Reset Day

On the same day, I had to restart the wifi and reset Barb's Android and reset Barb's ebook reader and reset Barb's computer.  I don't think anything else of Barb's electronics could go wrong.

Bad Girl

Barb was at Costco and when she came out with her cart it had just started to rain.  She didn't want to ruin her hair, so she unpacked her cart quickly and just pushed the cart between the cars. She didn't bring the cart back to the collection place.  Then she had to walk around the cart between the cars to get to the driver's door.  On the way around the cart she banged her sore knee badly on this thing sticking out of the other car's bumper.  She hurt her knee again and all because she didn't bring her cart back.

Android Two

Barb got a virus on her Android and I had to reset it to factory settings but she needed her google account and password and she couldn't remember the user name or the password.  After trying many different things we finally came across the right combination.  I told Barb she needed to write all these things down somewhere for safe keeping.  Then I realized that I didn't write down my user names and passwords either.  So I made of note to myself.  Then Barb had to find all of her ring tones again and it took her quite a while and she was very noisy.

Android

Barb really loved her new Android.  She wasn't using it as a phone but the same way that she uses her iPod.  She likes to use Messenger from facebook and can't load that on her iPod because the operating system is too old.  She doesn't like the fact that the Android doesn't push her email to her when she receives them but instead only pushes it every 15 minutes when it sync's.  So she still brings her iPod around with her to know when she gets an email even though she reads her email on her Android.  I have an Android too but since I got it from Barb's friend in the US second hand it is stilled locked to her plan.  I looked up how you can unlock it but it was quite confusing if I didn't want to pay for it and even then it was a little confusing.  So Barb bought me an Android just like hers.  However, they look identical and one night Barb brought mine into the bedroom with her by mistake and couldn't understand why there were no preset alarms on it.

Homework

Ali and Sarah took us out for dinner to say goodbye to us before we left for Florida.  After dinner, we came back to the house and I got Ali to come into my office to show him my program on the refugee crisis.  I had sent him some papers about my work and he tried to figure out what I was trying to do with not a lot of luck.  So I thought it might be helpful for him to see the programs themselves.  I also had printed out my documentation and put it in a binder.  So I gave him the binder.  Barb and Sarah asked me if I was giving Ali homework to do when they saw him carrying the binder when they left that night.

Good Clothes

Sarah had been doing a lot of work outdoors in the cold and one of her co-workers told her that she got some great thermal underwear at Giant Tiger.  So when Ali and Sarah took us out for dinner in Stratford we were about 20 minutes early for our reservation.  Instead of going in early, Ali took us to the Giant Tiger.  Sarah bought a whole bunch of thermal underwear while I looked at the book section.  At the check out, Barb asked me where I had been I said I was in the book section and I pointed to it on the other side of the store.  There was a little sign that said books and the smallest little book shelf but what do you expect in Giant Tiger.  Then the lady at the cash register told Sarah that the thermal underwear that she was buying was really great and we went to the restaurant in time for our reservation.

It Pays to Ask

I had to do two blood tests for my two doctors.  My appointments were a week apart. So I asked if I could do the tests at the same time and the lady said no I couldn't because they were asking for many of the same tests.  So I did the test for the first appointment with my GP in the clinic.  Then I came back a week later to do the test for my second appointment with my specialist in Kitchener.  I walked to the clinic and it took me about 45 minutes to get there.  When I was walking in the door I saw a sign saying that they were only doing blood tests for doctors in the clinic and if you needed a blood test for some other doctor you had to go to another test center about another 45 minutes walk away.  I went in anyway and the lady said I had to go down the street.  I said I did have a doctor in this clinic did that make any difference and she said in that case yes I could do the test there.  It pays to ask.

Printing

I had many forms to fill in and email to DND to start my emeritus work.  So today I thought I would spend some time getting organized.  So I printed out all the forms that I had filled in and signed and emailed and was going to put them all in a file folder.  After I had printed them all out and punched holes in them, I got out my file and when I looked inside I found out that I had already printed all the forms and put them in file.  How could I have forgotten that I did that already?

Pool Music

Barb started doing water aerobics at the pool and she liked to listen to music while she was working out.  The radio there sometimes worked great and sometimes was all static.  I said it must be something wrong with the antenna.  I told her she could bring the radio in the sun room down to the pool.  I meant my big boom box but Barb thought I meant the little radio in the kitchen.  She thought I was a genius and it worked great and was small and easy to carry in her pool bag.

We'll Call You

I signed my letter of offer to start my scientist emeritus contract with DND and was supposed to start today.  I was asked to estimate how many days I could work in 2017.  I said about 20 days but I would have to start right away.  So I emailed them and asked them if I could start today and they replied that I was hired on an as required basis and that my supervisor would get in touch with me when they have some work for me.  That is, don't call us we'll call you.  A couple of weeks later I emailed them again and asked when I could come in and pick up my computer, again they replied that they would call me when they had a computer for me to pick up.  That is, don't call us, we'll call you.

Quilt Show

Barb wanted to take some pictures of the quilts at the quilt show to show her friend Ellen.  However, for some reason the camera on her new Android wasn't working.  She was very upset.  She asked an old man sitting in the waiting area if he knew anything about smartphones and cameras and he said he was too old.  Then she asked an old woman.  Old people are the only people at quilt shows.  So Barb wasn't too hopeful.  The lady took her Android and turned it off and then turned it on again and the camera worked.  Barb asked the old lady how she knew to do that and she said her daughter showed her that that always works with she has a problem with her phone.

Fake Ice Cap

We often find that we don't drink all the coffee in the pot at night and leave the pot half filled for the next day.  Then we heat cups up in the microwave.  Today I made coffee for Barb using the remainder of the coffee from yesterday but I forgot to heat it up in the microwave.  Barb couldn't believe how cold the coffee had gotten after I had only given it to her a few minutes before.  Then she realized that I was giving her a fake ice cap.

Getting Older

Barb was finally getting around to checking prices for travel insurance for our time in Florida.  She first checked with the company we had last year and found out that my insurance had doubled because I had turned 60.  Then she went to the company we had two years ago and found out that their rates don't jump until I turn 61.  So she saved a couple of hundred bucks going back to that company.

Swiping

Barb was very excited when Sarah showed her how swipe type.  She thought it was so great she wanted to teach me how but I couldn't get the hang of it.  Then she discovered that she could use speech to text and speech to email.  She freaked out. She tried it with me and thought it was going to be great but later she realized that she didn't like the way she talked.  She thought it looked stupid when she saw her spoken words in text.  She would have to go back and edit everything she said to make it into presentable English.  She went back to swiping and still loves it.

Last Tournament of the Year

I was just heading out to see the last fastball tournament of the year.  It was the Ontario university women's championship and was being played at Peter Hallman Ballyards in Kitchener.  It had started yesterday and there were the playoff games today.  I was just leaving the house and it started to spit a little rain.  So I came back inside and Barb checked the radar.  It looked like a major storm was going to hit the area in about 20 minutes.  So I decided to try to watch the games on the internet.  When I looked up the games I found out that they had moved the games from the Ballyards to Budd Park.  I was fortunate I didn't go because not only was it going to rain I would have gone to the wrong ball park.  I was watching the championship game and after a couple of innings the storm hit and everyone was running including the camera man with his camera.  They had to stop the game half way through.  I learned later that they were going to finish the game in Hickson a whole other town the following weekend.

Parking Ticket

At the airport, I parked in the pay parking and after Laura's flight got off, I went to the arrivals doors to pay for my parking.  There was a long line at the machine and I was standing at the back of the line I put down my Tim Hortons coffee and was looking through all my pockets for my parking ticket.  I couldn't find it.  Then I started to retrace my steps around the small airport.  I eventually found my ticket under the luggage check in desk.  Then I saw a lady at a machine at the departures door paying her parking and she was the only person in line.  So when she left I went up to the machine with my ticket but the machine wouldn't accept my ticket.  I tried it a number of times and I kept getting an error message.  Then I pushed a button and the lady's ticket came out of the machine.  By this time the lady was long gone.  So I put her ticket on top of the machine and paid for my parking.  Then I walked out the departures door towards my car.  I then realized that I had forgotten my coffee.  So I had to go back to the arrivals door to get my coffee and there was still a line up.  Finally I got everything together and was able to leave the airport.  I stopped the car outside the parking lot and started texting Laura the whole story of the parking fiasco.  She thought the story was very funny but she didn't hear the whole story until she got to Vancouver because she had to turn off her phone when the plane started to take off.

Photo Coping

Laura had about 250 photos from our collection that she wanted to copy.  So on the way to the airport for her flight back to Vancouver, we went to Walmart and she started copying them.  She was at a booth that could only copy one at a time while a stupid lady was at the booth beside her which could copy 20 at a time.  The stupid lady was picking through about 100 pictures of somebody's wedding and all the pictures looked identical but she couldn't decide which ones to print out.  Finally, the lady finished and Laura could start copying photos in batches. Meanwhile, I used one of the other machines and was copying photos one at a time.  Eventually it was getting late and Laura was almost finished.  So I left her and went out to the parking lot to bring the car around and pick her up at the door.  I wanted to use the GPS because I wasn't sure where the airport in Hamilton was from the Walmart in Kitchener but I couldn't get the GPS plug into the slot in the car.  There was something in the slot that was blocking it and I couldn't get the thing out.  I tried and tried until Laura came out of the Walmart and I was worried we would never find the airport without the GPS.  Fortunately, Laura was able to get the thing out of the slot and it was some kind of a fuze from my MP3 player thingy.  So we were good to go and got to the airport just in time for her flight.

Captain Underpants

Laura had never been to see Sarah's apartment.  So we went over to watch the Captain Underpants movie about Professor Poopypants.  It was a very funny movie with great animation.  We were surprised that Ali never came home to see Laura.  Later we found out that he was out being an Uber driver earning a little extra money. It was his first and last time because he said that all the people he drove were drunks.

Kilbride Castle

Laura and I went to a lecture at Kilbride Castle in Baden about 15 minutes away.  It was given by a professor from Laurier University on the ghostly photographs taken by the early Victorians.  First we were able to go on a tour of the castle which was really just an old house but it was a little like Downton Abbey because it had a special area for the servants.  The castle was all decked out for Halloween and all of the tour guides were dressed up in Victorian clothes.  Each guide was in a room to themselves and we walked from room to room.  They all had ghost stories to tell us.  The tour was pretty cool.  The lecture was pretty short but the professor discussed some pretty neat stuff about some famous people.  One of the famous people who believed in ghosts was the former Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King.  I told Laura that I had a biography about his strange ideas and later I leant her the book.  Apparently, he had a crystal ball that he would use to talk to his dead mother to find out what to do about the Second World War.  He also had a series of dogs named Pat and would talk to them through the crystal ball after they died.  The lady also talked about this photographer who specialized in taking pictures of ghosts and took a famous picture of Abe Lincoln's wife with the ghost of Abe Lincoln behind her.  A couple of days later I saw an article in The New Yorker which was a review of a biography of that same photographer.  What are the chances????

Yankee Game

Jimmy Parkins is a big New York Yankees fan.  The Yankees unexpectedly made the playoffs and they won the wild card game and then were in the division playoffs and went to the final game of a best of 5 games.  So I decided to drive to Jimmy's house in St Thomas and watch the game with him.  Jimmy was happy to see me and talked all through the game but he kept one eye on the television and if anything exciting was happening, he would suddenly stop talking and lean forward in his chair closer to the television to watch carefully.  Both Jimmy and I were happy that the Yankees won and now they were in the American League Championships.

Second Barbecue

We didn't keep the neighbour's barbecue that we got out of the garbage.  Barb bought another little barbecue like the one we have in Florida.  She ordered it online and it was supposed to be delivered in a few days.  A few days passed and it didn't arrive and Barb was getting desperate for a steak dinner.  So she phoned them and asked them where it was.  They said it was still in the warehouse and they apologized for the delay and said they would send it out quickly.  A couple of days later, when Barb was out playing pickleball it arrived.  When she got home, we had a great time assembling it.  Barb put the legs on backwards.  She says that if there are two ways to do something she will always do it the wrong way.  So we finally had our little barbecue and we really enjoyed it.  We put the neighbour's barbecue back out in the garbage on another late night mission.  Then a couple of days later, a Fedex truck showed up at the house with a package while we were standing outside.  It was a big box and we both said oh no is that another barbecue.  I guess the lady that Barb talked to had decided to send another barbecue to replace the one that was stuck in the warehouse.  We asked the Fedex guy what we should do and he said we could just refuse the package.  So we did and he took it back.  Later Barb thought we should have kept the barbecue.  We could have sold it on Kijji for a hundred bucks.

Second Cousins

Laura went to Toronto in my car to visit with her second cousin Kellan.  He is a professional animator and is a lot like Laura.  Laura got a late start but that was okay because he had an urgent job to complete and he needed to work on it the whole day.  When she arrived they got on famously.  Later he posted a photo of them on facebook and Barb's cousins from Labrador were very happy that they had been able to get together.

Old Photos

Laura and I were staying up late together looking at a little box of old pictures of her childhood.  She was having a great time.  Then the next morning when we got up Barb was out at pickleball but she had brought in two big boxes of old photos.  That kept Laura busy for quite a while.

Blog Notes

I thought it would be fun to go through my little pieces of paper with my notes for my blog with Laura.  I was really behind on my blog by quite a few months.  So one night we kept Barb up late reviewing the crazy stories for my blog.  Barb had a great laugh because she was the star of most of the stories.  She always says I wouldn't have anything to write about if it wasn't for her adventures.

Hayseed

On Thanksgiving day, Barb stayed home and cooked the turkey while all of us went out to Shantz Family Farm.  We got there and looked at of the animals with the little kiddies.  Then we looked at all of the pumpkins.  We waited to get our picture in the head holes of a Thanksgiving display.  We had to lie on our stomachs on bales of hay because the display was made for little kids.  Afterwards, Julia's yoga pants were covered with hay and she didn't even bother to brush the hay off.  So first Sarah tried to brush the hay off and then I tried to brush the hay off while we were waiting for the hayride.  We all went on a long hayride with a bunch of crying babies and unhappy small children.  Then we tried to find our way around the corn field maze.  It was kind of scary.  My sister and brother in law didn't go into the corn field maze with us. They went back to the house to walk their dog.  Then we got an urgent message from Barb saying the dinner was ready and we had to rush home.  When we got home my sister and her husband were still out walking the dog.  Even though Barb texted her, the girls still decided that they should go out and find them which was kind of strange because they didn't know their way around the park and might never find their way home.  Eventually everyone arrived home at the same time and we were able to have dinner before everything got cold.

Thanksgiving

Barb was preparing for Thanksgiving dinner at our house and my sister and her husband were coming.  Laura was coming from Vancouver because she was off on short-term disability with her finger.  And Sarah was coming of course.  But there was some confusion about whether Julia was coming.  At first Sarah said Julia was coming and staying with her.  Then we heard that all of the trains were full and Julia was going to stay in Ottawa.  Then the day before Thanksgiving, Julia messaged us and said she had found a ticket and was coming.  We were one big happy Thanksgiving family.

New Doctor

When we arrived in New Hamburg two years ago we did not have a doctor.  We went to the local family clinic and asked if we could become patients.  The lady said there was a waiting list.  So we put our names on a waiting list but in the meantime we got a doctor in Kitchener.  He was okay but Barb didn't think he was very personable.  She said he didn't seem to care.  I didn't mind.  He did everything I needed from him but his office never answered the phone or returned messages.  So it was very difficult to make appointments without going into the office and the office was 20 minutes drive away.  We were happy when the local clinic phoned and said that a new doctor there was taking new patients.  The office was only 5 minutes drive away and I could even walk there if I wanted to.  We went to an appointment together and he took all of our particulars and seemed like a nice young man.  Barb called him Doogie Houser.

Used Barbecue

We needed a barbecue after ours went up in flames.  Barb was coming home from the pool and noticed that someone had put out a barbecue for the garbage.  I was on my walk and saw that someone had put a barbecue out for the garbage.  Both of us saw one of these barbecues and we confused each other when we were talking about where the barbecue was.  Barb decided to phone the fellow that put out her barbecue and ask him if it worked.  She looked up the house in the village phone book and phoned him and asked if his barbecue worked.  He said yes why are you asking.  Barb said she saw it in the garbage and thought she might come by and pick it up.  He said that wasn't his barbecue.  She must have the wrong person.  She hung up and looked up the address again and talked to the right person this time.  He said his barbecue worked but was just a little rusty.  So we went out in the middle of the night and drove over to the man's house and then Barb walked the barbecue home and we carried it up on the deck.  Then we walked our burned out barbecue down to the corner for the garbage the next day. 

Superstore

Barb was cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year.  She went to the Superstore to pick up a big turkey but she didn't have loonie to get a shopping cart.  So she had to walk through the giant store carrying a huge 18 pound turkey.

Pizza

I was at a tournament in Burlington and was staying with Sarah to save a little bit of the drive. On Friday night, the food stand at the ballpark was selling the extra pizza for a low price to get rid of it.  So I bought a whole pizza and brought it with me to Sarah's house.  I remembered the Advice From Your Mayor on Live 88.5.  If you not invited to a party just bring pizza. No one gets turned away with a pizza.

Green Bin

Our neighbour always puts out his green bin out early in the evening and puts it out on our side of the road right beside our driveway.  I found out tonight that every night that our neighbour puts out his green bin, Barb goes out and moves it away from the driveway so that I don't run over it when I back out of the driveway.  I would have never seen it through the rear view mirror.

Facebook

I got home after the ball games and Barb was still up.  I went into my room to look at facebook and there on my home page were photos of fire trucks outside our house and a long note from Barb.  I guess Barb had gone out to take some pictures of the barbecue all burned up.  When she went out on the deck, she heard a weezy noise and smelled propane.  I guess the propane tank wasn't empty like I thought.  She called 911 and they sent a couple of fire trucks and the chief of police came too with his girlfriend in his car.  The firemen cut the propane tank off and brought it away from the house and let all the propane leak out until it was fully empty.  All of the neighbours came out to see what was happening.  Our neighbour was so funny.  Barb told her about the fire and she said 'you weren't trying to cook again were you'.  Anyway Barb said in her facebook post that I had gone to a fastball game and would probably not find out about the firemen being at the house until I came home and read my facebook home page.  She was right. The next couple of days at the ball tournament people were coming up to me to ask me about the visitors that I had at my house on Friday night.  They had all seen Barb's post on facebook.

Screams

I was sitting in my study and Barb was making pork chops for dinner.  I heard a scream from the back door and a fierce roaring sound.  I went running to see what was happening and Barb was standing there at the door with the barbecue totally up in flames.  It was roaring and flames were shooting out of the propane tank.  Barb had tried to turn off the knob on the front of the barbecue but it just came off in her hand.  We stood there not knowing what to do and then the fire just went out on its own.  We were so stupid to run towards the fire.  We should have been running to the other side of the house.  Anyway I thought the propane tank had emptied itself and it was safe now.  We forgot about the barbecue and made the pork chops on the stove.  After dinner, I went out to the Friday night games of the ball tournament in Innerkip.

Listowel

I was in Listowel on a Sunday afternoon watching the Huron County League Playoff Tournament.  At the end of the day, I really had to poo.  So I was driving pretty quickly to the Tim Hortons around the corner from the ballpark.  There was a four way stop at a corner and I couldn't see a fellow and his girlfriend in their Mustang convertible because they were behind my rear view mirror.  When I stopped briefly, they pulled out of the intersection and I didn't stop for long because I really had to go.  When I finally saw them I had to swerve and they had to jam on their brakes.  I just kept going very glad I didn't get in an accident because I really had to go.  I got to the Tim Hortons and was in the stall for so long pooing that the lights went out because they were on a motion sensor.  I tried to wave my arms and get the lights to come on but eventually I gave up and sat there in the dark until I was finished and then I had to find the toilet paper in the dark.

Lady and Her Kids

There was a lady with her young kids sitting beside us at the Tiger Cats game.  They got up at half time and walked past us to get something to eat and later when they came back with a box of Timbits.  Barb jokingly said Thank You (for bringing us some Timbits).  And the lady gave the half full box of Timbits to Barb saying the her kids didn't want them.  We really enjoyed the free Timbits at Tim Hortons Field.

Surprise

Sarah wanted to surprise me for my birthday.  We went for a long drive on a Friday night and we were driving down Main Street in Hamilton and I saw a sign about the Hamilton Tiger Cats and I said are you taking me to a Hamilton Tiger Cats game.  She didn't say anything but we ended up at Tim Horton's Stadium and went to see the Tiger Cats play the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  I guess Sarah had wanted to bring me to a game between the Tiger Cats and Ottawa Redblacks but I had a tournament in Niagara Falls that weekend that I was actually playing in.  She got the seats online from a season ticket holder that wasn't going to the game.  They were right down at field level.  The best seats I had ever had at a football game.  We were right up close to see Pigskin Pete lead the crowd in a Oskie Wee Wee cheer.  Barb thought that was crazy.  Later Dale Haug, our former neighbour in Barrhaven, messaged Barb to tell her that he had seen her on television.

Car Wash

My car was all dirty and I was bringing it in to the garage tomorrow.  So I decided to try to find a carwash on my way to the fastball game in Kitchener.  I had no idea where to find a carwash.  So I was driving around aimlessly up and down random streets around the ballpark.  Eventually, I found a carwash at a gas station on an obscure corner in a construction zone.

Big Computer

Laura was thinking of buying a desktop computer.  I thought that was very unusual because most people were doing everything on their phones now or maybe their tablets or if really necessary their laptops.  She was serious about getting a desktop.  Then one day she was looking around her apartment and she noticed her boyfriend's Macintosh sitting in the corner getting dusty.  She asked her boyfriend if she could use it and now she has inherited her boyfriend's Macintosh computer.  She was so happy to have a desktop computer that she could use to edit her photos and do her art.  She said never wanted to leave the house.

Birthday Present

Julia had sent me a book for my birthday with Daphne last month.  I had put the book on the filing cabinet to open it on my birthday.  The book was there for so long that it became just a normal piece of the decoration with its lovely wrapping paper.  One day Barb came into the office and noticed it on the cabinet and reminded me of it and I finally opened my birthday present.

Spirit

Julia received the Spirit Award at work at the Annual Sportsplex Awards Dinner.  The award said that she made the Nepean Sportsplex a better place to come to work.  We were very happy for her.

Sweater and Jacket

I was getting cold sitting in the shade at the tournament and I went to the car to put on a sweater and a jacket.  I put my Android and my cellphone on the front of the car resting against the wiper.  Later I searched my pockets and around my chair and around the car for the Android and the cellphone.  I went back to the park and then came back to the car and finally remembered where I had put them.  They were pretty hidden and I could have driven off with them on my car.

25 McMaster Avenue

I put 25 McMaster Avenue in Welland from memory and started driving to Niagara Falls to my Airbnb.  When I got there I couldn't find 25 McMaster Avenue.  I parked the car on McMaster Avenue and walked up and down the short street.  There was no 25.  I asked a kid but he didn't know anything.  Finally, I looked at the little piece of paper in my pocket with the address on it.  I found out the address was 24 McMaster Avenue.  I found it on the other side of the street and found the key where it was supposed to be and let myself in and unpacked.  I was lucky there was no 25 McMaster Avenue or I would have tried to break in and might have got in trouble.  I was also lucky that I had written the correct address on one of my little pieces of paper and had it in my pocket.

Passport

Barb found an Airbnb for me at the last minute in Niagara Falls.  I tried to pay for it but the new system said I needed to provide a photo ID and take a photo on the computer of myself to prove I was who I said I was.  So I tried to use my driver's license and it thanked me.  Then later it told me that the photo ID was not clear enough.  So I tried again and it said thank you.  Then later it said that the photo ID wasn't clear enough.  Finally I got out my passport and used it and it worked.  However, I had now paid three times for the same room and was going to be refunded twice.