Autumn has arrived with a bang … and winter is coming. We’ve had some pretty cold weather with a couple of warm days thrown in (the record temperature for October 27th was broken – 23 degrees C). Snow flurries are expected this week and the wind chill tonight is supposed to be around – 10 C ☹. I’ve been pretty busy raking and bagging leaves the last couple of weeks – got up to 103 bags so far – I’d spend a couple of hours a day filling bags and taking them to the recycle depot and then return home to find the yard covered in leaves again ☹. But I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel – there should only be about forty bags left to go!! Five weeks to go until our cruise to Mexico (Pacific Coast and Sea of Cortez) – everybody is getting pretty excited about that!! On a sad note about Mexico – Acapulco got hit by a Category 5 Hurricane last week ☹. The whole hotel strip has been heavily damaged, the death toll is 49 so far, and thousands of people are left without homes, food and power ☹.
The beginning of October saw an unexpected Hamas attack against Israel – they launched over five thousand missiles and rockets against the Israelis, slaughtered over fourteen hundred civilians, and took over two hundred hostages (most of whom are still being held, they’ve only released four so far). The attack took everyone by the surprise but the response by Israel against the Gaza Strip has been fast and devastating – over five thousand civilians killed in massive bombing attacks over the past three weeks. Thousands of Israeli tanks are ready to enter the strip and over three hundred thousand reservists have been called up. There are riots around the world protesting the humanitarian crisis, but I’m positive this is what Hamas wanted – they knew that the Israeli response could make the rest of the Islamic world rise up against Israel. The whole region might be drawn into a conflict that could be the beginning of a new World War ☹.
The war in Ukraine is still dragging on, winter is setting in and the offensive wasn’t as successful as they wanted. The Russians have thrown massive attacks against Eastern Ukraine in the last couple of weeks (and have lost over four thousand killed / injured soldiers in the past week alone) but the ground war will soon come to a halt as winter begins. The good news is that Ukraine has started manufacturing drones at a fast rate (they expect about ten thousand a month by December) and they have a much better air defence / anti aircraft than last year so their infrastructure should be better protected this year than last. However, the situation in Israel has diverted a lot of money and resources that would otherwise have gone to Ukraine. North Korea and China appear to be supporting Russia – I would say world wide tension has not been at this level since WW II ☹. … and as I have said before; have someone kill Putin … that man is insane.
… We are cooking meals as always … We’ve had beef rendangs; homemade Polish Pierogies; Polish Bigos (Hunter’s Stew);Kelly’s Beef Stew; Kelly’s Chicken and Cabbage Soup; Kelly’s Cabbage Rolls; Pad Thai; grilled sausages; hamburgers; lots of pasta and meat sauces; Kofta meatballs with veggies; and lots of different paninis (roast beef, spinach and ham, chicken, turkey, bacon and Swiss cheese, etc.).
We are almost finished Season 4 of ‘Virgin River’ – the acting and script lines are verging on horrible ☹. One more season to go so we will stick it out to the end. On the Netflix side I finished rewatching ‘Money Heist’ (Casa de Papel) – I get something new out of it every time I see it. I started rewatching ‘Las Chicas del Cable’ (Cable Girls) – it’s a pretty good series about women in Spain during the late ’20’s and the Spanish Civil War ‘30’s. I’ve almost finished Season 3, two more to go.
On the NHL front – the Maple Leafs are off to a good start, tied for third (5-2-1). Seattle Kraken not so much – they’ve only won two games so far, but the season has just started so we’ll see how it goes.
On the MLB front –Toronto Blue Jays made it to the wild card – and promptly got knocked out. Seattle Mariners just missed a wild card spot. It’s the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers in the World Series tied at one game apiece.
On to golf … The Fall Fedex tournaments are on – it gives golfers a chance to move up in the standing and qualify for the big money tournaments in 2024. Sanderson Farms – which Mackenzie Hughes won last year – Adam Svensson tied for 14th, Hughes didn’t make the cut; in the Shriners Childrens tournament Canadians did fairly well – Adam Hadwin came in second, Taylor Pendrith tied for 3rd, Svensson again tied for 14th. The Zozo tournament in Japan was this past week Canadians came in 21st, 41st, and 48th – not a great showing. First week of November is the World Wide technology Championship in Los Cabos Mexico. Should be interesting, a hurricane just finished going through there.
NFL news – Seattle is kind of off and on – their record is now 5 and 2. The losses were to the Rams in week 1 and to Cincinnati in week 5; they should have won both games but had hiccups in the fourth quarter. They won yesterday at home against the Cleveland Browns – two weeks in a row that two rookies (Jake Bobo and Smith-Njigba) have scored touchdowns. With a San Francisco loss (three in a row) the ‘Hawks are now the leaders in their division. Next week will determine whether they can contend against a better team – Baltimore Ravens on the road 😊
Have a great and safe week … pray for Ukraine … we will see you in a bit!! 😊