Jan 6 - talking to myself

Yes, here I am again, talking to myself.  Somehow, when the blog is going to "pend" for hours before posting, it seems like I'm talking to myself.  Of course all blogging is talking to yourself, but this is even worse !

 

Last night when we got home, the signal strength was 44; now it's 16.  I'm fed up with this !  Luckily we're leaving in three days !

 

If we were staying here and I couldn't do anything about this, I'd change my entire schedule -- stay up late and get up late !

 

We left here at 8am yesterday and got back home at 6:30 p.m.  As planned, we drove straight to Stef's, straight there, didn't even stop for gas.  We dawdled a little, leaving there shortly after noon and heading to Oakville Place.  Sandy was expecting to exchange Jeffrey's Roots t-shirt but found that the promised set-aside didn't happen.  Of course we also found out that it wasn't the correct store ... there was another in Oakville ... but the correct store didn't have it either.  So ... Kylie, who came with us to the Mall, kept the shirt with her and Stef will return it on Monday, inventory day, and they'll find an up-size. 

 

The four of us went to the food court and had a Mr.. Sub -- Canadian version of Subway that's been around longer but missed the mark when Subway took off -- and then we said farewell to Kylie who was going to do some shopping and then take a bus home.

 

Off to Barrie, our first stop was Home Depot for cut-off wheels for the grinder; Princess Auto where I didn't buy anything, Cadet Cleaners to drop the grinder with David and say "hello", Toys R Us where Megan chose her birthday gift a few days early, David's to drop off Megan, Barrie Glass (Kim's work) to say "hello" since we were driving right by ... and then home.  We stopped in Parry Sound for gas.

 

The temperature was up to 45 in Toronto yesterday, back down to 35 here.  It's still 35 and is supposed to drop, but I cannot check the weather.  I thought about it last night, but forgot.

 

We have no plans for the next three days.  I'll get into Loring one more time for mail and flour to take south; go to Mass in Britt; swap the tires on Monday; load up the woodbox a few more times; do some ice fishing ...

 

We also hope to get together with Jim and Bonnie before we leave.   They were supposed to come over before Christmas but Jim wasn't feeling well.  Pam was supposed to come north with the kids but that was when Barrie got dumped with snow.  I'm assuming that they're here although Jim's vehicle wasn't there on Thursday.

 

For "dinner" last night we simply snacked.   We should have taken out something before we left but didn't, and neither of us had the energy to do any defrosting.  It was too early for dinner when we passed by Parry Sound, so a glass of wine, crackers and cheese, a sandwich, a hunk of banana bread ...

 

Knock on wood, but the car is behaving itself.  I've lost a few tablespoons of coolant but nothing serious.  I'll have to see if it leaks when we're in Florida -- I suspect that it's simply the result of the cold.  The coolant hoses attach to the thermostat and radiator with clips, no clamps, so could age make the material less pliable, the cold make it stiff ?  If it doesn't leak, I'll probably simply leave it ... but might drain, uncouple and re-attach ... we'll see.

 

We passed 222,000 miles on the odometer yesterday.

 

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I hauled wood.  I drilled holes in the ice.  I set the ice fishing rigs.  I brought my front left summer wheel into the workshop.  I chopped the ice & snow off the concrete stairs, since it's warm. 

 

As usual, before a north/south or south/north trip, I'm at loose ends a couple of days before.  Ideally I could simply load the car and we'd leave, surprise myself, as it were.  It won't happen though, we've got hair (well, Sandy) and dentist appointments on Tuesday.

 

I brought the wheel into the basement to warm up and then I'm going to re-stick the 3/4 oz wheel weight that came off when I pulled the wheel off the car to put on the snows.  I'll use a touch of JBWeld.  I wouldn't do that right to the wheel but this weight was a stick-on piggyback on another weight, so I'll simply replace that.  I need the wheel to warm up, dry off, then I'll clean that spot and the weight and do the deed.  It's going to be more of a pain getting that wheel back up to the barn than it was rolling it downhill !   I'll probably use the 4-wheeler.

 

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Onward ?  Who knows !  The signal is still at 16.