well.  So when she came to visit she wanted to see it on me.  I went into the bedroom closet and could only find the jacket.  So I put on the jacket to show her.  She thought it was good but might need a little repair on the cuffs.  I told Daphne that the pants must be a dry cleaners.  When Barb got home I told her about Daphne and the jacket.  She said that Truman’s suit was at the dry cleaners.  What I showed Daphne was a jacket she bought for me at the local thrift shop for 50 cents.

Caught in the Rain

When it rains here it is just like in Florida.  The rain is torrential.  I walked to the Royal Bank in New Hamburg for Barb and just as I was getting to the bank it started to rain.  I ran to the bank and just got in the door before it started to come down really hard.  I waited there for about an hour until the rain stopped.  I now ask Barb to look at the radar before I go for a walk and I try to remember to bring the cell phone with me so I can call her to come and pick me up if I get caught in the rain.

Dr Taylor Again

We both had another appointment with Dr Taylor.  He said that my blood tests came back and said that I was diabetic and put me on some medication.  He checked Barb’s blood pressure which was still high and put her on a new heavier medication for that.  Barb also asked for and got something like a year’s supply of disc hailers for her asthma and that she could give to Laura.  Barb likes the fact that Dr Taylor doesn’t give a damn.  Dr Nagpal would always give Barb a hard time about her requests for more disc hailers.

Disappointments

Barb went to London to play in a tournament.  She came home Sunday night without a medal and was very disappointed.  That same night I went out to my Church League game and didn’t get to play at all and we lost by the mercy rule.  So I was disappointed too.

Buck and Doe

The captain of my fastball team is getting married this summer.  So I decided that Barb and I should go to his Buck and Doe party.  I bought two tickets for $10 each and the other captain of the team was surprised and asked me if I was really going to go.  The party was supposed to start a 8 pm and we got there at 8:30.  We thought we were in the wrong place because there were no cars in the parking lot.  But when we went in we found out we were at the right place but no one had shown up yet.  I introduced Barb to my team captain and we talked for a little while.  Then he went to talk to other guests.  Barb and I then stood by ourselves for about an hour and nobody talked to us.  Barb thought that was very rude.  Finally, as we were grazing on the chips on the tables an aunt of the bride introduced herself as see also wanted the same chips.  She invited us to sit with her and her relatives.  It was funny because all of the bride’s relatives sat together at one set of tables that were pulled together and all of the groom’s family sat together across the room at another set of tables that were pulled together and both families ignored the other.  Finally, a few of the other players from the ball team showed up and I introduced Barb.  One of the guys brought his new baby.  He was the nicest of the guys and was very interested in Barb’s pickleball.  At one point, he and his wife went to get some food and Barb was left taking care of the baby by pushing the stroller back and forth.

Truman’s Old Clothes

My brother-in-law Truman has lost a lot of weight since his operation.  My sister Daphne came over with a whole bunch of clothes that didn’t fit him anymore.  Among the clothes we found a black suit that fit me perfectly and would look great for Julia’s wedding.

Chipped Tooth

I have caps on my front teeth and I chipped one of them a while back.  When we got back to New Hamburg there was a card in our mailbox advertising a new local dentist.  So Barb made an appointment to get my front tooth recapped so I would look good in the pictures of Julia’s wedding.  The office was really fancy with all the latest equipment and the dentist was a young woman who knew all of the latest techniques.  She was very good and did a perfect job on my tooth.  Afterwards I looked good as new.

Computer Club

I was excited to go to my first meeting of the computer club here in the park.  I thought I might meet some people like me who worked on the computer a lot.  But I was disappointed because there was only the leader and three old ladies who didn’t know anything about computers at the meeting.  The leader was showing them some very basic things on the internet but he couldn’t remember any of his passwords to get into his accounts.  So for many of the things he wanted to show them he had to use my account.  The only good thing about the meeting was that I was able to check out the community computer and found there was a large collection of ebooks saved on it.  So I went home and got a memory stick and came back and copied all the ebooks and added them to my already large collection.

No Relief

While I was at a tournament out of town, Barb went to the Mennonite Relief Sale at the community center in New Hamburg.  There was a big quilt auction in the arena.  On Friday night you could go and look at the quilts but there were so many they were hung in rows too close together to really appreciate them.  The auction was the next day and some of the quilts went for 3 or 4 thousand dollars.  But it was a very hot day and there was no air conditioning in the arena.  So there was no relief from the heat at the Relief Sale.  Barb bought a Mennonite strawberry pie.  She was lucky to get a ride home and didn’t have to walk all the way home on such a hot day with a pie in her hands.

Dr Taylor

We met the other Dr Taylor today.  He was recommended to us from Health Care Connect as a family physician.  Barb had looked him up on the internet before we went to see him and there were many bad reviews.  So we were a little worried about meeting him.  But we liked him because he was so business-like.  He just quickly looked at us and renewed all of our prescriptions.  Barb says he is good because he doesn’t give a damn.  He just wants us to be happy.

Losing Streak

I guess my fastball team in the Church League is not very good.  We lost our first eight games.  Many of the games we lost by the mercy rule.  Maybe the teams in the Church League are better than I thought.

Sick Tree

Barb hates the big tree in our back yard.  It doesn’t give us any decent shade on our deck and it drops a lot of leaves and seeds on the deck beside the barbecue.  So Barb phoned the office to see about getting it cut down.  The park manager said that they would only pay to cut down dead trees.  A couple of days later she phoned and said that she had looked at the tree and it looked sick to her compared to the other trees in the neighbourhood.  She said a man would come around in a couple of days to look at it and give her a quote for taking it down and the park would pay.  A couple of days later the man came around and looked at the tree and said it wasn’t sick.  I guess the tree knew its life was in danger and shaped up.  It even gives us a little shade on the deck now.

Mini Tornado

I was at my first fastball tournament of the season in Innerkip.  I was watching the games from the stands where I could watch both diamonds at the same time.  The beer garden was beside the stands along the first base line of diamond 2.  Because it was such a sunny day they had put up a little tent for the fans to sit under.  I was sitting there and all of a sudden I saw a little funnel cloud of dust form in the beer garden.  The funnel cloud picked up the little tent and knocked it over onto a little family of parents and kids.  One man tried to catch the tent and got a little cut on his arm.  I had never seen a tornado before and I asked some of the other fans if they were common around here.  They said they had never seen them before but I know that I sometimes hear tornado warnings on the radio.

Old Friends

I met up with my old fastball friends at the first tournament of the season in Innerkip.  I took a picture of them in the stands and posted it on Facebook.  The picture got a lot of likes and many comments.  All the fastball players that I am friends with know them because they are regulars at all the big tournaments and are great fans of fastball.

New Betsy

Somehow the charging cable for Betsy got damaged and wouldn’t fit in the plug hole anymore.  So Barb went out and bought a new Betsy.  Then she had to program all the favourites again.  She had trouble finding Daphne’s house on the new Betsy.  Fortunately, I was able to find it with the help of Google Maps.  Barb couldn’t live without Betsy even though she hates her sometimes.  We often wonder how we survived without our modern conveniences like text messages, iPods, the Internet and Betsy.

Canada Geese

Barb and I saw two families of Canada Geese on our walk to McDonalds.  We have been watching the little babies growing up.  They are getting big and fat.  Barb thought the parents were very protective of the babies even though they all big now.  Barb saw the Daddy Goose teaching the babies to fly.  He would run along the ground and then take off.  The little ones would run along behind him but they couldn’t take off yet.  It was very cute.

Jib Jab

Paul is a friend of Barb’s from pickleball.  His wife made us a Jib Jab for our wedding anniversary and posted it on Facebook.  It was a version of the song Cheerleader which is one of Barb’s favourite songs.  In the Jib Jab cartoon, I am wearing a hat and Barb is wearing a funny wig.  It was very cute and both Barb and I liked it very much.  It was very thoughtful of Paul’s wife.

Anniversary

I wanted to take Barb to Hawaii for our 25^th wedding anniversary but she didn’t want to go.  So I didn’t think there would be any need to make plans for our 30^th wedding anniversary.  As it turned out, Barb was happy to go to McDonalds around the corner for a Big Mac Meal Deal and then come home and watch an Albert Brooks movie on Kodi.  She is a cheap date.

Kijiji

Barb was selling the refrigerator, the lawn furniture and the barbecue that the lady who used to live here had left behind.  A cute old couple came to look at the lawn furniture.  The lawn furniture was quite large and they had just a little car.  So the old man had to put the cushions for the chairs on the old lady’s lap in the passenger seat.  She said she already had enough padding.  Then another nice fellow came for the barbecue.  He was going to use it to cook for his daughter's wedding reception.  He had already bought six other barbecues.  I guess it was going to be a big wedding.

Computer Help

I was talking to my neighbour and telling him I used to help people in Florida with their computer problems.  He said he had a problem with his computer.  He said the speakers he had hooked up didn’t work any more.  So I went into his house to see if I could fix it.  I was able to get the speakers to work but for some reason after the speakers were working they would announce every word that I typed into the computer.  It was very annoying that you would type and the computer would tell you what you had just typed.  I had never seen anything like that before.  And it took me a while to figure out what to call the problem so I could look it up on Google and find out how to turn it off.  All the time I was trying to find out what it was the computer was telling me what I was typing.  Finally, I found out that it was called a Narrator and was able to turn it off.  Whoever thought of that in Microsoft should be shot.

Special Treatment

When we got the money from the sale of the house in Barrhaven, the lawyer told us she couldn’t deposit it in PC Financial.  She had to walk a cheque into a bank branch and PC Financial doesn’t have any branches.  So we decided to use Barb’s Royal Bank account to deposit the money.  It was fortunate we were able to close the deal in Barrhaven the month before the deal in The Villages closed.  So we were trying to figure out how to transfer the money from the Royal Bank to PC Financial and then wire US funds to The Villages in Florida.  Then we realized we could do the transfer with Royal Bank.  Barb is always looking at the exchange rate from Canadian dollars to US dollars.  I had read an article in the Globe and Mail that said Snowbirds should transfer their money now rather than wait until the fall.  So we made an appointment to go into the Royal Bank branch here in New Hamburg and open a US dollar account to transfer the money into until the deal closed.  We had to wait for the manager and the teller asked us if we wanted a cup of coffee.  Then after we set up the US dollar account and transferred the money, we went to get the rest of the money out as a bank draft to deposit in our PC Financial account.  The teller reversed the charges for the bank draft for us because we were such important clients.  That made us feel like big wheelers.

Drained Battery

Barb went out to the car this morning and found that the car wouldn't start.  She asked our neighbour for a boost of the battery and when the car started she found out the inside light of the car was broken.  It was supposed to come on when the door was opened and go off when the door shut.  But it wouldn’t turn off when the doors were shut.  So she shut it off completely.  Now it doesn’t come on at all.  It is annoying at night time not to be able to see when we get in the car but it is better than draining the battery.

Transfer Fee

When we bought the place here in New Hamburg we were a little pissed off at the lady who sold it to us because she made us pay the transfer fee of $300.  We thought with all the money we were paying for the house the least she could do was pay the $300 transfer fee.  When we moved in we had a meeting with the park manager and she said we needed to pay the $300 transfer fee.  We had forgotten we had already paid it.  When I was doing the accounting that I do every Spring for the income tax, I noticed we had paid the transfer fee twice.  Barb called the park manager when we got home and told that we had paid twice and she said no that couldn't happen.  Fortunately, the new online banking system we have allows us to print out a copy of the cheques we write.  So Barb printed out copies of the two cheques and went down to the office to show the park manager.  She looked at them and said yes that looked like her handwriting on the back of the cheques.  She said she was tell the management about it and they would refund us $300.  Barb was very happy about my accounting system and the new banking service.

Jacob Schmidt

I was out for my daily walk and met another fellow walking.  I introduced myself and he said his name was Jacob Schmidt.  When I told Barb about him, she immediately started singing Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt His Name Is My Name Too.  It was a song we used to sing to the girls at bedtime a long time ago.

Ottawa Player

At my first ball game in the Church League, I heard the guys on the other team cheering a fellow who they called Ceppi.  I was playing first base and he was on second.  I asked the first base coach what the guy's first name was.  He said he didn't know.  I asked him if he used to play in Ottawa.  The coach didn't know.  After the game I went up to the other team's bench and asked him if he used to play in Ottawa.  He said yes and I introduced myself and he remembered me.  He said that this was his first game with this team and he had moved to Sebringville and was playing for a team there.  I thought how could that be.  The league has a rule that you can only play for one league unless you had been in the league for three years.  Later I found out that each team is allowed one exception with the approval of the other captains.  A couple of games later, I heard that the team had asked for an exception for my friend and they were turned down by the other captains.  He wasn't happy because the other team he played for was very good and he hardly got to play with them.  He was hoping to play more in the Church League to stay sharp.

Grand River Hospital

We had a terrible time finding a doctor in Kitchener.  I had an appointment after we arrived home with a referral service at the Grand River Hospital.  Of course, I followed the instructions from Betsy to get there.  I left very early for my appointment.  Betsy didn't know that all of downtown Kitchener was under construction and many roads were closed.  I circled around the hospital for about half an hour trying to find a way in.  Finally, I got there just in time for my appointment.  On the way home I followed Betsy again. This time she gave me a direct route home it was very easy.  We can never understand how Betsy gives us one route to a place and different route home.

Internet Connection

As I said before, every time we change internet service providers it takes a little while to get things worked out.  We have a new provider called Start.  It was a cable service and included phone service.  They gave us two boxes and Barb had asked them if there was anything else we needed and they said no everything was included.  I tried to install the internet and it didn’t work so I phoned Start.  The Start guy told me how to connect the modem and the router but it still didn’t work.  He asked me what kind of router I had.  I told him the name of the router that the guy who installed the cable gave us.  The man on the phone said that that wasn’t a router it was for the phone.  I said no it was a router.  That I knew what a router was.  It turned out he was right we didn’t have a router.  We had a choice we could rent a router from them or we could go out and buy a router.  We had left two perfectly good routers in Florida.  Barb went out and bought another router and I was able to hook it up properly.  Barb was mad at Start who told her that she had everything she needed for internet and phone service.

Lawyer Who Never Makes Mistakes

The sale of our Barrhaven house was supposed to close the day after we arrived home.  Barb had gone to a lot of trouble arranging to pay off the personal line of credit on the house before we sold it.  So when she got a call from the lawyer in Ottawa telling her about the money that was going to be transferred to our account, she was surprised that they had not accounted for the fact that the personal line of credit was paid off.  She told the lawyer he was mistaken.  He said no he never makes mistakes.  But Barb insisted that he look at the paperwork again.  Then he found he was wrong.  He corrected his mistake but he didn’t apologize.  Barb was glad it finally worked out all right.

Phone Trouble

Whenever we change phone carrier, it takes a while to get everything working properly.  The day after we got home Barb was going out to do some grocery shopping and I was still in bed.  She opened the door to go out and there was the phone installation man about to knock on the door.  He came in and set up our phone for us.  Barb went out and when she came home she tested it.  She found she couldn’t phone out.  So she phoned Start our phone provider on the cell phone and they tried to phone us.  Then they were able to fix the problem and it worked fine.