Family Visit

I didn't walk this morning. Today I had planned to go into Ottawa to visit my sister and her family so I was saving my energy. I've sure gotten lazy!

I headed into Ottawa about 11 a.m. as I had some stops to make and arrived at my sister's around 12:45 p.m. We've been in Ottawa nearly two weeks and because of ill health had not seen them yet. Gordon still wasn't feeling up to par so he stayed home. I spent about 3 hours talking to my sister, my niece and my brother-in-law. It was good to see them and got caught up on what's going on in their lives.

This is the family dog-Jasper

My sister (standing) and niece (sitting)

While there I picked up our mail. It's so depressing to have to go through all that stuff. We didn't have any forwarded to us this winter so it's over six months worth.

The scary mail

I have all of it opened now I just have to figure out what to do with it.

On another note, I decided to delete Adsense from my blog. I wasn't earning any money and they keep sending all these emails with things you have to do so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Just Another Day

It was raining hard when I went to bed around 11 last night and it continued to rain all night quitting somewhere around 5 a.m. or so. I only slept off and on because of the rain as it was so loud!

It was already 14C (58F) when I got up around 8:30 a.m. with partial sunshine. I did my walk/run down the hill today and around the campground but there was lots of mud and standing water around so between the traffic on the road and the mud and water, it wasn't a pleasant walk.. Enough with the rain! Send it to the Texas coastal bend where they need it for a while. The good news is that we're booked into our favourite campground, Tranquil Acres at Carleton Place starting March 19th! The commute into Ottawa's west end will be sooooo much easier as there's more than one road that we can use.

This morning I read in the paper that Nortel is not doing as well as they had hoped after filing for bankruptcy in January so I went out and got my medical receipts copied and sent in to Sun Life. Don't know how much longer I'll have Extended Health Care. To read the newspaper report, click here.

While out I stopped at our local Giant Tiger to pick up a few things, then at Walmart to see if the nectarines had come in - NO!

After lunch I read for a while while Gordon had a nap and when he got up I got the vacuuming done. I also read about a little trick for keeping the window slider areas clean. Use a paint brush and it works! Those little slider areas accumulate a lot of dust!

We had dinner and then went out to fill up with fuel at 78.9/litre. Then off to Petrie Island for sunset but the clouds came in so no sunset but we did see these cute little feral pigs.

On our way in to Rockland to get fuel we stopped and took a photo of this barn on the Ottawa River that we've been admiring.

We also stopped at the Rockland Boat Launch and took some cloud photos.

And the cute little pigs that wouldn't get their snouts out of the ground!

This is at Petrie Island where we were walking just the other night. It sure rained a lot last night!

April Expenses and Not Much Else!

This morning was a sunny 8C (47F). Today I went 'up the hill' again. That sure is a tough climb but I managed to do some running when I got to the top. It was quite a workout!

After lunch I had a nap, don't know why I'm so tired! Then since I have been getting spam text messages on my cell phone for the last couple of months, I had the text message feature disabled on my phone. We don't use it anyway. After that I updated our expenses for April.

April Expenses

The total isn't too bad considering we were traveling for most of the month. The $90 medical expense might be covered by Sun Life, we'll see.

I spent most of the afternoon on the computer, other than that it was a very quiet day.

Gordon updated his blog today, to read it, click here.

Tulips, Doctor, Dinner Out, Groceries

It was a beautiful, sunny morning, 8C (46F) so I went on a walk and actually ran a bit.

Today was Gordon's follow-up appointment with the Infectious Disease Specialist so we decided to go in to Ottawa early and go and see the tulips. The Tulip Festival doesn't start till this weekend but reports on-line said that the tulips were at 50%. There were some tulips out but nowhere near 50%. I would say mid next week would be the ideal time to see them as long as we continue to get some warm weather.

Hmmm, not seeing any tulips here.

OK, here are some with a few daffodils thrown in!






On the way to the tulip beds we drove by the Rideau Canal. It's a very pretty area of the down town.


From there we went to the Ornamental Gardens but not much was out there. No idea what these flowers are.

Then we parked in our usual spot on the street and walked for 1/2 hour to get to Gordon's doctor's appointment. Parking at the hospital isn't made for one ton trucks and it's expensive! The doctor is setting up another CT scan of his lung and he's going back to see the doctor again in October for the results.

Narcissus on the way to the hospital

The Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus

After the doctor we went and had dinner at Swiss Chalet. We had a gift certificate that Nick and Becky had given us a couple of years ago so we used it tonight. Thanks guys! They have really yummy chicken done on a rotisserie.

My dinner, sorry, I had already started eating it when I thought to take a photo.


When we stopped at the restaurant we saw our car in the parking lot. When we bought the truck, we sold the car to our lawyer. I really loved that car! I'm glad she still has it.

Then we stopped at a couple of grocery stores as I was looking for 1% lactose free milk. Don't know why it's so hard to find up here.

We got home around 6:15 p.m., ready for some relaxation!

Mostly About Birthdays

Our niece, Danica is 21 years old today! Happy Birthday, Danica! I took this photo of her last year with the family pooch, Jasper. Unfortunately due to our illnesses, I won't get to see her and the rest of her family until possibly this weekend.

April is a big birthday month, not only is today Danica's birthday but it's also our granddaughter, Lilly's birthday. Here's a photo of Lilly that we took when in Dayton this month.

Also we had two birthdays on April 23rd, Gordon's son, Ian and Nick's wife, Becky.


And two more coming up in May....

Luke, our grandson

And our granddaughter, Faith

When I woke up this morning it was raining and it rained until early afternoon. I went out to get some groceries this morning and this afternoon did the laundry.

Income Tax-Paid! Sunset at Petrie Island

Today was an uneventful, very warm, sunny but windy day reaching 29C (85F). Again these temperatures will be shortlived but tomorrow is another day. No walk today but this is the hill that I climb in the morning.

Gordon was up and out to have bloodwork done first thing this morning as he had to fast for 14 hours. Today was the day that we were going to sign our income tax forms so we headed into Ottawa for our 10:30 a.m. appointment. Gordon gets a small refund and I had to pay so after we left there I went to the bank and took care of it. Now we're legal and our free healthcare is paid for again until the next time I buy something. I also stopped at GNC when I was out and got what I needed and checked the grocery store in the mall - no nectarines. We stopped at another produce place - no nectarines so we just came home.

This cardinal was sitting in the tree singing when we came out from signing our income tax.

Gordon still wasn't feeling well so he took a nap and felt a bit better afterward. I read for a while and looked up some more geocaching sites in the area.

When he got up he found out where we needed to go to get our propane tank filled so that's out of the way.

On our return to the RV, I got my chair out and sat outside. It was pretty windy so I sat behind our living room slide but didn't stay out long as my hat kept blowing off. LOL

Around 7 p.m. we looked out and saw that there might be a pretty sunset so we headed over to Petrie Island and got some photos.

Since the rain the other night the path at Petrie Island has become a river.

Sunset with sun on the rocks

Sunset


That about covers today!

Frustration!

Read about the Ottawa and area severe weather last night. Luckily we only had a distant clap of thunder and some rain but apparently there were tornado touch downs in areas around Ottawa and severe winds, the worst apparently since the late 70's. Some people lost power.

All that 'weather' blew in a cold front so it was only 6C (43F) when I got up this morning. I started out for my walk but almost as soon as I got out the door it started to rain so I came back in. It didn't last long but I decided instead to go out to a Mall later today to do some Mall walking. I'm officially an old fart!

So late this morning I got ready and drove into Place D'Orleans. It's the closest mall to where we're parked. I spent a couple of hours there just walking around. I bought a few minor things, not much as I have to feel good to shop and I don't right now. Also not having any money, doesn't help. LOL.

After leaving there, I headed to Farm Boy. I had called this morning and asked if they had any nectarines and was told that they did so away I went and guess what? No nectarines! I was really annoyed as I was feeling tired and not myself and let the young fellow in produce know that I wasn't happy! It's so hard to get good help these days!

Leaving there I stopped at a couple more groceries but still no nectarines. We have to go out tomorrow so I'll try when we go in to Ottawa to sign our income tax forms and learn the bad news there!

When I got home, I lay down and had a nap.