Friday May 8th

Last night after it finished raining the sun came out and we had a beautiful partial rainbow. So we went off chasing rainbows! Then back to Petrie Island where we walked on the pathway. It's not flooded there any more but it sure isn't dry yet.

The partial rainbow

The path at the Petrie Island beach

Pre-sunset

Pretty cloud reflection

The Cumberland ferries passing on the Ottawa River


I have a small correction to my April expense spreadsheet. Our extended health care did pay all but $38 of our $90 charge. Every little bit helps!

I was able to walk this morning - no rain and I felt decent. I even did the 'up the hill' walk.

These are the two hills - the campground is at the top of the first hill

And this is the 'up hill'


After breakfast I got ready and went into Orleans to the Mall and a couple of other stores. I needed to get ink for the printer and get my hair cut!

We only had a few sprinkles of rain this afternoon and have had quite a bit of sun contrary to the forecast. We got very close to 21C (70F) today. That's the first time we've seen a temperature that high in quite a while.

I bought a turkey breast the other day so that's what I'm cooking for dinner tonight. I love turkey!

Just a Joke Today

I woke up this morning to pouring rain. It rained most of the morning.

Since I didn't do much of anything today except computer stuff, read and chat with Dee on Yahoo I thought I'd post a joke that a friend of mine sent me the other day. I thought it was cute.

A senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership and past the Tim Horton's. Taking off down the Trans Canada , he floored it to 120 kph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. "Amazing!" he thought as he flew down the highway, pushing the pedal to the metal even more. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw the RCMP behind him, red and blue lights flashing and siren blaring.

"I can get away from him, no problem!" thought the elderly nut case as he floored it to 130 kph, then 140, then 150 kph. Suddenly, he thought, "What on earth am I doing? I'm too old for this nonsense!" He pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the Mountie to catch up with him.

Pulling in behind him, the officer walked up to the driver's side of the Corvette, looked at his watch and said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a reason why you were speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go."

The man, looking very seriously at the Mountie, said, "Years ago, my wife ran off with an RCMP officer. I thought you were bringing her back.

"Have a good day, Sir," said the Mountie.

Not Much

This morning was cloudy but it hadn't started to rain yet so I went on my walk. We're supposed to have rainy days till Monday, then one day of sun before back to rain again. I was walking around the campground when I felt a 'plop' on my hat. It didn't feel like rain so took my hat off, and sure enough, a bird had pooped on it. Reminded me of a poem my Dad used to say:

A little bird went flying by
It dropped some whitewash in my eye
I didn't laugh, I didn't cry
I just thanked God that cows don't fly

Oh so true!

After a nap I went in to Walmart to see if the nectarines had come in - nope. Did some photocopying at Staples then to Your Independent but they didn't have nectarines either. I don't understand why they had them when we arrived here and now they don't. One of life's mysteries!

Today's photo is Gordon's photo of the day - he can even make a dandelion look good!

Our Tuesday

Happy Anniversary Laura & Steve! Just thought I'd drop that in. Congratulations on two years of wedded bliss! It doesn't seem that long since we drove down to Kitchener for the wedding.

I was up a bit earlier this morning as we had an appointment in Kanata (the opposite end of Ottawa to where we are) at 11 a.m. On our way out we saw a couple walking around the campground and they waived to us. I thought it must be David & Lise as I sort of recognized them from their blog. I got out of the truck and went and met them but it was a rushed meeting as we had to be off.

On our way to Kanata we stopped and picked up a prescription for Gordon for his blood pressure meds. He didn't have enough to last till we see the doctor on May 13th for our annual physicals.

Then on to Kanata where I dropped Gordon at our Macintosh computer guru's house. My computer needed a new battery and electric cable and Gordon needed to upgrade his ram. AWhile he was there I ran over to the mall to pick up a few things then went back to pick up Gordon. A good deal poorer, we were off to Food Basics for some groceries. We were running out of a few staples.

We then stopped to try to find the geocache but we had a truck load of groceries, cameras and computers so Gordon stayed around the truck while I set off. My first mistake was I started through the conservation area on the side of the road where the parking lot is even though I knew that the geocache I was looking for was on the other side of the road. The pathways were quite wet and I couldn't get to the road because of 1) a fence 2) a ditch of water 3) lots of trees. So I walked back to the parking lot and proceeded to walk along the road till I could find the entrance to get into the conservation area on the other side of the road which is also partially fenced. I had succeeded in doing that when my phone rang. My husband wanted to know how long I was going to be as he was bored. I walked a little further, checked Miss Pinky and saw I still had a long way to go so I decided to go back. This geocaching isn't for wimps! At this rate Ducky Love is never going to find a home in Ontario!

This duck was wandering around all alone

Path

Very wet path

I had to walk around a lot of these areas

So we headed for home, unpacked the groceries, got my computer hooked up to charge the new battery and then got to relax!

To the Falls

I woke up during the night with a sore throat. When is this going to end? It's been over three weeks already! So I broke down this morning and took a cold pill as my head was feeling like my cold was coming back. I really hate taking them as they affect the inner workings of my system - LOL!

I had found a geocache at some Falls near here, called Princess Louise Falls or Taylor Falls so we decided to go and see the Falls regardless of how we were feeling. I wasn't up to climbing the falls to find the geocache as I wasn't interested in getting wet. If it hadn't been for the geocaching site, we never would have known about these Falls. They are in a suburb of Ottawa called Orleans and there is a pathway that takes you to them. To get to the bottom of the falls you have to go down a very steep trail which, of course, means that you have to come back up again. Here are some photos that I took.

This is the path to the Falls that goes through Fallingbrook housing area

Princess Louise Falls


You have to cross here to get to the left side where the geocache is - next time I'll take my walking stick

The path back up to get to the truck


We got back in time for lunch and then I had a nap as I was feeling kind of puny. I had planned to go into town for some groceries but canned that idea.

Instead I started printing off some geocaches for tomorrow. We're going to pick up my new battery and electric cable for my computer so I was looking for caches in that area. I was on my third one when my printer ran out of ink. OK, back to low tech, pencil and paper.

Thanks to Donna, FL for letting me know that there is an 'off-road' button to click so I'll try that tomorrow. I already knew about the 'pedestrian' button.

Geocaching Frustrations

I did go out for my walk this morning, up the hill and even managed a bit of running but that hill sure tires me out. It was 14C (57F) this morning and the sun was shining however we did have some cloudy periods during the day.

Gordon didn't feel the best this morning. He said he felt achy and kind of feverish but he did rally enough to go geocaching with me this afternoon. We traipsed around in the underbrush behind Rockland High School but didn't manage to find the geocache. I'll have to try to find something easier. I'm not overly impressed with Miss Pinky's geocaching performance.

Bushwacking and looking for the geocache

Lots of undergrowth


The Trilliums are in bloom (Ontario's official flower since 1937)

My sister in Toronto called this afternoon and we had a nice chat. I won't be seeing her until probably August when we go to Lindsay.

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.