A Day on My Own

Gordon left before I got up this morning to spend the day doing photography with his photography friend, Jim who has just moved to Ottawa from Clinton, NY so I had the day to myself.

I got up at the regular time and it was 2C (36F)! The day warmed up nicely however and we had bright sunny skies. I went for my walk/run and I have to say that today is the best I've felt since just before we left Lindsay. Must have gotten a bug of some kind.

I pulled a real dummy this morning when I got back from my walk. I decided to charge the battery on my camera. That was okay. A couple of hours later I took it out of the charger, put it in the camera and proceeded to delete the photos I took on my walk. I usually charge the battery at night and then delete the photos once I have downloaded them to my computer so no photos from my morning walk! Duh!


So this morning I coloured my hair, had a nice hot shower and then mowed the lawn around the RV. The big mower that Dave uses can't get that close to the RV. I couldn't move the picnic table by myself so I just mowed around and under it as best I could. I also read a bit and listened to satellite radio. Gordon likes it to be quiet in the RV when he's working on the computer so I don't get my background music very much but it was nice for a change.

After lunch I took another walk and tried to recreate some of the photos but the light was wrong so most of the them didn't turn out very well but I had a nice walk. I sate for a while on the bench down by the beach and enjoyed the solitude.

Gordon didn't get home till just after 6 p.m. so it was a long day for him traveling around the area taking photos.

A Day at the Dealer

Today I was up just after sunup as we were taking the RV into our dealer for a check up. We arrived a few minutes after 9 a.m. (They open at 9) and they took us pretty much right away and got started. We had a list of things for them to look into, one of which was that our electric hot water heater has never worked. It turned out to be a loose wire so now we have an operating electric hot water heater for the first time in four years! They did a lot of work on it today. We didn't leave until nearly 5 p.m. It has to go back in next week and they will recaulk the whole unit.

We leave our RV in the garage.

Here it is being washed late this afternoon.


This morning while they were working we stopped at McDonalds and Gordon had a coffee. I can't drink the stuff anymore so he brought it along and we went to our favourite trail, Jack Pine. The first thing we saw was a chipmunk, then we went on to the marshy area and saw lots of mallards and a couple of geese. When we came out of the swamp there was one section where the chickadees and one nuthatch kept flying around our heads. It was really funny to watch them. Of course photographs were taken!



A lone leaf


We stopped at Wendy's for lunch and then went back to the dealer thinking they might be done but they did a lot more than we expected including washing the roof and the sides of the RV. Next week when they take it in to caulk it they will shine it up so it looks brand new! So we sat around in the dealership, in the truck, I read, Gordon had a nap. It was a pretty boring day but this is a great dealership, I would recommend them to anyone.

We got back and were set up again shortly after 6 p.m. Tired!!

It was sunny but chilly all day today and we're supposed to get down to 1C (34F) overnight, that's in the city so there's a good chance it will be colder here in the country especially where we are by the water.

Here's a photo that Joy (that I met in Tucson this winter) sent me of their site in northern Idaho near Coeur D'Alene. Note the moose going through their site.

It's Wednesday at Our House

Gordon left around 7 a.m. to take the truck into Ottawa for service. He's noticed some uneven tire wearing so Southbank Dodge performed an alignment and did the oil/filter change even though it's not due yet. We're about to run out of extended warranty so he wanted to get it in to see if anything needed to be done that would be covered under warranty before it expires. All seems well.

While he was gone I walked, did my exercises and a bit of work to get ready to take the RV into our dealer, Vos Trailers tomorrow for service. As it's over four years old now, they need to go over it and be sure everything is holding up, especially the caulking. If water gets into the RV as a result of poor caulking it can mean a lot of dollars to get it fixed!

Here are some photos from my morning walk.





This morning and again this afternoon I took some time to do some beading. If anyone is interested in a Yahoo forum site for beading, click here. You will have to be approved by the moderator. There's also a beading chatroom here.



The rest of the day I read and had my daily nap. From sunny and windy this morning to some rain this afternoon, then back to sun, it's been a variable weather day. Our high was 21C (69F).

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