One week from tomorrow is the American election, and I don’t know about you, but I’m ga ga with anticipation and hope for a happy result.  In Canada when there’s a huge early voter turnout it means the public is voicing their displeasure at the current government and a change is coming.  Let’s hope that’s what the early voting in the USA means, too.

In the meantime, the year 2020 continues to surprise.  On Friday we had heavy snow, which is the earliest I’ve ever seen in my thirty years at this house.  I had to get Nicky to haul the fig tree into the garage in a blizzard which must be a shock to a Mediterranean plant.

My fridge is old and ready to break so I ordered a new one at Rona about a month ago and they said delivery would occur around November third.  Today some nice person phoned to say nopers, it’s now coming February third.  I said to him, ya know, given all that’s occurring this year, I’m neither upset nor surprised.

The City has now phoned three times regarding the water meter they want to install, and I keep telling them one day I’ll get a well.  Now that it’s snowed I contacted the drilling company and if they can’t do it until spring (why am I not shocked at that) then the City will just have to wait.

A few days ago I spent an hour and a half clowning around with baby Justin who’s now just over eight months old, so he’s crawling and pulling himself up to standing whenever and wherever he can.  Of course he’s brilliant and adorable, so it’s a nice way to spend time in the Covid, snowy, no-product-delivery days we’re in.

I performed all of my fall rituals: I put ripe figs into jars with brandy syrup, took out the dahlias for winter storage and planted early tulips.  I filled an entire bed in the vegetable garden with garlic cloves, so I’m hoping for a bounty next July.  Less fun was hauling the hoses into the garden shed and pulling out the muddy stakes I used for the tomatoes.

On the good news side of things, I decided to make a very serious attempt at writing the memoir of my time in the fruitcake business.  I found old notes of when I tried to do this in the past, so it’s obviously something I must do.  I’m fortunate I have all my blogs from those years as well as the newspaper and magazine articles, all of which will be needed to jog my memory.

Yesterday Margaret and I went to the farmer’s market held at the East Kelowna Community Hall.  A nice woman had cards laid out, and we could pick one to get some advice about our futures.  My card said “New Career” and she explained it means any new project, and I said oh my God that’s so wonderful because I’ve just started writing my memoir.

Steve MacNaull, a super nice journalist formerly of the Kelowna Daily Courier, wrote such a nice post about me three years ago mentioning my blogsite which I somehow had missed.  I copied and pasted it into my Nuttier than a Fruitcake Facebook page so you can read it there.  In any case, you need to watch that space for news of the memoir’s progress, should there by any.

Thanks to having my car returned to me after nearly seven weeks, I’m independent once again.  I spent the last few days picking up those Thanksgiving items one needs such as Brussels sprouts and yams, and I found a nice small ten-pound turkey.

I’m making the usual pumpkin pie but I wanted chocolate as well and found some decent items to add to our dinner.  One can never consume too much sugar at a family event. 

My favourite thing to do in the evenings as I watch TV is to slam back pounds of keto chocolate delights I make for myself.  Just now I made keto peanut butter cups and those will be one of the highlights of this evening’s activities.

These activities include making cocktails and watching shows like Modern Family and Schitt’s Creek.  I’ve recently started colouring again.  In other words, a very good use of my time.

Another excellent use is baking and cooking, which I do every day.  I had my group of women, which I call The Crones over the other day for a birthday party, and they were happy with my efforts.  I didn’t tell them, but I tried making an angel food cake with gluten-free flour and it was a mess which I had to throw out, and then thank God I had an angel food cake mix in the pantry.

I’m still waiting to see if I can actually get a well, so in the meantime I just have to wait as there’s not a thing I can do about it.  As I said in the last blog, we’re waiting for the shorter truck to become available given the area where I can drill is so small.

Most people are very perplexed as to why a person would disconnect from the City of Kelowna’s water system and pay to have a well installed.  I just have this crazy dream wherein water is so expensive people stop watering, and yet here it’ll be a verdant oasis where I can grow masses of dahlias and garlic and run barefoot throughout, dogs in tow.

In the meantime my hanging basket is looking great, as are the containers of snap dragons which I grew from seed.  Now I have so many ripe figs it’s not possible to eat them all so I have to figure out what else one does with them.  Fun!

I realize without tap dancing or singing lessons I have to make my own fun this fall and winter, so feel very glad I began the habit of meeting friends for hour-long walks and talks.  That’s been such a nice aspect of Covid.  Once the smoke cleared October was really sunny and warm so that’s made walking pleasant and appealing.

Marie figured out the mall is unlocked before regular hours for mall walkers, so that’ll be a great destination for truly cold and snowy days.  I found a couch at Leon’s Furniture which I bought, so walking in the mall can be a bit of a danger as well.  Just so you’re aware.

It should be an interesting Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow evening with Denis and the kids, as Luke decided he and Jan should sell the condo and move in with Denis.  They’ll be coming over here after a full day of packing and unpacking so the moods of all will be fascinating to observe.