It has been a month since I’ve updated – me bad!! It has been crazy busy – I was studying 4 hours a day for a professional certification (CISSP, passed), there was a nation wide internet outage last week, lots of yard work to do, etc., and a whole bunch more of flimsy excuses!! 😊 So the update today will be brief in place of a major update but I promise to get back to weekly blog updates!! The past five weeks has seen some pretty strange weather – we’ve gone from spring through summer and it now feels like autumn; hot during the day, cool at night. So, pretty good for sleeping – unless you have a flock of noisy sheep and a neurotic sheep dog across the road. Darn dog would start barking at 8pm and kept going until 5am the next day!! Neighbours were pretty good about it – they put the dog up in the barn for the night 😊. We've had lots of deer sightings as well - usually about three / four times a week ...
Canada Day (July 1st) was pretty quiet around here – there were some fireworks over in Aylmer and St. Thomas but we couldn’t see them due to being blocked off by 100 foot trees to the North and West of us. They had some ‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters in Ottawa again but apart from giving out about 300 parking tickets and one policeman being choked it was pretty well controlled and there were no major incidents caused by those idiots. Speaking of idiots, Tamara Lich’s bail was revoked for violating the conditions of her release and she was thrown back in jail until her new hearing on the 15th. Good.
COVID cases are still increasing – and Monkey Pox is still on the rise. The government has also given notice that the COVID vaccine is no longer effective if you have only had two shots; everyone should get at least one booster (I’ve had two 😊); apparently the Omicron variant keeps mutating ☹. I just hope we can go on vacation to Mexico in December – but the way things go there will probably be ‘Llama Flu’, or ‘Goat Disease’, or ‘Flying Squirrel Syndrome’ (that one might be cool) or some other disease that will keep us off the plane ☹.
The ‘Special Military Mission’ in Ukraine is still going on – although Putin has given his troops a break and some time to regroup (read ‘running out of troops and modern weaponry’ into that); Iran might be providing military hardware to Russian – which is kind of funny; one heavily sanctioned country providing another heavily sanctioned country with obsolete weaponry. Mariupol fell, Luhansk has fallen, Donetsk is next on the list – but maybe Russia is finally starting to slow down and Ukraine might be able to reclaim the overrun territories; but only if the western countries keep providing them with weapons and money. Side Note: Ukraine is complaining Canada is returning Siemen Canada turbines to Germany and therefore violating the sanctions against Russia – Germany is heavily reliant on natural gas from Russia due to the Nordstrom 1 pipeline and requires the turbine undergoing maintenance in Canada. In my opinion (and that of the U.S. and Germany) Canada is supporting Germany and not Russia – giving Germany time to switch their natural gas suppliers.
… So much for a quick update 😊. Lots of cooking (as always) going on: We have had beef and chicken curries; steaks; burgers; Roast Pork / Roast Beef with roast veggies; Loaded pasta casseroles (bacon, sausage, ground beef, tomatoes, etc.); Chicken / Steak / Roast Beef Salads (easy to make, and sooooo tasty); Chicken and Shrimp with Oyster Sauce; Pork Tostadas (with corn tortillas of course); Pineapple Stuffed Chicken (again); Beef Enchiladas; the list goes on 😊. On the Netflix front we finished watching ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ – it wasn’t bad, we will probably watch Season 2 when it comes out. The series are based on crime novels by Michael Connally (‘Harry Bosch’ series, etc.). We have been watching ‘Homeland’ – on Season 5 now – it’s been around for a while (2010 – 2021, 8 seasons) but we didn’t know about it until last month. Much better than ‘The Black List’ – although there are some plot lines that are a little spotty; however, Claire Danes’ acting is superb. Once we’ve finished ‘Homeland’ we will have a few other shows to catch up on – ‘Animal Kingdom 5’; ‘Better Call Saul 5’; ‘Anatomy of a Scandal’, etc. . I’ve watched so many foreign series on Netflix that I can’t remember all of them – it will come back to me, but right now I’m on Season 2 of ‘Capitani’ – a Luxembourgish (yes, it is a language) police crime thriller. I found Season 1 to be pretty amateurish but this season is actually pretty good and ties up loose ends from the first season. … And how often do you get to see landscapes and city views of Luxembourg, anyways?? 😊. finished Season 1 and 2 of ‘Toy Boy” – and it turned out to be pretty good, more twists than a bag of pretzels 😊. On to golf … lots going on in the last five weeks but I’m only reporting on some highlights. Corey Connor was top Canadian at the RBC Canadian Open – he came 7th – but didn’t make the cut at the U.S. Open. Adam Hadwin did and finished 7th (his best major finish ever). Adam Svensson has made 3 top 10 finishes this year; two in the last month, he’s on a roll. The Open at St. Andrews in Scotland starts tomorrow – only two Canadians are entered; Connors and Mackenzie Hughes. Tiger Woods is also playing – so most of the tv coverage will probably be about him ☹.
NFL news – still got nuthin. Seattle is in training, but no decision has been made on who the starting quarterback will be; although there are rumours that they might sign Jimmy Garoppolo. I say go with Drew Locke. In hockey Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup!! So Nick Kadri gets to bring the Stanley Cup back home to London, Ontario sometime this summer!! Got to go … I promise to update next week … have a great and safe week … pray for Ukraine … we will see you in a bit!!