It Was a Flop! Friday the 13th – Good luck? Almost Blown Away, Great Entertainment

At the Ridge

I’ve been feeling the ingredients of a cold brewing. First, yesterday morning in my throat. I gargled with salt water and took a couple of Vitamin C. I got through that day just fine, with more sneezes than usual but my throat had improved by noon. Just after supper, I was blowing my nose quite a bit so I took a couple of DayQuil capsules. I worked away on the puzzle, with kleenexes on hand, through the last 2 hours of yogourt cooking.

Another pretty morning sky

Bottom line, this homemade yogourt took 9 hours cooking plus 1 hour sitting time. Bill went to bed at 10 o’clock after watching Sticks Larkin on the Live PD program for an hour or so. He hadn’t snoozed so was plenty tired after a long painting day. At 10:30, finally, Madame IP beeped with completion. I did a natural release and was anxious to see how it turned out. Well, you talk about frustration!! I went to bed very upset with the wasted milk and the wasted use of electricity on my mind and nothing to show for it.

Yogourt, anyone? Gross!!

The yogourt didn’t turn out. At all! I don’t know what I did wrong other than trying to make it using the ‘manual’ button in place of a ‘yogourt’ button. It was a flop. Clear and simple and I won’t be making that mistake twice. I will be buying my Greek yogourt. So, on to today, Friday, Sept. 13^th. Supposed to be bad luck day, right? Well, here is our story for today. You decide. First, I was up and out the door to go in to work by 7.

Isn't it awesome??

Front corner
They just have to finish behind the pop machine, making a
stair-like effect instead of painting all behind it with checkers

 Bill got up almost immediately and started his day too. The first thing we noticed was the wind. It was windy enough to cause me to dig my toes in as I walked to ptooties. Well, not quite but you get the picture. Arriving at work, I was excited to see what the guys had done yesterday. I was blown away! It looks Awesome with a capital A. What do you think? I took longer than usual because I started scraping some of the spatters of paint off the floor.

To the right of the entry door, this cubby with 3 washers and 3 dryers
has wainscotting and trim in gray

Also, the change machine wasn’t working so I spent about 15 minutes with a customer who needed change for a $100! I had to empty washing machines of the collected change in order to help him do his 6 loads of laundry. He was a nice guy and had managed to get the gas station down the street to break the large bill. He still ended up with 5 – 20’s. Once he was well set, I left for home.

Donna and I are going out with Gayle and John tonight so I called Gayle on the drive home. We needed to set up timing. Back home, Bill made my tea for me as he waited for the water bladder to empty into our tank. That’s what he did while I was in town. With that topped up, he had a yogourt for a small nibble and I disposed of the ‘gunk’ in the IP. Then we got cleaned up and dressed to go to Hanover for some errands.

Sometimes it backfires when Bill tries a goofy smile
but this is his after haircut
He's good now for a couple of months at least

First, I dropped Bill at First Choice to get his hair cut. Then I drove to Stihl to drop his chain saw off to get the chain sharpened. I also ordered a spare chain for him to pick up. When I asked if it could be ready for us while we were in town, he offered to sharpen it right away. Then I drove to the grocery store, Grant’s Independent for potatoes, rye bread and carrots while on sale.  Bill texted to know my location while I was there and walked up the hill to meet me.

As we were driving through town after groceries we heard honking and turned to see Rob and Pat in the other lane. Too funny. Rob and Bill bantered back and forth through open windows, something about road rage, and we waved goodbye. They passed us again when we stopped at Stihl’s. We went down to the next block to the Bell store. We were due for upgrades to our Samsung G5 phones and wanted to see if any new plans, better than ours, had come up.

My new Samsung A50 plus case

We wanted to keep the North American plan that we got 2 years ago. Other than the data issue last month, we are very pleased with it. When Bill asked if there were any improvements, Melissa said ‘yes, you are paying too much’. How often do you hear those words?? Smiles all around. Bill asked about an unlimited plan he’s heard advertised for mobile phones and when she checked to see if it was available for the N.A. plan, she brought smiles again. Yes! (fist pump!)

So, we upgraded to 2 new phones, free, saved $30 on an unlimited data plan and then saved another $35 because of having 2 phones. You’d think that would be it. But then, she said we could trade in our old phones. Huh, we never knew that! So, once everything was transferred off our G5’s she checked to see what we were allowed for our trades. $50 each to spend today, in store. Use it or lose it.

I had success at Mark's WW too

She didn't have the latest, G9, in stock and we wanted to take them with us. Therefore, our new phones are not identical. Mine is a Samsung A50 and Bill has a Samsung A70. We started searching for screen covers and cases, to spend our $100. So, including an extra charger and cord, getting what we could from their stock, we only owed $12 out of pocket. That is insane! Happy Friday the 13^th to us! It is true that there is a transfer/admin fee for all of this that will show up on our Oct. 1^st bill but we are happy. We will be saving minimum $65/month and that is always a great thing.

KC's Kitchen on Main/Garafraxa/#6

On the way home, I asked that Bill stop at Mark’s Work Warehouse for me. Their flyer showed some nice-looking shorty boots on a 25% off sale. I’ve been keeping an eye out for cowboy boots but I can't justify spending the price in the southwest considering the amount of time I’d actually wear them. These were $79 on for $59 and if you bought shoes or boots there, you could purchase another pair of shoes/boots or sandals on a selected rack for 50% off. Luckily, both worked out and for a total of under $80 I walked out with 2 pair of new footwear. Don’t worry, 2 pair will be removed from my closet. 😊

We'll go  back again to KC's

In Durham, we stopped to put an Out of Order sign on the change machine since Jamie is out of town with the key. While there, 2 customers said it worked fine for them today so we left without doing anything. Bill topped up Ptooties fuel tank and then took me downtown Durham to KC’s Kitchen for lunch. This is where Jamie has been taking him during their work days and he wanted me to meet Sara and check out her meals.

Cute sign that her son bought her
(don't believe it!!)

We ordered tea to drink. Bill had a toasted western and I had a ham, lettuce, cheese, olive panini. It was wonderful! Just a small little diner with 2 barstools at a counter, 1 table for two and 2 tables for four. Quaint. Across the street, I bought him a 2-step metal stool for use in the back of the truck at Going Once, Going Twice. Or shall I say, for getting up into the back of the truck easily. We were both happy after treating each other and drove home to relax for a bit.

Our evening out was thank you to CSA

Bill called to renew our Roads of Distinction membership and then stretched out on his recliner. I wrote on this post and puttered at the puzzle some more.  At 5:15 I drove to Durham to meet up with Donna and she drove us to Gayle and John’s in Chatsworth. From there, John drove to the Roxy Theatre in Owen Sound. They had obtained 4 free tickets to a CSA (Canadian Snowbird Ass’n) presentation. Gerry wasn’t interested and Bill had an early morning commitment today so decided he shouldn't go. It could be a late night.

Donna and I were up for it. The event starred John McDermott, a Canadian Scottish tenor, a Canadian comedian, Jimmy Flynn and last but most definitely not least, a family of musical talent, Next Generation Leahy. The latter being a family of 9 children, all multi-talented with the exception of a wee child whom we didn't meet. The Roxy Theatre is a smallish venue, compared to many, but adequate with seating for around 400. This created a perfect size arena for us, even in the very back row, to have a great view of the stage. You can tell by my pictures.

After the Welcome and a bit about CSA and the battle with gov’t about health insurance for snowbirds, the entertainment began. And it didn’t stop for 2 1/2 hours. I was so caught up in it that I had to share some videos, hoping you don’t mind a little taste of my evening. 

They speak for themselves. We left the Roxy around 9:45 and I was home by 10:30. Let me tell you, driving down Baptist Church Road is a spooky treat in the pitch black! I was careful as I watched for deer in the ditches.

Bill was trying to stay up for me and soon after I walked in he kissed me goodnight and went up to bed. What a lovely evening and the weather was so warm! 

There was supposed to be a harvest moon on Friday the 13th, and maybe there was but the clouds didn’t allow a good view. What I did see didn’t look so spectacular from here. I’m sure some of you were lucky enough to witness this rare (every 100+ years?) heavenly event.

Good night everyone!

Thank you for reading! It was a fantastic day and evening!