Aug 3 - shortening the to do list

It's amazing how much you can get done in Parry Sound when you have time to do it ... let's see ...

I went to Canadian Tire first, picking up a couple of weenie roasters -- something that I'd thought of before but hadn't seen them. You can call that a semi-impulse purchase, i.e. something that I had told myself to keep an eye out for but had never put them on a list. We all have items like that. I also bought some AA batteries -- definitely on my need list -- for the Granite Anvil -- and some Mobil 1 5w30 for an oil change for the X5.

Next I went to Sobeys -- they're side by side -- and bought all the non-fridge items, i.e. bread, diet pepsi, some flatbread, strawberry, blueberry and raspberry jam, peanut butter -- do you want my whole grocery list ? I needed something for Kim that they didn't have in their pharmacy section (not really a pharmacy section, simply the "toothpaste aisle" as it were. Down the street to the Shoppers Drug Mart, I discovered that they have the milk, yogurt and stuff for Kim. Great -- I'll park here until I hear from Aaron.

Oh -- parking at the SDM was after I went to the farmers market, picking up peaches, plums & whatnot. Oh -- I've got this all out of order because of course I'd gone to the Starbucks first -- but you figured that out from the prior blog. I hadn't heard back from Aaron at one point and went to the hospital to check on him and received a text message as I was standing at the desk -- very timely. I sat at the Starbucks using their wireless hotspot for about 1.5 hours.

I sat at the SDM until I got hungry enough to go for lunch. By then Aaron had been there over 5 hours -- it's now almost 7 hours -- the irregular heartbeat has ceased and he's still waiting for the doc. He is a much more patient person than I -- I'd have checked myself out already. I don't get impatient waiting for Aaron ... but I'd be impatient waiting for the doc, if I were in his shoes.

Off to the Parry Sound Mall where there's a Subway. Back to Home Depot -- browsed around for a while and then realized that I needed a couple of my circuit breakers, but they don't carry my brand at this store (perhaps at no stores). I then went to Rona where I could pick these up. Interestingly enough, HD keeps all of its breakers in locked bins by the cash -- small item, easy to steal -- where Rona simply has them on the shelf. Does Rona have more honest customers ? I don't know.

I then went back to the Starbucks, sitting outside and using the internet for a few minutes, and now I'm back at the SDM. Oh well. I may go to the hospital soon and rattle their chains. At least they should know if a doc is due in.

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I just exchanged messages with Aaron -- it'1 2:10 now and we got here before 7am -- he's going to check himself out soon. The doc has been paged many times with no response. Aaron's been a couple of hours now with normal heartbeat (he's on the EKG) and no change ... time to go. As I said, he's a much more patient person than me.

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It's morning again. It took another 20 minutes or so but finally he had his paperwork and we hit the road, but not before stopping at the SDM for milk, yogurt, aspirin and something for Kim. We then went to Sobeys for grapefruit juice. We were back at the cottage around 4:30, as I recall.

We had peameal and crappie for dinner. Everyone enjoyed both. We finished up enough broccoli to feed the Canadian armed forces but couldn't finish the rice. Aaron ate somewhat delayed ... he was catching up on sleep.

I forgot to mention, silly me, that we'd celebrated Arlene's birthday the night before (or was it the night before that ?). Kylie had baked two cakes and Sandy picked up these twisty candles -- her birthday is the 8th but she'll be gone then.

Emma was in a much better mood, playing on the floor with her toys, saying "hi poppa" whenever I passed -- every day she gets better, having now recovered from the trip and on a regular schedule. We had a great family dinner, with the kids -- Keri, Lauren, Daniel, Meagan and Emma at the card table, Ira and the adults at the big table. Ira gets to sit with the adults now ... which is a good thing because he tends to ... ahem ... perhaps disrupt the kids table ? It's his age -- some might say that it's because he's hyper -- but it's his age.

Tonight we're having spaghetti and then Jeffrey will hit the road to get Sara. They won't be back until after midnight, I expect. Sheryl and Jimmy arrive on Thursday, according to Sheryl's email of yesterday, and Wayne and Mary arrive ... Friday ? I'm losing track.

After dinner I wandered over and said Hi to Donnie who was covering his boat and then stopped in at the Davies for a few minutes, updating them on happenings. They'll be heading back on Thursday and then up again the following Monday. I leave that Tuesday for the airport, Oshawa, Granite Anvil 1200 ... yikes ! I have to get out for a bike ride today, Friday and then a short one on Monday and then I'm done before the GA.

Speaking of the GA -- the email came out late yesterday with links to the final cue sheet so I was busy formatting that to my liking, and the GPX file to load into my Garmin GPS. Nine days to go ...

I'm about to head out to set my minnow traps. David and I will likely go fishing tonight ... we'll see.

That's it.