June 30, 2005

June 30, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 44 of 113

YEAR 2 DAY 13

 

Today was a cloudy, cool, windy, rainy day.

We left this morning for a day in Kenora. On the way to Kenora we stopped to look at Pye's Landing, a trailer park at Clearwater Bay on Lake Of The Woods. It's for sale. The fellow who is spearheading a Lake Of The Woods trailer park co-op suggested I take a look at Pye's Landing, and two other trailer parks, as "models" of the kind of concept he's talking about. Pye's Landing is a dump ! Our first stop in Kenora was a meeting at the Bank Of Montreal, to pick up our new cheques, get some forms filled out, and get some service charge errors corrected. We met with the branch manager, and discovered she is a 4 year survivor of ovarian cancer, about the same amount of time as Joanne. Next stop was Canadian Tire where I bought some trailer and truck maintenance supplies. Then Wal-Mart for some groceries and supplies, and to fill a prescription for Teddy's hyperthyroidism medication. We went to Kenora Shopper's Mall to have lunch at Chicken Chef, and buy a couple of items at Extra Foods. From there it was back across town to Kenora Hospital. I dropped Joanne off at the hospital where she had some more cancer screening tests scheduled. I went to the GM dealer to buy a replacement alternator cable. They didn't have what I needed. I went to a nearby park, and did some maintenance work on the truck while I waited for Joanne to be finished at the hospital. One of the things I wanted to do was replace a battery side terminal bolt. I had bought a replacement at Canadian Tire. While changing the battery side terminal bolt, the nut insert inside the battery stripped, and pulled right out of the battery. I solved the problem by installing a top terminal adaptor, also purchased today at Canadian Tire, but not to solve this problem. It's a functional, although inelegant solution. I'm uncertain whether I'll just live with this inelegant solution, or attempt to obtain a replacement battery under the terms of the battery guarantee. I purchased this battery last November in Potosi, Missouri. It's a U.S. Wal-Mart brand not available in Canada, so I would have to wait until we're back in the United States next fall. I picked Joanne up at the hospital. We drove to Safeway, and Joanne completed our grocery shopping, while I continued working on the battery problem. I've done a "parking lot repair". I'll tidy it up, and finish it up tomorrow or Saturday. We drove slowly through Kenora, heading out of town to the west. Who would have thought that Kenora would have a traffic jam problem, on the Thursday afternoon of a long weekend ? On the way back to West Hawk, we stopped at the second of the three trailer parks we wanted to take a look at. Royal Lake Resort is also for sale. Another dump ! If Pye's Landing and Royal Lake Resort are the "models" for the kind of development that fellow is thinking about, count me out ! Our last stop for the day was at the Manitoba Border Information Centre, to retrieve e-mail and update my blog.

Back at West Hawk we unloaded today's purchases, walked Bo, fed Teddy and Bo, and gave Teddy his first pill. We just dropped it into his food dish, hoping he would eat it with his kibble, without noticing the pill. No such luck. He ate the kibble, and left the pill. I covered the pill with peanut butter and tried to get him to eat it that way. Nope ! I had to force feed it to him. I dislike having to administer pills that way, but often that's the only way to give pills to cats. Maybe we'll think of some better way, since he needs 2 pills a day, forever.

I did today's accounting, then I went to talk to Ann, the firewood lady. She and her husband are selling both their firewood concession business and their house and farm. We chatted briefly, and made tentative arrangements for Joanne and me to go out to their farm on Monday to see the house, farm, and firewood business. I guess it never hurts to take a look, and see if opportunity is knocking.

Our friend Darcy Johnson dropped by for a late, quick dinner, after driving his daughter Sheryl out from Winnipeg to Caddy Lake Girl Guide Camp. Sheryl has just graduated from high school, and has won numerous prestigious scholarships, and will be attending university in Toronto. Congratulations, Sheryl. She has followed in her mother's footsteps of scholastic achievements.

After Darcy left, we went for a walk around the campground to see how things were shaping up on our sold out long weekend. After walking around most of the campground, we realized there was a traffic jam at the entrance gate, and a backlog in the registration office. Joanne went into the office to see if there was anything she could do to help Kristin who was working alone. While Kristin filled out registration forms, Joanne handed out campground maps, gave directions to camp sites, and answered questions. Her help really speeded things up in the office. I stayed outside, trying to sort out the traffic jam, and keep the traffic flowing in an orderly fashion. I make a very good parking Nazi. I've had experience at the Breast Cancer Action Walkathons.

DSK