The Travels of the Agnew Family

What a beautiful evening for a parade .... snow on the ground so it looked Christmasy, temperature just hovering around freezing and no precipitation. The parade ran for about 35 minutes, not bad for a small town and there were lots of spectators (at least in my opinion as this is the first time we have attended the local parade).


What's a Canadian parade without a Tim Horton's truck giving out free hot chocolate. Homer Simpson is appropriate as one of the main employers in the region is the nuclear plant.


Anne and I all bundled up for the parade. I had on enough layers that I didn't even get chilly. The clown was a big hit with the kids as he made balloon candy canes, swords, and hats for them.


A fellow we know brought his steam engine to the parade.


Here it is .... the airport float. The guys did a great job building this float.

wings attached ... check, lights on ... check


pilot on board .... check


co-pilot in position .... check

Now it's ready for the parade. Well actually four parades or is it five? When people heard that the airport was building a float, several of the local towns asked if the airport would put the float in their parades and of course they said yes.

A week or so a go, Ed spent a couple of days at our friends hanger at the local airport working on a float for the local Christmas parade. Victor has a couple of airplanes that are in pieces, so they decided to use one of the fuselages as the base for a plane and Ed was given the task of building wings and a tail out of wood. He was also in charge of wiring for lights. Victor and another fellow did the painting. Today it was the move from Victor's hanger to the maintenance shed for the final assembly.

The snow we had a couple of weeks ago disappeared when a short Indian Summer happened. Unfortunately, the warm weather went away and an Arctic cold front came in bringing lake effect snow. We've been shoveling the driveway at least once a day over the past three days and have over six inches of snow. As it's lake effect snow, it's not constant and we got to enjoy some sun as well. If this keeps up it's going to a be a very long winter.

Guess I shouldn't be complaining as I hear Texas has been experience cold temperatures as well including the valley. Apparently it dropped to 54F --- cold for the valley in November.

I told Ed that if we were staying home for the winter we were going to enjoy it. One of the ways of enjoying winter is ice skating and our local arena offers seniors ice skating two mornings a week so we're going to make our bodies remember how to skate. My neighbour Ellen has a pair of ice skates that no longer fit her but happily fit me. Ed doesn't have skates so we decided that I would try it and if I liked it he would buy skates.

First time around I hung pretty close to the boards, but after that I got a little braver. I think it's been more than 40 years since I've been on skates, so I think I did pretty good. The years of skiing probably helped.


Looking a little stiff but skating with Rob and Ellen.


In 40 minutes I only fell twice --- I'm calling it a successful outing and Ed needs to buy skates.

Today the ATVs were put to bed for the winter. Anne and Victor have a couple of large cargo containers that they use like a barn and lucky for us there was enough space for our ATVs so in they went. Think I owe Victor lots of driving time on my ATV.

"Rhonda" the Honda is happy that her garage bay has been freed up. She's looking forward to being inside during the bad storms --- and I'm looking forward to not having to clean the snow off of her.

Good friends of ours have decided to downsize their home. Both of their children are married and they are starting to think about retirement. Ed and I are happy as they are moving a little closer to us. It's still an hour and a quarter drive but it's closer and it's in town where there are stores we would visit. Yesterday, they closed on their new home and today we went to visit (they're not actually moving for another week). Our friends new house is similar to our home (pre-addition) and has a large backyard and an amazing kitchen. I think they will enjoy this home for many years to come.

I think this is going to be the theme of a lot of blogs over the next few months. Shortly after I arrived home last evening it started snowing and continued through the night. When I woke up this morning there was at least three inches of snow on the car. At least this morning the only driving required was to Hanover for aquafit and that was optional.

After aquafit Zaph and I took a walk to the river to take some photos. Snow can be very pretty especially when the sun is shining, there is little wind and it's just below freezing. It also helps when you know that it's all going to melt in a couple of days ---- the forecast for the next five days has the temperature staying above freezing even at night.









After the walk to the river, Zaph and I went into the backyard to clean off the barbecue and smoker. One of us really likes this weather.

Today was a busy day. I had two appointments in Burlington plus I took my mother to two appointments. Before I went to bed last night I looked out the window and saw that it was snowing --- and there was already a couple of inches of snow on the car. So, the alarm clock was set an hour earlier than I had originally planned on giving me time to clean the car and extra driving time. Luckily, it had stopped snowing by morning and the snowplows were out. The main roads were wet but clear of snow. About 45 minutes into the drive the traffic was stopped on the road. There was a large vehicle pulled over on the southbound side of the road. Stopped In front of me was a SUV and a school bus. Beyond the bus I could just make out a pickup truck that was loosing control. Next thing I saw was the pickup truck going of the road into the ditch and rolling. When I was parallel to the accident I noticed one person looking into the truck with a cell phone in hand and several other people running to over to help. As I have no medical skills I decided that it was best if I cleared the scene so there was room for the rescue vehicles.

The accident stuck with me all day and prevented me from driving too fast or doing anything else silly on the remainder of the drive down and the drive home. Hope the driver was OK.

Today is rainy and cool (3 degrees C or 37 degrees F), not the greatest weather for standing for a service at the cenotaph, but that's what waterproof footwear, raincoats and umbrellas are for. Just before we headed out our neighbour informed us that the service was moved indoors at the Legion and it was already crowded there. Ed and I decided that we'd skip the formal service and walk to the cenotaph and observe a minute of silence. To our surprised there were over a hundred people at the cenotaph --- many of them students from the local Catholic high school. We arrived just in time to hear the last of In Flanders Fields being read and to hear a prayer from one of the teachers.


My father served in WWII.

This is what I woke up to this morning.

Even though I now have winter boots I'm just not ready for winter --- don't know if I'll ever be ready.


These two are just too cool in the ATV goggles Ed bought on his shopping trip yesterday.

In an attempt to be ready to enjoy winter, Ed and I purchased snow shoes today. I've been told by a number of people that they are "fun". Here's hoping they are correct. I guess now I'll have to wish for enough snow for snow shoeing.

For the last eight years I have helped my friend Lori set up her pottery show which is part of the Frederick Art Walk. This year was no exception. Ed helped too --- first by staying out of our hair by going shopping then by helping us arrange the 308 pieces in a space that would comfortably hold around 200 pieces.

Lori and I unloaded the last kiln firing, sanded bottoms, priced all the pieces then set up the display. Over the coarse of the day I think we moved every pot at least five times.

Part of the end result. Unfortunately my photos of the large table were fuzzy.





By the way, Ed's shopping trip was successful, he bought lots of things. He even came back and took me to a local shoe store where I bought a pair of soon to be needed winter boots.

Unfortunately, it's that time of year when you scurry around putting the things away that you spent the spring and summer putting out. The majority of our yard looks barren and is ready to face winter. The barbecue, smoker, etc. are still out and active. Ed is hoping we can continue to use them for a couple more weeks. The Miata is one of the items that has been put to bed for the winter. She's not going to be alone though --- Rob's TR6 has joined her in the garage.


Don't they look cute all snuggled into one garage bay. It's amazing what four wheel dollies and jack can do.

Our friends Anne and Victor own a farm and suggested that we bring the ATV's to the farm and ride them around. So today was the day.

Ed and I did a short ride then Victor borrowed my ATV and he and Ed went for a ride around the farm. It's not exciting riding but it is a nice way to get around the farm and have a good look at it. While the boys were riding Anne and I cleaned one of her gardens .... hmmmmm, I think we got the wrong end of that deal.