October 9, 2005

October 9, 2005

Abbotsford, B.C.

YEAR 2 DAY 114

 

Today was cloudy and cool.

This morning I took care of regular morning routines and chores, and did Sunday's preventive maintenance. Joanne had discovered that this resort has Wi-Fi, but only in the immediate vicinity of their office, which is a long way from our campsite. I grabbed the computer and Wi-Fi card, and drove down to the office. I retrieved and sent e-mail, downloaded investment data updates, and updated my blog. I checked the Work Camper web site to see if any interesting assignments have been posted recently. There were a couple of interesting assignments posted recently, for next summer. One in southern Alberta, and one in the Yukon. We're not really too interested in a Work Camper job for next summer, since we plan to spend the spring in Newfoundland, and wouldn't be available for work when most employers require their Work Campers to start. But, the availability of interesting summer assignments just adds to our indecision about whether or not to buy the lot at Sunshine Valley that we are interested in. Given our travel plans for next spring and summer, we don't intend to be back here in B.C. before next August at the earliest. I'm undecided about whether to buy property that we wouldn't use for at least 10 months. And ... maybe rather than buying a summer "home base" property now, we should just consider spending our summers in different places, living as "Work Campers".

Just as I was finishing online, Joanne and Bo showed up. Joanne had taken Bo for a long walk, and was looking for a ride back up the long hill she had just walked down with Bo. We drove back up to the campground, stopping at the recreation building to take a look at the swimming pool, sauna, and hot tub. Once back at the trailer, we took Bo for an obedience training walk, then clipped his nails. Dwight is concerned about the risk of Bo's nails scratching their hardwood floors while we are house guests next week, so we cut them short. While we were at it, we decided we might as well do Teddy as well. When we were finished cutting Teddy's nails outside at the picnic table, he wanted to look around, so we took him for a short walk. The ground is blanketed with large maple leaves, and Teddy was interested in going for a short exploration walk on the leafy forest floor.

While Joanne prepared lunch, I measured the trailer to know how much flooring we will have to buy on Tuesday. We had lunch, then gave Bo a bath. If he's going to be a house guest in the Atkinson / Lamb home, he should at least not smell like a dirty dog. After getting him dried off, he and I napped. Joanne went to do some laundry. After napping, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on investment data. I printed the updates I had downloaded. I entered all the data in MS Money, where I track most of our finances, then entered the same data in a series of analytical spreadsheets I built long ago. Geeezzz ... we have lost a horrendous amount of money in the last few weeks. It's disheartening, although I keep it in perspective by looking at a "bigger picture". I wanted to have all my investments up to date this weekend, because my birthday is one of the dates I use for investment performance analysis. Investment performance from last birthday to this one has been quite acceptable, even if the last month hasn't been.

I did today's accounting, then began to work on today's journal entry while Joanne prepared supper.

DSK