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News - April 3, 2025

As usual in this part of the world, the weather is making local news. A couple of weeks ago there was no snow and with the temperature in the double digits, the motorcycles were out and about. Then came last Tuesday evening. The snow started about bedtime and didn’t let up until late Thursday afternoon. The forecast was for 20cm but we got a lot more. 30 cm I bet. Check out our deck, BBQ and table:

Of course I had already put the snow blower away for the season and had to dig it out from under the deck.

By Friday the melt had started and yesterday (Monday) when I was out, the streets were bare and dry. They are predicting daytime high temps of 13 on Saturday. Even so, I am not putting away the snow blower until the end of the month!

Sunday Mark, Jillayne, Isla, and Kiwi got back from a week at an all-inclusive resort near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They had sunshine and warm temps as expected. At sunset on the beach between crashing waves and palm trees Mark proposed to Jillayne. Of course she said yes. We are very happy for them all.

Isla took a video and Kiwi took the stills including this one:

Here they are all happy:

Now that my eye surgery is all healed and I have my new glasses, I am back driving cancer patients to their appointments on Fridays. I really enjoy meeting all these courageous and very tough people from all over the world.

The other day I drove past the storage lot where our motorhome, Seven, is hibernating. I miss camping! All I can do at this point is plan maintenance and trips, and put the batteries on the charger once a month or so.

I have been working on Tess’ family tree again. It is very challenging because few records before 1900 are available on line. I have found Tess’ great grandfather, born 1841, and two of his brothers but nothing on her gt gt grandfather. It turns out they didn’t record names very often and often just changed their names when they felt like it. I may just look at her tree once a year or so to see if anyone in her family has found more verified information.

Tess went a little over budget with her new kitchen floor. It looks great although with the lighter colour, bobogs are easier to see so there’s more vacuuming and Swiffering to keep it looking good. The resurfacing of the deck and the new shingles on the garage may have to wait until next year.

If you are a Canadian, get out there and vote on April 28th. If you don’t vote, you are not allowed to complain about the federal government!

That’s it for this update. Take care and stay in touch!

Greg, Tess, & Spike

News - June 4, 2025

Here it is, June already. The Oilers are in the Stanley Cup final (starts tomorrow), we have been out camping already, and the air conditioning in my car quit working on a 32C day!

I’ll leave the Oilers thing alone except to say I think the Cup will be back home in Canada soon. Go Oil!

Our first camping trip of the year was, as every year, at Carson-Pegasus Prov Park just outside Whitecourt, Alberta, about 2 hours drive north-west of home. We stayed 6 nights and brought home a bunch of fish. You can read about it and see the photos here.

We are thinking about going north-east a couple of hours drive for our next trip but it depends on the wildfire situation. Right now there are a bunch of out of control fires burning, evacuations, and fire bans in place so we have put plans on hold.

I do have some exciting news about Mark and his fiancee Jillayne. They have purchased a house in Sherwood Park, Alberta. This is a bedroom community just outside Edmonton proper. He has sold his condo in St Albert effective September 1st.

It has a great back yard and deck too. They are planning some minor renovations and updates to make it their own. Congrats, kids!

I am still enjoying my volunteer driving patients to the cancer hospital for their treatments. Their strength, determination, and courage are inspiring. You should consider doing volunteer work too if you have a few hours a week, or month.

Earlier this spring I scored 4 slightly used Michelin tires for the motorhome since the old ones are now 10 years which is too old to be safe running near their maximum rated load and pressure. I also purchased a pair of new steer tires for the front and had them installed at the local truck tire place.

While much more expensive than car or pickup tires, I’m happy with the overall cost. This does use up the annual repair and maintenance budget so I’m hoping nothing major will need to be done this year. The good new is that gas is cheap again at $1.20 per litre so that will help.

On the family tree front work continues. A new version of the software that I use was released. It is significantly faster and seems more stable so I’m happy. I have posted a new story about an interesting family member. You can read about some of his antics, including 11 marriages(!) here.

That’s it for this update. Take care and stay in touch!

Greg, Tess, & Spike

News - September 18, 2025

Since my last update in June, we have been busy. We got out camping in July, Tess has been busy with her gardening, I am still driving cancer patients to the hospital for the Wheels of Hope program, and work on the family tree continues with no end in site.

Another camping season is in the books. We just got back from a week at our favourite campground at Carson-Pegasus Provincial Park about 20 minutes north-east of Whitecourt, Albert. Weather was perfect, we brought home 9 rainbow trout, and we feel refreshed and ready to start preparing for winter which is right around the corner.

The only damper on the trip was the failure of the large, living room slide-out on the motorhome. No grrr, no click, no nothing. I checked the fuses and switches and even applied power directly to the motor with a jumper cable. It looks like the motor failed. I cranked the slide out part way using the manual override. What a pain!

You can read my journal and see our camping photos on the RVing page.

The renovations on Mark and Jillayne’s new home are nearing completion and it is looking really good. New kitchen cabinets, island, and appliances, new flooring and lighting fixtures throughout, new bathrooms, and new paint and tiles.  

The contractor and his sub-trades are doing great work, making steady progress, and is communicating well. That’s all you can ask for.

Weather this summer has been hotter and drier than I can remember. New record high temperatures and near-drought conditions throughout much of Alberta. The local farmers have excellent crops due to timely rains earlier this year but I don’t like these 30C+ temperatures. It hit 37.2C (99F) in June - too hot for an old fart like me!

I have subscribed to another genealogy resource called newspapers.com. This site has 1.1 billion pages of newspaper articles and more importantly, birth, death, and marriage notices. I’ve found lots of information about family members here and am happy with my investment.

That’s it for this update. Take care and stay in touch!

Greg, Tess, & Spike

Tess’ car has been put to sleep for the winter as she doesn’t like driving on snow and ice which we know is coming soon. I put the snow tires on the CR-V and Seven (our motorhome) is in hibernation, so we are ready.

Tess managed to rub the back corner of the CR-V up against the front corner of a bumper on another car in the Walmart parking lot. The only damage to our Honda was a broken plastic clip holding some cladding on. The other car’s bumper got a hole rubbed in its plastic so it will need a new bumper. The problem is that it is a well cared for 28 year old BMW 5 series which means a bumper is well into 4 figures! Plus paint, plus labour. Good thing Mark is in the trade. He has a line on a good used piece and he can do the painting and labour. In addition to paying for the parts and materials, his mother is going to have to cook at least one special meal for him and his family for this repair!

That’s it for this update. Take care and stay in touch!

Greg, Tess, & Spike

News - October 21, 2025

Two updates in two months! This just might be a record for me. Actually, the real reason is that Cloudflare in Vancouver is down and I can’t log in to Ancestry to work on my tree and I needed something to do so here we are.

I update my Remembrance page here each year to show the updated version of my family members who fought and died in service to their countries. There are several additions this year - I am proud to remember them here.

Still with the military side of my family, this update’s entry to the Interesting People page is my 2nd cousin, 4x removed, Robert Hope Moncrieff Aitken. He and I share my 5x gt grandfather as a common relative. Robert was a soldier (eventually a Colonel) in the Bengal Corps of the Indian Army. He was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1858. It is the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and British Commonwealth forces. You can read about him and his heroics here.

The renovations on Mark and Jillayne’s new house are complete and we went to Thanksgiving dinner there, along with much of Jillayne’s family, some of whom we had not met before. The house looks great, the food was tasty and the company was a lot of fun - adults, kids, and dogs. We really enjoyed ourselves and got to take home some tasty leftovers.