A Day at the Cottage

Last night after dinner we went for a walk and Gordon saw a hot air balloon in the sky so we took lots of photos of it.


Later in the evening I joined Jenny J and Southwest Judy on the rv-dreams.com chatroom. We discovered we're all Virgos and two of us have the second name "Rose". We were joined by Denyse shortly after then Alfie and had a long conversation for about 1 1/2 hours. It's really neat to be talking to one in Spokane, one in Raleigh and one in PA all at the same time. Okay Jenny am I #1 now?

By the way for any of you RVers or Wannabees you might want to sign up for this free weekly newsletter - http://rvtravel.com/publish/newsletter/issue288.shtml . There's usually a lot of good information.

This morning my sister called. She was returning from Toronto and picked me up at the RV park so that my husband could do his thing and she and I could have a visit ourselves. We sat on the dock this afternoon and enjoyed the weather. It was just beautiful on the dock with a light breeze. Gordon joined us for dinner and we sat out on the dock again and watched the sun set. It was a great day and nice to see Betty and Garth again. We last saw them in Fort Myers, FL in March.



We arrived home shortly after 9:00 p.m. tonight and then I had to get my photos in order and get my blog done before going to bed. If I'm not too tired I might drop in on the chat room!

Just A Perfect Summer Day

Today was an absolutely perfect summer day with clear blue skies and bright sunshine and a temperature of 28C (83F). It was hot in the shade and with a constant breeze, beautiful in the shade.

This morning we drove in to Peterborough about 1/2 hour away to go to Home Depot to try to find the rain gutter that we're looking for as support for our sewer hose. Couldn't find it at Home Depot. There was a Rona nearby so we found what we were looking for there and bought 2-10 foot lengths which they sawed in half for us. While there we filled up our water bottles as the water machine at the local Loblaws was out of order yesterday. We also had lunch at Taco Bell. I had a caesar salad which was pretty much a bowl of lettuce with a bit of mozzarella cheese and 3 bacon strips on top but it took away the hunger pangs. I'm hoping the cheese doesn't give me a problem but I've heard that it's melted cheese that causes the problems. So far, I've been good. We stopped at Zellers and got some bungee cords to keep the sewer hose in the rain gutter so I think we've got the material we need to do the job! Lots of traffic in Peterborough. It's become a busy small city!

We traveled back to Lindsay through the country instead of sticking to Hwy 7 and arrived home around 2:00 p.m. I sat outside and read for a while, took some books I had read down to the office to exchange. They have a nice book exchange here. I walked down to the water and took a couple of photos one of which is this young couple trying to encourage their Rottweiller to go into the river. He wasn't impressed!

The other photo is one Gordon took at dawn this morning of a blue heron. Pretty, isn't it?

The Good News & The Bad News

Well the bad news is my breathing is pretty much the same but the good news is since I haven't been doing my daily walk my back isn't bothering me. But not walking is making me feel like a slug!

I called my sister this morning and just caught her as she was on her way from the cottage to Toronto for a couple of days. She'll be back on Saturday. However on her way back she stopped at the RV to say Hi.


After breakfast and showers we set out to see if we could find some eavestroughing for our sewer hose. Many RVers have found that this makes for a good support however we couldn't find what we wanted at either of the Home Improvement Stores in Lindsay so we'll have to
make a trip to Home Depot in Peterborough. We stopped at a couple of grocery stores to buy
some food and then returned home.

Today wasn't all that warm, about 24C (75F) and was mostly cloudy with a couple of sunny breaks. When we returned to the RV, I tried to sit outside and read but it was rather cool so came in and again had a long nap on the couch.

Again, I didn't take any photos but here is one Gordon shot this morning that I think is very beautiful!

More Relaxing

Today was another low key day. The temperature reached 30C (86F) but there was quite a wind gusting to 12.9 mph at one point. Our wind station only reads every 2 minutes so it's possible that the gusts were higher. I sat outside and read enjoying the sun and the wind. I had my lunch at the picnic table.

Late this afternoon, I came in and had a 2 hour nap inside.

I felt better today in some ways. I still can't always take a deep breath but I felt kind of weak today. I didn't get a call from my doctor which I consider strange. I was in a chat room last night talking to another lady who has the same problem and she uses mylanta when the breathing problems happen. I tried antacids today but didn't go out to get anything. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm again borrowing a photo that my husband took while in Carleton Place.

Our First Day in Lindsay & My Medical Condition

Today was a pretty low key day. We took our time getting ready this morning. I sat outside for a while to dry my hair and read while I was out there. We put out the mat and the awning so I took another photo as yesterday's wasn't very good.



After lunch, we drove into Lindsay to see if there was anything new but the only thing I saw was a new Shopper's Drug Mart that had opened. It was under construction last year. We didn't stay out long as Gordon was tired.

When we came back I sat outside again for a while and walked around the park taking a few photos but the day has been cloudy with a few sprinkles of rain although about 27C (80F). They badly need rain here. The grass is yellow and the river is way down.


I haven't called my sister yet. She's not expecting us until next Monday and I want to get some things done like getting everything I need off my PC. I also want to get this shortness of breath thing resolved again. It's been over a week now. I've doubled my medication which solved the problem last time. I've been using more pillows in bed thinking that would work instead of raising the head of the bed but apparently it's causing more harm than good. I've tried extra antacids and called and left a message with my doctor's office in Ottawa today. If I don't get it resolved through her I guess I'll have to go to Emergency here in Lindsay. I'm not incapacitated, I just can't walk far or take a deep breath all the time. I apparently also need to cut out orange juice so I'll try that for a while. I definitely want to get it resolved one way or another before leaving Lindsay. Getting old's a real pain!

Cobourg NOT! Now in Lindsay!

Last night we went to say goodbye to the owners of the campground, Dave and Shonagh and sat for a while with them in their gazebo overlooking the Mississippi River. It's such a pretty spot!

We weren't too 'on the ball' getting ready to leave this morning. We're badly out of practice. We didn't get on the road till shortly after 11:00 a.m. We headed west on Hwy 7 to Norwood and then south on Hwy 45 to Cobourg. Cobourg was a hot spot today. Everyone and their uncle was there. The campground we were going to is right down on the waterfront in the middle of the town. With it being a holiday weekend the waterfront was very busy. When we arrived at the entrance to the campground, the gate was down and there was someone else sitting in the driveway with his popup waiting to get in. I went over to ask him if he could move and he wasn't happy. Apparently there was no one in the office and they had been there 15 minutes. We were in the middle of the road waiting to turn left into the entrance and as such, we were blocking traffic as the street isn't very wide there. I went in search of office staff and found her cleaning the bathrooms. I indicated that people couldn't check in and were blocking traffic and maybe she should go back to the office. When we got to the office she told us our spot # so we drove in and found out that it was not nearly big enough for our rig. She said they were completely full except for that spot and the one beside it but someone was coming in to that one today. We went back to the office and she called her boss who said to put us in the larger site however just as we were getting that settled, Gordon came to the office and said that we couldn't see either satellite from that location so we decided to leave. The campground was very busy, RV's parked like sardines, not my type of place. It sure looked nice in the spring when no one was there!

I then called Double M Campground in Lindsay and asked if we could come in a week early. We were told to come ahead so we arrived here just before 4:00 p.m. The site they wanted to put us on by the water is taken until later in the week so we decided just to go with the spot we had last year, so we're set up.



Gordon didn't feel like BBQing tonight so we had planned to go to Taco Bell but were too tired. I had a can of corned beef hash that didn't seem to have any gluten in it so we had that with green beans. When I opened it, I thought it looked like dog food but it tasted okay and we really didn't care much at this point.

After our dog food dinner we took a walk down by the water. There's a really nice breeze and the sun is shining and we made it! We're here till September 20th!

Our Last Day In Carleton Place

I've enjoyed being here at Tranquil Acres for the last three months. It's the longest time we've spent in one place since we've been on the road. It's a pretty park, the owners are wonderful people, it's quiet and peaceful here and just 1/2 hour drive from Ottawa.

Today was quite warm about 28C (83F) but with very little humidity. The skies were bright blue. It's the kind of day I really like, a typical Ottawa summer day.

Today we got the laundry done, Gordon came with me and dumped the tanks in preparation for leaving tomorrow. The forecast is for some showers so we thought we'd get the dumping overwith just in case.

Again I didn't take any photos today. I'm hoping to get back into it this week. So here's another one of my husband's photos!

Another Trip to Ottawa

I got an email last night from my sister indicating that we had two parcels that Purolator had delivered. We also had some other errands to run so back to Ottawa we went. We got our errands done and arrived at my sister's house around 1:00 p.m.

I have an Air Miles card and was told that Air Miles were going to take away the air miles at the end of the year and since after 15 years of belonging, I only had 954 air miles, I decided to use some of the miles for merchandise so I ordered my husband two 1 Gig cards for his camera and they had arrived. I was surprised as I only ordered them about a week ago. That's his early birthday present!

We came straight home and I sat outside and read for a while. It was much cooler today with no humidity at all.

It was sports day today so I watched lawn darts for a while and while I was out I took a photo of these pretty orange flowers in one of the planters.

Errands

No walk this morning. Since I'm still having some breathing problems and it's so humid, I decided it wasn't a good idea.

After breakfast, I called the local bank as our new credit cards were to be delivered there so we picked them up and then went in to Ottawa to pick up prescriptions for the next three months and run some other errands.

While we were out, we stopped at Giant Tiger and got some good deals on some clothes. They were having their sidewalk sale today.

The temperature hit 34C (93F) this afternoon. Other than the times I had to be outside, I stayed in, read and had a long nap.

I did manage to take a photo today. We've been looking at this field of purple strife for some time. There's an old log barn in the background.

Another Hot, Hazy, Humid Day

It was very hot today 33C (91F) with a breeze but it was a hot breeze. I did walk this morning but am finding I'm having breathing problems again so I started taking 2 Nexium/day on Saturday but haven't seen much change. I did sit outside in between doing things on my computers. We're still getting the Mac up and running. I can do most things on it right now but need to get things transferred from my PC. I think I've moved everything that needs to be moved from my PC to my external hard drive so I'll pick and choose what needs to be transferred to my Mac.

Other than reading and sitting outside for a while, not much to report today!

No photos taken again today so I'm borrowing a photo my husband took this morning of a deer that he saw when he was out for sunrise.

Note: I just found out yesterday that Yahoo no longer supports photos and all photos that were on Yahoo have now been transferred to Flickr so I've updated my link on the right to go to my Flickr location. Since I haven't been posting photos lately, when Flickr is no longer free (Nov2) I will only post photos on my blog.

Visits, Errands and Expenses

It was a beautiful morning for a walk. It was warm 19C (66F) with a breeze but since I got up at 7:45 a.m. there was a lot of traffic with people heading for work at that time. Not a good time to walk.

After breakfast we went in to a branch of our bank in Carleton Place to get some travelers cheques for our trip south. We’ll only be back in Ottawa for one night in September so I’m trying to get most of our errands done before we leave on Monday.

We then went in to Leroy’s (the fellow we bought my new Mac from) and picked up a copy of XP to put on the Windows side of my new Mac (now I can run both Mac and Windows from my new computer). (Thanks to my husband, of course.) While in Ottawa we ran a few errands and then stopped at my sister’s to see them and pick up the mail. Gordon’s new driver’s license was there thank goodness.

I just want to say thanks to all my co-workers. It was great seeing them yesterday and special thanks to Najat for buying my lunch!

Gordon was out taking photos around 6:00 a.m. today and this little creature charged him three times so he’s been reported as possibly being rabid. Note that he did stop long enough to take its photo!

Below is the damage for July.

July Expenses

Campground – 657.20
Groceries/Wine – 587.55
Laundry – 51.65
Entertainment/Parking/Restaurants – 141.26
Truck Fuel – 297.02
Propane – 0.00
RV/Truck Expenses – 178.65
Fixed Expenses – 363.55
Medical/Dental – 285.48
Gifts & Misc – 2134.95

Total – 4697.31

We started out the month really well and if I hadn’t had to buy a new computer we would have come in under $3100.00 this month. However, with the new computer we are greatly over budget!

It appears that groceries and wine were out of sight this month too. I’ll be glad to get back to the U.S. where wine is cheap!

We bought the plates for the truck for the year and some items were purchased for the RV under RV/Truck Expenses.

Medical/Dental may change. I haven’t submitted receipts yet so not sure how much of our chiropractor bills will be paid by extended medial.

Under gifts/misc the only thing of any value other than the computer was the weather station.

I’m not particularly happy with the total for July but not much can be done about it. I am liking my computer!

Two Office Visits

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning (6:30 a.m.) as I had to get ready to go in to Ottawa for a chiropractor's appointment for 10:30 a.m. and then was meeting my friend, Najat for lunch at my former office at BreconRidge in Kanata. I was early arriving in Kanata so stopped at Walmart to pick up some stuff and then went in to see my chiropractor, Dr. Ken Dick on Richmond Road. After that I stopped at Canadian Tire in Kanata as I was early and then headed over to BreconRidge. I always enjoy seeing my former co-workers and today was no different. Today I even got to spend a few minutes with Peter, my former boss. Najat had a meeting at 2 p.m. so I left and returned to Carleton Place, stopping at the grocery, the bank, the Granary to get corn wraps for Gordon but they are on backorder and finally the library to return my books before returning to the RV.

When I got back, Gordon had the dirty job of replacing the toilet seal but he did an excellent job and the toilet now holds water again!

Today was a hot one. The temperature in the truck on my way back from Ottawa was 31C (88F). There was a patch of rain coming back that lasted about a mile and then was gone. It was really funny to see in the distance. The road was dry and then ahead you could see the road was wet. By the time I arrived at the wet part of the road the rain was over which was good for the two cyclists I met!

Although I took my camera with me today I didn't feel like carrying it into the office. Some companies have rules about no cameras and although they didn't have that rule when I worked there, things change! So, again today I am borrowing my husband's photo of the day!

Coming to You Via My New MacBook

See the photos of my new Mac. Gordon and I have been busy since we got back this morning from picking it up getting it all set up. It's nowhere near set up yet but I wanted to do my blog on it tonight. It sure isn't easy to transfer things like email and address book. My Excel files have opened okay, thank goodness.

Last evening I spent about half an hour on rv-dreams.com's chat room. It's amazing to be chatting with people in all different areas. One was in Alaska, others in various parts of the U.S. and then me in Canada.

After picking up the new computer in Kanata we headed back home and started getting it operational. We've worked on it since about 1:30 p.m. and it's just now starting to work for me. I still don't have my old email from the PC but I think I can receive email in my main program ( I have three email accounts - 2 browser and then my Eudora which gets the mail via Gordon's domain).


Not much else new to report but this computer does have a built in camera which is kind of cool. I expect Ill be finding out all sorts of things about it in the next few days.

A Beautiful Summer Day!

Today was just a beautiful summer day, no humidity, bright sun and a tiny breeze. After my walk and breakfast I managed to vacuum the place, then went outside to read for a while.

This afternoon we went into Carleton Place, me to the grocery store and Gordon to wash the truck. When we got back, I went outside again, it was such a beautiful place to be today!

I'm not taking any photos now until I get my new computer.

Happy Anniversary & Spam Filters

Happy 1^st Anniversary to Nick and Becky! Here’s a photo of them one year ago today! Although it was very hot and humid last year on this day, it was a nice sunny day unlike today, humid and rainy!

I’m finding that I meet people now and get their email addresses and then never hear from them. Is it because they don’t want to hear from me or because they aren’t aware that if my email address isn’t in their address book, my email will go directly to their Spam folder and probably never be seen by them. So anyone who reads this and is waiting for an email from someone, check your Spam folder, it’s probably there!

Today was just a nothing day. I read, went to the clubhouse to watch the people who are taking the painting class and just generally vegged! I should have met up with Sandy and Nancy again as was suggested last time we met! Didn’t know I’d be at loose ends today!

Sittin' Around

Today was quite humid and partly sunny this morning for my walk. Since the air was so heavy I didn’t feel like walking very much but managed 25 minutes probably at a reduced speed.

For anyone that’s interested click here for the information on my new MacBook.

This morning I coloured my hair again (doesn’t seem to be lasting as long as it used to) and backed up my computer. I devised a way to keep the power cord plugged in as the battery is not charging at all. I just tuck the cord into the side of my recliner and that seems to work. It’s a real pain to have it shutting down all the time.

The rest of the day was spent reading outside in the shade or inside on the couch. I did walk around the park and take more flower photos as you can see. Not a terribly exciting day!

A Large Purchase

Today was another hot, hazy, humid day but with a nice breeze so after my walk, breakfast etc. I sat outside for about 4 hours and read.

I’ve been having problems with my HP Pavilion laptop. I put a new battery in it under warranty about 2 years ago. Now either the battery has gone again, the power cord is malfunctioning or there is something wrong with the motherboard so we decided to replace it. It’s three years old and that’s a long time for a computer or so I’m told. After some discussion with my husband who is a Macintosh person, we decided that I should buy a Mac instead of a PC. Macs will run the Windows program so I get both in one little computer and Macs don’t have all the virus problems that PCs do. My first computer was also a Macintosh and the reason I was hired originally at Nortel was because I knew the Mac. Then about a year later, they switched to PC so I’ve been a PC user ever since. I needed a PC at home so I could get into my computer at Nortel and do work from home. Now that’s no longer needed so Gordon and I went in to Kanata late this afternoon and discussed the purchase with his supplier, Leroy. We decided to order it so I will have a new computer by Tuesday at the latest. Then I just have to learn the Mac ways and get it set up! Here’s a picture of the computer that I took off the internet!

Happy Birthday to Two Lovely Ladies!

First of all I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Carol in Ohio and my Aunt Ruth in Brockville.

Today was a nice sunny day but very hazy, hot and humid with a temperature of 30C (86F). We headed south on some back roads trying to get to Smiths Falls avoiding Highway 15 due to it being under construction between Franktown and Smiths Falls but there are no local roads in the area that would get us where we wanted to go. There are a lot of nice old log barns in this area so we took some photos then we got onto Highway 15 and with our little detours on the side roads and then being in stop and go construction it took us an hour to get to Smiths Falls. It’s normally half that time. When we got there we parked near the locks and went in search of a washroom which we couldn’t find so back in the truck and over to Hershey’s (3^rd time this week). While there Gordon bought more Reese’s pieces, we used their washroom and then back to the locks where we had a picnic.

We then headed south to Brockville to visit my Aunt for her birthday. Before going to her place we went down to the St. Lawrence to see if we could get a Verizon signal to update the roaming on our phones. We got that accomplished, then Gordon called Carol to wish her a Happy Birthday and his daughter, Michelle to see how she and her family are doing. We then stopped for fuel and arrived at Aunt Ruth’s at about 3:00 p.m. An enjoyable hour and a half was spent with her. She looked really good. She got her hair cut and it looks very nice!

We came back via Hwy 15 again. We had talked about going to Perth and back that way but decided to come straight through as it was getting late. Since we would be getting home late, we decided to stop at the Swiss Chalet at Carleton Place. Originally we were going to order take-out but decided to eat it there. It’s a combination Swiss Chalet/Harvey’s. We arrived home just before 7:00 p.m. tired but glad to have had some time with my Aunt!

Getting Things Done

Today was mostly cloudy with a few sunny breaks. I had cloud for my walk but it was warm around 21C (70F).

After breakfast and getting ready, I got the laundry together, then read for a while and went in to Carleton Place around noon to do the laundry. The Laundromat is usually not as busy over the lunch hour and today was no exception. It was hot and humid all day but I had to get some more groceries including some refrigerator items that I didn’t want to get yesterday. I also had books to take back to the library and it didn’t open till 2:30 p.m. I had also put three books on hold from their on line site last night so I had to wait till they opened to pick them up.

After unpacking groceries and laundry, I lay down for a while before dinner.

Not much else going on today.

I didn't take any photos today but my husband took some around the campground so I'm borrowing a couple of his to brighten up my words!

What I Accomplished Today

1. Went for a walk – 16C (61F) bright and sunny
2. Went to the chiropractor
3. Got some groceries
4. Picked up a part for the RV at Vos Trailers
5. Got the water jugs filled
6. Went to Rainbow Foods to get some gluten free stuff

The high was 28C (83F) today and was nice and sunny till later in the afternoon.

I didn’t take any photos today so I’ve borrowed one from Gordon that he took one morning at sunrise.