Hot, hot, hotter

Someone turned up the thermostat outside this week. This photo is from Wednesday when I returned to the unit after playing Canasta. I should note, I can't leave the a/c on as it is not connected to the thermostat so will run continually. After running for almost an hour it was done to 82F(28C) and I shut it off to go to Happy Hour. On my return it was back up to 92F(33C). I left it running until the sun started to go down, and then opened the front door. By bedtime, the unit had cooled down to 78F(25C). It still felt quite warm when I went to bed!

By noon on Thursday, it was 94F(34C). I was out running errands for the social committee. We'd had our coffee hour that morning, then H and I spent 90 minutes clearing out the cabinets, cleaning them (H), and sorting what would go back in. We had a swack load* of plastic utensils, knifes, forks, and spoons. With the exception of the spoons that we use for coffee hour, we don't use these utensils as we have a drawer full of regular utensils. Since most of the packages were open, and we have soooo much dust, they went in the bin.

The sorting showed that we were short on small plates. I started a list, and added cinnamon raisin bread that seems to be a real favorite with the group. We continued our clear out, moving many items to a separate table to be moved out to the "party shed", items that won't be used except once a season. 

In back of one of the cabinets we found a dozen or so games. I don't think anyone really knew they were there. So I moved them out to the extra bookcase (if you recall we had cleared out the excess books a few weeks ago.) Now they are readily accessible. I'm going to suggest that new season we have a game night every Friday evening. People can play UNO or Yahtzee or one of the many other games. Anything that isn't of interest, we'll put in the garage sale.

Back at my unit, I ran the a/c again for a half hour or so before heading out to run my errands. Dome Hepot had sent out an e-mail saying part of my order was available for pick-up. I assumed, correctly, that this was the re-order they set up when the original order was only partially completed. I tried to convince the clerk to give me the chair for free, due to the original mix-up but she declined, so I just returned it. The order for the additional chairs will suffice. Those were supposed to arrive on Thursday or Friday but the tracking site shows they are sitting somewhere in Arkansas. I'm thinking simeone mixed up AR for AZ.

Friday morning I walked outside to clean up my airfryer and discovered the biggest, creepiest bug I've ever seen. I was on the phone with my brother so snapped a photo and sent it to him. He informed me it was a cockroach. EWWWW!

I won't share that photo, instead here's a photo my brother sent me:

I thought the damned thing was dead but when I went to sweep it up, it wiggled. I grabbed a can of Raid and gave it a bath! I've never seen a cockroach before and I hope never to see another. I called the pest control company; they'll be out to spray on Tuesday. The fellow said the heat is bringing them out early.

H and I did a bit more cleaning at the clubhouse sorting out games and discovering 200 or more food containers with lids. It was frustrating as I'd had to buy some back in January for our chili sale at the park garage sale. We sold very little as it was a hot day, though not as hot as we are now. (Next year, I'll suggest we sell ice cream bars.) In any event we now have enough food containers to last four or five years.

Several of us met in the afternoon for another round of Canasta. One of the couples is staying in a place without any a/c, so hanging out in the clubhouse with its swamp  cooler is a good break. 

For Happy Hour I headed over to L and S's to watch the first draw of the Brier (Canadian men's curling).They invited me to stay for dinner too. It was a great meal, good company, and the curling wasn't bad though the scores of all four games on the ice were lopsided. 

Today there are two curling draws to watch, more Canasta, and an even hotter forecast. We're expecting 97F (36C). There is a cool down to more normal temperatures expected by Tuesday. 

Finally, I'll leave you with this photo. The mourning dove is sitting on her nest in the neighbour's cactus just across the way. I'm hoping I'll get to see the wee ones before I leave.

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Friday Funny

 

Saw this and thought of you, Bob!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Running around, time is running short

Another week in the books, and it's just about a month before I start my journey north to home. Or maybe not home. I'm toying with the idea of visiting cousins just across the border in British Columbia before I head back to Saskatchewan. I haven't seen them since 2019, I think. Since our last visit, the last remaining uncle (G), my cousin's father has passed away and they moved from the island to the Okanagan valley. What it will come down to is the weather and road conditions. 

There was another big storm this week at home. It started Tuesday evening and snowed throughout the night and the following day. D said we got about 30 cms (12 inches) of snow in total. She was out snow blowing several times during the day. 

Meanwhile, after our wee bit of rain last week, we had big winds on Monday evening. I had to move things into the gazebo and close it up as stuff was blowing around. About midnight, I got up out of bed and took down a piece of metal art I have hanging on the side of the unit. It was banging so hard, there was no way I could get to sleep. 

This was the week of the chairs. Did I mention this in my last post? I don't think so, but hopefully you'll bear with me if I did. We are looking replacement cushions or chairs for some older folding chairs and attached cushions. One of our residents, A had taken the old cushion to an upholsterer to get a quote on replacing/recovering the cushions. We were quoted $30 a cushion. M did some research and found some chairs, but these were quite costly, $60 plus per chair. Plus they were only available on-line and had no local storefront. She asked me to do some research and order samples if I found anything.  

I did just that, and received an e-mail on Saturday that the chairs were available for pick-up at Dome Hepot (spelling incorrect on purpose). When I arrived at the store, there was only one box, not three as indicated in the e-mail. I won't bore you with all the details but that's 90 minutes I won't get back. I did, however chat with a lovely young woman, named Miriam who asked me to return to the store on Monday afternoon. (She had Sunday off). 

I did, and again there was only one chair there but she had somehow determined the other two were expected to arrive by the Wednesday. Just in time for our coffee hour on Thursday, hooray. However, she called me on Monday evening to say the other two chairs had arrived. An even bigger hooray!

Here's the chairs set up at coffee hour on Thursday. The two fabric in blue and burgundy, and the vinyl are the new chair options. The brown one with a pad are the old chairs, and the white holds the new upholstered pad.   After allowing those who chose to test them out and to vote for their favourite, the burgundy fabric chair won out. I returned the others and ordered replacements for the old brown chairs and the new ones will be here by the end of this month.

After picking up the chairs, I returned to the park, dropped those off at the clubhouse and returned home to do my outdoor chores. The tile patio was filthy, not only from the mixture of the rain and dust. Besides giving it all a good sweep, I used a mop and bucket to wash the tile. It felt good to be out in the fresh air and the patio area looked good when I finished (temporary I know!) I also did my spray painting - the planter and a plastic Adirondack chair that was a dark green. I ran out of spray paint before finishing the chair and had to pick up another can that afternoon. 

The photograph I posted on Wednesday was taken at the Landing, a local restaurant where a group of us had brunch on Saturday after our garage sale forays. These were Tecoma stans (Yellow bells/yellow trumpet flower) and I was impressed with the profusion of blooms on the bushes. So impressed, that I decided that I needed some colour out front of my unit. When I was at Dome Hepot, I wandered through the garden center and found a couple of plants that were marked down - it appeared they hadn't been watered for a bit, and I decided I'd see what I could do with them. Earlier last week, I had found a planter at one of the thrift and with a bit of spray paint, revived it too. The plant stand was a buy at the garage sale ($3). 

The yellow flowering plant is a Ranuculus, which I've learned, has corms. Before I leave, I'll dig up the plant and tuck the corms away to replant in the fall. I don't if they'll survive the heat in the storage area, but I'll try. The white flowering plant is an alyssum. It won't survive but I'm okay with that - it just makes me happy to have some flowering plants in my yard.

Also on Wednesday we had clouds roll in for most of the day, and mid-afternoon heavy winds again. While the clouds look threatening we didn't see a drop of rain.

Thursday, our Canadian women's hockey team were in the gold medal game against the USA on Thursday mid-day. I watched at home the first two periods, and then wandered down to another unit to watch the end of the game. Canada led for most of the game, just 1-0 before the USA tied up the game with only a little over two minutes in regulation time. Off to overtime we went and four minutes in the USA were able to score and win gold. It was a sad moment, but when one considers the USA beat Canada 5-0 in their first game of the tournament, our women put on a heroic effort.

Men's hockey grabbed my attention on Friday. Our Canadian men played Finland in the semi-final, while the USA played Slovakia. Finland led 2-0 at the end of the first period, but Canada came back and tied up the game. It looked like we would be going into overtime when Canada scored with just 35 seconds left in regulation time! Off to the gold medal game, which I believe is being played on Sunday morning. I watched a bit of the USA-Slovakia game and called it after the first when the USA was leading 5-0. Slovakia did come back with a couple of goals, but the USA was the winner with a score of 6-2. 

That finally brings me to the update on my knee. As I tell everyone, it is still there. Progress is continuing gradually and some days, I feel a bit defeated. I have to remind myself that when this first happened I couldn't even bear weight on that leg/foot. Also, I haven't been taking pain killers at all, and while there are times the leg and knee ache like the dickens, I can tolerate it...or more correctly, I choose to tolerate it. The good news is: I was able to walk short distances late in the week without the brace. 

Today, we're having our Heritage dinner this evening. This morning, I'll be putting together my homemade mac and cheese. We decided rather than having everyone bring something from the country/countries of our origins, we would bring food that our families enjoyed through the years. It was one of my favourites as a child, and my children's faves as well. I know there will perogies, Caesar salad, chicken biryani, and a number of surprises. We always put out a sign up sheet and question marks often end up on the sheet. One bachelor wrote, "whatever H tells me to". Actually, I think she makes it and gives it to him to bring. :)

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Friday Funny

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Sunrise, fun with friends, and the Olympics

I've had another good week in the park, quiet for the most part and restful. I am feeling a little guilty that I can't finish up the painting on the pool walls - after some plumbing needed to be re-done the back wall needs to be repainted - but no one else seems to be fussed about it. 

However, I am seeing some progress, as I am able to walk for longer periods of time. I won't be entering any kind of race, but less pain and more stamina is encouraging. I keep reminding my friend L told me it could take up to six weeks to completely heal. 

The new header was taken on Tuesday morning. It was the best of the sunrises that I've seen thus far. I wandered around the park a bit looking for a spot where I could capture a shot without the many wires in the air. A recent resident pulled out their unit a few weeks ago and her space was just the spot I was looking for! 

The view from my unit isn't nearly as nice, though it was still gorgeous.

We have had three units removed this year. The hoarder one next door, the unit where I took the photo, and the third was a family owned unit that was in rough shape. My understanding is, when the previous owners transferred/sold it to family members the second couple never stayed in it due to the condition. When I was looking last winter, J had taken me to view it, and I don't think I stayed inside longer than a couple of minutes. It was baaadddd!

We had eight of us for Canasta on Wednesday so played two tables of four. I am starting to understand the strategy, have a basic understanding of the point counting (though that is taking longer) and really enjoy the game. The company is pretty good too.

The wordless photo was a dead cricket I found outside the door. I originally thought it was a grasshopper, but Google lens informed it was a type of cricket which brought some relief.  One of the park owners told me a few weeks ago, that where there are grasshoppers there are often scorpions. I can handle a cricket or a grasshopper but draw the line at the thought of a scorpion. I've since been told, scorpions don't come this far into the city. 

On Thursday we had our weekly coffee hour. We had a smaller crowd than normal, just 25, but the comradery was still interesting, and loud! There has been talk of re-doing the wall coverings to muffle the noise but I don't think it will ever happen. H and I had made plans to go through the rest of the books in the hall library after coffee, but I when I saw her jump up and head out early, I went with her.

We were able to reduce the number of hard cover books by about half. Only books written after 1999 were kept, most of the older books and anything that was in rough shape were moved to the recycling bin. There was about a dozen that were older but good enough shape (and generally popular authors) that we boxed up and sent to the thrift with S later in the day.

Back at home I updated our spreadsheet for the social club and then went out to get a few supplies for next week's coffee hour. Since I was at the store, I picked a few items for myself, eggs, a cucumber, a head of lettuce, and a package of ground beef. A dozen eggs was about $3, the cucumber was $0.68, the head of iceberg lettuce was $1.88, and a pound of lean ground was $8.27. I'm finding meat here very expensive compared to the prices we pay at home. On the other hand vegetables are much less. Of course, purchasing for just one is a lot less costly overall than my grocery bills at home.

Much of the week, I've been watching the Olympics. Unfortunately I can't find any coverage from Canada, so have to rely on news reports and other websites. Unless, of course, the USA is playing against the individuals or teams from Canada. Our women's hockey team had a horrid game against the USA, our mixed doubles curling team lost too. 

On Friday morning it rained! Not much and not for long, but it made the air feel very refreshing. I always open the door in the morning, leaving the screen door closed to air out the unit and it was so nice. 

Later, I had an appointment for an oil change at one of the local garages, Accurate Automotive. They were quiet that morning, and I was in and out in less than 45 minutes. From there I went to a couple of thrift stores, finding a few items. The best purchase was a roll of cork - I need it to add to the tiles I purchased, so I can use them as coasters. Perhaps I'll even make my own bulletin board to put on the side of the fridge. I have more than enough with this roll, so I'll be taking it home. For certain, D and I can find uses for it there too!

Today, we're heading to the Country Roads RV resort for their monthly garage sale. I don't know that I need anything in particular, but hanging out with the other women is a lot of fun. It's always interesting to see what is on offer. We can be fussy though, and not stop if, as we drive by, we decide that it's all guy stuff. :) Unless, of course, one of the fellows here in the park has told us what he's looking for. After our friend L, purchased a walker for her husband, another resident, F, asked us to keep an eye out for something similar. She found one, and he's been out walking every day and uses it to carry his garbage or recycling to the bin. He's looking so much more stable on his feet - it's wonderful to see.

Happy Valentine's Day, and have a great week ahead everyone!