And Christmas Is Almost Upon Us

Snow, snow, quick quick snow. No its not a dancestep Yes, snow on Vancouver Island. It arrived gracefully on Dec 6th with large snowflakes falling from great heights but we WERE prepared. 

Oh Yes! We hunkered down in the house each with a cold glass of wine in hand and watched as the weather forecaster on the television informed us that Calgary, Alberta, was experiencing -28°C with the windchill. 

Okay! we'll take this instead. At 1°C it seemed like a hothouse compared to all our family and friends back in Alberta.

This was the site just above our home Needless to say, we hid and only really got a small amount of snow lower down

Since our last blog in late August, we have been somewhat inactive to be truthful. We took down a large Cherry tree in our back yard and then decided together that we would really like to modernize the look of the great room.

We had a gas fireplace but the fan was annoying us so we visited a couple of local fireplace outlets and quickly realized that times- are-a-changing when we saw some of the more modern linear fireplaces, so we decided to go that route.

I volunteered to build in the base and the framework (amid some side looks from wifey and the occasional "are you sure you want to do this yourself" remarks) so prior to arrival of the new fireplace, out came the old fireplace (which we sold on Facebook in under a half hour), and out came the tools to do the build-in of the new one. 

I am pretty sure we left money on the table with the sale of our old fireplace as I could have sold it over and over again, but it went to a good home and a nice couple.

The old fireplace with the front tiling removed.

While I was at it, I decided to add some LED lighting to the recesses on either side of the fireplace which would really enhance the look and feel of our great room. 

The framed-in new fireplace ready for when it is delivered

Once the new fireplace arrived, I could build it in and drywall the front then mud, sand and paint.

Mission accomplished in three days (which would have taken a tradesperson a couple of hours) but it turned out OK., and when you are retired, what's the rush anyway?

Now all I have to do is put back the moldings and re-build the Mantle

It was a fairly straightforward job which was successful because of a saying I had remembered from a Doctor client of mine who told me the following many years before when we were discussing renovations during me showing him and his wife houses. 

He said "The one thing you learn in renovations Ken is; measure twice and cut once". I remembered that from all those years back and it served me well as on the second measure, it was occasionally different from the first which prompted a more detailed look at what I was doing in order to avoid costly errors.

It was just before the snow arrived, a few of us got together and had supper at one couples home then we all donned winter coats and walked up to the golf course a couple of minutes away to view their Christmas lights display. 

They served hot chocolate, had 50 gallon drums with burning wood to keep the public warm. They also had a silent auction and a gingerbread house competition. My goodness, there are some talented people around.

Donna (left) with our neighbours stretching our legs after supper.

Yours truly with Donna walking around the golf club Christmas lights display

Some of the Ginger Bread creations were very imaginative. Too many to show here.

After viewing the gingerbread houses and the items at the silent auction, we returned to another of our neighbour's homes and enjoyed dessert and cocktails. 

A few of us have been getting together recently and it's been like a round-robin event - each couple taking their turn to put on supper for the others. I must say, over the past few months we have had some delicious meals prepared by the hostesses and hosts. It's always nice to get together and enjoy other people's company occasionally.

Donna enjoyed her XX birthday in November. We treated ourselves and drove out to Buckley Bay and brought some freshly caught crab which we cooked along with some steak on the BBQ.  

We stayed in watching the deluge of rain we were having and had experienced during October and November. It was almost torrential and lasted for days if not weeks. The cause of this type of rain is due to a system they call the "Pineapple Express". It comes northwards from Hawaii bringing drenching rains when it hits the mainland of the USA and Canada. Believe it or not, we had 39 inches of rain in five weeks. A lot by anyone's standards.

It never ceases to amaze me how Facebook has climbed in popularity with literally hundreds of millions of users throughout the world. 

During the past few months, I have renewed friendships with literally dozens of people I had lost contact with for between 30 and 50 years - people I had served with or trained over the years.  

It is a great feeling to be able to re-connect with people who are now living in different parts of the world, such as England, Australia, Greece, Cypress, Scotland, Wales, the Bahamas, and in many countries throughout Europe - all enjoying themselves and living life to the full as they should be. 

It's fun being able to message them and swap ideas and experiences that we have had since we lost contact.

We were also able to keep in touch with daughter Katherine while she was enjoying a weeks vacation down in the Dominican Republic along with her husband Roddy and two kids, Adam and Amy.

 

Talking of vacation time, during the month of February, we may be spending a couple of weeks in the Mayan Riviera on Mexico's East coast. That will be a visit to a part of Mexico we have never been to before.  

I am told that the water is much clearer on the Caribbean side than in Puerta Vallarta where we normally go and which is located on our side - (the Pacific Coast). We are looking forward to it.


We don't have a lot of other news and want to keep this short, but would both like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2017.

Sunrise on my 68th birthday while out fishing for Salmon in the Strait of Georgia a few minutes from our home.


And in Closing
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