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!

Getting Stuff Done and an Interlude

It rained off an on for most of the night but had stopped by the time I got up this morning. Rather than take a chance of getting wet by walking a long distance away, I did loops around the campground. You do a lot of loops in 1/2 an hour!

After breakfast I got ready and went out to pick up a few groceries. I decided while I was out to go to the bank and get the dreaded income tax paid, then I went to the shoe store where I've bought my sneakers for the past two years only to find out that they've discontinued the ones I like. The girl did manage to come up with one pair in my size but when those are worn out, I'll have to find something else. I got the groceries except for Jif peanut butter which I couldn't find in any of the three grocery stores that I went to. What's up with that? We had Jif here when I left in the Fall.

My niece was on MSN Messenger this morning telling me that our doctor's office called there this morning. They have our cell numbers but they'd rather call a local number, I guess. Anyway, the gist of the conversation is that yes, I do have a fracture in my foot and also arthritis in the big toe of the same foot. I knew about the arthritis and after the last few weeks had suspected the fracture. I'll have to call on Monday to see if she wants to do anything about it. She also said that Gordon's chest x-ray looks like the infection is almost gone however it didn't originally show up on the chest x-ray in Tucson which is why they sent him for a CT scan. We still don't have an appointment for a CT scan, hopefully that will come on Monday as well.

I got the laundry together and since the laundry room here only has 2 washers and 1 huge gas dryer I only did two loads but because the dryer works so fast it barely took an hour.

Gordon needed a photo of the day and we needed fuel so got the fuel and I washed the windshield. It was still all buggy from the last leg of our trip last week. Diesel was 1.28/litre. Trust me, that's expensive! Then we went to Chapman Mills Conservation Area which is only a short distance from the campground and took some photos. I considered it our interlude for today.

This is a view of the Rideau River from the pathway.

The Boardwalk.

A red-winged blackbird in flight.

The pathway.

Trees in reflection.


It got to 25C (77F) again today but look out....they're calling for snow showers on Tuesday with a high of 6C (43F). I knew it was too good to be true!

Income Tax - there should be a law against it!

I walked around the industrial park again this morning and finally found a way across the railroad tracks when I came back. The path on the other side of the tracks isn't much but if I cross the double set of tracks on the other side, I'm in another industrial park so maybe I'll check that one out too.

The path.


This cardinal was way up in the tree singing for me this morning.

More spring trees.


We had an appointment today to sign our income tax forms. Unfortunately we have to pay! How does that happen? We're not making any money and we still have to pay income tax. Doesn't seem right somehow that retired folks have to do that. So we got that overwith, now I just have to go to the bank and part with the funds.

After that we stopped briefly at my sister's but my niece was the only one home and Gordon wanted to go and get his picture of the day and get home so he could rest. So we left without waiting for my sister to get home from work. I'll see her this weekend hopefully.

We stopped briefly at Hog's Back Park and caught several photos of this cute little raccoon who was helping himself to the garbage in the garbage container as well as some photos of Hog's Back Falls.





Another day in the life of a fulltime RVer.

On Clotheslines.... and other things

There's a big controversy going on over the last while apparently on clotheslines. With people wanting to fight global warming they're now wanting to bring back the clothesline instead of using a clothes dryer. However most communities these days view clotheslines as a blight on the landscape it seems. Growing up we didn't have a clothes dryer. Our clothes were hung outside on a clothesline in spring, summer and fall and even sometimes in the winter if it was a nice sunny day. Otherwise they were hung on clothes racks in our large spare room upstairs. Folding clothes dried on a clothesline is often a chore. Folding towels that are stiff as cardboard isn't easy to do but the fresh smells that these days are provided by dryer sheets were amazing! My sister who lives in Ottawa has always hung her clothes outside. There are a few things she puts in the dryer, like towels. However some parts of Ottawa (like Kanata) banned such archaic things as clotheslines from the time the suburb was built. Personally, I think they're a great idea and I've been in RV parks that have clotheslines available for people. Great idea!

I walked a bit through the industrial area this morning. I sure can tell a difference in my back since I got back. Walking in the desert seemed to be helping it but as soon as I got back here and started walking on pavement again, I'm back at the chiropractor. While I was there I asked him to do an allergy treatment on me. The last two years I've noticed my allergies getting worse. My eyes get all blurry this time of year. He did the chiropractic adjustment for allergies and also recommended a naturopathic medication called Allergiplex. I'm trying that and have taken one today so I'll let you know how it works. If it works, it's well worth the $20 for 10 pills!

This plane flew right over my head on my morning walk.

This is what traffic was like on Prince of Wales this morning.


One of the RVs that is stored here in the park.


After the chiropractor we drove to the Ottawa River Parkway as Gordon needed a photo of the day for his pbase.com site. There were lots of geese and ducks as well as seagulls around. I also noticed that the weeping willow trees are starting to bud so it's looking like spring!

Here is one of the weeping willow trees. It looks so pretty against the blue of the Ottawa River.

Mr & Mrs. Mallard.

People feed the birds on the parkway. As soon as they see you they head right for you. No fear!

Here's a flock of geese heading out into the river. Note that the river is still flooded. Parts of the walking/bike path are still underwater.

This is a pretty old tree.

A seagull in flight.


Sitting outside and reading made me tired so in I came and lay down on the couch. A couple of hours later I managed to drag myself out of a deep sleep. So much for that afternoon that I didn't see!

Chest X-ray, Rain and Relaxation and Birthdays

I was up at 6:30 this morning. Gordon wanted to get to the hospital early for his chest x-ray but apparently not as early as I thought. I dropped him at the hospital at about 8:50 a.m., then drove to a nearby shopping mall, parked the truck and started out on my walk since I hadn't gone when I got up. I hadn't gone far when the phone rang. It was only 9:05 a.m. and he was done already. Rather than have me drive back to the hospital, he decided to walk to the mall so I changed direction and met him along the way.

On our way to the hospital we had noticed daffodils and tulips were out where there hadn't been any two days ago so we stopped to take some photos. Here are some of them.






Although we had some sun this morning, shortly after we got home it started to rain and it rained on and off for the afternoon but it didn't rain all that much.

Two people in the family have birthdays today, Gordon's son, Ian and Nick's wife, Becky. So, Happy Birthday Ian and Becky!

Other than reading and making a couple of bracelets, that was our day!