We're off

My brother and myself are off on a family adventure. He and his wife Ruth (yes , we both married Mennonite Girls named Ruth) are moving to Stratford , Ontario. They have had all their worldly goods shipped to their new home except the car. Ron and I are driving it out there this week. They stayed at out house last night and Ruth is staying there until next Thursday when she flys out to Stratford. Here we are getting ready to leave after loading the car.

I took this picture of the milage before we did the first fill. I will be able to figure out how far we drive in the next four days now. We made Medicine Hat on our first night. We'll be in Winnipeg tomorrow as long as we don't get caught in the blizzard that is happening in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Supposidly the weather will start to improve by morning.

Ron was busy trying to get his Tim H coffee open and wasn't paying attention to the wildlife in Golden. I don't think he would have been so calm if this guy was real.

There was a lot of wild life just outside of Golden. I was sorry I was so slow on the camera.

We drove thru Rain , hail , snow and sunshine today. Overall it was a real nice day. We stopped in Calgary and saw my buddy Brian at his piano store. He has a friend who makes pens and I had ordered 10 custom bullet pens from the old guy that I picked up today. It was good to have a short visit with Brian. He makes me laugh and seeing him stuck in his store sure makes me glad I am closing mine.

Today life wasn't fun

I took Sweet pea to the vet today because she has been panting heavily for the last few weeks. This isn't normal. I left her there for the day so they could do some tests . She had an X-ray and blood tests done as well as some hands on tests. She doesn't have cancer which was one thought but her blood pressure should be around 120 but hers is between 190-200. This could be caused by a tumor in her liver / heart or by a disease called Crushing Disease. Apparently this is common in older dogs. She has been such a great dog I don't know what I should do. I plan to read up on the disease and decide from there. I won't let her suffer.

I leave driving tomorrow morning to Stratford with my brother. He and his wife are moving out there  from Vancouver and I am helping drive his car to their new place. This problem with Sweet pea will be put on hold till I get back. It would be nice if she magically got better while I am gone.

I got Jack for dinner

We are having Jack stay overnight for the next few days. Carrie is pulling long hours for the next few days and we love helping with Jack when ever possible. He is such a cool little dude. I don't know how he squeezed into the back of this little toy.

It sure looks like a kids house when he comes over. I think Ruth has gotten more toys for Jack then we had for our own kids. Here he is offering me an imaginary treat.

He can entertain himself for hours. Even the dogs like to be around him.

It finally dawned on me that I should be giving him something to eat for dinner. This dinner brought up that age old question man has pondered since the beginning of time.

You can tell by the serious look he is also pondering that question . Even at his early age. Amazing.

This was a long drawn out process to get the answer and he needed a few drinks while figuring it out.

It was interesting to see the process he went thru to get to this stage but it is obvious by this picture that he has found the answer. It was the egg. He didn't even eat the chicken.

Fun at a customers house

I get bored easily while sitting at a piano tuning it and sometimes my mind wanders. Today I was tuning a nice little Pearl River that I had sold to this music teacher last year. I was thinking how tarnished the lock and the brass lettering on the key cover had become. I have this fantastic brass polish that I ordered from an American company last year while I was doing a restoration on a customers Grand Piano. I figured that a nice gesture would be to polish the brass for her when I finished the tuning. This polish is magic. It came up like it had just left the factory .

I don't have any love for Yamaha pianos . I don't think they are very good instruments for the price and they get too much credit. Sort of how McDonald's have the best known hamburger on the planet thanks to their great marketing but I don't think they are the hamburger I would want to eat. My customer also has a Yamaha Grand piano sitting next to the Pearl River and I thought it would be nice to polish this pianos brass name on the fall board. Then I thought it would be funny to only do part of it. I wonder if she will notice the shiny HA on her pianos fall board. I laughed half way home thinking about this. I have to go back to tune the Yamaha next month so I will likely finish the polishing then.

I got home and Jack was running around in the house. He decided to go outside to play but Ruth said he had to wear shoes. I laughed when I saw him dragging his feet across the yard wearing her shoes.

     He is soo cute. He amuses himself so well. I hardly know he is there most of the time.

It was a fashion day in Kelowna

So Gus the Cool Guru was at the Art Centre about 10 days ago to administer his thoughts on the broken cooler and was wearing the fashion of the 50"s . I thought he be more fashion conscious coming back to execute the repair today but when I arrived for my morning coffee I spotted him crouching behind the cooler explaining what he was doing to the machine with Carrie wearing the same type of white socks. No matter how I tried to get a good picture he kept changing angles to out sox/ I mean fox me on my picture . This is the best I could get.

I always know when summer is just around the corner. Out come the Bikes , Hoses and Rubber Boots for the garden.

Sundays are for Friends

We started out today around 7:30 down at the Savages admiring their yard. It is like being in Disney land. Everything is so perfect. This has to be a full time job. Gordon's pond is perfect.

The yard is manicured like a garden we would pay to go to. The views are fantastic.

We headed out from there to do a hike that took us up one steep hill It is hard to tell from the pictures but we were working. I thought Kim was going to call for a helicopter to come and air lift her out.

I like how even when the hills get tough everyone still sticks together.

We all had dinner at Debbie and Keith's house tonight. It was a combined effort that the women made. Each one of them is a world class chef. I had looked forward to this meal for a few days. We talked about this event over dinner and think we should do this 3 - 4 times a year. Ruth made an Italian  veggie dish yesterday for today that was fantastic. It took half the day to make but was worth it . It is called a Torte Rustico.  Wonderful with all the sauces that also went with it.

Keith even served an Italian wine with the meal that had the same name so you can imagine how well it was paired to this meal.

Kim Made a wonderful pork roast and Shelly did one of her world famous salads.
Debbie made the most unusual tasting radish dish that was great.  She also made the most fantastic desert cake I have ever had. I'm still full. The whole plate of food was out of this world. Likely one of the best meals we have had for a long time. It tasted as good as it looked.

This is a table of friends that have been together for almost 15 years. Ruth and I  always love when we get together for these evenings . This is what life is about . Friends  , Food  ,  Wine ,  Laughter  and good conversation.

Here is Bruce's response to a wine that Keith gave him that was below his standards. I don't think he knew that I was looking.

My Rock Star Afternoon

I met up With Andrew around 4:30 this afternoon. He has a very interesting life. He is an entertainer and has done this for most of his adult life. Most of his work is in the states and he bounces between Vegas and L.A.  I have not spent a lot of time with such high energy in quite a while. He seems like a great guy but I must admit that I was a little tired after being with him for 2.5 hours. He doesn't slow down . It was a lot of fun being with him . I hope he decides to buy this piano. He seemed to like it. He's a big player.

I looked on utube and there were a few videos he has done. He is very talented and the utube videos don't really do him the justice he deserves. I could have listened to him for hours. He is the entertainment at the May 1 Gala that the Rotary Art Centre is putting on. I would like to go but I am driving to Stratford that week.

Check him out here.
http://youtu.be/VuzMEoX2yN0

My back room is so busy

I pulled up to my store this afternoon and just flew out of the truck. I thought someone was breaking into the place. It looked like all kinds of stuff was being moved out the back door.

When I got out of the truck I wasn't sure what was going on and then Dale came walking out of the shop. He is refinishing a grand piano for one of my customers. I had totally forgot that he was on this job. He was the last person I was expecting to see on a Saturday afternoon. He is a bit of a workaholic.

The last piano he did was done inside the shop and it made a heck of a mess with all of the sanding dust. I said he couldn't work inside the store anymore so he is doing this one in the parking lot. It is turning out beautiful. Here he is mixing up the lacquer.

I was busy with a customer for a few minutes and when I came outside I saw he had brought the piano outside by himself . He doesn't look like Charles Atlas but I am starting to think might be the real deal.

Dale is starting to get a collection of Grand pianos in the back room that he has finished. We need to get this Heintzman delivered and paid for. Seems the owner has left the country for a while.

He helped me to load up our Kayaks that I stored in the back room over the winter. We needed to make space for his latest grand piano project.

Saturday started early

I hit the ground running this morning. Ruth was gone at 6:30 to go for a walk with her friend and I was supposed to be at Carries place at 7:45 to walk the greenway with her and end up at the market for breakfast with Ruth. We were on the path by 7:55. It was a beautiful morning.

There was this huge blue heron  that landed on a little branch near the top of a tree. We both laughed when we saw the little branch it was balancing on.

The market was great. A true sign of summer coming. They had a couple of Alpacas there that had just been shaved. I felt sorry for them . They were cold and shivering. They sure did look funny with their big heads.

 Not much meat on these guys.

We went to the Harvest Golf Coarse for a really nice breakfast. They do a good job there. After we ate we walked around the backside of their pond and had our pictures takes with each other. It was a nice morning with Carrie. She makes me laugh.

                              These two sure look like mother and daughter.

                              I love being able to spend time with my youngest baby.

                                            This was a great morning. I love this golf coarse.

I love my Daughters

This kid is such a hard worker. She has done most of the finishing inside of her home and is now completing her kitchen. This is the last counter she has to do. It looks great. I can't wait to see it on top of the cabinets.

She asked me to come out to help but she really didn't need any help. I think she try's to humor me a lot.

I'll take a picture of the counter when she gets it into the house.

Funny Friday

I had to go down the driveway tonight to tease my neighbor. I do this whenever I want a good laugh. He was working on a car that he has had under construction for the last 5 years. It is getting painted one square foot at a time by him using spray bombs.

His name is Art Goerzen and he fancies himself as sort of  a race car aficionado. I asked him tonight if he has gotten himself an email address yet and he informed me that he had. I asked him what it was and he said that it was Goerzen nascar @ gmail.com. I laughed and that was a great address for him and then repeated Goerzen ass car @gmail.com. He corrected me and I repeated what I said again. He was starting to get mad so I moved on to other things. It was funny.
He then showed me the magnetic bracelet .He was saying it works like magic.

He told me that when he sits on the toilet his back hurts an awful lot but with the bracelet on there is no pain. I told him to stop sitting on the toilet and when I told Carrie this story she thought he should loose the bracelet and invest in a big box of Depends. Back problem solved.
I originally went down to their place tonight to check out their fish pond. One of these fish is from our pond that we had when the house burnt down.We came back to the property after the fire and there was a piece of yellow pages torn out of a phone book with a black felt pen note written on it saying "we found one fish still alive in your pond amongst the rubble so we took it down to your neighbors and put it in their pond" signed the Edmonton Army. That gesture struck me as something that was special when I considered the devastation that was happening all around at that time. Inga knew which fish it was that they saved and it is still alive and doing fine in their pond.

We have been taking care of Dorothy all winter waiting for when we can set her free in Goerzens pond with the other fish. Ruth bought her last fall from a pet store for Jack. She was to be a feeder fish for larger fish but Ruth thought Jack needed a pet at our house. There is a fish called Dorothy on Sesame Street that Jack likes so that is how Dorothy came to be. She has grown Quite a bit since we got her.

It is still too cold to set her free but I can see a Free Willie type ceremony happening before the end of June. I actually have enjoyed having her . She has quite a personality. I never realized how great a view she has until I looked at this picture. She is likely looking at the lake all day wondering how she can get over there.    IT'S SO CLOSE. SOMEONE...HELP

Friends are so important

Today was a little disjointed. I had a couple of appointments to get to and they were in the middle of the morning and the middle of the afternoon. That throws the whole day into an organizational mess. Luckily my friend Gus had time to meet me for lunch and help me feel like I actually accomplished something today.We met at a little European Deli for a great lunch and then headed down to the Art Centre to park the cars and go for  a stroll along the water front We needed some time to solve world problems. I am laughing to myself tonight thinking about how nervous he was leaving his car in a no parking zone. Check out the sign on the building in front of the cars. He was worried that we were going to get towed and he would have to explain that to his wife. Apparently he is adamant in telling her never to park in No Park Zones.

We had a nice walk along the lake and ended up in City Park. We are so lucky to live here.

                             I love the new bridge. It sure has improved traffic going thru town.

There is a building in the park that someone burnt down last month.It has the most beautiful wood carving in front of the old entrance. I thought it was gone with the building but it remains unscathed. I would love to own this carving. Luckily it is still here and I am sure it will end up where we can all enjoy it.

Our walk took us past Randy's bear. He tells me that they have only had one batch of tourists climb onto it for their pictures. They have since made it impossible to climb the bear.

                                  This bear looks great at night with the lights on.

So we get back to the Rotary Centre for the Arts and settle into a cup of coffee at their Bistro. They are having a problem with one of their coolers . Gus is a refrigeration genius and he couldn't sit still until he looked at their problem. Apparently it is something he can fix without too much trouble and made arrangements with our friend Tracy(Executive Director) to fix it next week. Looking at this picture I realize he is the only person that I know who wears white socks.  I wonder if he is glued to the T.V. when they show reruns of Grease.