Yup … late … again 
. No real excuse … except still doing a lot of studying. September has always been a month of many starts ... Sixty years ago I started Grade One; fifty years ago I started my last year of High School; forty years ago had a bad car accident and started running for therapy in September; 27 years ago left the Navy and went back to college; the list goes on. I took last week off … I have five weeks annual that I have to use it or lose it … but the time goes so fast and there was lots of work to do around the property … lawn care, chainsawing, cleaning up afterwards, etc. Another big shout out to Cousin Jeff who took all the tree debris away in his front end loader and dumped it in the ravine back of the bean fields. We got a lot of horse shoe throwing going on the last couple of weeks … Kelly has kicked my butt almost every time . Even rubs it in by getting three ringers in a row!!. With all the outside work Doug the Dog has spent lots of time outside, running from one end of the property to the other!! We went for a drive down by the lake … lots of people getting their last bit of summer in. We’ve had some pretty hot weather … and some pretty cold nights. Throw in a full moon, some wicked thunderstorms and heavy deluges of rain … it’s been a pretty interesting summer, weather wise 
. They say it’s going to be a long, cold winter … so we will enjoy the good weather while we still have it .j
COVID cases appear to be leveling out – although there was a report that probably 90% of Canadians have already contracted it at some point in the last couple of years. So if you thought you had the flu – it was probably COVID. Just another seasonal virus that we will have to get used to. Get your booster shots, any recurrence of COVID will probably be mild. Most cruise lines and air lines have dropped travel restrictions. We are looking forward to finally start travelling again – end of November through mid February – and it would be nice to not to have to register on the arrival apps or have prior testing for the virus.
The war in Ukraine has started to turn in favour of the Ukrainians. They have reclaimed thousands of miles of territory and liberated hundreds of villages and towns in the past three weeks. Russian soldiers are panicking and running away leaving weapons, ammunition and vehicles. Hopefully the Ukrainians can keep the momentum going and completely kick the Russians out of Crimea and the Donbas region. The Russians are still launching missile strikes against civil targets as a form of revenge against their tactical losses. Another good outcome from the Ukrainian success is that countries such as China and India are backing down from supporting Putin and will probably put their own plans for territorial acquisition into abeyance – at least for now.
… Lots of cooking (as always) going on: We have had the usual chicken curries; beef and pork rendangs; steak and kidney pie; steaks; burgers; roast pork or roast beef with roast veggies; Mexican Shepherds Pie; Chicken and Steak Salads; and Pork Tostadas. Bought a couple more briskets, should be making Montreal Smoked Meat soon!! . On the Netflix front we finished watching ‘Animal Kingdom 5’ – mehh, not really impressed. We watched all of ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 5 – it was pretty good, the final season should be coming on shortly. Watched ‘Devil In Ohio’ – fairly predictable satanic cult flick, not very well acted. Watched a Canadian series on Prime – ‘The Lake’ – fairly light hearted and funny, there will be a Season 2. We are currently watching ‘Ludik’ – the first South African Netflix series – reasonably enjoyable, fairly predictable. Season 9 of ‘The Black List’ will be starting in another week, looking forward to that. I’m still on a German kick - I read all of the Detective Gereon Rath books – they were completely different from the Netflix series that was based on the first two books. I finished watching ‘Oktoberfest – Blood and Beer’ – it was pretty good. We had started watching ‘Dark’ a couple of years ago, but Kelly didn’t really like it – it was too ‘Dark’ I guess. However, I went back and watched all three seasons of it – very complex and mind-boggling as the story line (and the actors) keeps going between alternate time periods and eventually parallel worlds. It’s amazing how they tied all the story lines of the families together. I started watching ‘Kleo’, a German spy thriller set around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s quite good. I also watched ‘Entrapped’ – sort of Season 3 of the Icelandic series ‘Trapped’. I’ve been waiting for this to show up on Netflix for about 14 months now – delayed because of COVID – and I am … disappointed . Only six episodes; the plot lines are all over the place (or shouldn’t have been included in the first place); and very poorly acted . The only good point about the series is the incredible Icelandic scenery.
On to golf … the regular season came to an end with the Fedex Championships – only one Canadian – Corey Connors – made the final 30, finished 23rd, and earned about $550 K U.S. for his trouble. The new PGA Tour Season started this past weekend with the Fortinet Championship. Nick Taylor finished tied for 6th (approx. $220 K), Adam Svensson tied for 12th, and Mackenzie Hughes tied for 25th. Altogether a good showing for the Canadians. (Corey Connors and Michael Gligic didn’t even make the cut – Taylor Pendrith did, but blew up and came in tied for 67th).
NFL news – the regular season started a week ago, second games played yesterday. Seattle lost to San Francisco 27 – 7 (their only points came from a blocked kick and run back for a score by Michael Jackson). Seattle picked Geno Smith for their starter and he did pretty good in week 1 against Denver – beat them 17 – 16!! – but he looked horrible yesterday and I really believe they should give Lock a chance. I’ve kind of rambled on this time, but I do promise to update more often. Have a great and safe week … pray for Ukraine … we will see you in a bit!!