Hobbnobbing with the Mayor...
Another day of running around getting things done...
The Kidling was sick this morning, or so he claims. Headache, dizzy, overall not feeling well. Most likely a case of staying up all night on Saturday watching movies at a friend's house, then not catching up on his sleep on Sunday, followed by eating too much for supper and going to bed late. In any case, he stayed home from school. In a way, that worked out better for scheduling, as it would have meant multiple trips to and from town pick him up from after-school curling, then getting back to town in time for the Chamber of Commerce meeting. So, kidling stays home with Grandma while trixstir and I head for the bowling alley to meet with our life-insurance rep and do some repair work.
The meeting with the rep was just a routine meeting to go over our policies, making sure that they were up-to-date, meeting our needs, etc. The same company also handles my RRSP investments, so we took a quick look at those as well. As expected, everything is down, but we're optimistic that there will be a turn-around soon. We're also looking at coverting our term-life policies into whole-life polices. Yes, it costs a lot more now, but it would pretty much even out with the term policy in our old age, and it's a guaranteed payout, no matter how old you get. It's also 5x more expensive than our current coverage, but one does have to plan for the future. We said that we couldn't afford it now, but we'll check back in six months and look at it again.
Repairs at the bowling alley were pretty straight-forward. Lane 5 needed one of the pin-strings to be re-strung. These are Schmidt string-type pinsetters, where the bowling pins are attached to heavy strings (rather like a very thick shoe-lace) that pulls them up and sets them into position. One of the strings had become extremely frayed, and thus I had to re-string that particular pin. It's not a hard thing to do - the trickiest part is getting the string down through the hole in the top of the pin, then out a larger hole in the bottom. From there, you just tie a large knot in the string and pull it back up inside. It took me about 2 minutes to work the string into the pin, and then less than a minute to knot it off and pull it back out.
The other repair was to replace the float-valve in one of the toilets. The old valve was spraying water in all directions (instead of just down) and some of it would leak past the lid of the tank and make a puddle on the floor. Replacing the assembly isn't hard, you just shut off the water-supply, undo two sets of retaining nuts, and remove the old assembly. Installing the new assembly is just the reverse. The hardest part is getting all the water out of the tank, since it will pour out all over the floor when you remove the float-valve if you don't. That requires the use of a large sponge, or a wet/dry shop-vac. I didn't want to bother with switching the shop-vac to wet pickup, and then having to deal with cleaning it and drying it out again, so I just went with the sponge. This is where one discovers how dirty the inside of a toilet-tank can get after 20+ years of use. Ick... In any case, the entire procedure took about 20 minutes, and probably would have taken less than that were it not for my sore back making me a little less mobile than normal. Everything is now working properly, and there are no more puddles. Mission Accomplished.
Back to the farm for a couple of hours to get some work done there. On the way back, I stopped at the feed store to get some special "high fat" food for PoohBear and Dirk. This stuff looks more like coffee-grounds than horse-pellets, and is a high-fat supplement (to be fed in conjunction with normal feed) for horses needing a higher-calorie intake, such as performance horses. Or, in my case, for horses who are getting too thin and need some extra calories to put some weight back on. They don't need a lot, maybe a half-cup each per day. A good thing too, because this stuff is twice as costly as their regular pellets! The feed-store owner says she feeds this stuff to her full-sized Jennies, and it keeps them nice and sleek all winter long. Here's hoping it works for the boys!
Back in the house, I got on with painting the floor of the ensuite with the B-I-N paint. My back was killing me, but the fumes from the paint were making me so loopy I barely noticed. Tomorrow I hope to get the tiles put down, and install the new toilet. Trixstir had called the CAA to arrange to have her car towed into town to get the radiator replaced, and the towing company called to make sure it would be ready for them to pick it up. By this time, it was a quarter to Six, and I headed back into town to pick up Trixstir and go to the Chamber of Commerce AGM.
We arrived at the meeting 15 minutes into the "Cocktail session" and were greeted at the door by a pleasant lady who introduced herself as Sharon, and introduced us to a few other people. We met some friends, and decided to share their table for the evening. Sharon asked if she could buy us a drink, and both Trixstir and I accepted the offer and requested a simple Coca-Cola. No alcohol for either of us; I don't drink at all, and Trixstir has to wait-and-see for another couple of weeks before she can have a drink again. Supper was a buffet-style spread of salads, fresh rolls, home-made desserts, and fried chicken from The Snack Shack, a local restaurant with some of the best fried-chicken you've ever had! It doesn't have 11 secret herbs and spices, but it doesn't need them! After the meal, the presentations and speakers began, and this is when I discovered that Sharon is the Mayor of the town!! Having never met the Mayor in person until this evening, I didn't recognize her, so it was a bit of a surprise!
So, there you are. I can truthfully say that I had supper with the Mayor, and she even bought me a drink! ;)