Saturday 2 June 2007

Hot Dog Fest

It was very warm and humid this morning. I walked quite a ways further along Appleton Side Road and then down River Road towards Appleton but the air was very heavy and it was still a little foggy. We’ve had quite a bit of rain and thunderstorms off and on this week but mainly after 10:00 p.m. I always liked it in the Caribbean when it rained at night and you woke up to a bright sunny day but that hasn’t been happening here for most of this week.

After breakfast we dumped our tanks. Although we dump into a tank which has to be pumped out, this site has a drain that goes into the ground for the gray water only so we don’t have to dump as often which is very nice.

There is a hot dog fest tonight at the campground sponsored by the owners so I checked with Shonagh this morning to see if the hot dogs were wheat free, they weren’t, so off I went to pick some up as well as some other items.

When I got back we had a big rain storm again. This has been going on most of the week. Enough already! It was 26C (79F) when I got back to the RV and very humid. Glad I wore my sundress.

We went to the rec hall for 6:00 p.m. for the hot dog fest and sat with two couples that you will see in the photos below. Both couples are planning on becoming fulltimers within the next year or so. We enjoyed our hot dogs and desserts and chatting with the people. There are quite a few new seasonal people here this year and Dave (the owner) made a welcome speech and even included us!

Our Table - left to right - Steven, Gordon, Gary, Debra and Janice - I'm taking the photo

Dave giving his welcome speech and Shonagh on the far right with two of their granchildren in the background

Friday 1 June 2007

The First Day of June

More photos of flowers and leaves from the campground garden

It was 16C (61F), cloudy and humid again for my walk north on Appleton Side Road. I walked a little further today and it still only took 25 minutes. That includes one short running spurt. I guess if I had just walked it would have been 30 minutes or close.

Last night I made a dish that made a bit of a mess in my oven so I got around to cleaning it this morning. I hate to admit it but this is the first time it’s been cleaned in nearly three years. Actually, it’s not used all that much. The top of the stove, the microwave and the BBQ get used a lot more. Anyway, it’s now as clean as I could get it. Next time, I’ll spray it and let it set overnight.

I got good news from my doctor this afternoon, my mammogram was normal. That’s always a relief since my sister had breast cancer over 10 years ago. I’m now in the 1 in 4 instead of 1 in 9 ratio.

I joined Facebook a couple of weeks ago. I had heard so much about it, I decided to see what it was all about. I’m not sure I’ll use it all that often but it’s kind of interesting. I started a graduating class of 1966 from Morrisburg High School but haven’t gotten any responses. I don’t think I have anyone’s email address from school. I tried to get my high school added to their list but they will only add a school that exists today and MHS has been closed since 1966. There are a couple of RVers whose blogs I read that are on Facebook as well as my niece and a couple of people that I worked with at Nortel/Breconridge. They obtain your “friends” from your address book. Interesting!

Anyway, it’s been a quiet day except for all that ugly housework!

Thursday 31 May 2007

Laundry and May Expenses

This morning was cloudy, damp and humid and (61F), not a particularly nice morning for a walk but at least it wasn’t raining. I noticed that the irises are starting to come out in the campground garden as you can see from the photo below.

I decided today I needed to get off the couch and the laundry had to be done so off I went to the Laundromat in Carleton Place. That took about 1 ½ hours. I stopped and picked up a few groceries then came home.

It was really humid today with a lot of mosquitoes around – not one of Ottawa’s nice summer days!

Late in the afternoon I went out to get some pictures so I’d have something to post on my blog, so here you are:

This is the owner of the campground going about his duties

The lone iris

This little guy was trying to hide from me

Beautiful, lacy lilacs

Our RV site with all the trees in bloom. Pretty spot, isn't it?

May Expenses

  • Campgrounds - $716.60
  • Groceries/Wine/Spirits - $517.77
  • Laundry - $37.50
  • Entertainment/Parking/Restaurants - $286.77
  • Truck Fuel -$215.90
  • Propane - $25.64
  • RV/Truck - $1231.41
  • Fixed Expenses - $406.17
  • Medical/Dental - $347.75
  • Gifts & Misc – $734.31
  • Total - $4519.82

Quite a month! You’d think we still had a house and were paying property and school taxes.

However, we did have to replace the truck tires and get a wheel alignment. That was just over $1200.00. We also bought a new UPS battery backup for the computer equipment as our other one calfed.

We also had our weekend in Toronto/Kitchener/Cobourg which was over $300.00 including hotel, food, car rental and the Butterfly Conservatory.

There was also the excess over and above our extended health care for renewing prescriptions, chiropractor, eye doctor and a couple of lab tests.

We renewed our Good Sam membership, Passport America membership, our RV Explorer membership and our ERS as well as Gordon’s domain for gordonwolford.com. (over $360.00).

When you add up all the above items it comes to $2207.75+. If you subtract that from the total you get $2312.07 which isn’t bad for a month in Ontario!

Wednesday 30 May 2007

Another Day of Not Much

Today's accomplishments:
  • Mowed the grass around the RV
  • Read
  • Had a long nap
  • Read some more
  • Listened to the rain
  • Read
  • Made dinner
  • Watched TV
Lots of purple flowers around the campground gardens





Tuesday 29 May 2007

More Appointments

I was up early this morning, shortly after 7:00 a.m. as I decided I needed to go for my walk more than I needed to stay in bed. We had appointments in Ottawa for this morning and afternoon.


It was sunny and 12C (54F) according to our wireless thermometer. I think that it was getting too much heat on it but it was very pleasant and sunny.


We left late this morning for Ottawa as our chiropractor’s appointments were for 11:30 a.m. We got quite a bit accomplished – Gordon’s rain jacket had a tear in it so I took it to the tailor I always used at Lincoln Fields and she fixed it while I waited (in about 5 minutes) for $4.00. We finally went to Home Depot and got boards cut for under the landing legs and rear stabilizers for the RV. We’ve been procrastinating about this for two years and just using broken pieces of wood that my brother-in-law had given us when we first started out. I also had my eye appointment as my eyes have been blurry but Dr. Engel said everything was healthy and there’s hardly any change in my prescription. He does suggest I get new lenses however as I need more room in them for reading. When I got them I was still working so they were geared mainly for computer work. I didn’t feel like stopping to look at glasses so we just picked up groceries and came home. We’ll have to go back into Ottawa later and do the glasses thing.


Just finished a book called ‘The Poet’ by Michael Connolly. It’s a good read if anyone’s interested. There are a couple of things that aren’t believable but it’s still a good story.

Monday 28 May 2007

More of the Same

After our rainy day yesterday, it was bright and sunny but rather cool this morning, about 11C (52F). I had an uneventful walk but did see some pretty purple wild phlox in one of the vacant lots along the Mississippi.

Our bright sunshine quickly changed to cloud this morning and other than some walks outside to take some photos (mainly of flowers and the bumble bee below and the huge rhubarb plant) and take the garbage out, I pretty much read and played games on the computer for most of the day.




Around 4:00 p.m. I got a second wind and decided if I didn’t get off the couch, I was going to grow roots so went out for another walk. There is a loop you can walk down a side road and a road goes through a farmer’s field and then cuts back to the Appleton Side Road. It took me about 40 minutes but I did stop to take some photos along the way, mainly of the very co-operative four-legged ladies photographed below.




Sunday 27 May 2007

Boooorrrring!

Here’s what I accomplished today:

  • Walked in the rain (sprinkling)
  • Changed the look of my blog (many times but may not be done yet)
  • Read
  • Napped
  • Read
  • Napped
  • Went to the grocery store
  • Showered
  • Not much else