Yep! Another birthday. And that would be no. 67. That was on Monday. They say that I have a 50% chance to live to 85 and a 25% chance to get to 92. But time flies so fast, I should be there in a couple of years.

My wife gave me a multimeter (Broke my last one.) Glad about that. With my old one, I was only able to read resistance. My son gave me a monitor to hook up to my laptop. Love not having to minamize all the time. A friend of ours gave me a birthday cake, so I ended up with two cakes. And I had a number of calls and cards.

My wife took me out to lunch today. I had a steak and I was thinking, last week on a diet and this week I’m eating a steak. So it ended up that I paid with my credit card. Actually, we don’t have seperate bank accts. or credit cards. And it was something to joke about.

Got our bit of snow. Just 6 ins. Did my driveway with the snowblower, plus 7 more neighbours. Two of them are sick (one has a broken wrist) and the rest were at work. So I don’t mind doing it. It’s not like I have a lot to do in the winter. Anyway, that was yesterday.

Today I had to take my wife to our Chinese Doctor. Got stuck with lots of pins. Another visit in a couple of weeks time. That takes a little over an hour, so I spend some of my time at Tim Hortons, having a coffee and doing a crossword.

It’s nice and sunny out but the temp is 0C/32F.

Saw a sign on a church today about an open house for Tai Chi in a couple of weeks. I might check that out. Guess you would call it a slow form of Karate. Took Karate many years ago and it was the best shape I was ever in. Worked well as I was in the military at the time. But I had to stop because my daughters medical problems took over. That’s the way it goes.

And by that I mean I’m drying bananas in my Dehydrator.  Been doing it for a few days.  Bananas, apples and pineapples.  Love pineapple the most.  Just like eating candy. Got the fruit for half price.

Snowing out right now. Supposed to be getting 15 cm./6 ins. or so. Be this evening before I go at that.

On a diet this week. Called The Heart Diet or Basic fat-Burning Soup. In seven days, you lose ten lbs. If you stick to it, it works. I do it every year. In three days you lose five lbs. So I decide how many lbs. I want off and do it for that many days. Cleans out the system, gets rid of heartburn and sure drops the cholesterol.

Saw this great cartoon in the paper this morning. It expresses my sentiments exactly.

Right now it is 0C/32F.  I have a chore for today. Most of the wood I put on the patio has been used up.  So I have to restock.  Lots of wood at the back of the yard.  Have to get the wheelbarrow out and get at it.  After lunch, when it will be the warmest.

Last week I won $20. on the lottery. That was four times in 5 weeks. Last night I won a free ticket. It would be nice to win this week, a few days before my birthday.

Last week a neighbour from my hometown died. Name was Malinowski. That was Thursday. On Friday evening I was watching Median and the cop says to the woman “Malinowski died”.  Weird eh? Every week something like that happens.

Yes, plumbing problem. The bathtub drain is frozen. When I first bought my house, it was green. No pipe problems. Then I painted my house white and the problem started. What I did at that time was wrap a heating cord around the pipe and plug it in for the winter. That cured the problem for many years. A couple of years ago, I decided to renovate the bathroom. Put in a new bathtub and thought my problem would go away with the old tub.

Well, it didn’t go away and I forgot to fix the problem last summer. Have to wait for the summer now. It freezes up when the windchill gets high. Thaws out again when it warms up.

Temperature now -2C/20F. Not too bad if it is not windy.

The other evening I was looking out the window and saw my neighbour with the engine hood up. Smoke was pouring out and he was throwing in snow. Had to check that out and it was his catalytic converter on fire. I guess it was good to be parked next to a snowbank. Later on, the tow truck was there and of it went.

Later on I saw my neighbour and his wife had another car, a 2003 Buick. Don’t think he’ll be getting the Taurus repaired. He has already put a new engine in it.

At the time this was going on, I was watching NCIS on t.v.  So I went back into the house and the first words I heard on the t.v. was “You do know what starts a fire in a catalytic converter don’t you”.  Weird eh?  But that happens to me a lot. At least a couple of times a month. On second thought, it might be more like every week.

Won $20.00 on the lottery this week.  That’s four times in the last two months.  Each time was $20.00.

Well Christmas is over for another year.  At my age , they come a lot faster.

Only had one snowstorm so far.  So I got a chance to use my snowblower.  It worked good but I think it should throw the snow out farther. That would mean changing a belt which is probably the original. It looks like it is quite stretched.  That is not a job for the winter, that’s for sure.  So, that goes on the list for summer projects. I don’t think I need to go searching for the same belt. One that is the same width and a little shorter should do. Anyway, worry about that later.

Another project is to raplace two fence posts.  Both are broken at ground level. Have to do that job in the early spring when the ground is still wet. Easier to pull out the bottom.

Of course I still have the project of getting a lawn mower working. I am at the point now that I think the pin is broken, putting the timing off. Getting that pin out is a project in itself.

I don’t have electricy in the shed. Keep saying that I will do it, but never have.  I should make that a project this summer. The main reason is because it would be nicer to use the electric start on the snow blower.

The temp. outside is 0C/32F which is quite nice. Watching the weather on T.V. and this temp. in parts of the States is quite hard to cope with.  I can certainly understand that.

Went for my walk a couple of days ago and saw a friend of mine throwing out a lawn mower. He told me it wouldn’t start, so of to my house it went. Yesterday I checked it out. It was a no start. Took off the carb. and cleaned it. Still a no start but this time it backfired. At least I’m getting somewhere. The internet says it is the spark plug or the key is stripped. (Sad that so many are thrown out because of a one dollar key.) Try the spark plug first of course. Went to Canadian Tire but couldn’t get one. That area is now mostly Christmas decorations. Have to go somewhere else. I allready know,with my luck it will be the key or something worse.

The next problem was my wife’s vacuum cleaner. It started smoking and the whole house smelled of burnt rubber. Got that all fixed up with cleaning and a new belt. Have a bunch of belts in the shed.

My wife started sucking up the leaves but after two bags it became my job. A bag of mulched leaves is a lot more than just a bag of leaves. I sucked up eight more bags. Did about three quarters of the yard and decided to leave the rest till today. Bad plan. It poured last night and is still raining. It was supposed to have been possible showers in the afternoon.

Anyway, now you know what the other people do.

Yes, lots of wind and rain last night. Now most of the leaves are down. Has to dry up a bit before I suck them up. It is quite a bit.

Going for my 2 mile walk lately. I guess not today. Have to use the treadmill, although I am not fond of it.

My wife took my daughter to the doctor for the regular flu shot. Next week for the other one. My daughter is handicapped and prone to everything. I don’t think I am going to get any shots. Got the flu shot the last two years in a row and still got the flu. I have increased my vitamins, especially C & D. Normally I get a lot of cold sores. Two weeks ago, I got a very small one and it was gone in a day. Gave credit to vitamins which increased immunity. Made another increase at that time.

Tore my scrounged lawn mower apart the other day. Saved some parts and the rest goes to the curb tomorrow. Someone will grab it to sell the metal. That is something I definately approve of. Those guys keep a lot out of the landfill.

Went to mass last night. The priest said definately no shaking hands. In fact, no touching anyone. Take communion only in the hand and no more drinking wine. They don’t want anyone to get sick and they don’t want to get sued if someone gets sick.

Yesterday was Halloween. We had 55 kids at the door. My wife was happy about that. She likes giving out candy etc. I remember how happy I was to get goodies. Some people turn out the lights so no one will came to the door. Don’t they remember their childhood? That was the time before they grew up stingy.

Going to rain all day.                                                                     

Just made a photo of my backyard. Have the front to do too. Look like the wind carried the leaves from across the street to my lawn.