This was Christmas, 2009 for us....

From Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Christmas Trip

My daughter came home from Montreal on Saturday, after her last exam. We scheduled a train trip, although costing much more than the bus, it would be more assured of making it home in case of inclement weather. We had decided this was well worth it for us all.

On Saturday morning after a bit of a trial by transportation, she arrived safely at the train station only to have a delay due to engine trouble. Forty-five minutes later they were off, and it looked like smooth sailing.

There was some more mechanical trouble along the way and we would be off by about an hour and a half.

We planned that she would get off in Toronto at Union Station and get a GO train to Burlington where we could easily get her and avoid, if there was any, a Saturday before Christmas rush.

The wall plugs were not working on the train so her computer battery ran down and that communication died. The Wi-Fi was out as well. Her phone battery was on its way out and there was no way to rejuvenate that either. We used text to communicate at this point so we knew what was going on.

My wife had been ill and had ear infections and decided to take a nap before we had to go. We had a few hours left before we would have to leave.

I went to use the computer, having just reinstalled it into our partially restored home office when the phone rang. My daughter was calling. The train stopped in Oshawa, Ontario and could go no more as there was a fatality on the tracks! Basically, that was the end of the line for at minimum, two hours! It may continue after that but there was no assurance.

I woke my wife up, who had been sleeping for ten minutes, and told her we were going to Oshawa, even though I had no idea where it was or how far. My other daughter did a MapQuest while I went to get gas. We took the GPS and left.

It’s about 75 miles and the traffic was about what one could expect driving around Toronto on a Christmas Saturday, just awful! However, we never stopped for a minute! We were there in an hour and a half, about 15 minutes after the train left for Union Station!

A brief stop at Burger King and we were off to home, It was another hour and a half without incident, but our planned Chanukah dinner (belated) was put off yet another day.

It was an unforgettable journey to surely make for a more well rounded Christmas.

Holiday Gift 2013

My aunt called yesterday to get my mother-in-laws telephone number so she could thank her for the lovely holiday gift she received. It was a great box of special candy, chocolate and mint as well as some other candy items. I gave her the phone number but realized right afterwards that I had it wrong and actually had given my aunt her own number for at least the last 4 digits. My mother-in-laws number is XXX- XXX-0847 while my aunt’s number is XXX-XXX-0164. I gave my aunt the 0164 suffix with my mother in laws beginning numbers.

OK, this was screwed up enough, add to that I am old and getting older and my aunt is 95! It was a mess! I called immediately and corrected it, and thought for a moment, and called my mother-in -law (who is 85) and asked her if she had sent chocolate mint candy to my aunt. She had not, so I called my aunt back for a third time to tell her the chocolate mint candy came from me, as I thought it sounded familiar!

There was only one card that she saw with the two boxes (delivered on the same day) and assumed the card covered both boxes. Not so!

Since I didn’t pay for the extra card, my printed message must be printed on the address label and she never saw it. I explained that my mother-in-law had sent Turkish paste and we had sent Chocolate Mint Bark candy (which she liked best because she told me about it thinking it came from my mother in law).

This is way too complicated a story, and my daughter complained that I spent 45 minutes shouting into the phone, given no one hears that well anymore.

The Wedding Ring Saga...

(This is a ring, but not the original as it is 500 miles south of here.)

 

Among my mother’s possessions, my son found a mysterious ring.  It is 18k white gold, thin, faintly beaded at the edges.  I did not recall my father wearing it, although that remained a possibility. I believe it was his wedding ring, probably purchased for the wedding but not worn again, as he didn’t ever wear a ring. It looked more like a ladies ring but my mother had told me once it was my fathers.

My son liked it as a remembrance of his grandparents and wore it on his right hand ring finger.  It was most notorious for being the ring that he gave his infant son to distract him while I he changed his diaper.  My grandson promptly put it in his mouth and began to choke on it, which led to an ambulance being called.  He was fine (it being, after all, a ring -- with a big hole in the middle).  It went through his digestive tract and was recovered from his diaper some days later.  It sat in dish soap for a few days and was returned to its rightful place on his finger.  It’s been there for over 15 years.

A couple of weeks ago my son was washing dishes and didn’t realize the ring had slipped off his finger.  He discovered it when he turned on the disposal and heard the crunching sound.  He was distraught to find the ring fairly mangled.  He set it on his dresser and proceeded to mourn.  It was missed it both physically and spiritually but he never told me about it.  The indentation on his finger did not wane and was a constant reminder. He also had a bit of phantom ring syndrome.

Then, the other night, among his birthday gifts from his family, he found the ring, entirely restored. His wonderful wife had taken it from his dresser and brought it to a jeweler.  They did a fantastic  job – they could not replicate the beading, which is now missing from some edges, but that is not noticeable.  It is about the most wonderful thing – up there with his Top 100 all-time song favorites and his ultramod-13 inch B&W molded plastic bubble TV as all-time great gifts. 

So the ring is once again in its rightful place – having survived twice after wallowing in mashed up food.  The mystery of its origin remains, but it sure is great to have it back where it clearly belongs.

 

The Christmas Card

After a long day, we had come to the realization that we had to soon order our family photo Christmas card if we were going ahead with our normal order, usually 100 cards. Many of them are sent by email, so we do many more than the 100.

The photo had been selected during the year, from a visit to the Chautauqua Institution. The four of us along with my mother-in-law were included. We had a discussion about how to include my mother-in-law in the card and how we could explain her easily in the signature line. I played around with Photoshop and removed her, and it looks fine so we solved that problem. I hope she didn’t want to be there.

I received an email from Costco reminding me that it was time to reorder Christmas photo gifts etc., so I saved the email until the correct moment arrived. Although we were in a hurry, we decided to get it over as quickly as possible.

I opened the link from the email and started to use the site. It didn’t recognise me and I ended up stating over as a new customer, assuming they lost my account. I uploaded the one photo, but as a full size photo it seemed to take forever. Once there, we looked through the various options and had to try out at least six or seven combinations to see what worked. Than we had to select a type face, a color and something to say to get it all correct. It took forever but finally it was right.

We ordered and the prices were just not what we expected, a bit too cheap, but they could have lowered the price this year so while I mentioned it, there was no other recognition of a problem. Finally, as we were finishing the order, they ask us which state we live in! We don’t live in any state, we live in Canada, and so this damn thing won’t work!  Almost an hour spent doing this!

I went to My Favourites and chose Costco and got Canadian Costco, not the one that sent the email, and they had my original account, all my old photos and were ready to go as soon as I re-uploaded my new photo. The cards were of course, different. We had spent so much time already that this part took very little time and it 15 minutes later and we were done. The cards will be ready sometime today, and the 100 cards are still around $35.00, a bit more than the US cards, but still very cheap. The postage is more than the cards.

I may never figure out how I get email from the US Costco (I get Canadian as well) even though I’ve never been to one, except I may have done just the same thing before….

From December, 2010...A Christmas Story

From Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A Christmas Story

From December, 2010...A Christmas Story

I was standing in the postal line at Shopper’s Drug.
The Shoppers Drug chain has sort of replaced the traditional post office in many Canadian cities. A small, full service postal outlet exists in most of the stores around here.

There were several people at the counter; putting stamps on cards, filling out papers etc. and two women were in front of me in the line with several more people behind. I was watching the woman in front of me impatiently wait her turn. She was examining almost all of the items on the shelves on both sides of our line. She seemed determined to touch or handle in some way at least fifteen different products while we waited. In front of her there was a woman who should have blended into the background, but she caught my attention.

The woman must have been around 60, with stringy hair and older clothing. She was unkempt, but not looking homeless or out of place, just sort of disheveled. She had a medium to large mailing envelope with her and there was another one on the shelf next to us that looked like she could have put it there. The woman in front of me asked her if the envelope was hers and she said she had taken it, and was going to put it back when she got finished in line. I knew immediately she was lying, they came in packages of two!

She had an object she was fooling with, a pink belt like contraption that may have held books, or dogs or something, but it was something she had picked up in the store. She may have had other objects that I never saw in the envelope. She was trying out various ways of folding it so it made the smallest footprint in the envelope.

When she got it fixed, she pulled the tape on the envelope and stuck it together, it was closed! Next, from her purse,. She pulled a pen. She addressed the envelope she was prepared.

Her turn arrived and she went up, and had the attendant weigh the package, and she paid the postage! She did not pay for the gift or the envelope!

This is the perfect crime! You involve the post office as an unwitting partner!

What guts, she didn’t even bring in her own envelope! You just pick your “gift”, steal your envelope and mail it to yourself!

No store detective can find the missing item on you nor tamper with the mail to find it!

 

The Shoppers Adventure...

This one is complicated. It’s a simple story of standing in line yesterday at Shoppers Drugs waiting to make a purchase. The woman in front of me had a bunch of items to purchase, and it was a special day where one could get two gift cards at $10 each for any $75 purchase. One card was from Shoppers and one from Tim Horton’s.

I was purchasing a bottle of Tylenol on sale for $10.

The woman in front of me looked familiar, although she wasn’t, but I actually thought I knew her. She had one package, a gift item; she put aside after checking the price and decided to make her decision later on this item.
I offered, if she did not get to $75 to let her purchase my Tylenol to make up the difference. She thanked me but thought she’s made it. I think she thought I was offering my purchase to her and would give her the cash, but in all honesty, I only had $5 with me anyway.
By now the line was getting long and the cashier called for backup in the next isle.

The purchases came to $75.34 and she was good for the two gift cards, and all was right. The second cashier came up and asked for the next one in line, which was me.

The woman behind me, an older woman (although probably not older than me) yelled out, “That’s me!” and grabbed her stuff and went in the new line. The woman behind her yelled out that it was me that was next, not her, and she yelled at all of us, inventing a new shopping rule, “He put his package down already on the counter so I’m next!”

The woman behind me now began to get worried because she thought I was in need, as I was buying Tylenol. I let everyone know I wasn’t in a hurry, and it was OK that the lady pushed her way in front of the new line.

The woman getting the gift cards started apologising because someone must need those Tylenols and she was holding up the line. I told her I was fine, and we were OK, and she decided to purchase her one gift item if she could use her new $10 Shoppers card, as long as I didn’t mind. I assured her I didn’t and let the line know that the old woman who pushed her way in was rude and beyond acceptance. However, The Tylenol was just a fill in and everyone was feeling better.

Besides, I said, I was going to put then whole story of the Shoppers line on my blog, it was so much fun.

The woman with the $75 bill begged me not to use her name. I yelled out to her as she left, “I can’t use your name, I don’t know it!”

She didn’t tell me her name so I can only leave you with the story. I thought that it must have been a full moon. It wasn’t, I checked.

But somewhere there is a very nice woman, in her late 40’s, wearing a stylish black leather jacket who has a gift for someone that cost $19.99 and she got $10 off.

Oops! I did it again…

Oops! I did it again… I played with your heart, got lost in the game…

I'm not that innocent…

I said I would stop falling (down, not an in love issue)

Here I was in the morning, on garbage day, going out (way past the garbage take out time, already done) to take Max for a walk. I had taken out the garbage in good, slip-on shoes but used my “regular” big shoes to take Max for a walk. Unfortunately, they had little or no soles left; in fact as they went into the garbage container later on after we saw they had holes in the soles.

I made it to the end of the driveway and here we go again, I fell! I went down on my very bad knee, the one that has its own doctor looking after it, and managed to twist my very bad, totally repaired ankle, broken 12 years ago and full of metal parts.

I lay there in the driveway, unable to get up, hoping nothing was broken and assessing my situation.

Max’s leash was in my left hand and secure. My cell phone was locked in my car (not good) and my wife and daughter were somewhere in the house. I looked around for help, it was 7:15 in the morning, and there was none. I screamed for my wife to no avail. I needed something solid to lift myself up.

I looked around and found “the green bin”. For those of you unaware of a green bin, it’s the raw garbage recycling container that has two wheels and goes out once a week. It is sturdy, and there is no way I can get up without something to hold on to, as my knees went away a long time ago. The green bin was it, providing that nothing was badly broken so I could stand.

The next problem was the bin has two wheels, and if it slides on the wheels, it would fall and would open and I would be hit with an entire bin full of wet garbage. I would be found, lying with my dog on the driveway, while he was eating a bad dinner of leftovers poured all over me!

I had to do something, I was wet and bleeding from my right knee, and I hurt! The green bin was my only choice, and I positioned myself in such a way that it should work. I had to open the top and get my hands over the edge to make sure the weight would hold the thing on the ground and the wheels wouldn’t get moving on me.

I sit here now in my office, hours later, with my knee and my ankle hurting, a bandage on the knee, trying to figure out how not to kill myself the next time I go out! I need to try and be careful. When I took out all the garbage and recycling I was very aware of all of the pitfalls. However, I guess walking Max was such normal activity that I paid less attention.

The doctor says it’s only soft tissue damage.

So, Oops! I did it again….