Wednesday January 23, 2013

Wednesday January 23/13  update #348

I had a good sleep and didn’t want to get up but I still had so much to do.  After doing my email chores, etc. I headed to re-register the car, now that Canadian Direct finally sent me a pink card.   That was painless and quick as they accepted my US cash at par.

Then I headed over and dropped the car off early at Fountain Tire and crossed my fingers that they would discover the electrical problem quickly and fix it before I returned. 

It was a blustery day with negligible fluffy stuff floating around, and quite cool with a –23C wind chill, so I was glad I opted for my long johns today.   The hoar frost on the trees and shrubs was very beautiful but there was no sunlight to really show it off.

I walked briskly over to my old office at McFarlane’s where the lady that took over my job, Janice, had intuitively offered me the use of her car for the afternoon.   She has been following this blog and took pity on me because of my tale of woe.  Her timing for this offer couldn’t have been better and it allowed me to make yet another trip to see Mom in Calgary.

On the way in I stopped at Future Shop first to try to get a remote cord for my new camera.   They had quoted me $15 via email but unfortunately they had none in stock.  Next I tried Vistek, who actually had one but wanted $40 for it so I walked away.  Then I went to Visions and they didn’t even carry it.   They suggested I try Black’s but I was going to be late seeing Mom so I skipped them.

The hoar frost on the trees in the yard at Bonavista Village was breathtaking so I hope the photos turn out as I am still getting accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of this new camera.

Mom is, so far, in a good mood when she sees me and we get along well, but then I avoid all touchy subjects.  She wanted to get music from her stereo because she is electronically challenged so I hooked up the speakers and found a reasonable country station.  The CD portion doesn’t want to work and she would never grasp the complexities of the dual cassettes so it was easiest to set one station and just show her how to turn on the stereo and to adjust the volume.  She is 96 after all and seems to think that we can just dial up Ian Tyson’s music at will.  There is so much stuff in that apartment that she will never ever use, so I made the suggestion that she start passing down some of these items to her grandchildren who could be interested in some items with a little family history behind them.  We munched on a few chocolates before I had to leave to return.   We have a date to see her again in the morning.

I managed to get the nice little Alero back to Janice before 4pm when she had to leave for a Calgary appointment.  Then she drove me over to Fountain Tire and refused to take any money for gas or anything.  Thank You Janice for your kindness.   My car was sitting outside the shop so I was very hopeful.

Fountain Tire had the good news, bad news scenario waiting for me unfortunately.   The good news is they found the problem was a blown module.   The bad news is that they can’t possibly get a replacement part here before midday Friday when I will already be on my way to Edmonton…. And the part alone is about $330, with one hour’s labour to install it.   So I can say goodbye to another $500 just like that!  Our new appointment is now Monday 8am to get the repair completed.

I slipped home to pick up a few items and to make quick calls to Leonie and Mavis regarding my altered plans.  Leonie will probably accompany me to see Mom tomorrow and Mavis will have to decide about risking a drive in a cold car on Sunday, coming back from Edmonton.

Then it was off for a long anticipated meeting with friends for our old Wednesday Wing Night at Foxy’s at 5pm.   I don’t know how many years ago we started the Wednesday gatherings for wings, but it started at the George about 6 years ago and migrated to Foxy’s probably 4 years ago.   It is nice that our friends have continued this.  It was thrilling to see the faces of old friend Betty Boop (who looks fabulously slim), old co-workers Em and Gord, Jim, Jackie and Paul, and even my childhood classmate Roland and wife Theresa.  Many others are away holidaying in the Phoenix area so it is possible I may get to see them next week??  Gord secretly picked up my tab, again, so Thank You Gord for doing that, and also for agreeing to drive me to the airport next week in the middle of the night.   Friends like these don’t grow on trees, (just in them, ha, ha).

I am still kicking my butt that I did not take a photo of the group.

That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.    Please see all photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/