Wednesday

Golf day, was up early and Gerry C came by to golf with the group from our park.  All of the tee times were spoken for and we were fortunate again, being in the first group out.  It was pretty chilly last night, so they had put the sprinklers on to get the frost off the greens and tee boxes.  The result was quite good, but we had a lot of slush in the grass on the fairway of the first hole.  How much, well we were about 2/3rds of the way to the green and having trouble with our footing.  I checked the soles of my shoes and had built up almost an inch of ice on my spikes.  I knocked it off, but by the time we got to the green had to do it again.  The ice/slush was just in the shady parts of the fairway and by the end of the second hole it had all melted.  I blame that for my terrible score on those two holes, LOL.  It was warm enough otherwise as the chill from the evening dissipated. 
  When we got back, Gerry's wife Deb and some friends of theirs were at the house, so we had a nice visit and by then it was lunch time.  It is their friends first time in this area and they seem to be enjoying it.  The guy is golfing with us tomorrow, so will get to see them again, he is a hunter, so should have lots to talk about.  It was nice to see Deb walking on her prosthetic leg, it has been a struggle for her.
  After lunch, Marg went to Bashas for a few things, came back with the nicest New York steaks as they were one of the many specials she went to look at.  Sometimes the beef here is good, but other times we have found it tough or not what we are accustomed to in Alberta. The price was certainly better than anything we have seen in Alberta in a long time.
  I stayed home and worked on a problem with the eaves over the Az room.  The Styrofoam blocks I put in to keep the birds out of the insulation had blown out this past summer in the wind storms.  This gave the birds an opening to take bits of insulation out for their nests or potentially build a nest in the openings.  It doesn't appear that they have done a lot of it, but I need to close it off.  The fine mesh I fabricated the inserts out of will both keep the birds out and allow for air circulation under the carport.  We'll see how well it works in practice.  Made for a tough day, working on a ladder after walking at golf this AM.
  Happy hour came along and it was back at the Johnson place again.  That is the regular happy hour gathering spot.  The talk of the day their was a couple who had to make an emergency trip home this AM because their son had died yesterday.  Pretty sad!
  Supper was the NY steaks and baked potato and it was great.  The steaks bbq'd up just fine.  Marg bought some thinner as well as thicker ones, so I cooked one of each.  That way she got her well done and I got a med rare, both done at the same time.  Pretty clever of her.
  After supper it was poker night.  We had a couple of new players, so played with 8 tonight.  I played a lot of hands before I won the first one, so was down most of the night.  It seems I had a bit of a come-back towards the end and while I don't count at the table [like the old Kenny Rogers song], I think I came out about even.
  The weather really warmed up today and around mid-day was very nice.  The forecast looks pretty encouraging with more normal temperatures in the 14 day forecast period.