Even More Snow

It snowed even more, and the kids were thrilled to pieces, as were mom and dad, though with some trepidation thrown in there for good measure. It’s only October, after all.

We got about 5-6 more inches, and there was enough for the kids to build snowmen and have snowball fights. It’s good to see the white stuff again, and this winter should be interesting. I even did some shoveling.

I realize it’s early, but it’s nice to think about winter and all the snow. Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to RIC for the pics.

Prelude to Halloween

I’m a little behind on this blog and need to do some catching up. We went to the pre-Halloween fest last week and it was fun. Tons of kids out, including plenty of friends for A&N, so they enjoyed it. It was nice seeing the neighbors, and we all got to eat plenty of sweets. The kids entered their pumpkins in the contest, and that’s a good thing. There were some amazing pumpkins, but I’m proud of A&N for doing their own thing, on their own, without our help. These are important lessons, I’m learning, because I get to see the end result of overbearing parents who hold their kid’s hands too much. It’s not always pretty.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to kasiakay for the pic.

Skipping Tennis, Scoring on Hockey Skates, and New Pizza

We had a brief discussion this past week and we pretty much decided that we didn’t want to go to tennis. It has snowed the night before, and though there was not much in the way of accumulation on the courts, it was cold. I asked the kids and they both gave it an emphatic thumbs down. In light of their lack of interest, I sure as heck wasn’t going to go.

So, we ran errands and got ready for the big weekend ahead. With Halloween right around the corner, there were last minute costume details to attend to. Also, we had to drop books off at the big-city library, get back to our town library, and then eat supper in time to go out once again for our town Halloween celebration. How’s that for a full schedule. I don’t even know how we would have squeezed in tennis even if we wanted to.

Now I feel like I can’t go out and about without stopping at the Listen Center to find assorted bargains. With the kids constantly growing (funny how that works) we are in constant need of upgrades in clothes and sporting gear. Their stocks change constantly, so the only way to see these changes is go regularly and hope for the best. As I mentioned before, we are in need of certain things, especially ice skates for A.

We went to the big Listen in WRJ and I found a pair of hockey skates, and they were in good condition. They were size 7, which might be a bit big for A, but she’s hovering around a size 6-6.5, so it wasn’t unthinkable. I asked her if she’d wear them and she was excited about getting new skates. We jetted over to Stateline and had them sharpened, and we were in business.

We then got pizza at the new pizza place in Windsor, Pizzaroni. They had a deal so we tried it out. Good pizza, though not the best, in my opinion. We then headed over to the Halloween fest in town and met mom later that night, but that’s a story for another time.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Robert Linder and ilker for the pics.

Car Problems

Now that the market is over (yahoo!), we have our Wednesdays free, so we can actually have a life. The initial plan was to return to guitar lessons on Wednesday, but KR had to cancel because of various reasons, which was fine because that meant we had the day off and could go ice skating. At least that was the plan.

Of course, as we all know, life doesn’t always go according to the plan. We had to run a few errands beforehand, which took us into the big city to return library books, and then we scored A some new snow boots and N new hockey socks and a hoodie. We were doing okay. Then the weather started to turn and it began to rain. The forecast even called for snow.

Normally this is no big deal, but on this day, it was, because our windshield wipers stopped working. This has happened in the past, there is some sort of stop mechanism that prevents the motor from burning out when there’s excessive ice. The problem is, it has engaged when there is not much in the way of ice but only cold weather. It generally starts up again, just like it’s supposed to.

This time, however, it wasn’t kicking back on. It wouldn’t have been a problem on a nice day, but it was starting to rain. I had to make a quick decision, and rather than get stuck out in the rain with no windshiled wipers, I told the kids we had to go home. This meant no ice skating, and we were so close, literally en route to the rink and we had to abort the mission. Bummer.

The kids were disappointed, no doubt, but understanding. Plus, we managed to get a lot of stuff done. By the time we got home, the wipers still weren’t working, so I called Meunier’s Towing and they said come on by and they’d take a look. It turns out it was a ground wire that broke, and he fixed it in minutes. Thanks to those guys for squeezing me in at the last minute, though I’m embarrassed that I didn’t fix it myself. I honestly didn’t think it was a malfunction but just the safety mechanism doing its thing. Just goes to show you, consider all the possibilities before you make any conclusions.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Ginae McDonald for the pic.

Missing Out

A needs new skates and I had a million chances to get her some at these hockey sales, where the equipment is amazingly cheap. The hockey parents essentially give the stuff away, and it’s a nice way to support people new to the scene or ones who can’t afford to drop the big bucks on new equipment (or the ones not willing to).

I have been focusing on gathering N’s hockey equipment together that I foolishly failed to consider that as A grows, her ice skates will no longer fit her. This really came to light when we went looking for her snow boots and she is almost at the stage where she is wearing women’s sizes. Crazy. In fact, when R’s parents came to visit, A wore her grandmother’s shoes. How cool is that?

Anyway, I was kicking myself because the one thing I’ve noticed plenty of at these swaps are skates. Equipment bags are almost impossible to find, and you’re better off buying helmets new, but skates are a plenty. I never even gave them much thought because I thought we had skates. Now that they are on my radar, I’ll be looking in earnest. The problem is that the skating season has already begun, so we sort of need skates now. This should be interesting.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Lotus Head for the pic.

October Snow

This is a bit crazy, but we had an early snow the other day, and when I say snow, I’m not talking a light dusting. It was raining all day, and by afternoon it turned to snow. When we went to hockey, there were places where it had accumulated a fair amount. It was surprising, it’s only October, albeit the end of the month.

When we left hockey, it was really coming down, so much so that driving was a little tricky because visibility was poor. At night, the snow comes down at an angle straight at you, and with the headlights reflecting off of it, it makes seeing really difficult. Combine that with cold and slippery roads, and it’s a little scary. We drove home really slow.

With all this snow, I’m guessing golfing is done for the year. Then again, that means other fun stuff awaits us, like playing in the snow and making snowballs, and other fun snow activities. I’m all for it, I say bring it on.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Alice Konieczna for the pic.

i-KODI website

No more messing around with the i-KODI website, I have to get something down. DO contacted me and asked me how things were going, and I told him I’d have something for him by this weekend. Now I have to get that website together and present it to him at some point in the near future.

This begs the question, what exactly have I gotten myself into... again? The saga continues.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Mario Alberto Magallanes Trejo for the pic.