Paul Alton MBA

Early on November first, while it was still dark, I set up the laser level to determine where the floor level is on the north side of our tiny house. There is a door that was framed for a future addition, but it is covered by siding for now. Using the laser allowed me to look around corners so to speak. It also allowed me to see how high above ground level the addition floor would be.

We drove to Edmonton to get a minor warranty repair done and to have the car serviced before heading south for the winter. It was a quick trip. There on Sunday. Car in shop on Monday morning. Drive home on Monday afternoon. While the car was being serviced, I also managed a trip to an RMT a few doors down from the car dealer.

I saw the “Stop. Wash. Sing Happy Birthday 2X” sign in a washroom on the way back to Meadow Lake. Who knew that the changeover from Twitter to X was so popular that people celebrate its birthday in Northern Saskatchewan?

Our wonderful little Dyson vacuum cleaner works great, but its battery is dying. I bought a knock-off Chinese battery on Amazon but it didn’t work. Checking the Dyson web site didn’t list any replacement batteries for our model. I called. “So sorry. We don’t sell those batteries anymore. As a loyal Dyson customer we will give you a discount on a newer model vacuum cleaner.” Discounted price exceeded Costco’s normal price for the same vac. With more research I found an adaptor that lets you use a DeWalt battery. We have lots of those batteries. I ordered an adaptor. Reviews say they run better on the DeWalt than the Dyson battery. It means we won’t be able to use the handy charger holder, but we will figure that out.

Juanita captured a pair of goldfish from the pond and left them in Sasha’s care for the winter. I thought I would try an experiment to see if we could prevent the pond freezing right to the bottom this winter. We took all the scraps of Styrofoam leftover from past projects and assembled them on the, so far, thin ice. We’ll see if that creates a spot of water for the fish. If lack of oxygen doesn’t kill them. If our property was more open I’d try a windmill aerator, but it wouldn’t do much in the trees. The pond is bigger than it looks. The scrap Styrofoam didn’t cover much of it. We’ll see if there are any more results than us fishing out floating pieces of foam next spring.

I wasn’t willing to use any of the new Styrofoam sitting in the BigFoot camper for installation next spring. There is a minor leak somewhere around the window or the belly seal. It was too cold to chase down the source of that leak. Random gobs of various sealants applied by the previous owner suggest it is not a new problem. The plan is to pressurize the camper with a leaf blower or shop vac, spray it with soapy water and look for bubbles.

The leak might be the window seal. That obviously needs replacing whether it is the source of the leak or not. I ordered enough new rubber seal material to do all the windows. By the time it arrived it was too cold to work with. It needs to be warm enough out for the rubber to be pliable and not so warm that the rubber shrinks back in cold weather. The original seal has shrunk back an inch and pulled out around the corners. I would guess about 50F/10C would be best. A friend went with a work partner and measured for some large diameter plastic hose for around a pond on an industrial site. They went back into the main shop and cut off the measured length of hose. When they took it back out and put it in place it was a couple of feet short. They figured they had messed up the measurement and repeated the process measuring again and cutting more hose. Short again. The outside air was twenty or thirty below zero. The shop was about twenty-five C above zero.

The daily 10,000 steps happened snow and shine on paths on our property, the grid road, or where we happened to be. It’s not working-outside weather but one day I trekked to the limits of the property and cut a couple of deadfalls that were across the paths. Probably did more reading than walking.

On closer examination/discussion we decided that a sunroom would not be a solution due to lack of space if at some future time we could no longer nimbly ascend the stairs to the second floor. Building a three-season design would not help in the longest season, winter. Building it for winter would be twice the cost and it wouldn’t get any sun. The sun doesn’t get above the trees at that time of year.

I did a rough layout of an addition to the north and was able to make a rough material list and project the cost. We determined we could re-organize the space on the main level. The wood stove takes up a lot of space. There are things we could do with shielding and double walled stove pipe that would cut that by a third. If we are too crippled to climb stairs likely we’ll be too crippled to cut, split and carry wood. At that point maybe rely entirely on electric heat, take out the wood stove and put In a Murphy bed. The money we don’t spend on an addition can go to travel if I can overcome my hoarder instincts.

Attended Remembrance Day ceremonies in the new civic centre. That was our first time in the new civic centre and the first Remembrance Day ceremony we have attended since moving to Meadow Lake in 1990 or so.

Earth was assaulted with cosmic radiation. We were blessed with a couple of nights of spectacular northern lights. We drove to Lloydminster for their extensive Christmas Market. Interesting displays of future clutter we didn’t need. Juanita bought a package of dip mix. I tried buying some smart coffee but gave up on being studiously ignored by the proprietor while she visited with friends. Ernie, Deborah and Sasha were there. We ran into them and visited a bit.

This was our last week at home until next spring.

On Sunday we went to church. Debroah and Ernie were there. At about two we joined them at their home for cake to celebrate Ernie’s birthday.

Through the week I continued with preparations for leaving: packing; winterizing; and dealing with annoying tasks I had put off all summer but didn’t want to face when we returned in the spring.

Monday, I attacked the pile of stuff that hadn’t been filed for months. Tuesday, I went through half of my dresser drawers sorting, culling and selecting stuff to go with us. Wednesday, I went through the rest of the drawers, put a large Rubbermaid garbage can in the bathtub and filled it with water. Thursday, it took about two hours to winterize the water system. We drained lines, removed filters, and filled the pipes, including the incoming pipe, with antifreeze. On Friday, we staged the suitcases and laptop bags downstairs. I set out the parka and boots I will need to wear to clear the driveway when we return.

During the week I went to start the truck to move it to its winter location. The batteries were dead. I guess I left the dome light on. After charging the batteries overnight the truck started fine. I added a new solar panel trickle charger. No idea where the old one went.

We went online and developed a civic twilight schedule for our planned daily destinations. I don’t have any driving restrictions, but I don’t like driving in the dark on strange highway. Especially rural highways with livestock and wildlife. Civic twilight is close enough to dawn/dusk that you can still see well enough.

It snowed the week before we left. Enough to snow blow if we were planning on staying. Little enough we could drive with no problem. If “tomorrow” is a labour saving invention, “next spring” is even more so. That said, as mentioned above, I did do a few tasks that have been on the to-do list all summer. Maybe Just so they are not there to do when we get back.

Applied online for I94 form paid with PayPal. I will still have to stop at the border for an interview.

Packed the car, filled the drains with antifreeze, drove to the grid road and closed the gate behind us. On the road in the twilight about 8:15. Stopped at North Battleford for steps and to pick up a Flash Food order from No Frills. Stopped at Costco for steps and samples. At the doorway of Costco the attendant asked, “Where did you get your membership?” “Why” “It’s 38 years, Costco did not exist in Saskatoon 38 years ago” “Vancouver”

Just outside of Saskatoon Juanita took over driving until just outside of Regina. We spent the evening visiting with friends, Larry & Stephanie. We stayed overnight.

We went to church with Larry and Stephanie then lunch at China Liang’s buffet then back to their home for a visit. Then we drove a little over an hour south to Weyburn. Weyburn is about an hour north of the border which opens tomorrow at 9 am. Checked into motel.

I looked at the manual for the dash cam that was delivered by Amazon to Regina yesterday and decided too tired and too late to attempt install without rushing the job. “Then decided to use man’s greatest labour-saving device - - tomorrow”- Donald Westlake.

Sorted clothes into a single bag for the next few nights. Sorted through paperwork for border crossing. First time I’ve filed an I94 application. We’ll see how that goes. We went to Walmart and bought a microwaveable breakfast for tomorrow and a couple of burritos for tonight. Back to room to settle for an early bedtime.

We were in the car rolling at 7:45 (start of civic twilight) to reach the border about 8:30 making us first in a short line. The border opened at 9. At the booth I presented our passports and said I had filled out and paid for an I94 application online. We were directed to park the car and come inside. They directed Juanita to wait while I went into a room, was interviewed, had my fingerprints and picture taken. The interview wasn’t exhaustive. I confirmed where we planned to stay for the winter. The process took maybe twenty minutes with a pitstop thrown in and we were back on the road through the boring North Dakota landscape.

After about an hour we stopped for gas. I phoned and RSVP’ed that we would not be attending the corporate Christmas party of the company I worked for this year. If we had turned back from the border under the new entrance process, we would have attended that party.

We had good roads with a mix of four and two lane highways. Traffic was light in mostly boring scenery with a few interesting spots. After an uneventful drive we arrived in Rapid City, checking into our hotel about 3:30. The snow which started in Weyburn midday never caught up with us. If we had travelled our usual route south from Winnipeg it would have been a winter driving nightmare.

We went to Sam’s for steps, shopping and salads then back to the hotel and vegged.

The lying, hairy, fat guy on the desk claimed they were out of breakfast croissants but more were on their way. We ate other stuff. After a while I asked the desk clerk who had come on shift when the breakfast croissants were going to arrive. She gave me one out of the fridge at the desk and went and got more out of the nearby storeroom meanwhile muttering about her lazy coworker.

Unbelievably windy this morning. Objects are scudding across the parking lot and street. We were on the road about eight. The tumbleweeds are bouncing diagonally across the highway. Today’s drive is more scenic than yesterday’s. We didn’t take convenient side trips to Mt. Rushmore or the Mammoth Pit today. Been there done those.

We picked up some scones at Cornerstone Coffee in Mitchell and went to visit some retired from SOWERS friends, Leonard and Karen. Karen was under the weather, but Leonard accompanied us to Penny’s Diner in Morrill where we had a good visit. We really miss working with them. Can’t believe it has been over five years since they hung up their tool belts and sold their motor coach.

We tried for an hour early check-in at our hotel in Scottsbluff. Nope. Not without an upcharge. We went to the nearby National Monument for the Oregon Trail. While parked there we considered cancelling the Scottsbluff hotel which we could do up until six without a fee. Decided the next spot we would stay would be a two-hour drive. Nah. We’ll stay with Plan A.

We drove to the top of the bluff. I walked about fifty feet in the wind and got back in the car and we headed down, stopping while Juanita cleared a flock of tumbleweeds off the road and again to watch some tamish deer.

It was now late enough to check in to our motel. I walked to Menard’s for steps. I almost bought some adorable mushroom garden lights but realized they used AAA batteries. Hard no.

Back at the hotel I installed the front camera for the dash cam. Then we went to Walmart to buy salads for supper and breakfast microwavables. We bought gas before going back to the hotel to eat salads and relax.

Despite the drop to minus ten C overnight, we were on the road at civic twilight on a highway that roughly follows the path of the Oregon Trail in the North Platte River valley. There were some rolling hills between Scottsbluff and Ogallala where we joined I-80 which is straight, flat, busy and fast. Speed limit 75 so driving at 79 flies under the radar so to speak.

The dash cam worked fine. I played with it a bit at the first rest stop on I80. We had lunch and bought gas at York. McDonalds does not allow phones from Canada to install the USA McDonalds app without changing countries on your phone. That would cause other consequences to a bunch of other apps. I guess we live with the inconvenience and try and remember it is not a real problem in the scope of problems people have experienced historically. In Japan I was allowed to install the Japan MCD app. That was handy.

Speaking of Japan. At Sapp Bros gas station, where we bought gas, Juanita informed me that the ladies’ restroom had bidets. I was disappointed that the men’s room did not. Almost persuaded to “identify” long enough to use ladies’ restroom. I miss Japan. Ice well water back at home makes a home bidet impractical.

We drove through a touchless car wash to get the road grime off then carried on with an uneventful drive south on familiar US81 to Concordia, Kansas arriving about four.

After checking in to the hotel we went to Walmart for steps, salads and some keto bars. Back home for a quiet evening. Asleep by 9.

Awake at 4. Alarm at 5. Breakfast doors aren’t scheduled to open until 6. I drove next door to the McDonalds which Mr. Google says opens at 5. Dark. Must be Thanksgiving Day. Drive back to hotel.

Get packed and ready to go. Person is setting up breakfast area before six. I fill our travel mugs and pocket a couple of breakfast sandwiches and nuke them in the room.

We’re on the road at 6 and arrive in Guthrie, OK in time to have a good visit with friends, Jesse and Indy, before they have to leave for Thanksgiving dinner at his relatives’ house.

We carried on south stopping at Braum’s. It’s closed for Thanksgiving. Found an open McDonalds and ate lunch there. My Shell app told me where to find a nearby Shell station but won’t let me pay with the app. FastPay doesn’t work so I pay by card at the pump.

Looking for a place to walk. Mr. Google showed Sam’s Club, Costco and Walmart all closed but not Target. Went to a nearby Target. Closed, so we carried on south through Oklahoma City, stopping at a Norman, OK McDonalds for pit stop and ice cream cones.

We arrived at Ardmore at 3 and checked into our hotel. The Two Frogs restaurant next door was very obviously busy. Groups of people outside and a full parking lot. Too early to eat and I need steps. We drove to a local park and I walked around in circles long enough to get the step count up. Then we went in search of an open restaurant. Two catfish restaurants we tried were both closed.

Back at the hotel we walked next door to the Two Frogs restaurant. The parking lot was almost empty. Staff were coming out with to-go boxes. We went inside. “We closed at three.”

There are signs of life  at the Applebee’s next door to the Two Frogs. Our waitress said they opened at three. She had trouble finding lunch on the way to work. She ate at a Popeye’s. At the Applebee’s Juanita had oriental chicken salad. I had a quesadilla burger. Burger, jack cheese, salsa with tortillas replacing bun. Tasty. Filling. We waddled back to the hotel to read a bit before sleeping.

Awake at 4. Read & surfed. Headed to shower a little after 6.

The breakfast buffet offered white bread for toast, two types of cereal, scrambled eggs, sausage patties and waffle maker. No butter? Asked at desk. No butter. Odd. At least they had syrup for the waffles. Don’t know what you’re supposed to do with the toast.

On the road about 7:30. Stopped at Buc-ees in Ft Worth on I35W for gas and a clean washroom. Some of their billboards read “pottie like a rock star.”

We stopped at a Braum’s in Hillsboro for cones. It was too early for lunch but this is the furthest south Braum’s on our route. Later we stopped at McDonalds for lunch just before leaving I35 to take the toll road around Austin. I ordered the same items as yesterday. Today the charge was $13.16 vs yesterday’s $9.05. While we were stopped for lunch we took the opportunity to fill up with gas.

The toll road bypassed Austin. Austin is crazy. So is its traffic. Just off our route were a couple of notable attractions we didn’t digress to. We didn’t stop for the pecan pie vending machine or the “world’s largest pecan” or the nearby bigger, “world’s largest pecan”.

We arrived at Mathis and checked into the motel a little before four. Left the bags in room and drove to Lake Corpus Christie State Park. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of walking trails and I’m too cheap to pay ten bucks to drive a couple of hundred feet to look at a boat launch ramp and leave so we u-turned at the toll booth. We drove through the nearby area with glimpses of Lake Corpus Christie through the shrubbery. On the way back to the hotel we picked up breakfast microwavables, dropped same at room fridge, bought gas and had supper at out favorite Mexican Restaurant in Mathis, Taqueria Vallarta. Been going there at every opportunity since our first night out of Mexico in the spring of 2006.

On the way into the restaurant there is a sandwich board listing the specials for each day of the week. I misread it to mean all off them were possible specials for today. Ending up paying a bit more than expected but dined on what we wanted. Wouldn’t have ordered the Friday fish special, in any case.

As I was dozing off, I realized, that despite opportunities today, I had failed to wish any black people, “Happy Black Friday.” Maybe I’ll remember next year.

We took time getting up and on the road in Mathis. We were in the car by about 8 for the two-hour drive to our winter home in some friends’ fifth wheel trailer parked at the Way of the Cross Training Center just north of the airport in Harlingen, Texas.

On arrival we headed to Ben, the director’s, office and got caught up to date. He has had close to two months of painful recovery from a knee replacement but is getting closer to attaining a useful level of mobility. Then we unloaded the car contents into the fifth wheel and headed for lunch at the Laredo Taco Company near the freeway.

I dropped Juanita at the laundromat and went to the HEB supermarket for steps and supplies. We liked the coffee maker we bought there last winter so much we took it back to Canada. I bought another. There aren’t many priorities higher than having coffee available when you first get up.

After picking up Juanita, we went to Sam’s Club for gas, a few more steps and more supplies. And Walmart for more supplies. Then home to finish settling in. I neglected some of the settling chores to read a mystery novel.

A neighbouring missionary brought us some Borsch she had just made. We ate a bit of that. Shortly after that I realized that I had run out of gas and headed to bed to be confronted with the stuff still on the bed because I had been reading instead of being diligent. In a beyond tired fog I dealt with that and fell into bed and into a coma until morning.

We were up early. Juanita went to visit her friend on the property. I was still engrossed in the book that I was reading last night instead of doing chores. I had a shower and looked at the time. It looked like I would be late for church, so I rushed around and raced across to the chapel. I wasn’t late. Church was slow getting started. Had time to visit with people we had seen since last spring.

Brother Ben was the speaker. Apparently, this is the first time in a while that he has spoken there. His message was in two parts. First was about some things that came out of his convalescence.

He had been laid up for 40+ days. He typically has not been one to sit around. He is more of an action figure. During the time in his recliner, he and his wife had an unprecedented time to just talk. She asked him a lot of questions about his childhood.

What was his most memorable Christmas?

He remembered laying awake waiting for Santa. Santa obviously could not come down their tiny chimney, but his father had assured him Santa could come in through the front door. He dozed off to the sound off sleigh bells as he lay in his bed waiting for Santa. He woke up at what he figured must be after Santa had been and gone. He went downstairs with his younger brother. His sisters and mom doing everything that Santa was supposed to be doing.

His favorite birthday?

The day after birthday he got a box of 100 baby ducks. India runner ducks. Prolific egg layers. He thought he would make piles of money, but the eggs went to the family and other stuff intervened, so he didn’t. 

The family held singalongs at least once a month. His father was a skilled musician and all the family got to pick and sing favorite songs. Great fun. The kids all looked forward to the singalongs. They would always be bugging their dad about when the next one would be.

Father was a reader and shared stuff from what he was reading. One time he spent a couple of evenings talking about atomic energy. This came in handy when Ben enlisted in the Marines and there were a couple of pages of questions about atomic energy on the aptitude test he filled out.

When Ben was 12 his father brought home a friend and all that stopped. The friend dominated their evening with his self importance and even claimed his mother’s attention in the afternoons. The friend was a TV set. No more family discussions. No more singalongs.

Then Ben spoke on Judges 4. Sisera despite his 900 chariots was defeated in battle and fled. He hid in a woman’s tent. When he dozed off the woman killed him by driving a tent peg through his head. We’re like the Israelites who allowed sin to come in. No different now than then. When we get tired of the sin in our lives and come to the Lord He can deal with them just like the tent peg dealt with Sisera.

After chapel we ate the leftover borsch before driving to the border. We walked across the bridge over the Rio Grande River to Nuevo Progreso. I mistakenly went past the usual pharmacy we deal with and walked further up the street to the Canada Store. It only had one box of what I wanted. I bought it for $1.95 and walked back to the Disco store. On the way I checked at a random pharmacy who had the right pills but fewer in a box for twice the price. At the Disco we bought the rest of what we wanted. We walked back across the bridge to join the line for customs and immigration. After a quickish interview we moved along to a step that is new since last year. They put Juanita’s purse and my bag of pills through a scanner. They wanted to know what the pills were for. That’s the first time that has happened to us. It seems to be the new normal.

We drove to Costco in Pharr, buying a bag of grapefruits on the roadside on the way there. When we arrived at Costco, I bought a soda to wash down a couple of headache pills. We walked around Costco. They no longer stocked the one item we really wanted from Costco. Pity. Way cheaper than HEB on that item. We ate samples. The place was a zoo. There were a few other items we might have bought but such long lines. No “Scan & Go” to take you around the lines. We left after I refilled my drink.

We drove to Sam’s Club for salad fixings and a frozen yogurt. There is no need for standing in line with Scan & Go. You just scan your purchases with your phone and pay in the app.

We came home for a quiet evening.