Sitting Around

Today was a pleasant enough day but a bit on the cool side for most of the day but reached a high of around 20C (68F) late in the afternoon. I've resigned myself to doing the boring walk around the campground and out on Rideau Heights Drive but I may walk down by the Hunt Club Bridge tomorrow as there will be less traffic on Prince of Wales Drive.

Here are some more photos that I took of the campground yesterday morning.


Gordon went out around 9 a.m. to photograph the tulips again. I took this chance to vacuum and wash the floors.

Most of the day was spent with jigsaw puzzles, my book and making a couple of bracelets. My plan to wash the bugs off the RV didn't work out as they turned the water off for a bit this afternoon for the second day. It looks like they might be making more sites in the middle of the park where they store the RVs in the winter. It was also kind of chilly to be out doing something like that and I didn't feel like it, so enough excuses. It just didn't get done!

Here's a photo of a couple of the houses that border on Commissioner's Park where part of the Tulip Festival is being held.

This is Dow's Lake across from Commissioner's Park.


A lone tulip.
The kitty sitting in the tulip bed.


All this inactivity is making me tired!

Running Around, A Shock and Tulip Festival

Today was supposed to be sunny with a high of 18C (64F) however it remained cloudy with a few sunny breaks for most of the day with a high of 13C (55F).

I just walked around the campground today and out on Rideau Heights Drive. Since I'm going to be limited to that as soon as the fence goes up I might as well resign my self to it.

I had ordered some pants for Gordon from Sears and they were in so I went to pick them up and then picked up the remainder of his pills at Walmart that they didn't have the other day. Imagine my shock when they asked for $667.00. I had paid $74.11 the other day and didn't even look at how many were in the bottle. That's nearly $6.18 per pill and for only 100 mg which means he takes 4 per day. We got the same thing in Tucson for $44.68 or 1.49/pill for 200 mg dosage so only 2 per day. And they say that prescriptions are cheaper in Canada. I think NOT! Let's just hope that the pills are curing him. I decided I had better put a claim in on my insurance so I'll have my 80% from them by the time my Visa bill comes in. So back out I went to get that done and returned one pair of the pants that I had ordered as they were too long and Gordon didn't like the flat front.

The rest of the afternoon I spent on line doing jigsaws, chatting with Ellie and reading.

Around 4 p.m. we left to go to the Tulip Festival. There's lots of traffic at that time as Ottawa is a Government town so 4 o'clock is rush hour. Anyway, we got there and wonder of wonders, found a parking spot. There were a lot more tulips out today compared to the last time I was there. Here are some photos.












I wasn't fast enough to get this Red Hat lady from the front but her outfit was very interesting

This little girl seemed to have no problem crawling on the pavement.

This cat was basking in the attention given it by the little girl above and another toddler.



I was asked by Randy and Terry of Guiler Travels to include their blog on my Sites to See so I've now updated that area of my blog with their site.

And so ends another day in the life of a fulltime RVer. Oh and it did make it to 17C (62F) late in the day.

A Nice Day Turns Rainy

I've been so lazy lately, pretty much since we arrived in Ottawa.

We're trying to be good with expenses so trying not to go out unless it's necessary. Fuel is very pricey up here! Walking isn't much fun. Today I saw that they're putting a fence up between the campground and the hospital laundry facility behind us so that will mean that I'm limited to walking in the campground itself or on the roadway outside the campground unless I want to walk on the busy street.

The beginnings of the fence.


Tulips from yesterday's walk.


I'm soooo looking forward to getting to the campground at Carleton Place although there are some drawbacks there like having to pack up the laundry and take it into town to the laundromat. But other than that, it's pretty much perfect! Looking forward to seeing the flowers there. The owners of the campground have a green thumb.

Gordon went out to photograph the tulips again this morning. He's been going pretty much every morning this week. That's a good sign as he had stopped taking photos when he was sick. So hopefully this means he's feeling better.

This morning I got the spreadsheet for our expenses updated up till today. It's easier to do it when there aren't so many receipts. The task looks daunting then. I also added one or two more links to my 'Sites to See'. If I don't have yours there and you'd like to see it, let me know by leaving a comment with a link to your blog.

The day started out sunny but as it progressed got more and more cloudy and was raining by mid-afternoon. I didn't notice how high the temperature got as I was too busy reading, doing jigsaw puzzles on line and taking a nap. I did get some good times today on the on line jigsaw puzzles. Anyone want to join three of us from the rv-dreams chatroom in doing jigsaws?

The dandelions are sprouting.


This older Mercedes diesel pusher has been stored in the campground this winter and I noticed today that it's been moved to a site. I'd never seen one before.

Not very industrious these days I'm afraid!

Shopping and Napping

Today was a pretty low key day. It was bright and sunny again but cool with quite a breeze. I decided to cross the railroad tracks for my walk this morning. I found out there's actually four tracks not just three as I'd thought. It wasn't a very nice area for walking. The road was really busy and there were no sidewalks. Just as I was about to start back I noticed a sign saying it's a Federal offence to walk on train tracks. I hadn't planned on going that way again anyway but not I know it for sure.

After breakfast I got ready and drove to the closest Walmart to fill Gordon's prescription for his anti fungal drugs. While I was there I picked up a few things. It's not a Superwalmart but does have some groceries. I also went to Chapters (like Barnes & Noble in the U.S.) and found a puzzle book. I never did get to a bookstore when I was in Tucson. I finished up a gift card there that I had been given when I left work nearly four years ago. I stopped in to Future Shop (electronics) to look at GPS systems but couldn't find any and I wasn't in the mood anyway.

After lunch, I decided to paint my nails so I lay down to read and wait till they dried and woke up two hours later! I'm getting that nap thing down pat!

There's not a lot around here to photograph so here's a photo I took in the desert this winter.

Shopping and Dentist

This morning was bright and sunny with a breeze but only 5C (41F). I didn't sleep in this morning and went for my usual walk. Gordon had gone out early to take photos. It was only when I met him coming home that he told me that he had gone downtown to see the tulips down there since it was Sunday and there wouldn't be much traffic. I told him it is Monday so then he figured out why there was so much traffic! Retirement - you just never know what day it is!

Thankfully I knew it was Monday since I watched Desperate Housewives last night and I also knew I had a dentist appointment today.

I left early and picked up some groceries and stopped at my favourite Dollar Store. It's called Dollarama and it has some neat stuff all for just one dollar. I got stretchy cord for $1.00. The same size you pay $2.95 for at Michaels in the U.S. and more than that at Michaels in Canada. They also had quite a lot of beads but I only spent $2.00 on beads and got a container to put them in.

From there to the dentist where she filled two cavities which set me back quite a few sheckles. Thank goodness for dental insurance!

Today's photo (top left) is one Gordon took this morning on his outing of a beaver and its offspring at Major's Hill Park here in Ottawa. The one at the bottom right is one I took of a cottontail rabbit beating a hasty retreat when he saw me.

A Bit of Reminiscing & Happy Anniversary!

This morning I woke up to rain on the roof. Since I wouldn't be able to walk I decided to stay in bed a little longer. I was listening to my oldies station. Every Sunday morning from 6:00 a.m. to noon they have a local singer, Dick Maloney hosting a radio show called 'Sentimental Journey. Years ago when I was in my 20s and single my friend, Linda and I would go to hear him sing at the Butler Hotel in the east end of Ottawa. A few years ago, Dick had an unfortunate accident and is now paralyzed. He resides at a local total care hospital where the radio station has set up a room for him so he can broadcast from there.

I did eventually get up but just hung around all morning. When the rain stopped Gordon went to get photos of raindrops on the tulips and I finally got to have my walk. This steam engine sits on the lot of Drummond Fuels which is right next door to the campground. In fact, they own the campground.


Here's a photo of our lot taken from the Hospital Linen Supply cleaning plant directly behind us. You can see it's quite a good size.



And here's the passenger train going by.

The rest of the day I spent reading and surfing the internet as well as doing jigsaw puzzles on jigzone.com.

That about completes my day!

I want to wish my friends, Laura and Steve a Happy 1st Anniversary tomorrow! I can't believe it's been a year already!

Boring Stuff and a Pretty Picture

I felt a little better when I got up this morning so hope I managed to nip this cold in the bud. I went for my usual walk.

My plan for today had been laundry and cleaning so I got the bed changed and the laundry done. Gordon had gone to photograph the tulips at the Tulip Festival so I vacuumed while he was gone in between laundry loads. By the time I had that done, Gordon was back.

After lunch I was exhausted so lay down and slept away the afternoon so I didn't get all the cleaning done that I had planned. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

Since I didn't take any photos again today, I am borrowing a photo that my husband took at the Tulip Festival.

Feeling Generally Unwell

Last night was Gordon's appointment for his CT scan. To read about that, click here. Since I was missing Gray's Anatomy and Lost, Gordon set up the VCR to tape the shows so when we got home I watched both shows getting to bed around midnight which is about one hour later for than usual for me. Consequently I did stay in bed about a half hour longer than usual and all day I felt kind of lethargic and unwell. I need to remember not to do that!

I sort of hung around the RV all morning not getting too worked up over getting things done, finally got a shower to get ready to go and get the final things done to send in my CPP (Canada Pension Plan) application. I had other things on the list to get done but decided some of them could wait till another day.

I went to the Service Centre as advertised on the government web site. They certified the photocopy of our marriage certificate, looked over the forms, stamped them as received, photocopied them for me and they are now submitted! That was easy! Then to Rainbow Foods to pick up some items and some gluten free cookies for Gordon. Then home.

I was supposed to go to my sister's for dinner tonight but I think I'll stay home and hopefully shake whatever's trying to take over. Must have picked something up at the hospital last night. It's going to be a nasty, rainy night anyway. Too bad. I seem to be having a hard time getting together with my sister and her family! Instead I took a nap.

April Expenses and Visits

Even though we spent the month traveling we were doing really well on expenses until we had to pay income tax. We would have been within our $3000.00/month limit without that so except for income tax, I'm happy with April's expenses.

Here's a photo I took of Gordon yesterday after he got back from the doctor.



Here are a couple of park photos I took on my morning walk.


In order to set up sharing between spouses for CPP (Canada Pension Plan), you have to send in a certified copy of your marriage certificate. OK, so when we cleaned out the house, where did I put it. My first thought was the safety deposit box so on my way out today, I stopped at the Bank. No marriage certificate. OK, where else would it be? More on that later.

Today was the day I was going to the office to see my former co-workers. I was early so I stopped by to see my friend, Sandy who works for Edward Jones Investments not far from Breconridge where I used to work so I was able to chat with her for 1/2 hour or so then on to Breconridge.

I saw a lot of people today but also found that a lot that I knew and worked with have either quite or been laid off and there are more changes coming up. Pretty soon I won't know anyone there. But I got to see my favourite people but sure missed John who retired recently to travel all over North and South America on his motorcycle. I also found out he recently became a grandfather so congratulations, John! I even saw photos! People have been moved around all over the place too. I'd never be able to find anyone any more!

I left there around 2:00 p.m. and stopped and picked up some groceries. I came home the scenic way and stopped at one of the trails to take a few photos arriving home just before 4:00 p.m. A long day!


You can just see one little red squirrel (or maybe it's a chipmunk) as he was chasing another one at a hundred miles an hour.




This is something that no RVer wants to see!



When I got home, I started looking for the marriage certificate and found it in the only other place I could think of so now I have to go and get that photocopied and certified - something to do tomorrow!

A new couple with their two dogs has just come in beside us so I talked to them for a while. They're from Thunder Bay, Ontario and are here for a wedding on Saturday night so I was able to help them with directions to the church and the hotel where the wedding festivities will be held. The wedding is being held downtown at St Peter's Lutheran Church. I used to come in with our Luther League group from Williamsburg when I was a teenager which is more years ago than I want to remember although everyone at work today thought I looked younger than when I left.

That's what retirement does for you!

Specialist Appointment

Today was even colder. When I woke up I turned on the radio and it was -1C (30F) so I listened to the radio and slept on and off and got up about 8 a.m. It had warmed up 1 degree! Again I bundled up for the walk through the industrial park. As I was walking along Hunt Club Road with the traffic coming toward me I was thinking of the peacefulness of the desert compared to where I have to walk here. Makes me want to get to our favourite park at Carleton Place where I can walk on the farm road that goes through the fields. It's not the desert but it sure beats walking on the streets here in the city.

Today was Gordon's appointment with the Infectious Disease Specialist. I dropped him off and went and parked the truck and read my book. Apparently the doctor was late seeing him due to an emergency of some type as I waited two hours for him. The doctor did a full checkup and more blood work. He seemed to think that the pneumonia is gone as he couldn't hear any sign of it with a stethoscope but he will wait for the chest x-rays results and the CT scan results. He has a follow up appointment on May 28th.

I took the photo of this lone tulip yesterday.

That about completes my day!

Tulips and Forms

It was COLD this morning 3C (38F) but at least it had stopped raining. I bundled up for my walk. This morning was cloudy but the sun did come out although it was windy and the temperature managed to finally reach 10C (50F).

Late this morning Gordon decided we should to and see if the tulips were out. On our way there we drove through the Dominion Arboretum as it has not been open the last couple of times we've tried. I guess the snow hadn't gone away yet. Today it was open so here are some photos taken from the truck.





This photo of the Arboretum was taken from across Dow's Lake.


The Canadian Tulip Festival is a yearly event here in Ottawa and it starts this Friday so we thought we'd beat the rush as it's really hard to get parking in the area when the festival is one. There were quite a few out as you can see from the photos but still a lot to come out yet. The tents are starting to go up. It's so pretty around the tulips, too bad they put up those ugly tents!






This afternoon I succumbed to another nap then decided I needed to get my Canada Pension Plan forms done. I completed the part on line that they allow and printed off the Declaration page to be signed and mailed. We had decided to do pension splitting for our pension plans so another form had to be printed off and completed. Now I need to find our marriage certificate. Nothing's easy! When I find it, it has to get certified but there's a Government place to do that not far away so rather than bug our lawyer about it, I'll go there when and if I find the marriage certificate.

I really hate doing all this stuff but unfortunately if you want the money, ya gotta do the work!

On a Fulltime RVer's Mail....and Other Stuff

Yesterday when I was at my sister's I picked up our mail. Since we hadn't seen any mail since we left last Fall, we had quite a bag full. I always hate picking up the mail because I don't know what to do with it. All the Visa bills have been paid. I can access all the bank accounts from the internet. The junk mail can just go in the garbage. Then there are the magazines that I get from our Canadian RV Explorer Club and Good Sam. I usually scan them but don't really read them as I would if I were receiving them monthly.

Last year I went to the banks that I deal with and tried to get them to stop sending me things. I did succeed with some items but one of my credit cards insist that they must send me my bill in the mail. I have no idea why, it's their 'policy'.

Good Sam are always sending me junk even though I've asked them not to. I told them, 'we're on the road, we don't get our mail sometimes for months'. They still send me stuff. I threw out two bags of envelopes and junk mail last night. There goes a couple of trees!

Now I have all the bills to file - where? That's one of the major problems I have with RVing - where to file all this 'stuff'!

Well, it rained all day today so I didn't take any photos myself. Our high was only 10C (50F). This is more like the weather I expected when we got home. It's going to be like this and even colder for the next 2-3 days.

The only thing we did today was go the chiropractor. Between the manipulations and the pills for my allergies, they seem to be quite a bit better. My eyes aren't as blurry as they have been. After the chiropractor we stopped at the Sony Store at Bayshore Mall but they didn't have the lens Gordon was interested in. He then stopped to take a photo for today at the Central Experimental Farm. You can see it here.

When I got back I followed the advice on Jenny's blog - Eleven Foot RV and had a nap.

When I got up and checked my email I found that Schmap want to use one of my California photos in their California Schmap on-line magazine. Cool!

Since I didn't take any photos today, I'm posting one of one of my favourite places, the desert with the Pima County Park on the left and Tucson Mountain Park on the right.

Visiting Family

After last night's rain, today was bright and sunny and quite warm. I walked through the industrial park this morning and down a residential side street that I hadn't been on before. In the industrial area I took a photo of these tulips.


This morning I just hung around. Our TV reception wasn't very good last night. We thought it was because of the storm. That may have had something to do with it but the trees are also budding and Gordon thinks that was the main problem so he took the satellite dish down off the ladder and put it on the tripod and we're again getting excellent reception.

This afternoon I went in search of Jif peanut butter. I still didn't find it so I bought Truly which is a Zellers brand (Canadian store recently purchased with The Bay by a U.S. Company). They have a lot of the same brands that Target has. Truly doesn't have any maltodextrin in it like Skippy and Kraft do. Maltodextrin in the U.S. and Canada isn't supposed to have gluten in it but if I don't have to have it in a product, I'd prefer not to.

After that I went over to my sister's as they were to be back from a lunch out for my brother-in-law, John's sister, Marie's birthday (that's a mouthful). I arrived early so spent some time with my soon not to be a teenager niece, Danica. She'll be 20 tomorrow! She was busy studying for her last exam which occurs on Tuesday, then she's finished until September when she starts her 3rd year in Biomedicine at the University of Ottawa.

Margie and John arrived about 15 minutes after I got there so the ladies sat outside where it was beautiful and chatted. Danica opened her birthday gifts. Here she is in the orange scrubs that I bought her in Tucson. She really loves orange! They are quite a bit too long. That's what she gets for being born into a short family!

My older sister, Betty returned from her trip yesterday so she called this afternoon and both Margie and I chatted with her for a bit.

I made Gordon a pizza for dinner. I had bought a couple of pizza crusts the other day when I was out so he was happy!

So, Happy Birthday tomorrow Danica!