October 22nd, 2006: Another cool, overcast day but the overcast is lighter. Some days during the past week our carriage lamp stayed on all day because of the heavy overcast.

We took Lucille to Saskatoon on Friday and came home yesterday. Gas in the city was 89.5¢; at Wakaw it was 88.5¢ and at Tisdale 85.9¢. Quite a difference from $1.20! There were only traces of snow in Saskatoon, but it was just as cold as here.

We stopped at Tisdale and went to Doghide Gallery, where Rose Steadman was having a show of her paintings. The place was packed, and the paintings were very well displayed. I meant to ask Sandra if she had full spectrum fluorescent tubes in her fixtures, because ordinary fluorescents can just kill colours, especially skin tones. It seemed to me to be a genuinely interested crowd, not just a bunch of people killing time.

They were serving refreshments, and there was entertainment by Freddie and Sheila Pelletier, guitar and vocal music in every genre you could think of. I remarked to Freddie that he was just about due for a new guitar because the top was almost worn through on his. He said his guitar dated from 1909, Sheila’s from about 1920. They were Martins, mass produced and sold by Sears Roebuck in the olden days. They sure produced some nice music!

I bought a couple of their CDs, and got permission from Freddie to use them in my slide shows. Nice, lively music to keep people awake.

We looked at some condos in Saskatoon. Doreen commented that every one of the places we saw was just screaming for one of Rose’s big, colourful paintings! They can turn winter into summer.

We woke up last Monday to see several inches of fresh snow covering everything. Jenny came out from Kelvington, intending to pick up Lucille and carry on to Saskatoon, but decided against it. We got her to drive us over for coffee in her Jeep; there was ice under the snow and driving conditions were not good.

We decided not to battle roads to go to the rummage sale at Perigord. They had a pretty poor turnout and, because they had a lot of good stuff for the sale, they decided to hold it again tomorrow, the 23rd. Good, because I hate to miss lunch at Perigord. Not just the lunch, but the friendly people and scintillating conversation!

The weather stayed cold all week. We lost a lot of the snow but there is still some around, and some icy patches here in the Park. Maybe it will warm up next week, the snow will go, and we will get several weeks of nice Indian summer! (And maybe pigs will fly!)

We missed coffee row this morning. I have been battling a cold for the past week, and last night I slept for eleven hours. Got up, had breakfast, and slept for another hour. Had lunch, did a bit of work on this column, and went back to bed for another three hours! Now I’m trying to keep my eyes open long enough to finish this. There has been a nasty cold going around; in some cases it seems to be over with in a few days, but in others it hangs on for weeks and weeks.

The coffee row crowd seems to like the new setup at The Round Table. The big round table is usually full, then when the women get too noisy we send them to the other round table. It must average at least twenty people for coffee. They have been serving some great lunches, too: chili, soup, buns, toast. We have eaten there more since the change than we did before. Donna has been running The Round Table, and she does wonders for the cheerfulness of the place.