And we didn't even have an Indian summer !! Well, Thanksgiving Weekend was awesome, but since that time it has rained, snowed and the wind has been incredibly high. Global warming my butt!
Billy managed to save the lives of the moose around his camp this year; so his trip was relatively uneventful. In fact, it rained and snowed everyday he was gone so they didn't get a lot of hunting done. He came home on Friday and teased me by calling my cell phone and saying "You will be impressed by what is hanging in our backyard." I left work early only to find that it was our ladder, that he had brought back from the camp, hanging on a hook on our fence. Whew....No Bullwinkle in my tree:)
On Friday October 20th, the Great White Hunter and his lovely bride Tina came to the Legion to join us for dinner. They were a bit late, so I ate early then traveled home to brush my teeth and grab my laptop. Once we got to the station and uploaded Greg's music he had compiled, we got down to having some fun on the air. The next three hours went by in a blur; and before we knew it, it was 950 and time to catch the boat.
Here is the only picture I took that sort of turned out:
In my haste, I raced out of the station and left my purse sitting on the counter. The next day, I got up early and caught the 8:30 am boat back over. Tom was at the station and had a great laugh at me being such an absent-minded doofus. On my way home from that boat, something caught my eye as I approached Millhaven Pen:
The next night (Sunday) I picked up my friend Christine and off to Grant Hall (Queen's) we went. Sarah Harmer and her band were playing and the depressing downpour of rain was not about to keep us away. After finding a great parking spot in the underground parking lot, we walked up one flight of stairs and Grant Hall was right in front of us! Good thing we didn't bother with umbrella's!! The show was fantastic but the seating was bad. We didn't get there early enough to get a 'good' seat so we got as close to the stage, on the balcony as we could. The seats were very uncomfortable but I didn't care as the music was soothing and relaxing and I was not going to miss out on another Sarah show. Here is a picture of the band as they performed:
I have to say, I have never been to such a quiet concert. Everyone was silent and I felt like I had to wait to clap....Very strange.
Yesterday, we picked up Harly and Judy and traveled to Brockville to spend the day at our friends Cheri & Kenny's house. They are fortunate to live in a beautiful 150 year old Limestone farmhouse that sits on a 100 acre original plot. This home has been in Cheri's family for many years and she has a lot of documents and memorabilia to do with the history of the property. It rained all day so we basically stayed inside. We spent the entire day eating, chatting and enjoying each others company. This picture was taken as we enjoyed our first table full of snacks:
Billy brought his famous pizza dip, so that mixed well with the taco chips and salsa that was already on the table. There was also shrimp, veggies and some really tasty cheese and crackers.
Here is a picture Cheri took of me at the dining room table:
And this is Harly and Judy....as I check the hockey scores on my cell phone. (I cant be away from hockey on a Saturday night)
We got home just in time to watch the final shootout between the leafs and the Habs. How sweet it was to see the Leafs win! And my Bruins one as well, over the Sens. Thanx Big Chara!!!
Today (Sunday), we went to the Legion to have breakfast and were kind of shocked to see the crowd there. I am not sure if it is the time change or if the word is out that their food is GREAT, but that place is getting busier and busier every Sunday morning. I am glad I suggested that they open on Sundays:)
Ok, here is hoping that this work week goes fast. I don't think I have any meetings this week, so I need to concentrate on downloading a pile of music, and maybe even get a CD done that I promised someone at work 4 weeks ago that I would complete.
Yes we just passed Friday the 13th and it was relatively uneventful. Except my new manager called a meeting for 3-4 pm on Friday and at 415 I had to excuse myself. I had to get home, pick up Bill, go back to the legion, have dinner, race back home, brush my teeth and grab my laptop to catch the 630 ferry. It had been very windy for the past few days and the wind was not about to die off just because I was traveling across the north channel! It wasn't too bad going over, but coming back was another story. I was the only car on the 10 and even though I was in the stern, the waves were coming over the bow and the swells were deep. The only thing I could see were the lights from the mainland bouncing up and down. Then when I realized we were facing Millhaven Pen., the captain cranked the boat by 180degrees to the east and traveled with the waves to the ferry dock. What a feeling! I took pictures, but guess what? I mistakenly deleted all the pictures on my memory card before downloading them to my laptop! Not too bright eh?
Ok so last weekend was Thanksgiving. It was just a long weekend for us. Our son didn't come home and my brother and his fiancee were both working. So I managed to take Friday off and made it a 4 day weekend. The weather was beautiful and I was happy I borrowed a camera from work. I stopped at a park just between here and Amherstview and took some pictures. The sun was so bright and the colours seemed to be so bright!
I also stopped at Fairfield Park and took a pile of pictures as well. This is the Fairfield "White House' that was just painted a few days before I took this picture.
That night was a harvest moon. It came up from the horizon in the East and the sun dropped in the west. It was a weird view from the top of the ferry. That's the great thing about getting to know the ferry staff...I can bribe them to allow me to go upstairs for a few photo opportunities.
The next morning, we got up early and went to Morrison's for breakfast and then tripped over a multitude of people at the farmers market. MAN was it busy there! It was such a beautiful day so I am sure we were not alone in our quest for some fresh air. We drove over to visit my bro for a bit before heading for home.
We had parked right across from St Georges and I thought I couldn't let this photo op slip by without capture the colour of the trees vs the limestone.
On the way home, we stopped at our friend Sue's place. Of course I had to take a few pictures of the lake. The clouds were reflecting nicely off the cold dark blue body of water:
The rest of the weekend was spent doing outdoor chores such as painting and getting the boat ready for the winter. Instead of having a traditional thanksgiving dinner, I went into town and bought Mino's take out. YUM!
I would gladly share all my pink sunrise pictures from this past week, but I deleted them:( DAMN...I just realized I deleted our first snow pictures from Thursday evening as well! Does that mean that if I don't have proof, it might not have been real snow?
Ok, so here I sit, its Sunday night, Billy is gone hunting and I'm watching Disney?! I need a hobby!
Yes I have fallen back into the bad habit of not updating my blog...and I was doing so well!
Ok, so we went to a housewarming party at our friends Stephanie and Shayne's house in Kingston. I have posted pictures of their new digs a few weeks ago...but it certainly looked different with their furniture and computers set up! Shayne's boss and co-workers were there and were definitely enjoying themselves. Our friends Clarke and Ted showed up as well! It was a fantastic night and I didn't have to drive, as Bill promised to be my DD. (for a change)
Billy made the best version of his pizza dip EVER and it disappeared in no time! And our friend Nancy Slater was present in order to say goodbye to us all, as she has now started co-hosting a morning show in North Bay.
Here is a picture of Shayne, getting fresh with my husband:
The night of the party, I gave Shayne my laptop to take a look at, as we thought it was overheating. Turns out the cpu is at a perfect temperature but I had a virus and a lot of spyware issues. Tuesday morning I went to pick my unit, and drive Shayne to work. On the way there, I had some time to kill, so I pulled off at the Collins Bay Church and took some pictures as the sun was coming up.
After dinner that night, I had to catch the 630 boat for a 730 meeting at the lodge on Amherst island. Of course I had to bring my camera (as it never leaves my purse) and take a few pictures as the sun went down. This one was taken from the waterfront, in front of the lodge:
On Friday, I worked till 3, then met my friend Louise and off to Ottawa we went. We had tickets to see the red Hot Chili Peppers since May, and yes they were burning a hole in our pockets. On the way up we stopped in Carleton Place for a bite to eat. When we pulled in to a Harvey's, I was confused by a sign right beside the building:
The show was AWESOME, and I will only bore you with one picture....The rest can be viewed by checking out my photobucket page, and clicking on the slideshow button:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v294/cchristmas/2006%20Pictures/September%202006/Red%20Hot%20Chili%20Peppers/
This picture was of Flea and Anthony K hopping in unison:
After getting home at 1am, and having a partial nights sleep, I decided to follow the men into the ChiliFest for the day. The sun was out and I wasn't into hanging around the house and cleaning all day! As soon as I got there, the guys were ready to rush off and test the many different booths. I stayed back and watched Mikes car. This '38 Chevy looks like a gangster car to me:) Check out the grills:
The day was sunny and I had to capture the moment somehow:
On Sunday, we went to the Legion for breakfast, ran into Mike, Louise and Andrew there and were fed quite well! Then we went down to the marina to see if the boat ramp was free for us to take out boat out for the season:( Of course I had to take a few pictures of this event. It was a calm day but the sun played some funny tricks with the camera. This one looked like a rocket had blasted off:
I liked the way the sun was reflecting off the water in this one:
And here is Billy, preparing to drive the boat around to the boat ramp one last time:
We weren't home an hr and the sky opened up and started to pour on us, again:
Then as quickly as it appeared, it drifted off and the sun came out. It was the best time to take a picture of the vine on the side of our house, that has turned such a beautiful shade of red:
Maybe this weekend I will get caught up again and get a chance to update. That is, if anything exciting happens in my life:)
This has to be the worst time of the year for me. Dealing with the fact that summer will end and the impending cold weather and <*GaG*> snow will be here soon! Perhaps the only way to find a silver lining is to remind myself that the old boy will be off to the hunting camp soon:)
So lets rewind a bit to last Thursdays chamber of commerce ladies golf tournament at the Loyalist Golf Course in Bath. We were asked at work if we wanted to volunteer to 'hole-sit'. Hmmm that is kind of a no-brainer as the course is less than 2 miles from my house and I would be paid to sit in a chair all day and get paid. So even though it was an overcast and drizzly day, the rain held off and the winter coat I had on was not really needed. Here is a pic of some of the crazy ladies I met that afternoon:
The next day I worked and then raced to the legion for dinner and then to the island to do my weekly radio show. It had been overcast and raining for the majority of the day and then as soon as I got on the boat, the clouds cleared and the sun came out!
When I finished my shift and raced off to catch the 10 boat, the fog seemed to float down over the ferry as we traveled across the North Channel. I tried to capture this from the window of my car but it was way too dark, without using a flash. When I tried to correct this picture with software, this is how it turned out.....Very freaky:
On Saturday, Billy took off for the deer camp to complete some of their masonry work and I spent the day cleaning, getting groceries, doing laundry and making dinner. I took a break in the afternoon, as the sun was making an appearance and sat out back with my book. Then I heard this loud roar in the sky and grabbed my camera. It was a Hercules Plane flying so low over the house that the windows were shaking! I thought it was just another RCMP helicopter looking for fields of dope.
The next day was very foggy but we decided to venture out for a short boat ride. We had not been out in 4 weeks, since our fateful trip in the lightening storm. We started to travel east, but we seemed to be heading right into the fog bank so we turned around at bush bar and started to travel east.
In Stella Bay, we came across a flipped dock. I think this is the third year in a row that this dock has done a 360:
Even though we were only out for a few hours, it was so nice to sit back in the comfy boat seats with the sun on our skin! It will probably be the last time we will be able to enjoy this feeling this year:(
When we got back to the marina, I noticed that there was a loaded gun in the boat docked next to us. I am guessing the blowboaters had some sort of regatta the day before and these were just leftovers from the festivities:
So here it is, another Wednesday night and I am counting the sleeps till the weekend:) I am keeping my fingers crossed that the sun will shine all day Saturday and Sunday. If not, I guess my days of tanning are truly over with for this season.
The forecast for the entire weekend is RAIN and lots of it. There are two tropical storms happening in the states right now that have forced the rain our way. It has been pouring since 2 this afternoon and is not suppose to end till Monday. Thanx Ernesto!
Of course, the weather this past week was beautiful and sunny, but work got in the way at least 4 days this week. I did make it outside in the late afternoon to take some pictures of my flowers and plants before the frost hits! I am unsure of that this plant is called but I thought the colours were nice:
Ohhh I guess the big news this past week was the fact that the station manager figured a way to put the radio station on the internet. Yes, that's right kids, I, Cathy Jane Christmas am able to communicate to the masses now! Well at least a few of you anyways! I found out about 45 minutes before my taped show was to air on Wednesday night and I managed to get 8 people listening before the feed dropped at 10:15pm. So after sending emails and messages to all my family and friends across the land, I was prepared to have a pile of people listening to me on Friday night. I got to the station at 6:55pm; went on the air at 7 while I uploaded the music from my memory stick and watched the listener graph rise. By 7:15 there was 4 people listening to ME, and then the internet dropped. It came back up around 8 and then dropped at 830PM for good.
When I asked someone to call me and let me know if they could hear me online, I heard the answering machine kick in and my buddy Greg Hunters voice came from it. He said I was coming in loud and clear in Deseronto! WOOT!
So I was excited as I had downloaded an awesome collection of tunes for the night and due to the fact that I did not have time to check them all out before hand, well I ran into a bit of an embarassing problem. I had downloaded a version of The Odds singing 'Wendy under the stars'...the song about the night that Elvis died. So I start playing this song around 730ish and I almost flipped when it came to the chorus. In stead of "I made love to Wendy under the Stars...the night that Elvis died" I hear "I was fu*king Wendy under the Stars...the night that Elvis died!" Well, *I* could have died. I didn't know what to do, but the phone never rang, so I let it slide:)
Billy and I couldn't decide what to do today so we gave our friend Greg Hunter a call (seeing as he was kind enough to call me the night before) and made arrangements to go a visitin' in Deseronto:) Greg's two daughters Ami and Jossi were there, along with his lovely wife's Tina's two sons. And then there were two of the neighbours kids there as well! I had to take a few pictures:
Please note, their house is under renovation, this is why the walls are exposed:) (I know Tina would want to make sure I said that!)
And speaking of Tina, here is a picture of her and the Great White:
Here is a picture of Billy with 'Nelly'... the family basset hound:
And Nelly with the Easy button:
And that was our day. We came home, we ate and we watched the rain come down.
If it is like this tomorrow...well...it looks like we will be burning even more gas trying to find something interesting to do besides sitting in the house waiting for Harly and Judy's party to start. This is the third annual "Say goodbye to summer" party at their place. We need to get drunk to forget about the seasons changing! I'm kidding...but there will probably will be a few brewski's emptied during the evening. I might be tempted to take some pictures of this event:)
