Birthday, Nightmare, Visit to GP & Errands

Today is my husband's birthday - Happy 62nd Birthday to my wonderful husband! This photo was taken in Lindsay.

One of the nightmares I seem to have fairly regularly relates to working in the insurance industry. I dream I am still an adjuster (I worked there for 26 years) and was assigned a single vehicle accident, drinking involved, kids had taken the parent's car, parents out of town, injuries, no witnesses and no police called. I hated those! First problem - permission to drive the car, 2nd problem - injuries, 3rd problem - impaired driving (which is real hard to prove without police and a breathalyzer. I think I suffer a panic attack or something when I have these nightmares as when I wake up I feel oxygen deprived and lethargic. Boy I'm sure glad I'm out of that business. I'm sure that the stress I suffered while working there has contributed to some of the medical problems I have today. I sure do appreciate what adjusters have to go through though, which is probably why I haven't hassled the adjusters for our travel insurance! Our claim has yet to be paid. I do keep calling every 4-6 weeks for a status though. They tell me it was a very busy year for travel medical which is their excuse for it not having been paid.

Gordon had an appointment with out GP this morning so no walk again. It was really cold when I got up and I didn't feel like going through all the bundle up to walk due to time constraints so only did exercises again. We arrived a bit early and Gordon was taken right away. Good news! His liver enzymes are back in the normal range! It will be checked again next month to be sure but we were very happy!

After that we had just enough time to squeeze in an appointment with our chiropractor as we hadn't been since before we went to Lindsay and our own chiropractor has been gone since May. He's back and he did a good job today.

I stopped to do my monthly blood pressure check for my graph that I give to the doctor each year when I have my annual medical. Gordon is also starting to keep track of his so I can do one for him as well.

Then back to Carleton Place where we went to the License bureau to get our renewal stickers for the truck. Another job taken care of!

We got back in time for a late lunch, then I went for a long walk down the side road, Cram Road and then onto the farm road since I haven't been doing my morning walks lately. I was ready for a nap when I got back!

Clouds over corn fields

Woodpecker, not sure if it's a downy or a hairy

Cram Road
Farm Road
End of the road

The corn is tall!

It's a long way back!

The horse barn and one of the horses (the farm is for sale)!


Trees are starting to turn

Trees along the river are already turning.

This bush is laden with berries

Ike, Laundry etc.

Ike visited us over night last night with a bit of wind and some rain, sometimes heavy but mostly not too bad considering what others had gotten. Apparently the worst of the rain went north of us. We're very thankful for that!

In the rv-dreams chatroom we've heard from a lot of the people from Texas and all of them seem to have had some type of damage but all are ok, that's the main thing!

When I got back from my walk this morning Shonagh and Dave were just on their way out so I asked if they had any water hoses for sale in the office. Turns out all we needed was a washer which he did have so he put that in and saved us a trip out for a new hose. I love it when things happen like that!

Today I got the laundry ready. Since there is no laundry here at the campground, I headed into Carleton Place to do it there around noon when I hoped it wouldn't be so busy. As it turned out it was a pretty good time to be there. After that I stopped for a few groceries, then went to the library. My sister kept me in books when I was in Lindsay but I'm on the last one now so I needed to stock up!

I came home, put everything away and tried to have a nap but didn't seem to be able to sleep although I felt tired so I read for a while.

We had a few showers today but also a bit of sun when I was in Carleton Place so Ike didn't do much damage here, thank goodness. I feel so sorry for the people that it has affected with loss of lives, damage to homes and no power for long periods. I can't imagine how difficult that must be.

I didn't take any photos today so I'm featuring a photo that Gordon took of the Scugog River while we were in Lindsay.

Another Birthday Celebration

More rain = no walk this morning. I slept in and lazed around but did my floor exercises. I read, napped and surfed. It didn't rain all morning, in fact we did have some sun at one point so Gordon went out around the park to take photos. He just loves not having to drive somewhere to photograph something nice.

Around noon we started getting ready to go into Ottawa. My sister and her husband were having a birthday dinner for both of us since my birthday was last Tuesday and Gordon's is this Tuesday. (He's much older than I am, of course.) We took our time getting that done too! Danica, Nick and Becky were there for the celebration. Remember that we've already had one celebration for our birthdays in Lindsay at the beginning of August.

We arrived at my sister's around 3 p.m. and sat around chatting for a while. We had a delicious dinner of roast pork, green beans, corn and a really neat potato with spices with peach cobbler pie and raspberry fluff for dessert. And I got another gift from Nick and Becky - a gift certificate for a pedicure at The Spa! I finally get to have my pedicure!

Jasper or Jazz or Jazzy depending on who's talking to him was really playful tonight and kept wanting you to throw a toy but then he didn't want to give it up. Reminiscent of our dog, Bib.


Nick and Becky - a good photo of Becky, I thought.

Nick, Danica and Gordon intent on finding something on the internet.

We got home shortly after 8 p.m. to find our water shut off. Apparently our hose sprung a leak so someone shut off the water. So tomorrow we'll have to go in search of a new water hose. Thanks goodness for a full fresh water tank.

An Easy Day

We had a partly sunny day today with a bit of humidity. I walked down the farm road this morning and saw some kind of animal that looked like a dog along the side of the road but it took off into the corn field when it saw me - coyote? wolf? Anyway it was more afraid of me than I was of it.

This morning I went into town to pick up a few groceries again. I wandered around the new Giant Tiger, another store I hadn't been in as it was built after we left last year. The old was was downtown in the little mall and was quite small.

When I got back I read a bit, had a brief nap, then Gordon and I went for a walk around the park and I took the photos seen today on the blog. We also chatted with the owners a bit finding out what seasonal sites were available should we need to go that route.

We've also arranged to do some tole/one-stroke painting in the clubhouse on Saturday.

Rain....and a CT Scan

It started to rain just before I got up this morning and continued on and off for the day. So I only did my indoor exercises and no morning walk.

My morning consisted of getting the vacuuming done, cleaning out one of the kitchen drawers and finishing my latest book. I usually like John Lescroart books but this one has taken me quite a few days to read. It was pretty slow at the beginning and only about the last quarter of the book was a page turner. The book is "The Second Chair". Now it's finished and I can move on.

Since we had to go into Ottawa for Gordon's CT scan for 7:20 tonight we decided to have our large meal at noon (which we should do more often) so Gordon was cooking burgers thank goodness for the awning as it was raining off and on.

We left around 5:30 p.m. to go into Ottawa. We needed to get some fuel for the truck. Amazing! Diesel fuel is finally below gas. We paid 120.4/litre for diesel and gas is 131.9/litre. It's about time! We also filled our empty water bottles then headed for the hospital. We knew we'd be early but didn't know where we were going in the hospital so being good little Virgos we like to be there early. We arrived about 6:20 p.m. or so and Gordon was taken right away so we were out of there and part way home by the time his scheduled appointment time came. We had to park quite far away so we were also lucky that we didn't get rained on! Glad that's over but we won't have results till his specialist appointment on October 1st.

Another Beautiful Day at Tranquil Acres!

Last night the owner of the campground came over and asked Gordon if he wanted to go out in the boat at dusk so away they went. You can read Gordon's account here.

My electric blanket worked so well last night that I didn't want to get up this morning and it was nearly 9 a.m. by the time I got out of bed. I had hoped the traffic on the Appleton Side Road would be lighter then but it wasn't, probably busier in fact. I also slept longer due to the fact that I spent quite some time around 6 a.m. trying to tune in my favourite Ottawa radio station - Oldies 1310. Never could get it tuned in but I had no problem getting WABC out of New York City and WLS out of Chicago. Go figure! I also went to bed later last night as I had a chance to chat on msn with an old friend that I haven't seen in many years. I found her on Facebook but had set her up on msn so we had a nice chat catching up on her life. By the way, Laura, Judy said to say Hi to you.

It was a beautiful morning and had warmed up to 11C (52F) by the time I went out. My plan for today had been to clean but with such a lovely day and three days of rain coming up, I thought I'd postpone it for today. I did however clean the bathroom but no vacuuing.

So after that decision was made I sanded my walking stick that I bought from our neighbour at Diamond J RV Park in Tucson. It's now pretty much all nice and smooth. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to paint it or leave it as is.

I got out my lawn chair and sat in the sun for about 3 hours and read my book. I had a little visitor drop by to see me a few times. Here's a photo of her. She's a pretty little three coloured cat and very friendly.

A bit of a walk around yielded these photos.

There were lots of bees on these flowers.

These sites running along the road are for overnighters and short term stays.

Playing field

Pretty blue spruce

Some views from my lawnchair



Phase two of this afternoon was a loooong nap.

I forgot to thanks everyone on the rv-dreams chatroom for my virtual birthday party on Tuesday night. Everyone was so thoughtful! Special thanks to Dee for setting it up.

New Stores for Carleton Place!

I was slow getting up this morning because I was cold. I had put the electric blanket back on the bed and I tried to turn it on but it wouldn't come on. Turns out I didn't have it plugged in right so I won't freeze tomorrow morning!

It was only 7C (47F) when I got up shortly after 8 a.m. I bundled up for my walk along the Appleton Side Road.

After breakfast I piddled around and read for a while and I think I had a brief nap. Then I took all the canned goods out of the pantry to see if I needed to get any at the store. Looks like we're ok there for a while. Then I updated our receipts on my spreadsheet. Doesn't look like this will be a good month especially since we're taking the RV in for service next week.

After lunch I went to check out the new Superwalmart. It's ok but not up to US standards. Of course, Carleton Place isn't a big city either. It was adequate and I managed to find nearly everything I needed. I also stopped at Dollarama which is an absolutely wonderful Canadian dollar store where everything really is only $1. Then on to Home Depot and Rona looking for a jewelry crimping tool which I didn't find. They didn't have one at Walmart either. For those that don't know Rona is the Canadian how to store. I still have some new stores to check out here but that will wait for another day. A lot of building has gone on in Carleton Place since we were here last summer and all the stores I was in today I'd never been in before.

Then back to the RV park. I timed it just right as Gordon was out taking flower photos so he
got to open and close the gate for me. It's nice when someone is there to open and close the gate otherwise you've got to get out of the truck, open the gate, get back in the truck, move to the other side of the gate, get out of the truck, close the gate, get back in the truck and move to your site. Usually if there's someone out walking around even if you don't know them, they'll open and close the gate for you.

Being exceptionally lazy today I have borrowed my photos from my photographer husband. One is of a cormorant in flight over our Mississippi River and the other is the office with lights.

Looks like our high for today will be 18C (64F).

Age is a State of Mind.......

Well, I'm now officially an 'old fart'. As of today I've spent 60 years on this earth and the good thing is, I still enjoy it! My husband told me this morning that I don't look like an old fart. Wasn't that nice?

I had a slow start this morning. It rained much of the night. I got up late, went for my walk (a brief reprieve from the rain) and after breakfast and a shower we went into Ottawa. It took us about 25 minutes to get to the lab where Gordon gets his blood work done from our RV park. I had a list of things to get done and we managed to get everything checked off the list. We also stopped at our RV dealer and set up an appointment for next Thursday to get the kit put in the refrigerator as ours was on the second set of Dometic recalls. There are some other minor items for them to look at as well. We had lunch at the Bayshore Mall, Gordon at Taco Bell and me at Subway. I had a birthday celebratory macadamia and white chocolate cookie for lunch as well as my 1/2 sub.

We had a little rain on and off while we were out but the sun also shone on and off. When we got back to the RV park the sun was out so I went around and took some flower photos and had a brief chat with Shonagh and Dave as they were out and about working in the park.

Flowers and leaves



When we got back, we both had a nap and then went for a walk together. It's getting pretty nippy. I was glad I had on my new $10 coat that I bought in Lindsay with the fleece lining.

Here's our view from the rear of the RV


My favourite tractor - I take this photo every year

Now at Tranquil Acres, Carleton Place, ON

We left Double M at 9:33 a.m. under partly cloudy skies and about (18C) 65F. After we got past Peterborough it was sunny until just before we reached Carleton Place then it turned cloudy. We had about three bouts of construction but wasn't stopped for long. There was one accident for which we had to take a detour but it was a short one thanks to a young man who stopped and asked if we needed to get back on Highway 7. I was just setting up Miss Pinky at the time so he gave us instructions and Miss Pinky agreed with them.

Lacy clouds on our drive

Other than that the trip was uneventful thank goodness and we arrived at Tranquil Acres RV Park about 1:20 p.m. and Dave moved us into our site so we could set up before it started to rain. Here are some photos of our site.

Our site

Our Yard


View from our back window

Gate that you come through to get into the campground. This view is facing the road.


Dave and Shonagh were here to greet us and even offered to help us set up but we were able to do it ourselves although we are grateful for the offer. We are so happy to be back in our favourite campground in the area! We always feel welcome here. Since we were here last Dave has added wifi and its fast!

We were set up in 1 1/2 hours so we went for a walk around the park and down by the river. Here are some pictures from the walk.

This road takes you down toward the seasonal sites and the river.

Looking from the front of our site down toward the river. The RVs you see are seasonal.

The beach and swimming area.

The area along the river. There are some electric and water sites here but they're rarely used. I think they're 15 amp sites. This area is also flooded in the spring.

More seasonal sites

Looking down toward the water from the gate entrance

The Mississippi River


On our way we met Dave so went to the office to pay him. We're paid up to October 14th, hopefully by that time we'll know what we're doing as the campground closes then.

We were only back at the RV a short time when it started to sprinkle. So we got everything done just in time.

Our Last Day in Lindsay

It was quite sunny when I got up and there was a mist over the river. Today I took my camera with me on my walk since it's our last day here in Lindsay.



Today's plan was to meet Betty at the Airport View Restaurant for a late breakfast so we met at 11 a.m. Their breakfast was good and it agreed with Gordon so that's always a good thing. We had a table by the window so we could see the little planes come and go. It's only a Municipal airport.


After breakfast Gordon left to do other things and Betty and I stopped at a few places as the plan was to go to the matinee showing of Mamma Mia which started at 2 p.m. Betty bought us breakfast for our birthdays and then paid for the movie for me. The theatre wasn't very busy so we got a good seat until someone came and sat in front of us so we moved just as the movie was starting so had no one blocking our view. It as an excellent movie, loved the songs! Meryl Streep was sensational as 'Donna'. Who knew she could sing so well. Too bad I can't say the same about Pierce Brosnan's singing but the movie was good anyway.

Pizza Pizza is right next door to the theatre and they now sell gluten free pizzas so I stopped and picked one up for Gordon on the way home. Here's a photo I took of some downtown Lindsay stores while we were waiting for the pizza.

Unfortunately when we arrived the gate was down at the campground so Betty couldn't drive me in and I had to schlep the pizza all the way to the RV! Sure hope he enjoys it!

It was sad that I had to say goodbye to Betty. We always have a good time during our stays here in Lindsay. She always treats me well and takes me lots of places!

Tomorrow it's back to our favourite campground in the Ottawa area and new photos! Oh and I went over 40,000 hits today!

A Birthday and More Beading

First of all I'd like to wish my stepdaughter, Michelle a Happy 30 something birthday!

I was awakened in the night by rain on the roof and it was still raining this morning so no walk for me. I did do my exercises though. I took my time this morning surfing the internet and finally getting a shower. I had arranged to be at beading class around noon.

It quit raining so I went into town and picked up some groceries and grabbed a sub for lunch before heading to Cameron, ON to see Murida at T.M.G. Beads. Today I made an invisible necklace (pictured below) from ruby semi-precious stones.



I also learned to do bead wrapping. I've left it the way it is (uncut) for now so I can remember how to do it. It will be a few days before I get back into beading as we're heading back to the Ottawa area on Monday. I'll miss having Murida close by!

Laundry and Lindsay

The day started out pleasant and sunny with quite a brisk wind. The good thing about the wind was that it had dried the grass already at 8 a.m. I had a nice walk and run around the campground and did my exercises down by the beach.


After breakfast I changed the bed and got the laundry ready then hauled it down to the campground laundry. Luckily no one else was there as I needed all 4 washers and dryers. Betty had offered to let me come out there and do the laundry but with her little stackable I'd be there for two days getting it done. The main reason she wanted me to come out was today is our cousin, Ed's birthday and she wanted to call him but I'll have to make do with a 'Happy Birthday, Ed'. Ed lives in Winchester, England and is our father's nephew. Ed is so much like Dad even down to his mannerisms.

By mid morning the sun had gone and it turned cloudy. We had a few sprinkles of rain just as we were getting ready to go into town. Gordon needed a haircut and I had to pick something up that I had ordered at the health food store. After that we drove around Lindsay a bit and I took some photos.

This pretty old spreading tree was the first thing that caught my eye in this little park along the Scugog River.

There's an old wooden footbridge that spans the Scugog River and a really nice paved trail on the other side.

A view of the Scugog River from the footbridge.

We drove a little further along the street and saw this old boathouse that's slowly sinking into the river.


When I got home I called our pharmacy in Ottawa to be sure they have Gordon's antifungal medication for next week.