080 LIFE IS SHORT

Life is short and I had that brought home to me with a vengeance at hockey on Sunday morning.  Now before I get into the details of what brought me to this conclusion, I’d like to fill in a little bit of background, to bring everything into context.

RUSS CARRYING THE PUCK

I have been playing hockey since I was a kid and in 1971, I was 16, when 4 Rinks opened, I have been playing hockey every Sunday morning since.  4 Rinks has since become 8 Rinks, but now only 6 of the rinks are dedicated to hockey.  There is one rink for Skate Canada figure skating and one is an indoor soccer arena.  So, this year marks my 45^th season of Sunday hockey.

It is pickup hockey, but for the first 42 years or so, we had set teams.  One wearing white jerseys and one wearing dark.  Teams would get changed around occasionally in the off-season or at Christmas break.  Now, the teams are re-arranged each week, to defray the natural competitiveness that builds up between hockey players.  This way you are playing with different guys each week.

We are also a “superstitious” lot and each of us have our own rituals.  One thing is that there is a group that changes in one dressing room and a different group in the other.  The regulars are the ones that do this, the only change is when new guys or spares join us and then they go to the room with the most space.

You become close friends in the dressing room, swapping stories, talking about TV games, the news or off-color jokes.  Yet, with all the closeness that builds, sometimes you don’t even know the last name of the guy who has sat across from you, or next to you for 20 years.  Other rituals in the dressing room are that certain players sit in “their” spot.  For instance, I always sit on the end of the bench closest to the door.  My son sits next to me, next to him is Russ, and the goalie across the room from us.

I always put on my left shin pad and sock first, then the left skate, then I do the right side.  After my skates are on, I defog my helmet visor and tape my stick.  I tape the stick every single game with white tape.  The on go the shoulder pads, left elbow pad which gets taped down because the Velcro doesn’t work anymore.  Finally, the jersey and then the helmet and I’m ready to go.  The whole time, I’m yacking it up with my dressing room brothers.  It isn’t just one team either, there is a mix of white and dark jerseys.

Having said that though, the only time we see the other guys on our rink is when they are in full gear with helmets and visors and in most cases, it’s hard to recognize guys after the game in street clothes.  Despite all this closeness and bonding and true friendship, most of us know little about the other guys we play with.  Only a few hang out together as friends when not at the rink.  Lately there has been quite a bit of family involved.  Karl and I were the first father/son combo, now there are several and even a father/daughter/son trio.

EVERY RINK HAS THEM
LOOK FOR A SIGN SIMILAR

Sunday morning January 8, 2017 was our first game back from Christmas break.  All the usual banter took place and the game started.  Russ, who is 56 and is one of the better skaters out there was playing on a line with my son, against my line to start.  Karl skates like the wind as well and I don’t, so keeping up with those two is a chore.  Then again, speed has never been a part of my game.

Karl set Russ up for a nice goal and later Russ returned the favour and set Karl up with a very similar pass.  Both our lines were on the bench, but they went out first.  Later Russ told me he was confused on the bench and his winger had to ask him if he was coming on the ice.  He went out and back into his own zone and then started out.  Nothing looked out of place.

Russ crossed his blue line and was sort of angling towards the bench.  I was looking right at him, when he suddenly dropped to the ice like he’d been shot.  I thought he was screwing around and I was about to call him out for “taking a dive”.  That was when I realized something was very wrong, because he didn’t move.  He was so close to the bench that I could see he was having trouble breathing.  I yelled and then everyone sprang into action.

One goalie is trained in Industrial First Aid and another player up to date on CPR.  By this time, Russ was turning purple and had stopped breathing and his heart had also stopped.  For all intents and purposes, he was dead.  They peeled his gear off and someone ran onto the ice with an AED (Defibrillator).  9-1-1 had been called and they were instructing us how to use the AED.

NOT RUSS.  DEMO TO SHOW AED IN USE

Russ was shocked one time and his heart restarted and he took a deep breath.  By the time the paramedics got there, Russ was conscious and lucid.  He knew his name and where he was, but not why he was lying on the ice.  He wanted to get up and resume playing, even though at this point the only thing he was wearing was hockey pants.  He was loaded on a stretcher and wheeled off the ice.  What seemed like forever was 15 minutes from the time Russ hit the ice to the time he left on a stretcher.

None of us could think about resuming the game at that point and as I looked around there had to be 100—150 people gathered behind the glass.  All from other rinks who came to watch the unfolding drama.

I had brought up the point of not really knowing each other earlier, because in this case none of us knew who to call, except my son Karl.  Russ is the uncle of my son’s best buddy in the whole world.  They have been friends since pre-school, so Karl called Mat and managed to relay the information to all of Russ family members.

Updates throughout the day kept us informed on Russ progress and early Monday afternoon I took a drive to the hospital for a visit.  Russ was not only looking great, but able to walk around the room.  It turned out he had suffered a heart attack which stopped his heart.  As soon as he arrived at the hospital he was taken in, assessed and then given an angioplasty where 2 stents were put in.  He expects to be released from hospital Tuesday, but, he cannot play hockey anymore because it would be too much of a risk of killing him.

So, we can be thankful that Russ survived and that we all played a part in saving him.  We will be sad to lose him from our hockey brotherhood, but he gets to continue and enjoy life in ways away from the rink.  You just never know, so enjoy it while you can, because it can all be over in that proverbial heartbeat.  Good luck to you Russ, glad you are feeling better and we will miss you at the rink.

****Update from Russ himself:

hey guys at home now just resting up,,,,,,,,,,

really hard to sleep in a hospital,,,,,,,,

a big thanks to everyone one the ice that s/morning,,,,,,,,

all you guys acted in a professional way and saved my life

high 5's to everybody,,,,,

dont think i'll play for the rest of the year,,we'll see who knows

i'll see how i feel come sept,,,,,,,,will probably feel great

and ready to go but mind yu at a slower pace

once again guys thanks a whole lot for doing what yu did

and the amount of emails that followed that,,,,,,,,,,,

glad to see Bruce F, & Tom G, who dropped bye for a visit,,,

Funny thing was that when i was revived I felt great

and ready to go,LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED,,,,,,,,,

Saw the cat scan of my heart,it was blockage in the artery

which caused the breakdown,,,,,,,,,,

I feel good rite now just sum good shuteye and would probably go/out

but i think i need the heart to rest a little bit,now,,

KEEP ME IN MIND COME SEPT/17

THANKS

079 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

As we start a brand-new year, 2017, I must look back on the year that has just passed.  It was a sad year and a happy year, but more sadness than is usual.  There were an awful lot of celebrities who left us far too soon, but other than a few, I have no personal connection to.  They are celebrities and nothing more.  They have no direct impact in my life other than to entertain.

DAWNING ON A NEW YEAR

I am sadder for the numerous law enforcement officers that were lost across North America last year.  The trend across the United States especially is the targeted murder of those officers.  The hatred towards them perpetuated by those misguided individuals who blame the police for their own faults and mistakes.

I am more saddened again by the list of former colleagues that have passed on.  They are the ones who had a direct impact on my life and that I feel the connection to.  They are the ones who will be missed the most and remembered most fondly.  All we can do is hope that we lose far less in 2017.

We spent a very quiet evening at home and got a chance to get to know a couple of our new neighbours.  The evening allowed us to get to know each other better and to advance our growing friendships.  It was even better because at the end of the evening it was just a short walk across the street to get home.

We closed the old year with a huge dump of snow that started very gently yesterday morning and was off and on until about 1:30 PM when it began in earnest and did not let up all night, in fact at 5:00 AM, as I write this, it is still snowing.  It is probably the largest accumulation of snow we have gotten, of the number of snowfalls we have had.  There looks to be 3-4 inches of snow out there.

Normally, we spend New Year’s Eve with friends in Vancouver, with a group of friends in Vancouver, where we get together for a feast of crab.  This year it has been postponed until next weekend due to conflicting work schedules.  As it turns out, with the snowfall, it was probably a good thing.  The less people on the road, the better.

Our neighbour Geri arrived first.  She is retired like me, but still works part time at a local big box retailer.  She just does it for fun and to keep busy.  Marie came over as well.  She is employed in the television sports industry and works for a major network, although she is in the process of branching out into her own production company.  Her partner Sarah, who is a serving RCMP officer was out on the street, protecting us all and could not make it this time.

SANTA STILL HERE

That could change though as we learned she has been promoted and will be moving into a position that won’t require her to work shifts now.  Everyone had such amazing stories and life experiences to share and it was a very entertaining and pleasant evening.  I look forward to the next time we can get together.

So here we are, into a brand-new year.  It has all the hopes and dreams of previous years, but hopefully will produce a greater percentage of good memories this time, than all the bad ones that we had last year.  Wishing all my readers, family and friends a Happy, Prosperous and Safe 2017.

I will close with a partial listing of those we lost far too soon.  I was originally going to list the names of all law enforcement officers killed in 2016, but just in the United States alone there were 135.  More than half of those were by gunfire.  It was a tragic year in that respect.

There were 60 celebrities as well, the most notable of whom, for me, were Gordie Howe, Muhammed Ali, Arnold Palmer, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and John Glenn.  Yes, there are other big names who are now gone, but these are the ones who had the biggest impact on me personally.

The list of mostly retired and serving members of the Vancouver Police who died in 2016 is as follows.  Most of these members, I served with and will remember fondly:  Ed Leask, Bill Warwick, Rudi Sturm, Tommy Lloyd, Art Chinn, Art Fairbank, Dicky Pugh, Malcolm Fish, Bill Smith, Ray MacNeny, Randy Peterson, Simon Tanner, Cliff Weeks, Ward Rowan, Al Ens, Beth Martlew, John Leary, Ian Young, Don Bullough, John Keen and Al Huff.

078 PERFECT CHRISTMAS

Here we are, it’s Christmas Day of 2016.  It has been an amazing journey these last nine months or so.  Going from my tiny 600 square foot basement suite to this beautiful new townhouse.  From cooking on a 2-burner hot plate and an electric wok, to using this huge 5 burner gas stove and a gas convection oven.  I am thankful every day for the change.

As I have documented in the past months I have made good use of that stove as well.  Mastering new baking skills and learning to cook and bake new things.  I still managed to cook some good dinners in my old place, but it’s so much easier now.  I did a turkey dinner for 8 on Thanksgiving and will be doing another tomorrow on Boxing Day.

FILLING THE TARTS
TEACAKES IN OVEN

Renee will be leaving shortly to go home where she and her friend Carol will walk the seawall in Stanley Park as they do every Christmas.  Toby and I will spend the day here doing our usual routine and will join them later for dinner at Carol’s.  My task each year is to bring the desert, which is usually me bringing a pumpkin pie and spray whip cream from the store.

ADDING STARS

Not this year though.  Last night I baked 24 mince tarts, which as I am told are Carol’s favourites.  I also baked 31 Russian Tea Cakes.  Only a portion of those will go to Carol’s place while the rest will be shared with my kids at dinner tomorrow.  Renee can hardly wait and I must keep them hidden until she heads off.

We have some great new neighbours and have even exchanged cards with a few that we have become closer to.  I had one great neighbour at the old place, Yoko, but here everyone is so friendly.  I think it has something to do with the fact that we are all in similar situations, moving into new places in a new location.  Some are new to the area like the girls behind us who came from Montreal.  Others have lived in Maple Ridge for years and are downsizing.

I have decorated the house with lights outside and a Christmas Tree inside.  Next year I will add to it by doing some inside decorations and maybe add to the outside display.  But what could possibly make this any better?  Well it is something that very rarely happened in Vancouver.  That is a White Christmas.  Maple Ridge tends to get more snow than Vancouver, although this year when we have had the few big snowfalls, the accumulations in Vancouver were greater.

From what I understand, a lot of the snow in Vancouver has melted with the rain over the past week.  It was raining here too and the snow we had was quickly disappearing.  I joked that if there was still a little bit left, could we call it an Off-White Christmas?  We shall see what happens.

Friday morning, the dawn of a special day.  Ten years ago, we drove all the way to Yakima, Washington and got Toby.  We were both sick, which made for a miserable drive.  But, 5 hours isn’t bad.  Except we got jammed up in Snoqualmie Pass with avalanche control and the 5-hour drive turned into 9.  It all worked out and we got home the same night at 11:30 PM.  This day would also have marked my Mom’s 99^th Birthday.

KID AND A SNOWMAN

INFLATABLE

 My Mom loved snow.  Maybe that’s where I get it from.  She was born and raised in the Prairies and you would have thought she would have had enough of the white stuff, but no, whenever it snowed, Mom was like a little kid again.  She loved sitting and knitting and watching the snow fall.  I’m the same way, minus the knitting of course.

SALT TRUCK WORKING

DECORATED

I don’t like to shovel it, but I don’t have to worry about that here.  That is all done for us.  It was a little disappointing when I got up at 5:00 AM and looking out the window to see it was pissing rain.  When I looked out again at 7:00 AM it had switched to glorious snow.  It snowed all day from 7:00 AM to almost 7:00 PM.  Even despite that, we didn’t get a lot of buildup.  Two inches would be a very generous estimate.

However, on Saturday, the temperature dropped and everything froze solid.  It was treacherous walking Toby yesterday morning.  He was sliding on the ice, Renee was sliding and I was doing my very best to avoid it.  I wore my runners and did sort of modified penguin walk, but we got through it.

WHITE CHRISTMAS

So here we are on Christmas morning and waiting for the one thing that will make Christmas perfect.  Not knowing what happened with the weather overnight, but hoping for the best.  I peeked through the blinds and sure enough, the snow is still here.  We have a White Christmas.  A great welcome to the new house and our first Christmas here.  My first White Christmas in many years. Hmm, I wonder if my Mom had something to do with it?

077 SNOW DAY, YAY

Finally, after waiting all week, we got some snow.  It was supposed to happen Thursday morning, then Thursday afternoon, then late Thursday night, but it finally started at 7:00 AM on Friday.  It started very gently, with a powdery snow and kept it up until 9:00 when Toby and I went out for our morning walk.  It stopped then.

There was maybe ½ to ¾ inch of snow.  Walking our driveway was fine because at 7:30 AM one of the guys from the construction crew grabbed one of the bobcats and shoveled all the roads.  It worked well and even picked up the ice left from our -10-degree day yesterday.

STARTING THE LIGHTS

FINISH LIGHTS. A LOOK INSIDE
THE INDIANA JONES GARAGE

For salting, it was hilarious.  I looked out the window and saw the same guy sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck.  They came slowly up the road and the guy in back had a big bag of salt and a tin can.  He would dip it into the bag of salt and sprinkle it onto the road behind the truck.  By the time, I got to my camera, they had disappeared around the corner.  Hey, it may have been improvised, but it worked well.  It was just funny to watch.

The pathway was fine for walking as well, since it’s gravel.  The place I had problems was on the city sidewalks.  The roads themselves were plowed and well salted.  Sidewalks not so much.  The top part of the 240^th hill had a path salted into it but the rest, not so much.  It was also hard walking in my new boots which I haven’t fully broken in yet.

Mr. Enthusiasm, Toby started yanking me along and I started to lose my balance, but managed to stop from falling by grabbing one of the fences around the boulevard trees.  It would have been fine, but Toby kept pulling and I felt something in my wrist, creak.  Man, did that hurt.  Once I got home, I iced it and took an anti-inflammatory and it seems to be a lot better this evening.

It started snowing again around noon, only a lot harder this time.  It’s a lot warmer today at only 0 degrees.  The hose really holds the heat well and normally stays around 19 or 20 without the heat being on.  Yesterday the inside temperature got down to 14C and I was finally forced to turn on the heat for the first time.  I was wondering how well the electric baseboard heaters would do, but they had the heat up to 20 within an hour.

BEFORE INSTALLATION OF EXTRA
LIGHTS, WINDOW LIGHTS
AND SNOW

At 3:30 PM, Toby and I headed out for our evening walk in the winter wonderland and directly after headed to the Westcoast Express to pick up Renee.  The train was 25 minutes late today.  Driving was easy using 4-wheel drive, with all-terrain tires and just driving slowly and carefully.  We saw both extremes on the road.  The road itself was clear of snow, but there was some idiot driving at between 10 and 15 kph.  It’s good to go slow, but there is a limit.

On the other hand, after we got parked and were heading inside, some moron went by at between 80 and 90 kph and throwing snow everywhere.  I’d be amazed if he makes it home at all and without killing someone.  You just have to shake your head and wonder.

After dinner, I finally got around to putting lights up around the front window.  That finishes off the front decorating.  I put these lights inside the window though.  I still must do the back window, but I’ll do that tomorrow.  They look good from the outside, but I should have turned off the house lights as they don’t show up too well in the photo.  The snow just completes the whole picture.

FRONT OF HOUSE WITH WINDOW LIGHTS
EXTRA LIGHTS AND SNOW

I’ll re-shoot the photo tomorrow with the house lights off, so that they will show up better.  Hopefully the snow will still be here in time for the photo.  One can never tell around here.  What is heavy snow one minute can be heavy rain in the next minute.  We shall see, but for now, I’m just happy we finally have snow.  It just makes it feel so much more Christmassy!

076 SNOWMAGGEDON, NOT QUITE

I admit it, I love snow.  When it snows, I am transported back to those days as a kid when I would run outside at the first sign of snow and play in it for hours.  So long in fact that by the time I got home, I could barely move I was so cold.  Back in the day, Vancouver used to get lots of snow but nobody believed me, until we got that huge dump of snow in 1996 that hung around for weeks.

Over the years, Vancouver seems to get less and less snow and when we did get it, there would just be a dusting in the morning that was gone by evening.  Lots of times there would be no snow in Vancouver, but lots out in the valley.  So, when the time came that I had decided to move, my choice of location, was somewhat influenced by the extra snow.

Imagine my excitement when the snow warning was broadcast on Sunday.  I spent the evening right up until bedtime, looking out the window and checking for snow.  I can sit for hours at a window watching snow fall.  It is so peaceful and brings back memories.  My Mom was the same way, even though she was born in Saskatoon.  She still loved snow and maybe that’s where I get it from.

So, when I woke up yesterday and heard all the reports of snow in Vancouver and surrounding municipalities, I kept waiting for it to happen here in Maple Ridge.  Instead, the temperature hovered at 2 Celsius all day and it rained from morning to night.  As if we haven’t had enough rain.  Even watching the traffic snarls didn’t dampen my enthusiasm.

Admittedly, I’m retired, so if I drive anywhere, it is usually by choice.  I don’t drive near as much anymore as is evidenced by my truck which was purchased December 29, 2010 only has 32,000 miles on it on December 6, 2016.  That’s not a misprint.  My truck has a button that can switch the readout between standard and metric.  While I can certainly understand kilometers per hour, I have no clue what gas mileage in kilometers per 100 liters mean.  That’s why I use miles on my dashboard.

I have absolutely no problem driving in snow, partly because of all the various driving courses I have had over the years and partly because my truck has 4-wheel drive.  I even anticipated the snow last week and had some very nice BF Goodrich All-Terrain tires installed on my truck.  I opted for those as they will handle anything and are rated for snow.  It also negates the need to store 4 tires and have them changed back and forth.

What I do have a problem with on the roads, is not my driving skills.  It’s all the morons out there who are incapable of driving with any shred of intelligence in the sunshine, let alone in snow.  Driving with summer tires, driving too fast for conditions, getting stuck repeatedly.

I can remember one snowfall in Vancouver, there was one woman who managed to get stuck at not only the same intersection but the same spot, every day for eight days straight.  The strange part about it was she was turning to go downhill.  The first day, probably half a dozen neighbours came out to help get her unstuck.  The second day it was reduced.  The third day it was down to two and on the fourth, only one guy came out.  On day five one old guy came out and yelled at her to get herself out.

Shoveling the snow is not an issue, because living in a townhouse means that the management company takes care of any snow removal.  I don’t have any sidewalks to shovel anyway.  But, since we didn’t get any snow, there was no test of the efficiency of the snow removal work in the complex.

So, the reports yesterday of 8 cm of snow in Vancouver and up to 15 cm in Surrey was very disappointing as I sit looking out on bare streets and rain.  I got up this morning hoping things had changed overnight.  It has at least stopped raining but the temperature has dropped well below freezing and I can see glistening of ice on the road.

We shall see what the rest of the week holds as the weather reports are all calling for sub-zero temperatures for the next week or so and another snowfall warning is in effect for Thursday.  That means Wednesday will be clear and I can make my usual long trek to UBC to play hockey.

075 A BAD CASE OF GAS

Yesterday I took advantage of the momentary lull in the 90-day rain event and managed to get Toby out for his morning walk in the sunshine for a change.  No, it didn’t last, but we go every morning rain or shine and maybe even snow next week.  We also do another walk in the late afternoon.  It’s good for him and good for me too as it helps me to get my 10,000 steps per day in.

The walk became a little broken up and mixed up though.  When we got to the top of the trail, all the construction fences had fallen over blocking our way.  So, we turned around and went all the way back.  While we were heading back down, we could hear a rushing sound.  It sounded like our little creek had turned into a rushing river, or it was the sound of escaping gas.

Suddenly, the air horns started blasting and I saw the construction safety officer yelling for the workers to get off-site.  They were all complying too.  Dropping their tools and heading out in an orderly fashion.  That’s when I smelled it.  Natural gas, which has a very distinct odor like rotten eggs.

We continued our walk and headed for the upper trail, which is well away from the townhouse complex.  Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in our direction and the smell of gas on the trail was almost overwhelming.  We completed the trail and headed through the neighbourhood and now that we were out of the wind the smell of gas disappeared.

When we got back to the upper driveway of the construction zone we found it full of fire trucks, police cars and Fortis BC trucks.  There were construction workers, civilians, policemen, firemen and gas workers milling about and figuring out the plan of attack.

I got talking to the construction safety person and discovered that someone using one of the big machines was digging out an area near our soon to be finished club house, when the shovel pierced a significantly large gas main.  This had the potential to be dangerous.  Everyone on the entire site had been evacuated.

So, I was still quite a distance from home and a distance from my truck which is parked on the street.  One of the fire guys, seeing Toby and me both shivering, offered to escort us to the truck to get out of the cold wind.  I was cold because I had been working up a sweat, Toby was cold because he got shaved down again a couple of weeks ago.

So, we headed down the street and got to go right past where the Fortis guys were working hard to seal the leak.  It was an impressive looking line.  Anyway, we made it to the truck and got in, got the heat going and managed to stop shivering.

Not counting the walk, we were only kept out of the house for a little over an hour and then got to go home.  The line had been capped, but the smell of gas lingered for quite a while.  I was nervous about turning on the gas stove, but managed to do it without incident.  That’s funny, because I saw someone on the street, close to the leak, light up a cigarette.  Someone with a shred more intelligence convinced him to put it out.

Just as we got back in the house, the sun had disappeared and the heavens re-opened and it poured rain once again.  It continued all night and again all day today.  Noah only had to put up with 40 days and 40 nights of rain.  On the weather report, they said between September 1 and November 30 we have only had 5 completely dry days.  The rest have had measurable rainfall either at some point in the day, night or the whole day.

They are calling for the possibility of snow on Monday afternoon, but we shall see.  Either way, I’m ready.  I have a 4x4 and just put on a set of Extreme All-Terrain tires, which even carry the snowflake symbol on the side.  I’ve never had trouble driving in the snow, it’s what all the other poor drivers out there do that scares me.  Some are not capable of driving in the sunshine, let alone snow.

074 MOVING RIGHT ALONG

It is now the last day of November and things are moving right along.  Renee decorated the tree with all the little baubles a couple of days ago, but it remained unfinished.  The snowflake tree-topper would not work at all as it had a strange little scoop thing on the bottom, designed to balance on top of a large branch or trunk.  This tree doesn’t have one.  So, it was back to Canadian Tire I went.

TREE ALL DECORATED

I started looking at the trees on display and saw that there were tree-toppers that had a very impressive looking clamp.  Then I started looking at the tree-toppers available and came across the exact same one that Renee liked initially, but we rejected because it felt too heavy.  Right there at the bottom was a very skookum looking clamp, so I bought it.  Renee has her first wish tree topper, but she doesn’t know it yet.

NO FLASH JUST LIGHTS

The tree-topper is a solid looking star made from chips of wood and has jewels embedded in it.  It’s very west coast looking.  Now if I can just get it to work with the tree.  The cashier that took the return of the snowflake one saw this one and hoped it would work.  I told her that I would give it a shot and if it didn’t I could always bring it back as well.

Of course, I couldn’t go into Canadian Tire and just buy one thing.  So, I ended up buying a third string of lights to put on the fence.  This will complete the back yard.  The front is another chore.  I do have a battery-operated wreath on the front door, which has a timer allowing the lights to be on for 6 hours and off for 18.  Unfortunately, I obviously set it wrong because they were on all the time and I burned through a set of batteries in 3 days.

RUDOLPH IS READY

Renee set up some gold leafed path markers and set the timer correctly since they go on at 4:00 PM every day and go off at 10:00 PM.  Oh, well, I bought more batteries and I will re-set the front door wreath.  If it ever stoops raining I will tackle the back-yard fence and the front of the house.

I wanted little lights for the inside of the windows but the shortest string I can find at Canadian Tire is 33 feet and I don’t think any of my windows are big enough.  When in doubt, measure.  So, once I get home I will measure the windows.

As luck, would have it, it stopped raining.  I waited just to be sure and it stayed dry for several hours, so off into the yard I went with my string of lights.  Of course, as soon as I got about 10 feet done, the heavens opened again and I got soaked.  But the lights are done.  The string was too long for just the top of the fence, so I doubled it back along the bottom of the lattice.  It looks good tonight too.

BACK YARD FROM THE DECK

The front of the house will have to wait until Thursday or later now.  It’s already the earliest I have put up Christmas stuff, as I usually wait until December 1.  New place, new rules I guess.  Lots of people in the neighbourhood are getting into the spirit, as lights and decorations are going up everywhere.  The complex is looking more festive every day.

The house is looking good now, but am I finished?  I doubt it, although I really can’t think of more to do yet.  I do intend to project the animation of Santa in the window, but I must find some translucent material to put up to project onto.  I checked the Atmosfx website with the intention of ordering it from them.  Unfortunately, a roll, not big enough to cover the window costs $74 American and then they want another $74 American to ship it.  Then you can add in duty and 2-week delivery time and I said “forget it”.  I’ll put my brain to work and come up with another idea.  How hard could it be?

Anyway, the decorating saga continues and who knows where it will end.   We shall see.  I may be done now, but I really don’t think so.  I have a nice ledge under the winter painting that is crying out for some Christmassy items.  Sure, wish I had that set of snow people my Mom made years ago, but I will find some other items to put there.  I should maybe even get a Christmassy table cloth for when the kids come over for Boxing Day dinner.  We shall see.  Stay tuned for more adventures.