On Wednesday we met friends that went to high school got together. We went to Pat Quinn's at Tsawwassen Golf Course and Donna arranged for the private room. We had a lovely lunch and a great conversation. Everyone seems more relaxed after Christmas.
Yesterday, my cousins Laurie and Steven and significant others met at Dublin Crossing Pub and had a delicious lunch. It was cousin Julie's 80th birthday and she lives on Gabriola Island so didn't come to this lunch. We sent her a video:
The funniest thing from Christmas: Lexie got $100.00 bill, held it up and screamed "I've got gas money"!!!!
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CARP - Canadian
Association of Retired People Questions
and Answers from CARP Forum |
|
|
Q: Where
can single men over the age of 70 find younger women who are interested in
them? |
A: Try a bookstore, under Fiction. |
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Q: What
can a man do while his wife is going through menopause? |
A: Keep busy.
If you're handy with tools, you can finish the basement. When you're done,
you will have a place to live. |
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Q: Someone
has told me that menopause is mentioned in the bible... Is that true? |
A: Yes.
Matthew 14:92: |
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Q: How can
you increase the heart rate of your over-70 year-old husband? |
A: Tell him
you're pregnant. |
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Q: How can
you avoid that terrible curse of the elderly wrinkles? |
A: Take
off your glasses. |
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Q: Seriously!
What can I do for these crow's feet and all those wrinkles on my face? |
A: Go
braless. It will usually pull them out.. |
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Q: Why
should 70 plus year old people use valet parking? |
A: Valets
don't forget where they park your car. |
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Q: Is it
common for 70-plus year olds to have problems with short term memory storage? |
A: Storing
memory is not a problem; retrieving it is the problem. |
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Q: As
people age, do they sleep more soundly? |
A: Yes, but
usually in the afternoon. |
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Q: Where
should 70-plus year olds look for eye glasses? |
A: On
their foreheads. |
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Q: What is
the most common remark made by 70-plus year olds when they enter antique
stores? |
A: "Gosh,
I remember these!" |
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These things were not in our lives 20 years ago! Where does the time go?
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Our friends Nik and Christine decided last spring to purchase Euchiniko Resort. It's 120 KM west of Quenel, British Columbia accessible on logging roads. The Blackwater River is famous and a fantastic fly fishing river. Nik wasn't a fly fisherman but just wanted to get away from city life and enjoy the tranquility of the area and run a small business.
He sold his house and got a great deal on a Hummer! One year old, complete with new windows and a bullet hole in the headliner and one in the back! Oh well, when you live in the middle of nowhere the gangs won't care who bought the car. They packed up their four dogs and moved!
It's been -40C/-40F (that's not a typo, at -40 both Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same) and the snow is deep. They love it up there and are very secluded in the winter. There is no cell phone service but he has satellite internet and television and his Rogers Cellular/Wi-Fi phone can be used in the house only. If you phone and he's outside, well, just call back again.
On December 12th, Nik went to Quesnel to get supplies. They didn't know two of the dogs were out. They ran after Nik in the Hummer when he left. When Christine saw them running after the Nik she called but of course no cell signal. When he got to Quesnel she told him the dogs followed him. For 12 days in -40C/-40F weather they have been looking for the dogs. They both figured the cold weather or wild animals would have taken their dogs. On December 24, on a social media site someone posted pictures of one of the dogs. They were only just found in Kluskus and a lovely lady took them in. They were out in the elements with no food for 11 days in extreme cold weather.
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They lost weight but had no signs of frost bite or anything wrong with them.
Who says miracles don't happen at Christmas?
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When Cheryl was a little older, Cec told her about how he was a child, they celebrated "German Christmas". After Christmas Eve church service they would let him open some presents. Cheryl thought we should practise our German heritage and do it. Of course, it continued with Lexie so we let her open her presents from us last night. It's a tradition she loves. Whether it's a real thing, I really don't know if it is but it's been fun.
I will cook a steak dinner tomorrow for Christmas dinner.
I'm glad the ice is melting and the rain is here. We will have a white Christmas as we still have a lot of snow. I am happy we didn't lose power.
If you go out shopping today, be nice to the retail clerks. It's not their fault you waited for Mary's water to break before you finished your shopping.
We have so much snow that even 40mm of rain won't melt it. Vancouver is beautiful all the time but the snow pictures are amazing! We are having a white, wet Christmas!
We have 35CM of snow at our house. It's been snowing off and on today so it may be more. It looks like we won't get much more snow until Friday. The low tonight will be -11C. I'm hibernating inside and glad we have a warm house and a snow blower!
The Weather Network is forecasting rain to start on December 24. We have so much snow, I doubt the rain will take it away by Christmas Day. A white Christmas after all.
I feel very sorry for people trying to fly out of our airport. Here is a picture from yesterday:
I saw a girl on the evening news at YVR. She boarded in Los Angeles with a change of planes at YVR enroute to Toronto. She was on a WestJet flight that spent 12 hours on the tarmac and ended up back at the gate. Her mom called the US Consulate to complain about her 12 hour wait on the tarmac. Our rules in Canada are different than the US and perhaps she didn't understand, the gates wouldn't work and aircraft couldn't navigate the airport.
From the Canadian Transportation Agency webdsite:
With some exceptions, once an aircraft is delayed on the tarmac at an airport in Canada for three hours, the airline must provide passengers an opportunity to disembark. Airlines' obligations during this stage of the delay, and the exceptions, are outlined below.
Airlines are not required to let passengers disembark at the three hour mark if takeoff is imminent and they can meet all the kinds of assistance listed in Section III until take-off.
Airlines are also not required to provide passengers the opportunity to disembark if they are prevented by reasons beyond their control (e.g., safety, security, air traffic control, or customs reasons). This would apply, for instance, if there is no safe means of disembarking available, such as airport gates or air stairs for disembarkation away from the air terminal. However, airlines must seek out all disembarking methods, even if this means procuring (e.g., renting) gates outside their normal allocation at that airport, or securing assistance from other ground handling agents if they are at an airport where they do not have regular contracted staff in place.
Airlines should make reasonable efforts, including working with other parties at the airport, to return to the gate and disembark promptly. Prior to the three-hour mark, if it is clear that take-off will not occur within the timeline noted above, airlines are encouraged to examine options to disembark passengers earlier than this time limit.
We've finished our letters to Santa for 2022. We never received any mail from Taiwan. I am guessing it's because the Canadian teachers that were in Taiwan have returned to Canada. The volume of mail was down from other years and we didn't start until December 1st. I'm glad we are done because of the snow storm!
I won the "greediest kid", with 36 "I want". Our highest number of "I want" was 64 a few years ago. Little kids ask for toys. Older kids want an iPad, iPhone and expensive video games. One letter said his only wish "was for my father to get well". We didn't get any X-rated ones this year. I got one in Braile, one in Spanish and a few in Mandarin. They are forwarded to the main plant where they are given to people who answer in the same language and yes in Braile too.
I was very upset when I read this from Lynda Steele on Twitter. As a journalist, she should check her facts as nowhere on the Canada Post website does it state Punjabi is not replied to:
I've finished watching six hours of Meghan and Harry. The first three hours last week were a bit slow and I wasn't too impressed. However, last night, I enjoyed it. I know there will be a lot of naysayers and negative reviews, they said they would tell their story and they did.
You can tell they are very much in love. When they had lies written about them, they had to keep quiet. They could not correct it, and the "firm" just let it happen. The Royal Family says "it's happened to all of us, deal with it". The tabloids will do anything to sell papers. People buy the papers and believe everything they read.
When Meghan became suicidal, they didn't get her help. For that, they should be ashamed.
It was presented classy, not trashy. I realize it was a one sided story, but they told it the way they wanted it reported. We've heard the story, now time to enjoy your private life and spend the $100 million you made from Netflix for this docuseries.
This is the home of a friend of my nephew Brad. His son who is in the "lighting" business, sets this up for his parents every year. Every year it gets better. Ignore the talking as lots of people were watching the display! Hopefully you can hear the music. You tune your car to 89.9 FM to listen to the tunes. The owner keeps the music low for the neighbours. Here is one of my many videos as there were so many different songs:
I have never been interested in space. Cec, however, has been obsessed with rockets and outer space all his life. We've watched every launch televised. We saw the space shuttle launch at Cape Kennedy many years ago. He said this morning, I sent you a very good You Tube on space. It won't take long and I think you will like it:
I loved listening to Paul Harvey. Here is a letter to his grandchildren:
We had lunch on Wednesday at Kings Links by the Sea. It borders on the dyke right by Boundary Bay. We could see a lot of bird watchers. These two birds have been seen at the golf course and are gorgeous.
The American Wigeon (Mareca americana) is a species of dabbling duck. There are many all around the golf course in the lakes! They are really pretty but whistle and make a lot of noise.
There are lots of eagles during the spring and many other birds throughout the year. They don't usually draw a crowd, but right now the bird watchers are loving it!
I've noticed tipping is everywhere now. Even at Dominos when I got a pizza, that I ordered online and picked up myself, they wanted a tip at the credit card machine.
In early years of cruising you received envelopes and handed the tips to your room steward, waiter, and assistant waiter. You could always add to the tips if they deserved more and thank them for their wonderful service. It was personal and nice on the last evening. Cruising has changed. Now you rarely have a cruise when you get the same waiter and assistant waiter. The room stewards have so many rooms to clean, they introduce themselves the first day and you rarely see them again. Don't get me wrong, they do an excellent job but they don't have time to talk to you. They don't do turndown service at night any more and pillow chocolates are a thing of the past. I would keep all my chocolates and put them on Lexie's pillow at night.
Now the cruise lines are automatically deducting tips on your shipboard account every day. I never mind this, but they go to all the staff, not just the people you formerly gave envelopes to. When people complain about tips on a cruise, my answer is, if you ate out three times a day and stayed in a hotel, would you tip more than $16.00 a day?
On our last cruise, after final payment, I received an email from Royal Caribbean saying the gratuities were increasing to US$16.00 a day per person. Today NCL announced gratuities are now US$20.00 a person.
Why don't we treat all people with a salary they deserve so they aren't depending on tips? It works in Australia!
For a few years, London Drugs has a campaign called "Stockings for Seniors".
Stocking Stuffers for Seniors is back for 2022 at all London Drugs locations across Western Canada. This has been another challenging year for all of us, but especially continues for our seniors. We know the effects of isolation and loneliness from the pandemic are still significant and we want our seniors to know we care, and we are thinking of them. Stocking Stuffers for Seniors program partners with local care homes and charities with a mission to bring more holiday cheer to seniors, in all the communities we serve.
The Stocking Stuffers for Seniors campaign brings extra holiday cheer to seniors across our communities! Your donated items don’t need to be purchased from a London Drugs store — any new, non-gift wrapped item is accepted. Please be sure to check the signage beside the Christmas Tree in your local London Drugs store to see exactly where your gifts are going. We will also have information on the signage from the care home on how they would like to manage the gifts. You still may see very specific instructions or timelines to quarantine gifts before Christmas. We will be tailoring the giving to the needs and wants of each partnered care home.
We didn't start answering letters until last week which is a week later than other years. The volume this year so far is very low. If you know of any little ones who would like to send a letter to Santa, please get them to do it asap. Please make sure they put their return address on it including the postal code.
Here is a link to templates that your children can fill out. We love it when they colour the drawing.
If you mail within Canada, no postage is required. Send to:
Santa Claus
North Pole
H0H 0H0
Canada
So far we've had no greedy children. I did have one that only wanted his dad to get well. Those break your heart. I've had about 30 with no return address!
We never post letters online, however, this was from a few years ago, before COVID. After reading letters there is always one that you never forget. I didn't get this letter, another volunteer did. I've taken off the signature, but Matthew still cracks me up!
Meghan announced her first pregnancy at Princess Eugenie's wedding. Now they drop the Netflix trailer at the same time as a US visit by William and Kate where they attended the Earthshot Prize awards. Meghan and Harry upstaged these Royals with their news and they want privacy!
I don't believe much of what I read in the press about the Royal Family. However, when they initiate the interview, you can believe it. What will they say about the other royals? I hope they are positive to both King Charles and Prince William. They say in the trailer, you are hearing the story from us. They've made big bucks and maybe it's about the money. Will I watch their special on Netflix on December 8? Yes, I have Netflix and I will watch it.
The trailer is shown in the article from Hello Magazine below:
Elf on the Shelf is a Christmas tradition that started with the release of a book in 2005. The book tells a Christmas themed story, written in rhyme that explains how Santa Claus knows who is naughty and nice. It describes elves visiting children from US Thanksgiving to Christmas eve, after which they return to the North Pole until the next holiday season. The Elf watches over your family during the day, and then checks in with Santa each night to reveal who is being naughty and who is being nice. After these nightly trips, they return to a new spot each day. Parents around the world are moving the elf every night. It gets difficult to find places so someone made this list:
The Elf on the Shelf comes in a keepsake box that features a hardbound picture book and a small scout elf.
With the Canadian Dollar/US Dollar exchange rate at 1.40 before the credit card surcharge, we've decided to stay in Canada next year. W...
