I have just posted a new collection of photos in Record Photos

This collection is older photos of my Appleton Grandparents Frederick Jamieson Appleton and Margaret Beattie (Scott). To view this collection Click to View

I have just posted a new collection of photos in Record Photos

This collection is older photos of my parents Lew Appleton and Alice (Williams) Appleton. To view this collection Click to View

I have just posted a new movie clip in Home Movies

Mom and Dad's 25th Wedding Anniversary (Appleton),(Williams) - Irene, Bradley, my Grandfather Sam Williams, and my Williams aunts and uncles - Mabel, Mom, Mrytle, Iva, - Clare, Ira, Emery and Dad. Click to Play

Carol is trying out new head phones from AfterShokz for the next few days. So far so good. They grip the head nicely. they do not cover the ears, or use the ear to create sound, and the sound is great. Instead:

"Unlike traditional headphones that use speakers to transmit sound, AfterShokz uses patented bone conduction technology. Transducers send mini vibrations through the cheekbones and deliver sound directly to the inner ear, bypassing the eardrum. This leaves your ears open to experience your surrounding environment."

Sounds scary, right?

Lets do this again!

Nice fall walk - Carol, Glenn, Bronwen, Eryn and me. Out to the St Jacob's Market for Sausage & Sauerkraut, then a 3 hour saunter on the Avon Trail. Highlight for Eryn was the big oak tree. There were still some leaves on the trees as Irene predicted.

The Avon Trail is 111KM in length from St Mary's to St Jacobs. Bronwen thinks that we should do a section each month until we have completed the entirety. We must be working on getting a badge.

This year we knew that Thanksgiving would not be a big celebration with 20+ people because of Covid19. The grandkids had gone back to school and the risk of them bringing the virus into contact with the older family members (me), just did not seem to be worth the risk. Instead, Carol and I thought that dinner with my sister, niece, her son and girlfriend would be an acceptable risk and still capture the Thanksgiving spirit. The turkey was ordered, the cranberries prepared, large squash littered the house, deserts were ordered from Karen, the house was cleaned top to bottom, the turkey bag was purchased.

Erin works in a restaurant. They had a Covid-19 scare with another employee, sent her into quarantine, shut down the restaurant and waited for the test results to come back. Thanksgiving decision needed to be made. Carol and I decided to continue with the zoom call to the entire family, cancel the live dinner with my sister and niece, cook the entire meal and deliver it to those who were supposed to have dinner at our house.

Get more Tupperware! Include driving and drop-off time in the schedule. Worked fine.

We returned home and decided that we would have English muffins with peanut butter and jam. But the next day, I made some modifications to the Turkey Pot Pie on Bon Appetit's website and put together a Turkey Pot Pie with Biscuit Topping. I have never worked with the recommended puff pastry and was not willing to risk the pot pie to a faulty topping.

When the stores opened the day after Thanksgiving, they were giving turkeys away. We decided to cook another turkey and deliver it to Katie. Katie is in the middle of the longest renovation in history and does not have a cooktop or oven. We met them in Milton and handed over a cooked 20-pounder, squash, dressing, gravy and cranberries.

You know Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year.

You know that I would have got out to get you a real card today . . . but the quarantine . . .

I do not know why it took me so long to figure out that this period of Self-isolation and social distancing is an ideal time to start going through the old photographs in the basement, digitizing them and doing some distribution.

Here we are at 31 Princeton Terrace celebrating Bronwen's 10th birthday.

We are in the 10th day of self-isolation. By my rudimentary calculations our chances of showing symptoms during this period of sel-isolation will have shrunken to about 10% by the end of this day. We are encouraged.

Yesterday was Katie's 40th birthday and the family got together for a video conference on Zoom a slightly hardened competitor to FaceTime and Skype. The system worked pretty well and we all had a nice visit. It was a surprise for katie; we know this from Jay as Katie had been heard grumbling throughout the day about her ungrateful family that had completely forgotten her birthday, and by time the call took place she had already called it a day and gone to bed. Surprise!

He would have been 119 years old this week.