Yup … again I’m even later than usual… 
. But I’m going to keep this update short as soon we have to pack (more on that later) 
. I finally got all / most of the leaves picked up, bagged, and taken back to the recycle depot. One hundred and thirty two bags!! It would have been more if we hadn’t had about 12 branches trimmed off the maple trees earlier in the year. And of course, there is one tree that still refuses to give up all its leaves … well, they can wait until spring!! That was a lot of raking, bagging, and driving back and forth to St. Thomas and / or London to the depots!! Remembrance Day came and went … I did my usual drive around South Western Ontario to visit the cenotaphs. Typical November 11 … rainy, miserable and cold . But at least I didn’t have to do cenotaph duty as I had during my military years. November 13 was our wedding anniversary – 16 years since Kelly and I got married during a cruise on a beach in Antigua. It rained that day too! A year later we were in Panama on the 13th – yup, it rained again. I believe 9 or 10 times out of 16 we were either on a cruise or a resort during our anniversary – of course, the last three we spent at home because of COVID. So, finally it’s here – we are leaving in a couple of days to go back to Mazatlan (where we were when COVID began). Two weeks at a fantastic resort, with amazing food and service … we are looking forward to just relaxing, eating, spending time on the beach (or by the pools) and maybe taking in a couple of excursions. I’ll try to update the blog while I’m down there – like … ‘today did nothing’, ‘next day – nothing’, ‘next day – sunburn’, etc.
COVID cases appear to be increasing again … several cities in China (including Beijing) are on total lock down. Kind of déjà vu back to 2019 before the pandemic . Companies are still trying to get their employees back into the work place ... we’ll see what happens with all these viruses on the uprise!! When we head off to Mazatlan in a couple of days we will be wearing our masks on the flight, hopefully this time we won’t have to come back early . The weather has been pretty cold for this time of year, we had a week where the temperature was below freezing - sometimes with a windchill of -14!! But then we had a full moon and the temperatures went up again, the last couple of days over 10 degrees. We were pretty lucky last week - Buffalo got buried under with over 7 feet of snow in places, but we didn't get any at all!! Strange days indeed!! ... And next Tuesday they are forecasting over 26 degrees Celcius!! In Mazatlan 🙂 .
The war in Ukraine keeps turning in favour of the Ukrainians. They have retaken Kherson and hundreds of villages / towns in the oblast. There is still a massive battle happening in the east over the town of Bahkmut with the Ukrainians barely holding out as the Russians (pretty much in retreat elsewhere) are concentrating most of their resources (except missiles). The Russians have resorted to basically carpet bombing the rest of the country with missiles and drones in order to destroy the infrastructure (utilities, hydro, water, etc.). …And, it’s working. Although Ukraine keeps restoring the power grid, renewed assaults on the system still keeps over 30% of the infrastructure unusable. … And winter has arrived. So, many people have no access to heat, electricity, sewage facilities, and potable water. It’s a matter of basic survival … but if the Ukrainians can survive the winter I believe that they will be able to push the Russians completely out of Ukraine and return their borders to the pre-February 2014 ones. … And if this does happen, I’ll throw in another bonus prediction – Belarus will overthrow Lukashenko (who lost the 2020 election, but remained in power illegally) and possibly join the western NATO alliance against Russia. There have been several false-flag attempts by Russia against Ukraine, but as Russians are basically stupid and their efforts ludicrous and transparent; nobody in the west believes them. Oh, and as I have said before; have someone kill Putin … that man is insane.
… Lots of cooking (as always) going on: We have had the usual chicken curries; beef and pork rendangs; steaks; burgers; roast pork or roast beef with roast veggies; Fresh Pastas with Meat Sauce and / or Meatballs (homemade of course); freshly made pierogies; home-made veal, spinach, and feta ravioli with marinara sauce; Steak Salads; and Pork Tacos, Quesadillas, and Beef Birria on the Mexican side. That beef brisket that I smoked last month? It made its way into several delicious meals . On the Netflix front we finished watching ‘1883’ – the prequel, kind of, to ‘Yellowstone’. That was absolutely horrible with very little redeeming qualities . Come to think of it, ‘Yellowstone’ is fairly awful also, but at least it’s pretty to look at . We’ve made it through Season 5 of the Love Boat – Paramount kept cutting out and we were unable to stream for a while – it's better now. We just finished watching the third (and final season) of ‘Dead To Me’ – it was actually quite well done. We’ll probably watch Season 5 of ‘Yellowstone’ when we get back from Mexico. I finished watching ‘High Water’, about the horrific flood in Wroclaw, Poland back in 1997. It was pretty good, and I got to see many places that I had visited back in 2001. I watched ‘Under Fire’; a Belgian fire fighter thriller / melodrama. Okay, but nothing special. ‘The Final Score’, a Columbian drama based on real events, was excellent. It tells the story of Andres Escobar, a soccer player on the national team, who was shot and killed after accidentally scoring a goal on his own team during the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. The story is well told, and well acted by one of my favorite Columbian actors Juan Pablo Orrego (‘Alias JJ’, ‘Wild District’, ‘The Snitch Cartel’, ‘Sin senos si hay paraiso’). The third (and hopefully final) season of ‘Deadwind’ – a Finnish detective series – was about as well done as the first two; poor acting and script. I’m currently watching ‘Diary of a Gigolo’ – a Spanish murder mystery along the lines of ‘Toy Boy’ – I hope some new series come on soon; I’m getting desperate for foreign shows!!
On the NHL front -Toronto has won their last three games and are in third place in the Eastern Conference; Seattle Kraken, surprisingly, have won their last four games and are third in the Western Conference. Apparently miracles still do happen. On a sad note, Borje Salming, one of the greatest hockey players ever to play for the Maple Leafs, died last Thursday from his battle with ALS .
On to golf … the Christmas break is on, no more tournaments until January. However, the Canadians are on a roll!! Mackenzie Hughes won the Sanderson Farms Championship at the beginning of the season … and Adam Svensson won the RSM Classic last week – two Canadian wins in 6 weeks!! … And they both won over $1.45 M U.S. for their troubles!! So they now sit 3rd and 6th in the Fedex Standings (yes, it’s still early, but hey, way to go!!).
NFL news – Week 12 is just starting; Seattle was on a bye last week after losing to Tampa Bay in Germany two weeks ago; but Seattle (6 -4_ is now in second place in their division – San Francisco (6 – 4) is in first due to having beat Seattle in week 3. The division championship will probably come down to the Seattle / San Francisco game 4 weeks from now. In any case, the way Seattle is playing should get them a spot in the play offs. Denver – not so much, they are still tanking.
I will try to update while I’m down in Mexico … and I really have to catch up on Netflix reviews. Have a great and safe week … pray for Ukraine … we will see you in a bit!!