Early November "doings" ... November 1 - 12

 November 1st

We met Kristi and Jason at the Highway 18 junction and picked up Zeus. The kids carried on to Victoria in preparation for Amelia's cast change tomorrow. Unfortunately being this little, they have to put her under general anesthetic to get it done. The rest of the day we played on our computers dreaming about places to see next year in the USA.

Zeus settled in, but was disappointed Freya isn't here. He ran into the house all excited and then deflated when he realized she it.

Grandma, where is Freya?

Treat ball ... yeah!

Tuesday morning, we received the news everything is going well with Amelia's hip and she now sports a new cast angled a bit differently to finish healing. Six more weeks and she will be out of the cast for Christmas.

Sporting her new cast that is blue this time.

Wednesday we were out the door at 8:45 am heading to Victoria for Ray's eye appointment checkup from his surgery in August. We met up with Kristi at the Superstore and returned Zeus. lol Fortunately the rain held off mostly for the drive. Ray received good news his eye healed perfectly and he is not ready to have cataract surgery as his lenses still are quite good. 

After lunch at J & J's Wonton Noodle House, which is fortunately a couple of blocks away, we headed back  home. They serve excellent food and is a popular place.

Thursday, quiet day at home puttering. Biggest thing is making Lunner (lunch/dinner) lol. I decided to make a big meal at 3 pm instead of 5 lol

Lake level is back up where it was last week. 

November 4th, just up to the first step.

Friday a short trip into Duncan for some grocery shopping. Imagine our surprise getting over the hill down to Duncan and the sun is shining. Haven't seen that orange glow in days! Came back home for noon and back into cloud and rain. 

Saturday morning we were out the door early to go to Jason and Kristi's. With Kristi at the hospital on call, I was babysitting Amelia while Ray and Jason went to a fishing and hunting swap meet. She was asleep when we got there but boy did I get a wonderful smile when I went into her bedroom to get her.

 I enjoyed a lovely few hours with Amelia, she is such a happy baby. Jason and Ray were back by 11 and we stayed for a few more hours having lunch, until it was nap time again for the baby. Kristi managed to slip home for an hour so we saw her too. 

I like your phone Grandma ... can I bite it. lol

Grandma's beads, still a hit.

Back home by 1:30. Went out and checked the lake level. It only rose a little more. Yeah ... but more rain in forecast for days. Basically it didn't rise very much this week in spite of all the rain. Those 3 days of sunshine really helped last week.

Just over the first step on the way to the lawn. About a 6" rise in the water.

Our neighbour, Pat and Darryl's yard.

Sunday morning ... time change. Yuck. I don't adjust well to time changes, it usually takes me a week or so. This time was not great for Ray either. We both were awake at 3:50 am !!! Tried for 40 minutes to fall back asleep, but NO!

Oh well, at least we are not in the "working force" anymore, so if we have a nap in the afternoon there is no one to bother. lol 

As it turned out, while it poured all day, we decided to start decorating for Christmas. We usually don't start until after November 11th, Remembrance Day, but as Ray's 65th birthday is November 15 and we are having company the following weekend, I wanted the house decorated in advance. Another reason is with supply chain problems, if we needed some extra lights etc., I wanted to make sure they were still available. I am betting by December 1st a lot of Christmas stuff will be pretty picked over. (I have all my Christmas presents purchased already.) We managed to get about 1/3 of it done in between me doing our laundry. We need to spread out the decorating as Ray's back gets very sore from ladder work.

Monday, although cloudy, it actually quit raining for the day. After a quick shopping trip to Country Grocer, I decided to make an apple pie and Seafood Paella. Once I prepped the ingredients for the Paella and saw how much I was making, we decided to invite Roy and June from next door, over for dinner. They said "yes please", lol There's not really been a chance to sit down and chat since the summer of 2020 when they came over for drinks on our sundeck. Everyone pretty much stayed in their own bubble. Their daughter and family (2 little ones too) lived with them for 7 months during this past year, so very busy lives. It was nice to catch up. I finally managed to stay awake until 10 pm. Of course I forgot to take a picture. :)

Tuesday morning we managed to stay in bed until 6:15 am. Definitely an improvement over 3:48 am lol Was pretty stiff so jumped in the hot tub first thing. Good thing I went when I did. The wind came up and then the rain, pretty miserable outside. A quiet day inside but stormy day outside. The news reported quite a few power outages with the wind, but we did not have any problems.

Wednesday we decided to take a trip up to Nanaimo as the sun was actually out!!! After doing a little shopping and a quick lunch, we stopped in to visit Amelia for an hour. She is actually crawling now, dragging her cast behind her. Such a change in only 3 days. Christmas will need more "baby proofing", here at the lake as her cast comes of December 16 and she will be on the move.

Chewing on Grandma's beads.

Once back home, Ray put the finishing touches on his Christmas Village and I finished the stuff in our hallway.

Thursday morning we watched the Remembrance Day Celebration on Global BC from Vancouver. Thankful for the Vets that it did not rain for the ceremony. As always very moving moments, listening to the Last Post and the 2 minutes of silence. We always remember Ray's Dad on this day. William Verner Kyle. Ray dug out his Dad's service record and as his Dad didn't talk at all about his service Ray saw he earned two medals.  He then spent a couple hours researching the various patches and the two medals and now intends on finding replacements.

After that both we did a little more decorating at our slow pace. lol

The predicted rain started shortly after 12 noon. We stayed hunkered down the rest of the day.

Friday morning, the calm before the next storm rolls in tomorrow. We decided to make a run into Duncan for some shopping, then to the Chemainus Christmas Store and then ate lunch at the Osbourne Bay Pub in Crofton. A delicious meal. The start of Ray's birthday week. :)

Saltspring Island Mussels for an appie.