Around the House

Today was a beautiful day weather-wise, sunny, no humidity and temperatures reaching 27C (80F). I went to bed very early last night as I was exhausted and managed to sleep almost to my normal arising time. There was lots I wanted to get accomplished today so set off on my morning constitutional thinking about what needed to be done.

First on the agenda, after breakfast, was getting the refrigerator defrosted and taking everything out of the fridge, washing everything and pitching what I didn't want. That job took a lot of the morning. After that I relaxed outside and read for a while.


After lunch, I got the vacuuming done but I'm afraid that's all that will get done today as my back isn't very happy with me. It has never recovered from my July 1st Canada Day downtown trip. I'm afraid I'll have to break down and see the chiropractor. That's enough for one day anyway!

The photos today are from our trip to Merrickville this week.

Lunch with an Old Friend

It was a beautiful evening yesterday, no humidity, no air conditioning so why did the power go out at 8:30? I was chatting merrily away in the rv-dreams chatroom when our backup power supply started to beep and the TV shut off. I had enough time to sign off chat saying the power went out. Gordon went outside to see if anyone knew what was up. All he found out was that it was widespread, not just the campground. I found some candles, lit them, then went out too.

Gordon was standing outside talking to our neighbour who just did the written test for the Class A license. He failed the first one and tried it again. Apparently the tests aren't the same every time you go so he passed that one and his appointment for his driver's test is July 18th. He said the questions were all related to commercial rather than RVing. There is word going around that a new license is coming out in the Fall, should we wait?

The bugs were coming out so we came back inside and decided to go to bed. I read for a while and noticed the power came on around 10:30 p.m. or so as I had turned my fan on that's beside my bed so I'd know. The TV also came back on and there was this ghostly blue light shining all over the RV so I came out and turned that off.

It rained over night and was still cloudy this morning as I went for my walk and run. I did my usual blog reading while having breakfast then got ready to meet a friend that I haven't seen in about 17 years for lunch. I left early and picked up a few things at Westgate Mall before meeting Marilyn at Monkey Joe's for lunch. Monkey Joe's has been around for years. Gordon and I used to go there for breakfast occasionally but I haven't been there in a very long time.

Marilyn arrived right on time and we got seated in their outdoor patio which turned out to be pretty noisy. We got caught up on the 17 missing years and left the restaurant at about 3:15 p.m. having arrived at 11:45 a.m. A lot of things have changed in that time. Her son is now 27, last time I saw him, he was about 10 yrs old and many other things have happened in her life which I won't go into.

We had a great visit and now that we have email addresses for each other, we'll be able to keep in touch.

On the way home, I stopped at my sister's and picked up our mail. This was the traffic on Prince of Wales as I was coming back to the RV Park at about 3:45 p.m.

Laundry and a Drive in the Country

Last night after dinner we drove the short distance to the Stormwater Facility which has walking paths. Gordon needed a photo for pbase.com. We just had a short outing as it looked like a thunderhead was building. Lucky for us nothing came of it except to bring drier temperatures. We then did a quick run to the grocery store.

Thunderhead

Path at storm facility


The humidity went away over night and today was a perfect 23C (74F) so I had a lovely walk/run this morning.

On to more mundane things, I got the laundry done and out of the way.

Gordon wanted to go for a drive in the country this afternoon so we took the scenic route to historic Merrickville, Ontario. Merrickville has apparently been voted the prettiest village in Ontario and has more heritage buildings than any other community of its size. It even has a Blockhouse Museum

as well as locks as the town is right on the Rideau River. We took some photos and continued on to Burritts Rapids, another hamlet in the area which also has locks. They were just about to let some boats out of the locks so we took some photos there too.



Watch out for that first step - it's a doosey!

I wonder what's behind the pink door?

There was a really big Santa at the front of one of the stores. I managed not to go into ANY stores!

Me coming out of a badly maintained British phone booth.

Merrickville is located in Merrickville-Wolford Township. This is the same spelling as Gordon's lat name.

There's also a Wolford B&B.


From there we came home arriving about 5:30 p.m. Now for a quiet night. Looks like a good night for sleeping with the windows open!

Some Reminiscing

First of all I woke up with a massive headache and a sore jaw which means I must have been grinding my teeth last night. That hasn't happened in quite a while. I also woke up just after midnight with acid reflux which isn't fun and hasn't happened since we had the head of the bed raised last year so I hope that isn't a sign of things to come! Next thing I realized was that it was raining. Yuk! No walk. I really hate that and it was also still humid.

So, after breakfast I did a root touch up. My hair is still really dry from being in the desert so I didn't want to do an all over colour. I had bought a root touch up kit yesterday. It's the first one I've done so the jury's still out on whether I like it or not.

I also got a pork tenderloin browned and put in the crockpot with potatoes, carrots and onion soup mix.

I realized then that it had quite raining so I did a very short walk/run as it was very humid out. My headache had subsided but was not completely gone. When I got back I took a bit of muscle relaxant which made by afternoon go away completely in the form of a nap.

I didn't take any photos today so I've gone through some older photos. The one at the top right is one of the Christmases that we used to have when I was a kid. In fact I am at the head of the table (in my mother's arms) so my guess is that it's Christmas 1948.

The photo on the left is my younger sister, Margie, her son, Nicholas and myself. Nicholas was about two years old in this photo. He's now 23! Boy was I younger and skinnier! The photo was taken at my Mother's house in Morrisburg, Ontario.

A Pretty Ho Hum Kinda Day

Today was hot, windy and humid with the threat of rain and thunderstorms this afternoon. The day started off bright and sunny with a lovely breeze which makes for great walking conditions. After breakfast I set out to do errands.

I had to go back to the pharmacy to pick up the rest of Gordon's medication today. They never have the full number of pills for the month that is prescribed so I did other errands while I was out which encompassed the library, getting a fax sent to our new insurer and two shopping malls. On my way home I stopped at the Canada Beading Supply that I saw when we first arrived. It's quite a store and they have beading classes which start, of course, when we're in Lindsay in August but maybe I'll be able to get one in before we leave to go south for the winter.

I got home shortly after noon and finished the latest book that I started the night before last. I love Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. They are books that you can't put down! I sat outside for a while and then thought I'd take a nap but I couldn't fall asleep so back on the computer I went taking time out to go out and try to find a photo for my blog.

Pretty ferns

This is what we call an MBB - miscellaneous brown bird.

There have been lots of tents in the park lately.

Vine climbing over the wall that runs behind us

Please say prayers for rv-dreams members, Tim and Robyn. Robyn was badly burned in an accident in mid-June and is still in hospital in Augusta, GA on a ventilator. She will be there for a long time yet.

That's it for today, folks!

Ah........

Today I spent a very restful day. I did go for my walk and run and this is the first day in ages that I haven't wrapped my foot. I'm seeing a lot of improvement in it lately.

After breakfast I took myself out to my lawn chair with my book and a cold drink and there I stayed for hours eating my lunch there. I did take a walk around the park and took some photos of the beautiful lilies. Here are some of them.






I've been wanting one of these days for ages and with the warm temperatures and the beautiful breeze it was a great day for it! Unfortunately this kind of day doesn't make for very good blogging!

Oh and by the way, I checked and my figures for June are correct! I had some comments about us only spending such a small amount on fuel for the truck and also indications that my bookkeeping may be incorrect but it's not. These figures don't happen very often but I'm hoping to see more like it this winter in Texas, that is, after we get there. I'm sure the month of October and probably November will be high due to fuel costs.

End of June Expenses, Museum of Civilization

With all the computer problems, I'm not entirely certain that June's figures are accurate but I think it's relatively close. We had lots of general expenses this month, our Visa card annual fee, our ERS, our new insurance for the truck and RV, a new hard drive (not for my Mac) so I'm pretty happy with the overall total. We also had truck service and new brakes

I had thought today would be a quiet, relaxing day sitting out in my lawn chair but it didn't turn out that way. I started off as usual with my walk/run plan. After breakfast I went to sit outside but Gordon wanted to photograph something pretty. I suggested the day lilies in front of the white birch trees I had seen this morning. He went and photographed them but when he came back he still wanted to go out. He did take time to finally put out the awning so I put down our new mat that we purchased in Mesa, AZ this winter but hadn't used yet. While looking for tie downs he realized we only had one. We had to pitch one a few months ago so we needed to go and buy one of those.

His cordless drill had also bit the dust a while back. It needed replacement batteries which were almost as expensive as the drill so he decided since he doesn't have need to use a drill very often anymore just to go with a basic drill with a cord. Our first stop was Canadian Tire. We found some drills but their ratchet tie downs were expensive. By that time it was time for lunch so we stopped at Wendy's for a little sustenance then off to Home Depot where we found the tie down we needed and a drill.

I had suggested while we were eating that we go to the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, QC for some photos. We hadn't been there this year yet so away we went. It's a very pretty spot with paved trails running along the river for bikes, joggers, walkers and roller blading. The Museum of Civilization itself is an interesting building with lots of curves and it is in a great location being right across the Ottawa River from the Parliament Buildings and downtown Ottawa.

The Museum of Civilization

Parliament Hill

National Gallery

Pathways


On our way home we came back through downtown Ottawa to Colonel By Drive. It's a beautiful drive along the canal on the south or east side of the canal depending on where you are on the drive.

Along Colonel By Drive



When we got back I sat outside with my book for a while. It was hot but there was a very nice breeze. Here's a photo of our chairs and our new mat.

New Hard Drive and Mer Bleue

Today was one of those perfect Ottawa summer days 27C (80F) with a light breeze and very little humidity. I started out the day with my daily walk and run around the neighbourhood.

After breakfast we got ready to take my computer back to Leroy, the fellow we bought it from and got a new hard drive. This is 40 GB more than the old hard drive so I'm back in business! After that we stopped to do some errands, picked up our mail from my sister and back home for lunch.

Gordon set up my computer to get all the data back on it and we had lunch. Then we took off to get some photos. We went to Mer Bleue for our walk. The Mer Bleue Bog area is a very nice walk mostly on boardwalk as it goes through a swampy area and then through a large bog area. This area is significant as the flora and fauna here are much the same as it is around Hudson Bay. It's the only spot like it and is not normally found this far south.

Cat tails in Mer Bleue


Mer Bleue


Boardwalk through the bog


The bog

Beaver lodge

Tiny lily pads with tiny water lilies


We also walked briefly on a couple of other trails in the Mer Bleue area but one was too wet, one had too many mosquitoes and the other one wasn't very interesting.

I managed to get a photo of this little toad before the mosquitoes almost picked me up and carried me away!


By the time we got home, the computer had finished copying my data from the Firewire drive back onto my new hard drive so now I'm back in business! We just have to decide now if we're going to try to format over the old drive. We got a casing for it from Leroy so if we can get it reformatted and it works I could use it as back up (but can it be trusted) or we can send it back to Apple - things to think about!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July to our southern neighbours, well they're southern in the summer but in the winter we're right in there with them!

The sun was shining when I got up today and the radio says we're to have three days of it before the skies open up again so away I went for my walk. I actually got quite a bit of running in today as well. My lower back is still bothering me from our trek downtown on July 1st but I'm hoping it will work itself out. If not, it's back to the chiropractor on Monday. Our chiropractor doesn't work on Fridays.

I had errands today. Gordon needed a prescription filled and I needed to drop some stuff off at the Salvation Army among other things. I finally got a box to store our bills. I really hate carrying that stuff with us but I hate to be without it too. We were asked once for all the service bills on the truck. Luckily I didn't have to dig them out but the bills for our electronic equipment and such might be needed at some point.

I'm not spending a lot of time on the computer right now as it's on the desk and the chair there is very uncomfortable but since it's hooked up to the firewire drive (it's a Mac thing) acting as my hard drive, we need to leave it there. Sure hope that my hard drive can be replaced tomorrow!

It will be a while before I can post expenses for June due to my hard drive failure. I still have a lot of input to do and I don't want to do it till I get my new hard drive.

The photo today is one Gordon took of a little chipmunk at the Ornamental Gardens the other day.

Bad News!

I have been having weird things happen with my computer. Remember I bought this brand new in August last year. When I tried to open anything, it took forever and I was getting tired of seeing the little colour wheel spinning (that's what you see instead of the timer that PCs use). So, my resident Mac expert AKA Gordon took a look at it and decided that the hard drive was toast. He did manage to get it backed up, thank goodness although it had been backed up recently. At least my backup information is now current as the hard drive has died completely! It can be replaced under warranty however then they want your hard drive to be returned to Apple. If you've been unable to write over the drive to be sure all documentation is gone, you're probably better to just buy a new one.

Leroy (our Mac person and friend of Gordon's) says that hard drive failure is pretty common these days. So everyone, be sure you're backed up regularly unless you want to lose all your data! For now, I'm running off an external hard drive till I can get it replaced. The link is on the left side of his blog.

It was pouring rain this morning so today is day three for no morning walk. I've been so sore since walking around downtown on Canada Day though that it might be a good thing. My whole back and rear end muscles have been very sore! Guess I'm more out of shape than I thought.

The weather started to clear up around noon so I went out to do errands and get some groceries and was gone most of the afternoon. The sun did come out finally and we're supposed to have sun till Monday!

I won't be operating normally till I can get my hard drive replaced probably on the weekend.

Good News!

We had an early start this morning so I was up before 7 a.m. to get ready for Gordon's doctor's appointment in the west end of the city for 8:30 a.m. So for the second day in a row I had to forgo my morning walk. We got there in lots of time as the traffic wasn't too bad. I guess lots of people took the week off surrounding Canada Day.

The news was good. Gordon does not have multiple myeloma (this is the disease that was suggested by another RVer as Gordon's symptoms were similar to ones her husband had). Our doctor thinks it is possible that the problem he is feeling on his right side and under his right arm might be from a misalignment in his back and she recommended that he go to a chiropractor.

After the doctor we had some other errands to run and then we stopped at the Fletcher Wildlife Gardens to take some photos. The photos below are from there.

This is the first thing I saw, a cute little chipmunk nibbling on something.

We also saw this little turtle. There are two frogs also one on a rock on each side of the turtle.

A bug on a black-eyed susan

A tree swallow

After that we came home and since it was such a beautiful day, I sat outside and read for a while and had my lunch outside again. It seems that my chances to do this lately have been few and far between.

This afternoon, Gordon went to the chiropractor and we filled up with fuel again at 1.39/litre - ouch! We have paid more per litre than this since we've been back in Ottawa.

We saw this cute slogan on the back of a Land Rover that was ahead of us at a stoplight!

Other than that, I had a brief chat with Deb (Debken) from the chatroom on Yahoo Messenger. Deb's blog can be found by clicking here.

We hit about 28C (83F) today under sunny skies but with quite a good wind. I think it's blowing in a storm for tomorrow but at least we've had two days of nice weather!

Happy Canada Day!

Today Betty was picking me up at 10 a.m. to attend the Canada Day Festivities downtown and for a lady's day out. She actually arrived at 9:30 a.m. Luckily I was ready!

We drove back to my sister, Margie's place and her husband, John drove us to the bus station. It was much easier taking the bus downtown today as a lot of the streets were blocked off for the celebration. Margie supplied bus tickets, thanks Margie!

First stop was a tour of the lab where Danica is working this summer. Here she is in her lab coat.

She showed us all around the various areas and in where the fish are that she's working on. Unfortunately the only fish photos that turned out were the goldfish and she works on trout!

From there we bussed it back to the downtown area and had lunch at Palermo's on Sparks Street. Sparks Street is a pedestrian mall here in Ottawa with all kinds of shops and restaurants. Betty bought lunch, thanks Betty!

From there we walked toward Parliament Hill. There sure were lots of people around today.


The crowd in front of the Peace Tower at the Parliament Buildings. There were lots of people dressed in red and white.

Left to right: Margie, Danica and Betty

We sat around on a planter wall for a while waiting for the Snowbirds to fly over. Unfortunately my camera didn't do well on photos of the Snowbirds.

A Mounted Policeman

Then we walked down by the locks between the Parliament Buildings and the Chateau Laurier Hotel. There are 7 locks here to get from the Rideau Canal down to the Ottawa River.

From there we went to the Rideau Centre which is the downtown shopping mall and the only thing open today for shopping except for the Byward Market which is also in that area. We spent a couple of hours walking around there. Betty bought a dress at an outdoor shop in the Market, Danica got a couple of pairs of shorts at the Rideau Centre and Margie bought her husband some shorts at Giant Tiger (a Canadian discount store). I didn't buy anything! No money and no room!

This is the view looking towards Parliament Hill from the bridge over Rideau Street at the Rideau Centre.

After that we walked back to the University of Ottawa campus area to catch the bus back to Baseline Station where John was waiting to pick us up. They dropped me off at the RV where I have collapsed!