Wednesday September 17, 2025 Family @ Falher

 

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Wednesday September 17, 2025

 So my cousind from Saskatoon, Harvey and Loretta, showed up 2 hours late, at dusk.  I had ordered my usual heavy meat-lovers XL pizza to time it close to their arrival.  

I had received the key to the room at Manoit St Thomas earlier, so I drove them there in their car for 2 reasons.  One, I didn't want them to fight the road system to get back to my place in the morning alone, and Two, I wanted to check out the roadworthiness of their peppy little Chevy Cruz..

So the guest suite at St Thomas was more than adequate for them to get a good sleep after their long ride.

I also determined that we would feel cramped in the Cruz, and it was pretty dirty, and only one headlight was not working.... etc, etc...

So I picked them up in the Regal and we found a McDonald's on the way for XL triple-triple coffees and away we went, stopping at McDonald's in Whitecourt for a break.

The ride was beautiful and uneventful, and the only negative is that we saw zero wildlife.... seriously!!  That was unexpected and disappointing..  I had my heart set on a moose sighting!

I had guestimated out arrival around 3pm and I was bang-on-the money.  Relatives guided us by phone to the Club Alouette and we renewed acqaintances with a few relatives from as far away as Weyburn and Moose Jaw, their kids and grandkids...  Most I had not seen in 58 years....  I found some new relatives that knew other old friends, girlfriends, and schoolmates from that long ago era....  

We slipped out to check in to the Honeycomb Inn where we had booked rooms by phone, despite many sketchy reviews found on Booking.com.  While the comments about the taciturn Manager were true, the rooms far exceeded our expectations...  My room has a king bed, AC, fireplace, fridge, microwave, desk, free wifi, etc, etc,....  My only negative comment is that the usual soap/shampoo, etc appears to be only available from a single wall dispenser..

Upon our return to the hall, the local family made a huge meal for us all, and many of the women played some special games while us guys talked about a lot of old experiences.

We are ordered to return at 11:30am tomorrow for lunch because there are many leftovers to be devoured yet...  Then we will head for the funeral a further 60 kms away.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.  That was the day’s excitement.

Al

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© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.  

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE  that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

 

Decorations for tomorrow, hand-made.

Reacquainting with cousins

Very new cousins

Rosalie and Juliette

 

 

Monday September 15, 2025 More plans

 

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Older Blog:  https://cuencaupdates.blogspot.com/ 

Please see my best artworks for sale at my websites:

 http://souvenirphotostudio.neocities.org/

or https://pixels.com/profiles/al-bourassa

******

Monday September 15, 2025

Sunday, I made a quick trip to the Library on my Gio to return the Mark Greaney book.  I have the rest of the series on my kitchen table from my friend Don.

I decided that I deserved a treat so picked up a KFC meal on the way home.  Somehow I remember KFC chicken being a lot better than today's offerings..

And I got asked to play cribbage again, only 3 of us playing and I never won a game, continuing my crappy luck from Whitecourt, lol.

 

Today, I got a surprise, welcome email from my Grandson Dawson looking for "horse" artworks to decorate the walls of their new condo!  

Of course, I am tickled pink with such a request...  So, after much reflection, I decided to first offer 3 of my personal favourite horse artworks, from my own walls, to pass down if they would be suitable to their tastes...

Next I gave the link to my posted horse art on Pixels to pick and choose:

https://fineartamerica.com/art/al+bourassa+horse

 

Then, after several phone calls from my cousin Harvey from Saskatoon, we made arrangements that I can jump in with them on the way to his brother Denis' funeral 5 hours further northwest in Falher, Alberta.  

That may change if his brother Hector from Lloydminster decides to come too, then we would use 2 cars from here...  

Harvey and Loretta will arrive tomorrow, so I made arrangements for them to stay in the guest suite at our sister building, Manoir St Thomas.

Then we all have arranged to stay in the Honeycomb Inn in Falher for 2 nights.  The funeral celebration is in Tangent, 60 kms further, with the lunch back in Falher Thursday.  We will return Friday. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures.  That was the day’s excitement.

Al

******

© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.  

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE  that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

Saturday September 13, 2025 Maynard's Wake

 

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******

Saturday September 13, 2025

I was up and running very early to drive the 2 hours to Whitecourt to attend the wake for Uncle Maynard Roy Livingston.  He had become the stepfather to our Uncle Jean's kids, Allen, Aline and Ronnie when he married Jean's widow, Auntie Bud.   This became a yours, mine and ours marriage with 2 other children, Troy and Kara.

I am so glad that I went to reconnect with this branch of the family.  Allen and I have shared experiences, when we both broke our necks in accidents, and both married Colombianas.

His wife Martha's brother was there along with her parents, and I was surprised to hear that they all live in Edmonton now.

There was a touching slideshow of old photos of Maynard who was such a calm, placid guy in any situation.  We will miss him and his humor.

Then almost everyone bought in to a cribbage tournament as cribbage was Maynard's passionate game.   We played 7 games with different partners each time before the clock ran out on us and I was only on 3 winning teams, so I was out of the money...  Troy's son, who had only learned to play cribbage the week before, had beginner's luck and was the tournament winner.

I made it back home by 7pm and put aside my tiredness and worked on the photos I had taken as the official photographer for the family pictures.  I am so glad they turned out so well. 

 I was half-inclined to stay for 4 days and continue to the next funeral Thursday for cousin Denis in Tangent and Falher, another 3 hours further north, but decided I could not make that happen...

I hope you enjoy the pictures.  Some are out of order, but I am tired of fighting Blogger today....

That was the day’s excitement.

Al

******

© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.  

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE  that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

Start

 

 

 

 

 

 

RIP Maynard

Aline was MC

Aline & Kara

Siblings Allen, Aline, Kara and Troy

Photos on the way to and from of beautiful trestle