Author: Rudy

Sue did laundry in the morning, then went to Bashas to get groceries. I hooked up our old printer and printed out the Oscar Ballot sheet and checked off all the films we’ve seen and circled the ones we still need to see. Then I went to the driving range and worked on my hybrid club. After lunch Sue went to pool and read the book she borrowed from Marylou, “All the Light We Cannot See”. I worked on re-doing my iTunes playlist — not a small job, with over 33,000 tunes!

We’d booked a tee time for 3:30 at Mountain Brook. We got on the course just about right on time, but then had to wait at EVERY tee for the  v – e – r – y   s – l – o – w  couple ahead of us. The stood in the middle of the fairway, posing for selfies. They circled the greens a couple of times, presumably looking for their lost ball. They parked their cart and then BOTH walked halfway down the fairway to take a shot with the clubs they shared, then sauntered back to the cart. YIKES! On the second tee we could see that it would be at least 15 minutes before we could take our shot, so we sat down on the old fence beside the tee blocks. KABOOM! The fence broke and there was Sue, lying flat on her back, her bare legs all scraped up and even a bit of bleeding! And both of us had mighty sore shoulders and necks from the jolt. Well, you’d think that would be enough to dissuade us from continuing this round. Oh no, not us. We adjusted attitudes and decided to just enjoy the lovely afternoon. And we did. Sue’s putts weren’t anywhere near as good as her drives, but we both had okay games. And that’s an improvement for me! And although we were both sore, no serious damage was done.

We got home just before six. Sue made another delicious supper (chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, tomato and avocado salad) — what else is new? Then we settled down to watch more ‘Suits’. I guess all my finagling with my iTunes screwed up the system — we had several ‘stalls’ in the video and I had to restart a few times. Oh well, what else do we have to do with our time? Eventually we finished the last 3 episodes of Season 2. No movies tonight. Daily Show and CBC News, and finally (after 10:30!! — hey, maybe having a nice strong coffee after supper is the secret to staying up after 8pm!) off to bed.

Since I went to bed so early, I got up early too. I make a couple of good coffees and sit down to read the news online. SteinbachOnline says “Today is Blue Monday. Some people say the third Monday of January is the saddest day of the year.” Shoot! and I was feeling so good! Sun is shining streams of light in through the blinds, birds are singing loudly outside, coffee tastes as good as it smells. We must be doing something wrong.

Since I can’t stay awake to watch my movies in the evening, I’ll try watching them in the morning. So this morning, after breakfast, we watched “Birdman”. Very cool. I’ll look for it in the theatre and go see it again just for the cinematography. We’d just finished the movie when there was a knock at the door. The Bishops are here to spray for bugs. Okay, we’ll go for our walk and they can spray and we’ll come back when they’re done. Which is what we do. We got home at 1:00 and Sue made lunch. We both showered and then took the van to go shopping. First to the fruit market, then to Santan for wine and beer. I dropped my bike off at the Santan bike shop — it still has that ‘clunk’ in the bottom bracket — they’ll call me in a day or two. Sue found ‘her wine’ at TotalWine and I found 2 boxes of Pilsner Urquell. We’re done. Sue drops me off at the driving range on the way home. I work on my driver and my hybrid club for about 40 minutes and then walk home. Happy hour. It’s nice and warm today and we sit outside on the patio. Then Sue makes supper and we watch one episode of ‘Suits’. We follow that up with another of my movies, “CAKE”, starring Jennifer Aniston. Meh, what’s all the hype? News is next. I go back to work at my computer, working my way through the 350 recipes I need to somehow import into Sue’s iPad recipe program. If I was Werner I’d have written a quick little ‘regex’ script and had this done in 5 minutes. I’m not Werner. I do it the ‘manual’ way, and it takes me a few hours. But I finish it, hook up the iPad, and voila! it works. Happy times in Sue’s kitchen ahead!

It’s midnight! We’re both still awake! And we’ve had a fun day! So much for ‘Blue Monday’!

Crepes and bacon for breakfast. Max would have ‘wuuved’ it. I know I did. Morning shows, and today we once again got to watch Fareed on CNN — no world crisis to interrupt regular programming today.

Sue’s been hounding me to find a replacement recipe app for the iPad ever since her ‘Bento’ program quit working. So I downloaded one today (Paprika) and we played with that a bit. It’s easy to add recipes from most of the major recipe sites online but it will be a challenge to export Sue’s existing database and import into the new app. I spent much of the morning working on ‘massaging’ the data so it would import without error.

Two big NFL games on today to decide who goes to the Superbowl in two weeks. Of course none of ‘my’ teams are involved, so I’m down to cheering AGAINST teams just like all those Montreal Canadien haters do. It’s not all that satisfying. I shouldn’t really even watch football the way my luck is going — but just like the Tour de France kept suckering me into watching it year after doping-scandal year, I can’t stay away from football weekends even after my teams are out of it. So once again, here I sit in front of the TV, snacking away, cheering like an idiot. First game: Packers at Seattle. I hate both those teams. Okay, I’ll cheer for the underdog Packers. I figure they’ll be in touch with Rodgers gimpy and the crazy ’12th man’ fans in Seattle. But the game is a big surprise! The Packers jump ahead early and in spite of a couple of consolation field goals when they can’t get in from the one-yard line, Green Bay is ahead 16-0 at the half. Clearly the better team. Go Packers!

But much to the chagrin of my good friends in Randolph, I have jinxed this game. Once again, the team I cheer for makes a couple of critical errors and lets the opponent back into the game. With a little more than 2 minutes remaining, the Seahawks come back to overtake the Packers. The Packers are in shock, but kick a field goal with 14 seconds left to tie up the game. And then they lose it in overtime!

Sue tried a new recipe (why not?) and made fish tacos for supper while we watched the second game: Colts at New England. I KNEW what I was supposed to do. If I could only have brought myself to cheer for the ‘Brady Bunch’ I’d have assured that Andrew Luck and the Colts would be coming here to Phoenix to play in the Superbowl in two weeks. But I — just — couldn’t — do — it. And neither could the Colts. It was a Patriot blow-out win and even I was looking forward to 8 o’clock when we could switch the channel and watch the third episode of Downton Abbey. Which we did. It’s getting better.

Sunday night CBC News. Bye bye!

Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Skyped with Alex and Max — Max was golfing and riding his Strider and shooting baskets in the basement. He looked to be enjoying a whole day at home with Mom and Dad. I decided that because we have so many movies cued up ready for us to watch, we would watch one of them this morning. “Big Eyes” isn’t up for any Academy Awards, but it was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and Amy Adams won one for Best Actress in a musical or comedy movie. We watched it this morning — and enjoyed it. Later in the morning Sue and I went for a bike ride — rode around the loop to Bashas where Sue picked up groceries while I ordered a sandwich at the Subway restaurant. We ate at the outdoor tables and then cycled back home. I took a few clubs and cycled across to the driving range — still working on the hybrids.

I got home just in time to have a quick shower and then head right back out to the Mountain Brook Golf Course. We had a 3 o’clock tee time with the Driedgers. We walked nine holes on a beautiful Saturday afternoon — no waiting for the group ahead, no pressure from a group behind. Now all I would need to make it a better afternoon is to actually be able to shoot a golf ball. But not this afternoon. I played TERRIBLE. We finished by 5pm and headed back home.

After a quick stop at our place we went out again — invited to Dave and Marylou’s for supper. Hans and Chris were there too. Dave and Marylou made spaghetti and salad for supper. We watched the sunset from the deck and then spent the next 3 hours around the supper table. Good food, good conversations. Home around 9pm. A bit of TV and off to bed.

Started working on my website shortly after 6 in the morning when I got up. It’s supposed to be ‘done’ today. We’ll see. Around 11am the Bishops arrived. They came to pick up their car, their golf clubs, and some clothes. Turns out they are staying here (at a friend’s house) for the next month! Well, the car didn’t start. They called CAA and within half an hour the service truck was here. The guy tried to pick the lock on the car but finally resorted to breaking in ‘the old fashioned’ way — using a long ‘coat-hanger’ style rod to unlock the door. Popped open the hood, put the charger on the battery, and voila! the car started. We all had a drink in the back yard while the car ‘charged’ up. When they left Sue made us a sandwich and we had our lunch. It was 1:30, two hours AFTER ‘official’ lunch time. I did my best to finish up the website and finally signed off on it at around 4pm. Then Sue and I went for a quick walk to Walgreen’s to pick up some lipstick (I’m almost out!) and to get our exercise. We got home, showered, and then had to hurry across the road to the Hitching Post where we met the Driedgers and the Neufelds (Hans and Chris) for pizza. That place was hopping tonight! And under-staffed! I guess the pizzas we finally got had been properly aged (and cooled) on the serving counter. Not bad pizza for Saturday morning, but not so hot for Friday supper. But we got to watch (another) great sunset from our table. Marylou and Hans got a bit camera-happy. The Driedgers and Neufelds were off to see a concert at the Methodist Church — the ‘Carpe Diem’ String Quartet. Well, we’re IN. No matter that the boys were more interested in watching the Jets on TV — tonight we were in for a ‘cultural’ experience. And so while the Driedgers pedalled and the Neufelds burned some fossil fuel, the Nikkels marched as fast as they could down to the big church (“OUR” church; we’ve been there before — a couple of years ago, to see an ORGAN concert!). Made it just in time. And a good thing that we hurried; it looked like all the front row seats were gone. The group included 4 players: first and second violin, a viola, and a cello. A mix of jazz, classical, and country. ‘Something for everybody.’ Even an intermission! The Neufelds gave us a ride back to our main gate. Cool evening. Lots of stars. Still lots of cars at the Hitching Post — I guess that ‘guy and girl singing along with a karaoke soundtrack’ band really got the old fogeys hopping tonight — it’s WAY past their bedtime! Not us, though. We’ll watch the CBC News and have a bowl of chocolate-peanut-butter ice cream for night-snack. And THEN we’ll go to bed. Party Animals!

After breakfast I got out the vacuum cleaner and while Sue dusted and tidied things up, I vacuumed the house. I cleaned up the garage and remembered that I had a flat rear tire on one of the Bishops’ bikes. So I took it apart and put a patch on it. Hope it holds. I monkeyed around on the garage door — the opener gets confused at certain times of the day (usually when it’s most inconvenient and we’re in a hurry) when the sun shines on the safety sensors — and prevents the door from closing. So I’ve made several cardboard ‘sun shields’ to keep the sun off the sensors and every time I think I have it fixed until the next time we’re in a hurry to leave. I made a new box-shield — we’ll see if this one will do it. It was a nice day again today. Sue and I pulled a few weeds out of the gravel that is our front yard — don’t want to have the neighbours complaining about us!

After lunch Sue went to the pool to read and I worked on my computer. Crunch time — the website is supposed to be done by tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have to pull an all-nighter. Around 3:00 I took a few clubs and hopped on my bike to go across the road to the driving range. Success. What else is new? Everything works on the driving range; it just doesn’t seem to ‘stick’ when I get on the course. When I got back Sue and I went for our walk to the Mountain Brook clubhouse and back. A lovely afternoon.

Back home we had happy hour. I showered while Sue made supper. After supper we watched one of the movies on my ‘must-see’ list. The Oscar nominations came out today and that puts some pressure on us. Tonight we watched “The Sniper” with Bradley Cooper. Good performance by Cooper. The movie is just ‘okay’. After the movie we watched a couple more episodes of ‘Suits’. Popcorn and ice cream. It seems that eating is the ONLY way for me to stay awake in the evening! The obligatory CBC News, with Thursday’s “At Issue” panel, completed our Thursday.

Sue started making supper right after breakfast. That way it would be ready for when we got home from golfing Sidewinder this afternoon with the Driedgers. We went to the golf course at around 12:30, even though our tee time was for 1:36pm. We hit a few balls on the driving range and Sue practiced her putting before we headed off to the first tee. Long wait there. The group ahead was waiting for the group ahead was waiting for the group ahead. I guess yesterday’s rain got lots of people to postpone their games to today.

All that waiting must have negated whatever ‘warm-up’ I got on the driving range. First tee shot ends up on the green of the hole BESIDE our fairway. I managed to salvage the hole but was scrambling for most of the game. Once again, the ONLY hole where water comes into play on the entire course swallowed up a couple of my Titleists. I always say that as long as I have a couple of good shots I’ll keep coming back to the game, but it sure feels like I’m going backwards! Meanwhile, Dave shot ten pars, Sue had only good drives, and Marylou made all the long putts.

It was getting close to 6pm by the time we got to the final hole. There were a few groups behind us, and we were still waiting for the groups ahead. Everybody was ‘pushing’ to finish their game. As we were waiting for the people ahead to move on up to the green, one of the golfers behind us hit a tee shot that hit the roof of our cart and landed ahead of us. Yikes! This could get dangerous.

We were cold and tired by the time we took the bags off the carts and headed back across the road to our house. The four of us sat around our table eating chips and drinking G&Ts before Sue served up her delicious pasta dish. That, and the nice bottle of wine Dave brought along, warmed us up. After dinner we moved to the living room for more visiting and dessert. By 10:30 I was having trouble keeping my eyelids up. (I should have had one of those coffees I made for Marylou — it seemed to work for her!) Not long after the Driedgers car left the driveway I was deep in a coma in my bed. What else is new?

After sitting at my computer in the early morning darkness for about an hour, I got up to open the blinds. What kind of day will it be? Looks cloudy — almost like it might rain! I suggested that possibility to Sue, who was busy checking her weather apps on her iPad. Last night when I called my parents my dad asked me a few times how the weather was — and I told him that really the weather is ALWAYS nice! I told him that we never have to first check the weather before deciding on if we should go for a walk, or a bike ride, or golfing. It’s just always nice. In spite of that, Sue still checks her weather app a couple times a day and reports her findings. Today Yahoo tells her there’s a 30% chance of showers at around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Since we hadn’t been to the gym (we have a free membership at the Silly Mountain gym) for nearly a week, we decided to do a quick one-hour hike, stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things, and be back home in time for lunch.

We parked the van on Bashas’ parking lot and set out on our hike to the mountain. Still cloudy, but nice temperature. We crossed a dried-out creek bed where I noticed fresh turds. Can’t be dog do-do — people here who have pets (and that means EVERYBODY except us) walk around with one or two of those little blue pooper-scooper bags in their hands. I’d seen a big coyote (or maybe it was a wolf!) slowly ambling by the wall in our back yard yesterday morning. Maybe we’d see some wild animals out here on our walk today!

We were nearly at the top of the hill when we had a few splashes of rain on our face. Huh? We started down one of the trails. The rain came harder. I thought it wasn’t supposed to rain? I took out my iPhone just to check — yep, there were lots of big drops splashing on the screen. That proves it: it’s raining. We got soaked. So much for all my bragging to Dad last night!

An hour later we were back at Bashas. I sat in the van while Sue, looking like a wet rat, went in to pick up groceries. I guess we’re not going to the driving range today. I pulled the van up to the front entrance so Sue could escape the downpour.

After lunch I worked on my website. Sue read her book, “The Finkler Question”, on the Kindle. We left around 3:30 to go see a movie at the Harkins at Superstition Springs. “Wild”, starring Reese Witherspoon. Now THAT is a good movie! Sure, it’s just about a long hike, but I think it’s cool how the director can make a story like that into a film. Good acting, good music, good story-telling. At one point in the movie the woman encounters a rattlesnake — and just at that moment my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. I jumped! Sue returned Alex’s call in the van on the way home. Just calling to chat.

While Sue was frying up the fish she’d bought at Bashas today, I turned on the TV. A new sitcom by Eugene Levy was premiering on CBC. Schitt’s Creek. Really? They can name a TV show that? I watched the first of the two episodes they were airing. Hmmm… More ‘Schitt’ than ‘Creek’. But maybe I was too hard on it, after the movie we’d just seen. Anyway, we enjoyed our supper and then watched THREE episodes of ‘Suits’ before going to bed.

I was going to work on my computer project all day today; it needs to be ‘completed’ by Friday. When I got up the road was wet — it must have rained a bit last night — and the sunrise was obscured by clouds. A good day to stay home and get a lot done. I was well into my code when I had a surprise visit from my accountant. No, now is not really a good time, but then when IS a good time? Better deal with this right away. Okay, let’s go over the Mastercard bill line by line. What did you buy here? What is this charge for? Are you billing for these charges or are WE paying for them? Exactly what kind of ‘system’ do you have for keeping track of these expenses? Hmmm… One of THOSE days! And so I put away my project and worked on my defence. And sure enough, when I looked closer at some of the invoices I noticed there were some ‘new’ charges that I should take care of. And if you’ve ever been on the phone with MTS so-called ‘support’ you have some idea of what it’s like to talk to computer and internet companies. So there went my morning! And if I don’t count MY time as having any value, I made out okay. I got a $5 refund from my internet hosting company and a promise of a nearly $15 charge reversal from Amazon. So we’re “richer than we think”.

After lunch I got back to work on my website. Sue was itching to go for some ‘exercise’, but most of her suggestions involved getting me out of my chair, and that wasn’t happening today. Finally at mid-afternoon we got into the van and drove down to Signal Butte to the movie theatre to see “Unbroken”. We weren’t expecting a great movie and so that way we were not disappointed. We both enjoyed the book a lot but figured it might be impossible to tell such a long and incredible story in a two-hour movie. Still, after reading the list of nominees for the Golden Globes yesterday, we really need to buckle down and start working our way through all the movies we want to see. And so far this winter we have seen only a few.

We got back home for a late supper — leftover Chinese. I phoned my parents and Sue phoned Irmy. That was another half hour. Finally we sat down at our stations and watched another two episodes of ‘Suits’. Midway through Season 2. I think it’s getting better. Then the news. And to bed at 10:30.

Woke up at 5 again. I made my coffee and checked my email. I always do that — although I NEVER have email waiting for me in the morning. Except today. Someone named ‘naughtygirl’ wants to get physical with me. What!? How did that get through?

We watch our Sunday morning shows although (once again) Fareed on CNN is pre-empted for coverage of the big anti-terror march in Paris. Two big play-off NFL games on today. Before the first one starts at 11am Sue and I go for a morning walk — all the way to Mountain Brook clubhouse and back. A bit cloudy, but nice temperature. Lots of geezers pass us in their big shiny cars, either going to or coming back from church (there are 4 big churches within walking distance of our place). Friendly waves. The clubhouse restaurant and the Hitching Post parking lots are packed too — Sunday brunch. When we get back I take my new driver and cycle across the road to the driving range. I’m going to see if I can ‘adjust’ some of the adjustable settings on it to keep it from slicing. Which I do. And after whacking balls until my back is sore, I’m satisfied that I can hit the ball straight and far at will. Can’t wait to take this baby out on the course.

Back at the cabin I find Sue watching some infomercial — and NOT the Cowboys/Packers game. I’d missed the first quarter — and what’s this? The Cowboys are out-playing and out-scoring Green Bay. It’s actually a pretty good game — which Green Bay ultimately wins after trailing all game. Next up: Colts at Denver.

Sue and I skip the first half of the second game and drive back to Mountain Brook to walk the front nine at 3 o’clock. I gotta try out that driver for real. We are rushed out on the course ahead of a ‘big group’. That’s good. First shot: straight up and down. Huh? At least my new rescue club gets the ball close to the green from there. Bogey. Second hole is short; no chance to use the driver. On the third hole my drive barely clears the wash. This sucks! What happened? We both end up with a score of 50. I don’t need new clubs to do that!

We finished nine holes in record time and are home around 4:30. The third quarter of the Colts/Broncos game has just started. And look at this! The Colts are beating the Denver. Easily. Sue picked up supper from the Great Wall. Delicious. All that club-swinging has me starved.

We watched 60 Minutes and then switched to the Golden Globes. Some nice ‘dresses’ on some of those movie stars! I’m just glad that I’m on this side of the TV; I wouldn’t know where to look if I had to stand next to them on the stage. Like one of the presenters said, I get why they call it the ‘Golden Globes’!

We switched to PBS to watch the second episode of this season’s Downton Abbey. Hmmm… Seems like not much is happening in that series this year — Boring. Back to the Golden Globes. We managed to stay up late enough to have ice cream ‘night snack’ while we watched a Fifth Estate documentary about Russia’s Putin. In bed by 10:30.