Future Family

Before I get too deep into the weeds on what happened Saturday I realized just a few minutes ago that I had not given you my weekly weigh in report......I didn't lose a lot, but I have reached my new low weight on my quest to reach 185.....I came last week at 187.8!  Still a ways to go, and I will probably not hit my goal of 185 before we leave Monday, but I know once I can start exercising again on a regular basis I will make it.

There were a number of small fix it projects at our home in Ontario that I had intended to get to a few weeks ago, however life intervened and they were necessarily postponed.  Saturday was the day to get those done before we leave on Monday.  I didn't feel up to it until Saturday, so I'm glad I had enough time to recuperate and get to the point where I felt up to the task.  I waited most of the morning to hear from my son Tim, who lives there, to let know he was up and ready to assist me.......I received a text message around 10:45 from him that he was ready for me, so I headed over.

I had a mental list of the things that needed fixing based on what my daughter (Meredith) and Tim had related to me when we first got home......I had taken care of the big one, the garage door, the first few days I was home, but there remained a list of somewhat small things that I knew individually should not take much time, but then there is always what we call the "Hockwald Way" meaning a project that should take 10 minutes will almost always take an hour.  I'm sure you "do it yourselfers" know exactly what I am talking about!

First up was to fix one of the hinges on the upstairs hallway linen closet, then fix a towel rack in one of the upstairs bathrooms, then the semi bigger project of fixing the attic fan.....also known as a "whole house fan" (used primarily in the summer time to vent the hot air out of the attic in the early evening to help cool the house down.....helps keeps the A/C electric bill down).  The tiny switch that turns it on and off had broken and needed replacing.  I had done this before, a few years ago, and it only took me 20 minutes.......you know what's coming, right?  Tim and I worked on installing the new switch for almost 3 hours......there were two trips to Home Depot during that time.  Why it took so long is also a long story, but we eventually prevailed, got the switch installed, and moved on to the next task which was to figure out why the upstairs hallway light switch wasn't working......we quickly diagnosed the problem as a bad switch, and were able to replace it within a few minutes.  Finally the last task of the day was in front of me.....fix the door to the master bedroom so that it stays closed.....the latch was not catching properly......that also was very simple and I had it fixed within 5 minutes.

I had intended to replace the door hardware on the entry door, but when we went to remove the old hardware we found we were going to need a "hole saw" to saw a new hole for the dead bolt portion of the new hardware.  The 28 year old hardware configuration is slightly different than what is available today, so that is a project my son, Tim will tackle at a later date.

I got "home" just after 4 pm realizing we needed to leave some time between 5 and 5:30 to go to another dinner....this one was to meet the mother, and grand parents of Tim's girlfriend, Laila (things are getting serious when you are introduced to the parents and grand parents, right?), and also the parents of Kate's boyfriend, Nick (again things are getting serious).  It so happens that Laila's grandmother, Cathy, is Nancy's sister.......Nancy is Nick's mom (Kate's boyfriend), so Laila's mother, Jenn (daughter of Cathy), is Nancy's cousin.......a little complicated, but you get the picture, I'm sure....or maybe not.....lol.   At any rate we spent a wonderful 5 hours getting to know, potentially, Kate's and Tim's future in-laws, and they remind me so much of our family when we get together.  There were multiple conversations going on at all times.  We had a marvelous sit down dinner featuring BBQ chicken, Tri Tip, baked potatoes and roasted veggies.

At the end of our dinner Cathy, Laila's grandmother (who, by the by, does not look like anybody's grandmother), brought out an Italian liqueur called "Pallini Limoncello" for us all to enjoy.  They had discovered it while on a recent family trip to Italy.  Personally, I loved it......but I loved the story behind the discovery even more.

On top of all the fun we were having my grandson, Elijah (Kate's oldest son), celebrates his 11th birthday on Monday, so we sat around watching him open presents, and blowing out the candles on his cake.  

Just after the birthday present opening ceremony Nick (Kate's boyfriend) asked me to go with him outside, so I followed.  He proceeded to look me directly in the eye, and then asked for Kate's hand in marriage....whoa.....I did not see that coming........I have known Nick since he was a young lad (he and Tim have been best friends for years), and I like him a lot........I gladly advised him he and Kate had my blessing......so it looks like another wedding is coming down the pike in the not too distant future.

By about 10:30 I was running on fumes, and it was time to head for the barn.....we said our until next times.  We got "home" just before 11, and were in bed by 11.....that was a long day!

One thing I forgot to mention was that it continued to rain on and off all day long, and into the night.

Thanks for stopping by!