November
6th, 2005:
Mostly
cloudy, though the sun did peek out a few times today, and temperatures
hovering about zero, as they have been for the past few days. There
hasn’t been three degrees difference between the high and low since
Wednesday night.
Our
home was invaded by six pretty girls and scary creatures Monday night, and
almost by one big dog, but the scary creatures shooed it away. I never saw
such a pleasant, polite bunch of kids, and they all posed cheerfully for a
picture. I am a grinch when it comes to Hallowe’en but get mellow when
the kids are as great as these!
We
were over Highway #38 to Kelvington three times last week, and each time
there was a large flock of whites and smaller geese in a field a few miles
north of town. They weren’t spread out as one would expect if they were
feeding, but seemed congregated in a fairly small area. Resting up for
their long trek? There are lots of Canadas around, too, and I guess they
will hang around as long as there is open water and bare fields.
We
got our first real snow of the season Tuesday night; we were in Saskatoon
and the streets were clear before long on Wednesday. We thought it would
melt here, too, but although the temperature never got much below freezing
the sun stayed hidden, and the snow hung on. Then we got more on Friday
night, possibly a couple of inches, but it’s almost all gone now.
Once
again hockey is the main topic of conversation at coffee. Last winter was
nice for those of us who don’t follow the game, but we did miss the
ongoing rivalry between Jack (Montreal) and Merv (Toronto). Jack came in
last week gloating over the fact that Toronto had been beaten, but Merv
didn’t give him any satisfaction. “Oh, is that right? I didn’t watch
it. In fact, I didn’t know they were playing!” He can display a lack
of interest in a most convincing way!
Of
course, with hockey comes the hockey pool, and Merv usually brings a very
professional-looking sheet of statistics taken off the Internet.
Apparently you don’t have to follow hockey to be successful in the
hockey pool. Once, when she lived here at the Park, Jenny entered the pool
and won first place -
she chose her players by whether or not she thought they had cute butts. I
guess one way is as good as another.
If
you hear we are spending a lot of time in the bar lately, don’t take it
too seriously. For the winter, the Cove is not opening the restaurant
until 11 AM on weekdays (usual hours on weekends), but they are serving
coffee in the tavern. We like it fine, but miss the big round table.
It’s surprising how many can sit around one of the small tables, and
it’s easy to pull two or three together. And, of course, we get to swap
insults with Dawn!
