Saturday 19 May 2007

Working, Napping.....


Today was another bright sunny day. I didn’t go to bed till midnight last night so slept till nearly 9:00 a.m. As expected, the campground filled up last night and this morning there are a lot of little munchkins running around. At 16C (61F) it was beautiful for walking so I took advantage of it and walked as far as the turnoff into the little hamlet of Appleton. I think I measured the distance in the truck last year but don’t remember how far it is. There and back only took ½ hour.

Gordon went out and washed the truck. It was very badly needed. When he got back he wiped it down and did the windows. I used the little paint tube I got over a year ago and touched up the paint chips. While he was cleaning the truck, I washed the windows in the RV. Enough work for one day!

Had a nap this afternoon. The temperature got to the mid 23C (74F). There was a lot of activity around the park, kids and parents yelling. It was so nice when we were the only ones here! Not very profitable for Dave and Shonagh (the park owners) though!

Friday 18 May 2007

Back to Ottawa and Visitors


Campground flowers

We saw this little guy on our walk at Stony Swamp today


This morning was sunny but only 8C (47F). Again I had to get ready to go into Ottawa this time for the dreaded mammogram appointment. Gordon drove today as the parking lot for the mammogram place is usually full and the spaces are tight for a one ton truck. This way if he can’t find a space, he’ll go elsewhere and I’ll call him when I’m ready. The advantages of having two phones.

My sister called last night. She and John are going to come out for a visit tonight. She’s taken a few days off work due to all the overtime she’s put in so with the long weekend counted in she will have had a week away from work. She said she was really tired so hopefully this will rejuvenate her. Working’s a bitch although I must say that I miss it sometimes. I don’t have Peter (my former boss) to nag anymore!

We made it into Ottawa in time to get my receipts photocopied and sent to my extended health care, get more water and go to the bank before my mammogram appointment. After the appointment, we had lunch at Denny’s next door and then tried to walk on some of the many trails around Ottawa, this one being Stony Swamp but it’s just too muddy yet. So we came back to Carleton Place via the scenic route – Fallowfield and Flewellyn Roads and avoided the construction.

I tried to sit outside when we got back but there are too many mosquitoes although it was bright and sunny and 16C (61F).

Margie and John and their wire-haired terrier, Jasper came for a visit tonight. Quite a few new people arrived. The sites are filling up!

Thursday 17 May 2007

Errands and an Appointment in Ottawa

This morning was mainly sunny and 12C (54F) when I got up. This afternoon was mostly cloudy and about 11C (52F). I haven’t been walking the last couple of days due to going in to Ottawa for appointments. That’s why I usually like to stay at a campground in Ottawa until the appointments are over but it’s very nice being here at Tranquil Acres.

I had lots to do today. I had to go into Ottawa as I had an appointment with my periodontist. So I left home around 8:30 a.m. and got quite a few errands run before my appointment. Years ago I had a Nathan Pritikin cookbook with a really good recipe with chicken, veggies and pineapple so I stopped at a used book store and found the book however the recipe didn’t call for chicken. I guess we just altered the recipe by putting chicken in it. Anyway, I bought the book as I want to make the recipe again. I went to three stores before I could find my flax cereal which I found at Loblaws at Baseline and Woodroffe. I also found a water dispenser there and my bottles fit okay. It was only 60 cents per gallon which is fairly cheap for this area. I picked up our prescriptions and parted with nearly $800.00 of which I should get back 80% from Sun Life. I also picked up some groceries at Food Basics in Kanata after which I headed back to Carleton Place arriving at some time around 2:30 p.m. Gordon then went out and got propane. With these cold nights we’re using quite a bit.

The one thing I didn’t get done was take my medical receipts to Staples to get photocopied so I could send my first claim of the year to my extended health care. We have to go back to Ottawa tomorrow so will hopefully get that done then.

Wednesday 16 May 2007

Medical Appointments, Rainy and Cold!

Photos of Keeley Falls, at Andrew Haydon Park


It poured rain all night and was still raining this morning when I got up. I was up at 7:00 a.m. as we had our medicals today and had to get ready and go into Ottawa for 10:00 a.m. There is construction on Hwy7 where they are making it into 4 lanes from Ottawa to Carleton Place and you never know how long you’ll be tied up so we wanted to get on our way with lots of time to spare. We’re two Virgos you know!

Both our medicals turned out well. We had fasted so after we had our medicals went for our bloodwork, then had a late breakfast at Zellers Diner at Bayshore and dropped off our prescriptions while we were at Bayshore. After lunch we had chiropractor appointments, then stopped at Andrew Haydon Park and took a few photos and headed home.

It was rainy and cold all day today and the high was 8C (47F). Not a very nice spring day!

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Not A Very Nice Day


It started raining around 10:00 p.m. last night and had been raining on and off all night and this morning so no walk. It was 13C (55F) when I got up around 8:30 a.m.

So, after my morning rituals, I lay down on the couch to read, fell asleep, woke up, read some more, lunch etc. About 2:30 p.m. I got myself off the couch and since it had stopped raining, I went for my walk. It was cloudy, humid and our high was 18C (66F) but at least it didn’t rain on me. While I was out I saw a pretty little blue bird but I didn’t have my camera and it wasn’t close enough for me to take a photo of anyway. Hopefully we’ll have more birds around than blackbirds and robins. I have seen a couple of goldfinches around the park.

Rain started again on and off late this afternoon and is supposed to continue for the next couple of days with tomorrow being cold and windy. Not nice!

Monday 14 May 2007

Lazy Monday


This morning I didn’t start out on my walk until 8:40 a.m. and it was 16C (60F) and sunny with a breeze. It continued to be sunny during the day but the breeze picked up this afternoon. We reached a high of 21C (70F).

Didn’t do much today – read, did puzzles and vegged out. We met our neighbor that arrived yesterday, Jean. She and her husband, John are just starting a year long trip in their new Open Roads fifth wheel. They will be here for six weeks as John is finishing up a contract so I expect we’ll see more of them.

Today while my computer was on but I was elsewhere, Firefox decided to update itself so that when I came back I had to turn on my computer again. It was then I found out that my bookmarks were lost AGAIN. I think this happened a while back. I thought I had made a copy of my bookmark folder but it wasn’t up to date so I had to start recreating from my History file again. Lots of work but then I’m retired. I’ve got time to do this kind of thing.

I had a request in my comments yesterday for the Butterscotch Pie recipe. Unfortunately it’s not my recipe to give out so at this time I can’t part with it.

Sunday 13 May 2007

Happy Mother's Day!

Taken at the end of the street that runs along the campground - the Mississippi River

It got down to freezing here last night! When I got up it was 9C (48F) again but very bright and sunny and continued to be bright and sunny all day warming up to about 16C (60F).

I watched a movie around lunch time and then went out to get fixings to make stew as it’s still kind of stew weather (cool at night). Michelle called just as I was getting back from the grocery store so I had a chat with her for a while. She’s going to email me her butterscotch pie recipe. She gave me a gluten free pie shell when we were down there so I need the ‘real butterscotch pie’ recipe (the recipe was Gordon’s mother’s recipe) to make it right.

I got my stew made. We try not to eat it on the day its made letting it steep in its juices for at least a day so dinner for tomorrow is ready!

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there!