A log about those Silly Folks and their Escapades

Covid – Covid – Covid

Early in October the Kamloops City Strummers did an outdoor and socially distant concert at The Shores Retirement Residence where GGMA lives. It was a nice day and an appreciative audience.

The Saturday of the Thanksgiving Weekend we met up with the Princeton and Kelowna families in Merritt at Rotary Park for a picnic lunch. It was so great to have everyone together and the weather held until we were all ready to head home. It was truly something to be thankful for.

The rest of the month just flowed by with regular day to day stuff. Line dancing for Brenda 3 – 4 times per week and strummin’ for me.

October 23rd was the first snow fall for 2020——— WAY TO EARLY !

Well, September arrived and of course Covid is still here; and we suspect it will be for a while..

Brenda and I and GGMA met Kevin, Tamara and Conrad at the park in Merritt. Sage was working and could not make the day trip. GGMA loved the chance to get out for a day trip and to see the great grandkids and grand kids.

Brenda continues with her weekly line dance sessions and I am still strummin’ each week either at Riverside Park and/or at Tom’s with The Kamloops City Strummers.

Near the end of September Judy was in town helping her brother Jack with his stroke recovery program and we got a chance to have nice social distance visit with her.

The final week of September we made a quick trip to Vancouver. Visited George and his family on the way down and it was good to have Jennifer stop by for the visit. Then on the way home we stopped to see Maureen and Art; they are still working on getting everything organized for their upcoming move in November.

Partly for a change and partly because of the weather on the Coquihalla we took the Trans-Canada highway home and stopped in Ashcroft at the fruit and vegetable market. Made the trip home a little longer, but more scenic.

August arrived and with it good old Kamloops summer weather.

At the start of August we met Kevin, Tamara, Sage and Conrad in Merritt at Rotary Park for a socially distance visit. We took along GGMa so she had a chance to get out of the The Shores for a few hours and have a picnic lunch with family. It was a great day.

A couple days later Jeff, Lindsay, Zach and Oliver stopped in on their way home from Mount Robson Provincial Park. They had just completed a four day hike to Berg Mountain and Zach and Oliver were staying with us for the visited for the remainder of the week at “Namma and Pops Summer Camp”.
It was busy few days with the boys. Everything from swimming in the river, visiting the wildlife park to seeing the garden trains at my friends Tom and Paulette’s home.

Plus crafts at home like sewing projects, cement projects and stepping stones. We kept them busy. If you asked the boys they would probably say the best part was the daily afternoon trip to Scoops for ice cream.

Brenda continues her 3 times weekly line dancing and I am still strummin’ at either Riverside Park or at Tom’s; all the activities we do are socially distanced.

That’s about it for August.

July arrived and Covid is still here and we expect it to be here until next year. So we better learn to live with it and that just takes a bit of adjusting.

Early in July Brent and I went for a flight in “Desrocher One”. It’s kind of like Air Force One just a bit smaller. What a fun morning. We flew out to Shuswap Lake, over to Salmon Arm, headed for Vernon and then back to Kamloops following the highway. Along the way Brent let me fly the plane for a while which was a lot of fun. Along the way he demonstrated some aeronautical maneuvers which was cool.
Brent is a very careful and confident pilot. He made it a great day.

Then in mid July we headed to Vancouver for a couple days. It gave us a chance to see George, Chantell, and Raven; Chris was working. Plus we stopped in and saw Maureen and Art, we were lucky that Rose stopped by for a visit. Then on the way home we loaded up with blueberries at Peace Arch Blueberry Farm.

That’s about it for July.

Covid – Covid – Covid…… yup that’s about it. However it has challenged us how to maintain a sense of normality in a non-normal world.

For example I now meet up with a small group of guys down at Riverside Park on Tuesday morning for a 1 1/2hr Jam Session. We use to meet at the Smorg Deli, but can’t do that with the physical set up of the Smorg.

The Kamloops City Strummers started practising as a group again. We had a trial jam session at MacDonald park and then we had a regular practise on Tom’s back deck. Everything was done with correct physical distancing measures being followed.

Exercise, bike riding, line dancing, etc. continues so we are keeping busy that way.

Big new for June is the Oliver turned 8 years old………… where the heck did those years go?

Also in June I had an almost one year follow up visit to the Doctor and everything looks great. I am going off of some medication at the end of July which will be great as it is the blood thinner that causes me to bruise easily and if I cut myself it takes for ever for the blood to clot.

Covid and it doesn’t look like it’s going away for quite a while.

May was pretty uneventful this year. The last few years we have been getting ready to head off on an eastern Canada vacation, but not this year.

So instead we have been staying close to home and exercising lots. Brenda has been participating in regular Zoom calls with instructors from the YWCA, plus Line Dancing 3 times a week with a very small group of ladies. Everything is being down with physical distancing be practised.

Who knows what June will bring?

Welcome to April 2020, a completely changed world amid the Covid-19 Virus.
Brenda made a real good point the other day. She said her Dad had lived to the age of 96 and in his entire life he had never seen anything like this and as wide spread in the world.
So, yes we are and have been self isolating and self distancing when we go out. Exercise has changed from our regular visit to the “Y” and now we do a couple daily walks/hikes and then some other activity inside. Our yard and garden area has kept us busy and that’s good.
We certainly have not been going to the stores like we did in the past. Perhaps about every 10 days when we finally run out of milk we do make a visit to Save-On or Costco.
We have been having a weekly “Zoom” connect with GGMA and Dean and Judy; which has been great to keep in contact with them. GGMA has been a trooper, the retirement complex where she lives is on full lockdown. No outside excursions for the residents or outside visitors allowed in. That really makes it difficult because they have also changed their food serving practises from where they use to have one sitting per meal with 6 people to a table and now they have 3 sittings with more tables and only one person per table.
Our families in Princeton and Kelowna are all doing well and keeping safe, so that is always a blessing. We are really missing grand-kid hugs though!
Anyway, that’s about it for an April update and as Dr. Bonnie Henry says “Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe”

March has arrived and are we looking forward to an early spring.
March 4th marked the passing of Murray, it’s hard to believe it’s been a year since GGPa passed away…… we miss him.
Actually we were happy to stay in the winter mode until after our annual family ski vacation. This year we were back to Sun Peaks and staying at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel. This seems to work so great for everyone. It’s a perfect location in the village close to everything. Plus they have the outdoor swimming pool and 3 hot tubs and they allow dogs, so Nova and Rover can come along. We also organized the kids “Treasure Hunt”, it’s always a lot of fun watching them work through their challenges to get the clues to solve the location and find the treasure. For Brenda and I it gets more challenging every year, the kids are getting older and smarter. Somehow we forgot to get a picture of Sage…… that was not smart.

This year it was really cold up at the hill but we still managed a family picture at some point…… Brrrrrrrrr!

Immediately after Sun Peaks the Corona Virus really started to take hold in Canada. We were so lucky to get our annual ski vacation in as the day after we left they shut the resort down for the year. Then once we were home we heard there was a recorded case of the virus reported by a Doctor up at the health centre.
Since that time we have been self isolating and social distancing; two terms that we never heard of before this pandemic.
So March has been all about staying isolated and staying healthy.

Same old….. Same Old. Well not really, but the winter is grinding on and we sure do miss our Hawaii getaway.
I have been very fortunate this year that the “On The Beach” group organizer has been keeping me up to date on the regular jam sessions on the beach. It’s been great to be included from a long distance.
Pretty regular weekly routine, lots of time exercising for both of us; Brenda definitely more and me playing the ukulele on Tuesday mornings and then pretty regular practise with the Kamloops City Strummers.
Near the end of February we got away to Vancouver for a couple days. We met up with Dean and Judy for an evening prior to them flying out to New Zealand and Australia for 6 weeks. Had a great dinner at Rodney’s Fish House in Yaletown.
Then on the way home we stopped in Langley for a coffee and muffin with my brother George, his daughter Chantelle and her partner Chris, their daughter Raven and my sister Jennifer. It was great to see them all.

January is here and no Hawaii this year for us after my mid summer heart event. Not enough time between the heart event and travel dates to get adequate travel insurance.
So we found other ways to keep us busy and get us through this winter. Regular trips to the local YWCA/YMCA and then outdoor walks when the weather was warm enough. We’ve become a little softer in the past few years and shy away from really cold days outside.
Brenda goes to a lot more classes at the YWCA than I do, however I attended my regular Tuesday afternoon classes at TRU as part of the V.I.P. heart program.
On January 12th we celebrated our 46th anniversary……….. where did the years go?
In December of 2019 we had a made a donation to the R.I.H. Foundation and in recognition of that donation we got to place a name plate on one of the lecture desks at the R.I.H. Ken Lepin Lecture Theatre.