BC

I got two calls from the same number on my cellphone which is strange because I never get any calls on my cellphone.  It said it was coming from BC.  Barb called back and the man said he was calling from Canada Revenue Agency.  We both thought it might have something to do with Laura's income tax.  So Barb handed me the phone.  I talked to the man for a while and he wanted information about my address and date of birth.  I thought it was strange.  So I hung up.  Then I looked up the phone number on the internet and there were dozens of comments about CRA scams coming from that number.  The comments were all very recent.

Dollar

We got the Village handyman to paint our back porch.  He did a good job when he finally got around to it and he charged us $291.  Barb couldn't figure out where the one dollar came from.

Bruise

Barb saw a bruise on my lip again.  She remembered that the last time she saw a bruise like that it was after having corn on the cob for dinner.  I guess because I now have a gap in my teeth where my tooth was pulled out, it rubs in a strange way on my lip when I am eating corn on the cob.

Garbage

I really like the headphones that Barb bought me in Florida but they are quite fragile.  My first pair broke but Barb had bought me two pairs.  So I threw them in waste paper basket in my office and started using my second pair.  They are really good because they have noise reduction ear buds.  I was wearing the second pair for quite a few weeks and then I lost one of the noise reduction ear buds.  I thought that was would be the end of them but Barb asked me if I could take an ear bud out of the old pair.  I said that I had thrown the old pair out but I remembered that I had thrown them in my waste paper basket in my office.  I never empty that basket.  All I ever put in it are my used little pieces of paper and if it fills up I just push the papers down a little bit.  So I went to my waste paper basket and found my original headphones and took off one of the ear buds and put it on my second pair and was all set.  Barb said that if it was her, she would have emptied my waste paper basket when she prepared the room for Laura but since I prepared the room for Laura because it is my room, I never emptied the garbage.

Error

I was trying to log on to my work computer to put in my hours to get paid and I couldn't log on.  I kept getting an error message.  I tried and tried. I thought I was typing my password wrong.  I couldn't get into my computer to email anyone about my problem.  So I thought I would have to wait until I go to Ottawa and bring my computer to get it figured out.  Then I happened to check my PKI card and it was just out a little bit and I pushed it in. Then when I tried to log in it worked.  So I was able to put in my hours and wouldn't have to take my computer to Ottawa.

Car Exchange

Laura and I went to Service Ontario to find out how to transfer the Honda Civic into her name.  We found that since it was a transfer to a relative we wouldn't have to pay any tax.  We were told that it was quite simple we just had to fill out and sign a form.  However, when we went back to do it officially, we found out that it wasn't that easy because Laura had a Nova Scotia driver's license.  We were very upset because we had been told it would be easy.  We screamed and yelled at the lady and asked to talk to the other lady who was the lady that had helped us before.  She wouldn't let us talk to other lady but she didn't like us getting mad and she just filled out the form for us and told us that Laura could take it with her to Nova Scotia and get the car registered there.  So Laura was all set to drive back to Halifax.  She would be back in a few weeks on her way across country to Vancouver.

Shantz

The Red Sox were playing in the playoffs against the first place team.  I was sitting on the bench and Laura was keeping score.  The captain of the other team was talking to Laura who he had met at the World Tournament.  He was asking her when she was leaving and she said tomorrow.  He said have a good trip.  Then Laura found she didn't get everything sorted out and didn't leave the next day after all.  So when she came to the next game, the captain of the other team said I thought you had already left.  Laura said that she didn't get everything done that she needed to get done.  He said that it to be expected.  What wasn't expected is that we beat Shantz in that game and took the three game series to a final and deciding game.

Back Leg

Laura had been so busy with my ball games that she didn't have much time to go through her stuff that she brought from her storage unit.  So she stayed a little longer than she expected and spent a number of days and nights in the garage cleaning up her stuff.  She found a lot of great memories and some great art she had done in high school and university.  I spent a few nights in the garage with her.  I brought out my computer and my speakers and we listened to my Ottawa radio station.  Laura was very happy that I came out there with her because I had to save her from the cricket that was crawling around her stuff.  I was able to catch it in my hand and throw it in the garden.  A couple of days later that same cricket was back in the garage.  We knew it was the same one because it had one back leg missing.

Airbnb

I had left something in the car and had to go out of the Airbnb to get it.  Laura and I were looking around for the keys of the Airbnb room and couldn't find them.  Then I decided to just go out without locking the doors.  When I got outside our room, I found that we had left the keys in the door.

Tough Luck

Barb was really excited to play in the mixed doubles part of the Tournament of Champions after she won $250 in the women's doubles.  She had a really good male partner.  Then she found out that her male partner had hurt his leg badly in the men's doubles and couldn't play the next day in the mixed doubles.  So she had to find another partner at the last minute which was difficult because all the good players were already taken.  Needless to say she didn't go very far in the mixed doubles tournament and was very disappointed.

Spikes

Barb never learns.  She was out watering the garden and decided to pull out a weed.  She didn't bother to go and get her gardening gloves and just pulled the weed out with her bare hand.  She got spiked by the prickly weed and her pickleball hand was all sore and itchy for quite a few days.  That didn't stop her from coming second in the Kitchener Tournament of Champions and winning $250 the following weekend.

Love Letter

We were getting ready to leave the Niagara tournament and Sarah noticed a note under my windshield wiper.  It was a love note.  Sarah immediately started kidding me about it but I said it was probably not for me.  It was probably for Laura.  We argued about it and Sarah took a picture of it and messaged it to Barb to see if she would be jealous.  Barb agreed with me that it was probably for Laura.

Sunday

Sarah hadn't been able to come and watch any of the World Tournament with us.  So she decided to make the trip to Niagara to watch the tournament on Sunday.  Unfortunately, by the time she got to the park on Sunday afternoon, the Wizards were eliminated from the tournament.  She sat with us to watch the semifinals and the finals and then she took Laura to see the Falls while I waited at Tim Hortons.  They just went there and took a few pictures and were back in a half hour.

Finals

The schedule of the Niagara tournament worked out great for a change and Laura and I were able to watch the finals of the World Tournament on Saturday night on Youtube at our Airbnb.

Larry

There was one guy who we picked up for the Wizards who was really loud and annoying.  He looked like a good athlete even though he was a little bit of an older guy.  He was very excitable and when he got excited he tended to screw up.  So one game he was playing terrible and I was going to pull him from the game but I don't like to do that when I guy has made a few mistakes because it might ruin his confidence.  Fortunately, he knew he was screwing up and pulled himself from the game and the other coach Sean went in for him.  Sean played like a star as a substitute.

Dawgs

Since we was out of the World Tournament, I decided to go to play with the Wizards in the Niagara Falls tournament.  I booked an Airbnb and off Laura and I went on Friday.  The captain of the Wizards didn't know if he was going to have enough players for the Niagara tournament but he picked up about four local guys from the Niagara Dawgs to help us out.  Laura helped out by keeping score for the Wizards at the tournament.

Spiders

We were eliminated on Wednesday of the tournament and we went back on Thursday to watch some of the games.  I had friends from Ottawa who were playing in the Legends over 50 tournament which started on Thursday.  They were called the Ottawa Spiders.  So I wore my Spiders hat and Laura thought the hat was really cool.  We were sitting in our lawn chairs watching the game and the team Captain of the Diamondbacks came up to talk to us and commented on my Spiders hat.  I didn't feel so bad because he was wearing an Alvinston Aces hat.  I guess he was asked to coach the Aces when we were eliminated from the tournament.

Photographer

Each team gets their picture taken at the World Tournament.  We were early for the picture taking and were sitting around waiting for the rest of the team to show up and talking with the photographer.  Laura was talking photography with him and having a good time.  He took a real interest in her and after we got our picture taken, he would often come and see our games and take pictures of our team playing.  He came up to Laura during one of our games and said she should see the great picture that he took of me.  Later when he posted the photos on Facebook, I saw that he had taken a close up of me coaching first base.

Funny

We may not win many games but the guys have a lot of laughs after and between games.  They are always joking with each other.  Laura really enjoyed hanging out with the guys after the practice.  Laura was explaining her injury to her finger and the guys also talked about injuries that they had with their hands.  Then the guys got a real laugh when I told them I cut the end of my thumb off while chopping a piece of wood to make a ramp for my turtle.

Good Games

The Diamondbacks only played two good games out of the five games they played.  We won only one game.  After a couple of bad games, the captain of the team decided to call an afternoon practice.  I didn't know whether it would be worthwhile for me to go but I did and took Laura with me.  Laura helped out catching for the coach who was hitting fly balls to the outfielders.  She thought it was so funny to hear us at the infield practice having a good time while the outfielders just complained about how stupid it was.  The coach I guess had trouble hitting the ball to the guys. 

Water Bottles

The organizers provided jugs of water at the ball games at the World Tournament but no glasses to drink out of.  They provided refillable souvenir water bottles to all the players and coaches that could be filled from the larger jugs.  I kept losing my water bottles but it didn't matter because everyone was always forgetting their water bottles and I started to accumulate water bottles.  By the end of the tournament I had about 6 water bottles.

Making Fun Of Laura

I see all the young girls with their phones in their back pockets.  I make fun of Laura for breaking her phone all the time.  I usually keep my phone in the front pocket of my jeans but my baseball pants don't have front pockets.  So I had my phone in my back pocket during all of the World Tournament.  One time I was sitting on the bench and heard a crack and realized that I had broken the screen on my phone.  I couldn't make fun of Laura any more.

Two Kids

We were watching the World Tournament and it started to rain.  We thought it was so funny when two little kids got their heads stuck in their umbrella when they closed it after it stopped raining.

World Tournament

I took Laura to the International Softball Congress World Tournament to watch me coach the Durham Diamondbacks and she was so happy about how I know everyone there and said 'hi' to everyone at the ballpark and everybody says 'hi' to me.

Win

Laura came out to watch a Red Sox game with me and we actually won 5-4 in an exciting game.  That was very unusual because we only won 3 games all of the regular season.

Loves and Hates

Laura did a photoshoot of Barb and I standing beside our cars in our sports clothes with our vanity license plates.  Barb and I posted the pictures on Facebook.  Barb got lots of likes from her pickleball friends but I got lots of hates from my Diamondbacks friends because I was wearing my Red Sox uniform.

Cooler

Laura loves her Ice Caps from Tim Hortons but she can't drink them everywhere she goes because of her allergy to magnesium.  There are just a few cities that have the right type of water for her.  Ottawa is one of the places where she can drink the Ice Caps.  So she brought a cooler full of frozen Ice Caps from Ottawa and put them in our freezer to drink while she was here.

Bunnies

Barb was so proud of the lantern plants in her front garden.  She transplanted a couple to the back garden to brighten it up.  She was so mad at the bunnies who came at night and bit the stems of the lanterns.  They cut the lanterns stems in half and left them to die. They didn't even eat them.  Barb thought that it was such a waste.

Motorcycle

We had to fill up the UHaul truck with gas before we returned it.  So we went to a local gas station in New Hamburg.  It was a full service gas station which in itself was very rare but this full service gas station also has very good prices.  5 cents or more less than the local self service gas station.  I guess they cater to all the old people who live in New Hamburg.  There is also a car wash at this gas station.  When we were leaving the gas station, I noticed a motorcycle coming out of the car wash and wondered how that worked.  I had never seen a motorcycle in a car wash and didn't think it was possible.

New Car

Laura was very excited about getting our old Honda Civic now that we had a new Honda CRV.  When I gave her the keys to the car, she got in and found that the key wouldn't work.  I didn't know what the problem was until I realized I had given the keys to my Toyota Yaris by accident.

New Hamburger

We were unpacking the UHaul truck the morning after Laura arrived and Laura was telling me about how her and Julia were clearing out the storage unit and eating hamburgers from McDonalds.  Then we noticed a part of a hamburger bun on the back bumper of the truck.  I guess Julia had dropped some of her hamburger while they were eating in the dark and part of the bun had made it for the whole trip to New Hamburg.

Mom Mad

Laura asked Leroy if he thought she should knock on the door and try to see inside the old house.  Leroy said why not, she has nothing to lose?  So they knocked on the door and it took a long time for the owner to answer.  He was not happy about Laura's idea about seeing the house but then they got talking and found out that she was an artist and he was an animator.  So he let her in.  The house was a mess.  His wife and children were away and he was renovating the house.  It was taking him forever to complete the renovations.  The hallway was a mess and there was no furniture in the living room, dining room or family room and there were no curtains.  The basement looked just the same.  The bedrooms looked pretty much the same as we left them but not the way Laura left hers.  The new owner was very proud of the new shower stall that he had put in the en suite bathroom off the master bedroom.  When Laura showed Barb the picture of it, Barb was furious.  We had just put in a new shower stall before we sold the house.  It cost us $5000.  We hardly even got to use it ourselves before we moved out.  Barb could see that some of the house needed renovating but she thought that doing the shower stall first was just stupid.

Basketball Hoop

Laura surprised us with pictures of our old house in Barrhaven.  She went to see it when she was in Ottawa and met our old neighbour Leroy.  He didn't recognize her at first but then he realized that it was Laura and was very friendly.  Laura wanted to look in the backyard from Leroy's house.  So she went into the backyard and looked at her old backyard and was happy to see that the basketball hoop was still there.  Apparently, the new owner had tried to get the basketball hoop out of the ground and couldn't do it.  I must have put it in there really good.

Instagram

Laura was mad at me for not posting a picture of myself on Instagram with my FASTPTCH license plates because Barb had posted a picture of herself with her PICKLEBL license plates.  I don't really know how to post on Instagram yet.  I am still an old fogey who only knows Facebook.

8 Heather Place

Laura drove the UHaul truck from Ottawa and she texted us when she was half way.  She was driving very late at night.  So we just went to bed and left the front door open for her to come in when she arrived.  When she got to Toronto, she found out that the 401 Express lanes were closed and got on the 401 Collectors.  Then she took an off ramp and drove around the suburbs of Toronto.  She just thought her GPS was confused until she arrived at 8 Heather Place in Toronto.  She had to reset her GPS to find our 8 Heather Place in New Hamburg.

Register

Barb got her PICKLEBL license plates and put them on her car and had to go to Service Ontario to register them and turn in her old license plates.  I got my FASTPTCH license plates and went to Service Ontario later.  I took off my old license plates and went in.  I had the wrong papers with me and they said I had to bring in my ownership papers. So I walked across the parking lot and looked in the glove department for the ownership papers.  Then when I went back with my ownership papers, they said I needed my insurance papers.  I said why didn't you tell me that before.  So I walked back to my car and got my insurance papers and came back and finally got my license plates approved and put them on my car.

Misleading

Laura flew in to Ottawa and stayed with Julia.  She was planning to rent a UHaul truck and empty her storage locker in Barrhaven and bring the stuff to New Hamburg to sort out.  She said that she had gotten very good at throwing things out.  Laura was very upset when she went to UHaul to rent a truck in Ottawa.  All the UHaul trucks have the advertising on the side of the trucks saying $19.95 per day but she found out that the truck would cost her $238 for 3 days.  She called us desparately trying to think of some way to avoid the expense.  We were no help.  So she went back to the UHaul shop crying and they gave her 20% off.  Poor girl in more ways than one.

Hottest Day of the Year

Barb can't find a good place in the new car to put her Kleenex box.  Today she drove home from Costco on the hottest day of the year with the seat warmer on because the Kleenex box had hit the button and she didn't know it.

Plucker

Barb has trouble with the spell checker on her phone.  Every time she types 'pickle' in messages to Laura on her phone, it changes it to 'plucker'.  It could be worse I guess.

Magic Hands

Last year my dentist told me I had a big cavity right at the gum line on one of my molars. She said that there wasn't much she could do about it but she was worried that it might start to hurt when I was in Florida.  It didn't hurt.  So I didn't do anything about it.  Then when I got back from Florida, our new dentist thought he could fill it   When he filled it, I thought it was funny that the dental hygienist was complimenting him about his magic hands that were able to fill such a difficult cavity.  Then this week it started to ache.  I went to the dentist but when he tested my teeth, I couldn't tell him for sure which tooth it was. They all seemed to hurt when he put the cold thing on them but then the pain would go away.  So he sent me home.  A couple of days later, it really started to ache and I found which tooth it was and was playing with the tooth with my tongue to remember which tooth it was.  I made appointment with the dentist for the next day to get the tooth pulled.  It turned out to be the same tooth that he filled but he didn't want to pull it.  He was suggesting a root canal or an implant.  Finally, he told me that he was going on vacation next week.  It was Friday.  So I had to decide right then.  I said pull it.  I had to sign a consent agreement saying that I had approved the pulling of the tooth.  Now I have a big hole in my mouth.  I guess his hands weren't as magic as all that.

Kevin

Barb was trying to decide who to play with at the Pickelball Association of Ontario tournament between Mark and Kevin.  She decided to play with Mark and messaged Kevin to tell him she couldn't play with him.  He said he already had a partner.  She was mad at Kevin for not telling her earlier. If she had known, she wouldn't have had to worry about making the decision and turning him down.  She was happy she chose to play with Mark because she could have messaged Mark and told him she was playing with Kevin and then she would have been screwed when Kevin told her that he already had a partner.

Handyman

The guy who sold us our new car is also the Village handyman.  Barb asked him about our back porch.  He came over to pressure wash the mold off the porch today.  Barb was happy that she had just sweep the leaves off the porch before he got here.

Missed Games

We got home from Ottawa at 10 pm.  I was still in my baseball clothes.  I had texted the guys from my New Hamburg team to ask how their games went.  They had played a double header and won the first game and tied the second game.  I asked if the guys were still at the ball park having a beer and they said they would be there for a little while longer.  So I got Barb to drop me off at the New Hamburg ball park and I had a few pops with them.  I was dressed appropriately.

Surprised

I had told the guys in New Hamburg that I would probably be back in time for our game Sunday night because I didn't think the Diamondbacks would do very well in the tournament and would be eliminated early on Sunday morning.  I was again surprised that we made it to the semi-finals and actually won some prize money.  I always seem to underestimate the Diamondbacks.

Early Game

The Queensway was closed for maintenance on Sunday morning and we had a early game in Carp.  Barb needed the car. So I arranged to get a ride with Derick a good friend on our team.  We were going to meet him in Barrhaven.  So Barb drove me to Barrhaven and there was absolutely no traffic on the Queensway or the detour around the maintenance.  So we got to the meeting place (Tim Hortons) in Barrhaven early.  Derick and his father-in-law were already there and were eating breakfast from McDonalds beside the Tim Hortons.  So Barb dropped me off, I picked up a coffee and we left for the diamond.  On the way, Derick's father-in-law gave me one of his egg McMuffins because he said he couldn't eat it.  We were the first people at the diamond and we waited around a long time for other guys to show up.  Derick was talking about how difficult fastball was to hit and how tough it was on one's ego.  When the guys got there and the coach wrote the lineup, I was embarrassed that Derick didn't even get to play.  I felt bad for him and having got to the diamond so early.  And I felt bad for his father-in-law, who came to watch him.  It turned out that he didn't play any of the games that day.  His sister was the sponsor of the team. So I thought it was not a great idea to have him sit out the games.

Late

Barb was late for Pickleball.  I was driving her and Julia to play with some of her old friends from volleyball.  I rushed to get there for 11 in the morning and Barb was very upset about the traffic delaying us from getting there.  When we got to the gym, there was no one there.  So Barb and Julia went in and asked where everyone was.  The guy who was running the gym said the pickleball didn't start until 12 noon.  She and Julia weren't late they were an hour early.

Pitcher

I met the guys at the ballpark and they were making rude jokes about our pitcher.  I didn't know why they were doing that and then I found out that that week he had had hemorrhoid surgery and it hadn't been successful.  So he had had a second surgery and he still had stitches in his bum.  I couldn't believe that he was going to pitch for us in the tournament and he even batted for himself and I was very worried when he was running hard on the bases.

Ottawa

Barb and I went to Ottawa for a Diamondbacks ball tournament and I had a chance to have a meeting with my supervisors at work on Friday and Barb got to go to the cottage with her old volleyball friends.  It turned out to be great timing.

Legends

My friends from Ottawa were coming to Cambridge to play in the provincials for the Legends of fastball who are all over 50 years old.  I went to watch on Friday night and the coach said I should come out on Saturday morning in my uniform to help him coach.  After we played a couple of games on Saturday, we had a team picture taken.  I posted the picture on Facebook and my cousin in England couldn't find me in the picture.  She misidentified one of the guys as me.  I thought that was funny until Barb also couldn't find me in the picture and misidentified one of the other guys as me.