Chess

I was following the World Chess Championship every day on the internet and got enthused about playing chess.  So I went to the library and got out a couple of chess books.  One of the books had quizzes at the end of each chapter where you could rate yourself.  I got all the questions right in the first quiz and it said that I could be clearly confident that I am starting my chess career.  The quiz at the end of the second chapter was not as easy.  I found it hard to solve the problems in my head.  So I thought I could buy a chess board and try to solve the quiz in real life.  Then one night I was playing my computer chess game on my iPad (which I won) and I found that it had a mode for setting up the board for puzzles.  I didn't even need a chess board.  I could do the quiz on the iPad.  I never did though.  I thought there was too much concentration required.  Maybe if I had bought a real chess board I would have followed through on the plan.

Small Desk

I have a small desk in my office here in Florida and I usually have a pop and a coffee and a glass of water on the desk as I am working.  The pop and the coffee where on one side of the desk and the glass of water was on the other side.  I was reaching over the glass of water to get a folder from the corner of my desk behind the glass of water and I was careful not to hit my glass of water.  Then I realized I had the wrong folder, I very carefully put the folder back at the edge of the desk behind the glass of water.  Then I found the right folder.  This time I rushed and knocked my glass of water all over my papers and the desk and on the floor.

Car

We had bought our friend's car for me to get around The Villages to my softball games and to the park for walks.  We had to register it at the tax collector's.  We drove there in Barb's car and when we got there, there was a long lineup. We had forgotten the cash that we had gotten from Laura that we wanted to get rid of.  So Barb took a number and waited while I went home and got the money.  When I got back Barb was at the counter with a teller waiting for me.  She had already given her number to someone else but she thought I would be back soon.  We knew the registration would cost $250 but I brought all the money and the bill came to $576 which surprised us. Barb was happy that I brought all the money and we used up most of it in one go.

Pizza Party

The first thing we did when we arrived in Florida was message our friends that we had arrived.  I messaged my only friend, Larry and the next day he invited us over to his house for pizza.  I said I would have to ask Barb who was out grocery shopping.  Barb said she was too tired to go out for dinner and we just had a pizza party at home.

Todd Fisher

On the way home from Florida last year I convinced Barb to listen to an audio book.  We listened to Carrie Fisher's autobiography and Barb thought it was a great way to spend the long drive.  This time we listened to Todd Fisher's autobiography, Carrie's brother.  A lot of the story was about their mother Debbie Reynolds and her trials and tribulations.  She keep getting swindled by her husbands and they took her for millions of dollars and she had terrible luck with her plans to build a museum to hold her collection of Hollywood costumes and lost millions of dollars on that too.  But she was unsinkable just like The Unsinkable Molly Brown that she played in the movie of the same name.  It was very interesting but it was sad. Debbie died of natural causes the day after Carrie died of an overdose.  It was a 16 hour audio book.  So it took us almost the whole way to Florida.

Turkey

Barb was planning to have Christmas dinner at our house in Florida and she likes to cook the Butterball turkeys with the stuffing inside that she can cook from frozen.  They don't sell them in the US because I think they are afraid of samonella.  So at Thanksgiving Barb bought two Butterball turkeys and she brought one of them with us to Florida in the cooler.  I didn't think it was a great idea.  I wondered whether it was legal to bring a frozen turkey over the border but it worked out just fine.  They didn't ask us about anything at the border and it stayed completely frozen for the whole trip.

Filth

On the highway in Canada to the US border, there was a little blowing snow that was kicked up by the big trucks that passed us and that we passed.  At our first stop for gas when we got over the border, Barb got out of the car and tried to wash off the salt and dirt with the windshield washing brush.  Then at the second stop, when we got out of the car we found out that Barb had just smeared the salt and dirt all over the car and it was still filthy.  Fortunately at the gas station we stopped at, there was a manual car wash.  So we used a few of the quarters that we had saved for the toll roads and washed all the salt and dirt off the car.

Detroit

This year we didn't forget anything and we left at 3:30 am heading to Florida.  We had one mix up in Detroit.  We were trying to get from I-95 to I-75 and we had to change highways in Detroit.  I thought we were taking the wrong exit. So Barb stopped on the off-ramp and backed up and took the other exit.  We ended up in downtown Detroit and there was something strange happening there.  There were cars backed up and police directing traffic into a parking lot.  I tried to convince Barb that we were in the wrong place but she thought she remembered being downtown sometime.  I finally convinced to make a U-turn right in the middle of all the traffic and take the exit back to Canada.  When we did we found the right exit after we passed the exit for the bridge to Canada and got on the I-75.  Then it was clear sailing on the I-75 all the way to The Villages and arrived at 12 midnight.

Hero

Barb wanted to make sure she didn't forget her cards when she went to Florida.  So she sat down with me and took her cards out of her summer purse that she was leaving in Canada and put them all in her winter purse that she was bringing to Florida.  I watched her closely as she took her cards out of her summer purse and then put them back in her summer purse.  I didn't say anything because I didn't want to say something stupid like why are you putting them back where you got them.  When she was finished she was checking out her summer purse to make sure it was empty and found her cards still there.  She was shocked because she would have left her cards in Canada when they should have been with her in Florida.  I said I saw her take them out and put them back in her summer purse but didn't say anything.  She said I would have been a hero if I had mentioned it.

Cold Outside

It was cold outside these days and Barb was leaving the house in her winter coat.  She reached in the pocket and found her Costco Credit Card and Costco Membership Card.  I guess when she went to buy gas at Costco last time she had that winter coat on and instead of putting the card back in her purse had just put it in her pocket.  If she hadn't put on that coat again, she would have never known where her credit card had gone.

More Fobb

Barb replaced the battery in my fobb with an battery she had gotten from our old neighbours in Barrhaven.  We went out to the car and it didn't work.  So Barb went out the next day and bought some more batteries from the Dollar Store.  When she replaced the battery this time, it worked.  Then the next day she was driving and the "Batt" light came on for her fobb. Fortunately, she had brought a three pack of batteries.

Batt

I was sitting in my friend's driveway in St Thomas and I noticed that there was a blinking light with the word "Batt" flashing.  I thought that it was about the car battery and I was worried all the way home from St Thomas.  When I got home I looked it up in the Owner's Manual and found out it was the fobb battery that is used to automatically open the doors and to turn on the car using the push button.  It was almost as bad a battery light because if the battery had died I wouldn't have known how to start the car.

St Thomas

I was driving to St Thomas to see my friend and watch the Ticats in the playoffs.  I thought I knew the way there.  So I didn't use the GPS which would interfere with my ability to listen to my audio book.  Somehow I missed the exit off the highway to St Thomas.  I found myself heading to Windsor on the 401.  So I took the first exit and turned around and went back.  I took the first exit that seemed to be the right one but it wasn't.  I drove for a long time and things looked sort of familiar and sort of not.  Then I came to a traffic circle and even though I didn't remember there being a traffic circle, I thought I remembered them working on one and it looked kind of new.  I didn't know which exit to take out the traffic circle.  So I decided to take the one that seemed to be the straightest to St Thomas.  I knew I wasn't on the right road now and I went through a little town called Fingal that I knew used to have a fastball team that played in the St Thomas league.  I continued driving and eventually I was going to stop and get out the GPS when I found First Street.  I knew my friend lived on a road off First Street but I turned the wrong way and ended up at a dead end.  I turned around and went back down First Street and found the right road pretty soon.  I guess I had come around St Thomas the other way and ended up at the same spot.

Surprise

Laura surprised us by flying to London, England for a few days with a friend for a circus competition.  She had posted something confusing about London on Facebook and Barb said no it couldn't be.  Barb said she must have posted something about her friend in London but I thought it was just a crazy thing that only Laura could pull off.  While she was over there, she took advantage of being so close to Ireland and went over to have lunch with my cousin and aunt in Ireland.  We asked her why she didn't mention it to us.  She said that it was a last minute thing and by the time she thought of telling us she felt it was too late.  I asked her if she had surprised my cousin the same way and Laura said no she gave her and my aunt a few days notice.

Thoughtful

Barb got a lovely email thanking her for the thoughtful gift.  It was a long email talking about getting to together when she was in Florida again.  Barb realized it was incorrectly addressed and replied to the lady saying she had sent it to the wrong Barb.  The lady who sent it apologized profusely and she turned out to be the lady who did Barb's eyebrow tattoos.  So while Barb was communicating with her, she was able to make an appointment to touch up her eyebrows when Barb got to Florida.

Name in Print

Barb thought she was famous when she found her name in print in the Morningside Village Newsletter for winning the guess the weight of the pumpkin contest.

Halloween

I visited the office in Ottawa for my last meeting before I head to Florida.  There was a lot of Halloween candy sitting around on the meeting room tables between the cubicles.  My supervisor said that he had a small bag of candy for me.  So I took it and thanked him and put it in my coat pocket.  Then when I was at Julia's house I was reaching in my coat pocket and found the bag of candy.  So I gave it to Julia.  She looked at the little bag and noticed that it had my name on it.  The office had made bags for everyone individually and my supervisor had saved the bag just for me.

Vitamin

Sometimes I get Laura or Sarah to refill my pill box if they are over at the house and I need to refill it.  Well Barb was leaving one afternoon and found a Vitamin B12 tablet at the front door.  She takes vitamins in the morning and before bed but she had no idea how this pill had gotten to the front door.  Her pills stay on the counter beside the refrigerator and she refills them on the counter.  She didn't remember dropping any.  Maybe it happened when Laura or Sarah refilled her container for her.

Mint Gum

Here is something I never knew.  Barb and I chew Mint Gum while we are playing our sports.  I put a piece in my mouth and then had a drink of cold water.  The combination of mint and cold water made the water extra cold.  It was so cold I almost had to spit out the water.