January 31, 2020

The McKnight’s lost another great one over the weekend – Frank.

Frank was a “much older cousin” so I didn’t know him well growing up. I remember Christmas and New Year’s dinners and being astounded by the amount of food he and Bill could consume at a sitting.

In later years I remember the Christmases when he and his family (a very small Lindy) would come home from Vancouver.

When I moved to the Lower Mainland in 1985 Frank and his family were very kind to me and I got to know them as an adult. No matter how many jobs Frank held after his navy days, Christy remembers him as “the one who drove the Häagen-Dazs truck”.

I had a chance to see Willa and his children when we were back in the Lower Mainland last weekend, and I had a chance to meet a couple of his grandchildren.

I will always think of Frank as a gentle man.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

I had a few priorities for the day – get the Hall minutes out and pack up for our trip to Texada tomorrow. And by “pack up” I mean get all my projects gathered up.

But it has been non-stop with email and phone calls. We are getting swamped with rental requests for the Hall (which I handle); that is a good thing but I don’t generally have this many in one day. Plus I had to make arrangements for key pickups for people who are coming into the Hall in the next week. There was follow-up I had to do from the meeting and that took some time.

I’ve had several back and forth messages with Quilt Canada. I had a message this morning that the entry I submitted yesterday hadn’t gone through. They had some “issues” with their form and even though I got a confirmation they said it hadn’t gone through. It’s a good thing I had complained yesterday or they wouldn’t have even know about my submission. Quilt Canada did some adjustments to the form and I resubmitted; again I got a confirmation but later I got another message that the form hadn’t gone through. I ended up sending the information via email so they could enter the information at their end. I’ve just now got a message saying that both of my submissions did actually come through. They need more help than I do!

Just to take a break from the madness I took a walk to deliver a Hall payment, pick up another book from the Library, and make a Hall deposit. I’ve been at my computer since I got back; e-mail is all answered and the minutes have been distributed.

We were looking forward to another cooking class at the restaurant tonight – you know, the one where they do the cooking and we sit and drink and eat. Pat noticed online that it had been cancelled. We’ll go out for dinner anyway.

I haven’t done a bit of packing so I’d better get at it if I want to be able to relax this evening.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

I knew I was going to be late for sewing today as I had some Guild work to do before I could head out. The entry form I needed to fill out and send back was supposed to be online by nine o’clock but they didn’t actually get the form posted until closer to 9:30. By the time I got all the information filled in it was close to ten before I got to the Church. The parking lot was full and I had to park way at the end, which meant I had to haul all my stuff quite a ways. When I got into the Church someone had already taken “my” table (her comment was “You snooze, you lose” even though I was working on Guild stuff) and all the tables we have were already in use. I ended up having to share a table, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it meant I couldn’t spread my stuff out too much.

I got three more blocks quilted for my Quilt As You Go project. When I came home I attached the last block to the second row and I hope before the evening is over that I can get the first three blocks of the third row attached. I’ve run out of batting at home so I’ll take the remaining blocks (and probably the whole project) to Texada with me this weekend.

Last night, when I was packing up my cards to finish, I noticed that I had sewn one together wrong. I got it fixed and both cards are quilted and ready for the mail. They don’t need to go out until next week so I’m almost ahead of myself. I do have one more item to make for a January 31st birthday; I stopped to pick up a cube of soap on my way home and I’ll make a pouch for it. I expect to see the recipient at the House Concert on the weekend so I’ll give it to her a day late.

Monday, January 27, 2020

We had a great weekend in the Lower Mainland. It was such a delight to see Taylor compete in four gymnastics disciplines on Friday morning – floor, vault, uneven bars and beam. Of course she excelled in each, winning silver ribbons in all but the beam – for that one she won a gold ribbon. At Taylor’s request we went out for Chinese food after the meet. The restaurant Rick’s parents picked was one of our favourites from when we lived in Port Coquitlam. And if Taylor was tired after the meet you’d never know it. Saturday afternoon she was back at the gym practicing her back flips – her goal was to do four in a row and she achieved it!

We were also happy to be able to see Dylan do some scootering. I’d seen photos but watching him in person was a little nerve wracking. Not that he had any bad falls but just the anticipation as he goes down an almost vertical wall and then up on the other side to do a twist or a spin and then down the next ramp! He quite happily spent three hours doing it but didn’t mind a bit that we came back to Christy’s.

You will notice there are no photos. Both of those kids moved too fast for me to get anything but a blur!

On Saturday I had a chance to go out for a walk with Christy and George. I don’t know who taught those two to walk (I guess I can blame myself for Christy and she taught George). We did the “short” trail but we were gone for more than an hour and I could hardly keep up, especially on the hills. I decided right then that I’d better get myself back out walking so maybe next time we can do the “long” trail. I’d actually settle for not being completely wiped after the short walk.

Even though I had prepared most of my reports for the Hall meeting tonight it seems I spent most of the morning revising them or adding things to the agenda – it was a busy weekend in my e-mail. I have a bit more to do this afternoon as one of the invoices I was expecting last week came in after lunch.

In light of my need to do more walking I walked up to the library to pick up my books. I also stopped at the car insurance place and Walmart but everything I picked up fit in a small bag so I wasn’t overloaded on the walk home.

Now, I’d better get these last reports finished for the meeting tonight. I still need to get things ready for the bee tomorrow.