Our Message Archive
November 2024
Sunday November 24
Sellar's Cove on my ride a couple of weeks ago
The Wednesday before last, we woke up to a couple of EHS vehicles across the street and several paramedics going in and out of our neighbour Barb's house. She had had a bad fall and ended up in the hospital for an extended stay. We looked after her cat, Luigi, for her until her daughter arrived from out west yesterday.
Now that the biking season is officially over, and since the weather has been particularly miserable for the past couple of weeks, we have begun skating at the RBC Centre again. There is free skating for adults from 9 am until 10:20 am every weekday. So far we have been twice and plan to go again tomorrow morning. The Roadents have also switched from biking near Enfield to walking in Shubie Park. On Wednesday, we went with them on the first walk this season followed by coffee and treats at the Marco Polo Café.
A week ago Thursday, Ann went to Wolfville on a shopping trip with Kim and Nancy. They had Lunch at the Library Pub and got home again in time for us all to go to the Resolutes Club for dinner along with Ingrid and Mike. We then went to Neptune to see Winter Moons, a play based on a Mik'maq folk tale.
The next couple of days, I played in the Karl Hicks Memorial Bridge Tournament at Mount Saint Vincent University with my friend and ex-colleague Layton. We played in three sessions with our best result in the second when we were first in our group. I have now amassed a total of 24.27 masterpoints which are awarded for doing well in tournaments. To put that in perspective, one of the American players recently passed 100,000 masterpoints.
While I was playing bridge, Ann was hanging out with Kim and Nancy and attending concerts. On Friday, they went to see Emilea May at St. Andrew's Church in Halifax. Ann enjoyed the concert but found the announcer annoying. On Saturday, she went with Susan and Dave to see the Camerata Singers at the First Baptist Church. She enjoyed that concert much more than the previous one.
Last Monday, as we have done for the past few years, to honour Latvian Independence Day, we went to Parade Square for an early morning raising of the Latvian flag by Ingrid, who is the honorary Latvian consul in Halifax. The new mayor and three councillors were also in attendance along with several members of the local Latvian community. Afterwards several of us went for coffee at Tempo.
For some time now, our washing machine has been vibrating a lot during the spin cycle causing it to wander across the floor. We finally had someone in to look at it a few weeks ago and got the bad news that it was toast. We decided to replace our dryer as well since it uses gas but, with our new solar panels, we can run an electric one more economically and with a smaller carbon footprint. After some research, we decided to buy them at Costco even though we were not members; the savings in price easily made up for the cost of rejoining. The new washer and dryer arrived on Tuesday.
On Thursday afternoon, Carl and Roxanne asked us over to watch a broadcast from The Economist on what to expect in 2025. Not much of it was optimistic.
Yesterday, Ann and I went to the Ramblers AGM at the Mill Cove Pub in Bedford. Since I am the secretary, I took minutes. I will be continuing on the Board of Executives next year though my role will likely change to Ride Coordinator. Afterwards we went for coffee at Harvest with Dave and Manon, Dave and Donna, and Shauna and Peter.
Monday November 11
Breakfast at Ingrid's
On Tuesday, our friend Nancy arrived for a visit. Ann went to pick her up at the airport in the early afternoon and then the three of us went for a late lunch at the Portland Street Diner. We then all stayed up too late watching the American election. Looking back in the archives of this page I see that I called the last American election a train wreck. If it was a train wreck what was this one? It is hard to believe that the American electorate could be so decisively behind Trump but facts are facts, despite what he might say. Still, it is hard to be to smugly Canadian as it looks as if we will be making the same mistake soon, though not with the same consequences for the world.
On Wednesday, Kim and Glen came over for for a fish chowder dinner. Ann and Glen then went to choir practice at the church while Kim and Nancy chatted and listened in on the regular Wednesday night Dave Brothers practice.
On Friday, we went for dinner at Kim and Glen's and then Ann, Nancy, Kim and Glen went to see Kelli Loder with Symphony Nova Scotia. I saw them (just Kelli, not Kelli plus symphony; modern pronouns can be confusing) at the Lunenburg Folk festival a couple of years ago and decided to give this one a miss, but I'm told it was a good show.
On Saturday, I dropped Ann off at Kim's (Nancy had stayed there overnight) and the three of them, plus Marg, headed off to Lunenburg for a girls-only weekend with Jocelyn and Ingrid. They had dinner at the Grand Banker Bar & Grill then went to see Logan Richard and David Myles at the Lunenburg Opera House. Afterwards they all went back to Ingrid's cottage, stayed up way too late chatting, then bunked down in various spots. On Sunday, they hung out at Ingrid's before driving home again in the afternoon.
This year's jack-o'-lantern
We were home for Hallowe'en this year so I carved a jack-o'-lantern and Ann doled out the candy. We had enough for 50 kids, less a few candy bars that mysteriously disappeared. When we ran out we turned off the lights and laid low for the rest of the evening, but I don't think that there were many kids that missed out. The pumpkin has since been turned into muffins, pie and pumpkin ravioli.
The biking season is now officially over though we will probably still be going on unofficial rides. The last Rambler ride, the traditional Porters Lake loop, was a week ago Saturday, the last Railers ride, from the Coke plant in Beechside to the Bike & Bean, was a week ago Thursday, and the last Roadents ride was last Wednesday. However, it looks as if I will probably be the Ramblers Ride Coordinator next year (that's the person who decides which rides we will ride) since no-one else is coming forward to do the job. To start preparing, yesterday, being a lovely fall day, I went to check out the state of the rail trails down the South Shore. I quickly determined that the trail between Queensland and Hubbards was not really suitable for bicycles at the moment as they have added a lot of sand to the surface making it too soft unless one has very wide tires. On the other hand, I had a very nice ride from Graves Island to the Gold River Bridge. On the way back I explored several of the side roads that lead to waterfront homes and cottages.
A week ago Friday, Ann picked up Heather, Paddy and Carol and drove them all down to Marilyn's place near Caledonia for an afternoon of Mahjong.
Today, the three of us walked down to the Dartmouth cenotaph for the Remembrance Day ceremony. It was a miserable wet day, though thankfully quite mild, so we beat a fairly hasty retreat after the main ceremony when they started laying wreaths, which always seems to go on forever. From where we were standing the announcer was impossible to hear and it was difficult to make out who was actually walking up, so there didn't seem to be much point in hanging around and getting wet.