2016

I made a list of things to do in January and titled it January 2017 and then I realized I was wrong and crossed 2017 and wrote 2016.  I was going back in years rather than forward.  So I crossed it out again and finally wrote 2018.

Party

We got an invitation to a party at our only friends' house.  So when Laura and Trevor were at Disney World, I made my glazed carrots and Barb and I got all dressed up and drove to their house.  When we got there, we thought it was strange that there were no cars on the road and we were a half an hour late.  We got out of the car and our friends came out of their house to greet us.  They were happy to see us but when they realized we were there for the party. Cheryl said you do know that the party is tomorrow.  Barb said Your Kidding Right.  She said No I'm Not Kidding.  It was supposed to be a New Year's Day party not a New Year's Eve party.  So we went home and celebrated New Year's Eve at home.

New Year's Eve

Laura and Trevor went to Disney World for New Year's Eve.  They got there at 11 am and found that the park was full and they were not letting anyone else enter.  But they gave Laura and Trevor a free pass to another park and a free meal ticket.  So Trevor and Laura went to another park and had dinner and then at 7 pm they got an email saying that the park was letting people in again.  So they hustled back to Disney World and got in at 7:30 and were able to do all the things they wanted to do because the park was staying open until 1 am tonight for New Year's Eve.

Obisform

I complained to Barb that I couldn't move the seat back in the Nissan that we borrowed from our friends from Crystal Lake and she went out to look at the car and noticed that I was driving with an Obisform back thingy behind me.  When she took it out, I was quite comfortable in the driver's seat.

Albert Brooks

We tried to introduce Trevor to some of our Taylor family Christmas traditions.  We watched The Family Man together and he sang a Christmas Carol with Julia on Skype.  I even introduced him to Albert Brooks and we watched Defending Your Life with Meryl Streep.

The Nothing

I read a book called The Nothing at Downtown Disney and thought of the story called The Something in the BJ Novak book.  Barb was talking all about Pickleball and I told Trevor and Laura about the short story by Stephen Leacock called The Golfamaniac.  I tried to find it online but I couldn't find it.  So I read them Stephen Leacock's short story called My Financial Career and laughed until I cried.  Trevor and Laura laughed hard too.

Downtown Disney

Laura and Trevor joined me to pick up the second car that our friends from Crystal Lake were lending us for the winter.  Trevor and Laura dropped me off at the departures of the Orlando airport at 11 am and the friends showed up at 11:30 and I got the car.  Trevor and Laura and I had decided we would meet later at Downtown Disney.  We were going to meet at the Cirque de Soleil store and I was running late.  I found a parking spot and found out that the parking was free because Laura thought it was only free if you bought something expensive there.  Then I went into the park and walked the wrong way all the way to the other side of the park.  I asked an ice cream salesman were the Cirque de Soleil store was and he said it was all the way at the end of the park in the other direction.  So I started walking back and when I got there I found that Trevor and Laura were still there.  We walked around the park and it was just a bunch of stores selling Disney souvenirs.  I made a bet with Trevor that all the souvenirs were made in China.

Phoenix

I got my first direct deposit pay from DND today.  I was so happy that the Phoenix system worked for me.  There were thousands of government employees who were not getting paid because the Phoenix system was so screwed up.

Trevor's Father

I was taking Laura and Trevor for a ride on the golf cart that we had borrowed from our only friends.  Trevor was sitting in the front seat with me and Laura was going to sit in the back seat.  I started to drive away from the driveway and Trevor started to laugh.  I asked what was so funny and he said that Laura was just getting on when I drove off and I had left her behind.  I said oh I didn't know she wasn't on yet and Trevor said that his Dad would do something like that as a joke all the time.

BNL

Laura gave me the latest Barenaked Ladies CD as a Christmas present making it 11 Barenaked Ladies CDs or tapes in my collection.  That must be almost all of them.

Wages

We were discussing my part-time job in high school as a pot washer in the hospital kitchen.  I told Laura I made $13.65 an hour and she calculated on her phone what that would be in today's dollars.  She found that it would be over $65 an hour.  I told her that I am only making $58 an hour right now in my part-time job for DND.  It is no wonder that they have closed the kitchen and are now shipping the meals in by truck from Toronto.

Gotta Be Good

Trevor ran into his boss from Vancouver at the NASA rocket building and the Cape Kennedy Museum.

Birthday

Laura found out that the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on her birthday April 24, 1990.

Talking

I picked up Trevor at the airport and on the way home I told Laura and Trevor all about my trip to Ottawa.  They thought my stories were very funny.  I told Trevor that he should realize that when he gets to our house that I won't be talking any more because Barb does all the talking in our house.

Email

Barb wanted me to call my softball coach who had phoned while I was in Ottawa to see if he had my correct email address.  He had said that he was going to send out an email with the schedule and some other attachments but I never got it.  So I finally phoned him thinking that we would probably be having a practice sometime soon.  He checked his addresses and he did have the wrong address.  He had ivantaylor@gmail.com instead of ivanwtaylor@gmail.com.  I feel sorry for the other Ivan Taylor who is always receiving my emails.

Little Piece of Paper Again

Barb asked me to write her a little note to go to the Community Center and pick up visitor passes for Laura and Trevor for their Christmas visit.  I pulled a note out my pocket that I had already written for her but had forgotten to give her.

Loud

We went to a dinner party at our only friends' house.  They had a miniature ping pong table set up in their living room.  So after our pizza, we decided to play a little ping pong.  We were having a great time playing on the little table.  It was so much fun.  The next day, our friends were talking to their neighbours and the neighbours said they must have had a great party last night.  I guess our friends had had their windows open and the neighbours all around street could hear us laughing.

Special

Barb had bought some cool Pickleball shirts with funny sayings on them but one of the shirts had the wrong logo on the back.  So Barb emailed them to complain.  They phoned back today and apologized. They said they would make her a special shirt and have it to her before Christmas.

Netflix

Barb was having trouble with Kodi.  She was getting really frustrated that there were no shows available for streaming.  So she decided to look into Netflix.  She phoned and got a free month trial and was impressed by the low price of $7.99 US a month and $8.99 Cdn.  So we are now a Netflix family even though Barb is not happy that they don't have the most recent seasons of her favourite shows but she is happy that it works really well streaming the shows she is watching and when she finishes one episode the next episode comes up automatically.

Free Delivery

Barb realized that the washing machine was broken and it was not worth fixing.  So she started to look online for a new washing machine.  She found that the best washing machine was also the cheapest by $200 US.  She found it was sold by Best Buy and she was going to order it online but then she decided to go out to Best Buy and look at it and maybe buy it there.  When she got to Best Buy, she found out that they had already sold the last floor model.  The man looked it up on the computer and found it just like Barb had found it and ordered it for her.  It came with free installation if you bought their metal pipes.  Barb also paid a little extra to get the old washing machine removed.  Barb could have done the exact same thing herself online at home but she let him do it for her.  Then when she got home, she looked at the bill and found out that by some mistake she had received free shipping.  If she had done it herself online, she would not have gotten free delivery because the price was just slightly below the minimum purchase price for free shipping but somehow when the man at the Best Buy did it, he gave her free shipping which was a nice bonus.

Wrong Beeper

Barb heard the beeper on the microwave and went out to put the wash in the dryer but the water was still in the washer.  So she thought she must have heard the wrong beeper and that it was the beeper on the coffee machine which sounds the same.  So she waited for a while and went out later to get the wash and found that the water was still in the washing machine because the pump had broken.  So we went out to the shed together and squeezed the water out of the launder by hand and then Barb went over to our neighbour's house with the wet laundry and asked if she could use the spin cycle on their washing machine.

Pills

I was refilling my pill container and had an open pill bottle in my hand when one of my pills fell off the table.  I quickly reached for it with my hand with the pill bottle in it and the pills in the open pill bottle went flying all over the room.  I had to get down on my knees and search the whole room to pick up my pills.  Even weeks later, Barb was still finding pills in the carpet and under the furniture.

Long Walk

Orlando airport has an A terminal and a B terminal.  Barb parked at the correct terminal of the airport but she parked in the South end of the parking lot and my gate was at the North end of the terminal.  So she had a long walk from one end of the terminal to the other to find me.  She just arrived at the gate exit area when I came out and we quickly found each other.  She told me about her long walk and we started the long walk back to the car.  We were just about there when I remembered that I had to pick up my luggage and it was back at the other end of the terminal.  So we turned around and walked all the way back.  We picked up my luggage and then had to walk the long walk back to the car in the parking lot.

CPAP

When I arrived at the Orlando airport, I was heading to the exit and saw a man with his family outside the toilet area.  He was carrying a bag over his shoulder that looked exactly like my CPAP bag.  I asked him if it was a CPAP and he said yes.  I thought I should have carried on my CPAP instead of putting it in my suitcase considering how they broke my Kindle in my suitcase on the flight to Ottawa.  I was taking a chance hoping they wouldn't damage my CPAP.  The first thing I did when I got home was set up my CPAP and I found that it worked. So I was lucky.

Peanuts

They only provide drinks and little bags of pretzels on the flights and I was going to be missing lunch and dinner.  So at my stopover in Washington, I stopped at the convenience store outside the gate where I was boarding and bought a diet coke and big bag of peanuts.  But the flight was boarding and I didn't have time to eat the peanuts.  When I got on the plane, I thought I shouldn't eat the peanuts on the flight since someone might have a peanut allergy.  So I didn't eat the peanuts until our drive home from the airport.

Coffee

The first thing I did when I got through the security at the airport in Ottawa was to buy a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons.  I found my gate and took the lid off my coffee to cool and put my coffee on the floor beside my chair in the waiting area.  Then I wanted to listen to a couple of Garrison Keillor podcasts while I was waiting.  So I pulled my earphones out of my pocket.  When I did, I also pulled out a quarter that fell on the floor and rolled away.  I got up and found the quarter under the seats a couple rows behind me.  Then I drank my coffee and listened to Garrison Keillor.  When I finished my coffee, I found another quarter at the bottom of my cup.  I guess it had also fallen out of my pocket when I took out my earphones and into my coffee cup.  I had to shake my cup and drink my quarter out of my cup and then take the quarter out of my mouth.

Home Again

When I was booking my flights, I noticed that there was an afternoon flight from Ottawa to Orlando.  So since I had my computer, I thought maybe I would try to change my flight to take the earlier flight home because the flight I was scheduled on was not arriving until after midnight but when I went on the computer to look up the exact information about the flight, I could find nothing about it.  Then I went to the United Airlines website and there was nothing about the flight and there was no phone number to call for help.  I told Julia that I would just go to the airport for noon and see if I could get on the flight anyway.  When I got to the airport, there was no one at the desk and a lady told me to check in using the automatic machine.  I told her I wanted to change my flight.  She said there would be a charge for that and I would have to talk to the lady at the desk.  The lady at the desk was very helpful and said she would change my flight and would give it to me as a gift.  So I got the flight in the afternoon and I had to get in touch with Barb to tell her I was arriving at 7:30 pm instead of after midnight.

Emails

Now that I had my work computer and could hook up at home, I spent the evening catching up on my work email.  I had a backlog of email since I was hired in October and now it was December.  I had over 270 emails.  As I was going through them, I found that about 200 of those emails were about the work Christmas party.  I guess the Director that I will be working for was responsible for organizing the Division Christmas Party.  There were all kinds of emails about it and there was even one email calling an urgent meeting about it.

Zumba

I went through my old emails on my work computer all evening.  I found an email about a fundraising Zumba class.  It was for the United Way and was being held at work.  Julia read the email and noticed that it was from a lady she knew and they email each other all the time about Zumba at Carleton University.  The email said she was a certified Zumba instructor like Julia and a defence scientist just like I used to be.

Low Priority

Yesterday was the office Christmas party for the section and everyone went except my supervisor who stayed to lobby for me to get my computer.  He wasn't able to pull any strings for me and I didn't get the computer.  Then today my supervisor and the section abandoned me completely and went to Montreal for a meeting for the day.  I was left to get into the building with a young fellow named Derek as my escort.  When I got to work I called him to get me at the front gate and when we were walking up to the office, he told me he had a friend in the IT group.  He said he would introduce me to his friend and see if his friend could get me my computer.  We went to his friend's office and Derek introduced me and told him about my situation.  The friend looked up my request on his computer and said yes it had all been approved and he should be able to get me my computer in a few hours.  After lunch, the friend called Derek and told him to bring me down to the office again.  The friend took me into the storage room where there were hundreds of computers.  He got me mine and we tested it out.  He even used his PKI card to make sure that would work too.  Then I went back to the office with my computer and the lady who had the PKI card set it up for me.  I had a code and she had a code and we had to combine the codes to get the PKI setup.  So I had my computer and my PKI card and still had a day to make sure everything worked properly.  I could test it at Julia's house and if it didn't work I could bring it back tomorrow before my flight that evening.  I found that the computer worked fine at Julia's house and so I was very happy and Barb was happy that I wouldn't have to stay until January even though she lost her bet.

Drive

There was a big snowstorm on Tuesday morning and Julia was sick of driving me to work.  So she told me to take the car and drive myself.  I took it slow on the Queensway and made it to work in reasonable time but when I got there I realized that the gas tank was empty.  If I would have run out of gas on the Queensway that would have been bad.  After work, I filled the car with gasoline and it cost $67.  We are really spoiled in Florida with cheap gasoline.  It only costs about $20 to fill the tank.

Drive

There was a big snowstorm on Tuesday morning and Julia was sick of driving me to work.  So she told me to take the car and drive myself.  I took it slow on the Queensway and made it to work in reasonable time but when I got there I realized that the gas tank was empty.  If I would have run out of gas on the Queensway that would have been bad.

Bet

Barb bet me I wouldn't get my computer until January but I said I would get it tomorrow on Monday.  I didn't get my computer on Monday.  So I sort of lost the bet but I had lunch with David Waller at an Indian buffet and ate way too much.  Then in the evening I didn't need dinner when I met with Mike Goodfellow before the Blackburn Hamlet Fastball League Executive meeting.  I did get many free refills for diet coke though and appreciated it.  It was good to see Mike for a good visit and some of my old friends from Blackburn for a short while before the meeting.  I didn't hang around for the meeting and got back to Julia's place in good time in the early evening.

Brunch

I messaged Derick Bulley and asked if he wanted to have brunch on Sunday.  He said "Sure, old buddy".  He asked where and when.  I asked Julia's husband if there was a good place within walking distance to have brunch on Sunday morning.  He told me about a diner a couple of blocks away on Bank Street.  So I arranged to meet Derick there at noon.  It was great to see him again and we talked about fastball the whole time and made plans for next season.

Chinese Food

I felt pretty bad that I was in Ottawa on Barb's birthday.  It was really bad planning on my part.  I had felt that I had needed to settle in in Florida for a few weeks before I went back to Canada to pick up my computer and I had felt I had to get to Ottawa before the Christmas traveling season started in full force.  So I decided to go to Ottawa in early December and I later found out that I had to stay for a week to ensure I would get my computer and PKI card.  So on Barb's birthday, we toasted her over Chinese food at Julia's mother-in-law's house.  Meanwhile, Barb was over at her friend Shirley's house for dinner and celebrating with Shirley's mother.

Dominos Baseball Town

On Sunday, Julia and her husband and I went for a walk down Bank Street.  Julia wanted to show me this store she thought I might like called Dominos Baseball Town.  Her husband said it wasn't called Dominos Baseball Town.  We walked there and the sign above the entrance definitely said Dominos Baseball Town but it turned out that the Dominos pizza place and the Baseball Town store shared the same entrance and used the same sign space above the door.  So it looked like Dominos Baseball Town.  Anyway it was a great store.  It was huge and completely filled from ground to ceiling with baseball equipment.  I wished that I was still in Ottawa and I also wished that I hadn't already bought my grey baseball pants in Florida.  I could have gotten much better pants at Baseball Town.

Birthday Card

Barb and I had signed a birthday card for Gramma Maize but we didn't get it in the mail in time to get to her by her birthday.  Barb said that since I was going back to Ottawa, I could bring the card with me and if I got it in the mail right when I got there it should arrive on time.  I thought that it might be even better if I delivered the card myself.  But when Julia called her and asked if she could come over to see her on her birthday, she said she was recovering from an operation and wasn't up to seeing anyone.  Julia thought that if she had said that I was there then they might have been able to see me anyway.  So we phoned her on her birthday and sang Happy Birthday.  I talked to them for a while.  Later I mentioned to Barb on Facetime about calling Gramma Maize and Barb asked me if I told her about the card and I said no I forgot.  Fortunately, Julia was able to visit them about a week later and bring the card.

Phyllis

I was told that Phyllis Browne was retiring on Friday and they were having a potluck luncheon for her and I could come even though I couldn't bring anything.  So on Friday at lunch, I went to the conference room and there were a lot of old friends there that I knew.  They all seemed to remember me and they had heard that I would be working again for the organization.  I was surprised that everyone knew that.  Later I was reading my email because I had email dating back to the time I was supposed to start work in October that had built up in my inbox.  I found an email which had notes from a management meeting in which my name was mentioned.  It said that I would be working on an important project and then I realized that all of my old friends were now in management and would have been at that meeting.  That was how they knew I was coming back.

Chargers and Musials

Barb emailed me in Ottawa to tell me that my coach for the recreational softball league had phoned to tell me I was on his team that was called the Chargers.  The teams in the league are all named after National Football League teams  Barb gave him my email address and he said he would be emailing me a package in a couple of days.  Then I got an email from the coach of the Musials telling me I was on his team in the Restricted Bat League.  The teams in the Restricted Bat League are named after Major League Baseball Hall of Famers. Finally, I got an email from the commissioner of the Neighbourhood League saying that I hadn't been picked up by any team but I could come out and spare.  I didn't like sparing because I didn't want to disappoint a team if I didn't play well.  In early January, I got an email from the captain of the Liberty Park team telling me I got picked in the lottery to play on his team.  Liberty Park is one of the neighbourhoods in The Villages but I can play on their team because my neighbourhood doesn't have a team in the league.  So now I was on teams in all three of my leagues and would be playing four times a week in the winter season.

Kindle

I went to read my ebook on my Kindle tonight at Julia's house and found the screen looked funny.  Then I looked up on my iPad about the funny screen on my Kindle and found out that the screen was broken.  I guess it got broken in my suitcase during my flight.  I was pissed because I had wrapped it in a way that I thought was really protected in my shirts in the middle of my suitcase and it still got broken.

Switch User

I had to request a computer using my computer account even though I didn't have a computer yet.  I did that first thing in the morning and waited all day.  Then I was told I had to reply to an email they sent about my new computer.  After I requested the computer, I had to confirm that I would receive the new computer even though I hadn't received the new computer yet.  So I went to my supervisor's computer and I had to switch users from his account to my account.  So I clicked Switch User and typed in my username and new password and then hit the button that said Switch User.  That brought me back to the logon in page.  So I typed in my username and password again and hit Switch User and it brought me back to the logon page.  I did that a number of times and then asked what I was doing wrong.  I tried to switch users again and was about to hit the button that said Switch User and my supervisor looking over my shoulder screamed NOOOO! Hit Return.  So I hit Return and I got into my account.  I guess when I hit Switch User after typing in my username and password, I was switching user out of my own account.  So I filled in the form to confirm that I would accept the computer and emailed it back but it was 3:30 in the afternoon by that time and I was told that everyone in the IT group had probably gone home and they would not see it until tomorrow.

Change Password

So I flew to Ottawa and Julia picked me up at the airport.  I was going to be staying with Julia for the week and sleeping in Julia husband's bed and he was going to stay with his mother.  So I arrived late Wednesday night and went in to work on Thursday morning.  The first thing I had to do was activate my computer email account.  They had given me a user name and a initial password that would work the first time I tried to logon.  But the first thing I had to do was change my password.  So I borrowed Stan's computer and used my username and password to logon and pushed the button at the bottom of the screen which took me to a page to change my password and then confirm my changed password.  Then I hit the button at the bottom of the screen and it brought me back to the logon page.  I tried to logon with my new password and it didn't work.  I tried a few times and it didn't work.  So I tried the original password they gave me and I got in to the page to change my password again.  I changed my password to something more complicated because I thought maybe my new password wasn't complicated enough and confirmed it and pushed the button at the bottom of the screen.  I was sent back to the logon page and tried my new password and it didn't work again.  I tried a number of times and then tried the original password again and got the change password screen again.  I repeated this a number of times.  And I asked the people there what I was doing wrong.  So the next time I changed my password, I was going to hit the button at the bottom of the screen and the person looking over my shoulder screamed NOOOO!  Just hit Return!  Then I realized that the button at the bottom of the screen was "Cancel" even though it was the only button to push.  When I hit Return it finally worked.

Shuttle Bus

I started making plans for heading back to Ottawa to pick up my work computer.  Barb wasn't happy about it but she got used to the idea after a while.  I was going to book my flights to fly back on a Wednesday and fly home on a Saturday but when I told them at work about that plan they said maybe I should plan to stay longer.  So I booked my flights to fly back on Wednesday and stay until the following Wednesday.  I was planning to leave late in the day so that I wouldn't have to get up early.  I thought Barb could drive me to airport and then go to Costco after dropping me off.  But I was returning quite late at night.  So I thought I would take the Airport Shuttle home from the airport.  When I went to book the Shuttle seat, I found out that the shuttle only ran until 11:30 pm and I was arriving at 12:30 am.  So Barb would have to come and pick me up too.

Black Friday

Barb was at it again. Shopping online on Black Friday.  She was waiting for two packages and got one in a couple of days but the second package didn't come after a few days.  So Barb looked up the tracking system and found out that it had been delivered.  Then she realized that it had been delivered to our old place in Crystal Lake.  She was so embarrassed.  She messaged the new owner and told him to bring the package over to Daphne's house and she asked Daphne to bring it here with her when she comes for Christmas.

Imports

We thought that it might be best to bring our second car down from Canada instead of buying a second car here in Florida.  We were planning on buying an SUV and selling that car anyway.  So we thought it might be good to have it here instead of selling it at a loss in Canada.  We looked into shipping it down and we found out that we needed to fill in forms from the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency to say that the car met the US standards.  We needed to find out if it was already certified.  So we got our neighbour in New Hamburg to go into the garage and take a picture of the labels on the inside of the door to see if it was already certified.  The first picture was cut off on the side.  So we had to get him to go back and take another picture.  We needed to get a letter from the manufacturer saying it met the standards.  Barb phoned that they said that there was a recall on the car for the airbag in the passenger side of the front seat but it was no problem to send us a letter.  So we were getting ready to get it shipped down and then we called the shipping people and they said that they couldn't get it shipped if there were any recalls on it. So we might have to wait until next year to bring the car down.