2026,
March 4th. Well, the snow came after my last entry.
In fact, we got on a plane to Mexico City on January 13th, and a
day later it began to snow. It dumped the most snow since
1965, according to some meteorologists. The most in a
half-century. It's still here now, in huge dirty piles
that obstinately hang on because our daily highs aren't enough
to melt it much. Little glaciers of ice flow into the
streets at regular intervals. City crews are running big
machines that chew the ice and load it in trucks to haul it
away.We missed most of the event, thank goodness. We stayed in Cuernavaca, Puebla and Oaxaca for 28 days, enough to bypass the worst weather. Our neighbour Eric bought a snow blower and he was kind enough to keep a path open on our driveway, for Ursula to check on the house and spray my orchids, and for the mailman to reach our mailbox. Our winter escape included great temperatures, great food, good art and concerts, and some language training for me - intercambio language groups in each city. We walked anywhere up to seven kilometres per day, which fights back old age. If we were at home I'd have spend four weeks in my living room chair, which is not good for my fitness and the aging process.
Now that I'm home, I've rejoined Variety Village, for the sake of going to Aquafit sessions in the warm pool. It's a way to exercise without incurring further wear to my right knee joint. It keeps the muscles around the knee - and everywhere else - toned and built up so that they can support the normal use of the knee. Research suggests that I may be able to delay surgery indefinitely this way. Some people who exercise this way live their entire lives without surgery. That is my goal.
Deborah's aunt Helen died of a brain tumor. It was a fairly swift decline from hospitalization to death. We attended the funeral, particularly for the sake of David and Kelly, who hosted us in Indonesia when we were younger. I bought David's bright red Jimmy shortly after our return from Indonesia, fixed it up and used it for quite a while before it moved on to a new owner, a friend of mine through outdoor ed.
Our own health has been good. Ursula and Ian invited us for dinner right away upon our return; later we returned the favour after they went to Costa Rica for a week. Deborah got another wasp venom allergy short, and had a colonoscopy this morning. Music resumed and we have a goal: Steve Bryers is trying to organize a dance for his wife's dance groups, for the end of March. I'm playing pickleball weekly at the end of Coronation Road in Scarborough with the regular foursome plus a new guy, Bill Reilly. The Men's Shed chapter at Hilltop CC looks like it'll be a go.
Peter Lorenz checked out my new glasses and discovered that they were made incorrectly, and not per his prescription. Terrace Optical is redoing the lenses.
Wayne invited me and some other friends to play music in his music room. It went well, but I doubt that any of them are committed to developing anything more than a once-a-month jam. Don wants Deb and me to play at an HYC Talent Night, and Patrick invited us to perform at a Beatles Night at his cafe. None of these appeal to me much. I don't like doing two or three songs and then having to sit through performances of other amateurs. I have professional performance and listening standards. In terms of instruments, I have six stringed instruments that I play semi-regularly, but the six string Epiphone that Deb's niece Kim left with us has come to dominate my practice time. I still enjoy 5 string, and the remaining four each retain their interest for different sounds and purposes, but the six string, tuned DADGBD (top strings like an open G banjo) has the greatest range and I'm playing more and more sophisticated tunes with it. It fits my hand and the note positions are intuitive. I'm playing some interesting tunes, including Brazilian chorros. I learned Alma Brasiliera, which is becoming slowly easier to play, and I just discovered nine more chorros on Jim's Roots and Blues to try. He's also got some other fun tunes including Twilight Time (which I'd already begun playing by ear on the 5 string), On the list is Teddy Bear's Picnic, which I learned was originally the Teddy Bear Two Step written in 1907, and the Alfred Hitchcock Presents theme which was actually Funeral March of a Marionette, composed by Charles Gounod in 1872. Gounod also wrote the operas Faust and Romeo & Juliette.
2025, December 1st. Yesterday we had our first snowfall. Today it looks as though it will be here to stay, with a high of minus four degrees. Temperatures through December always fluctuate, to the point where we're never sure whether we'll have a white Christmas, or a green-brown one.
In September we were still playing outdoor tennis; this week we'll begin to play pickleball, indoors at "Kitchen TO", on Coronation.
We're getting through a series of medical appts. Deborah is down to once a month for her wasp allergy shots, which were once week for the first four months. I had a "nuclear stress test" which lived up to its name - it was a little painful and stressful - but I passed with flying colours and Dr. Demelo, a nice S. African lady, told me she'd see me again if I wanted but I didn't really need her continuing monitoring. We got our eleventh covid shot, with flu shot.
Mike from Twins serviced the RAV, which only has 55K on the odometer in spite of being nine years old.
Our weekly routine continued routinely, including our four weekly musical activities and reciprocal supper visits to Ursula and Ian, and Laurence and Joan. Jackie's friend Paul Truelove invited us to a sushi supper at Double Sushi followed by a concert by Off Centre Music Salon, a musical organization he has supported for many years.
The Blue Jays made it to a heart-breaking game seven loss in the world series. It was an exciting run, and I found myself caught up in the excitement, uncharacteristically.
We provided another free performance to the kids at Variety Village. This time we sang a collection of Hallowe'en songs. As usual, they were thrilled and grateful. I think it was our fourth concert there.
We had a great winter concert at BCC with our three different musical genre groups. We came away with one video, Button Up Your Overcoat. All our other tunes were just as good, and we had the audience up dancing.
Black Umfolosi came to perform at the church near our old house on MacIntosh, and Deborah was thrilled for us to go and see them. They are very good performers.
Our neighbour Lakshmi's son Swakar got married, and she invited us to the wedding, which was a great honour, we were told, so we accepted. It was a five hour marathon experience, but we were impressed by the interiors of the Hindu temple that now exists three minutes drive from our house. Swakar married a young woman optometrist who works part time for Peter Lorenz, who was also at the wedding. We sat with him and his wife Christine.
Deb located perhaps the only model of flip phone which will serve her mother with a 5G connection. Sylvia is now 102, and her eyesight has weakened a little, but Deb programmed the large numbers on the face of the flip phone and provided a list of Sylvia's most important phone numbers, which she can now call with a single button. One is for the special taxi she uses, another for her sister, three more for her daughters, etc.
September 1st. It has been a difficult summer for gardeners. After a cold May, June was better but July was very hot and dry. Growing conditions were awful for young plants, and we lost squash. We only have seven squash, and most are undersized. July was unhealthy for humans too, with heat exhaustion for those who spent too much of a day outdoors, and bad air quality from forest fires - a repeat of 2023 when we purchased an air filter. August was better, and we now have plenty of beans, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and a great surprise: our strawberries kept producing continuously in the bins I set up for them, now going into the fourth month of eating them every day with our yogurt. We have seven bins.
String band was great. It is still my favourite weekly musical activity. We played in the gazebo at Rosetta McClain several times. We also played three more times at Variety Village for the adult day programs, but they prefer pop tunes. My cuatro tuner stripped a gear, so it is now a nine string. We can get a replacement tuner strip but we're hesitating because of tariffs and uncertainty over the final price. Everything else works fine. 5 string remains my favourite instrument for sound and mental challenge, and it is physically easy to play.
On the 20th we had a meal at Pho Metro with Moe and Jennifer, which was delicious. On the 28th we ate with Ursula, Ian, Adam and Inhee, and Blanca. We went to Arc and Angela's for Canada Day and on July 5th we ate at a Doly Begum appreciation lunch. We sat with Dave Gracey, and our friend Patrick had been hired to play the piano, which was neat to see. On the 6th we had lunch at Jackie's and I took her some seedlings. On the 13th we had Ian and Ursula to our house for supper; we do reciprocal suppers with them about every two weeks.
Tennis continued twice a week through the summer and we were able to keep up with gardening, cleaning eaves, etc, although I got quite lazy about mowing the lawn. Language study continued and I'm beginning to make inroads on Brazilian Portuguese verb conjugation. I understand videos in Easy Portuguese without English subtitles; and also in advanced Spanish, generally.
June 1st. It has been a month since we returned from three weeks in Spain. In late February I got an M-Audio I/O and was able to use it to play along with Anne Delong on Sunday evenings. However, I lost my good ear buds on my trip to Spain. We had various ear buds from the plane and from bus tours but they were inadequate so I bought a Sony pair which seemed to have a good frequency range, but they were actually overly bright. The search continues.
Upon our return we picked up our usual activities: tennis, music, language study, etc. Through May we prepared the garden and started seedlings. I filled black pots and lined them up on the driveway. On May 27th we sold our GMC Sierra Hybrid truck. We bought it for $14,000, held it for sixteen years and trips to Alberta and through the southern States, including towing our boat to Florida on our first year of retirement, and towing our T@B trailer. We got $1,000 for it and could have set up a bidding war and got more, I suspect. But except for replacing the hybrid batteries for $3,000, and the brake lines, it was relatively trouble free. There was an ugly process of resolving a short in the system, being ripped off by a local GMC dealer and having it towed to the extreme west end to someone who was smart enough to resolve the issue - the memory of that will keep me from ever owning another hybrid before we ensure that local mechanics will know how to repair them. So we are down to one car for now.
We had meals with Ian and Ursula a few times; Ursula took care of my orchids while we were gone, and they bloomed upon our return. Some are large and showy. I might have to get rid of those that aren't, rather than spraying them every day to end up with dried buds and small blossoms.
On May 23rd our string band performed at Variety Village for the day program participants and their care-givers. There were eleven or so musicians and about twenty-five in the audience. They were very appreciative. We'll go again in June to sing and play. We learned that they strongly preferred songs rather than instrumentals.
May has had a few warm days for garden prep but has generally been quite cold this year. June is forecast to be much warmer, as usual, perhaps even including some heat waves. I mowed my lawns twice, but haven't yet turned the soil in the back window garden.
Feb 22nd. A year ago I gave Don some sixty year old whiskey for his birthday but it seemed that he wasn't that excited. His bar was full and his whiskey appetite was diminishing. This year I gave him maple syrup because a birdie told me he makes a mean pot of baked beans using maple syrup. However, most of his other party guests brought him alcohol.
My performance list is complete with happy faces, hearts and green highlighting for my best tunes. We have lost three fiddle players but gained two new ones, Petr and Mia, along with a new mandolin player named Linda. Elizabeth has been recovering in hospital from being hit by an Amazon delivery truck while walking. We heard from her once in her recovery, but not within the past two weeks. She had surgery on her knee, and eight broken ribs. We hope she'll be back some day, but it won't be soon. Bill, at 96, can't manage on his own at home so he is in care somewhere; we'd visit him, but we haven't been told where.
We can't go away for at least another week, until Deb finishes her two months of weekly anti-wasp venom desensitization. By then it may be pointless to go. We enjoy being here to play music; we've been buried in a cold arctic vortex and deep snowfall for all of February, but the forecast is for warmer daily highs beginning next week. Also we worry about the rush of airplane crashes since the Trump/Musk cuts to government agencies, and the value of our dollar in the face of Trump's tariff threats.
We'll play for BBNC in early March when the date has been hammered down (the 6th or 7th); we were booked for Feb 13th for a senior's Valentine day dance but a massive snowfall led to a cancellation.
I get to Variety Village now two to three times a week. I'm up to eleven laps on the track before doing some upper body resistance machines. The whole routine takes forty-five minutes. I feel good when I complete each session.
I'm playing accordion but only at home since even Deb tells me it is too loud for our string band. I'll hunt for a smaller one. I play piano once or twice a week, always for jazz standards and sometimes for Wednesday pop. For string band I play 5 string, sometimes cuatro, sometimes tenor guitar, tenor banjo or fiddle. I have other instruments that I play at home but never outside the house because there's no call for them. I play my trumpet on Tuesday jazz standards night.
Ursula gave Deb a cyclamen that is extremely attractive. It sits in her kitchen window pumping out pink blossoms. We had a small poinsettia for Christmas but it didn't last long. I'll try to give it fresh soil in a larger pot and see what happens.
January 3rd. We began the musical year with a really great two hour string band session today. We had seven players, including two fiddlers and two guitarists, and a bass player. I'm on a multi-week project to sort my tunes and indicate on which stringed instrument each is easiest to play. I'll have that on my phone and be able to pick up the correct instrument quickly, And I'll use happy face stickers in front of each one that's solo performance ready. I'll begin taking video of our group next week.
Don's 80th birthday was yesterday. On Sunday we'll go and have a party for him to celebrate. I'll give him maple syrup; I understand he makes a mean pot of baked beans using maple syrup.